Never, never once."
"There was too much trouble in my eyes," explained Lingard with that
patient gentleness of tone and face which, every time he spoke to the
young girl, seemed to disengage itself from his whole person, enveloping
his fierceness, softening his aspect, such as the dreamy mist that in
the early radiance of the morning weaves a veil of tender charm about a
rugged rock in mid-ocean. "I must look now to the right and to the
left as in a time of sudden danger," he added after a moment and she
whispered an appalled "Why?" so low that its pain floated away in the
silence of attentive men, without response, unheard, ignored, like the
pain of an impalpable thought.
IV
D'Alcacer, standing back, surveyed them all with a profound and alert
attention. Lingard seemed unable to tear himself away from the yacht,
and remained, checked, as it were in the act of going, like a man who
has stopped to think out the last thing to say; and that stillness of a
body, forgotten by the labouring mind, reminded Carter of that moment
in the cabin, when alone he had seen this man thus wrestling with his
thought, motionless and locked in the grip of his conscience.
Mr. Travers muttered audibly through his teeth:
"How long is this performance going to last? I have desired you to go.
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