"
"Ah!--a good deal sounder on many points than Oliver!" grumbled Sir
James.
Ferrier did not reply.
Chide noticed the invariable way in which Marsham's name dropped between
them whenever it was introduced in this connection.
As they neared the gate of the town they parted, Chide returning to the
hotel, while Ferrier, the most indefatigable of sight-seers, hurried off
toward San Pietro.
He spent a quiet hour on the Peruginos, deciding, however, with himself
in the end that they gave him but a moderate pleasure; and then came out
again into the glow of an incomparable evening. Something in the light
and splendor of the scene, as he lingered on the high terrace, hanging
over the plain, looking down as though from the battlements, the
_flagrantia moenia_ of some celestial city, challenged the whole life
and virility of the man.
"Yet what ails me?" he thought to himself, curiously, and quite without
anxiety. "It is as though I were listening--for the approach of some
person or event--as though a door were open--or about to open--"
What more natural?--in this pause before the fight? And yet politics
seemed to have little to do with it.
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