Martin Eden by Jack London
page 75 of 480 (15%)
page 75 of 480 (15%)
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impersonal. 'You' is very personal, and your use of it just now was not
precisely what you meant." "I don't just see that." "Why, you said just now, to me, 'whiskey and beer--anything that will make you drunk'--make me drunk, don't you see?" "Well, it would, wouldn't it?" "Yes, of course," she smiled. "But it would be nicer not to bring me into it. Substitute 'one' for 'you' and see how much better it sounds." When she returned with the grammar, she drew a chair near his--he wondered if he should have helped her with the chair--and sat down beside him. She turned the pages of the grammar, and their heads were inclined toward each other. He could hardly follow her outlining of the work he must do, so amazed was he by her delightful propinquity. But when she began to lay down the importance of conjugation, he forgot all about her. He had never heard of conjugation, and was fascinated by the glimpse he was catching into the tie-ribs of language. He leaned closer to the page, and her hair touched his cheek. He had fainted but once in his life, and he thought he was going to faint again. He could scarcely breathe, and his heart was pounding the blood up into his throat and suffocating him. Never had she seemed so accessible as now. For the moment the great gulf that separated them was bridged. But there was no diminution in the loftiness of his feeling for her. She had not descended to him. It was he who had been caught up into the clouds and carried to her. His reverence for her, in that moment, was of the same order as religious awe and fervor. It seemed to him that he had intruded |
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