Temporal Power by Marie Corelli
page 55 of 730 (07%)
page 55 of 730 (07%)
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brain which guided it,--a brain that could encompass the whole circle
of the world in its observant and affectionate compassion. "Ach!--who is there that can be angry with anyone?--impatient with anyone,--offended with anyone!" he was wont to say--"Everybody suffers so much and so undeservedly, that as far as my short life goes I have only time for pity--not condemnation!" To this individual, as a kind of human calmative and tonic combined, Sir Roger de Launay was in the habit of going whenever he felt his own customary tranquillity at all disturbed. The two were great friends;-- friends in their mutual love and service of the King,--friends in their equally mutual but discreetly silent worship of the Queen,--and friends in their very differences of opinion on men and matters in general. De Launay, being younger, was more hasty of judgment and quick in action; but Von Glauben too had been known to draw his sword with unexpected rapidity on occasion, to the discomfiture of those who deemed him only at home with the scalpel. Just now, however, he was in a particularly non-combative and philosophic mood; he was watching certain animalculae wriggling in a glass tube, the while he sat in a large easy-chair with slippered feet resting on another chair opposite, puffing clouds of smoke from a big meerschaum,--and he did not stir from his indolent attitude when De Launay entered, but merely looked up and smiled placidly. "Sit down, Roger!" he said,--then, as De Launay obeyed the invitation, he pushed over a box of cigars, and added--"You look exceedingly tired, my friend! Something has bored you more than usual? Take a lesson from those interesting creatures!" and he pointed with the stem of his pipe to the bottled animalculae--"They are never bored,--never weary of doing |
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