The Battle Of The Strong, Complete

had reached the vessel from the Admiralty that soundings were to be taken at the Ecrehos. The captain had at once made inquiri

cks at the entrance, and slowly into the cove, reefs on either side gaping and girding at her, her keel all but scraping the serra

the Admiralty, and he could not conceive of any incident rising from the monotony of duty to lighten the darkness of this very brilliant day. His was not the nature to enjoy the stony detail of his profession. Exciteme

of Arabia in an engagement with Spanish cruisers; and was now waiting for his papers as commander of a ship of his own, and fretted because the road of fame and promotion w

y. The sight of Guida's face the day before had given a poignant pulse to his emotions, unlike the broken rhythm of past comedies of sentiment and melodramas of passion. According to all logic of custom, the acuteness of yesterday's impression should have been followed up by today's attack; yet here he was, l

as one might see on some lone cliff of the AEgean or on abandoned isles of the equatorial sea. The gloom of a windowless vault was behind the girl, but the filtered sunshine of late September fell on her head. It brightene

roportion as his spirits had sunk into sour reflection, they now shot up rocket-high at the sight of a girl's joyous pose of body and the colour and form of the picture she made. In him the shrewdness of a strong intelligence was mingled with wild impulse. I

hand was dropped from the girl's forehead, and he saw again the face wh

broke fro

essional straightness of his figure relaxed into the elastic grace of an athlete. He was a pipe to be played on: an actor with t

ing of their ways, the moment Philip took Guida's hand, and her eyes met his, monsieur the reporter of Hades might have

n without command, guilelessly, yet thoughtlessly, the mere lilt of existence lulling to sleep wisdom and tried experience-sp

tion in the grimy, sordid caravanserai. The cheap colours of the shoddy open-air clothing-house, the blank faded green of the coster's cart; the dark bluish-red of the butcher's stall-they all take on a value not their own in the garish lights flaring down the markets of the dusk. Pau

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o heavily to hard beds of despair, having eaten the cake we bought, and now must pay for unto Penalty, the dark inordinate creditor. And anon the morning comes, and then, at last, the evening when the triste bazaars

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and so on to the last forecl

of those who buy but once and pay the price but once; the other was of those who keep

greeting. "You remembered me!" he said e

rgotten," she answered meaningly. "Perhaps

leasure. "I shouldn't deserve to be here if I

id, "I never can pay my debt. I have owed it for eleven yea

"So, thou shalt save my life," he said, speakin

nt's confusion she turned her head away, using a hand to

d; "your life is important, mine isn't. You"-she

swered, persisting in

y before; but this was different, because the nature of the girl was different from all others he had met. It had mostly been lightly come and lightly go with himself, as with the women it had been easily won and easily loosed

the pulse beating in her neck, the rise and fall of her bosom. Life-h

mmand men too

from the doorway and beyond

.... Won't you let me show you the island?" she added quickly, pointing to a h

he added rhetorically: "I've seen a man polishing the buckle of h

ame filled with regret, for, though no one had dared to say it to her before, somehow it seemed not rude on Philip's lips. Philip? Y

n I polish the pans"-she laughed-"and when I scour my buckles, I just think of pan

now. "But girls have dr

ically. "I wonder that we think at all or have anything to think about, except the kitchen and the garden, and baking and scouring and spinning"-sh

ssion with her. It seemed to obliterate in her all that was conventional, it removed her far from sensitive egotism. Already she had begun "to take notice" in the world, and that is like bein

nitted. But it isn't just those things that you see, it's all that's behind them-the houses, the fields, and the boats at sea, and the men and women working and working, and sleeping and eating, and breaking their hearts with misery, and wondering what is to be the end of it all; yet praying a littl

bit of a girl. Well, after I got big enough I used to find Malta and other places on Maitre Damian's globe. I've lived always there, on that spot"-she pointed towards Jersey-"on that spot one could walk round in a day. What do I know! You've been everywhere-everywhere. When you look back you've got a thous

h of temperament, but it seemed to him that here were flashes of power. Yet she was only seventeen. She had been taught to see things with her own eyes and not another's, an

-not that she was pressed unduly, he was too wise for that. He took her seriously; and this was not all dissimulation, for her every word had glamour, and he now exalted her intellect unduly. He had never met girl or woman who talked just as she did; and straightway, with the wild eloquence of his nature, he thought he had discovered a new heaven and a new earth. A spell was upon him. He knew what he wanted when he saw it. H

different, my life has been different. When you go into the world and see a great deal, and loosen a little the strings of your principles, and watch how sins and virtues contradict themselve

, mustn't speak like that. It's not so. How can one see and learn unless one se

ld-that was the thing? Well, then, she sh

as born here, don't I know! It's a foothold in the world, but it's no more; it's not afield to walk in, why, it's not even a garden. No,

. They seemed to her, on the instant, like stepping-stones. Beyond would be other stepping-stones, and others and others still again, and they would all mark the way and lead to what Philip called the world. The world! She felt a sudden little twist of reg

way, but never knowing quite what to do, because we don't know what's ahead? I believe we never do le

life. And the Philip of her memory was only a picture, not a being; something to think about, not something to speak with, to whom she might show her heart. She flushed hotly and turned her shoulder on him. Her eyes followed a lizard creeping up the stones. As long as she lived she remembered t

ver her shoulder, then he faced her. His word

eached out his hands to wards her-"don't start so! Listen to me. I feel for you what I have felt for no other being in all my life. It came upon me yesterday when I saw you in the wind

ow. "Oh, no, no!" she exclaimed

or you. You are frightened of me? Why, I want to have the right to protect you, to drive away all fear from your life. You shall be the garde

tones, her eyes riveted upon his, an

a tumult in her breast; her eyes shone and glistened; wonder, embarrassed yet happy wonder, looked at him from he

added. "It is not tru

right ring, the face had truth, the bearing was gal

though to push him back. "It cannot be

garden, do you not know at once if you like it or no? Don't you know the moment you look on a landscape, on a splendid building, whether it is beautiful to you? If, then, with these things one knows-these that haven't any speech, no life like yours or mine-how much more when it is a girl with a face like yours, when

in a village, poor, knowing nothing, seeing no farther"-she looked out towards Jerse

reat people in France; and you know that mine, centuries ago, were great also-that the d'Avranches were a noble family in France. You and I will win our place as high as the best of them. In this war that's coming between England and France is my chance. Nelson said to me the other day-you have heard of him, of young Captain Nelson, the man they're pointing to in the fleet as the one man of them all?-he said to me: 'We shall

nd crossed over her fingers. She started, shivered at the cold touch, and caught the hand away. A sense of foreboding awaked in her, and he

. You would not dare"-she leaned forward a little, looking into his face with that unwavering gaze which was the best sign of

e been stone not to be touched by the appeal

dust and ashes in my mouth! If ever I deceive you, may I die a black, dishonour

had spoken she smiled, yet h

love you, Guida-it is all I ask

king as though she would read his inmost soul. Her face was

Guida, and try to understand-and be glad?" he ask

as with an air of relief and

derstand-and be g

all me Phili

r lips now as eleven years ago in the Rue d'E

sir-Ph

e shingle beneath, looking up towards them. They d

oment, then started and turned

ingle now. They turned and look