"That might be easier to do under some conditions than others." He did
not mean to be trampled upon.
But Roberta finished her oiling in silence and again applied herself to
her typing with redoubled energy.
He went at his abstract, suddenly furious with himself. He would show
her that he could work as persistently as she. He could not pretend to
himself that she was not absorbed. Only entire absorption could enable
her to reel off those pages without more than an infrequent stop for the
correction of an error.
Turning a page in the big volume of records of speeches in the State
Legislature, which he was consulting, Richard came upon a sheet of paper
on which was written something in verse. His eye went to the bottom of
the sheet to see there the source of the quotation--Browning--with
reference to title and page. No harm to read a quoted poem, certainly;
his eyes sought it eagerly as a relief from the sonorous phrasing of the
speech he was attempting to read. He had never seen the words before;
the first line--and he must read to the end. What a thing to find in a
dusty volume of forgotten speeches of a date long past!
Such a starved bank of moss
Till, that May-morn,
Blue ran the flash across:
Violets were born!
Sky--what a scowl of cloud
Till, near and far,
Ray on ray split the shroud:
Splendid, a star!
World--how it walled about
Life with disgrace
Till God's own smile came out:
That was thy face!
Speeches were forgotten; he devoured the words over and over again.
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