Избранные произведения в двух томах. Том 1. Меня создала Англия. Суть дела. Рассказы

Можно вести беспощадную войну с красивым, умным и преуспевающим противником, а вот с несимпатичным как-то неловко: сразу словно камень давит на сердце.

Ему мучительно не хотелось хоть чем-нибудь выделяться из толпы. Он носил усики, как значок корпорации: они как будто уравнивали его с остальным человечеством, но глаза выдавали его — карие, по-собачьи жалкие глаза…

He felt as though he were turning his back on peace for ever. With his eyes open, knowing the consequences, he entered the territory of lies without a passport for return.

Life always repeated the same pattern: there was always,
sooner or later, bad news that had to be broken, comforting
lies to be uttered, pink gins to be consumed to keep misery
away.

"Go on/' Helen said, "justify yourself."

"It would take too long," he said. "One would have to
begin with the arguments for a God."

"Oh," she said impatiently, "why do you always tell me
the truth? I don't want the truth all the time."

"Your work is much more important to you than I am/'
Helen said, and the banality of the phrase, read in how
many books, wrung his heart like the too mature remark
of a child.

He had been in Africa when his own child died. He had always thanked God that he had missed that. It seemed after all that one never really missed a thing. To be a human being one had to drink the cup.

"Do you love me, Ticki?"

"What do you think?"

"Say it. One likes to hear it even if it isn't true."

She was not so happy as he would have expected: she
always saw a little further than he hoped.