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Chapter 14 When she got near the park-gate, she heard the click of the latch. He was there, then, in the darkness of the wood, and had seen her!`You are good and early,' he said out of the dark. `Was everything all right?' `Perfectly easy.' He shut the gate quietly after her, and made a spot of light on the dark ground, showing the pallid flowers still standing there open in the night. They went on apart, in silence. `Are you sure you didn't hurt yourself this morning with that chair?' she asked. `No, no!' `When you had that pneumonia, what did it do to you?' `Oh nothing! it left my heart not so strong and the lungs not so elastic. But it always does that.' `And you ought not to make violent physical efforts?' `Not often.' She plodded on in an angry silence. `Did you hate Clifford?' she said at last. `Hate him, no! I've met too many like him to upset myself hating him. I know beforehand I don't care for his sort, and I let it go at that.' `What is his sort?' `Nay, you know better than I do. The sort of youngish gentleman a bit like a lady, and no balls.' `What balls?' `Balls! A man's balls!' She pondered this. `But is it a question of that?' she said, a little annoyed. `You say a man's got no brain, when he's a fool: and no heart, when he's mean; and no stomach when he's a funker. And when he's got none of that spunky wild bit of a man in him, you say he's got no balls. When he's a sort of tame.' She pondered this. `And is Clifford tame?' she asked. `Tame, and nasty with it: like most such fellows, when you come up against 'em.' `And do you think you're not tame?' `Maybe not quite!' At length she saw in the distance a yellow light. She stood still. |
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