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Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
82
But
the
casual
feminine
visitors?
Well,
the
sisters
and
cousins
of
an
undergraduate
seldom
seem
more
passable
to
his
comrades
than
to
himself.
Altogether,
the
instinct
of
sex
is
not
pandered
to
in
Oxford.
It
is
not,
however,
as
it
may
once
have
been,
dormant.
The
modern
importation
of
samples
of
femininity
serves
to
keep
it
alert,
though
not
to
gratify
it.
A
like
result
is
achieved
by
another
modern
development--photography.
The
undergraduate
may,
and
usually
does,
surround
himself
with
photographs
of
pretty
ladies
known
to
the
public.
A
phantom
harem!
Yet
the
houris
have
an
effect
on
their
sultan.
Surrounded
both
by
plain
women
of
flesh
and
blood
and
by
beauteous
women
on
pasteboard,
the
undergraduate
is
the
easiest
victim
of
living
loveliness--is
as
a
fire
ever
well
and
truly
laid,
amenable
to
a
spark.
And
if
the
spark
be
such
a
flaring
torch
as
Zuleika?--marvel
not,
reader,
at
the
conflagration.
Not
only
was
the
whole
throng
of
youths
drawing
asunder
before
her:
much
of
it,
as
she
passed,
was
forming
up
in
her
wake.
Thus,
with
the
confluence
of
two
masses--one
coming
away
from
the
river,
the
other
returning
to
it--chaos
seethed
around
her
and
the
Duke
before
they
were
half-way
along
the
avenue.
Behind
them,
and
on
either
side
of
them,
the
people
were
crushed
inextricably
together,
swaying
and
surging
this
way
and
that.
“Help!”
cried
many
a
shrill
feminine
voice.
“Don’t
push!”
“Let
me
out!”
“You
brute!”
“Save
me,
save
me!”
Many
ladies
fainted,
whilst
their
escorts,
supporting
them
and
protecting
them
as
best
they
could,
peered
over
the
heads
of
their
fellows
for
one
glimpse
of
the
divine
Miss
Dobson.
Yet
for
her
and
the
Duke,
in
the
midst
of
the
terrific
compress,
there
was
space
enough.
In
front
of
them,
as
by
a
miracle
of
deference,
a
way
still
cleared
itself.
They
reached
the
end
of
the
avenue
without
a
pause
in
their
measured
progress.
Nor
even
when
they
turned
to
the
left,
along
the
rather
narrow
path
beside
the
barges,
was
there
any
obstacle
to
their
advance.
Passing
evenly
forward,
they
alone
were
cool,
unhustled,
undishevelled.
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