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He had rejoiced in her poverty because it stimulated the flow of the juices of pity; he had rejoiced in her disappointment; he had rejoiced in Inglis's villainy because he could pity her; he had rejoiced in the unknown man's lust because he could step protectively in front of Ellen; and, worse than this, hadn't he savoured in the story vices that he himself had had to sacrifice for the sake of standing well with the world?
He did not trust himself to do that. He stood still again, staring. Leo bent protectively over the American. She smiled at him demurely beneath lowered eyelids. The little old lady shook out her rusty black dress and assumed an absurd air of social sprightliness, making a mouth bunched up like an old-fashioned purse sharply drawn together by a string.
Something in her voice, low though it was, made him draw nearer still, massively, protectively. "Are you hiding from someone?" he said. "Oh, not exactly." She patted his shoulder gently. "No one would take the trouble to come and look for me," she said. "They're all much too busy with their own affairs." His eyes sought hers again. "You're not frightened then any more?" She smiled at him.
And, helped by the wind, he bent his shining head, taller than hers by the sixtieth part of an inch, towards the lilac trees beside the gravel path. "So long ago as that!" she murmured, happy with the exquisite belief in him. "But you will never change or leave me promise, oh, promise that!" His stalk grew nearer to her own. He leaned protectively towards her eager face.
He gazed down at her protectively, with a good-natured appreciative condescension. "I suppose you'll have to be going back again soon, to arrange things like," she said. It was always she who kept the conversation afloat. "No," he said. "I've finished there. They've dismissed me." "Who have?" "The relatives." "Why?" He shook his head. "I hope you made them pay you your month," said she firmly.
There lay the magic world of fantasy and legend that had been his people's true home, that had kept them sane and cheerful through eighteen centuries of tragedy a watertight world into which no drop of outer reality could ever trickle. There lay Zion and the Jordan, the Temple and the Angels; there the Patriarchs yet hovered protectively over their people.
All that was physical, all that was living in her had to be unleashed. Spades gained the level forest. How the great, brown-green pines seemed to bend their lofty branches over her, protectively, understandingly. Patches of azure-blue sky flashed between the trees.
He despised politicians, he despised business men, he despised the whole range of men who pursue worldly arts with success. He despised the qualities which he had not himself, but like all men who are arrogant self protectively he was driven to introspection and analyzed himself pitilessly. The public got glimpses of these analyses.
I'll see you're all right. All men are not beasts, you know. So I cover her protectively in my arms, and soon I shall be kissing her, for comfort, in the heat and prowess of my compassion, kissing her soft, plump cheek and neck closely, bringing my comfort nearer and nearer. It is a pleasant and exciting role for me to play.
Paul de Virieu hesitated, then, leaning forward and holding Sylvia still more closely and protectively to him, he said very deliberately the fateful words he had never thought to say, "I have an announcement to make to you, Mr. Chester. It is one which I trust will bring me your true congratulations. Mrs. Bailey is about to do me the honour of becoming my wife."
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