Various

“ He won’t die, Nora; but still I’ll break his confidence, darling, and tell it you this evening.—O Nora, Nora! you say you wish to goodness you hadn’t got all these dreadful, wicked, West Indian feelings. You’re brave enough—I know that—no woman braver. Why don’t you have the courage to break through them, then, and come away with Edward and me to England, and accept poor Mr Noel, who would gladly give his very life a thousand times over for you, darling?’
Nora burst into tears once more, and nestled, sobbing, closer and closer upon Marian’s shoulder. ”

“ Tom Dupuy sneered visibly. ‘Hm!’ he said. ‘Two coloured fellows! Upon my conscience! the Dupuys of Trinidad must be coming down in the world, it seems, when they have to rely for help in a nigger rising upon two coloured fellows.’
‘If they’d had to rely upon white men like you,’ Nora answered angrily, flushing crimson as she spoke, ‘they’d have been burnt last night upon the ashes of the cane-house, and not a soul would have stirred a hand or foot to save them or protect them.’
Tom laughed to himself a sharp, short, malicious laugh. ”

“ No doubt, too, our changeful English climate, our cold waters, are against this particular form of exercise. In the tideless, sun-warmed Mediterranean, in the coral-bound lagoons of the Southern Ocean, or by the grove-clad banks of Burmese rivers, swimming becomes both a luxury and a second nature. Let those testify who remember the untrammelled urchins flinging themselves from the bows of boats in Malta harbour to dive for and secure the coins flung from the deck of some newly arrived vessel, or disporting themselves day after day in the fetid, drain-polluted waters of the Dockyard Creek. ”

“ There they had all stood last night in imminent danger of their lives, and of what is dearer than life itself, surrounded by a frantic, yelling mob of half-demented, rum-maddened negroes—her father left for dead upon the piazza steps, Harry Noel hacked with cutlasses before her very eyes, herself trampled under foot in her swoon upon the drawing-room floor by the naked soles of those negro rioters—and now this morning, Cousin Tom comes up quietly when all was over to tell her at his ease how he had taken the most approved precautions for the protection of his beloved vacuum pans. ”

“ Tom looked a little awkward; but Mr Franklin, as if guessing at what was in his mind, went on to say that on this condition he should make Lucy his sole legatee; there being, as he considered, no one who had a better claim upon him, or to whom he would willingly leave a fraction of his wealth. Of course Tom could only express his grateful acknowledgments. He was too poor, his prospects were too uncertain for him to be justified in standing in the light of his wife and possible children; so Uncle Franklin was given to understand that his proposal was accepted. ”

“ I know your father’s feelings too well to take amiss anything he may happen to say in the heat of the moment.’
‘If you speak another word before six o’clock, to-night, Dupuy,’ Macfarlane put in with stern determination, ‘I’ll just clear every soul that knows ye out of the room at once, and leave you alone to the tender mercies of old Aunt Clemmy. Turn over on your side, man, when your doctor tells ye to, and try to get a little bit of refreshing sleep before the evening.’
Mr Dupuy obeyed in a feeble fashion; but he still muttered doggedly to himself as he turned over: ‘Catch him and hang him! ”

“ Lucy was full of delight when her husband told her what had passed; but Tom himself was by no means disposed to be sanguine.
‘It’s all very well, little woman,’ said he; ‘and so far he has behaved with tolerable decency. But I don’t think he’s exactly a person to be trusted. You see, he is very comfortable here, thanks to you, and he is undeniably selfish. Naturally, he would like to stay; and some men will say or promise anything to get what they want at the moment. Let him stay, by all means; we must not throw away such a chance. ”

“ So the three men sat listlessly, idly there, each drowsily engaged, and none caring to break the delicious silence, rendered all the more pleasing from the gay girlish laughter and the trip of little feet coming up from the Corso below. But no true Briton can remain long silent; and Maxwell, throwing his cigarette out through the window, rose to his feet, yawning. ‘Heigh-ho! So this pleasant life is come to an end,’ he exclaimed. ‘Well, I suppose one cannot be expected to be always playing.’
Carlo Visci roused himself to laugh gently. ”

