ence with:


Though my scarred and veteran legions
Bear their eagles high no more;
And my wrecked and scattered galleys
Strew dark Actium's fatal shore.


My tongue seemed frozen, or some
kind of a ratchet at the base of it had
got out of order. For a moment -- a
moment can be the little sister of eter-
nity -- I could say nothing. Then I
found myself in the clutches of the in-
stinct for self-preservation. I felt it in
me to stop the giggles of the girls on
the front seat; to take the patronising
smiles out of the tolerant eyes of the
grown people. Maybe my voice lost
something of its piping insistence and
was touched with genuine feeling; per-
haps some faint, faint spark of the di-
vine fire which I longed to fan into a
flame did flicker in me for that one time.
I had the indescribable happiness of
seeing the smiles die on the faces of my
elders, and of hearing the giggles of my
friends cease.