Through the sweetness of
her lips and the affection of her pretty eyes, through
all his half-possession of all her charms and graces,
must have come dully the sense of his great occasion
manque, that dear day of love when it leaves the mark of
its claim. And in one's regret there is perhaps some
alloy of pity, that less respectful thing. We know him
elsewhere capable of essaying heights, yet we seem to
look down upon the drama of his heart. It may be well to
remember that the level is not everything in love. He
who carefully adjusts an intellectual machine may descry
a higher mark; he can construct nothing in a mistress;
he is, therefore, able to see the facts and to discriminate
the desirable. But Lorne loved with all his imagination.
This way dares the imitation of the gods by which it
improves the quality of the passion, so that such a love
stands by itself to be considered, apart from the object,
one may say. A strong and beautiful wave lifted Lorne
Murchison along to his destiny, since it was the pulse
of his own life, though Dora Milburn played moon to it.
CHAPTER XX
Alfred Hesketh had, after all, written to young Murchison
about his immediate intention of sailing for Canada and
visiting Elgin; the letter arrived a day or two later.
It was brief and businesslike, but it gave Lorne to
understand that since his departure the imperial idea
had been steadily fermenting, not only in the national
mind, but particularly in Hesketh's; that it produced in
his case a condition only to be properly treated by
personal experience.
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