Contarini Fleming [by B. Disraeli].

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Page 231 - Bey had wisely reeled to the fire. The thirst I felt was like that of Dives. All were sleeping except two, who kept up during the night the great wood fire. I rose lightly, stepping over my sleeping companions, and the shining arms...
Page 117 - As you advance in life and become more callous, more acquainted with man and with yourself, you will find it even daily decrease. Mix in society and I will answer that you lose your poetic feeling ; for in you, as in the great majority, it is not a creative faculty originating in a peculiar organisation, but simply the consequence of a nervous susceptibility that is common to all.
Page 277 - I perceive that it is in a state of transition, a state of transition from feodal to federal principles. This I conceive to be the sole and secret cause of all the convulsions that have occurred and are to occur. Circumstances are beyond the control of man ; but his conduct is in his own power.
Page 10 - I looked around me, and beheld a race different from myself. There was no sympathy between my frame and the rigid clime whither I had been brought to live. I knew not why, but I was unhappy. Had I found in one of my father's new children a sister, all might have been changed. In that sweet and singular...
Page 224 - Catalina pokes you in your side. Magical instrument ! In this land it speaks a particular language, and gallantry requires no other mode to express its most subtle conceits or its most unreasonable demands than this delicate machine. Yet we should remember that here, as in the north, it is not confined to the delightful sex. The cavalier also has his fan ; and, that the habit may not be considered an indication of effeminacy, learn that in this scorching clime the soldier will not mount guard without...
Page 231 - Bey called for the brandy ; he drank it all. The room turned round ; the wild attendants who sat at our feet seemed dancing in strange and fantastic whirls; the Bey shook hands with me ; he shouted English — I Greek. ' Very good ' he had caught up from us. ' Kalo, kalo
Page 205 - I was not always assured of my identity, or even existence ; for I sometimes found it necessary to shout aloud to be sure that I lived ; and I was in the habit, very often at night, of taking down a volume and looking into it for my name, to be convinced that I had not boea dreaming of myself.
Page 231 - In the meantime we were ravenous, for the dry, round, unsugary fig is a great whetter. At last we insisted upon Giovanni's communicating our wants, and asking for bread. The Bey gravely bowed, and said, ' Leave it to me, take no thought,' and nothing more occurred. We prepared ourselves for hungry dreams, when, to our great delight, a most capital supper was brought in, accompanied, to our great horror, by wine. We ate, we drank ; we ate with our fingers, we drank in a manner I never recollect.
Page 78 - Some silly book has filled your head, Contarini, with these ridiculous notions about the respective importance of words and ideas. Few ideas are correct ones, and what are correct no one can ascertain ; but with words we govern men.
Page 224 - A Spanish lady, with her fan, might shame the tactics of a troop of horse. Now she unfurls it with the slow pomp and conscious elegance of the...

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