He needed cranking. He was that most unpromising of matrimonial
material, a shy man with a cautious disposition. If he overcame
his shyness, caution applied the foot-brake. If he succeeded in
forgetting caution, shyness shut off the gas. At Reigelheimer's
some miracle had made him not only reckless but un-self-conscious.
Possibly the Dream of Psyche had gone to his head. At any rate, he
had been on the very verge of proposing to Claire when the
interruption had occurred, and in bed that night, reviewing the
affair, he had been appalled at the narrowness of his escape from
taking a definite step. Except in the way of business, he was a
man who hated definite steps. He never accepted even a dinner
invitation without subsequent doubts and remorse. The consequence
was that, in the days that followed the Reigelheimer episode, what
Lord Wetherby would have called the lamp of love burned rather low
in Mr Pickering, as if the acetylene were running out. He still
admired Claire intensely and experienced disturbing emotions when
he beheld her perfect tonneau and wonderful headlights; but he
regarded her with a cautious fear. Although he sometimes dreamed
sentimentally of marriage in the abstract, of actual marriage, of
marriage with a flesh-and-blood individual, of marriage that
involved clergymen and 'Voices that Breathe o'er Eden,' and
giggling bridesmaids and cake, Dudley Pickering was afraid with a
terror that woke him sweating in the night.
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