He found himself hoping that his statement would be laughed at.

Then why make it?
No: that was too blind a hope.

Many would take him at his word; all--all save Lady Jocelyn! Rose the first! Because he stood so high with her now he feared the fall.

Ah, dazzling pinnacle! our darlings shoot us up on a wondrous juggler's pole, and we talk familiarly to the stars, and are so much above everybody, and try to walk like creatures with two legs, forgetting that we have but a pin's point to stand on up there.

Probably the absence of natural motion inspires the prophecy that we must ultimately come down: our unused legs wax morbidly restless.