The soft, rich light gave such a bizarre effect to the
sandbags protecting the famous choir carvings, that I was all eyes for a
moment: and during that moment Julian must have signed to his sister to
decoy Mother Beckett away from me. When I hauled my soul down from the
soaring arches as one strikes a flag, there was Puck at my side and
there were Mother Beckett and Dierdre disappearing behind
sandbag-hillocks, in the direction of the celebrated Cherub.
"I suppose you want me jolly well to understand," said Puck, smiling,
"that even if your brother Brian and my sister Dare are fools over each
other, you won't be fooled into forgiving a poor, broken-voiced
Pierrot?"
"I've nothing to forgive you for, personally," I said. "Only----"
"Only, you don't want to be friends?"
"No, I don't want to be friends," I echoed. "Why can't you be content
with being treated decently before people, instead of following me
about, trying always to bring upon yourself----"
"A lamp might ask that question of a moth."
I laughed. "You're less like a moth than any creature I ever met!"
"You don't believe I'm sincere."
"Do moths specialize in sincerity in the insect world?"
"Yes," Puck said, more gravely than usual. "Come to think of it, that's
just what they _do_. They risk their lives for the light they love. I
'follow you about,' as you put it, because I love you and want to
persuade you that we're birds of a feather, made for each other by
nature and fate and our mutual behaviour.
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