As he thought of her he discovered with what distinctness he recalled
every feature of her piquant little face, her olive skin tinged
beautifully by the ruddy glow of health; her fine, straight nose and
delicate nostrils, her perfect eyes, soft, yet filled with the fire of
courage and intelligence. Waldo wondered why it was that he recalled
these things now, and dwelt upon them; he had been with her for weeks
without realizing that he had particularly noticed them.
But most vividly he conjured again the memory of her soft, liquid
speech, her ready retorts, her bright, interesting observations on
the little happenings of their daily life; her thoughtful kindliness
to him, a stranger within her gates, and--again he flushed hotly--her
sincere, though remarkable, belief in his prowess.
It took Waldo a long time to admit to himself that he missed the
girl; it must have been weeks before he finally did so unreservedly.
Simultaneously he determined to return to her village and find her. He
had even gone so far as to start the return journey when the memory of
her description of Flatfoot and Korth brought him to a sudden halt--a
most humiliating halt.
The blood surged to his face--he could feel it burning there. And then
Waldo did two things which he had never done before: he looked at his
soul and saw himself as he was, and--he swore.
"Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones," he said aloud, "you're a darned coward!
Worse than that, you're an unthinkable cad. That girl was kind to you.
She treated you with the tender solicitude of a mother. And how have
you returned her kindness? By looking down upon her with arrogant
condescension. By pitying her.
"Pitying her! You--you miserable weakling--ingrate, pitying that
fine, intelligent, generous girl. You, with your pitiful little store
of second-hand knowledge, pitying that girl's ignorance. Why, she's
forgotten more real things than you ever heard of, you--you--" Words
utterly failed him.
Waldo's awakening was thorough--painfully thorough. It left no tiny
hidden recess of his contemptible little soul unrevealed from his
searching self-analysis. Looking back over the twenty-one years of his
uneventful life, he failed to resurrect but a single act of which he
might now be proud, and that, strange to say, in the light of his past
training, had to do neither with culture, intellect, birth, breeding,
nor knowledge.
It was a purely gross, physical act. It was hideously, violently,
repulsively animal--it was no other than the instant of heroism in
which he had turned back upon the cliff's face to battle with the
horrible, hairy man who had threatened to prevent Nadara's escape.
Even now Waldo could not realize that it had been he who ventured so
foolhardy an act; but none the less his breast swelled with pride as
he recalled it. It put into the heart of the man a new hope and into
his head a new purpose--a purpose that would have caused his Back Bay
mother to seek an early grave could she have known of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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