Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/99

 the result of years of practice; with me, keen observation is a craft developed through necessity and one upon which my livelihood and my life itself have been dependent. Your faculties are most perceptive and receptive."

"Little things impress me," said Virginia, "only if characteristic. Consequently I save only what I need, and let the rest go. The first time that Count Dessalines called he struck his horse in that way, across the muzzle, and made the bit ring, and the sound dinned in my ears long after he had gone; that and the expression of his face. One could not blame him for striking the horse," she pursued defendingly; "it had just tried to kill the groom … and yet his action shocked me; I think because one felt that he rather relished the chastisement; there was that look in his face … and yet—" the words came faster and Leyden's wide vision perceived the heaving of her bosom, "such strength!— Ah, such strength! Such magnificent brute force … one felt that it was less the discipline of master to brute than the mastery of the stronger brute. Do you understand?" Words and breath were both coming faster. "It was not as if Dessalines controlled the animal by virtue of superior intelligence and higher mentality, but simply that he was the stronger animal."

"Which is about the proper proportion," assented Leyden.

"Yes, and as a result his action while shocking and merciless did not impress one as cruel."

"Because it was so close to the ground."

"Yes, a tiger leaping upon a buck; one fierce animal, with claws, rending another which has only hoofs. 89