Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 / 2008-07-31 00:00:00

Another of them!'
long before I came abreast of the house. The tone of his senseless
revilings, mingled with bursts of laughter, was sometimes piercingly
shrill and sometimes grave. It was all very mad; but I felt it incumbent
upon my dignity to check my horse to a walk without even glancing
towards the house, as if that man's abusive clamour in the porch
were less than the barking of a cur. Always I rode by preserving an
expression of haughty indifference on my face.
"It was no doubt very dignified; but I should have done better if I
had kept my eyes open. A military man in war time should never consider
himself off duty; and especially so if the war is a revolutionary war,
when the enemy is not at the door, but within your very house. At such
times the heat of passionate convictions passing into hatred, removes
the restraints of honour and humanity from many men and of delicacy and
fear from some women. These last, when once they throw off the timidity
and reserve of their sex, become by the vivacity of their intelligence
and the violence of their merciless resentment more dangerous than so
many armed giants.
Read more


Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20