Esau could not have raged more against Jacob, the supplanter, than did
Dick, when Austin carried off Viviette from beneath his nose. Until this
visit of Austin he had no idea that he would find a rival in his
brother. The discovery was a shock, causing his world to reel and
setting free all the pent-up jealousies and grievances of a lifetime.
Everything he had given up to Austin, if not willingly, at least
graciously, hiding beneath the rough, tanned hide of his homely face all
pain, disappointment, and humiliation. But now Austin had come and
swooped off with his one ewe lamb. Not that Viviette had encouraged him
by more than the real but mocking affection with which she had treated
her bear foster-brother ever since her elfin childhood. In a dim way he
realised this, and absolved her from blame. Less dimly, also, he felt
his mental and social inferiority, his lack of warrant in offering her
marriage. But his great, rugged manhood wanted her, the woman, with an
imperious, savage need which took all the training of civilisation to
repress.
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