Testimonies

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Patrick O’Brian. Testimonies

PATRICK O’BRIAN. Testimonies

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Contents

Preface

PUGH

LLOYD

PUGH

PUGH

PUGH

BRONWEN

PUGH

PUGH

PUGH

BRONWEN

PUGH

LLOYD

BRONWEN

PUGH

Also by the Author

About the Author

About the Publisher

Отрывок из книги

For Mary, with love

Title Page

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The younger man pulled up a chair and sat by me. We talked about the cottage, postal deliveries, buses – the commonplaces of new arrival. He was a tall man, spare, red-haired with pale eyes and a thin, stretched skin: a reddish stubble on his chin, and papery, windbitten ears. His English was good, but he was nervous, and made mistakes. He listened attentively, leaning forward when I spoke, and answered my questions with anxious care: I felt that if a great land-owner of the Middle Ages had come into a farmhouse, this was the manner in which he would have been answered. I hoped that they had not some mistaken idea – did not suppose me to be a person of importance.

The others did not join in any more, though the old lady hovered by, looking at her son with a proud smile: I presumed he was her son, although there was no likeness between them. I was talking about the length of the journey (an unusually tedious train and several changes) when the door opened and a young woman came in, carrying a pile of clothes. I broke off, and the young man said, ‘Bronwen, here is the gentleman from Hafod.’

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