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- Стр. 54/57
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Naturally
enough
,
perhaps
,
we
others
received
no
official
intimation
of
this
grave
cession
of
territory
.
We
were
not
supposed
to
be
interested
.
Harold
had
long
ago
been
promoted
to
a
knife
—
a
recognized
,
birthday
knife
.
As
for
me
,
it
was
known
that
I
was
already
given
over
,
heart
and
soul
,
to
lawless
abandoned
catapults
—
catapults
which
were
confiscated
weekly
for
reasons
of
international
complications
,
but
with
which
Edward
kept
me
steadily
supplied
,
his
school
having
a
fine
old
tradition
for
excellence
in
their
manufacture
.
Therefore
no
one
was
supposed
to
be
really
affected
but
Charlotte
,
and
even
she
had
already
reached
Miss
Yonge
,
and
should
therefore
have
been
more
interested
in
prolific
curates
and
harrowing
deathbeds
.
Nothwithstanding
,
we
all
felt
indignant
,
betrayed
,
and
sullen
to
the
verge
of
mutiny
.
Though
for
long
we
had
affected
to
despise
them
,
these
toys
,
yet
they
had
grown
up
with
us
,
shared
our
joys
and
our
sorrows
,
seen
us
at
our
worst
,
and
become
part
of
the
accepted
scheme
of
existence
.
As
we
gazed
at
untenanted
shelves
and
empty
,
hatefully
tidy
corners
,
perhaps
for
the
first
time
for
long
we
began
to
do
them
a
tardy
justice
.
There
was
old
Leotard
,
for
instance
.
Somehow
he
had
come
to
be
sadly
neglected
of
late
years
—
and
yet
how
exactly
he
always
responded
to
certain
moods
!
He
was
an
acrobat
,
this
Leotard
,
who
lived
in
a
glass
-
fronted
box
.
His
loose
-
jointed
limbs
were
cardboard
,
cardboard
his
slender
trunk
;
and
his
hands
eternally
grasped
the
bar
of
a
trapeze
.
You
turned
the
box
round
swiftly
five
or
six
times
;
the
wonderful
unsolved
machinery
worked
,
and
Leotard
swung
and
leapt
,
backwards
,
forwards
,
now
astride
the
bar
,
now
flying
free
;
iron
-
jointed
,
supple
-
sinewed
,
unceasingly
novel
in
his
invention
of
new
,
unguessable
attitudes
;
while
above
,
below
,
and
around
him
,
a
richly
-
dressed
audience
,
painted
in
skilful
perspective
of
stalls
,
boxes
,
dress
-
circle
,
and
gallery
,
watched
the
thrilling
performance
with
a
stolidity
which
seemed
to
mark
them
out
as
made
in
Germany
.
Hardly
versatile
enough
,
perhaps
,
this
Leotard
;
unsympathetic
,
not
a
companion
for
all
hours
;
nor
would
you
have
chosen
him
to
take
to
bed
with
you
.
And
yet
,
within
his
own
limits
,
how
fresh
,
how
engrossing
,
how
resourceful
and
inventive
!
Well
,
he
was
gone
,
it
seemed
—
merely
gone
.
Never
specially
cherished
while
he
tarried
with
us
,
he
had
yet
contrived
to
build
himself
a
particular
niche
of
his
own
.
Sunrise
and
sunset
,
and
the
dinner
-
bell
,
and
the
sudden
rainbow
,
and
lessons
,
and
Leotard
,
and
the
moon
through
the
nursery
windows
—
they
were
all
part
of
the
great
order
of
things
,
and
the
displacement
of
any
one
item
seemed
to
disorganize
the
whole
machinery
.
The
immediate
point
was
,
not
that
the
world
would
continue
to
go
round
as
of
old
,
but
that
Leotard
wouldn
’
t
.
Yonder
corner
,
now
swept
and
garnished
,
had
been
the
stall
wherein
the
spotty
horse
,
at
the
close
of
each
laborious
day
,
was
accustomed
to
doze
peacefully
the
long
night
through
.
In
days
of
old
each
of
us
in
turn
had
been
jerked
thrillingly
round
the
room
on
his
precarious
back
,
had
dug
our
heels
into
his
unyielding
sides
,
and
had
scratched
our
hands
on
the
tin
tacks
that
secured
his
mane
to
his
stiffly
-
curving
neck
.
