The Translation of a Savage | Page 6

for a
man than a lifelong thorn in his side. Of Julia Sherwood he had nothing
particularly bitter to say. He delicately suggested that she had acted
according to her nature, and that in the see-saw of life Frank had had a
sore blow; but this was to be borne. The letter did not say too much; it
did not magnify the difficulty, it did not depreciate it. It did not even
directly counsel; it was wholesomely, tenderly judicial. Indirectly, it
dwelt upon the steadiness and manliness of Frank's character; directly,
lightly, and without rhetoric, it enlarged upon their own comradeship. It
ran over pleasantly the days of their boyhood, when they were hardly
ever separated. It made distinct, yet with no obvious purpose, how good
were friendship and confidence--which might be the most unselfish
thing in the world--between two men. With the letter before him Frank
Armour saw his act in a new light.
As we said, it is possible if he had read it on the day when his trouble
came to him, he had not married Lali, or sent her to England on this--to
her--involuntary mission of revenge. It is possible, also, that there came
to him the first vague conception of the wrong he had done this Indian
girl, who undoubtedly married him because she cared for him after her
heathen fashion, while he had married her for nothing that was
commendable; not even for passion, which may be pardoned, nor for
vanity, which has its virtues. He had had his hour with circumstance;
circumstance would have its hour with him in due course. Yet there
was no extraordinary revulsion. He was still angry, cynical, and very
sore. He would see the play out with a consistent firmness. He almost
managed a smile when a letter was handed to him some weeks later,
bearing his solicitor's assurance that Mrs. Frank Armour and her maid
had been safely bestowed on the Aphrodite for England. This was the
first act in his tragic comedy.
CHAPTER II
A DIFFICULT SITUATION
When Mrs. Frank Armour arrived at Montreal she still wore her Indian

costume of clean, well-broidered buckskin, moccasins, and leggings, all
surmounted by a blanket. It was not a distinguished costume, but it
seemed suitable to its wearer. Mr. Armour's agent was in a quandary.
He had received no instructions regarding her dress. He felt, of course,
that, as Mrs. Frank Armour, she should put off these garments, and
dress, so far as was possible, in accordance with her new position. But
when he spoke about it to Mackenzie, the elderly maid and companion,
he found that Mr. Armour had said that his wife was to arrive in
England dressed as she was. He saw something ulterior in the matter,
but it was not his province to interfere. And so Mrs. Frank Armour was
a passenger by the Aphrodite in her buckskin garments.
What she thought of it all is not quite easy to say. It is possible that at
first she only considered that she was the wife of a white man,-- a thing
to be desired, and that the man she loved was hers for ever-- a matter of
indefinable joy to her. That he was sending her to England did not fret
her, because it was his will, and he knew what was best. Busy with her
contented and yet somewhat dazed thoughts of him,--she was too
happy to be very active mentally, even if it had been the characteristic
of her race,--she was not at first aware how much notice she excited,
and how strange a figure she was in this staring city. When it did dawn
upon her she shrank a little, but still was placid, preferring to sit with
her hands folded in her lap, idly watching things. She appeared
oblivious that she was the wife of a man of family and rank; she was
only thinking that the man was hers--all hers. He had treated her kindly
enough in the days they were together, but she had not been a great deal
with him, because they travelled fast, and his duties were many, or he
made them so--but the latter possibility did not occur to her.
When he had hastily bidden her farewell at Port Arthur he had kissed
her and said: "Good-bye, my wife." She was not yet acute enough in
the inflections of Saxon speech to catch the satire--almost
involuntary--in the last two words. She remembered the words,
however, and the kiss, and she was quite satisfied. To what she was
going she did not speculate. He was sending her: that was enough.
The woman given to her as maid had been well chosen. Armour had

done this carefully. She was Scotch, was reserved, had a certain amount
of shrewdness, would obey