V. l.^ 
 
 u 
 
 t\ i-J k:.o '^J.
 
 tli 
 
 L I B R.AFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 82.3 
 A£5ih 
 1686

 
 IN ALL SHADES
 
 NOVELS BY GRANT ALLEN. 
 
 PHILISTIA: a Novel. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 
 
 2S. 6d. ; post 8vo. illustrated boards, 2s. 
 
 BABYLON : a Novel. With 12 Illustrations by P. 
 Macnab. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 3J. 6d. 
 
 FOR MAIMIE'S SAKE : a Tale of Love and Dyna- 
 mite. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 6s. 
 
 STRANGE STORIES. With Frontispiece by George 
 
 Du Maurier. Crown Svo. cloth extra, 6s. ; post Bvo. illus- 
 trated boards, 2S. 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. Second 
 Edition, revised. Crown Svo. cloth extra, 6s. 
 
 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 London : CHATTO & WINDUS, Piccadilly, W.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ^ Wovcl 
 
 BY 
 
 GRANT ALLEN 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' BABYLON ' ' STRANGE STORIES ' ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. L 
 
 JToubon 
 
 CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 
 
 1886 
 
 [ TA€ rig^ht of translation is reserved]
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDON
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 Cxi 
 OS 
 
 IT) 
 
 
 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ' CHAPTEE I. 
 
 About one o'clock in tfie morning, by a flick- 
 ering fire of half-dead embers, young men of 
 ^ twenty-five are very apt to grow confidential, 
 -il Now, it was one o'clock gone, by the marble 
 ":: timepiece on Edward Hawthorn's big mantel- 
 "^ shelf in King's Bench Walk, Temple ; and 
 Edward Hawthorn and Harry Noel were each 
 ^ of them just twenty-five ; so it is no matter 
 ^ for wonder at all that the conversation should 
 , just then have begun to take a very confiden- 
 
 - tial turn indeed, especially when one remem- 
 o 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 bers that they had both nearly finished their 
 warm, glass of whisky toddy, and that it was 
 one of those chilly April evenings when you 
 naturally cower close over the fire to keep 
 your poor blood from curdling bodily alto- 
 gether within you. 
 
 'It's certainly very odd, Noel, that my 
 father should alway s see m so very anxious to 
 keep me from goiil|^ack to Trinidad, even 
 for a mere short visit.' 
 
 Harry Noel shook out the ashes from his 
 pipe as he answered quietly: 'Fathers are 
 altogether the most unaccountable, incom- 
 prehensible, mysterious, unmanageable crea- 
 tures in God's universe. Women and horses 
 are mere child's-play compared to them. For 
 my own part, I've given up attempting to 
 fathom them altogether.' 
 
 Edward smiled half deprecatingly. ' Ah,
 
 IN ALL SHADES 3 
 
 but you know, Noel,' he went on in a far more 
 serious tone than his friend's, ' my father isn't 
 at all like that ; he's never refused me money 
 or anything else I've wanted ; he's been the 
 most liberal and the kindest of men to me ; 
 but for some abstruse and inconceivable 
 reason — I can't imagine why — he's always op- 
 posed my going back home even to visit him.' 
 ' K Sir Walter'd dli^Pact upon the same 
 principle, my dear boy, I can tell you confi- 
 dentially I'd be simply too dehghted. But, 
 confound it all, he always acts upon the exact 
 contrary. He's in favour of my coming down 
 to the Hall, in the very dampest, dreariest, 
 and dullest part of all Lincolnshire, at the 
 precise moment of time when I want myself 
 to be off to Scotland, deer-stalking or grouse- 
 shooting ; but he invariably considers all my 
 applications for extra coin as at least inoppor-
 
 4 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 tune — as the papers say — if not as absolutely 
 extravagant, or even criminal. A governor 
 who shells out freely while remaining perma- 
 nently invisible on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, appears to me to combine all the 
 practical advantages of the governor, viewed 
 as an institution, with none of its painful and 
 objectionable drawbacks. fortunatus nim- 
 ium tua si bona 72oris,mj dear Teddy.' 
 
 ' Ah, that's all very well for you, Noel ; 
 you've got your father and your family here 
 in England with you, and you make light of 
 the privilege because you enjoy it. But it's a 
 very different thing altogether when all your 
 people are separated from you by half a 
 hemisphere, and you've never even so much 
 as seen your own mother since you were a 
 little chap no bigger than that chair there. 
 You'll admit at least that a fellow would
 
 IN ALL SHADES ^ 
 
 naturally like now and again to see his 
 mother.' 
 
 * His mother,' Noel answered, dropping his 
 voice a little with a sort of instinctive rever- 
 ential inflection. ' Ah, that, now,'s a very 
 difierent matter. Fathers of course are our 
 natural enemies, we all admit ; but the man 
 that goes back upon his own mother isn't 
 worth salt to his porridge.' 
 
 ' Well, you see, my dear fellow, I've never 
 seen either my father or my mother since I 
 was quite a small boy of eight years old or 
 thereabouts. I was sent home to Joyce's to 
 school then, as you know ; and after that, I 
 went to Eugby, and next to Cambridge ; and 
 I've almost entirely forgotten by this time 
 even what my father and mother look like. 
 When they sent me home tliose two photo- 
 graphs there, a few months back, I assure you
 
 6 /-V ALL SHADES 
 
 tliere wasn't a feature in either face I could 
 really and truly recognise or remember.' 
 
 'Precious handsome old gentleman your 
 father, anyhow/ Xoel observed, looking up 
 carelessly at the large framed photograph 
 above the fire-place. • Seeuis the right sort 
 too ; has what I should call a benevolent 
 shelling-out cast of countenance, which ought 
 to be strictly encouraged in the breed of 
 fathers. Fine air of sterhng coininess also, 
 I remark, about his grev hair and his full 
 waistcoat and his turn-down shirt-collar. A 
 man of more than fifty who wears a turn- 
 down collar, I've long observed, is invariably 
 coiny. *Eeal old soHd mahogany father, I 
 should be inclined to say ; good all alike 
 throughout ; no veneering. Calculated to cut 
 up very respectably.' 
 
 ^ Oh, Xoel, please ; don't talk that way !
 
 IN ALL SHADES 7 
 
 * My dear fellow, it's tiie course of nature. 
 We fell as tlie leaves fall, and new genera- 
 tions rejAace us and take our money. Good 
 for the l^acy duty. !Kow, is your governor 
 sugar or coflfee ? ' 
 
 * Sugar, I believe — ^in fact, Pm pretty 
 sure of it- He often writes that tlie canes 
 are progressing, and talks about rattoons and 
 centrifugals and otlier things I don't know 
 the very names of. But I believe he has a 
 very good estate of his own somewhere or 
 other at the north end of the island.' 
 
 *Why, of course, then, that's the expla- 
 nation of it — as safe as houses, you may 
 depend upon it. The old gentleman's as rich 
 as Croesus, I'll bet you any money. He makes 
 you a modest allowance over here, which you, 
 who are an unassuming, hard-working, Chitty- 
 on-Crontract sort of fellow, consider very
 
 8 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 handsome, but which is really not one quarter 
 of what he ought to be allowing you out of 
 his probably princely income. You take my 
 word for it, Teddy, that's the meaning of it. 
 The old gentleman — he has a very knowing 
 look about his weather-eye in the photograph 
 too — he thinks if you were to go out there, 
 and see the estate, and observe the wealth 
 of the Indies, and discover the way he makes 
 the dollars fly, you'd ask him immediately to 
 double your allowance ; and being a person 
 of unusual penetration — as I can see, with 
 half a glance, from his picture — he decides 
 to keep you at the other end of the universe, 
 so that you may never discover what a per- 
 fect Eothschild he is, and go in for putting 
 the screw on/ 
 
 Edward Hawthorn smiled quietly. * It 
 won't do, my dear fellow,' he said, glancing
 
 IN ALL SHADES 9 
 
 up quickly at the handsome open face in the 
 big photograph. ' My father isn't at all that 
 sort of person, I feel certain, from his letters. 
 He's doing all he can to advance me in hfe ; 
 and though he hasn't seen me for so long, 
 I'm the one interest he really lives upon.' 
 
 'Oh, you excellent young man, Teddy, 
 how deliciously green and fresh you've man- 
 aged to keep yourself ! Do you really mean 
 to tell me you still beheve all that ridicu- 
 lous paternal humbug? Why, my governor 
 always says precisely the same things to me 
 in precisely the same language. If you were 
 to believe Sir Walter, his one aim and object 
 in Hfe is to make me happy. It's all for my 
 own sake that he stints me in money; it's 
 all for my own sake that he spends every 
 penny he ought to be generously showering 
 upon me, in building new cottages and mend-
 
 lo IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ing fences and improving the position of the 
 tenants generally. As if the tenants wanted 
 any improvement ! They prefer to pig it, 
 while I prefer to have my money.' 
 
 ' Well, Noel, I certainly did think it very 
 queer, after I'd taken my degree at Cam- 
 bridge and got the Arabic scholarship and 
 so forth, that my father didn't want me to 
 go out to the island. I naturally wanted to 
 see my old home and my father and mother, 
 before settling down to my business in life ; 
 and I wrote and told them so. But my father 
 wrote back, putting me off with all sorts of 
 made-up excuses ; it was the bad season of 
 the year ; there was a great deal of yellow 
 fever about ; he was very anxious I should 
 get to work at once upon my law-reading ; 
 he wanted me to be called to the bar as early 
 as possible.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES ii 
 
 ' And so, just to please tlie old gentleman, 
 you left your Arabic, that you were such a 
 dab at, and set to work and mugged up over 
 Benjamin on Sales and Pollock on Mortgages 
 for the best years of your lifetime, when you 
 ought to have been shooting birds in Devon- 
 shire or yachting with me in the Princess of 
 Thule off the west coast of Scotland. That's 
 not my theory of the way fathers ought to be 
 managed. I consented to become a barrister, 
 just to pacify Sir Walter for the moment; 
 but my ideas of barristering are a great deal 
 more elastic and generous than yours are. I'm 
 quite satisfied with getting my name neatly 
 painted over the door of some other fellow's 
 convenient chambers.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes, of course you are. But then 
 your case is very different. The heir to an 
 English baronetcy needn't trouble himself
 
 12 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 about liis future, like us ordinary mortals. 
 But if I didn't work hard and get on and 
 make money, I shouldn't ever be able to 
 marry — at least during my father's hfetime.' 
 
 ' No more should I, my dear fellow. Ab- 
 solutely impossible. A man can't marry on 
 seven hundred a year, you see, can he ? ' 
 
 Edward laughed. 'I could,' he answered, 
 ' very easily. No doubt, you couldn't. But 
 then you haven't got anybody in your eye ; 
 while I, you know, am anxious as soon as I 
 can to marry Marian.' 
 
 ' Not got anybody in my eye ! ' Harry 
 Noel cried, leaning back in his chair and open- 
 ing his two hands symbolically in front of him 
 with an expansive gesture. ' Oh, haven't I; 
 just dozens of them. Only, of course, it's no 
 use a poor beggar like me, on seven hundred 
 a year, talking about getting married, or else
 
 IN ALL SHADES 13 
 
 I'd soon take my pick out of the whole lot 
 of them. Why, by Jove, there was a pretty 
 little girl I saw last Wednesday down at the 
 Buckleburies — a Miss Diipuy, I think, they 
 called her — by the way, a countrywoman of 
 yours, I believe, Edward, from Trinidad ; or 
 was it Mauritius? one of those sugary-nig- 
 gery places or other, anyhow ; and I assure 
 you I fairly lost the miserable rehcs of my 
 heart to her at our first meeting. She's 
 going to be at the boat-race to-morrow; and 
 I'm a Dutchman if I don't think I'll run down 
 there in the dog-cart incontinently, on the 
 spec, of seeing her. Will you come with 
 me?' 
 
 'But how about that devilling of 
 Walker's?' 
 
 'Oh, nonsense. Walker, Q.C., may devil 
 for himself, for all I care for him. Leave
 
 14 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 him alone for once to take care of himself, 
 and come along with me.' 
 
 'What o'clock?' 
 
 ' Eleven. A reasonable hour. You don't 
 catch me getting up at five o'clock in the 
 morning and making the historical Noel nose, 
 which I so proudly inherit, turn blue with 
 cold and shivering at that time of the day, 
 even for the honour of the old 'varsity. 
 Plenty of time to turn in and get a comfort- 
 able snooze, and yet have breakfast decently 
 before I drive you down to-morrow morning 
 in my new dog-cart.' 
 
 ' All right. I'll come with you, then. — 
 Are you going out now ? Just post that 
 letter for me, please, will you ? ' 
 
 Noel took it and glanced at the address 
 half unintentionally. ' The Hon. James Haw- 
 thorn,' he said, reading it over in a thought-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 15 
 
 less mechanical way and in a sort of under- 
 tone soliloquy, ' Agualta Estate, Trinidad. — 
 Why, I didn't know, Teddy, this mysterious 
 governor of yours was actually a real hve 
 Honourable. What family does he belong 
 to, then ? ' 
 
 ' I don't think Honourable means that out 
 in the colonies, you know,' Edward answered, 
 stirring the embers into a final flicker. ' I 
 fancy it's only a cheap courtesy title given 
 to people in the West Indies who happen to 
 be members of the Legislative Council.' 
 
 ' Legislative Council I Better and better. 
 My dear Ted, the governor's coiny, you may 
 depend upon it, or else he wouldn't be ad- 
 mitted into the legislature of his native 
 country. A man who has so much tin to 
 spare that he can afford to throw some of it 
 away in attending to the affairs of the na-
 
 i6 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 tion — wliicli means, after all, somebody else's 
 business — is certain to be coiny ; absolutely 
 certain. Bleed him, my dear boy ; bleed him 
 wholesomely. As a son and a citizen, it's 
 your plain duty to bleed him without flinch- 
 ing. Think for a moment of the force of 
 the example ; think how eniinently undesir- 
 able it is that governors generally should get 
 into the habit of skulking away in remote 
 corners of the uninhabitable tropics, on pur- 
 pose so as to chouse their own children out 
 of their proper reasonable allowances. It's 
 an atrocious proceeding altogether, I tell you, 
 and, for the sake of the whole community, 
 it ought to be put a stop to immediately 
 without any question.' 
 
 Edward paused for a minute, still seated, 
 and poking away nervously at the dying 
 embers ; then he said in a more serious voice :
 
 IN ALL SHADES 17 
 
 'Do you know, Noel, there's a district judge- 
 ship in Trinidad going to be filled up at once 
 by the Colonial Office?' 
 
 ' Well, my dear boy ; what of that ? I 
 know a promising young barrister of the 
 Inner Temple who isn't going to be such an 
 absurd fool as to take the place, even if it's 
 offered to him.' 
 
 ' On the contrary, Harry, I've sent in an 
 apphcation myself for the post this very 
 evening.' 
 
 ' My dear Hawthorn, hke Paul, you are 
 beside yourself. Much learning — of Walker 
 on Specific Performance — has made you mad, 
 I solemnly assure you. The place isn't worth 
 your taking.' 
 
 ' Nevertheless, if I can get it, Harry, I 
 mean to take it.' 
 
 ' If you can get it ! Fiddlesticks ! If you 
 
 VOL. I. c 
 
 'v >
 
 ig IN ALL SHADES 
 
 can get a place as crossing-sweeper ! My 
 good friend, this is simple madness. A young 
 man of your age, a boy, a mere child ' — they 
 were both the same age to a month, but 
 Harry Noel always assumed the airs of a 
 father towards his friend Hawthorn — 'who 
 has already been promoted to devil for 
 Walker, and who knows the most influential 
 solicitor in Chancery Lane personally — why, 
 it's chucking up an absolute certainty ; an 
 absolute certainty, and no mistake about it. 
 You're the best Arabic scholar in England; 
 it'd be worth your while stopping here, if it 
 comes to that, for the sake of the Arabic 
 Professorship alone, rather than go and live 
 in Trinidad. If you take my advice, my dear 
 fellow, you'll have nothing more to say to the 
 precious business.' 
 
 ' Well, Harry, I have two reasons for
 
 IN ALL SHADES 19 
 
 wishing to take it. In the first place, I want 
 to marry Marian as early as possible ; and I 
 can't marry her until I can make myself a 
 decent income.' 
 
 ' Bleed him ! bleed him ! ' Harry Noel 
 ejaculated parenthetically, in a gentle whisper. 
 
 ' And in the second place,' Edward went 
 on, without stopping to notice the muttered 
 interruption, ' I want to go out as soon as I 
 can and see my father and mother in Trini- 
 dad. If I get this district judgeship, I shall 
 be able to write and tell them positively I'm 
 coming, and they won't have any excuse of 
 any sort for putting a stopper on it any 
 longer.' 
 
 ' In other words, in order to go and spy 
 out the hidden wealth of the coiny old 
 governor, you're going to chuck away the 
 finest opening at the English bar, and bind 
 
 c2
 
 20 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 yourself down to a life of exile in a remote 
 corner of the Caribbean Sea. I believe they 
 call the sea the Caribbean ; but anyhow, 
 whether or not, it sounds awfully fine to end 
 a sentence with. Well, my good friend, if 
 you really do it, all that I can say is simply 
 this — you'll prove yourself the most consum- 
 mate ass in all Christendom.' 
 
 ' Noel, I've made my mind up ; I shall 
 really go there.' 
 
 ' Then, my dear boy, allow me to tell you, 
 as long as you live you will never cease to 
 regret it. I believe you'll repent it, before 
 you're done, in sackcloth and ashes.' 
 
 Edward stirred the dead fire nervously 
 once more for a few seconds and answered 
 nothing. v 
 
 ' Good-night, Hawthorn. You'll be ready 
 to start for the boat-race at ten to-morrow ? '
 
 IN ALL SHADES 21 
 
 ' Good-night, Harry. I'll be ready to 
 start. Good-night, my dear fellow.' 
 
 Noel turned and left the room ; but 
 Edward Hawthorn stood still, with his bed- 
 room candle poised reflectively in one hand, 
 looking long and steadfastly with fixed eyes at 
 his father's and mother's photographs before 
 him. ' A grand-looking old man, my father, 
 certainly,' he said to himself, scanning the fine 
 broad brow and firm but tender mouth with 
 curious attention — ' a grand-looking old man, 
 without a doubt, there's no denying it. But 
 I wonder why on earth he doesn't want me 
 to go out to Trinidad? And a beautiful, 
 gentle, lovable old lady, if ever there was one 
 on this earth, my mother I '
 
 22 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 CHAPTEE n. 
 
 You wouldn't have found two handsomer or 
 finer young men on the day of the boat-race, 
 in all London, than the two who started on 
 the new dog-cart, at ten o'clock, from the door 
 of Harry Noel's comfortable chambers in a 
 quaint old house in Duke Street, St. James's. 
 And yet they were very different in type 
 indeed ; as widely different as it is possible 
 for any two young men to be, both of whom 
 were quite unmistakable and undeniable 
 young Englishmen. 
 
 Harry Noel was heir of one of the oldest 
 and bluest-blooded families in all Lincoln-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 23 
 
 shire ; but his face and figure were by no 
 means those of the typical Danes in that most 
 distinctively Danish of English counties. Sir 
 Walter, his father, was tall and fair — a bluff, 
 honest, hard-featured Lincolnshire man ; but 
 Harry himself took rather after his mother, 
 the famous Lady Noel, once considered the 
 most beautiful woman of her time in London 
 society. He was somewhat short and well 
 knit ; a very dark man, with black hair, 
 moustache, and beard ; and his face was 
 handsome with something of a southern and 
 fiery handsomeness, like his mother's, remind- 
 ing one at times of the purest Italian or 
 Castilian stocks. There was undeniable pride 
 about his upper hp and his eager flashing 
 black eye ; while his customary nonchalance 
 and coolness of air never completely hid the 
 hot and passionate southern temperament
 
 24 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 that underlay that false exterior of Pall Mall 
 cynicism. A man to avoid picking a quarrel 
 with, certainly, was Harry Noel, of the Inner 
 Temple, and of Noel Hall, near Boston, Lin- 
 colnshire, barrister-at-law. 
 
 Edward Hawthorn, on the other hand, 
 was tall and slight, though strongly built ; a 
 perfect model of the pure Anglo-Saxon type 
 of manhood, with straight fair hair, nearer 
 white almost than yellow, and deep-blue eyes, 
 that were none the less transparently true 
 and earnest because of their intense and 
 unmixed blueness. His face was clear-cut 
 and delicately moulded ; and the pale and 
 singularly straw-coloured moustache, which 
 alone was allowed to hide any part of its 
 exquisite outhne, did not prevent one from 
 seeing at a glance the almost faultless Greek 
 regularity of his perfectly calm and statuesque
 
 IN ALL SHADES 25 
 
 features. Harry Noel's was, in short, the 
 kind of face that women are most Hkely to 
 fall in love with : Edward Hawthorn's was 
 the kind that an artist would rather rejoice 
 to paint, or that a sculptor would still more 
 eagerly wish to model in the perfect sim- 
 plicity of pure white marble. 
 
 ' Much better to go down by the road, 
 you know, Teddy,' Harry Noel said as they 
 took their seats in the new dog-cart. 'All 
 the cads in London are going down by rail, 
 of course. The whole riff-raff of our fellow- 
 man that you're always talking about so sym- 
 pathetically, with your absurd notions, over- 
 flows to-day from its natural reservoirs in the 
 third class into the upper tanks of first and 
 second. Impossible to travel on the line this 
 morning without getting one's-self jammed 
 and elbowed by all the tinkers and tailors.
 
 26 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 soldiers and sailors, butchers and bakers and 
 candlestick makers in the whole of London. 
 Enough to cure even you, I should think, of 
 all your nonsensical rights-of-man and ideal 
 equality business.' 
 
 'Have you ever travelled third yourself, 
 to see what it was really like, Harry? I 
 have ; and, for my part, I think the third- 
 class people generally rather kinder and more 
 unselfish at bottom than the first or second.' 
 
 ' My dear fellow, on your recommendation 
 I tried it last week ; and got such a tremen- 
 dous facer from a Radical working-man as I 
 never before got, and never expect to get 
 again, in the whole course of my earthly 
 existence. The creature opposite me was a 
 democratic Methodist, I think he called it, or 
 something else equally impossible, and he was 
 haranguing away about the wickedness of
 
 IN ALL SHADES 27 
 
 the aristocracy, and the toihng milHons, and 
 Lazarus and Dives, and all the rest of it ; and 
 at last he went on abusing me and my friends 
 — by implication — so confoundedly, that I 
 really couldn't stand it any longer. "My 
 good sir," said I, leaning over towards him 
 very deferentially — for there were half a 
 dozen of them, all frantic revolutionists and 
 big hustling fellows, in the same carriage — 
 " my good sir," said I, " do you know, all 
 abstract principles must of course be finally 
 judged, in this confessedly imperfect world of 
 ours, by their practical eflfects when actually 
 tested in the concrete appHcation? Now, 
 there was a time in the history of the world 
 when these liberty, equality, fraternity notions 
 of yours were fairly tried in real earnest. 
 That time was in the French Eevolution. Do 
 you mean to tell me you think the result of
 
 28 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 the French Ee volution was of a sort to en- 
 courage further experiments in the same 
 direction ? " And what do you suppose the 
 fellow answered me ? He looked up in my 
 face with the most profound solemnity, and 
 said he : " Well, and didn't we beat the 
 French at Waterloo ? " ' 
 
 Edward laughed heartily. 'What did 
 you say to that ? ' he asked, with a twinkle. 
 
 'Say? My dear fellow, what on earth 
 could I say ? When a man gets shut up like 
 a telescope by a regular downright over- 
 whelming non sequitur like that, any answer 
 or repartee at all is absolutely impossible. 
 Besides, all the free and independent electors 
 in the carriage with him were perfectly de- 
 lighted to see how completely he had bowled 
 over the obstructive and anti-democratic 
 scoffer. "He ain't got nothing to sav after
 
 IN ALL SHADES 29 
 
 that., anpvay," they all whispered to one 
 another, grinning and winking. I subsided 
 utterly into the obscurest corner ; I collapsed, 
 morally speaking, and was absolutely annihi- 
 lated. From this day forth, I never mean to 
 travel any more in third-class carriages, or to 
 try arguing under any provocation with the 
 great proletariate. Their logic is too pecu- 
 liarly perplexed for me to make my way 
 through it. And these are the kind of fellows 
 that you and your friends want to set up to 
 govern us and dance upon us ! It won't hold 
 water, my dear boy ; it won't hold water. I 
 never can understand a sensible sound-headed 
 man like you being taken in by it for a single 
 minute.' 
 
 ' Perhaps,' Edward said quietly, ' you 
 might have found some quite as densely 
 illogical fellows in others beside a third-class
 
 36 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 carriage. — But where are you going to look 
 for your beautiful young lady from Trini- 
 dad or Mauritius? You made her the 
 ostensible pretext, you know, for going to 
 the boat-race.' 
 
 'Oh, for that I trust entirely to the 
 chapter of accidents. She said she was going 
 down to see the race from somebody's lawn, 
 facing the river ; and I shall force my way 
 along the path, as far as I can get, and simply 
 look out for her. If we see her, I mean to 
 push boldly for an introduction to the some- 
 body unnamed who owns the lawn. Leave 
 the dog-cart at some inn or other down at 
 Putney, stroll along the river casually till 
 you see a beatific vision of sweet nineteen 
 or thereabout, walk in quietly as if the place 
 belonged to you, and there you are.' 
 
 They drove on to Putney through the
 
 IN ALL SHADES 31 
 
 crowded roads, and put the dog-cart up at the 
 Coach and Horses, Then Harry and Edward 
 took to the still more crowded bank, and be- 
 gan to push their way among the densely 
 packed masses of nondescript humanity in the 
 direction of Barnes Bridge. 
 
 ' Stand out of the way there, can't you,' 
 Harry Noel cried, elbowing aside a sturdy 
 London rough as he spoke with a dexterous 
 apphcation of his gold-tipped umbrella. 
 ' Why do you get in people's way and block 
 the road up, my good fellow ? ' 
 
 * Where are you a-pushin' to ? ' the rough 
 answered, not without reason, crowding in 
 upon him sturdily in defence of his natural 
 rights of standing-room, and bringing his 
 heavy foot down plump on Harry Noel's 
 neatly fitting walking shoe. ' An' who are 
 you, I should Uke to know, a-shovin' other
 
 32 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 people aside permiscuous like, as if you was 
 acshally the Prince of Wales or the Dook of 
 Edingboro ? I'd like to hear you call me a 
 fellow again, I should ! Fellow^ indeed ! A 
 fellow's a sheep-stealer ! ' 
 
 ' Appears to be some confusion in the 
 man's mind,' Harry Noel said, pushing past 
 him angrily, ' between a fellow and a felon. 
 I haven't got an etymological dictionary 
 handy in my pocket, I regret to say, but I 
 venture to believe, my good friend, that your 
 philology is quite as much at fault in this 
 -matter as your English grammar.' 
 
 ' My dear Noel,' Edward Hawthorn put 
 in, ' please don't add insult to injury. The 
 man's quite within his right in objecting to 
 your pushing him out of a place he took up 
 before you came here. Possession's nine 
 points of the law, you know — ten in the
 
 IN ALL SHADES 33 
 
 matter of occupancy, indeed — and surely he's 
 the prior occupant.' 
 
