That frivolous thing an observer

Abstract

After following for some time innocently the natural inclination of his talent, observing and refining his intuition about the lovers, as well as looking for the unknown fourth partner, the narrator is suddenly overcome by a sensation of personal danger, ‘the scared presentiment of something in store for myself’ (p. 75). Admittedly, it is brought about mainly by his rash involvement of others in his happy pursuit, the particular threat of which he comes to realise more sharply:

I suddenly found myself thinking with a kind of horror of any accident by which I might have to expose to the world, to defend against the world, to share with the world, that now so complex tangle of hypotheses … (p. 125)

Mad in pursuit and in possession so,

Had, having, and in quest, to have extreame,

A Mime in proofe and proud and very wo,

Before, a joy proposd, behind, a dreame… Shakespeare