THE STEADFAST HEART
ary—even now he scarcely comprehended it…. So, according to his custom and his nature, he tried to reason it out, to get to the bottom of it, to catalogue and to place it in its appropriate pigeonhole.
Yet, with all his bewilderment and travail, he was conscious that he was glad. This love, unasked, had brought a joy into his life, a joy of a magnitude and brightness such as he had not dreamed life capable of holding…. It made Angus more human. He could feel a vital change taking place in himself—felt the magic working of the philosopher’s stone. As he sat in the presence of his love, he discovered that the world and its business were more understandable to him than ever before—he was able better to comprehend the actions of mankind, to perceive motives which had been hidden from him…. From the fog of events he seemed to look forward to a future which held out some sort of glowing promise—but he could not see the features of it…. Hitherto his future had appeared to him as nothing but a stretch of years: Now it was a living, vibrating possibility to be awaited with anticipation, a something to await with joy or with sorrow; a something which forced into his life an object and made living worth his while…. The fact of the matter
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