Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Hedged with Divinities

XX

page 134

XX.

When the first-born was about three weeks old, Jack was sitting in one of the drawing-rooms of Victoria's residence, watching the beautiful delicate-looking young mother lying upon a sofa with her boy in her arms. One of the attendants brought a message to the King that two Maori women wished to see him; and the King, anxious to receive letters from the south, and hoping that these had been the bearers of such letters through the native country, answered that they could be admitted to the room he was then in. The two women entered, and, after a few words of greeting, informed him that they were a deputation. They represented, they said, the women of the native race. They were the original owners of New Zealand. They heard that the King had taken many wives, as was the olden custom befitting great chiefs. They therefore requested that one or two of their noblest young women might be added to the number of the royal wives, and that thus the blood of an ancient race would not become extinct and sink into the ground.

The King listened with a lowering face, and then said between his teeth "D—n it, Victoria: this is too much. I won't stand it."

page 135

"Be gentle, Jack," replied Victoria, "don't be rough with the poor things; put them off somehow, and temporize."

"Well," said Jack, "I hope you will be proud of your colleagues." Then, turning to the Maoris, he said,' "Please convey my thanks to your countrywomen for the honour, but pressure of State affairs prevents my acceding to their request at present. I hope, however, to visit your settlements in an expedition which I am about to undertake in the effort to reach Wellington, and we will then confer on the subject. In the meantime I will keep your request steadily in view."

The Maoris retired, but in a dissatisfied way, and not without one or two sulkily-jealous glances at the new baby.

Hardly had they left the chamber when the Lady President of the Council was announced. She greeted the King and Queen respectfully, and looked at the little Prince with melting eyes. Then she addressed Jack, and said, "Sire, I have some important news. The Maori women, before they came to you, brought letters from the south for me. These letters tell me that the women of Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin have heard of your survival and your marriage. They desire that they also should be represented in the royal establishment, and a large deputation of their most eligible young ladies is now on its way through the native country. They were also able to communicate with Australia and to impart the news to that continent. The intelligence has awakened a new spirit in the Australian colonies, and a large vessel is being manned and provisioned by them in hope of reaching New Zealand. It will contain deputations from Queensland, New South Wales, South —— "

page 136

"Great Heaven!" said Jack. "Good-bye, Victoria! I'm off!" and like a flash he disappeared through the doorway.

That evening, as Nelly sat in her lonely home, she was startled to hear the tread of a quick heavy step on the verandah—a sound produced by no feminine foot. With a swift impulsive movement she opened the door, and admitted the King, unaccompanied by his usual staff of officials.

Jack said, "Nelly, may I come in?"

Nelly, with a trembling and agitated voice, answered "I — I don't know."

"Well, Nelly, I must come in," said Jack. "I have to say something upon which your fate and mine, and indeed the fate of us all, depend." He came into the room, and while Nelly sank upon a chair, exhausted by a flood of emotion, he continued, "I have for a long time borne separation from you and association with others, upheld by an overmastering feeling of my duty towards these thousands of helpless women, and inspired by the idea that it was cowardice on my part to run away from my position, when I alone had been reserved to be the protector and sustainer of a race almost annihilated. A crisis has, however, arrived." He then proceeded to unfold to her the news which had reached him that afternoon. He proceeded, "Under this new calamity, this weight of numbers claiming my rule over other realms, my direction of large populations, my meeting even greater difficulties than I have yet had page 137to encounter; under all this I break down and despair. I will straggle no more, but yield at once. In some solitude, some isolated nook of forest or shore, I will withdraw from life, and let what will come, come. Shall I go unfriended and alone? To you, to you I look, love of my heart, unforgotten, never wavered from in spirit, and ask of you the redemption of the promise made to me in the old happy days."

"Ah," said Nelly, "many things have happened since the old happy days."

"I know, said Jack, possessing himself of one shaking little hand, "I know, and you know, also, how mighty have been the forces which have united to drift us two apart, but I feel strong when with you to meet and overcome them. Before I saw this country, I visited a little island near Fiji. It was a lovely place, with groves of coco-palms and a spring of water. It was only visited by the natives now and then for the purpose of procuring coco-nuts for making copra, and now of course is utterly deserted. Let us go there, Nelly, you and I, and create a new Paradise. Under the palm-shadows we will make our simple home, and forget in the peace of mornings that break in endless summer all the trials and disappointment entailed in the struggle of many human beings to keep the life of civilization moving in the old grooves. If you consent, I will have the little steamer ready to-morrow, manned by a few faithful women whom I have ventured to approach on this subject, and who will cast in their lots with us. Nelly, let us fly to happiness together."

"Oh Jack!" said Nelly, "have you in your heart of hearts counted the cost? Can you leave the flattery and worship of all these women, the power you wield over them, the half-finished work of their industrial page 138redemption — and all for one poor weak girl? You would repent, and then I should be lost indeed. You mean it now, I feel sure, but if you should look from under the empty calm of the palm trees and think of all you hare left, and fret for one of those others (ay, those mothers) then I too should be the unhappiest of living creatures, knowing that for me was the great scheme abandoned, and all for nought."

"No, Nelly, that is not so," answered Jack. "I have not told you how I have fretted already; how among those sweet women who have given themselves whole-souled for the sake of a great cause, I, half-hearted and pining for one only, for one absent, have felt like a traitor and a coward. Night and day your face shone before my eyes, till life ached with longing. I threw myself into hard work. I have worked savagely, exhaustingly, to get a respite from the hungry insatiable craving after the one woman in the world to whom I had been plighted, and who had plighted her word to me." He had got hold of both hands by this time, and the electric vitality of his passion quivering along every nerve, thrilled through and captured her bodily senses as his words of pleading overcame her mental resistance.

"If for my sake," she said solemnly, with lips that quivered, "if for my sake you will forego all and 'cleave to me only, so long as we both shall live,' I will forget everything but the promise that I made to you long ago, and we will sail away to your lonely Eden." Then lips and hearts ratified the treaty, and when Jack left the cottage he walked with form elate, and a step that told of hope and confidence renewed.