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- Джек Лондон
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- Стр. 27/31
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"
I
went
on
with
him
to
his
camp
,
and
there
I
saw
her
,
Vesta
,
the
one
woman
.
It
was
glorious
and
...
pitiful
.
There
she
was
,
Vesta
Van
Warden
,
the
young
wife
of
John
Van
Warden
,
clad
in
rags
,
with
marred
and
scarred
and
toil-calloused
hands
,
bending
over
the
campfire
and
doing
scullion
work
--
she
,
Vesta
,
who
had
been
born
to
the
purple
of
the
greatest
baronage
of
wealth
the
world
had
ever
known
.
John
Van
Warden
,
her
husband
,
worth
one
billion
,
eight
hundred
millions
and
President
of
the
Board
of
Industrial
Magnates
,
had
been
the
ruler
of
America
.
Also
,
sitting
on
the
International
Board
of
Control
,
he
had
been
one
of
the
seven
men
who
ruled
the
world
.
And
she
herself
had
come
of
equally
noble
stock
.
Her
father
,
Philip
Saxon
,
had
been
President
of
the
Board
of
Industrial
Magnates
up
to
the
time
of
his
death
.
This
office
was
in
process
of
becoming
hereditary
,
and
had
Philip
Saxon
had
a
son
that
son
would
have
succeeded
him
.
But
his
only
child
was
Vesta
,
the
perfect
flower
of
generations
of
the
highest
culture
this
planet
has
ever
produced
.
It
was
not
until
the
engagement
between
Vesta
and
Van
Warden
took
place
,
that
Saxon
indicated
the
latter
as
his
successor
.
It
was
,
I
am
sure
,
a
political
marriage
.
I
have
reason
to
believe
that
Vesta
never
really
loved
her
husband
in
the
mad
passionate
way
of
which
the
poets
used
to
sing
.
It
was
more
like
the
marriages
that
obtained
among
crowned
heads
in
the
days
before
they
were
displaced
by
the
Magnates
.
"
And
there
she
was
,
boiling
fish-chowder
in
a
soot-covered
pot
,
her
glorious
eyes
inflamed
by
the
acrid
smoke
of
the
open
fire
.
Hers
was
a
sad
story
.
She
was
the
one
survivor
in
a
million
,
as
I
had
been
,
as
the
Chauffeur
had
been
.
On
a
crowning
eminence
of
the
Alameda
Hills
,
overlooking
San
Francisco
Bay
,
Van
Warden
had
built
a
vast
summer
palace
.
It
was
surrounded
by
a
park
of
a
thousand
acres
.
When
the
plague
broke
out
,
Van
Warden
sent
her
there
.
Armed
guards
patrolled
the
boundaries
of
the
park
,
and
nothing
entered
in
the
way
of
provisions
or
even
mail
matter
that
was
not
first
fumigated
.
And
yet
did
the
plague
enter
,
killing
the
guards
at
their
posts
,
the
servants
at
their
tasks
,
sweeping
away
the
whole
army
of
retainers
--
or
,
at
least
,
all
of
them
who
did
not
flee
to
die
elsewhere
.
So
it
was
that
Vesta
found
herself
the
sole
living
person
in
the
palace
that
had
become
a
charnel
house
.
"
Now
the
Chauffeur
had
been
one
of
the
servants
that
ran
away
.
Returning
,
two
months
afterward
,
he
discovered
Vesta
in
a
little
summer
pavilion
where
there
had
been
no
deaths
and
where
she
had
established
herself
.
He
was
a
brute
.
She
was
afraid
,
and
she
ran
away
and
hid
among
the
trees
.
That
night
,
on
foot
,
she
fled
into
the
mountains
--
she
,
whose
tender
feet
and
delicate
body
had
never
known
the
bruise
of
stones
nor
the
scratch
of
briars
.
He
followed
,
and
that
night
he
caught
her
.
He
struck
her
.
Do
you
understand
?
He
beat
her
with
those
terrible
fists
of
his
and
made
her
his
slave
.
