He carefully brushed his hair, reminding himself that thus had the Spartans done before Thermopylae.

The neat and somewhat pallid young man that emerged from these rites then ascended to the first floor to reconnoitre the landscape from the narrow unglazed windows.
If any one had told him a week ago that he would be in so strange a world he would have quarrelled violently with his informant.

A week ago he was a cynical clear-sighted modern, a contemner of illusions, a swallower of formulas, a breaker of shams--one who had seen through the heroical and found it silly.

Romance and such-like toys were playthings for fatted middle-age, not for strenuous and cold-eyed youth.

But the truth was that now he was altogether spellbound by these toys.