 ' Oh, if you're going to hold a brief for tlie 
 defendant, my dear boy, why, of course I 
 throw the case up; I immediately enter a 
 nolle 'prosequi. — Besides, there she is, Teddy. 
 By Jove, there she is. That's it^ Over 
 yonder on the lawn there — the very pretty 
 girl by the edge of the wall overhanging the 
 path here.' 
 
 ' What, the one in blue ? ' 
 
 ' The one in blue ! Gracious Heavens, no. 
 Is the man mad? The one in blue, he 
 positively says to me ! Do you mean to say 
 you call her pretty ? No, no ; not B^. The 
 other one — the very pretty girl ; the one in 
 the pink dress, as fresh as a daisy. Did you 
 ever see anybody prettier? ' 
 
 ' Oh, -^fe^ Edward answered, looking 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 across at the lady in pink carelessly. ' Yes, 
 yes ; I see now. Pretty enough, as you say, 
 Harry.' 
 
 ' Pretty enough ! Is that all you've got 
 to say about her ! You block of ice ! you 
 lump of marble ! Why, my dear fellow, she's 
 absolute perfection. That's the worst, now, 
 of a man's being engaged. He loses his eye 
 entirely for female beauty. He beheves 
 all possible human charms are exclusively 
 summed up in his own particular Maud or 
 Angelina. For my part, Ted, I go in for a 
 judicious eclecticism. They're all pretty alike, 
 while you're with them : each new one seems 
 the prettiest you've ever seen — till you've got 
 tired of her.' 
 
 ' What did you say her name was ? ' 
 'Miss Dupuy. PU introduce you in a 
 minute.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 35 
 
 ' But, my dear Harry, where are you 
 goiDg ? We don't even know the people.' 
 
 'Nothing easier, then. We'll proceed to 
 make their acquaintance. See what a lot of 
 cads chmbing up and sitting on the wall 
 obstructing the view there ! First, seat your- 
 self firmly on the top the same as they do ; 
 then, proceed to knock off the other intruders, 
 as if you belonged to the party by invitation ; 
 finally, shp over quietly inside, and mix with 
 the lot exactly as if you really knew them. 
 There are such a precious crowd of people 
 inside, that nobody'll ever find out you 
 weren't invited. I've long observed that 
 nobody ever does know who's who at a 
 garden-party, even. The father always 
 thinks his son knows you ; and the son 
 always fancies indefinitely you're particular 
 friends of his father and mother.' 
 
 D 2
 
 36 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 As Harry spoke, he had already vaulted 
 up lightly on to the top of the wall, which 
 was steep and high on the side towards the 
 river, but stood only about two feet above 
 the bank on the inner side ; and Edward, 
 seeing nothing else to do but follow his 
 example, had taken with shame a convenient 
 seat beside him. In a minute more, Harry 
 was busily engaged in clearing off the other 
 unauthorised squatters, like an invited guest ; 
 and two minutes later, he had transferred his 
 legs to the inner side of the wall, and was 
 quietly identifying himself with the party of 
 spectators on the lawn and garden. Edward, 
 who was not a baronet's son, and was blessed 
 with less audacity in social matters than his 
 easy-going friend, could only admire with, 
 out wholly imitating his ready adaptive- 
 ness.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 37 
 
 ' Miss Dupuy ! How delightful ! So here 
 you are ! This is indeed lucky. I came down 
 on purpose to see you. How very fortunate 
 I should happen to have dropped down upon 
 you so unexpectedly.' 
 
 Nora Dupuy smiled a delicious smile of 
 frank and innocent girlish welcome, and held 
 out her pretty httle gloved hand to Harry 
 half timidly. ' Why, Mr. Noel,' she said, 
 blushing prettily, ' 1 hadn't the very slightest 
 idea you knew our good friends the Bodding- 
 tons.' 
 
 ' Mr. Boddington ? ' Harry Noel asked 
 with a marked emphasis on the dubious 
 Mr. 
 
 ' No ; Colonel Boddington, of the Bengal 
 Staff Corps. Why, how on earth do you 
 happen not to know their name even ? Have 
 you come here, then, with somebody ? '
 
 38 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ' Exactly,' Harry said, turning to Edward, 
 who was speechless with surprise. ' Allow 
 me to introduce him. My friend, Mr. Haw- 
 thorn, a shining hght of the Utter Bar. — 
 By the way, didn't you say you came from 
 Trinidad or Mauritius or Ceylon or some- 
 where ? I remember distinctly you left upon 
 me a general impression of tropical fragrance, 
 though I can't say I recollect precisely the 
 particular habitat.' 
 
 Nora smiled again, and blushed even more 
 deeply than before. ' It w^s Trinidad,' she 
 answered, looking down as she spoke. — ' Why, 
 Mr. Noel, what about it ? ' 
 
 ' Why, my friend Hawthorn here comes 
 from Trinidad too, so you ought to be neigh- 
 bours ; though, as he hasn't been there him- 
 self for a great many years, I dare say you 
 won't know one another.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 39 
 
 ' Oh, everybody in Trinidad knows every- 
 body else, of course,' Nora answered, half 
 turning to Edward. ' It's such a little pocket 
 colony, you know, that we're all first-cousins 
 to one another through all the island. I'm 
 not acquainted with all the people in Trinidad 
 myself, naturally, because I haven't been there 
 since I was a baby, almost ; but my father 
 would be perfectly sure to know him, at any 
 rate, I'm confident. — What did you say your 
 friend's name was, Mr. Noel ? ' 
 
 ' Hawthorn,' Edward answered quickly for 
 himself — ' Edward Hawthorn.' 
 
 ' Oh, Mr. Hawthorn,' Nora repeated reflect- 
 ively. ' Let me see. Hawthorn, Hawthorn. 
 No ; I don't think I ever heard the name 
 before — connected with Trinidad, I mean ; in 
 fact, I'm sure not. Hawthorn, Hawthorn. 
 Do your people live out there still, Mr.
 
 40 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Hawthorn, or have they settled over in 
 England ? ' 
 
 ' My father and mother are still in the 
 island,' Edward answered, a little uncomfort- 
 ably. ' My father is Mr. James Hawthorn, 
 of Agualta Estate, a place at the north side of 
 Trinidad.' 
 
 ' Agualta Estate,' Nora replied, turning 
 the name over with herself once more dubi- 
 ously, ' Agualta Estate. I've certainly heard 
 the name of the place, I'm sure ; but never 
 of your people until this minute. How very 
 funny.' 
 
 ' It's a long time since you've been in the 
 island, you say,' Harry Noel put in suggest- 
 ively, ' and no doubt you've forgotten Mr. 
 Hawthorn's father's name. He must be 
 pretty well known in Trinidad, I should 
 think, for he's an Honourable, you know.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 41 
 
 and a member of the local Ijegislative 
 Council.' 
 
 Nora looked decidedly puzzled. 'A mem- 
 ber of the Legislative Council,' she said in 
 some surprise. ' That makes it even funnier 
 and funnier. My papa's a member of Council 
 too, and he knows everybody in the place, 
 you know — that is to say, of course, every- 
 body who's anybody ; and poor mamma used 
 always to write me home the chattiest letters, 
 all about everybody and everybody's wife and 
 daughters, and all the society gossip of the 
 colony ; and then I see so many Trinidad 
 people when they come home ; and alto- 
 gether, I really thought I knew, by name at 
 least, absolutely everyone in the whole 
 island.' 
 
 ' And this proves you must be mistaken, 
 Miss Dupuy,' Harry Noel put in carelessly;
 
 42 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 for he was lialf jealous that his own special 
 and peculiar discovery in pretty girls should 
 take so much interest in Edward Hawthorn. 
 ' But anyhow, you'll know all about him 
 before very long, I've no doubt, for Haw- 
 thorn's going to take a judgeship in the utter- 
 most parts of the earth, even Trinidad. He'll 
 be going out there, no doubt, from what he 
 tells me, in a month or so from now, the silly 
 feUow.' 
 
 ' Going out there ! ' Nora cried. ' Oh, 
 how nice. Why, I shall be going out, too, 
 in the end of June. How delightful, if we 
 should both happen to sail in the same 
 steamer together ! ' 
 
 'Very,' Harry echoed, a little snappishly 
 — ' for Hawthorn. I should envy him 
 the voyage immensely. But you don't 
 mean to say, Miss Dupuy, you're really
 
 IN ALL SHADES 43 
 
 going to bury yourself alive in the West 
 Indies ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, I don't call it burying ahve, Mr. 
 Noel ; it's perfectly delightful, I believe, from 
 what I remember. Summer all the year 
 round, and dancing, with all the doors and 
 windows open, from September to April.' 
 
 ' Gracious Heavens, which is Colonel Bod- 
 dington ? ' Harry exclaimed eagerly at this 
 particular moment, for he saw an old 
 gentleman of military aspect strolling up 
 casually to speak to Nora. ' Point me out 
 my host, for mercy's sake, or else he'll 
 be bringing a summary action for eject- 
 ment against us both as rogues and vaga- 
 bonds.' 
 
 ' This is he,' Nora said, as the military 
 gentleman approached nearer. ' Don't you 
 know him.^ Perhaps I'd better introduce
 
 44 /A' ALL SHADES 
 
 you. Colonel Boddington — Mr. Noel, Mr. 
 Hawthorn.' 
 
 ' And I'd better make a clean breast of it 
 at once,' Harry Noel continued, smiling grace- 
 fully with his pleasant easy smile — Edward 
 would have sunk bodily into the earth alive, 
 rather than make the ridiculous confession. 
 'The fact is, we're intruders into your do- 
 main, sir — unauthorised intruders. We took 
 our seats on the top of your wall to watch 
 the race ; and when we got there, we found a 
 number of roughs were obstructing the view 
 for the ladies of your party ; and we assisted 
 the gentlemen of your set in clearing the 
 ground ; and then, as I saw my friend Miss 
 Dupuy was here, I made bold to jump over 
 and come to speak to her, feeling sure that a 
 previous acquaintance with her would be a 
 sufficient introduction into your pleasant
 
 IN ALL SHADES 45 
 
 society here. — What a dehghtful place you've 
 got on the river here, really.' 
 
 Colonel Boddington bowed stiffly. ' Any 
 friend of Miss Dupuy's is quite welcome here, 
 I'm sure,' he said with some chilly severity. — 
 ' Did I understand j\iiss Dupuy to say your 
 name was Eowell ? ' 
 
 ' Noel,' Harry corrected, smiling benignly 
 — ' Noel, Noel. You may possibly know my 
 father, as I understand, from !Miss Dupuy, 
 you're a Lincolnshire man ' (this was a white- 
 lie, but it sufficiently served Harry's purpose) 
 — Sir Walter Noel, of Noel Hall, near Boston, 
 Lincolnshire.' 
 
 Colonel Boddington unbent visibly. ' I'm 
 very glad of this opportunity, I'm sure, Mr. 
 Noel,' he said with his most gracious manner. 
 ' As I remarked before. Miss Dupuy's friends 
 will always be welcome with us. Since
 
 46 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 you've dropped in so unexpectedly, perhaps 
 you and Mr. — I didn't catch the name — will 
 stop and take a Httle lunch with us. Our 
 friends mean to join us at lunch after the race 
 is over.' 
 
 ' Delighted, I'm sure,' Harry answered, 
 quite truthfully. Nothing could have pleased 
 him better than this opportunity. ' Here 
 they come — here they come ! Bound the 
 corner ! Cambridge heads the race, by Jove. 
 Cambridge, Cambridge ! ' And for five 
 minutes there was a fluttering of handker- 
 chiefs and straining of eyes and confused 
 sound of shouts and laughter, which left 
 no time for Harry or any one else to indulge 
 in rational conversation. 
 
 After the boats had passed out of sight, 
 and the company had returned to the paths 
 of sanity once more, Nora Dupuy turned
 
 IN ALL SHADES 47 
 
 round to Edward and asked curiously : ' Do 
 you happen to know any people of the name 
 of Ord, Mr. Hawthorn ? ' 
 
 Edward smiled as he answered : ' General 
 Ord's family? Oh, yes, I know them very 
 well indeed — quite intimately, in fact.' 
 
 Nora clapped her Httle hands in a sort of 
 triumph. ' Oh, how nice ! ' she said gaily. 
 ' Then you are the Mr. Hawthorn who is 
 engaged to dear Marian. I felt sure you 
 must be, the moment I heard your name. 
 Oh, I do so hope, then, you'll get this vacant 
 Trinidad appointment.' 
 
 ' Get it ! He'll get it as sure as fate,' 
 Harry said intervening. ' But why on 
 earth are you so anxious he should take 
 it?' 
 
 ' Why, because, then, Marian would get 
 married, of course, and come out with him to
 
 48 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 live in Trinidad. Wouldn't that be just de- 
 lightful ! ' 
 
 ' If they do,' Harry said quietly, ' and if 
 you're going to be there, too. Miss Dupuy, I 
 declare I shall come out myself on purpose to 
 visit them.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 49 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 ' Oh, Marian, do you know, I've met Mr. Haw- 
 thorn ; and what a dehghtful man he is ! I 
 quite fell in love with him myself, I assure 
 you ! Wasn't it absurd ? He came down 
 the other morning to the boat-race ; and he 
 and a friend of his positively jumped over the 
 wall, without an invitation, into old Colonel 
 Boddington's front garden.' 
 
 Marian took Nora's hand warmly. ' I'm 
 so glad you Hke Edward,' she said, kissing 
 her cheek and smoothing her forehead. ' I 
 was sure you'd like him. I've been longing 
 for you to come to town ever since we got 
 
 VOL. I. ' E
 
 50 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 engaged, so that you might manage to see 
 him. — Well, dear, and do you think him 
 handsome ? ' 
 
 ' Handsome ! Oh, Marian, awfully hand- 
 some ; and so nice, too, dear. And such a 
 sweet voice and manner, so grave and culti- 
 vated, somehow. I always do like Oxford 
 and Cambridge men — ever so much better 
 than army men, Marian.' 
 
 ' Who had he with him at the boat-race ? ' 
 Marian asked. 
 
 ' Oh, my dear, such a funny man — ^a Mr. 
 Noel, whom I met last week down at the 
 Buckleburies. Colonel Boddington says his 
 father's one of the greatest swells in all 
 Lincolnshire — a Sir Somebody Noel, or some- 
 thing. And do you know, Marian, he simply 
 jumped over the wall, without knowing the 
 Boddingtons one bit, just because he saw me
 
 IN ALL SHADES 51 
 
 there — wasn't it dreadful of him, after only 
 meeting me once, too ? — and then apologised 
 to the old Colonel, who looked as if he would 
 have sunk into the ground in horror at such 
 an awful and unprecedented proceeding. But 
 the moment Mr. Noel said something or other 
 incidentally about his father Sir Somebody, 
 the Colonel became as mild as a lamb, and 
 asked him to lunch at once, and tried to put 
 him sitting right between Minnie and Adela. 
 And Mr. Noel managed to shuffle out of it 
 somehow, and got on one side of me, w^ith 
 Mr. Hawthorn on the other side ; and he 
 talked so that he kept me laughing right 
 through the whole of lunch-time.' 
 
 ' He's awfully amusing,' Marian said with 
 a slight smile. — ' And I suppose you rather 
 Hked Mr. Noel, too, didn't you, Nora ? ' 
 
 Nora shook her head energetically. * No, 
 
 E 2 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
 
 52 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 my dear ; not my sort of man at all, really. 
 I certainly wasn't in the least taken with 
 him/ 
 
 ' Not a little bit even, Nora ? ' 
 
 Nora pulled out the petals of the faded 
 rose she was wearing in her bosom with a 
 petulant gesture. ' Not even a little bit, 
 dear,' she answered decidedly. ' He isn't at 
 all the sort of man I should ever care for. 
 Too dark for me, by several shades, for one 
 thing, Marian. You know, we West Indians 
 never can endure these very dark people.' 
 
 ' But I'm dark, Nora, and you Hke me, 
 you know, don't you ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, you. Yes ; that's quite another thing, 
 Marian. That's nothing, to be dark as you 
 are. Your hair and eyes and complexion 
 are just absolutely perfect, darling. But Mr. 
 Noel — well, he's a shade or two too dark for
 
 2N ALL SHADES 53 
 
 me, anyhow ; and I don't mind saying so to 
 you candidly. — Mr. Hawthorn's a great deal 
 more my ideal of what a handsome man 
 ought to be. I think his eyes, his hair, and 
 his moustache are just simply lovely, Marian.' 
 
 ' Why, of course, you and he ought to 
 be friends,' Marian said, a natural thought 
 flashing suddenly across her. 'He comes 
 from Trinidad, just the same as you do. 
 How funny that the two people I've hked 
 best in all the world should both come from 
 the very same little bit of an island. I dare 
 say you used to know some of his people.' 
 
 ' That's the very funniest part of it all, 
 Marian. I can't recollect anything at all 
 about his family ; I don't even remember 
 ever to have heard of them from any Trini- 
 dad people.' 
 
 Marian looked up quickly from the needle-
 
 54 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 work on which she was employed, and said 
 simply : ' I dare say they didn't happen to 
 know your family.' 
 
 ' Well, that's just what's odd about it, 
 dear,' Nora continued, pulling out her cro- 
 chet. ' Everybody in Trinidad knows my 
 family. And Mr. Hawthorn's father's in the 
 Legislative Council, too, just like papa ; and 
 he himself has been to Cambridge, you know, 
 and is a barrister, and knows Arabic, and 
 is so awfully clever, that amusing Mr. Noel 
 tells me. I can't imagine how on earth it is 
 I've never even heard of him before.' 
 
 ' Well, at any rate, I'm so awfully glad 
 you really like him, now that you've actually 
 seen him, Nora. One's always so afraid that 
 all one's friends won't like one's future hus- 
 band.' 
 
 ' Like him, dear ; how on earth could one
 
 IN ALL SHADES 55 
 
 help liking him ? Why, I think he's simply 
 dehghtful. And that's so surprising, too, 
 because generally, you know, one's friends 
 will go and marry such regular horrid sticks 
 of men, without consulting one. I think 
 he's the nicest man I've ever met anywhere, 
 almost.' 
 
 ' And the exception is ? ' 
 
 ' Put in for propriety's sake, dear, for fear 
 you should think I was quite too enthusiastic. 
 And do you know, he tells me he's going in 
 for a judgeship in Trinidad ; and won't it be 
 splendid, Marian, if he happens to get it, and 
 you both go out there with me, darling ? I 
 shall be just too delighted. Won't you, my 
 dearie ? ' 
 
 Marian gave a little sigh. 'I shall be 
 very glad if he gets it in one way,' she said, 
 ' because then, of course, Edward and 1 will
 
 56 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 be able to marry immediately ; and papa's so 
 very much opposed to a long engagement.' 
 
 ' Besides which,' Nora put in frankly, 
 ' you'd naturally Hke yourself, too, to get 
 married as soon as possible.' 
 
 'But then, on the other hand,' Marian 
 went on, smiling quietly, ' it would be a 
 dreadful thing going so far away from all 
 one's friends and relations and so forth. 
 Though, of course, with dear Edward to 
 take care of me, I wouldn't be afraid to go 
 anywhere.' 
 
 ' Of course not,' Nora said confidently. 
 ' And I shall be there, too, Marian ; and we 
 shall have such lovely times together. People 
 have no end of fun in the West Indies, you 
 know. Everybody says it's the most delight- 
 ful place in the world in the cool season. All 
 the floors are always kept polished all the
 
 IN ALL SHADES 57 
 
 year round, without any carpets, just like the 
 continent, and so you can have a dance at 
 any moment, whenever people enough hap- 
 pen to drop in together accidentally of an 
 evening. Mamma used to say there was no 
 end of gaiety ; and that she never could 
 endure the stiffness and unsociabihty of Eng- 
 Hsh society, after the hospitable habits of 
 dear old Trinidad.' 
 
 'I hope we shall hke it,' Marian said, 
 ' if Edward really succeeds in getting this 
 appointment. It'll be a great alleviation to 
 the pain of parting, certainly, if you're going 
 to be there too, Nora.' 
 
 ' Oh, my dear, you must get married at 
 once, then, you know, and we must arrange 
 somehow to go out to Trinidad together- in 
 the same steamer. It'll be just too lovely. 
 I mean to have no end of fun going
 
 58 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 out. And when you get there, of course 
 papa'll be able to introduce you and Mr. 
 Hawthorn to all the society in the whole 
 island. I call it just dehghtful.' 
 
 At that moment the servant entered and 
 announced Mr. Hawthorn. 
 
 Marian rose from her seat and went 
 forward to meet him. Edward had a long 
 official envelope in his hands, with a large 
 broken seal in red sealing-wax on the back, 
 and the important words, 'On Her Majesty's 
 Service,' printed in very big letters at the 
 lower left-hand corner. Marian trembled a 
 little with excitement, not unmixed with 
 fear, as soon as she saw it. 
 
 'Well, dearest,' Edward cried joyously, 
 taking her hand and kissing her once ten- 
 derly, in spite of Nora's presence, ' it's all 
 right ; I've got the judgeship. And now.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 59 
 
 Marian, we shall be able, you see, to get 
 married immediately.' 
 
 A woman always succeeds in doing the 
 most incomprehensible and unexpected thing 
 under all circumstances ; and Marian, hear- 
 ing now for the first time that their hearts' 
 desire was at last in a fair way to be accom- 
 phshed, did not clap her hands or smile 
 with joy, as Edward might have imagined 
 she would do, but fell back upon the sofa, 
 half faint, and burst out suddenly crying. 
 
 Edward looked at her tenderly with a 
 mingled look of surprise and sorrow. ' Why, 
 Marian, darling Marian,' he said, a httle 
 reproachfully, ' I thought you would be so 
 dehghted and rejoiced to hear the news, 
 that I almost ran the whole way to tell 
 you.' 
 
 ' So I am, Edward, ever so delighted,'
 
 6o IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Marian answered sobbing ; ' but it's so 
 sudden, so very sudden.' 
 
 ' She'll be all right in a minute or two, 
 Mr. Hawthorn,' Nora said, looking up at 
 him with an arch smile as she held Marian's 
 hand in hers and bent over her to kiss her 
 forehead. ' She's only taken aback a little 
 at the suddenness of the surprise. — It's so 
 nice, darling, isn't it really ? And now, 
 Marian, we shall all be able actually to go 
 out to Trinidad together in the same 
 steamer.' 
 
 Edward's heart smote him rather at the 
 strange way Marian had received the news 
 that so greatly delighted him. It was very 
 natural, after all, no doubt. Every girl feels 
 the wrench of having to leave her father's 
 house and her mother and her familiar sur- 
 roundings. But still, he somehow felt
 
 IN ALL SHADES 6i 
 
 vaguely within himself that it seemed like 
 an evil omen for their future happiness in 
 the Trinidad judgeship ; and it dashed his 
 joy not a little at the moment when his 
 dearest hopes appeared just about to be so 
 happily and successfully realised.
 
 62 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 It was a brilliant, cloudless, tropical day at 
 Agualta Estate, Trinidad ; and the cocoa-nut 
 palms in front of the pretty, picturesque, 
 low-roofed bungalow were waving gracefully 
 in the lis^ht sea-breeze that blew fresh across 
 the open cane-pieces from the distant horizon 
 of the broad Atlantic. Most days, indeed, 
 except during the rainy season, were brilliant 
 enough in all conscience at beautiful Agualta : 
 the sun blazed all day long in a uniform 
 hazy-white sky, not blue, to be sure, as in 
 a northern climate, but bluish and cloudless ; 
 and the sea shone befow, hazy- white, in the
 
 IN ALL SHADES 63 
 
 dim background, beyond the waving palm- 
 trees, and the broad-leaved bananas, and the 
 long stretch of bright-green cane-pieces 
 that sloped down in endless succession 
 towards the beach and the breakers. 
 Agualta House itself was perched. West 
 India fashion, on the topmost summit of a 
 tall and lonely rocky peak, a projecting spur 
 or shoulder from the main mass of the 
 Trinidad mountains. They chose the very 
 highest and most beautiful situations they 
 could find for their houses, those old matter- 
 of-fact West Indian planters, not so much 
 out of a taste for scenery — for their mental 
 horizon was for the most part bounded by 
 rum and sugar — but because a hill-top was 
 coolest and breeziest, and coolness is the one 
 great practical desideratum in a West Indian 
 residence. Still, the houses that they built
 
 64 JN ALL SHADES 
 
 on these airy heights incidentally enjoyed 
 the most exquisite prospects ; and Agualta 
 itself was no exception to the general rule 
 in this matter. From the front piazza you 
 looked down upon a green ravine, crowded 
 with tree-ferns and other graceful tropical 
 vegetation ; on either side, rocky peaks broke 
 the middle distance with their jagged tors 
 and precipitous needles ; while far away 
 beyond the cane-grown plain that nestled 
 snugly in the hollow below, the sky-line of 
 the Atlantic bounded the view, with a dozen 
 sun-smit rocky islets basking like great 
 floating whales upon the grey horizon. No 
 lovelier view in the whole of luxuriant beau- 
 tiful Trinidad than that from the creeper- 
 covered front piazza of the white bungalow 
 of old Agualta. 
 
 Through the midst of the ravine, the
 
 IN ALL SHADES 65 
 
 little river from which the estate took its 
 Spanish name — curiously corrupted upon 
 negro lips into the form of Wagwater — 
 tumbled in white sheets of dashing foam 
 between the green foliage ' in cataract after 
 cataract to the sea.' Here and there, the 
 overarching clumps of feathery bamboo hid 
 its course for a hundred yards or so, as 
 seen from the piazza ; but every now and 
 again it gleamed forth, white and conspicu--. 
 ous once more, as it tumbled headlong 
 down its steep course over some rocky 
 barrier. You could trace it throughout Hke 
 a long line of light among all the tangled, 
 glossy, dark-green fohage of that wild and 
 overgrown tropical gully. 
 
 The Honourable James Hawthorn, owner 
 of Agualta, was sitting out in a cane arm- 
 chair, under the broad shadow of the great 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 mango-tree on the grassy terrace in front of 
 the piazza. A venerable grey-haired, grey- 
 bearded man, with a calm, clear-cut, reso- 
 lute face, the very counterpart of his son 
 Edward's, only grown some thirty years 
 older, and sterner too, and more unbend- 
 ing. 
 
 ' Mr. Dupuy's coming round this morning, 
 Mary,' Mr. Hawthorn said to the placid, 
 gentle old lady in the companion- chair 
 beside him. ' He wants to look at some 
 oxen I'm going to get rid of, and he thinks, 
 perhaps, he'd like to buy them.' 
 
 ' Mr. Dupuy ! ' Mrs. Hawthorn answered, 
 with a slight shudder of displeasure as she 
 spoke. ' I really wish he wasn't coming. 
 I can't bear that man, somehow. He 
 always seems to me the worst embodiment 
 of the bad old days that are dead and gone, 
 Jamie.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 67 
 
 The old gentleman hummed an air to 
 himself reflectively. 'We mustn't be too 
 hard upon him, my dear,' he said after a 
 moment's pause, in a tone of perfect resig- 
 nation. ' They were brought up in a terrible 
 school, those old-time slavery Trinidad folk, 
 and they can't help bearing the impress of 
 a bad system upon them to the very last 
 moment of their existence. I think so 
 meanly of them for their pride and intoler- 
 ance, .that I take care not to imitate it. 
 You remember what Shelley says : " Let 
 scorn be not repaid with scorn." That's 
 how I always feel, Mary, towards Mr. Dupuy 
 and all his fellows.' 
 
