The Translation of a Savage | Page 4

"Gordon," he said, "give me a glass of brandy."
He turned towards the cupboard in the room. The trader opened it, took
out a bottle, and put it on the table beside Armour, together with a glass
and some water. Armour poured out a stiff draught, added a very little
water, and drank it. He drew a great sigh, and stood looking at the
paper.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Armour?" urged the trader.
"Nothing, thank you, nothing at all. Just leave the brandy here, will you?
I feel knocked about, and I have to go through the rest of these letters."
He ran his fingers through the pile, turning it over hastily, as if
searching for something. The trader understood. He was a cool-headed
Scotsman; he knew that there were some things best not inquired into,
and that men must have their bad hours alone. He glanced at the brandy
debatingly, but presently turned and left the room in silence. In his own
mind, however, he wished he might have taken the brandy without
being discourteous. Armour had discovered Miss Sherwood's letter.
Before he opened it he took a little more brandy. Then he sat down and
read it deliberately. The liquor had steadied him. The fingers of one
hand even drummed on the table. But the face was drawn, the eyes
were hard, and the look of him was altogether pinched. After he had
finished this, he looked for others from the same hand. He found none.
Then he picked out those from his mother and father. He read them
grimly. Once he paused as he read his mother's letter, and took a gulp
of plain brandy. There was something very like a sneer on his face
when he finished reading. He read the hollowness of the sympathy

extended to him; he understood the far from adroit references to Lady
Agnes Martling. He was very bitter. He opened no more letters, but
took up the Morning Post again, and read it slowly through. The look
of his face was not pleasant. There was a small looking-glass opposite
him. He caught sight of himself in it. He drew his hand across his eyes
and forehead, as though he was in a miserable dream. He looked again;
he could not recognise himself.
He then bundled the letters and papers into his despatch-box. His
attention was drawn to one letter. He picked it up. It was from Richard.
He started to break the seal, but paused. The strain of the event was too
much; he winced. He determined not to read it then, to wait until he had
recovered himself. He laughed now painfully. It had been better for
him--it had, maybe, averted what people were used to term his
tragedy--had he read his brother's letter at that moment. For Richard
Armour was a sensible man, notwithstanding his peculiarities; and
perhaps the most sensible words he ever wrote were in that letter thrust
unceremoniously into Frank Armour's pocket. Armour had received a
terrible blow. He read his life backwards. He had no future. The liquor
he had drunk had not fevered him, it had not wildly excited him; it
merely drew him up to a point where he could put a sudden impulse
into practice without flinching. He was bitter against his people; he
credited them with more interference than was actual. He felt that
happiness had gone out of his life and left him hopeless. As we said, he
was a man of quick decisions. He would have made a dashing but
reckless soldier; he was not without the elements of the gamester. It is
possible that there was in him also a strain of cruelty, undeveloped but
radical. Life so far had evolved the best in him; he had been cheery and
candid. Now he travelled back into new avenues of his mind and found
strange, aboriginal passions, fully adapted to the present situation.
Vulgar anger and reproaches were not after his nature. He suddenly
found sources of refined but desperate retaliation. He drew upon them.
He would do something to humiliate his people and the girl who had
spoiled his life. Some one thing! It should be absolute and lasting, it
should show how low had fallen his opinion of women, of whom Julia
Sherwood had once been chiefest to him. In that he would show his
scorn of her. He would bring down the pride of his family, who, he

believed, had helped, out of mere selfishness, to tumble his happiness
into the shambles.
He was older by years than an hour ago. But he was not without the
faculty of humour; that was why he did not become very excited; it was
also why he determined upon a comedy which should have all the