Page 996 - of-human-bondage-

They would have a little house within sight of the sea, and
he would watch the mighty ships passing to the lands he
would never know. Perhaps that was the wisest thing. Cron-
shaw had told him that the facts of life mattered nothing to
him who by the power of fancy held in fee the twin realms
of space and time. It was true. Forever wilt thou love and
she be fair!
His wedding present to his wife would be all his high
hopes. Self-sacrifice! Philip was uplifted by its beauty, and
all through the evening he thought of it. He was so excited
that he could not read. He seemed to be driven out of his
rooms into the streets, and he walked up and down Bird-
cage Walk, his heart throbbing with joy. He could hardly
bear his impatience. He wanted to see Sally’s happiness
when he made her his offer, and if it had not been so late he
would have gone to her there and then. He pictured to him-
self the long evenings he would spend with Sally in the cosy
sitting-room, the blinds undrawn so that they could watch
the sea; he with his books, while she bent over her work,
and the shaded lamp made her sweet face more fair. They
would talk over the growing child, and when she turned her
eyes to his there was in them the light of love. And the fish-
ermen and their wives who were his patients would come to
feel a great affection for them, and they in their turn would
enter into the pleasures and pains of those simple lives. But
his thoughts returned to the son who would be his and hers.
Already he felt in himself a passionate devotion to it. He
thought of passing his hands over his little perfect limbs,
he knew he would be beautiful; and he would make over to