On waking up the next morning, rather late, he found, however, that it
had attached itself to a very different object. His vision was filled
with the brightness of the delightful fact itself, which seemed to
impregnate the sweet morning air and to flutter in the light, fresh
breeze that came through his open window from the sea. He saw a great
patch of the sea between a couple of red-tiled roofs; it was bluer than
any sea had ever been before. He had not slept long--only three or four
hours; but he had quite slept off his dread. The shadow had dropped away
and nothing was left but the beauty of his love, which seemed to shine
in the freshness of the early day. He felt absurdly happy--as if he had
discovered El Dorado; quite apart from consequences--he was not thinking
of consequences, which of course were another affair--the feeling was
intrinsically the finest one he had ever had, and--as a mere feeling--he
had not done with it yet. The consideration of consequences could easily
be deferred, and there would, meanwhile, be no injury to any one in his
extracting, very quietly, a little subjective joy from the state of his
heart. He would let the flower bloom for a day before plucking it up
by the roots.
Pages:
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223