 Mrs. Hawthorn bit her lip as she 
 answered slowly : ' All the same, Jamie, I 
 wish he wasn't coming here this morning ; 
 and this the English mail-day, too ! We 
 
 :f2
 
 68 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 shall get our letter from Edward by-and-by, 
 you know, dear. . I hate to have these 
 people coming breaking in upon us the 
 very day we want to be at home by our- 
 selves, to have a quiet hour alone with our 
 dear boy over in England.' 
 
 ' Here they come, at any rate, Mary,' 
 the old gentleman said, pointing with his hand 
 down the steep ravine to where a couple of 
 men on mountain ponies were slowly toil- 
 ing up the long zigzag path that climbed 
 the shoulder. ' Here they come, Theodore 
 Dupuy himself, and that young Tom Dupuy 
 as well, behind him. There's one comfort, 
 at any rate, in the position of Agualta — you 
 can never possibly be taken by surprise ; 
 you can always see your visitors coming 
 half an hour before they get here. Eun 
 in, dear, and see about having enough for
 
 IN ALL SHADES 69 
 
 lunch, will you, for Tom Dupuy's sure to 
 stop until he's had a glass of our old 
 Madeira.' 
 
 ' I dislike Tom Dupuy, I think, even 
 worse than his old uncle, Jamie,' the bland 
 old lady answered softly in her pleasant 
 voice, exactly as if she was saying that she 
 loved him dearly. ' He's a horrid young 
 man, so selfish and narrow-minded ; and I 
 hope you won't ever ask him again to come 
 to Agualta. I can hardly even manage to 
 be decently polite to him.' 
 
 The two strangers slowly wound their 
 way up the interminable zigzags that led 
 along tlie steep shoulders of the Agualta 
 peak, and emerged at last from under the 
 shadow of the green mango grove close 
 beside the grassy terrace in front of the 
 piazza- The elder of the two, Nora's father,
 
 ^o IN ALL SHADES 
 
 was a jovial, round-faced, close-shaven man, 
 with a copious growth of flowing white 
 hair, that fell in long patriarchal locks 
 around his heavy neck and shoulders ; a 
 full-blooded, easy-going, proud face to look 
 at, yet not without a certain touch of gentle- 
 manly culture and old-fashioned courtesy. 
 The younger man, Tom Dupuy, his nephew, 
 looked exactly what he was — a born boor, 
 awkward in gait and lubberly in feature, 
 with a heavy hanging lower jaw, and a 
 pair of sleepy boiled fish eyes, that stared 
 vacantly out in sheepish wonder upon a 
 hopelessly dull and blank creation. 
 
 Mr. Hawthorn moved courteously to the 
 gate to meet them. 'It's a long pull and a 
 steep pull up the hill, Mr. Dupuy,' he said 
 as he shook hands with him. 'Let me take 
 your pony round to the stables. — Here, Jo ! '
 
 IN ALL SHADES 71 
 
 to a negro boy who stood showing his white 
 teeth beside the gateway ; ' put up Mr. 
 Dupuy's horse, do you hear, my lad, and 
 Mr. Tom's too, will you .^ — How are you, 
 Mr. Tom .^ So you've come over with your 
 uncle as well, to see this stock I want to 
 sell, have you ? ' 
 
 The elder Dupuy bowed pohtely as Mr. 
 Hawthorn held out his hand, and took it 
 with something of the dignified old West 
 Indian courtesy ; he had been to school at 
 Winchester forty years before, and the re- 
 mote result of that half-forgotten old Eng- 
 lish training was still plainly visible even 
 now in a certain outer urbanity and suavity 
 of demeanour. But young Tom held out 
 his hand awkwardly hke a born boor, and 
 dropped it again snappishly as soon as Mr. 
 Hawthorn had taken it, merely answering,
 
 72 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 in a slow drawling West Indian voice, partly 
 caught from his own negro servants : ' Yes, 
 I've come over to see the stock ; we want 
 some oxen. Cane's good this season ; we 
 shall have a capital cutting.' 
 
 ' Is the English mail in ? ' Mr. Hawthorn 
 asked anxiously, as they took their seats in 
 the piazza to rest themselves for a while 
 after their ride, before proceeding to active 
 business. That one solitary fortnightly chan- 
 nel of communication with the outer world^ 
 assumes an importance in the eyes of remote 
 colonists which can hardly even be compre- 
 hended by our bustling, stay-at-home Eng- 
 lish people. 
 
 ' It is,' Mr. Dupuy replied, taking the 
 proffered glass of Madeira from his host as 
 he answered. Old-fashioned wine-drinking 
 hospitality still prevails largely in the West
 
 IN ALL SHADES 73 
 
 Indies. ' I got my letters just as I was start- 
 ing. Yours will be here before long, I don't 
 doubt, Mr. Hawthorn. I had news, im- 
 portant news in my budget this morning. 
 My daughter, sir, my daughter Nora, who 
 has been completing her education in Eng- 
 land, is coming out to Trinidad by the next 
 steamer.' 
 
 ' You must be delighted at the prospect 
 of seeing her,' Mr. Hawthorn answered with 
 a slight sigh. ' I only wish I were going 
 as soon to see my dear boy Edward.' 
 
 Mr. Dupuy's hp curled faintly as he re- 
 phed in a careless manner : ' Ah, yes, to be 
 sure. Your boy's in England, Mr. Hawthorn, 
 isn't he ? If I recollect right, you sent him 
 to Cambridge. — Ah, yes, I thought so, to 
 Cambridge. A very excellent thing for you 
 to do with him. If you take my advice,
 
 74 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 my dear sir, you'll let him stop in the old 
 country — a much better place for him in 
 every way than this island.' 
 
 ' I mean to,' Mr. Hawthorn answered in 
 a low voice. ' God forbid that I should ever 
 be a party to bringing him out here to 
 Trinidad.' 
 
 'Oh, certainly not — certainly not. I quite 
 agree with you. Far better for him to stop 
 where he is, and take his chance of making 
 a living for himself in England. Not that 
 he can be at any loss in that matter either. 
 You must be in a position to make him very 
 comfortable too, Mr. Hawthorn ! Fine estate, 
 Agualta, and turns out a capital brand of 
 rum and sugar.' 
 
 'Best vacuum-pan and centrifugal in the 
 whole island,' Tom Dupuy put in paren- 
 thetically. ' Turned out four hundred and
 
 IN ALL SHADES 75 
 
 thirty-four hogsheads of sugar and three 
 hundred and ninety puncheons of rum last 
 season — largest yield of any estate in the 
 Windward Islands, except Mount Arhngton. 
 You don't catch me out of it in any matter 
 where sugar's in question, I can tell you/ 
 ^^ 'But my daughter, Mr. Hawthorn,' the 
 elder Dupuy went on, smiling, and sipping 
 his Madeira in a leisurely fashion — ' my 
 daughter means to come out to join me 
 by the next steamer ; and my nephew Tom 
 and I are naturally looking forward to her 
 approaching arrival with the greatest anxiety. 
 A young lady in Miss Dupuy's position, I 
 need hardly say to you, who has been finish- 
 ing her education at a good school in Eng- 
 land, comes out to Trinidad under excep- 
 tionally favourable circumstances. She will 
 have much here to interest her in society,
 
 76 . IN ALL SHADES 
 
 and we hope she will enjoy herself and 
 make herself happy.' 
 
 ' For my part,' Tom Diipiiy put in 
 brusquely, ' I don't hold at all with this send- 
 ing young women from Trinidad across the 
 water to get educated in England — not a bit 
 of it. What's the good of it ? — that's what I 
 always want to know — what's the good of it ? 
 What do they pick up there, I should like to 
 hear, except a lot of trumpery Eadical fal-lal, 
 that turns their heads, and fills them brimful 
 of all sorts of romantic topsy-turvy notions ? 
 I've never been to England myself, thank 
 goodness, and what's more, I don't ever want 
 to go, that's certain. But I've known lots 
 of fellows that have been, and have spent a 
 deuce of a heap of money over their educa- 
 tion too, at one place or another — I don't 
 even know the names of 'em — and when
 
 IN ALL SHADES jy 
 
 they've come back, so far as I could see, 
 they've never known a bit more about rum 
 or sugar than other fellows that had never 
 set foot for a single minute outside the island 
 — no, nor for that matter, not so much either. 
 Of course, it's all very well for a person in 
 your son's position, Mr. Hawthorn ; that's 
 quite another matter. He's gone to England, 
 and he's going to stay there. If I were he, 
 I should do as he does. But what on earth 
 can be the use of sending a girl in my 
 cousin Nora's station in life over to England, 
 just on purpose to set her against her own 
 flesh and blood and her own people ? Why, 
 it really passes my comprehension.' 
 
 Mr. Dupuy's forehead puckered slightly 
 as Tom spoke, and the corners of his mouth 
 twitched ominously ; but he answered in a 
 tone of affected nonchalance : ' It's a pity.
 
 7a IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Mr. Hawthorn, that my nephew Tom should 
 take this unfavourable view of an English 
 education, because, you see, it's our intention, 
 as soon as my daughter. Miss Dupuy, arrives 
 from England, to arrange a marriage at a 
 very early date between himself and his 
 cousin Nora. Pimento Valley, as you know, is 
 entailed in the male line to my nephew Tom ; 
 and Orange Grove is in my own disposal, to 
 leave, of course, to my only daughter. But 
 Mr. Tom Dupuy and I both think it would 
 be a great pity that the family estates should 
 be divided, and should in part pass out of the 
 family ; so we've arranged between us that Mr. 
 Tom is to marry my daughter Nora, and that 
 Orange Grove and Pimento Valley are to pass 
 together to their children's children.' 
 
 'An excellent arrangement,' Mr. Haw-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 79 
 
 thorn put in, with a shght smile. ' But sup- 
 pose — just for argument's sake — that Miss 
 Dupuy were not to fall in with it ? ' 
 
 Mr. Dupuy's brow clouded over still more 
 evidently. ' Not to fall in with it ! ' he cried 
 excitedly, tossing off the remainder of his 
 Madeira — ' not to fall in with it ! — not to fall 
 in with it ! Why, Mr. Hawthorn, what the 
 dickens do you mean, sir ? Of course, if her 
 father bids her, she'll fall in with it imme- 
 diately. If she doesn't — why, then, by Jove, 
 sir, I'll just simply have to make her. She 
 shall marry Tom Dupuy the minute I order 
 her to. She should marry a one-eyed man 
 with a wooden leg if her father commanded 
 it. She shall do whatever I tell her. I'll 
 stand no refusing and shilly-shallying. By 
 George, sir, if there's a vice that I hate and
 
 8o IN ALL SHADES 
 
 detest, it's the vice of obstinacy. I'll stand 
 no obstinacy, and that I can tell you.' 
 
 ' No obstinacy in those about you,' Mr. 
 Hawthorn put in suggestively. 
 
 ' By Jove, sir, no — not in those about me. 
 Other people, of course, I can't be answer- 
 able for, though I'd like to flog every ob- 
 stinate fellow I come across, just to cure him 
 of his confounded temper. Oh, no ; I'll stand 
 no obstinacy. Why, sir, I'll tell you what I 
 once did with a horse of mine which had an 
 obstinate temper. I put him at a cactus 
 hedge, over in Pimento Yalley, and the brute 
 was afraid of the spines, and wouldn't face 
 it. Well, I wasn't going to stand that, of 
 course ; so I dug the spur into his side and 
 put him at it again ; and again he refused 
 it. I tried a third time, and a third time 
 the brute hesitated. That put my blood up,
 
 FN ALL SHADES 8i 
 
 and I dug the spurs in again and again, and 
 rode him at it full tilt till his sides were all 
 raw and bleeding. But still the frightened 
 brute was too much afraid of it ever to jump 
 it. " By the powers," said I, " if 1 stop here , 
 all day, my friend, I'll make you jump it, or 
 you'll never go back again ahve to your 
 confounded stable." Well, I put him at it 
 again and again for more than two hours ; 
 and then I saw he'd made up his mind that 
 he wouldn't do it. Of course, I wasn't going 
 to stand any such confounded obstinacy as 
 that ; so I got off, tied him dehberately to 
 the biggest cactus, whipped him until he'd 
 cut his legs all to pieces, dashing up against 
 it, and then took out my horse-pistol and 
 shot him dead immediately on the spot. 
 That's what I did with him, Mr. Hawthorn. 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 82 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Oh, no, sir ; I can't endure obstinacy — in man 
 ^1 beast, I can't endure it.' 
 
 ' So it would seem,' Mr. Hawthorn repHed 
 dryly. ' I hope sincerely. Miss Dupuy will 
 find the choice you have made for her a 
 suitable and satisfactory one.' 
 
 ' Suitable, sir ! Why, of course it's suit- 
 able ; and as to satisfactory, well, if I say 
 she's got to take him, she'll have to be 
 satisfied with him, willy-nilly.' 
 
 ' But she won't ! ' Tom Dupuy inter- 
 rupted sullenly, flicking his boot with his 
 short riding-whip in a vicious fashion. ' She 
 won't, you may take my word for it, Uncle 
 Theodore. I can't imagine why it is ; but 
 these young women who've been educated 
 in England, they'll never be satisfied with a. 
 planter for a husband. They think a gen- 
 tleman and a son of gentlemen for fifty
 
 IN ALL SHADES 83 
 
 generations isn't a good enough match for 
 such fine ladies as themselves ; and they go 
 running off after some of these red-coated 
 mihtary fellows down in the garrison over 
 yonder, many of whom, to my certain know- 
 ledge, ]\Ir. Hawthorn, are nothing more than 
 the sons of tailors across there in England. 
 I'll bet you a sovereign, Uncle Theodore, 
 that Nora'll refuse to so much as look at the 
 heir of Pimento Yalley, the minute she sees 
 him/ 
 
 'But why do you think so, Mr. Tom,' 
 their host put in, ' before the young lady has 
 even made your acquaintance ? ' 
 
 'Ah, I know well enough,' Tom Dupuy 
 answered, with a curious leer of unintelligent 
 cunning. ' I know the ways and the habits 
 of the women. They go away over there to 
 England ; they get themselves crammed with 
 
 g2
 
 84 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 French and German, and music and drawing, 
 and all kinds of unnecessary accomplish- 
 ments. They pick up a lot of nonsensical 
 new-fangled Eadical notions about Am I not 
 a Man and a Brother ? and all that kind of 
 Methody humbug. They think an awful 
 lot of themselves because they can play and 
 sing and gabble Italian. And they despise 
 us West Indians, gentlemen and planters, 
 because we can't parley-voo all their precious 
 foreign Hngoes, and don't know as much as 
 they do about who composed Yankee Doodle. 
 I know them — I know them ; I know their 
 ways and their manners. Culture, they call 
 it. I call it a deuced lot of trumpery non- 
 sense. Why, Mr. Hawthorn, I assure you 
 I've known some of these fine new-fangled 
 English-taught young women who'd sooner 
 talk to a coloured doctor, as black as a com-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 85 
 
 mon nigger almost, just because he'd been 
 educated at Oxford, or Edinburgh, or some- 
 where, than to me myself, the tenth Dupuy 
 in lineal succession at Pimento Valley.' 
 
 'Indeed,' Mr. Hawthorn answered inno- 
 cently — no other alternative phrase commit- 
 ting him, as he thought, to so small an 
 opinion on the merits of the question. — ' But 
 do you know, Mr. Tom, I don't beheve any 
 person of the Dupuy blood is very likely to 
 take up with these strange modern Enghsh 
 heresies that so much surprise you.' 
 
 'Quite true, sir,' Mr. Dupuy the elder 
 answered with prompt self-satisfaction, mis- 
 taking his host's dehcate tone of covert satire 
 for the voice of hearty concurrence and full 
 approval. ' You're quite right there, Mr. 
 Hawthorn, I'm certain. No bom Dupuy of 
 Orange Grove would ever be taken in by any
 
 86 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 of that silly clap-trap humanitarian rubbish. 
 No foolish Exeter Hall nonsense about the 
 fighting Dupuys, sir, I can assure you — root 
 and branch, not a single ounce of it. It isn't 
 in them, Mr. Hawthorn — it isn't in them.' 
 
 ' So I think,' Mr. Hawthorn answered 
 quietly. ' I quite agree with you — it isn't in 
 them.' 
 
 As he spoke, a negro servant, neatly 
 dressed in a cool white linen livery, entered 
 the piazza with a small budget of letters on 
 an old-fashioned Spanish silver salver. Mr. 
 Hawthorn took them up eagerly. 'The 
 Enghsh mail ! ' he said with an apologetic 
 look towards his two guests. ' You'll excuse 
 my just glancing through them, Mr. Dupuy, 
 won't you? I can never rest, the moment 
 the mail's in, until I know that my dear boy 
 in England is still really well and happy.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 87 
 
 Mr. Dupuy nodded assent with a conde- 
 scending smile ; and the master of Agualta 
 broke open his son's envelope mth a little 
 eager hasty flutter. He ran his eye hurriedly 
 down the first page ; and then, with a sud- 
 den cry, he laid down the letter rapidly on the 
 table, and called out aloud : ' Mary, Mary ! * 
 
 Mrs. Hawthorn came out at once from 
 the little boudoir behind the piazza, whose 
 cool Venetian bhnds gave directly upon the 
 part where they were sitting. 
 
 * Mary, Mary 1 ' Mr. Hawthorn cried, 
 utterly regardless of his two visitors' presence, 
 * what on earth do you think has happened ? 
 Edward Ls coming out to us — coming out 
 immediately. Oh, my poor boy, my poor 
 boy, this is too unexpected I He's coming 
 out to us at once, at once, without a single 
 moment's warning I *
 
 88 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Mrs. Hawthorn took up the letter and 
 read it through hastily with a woman's quick- 
 ness ; then she laid it down again, and looked 
 blankly at her trembling husband in evident 
 distress ; but neither of them said a single 
 word to one another. 
 
 The elder Dupuy was the first to break 
 the ominous silence. 'Not by the next 
 steamer, I suppose ? ' he inquired curiously. 
 
 Mr. Hawthorn nodded in reply. ' Yes, 
 yes ; by the next steamer.' 
 
 As he spoke, Tom Dupuy glanced at his 
 uncle with a meaning glance, and then went 
 on stoHdly as ever : ' How about these cattle, 
 though, Mr. Hawthorn ? ' 
 
 The old man looked back at him half 
 angrily, half contemptuously. ' Go and look 
 at the cattle yourself, if you like, Mr. Tom./ 
 he said haughtily. — ' Here, Jo, you take
 
 IN ALL SHADES 89 
 
 young Mr. Dupiiy round to see those Cuban 
 bullocks in the grass-piece, will you ? I shall 
 meet your uncle at the Legislative Council on 
 Thursday, and then, if he hkes, he can talk 
 over prices with me. I have something else 
 to do at present beside hagghng and debating 
 over the sale of bullocks ; I must go down to 
 Port-of-Spain immediately, immediately — this 
 very minute. — You must please excuse me, 
 Mr. Dupuy, for my business is most im- 
 portant. — Dick, Isaac, Thomas ! — some one of 
 you there, get Pride of Barbadoes saddled at 
 once, very fast, will you, and bring her round 
 here to me at the front-door the moment 
 she's ready.' 
 
 'And Tom,' the elder Dupuy whispered 
 to his nephew confidentially, as soon as their 
 host had gone back into the house to pre- 
 pare for his journey, ' I have business, too,
 
 90 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 in Port-of-Spain, immediately. You go and 
 look at the bullocks if you like — that's your 
 department. I shall ride down the hills at 
 once, and into town with old Hawthorn.' 
 
 Tom looked at him with a vacant stare 
 of boorish unintelligence. ' Why, what do 
 you want to go running off like that for,' he 
 asked, open-mouthed, ' without even waiting 
 to see the cattle? What the dickens does 
 it matter to you, I should Hke to know, 
 whether old Hawthorn's precious son is 
 coming to Trinidad or not. Uncle Theodore ? ' 
 
 The uncle looked back at him with un- 
 disguised contempt. ' Why, you fool, Tom,' 
 he answered quietly, ' you don't suppose I 
 want to let Nora come out alone all the 
 way from England to Trinidad in the very 
 same steamer with that man Hawthorn's son 
 Edward ? Impossible, impossible ! — Here, you
 
 /A ALL SHADES 91 
 
 nigger fellow you, grinning over there at me 
 like a chattering monkey, bring my mare out 
 of the stable at once, sir, will you — do you 
 hear me, image ? — for I'm going to ride 
 down direct to Port-of-Spain this very minute 
 along with your master. Hurry up, there, 
 jackanapes ! '
 
 92 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 The letter from Edward that had so greatly 
 perturbed old Mi*. Hawthorn had been written, 
 of course, some twenty days before he received 
 it, for the mail takes about that time, as a 
 rule, in going from Southampton across the 
 Atlantic to the port of Trinidad. Edward 
 had already told his father of his long- 
 standing engagement to Marian ; but the an- 
 nouncement and acceptance of the district 
 judgeship had been so hurried, and the date 
 fixed for his departure was so extremely 
 early, that he had only just had time by the 
 first mail to let his father know of his ap-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 93 
 
 proacliing marriage, and his determination to 
 proceed at once to the West Indies by the 
 succeeding steamer. Three weeks was all 
 the interval allowed him by the inexor- 
 able red-tape department of the Colonial 
 Office for completing his hasty prepara- 
 tions for his marriage, and setting sail 
 to undertake his newly acquired judicial 
 functions. 
 
 * Three weeks, my dear,' Nora cried in 
 despair to Marian ; ' why, you know, it can't 
 possibly be done ! It's simply impracticable. 
 Do those horrid government-office people 
 really imagine a girl can get together a trous- 
 seau, and have all the bridesmaids' dresses 
 made, and see about the house and the break- 
 fast, and all that sort of thing, and get herself 
 comfortably married, all within a single fort- 
 night ? They're just like all men ; they think
 
 94 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 you can do things in less than no time. It's 
 absolutely preposterous.' 
 
 ' Perhaps,' Marian answered, ' the govern- 
 ment-office people would say they engaged 
 Edward to take a district judgeship, and 
 didn't stipulate anything about his getting 
 married before he went out to Trinidad to 
 take it.* 
 
 ' Oh, well, you know, if you choose to 
 look at it in that way, of course one can't 
 reasonably grumble at them for their absurd 
 hurrying. But still, the horrid creatures 
 ought to have a little consideration for a 
 girl's convenience. Why, we shall have to 
 make up our minds at once, without the least 
 proper deliberation, what the bridesmaids' 
 dresses are to be, and begin having them 
 cut out and the trimmings settled this very 
 morning. A wedding at a fortnight's notice !
 
 IN ALL SHADES 95 
 
 I never in my life heard of such a thing. I 
 wonder, for my part, your mamma consents 
 to it. — Well, well, I shall have you to take 
 charge of me going out, that's one comfort ; 
 and I shall have my bridesmaid's dress made 
 so that I can wear it a little altered, and cut 
 square in the bodice, when I get to Trinidad, 
 for a best dinner dress. But it's really awfully 
 horrid having to make all one's preparations 
 for the wedding and for going out in such a 
 terrible unexpected hurry.' 
 
 However, in spite of Nora, the prepara- 
 tions for the wedding were duly made within 
 the appointed fortnight, even that important 
 item of the bridesmaids' dresses being quickly 
 settled to everybody's satisfaction. Strange 
 that when two human beings propose entering 
 into a solemn contract together for the future 
 governance of their entire joint existence, the
 
 96 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 thoughts of one of them, and that the one to 
 whom the change is most infinitely important, 
 should be largely taken up for some weeks 
 beforehand with the particular clothes she is 
 to wear on the morning when the contract 
 is publicly ratified ! Fancy the ambassador 
 who signs the treaty being mainly occupied 
 for the ten days of the preliminary negotia- 
 tions with deciding what sort of uniform and 
 how many orders he shall put on upon the 
 eventful day of the final signature ! 
 
 At the end of that short hurry-scurrying 
 fortnight, the wedding actually took place; 
 and an advertisement in the Times next 
 morning duly announced among the list of 
 marriages, ' At Holy Trinity, Brompton, by 
 the Venerable Archdeacon Ord, uncle of the 
 bride, assisted by the Eev. Augustus Savile, 
 B.D., Edward Bere&ford Hawthorn, M.A.,
 
 IN ALL SHADES 97 
 
 Barrister-at-law, of the Inner Temple, late 
 Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, 
 and District Judge of the Westmoreland Dis- 
 trict, Trinidad, to Makian Arbuthnot, only 
 daughter of General C. S. Ord, C.I.E., 
 formerly of the H.E.I.C. Bengal Infantry.' 
 ' The bride's toilet,' said The Qiieen^ next 
 Saturday, ' consisted of white broche satin 
 de Lyon, draped with deep lace flounces, 
 caught up with orange blossoms. The veil 
 was of tulle, secured to the hair with a pearl 
 crescent and stars. The bouquet was com- 
 posed of rare exotics.' In fact, to the coarse 
 and undiscriminating male intelligence, the 
 whole attire, on which so much pains and 
 thought had been hurriedly bestowed, does 
 not appear to have differed in any respect 
 whatsoever from that of all the other brides 
 one has ever looked at during the entire 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 course of a reasonably long and varied life- 
 time. 
 
 After the wedding, however, Marian and 
 Edward could only afford a single week by 
 way of a honeymoon, in that most overrun 
 by brides and bridegrooms of all English 
 districts, the Isle of Wight, as being nearest 
 within call of Southampton, whence they had 
 to start on their long ocean voyage. The 
 aunt in charge was to send down Nora to 
 meet them at the hotel the day before the 
 steamer sailed ; and the General and Mrs. Ord 
 were to see them off, and say a long good-bye 
 to them on the morning of sailing. 
 
 Harry Noel, too, who had been best-man 
 at the wedding, for some reason most fully 
 known to himself, professed a vast desire to 
 ' see the last of poor Hawthorn,' before he 
 left for parts unknown in the Caribbean ; and
 
 IN ALL SHADES 99 
 
 with that intent, duly presented himself at a 
 Southampton hotel on the day before their 
 final departure. It was not purely by acci- 
 dent, however, either on his own part or on 
 Marian Hawthorn's, that when they took a 
 quiet walk that evening in some fields behind 
 the battery, he found himself a little in front 
 with Nora Dupuy, while the newly-married 
 pair, as was only proper, brought up the rear 
 in a conjugal tete-a-tete. 
 
