While his
adventurousness was conquest, hers, it was only too manifest, was
brigandage. His thoughts ran now into the form of an imaginary
discourse, that he would never deliver to her, on the decay of
states, on the triumphs of barbarians over rulers who will not rule,
on the relaxation of patrician orders and the return of the robber
and assassin as lordship decays. This coast was no theatrical
scenery for him; it was a shattered empire. And it was shattered
because no men had been found, united enough, magnificent and
steadfast enough, to hold the cities, and maintain the roads, keep
the peace and subdue the brutish hates and suspicions and cruelties
that devastated the world.
And as these thoughts came back into his mind, Amanda flickered up
from below, light and noiseless as a sunbeam, and stood behind his
chair.
Freedom and the sight of the world had if possible brightened and
invigorated her. Her costume and bearing were subtly touched by the
romance of the Adriatic. There was a flavour of the pirate in the
cloak about her shoulders and the light knitted cap of scarlet she
had stuck upon her head.
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