They dined together this night almost as silently as they had driven
homeward, and after the meal they went and sat alone in the library.
The huge room was never more than dimly lighted, and the far-off corners
seemed more darkling than usual in the insufficient illumination of the
far from brilliant lamps. Mount Dunstan, after standing upon the hearth
for a few minutes smoking a pipe, which would have compared ill with old
Doby's Sunday splendour, left his coffee cup upon the mantel and began
to tramp up and down--out of the dim light into the shadows, back out of
the shadows into the poor light.
"You know," he said, "what I think about most things--you know what I
feel."
"I think I do."
"You know what I feel about Englishmen who brand themselves as half men
and marked merchandise by selling themselves and their houses and their
blood to foreign women who can buy them. You know how savage I have been
at the mere thought of it. And how I have sworn----"
"Yes, I know what you have sworn," said Mr. Penzance.
It struck him that Mount Dunstan shook and tossed his head rather like a
bull about to charge an enemy.
"You know how I have felt myself perfectly within my rights when I
blackguarded such men and sneered at such women--taking it for granted
that each was merchandise of his or her kind and beneath contempt.
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