Now I think over that talk in the light of all that has happened since,
I can imagine how she came to me full of a human appeal I was too
foolish to let her make. I don't know. I confess I have never completely
understood Beatrice. I confess I am still perplexed at many things she
said and did. That afternoon, anyhow, I was impossible. I posed and
scolded. I was--I said it--for "taking the Universe by the throat!"
"If it was only that," she said, but though I heard, I did not heed her.
At last she gave way to me and talked no more. Instead she looked
at me--as a thing beyond her controlling, but none the less
interesting--much as she had looked at me from behind the skirts of Lady
Drew in the Warren when we were children together.
Once even I thought she smiled faintly.
"What are the difficulties" I cried, "there's no difficulty I will not
overcome for you! Do your people think I'm no equal for you? Who says
it? My dear, tell me to win a title! I'll do it in five years!...
"Here am I just grown a man at the sight of you.
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