"The conventions,
for example, stronger in William Grove than his feelings, saved the
reputation of his wife; they kept Fanny alive and, with her heroic and
instinctive pride, made it possible for you to go back to Eastlake. If
you choose, of course. I can't enter into that. But, if you decide to
return, you won't be supported by noble memories of your affair--was it
of love or honor?--no, an admirable pretence must assist you. The
other, if you will forgive me, is no more than the desire for a cheap
publicity, a form of self-glorification. Expensive. The proper clothes,
you see--invaluable! The body and the intentions underneath are
separate. It is only the thoughtless, the hasty and the possessed who
get them confused."
The veranda occupied all four sides of Daniel Randon's low, wide-roofed
dwelling, continuous except for the break where an open passage led to
a detached kitchen. Seated in an angle which might be expected to catch
the first movement of the trade winds sweeping, together with night,
from the sea, practically the whole of the batey was laid out before
Lee. The sun was still apparent in a rayless diffusion above a horizon
obliterated in smoke, a stationary cloud-like opacity only thinning
where the buildings began: the objects in the foreground were sharp;
but, as the distance increased, they were blurred as though seen
through a swimming of the vision.
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