Then raising her head and
gazing wistfully across the street noisy with the endless transit of
innumerable bargains, she said with intense gravity:
"He has been most generous."
I was pleased to hear these words. Not that I doubted the infatuation of
Roderick Anthony, but I was pleased to hear something which proved that
she was sensible and open to the sentiment of gratitude which in this
case was significant. In the face of man's desire a girl is excusable if
she thinks herself priceless. I mean a girl of our civilization which
has established a dithyrambic phraseology for the expression of love. A
man in love will accept any convention exalting the object of his passion
and in this indirect way his passion itself. In what way the captain of
the ship _Ferndale_ gave proofs of lover-like lavishness I could not
guess very well. But I was glad she was appreciative. It is lucky that
small things please women. And it is not silly of them to be thus
pleased. It is in small things that the deepest loyalty, that which they
need most, the loyalty of the passing moment, is best expressed.
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