Volk Read Online Free PDF

you can see, Quality is attractive both physically and intellectually, but it is her ethical core which sets her apart. She is such a good person that I could forgive many faults in her, yet do not have to, for she has none. The fault is mine, for not being more like her. How could I not love her?”
    Ernst nodded. “How could you not,” he murmured.
    There was a silence. Quality was blushing, but could not protest, because he had indeed told the truth. He could not resist teasing her. “Do you deny it, woman?”
    â€œNo,” she said. “Now thee has asked, and I have answered. There is no set length to answers. It is my turn again. Lane, why does thee seek unusual people? That is, why is thee, as thee puts it, turned off by ordinary people?”
    He realized that she had turned a table on him, by taking his joke question seriously. He was stuck with another honest answer.
    â€œThat may take some time,” he said. “I’m not sure you would want to listen to—”
    â€œWe are listening,” Ernst said.
    So he had to do it. “It dates from my childhood, right here in the state of New York. I was a wan, spindly child, lacking proper size and vitality. Naturally ordinary children picked on me. The average person seems to remember childhood as a happy time, because his memory selects for the good and the bad things fade, but I can’t forget my early inability to compete. It was clear that I was both different and inferior. Everyone knew it except the adults, who didn’t count.
    â€œThen an unusual person came on the scene. He was Jed, an Australian, with his special accent setting him apart. Of course the kids started in on him, because he was new and different. Anything different was fair game, and children have no limitations of conscience. But Jed was normal in one crucial respect: he could fight. When someone got obnoxious, Jed called him out in his polite, accented way and gave him his choice: fists or wrasslin’. At first it seemed like a joke, for Jed was neither large nor muscular. But he turned out to be a well coordinated whirlwind, with a high pain threshold and considerable endurance and native cunning. Very soon it became gauche to mock Jed’s accent. In fact it got so that when a boy was provoked to the point of no return about an issue, such as the shape of his nose or the pronunciation of his middle name, his voice would assume a certain Australian tinge of accent: warning of the kind of trouble that was brewing. Newcomers to the community seen learned the signal.
    â€œJed was victoriously different. He began looking out for others who were different. When I got in trouble, he tended to show up, his accent becoming more pronounced, as it did when he was ready to Call Out. So nobody picked on me when he was near— and after a while they stopped picking on me when he wasn’t near, too. He never said why he picked a given fight, but the bullies caught on.
    â€œI only knew him a year, before his family moved away. but since that time I’ve been attracted to those who are different. Especially those who are different and superior. Ordinary people are clannish and insensitive, but when I find those few who aren’t—” He shrugged. “Now you know. Both of you remind me in a subtle way of Jed. And here we are in the outskirts of New York City. So here’s my question for you, Ernst: how do I reach your place?”
    â€œIt is an apartment complex used by foreign nationals,” Ernst said. “I will direct you.”
    So he did, and they wound through the night city until they reached it.
    â€œWe’ll see you to your door,” Lane told Ernst. “None of my business, I know, but if I can find out what made your folks call you home so suddenly—”
    â€œYou are entitled to know,” Ernst agreed. “I hope there has been no misfortune in the Fatherland. All my relatives are there, and some