Having grown extremely
sensitive (an effect of irritation) to the tonalities, I may say, of this
affair, I felt that it was only an imperfect, reserved, thankfulness,
with one eye still on the possibilities of the several ponds in the
neighbourhood. And I remember I snorted, I positively snorted, at that
poor Fyne.
What really jarred upon me was the rate of his walking. Differences in
politics, in ethics and even in aesthetics need not arouse angry
antagonism. One's opinion may change; one's tastes may alter--in fact
they do. One's very conception of virtue is at the mercy of some
felicitous temptation which may be sprung on one any day. All these
things are perpetually on the swing. But a temperamental difference,
temperament being immutable, is the parent of hate. That's why religious
quarrels are the fiercest of all. My temperament, in matters pertaining
to solid land, is the temperament of leisurely movement, of deliberate
gait. And there was that little Fyne pounding along the road in a most
offensive manner; a man wedded to thick-soled, laced boots; whereas my
temperament demands thin shoes of the lightest kind.
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