“That is what I said when Mariana told me of him.” And suddenly Rosalie shuddered. “How can I give him an enviable character when he was cruel, hard as marble, and vindictive. He was bad, really bad, and the worst thing is I knew it all the time, yet had he been agreeable to me, really agreeable, I would have shut my eyes to everything.”
And from a very real feeling of shame, her colour deepened, for Rosalie was not one of those people who are blind to their own shortcomings and weaknesses.
Then suddenly turning to her host, she said, changing the conversation:
“What must I call you? Everybody has a name, but yours I never heard.”
“Well,” he answered slowly, “I don’t know that for the present I have any name worth going by. Some call me the Traveller’s Friend, some the Physician, some the Task Master. You may call me what you will for the present. Hereafter we may find a better name.”
“Well, Mr. Barringcourt was called the Master. Suppose I call you the Governor, without any abbreviation to a lesser name.”
“Why that?”
“Because Mariana told me I was weak, and weak people want someone very strict with them, and I should like to have a good understanding, you know, because I’m very ignorant.”
He looked at her.
“Well, you will find me strict enough. And for the rest, it’s bound to follow.”