LEYDEN'S ANALYSIS
which can only come of years and men annoyed him. "It is just that quality, that something which you do not understand, that I am attempting to define for you. Let us go back to the woman watching the caged tiger, or, for that matter, a feeble-chested man exulting in a prize fight will do; both attractions are purely physical. It is the fascination of dynamic force, and the finer the mastery of this force the greater the fascination. A strong man is more imposing than a falling tree. Have you never been fascinated by watching a great mechanism—a locomotive, a steel hammer, the engines of a liner when the ship is racing, and one feeble man with his hand on the throttle controls the rotation of tons and tons of steel? You are a horseman; have you never been thrilled at the beat and throb of your hunter's great shoulder muscles as they swelled and contracted between your knees?"
Manning's hard, patrician face suddenly lighted, and Leyden, watching narrowly, saw that he had struck the responsive note. He walked to the table, poured a bit of the solution from the green bottle into a glass, added rum, a dash of water, squeezed in a few drops of the lemon, stirred the whole with a pocket thermometer, drank it, and glanced at his watch. He returned to the fire and stood, his strong shoulders against the stone carving of the chimney, facing Manning.
"Do you understand? do you see what I mean? how it would be an injustice to Miss Moultrie to suppose this attraction anything but physical. If you do I shall go deeper, just for this once. It is a subject which is better discussed but once—disposed of at one sitting. Such things, like your color question in the United States,
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