 ' Miss Dupuy,' Harry said suddenly, as 
 they reached an open space in the fields, with 
 a clear view uninterrupted before them, 
 there's something I wish to say to you before 
 you leave to-morrow for Trinidad — somethin^r 
 a little premature, perhaps, but under the 
 circumstances — as you're leaving so soon — I 
 can't delay it. I've seen very little of you, as 
 yet, Miss Dupuy, and you've seen very little 
 
 H 2
 
 loo IN ALL SHADES 
 
 of me, so I dare say I owe you some apology 
 
 for this strange precipitancy ; but Well, 
 
 you're going away at once from England ; 
 and I may not see you again for — for some 
 months ; and if I allow you to go without 
 
 having spoken to you, why ' 
 
 Nora's heart throbbed violently. She 
 didn't care very much for Harry Noel at first 
 sight, to be sure ; but still, she had never till 
 now had a regular offer of marriage made to 
 her ; and every woman's heart beats naturally 
 — I believe — when she finds herself within 
 measurable distance of her first offer. Be- 
 sides, Harry was the heir to a baronetcy, and 
 a great catch, as most girls counted ; and 
 even if you don't want to marry a baronet, 
 it's something at least to be able to say to 
 yourself in future, ' I refused an offer to be 
 Lady Noel.' Mind you, as women go, the
 
 IN ALL SHADES loi 
 
 heir to an old baronetcy and twelve thousand 
 a year is not to be despised, though you may 
 not care a single pin about his mere personal 
 attractions. A great many girls who would 
 refuse the man upon his own merits, would 
 wilhngly say ' Yes ' at once to the title and 
 the income. So Nora Dupuy, who was, after 
 all, quite as human as most other girls — if not 
 rather more so — merely held her breath hard, 
 and tried her best to still the beating of her 
 wayward heart, as she answered back with 
 childish innocence : ' Well, Mr. Noel, in that 
 case, what would happen ? ' 
 
 ' In that case, Miss Dupuy,' Harry repHed, 
 looking at her pretty little pursed-up guileless 
 mouth with a hungry desire to kiss it inconti- 
 nently then and there — ' why, in that case, 
 I'm afraid some other man — some handsome 
 young Trinidad planter or other — might carry
 
 I02 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 off the prize on his own account before I had 
 ventured to put in my humble claim for it. — 
 Miss Dupuy, what's the use of beating about 
 the bush, when I see by your eyes you know 
 what I mean ? From the moment I first saw 
 you, I said to myself, " She's the one woman 
 I have ever seen whom I feel instinctively I 
 could worship for a lifetime." Answer me 
 Yes. I'm no speaker. But I love you. Will 
 you take me ? ' 
 
 Nora twisted the tassel of her parasol 
 nervously between her finger and thumb for 
 a few seconds ; then she looked back at him 
 full in the face with her pretty girhsh open 
 eyes, and answered with charming naivete — 
 just as if he had merely asked her whether 
 she would take another cup of tea : ' No, 
 thank you, Mr. Noel ; I don't think so.' 
 
 Harry Noel smiled with amusement — in
 
 IN ALL SHADES 103 
 
 spite of this curt and simple rejection — at the 
 oddity of such a reply to such a question. 
 'Of course,' he said, glancing down at her 
 pretty little feet to hide his confusion, ' I 
 didn't expect you to answer me Yes at once 
 on so very short an acquaintance as ours has 
 been. I acknowledge it's dreadfully pre- 
 sumptuous in me to have dared to put you a 
 question like that, when I know you can have 
 seen so very Httle in me to make me worth 
 the honour you'd be bestowing upon me.' 
 
 ' Quite so,' Nora murmured mischievously, 
 in a parenthetical undertone. It wasn't kind ; 
 I dare say it wasn't even lady-hke ; but then 
 you see she was really, after all, only a 
 school-girl. 
 
 Harry paused, half abashed for a second 
 at this very literal acceptance of his con- 
 ventional expression of self-depreciation. He
 
 104 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 hardly knew whether it was worth while 
 continuing his suit in the face of such exceed- 
 ingly outspoken discouragement. Still, he 
 had something to say, and he determined to 
 say it. He was really very much in love with 
 Nora, and he wasn't going to lose his chance 
 outright just for the sake of what might be 
 nothing more than a pretty girl's provoking 
 coyness. 
 
 ' Yes,' he went on quietly, without seem- 
 ing to notice her little interruption, ' though 
 you haven't yet seen anything in me to care 
 for, I'm going to ask you, not whether you'll 
 give me any definite promise — it was foolish 
 of me to expect one on so brief an acquaint- 
 ance — but whether you'll kindly bear in mind 
 that I've told you I love you — yes, I said love 
 you ' — for Nora had dashed her little hand 
 aside impatiently at the word. ' And remem-
 
 IN ALL SHADES .105 
 
 ber, I shall still hope, until I see you again, 
 you may yet in future reconsider the question. 
 Don't make me any promise, Miss Dupuy ; 
 and don't repeat the answer you've already 
 given me ; but when you go to Trinidad, and 
 are admired and courted as you needs must 
 be, don't wholly forget that someone in 
 England once told you he loved you — loved 
 you passionately.' 
 
 'I'm not Hkely to forget it, Mr. Noel,* 
 Nora answered with mahcious calmness ; ' be- 
 cause nobody ever proposed to me before, 
 you know ; and one's sure not to forget one's 
 first ofier.' 
 
 ' Miss Dupuy, you are making game of 
 me ! It isn't right of you — it isn't generous/ 
 
 Nora paused and looked at him again. 
 He was dark, but very handsome. He looked 
 handsomer still when he bridled up a httle
 
 io6 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 It was a very nice thing to look forward to 
 being Lady Noel. How all the other girls at 
 school would have just jumped at it ! But 
 no ; he was too dark by half to meet her 
 fancy. She couldn't give him the slightest 
 encouragement. 'Mr. Noel,' she said, far 
 more seriously this time, with a little sigh of 
 impatience, ' believe me, I didn't really mean 
 to offend you. I — I hke you very much ; 
 and I'm sure I'm very much flattered indeed 
 by what you've just been kind enough to say 
 to me. I know it's a great honour for you 
 to ask me to — to ask me what you have asked 
 me. But, you know, I don't think of you in 
 that light, exactly. You will understand 
 what I mean when I say I can't even leave 
 the question open. I — I have nothing to 
 reconsider.' 
 
 Harry waited a moment in internal reflec-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 107 
 
 tion. He liked her all the better because she 
 said No to him. He was man of the world 
 enough to know that ninety nine girls out of 
 a hundred would have jumped at once at 
 such an ehgible offer. ' In a few months,' 
 he said quietly, in an abstracted fashion, ' I 
 shall be paying a visit out in Trinidad.' 
 
 ' Oh, don't, pray don't,' Nora cried hastily. 
 ' It'll be no use, Mr. Noel, no use in any way. 
 I've quite made up my mind ; and I never 
 change it. Don't come out to Trinidad, I beg 
 of you.' 
 
 ' I see,' Harry said, smiling a little bitterly. 
 ' Someone else has been beforehand with me 
 already. No wonder. I'm not at all sur- 
 prised at him. How could he possibly see 
 you and help it ? ' And he looked with un- 
 mistakable admiration at Nora's face, aU the 
 prettier now for its deep blushes.
 
 log IN ALL SHADES 
 
 *No, Mr. Noel,' Nora answered simply. 
 ' There you are mistaken. There's nobody — 
 absolutely nobody. I've only just left school, 
 you know, and I've seen no one so far that I 
 care for in any way.' 
 
 ' In that case,' Harry Noel said, in his 
 decided manner, ' the quest will still be worth 
 pursuing. No matter what you say, Miss 
 Dupuy, we shall meet again — before long — 
 in Trinidad. A young lady who has just left 
 school has plenty of time still to reconsider 
 her determinations.' 
 
 ' Mr. Noel ! Please, don't ! It'll be quite 
 useless.' 
 
 ' I must, Miss Dupuy ; I can't help 
 myself. You will draw me after you, even 
 if I tried to prevent it. I believe I have 
 had one real passion in my life, and that 
 passion will act upon me like a magnet on
 
 IN ALL SHADES 109 
 
 a needle for ever after. I shall go to 
 Trinidad.' 
 
 ' At any rate, then, you'll remember that I 
 gave you no encouragement, and that for me, 
 at least, my answer is final.' 
 
 ' I will remember, Miss Dupuy — and I 
 won't believe it.' 
 
 That evening, as Marian kissed Nora good- 
 night in her own bedroom at the Southampton 
 hotel, she asked archly : ' Well, Nora, what 
 did you answer him ? ' 
 
 ' Answer who ? what ? ' Nora repeated 
 hastily, trying to look as if she didn't under- 
 stand the suppressed antecedent of the per- 
 sonal pronoun. 
 
 ' My dear girl, it isn't the least use your 
 pretending you don't know what I mean by 
 it. 1 saw in your face, Nora, when Edward
 
 no IN ALL SHADES 
 
 and I caught you up, what it was Mr. Noel 
 had been saying to you. And how did you 
 answer him ? Tell me, Nora ! ' 
 
 ' I told him No^ Marian, quite positively.' 
 
 ' Oh, Nora ! ' 
 
 ' Yes, I did. And he said he'd follow me 
 out to Trinidad ; and I told him he really 
 needn't take the trouble, because in any case 
 I could never care for him.' 
 
 ' dear, I am so sorry. You wicked girl ! 
 And, Nora, he's such a nice fellow too 1 and 
 so dreadfully in love with you ! You ought 
 to have taken him.' 
 
 ' My dear Marian ! He's so awfully black, 
 you know. I really believe he must posi- 
 tively be a little coloured.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES in 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The three weeks' difference in practical time 
 between England and the West Indies, due 
 to the mail, made the day that Edward and 
 Marian spent at Southampton exactly coincide 
 with the one when Mr. Dupuy and his nephew 
 Tom went up to view old Mr. Hawthorn's 
 cattle at Agualta Estate, Trinidad. On that 
 very same evening, while Nora and Harry 
 were walking together among the fields behind 
 the battery, Mr. Tom Dupuy was strolhng 
 leisurely by himself in the cool dusk, four 
 thousand miles away, on one of the innumer- 
 able shady bridle-paths that thread the end-
 
 112 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 less tangled hills above Pimento Valley. Mr. 
 Tom was smoking a very big Manila cheroot, 
 and was accompanied upon his rounds by a 
 huge and ferocious-looking Cuban blood- 
 hound, the hungry corners of whose great 
 greedy slobbering mouth hung down hid- 
 eously on either side in loose folds of skin of 
 the most bloodthirsty and sinister aspect. As 
 he went along, Tom Dupuy kept patting 
 affectionately from time to time his four- 
 footed favourite, to whom, nevertheless, every 
 now and again he applied, as it seemed out of 
 pure wantonness, the knotted lash of the 
 cruel dog- whip which he carried jauntily in 
 his right hand. The dog, however, formid- 
 able as he was, so far from resenting this 
 unkindly treatment, appeared to find in it 
 something exceedingly congenial to his own 
 proper barbarous nature ; for after each such
 
 IN ALL SHADES 113 
 
 savage cut upon his bare flanks from the 
 knotted hide, he only cowered for a second, 
 and then fawned the more closely and slavishly 
 than ever upon his smiling master, looking up 
 into his face with a strange approving glance 
 from his dull eyes, that seemed to say : 
 ' Exactly the sort of thing I should do myself, 
 if you were the dog, and I were the whip- 
 holder.' 
 
 At a bend of the path, where the road 
 turned suddenly aside to cross the dry bed of 
 a winter torrent, Tom Dupuy came upon a 
 clump of tall cabbage palms, hard by a low 
 mud-built negro-hut, overshadowed in front 
 by two or three huge flowering bushes of 
 crimson hibiscus. A tall, spare, grey-headed 
 negro, in a coarse sack by way of a shirt, 
 with his bare and sinewy arms thrust loosely 
 through the long slits which alone did duty 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 in the place of sleeve-holes, was leaning as he 
 passed upon a wooden post. The bloodhound, 
 breaking away suddenly from his master, at 
 sight and smell of the black skin, its natural 
 prey, rushed up fiercely towards the old 
 labourer, and leapt upon him with a savage 
 snarl of his big teeth, and an ominous glitter- 
 ing in his great fishy glazed eyeball. But the 
 negro, stronger and more muscular than he 
 looked, instead of flinching, caught the huge 
 brute in his long lean arms, and flung him 
 from him by main force with an angry oath, 
 dashing his great form heavily against the 
 rough pathway. Quick as lightning, the dog, 
 leaping up again at once with diabohcal 
 energy in its big flabby mouth, was just about 
 to spring once more upon his scowhng oppo- 
 nent, when Tom Dupuy, catching him angrily 
 by his leather collar, threw him down and
 
 IN ALL SHADES 115 
 
 held him back, growUng fiercely, and showing 
 his huge tearing teeth in a ferocious grin, 
 after the wonted manner of his deadly kind. 
 ' Quiet, Slot, quiet ! ' the master said, patting 
 his hollow forehead with affectionate admira- 
 tion. ' Quiet, sir ; down this minute ! Down, 
 I tell you ! — He's death on niggers, Delgado 
 — death on niggers. You should stand out 
 of the way, you know, when you see him 
 coming. Of course these dogs never can 
 abide the scent of you black fellows. The 
 bookay dJAfreek always drives a bloodhound 
 frantic' 
 
 The old negro drew himself up haughtily 
 and sternly, and stared back in the insolent 
 face of the slouching young white man with 
 a proud air of native dignity. ' Buckra 
 gentleman hab no right, den, to go about 
 wid dem dog,' he answered angrily, fixing 
 
 I 2
 
 ii6 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 his piercing fiery eye on the bloodhound's 
 face. 'Dem dog always spring at a black 
 man wherebber dey find him. If you want 
 to keep dem, you should keep dem tied up 
 at de house, so as to do for watch-dog against 
 tievin' naygur. But you doan't got no right 
 o bring dem about de ro-ads, loose dat way, 
 jumpin' up at people's troats, when dem 
 standin' peaceable beside dem own hut here.' 
 Tom Dupuy laughed carelessly. ' It's 
 their nature, you see, Delgado,' he answered 
 with a pleasant smile, still holding the dog 
 and caressing it lovingly. ' They and their 
 fathers were trained long ago in slavery days 
 to hunt runaway niggers up in the mountains 
 and track them to their hiding-places, and 
 drag them back, alive or dead, to their law- 
 ful masters; and of course that makes them 
 run naturally after the smell of a nigger, as
 
 IN ALL SHADES 117 
 
 a terrier runs after the smell of a rat. When 
 the rat sees the terrier coming, he scuttles 
 off as hard as his legs can carry him into 
 his hole ; and when you see Slot's nose 
 turning round the corner, you ought to 
 scuttle off into your hut as quick as light- 
 ning, if you want to keep your black skin 
 whole upon your infernal body. Slot never 
 can abide the smell of a nigger. — Can you, 
 Slot, eh, old fellow? 
 
 The negro looked at him with uncon- 
 cealed aversion. ' I is not a rat, Mistah 
 Dupuy,' he said haughtily. ' I is gentle- 
 man myself, same as you is, sah, when I 
 come here over from Africa.' 
 
 Tom Dupuy sneered openly in his very 
 face. ' That's the way with all you Africans,' 
 he answered with a laugh, as he flipped the 
 ash idly from his big cheroot. ' I never
 
 r i8 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 knew an imported nigger yet, since I was 
 born, that wasn't a king in his own country. 
 Seems to me they must all be kings over 
 yonder in Congo, with never a solitary 
 subject to divide between them. — But I say, 
 my friend, what's going on over this way 
 to-night, that so many niggers are going up 
 all the time to the Methody chapel? Are 
 you going to preach 'em a missionary ser- 
 mon ? ' 
 
 Delgado glanced at him a trifle sus- 
 piciously. ' Dar is a prayer-meetin', sah,' 
 he said with a cold look in his angry eye, 
 ' up at Gilead. De bredderin gwine to meet 
 dis ebenin'.' 
 
 ' Ho, ho ; so that's it ! A prayer- meeting, 
 is it ? Well, if I go up there, will you let 
 me attend it?' 
 
 Delgado's thick lip curled contemptuously.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 119 
 
 as he answered with a frown : ' When cock- 
 roach gib dance, him no ax fowl ! ' 
 
 'Ah, I see. The fowl would eat the 
 cockroaches, would he ? Well, then, Louis 
 Delgado, I give you fair warning ; if you 
 don't want a white man to go and look on 
 at your confounded Methody nigger prayer- 
 meetings, depend upon it it's because you're 
 brewing some mischief or other up there 
 against the constituted authorities. I shall 
 tell my uncle to set his poUce to look well 
 after you. You're always a bad-blooded, 
 discontented, disaffected fellow, and I believe 
 now you're up to some of your African 
 devilry or other. No obeah, mind you, Del- 
 gado — no obeah ! Prayer meetings, my good 
 friend, as much as you like ; but whatever 
 you do, no obeah.' 
 
 ' You tink I do obeah because I doan't
 
 120 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 will let you go to prayer-meetin' ! Dat just 
 like white-man argument. Him tink de nay- 
 gur can nebber be in de right. Old-time 
 folk has little proverb : " Mountain sheep 
 always guilty when jungle tiger sit to judge 
 him." ' 
 
 Tom Dupuy laughed and nodded. ' If 
 the sheep in Africa are black sheep,' he 
 retorted clumsily, ' I dare say they're a beastly 
 lot of thieving trespassers. — Good -night, my 
 friend. — Down, Slot, down, good fellow ; 
 down, down, down, I tell you ! — Good-night, 
 Louis Delgado, and whatever you do, no 
 obeah ! ' 
 
 The negro watched him slowly round the 
 corner, with a suspicious eye kept well fixed 
 upon the reluctant stealthy retreat of the 
 Cuban bloodhound ; and as soon as Tom had 
 Tot safely beyond earshot, he sat down in
 
 IN ALL SHADES 121 
 
 the soft dust that formed the bare platform 
 outside his hut, and mumbled to himself, as 
 negroes will do, a loud dramatic soliloquy, 
 in every deep and varying tone of passion 
 and hatred. 'Ha, ha, Mistah Tom Dupuy,' 
 he began quietly, ' so you go about always 
 wid de Cuban bloodhound, an' you laugh 
 to see him spring at de troat ob de black 
 man ! You tink dat frighten him from come 
 steal your cane an' your mangoes ! You tink 
 de black man afraid ob de dog, yarra ! 
 yarra ! Ha, dat frighten Trinidad naygur, 
 perhaps, but it doan't frighten salt-water 
 naygur from Africa! I hab charms, I hab 
 potion, I hab draught to quiet him ! I 
 doan't afraid ob fifty bloodhound. But it 
 doan't good for buckra gentleman to walk 
 about wid dog that spring at de black man. 
 Black man laugh to-day, perhaps, but press
 
 122 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 him heart tight widin him. De time come 
 when black man will find him heart break 
 out, an' de hate in it flow over an' make 
 blood run hke dry ribber in de rainy season. 
 Den him sweep away buckra, an' blood- 
 hound, an' all before him ; an' seize de 
 country, colour for colour. De land is black, 
 an' de land for de black man. When de 
 black man burst him heart like ribber burst 
 him bank in de rainy season, white man's 
 house snap off before him like bamboo hut 
 when de flood catch it ! ' As he spoke, he 
 pushed his hands out expansively before him, 
 and gurgled in his throat with fierce inarti- 
 culate African gutturals, that seemed to re- 
 call in some strange fashion the hollow 
 eddying roar and gurgle of the mountain 
 torrents in the rainy season. 
 
 ' Chicken doan't nebber lub jackal, yarra,'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 123 
 
 he went on after a short pause of expectant 
 triumph ; ' an' naygur doan't nebber lub 
 buckra, dat certain. But ob all de buckra 
 in de island ob Trinidad, dem Dupuy is de 
 very worst an' de very contemptfullest. 
 Some day, black man will rise, an' get rid ob 
 dem all for good an' ebber. If I like, I can 
 kill dem all to-day; but I gwine to wait. 
 De great an' terrible day ob de Lard is not 
 come yet. Missy Dupuy ober in England, 
 where de buckra come from. England is de 
 white man's Africa ; de missy dar to learn 
 him catechism. I wait till Missy Dupuy 
 come back before I kill de whole family. 
 When de great an' terrible day ob de Lard 
 arrive, I doan't leave a single Dupuy a libbin 
 soul in de island ob Trinidad. Utterly de- 
 stroy de Amalekite, sait' de Lard, and spare 
 dem not ; but slay bot' man an' woman.
 
 124 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 infant an' suckling, ox an' sheep, ass an' 
 camel. When I slay dem, I slay dem 
 utterly. De curse ob Saul dat spared 
 Agag shall nebber fall upon Louis Delgado. 
 I slay dem all, an' de missy wid dem, yarra, 
 yarra ! ' 
 
 The last two almost inarticulate words 
 were uttered with a horrible yell of triumph ; 
 and as Louis Delgado uttered them shrilly, he 
 drew the fingers of his right hand with a 
 savage joy across his bared and upturned 
 neck, and accompanied that hideously signifi- 
 cant action with a hissing noise of his breath, 
 puffed out suddenly with an explosive burst 
 between his white and closely-pressed teeth. 
 After a minute he went on again; but this 
 time, hearing footsteps approaching, he broke 
 out into a loud and horrible soliloquy of ex- 
 ultation in his own native African language.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 125 
 
 It was a deep, savage- sounding West Coast 
 dialect, full of harsh and barbaric clicks or 
 gutturals ; for Louis Delgado, as Tom Dupuy 
 had rightly said, was ' an imported African ' — 
 a Coromantyn, sold as a slave some thirty 
 years before to a Cuban slave trader trying 
 to break the blockade on the coast, and cap- 
 tured with all her living cargo by an EngHsh 
 cruiser off Sombrero Island. The liberated 
 slaves had been landed, according to custom, 
 at the first British port where the cutter 
 touched ; and thus Louis Delgado — as he 
 learned to call himself — a wild African born, 
 from the Coromantyn seaboard, partially 
 Anglicised and outwardly Christianised, was 
 now a common West Indian plantation hand 
 on the two estates of Orange Grove and 
 Pimento Valley. There are dozens of such 
 semi-civilised imported negroes still to be
 
 126 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 found under similar circumstances in every 
 one of the West India islands. 
 
 As the steps gradually approached nearer, 
 it became plain, from the soft footfall in the 
 dust of the bridle-path, that it was a shoe- 
 less black person who was coming towards 
 him. In a minute more, the new-comer had 
 turned the corner, and displayed herself as a 
 young and comely negress — pretty with the 
 round, good-humoured African prettiness of 
 smooth black skin, plump cheeks, clear eyes, 
 and regular, even pearl-white teeth. The girl 
 was dressed in a loose Manchester cotton 
 print, brightly coloured, and not unbecoming, 
 with a tidy red bandana bound turban-wise 
 around her shapely head, but barefooted, 
 barelegged, and bare of arm, neck, and 
 shoulder. Her figure was good, as the 
 figure of most negresses usually is ; and she
 
 IN ALL SHADE:> 127 
 
 held herself erect and upright with the 
 pecuhar lithe gracefulness said to be induced 
 by the universal practice of carrying pails 
 of water and other burdens on the top of 
 the head, from the very earhest days of negro 
 childhood. As she approached Delgado, she 
 first smiled and showed all her pretty teeth, 
 as she uttered the customary pohte saluta- 
 tion of ' Marnin' ! sah, marnin' ! ' and then 
 dropped a profound curtsy with an unmis- 
 takable air of awe and reverence. 
 
 Louis Delgado affected not to observe 
 the girl for a moment, and went on jabber- 
 ing loudly and fiercely to himself in his 
 swift and fluent African jargon. But it 
 was evident that his hearer was deeply im- 
 pressed at once by this rapt and prophetic 
 inattention of the strange negro, who spoke 
 with tongues to vacant space in such an
 
 128 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 awful and intensely realistic fashion. She 
 paused for a while and looked at him 
 intently ; then, when he stopped for a second 
 to take breath in the midst of one of his 
 passionate incoherent outbursts, she came a 
 step nearer to him and curtsied again, at 
 the same time that she muttered in a rather 
 injured querulous treble : ' Mistah Delgado, 
 you no hear me, sah ? You no listen to 
 me ? I tellin' you marnin'.' 
 
 The old man broke ofi' suddenly, as if 
 recalled to himself and common earth by 
 some disenchanting touch, and answered 
 dreamily : ' Marnin', Missy Eosina. Marnin', 
 le-ady. You gwine up to Gilead now to de 
 prayer-meetin' ? ' 
 
 Eosina, glancing down at the Bible and 
 hymn-book in her plump black hand, 
 answered demurely : ' Yes, sah, I gwine dar.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 139 
 
 Delgado shook himself vigorously, as if 
 in the endeavour to recover from some un- 
 earthly trance, and went on in his more 
 natural manner : ' I gwine up too, to pray 
 wid de bredderin. You want me .for some- 
 ting ? You callin' to me for help you ? ' 
 
 Eosina dropped her voice a little as she 
 replied in her shrill tone : ' Dem say you 
 is African, IMistah Delgado. Naygur from 
 Africa know plenty spell for bring back 
 le-ady's lubber.' 
 
 Delgado nodded. ' Dem say true,' he 
 answered. ' Creole ^ naygur doan't can make 
 spell same as African. Coromantyn naygur 
 hab plenty oracle, like de ephod ob de high- 
 
 * The word Creole is much misunderstood by most English 
 people. In its universal West Indian sense it is applied 
 to any person, white, black, or mulatto, born in the West 
 Indies, as opposed to outsiders, European, American, or 
 African. 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 pries' dat de word ob de Lard command to 
 Aaron. De oracles ob Aaron descend in 
 right line to de chiefs ob de Coromantyn. 
 Kwamina atindsu Koromantini marrah osra- 
 man etchwi ntwa.' 
 
 The words themselves were simple 
 enough, being merely Fantee for, ' Here am 
 I, Kwamina the Coromantyn, with my 
 thunder-stones that cool the heart ; ' but 
 they struck the Creole-born negress with a 
 certain mute awe and terror, after which 
 she hardly dared for a moment to open 
 her mouth. As soon as she found her 
 tongue again, she muttered softly : ' Dem 
 say you is great chief in your own country.' 
 
 The old man drew himself up with a 
 haughty air. ' Me fader,' he answered with 
 evident pride, ' hab twelve wives, all princess, 
 an' I is de eldest son ob de eldest. King
 
 IN ALL SHADES 131 
 
 Blay fight him, an' take me prisoner, an' 
 sell me slabe, an' dat is how I come to work 
 now ober here on Mistah Dupuy plantation. 
 But by birt', I is prince, an' descendant ob 
 Eleazar, de son ob Aaron, de high-pries' 
 ob Israel.' 
 
 After a pause, he asked quickly : ' Who 
 dis lubber dat you want spell for ? ' 
 
 'Isaac Pourtales.' 
 
 'Pourtales! Him mulatto! What for 
 pretty naygur girl like you want to go an' 
 lub mulatto? Mulatto bad man. Old-time 
 folk say, mulatto always hate him fader an 
 despise him mudder. Him fader de white 
 man, an' mulatto hate white ; him mudder 
 de black girl, an' mulatto despise black.' 
 
 Eosina hung her head down shghtly on 
 one side, and put the little finger of her 
 left hand with artless coyness into the 
 
 K 2
 
 132 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 corner of her mouth. ' I doan't know, sah,' 
 she said sheepishly after a short pause ; 
 ' but I feel somehow as if I lub Isaac 
 Pour tales.' 
 
 Delgado grinned a sinister grin. ' Very 
 well, Missy Eosy,' he said shortly, 'I gain 
 him lub for you. Wait here one, two, tree 
 minute, le-ady, while I run in find me 
 Bible.' 
 
 In a few seconds he came out again, 
 dressed in his black coat for meeting, with 
 a Bible and hymn-book in one hand, and a 
 curious volume in the other, written in 
 strange, twisted, twirligig characters, such 
 as Eosina had never before in her life set 
 eyes on. ' See here ! ' he cried, opening it 
 wide before her ; ' dat is book ob spells. 
 Dat is African speU for gain lubber. I ex- 
 plain him to you ' — and his hand turned
 
 IN ALL SHADES 133 
 
 rapidly over several of the brown and well- 
 thumbed pages : ' Isaac Pourtales, mulatto ; 
 Rosina Fleming, black le-ady ; dat is de 
 page. Hear what de spell say.' And he 
 ran his finger line by hne along the strange 
 characters, as if translating them into his 
 own negro English as he went. ' " Take 
 toot' ob alligator," same as dis one ' — and 
 he produced a few alligators' teeth. from his 
 capacious pocket ; ' " tie him up for a week 
 in bag wid Savannah flower an' branch of 
 calalue ; soak him well in shark's blood " 
 — I gib de blood to you — " den write de 
 name, Isaac Pourtales, in big letter on sHp 
 ob white paper ; drop it in de bag ; an' 
 burn it all togedder on a Friday ebenin', 
 when it doan't no moon, wid fire ob man- 
 chineel wood." Dat will gain de lub ob 
 your lubber, as sure as de gospel.'
 
