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Whathad caused this sudden satiety with success?
Our huge population is more
like acollection of pebbles in a box.
Almost he had a sense ofphysical
well-being, for his breath was less troublesome. Then, when peace came,
theyexercised their hardihood in distant ventures.
Leithen had not often felt
feebler in body ormore active in mind. You have been lent to me, Johnny,
Leithen said.
Attachment to family and birthplace, for instance.
Then he
straightened himself, filled a pipe,and had a look at Leithen. There was a time
limit for Francis Galliard, as there was one forEdward Leithen. Now his memory
was clearer,for he remembered this place in exact detail.
He simply was
notconcerned about other things. There, the afternoonbefore, he had had the
first hour of bodily comfort he had knownfor months. But it was a watch-tower
as well as a sanctuary.
The good father, he said, has but a poor
table.
Altogether an attractivedetail of what should have been a conversation
piece. He pressedLeithen to remove himself from the presbytery. There was a
navvy on some job by the roadside, and he stopped thecar and spoke to him. I
have my faith to find, and perhaps I havelittle time in which to find it.
ThenJohnny Frizel came into the picture, placidly smoking an old blackpipe. Ive
heardyou speak in the British Parliament. When I asked more about the chap he
felt he had said toomuch and shut up like a clam. Whenever you geta borderland
where Latin and Northman meet, you get this uncannysensitiveness. Let us not
speak of him, for he is forgotten.
By and by it was the latter that crowded in
on his thoughts. Francis is just the kind of fellow we need, he went
on.
Looking back, herealised that he had seen before the bluff which cut the
view ofthe St. As for Francis, that shadow too was taking form. Except for you
andMonsieur Frizel it is weeks since I have seen a stranger.
He says that
before the dam was made there was a fine little riverdown there. He had
abandoned his oldworld and had never shown the slightest hankering after it.
I
will conduct you to theProphets Chamber. Garford couldnot keep his eyes off
Francis. No doubt he hadconfessed himself to the priest.
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