“ I heard that that woolly-headed Hawthorn man had been over here and made a most cowardly time-serving speech to the confounded niggers, giving way to all their preposterous demands in the most outrageous and ridiculous fashion; but I didn’t hear that the other coloured fellow—your fine-spoken English friend Noel’—he hissed the words out with all the concentrated strength of his impotent hatred—‘had been up here too, to put his own finger into the pie when the crust was burning. ”

“ Mr Dupuy paused for a moment; then he looked up a second time, and asked, with extraordinary vehemence for an invalided man: ‘Is this riot put down? Have they driven off the niggers? Have they taken the ringleaders? Have they hanged Delgado?’
‘Hush, hush!’ Nora cried, a little appalled in her cooler mood, after all that had happened, at this first savage outcry for vengeance. ‘You mustn’t talk, papa; you mustn’t excite yourself. Yes, yes; the riot is put down, and Delgado—Delgado is dead. ”

“ All night long, Tom Dupuy had been busy rousing and arming his immediate house-servants, despatching messengers to Port-of-Spain for the aid of the constabulary, and preparing to defend the cut canes with the very last drop of his blood and the very last breath in his stolid body. At the first sight of the conflagration at Orange Grove, he guessed at once that ‘the niggers had risen;’ and he proceeded without a moment’s delay to fortify roughly Pimento Valley against the chance of a similar attack. ”

“ The men wore their hair short, and some had moustaches and beards. There was more that was characteristic about the women. The general hue of their attire was ‘sad-coloured,’ like that of the men; but one had a red, white-spotted kerchief wound round her head, gypsy fashion; and most of them had necklaces of coral or beads, and large silver coins disposed in strings around their neck and shoulders. Their raven tresses were braided in long plaits, which hung down on either side. But none of these gypsy women could be called handsome, and, indeed, were much inferior to the men in this respect. ”

“ Nora drew herself up and checked her untimely laughter with a sudden sense of the demands of the situation, as she answered once more in her coldest tone: ‘My father is getting on as well as we can expect, thank you, Mr Tom Dupuy. We are much obliged to you for your kind inquiries. He slept the night pretty well, all things considered, and is partially conscious again this morning. He was very nearly killed last night, as you say; and if it hadn’t been for Mr Noel and Mr Hawthorn, who kindly came up at once and tried to protect us, he would have been killed outright, and I with him. ”

“ Lucy was influenced partly by pity, partly by the hope, which had in it little indeed of the mercenary element, that her uncle might leave her some small legacy, so that her darling husband might not, after all, have an altogether undowered bride. Tom, on his side, thought only of the wife he loved; the additional income would enable her to keep another servant, would relieve her from hard and menial labour, and would even afford her some few little feminine luxuries which had hitherto been beyond her reach. ”

“ You’re all wrong about it. If it hadn’t been for that dear, good, brave Mr Hawthorn’——
Marian touched her lightly on the shoulder. ‘Never mind about it, Nora, darling,’ she whispered consolingly, with a womanly caress to the poor shrinking girl at her elbow; ‘don’t trouble him with the story now. By-and-by, when he’s better, he’ll come to hear the facts; and then he’ll know what Edward’s part was in the whole matter. Don’t distress yourself about it, darling, now, after all that has happened. ”

“ Macfarlane rubbed his hand against his thigh with evident pleasure and satisfaction. ‘He’s wrong there,’ he murmured, ‘undoubtedly wrong, as every judicious person could easily tell him;{586} but no matter. He’ll do now, when once he’s got life enough left in him to contradict one. It always does a Dupuy good to contradict other people. Let it be rum, then—a wine-glassful of Mr Tom’s best stilling.’
Almost as soon as the rum was swallowed, Mr Dupuy seemed to mend rapidly for the passing moment. He looked up and saw Nora. ”

“ In face of this national taste for aquatic pursuits, it is a painfully suggestive reflection that comparatively few Englishmen, and still fewer Englishwomen, possess sufficient knowledge of swimming to save their own lives if they were suddenly plunged into deep water, and were called upon to support themselves for, perhaps, five minutes by their own exertions. No doubt, the power of swimming is a far more common accomplishment amongst men than it was a quarter of a century ago. ”

