“Oh, I’m readier in other things, your honour, as you’d find on occasion. But I thank you for the compliment in a land where compliments are few. For a planter’s country it has few who speak as well as they entertain. I’ll say this for the land you govern, the hospitality is rich and rare.”
“In what way, Boland?”
“Why, your honour, it is the custom for a man and his whole family to go on a visit to a neighbour, perhaps twenty or forty miles away, bring their servants—maybe a dozen or more—and sit down on their neighbour’s hearthstone. There they eat his food, drink his wine, exhaust his fowl-yard and debilitate his cook—till all the resources of the place are played out; then with both hands round his friend’s neck the man and his people will say adieu, and go back to their own accumulated larder and await the return visit. The wonder is Jamaica is so rich, for truly the waste is harmful. We have the door open in Virginia, but not in that way. We welcome, but we don’t debauch.”
The governor smiled. “As you haven’t old friends here, you should make your life a success—ah, there is the open door, Boland, and your mistress standing in it. But I come without my family, and with no fell purposes. I will not debilitate the cook; I will not exhaust the fowl-yard. A roasted plantain is good enough for me.”
Darius’ looks quickened, and he jerked his chin up. “So, your honour, so. But might I ask that you weigh carefully the warning of Mr. Calhoun. There’s trouble at Trelawny. I have it from good sources, and Mr. Calhoun has made preparations against the sure risings. I’d take heed of what he says. He knows. Your honour, it is not my mistress in the doorway, it is Mrs. Llyn; she is shorter than my mistress.”
The governor shaded his brow with his hands. Then he touched up his horse. “Yes, you are right, Boland. It is Mrs. Llyn. And look you, Boland, I’ll think over what you’ve said about the Maroons and Mr. Calhoun. He’s doing no harm as he is, that’s sure. So why shouldn’t he go on as he is? That’s your argument, isn’t it?”
Boland nodded. “It’s part of my argument, not all of it. Of course he’s doing no harm; he’s doing good every day. He’s got a stiff hand for the shirker and the wanton, but he’s a man that knows his mind, and that’s a good thing in Jamaica.”
“Does he come here-ever?”
“He has been here only once since our arrival. There are reasons why he does not come, as your honour kens, knowing the history of Erris Boyne.”
A quarter of an hour later Darius Boland said to Sheila: “He’s got an order from England to keep Mr. Calhoun to his estate and to punish him, if he infringes the order.”