Page 392 - BRAVE NEW WORLD By Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Brave New World By Aldous Huxley

slender tips. The work gave him an intense pleasure.

After those weeks of idleness in London, with

nothing to do, whenever he wanted anything, but to

press a switch or turn a handle, it was pure delight

to be doing something that demanded skill and

patience.

He had almost finished whittling the stave

into shape, when he realized with a start that he

was singing-singing! It was as though, stumbling

upon himself from the outside, he had suddenly

caught himself out, taken himself flagrantly at fault.

Guiltily he blushed. After all, it was not to sing and

enjoy himself that he had come here. It was to

escape further contamination by the filth of civilized

life; it was to be purified and made good; it was

actively to make amends. He realized to his dismay

that, absorbed in the whittling of his bow, he had

forgotten what he had sworn to himself he would

constantly remember–poor Linda, and his own

murderous unkindness to her, and those loathsome

twins, swarming like lice across the mystery of her

392
E-Text Conversion by Nalanda Digital Library