Francis Hopkinson Smith

“ Mme. Constantin raised her blonde head from the edge of the divan.
“Is there any wrong, you dear Greenough, you would forgive where a woman is concerned?”
“Plenty. Any wrong that you would commit, my dear lady, for instance; but not the kind the Baron refers to.”
“But why do you Englishmen always insist on an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Can’t you make some allowance for the weakness of human nature?” she asked, smiling.
“But why only Englishmen?” demanded Greenough. “All nationalities feel alike where a man’s honor and the honor of his home are concerned. ”

“ The traveller pushed his cup from him, shook the ashes from his cigar, and answered slowly:—
“That there is something stronger than vengeance, Louise—something higher.”
“You mean mercy?”
“Something infinitely more powerful—the Primeval.” ”

“ His ten days’ march from the landing below to my camp had been a singularly lucky one. They generally plunge into the forest in perfect health, only to crawl back to the river—those who live to crawl—their bones picked clean by its merciless fingers. ”

“ And then, again, his manners, his smile, the easy grace of his movements—even his linen, bearing his initials and a crown—something he never referred to—all showed him to be a man accustomed to the refinements of society. ”

“ I am only just, and I tell you there is only one way of treating a man who has robbed you dishonestly of the woman you love, and that is to finish him so completely that the first man called in will be the undertaker—not the surgeon. ”

“ He was, I think, the handsomest young fellow that I ever saw—tall, broad shouldered, well built, curly hair cut close to his head, light, upturned mustache, white teeth, clear, fair skin—really you’d hardly meet another such young fellow anywhere. He had come up from Zanzibar and had pushed on to my camp, hoping, he said, to join some caravan going into the interior. He explained that he was an officer in the Belgian army, that he had friends further up, near Lake Mantumba, and that he came for sport alone. ”

“ Served the beggar right; the only pity is that he’s going to get well.”
“But she wasn’t his wife,” remarked Mme. Petrovski with increased interest, as she lighted her cigarette.
“No matter, he loved her,” returned the Englishman, straightening in his seat and squaring his broad shoulders. ”

“ When I had poured a few drops of brandy down his throat and had made him a broth and warmed him up his strength began to come back. It is astonishing what a few ounces of food will do for a starving man. ”

“ It is only the punishment that differs. The Turk, for instance, bowstrings you or tries to, for peeping under his wife’s veil; the American shoots you at sight for speaking slightingly of his daughter. ”

“ I sympathized with him, of course, telling him he was too young to let the world go by; that when the husband got cool he would give up the chase—had given it up long ago, no doubt, now that he realized how good for nothing the woman was—said all the things, of course, one naturally says to a man you suspect to be slightly out of his head.
“The next night Judson returned. He brought newspapers and letters, and word from the outside world; among other things that he had met a man at the landing below who was on his way to the camp above us. ”