It
was
she
who
had
to
gather
the
firewood
,
build
the
fires
,
cook
,
and
do
all
the
degrading
camp-labor
--
she
,
who
had
never
performed
a
menial
act
in
her
life
.
These
things
he
compelled
her
to
do
,
while
he
,
a
proper
savage
,
elected
to
lie
around
camp
and
look
on
.
He
did
nothing
,
absolutely
nothing
,
except
on
occasion
to
hunt
meat
or
catch
fish
.
"
"
Good
for
Chauffeur
,
"
Hare-Lip
commented
in
an
undertone
to
the
other
boys
.
"
I
remember
him
before
he
died
.
He
was
a
corker
.
But
he
did
things
,
and
he
made
things
go
.
You
know
,
Dad
married
his
daughter
,
an
'
you
ought
to
see
the
way
he
knocked
the
spots
outa
Dad
.
The
Chauffeur
was
a
son-of-a-gun
.
He
made
us
kids
stand
around
.
Even
when
he
was
croaking
he
reached
out
for
me
,
once
,
an
'
laid
my
head
open
with
that
long
stick
he
kept
always
beside
him
.
"
Hare-Lip
rubbed
his
bullet
head
reminiscently
,
and
the
boys
returned
to
the
old
man
,
who
was
maundering
ecstatically
about
Vesta
,
the
squaw
of
the
founder
of
the
Chauffeur
Tribe
.
"
And
so
I
say
to
you
that
you
can
not
understand
the
awfulness
of
the
situation
.
The
Chauffeur
was
a
servant
,
understand
,
a
servant
.
And
he
cringed
,
with
bowed
head
,
to
such
as
she
.
She
was
a
lord
of
life
,
both
by
birth
and
by
marriage
.
The
destinies
of
millions
,
such
as
he
,
she
carried
in
the
hollow
of
her
pink-white
hand
.
And
,
in
the
days
before
the
plague
,
the
slightest
contact
with
such
as
he
would
have
been
pollution
.
Oh
,
I
have
seen
it
.
Once
,
I
remember
,
there
was
Mrs.
Goldwin
,
wife
of
one
of
the
great
magnates
.
It
was
on
a
landing
stage
,
just
as
she
was
embarking
in
her
private
dirigible
,
that
she
dropped
her
parasol
.
A
servant
picked
it
up
and
made
the
mistake
of
handing
it
to
her
--
to
her
,
one
of
the
greatest
royal
ladies
of
the
land
!
She
shrank
back
,
as
though
he
were
a
leper
,
and
indicated
her
secretary
to
receive
it
.
Also
,
she
ordered
her
secretary
to
ascertain
the
creature
's
name
and
to
see
that
he
was
immediately
discharged
from
service
.
And
such
a
woman
was
Vesta
Van
Warden
.
And
her
the
Chauffeur
beat
and
made
his
slave
.
"
--
Bill
--
that
was
it
;
Bill
,
the
Chauffeur
.
That
was
his
name
.
He
was
a
wretched
,
primitive
man
,
wholly
devoid
of
the
finer
instincts
and
chivalrous
promptings
of
a
cultured
soul
.
No
,
there
is
no
absolute
justice
,
for
to
him
fell
that
wonder
of
womanhood
,
Vesta
Van
Warden
.
The
grievous-ness
of
this
you
will
never
understand
,
my
grandsons
;
for
you
are
yourselves
primitive
little
savages
,
unaware
of
aught
else
but
savagery
.
Why
should
Vesta
not
have
been
mine
?
I
was
a
man
of
culture
and
refinement
,
a
professor
in
a
great
university
.
Even
so
,
in
the
time
before
the
plague
,
such
was
her
exalted
position
,
she
would
not
have
deigned
to
know
that
I
existed
.
Mark
,
then
,
the
abysmal
degradation
to
which
she
fell
at
the
hands
of
the
Chauffeur
.
Nothing
less
than
the
destruction
of
all
mankind
had
made
it
possible
that
I
should
know
her
,
look
in
her
eyes
,
converse
with
her
,
touch
her
hand
--
ay
,
and
love
her
and
know
that
her
feelings
toward
me
were
very
kindly
.
