They werechildren of one idea and not each one a
variation upon it. There was a smooth quality in her voice that soothed
him.
It was a matter-of-factstatement with no scorn in
it. Yet Anthony read in one Nicole, Dieu est la Diable,cest-la toute la religion.
Always to the west wasthe blue flash from tables of sea. Years afterwards he had but
to repeat the formula and the scenewould rise before him.
It was impossible to tell whence he
hailed.
In Cochin Chinathey allow fish to rot upon the
roofs and from this they make saucefor their dishes. Attention, said Toussaint,
thirty-four bolts of prime Manilahemp.
They were congratulatinghim; already beginning to
chaffer and bargain.
Or they threw worm-eaten tomes at one
another.
The embers of the dyingcharcoal looked at her with
small red eyes. The Covenanters aswell as the Jacobites were
represented.
All were in words, all weretherefore about
something. There was a smooth quality in her voice that soothed him. They answered
the birds in shrill mockery together.
White oxen ploughed and lowed plaintively. From
behind, the happy faces of Angela and Anthony seemed tomock at famine and the
passer-by. The pack-saddle rested in turn upon a broad scarlet pad.
Their dismal expectation of the inevitable aroused
his pity, andyet it was ludicrous. It corresponded to the new and real experienceshe
was having. Watch wi yer ain eyes and see what happens. Something would remind him
of something bettersomewhere else.
There was a difference thenbetween men, which had
something to do with all of these things. Miltons Italian poems first attracted him,
then theLatin.
The voyages of ships were traced out on the mapand
globe.
He would sigh and take another glass of
port.
It made theItalian operas which he later went to
hear at Livorno with VincentNolte seem ridiculous. Let him educate his taste and
smell in teas, wines,and spices.
In his muffled basket a cock hailed a false dawn.
Then they would be home, cries of hungryacclamation following them along the
street.
All of these, with an infinite variety of dialect,
heheard in daily use all about him. They answered the birds in shrill mockery
together.