“Of course he was swarthy like the rest of us?”
“I saw nothing remarkable about him, except that his eyes were blue and his eyelashes nearly white, which, as you know, is rare in Erewhon. Indeed, I do not remember ever before to have seen a man with dark hair and complexion but light eyelashes. Nature is always doing something unusual.”
“I have no doubt,” said Yram, “that he was the man they call Blacksheep, but I never noticed this peculiarity in him. If he was Blacksheep, I am afraid you must have found him none too civil; he is a rough diamond, and you would hardly be able to understand his uncouth Sunch’ston dialect.”
“On the contrary, he was most kind and thoughtful—even so far as to take our permit from us, and thus save us the trouble of giving it up at your son’s office. As for his dialect, his grammar was often at fault, but we could quite understand him.”
“I am glad to hear he behaved better than I could have expected. Did he say in what part of the preserves he had been?”
“He had been catching quails between the place where we saw him and the statues; he was to deliver three dozen to your son this afternoon for the Mayor’s banquet on Sunday.”
This was worse and worse. She had urged her son to provide her with a supply of quails for Sunday’s banquet, but he had begged her not to insist on having them. There was no close time for them in Erewhon, but he set his face against their being seen at table in spring and summer. During the winter, when any great occasion arose, he had allowed a few brace to be provided.
“I asked my son to let me have some,” said Yram, who was now on full scent. She laughed genially as she added, “Can you throw any light upon the question whether I am likely to get my three dozen? I have had no news as yet.”
“The man had taken a good many; we saw them but did not count them. He started about midnight for the ranger’s shelter, where he said he should sleep till daybreak, so as to make up his full tale betimes.”
Yram had heard her son complain that there were no shelters on the preserves, and state his intention of having some built before the winter. Here too, then, the man’s story must be false. She changed the conversation for the moment, but quietly told a servant to send high and low in search of her son, and if he could be found, to bid him come to her at once. She then returned to her previous subject.