Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
1
290
Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
26
Nor
was
the
Duke
unconscious,
as
he
seemed
to
be,
of
her
scrutiny.
Though
he
kept
his
head
averse,
he
knew
that
always
her
eyes
were
watching
him.
Obliquely,
he
saw
them;
saw,
too,
the
contour
of
the
face,
and
the
black
pearl
and
the
pink;
could
not
blind
himself,
try
as
he
would.
And
he
knew
that
he
was
in
love.
Like
Zuleika
herself,
this
young
Duke
was
in
love
for
the
first
time.
Wooed
though
he
had
been
by
almost
as
many
maidens
as
she
by
youths,
his
heart,
like
hers,
had
remained
cold.
But
he
had
never
felt,
as
she
had,
the
desire
to
love.
He
was
not
now
rejoicing,
as
she
was,
in
the
sensation
of
first
love;
nay,
he
was
furiously
mortified
by
it,
and
struggled
with
all
his
might
against
it.
He
had
always
fancied
himself
secure
against
any
so
vulgar
peril;
always
fancied
that
by
him
at
least,
the
proud
old
motto
of
his
family--“Pas
si
bete”--would
not
be
belied.
And
I
daresay,
indeed,
that
had
he
never
met
Zuleika,
the
irresistible,
he
would
have
lived,
and
at
a
very
ripe
old
age
died,
a
dandy
without
reproach.
For
in
him
the
dandiacal
temper
had
been
absolute
hitherto,
quite
untainted
and
unruffled.
He
was
too
much
concerned
with
his
own
perfection
ever
to
think
of
admiring
any
one
else.
Different
from
Zuleika,
he
cared
for
his
wardrobe
and
his
toilet-table
not
as
a
means
to
making
others
admire
him
the
more,
but
merely
as
a
means
through
which
he
could
intensify,
a
ritual
in
which
to
express
and
realise,
his
own
idolatry.
At
Eton
he
had
been
called
“Peacock,”
and
this
nick-name
had
followed
him
up
to
Oxford.
It
was
not
wholly
apposite,
however.
For,
whereas
the
peacock
is
a
fool
even
among
birds,
the
Duke
had
already
taken
(besides
a
particularly
brilliant
First
in
Mods)
the
Stanhope,
the
Newdigate,
the
Lothian,
and
the
Gaisford
Prize
for
Greek
Verse.
And
these
things
he
had
achieved
currente
calamo,
“wielding
his
pen,”
as
Scott
said
of
Byron,
“with
the
easy
negligence
of
a
nobleman.”
He
was
now
in
his
third
year
of
residence,
and
was
reading,
a
little,
for
Literae
Humaniores.
There
is
no
doubt
that
but
for
his
untimely
death
he
would
have
taken
a
particularly
brilliant
First
in
that
school
also.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