Later
,
with
increasing
stature
,
we
came
to
overlook
his
merits
as
a
beast
of
burden
;
but
how
frankly
,
how
good
-
naturedly
,
he
had
recognized
the
new
conditions
,
and
adapted
himself
to
them
without
a
murmur
!
When
the
military
spirit
was
abroad
,
who
so
ready
to
be
a
squadron
of
cavalry
,
a
horde
of
Cossacks
,
or
artillery
pounding
into
position
?
He
had
even
served
with
honour
as
a
gun
-
boat
,
during
a
period
when
naval
strategy
was
the
only
theme
;
and
no
false
equine
pride
ever
hindered
him
from
taking
the
part
of
a
roaring
locomotive
,
earth
-
shaking
,
clangorous
,
annihilating
time
and
space
.
Really
it
was
no
longer
clear
how
life
,
with
its
manifold
emergencies
,
was
to
be
carried
on
at
all
without
a
fellow
like
the
spotty
horse
,
ready
to
step
in
at
critical
moments
and
take
up
just
the
part
required
of
him
.
In
moments
of
mental
depression
,
nothing
is
quite
so
consoling
as
the
honest
smell
of
a
painted
animal
;
and
mechanically
I
turned
towards
the
shelf
that
had
been
so
long
the
Ararat
of
our
weather
-
beaten
Ark
.
The
shelf
was
empty
,
the
Ark
had
cast
off
moorings
and
sailed
away
to
Poplar
,
and
had
taken
with
it
its
haunting
smell
,
as
well
as
that
pleasant
sense
of
disorder
that
the
best
conducted
Ark
is
always
able
to
impart
.
The
sliding
roof
had
rarely
been
known
to
close
entirely
.
There
was
always
a
pair
of
giraffe
-
legs
sticking
out
,
or
an
elephant
-
trunk
,
taking
from
the
stiffness
of
its
outline
,
and
reminding
us
that
our
motley
crowd
of
friends
inside
were
uncomfortably
cramped
for
room
and
only
too
ready
to
leap
in
a
cascade
on
the
floor
and
browse
and
gallop
,
flutter
and
bellow
and
neigh
,
and
be
their
natural
selves
again
.
I
think
that
none
of
us
ever
really
thought
very
much
of
Ham
and
Shem
and
Japhet
.
They
were
only
there
because
they
were
in
the
story
,
but
nobody
really
wanted
them
.
The
Ark
was
built
for
the
animals
,
of
course
—
animals
with
tails
,
and
trunks
,
and
horns
,
and
at
least
three
legs
apiece
,
though
some
unfortunates
had
been
unable
to
retain
even
that
number
.
And
in
the
animals
were
of
course
included
the
birds
—
the
dove
,
for
instance
,
grey
with
black
wings
,
and
the
red
-
crested
woodpecker
—
or
was
it
a
hoo
-
poe
?
—
and
the
insects
,
for
there
was
a
dear
beetle
,
about
the
same
size
as
the
dove
,
that
held
its
own
with
any
of
the
mammalia
.
Of
the
doll
-
department
Charlotte
had
naturally
been
sole
chief
for
a
long
time
;
if
the
staff
were
not
in
their
places
to
-
day
,
it
was
not
I
who
had
any
official
right
to
take
notice
.
And
yet
one
may
have
been
member
of
a
Club
for
many
a
year
without
ever
exactly
understanding
the
use
and
object
of
the
other
members
,
until
one
enters
,
some
Christmas
day
or
other
holiday
,
and
,
surveying
the
deserted
armchairs
,
the
untenanted
sofas
,
the
barren
hat
-
pegs
,
realizes
,
with
depression
,
that
those
other
fellows
had
their
allotted
functions
,
after
all
.
Where
was
old
Jerry
?
Where
were
Eugenie
,
Rosa
,
Sophy
,
Esmeralda
?
We
had
long
drifted
apart
,
it
was
true
,
we
spoke
but
rarely
;
perhaps
,
absorbed
in
new
ambitions
,
new
achievements
,
I
had
even
come
to
look
down
on
these
conservative
,
unprogressive
members
who
were
so
clearly
content
to
remain
simply
what
they
were
.
And
now
that
their
corners
were
unfilled
,
their
chairs
unoccupied
—
well
,
my
eyes
were
opened
and
I
wanted
’
em
back
!