 J 34 I^ ALL SHADES 
 
 The girl listened carefully to the direc- 
 tions, and made Delgado repeat them three 
 times over to her. When she had learned 
 them thoroughly, she said once more : 
 ' How much I got to pay you for dis, eh, 
 sah ? ' 
 
 ' Nuffin.' 
 
 ^Nuffin?' 
 
 ' No, nuffin. But you must do me favour. 
 You is house serbant at Orange Grove ; you 
 must come see me now an' den, an' tell me 
 what go on ober in de house dar.' 
 
 'What far, sah?' 
 
 ' Doan't you ax what far ; but listen to 
 me, le-ady. De great an' terrible day ob 
 de Lard will come before long, when de 
 wicked will be cut off from de face ob de 
 eart', an' we shall see de end ob de evil- 
 doer. You read de Prophets ? '
 
 IN ALL SHADES 133 
 
 'I read dem some time/ 
 
 'You read de Prophet Jeremiah, what 
 him say? Hear de tex'. I read him to 
 you. "Deliber up deir children to de 
 famine, an' pour out deir blood ^by de 
 sword." Dat de Lard's word for all de 
 Dupuys ; an' when de missy come from 
 England, de word ob de prophecy comin' 
 true/ 
 
 The girl shuddered, and opened wide 
 her big eyes with their great ring oi white 
 setting- ' How you know it de Dupuys ? ' 
 she asked hesitating, * How you know it 
 dem de prophet 'ludin' to ? ' 
 
 ' How I know, Eosina Fleming ? How 
 I know it? Because I can expound an 
 interpret de Scripture ; for when de under- 
 standin' ob de man is enhghtened, de mout' 
 speaketh forth wonderful tings. Listen
 
 136 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 here ; I tellin' you de trut'. Before de 
 missy lib a year in Trinidad, de Lard will 
 sweep away de whole house ob de Dupuys 
 out ob de land for ebber an ebber.' 
 
 ' But not de missy ? ' Eosina cried 
 eagerly. 
 
 ' Ah, de missy ! You tink when de 
 black man rise hke tiger in him wrath, 
 him spare de missy ! No, me fren'. Him 
 doan't. gwine to* spare her. Old-time 
 folk has proverb : " Hungry jigger no re- 
 speck de white foot ob buckra le-ady." De 
 Dupuys is great people now ; puffed up wid 
 him pride ; look down on de black man. 
 But dem will drop dem bluster bime-by, as 
 soon as deir pride is taken out ob dem 
 wid adversity. When trouble catch bull- 
 dog, den monkey breeches hab to fit him.' 
 
 Rosina turned away with a look of
 
 IN ALL SHADES 137 
 
 terror. ' You comin' to prayer-meetin' ? * 
 she asked hastily. ' De bredderin will all 
 be waitin'.' 
 
 Delgado, recalled once more to his 
 alternative character, pushed away the 
 strange volume through the door of his 
 hut, took up his Bible and hymn-book with 
 the gravest solemnity, drew himself up to 
 his full height, and was soon walking along 
 soberly by Eosina's side, as respectable 
 and decorous a native Methodist class- leader 
 as one could wish to see in the whole 
 green island of Trinidad. ' I was glad when 
 day said unto me,' he murmured to him- 
 self audibly, with an unctuous smile upon 
 his lank black jaws, "Let us go into de 
 courts ob his house." ' 
 
 Those who judge superficially of men 
 and minds would say at once that Delgado
 
 138 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 was a hypocrite. Those who know what 
 reHgion really means to inferior races — 
 a strange but sincere jumble of phrases, 
 emotions, superstitions, and melodies, per- 
 meating and consecrating all their acts and 
 all their passions, however evil, violent, or 
 licentious — will recognise at once that in 
 his own mind Louis DeJgado was not con- 
 scious to himself in the faintest degree of 
 any hypocrisy, craft, or even inconsis- 
 tency.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 139 
 
 CHAPTEE Vn. 
 
 The morning when Edward and Marian were 
 to start on their voyage to Trinidad, with 
 Nora in their charge, was a beautifully clear, 
 calm, and sunny one. The tiny steam-tender 
 that took them down Southampton Water, 
 from the landing-stage to the moorings where 
 the big ocean-going Severn lay at anchor, 
 ploughed her way merrily through the blue 
 ripplets that hardly broke the level surface. 
 Though it was a day of parting, nobody was 
 over-sad. General Ord had come down with 
 Marian, his face bronzed with twenty years 
 of India, but straight and erect still hke a
 
 140 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 hop-pole, as lie stood with his tall thin figure 
 Hthe and steadfast on the little quarter-deck. 
 Mrs. Ord was there too, crying a httle, of 
 course, as is only decorous on such occasions, 
 yet not more so than a parting always de- 
 mands from the facile eyes of female hu- 
 manity. Marian didn't cry much either ; she 
 felt so safe in going with Edward, and hoped 
 to be back so soon again on a summer visit 
 to her father and mother. As for Nora, Nora 
 was always bright as the sunshine, and could 
 never see anything except the bright side of 
 things. 'We shall take such care of dear 
 Marian in Trinidad, Mrs. Ord !' she said gaily. 
 * You'll see her home again on a visit in 
 another twelvemonth, with more roses on her 
 cheek than she's got now, when she's had a 
 taste of our delicious West Indian mountain 
 air.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 141 
 
 ' And if Trinidad suits Miss Ord — Mrs. 
 Hawthorn, I mean — dear me, how stupid of 
 me I ' Harry Noel put in quietly, ' half as 
 well as it seems to have suited you, Miss 
 Dupuy, we shall have no cause to complain 
 of Hawthorn for having taken her out there.' 
 
 ' Oh, no fear of that,' Nora answered, smil- 
 ing one of her delicious childish smiles. ' You 
 don't know how delightful Trinidad is, Mr. 
 Noel ; it's really one of the most charming 
 places in all Christendom.' 
 
 ' On your recommendation, then,' Harry 
 answered, bowing slightly and looking at her 
 with eyes full of meaning, 'I shall almost 
 be tempted to go out some day, and see for 
 myself how really delightful are these poetical 
 tropics of yours.' 
 
 Nora blushed, and her eyes fell slightly. 
 ' You would find them very lovely, no doubt,
 
 142 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Mr. Noel/ she answered, more demurely and 
 in a lialf-timid fashion ; ' but I can't recom- 
 mend them, you know, with any confidence, 
 because I was such a very little girl when 
 I first came home to England. You had 
 better not come out to Trinidad merely on 
 the strength of my recommendation.' 
 
 Harry bowed his head again gravely. 
 'As you will,' he said. 'Your word is law. 
 And yet, perhaps, some day, I shouldn't be 
 surprised either if Hawthorn and Mrs. Haw- 
 thorn were to find me dropping in upon them 
 unexpectedly for a scratch dinner. After all, 
 it's a mere nothing nowadays to run across 
 the millpond, as the Yankees call it.' 
 
 They reached the Severn about an hour 
 before the time fixed for starting, and sat on 
 deck talking together with that curious sense of 
 finding nothing to say which always oppresses
 
 IN ALL SHADES 143 
 
 one on the eve of a long parting. It seems as 
 though no subject of conversation sufficiently 
 important for the magnitude of the occasion 
 ever occurred to one : the mere everyday 
 trivialities of ordinary talk sound out of place 
 at such a serious moment. So, by way of 
 something to do, the party soon began to 
 institute a series of observations upon Edward 
 and Marian's fellow-passengers, as they came 
 on board, one after another, in successive 
 batches on the Httle tender. 
 
 ' Just look at that brown young man ! ' 
 Nora cried, in a suppressed whisper, as a tall 
 and gentlemanly looking mulatto walked up 
 the gangway from the puffing tug. ' We shall 
 be positively overwhelmed with coloured 
 people, I declare ! There are three Hottentot 
 Yenuses doAvn in the saloon already, bound 
 for Haiti ; and a San Domingo general, as
 
 144 I^ -ALL SHADES 
 
 black as your hat ; and a couple of walnut- 
 coloured old gentlemen going to Dominica. 
 And now, here's another regular brown man 
 coming on board to us. What's his name, 
 I wonder? Oh, there it is, painted as large 
 as life upon his portmanteau! "Dr. Whitaker, 
 Trinidad." Why, my dear, he's actually 
 going the whole way with us. And a doctor 
 too ! goodness gracious. Just fancy being 
 attended through a fever by a man of that 
 complexion ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, hush, Nora ! ' Marian cried, in 
 genuine alarm. 'He'll overhear you, and 
 you'll hurt his feelings. Besides, you oughtn't 
 to talk so about other people, whether they 
 hear you or whether they don't.' 
 
 ' Hurt his feelings, my dear ! Oh dear no, 
 not a bit of it. I know them better than you 
 do. My dear Marian, these people haven't
 
 IN ALL SHADES 145 
 
 got any feelings ; they've been too mticli 
 accustomed to be laughed at from the time 
 they were babies, ever to have had the 
 chance of acquiring any.' 
 
 ' Then the more shame,' Edward inter- 
 rupted gravely, ' to those who have laughed 
 them out of all self-respect and natural feel- 
 ing. But I don't beheve, for my part, there's 
 anybody on earth who doesn't feel hurt at 
 being ridiculed.' 
 
 'Ah, that's so nice of you to think and 
 talk hke that, Mr. Hawthorn,' Nora answered 
 frankly ; ' but you won't think so, you know, 
 I'm quite certain, after you've been a month 
 or two on shore over in Trinidad.' 
 
 ' Good-morning, ladies and gentlemen,' the 
 captain of the Severn put in briskly, walking 
 up to them as they lounged in a group on the 
 clean-scrubbed quarter-deck — ' good-morning, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ladies and gentlemen. Fine weather to start 
 on a voyage. Are you all going with us ? — 
 Why, bless my heart, if this isn't General 
 Ord ! I sailed with you, sir, fifteen years ago 
 now or more, must be, when I was a second 
 officer in the P. and 0. service. — You don't 
 remember me ; no, I dare say not ; I was only 
 a second officer then, and you sat at the 
 captain's table. But I remember you, sir — 
 I remember you. There's more folks know 
 Tom Fool, the proverb says, than Tom Fool 
 knows ; and no offence meant, General, nor 
 none be taken. And so you're going out 
 with us now, are you? — going out with us 
 now ? Well, you'll sit at the captain's table 
 still, sir, no doubt, you and your party ; and 
 as I'm the captain now, you see, why, I shall 
 have a better chance than I used to have of 
 making your acquaintance.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 147 
 
 The captain laughed heartily as he spoke 
 at his own small wit ; but General Ord drew 
 himself up rather stiffly, and answered in a 
 somewhat severe tone : ' No, I'm not going 
 out with you this journey myself; but my 
 daughter, who has lately married, and her 
 husband here, are just setting out to their 
 new home over in Trinidad.' 
 
 ' In Trinidad,' the jolly captain echoed 
 heartily — ' in Trinidad ! Well, well, beauti- 
 ful island, beautiful, beautiful ! Must mind 
 they don't take too much mainsheet, or catch 
 yellow Jack, or Hve in the marshes, that's all ; 
 otherwise, they'U find it a dehghtful residence. 
 I took out a young sub-heutenant, just gazet- 
 ted, last voyage but two, when they had the 
 yellow Jack awfully bad up at cantonments. 
 He was in a deadly funk of the fever all the 
 way, and always asking everybody questions 
 
 L 2
 
 148 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 about it. The moment he landed, who does 
 he go and meet but an old Irish friend of 
 the family, who was going home by the return 
 steamer. The Irishman rushes up to him 
 and shakes his hand violently, and says he — 
 " Me dear fellow," says he, " yeVe come in 
 the very nick of time. Promotion's certain ; 
 they're dying by thousands. Every day wan 
 of 'em drops off the list ; and all ye've got to 
 do is to hould yer head up, keep from drink- 
 ing any brandy, and don't be frightened ; and, 
 be George, ye'll rise in no time as fast as I 
 have ; and I'm going home this morning a 
 colonel.'" 
 
 The General shuddered slightly. ' Not a 
 pleasant introduction to the country cer- 
 tainly,' he answered in his driest manner. 
 ''But I suppose Trinidad's fairly healthy at 
 present ? '
 
 IN ALL SHADES 149 
 
 ' Healthy ! "Well, yes, well enough as the 
 tropics go, General. — But don't you be afraid 
 of your young people. With health and 
 strength, they'll pull through decently, not a 
 doubt of it. — ^Let me see — let me see ; I must 
 secure 'em a place at my own table. We've 
 got rather an odd lot of passengers this time, 
 mostly ; a good many of 'em have got a very 
 decided touch o' the tar-brush about 'em — a 
 touch o' the tar-brush. There's that woolly- 
 headed nigger fellow over there who's just 
 come aboard ; he's going to Trinidad too ; 
 he's a doctor, he is. We mustn't let your 
 people get mixed up with all that lot, of 
 course ; I'll keep 'em a place nice and snug at 
 my own table.' 
 
 ' Thank you,' the General said, rather more 
 graciously than before. — ' This is my daughter, 
 Captain, Mrs. Hawthorn. And this is my son-
 
 I50 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 in law, Mr. Edward Hawthorn, who's going 
 out to accept a district judgeship over yonder 
 in Trinidad.' 
 
 ' Ha ! ' the jovial captain answered in his 
 bluff voice, dofSng his hat sailor-fashion to 
 Marian and Edward. ' Going to hang up the 
 niggers out in Trinidad, are you, sir ? Going 
 to hang up the niggers ! Well, well, they 
 deserve it all, every man Jack of 'em, the lazy 
 beggars ; they all deserve hanging. A pester- 
 ing set of idle, thieving, hulking vagabonds, 
 as ever came around to coal a ship in har- 
 bour ! I'd judge 'em, I would — ^I'd judge ^em." 
 And the captain pantomimically expressed 
 the exact nature of his judicial sentiments by 
 pressing his own stout bull-neck, just across 
 the windpipe, with his sturdy right hand, till 
 his red and sunburnt face grew even redder 
 and redder with the suggested suspension. 
 
 \ 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 \
 
 IN ALL SHADES 151 
 
 Edward smiled quietly, but answered 
 nothing. 
 
 ' Well, sir,' the captain went on as soon as 
 he had recovered fully from the temporary 
 effects of his self-inflicted strangulation, ' and 
 have you ever been in the West Indies before, 
 or is this your first visit ? ' 
 
 'I was born there,' Edward answered. 
 
 * I'm a Trinidad man by birth ; but I've lived 
 80 long in England, and went there so young, 
 that I don't really recollect very much about 
 my native country. 
 
 ' Mr. Hawthorn's father you may know by 
 name,' the General said, a Httle assertively. 
 
 * He's a son of the Honourable James Haw- 
 thorn, of Agualta Estate, Trinidad.' 
 
 The captain drew back for a moment with 
 a curious look, and scanned Edward closely 
 from head to foot with a remarkably frank
 
 152 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 and maritime scrutiny ; then lie wliistled low 
 to himself for a few seconds, and seemed to be 
 ruminating inwardly upon some very amusing 
 and unusual circumstance. At last he answered 
 slowly, in a more reserved and somewhat em- 
 barrassed tone : ' Oh, yes, I know Mr. Hawthorn 
 of Agualta — know him personally ; well-known 
 man, Mr. Hawthorn of Agualta. Member of 
 the Legislative Council of the island. Fine 
 estate, Agualta — very fine estate indeed, and 
 has one of the largest out-puts of rum and 
 sugar anywhere in the whole West Indies.' 
 
 'I told you so,' Harry Noel murmured 
 parenthetically. 'The governor is coiny. 
 They're all ahke, the whole breed of them. 
 Secretiveness large, acquisitiveness enormous, 
 benevolence and generosity absolutely unde- 
 veloped. When you get to Trinidad, my dear 
 Teddy, bleed him, bleed him ! '
 
 IN ALL SHADED 153 
 
 'Well, well, Mrs. Hawthorn,' the captain 
 said gallantly to Marian, who stood by rather 
 wondering what his sudden change of demea- 
 nour could possibly portend, ' you shall have 
 a seat at my table — certainly, certainly ; you 
 shall have a seat at my table. The General's 
 an old passenger of mine on the P. and 0. ; 
 and I've known Mr. Hawthorn of Agualta 
 Estate ever since I first came upon the West 
 India hners. — And the young lady, is she 
 going too ? ' For Captain Burford, like most 
 others of his craft, had a quick eye for pretty 
 faces, and he had not been long in picking out 
 and noticing Nora's. 
 
 'This is Miss Dupuy, of Orange Grove,' 
 Marian said, drawing her young companion a 
 httle forward. ' Perhaps you know her father 
 too, as you've been going so long to the 
 island.'
 
 154 /^ ALL SHADES 
 
 'What! a daughter of Mr. Theodore 
 Dupuy, of Orange Grove and Pimento Yalley,* 
 the captain replied briskly. 'Mr. Theodore 
 Dupuy 's daughter ! Lord bless my soul, Mr. 
 Theodore Dupuy ! Oh, yes, don't I just know 
 him ! Why, Mr. Dupuy 's one of the most 
 respected and well-known gentlemen in the 
 whole island. Been settled at Orange Grove, 
 the Dupuys have, ever since the old Spanish 
 occupation. — And so you're taking out Mr. 
 Theodore Dupuy's daughter, are you, Mrs 
 Hawthorn.^ Well, well! Taking out Mr. 
 Theodore Dupuy's daughter. That's a capital 
 joke, that is. — Oh, yes, you must all sit at the 
 head of my table, ladies ; and I'll do every- 
 thing that hes in my power to make you 
 comfortable.' 
 
 Meanwhile, Edward and Harry Noel had 
 strolled off for a minute towards the opposite
 
 IN ALL SHADES 155 
 
 end of the deck, where the mulatto gentle- 
 man was standing quite alone, looking down 
 steadily into the deep-blue motionless water. 
 As the captain moved away, Nora Dupuy 
 gave a httle start, and caught Marian Haw- 
 thorn's arm excitedly and suddenly. ' Look 
 there!' she cried — 'Oh, look there, Marian! 
 Do you see Mr. Hawthorn ? Do you see what 
 he's doing ? That brown man over there, with 
 the name on the portmanteau, has turned 
 round and spoken to him, and Mr. Hawthorn's 
 actually held out his hand and is shaking 
 hands with him ! ' 
 
 ' Well.' Marian answered in some surprise, 
 ' I see he is. Why not ? ' 
 
 ' Why not ? My dear, how can you ask 
 me such a question ! Why, of course, because 
 the man's a regular mulatto — a coloured 
 person.'
 
 156 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Marian laughed. ' Eeally, dear,' she 
 answered, more amused than angry, ' you 
 mustn't be so entirely filled up with 
 your foolish little West Indian prejudices. 
 The young man's a doctor, and no doubt a 
 gentleman in education and breeding, and I 
 can't for my part for the life of me see why 
 one shouldn't shake hands with him as well 
 as with any other respectable person.' 
 
 ' Oh, but Marian, you know — a brown 
 man ! — his father and mother ! — the associa 
 tions — no, really ! ' 
 
 Marian smiled again. 'They're coming 
 this way,' she said ; ' we shall soon hear what 
 they're talking about. Perhaps he knows 
 something about your people, or Edward's.' 
 
 Nora looked up quite defiant. 'About 
 my people, Marian ! ' she said almost angrily. 
 ' Why, what can you be thinking of! You
 
 IN ALL SHADES ' 157 
 
 don't suppose, do you, that my people are 
 in the habit of mixing casually with woolly- 
 headed mulattoes ? ' 
 
 She had hardly uttered the harsh words, 
 when the mulatto gentleman walked over 
 towards them side by side with Edward 
 Hawthorn, and lifted his hat courteously to 
 Marian. 
 
 ' My wife,' Edward t^aid, as Marian bowed 
 slightly in return : ' Dr. Whitaker.' 
 
 'I saw your husband's name upon his 
 boxes, Mrs. Hawthorn,' the mulatto gentle- 
 man said with a pleasant smile, and in a soft, 
 clear, cultivated voice ; ' and as my father 
 has the privilege of knowing Mr. Hawthorn 
 of Agualta, over in Trinidad, I took the 
 hberty of introducing myself at once to him. 
 I'm glad to hear that we're to be fellow-pas- 
 sengers together, and that your husband has
 
 158 ' IN ALL SHADES 
 
 really decided to return at last to his native 
 island.' 
 
 ' Thank you,' Marian answered simply, 
 ' We're all looking forward much to our life 
 in Trinidad.' Then, with a little mischievous 
 twinkle in her eye, she turned to Nora. 
 ' This is another of our fellow-passengers, 
 Dr. Whitaker,' she said demurely — ' my 
 friend, Miss Dupuy, whom I'm taking out 
 under my charge — another Trinidadian : you 
 ought to know one another. Miss Dupuy's 
 father lives at an estate called Orange Grove 
 — isn't it, Nora?' 
 
 The mulatto doctor lifted his hat again, 
 and bowed with marked politeness to the 
 blushing white girl. For a second, their 
 eyes met. Dr. Whitaker's looked at the 
 beautiful half-childish face with unmistak- 
 able instantaneous admiration. Nora's flashed
 
 IN ALL SHADES 159 
 
 a little ^angrily, and her nostrils dilated with 
 a proud quiver ; but she said never a word ; 
 she merely gave a chilly bow, and didn't 
 attempt even to offer her pretty little gloved 
 hand to the brown stranger. 
 
 ' I have heard of Miss Dupuy's family 
 by name,' the mulatto answered, speaking 
 to Marian, but looking askance at the same 
 time toward the petulant Nora. ' Mr. Dupuy 
 of Orange Grove is well known throughout 
 the island. I'm glad that we're going to 
 have so much dehghtful Trinidad society on 
 our outward passage.' 
 
 ' Thank him for nothing,' Nora murmured 
 aside to Harry Noel, moving away as she 
 spoke towards Mrs. Ord at the other end 
 of the vessel. ' What impertinence ! Marian 
 ought to have known better than to intro- 
 duce me to him.'
 
 i6o IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ' It's a pity you don't like the coloured 
 gentleman,' Harry Noel put in provokingly. 
 'The appreciation is unfortunately not mu- 
 tual, it seems. He appeared to me to be 
 very much struck with you at first sight, 
 Miss Dupuy, to judge by his manner.' 
 
 Nora turned towards him with a sudden 
 fierceness and haughtiness that fairly sur- 
 prised the easy-going young barrister. ' Mr. 
 Noel,' she said in a tone of angry but sup- 
 pressed indignation, ' how dare you speak to 
 me so about that negro fellow, sir — how dare 
 you? How dare you mention him and me 
 in the same breath together ? How dare you 
 presume to joke with me on such a subject ? 
 Don't speak to me again, pray. You don't 
 know what we West Indians are, or you'd 
 never have ventured to utter such a speech 
 as that to any woman with a single
 
 IN ALL SHADES i6i 
 
 drop of West Indian blood in her whole 
 body.' 
 
 Harry bowed silently and bit his lip ; 
 then, without another word, he moved back 
 slowly toward the other group, and allowed 
 Nora to join Mrs. Ord by the door of the 
 companion-ladder. 
 
 In twenty minutes more, the first warning 
 bell rang for those who were going ashore 
 to get ready for their departure. There was 
 the usual hurried leave-taking on every side ; 
 there was the usual amount of shedding of 
 tears ; there was the usual shouting, and 
 bawhng, and snorting, and puffing ; and there 
 was the usual calm indifference of the ship's 
 officers, moving up and down through all 
 the tearful valedictory groups, as through 
 an ordinary incident of humanity, experi- 
 enced regularly every six weeks of a whole 
 
 VOL. I H
 
 i62 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 lifetime. As Marian and her mother 
 were taking their last farewells, Harry 
 Noel ventured once more timidly to ap- 
 proach Nora Dupuy, and address a few 
 parting words to her in a low under- 
 tone. 
 
 ' I'm sorry I offended you unintentionally 
 just now, Miss Dupuy,' he said quietly. ' I 
 thought the best apology I could offer at the 
 moment was to say nothing just then in 
 exculpation. But I really didn't mean to 
 hurt your feehngs, and I hope we still part 
 friends.' 
 
 Nora held out her small hand to him a 
 trifle reluctantly. ' As you have the grace 
 to apologise,' she said, 'I shall overlook it. 
 Yes, we part friends, Mr. Noel ; I have no 
 reason to part otherwise.' 
 
 ' Then there's no chance for me ? ' Harry
 
 IN ALL SHADES 163 
 
 asked in a low tone, looking straight into her 
 eyes with a searching glance. 
 
 ' No chance,' Nora echoed, dropping her 
 eyes suddenly, but speaking very decidedly. 
 ' You must go now, Mr. Noel ; the second 
 bell's ringing.' 
 
 Harry took her hand once more, and 
 pressed it faintly. ' Good-bye, Miss Dupuy,' 
 he said — ' good-bye — for the present. I dare 
 say we shall meet again before long, some 
 day — in Trinidad.' 
 
 'Oh, no ! ' Nora cried in a low voice, as 
 he turned to leave her. ' Don't do that, 
 Mr. Noel ; don't come out to Trinidad. I 
 told you it'd be quite useless.' 
 
 Harry laughed one of his most teasing 
 laughs. ' My father has property in the 
 West Indies, ]\Iiss Dupuy,' he answered in his 
 usual voice of light badinage, paying her out 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 in her own coin ; ' and I shall probably come 
 over some day to see how the niggers are 
 getting on upon it — that was all I meant. 
 Good-bye — good-bye to you.' 
 
 But his eyes belied what he said, and 
 Nora knew they did as she saw him look 
 back a last farewell from the deck of the 
 retreating little tender. 
 
 ' Any more for the shore — any more for 
 the shore? ' cried the big sailor who rang the 
 bell. ' No more. — Then shove off, cap'n' — to 
 the skipper of the tug-boat. 
 
 In another minute the great anchor was 
 heaved, and the big screw began to revolve 
 slowly through the sluggish water. Next 
 moment, the ship moved from her moorings 
 and was fairly under weigh. Just as she 
 moved, a boat with a telegraph-boy on board 
 rowed up rapidly to her side, and a voice
 
 JN ALL SHADES 165 
 
 from the boat shouted aloud in a sailor's 
 bass : ' Severn^ ahoy ! ' 
 
 'Ahoy! ' answered the ship's officer. 
 
 ' Passenger aboard by the name of Haw- 
 thorn ? We've got a telegram for him.' 
 
 Edward rushed quickly to the ship's side, 
 and answered in his loudest voice : ' Yes. 
 Here I am.' 
 
 ' Passenger aboard by the name of Miss 
 Dupuy ? We've got a telegram for her.' 
 
