Some of them moved along singing, and interrupting their song with
shouts. Friends, when they met in the crowd, yelled shrill recognitions
at each other, and nicknames sang in the air like noisy birds. Rows of
men linked arms, and, striding forward, compelled the throng to yield
them difficult passage, swinging this way and that to make their progress
more comprehensive. The attendants, standing by the wall like giants,
calmly smiled on the growing uproar, into which they darted now and then
with a sudden frenzy of dutiful agility to eject some rude wit who had
transgressed their code of propriety. The very spirit of lusty youth was
in this crowd of hot, careless, blatant, roving youths, mad to find
themselves away from the cool and grey Oxford towers, and from the vacant
banks of the Cam, in passionate Leicester Square, fired by the scarlet
ballet, and the thunder of the orchestra, and the sight of smart women.
Sudden emancipation is the most flaming torch to human passions that
exists in the world. It flared through all that mob, urging it to
conflagration, to the flames that burst up in hearts that are fresh and
ardent, and that so curiously confuse joy with wickedness.
Flames! flames! The word ran in Julian's mind, and in his breast flames
surely burned that night, for, when he suddenly ran against Valentine and
Cuckoo in the throng, he caught Valentine by the arm and said:
"Val, you were right just now.
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