Читать книгу The Meadows of the Moon - James Hilton - Страница 7

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John was quiet, good-looking in a rather homely way, and (so it seemed during those early years) of pleasantly average intelligence. He just failed to take his London Matriculation, but, on the other hand, he was very successful as a prefect (and afterwards, as head-prefect) at Wellborough. During vacations he used to spend a great deal of his time at the Bermondsey tannery whence the fortunes of the Savage family derived. To Fran and Michael he was rather like his mother—a vague abstraction, drifting in on their lives from time to time and making no real difference. He gave them occasional orders which they had to obey, but that was all.

Michael was almost his complete opposite. Michael was not so much good-looking as wonderful-looking; he had dark brown eyes of such intense brightness that they seemed to be actually consuming him from within; his eyes and his straggling, always intractable hair made him look almost ethereal. Yet, save for certain moods of unearthly shyness, he had quite a boyish supply of noise and laughter. Enthusiasms for one thing or another broke over him in constantly recurring waves; he was perpetually on fire with what John called “the sort of ideas he would have.”

Physically, he was inclined to be weak; at the age of twelve he was given a thorough examination by Myles, the family doctor, and pronounced unfit for the rigours of Wellborough life. “Keep him at home,” was Myles’ advice to Mrs. Savage. “Let him idle as much as he wants—the more the better. His brain’s precociously developed.... Perhaps, later on, he’ll be ready for the university.... He’ll burn up to nothing, if he’s not careful. I’ve seen these infant prodigies before—they’re marvellous in their teens, but when they reach their twenties they just go—phit—like a worn-out balloon....”

Of John, Myles said, painting very vaguely a contrast: “He may seem slow, perhaps, but don’t worry. He’s got a good brain, and it’s expanding. Don’t think any less of him because he hasn’t got Michael’s fireworks.”

So while John pursued his solidly respectable career at Wellborough, Michael stayed at Sky Peals, doing almost exactly what he liked. And what he liked happened always to be what Fran liked as well.