“ But let the man beware who lightly wins her heart; it would go hard with him if I crossed his path again!’
‘There are serpents in every paradise,’ Maxwell replied sententiously; ‘and let us hope little Gen. is free from the curiosity of her original ancestress. But child or not, she has a woman’s heart worth the winning, in which assertion our silent friend here will bear me out.’
Luigi Salvarini started from his reverie. ‘You are right, Maxwell,’ he said. ‘Many a man would be proud to wear her gage upon his arm. ”

“ To any one who has noted the characteristic recklessness with which people intrust themselves to frail craft with whose management they are ludicrously unacquainted, it may perhaps be a matter for surprise that this tribute is not more heavy than it is; but certainly not a few of the deaths by drowning that go to swell our annual calendar of disasters can only be properly called accidents if we extend the signification of the word so as to include those misfortunes which, though unforeseen, arise from perfectly preventable causes. ”

“ If the cabin passengers had good cause to complain that neither their safety nor their comfort was sufficiently studied, the condition of the steerage passengers was infinitely worse. Men, women, and children were huddled like sheep in the quarters assigned them, no separation of the sexes being attempted. The berths, which ran on either side of the vessel, were not inclosed, and were without curtains. The women were compelled to dress and undress before the eyes of the male passengers, and exposed to their coarse remarks and scurrilous jests. ”

“ We will go down the day after to-morrow, and make a day of it.—Of course you will be one, Luigi?’
It was growing dark now, too dark to see the rich flush that mounted to the young Italian’s cheek. He hesitated a moment before he spoke. ‘With pleasure, Carlo. A day at your little paradise is not to be lightly refused. I will come gladly.’
‘You make a slight mistake, Visci, when you speak of Genevieve as a child,’ Maxwell observed reflectively. ‘She is seventeen—a woman, according to your Italian reckoning. ”

“ In the year 1859, Miss Powers, the secretary to the Ladies’ National Association for the diffusion of sanitary knowledge, published a twopenny pamphlet entitled, Why do not Women Swim?—a Voice from many Waters; but the question thus propounded was not satisfactorily answered, and an Englishwoman who can swim still remains a rarity—how great a one, any one may easily ascertain for himself by watching the small crowd that speedily assembles to watch a lady-swimmer at any seaside resort. ”

“ There is an infinite sense of rest and comfort, the desire to sit silent and dream of pleasant things, that comes with tobacco after dinner, when the eye can dwell upon the waxlights glittering on glass and china, and on the artistic confusion the conclusion of the repast produces. ”

“ Why, provided there be water at hand, should not every one be taught to swim during the period of his or her school career; and how can parents reconcile it to their consciences to permit their children to run a perfectly needless risk, by failing to have them taught what they ought to learn as regularly and easily as they learn to walk? ”

“ In extenuation of our national ignorance of swimming, we have not even the excuse that the acquisition of the art is difficult. On the contrary, it is one of the most easily acquired of accomplishments. ”

“ You’ll make me hate myself, if you say I’m ungrateful. But I’m not ungrateful, Marian—I’m not ungrateful. I admire, and—and love him; yes, I love him, for the way he acted here last evening.’ And as she spoke, she buried her head fervidly, with shame and fear, in Marian’s bosom.
Marian smoothed her hair tenderly for a few minutes longer, this time again in profound silence, and then she spoke once more very softly, almost at Nora’s ear, in a low whisper. ‘I went this morning into Mr Noel’s room,’ she said, ‘darling, just when he was first beginning to recover consciousness ”

“ Did my ears deceive me, or were we going to hear a story?’
‘It is no story,’ the Italian replied, ‘merely a little family record, to show you how even patriots are not exempt from tyranny.—You remember my brother, Visci? and his wife. He settled down, after fighting years for his country, not many miles from here. Living with him was his wife’s father, an aged man, universally beloved—a being who had not a single enemy in the world. ”