And then they talked for five minutes about toothache; and John, smiling, showed such white, even teeth that you would have fancied that he had not had much trouble with them; and you would have fancied right.
"What a curious book you have here," John Rossitter said, looking at a book lying open on the table. It was an old book called "Voyages and Adventures;" and it was open at an awful picture of a cannibal feast, with a man being roasted in front of a fire, and a group of savages dancing ferociously around, in all the horrors of war-paint and feathers, and in a simple but effective costume of a necklace, a fringe round the waist, a ring in the nose, and a penny in the under lip.
Miss Toosey blushed; she was not used to fashionable picture galleries where Eves and Venuses, in unadorned beauty, are admired and criticised by the sensible young people of the present day.
"Though to be sure," she said afterwards, "it's not so bad, as the poor things are black, so they don't look quite so naked; and I always think a white pig is a more indecent looking creature than a black one."
So she turned his attention with great tact to the atlas that was also lying open on the table. It was the atlas that was in use fifty years ago, and which had been bought for Miss Toosey when she went to Miss Singer's "Academy for Young Ladies" to be finished. At this abode of learning, she had been taught to make wax flowers and do crochet, to speak a few words of what was supposed to be French, and to play a tune or two laboriously on the piano, an education which was considered very elegant and elaborate at that time, but would hardly, I am afraid, qualify her for one of the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations, or even for a very high standard at a national school. She had also learnt a little geography and the use of the globes, but not enough to survive for fifty years; and she felt quite at sea this morning, when she reached down the long-unused atlas to find the position of the diocese of Nawaub, and, after long study, had arrived at the conclusion that it must be on the celestial globe, which had always been a puzzle to her.
It was no wonder that she had not been able to find Nawaub, for where the towns and rivers and mountains and plains stood, which the Bishop had described, there was only marked on the map "Undiscovered territory," a vague-looking spot altogether, gradually shading off into the sea without any distinct red or blue line to mark the extent of terra firma, as in other parts of the world.
John Rossitter showed her where he imagined Nawaub to be, and then inquired if she were interested in Missions.
"Well, Mr. John," Miss Toosey said, "I don't mind telling you, though I have not told any one else, except Betty; but I've made up my mind to go out to Nawaub as soon as I can arrange everything."
"As a missionary, Miss Toosey?"
"Yes, Mr. John, as a missionary."