Любимые повести на английском / Best Short Novels

�Mother was – well, a little startled,’ continued Kismine, �when she heard that you were from – from where you are from, you know. She said that when she was a young girl – but then, you see, she’s a Spaniard and old-fashioned.’

�Do you spend much time out here?’ asked John, to conceal the fact that he was somewhat hurt by this remark. It seemed an unkind allusion to his provincialism.

�Percy and Jasmine and I are here every summer, but next summer Jasmine is going to Newport.[35 - Newport – Ньюпорт, город на юго-западе Род-Айленда, основанный в 1639 г.

] She’s coming out in London a year from this fall. She’ll be presented at court.’

�Do you know,’ began John hesitantly, �you’re much more sophisticated than I thought you were when I first saw you?’

�Oh, no, I’m not,’ she exclaimed hurriedly. �Oh, I wouldn’t think of being. I think that sophisticated young people are terribly common, don’t you? I’m not at all, really.

If you say I am, I’m going to cry.’

She was so distressed that her lip was trembling. John was impelled to protest:

�I didn’t mean that; I only said it to tease you.’

�Because I wouldn’t mind if I were,’ she persisted. �but I’m not. I’m very innocent and girlish. I never smoke, or drink, or read anything except poetry. I know scarcely any mathematics or chemistry. I dress very simply – in fact, I scarcely dress at all. I think sophisticated is the last thing you can say about me.

I believe that girls ought to enjoy their youths in a wholesome way.’

�I do, too,’ said John, heartily.

Kismine was cheerful again. She smiled at him, and a still-born tear dripped from the corner of one blue eye.

�I like you,’ she whispered, intimately. �Are you going to spend all your time with Percy while you’re here, or will you be nice to me? Just think – I’m absolutely fresh ground. I’ve never had a boy in love with me in all my life.

I’ve never been allowed even to see boys alone – except Percy. I came all the way out here into this grove hoping to run into you, where the family wouldn’t be around.’

Deeply flattered, John bowed from the hips as he had been taught at dancing school in Hades.

�We’d better go now,’ said Kismine sweetly. �I have to be with mother at eleven. You haven’t asked me to kiss you once. I thought boys always did that nowadays.