"
The hansom drove away with Flora de Barral inside, without movement,
without thought, only too glad to rest, to be alone and still moving away
without effort, in solitude and silence.
Anthony roamed the streets for hours without being able to remember in
the evening where he had been--in the manner of a happy and exulting
lover. But nobody could have thought so from his face, which bore no
signs of blissful anticipation. Exulting indeed he was but it was a
special sort of exultation which seemed to take him by the throat like an
enemy.
Anthony's last words to Flora referred to the registry office where they
were married ten days later. During that time Anthony saw no one or
anything, though he went about restlessly, here and there, amongst men
and things. This special state is peculiar to common lovers, who are
known to have no eyes for anything except for the contemplation, actual
or inward, of one human form which for them contains the soul of the
whole world in all its beauty, perfection, variety and infinity. It must
be extremely pleasant. But felicity was denied to Roderick Anthony's
contemplation.
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