– "All right, I'll look at the boy." How do I find the way?
–
It will be much less visitors in half an hour: the breakfast time will end; and I’ll accompany you. Once again, thanks for your help.
Soon Ivan walked along an unfamiliar street, paved with large cobblestones. Nearby was a charming girl in a low-key, but neat dress and raincoat – so long that she had to raise a hem when they met puddles or mud on the way.
– I forgot to ask … And what is your name? – Turned the guy to his companion.
– My name is Mary. And how is yours?
– In your country I’ll be John.
– Very nice to meet you, – answered the girl with a polite smile.
–
Mutually.
Mary was so shy and lovely that Ivan involuntarily admired her: so much charm and modesty in one person you can seldom meet in the modern world. Although most of the road he looked around, studying the exotic town.
They passed an old church from red-brown brick with huge stained-glass windows surrounded by white frames and with a spire sharp as a sword. It seemed, a little bit more – and it will pierce through floating clouds in the sky that the priest, feeling the curiosity, could look briefly to where, presumably, God lives.
Then the young people drew attention to the pompous house, similar to a small castle with round towers. The banner of the British East-Indian company fluttered on the roof of the building. Ivan wanted to stop and study more closely the building and the flag, but they were in a hurry: a sick child was waiting for treatment, and it was necessary to return to work for the girl.
Finally, Mary turned to a rather modest house. A pleasant elderly woman with sad eyes opened the door. Ivan guessed, it was the mother of a boy. They followed to a cramped but cozy room with a narrow bed at the corner.
The boy of eight or nine years old, with a light, but disheveled and wet from the heat hair and huge blue eyes, in a long thin shirt, lay on the bed. Ivan approached the patient's bed, listened to breathing and touched the very hot kid’s forehead. Symptoms indicated that, most likely, the boy got the pneumonia. The medicine of that time was powerless against such a disease. Miraculously in bag that hung on Ivan's shoulder and served as the university beg, were effective antipyretic and analgesic pills, he took with him in the morning at the request of a friend.