Читать книгу Galahad - John Erskine - Страница 4
II
Оглавление“You will admit I have loved you faithfully,” said Sir Bromel.
“I admit it,” said Elaine. “You keep coming to my father’s castle, you swear your heart is broken, you hold out the possibility of its mending if I marry you. You think I ought to reply with my thanks and my person. That’s a queer idea—that a man can earn a woman by saying over and over how much he’d like to have her. Sir Bromel, I shan’t pretend to be grateful. I’ll not thank you for offering what you know I don’t want.”
“You are hardly civil,” he said, “and if I weren’t a fool I should leave you now. But I love you, that’s all there is to it, and in love no one gives up before he has to.”
“I shall never love you,” said Elaine. “Do give up now, and find some other girl! You are still young, but time passes, and if you dream of a home and a family, you ought to be getting on with it faster. You’ve wasted three years.”
“Don’t you want a home and a family, too?” said Sir Bromel. “I should think any woman would.”
“Bromel, you’re a nice boy, but every word you add reassures me that I shan’t lose my heart to you. You miss the point. No, I don’t want a home, and at the moment I have no ambition to provide any man with a family. You think me old enough to feel the call of sex and the maternal instinct. I’m happy with my father here, and having children, I understand, is a disagreeable experience.”
“I wish you wouldn’t talk so,” said Bromel. “It’s coarse and vulgar, and I see no wit in it. Where do you get such ideas? You will soil your mind.”
“What I said about sex and children?”
“Yes.”
“Why, I got that from you! You’re always hinting. Of course my mind is soiled. If I loved you I’d want to marry, and we’d have the children, but you’ve made me so self-conscious, I doubt if I shall ever fall in love.”
Sir Bromel went to the tower window and gazed down into the courtyard. His back was turned to her. An over-fed spaniel woke up from beside her chair and walked across to see what Sir Bromel was looking at. Elaine sat watching their two backs. Then she looked at her hands and examined one of her fingers.
“If you hadn’t pestered me, we could have been good friends.”
At the sound of her voice the spaniel returned to her side and went to sleep again. Sir Bromel did not move from the window. She took up her embroidery frame.
“Your father’s men are busy,” said Sir Bromel. “There’s quite a stir.”
“Yes, he told the steward to have the place in good order. Sir Lancelot is coming.”
Sir Bromel turned around.
“Oh, he is, is he? When?”
“I don’t know, but father expects him soon.”
“Well, of course I can’t rival Sir Lancelot.”
Elaine laughed at him.
“I shouldn’t be jealous if I were you. I have never seen Sir Lancelot, and he’s father’s guest, not mine. Besides, he’s Guinevere’s lover.”
“I don’t believe that story,” said Bromel, “and if I did, I wouldn’t repeat it. The queen is a noble woman, and the king is a fine man.”
“No one doubts it.”
“Lancelot is the soul of courtesy,” he continued. “That man never did a mean thing in his life.”
“I’m sure he never did.”
“Then don’t say such things.”
“I shall probably not mention the subject to you again. It seems to make you forget you are a guest in my father’s house, with no authority over me.”
“You are right. I spoke out of my manners,” said Bromel, “but no one should slander the queen and Arthur and Lancelot. I’m too fond of you to enjoy your growing habit of reckless talk. I must protest, for your own sake!”
The spaniel woke up again and looked at him.
“Bromel, if you came this afternoon to persuade me, you choose strange arguments. I can see exactly the sort of home you think I ought to long for—you presiding over me and the children, telling us what thoughts to have. But since I’m not your wife, I’ll use my freedom to say again in your presence that Lancelot and Guinevere are lovers, and they are the best people in the world, and so is Arthur.”
“You don’t think it is wrong of the queen to love Lancelot?”
“Not having seen Lancelot, as I told you, I assume Guinevere made no mistake.”
“I had better go,” said Bromel. “We are not likely to agree, and we may lose our tempers.”
“Perhaps you are right,” said Elaine. “When you come again, Bromel, remember the subject is closed.”
“The subject is hardly opened as yet,” said Bromel. “I intend to marry you.”
“Look out for that bad turn in the stairway as you go down,” said Elaine. “The stone is worn and slippery.”
The spaniel came to the top of the stairs and stood beside her.
