The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: manoeuvre. That meaning at least, while he gaped, it offered him;
for he could but gape at his other self in this other anguish, gape
as a proof that HE, standing there for the achieved, the enjoyed,
the triumphant life, couldn't be faced in his triumph. Wasn't the
proof in the splendid covering hands, strong and completely spread?
- so spread and so intentional that, in spite of a special verity
that surpassed every other, the fact that one of these hands had
lost two fingers, which were reduced to stumps, as if accidentally
shot away, the face was effectually guarded and saved.
"Saved," though, WOULD it be? - Brydon breathed his wonder till the
very impunity of his attitude and the very insistence of his eyes
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