CHAPTER XXXVII 549
" You should care , Janet : if I were what I once was , I would try to make you care -- but -- a sightless block !"
He relapsed again into gloom . I , on the contrary , became more cheerful , and took fresh courage : these last words gave me an insight as to where the difficulty lay ; and as it was no difficulty with me , I felt quite relieved from my previous embarrassment . I resumed a livelier vein of conversation .
" It is time some one undertook to rehumanise you ," said I , parting his thick and long uncut locks ; " for I see you are being metamorphosed into a lion , or something of that sort . You have a ' faux air ' of Nebuchadnezzar in the fields about you , that is certain : your hair reminds me of eagles ' feathers ; whether your nails are grown like birds ' claws or not , I have not yet noticed ."
" On this arm , I have neither hand nor nails ," he said , drawing the mutilated limb from his breast , and showing it to me . " It is a mere stump -- a ghastly sight ! Don ' t you think so , Jane ?"
" It is a pity to see it ; and a pity to see your eyes -- and the scar of fire on your forehead : and the worst of it is , one is in danger of loving you too well for all this ; and making too much of you ."
" I thought you would be revolted , Jane , when you saw my arm , and my cicatrised visage ."
" Did you ? Don ' t tell me so -- lest I should say something disparaging to your judgment . Now , let me leave you an instant , to make a better fire , and have the hearth swept up . Can you tell when there is a good fire ?"
" Yes ; with the right eye I see a glow -- a ruddy haze ." " And you see the candles ?" " Very dimly -- each is a luminous cloud ."