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Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
128
If
Zuleika,
as
she
paced
the
gravel
path,
had
seen
how
transfigured--how
nobly
like
the
Tragic
Muse--she
was
just
now,
she
could
not
have
gone
on
bothering
the
Duke
for
a
keepsake
of
the
tragedy
that
was
to
be.
She
was
still
set
on
having
his
two
studs.
He
was
still
firm
in
his
refusal
to
misappropriate
those
heirlooms.
In
vain
she
pointed
out
to
him
that
the
pearls
he
meant,
the
white
ones,
no
longer
existed;
that
the
pearls
he
was
wearing
were
no
more
“entailed”
than
if
he
had
got
them
yesterday.
“And
you
actually
DID
get
them
yesterday,”
she
said.
“And
from
me.
And
I
want
them
back.”
“You
are
ingenious,”
he
admitted.
“I,
in
my
simple
way,
am
but
head
of
the
Tanville-Tankerton
family.
Had
you
accepted
my
offer
of
marriage,
you
would
have
had
the
right
to
wear
these
two
pearls
during
your
life-time.
I
am
very
happy
to
die
for
you.
But
tamper
with
the
property
of
my
successor
I
cannot
and
will
not.
I
am
sorry,”
he
added.
“Sorry!”
echoed
Zuleika.
“Yes,
and
you
were
‘sorry’
you
couldn’t
dine
with
me
to-night.
But
any
little
niggling
scruple
is
more
to
you
than
I
am.
What
old
maids
men
are!”
And
viciously
with
her
fan
she
struck
one
of
the
cloister
pillars.
Her
outburst
was
lost
on
the
Duke.
At
her
taunt
about
his
not
dining
with
her,
he
had
stood
still,
clapping
one
hand
to
his
brow.
The
events
of
the
early
evening
swept
back
to
him--his
speech,
its
unforeseen
and
horrible
reception.
He
saw
again
the
preternaturally
solemn
face
of
Oover,
and
the
flushed
faces
of
the
rest.
He
had
thought,
as
he
pointed
down
to
the
abyss
over
which
he
stood,
these
fellows
would
recoil,
and
pull
themselves
together.
They
had
recoiled,
and
pulled
themselves
together,
only
in
the
manner
of
athletes
about
to
spring.
He
was
responsible
for
them.
His
own
life
was
his
to
lose:
others
he
must
not
squander.
Besides,
he
had
reckoned
to
die
alone,
unique;
aloft
and
apart...
“There
is
something--something
I
had
forgotten,”
he
said
to
Zuleika,
“something
that
will
be
a
great
shock
to
you”;
and
he
gave
her
an
outline
of
what
had
passed
at
the
Junta.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
