![]() ![]() Michael had concerned himself with keeping his own hands clean, his own future secure, when instead he should have opened his heart: should impetuously and devotedly and beyond all reason have broken the alabaster cruse of very costly ointment. Wretchedly Michael forced himself to remember the occasions on which Nick had appealed to him since he came to Imber, and how on every occasion Michael had denied him. So great a love must have contained some grain of good, something at least which might have attached Nick to this world, given him some glimpse of hope. As James states in his address, the bell represents the speaking of truth, and the proclaiming of that truth to the world: It rings out clearly, it bears witness. Yet no serious harm had come to Toby besides he had not loved Toby as he loved Nick, was not responsible for Toby as he had been for Nick. Murdoch introduces not one but two bells into the story: one ancient and buried deep in the lake at Imber Court, and one newly minted, whose arrival prompts the climax of the novel. Michael recalled too how, with Toby he had acted with more daring, and had probably acted wrong. If he had had more faith he would have done so, not calculating either Nick’s faults or his own. Nick had needed love, and he ought to have given him what he had to offer, without fears about its imperfection. He remembered now when it was useless how the Abbess had told him that the way was always forward. “He went away, bent double with the pains of remorse and regret and the inward biting of a love which had now no means of expression. ![]()
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