One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

One of Our Conquerors
volunteer of the army of the simply Christian. The worse for
it? Sowerby would think so. She was not of the order of young
women who, in sheer ignorance or in voluntary, consent to
the peace with evil, and are kept externally safe from the
smirch of evil, and are the ornaments of their country, glory
of a country prizing ornaments higher than qualities.
Dartrey could have been momentarily incredulous of things
revealed by Mrs. Marsett—not incredulous of the girl’s heroism:
that capacity he caught and gauged in her shape of head,
cut of mouth, and the measurements he was accustomed to
make at a glance:—but her beauty, or the form of beauty
which was hers, argued against her having set foot of thought
in our fens. Here and far there we meet a young saint vowed
to service along by those dismal swamps: and saintly she looks;
not of this earth. Nesta was of the blooming earth. Where
do we meet girl or woman comparable to garden-flowers,
who can dare to touch to lift the spotted of her sex? He was
puzzled by Nesta’s unlikeness in deeds and in aspect. He remembered
her eyes, on the day when he and Colonel Sudley
beheld her; presently he was at quiet grapple with her mind.
His doubts cleared off. Then the question came, How could
a girl of heroical character be attached to the man Sowerby?
That entirely passed belief.
And was it possible his wishes beguiled his hearing? Her
tones were singularly vibrating.
They talked for a while before, drawing a deep breath, she
said: ‘I fancy I am in disgrace with my mother.’
‘You have a suspicion why?’ said he.
‘I have.’
She would have told him why: the words were at her lips.
Previous to her emotion on the journey home, the words
would have come out. They were arrested by the thunder of
the knowledge, that the nobleness in him drawing her to be
able to speak of scarlet matter, was personally worshipped.
He attributed the full rose upon her cheeks to the forbidding
subject.
To spare pain, he said: ‘No misunderstanding with the dear
mother will last the day through. Can I help?’
‘Oh, Captain Dartrey!’
‘Drop the captain. Dartrey will do.’
‘How could I!’
‘You’re not wanting in courage, Nesta.’
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