For a
time at Locarno he was lax-minded and indolent, and in that time she
formed her bright and limited plans for London. Benham had no plans
as yet but only a sense of divergence, as though he was being pulled
in opposite directions by two irresistible forces. To her it was
plain that he needed occupation, some distinguished occupation, and
she could imagine nothing better for him than a political career.
She perceived he had personality, that he stood out among men so
that his very silences were effective. She loved him immensely, and
she had tremendous ambitions for him and through him.
And also London, the very thought of London, filled her with
appetite. Her soul thirsted for London. It was like some enormous
juicy fruit waiting for her pretty white teeth, a place almost large
enough to give her avidity the sense of enough. She felt it waiting
for her, household, servants, a carriage, shops and the jolly
delight of buying and possessing things, the opera, first-nights,
picture exhibitions, great dinner-parties, brilliant lunch parties,
crowds seen from a point of vantage, the carriage in a long string
of fine carriages with the lamplit multitude peering, Amanda in a
thousand bright settings, in a thousand various dresses.
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