Lady Elfrida laughed, and yet at the same moment a look of appeal that
was in itself quite as childlike shone in her blue eyes. "There, I
have blundered again, I know; but I told you I have such ridiculous
prejudices! And I really want to like them as you do. Only," she laughed
again, "it seems strange that YOU, of all men, should have interested
yourself in people so totally different to you. But what will be the
result if your efforts are successful? Will they remain a distinct race?
Will you make citizens, soldiers, congressmen, governors of them? Will
they intermarry with the whites? Is that a part of your plan? I hope
not!"
It was a part of Peter's sensitive excitement that even through the
unconscious irony of this speech he was noticing the difference between
the young English girl's evident interest in a political problem and the
utter indifference of his own countrywomen. Here was a girl scarcely out
of her teens, with no pretension to being a blue stocking, with half
the aplomb of an American girl of her own age, gravely considering
a question of political economy. Oddly enough, it added to his other
irritation, and he said almost abruptly, "Why not?"
She took the question literally and with a little youthful timidity.
"But these mixed races never attain to anything, do they? I thought that
was understood. But," she added with feminine quickness, "and I suppose
it's again only a PERSONAL argument, YOU wouldn't like your sister to
have married an Indian, would you?"
The irony of the situation had reached its climax to Peter. It didn't
seem to be his voice that said, "I can answer by an argument still more
personal. I have even thought myself of marrying an Indian woman."
It seemed to him that what he said was irrevocable, but he was
desperate. It seemed to him that in a moment more he would have told her
his whole secret. But the young girl drew back from him with a slight
start of surprise. There may have been something in the tone of his
voice and in his manner that verged upon a seriousness she was never
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