20 лучших повестей на английском / 20 Best Short Novels

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She spoke quite composedly, as if there was nothing at all extraordinary in her being out in the village at two in the morning, and following me into the surgery to ask for medicine! The doctor stared at her as if he suspected his own eyes of deceiving him. �Who are you?’ he asked. �How do you come to be wandering about at this time in the morning?’

She paid no heed to his questions. She only told him coolly what she wanted. �I have got a bad toothache. I want a bottle of laudanum[46 - laudanum – a sedative made from opium].

’

The doctor recovered himself when she asked for the laudanum. He was on his own ground, you know, when it came to a matter of laudanum; and he spoke to her smartly enough this time.

�Oh, you have got the toothache, have you? Let me look at the tooth.’

She shook her head, and laid a two-shilling piece on the counter. �I won’t trouble you to look at the tooth,’ she said. �There is the money. Let me have the laudanum, if you please.

’

The doctor put the two-shilling piece back again in her hand. �I don’t sell laudanum to strangers,’ he answered. �If you are in any distress of body or mind, that is another matter. I shall be glad to help you.’

She put the money back in her pocket. �You can’t help me,’ she said, as quietly as ever. �Good morning.’

With that, she opened the surgery door to go out again into the street. So far, I had not spoken a word on my side. I had stood with the candle in my hand (not knowing I was holding it) – with my eyes fixed on her, with my mind fixed on her like a man bewitched.

Her looks betrayed, even more plainly than her words, her resolution, in one way or another, to destroy herself. When she opened the door, in my alarm at what might happen I found the use of my tongue.

�Stop!’ I cried out. �Wait for me. I want to speak to you before you go away.’ She lifted her eyes with a look of careless surprise and a mocking smile on her lips.

�What can you have to say to me?’ She stopped, and laughed to herself. �Why not?’ she said. �I have got nothing to do, and nowhere to go.’ She turned back a step, and nodded to me. �You’re a strange man – I think I’ll humor you – I’ll wait outside.’ The door of the surgery closed on her. She was gone.

I am ashamed to own what happened next. The only excuse for me is that I was really and truly a man bewitched.