 ' This is she,' Edward answered. ' How 
 can we get them ? ' 
 
 ' Lower a bucket,' the ship's officer 
 shouted to a sailor. — ' You can put 'em in 
 tliat, boy, can't you ? ' 
 
 The men in the boat caught the bucket, 
 and fastened in the letters rudely with a 
 stone taken from the ballast at the bottom. 
 The screw still continued to revolve as the
 
 i66 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 sailors drew up the bucket hastily. A little 
 water got over the side and wet the telegrams ; 
 but they were both still perfectly legible. 
 Edward unfolded his in wondering silence, 
 while Marian looked tremulously over his 
 right shoulder. It contained just these few 
 short words : 
 
 ' From Hawthorn, Trinidad, to Hawthorx, 
 E.^.S. Severn, Southampton. — For God's sake, 
 don't come out. Eeasons by letter.' 
 
 Marian gazed at it for a moment in speech- 
 less surprise ; then she turned, pale and white, 
 to ^ler husband beside her. ' Oh, Edward,' she 
 cr^ed, looking up at him with a face of terror, 
 ' what on earth can it mean ? What on earth 
 can they wish us not to come out for ? ' 
 
 Edward held the telegram open before his 
 eyes, gazing at it blankly in inexpressible 
 astonishment. ' My darhng,' he said, ' my
 
 IN ALL SHADES 167 
 
 own darling, I haven't the very remotest 
 notion. I can't imagine why on earth they 
 should ever wish to keep us away from them.' 
 
 At the same moment, Nora held her own 
 telegram out to Marian with a little laugh of 
 surprise and amusement. Marian glanced at 
 it and read it hastily. It ran as follows : 
 
 ' From DuPUY, Trinidad^ to Miss Dupuy, 
 E.M.S. Severn^ Southampton. — Don't come out 
 till next steamer. On no account go on board 
 the Severn'
 
 i68 2N ALL SHADES 
 
 CHAPTEE YIIL 
 
 For a few minutes they stood looking blankly 
 at one another in mute astonishment, turning 
 over and comparing the two telegrams to- 
 gether with undecided minds ; then at last 
 Nora broke the silence. ' I tell you what it 
 is.' she said, with an air of profound wisdom ; 
 ' they must have got an epidemic of yellow 
 fever in Trinidad — they're always having it, 
 you know, and nobody minds it, unless of 
 course they die of it, and even then I dare say 
 they don't think much about it. But papa 
 and Mr. Hawthorn must be afraid that if we 
 come out now, fresh from England, we may 
 all of us get it.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 169 
 
 Edward looked once more at the tele- 
 grams very dubiously. ' I don't think that'll 
 do, ]Miss Dupuy,' he said, after re-reading 
 them with a legal scrutiny. ' You see, your 
 father says : "On no account go on board the 
 Severnr Evidently, it's this particular ship 
 he has an objection to ; and perhaps my 
 father's objection may be exactly the same. 
 It's very singular — very mysterious ! ' 
 
 ' Do you think,' Marian suggested, ' there 
 can be anything wrong with the vessel or 
 the machinery? You know, they do say, 
 Edward, that some ship-owners send ships to 
 sea that aren't at all safe or seaworthy. I 
 read such a dreadful article about it a little 
 while ago in one of the papers. Perhaps 
 they think the Severn may go to the bot- 
 tom.' 
 
 ' Or else that there's dynamite on board,'
 
 I70 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Nora put in ; 'or a clockwork thing like the 
 one somebody was going to blow up that 
 steamer with at Hamburg, once, you remem- 
 ber ! Oh, my dear, the bare idea of it makes 
 me quite shudder ! Fancy being blown out 
 of your berth, at dead of night, into the 
 nasty cold stormy water, and having a shark 
 bite you in two across the waist before you 
 were really well awake, and had begun pro- 
 perly to reahse the situation ! ' 
 
 ' Not very likely, either of them,' Edward 
 said. ' This is a new ship, one of the very 
 best on the line, and perfectly safe, except of 
 course in a hurricane, when anything on earth 
 is liable to go down ; so that can't possibly be 
 Mr. Dupuy's objection to the Severn. — And as 
 to the clockwork, you know, Nora, the people 
 who put those things on board steamers, if 
 there are any, don't telegraph out to give
 
 IN ALL SHADES 171 
 
 warning beforehand to the friends of passen- 
 gers on the other side of the Atlantic. No ; 
 for my part, I can't at all understand it. It's 
 a perfect mystery to me, and I give it up 
 entirely.' 
 
 ' Well, what do you mean to do, dear ? ' 
 Marian asked anxiously. ' Go back at once, 
 or go on in spite of it ? ' 
 
 ' I don't think there's any choice left us 
 now, darling. The ship's fairly under weigh, 
 you see ; and nothing on earth would induce 
 them to stop her, once she's started, till we 
 get to Trinidad, or at least to St. Thomas.' 
 
 ' You don't mean to say, Mr. Hawthorn,' 
 Nora cried piteously, ' they'll carry us on now 
 to the end of the journey, whether we want 
 to stop or whether we don't ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, I do. Miss Dupuy. They will, most 
 certainly. I suspect they've got no voice
 
 172 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 themselves in tlie matter. A mail-steamer is 
 under contract to sail from a given port on 
 a given day, and not to stop for anything 
 on earth, except fire or stress of weather, till 
 she lands the mails safely on the other side, 
 according to agreement.' 
 
 ' Well, that's a blessing anyhow ! ' Nora 
 said resignedly ; ' because, if so, it saves us 
 the trouble of thinking anything more about 
 the matter ; and papa can't be angry with me 
 for having sailed, if the captain refuses to 
 send us back, now we've once fairly started. 
 Indeed, for my part, I'm very glad of it, to 
 tell you the truth, because it would have 
 been such a horrid nuisance to have to go 
 on shore again and unpack all one's things 
 just for a fortnight, after all the fuss and 
 hurry we've had already about getting them 
 finished. What a pity the bothering old tele
 
 IN ALL SHADES 173 
 
 grams came at all to keep us in suspense the 
 whole way over ! ' 
 
 ' But suppose there is some dynamite on 
 board,' Marian suggested timidly. ' Don't 
 you think, Edward, you'd better go and ask 
 the captain ? ' 
 
 ' I'll go and ask the captain, by all means, 
 if that's any relief to you,' Edward answered ; 
 ' but I don't think it likely he can throw any 
 particular hght of his own upon the reason 
 of the telegrams.' 
 
 The captain, being shortly found on the 
 bridge, came down at his leisure and in- 
 spected the messages ; hummed and hawed a 
 little dubiously ; smiled to himself with much 
 good-humour ; said it was a confoundedly 
 odd coincidence ; and looked somehow as 
 though he saw the meaning of the two tele- 
 grams at once, but wasn't anxious to impart
 
 174 I^ ^^L SHADES 
 
 his knowledge to any inquiring third party. 
 ' Yellow fever ! ' he said, shrugging his shoul- 
 ders sailor-wise, when Edward mentioned 
 Nora's first suggestion. ' No, no ; don't you 
 beheve it. Tain't yellow fever. Why, nobody 
 who lives in the West Indies ever thinks 
 anything of that, bless you. Besides, you 
 wouldn't get it ; don't you trouble your head 
 about it. You ain't the sort or the build 
 to get it. Men of your temperament never 
 do ketch yellow fever — it don't affect 'em. 
 No, no ; it ain't that, you take my word 
 for it.' 
 
 Marian gently hinted at unseaworthiness ; 
 but at this the good captain laughed her 
 quite unceremoniously in the face. ' Go 
 down ! ' he cried — * go down, indeed ! I'd 
 like to see the hurricane that'd send the 
 Severn spinning to the bottom. No, no ; we
 
 IN ALL SHADES 175 
 
 may get hurricanes, of course — though this 
 isn't the month for them. The rhyme says : 
 " June — too soon ; July — stand by ; Au-gust, 
 you must ; September — remember ; October 
 — all over." Still, in the course of nature 
 we're Hkely enough to have some ugly 
 weather — a capful of wind or so, I mean — 
 nothing to speak of, for a ship of her ton- 
 nage. But I'll bet you a bottle of cham- 
 pagne the hurricane's not alive that'll ever 
 send the Severn to the bottom, and I'll pay 
 it you (if I lose) at the first port the lifeboat 
 puts into after the accident. — Dynamite ! 
 clockwork ! that's all gammon, my dear 
 ma'am, that is ! The ship's as good a ship 
 as ever sailed the Bay o' Biscay, and there's 
 nothing aboard her more explosive tlian the 
 bottle of champagne I hope you'll drink this 
 evening for dinner.'
 
 176 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ' Then we can't be put out ? ' Xora asked, 
 with her most beseeching smile. 
 
 ' My clear lady, not if I knew you were 
 the Queen of England. Once we're off, we're 
 off in earnest, and nothing on earth can ever 
 stop us till we get safely across to St. Thomas 
 —the hand of God, the perils of the sea, and 
 the Queen's enemies alone excepted,' the cap- 
 tain added, quoting ^vith a smile the stereo- 
 typed formula of the bills of lading. 
 
 ' What do you think the telegram means, 
 then ? ' Xora asked again, a httle reheved by 
 this confident assurance. 
 
 The captain once more hummed and 
 hawed, and bit his nails, and looked very 
 awkward. ' Well,' he said slowly, after a 
 minute's internal debate, ' perhaps — perhaps 
 the niggers over yonder may be getting 
 troublesome, you know ; and your family may
 
 IN ALL SHADES 177 
 
 think it an inopportune time for you or Mr. 
 and Mrs. Hawthorn to visit the colony. — All 
 right, Jones, I'm coming in a minute. — You 
 must excuse me, ladies. In sight of land, a 
 cap'n ought always to be at his post on the 
 bridge. See you at dinner. — Good-moming. 
 good-morning.' 
 
 • It seems to me, Edward,' Marian said, as 
 he retreated opportunely, ' the captain knows 
 a good deal more about it than he wants t4j 
 tell us. He was trying to hide something 
 from us ; I'm quite sure he was. — ^Aren't you, 
 Nora ? I do hope there's nothing wrong with 
 the steamer or the machinery ! ' 
 
 •I didn't notice anything pecuhar about 
 him myself/ Edward answered, with a httle 
 hesitation. • However, it's certainly very 
 singular. But as we've got to go on, we may 
 as well go on as confidently as possible, and 
 
 VOL. I, Iff
 
 178 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 think as little as we can about it. The 
 mystery will all be cleared up as soon as we 
 get across to Trinidad.' 
 
 ' If we ever get there ! ' Nora said, half- 
 jesting and half in earnest. 
 
 As she spoke, Dr. Whitaker the mulatto 
 passed close by, pacing up and down the 
 quarter-deck for exercise, to get his sea-legs ; 
 and as he passed her, he turned his eyes once 
 more mutely upon her with that rapid, timid, 
 quickly shifting glance, the exact opposite of 
 a stare, which yet speaks more certainly than 
 anything else can do an instinctive admira- 
 tion. Nora's face flushed again, at least as 
 much with annoyance as with self-conscious- 
 ness. ' That horrid man ! ' she cried petu- 
 lantly, with a little angry dash of her hand, 
 almost before he was well out of earshot. 
 ' How on earth can he have the impertinence
 
 IN ALL SHADES 179 
 
 to go and look at me in that way, I 
 wonder ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, don't, dear ! ' Marian whispered, 
 genuinely alarmed lest the mulatto should 
 overhear her. 'You oughtn't to speak hke 
 that, you know. Of course one feels at once 
 a sort of natural shrinking from black people 
 — one can't help that, I know — it seems to be 
 innate in one. But one oughtn't to let them 
 see it themselves, at any rate. Respect their 
 feehngs, Nora; do, dear, for my sake, I beg of 
 you.' 
 
 ' Oh, it's all very well for you, Marian,' 
 Nora answered, quite aloud, and strumming 
 on the deck with her parasol ; ' but for my 
 part, you know, if there's anything on earth 
 that I can't endure, it's a brown man.' 
 
 ir 2
 
 i8o IN ALL SHADES 
 
 CHAPTEE IX 
 
 All the way across to St. Thomas, endless 
 speculations as to the meaning of the two 
 mysterious telegrams afforded the three 
 passengers chiefly concerned an unusual fund 
 of conversation and plot-interest for an entire 
 voyage. Still, after a while the subject palled a 
 little ; and on the second evening out, in calm 
 and beautiful summer twilight weather, they 
 were all sitting in their own folding-chairs on 
 the after-deck, positively free from any doubts 
 or guesses upon the important question, and 
 solely engaged in making the acquaintance of 
 their fellow-passengers By-and-by, as the
 
 IN ALL SHADES i8i 
 
 shades began to close in, there was a Httle 
 sound of persuasive language — as when one 
 asks a young lady to sing — at the stern end 
 of the swiftly moving vessel ; and then, in a 
 few minutes, somebody in the dusk took a 
 small violin out of a wooden case and began 
 to play a piece of Spohr's. The ladies turned 
 around their chairs to face the musician, and 
 listened carelessly as he went through the pre- 
 liminary scraping and twanging which seems 
 to be inseparable from the very nature of the 
 violin as an instrument. Presently, having 
 tightened the pegs to his own perfect satisfac- 
 tion, the player began to draw his bow rapidly 
 and surely across the strings with the unerring 
 confidence of a practised performer. In two 
 minutes, the hum of conversation had ceased 
 on deck, and all the world of the Severn was 
 bending forward its head eagerly to catch the
 
 1 82 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 liquid notes that floated with such dehcious 
 clearness upon the quiet breathless evening 
 air. Instinctively everybody recognised at 
 once the obvious fact that the man in the 
 stern to whom they were all listening was an 
 accomphshed and admirable violin-player. 
 
 Just at first, the thing that Marian and 
 Nora noticed most in the stranger's playing 
 was his extraordinary brilliancy and certainty 
 of execution. He was a perfect master of the 
 technique oi his instrument, that was evident. 
 But after a few minutes more, they began to 
 perceive that he was something much more 
 than merely that ; he played not only with 
 consummate skill, but also with infinite 
 grace, insight, and tenderness. As they 
 listened, they could feel the man outpouring 
 his whole soul in the exquisite modulations of 
 his passionate music : it was not any cold.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 183 
 
 well -drilled, mechanical accuracy of touch 
 alone ; it was the loving hand of a born 
 musician, wholly in harmony with the master 
 he interpreted, the work he realised, and the 
 strings on which he gave it vocal utterance. 
 As he finished the piece, Edward whispered 
 in a hushed voice to Nora : ' He plays beauti- 
 fully.' And Nora answered with a sudden 
 burst of womanly enthusiasm : ' More than 
 beautifully — exquisitely, divinely.' 
 
 ' You'll sing us something, won't you ? ' — 
 ' Oh, do sing us something ! ' — 'Monsieur will 
 not refuse us ! ' — ' Ah, senor, it is such a great 
 pleasure.' So a little babel of two or three 
 languages urged at once upon the unknown 
 figure silhouetted dark at the stern of the 
 steamer against the paling sunset ; and after 
 a short pause, the unknown figure complied 
 graciously, bowing its acknowledgments to
 
 1 84 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 the surrounding company, and burst out into 
 a song in a glorious rich tenor voice, ahnost the 
 finest Nora and Marian had ever Hstened to. 
 
 ' Enghsh ! ' Nora whispered in a soft tone, 
 as the first words fell upon their ears dis 
 tinctly, uttered without any mouthing in a 
 plain unmistakable native tone. 'I'm quite 
 surprised at it ! I made up my mind, from 
 the intense sort of way he played the violin, 
 that he must be a Spaniard or an Italian, or 
 at least a South American. English people 
 seldom play with all that depth and earnest- 
 ness and fervour.' 
 
 'Hush, hush!' Marian answered under her 
 breath. 'Don't talk while he's singing, please, 
 Nora — it's too delicious.' 
 
 They listened till the song was quite 
 finished, and the last echo of that magnificent 
 voice had died away upon the surface of the 
 still, moonlit waters ; and then Nora said
 
 ja^ all shades 185 
 
 eagerly to Edward : ' Oh, do find out who he 
 is, Mr. Haw^thorn ! Do go and get to know 
 him ! I want to be introduced to him ! 
 What a glorious singer ! and what a splendid 
 violinist ! I never in my hfe heard anything 
 lovelier, even at the opera.' 
 
 Edward smiled, and dived at once into the 
 Uttle crowd at the end of the quarter-deck, in 
 search of the unknown and nameless musi- 
 cian. Nora waited impatiently in her seat to 
 see who the mysterious personage could be. 
 In a few seconds, Edward came back again, 
 bringing with him the admired performer. 
 ' Miss Dupuy was so very anxious to make 
 your acquaintance,' he said, as he drew the 
 supposed stranger forward, ' on the strength 
 of your beautiful playing and singing. — You 
 see. Miss Dupuy, it's a fellow passenger to 
 whom we've already introduced ourselves — 
 Dr. Whitaker.'
 
 i86 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Nora drew back almost imperceptibly at 
 this sudden revelation. In the dusk and from 
 a little distance, she had not recognised their 
 acquaintance of yesterday. But it was indeed 
 the mulatto doctor. However, now she was 
 fairly trapped ; and having thus let herself in 
 for the young man's society for that parti- 
 cular evening, she had good sense and 
 good feehng enough not to let him see, 
 at least too obtrusively, that she did not 
 desire the pleasure of his further acquaint- 
 ance To be sure, she spoke as httle and as 
 coldly as she could to him, in such ordinary 
 phrases of pohte admiration as she felt were 
 called for under these painful circumstances ; 
 but she tried to temper her enthusiasm down 
 to the proper point of chilliness for a clever 
 and well taught mulatto fiddler. (He had 
 been a ' marvellous viohnist ' in her own mind
 
 IN ALL SHADES 187 
 
 five minutes before ; but as he turned out to 
 be of brown blood, she felt now that ' clever 
 fiddler ' was quite good enough for the altered 
 occasion.) 
 
 Dr. Whitaker, however, remained in 
 happy unconsciousness of Xora's sudden 
 change of attitude. He drew over a camp- 
 stool from near the gunwale, and seated him- 
 self upon it just in front of the little group in 
 their folding ship-chairs. ' I'm so glad you 
 like my playing. Miss Dupuy,' he said quietly, 
 turning towards Nora. ' Music always 
 sounds at its best on the water in the evening. 
 And that's such a lovely piece — my pet piece 
 — so much feeling and pathos and dehcate 
 melody in it. Not like most of Spohr : a very 
 unusual work for him ; he's so often wanting, 
 you know, in the sense of melody. 
 
 ' You play charmingly,' Nora answered, in
 
 1 88 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 a languid chilly voice. 'Your song and your 
 playing have given us a great treat, I'm 
 sure, Dr. Whitaker.' 
 
 ' Where have you studied ? ' Marian asked 
 hastily, feeling that Nora wasn't showing so 
 deep an interest in the subject as was natur- 
 ally expected of her. ' Have you taken 
 lessons in Germany or Italy ? ' 
 
 ' A few,' the mulatto doctor replied with a 
 little sigh, ' though not so many as I could 
 have wished. My great ambition would have 
 been to study regularly at the Conservatoire. 
 But I never could gratify my wish in that 
 respect, and I learned most of my fiddling 
 by myself at Edinburgh.' 
 
 ' You're an Edinburgh University man, I 
 suppose ? ' Edward put in. 
 
 ' Yes, an Edinburgh University man. 
 The medical course there, you know, attracts
 
 IN ALL SHADES 189 
 
 SO many men who would like better, in other 
 respects, to go to one of the Enghsh univer- 
 sities. — You're Cambridge yourself, I think, 
 Mr. Hawthorn, aren't you ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, Cambridge.' 
 
 The mulatto sighed again. ' A lovely 
 place ! ' he said — ' a most dehcious place, 
 Cambridge. I spent a charming week there 
 once myself. The calm repose of those 
 grand old avenues behind John's and Trinity 
 charmed me immensely. — A place to sit in 
 and compose symphonies, Mrs. Hawthorn. 
 Nothing that I've seen in England so greatly 
 impressed me with the idea of the grand 
 antiquity of the country — the vast historical 
 background of civihsation, century behind 
 century, and generation behind generation — 
 as that beautiful mingled picture of venerable 
 elms, and mouldering architecture, and close-
 
 I90 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 cropped greensward at the backs of the col- 
 leges. The very grass had a wonderful look 
 of antique culture. I asked the gardener in 
 one of the courts of Trinity how they ever 
 got such velvety carpets for their smooth 
 quadrangles, and the answer the fellow gave 
 me was itself redolent of the traditions of the 
 place. " We rolls 'em and mows 'em, sir," 
 he said, " and we mows 'em and rolls 'em, for 
 a thousand years." ' 
 
 ' What a pity you couldn't have stopped 
 there and composed symphonies, as you liked 
 it so much,' Nora remarked, with hardly 
 concealed sarcasm — ' only then, of course, 
 we shouldn't have had the pleasure of hear- 
 ing you play your violin so beautifully on the 
 Severn this evening.' 
 
 Dr. Whitaker looked up at her quickly 
 with a piercing look. ' Yes,' he rephed ; ' it
 
 IN ALL SHADES 191 
 
 is a pity, for I should have dearly loved it. 
 I'm bound up in music, almost ; it's one of 
 my two great passions. But I had more 
 than one reason for feehng that I ought, if 
 possible, to go back to Trinidad. The first 
 is, that I think every West Indian, and espe- 
 cially every man of my colour ' — he said it 
 quite naturally, simply, and unaffectedly, 
 without pausing or hesitating — ' who has 
 been to Europe for his education, owes it to 
 his country to come back again, and do his 
 best in raising its social, intellectual, and 
 artistic level.* 
 
 'I'm very glad to hear you say so,' Ed- 
 ward replied. ' I think so myself, too, and 
 I'm pleased to find you agree with me in 
 the matter. — And your second reason ? ' 
 
 ' Well, I thought my colour might stand 
 in my way in practice in England — very
 
 192 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 naturally, I'm not surprised at it ; while 
 in Trinidad I might be able to do a great 
 deal of good and find a great many patients 
 amongst my own people.' 
 
 ' But I'm afraid they won't be able to 
 pay you, you know,' Nora interposed. ' The 
 poor black people always expect to be doc- 
 tored for nothing.' 
 
 Dr. Whitaker turned upon her a puzzled 
 pair of simple, honest, open eyes, whose 
 curious glance of mute inquiry could be 
 easily observed even in the dim moonlight. 
 ' I don't think of practising for money,' he 
 said simply, as if it were the most ordinary 
 statement in the world. ' My father has 
 happily means enough to enable me to live 
 without the necessity for earning a livelihood. 
 I want to be of some use in my generation, 
 and to help my own people, if possible, to
 
 IN ALL SHADES 193 
 
 rise a little in the scale of humanity. I shall 
 practise gratuitously among the poorest 
 negroes, and do what I can to raise and 
 better their unhappy condition.' 
 
 For a second, nobody answered a word ; 
 this quiet declaration of an honest self-sacri- 
 fice took them all, even Nora, so utterly by 
 surprise. Then Edward murmured musingly : 
 ' And it was for this that you gave up the 
 prospect of hving at Cambridge, and com- 
 posing symphonies in Trinity gardens ! ' 
 
 The mulatto smiled a deprecating smile. 
 ' Oh,' he cried timidly, ' you mustn't say that. 
 I didn't want to make out I was going to do 
 anything so very grand or so very heroic. 
 Of course, a man must satisfy himself he's 
 doing something to justify his existence in 
 the world ; and much as I love music, I 
 hardly feel as though playing the viohn were 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 in itself a sufficient end for a man to live for. 
 Though I must confess I should very much 
 like to stop in England and be a composer. 
 I've composed one or two little pieces already 
 for the violin, that have been played with 
 some success at pubHc concerts. Sarasate 
 played a small thing of mine last winter at a 
 festival in Vienna. But then, besides, my 
 father and friends live in Trinidad, and I feel 
 that that's the place where my work in hfe 
 is really cut out for me.' 
 
 ' And your second great passion ? ' Ma- 
 rian inquired. ' You said you had a second 
 great passion. What is it, I wonder? — Oh, 
 of course, I see — your profession.' 
 
 (' How could she be so stupid ! ' Nora 
 thought to herself. ' What a silly girl I I'm 
 afraid of my life now, the wretched man'll 
 try to say something pretty.')
 
 IN ALL SHADES 195 
 
 ' Oh, no ; not my profession,' Dr. Whitaker 
 answered smiling. ' It's a noble profession, 
 of course — the noblest and grandest, almost, 
 of all the professions — assuaging and allevi- 
 ating human suffering ; but one looks upon 
 it, for all that, rather as a duty than as a 
 passion. Besides, there's one thing greater 
 even than the alleviation of human suffering, 
 greater than art with all its allurements, 
 greater than anything else that a man can 
 interest himself in — though I know most 
 people don't think so — and that's science — 
 the knowledge of our relations with the 
 universe, and still more of the universe's 
 relations with its various parts. — No, Mrs. 
 Hawthorn ; my second absorbing passion, 
 next to music, and liigher than music, is one 
 that I'm sure ladies won't sympathise with — 
 it's only botany.' 
 
 2
 
 196 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ' Goodness gracious ! ' Nora cried, sur- 
 prised into speech. 'I thought botany was 
 nothing but the most dreadfully hard words, 
 all about nothing on earth that anybody 
 cared for ! ' 
 
 The mulatto looked at her open-eyed with 
 a sort of mild astonishment. ' What ? ' he 
 said. 'All the glorious lilies and cactuses 
 and palms and orchids of our beautiful Trini- 
 dad nothing but hard words that nobody 
 cares for ! All the slender lianas that trail 
 and droop from the huge buttresses of the 
 wild cotton trees ; all the gorgeous trumpet- 
 creepers that drape the gnarled branches of 
 the mountain star- apples with their scarlet 
 blossoms ; all the huge cecropias, that rise 
 aloft with their silvery stems and fan-shaped 
 leaves, towering into the air like gigantic 
 candelabra; all the graceful tree-ferns and
 
 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 197 
 
 feathery bamboos, and glossy-leaved magno- 
 lias and majestic bananas, and luxuriant 
 ginger-worts and clustering arums ; all the 
 breadth and depth of tropical foliage, with 
 the rugged and knotted creepers, festooned 
 in veritable cables of vivid green, from branch 
 to branch among the dim mysterious forest 
 shades — stretched in tight cordage like the 
 rigging yonder from mast to mast, for miles 
 together — oh. Miss Dupuy, is that nothing? 
 Do you call that nothing, for a man to ^^ his 
 loving regard upon? Our own Trinidad is 
 wonderfully rich still in such natural glories ; 
 and it's the hope of doing a little in my spare 
 hours to explore and disentomb them, like 
 hidden treasures, that partly urges me to go 
 back again where manifest destiny calls me, to 
 the land I was born in.' 
 
 The mulatto is always fluent, even when
 
 198 /A' ALL SHADES 
 
 uneducated ; but Dr. Whitaker, learned in all 
 the learning of the schools, and pouring forth 
 his full heart enthusiastically on the subjects 
 nearest and dearest to him, spoke with such 
 a ready, easy eloquence — common enough, in- 
 deed, among south Europeans, and among 
 Celtic Scots and Irish as well, but rare and 
 almost unknown in our colder and more 
 phlegmatic Anglo-Saxon constitutions — that 
 Xora Hstened to him, quite taken aback by 
 the flood of his native rhetoric, and whispered 
 to herself in her own soul : ' Eeally, he talks 
 very well after all — for a coloured person ! ' 
 ' Yes, of course, all those things are very 
 lovely. Dr. Whitaker,' Marian put in, more 
 for the sake of drawing him out — for he was 
 so interesting — than because she really 
 wanted to disagree with him upon the sub- 
 ject. ' But then, that isn't botany. I always
 
 IN ALL SHADES 199 
 
 thought botany was a mere matter of stamens 
 
 and petals, and all sorts of other dreadful 
 technicalities.' 
 
