The Translation of a Savage, Volume 1 — John Shaqi
The Translation of a Savage, Volume 1Parker, Gilbert
General
The Translation of a Savage, Volume 1
Parker, Gilbert
England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction
The journey from Liverpool to Greyhope was passed in comparative silence.
The Armours had a compartment to themselves, and they made the Indian
girl as comfortable as possible without self-consciousness, without any
artificial politeness. So far, what they had done was a matter of duty,
not of will; but they had done their duty naturally all their lives, and
it was natural to them now. They had no personal feelings towards the
girl one way or another, as yet. It was trying to them that people
stared into the compartment at different stations. It presently dawned
upon General Armour that it might also be trying to their charge.
Neither he nor his wife had taken into account the possibility of the
girl having feelings to be hurt. But he had noticed Lali shrink visibly
and flush slightly when some one stared harder than usual, and this
troubled him. It opened up a possibility. He began indefinitely to see
that they were not the only factors in the equation. He was probably a
little vexed that he had not seen it before; for he wished to be a just
man. He was wont to quote with more or less austerity--chiefly the
result of his professional life--this:
"For justice, all place a temple, and all season summer."
And, man of war as he was, he had another saying which was much in his
mouth; and he lived up to it with considerable sincerity:
"Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues."
He whispered to his wife. It would have been hard to tell from her look
what she thought of the matter, but presently she changed seats with her
husband, that he might, by holding his newspaper at a certain angle,
shield the girl from intrusive gazers.
At every station the same scene was enacted. And inquisitive people must
have been surprised to see how monotonously ordinary was the manner of
the three white people in the compartment. Suddenly, at a station near
London, General Armour gave a start, and used a strong expression under
his breath. Glancing at the "Marriage" column, he saw a notice to the
effect that on a certain day of a certain month, Francis Gilbert, the son
of General Joseph Armour, C.B., of Greyhope, Hertfordshire, and Cavendish
Square, was married to Lali, the daughter of Eye-of-the-Moon, chief of
the Bloods, at her father's lodge in the Saskatchewan Valley. This had
been inserted by Frank Armour's solicitor, according to his instructions,
on the day that the Aphrodite was due at Liverpool. General Armour did
not at first intend to show this to his wife, but on second thought he
did, because he knew she would eventually come to know of it, and also
because she saw that something had moved him. She silently reached out
her hand for the paper. He handed it to her, pointing to the notice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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