第19章

Will they remain a distinct race? Will you make citizens, soldiers, congressmen, governors of them? Will they intermarry with the whites? Is that a part of your plan? I hope not!"It was a part of Peter's sensitive excitement that even through the unconscious irony of this speech he was noticing the difference between the young English girl's evident interest in a political problem and the utter indifference of his own countrywomen.Here was a girl scarcely out of her teens, with no pretension to being a blue stocking, with half the aplomb of an American girl of her own age, gravely considering a question of political economy.Oddly enough, it added to his other irritation, and he said almost abruptly, "Why not?"She took the question literally and with a little youthful timidity."But these mixed races never attain to anything, do they? I thought that was understood.But," she added with feminine quickness, "and I suppose it's again only a PERSONALargument, YOU wouldn't like your sister to have married an Indian, would you?"The irony of the situation had reached its climax to Peter.It didn't seem to be his voice that said, "I can answer by an argument still more personal.I have even thought myself of marrying an Indian woman."It seemed to him that what he said was irrevocable, but he was desperate.It seemed to him that in a moment more he would have told her his whole secret.But the young girl drew back from him with a slight start of surprise.There may have been something in the tone of his voice and in his manner that verged upon a seriousness she was never contemplating in her random talk; it may have been an uneasiness of some youthful imprudence in pressing the subject upon a man of his superiority, and that his abrupt climax was a rebuke.But it was only for a moment; her youthful buoyancy, and, above all, a certain common sense that was not incompatible to her high nature, came to her rescue."But that," she said with quick mischievousness, "would be a SACRIFICE taken in the interest of these people, don't you see; and being a sacrifice, it's no argument."Peter saw his mistake, but there was something so innocent and delightful in the youthful triumph of this red-lipped logician, that he was forced to smile.I have said that his smile was rare and fascinating, a concession wrung from his dark face and calm beardless lips that most people found irresistible, but it was odd, nevertheless, that Lady Elfrida now for the first time felt a sudden and not altogether unpleasant embarrassment over the very subject she had approached with such innocent fearlessness.There was a new light in her eyes, a fresher color in her cheeks as she turned her face--she knew not why--away from him.But it enabled her to see a figure approaching them from the fort.And I grieve to say that, perhaps for the first time in her life, Lady Elfrida was guilty of an affected start.

"Oh, here's Reggy coming to look for me.I'd quite forgotten, but I'm so glad.I want you to know my brother Reggy.He was always so sorry he missed you at the Grange."The tall, young, good-looking brown Englishman who had sauntered up bestowed a far more critical glance upon Peter's horse than upon Peter, but nevertheless grasped his hand heartily as his sister introduced him.Perhaps both men were equally undemonstrative, although the reserve of one was from temperament and the other from education.Nevertheless Lord Reginald remarked, with a laugh, that it was awfully jolly to be there, and that it had been a beastly shame that he was in Scotland when Atherly was at the Grange.That none of them had ever suspected till they came to the fort that he, Atherly, was one of those government chappies, and so awfully keen on Indian politics."Friddy" had been the first to find it out, but they thought she was chaffing.At which "Friddy," who had suddenly resolved herself into the youthfulest of schoolgirls in the presence of her brother, put her parasol like an Indian club behind her back, and still rosy, beamed admiringly upon Reggy.

Then the three, Peter leading his horse, moved on towards the fort, presently meeting "Georgy," the six-foot Guardsman cousin in extraordinary tweeds and flannel shirt; Lord Runnybroke, uncle of Friddy, middle-aged and flannel-shirted, a mighty hunter; Lady Runnybroke, in a brown duster, but with a stately head that suggested ostrich feathers; Moyler-Spence, M.P., with an eyeglass, and the Hon.Evelyn Kayne, closely attended by the always gallant Lieutenant Forsyth.Peter began to feel a nervous longing to be alone on the burning plain and the empty horizon beyond them, until he could readjust himself to these new conditions, and glanced half-wearily around him.But his eye met Friddy's, who seemed to have evoked this gathering with a wave of her parasol, like the fairy of a pantomime, and he walked on in silence.

A day or two of unexpected pleasure passed for Peter.In these new surroundings he found he could separate Lady Elfrida from his miserable past, and the conventional restraint of Ashley Grange.