 ' Stamens and petals ! ' the mulatto echoed 
 half contemptuously — ' stamens and petals ! 
 You might as well say art was all a matter 
 of pigments and perspective, or music all a 
 matter of crotchets and quavers, as botany all 
 a matter of stamens and petals. Tliose are 
 only the beggarly elements : the beautifu] 
 pictures, the glorious oratorios, the lovely 
 flowers, are the real things to which in the 
 end they all minister. It's the trees and the 
 plants themselves that interest me, not the 
 mere hfeless jargon of stamens and petals.' 
 
 They sat there late into the night, dis- 
 cussinor things musical and West Indian and 
 otherwise, without any desii'e to move away 
 or cut short the conversation : and Dr.
 
 200 IN All shades 
 
 Whitaker, his reserve now broken, talked on 
 to them hour after hour, doing the hon's 
 share of the conversation, and dehghting 
 them with his transparent easy talk and open- 
 hearted simphcity. He was frankly egotisti- 
 cal, of course — all persons of African blopd 
 always are ; but his egotism, such as it was, 
 took the pleasing form of an enthusiasm about 
 his own pet ideas and pursuits — a love of 
 music, a love of flowers, a love of his pro- 
 fession, and a love of Trinidad, To these 
 favourite notes he recurred fondly again and 
 again, vigorously defending the violin as an 
 exponent of human emotion against Edward's 
 half-insincere expression of preference for 
 wind instruments ; going into raptures to 
 Nora over the wonderful beauty of their 
 common home ; and describing to Marian in 
 vivid language the grandeur of those mar-
 
 LV ALL SHADES 201 
 
 vellous tropical forests whose strange loveli- 
 ness she had never yet with her own eyes 
 beheld. 
 
 ' Picture to yourself,' he said, looking out 
 vaguely beyond the ship on to the star-lit 
 Atlantic, ' a great Gothic cathedral or 
 Egyptian temple — Ely or Karnak wrought, 
 not in freestone or marble, but in Hving trees 
 — with hu^e cvlindrical columns strencrtliened 
 below by projecting buttresses, and support- 
 ing overhead, a hundred feet on high, an 
 unbroken canopy of interlacing foliage. 
 Dense — so dense that only an indistinct 
 glimmer of the sky can be seen here -and 
 there through the great canopy, just as you 
 see Orion's belt over yonder through the fringe 
 of clouds upon the grey horizon ; and even 
 the intense tropical sunlight only reaches the 
 ground at long intervals in httle broken patches
 
 202 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 of subdued paleness. Then there's the solemn 
 silence, weird and gloomy, that produces in 
 one an almost painful sense of the vast, the 
 primeval, the mystical, the infinite. Only the 
 low hum of the insects in the forest shade, 
 the endless multitudinous whisper of the wind 
 amoncr the foliasfe, the faint sound begotten 
 by the tropical growth itself, breaks the im- 
 memorial stillness in our West Indian wood- 
 land. It's a world in which man seems to be 
 a noisy intruder, and where he stands awe- 
 struck before the intense lovehness of nature, 
 in the immediate presence of her unceasing 
 forces.' 
 
 He stopped a moment, not for breath, for 
 it seemed as if he could pour out language 
 without an effort, in the profound enthusiasm 
 of youth, but to take his violin once more 
 tenderly from its case and hold it out, hesita-
 
 LV ALL SHADES 203 
 
 ting, before him. ' Will you let me play you 
 just one more little piece ? ' he asked apolo- 
 getically. 'It's a piece of my own, into 
 which I've tried to put some of the feehngs 
 about these tropical forests that I never could 
 possibly express in words. I call it " Souve- 
 nirs des Lianes." Will you let me play it to 
 you? I shan't be boring you? Thank you 
 — thank you/ 
 
 He stood up before them in the pale light 
 of that summer evening, taU and erect, violin 
 on breast and bow in hand, and began 
 pouring forth from his responsive instrument 
 a slow flood of low, plaintive, mysterious 
 music. It was not difficult to see what had 
 inspired his brain and hand in that strangely 
 weird and expressive piece. The profound 
 shade and gloom of the forest, the great roof 
 of overarchinof fohacre, the flutter of the
 
 204 ^A' ALL SHADES 
 
 endless leaves before the breeze, the confused 
 murmur of the myriad wings and voices of 
 the insects, nay, even the very stillness and 
 silence itself of which he had spoken, all 
 seemed to breathe forth deeply and solemnly 
 on his quivering fiddle. It was a triumph of 
 art over its own resources. On the organ or 
 the flute, one would have said beforehand, 
 such effects as these might indeed be obtained, 
 but surely never, never on the violin. Yet 
 in Dr. Whitaker's hand that scraping bow 
 seemed capable of expressing even what he 
 himself had called the sense of the vast, the 
 primeval, and the infinite. They listened all 
 in hushed silence, and scarcely so much as 
 dared to breathe while the soft pensive 
 cadences still floated out solemnly across the 
 calm ocean. And when he had finished, they 
 sat for a few minutes in perfect silence.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 205 
 
 rendering the performer that instinctive 
 homage of mute applause which is so far 
 more really eloquent than any mere formal 
 and conventional expression of thanks ' for 
 your charming playing.' 
 
 As they sat so, each musing quietly over 
 the various emotions aroused within them by 
 the mulatto's forest echoes, one of the white 
 gentlemen in the stern, a young English 
 officer on his way out to join a West Indian 
 regiment, came up suddenly behind them, 
 clapped his hand familiarly on Edward's back, 
 and said in a loud and cheerful tone : ' Come 
 along, Hawthorn ; we've had enough of this 
 music now — thank you very much, Dr. 
 Thingummy — let's all go down to the saloon, 
 I say, and have a game of nap or a quiet 
 rubber.' 
 
 Even Nora felt in her heart as thoujih she
 
 2o6 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 had suddenly been recalled by that untimely 
 voice from some higher world to this vulgar, 
 commonplace little planet of ours, the young 
 officer had broken in so rudely on her silent 
 reverie. She drew her dainty white lamb's- 
 wool wrapper closer around her shoulders 
 with a faint sigh, slipped her hand gently 
 through Marian's arm, and moved away, 
 slowly and thoughtfully, toward the com- 
 panion-ladder. As she reached the doorway, 
 she turned round, as if half ashamed of her 
 own graciousness, and said in a low and 
 genuine voice : ' Thank you. Dr. Whitaker — 
 thank you very much indeed. We've so 
 greatly enjoyed the treat you've given us.' 
 
 The mulatto bowed and said nothing ; 
 but instead of retiring to the saloon with the 
 others, he put his violin case quietly under 
 his arm, and walking alone to the stern of
 
 IN ALL SHADES 207 
 
 the vessel, leant upon the gunwale long and 
 mutely, looking over with all his eyes deep 
 and far into the silent, heaving, moonht 
 water. The sound of Nora's voice thanking 
 him reverberated long through all the echo- 
 ing chambers of his memory.
 
 2o8 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 It is a truism nowadays, in tliis age of travel- 
 ling, tliat you see a great deal more of people 
 in a few weeks on board ship at sea together 
 than you would see in a few years of that 
 vacant calling and dining and attending 
 crushes which we ordinarily speak of as 
 society. Nora Dupuy and the two Hawthorns 
 certainly saw a great deal more of Dr. 
 Whitaker during their three weeks on board 
 the Severn than they would ever have seen of 
 him in three years of England or of Trinidad. 
 Nora had had the young man's acquaintance 
 thrust upon her by circumstances, to be sure ;
 
 IN ALL SHADES 209 
 
 but as the Hawthorns sat and talked a great 
 deal with him, she was compelled to do so 
 likewise, and she had too much good feehng 
 to let him see very markedly her innate pre- 
 judice against his colour. Besides, she ad- 
 mitted even to herself that Dr. Whitaker, for 
 a brown man, was really a very gentlemanly, 
 well-informed person — quite an exceptional 
 mulatto, in fact, and as such, to be admitted 
 to the position of a gentleman by courtesy, 
 much as GuUiver was excepted by the 
 Houyhnhnms from the same category of utter 
 reprobation as the ordinary Yahoos of their 
 own country. 
 
 Most of the voyage was as decently calm 
 as any one can reasonably expect from the 
 North Atlantic. There were the usual epi- 
 sodes of flying-fish and Mother Carey's 
 chickens, and the usual excitement of a daily 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 2IO IN ALL SHADES 
 
 sweepstake on the length of the ship's run ; 
 but, on the whole, the only distinct land- 
 marks of time for the entire three weeks 
 between Southampton and St. Thomas were 
 breakfast, luncheon, dinner, and bedtime. 
 The North Atlantic, whatever novelists may- 
 say, is not a romantic stretch of ocean ; and 
 in spite of prepossessions to the contrary, a 
 ship at sea is not at all a convenient place for 
 the free exercise of the noble art of flirting. 
 It lacks the needful opportunities for retire- 
 ment from the full blaze of public observa- 
 tion to shy corners ; it is far too exposed, and 
 on the whole too unstable also. Altogether, 
 the voyage was mostly a monotonous one, 
 which is equivalent to saying that it was safe 
 and comfortable ; for the only possible break 
 in the ordinary routine of a sea-passage must 
 necessarily be a fire on board or a collision
 
 IN ALL SHADES 211 
 
 with a rival steamer. However, about two 
 days out from St. Thomas, there came a Httle 
 rehef from the tedium of the daily situation ; 
 and the relief assumed the unpleasant form of 
 a genuine West Indian hurricane. 
 
 Nora had never before seen anything hke 
 it ; or, at any rate, if she had, she had clean 
 forgotten all about it. Though the captain 
 had declared it was ' too soon ' for hurricanes, 
 this was, in fact, a very fine tropical tornado 
 of the very fiercest and yeastiest description. 
 About two o'clock in the afternoon, the pas- 
 sengers were all sitting out on deck, when the 
 sea, till then a dead calm, began to be faintly 
 ruffled by httle whiffs and spurts of wind, 
 which raised here and there tiny patches of 
 wavelets, scarcely perceptible to the blunt 
 vision of the unaccustomed landsman. But 
 the experienced eye of a sailor could read in 
 
 p 2
 
 212 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 it at once a malignant hint of the coming 
 tempest. Presently, the breeze freshened 
 with extraordinary rapidity, and before ^nq 
 o'clock, the cyclone had burst upon them in 
 all its violence. The rush of a mighty gale 
 was heard through the rigging, swaying and 
 bending the masts like saphng willows before 
 the autumn breezes. The waves, lashed into 
 fury by the fierce and fitful gusts of wind, 
 broke ever and anon over the side of the 
 vessel ; and the big Severn tossed about help- 
 lessly before the frantic tempest like the 
 veriest cockboat in an angry sea upon a 
 northern ocean. Of course, at the first note 
 of serious danger, the passengers were all 
 ordered below to the saloon, where they sat 
 in mute suspense, the women pale and trem- 
 bling, the men trying to look as if they cared 
 very little about it, while the great ship rolled
 
 IN ALL SHADES 213 
 
 and tossed and pitched and creaked and 
 rattled in all her groaning timbers beneatli 
 the mad frenzy of that terrific commotion. 
 
 Just as they were being turned ofi" the 
 decks to be penned up down-stairs like so 
 many helpless sheep. in the lower cabin, Nora 
 Dupuy, who had been standing with the Haw- 
 thorns and Dr. Whitaker, watching the huge 
 and ever-increasing waves bursting madly 
 over the side of the vessel, happened to 
 drop her shawl at starting on to the deck 
 beside the companion-ladder. At that very 
 moment, a bigger sea than any they had yet 
 encountered broke with shivering force 
 as^ainst the broadside of the steamer, and 
 swept across the deck in a drowning flood 
 as though it would carry everything bodily 
 before it. ' Make haste, there ! ' the captain 
 called out imperatively. — ' Steward, send 'em
 
 214 IN ^LL SHADES 
 
 all down below, this minute. I shouldn't be 
 surprised if before night we were to have a 
 capful of nasty weather.' 
 
 But even as he spoke, the wave, which 
 had caught Nora's shawl and driven it over 
 to the leeward side, now in its reflux sucked 
 it back again swiftly to windward, and left it 
 lying all wet and matted against the gunwale 
 in a mass of disorder. Dr. Whitaker jumped 
 after it instinctively, and tried to catch it 
 before another wave could carry it overboard 
 altogether. ' Oh, pray, don't trouble about 
 it,' Nora cried, in hasty deprecation. ' It isn't 
 worth it. Take care, or you'll get wet 
 through and through yourself before you 
 know it ! ' 
 
 ' The man's a fool,' the unceremonious 
 captain called out bluntly from his perch 
 above. ' Get wet indeed ! If another sea
 
 \ 
 
 IN ALL SHADES 215 
 
 like that strikes the ship, it'll wash him clean 
 overboard. — Come back, sir ; I tell you, come 
 back ! No one but a sailor can keep his feet 
 properly against the force of a sea like that 
 one ! ' 
 
 Nora and the few other passengers who 
 had still remained on deck stood trembling 
 under shelter of the glazed-in companion- 
 ladder, wondering whether the rash mulatto 
 would really carry out his foolhardy endea- 
 vour to recover the wrapper. The sailor 
 stood by, ready to batten down the hatches as 
 soon as the deck was fairly cleared, and wait- 
 ing impatiently for the last lingerer. But 
 Dr. Whitaker took not the shcfhtest notice of 
 captain or sailor, and merely glanced back at 
 Nora with a quiet smile, as if to reassure 
 her of his perfect safety. He stood by the 
 gunwale, just clutching at the shawl, in the
 
 2i6 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 very act of recovering it, when a second sea, 
 still more violent than the last, struck the 
 ship once more full on the side, and swept 
 the mulatto helplessly before it right across 
 the quarter-deck. It dashed him with terrific 
 force against the bulwarks on the opposite 
 side ; and for a moment, Nora gave a scream 
 of terror, imagining it would carry him over- 
 board with its sudden flood. The next second, 
 the ship righted itself, and they saw the 
 young doctor rising to his feet once more, 
 bruised and dripping, but still not seriously 
 or visibly injured. The sea had washed the 
 shawl once more out of his grasp, with the 
 force of the shock ; and instead of rushing 
 back to the shelter of the ladder, he tried 
 even now to recover it a second time from 
 the windward side, where the recoil had 
 again capriciously carried it. ' The shawl,
 
 IN ALL SHADES 217 
 
 the shawl ! ' he cried excitedly, ghding once 
 more across the wet and shppery decks as 
 she lurched anew, in the foohsh effort to 
 catch the worthless wrapper. 
 
 ' Confound the man ! ' the captain roared 
 from his place on the bridge. ' Does he think 
 the Company's going to lose a passenger's life 
 for nothing, just to satisfy his infernal polite- 
 ness ! — Go down, sir — go down, this minute, 
 I tell you ; or else, by jingo, if you don't, I 
 shall have you put in irons at once for the 
 rest of the voyage.' 
 
 The mulatto looked up at him with a 
 smile and nodded cheerfully. He held up his 
 left hand proudly above his head, with the 
 dripping shawl now waving in his grasp Hke 
 a much bedraggled banner, while wdth his 
 right he gripped a rope firmly and steadily, 
 to hold his own against the next approaching
 
 2i8 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 billow. In a second, the big sea was over 
 him once more ; and till the huge wall of 
 water had swept its way across the entire 
 breadth of the vessel, Nora and Marian 
 couldn't discover whether it had dashed him 
 bodily overboard or left him still standing 
 by the windward gunwale. There was a 
 pause of suspense while one might count 
 twenty ; and then, as the vessel rolled once 
 more to port, Dr. Whitaker's tall figure could 
 be seen, still erect and grasping the cable, 
 with the shawl triumphantly flourished, even 
 so, in his disengaged hand. The next instant, 
 he was over at the ladder, and had placed the 
 wet and soaking wrapper back in the hands 
 of its original possessor. 
 
 'Dr. Whitaker,' Nora cried to him, half 
 laughing and half pale with terror, ' I'm very 
 angry with you. You had no right to imperil
 
 m ALL SHADES 219 
 
 your life like that for nothing better than a 
 bit of a wrapper. It was awfully wrong of 
 you ; and I'll never w^ear the shawl again as 
 long as I live, now that you've brought it 
 back to me at the risk of drowning.' 
 
 The mulatto, smiling unconcernedly in 
 spite of his wetting, bowed a little bow of 
 quiet acquiescence. ' I'm glad to think. Miss 
 Dupuy,' he replied in a low voice, ' that you 
 regard my life as so w^ell worth preserving. — 
 But did you ever before in all your days see 
 anything so glorious as those monstrous 
 billows ! ' 
 
 Nora bit her hp tacitly, and answered 
 nothing for a brief moment. Then she added 
 merely : ' Thank you for your kindness,' in a 
 constrained voice, and turned below into the 
 crow^ded dining saloon. Dr. Whitaker did 
 not rejoin them ; he went back to his own
 
 220 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 state-room, to put on some dry clothes after 
 his foolhardy adventure, and think of Nora's 
 eyes in the solitude of his cabin. 
 
 There is no position in life more helplessly 
 feeble for grown-up men and women than 
 that of people battened down in a ship at sea 
 in the midst of a great and dangerous tem- 
 pest. On deck, the captain and the officers, 
 cut off from all communication with below, 
 know how the storm is going and how the 
 ship is weathering it ; but the unconscious 
 passengers in their crowded quarters, treated 
 like children by the rough seafaring men, can 
 only sit below in hopeless ignorance, waiting 
 to learn the fate in store for them when the 
 tempest wills it. And indeed, the hurricane 
 that night was quite enough to make even 
 strong men feel their own utter and abject 
 powerlessness. From the moment they were
 
 IN ALL SHADES 221 
 
 all battened down in the big saloon, after the 
 first fresh squall, the storm burst in upon 
 them in real earnest with terrific and ever- 
 increasing violence. The wind howled and 
 whistled fiercely through the ropes and rig- 
 ging. The ship bounced now on to the steep 
 crest of a swelling billow ; now wallowed 
 helplessly in the deep trough that intervened 
 between each and its mad successor. The 
 sea seemed to dash in upon the side every 
 second with redoubled intensity, sweeping 
 through the scupper holes with a roar hke 
 thunder. The waves crashed down upon the 
 battened skyhghts in bhnding deluges. Every 
 now and then they could hear the cracking 
 of a big timber — some spar or boom torn off 
 from the masts, hke rotten branches from a 
 dead tree, by the mighty force of the 
 irresistible cyclone. Whirhng and roaring
 
 222 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 and sputtering and rattling and creaking, 
 the storm raged on for hour after hour ; 
 and the pale and frightened women, sitting 
 huddled together in little groups on the 
 crimson velvet cushions of the stuffy saloon, 
 looked at one another in silent awe, clasping 
 each other's hands with bloodless fingers, by 
 way of companionship in their mute terror. 
 From time to time they could just overhear, 
 in the lulls between the great gusts, the 
 captain's loud voice shouting out inaudible 
 directions to the sailors overhead ; and the 
 engineer's bell was rung over and over 
 again, with bewildering frequency, to stop 
 her, back her, ease her, steady her, or 
 put her head once more bravely against 
 the face of the ever-shifting and shattering 
 storm. 
 
 Hour after hour went by slowly, and still
 
 IN ALL SHADES 223 
 
 nobody stirred from the hushed saloon. At 
 eleven all hghts were usually put out, with 
 Spartan severity ; but this night, in con- 
 sideration of the hurricane, the stewards 
 left them burning still : they didn't know, 
 they said, when they might be wanted for 
 prayers, if the ship should begin to. show 
 signs of sudden foundering. So the pas 
 sengers sat on still in the saloon together, till 
 four o'clock began to bring back the dayhght 
 again with a lurid glare away to eastward. 
 Then the first fury of the hurricane began to 
 abate a little — a very little ; and the seas 
 crashed a trifle less frequently against the 
 thick and solid plate-glass of the sealed sky- 
 lights. Edward at last persuaded Marian 
 and Nora to go down to their staterooms 
 and try to snatch a short spell of sleep. The 
 danger was over how, he said, and they might
 
 224 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 fairly venture to recover a bit from the long 
 terror of that awful night. 
 
 As they went staggering feebly along the 
 unsteady corridors below, hghted by the dim 
 lamps as yet unextinguished, they happened 
 to pass the door of a state-room whence, to 
 their great surprise, in the midst of that 
 terrible awe-inspiring hurricane, the notes 
 of a violin could be distinctly heard, ming- 
 ling strangely in a weird harmony with the 
 groaning of the wind and the ominous 
 creaking of the overstrained and rumbling 
 timbers. The sounds were not those of a 
 regular piece of studied music ; they were 
 mere fitful bars and stray snatches of tem- 
 pestuous melody, that imitated and registered 
 the inarticulate music of the whirlwind itself 
 even as it passed wildly before them. Nora 
 paused a moment beside the half-open door.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 225 
 
 ' Why,' slie whispered to Marian in an awe- 
 struck undertone, clutching convulsively at 
 the hand-rail to steady herself, ' it must be 
 Dr. Whitaker. He's actually playing his 
 violin to himself in the midst of all this 
 awful uproar ! ' 
 
 'It is,' Edward Hawthorn answered con- 
 fidently. ' I know his state-room — that's the 
 number.' 
 
 He pushed the half-open door a little 
 farther ajar, and peeped inside with sudden 
 curiosity. There on the bunk sat the mulatto 
 doctor, unmoved amid the awful horse-play 
 of the careering elements, with his viohn in 
 his hands, and a little piece of blank paper 
 ruled with pencilled music-lines pinned up 
 roughly against the wall of the cabin beside 
 him. He started and laughed a little at the 
 sudden apparition of Edward Hawthorn's 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 head within the doorway. ' Ah,' he said, 
 pointing to a few scratchy pencil-marks on 
 the httle piece of ruled paper, ' you see, Mr. 
 Hawthorn, I couldn't sleep, and so I've been 
 amusing myself with a fit of composing. I'm 
 catching some fresh ideas for a piece from the 
 tearing wind and the hubbub of the breakers. 
 Isn't it grand, the music of the storm ! I 
 shall work it up by-and-by, no doubt, into 
 a httle hurricane symphony. — Listen, here — 
 listen.' And he drew his bow rapidly across 
 the strings with skilful fingers, and brought 
 forth from the violin some few bars of a 
 strangely wild and storm-hke melody, that 
 seemed to have caught the very spirit of the 
 terrible tornado still raging everywhere so 
 madly around them. 
 
 ' Has the man no feehngs,' Nora exclaimed 
 with a shudder to Marian, outside, ' that he
 
 IN ALL SHADES 227 
 
 can play his fiddle in this storm, like Nero or 
 somebody when Eome was burning ! ' 
 
 ' I think,' Marian said, with a httle sigh, 
 ' he has some stronger overpowering feeling 
 underneath, that makes him think nothing of 
 the hurricane or anything else, but keeps him 
 wrapped up entirely in its own circle.' 
 
 Next day, when the sea had gone do^vn 
 somewhat, and the passengers had begun to 
 struggle up on deck one by one with palhd 
 faces, Dr. Whitaker made his appearance 
 once more, clothed and in his right mind, and 
 handed Nora a little roll of manuscript music. 
 Nora took it and glanced carelessly at the 
 first page. She started when she saw it was 
 inscribed in a round and careful copper-plate 
 hand — 'To Miss Dupuy. — Hurricane Sym- 
 phony. By W. Clarkson Whitaker, M.B., 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Mus. Bac' Nora read hastily tliroiigh the 
 first few bars — the soughing and freshening 
 of the wind in its earher gusts, before the 
 actual tempest had yet swept wildly over 
 them — and murmured half aloud : ' It looks 
 very pretty — very fine, I mean. I should like 
 some day to hear you play it.' 
 
 ' If you would permit me to prefix your 
 name to the piece when it's published in Lon- 
 don,' the mulatto doctor said with an anxious 
 air — 'just as I've prefixed it there at the 
 head of the title-page — I should be very 
 deeply obhged and grateful to you.' 
 
 Nora hesitated a moment. A brown man ! 
 Her name on the first page of his printed 
 music I What would people say in Trinidad ? 
 And yet, what excuse could she give for an- 
 swering no? She pretended for a while to 
 be catching back her veil, that the wind
 
 IN ALL SHADES 229 
 
 blew about her face and hair, to gain time 
 for consideration ; then she said with a smile 
 of apology : ' It would look so conceited of 
 me, you know — wouldn't it, Dr. Whitaker ? 
 as if I were setting myself up to be some great 
 one, to whom people were expected to dedi- 
 cate music' 
 
 The mulatto's face fell a little with ob- 
 vious disappointment ; but he answered 
 quietly ; ' As you will, Miss Dupuy. It was 
 somewhat presumptuous of me, perhaps, to 
 think you would accept a dedication from me 
 on so short an acquaintance.' 
 
 Nora's cheeks coloured quickly as she re- 
 plied with a hasty Voice ; '0 no. Dr. Whit- 
 aker ; I didn't mean that — indeed, I didn't. 
 It's very kind of you to think of putting my 
 name to your beautiful music. If you look 
 at it that way, I shall ask you as a personal
 
 230 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 favour to print that very dedication upon it 
 when you get it pubHshed in London.' 
 
 Dr. Whitaker's eye hghted up with un- 
 expected pleasure, and he answered, ' Thank 
 you,' slowly and softly. But Nora said to 
 herself in her own heart : ' Goodness gracious, 
 now, just out of politeness to this clever 
 brown man, and because I hadn't strength of 
 mind to say no to him, I've gone and put my 
 foot in it terribly. What on earth will papa 
 say about it when he comes to hear of it ! I 
 must try and keep the piece away from him. 
 That is the sort of thing that's sure to happen 
 to one when one once begins knowing brown 
 people ! '
 
 IN ALL SHADES 231 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Ox the morning when the Severn was to 
 reach Trinidad, everybody was up betimes 
 and eagerly looking for the expected land. 
 Nora and Marian went up on deck before 
 breakfast, and there found Dr. Whitaker, 
 opera-glass in hand, scanning the horizon for 
 the first sight of his native island. ' I haven't 
 seen it or my dear father,' he said to Marian, 
 ' for nearly ten years, and I can't tell you how 
 anxious I am once more to see him. I wonder 
 whether he'll have altered much ! But there 
 — ten years is a long time. After ten years, 
 one's pictures of home and friends begin to
 
 232 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 get terribly indefinite. Still, I sliall know 
 him — I'm sure I shall know him. He'll 
 be on the wharf to welcome us in, and 
 I'm sure I shall recognise his dear old face 
 
 agam.' 
 
 ' Your father's very well known in the 
 island, the captain tells me,' Marian said, 
 anxious to show some interest in what inte- 
 rested him so much. ' I believe he was very 
 influential in helping to get slavery abolished.' 
 
 'He was,' the young doctor answered, 
 kindling up afresh with his ever-ready enthu- 
 siasm — ' he was ; very influential. Mr. Wil- 
 berforce considered that my father, Eobert 
 Whitaker, was one of his most powerful 
 coloured supporters in any of the colonies. 
 I'm proud of my father, Mrs. Hawthorn — 
 proud of the part he bore in the great revo- 
 lution which freed my race. I'm proud to
 
 IN ALL SHADES 233 
 
 think that I'm the son of such a man as Eobert 
 Whitaker.' 
 
