England had
been mentioned.
'You're here for always now,' whispered Monkey, 'because you love me
and can't get away. I've tied you with my hair, you know.'
'You'll have no sekrity in London,' said Jimbo. 'Who'll stick your
stamps on?'
'The place will seem quite empty if you go,' Jane Anne contributed,
not wishing to make her contribution too personal, lest she should
appear immodest. 'You've made a memorandum of agreement.' This meant
he had promised rashly once to stay for ever. The phrase lent an
official tone besides.
He fell asleep, devising wonderful plans, as usual, for the entire
world, not merely a tiny section of it. The saviour spirit was ever in
his heart. It failed to realise itself because the mind was unequal to
the strain of wise construction; but it was there, as the old vicar
had divined. He had that indestructible pity to which no living thing
is outcast.
But to-night he fell asleep so slowly, gradually, that he almost
watched the dissolving of consciousness in himself. He hovered a long
time about the strange, soft frontiers. He saw the barriers lower
themselves into the great dim plains. Inch by inch the outer world
became remote, obscure, lit dubiously by some forgotten sun, and inch
by inch the profound recesses of nightly adventure coaxed him down.
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