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There wassnow on the Downs like a shroud.
This was oneof his serious deaths in
belief.
Ifthey summoned him he would disappear: or find some means of
fightingthem. His soul seemedto have sunk into that Cornwall, that wild place
under the moors.
He knewwhat he was out against, and he just hated and despised
them all. Or perhaps it was just the inversion of the season, the climate. Even
if I commit what they call a crime, why should I acceptTHEIR condemnation or
verdict? He felt broken offfrom the England he had belonged to.
To him they
were not: they were just THINGS, obeying orders.
He knew whatthey would like to
make him do.
They wereviler than the South, even than Cornwall.
Came areply,
this could not be permitted. That is, no wrongthat society has to do with.
Somers stood still, with a set face,and waited.
Yes, its a botany notebook,
said Somers coldly.
Harriet broke into a few tears of fright, fear, and
chagrin. Then, the mongrel-mouthed world would say and do what it liked. Then
broke a terrific thunderstorm, and hail lasheddown with a noise like
insanity.
But he was a kindly man, and a little bittertoo. I wish I had power
to blightthem, to slay them with a blight, slay them in thousands and
thousands.
But they were very close on him now,very close. And heknew he would
not see John Thomas again soon. They wereviler than the South, even than
Cornwall. But when it comes tothe deepest things, men are as entirely
irrational as women. Somers stood still, with a set face,and waited. The Somers
transferred to Kensington, to a flatbelonging to Sharpes mother.
Though
ofcourse he had committed no murder. When circumstances beginreally to run
counter to his idea of himself, he damns circumstances. He can learn the
structure of moulds and parasites, said Richardbitterly to Harriet.
Whatever I
do or have done, I amnot wrong. And then, like a revelation, he decided he
would come back.
The day was Friday: they must leave on Monday by the Great
Westernexpress.
And even the deadwere many of them raging in the invisible,
with gnashing of teeth. Only this time it was the lowestorders of mankind
spying on the upper orders, to drag them down.
Somers, so sick of things,had a
great fire of all his old manuscripts.
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