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Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924

"Chance"

He was bound
and delivered by it. And if by the obscure promptings of my composite
temperament I beheld him with malicious amusement, yet being in fact, by
definition and especially from profound conviction, a man, I could not
help sympathizing with him largely. Seeing him thus disarmed, so
completely captive by the very nature of things I was moved to speak to
him kindly.
"Well. And what do you think of it?"
"I don't know. How's one to tell? But I say that the thing is done now
and there's an end of it," said the masculine creature as bluntly as his
innate solemnity permitted.
Mrs. Fyne moved a little in her chair. I turned to her and remarked
gently that this was a charge, a criticism, which was often made. Some
people always ask: What could he see in her? Others wonder what she
could have seen in him? Expressions of unsuitability.
She said with all the emphasis of her quietly folded arms:
"I know perfectly well what Flora has seen in my brother."
I bowed my head to the gust but pursued my point.
"And then the marriage in most cases turns out no worse than the average,
to say the least of it.


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