"Well, they are the curse of the country, and if it is in my power to abate that curse, and release a few hundred slaves, I shall not have lived in vain."
"Brian, you ought to have been a barrister; I can see and hear you haranguing a jury."
"Thank you, I'm perfectly satisfied with my present profession, hunting down and securing criminals for barristers to denounce and juries to condemn."
There was a long silence; Mrs. Lepell put a few stitches in her work, and Salwey made some notes in a little book.
"District Superintendent Salwey," she began suddenly, "of what are you thinking?"
"Aunt Liz, this question of yours has become a confirmed habit, as regular as 'how do you do?' Since you particularly wish to know—I am thinking of the new Miss Chandos and her turquoise necklet; why is she kept so strictly in the background?"
"Perhaps her mother imagines that she would extinguish Dominga—and Dominga is her idol, her brazen image."
"Possibly, and the other is a true lady, unaffected, refined, and altogether a most attractive and interesting personality."
"But nothing to you, Brian. You must not fall in love with her; think of Mrs. Lopez as you see her, basking in the sun, a shapeless old woman, a mass of superstition and ignorance; think of Verona's grandmother, and then think of your own. You know the beautiful picture in the Roxley library—I believe if you were to marry a Eurasian girl, she would come down out of her frame!"