Mauritius

imminent.

"Thank you for your kindness," said the rector at once.He sounded like one social worker talking to another, but Maurice thought he was insinuating.Maurice tried to answer--two or three ordinary words would save him--but he couldn't utter a word.The lower lip trembled, like a sad-faced teenager. "If I remember correctly, you were dissatisfied with little Scudder, so your kindness was all the more valuable. When we were eating at Penge, you told me that he was a 'greedy bastard. Buggy'—that's a startling way to describe a countryman. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw you down there with his kin. Believe me, Huo Mr. Earl, he will value your concern for him, even though he may not show it. A man like him is more easily moved, for better or for worse, than outsiders imagine."

Maurice tried to break him in and said, "So . . . you?"

"Me? Why should I come? You'll just laugh at me. I sent him a letter to the Anglican priest in Buenos Aires, asking him to confirm him when he landed." Ridiculous, isn't it? But I'm neither a Greek admirer nor an atheist. I believe that one's actions depend on one's beliefs. Misunderstandings. Wherever there is heresy, sooner or later there will be immoral behavior. But how do you know exactly when his ship sailed?"

"This... this is an advertisement." He trembled all over, and the clothes wrapped tightly around him.He seemed to be a schoolboy again, defenseless.He was sure that the rector had guessed it, or rather he had had a sudden inspiration and saw it clearly.No mortal would doubt anything--Mr. Douche had no idea--but this gentleman had a special feeling.Since he was a priest, he could smell emotions invisible to the naked eye.Asceticism and piety have a practical side, and they lead to insight.By the time Maurice realized this, it was too late.At Penge, he had thought that such a pale rector in a black cassock could never understand homosexuality among men.But now he knew that orthodox religion had dealt with any of the mysteries of human nature, even if unjustly.Religion is much sharper than science. If judgment is added to insight, religion will be invincible.Maurice himself was abandoned by faith. He had never confronted such a force, and he was extremely shocked.He feared and loathed Mr. Borenius, and wished he could kill the rector.

As for Alec—if this time came, he would be thrown into the trap too.They're too small to take the risk—much weaker than Clive and Anne, for example.M. Borenius knew this, and intended to punish them by the only means within his power.

To give the defenseless opponent a chance to answer, the voice paused for a while, and now it continued.

"Yes, to tell you the truth, I was very worried about little Scudder. He left Penge on Tuesday, and told me he was going to his parents. But he didn't get home until Wednesday. Before he left, I I had an interview with him once, and I was terribly dissatisfied. He was ruthless, he defied me, he laughed at me when I spoke of Confirmation. In fact—if you hadn't had a compassionate interest in him , I'm not going to tell you about it—in fact, he's guilty of lewdness." He paused. "And the women. At a certain point, Mr. If you are ruthless, you will be found out. For adultery can develop into a much more serious crime than the actual act. If this morally corrupt, and in the end they must deny God. Unless all sexual misconduct is punished, not just a few, the Church will never be able to reconquer England. I have reason to believe that the night he disappeared was in London. Yes, that's right - he must be on this train."

He went down.Maurice, shaken to his nerves, followed him.He heard voices, but could not understand them.One of the voices might be Alek's, so what the heck. "It's messed up again." He thought about it, like a bat flying back at dusk.He went back to the smoking room at home with Clive.Clive said: "I don't love you anymore, please forgive me." He felt that his life turned around once a year, and it always ended up dark. "Like the sun... it will take a year..." he felt his grandfather whispering to him.Then the fog cleared, and Alek's mother was there. "That's hardly Leakey," she finished hurriedly, and disappeared.

So, like who?The gong for setting sail sounded, and the steam whistle sounded for a long time.Maurice galloped to the deck.His senses and consciousness returned, and he could see with extraordinary clarity the crowds dividing into two groups - those who remained in England and those who departed.He understood that Alek would stay.The afternoon suddenly became brilliant, with white clouds floating over the golden water and the forest.During this open-air show, Fred Scudder was throwing a tantrum because his untrustworthy brother had missed the last train, and the women were being shoved up the gangway in protest.Mr. Borenius and old Scudder lamented to the officials.The weather was so fine, the air so clean, that everything else seemed insignificant.

Maurice went ashore, intoxicated with excitement and happiness.He watched the steamer set sail.Suddenly the ship reminded him of Vajkin's funeral, which had made his heart throb in his boyhood.There is no resemblance between the two, yet the ship is handsome, and it is carrying death away.Fred yelled as it pulled out of the pier on a cable into a fixed position.Amidst the sound of farewell, the ship quickly turned to the strait and finally sailed to the surface of the sea.It is a victim, so magnificent, leaving behind a puff of smoke that fades and fades into the afterglow of the setting sun.And those fine waves, washed up on the wooded shore, vanished into nothingness.He watched the ship for a long time, then turned his eyes to England.His journey was almost over, and his destination was that new home.He had brought out the man in Alec, and now it was Alek's turn to show the hero in him.He knew what was calling him, and he knew how to answer it.They have to break the barriers of class to live, no relatives, empty pockets.They have to work, until they depend on each other.But England was theirs, and lifelong companionship was their reward.The air and skies of England belong to them, not to millions of cowards.Those people had their chambers of stale air, but never had their souls.

He came before M. Borenius.The rector was deluded, and Alec beat him down.M. Borenius, who thought it must be shameful for two men to love each other, could not understand what was happening.In an instant he was an ordinary man, and his sarcasm was gone.He talked in a frank and rather stupid tone about what had happened to little Scudder?Then I went to visit some friends in Southampton.Maurice called to his background: "Mr. Borenius, do look at the sky—the whole thing is on fire." But the rector had no need for a burning sky, and he disappeared.

He was so excited that Alek was not far from him.Alek was not nearby, could not be nearby, but in another part of this splendor, he had to be found.Morris did not hesitate for a moment, and immediately rushed to Peng Jie's boathouse. "Penger's boathouse" was in his blood, and Alec used it both to express his longing and to blackmail.Maurice himself had made a promise involving the word when they embraced desperately for the last time.The word became his only reliance.He left Southampton on the same instinct as when he came - he was sure that not only could things not go wrong this time, but nothing could go wrong.The universe has returned to its normal position.Maurice was going by the little slow train, and the brilliant horizon was still burning, and the sky was dyed red when the clouds flickered with flames after sunset.Even when he got off at Penge's station and walked across the silent fields, there was plenty of light.

He entered the estate from the lower end, through a crack in the fence.It occurred to him again how desolate the land was, how inappropriate it was to classify people or dictate who would rule the future.As night fell, a bird twittered, and some animals were scurrying about in a panic.He quickened his pace until he saw the glimmer of light on the surface of the pool.With the pool as the background, the tryst place came into view darkly, and he heard the sound of gurgling water.

He arrived here, or almost arrived.Still full of confidence, he called out to Alek.

no answer.

He called again.

There was silence, and night approached.He was wrong.

"Such a thing is quite possible," he thought, and then