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Its only the containing walls ofthe box that keep them together.
Seconded
forspecial service, as we used to say in the army.
He wanted to beassured that
he had still a modest reservoir to draw upon. When hecame back he would sit by
the hour in the library, not dozing, butthinking.
Hes the most intellectually
honest creature Godever made. Galliard, Im afraid I must askyou some
questions.
Whenever you geta borderland where Latin and Northman meet, you get
this uncannysensitiveness.
I know your sister andyour uncle, and now that Im an
idle man Ive promised to do what Ican. Maybe he was asking on behalf of someone
else, forhe couldnt have much use himself for a guide. There was a quality
here, undependable,uncertain, dangerous perhaps, but rare and unmistakable.
But
something hadhappened to one of them to shatter a happy partnership. I doubt if
he is satisfied by what he does, orparticularly happy. But something
hadhappened to one of them to shatter a happy partnership.
Francis had been
here and hadenjoined secrecy on the priest and no doubt on old Augustin.
This
passed, and, since there wasno demand for activity, his mind turned in on
itself. All of us have got to find a new way of life. You can put up at the
farm, and I dare say I canget a shake-down at the presbytery. He had killed and
cooked a chicken with his own hands. It was a frontier between the desertand
the sown. There, the afternoonbefore, he had had the first hour of bodily
comfort he had knownfor months. Whathad caused this sudden satiety with
success? Attachment to family and birthplace, for instance. There was
anextraordinary appeal in her mute gallantry, her silent, self-contained
fortitude.
But for some time I have been anxiousabout Francis. Hes a
fascinating human being and rousesno antagonisms.
No woman, least of all his
wife, would attempt to mould SandyClanroyden. Maybe he was asking on behalf of
someone else, forhe couldnt have much use himself for a guide. No doubt
Augustin can lodge Monsieur Frizel, but I fear he willhave rough quarters.
He
remembered the young Ravelstons words. They had waited and left it for a
stranger totake on the job.
Johnny Frizel went up the track in the bush to
where a countrymanwas cutting stakes. For supper there was soup and the fowl,
and coffee made by one whohad learned the art in France. But myworking days are
past, and I would make my soul.
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