"
"For the fun of the thing, probably," suggested Jack; the English are
said to be great oddities."
"At that time there happened to be a Hindoo widow somewhere in those
parts. This lady was very rich, very young, very beautiful, and very
fond of tormenting her admirers. And, as fate would have it, the
travelling Englishman was completely taken captive by this dark
beauty; and taking advantage of the hold she had obtained upon his
heart, she amused herself by making him do all sorts of out of the way
things. Sometimes she would bid him let his moustache grow, then she
would order him to cut it off; he had to worship Brahma, adopt the
fashion of the Hindoos, and had even to undergo the indignity of
having his head tied up in a dirty pocket-handkerchief."
"That is to say," remarked Jack, "that the lady, not having a pug or a
monkey, made Sir Marmaduke a substitute for both."
"Very likely, but still Sir Marmaduke was no fool; he was, on the
contrary, a gentleman and a philosopher."
"I doubt that," said Jack.
"You are wrong, then. You have been brought up in an out of the way
part of the world, and are not familiar with the usages of civilized
society. When once a man has allowed the tender passion to take root
in his breast, it cannot afterwards be extinguished at will; it grows
and grows like an oil spot, so that what might easily have been
mastered at first, makes us in time its devoted slave.
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