George the thrill of
something that had possessed him--when? In that ecstatic moment on
_The Aloha_ when he had seen the light in the king's palace; in the
instant when the Isle of Yaque had first lain subject before him, "a
land which no one can define or remember--only desire;" in the
divine time of his triumph in having scaled the heights to the
palace, that sky-thing, with ramparts of air; above all, in the hour
of his joy in the King's Alcove, when Olivia had looked in his eyes
and touched his lips. Inexplicably as the way that eternity lies
barely unrevealed in some kin-thing of its own--a shell, a duty, a
vista--he suddenly felt it now in what the prince was saying. He
listened, and for one poignant stab of time he knew that he touched
hands with the elemental and saw the ancient kindliness of all those
people naked in their faces and knew himself for what he was.
He listened, and yet there was no making captive the words of the
prince in understanding. Prince Tabnit was speaking the English, and
every word was clearly audible and, moreover, was probably daily
upon St.
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