"But what does he also sing, and in the same poem?
'Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.'"
Violet's eyes were fixed upon the ground.
"And, after all—poetry aside—what are you going to do with yourself in that hot climate?"
"To marry, perhaps," he said, carelessly, and with a forced laugh.
Violet shook all over; but she did not raise her eyes.
"An heiress?" asked Vyner.
"No,—to continue Tennyson,—
'I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.'"
There was singular bitterness, as he added,—