He would have been content that his
wife should go through life with a herd of such worshippers following in
her footsteps. He knew the aimless innocence, the almost infantine
simplicity of the typical Johnnie, Chappie, _Muscadin, Petit Creve,
Gommeux_--call him by what name you will. From these he feared no evil.
But in that one follower who gave no outward token of his worship he
dreaded peril. It was Montesma he watched, while dragoons with
close-cropped hair, and imbecile youths with heads rigid in four-inch
collars, were hanging about Lady Lesbia's low bamboo chair, and
administering obsequiously to the small necessities of the tea-table.
It was while this tea-table business was going on that Mr. Smithson took
the opportunity of setting his mind at rest, were it possible, as to the
merits of Captain Wilkinson. Among his visitors this afternoon there was
the owner of three or four racing yachts--a man renowned for his
victories, at home and abroad.
'I think you knew something of my captain, Wilkinson, before I engaged
him,' said Smithson, with assumed carelessness.
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