Are they all great-hearted and brave?"
She did not laugh at the question, though there was cause enough to have
excused it.
"I can not tell you," she answered. "Only circumstances can bring such
virtues to light, and hitherto the circumstances have been lacking. All
men do not wear their heart on their sleeve," she answered, not without
malice.
He nodded.
"I am glad to hear you say that, for no doubt you are right. I am very
ignorant, I fear, and was foolish enough to expect heroes to have the face
and figure of heroes. It grieved me for a moment to find that I was the
tallest and best-looking among them. Now that you have explained, I see
that the greatness lies beneath."
This time she laughed, and laughed so heartily that he joined in with her,
though he did not know what had caused her amusement. He took pleasure in
watching her when she laughed. Her statuesque beauty yielded then to a
warm, pulsating life, which transformed her and made her seem to him more
human, more attainable. For he had never shaken off the belief that she
and a divine agency were closely linked together.
"You must not compare yourself with Englishmen," she said, when she had
recovered, "neither in face, nor stature, nor ideals. You must always
remember that we are of another race."
"And yet you fulfilled my highest ideal."
"Perhaps I am the exception," she retorted, dangerously near another
outburst.
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