The man's blue eyes, so curiously overshadowed by thick bushy fair
eyebrows, sought the child's cool grey ones, and a sudden reflection of
the perplexed obstinacy he saw in them came to his own.
'How the deuce do you know he hasn't?' he muttered, half to himself.
'This isn't England, where you can bet your last _dib_ on certainties.'
Then he looked at the immaculate white collar and cuffs of the figure
in a tailor-made coat and skirt beside him, and gave in to convention
by adding resignedly, 'But you mustn't tell whackers, you know,
Jerry--must you?'
'I don't!' protested the six-year-old. 'I weally thought I had. But I
will, anyhow, when I'm big. An' I'll bet wif the bookies evewy time,
Mr. Waymond, like you do.'
That glance at the collar and cuffs showed guilt in it this time. 'Not
a bit of it,' said the conscious sinner stoutly. 'You'll be a mighty
big swell like your father, Sir George----'
'Please, they call my daddy "His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor" now,'
interrupted Jerry, 'and his salute is twenty-one whole guns. They made
an orful booming at the wailway station. But I liked it. An' the twoops
pwesented arms to him to-day at the Queen's pawade--didn't they, Miss
Dwummond?'
'Of course, dear! As Lieutenant-Governor, your father is entitled to
these honours,' replied Lesley, head in air.
'Of course!' echoed the man beside her, making her, in her turn, glance
at him, and wonder if contempt or envy brought that odd note to his
voice. Either way, she admitted reluctantly, he would have carried such
honours bravely; but then so would have half the Englishmen she had
seen since landing at Bombay. The environment of India had a trick of
giving an air of distinction to the Anglo-Saxon.
Radical as she was, inevitably, seeing that she had led the life of a
definitely independent woman in England for six years, she felt a
sneaking satisfaction as she walked across the enclosure with the tall
spare man, whose haggard face looked still more haggard above his gay
racing colours.
The afternoon sun sent blue-black shadows behind them. The golden glory
in front of them lay lavishly on the shifting kaleidoscope of many-hued
dresses. To one side, the pipers of a Highland regiment strutted their
floating tartans through a pibroch. To the other, rose white mess-tents
decorated with flowers and bunting, each centring its knot of crowding,
colourful guests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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