 'Now, then, ladies,' the captain put in 
 dryly, coming upon them suddenly from be- 
 hind ; ' breakfast's ready, and you won't sight 
 Trinidad, I take it, for at least another fifty 
 minutes. Plenty of time to get your break- 
 fast quietly and comfortably, and pack your 
 traps up, before you come in sight of the 
 Port-o'-Spain hghthouse.' 
 
 After breakfast, they all hurried up on 
 deck once more, and soon the grey peaks 
 and rocky sierras of Trinidad began to 
 heave in sight straight in front of them. 
 Slowly the land grew closer and closer, 
 till at last the port and town lay full in 
 sight before them. Dr. Whitaker was over- 
 flowing with excitement as they reached 
 the wharf. 'In ten minutes,' he cried to
 
 234 !N ALL SHADES 
 
 Marian—' in ten minutes, I shall see my dear 
 father.' 
 
 It was a strange and motley scene, ever 
 fresh and interesting to the new-comer from 
 Europe, that first glimpse of tropical life from 
 the crowded deck of an ocean steamer. The 
 Severn stood off, waiting for the gangways to 
 be lowered on board, but close up to the high 
 wooden pier of the lively, bustling little har- 
 bour. In front lay the busy wharf, all alive 
 with a teeming swarm of black faces — men in 
 light and ragged jackets, women in thin white 
 musHns and scarlet turbans, children bare- 
 footed and half naked, lying sprawling idly 
 in the very eye of the sun. Behind, white 
 houses with green Venetian blinds ; waving 
 palm-trees ; tall hills ; a blazing pale blue 
 sky ; a great haze of light and shimmer and 
 glare and fervour. All round, boats full of
 
 IN ALL SHADES 235 
 
 noisy negroes, gesticulating, shouting, swear- 
 ing, laughing, and showing their big teeth 
 every second anew in boisterous merriment. 
 A general pervading sense of bustle and life, 
 all meaningless and all ineffectual ; much 
 noise and little labour ; a ceaseless chatter- 
 ing, as of monkeys in a menagerie ; a pur 
 poseless running up and down on the pier 
 and 'longshore with wonderful gesticulations ; 
 a babel of inarticulate sounds and cries and 
 shouting and gigghng. Nothing of it all 
 clearly visible as an individual fact at first ; 
 only a confused mass of heads and faces and 
 bandanas and dresses, out of which, as the 
 early hubbub of arrival subsided a httle, 
 there stood forth prominently a single fore- 
 most figure — the figure of a big, heavy, oily, 
 fat, dark mulatto, grey-haired and smooth- 
 faced, dressed in a dirty white hnen suit, and
 
 236 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 waving his soiled silk pocket-handkerchief 
 ostentatiously before the eyes of the assem- 
 bled passengers. A supple, vulgar, oleagi- 
 nous man altogether, with an astonishing air 
 of conceited self-importance, and a profound 
 consciousness of the admiring eyes of the 
 whole surrounding negro populace. 
 
 ' How d'ye do, captain ? ' he shouted aloud 
 in a clear but thick and slightly negro voice, 
 mouthing his words with much volubility in 
 the true semi-articulate African fashion. 
 ' Glad to see de Severn has come in puncshual 
 to her time as usual. Good ship, de Severn ; 
 neber minds storms or nuffin. — Well, sah, who 
 have you got on board ? I've come down to 
 meet de doctor and Mr. Hawtorn. Trinidad 
 is proud to welcome back her children to her 
 shores agin. Got 'em on board, captain? — 
 got 'em on board, sah ? '
 
 IN ALL SHADES ^yj 
 
 ' All right, Bobby,' the captain answered, 
 with easy famiharity. ' Been having a pull at 
 the mainsheet this morning ? — Ah, I thought 
 so. I thought you'd taken a cargo of rum 
 aboard. Ah, you sly dog ! You've got the 
 look of it.' 
 
 ' Massa Bobby, him doan't let de rum 
 spile in him cellar,' a ragged fat negress 
 standing by shouted out in a stentorian voice. 
 ' Him know de way to keep him from spihn', 
 so pour him down him own troat in time — eh, 
 Massa Bobby ? ' 
 
 ' Eum,' the oily mulatto responded cheer- 
 fully, but with great dignity, raising his fat 
 brown hand impressively before him — ' rum 
 is de staple produck an' chief commercial 
 commodity of de great and ilourishin' island 
 of Trinidad. To drink a moderate quantity 
 of rum every mornin' before brekfuss is de
 
 238 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 best way of encouragin' de principal manu- 
 facture of dis island. I do my duty in dat 
 respeck, I flatter myself, as faithfully as any 
 pusson in de whole of Trinidad, not exceptin' 
 His Excellency de Governor, who ought to 
 set de best example to de entire community. 
 As de recognised representative of de coloured 
 people of dis colony, I feel bound to teach 
 dem to encourage de manufacture of rum by 
 my own pussonal example an' earnest endea- 
 vour.' And he threw back his greasy neck 
 playfully in a pantomimic representation of 
 the act of drinking off a good glassful of 
 rum-and-water. 
 
 The negroes behind laughed immoderately 
 at this sally of the man addressed as Bobby, 
 and cheered him on with loud vociferations. 
 ' Evidently,' Edward said to Nora, with a face 
 of some disgust, 'this creature is the char-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 239 
 
 tered buffoon and chief jester to the whole 
 of Trinidad. They all seem to recognise 
 him and laugh at him, and I see even the 
 captain himself knows him well of old, evi- 
 dently.' 
 
 'Bless your soul, yes,' the captain said, 
 overhearing the remark. ' Everybody in the 
 island knows Bobby. Good-natured old man, 
 but conceited as a peacock, and foohsh too. — 
 Everybody knows you here,' raising his voice, 
 'don't they, Bobby?' 
 
 The grey-haired mulatto took off liis 
 broad-brimmed Panama hat and bowed 
 profoundly. ' I flatter myself,' he said, 
 looking round about him complacently on 
 the crowd of negroes, ' der isn't a better 
 known man in de whole great an' flour- 
 ishin' island of Trinidad dan Bobby Whit- 
 aker.'
 
 240 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 Edward and Marian started suddenly, 
 and even Nora gave a little sliiver of sur- 
 prise and disappointment. 'Whitaker,' Ed- 
 ward repeated slowly — ' Whitaker — Bobby 
 Wliitaker! — You don't mean to tell us, surely, 
 captain, that tliat man's our Dr. Wliitaker's 
 father ! ' 
 
 ' Yes, I do,' the captain answered, 
 smilino- grimly. ' That's his father. — Dr. 
 Whitaker ! hi, you, sir ; where have you 
 got to ? Don't you see ? — there's your 
 father.' 
 
 Edward turned at once to seek for him, 
 full of a sudden unspoken compassion. He 
 had not far to seek. A little way off, standing 
 irresolutely by the gunwale, with a strange 
 terrified look in his handsome large eyes, and 
 a painful twitching nervously evident at the 
 tremblincf corners of his full mouth, Dr.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 241 
 
 Whitaker gazed intently and speechlessly at 
 the fat mulatto in the white Unen suit. It 
 was clear that the old man did not yet re- 
 cognise his son; but the son had recognised 
 his father instantaneously and unhesitatingly, 
 as he stood there playing the buffoon in 
 broad dayhght before the whole assembled 
 ship's company. Edward looked at the poor 
 young fellow with profound commiseration. 
 Never in his life before had he seen shame 
 and humihation more legibly written on a 
 man's very Hmbs and features. The unhappy 
 young mulatto, thunderstruck by the blow, 
 had collapsed entirely. It was too terrible 
 for him. Coming in, fresh from his English 
 education, full of youthful hopes and vivid 
 enthusiasms, proud of the father he had more 
 than haK forgotten, and anxious to meet once 
 more that ideal picture he had carried away 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 242 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 with him of the liberator of Trinidad — here 
 he was met, on the very threshold of his na- 
 tive island, by this horrible living contradic- 
 tion of all his fervent fancies and imaginings. 
 The Eobert Whitaker he had once known 
 faded away as if by magic into absolute 
 nonentity, and that voluble, greasy, self-satis- 
 fied, buffoonish old brown man was the only 
 thing left that he could now possibly call 
 ' my father.' 
 
 Edward pitied him far too earnestly to 
 obtrude just then upon his shame and sorrow. 
 But the poor mulatto, meeting his eyes acci- 
 dentally for a single second, turned upon him 
 such a mutely appealing look of profound 
 anguish, that Edward moved over slowly 
 toward the grim captain and whispered to 
 him in a low undertone : ' Don't speak to 
 that man Whitaker again, I beg of you.
 
 IN ALL SHADES 243 
 
 Don't you see his poor son there's dying of 
 shame for him ? ' 
 
 The captain stared back at him with the 
 same curious half-sardonic look that Marian 
 had more than once noticed upon his impas- 
 sive features. 'Dying of shame!' he an- 
 swered, smihng carelessly. 'Ho, ho, ho! 
 that's a good one ! Dying of shame is he, 
 for poor old Bobby! Why, sooner or later, 
 you know, he'll have to get used to him. 
 Besides, I tell you, whether you talk to him 
 or whether you don't, old Bobby '11 go on 
 talking about himself as long as there's any- 
 body left anywhere about who'll stand and 
 listen to him. — You just hark there to what 
 he's saying now. What's lie up to next, I 
 wonder ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, ladies and gentlemen,' the old mu- 
 latto was proceeding aloud, addressing now 
 
 R 2
 
 244 ^^ ^LL SHADES 
 
 in a set speech the laughing passengers on 
 board the Severn^ ' I'm de Honourable Eobert 
 Whitaker, commonly called Bobby Whitaker, 
 de leadin' member of de coloured party in 
 dis island. Along wit my lamented friend 
 Mr. Wilberforce, an' de Britisli Parliament, 
 I was de chief instrument in procurin' de 
 abolition of slavery an' de freedom of de 
 slaves troughout de whole English pos- 
 sessions. Millions of my fellow-men were 
 moanin' an' groanin' in a painful bondage. I 
 have a heart dat cannot witstand de appeal 
 of misery. I laboured for dem ; I toiled for 
 dem ; I bore de brunt of de battle ; an' in de 
 end I conquered — I conquered. Wit de aid 
 of my friend Mr. Wilberforce, by superhuman 
 exertions, I succeeded in passin' de grand act 
 of slavery emancipation. You behold in me 
 de leadin' actor in dat famous great an' im-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 245 
 
 pressive drama. I'm an ole man now ; but I 
 have prospered in dis world, as de just always 
 do, says de Psalmist, an' I shall be glad to see 
 any of you whenever you choose at my own 
 residence, an' to offer to you in confidence 
 a glass of de excellent staple produck of dis 
 island — I allude to de wine of de country, 
 de admirable beverage known as rum ! ' 
 
 There was another peal of foohsh laughter 
 from the crowd of negroes at this one 
 ancient threadbare joke, and a faint titter 
 from the sillier passengers on board the 
 Severn. Edward looked over appealingly 
 at the old buffoon ; but the mulatto mis- 
 understood his look of deprecation, and 
 bowed once more profoundly, with immense 
 importance, straight at him, like a sovereign 
 acknowledging the plaudits of his subjects. 
 
 'Yes,' he continued, 'I shall be happy
 
 246 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 to see any of you — you, sail, or you — at 
 my own estate, Whitaker Hall, in dis island, 
 whenever you find it convenient to visit 
 me. You have on board my son. Dr. 
 Whitaker, de future leader of de coloured 
 party in de Council of Trinidad ; an' you 
 have no doubt succeeded in makin' his ac- 
 quaintance in de course of your voyage 
 from de shores of England. Dr. Whitaker, 
 of de University of Edinburgh, after pursuin' 
 his studies— — ' 
 
 The poor young man gave an audible 
 groan, and turned away, in his poignant 
 disgrace, to the very farthest end of the 
 vessel. It was terrible enough to have all 
 his hopes dashed and falsified in this awful 
 fashion ; but to be humiliated and shamed 
 by name before the staring eyes of all his 
 fellow-passe'ngers — that last straw was more
 
 IN ALL SHADES 247 
 
 than his poor bursting heart could possibly 
 endure. He walked away, broken and 
 tottering, and leaned over the opposite side 
 of the vessel, letting the hot tears trickle 
 unreproved down his dusky cheeks into the 
 ocean below. 
 
 At that very moment, before the man 
 they called Bobby Whitaker could finish his 
 sentence, a tall white man, of handsome 
 and imposing presence, walked out quietly 
 from among the knot of people behind the 
 necrroes, and laid his hand with a com- 
 manding air on the fat old mulatto's broad 
 shoulder. Bobby Whitaker turned round 
 suddenly and listened with attention to 
 something that the white man whispered 
 gently but firmly at his astonished ear. 
 Then his lower jaw dropped in surprise, 
 and he fell behind, abashed for a second,
 
 248 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 into the confused background of laughing 
 negroes. Partly from liis childish recollec- 
 tions, but partly, too, by the aid of the 
 photographs, Edward immediately recognised 
 the tall white man. ' Marian, Marian ! ' * 
 he cried, waving his hand in welcome to- 
 wards the new-comer, ' it's my father, my 
 father ! ' 
 
 And even as he spoke, a pang of pain 
 ran through him as he thought of the dif- 
 ference between the two first greetings. 
 He couldn't help feeling proud in his heart 
 of hearts of the very look and bearing of 
 his own father — tall, erect, with his hand- 
 some, clear cut face and full white beard, 
 the exact type of a self-respecting and re- 
 spected EngHsh gentleman; and yet, the 
 mere reflex of his own pride and satisfac- 
 tion revealed to him at once the bitter
 
 IN ALL SHADES 249 
 
 poignancy of Dr. Whitaker's unspeakable 
 disappointment. As the two men stood 
 there on the wharf side by side, in quiet 
 conversation, James Hawthorn with his 
 grave, severe, earnest expression, and Bobby 
 Whitaker with his greasy, vulgar, negro 
 joviality speaking out from every crease in 
 his fat chin and every sparkle of his small 
 pig's eyes, the contrast between them was 
 so vast and so apparent, that it seemed to 
 make the old mulatto's natural vulgarity 
 and coarseness of fibre more obvious and 
 more unmistakable than ever to all be- 
 holders. 
 
 In a minute more, a gangway was 
 hastily lowered from the wharf on to the 
 deck; and the first man that came down 
 it, pushed in front of a great crowd of 
 eager, grinning, and elbowing negroes—
 
 250 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 mostly in search of small jobs among the 
 passengers — was Bobby Whitaker. The mo- 
 ment he reached the deck, he seemed to 
 take possession of it and of all the passen- 
 gers by pure instinct, as if he were father 
 to the whole shipload of them. The cap- 
 tain, the crew, and the other authorities 
 were effaced instantly. Bobby Whitaker, 
 with easy, greasy geniality, stood bowing 
 and waving his hand on every side, in an 
 access of universal graciousness towards the 
 entire company. ' My son ! ' he said, look- 
 ing round him inquiringly — ' my son, Dr. 
 Whitaker, of de Edinburgh University — 
 where is he ? — where is he ? My dear boy I 
 Let him come forward and embrace his 
 fader ! ' 
 
 Dr. Whitaker, in spite of his humilia- 
 tion, had all a mulatto's impulsive affection-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 251 
 
 ateness. Ashamed and abashed as he was, 
 he yet rushed forward with iinafTected 
 emotion to take his father's outstretched 
 hand. But old Bobby had no idea of 
 getting over this important meeting in such 
 a simple and undemonstrative manner ; for 
 him, it was a magnificent opportunity for 
 theatrical display, on no account to be 
 thrown away before the faces of so many 
 distinguished European strangers. Holding 
 his son for a second at arm's length, in tlie 
 centre of a httle circle that quickly gathered 
 around the oddly-matched pair, he sur- 
 veyed the young doctor with a piercing 
 glance from head to foot, sticking his neck 
 a little on one side with critical severity, 
 and then, bursting into a broad grin of oily 
 dehght, he exclaimed, in a loud stagey 
 sohloquy: 'My son, my son, my own dear
 
 252 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 son, Wilberforce Clarkson Whitaker ! De 
 inheritor of de tree names most intimately 
 bound up wit de great revolution I have 
 had de pride and de honour of effectin' for 
 unborn milhons of my African bredderin' 
 My son, my son ! We receive you wit 
 transport ! Welcome to Trinidad — welcome 
 to Trinidad ! ' 
 
 ' Father, father,' Dr. Whitaker whispered 
 in a low voice, ' let us go aside a little — down 
 into my cabin or somewhere — away from this 
 crowd here. I am so glad, so happy to be 
 back with you again ; so delighted to be 
 home once more, dear, dear father. But 
 don't you see, everybody is looking at us 
 and observing us ! ' 
 
 The old mulatto glanced around him with 
 an oily glance of profound self-satisfaction. 
 Yes, undoubtedly ; he was the exact centre
 
 IN ALL SHADES 253 
 
 of an admiring audience. It was just such a 
 house as he loved to play to. He turned 
 once more to his trembling son, whose sturdj^ 
 knees were almost giving way feebly beneath 
 him, and redoubled the ardour of his pater- 
 nal demonstrativeness. ' My son, my son, 
 my own dear boy ! ' he said once more ; and 
 then, stepping back two paces and opening 
 his arms effusively, he ran forward quickly 
 with short mincing steps, and pressed the 
 astonished doctor with profound warmth to 
 his swelling bosom. There was an expan- 
 siveness and a gusliing effusion about the 
 action which made the spectators titter au- 
 dibly ; and the titter cut the poor young 
 mulatto keenly to the heart witli a sense of 
 his utter helplessness and ridiculousness in 
 this absurd situation. lie wondered to him- 
 self when the humiUating scene would ever
 
 254 IN ^LL SHADES 
 
 be finished. But the old man was not satis- 
 fied yet. Eeleasing his son once more from 
 his fat grasp, he placed his two big hands 
 akimbo on his hips, puckered up his eye- 
 brows as if searching for some possible flaw 
 in a horse or in a woman's figure — he was a 
 noted connoisseur in either — and held his head 
 pushed jauntily forward, staring once more 
 at his son with his small pig's eyes from top 
 to toe. At last, satisfied apparently with his 
 close scrutiny, and prepared to acknowledge 
 that it was all very good, he seized the young 
 doctor quickly by the shoulders, and kissing 
 him with a loud smack on either cheek, 
 proceeded to slobber him piecemeal all over 
 the face, exactly like a nine-months'-old baby. 
 Dr. Whitaker's cheeks tingled and burned, so 
 that even through that dusky skin, Edward, 
 who stood a little distance ofi*, commiserating
 
 IN ALL SHADES 255 
 
 him, could see the hot blood rushing to his 
 face by the deepened and darkened colour in 
 the very centre. 
 
 Presently, old Bobby seemed to be suffi- 
 ciently sated with this particular form of 
 theatrical entertainment, and turned round 
 pleasantly to the remainder of the company. 
 ' My son,' he said, not without a real touch 
 of heartfelt, paternal pride, as he glanced 
 towards the gentlemanly looking and well- 
 dressed young doctor, ' your fellow-passen- 
 gers ! Introduce me ! Wliich is de son of 
 my ole and valued friend, de Honourable 
 James Hawtorn, of Wagwater .^ ' 
 
 Dr. Whitaker, glad to divert attention 
 from himself on any excuse, waved his hand 
 quietly towards Edward. 
 
 ' How do you do, Mr. Whitaker ? ' Ed- 
 ward said, in as low and quiet a tone as
 
 256 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 possible, anxious as he was to disappoint the 
 little gaping crowd of amused spectators. 
 ' We have all derived a great deal of pleasure 
 from your son's society on our way across. 
 His music has been the staple entertainment 
 of the whole voyage. We have appreciated 
 it immensely.' 
 
 But old Bobby was not to be put off with 
 private conversation aside in a gentle under- 
 tone. He was accustomed to living his life 
 in public, and he wasn't going to be balked 
 of his wonted entertainment. ' Yes, Mr. 
 Hawtorn,' he answered in a loud voice, ' you 
 are right, sah. De taste for music an' de 
 taste for beauty in de ladies are two tastes 
 dat are seldom wantin' to de sons or de 
 grandsons of Africa, however far removed 
 from de original negro.' (As he spoke, he 
 glanced back with a touch of contempt and
 
 IN ALL SHADES 257 
 
 an infinite superiority of manner at the pure- 
 blooded blacks, who were now busily en- 
 gaged in picking up portmanteaus from the 
 deck, and squabbling with one another as to 
 which was to carry the buckras' luggage. 
 Your mulatto, however dark, always in a 
 good-humoured, tolerant way, utterly despises 
 his coal-black brethren.) ' Bote dose tastes 
 are highly developed in my own pusson. 
 Bote no doubt my son, Wilberforce Clarkson 
 Whitaker, is liable to inherit from his fader's 
 family. In de exercise of de second, I cannot 
 fail to perceive dat dis lady beside you must 
 be Mrs. Haw torn. Sah ' — with a sidelong 
 leer of his fat eyes — ' I congratulate you mos' 
 sincerely on your own taste in female beauty. 
 A very nice, fresh-lookin' young lady, Mrs. 
 Hawtorn.' 
 
 Marian's face grew fiery red ; and Edward 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 hardly knew whether to laugh off the awk- 
 ward compliment, or to draw himself up and 
 stroll away, as though the conversation had 
 reached its natural ending. 
 
 ' And de odder young lady,' Bobby went 
 on, quite unconscious of the effect he had 
 produced — ' de odder young lady ? Your 
 sister, now, or Mrs. Hawtorn's ? ' 
 
 'This is Miss Dupuy, of Orange Grove,' 
 Edward answered hesitatingly ; for he hardly 
 knew what remark old Bobby might next 
 venture upon. And, indeed, as a matter of 
 fact, the old mulatto's conversation, even in 
 the presence of ladies, was not at all times 
 restrained by all those artificial rules of de- 
 corum imposed on most of us by what ap- 
 peared to him a ridiculously straitlaced and 
 puritanical white conventionality. 
 
 But Edward's answer seemed to have an
 
 IN ALL SHADES .59 
 
 extraordinary effect in sobering and tonincr 
 down the old man's exuberant volubility ; he 
 pulled off his hat with a respectful bow, 
 and said in a lower and more polite voice : 
 ' I have de honour- of knowing Miss Dupuy's 
 fader; I am proud to make Miss Dupuy's 
 acquaintance/ 
 
 'Here, Bobby!' the captain called out 
 from a little forward — ' you come here, say. 
 The first-officer wants to introduce you ' — 
 with a wink at Edward — ' to His Excellency 
 the Peruvian ambassador. — Look here, Mr. 
 Hawthorn ; don't you let Bobby talk too 
 long to your ladies, sir. He sometimes 
 blurts out something, you know, that ladies 
 ain't exactly accustomed to. We seafaring 
 men are a bit rough on occasion ourselves, 
 certainly ; but we know how to behave for 
 
 8 2
 
 26o IN ALL SHADES 
 
 all that before tlie women. — Bobby, don't ; 
 you'd better be careful.' 
 
 ' Thank you,' Edward said, and again 
 felt his heart smitten with a sort of remorse 
 for poor Dr. Whitaker. That quick, sensi- 
 tive, enthusiastic young man to be tied down 
 for life to such a father ! It was too terrible. 
 In fact, it was a tragedy. 
 
 ' Splendid take-down for that stuck-up, 
 young brown doctor,' the English officer 
 exclaimed aside in a whisper to Edward. 
 ' Shake a little of the confounded conceit out 
 of him, I should say. He wanted taking 
 down a peg. — Screaming farce, isn't he, the 
 old father?' 
 
 ' I never saw a more pitiable or pitiful 
 scene in my whole hfe,' Edward answered 
 earnestly. ' Poor fellow, I'm profoundly sorry 
 for him ; he looks absolutely broken-hearted.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 261 
 
 The young officer gazed at him in mute 
 astonishment. ' Can't see a joke, that fellow 
 Hawthorn,' he thought to himself. 'Had 
 all the fun worked out of him, I suppose, 
 over there at Cambridge. Awful prig ! Quite 
 devoid of the sense of humour. Sorry for 
 his poor wife ; she'll have a dull hfe of it. — 
 Never saw such an amusing old fool in all 
 my days as that ridiculous, fat old nigger 
 feUow ! ' 
 
 Meanwhile, James Hawthorn had been 
 standing on the wharf, waiting for the first 
 crush of negroes and hangers-on to work 
 itself off, and looking for an easy opportunity 
 to come aboard in order to meet his son and 
 daughter. By-and-by the crush subsided, and 
 the old man stepped on to the gangway and 
 made his way down upon the deck. 
 
 In a moment, Edward was wringing his
 
 262 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 hand fervently, and father and son had ex- 
 changed one single kiss of recognition in that 
 half-shamefaced, hasty fashion in which men 
 of our race usually get through that very 
 un-English ceremony of greeting. 
 
 ' Father, father,' Edward said, ' I am so 
 thankful to see you once more ; so anxious 
 to see my dear mother.' 
 
 There were tears standing in both their 
 eyes as his father answered : ' My boy, my 
 boy ! I Ve denied myself this pleasure for 
 years ; and now — now it's come, it's almost 
 too much for me.' 
 
 There was a moment's pause, and then 
 Mr. Hawthorn turned to Marian. ' My 
 daughter,' he said, kissing her with a fatherly 
 kiss, ' we know you, and love you already, 
 from Edward's letters ; and we'll do our best, 
 as far as we can, to make you happy.'
 
 IN ALL SHADES 263 
 
 There was another pause, and tlien the 
 father said again: 'You didn't get my tele- 
 gram, Edward ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, father, I got it ; but not till we were 
 on the very point of starting. The steamer 
 was actually under weigh, and we couldn't 
 have stopped even if we had wished to. 
 There was nothing for it but to come on as 
 we were, in spite of it.' 
 
 ' Oh, Mr. Hawthorn, there's papa ! ' Nora 
 cried excitedly. ' There he is, coming down 
 the gangway.' And as she spoke, Air. 
 Dupuy's portly form was seen advancing 
 towards them with slow dehberateness. 
 
 For a second, he gazed about him 
 curiously, looking for Nora ; then, as he saw 
 her, he walked over towards her in his lei- 
 surely, dawdling. West Indian fashion. Nora 
 darted forward and flung her arms impul-
 
 264 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 sively around him. ' So you've come, Nora,' 
 the old gentleman said quietly, disembarrass- 
 ing himself with elephantine gracefulness from 
 her close embrace — ' so you've come, after 
 all, in spite of my telegram ! — How was this, 
 my dear ? How was this, tell me ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, papa,' Nora answered, a little 
 abashed at his serene manner. ' The tele- 
 gram was too late — it was thrown on board 
 after we'd started. But we've got out all 
 safe, you see. — And Marian — you know — 
 Marian Ord — Mrs. Hawthorn that is now — 
 she's taken great care of me ; and, except 
 for the hurricane, we've had such a dehght- 
 ful voyage ! ' 
 
 Mr. Dupuy drew himself up to his state- 
 liest eminence and looked straight across at 
 Marian Hawthorn with stiff politeness. ' I 
 didn't know it was to Mrs. Hawthorn, I'm
 
 IN ALL SHADES 265 
 
 sure,' he said, ' that I was to be indebted for 
 your safe arrival here in Trinidad. It was 
 very good of Mrs. Hawthorn, I don't doubt, 
 to bring you out to us and act as your 
 chaperon. I am much obhged to Mrs. Haw- 
 thorn for her kind attention and care of you 
 on the voyage. I must thank Mrs. Hawtliorn 
 very sincerely for the trouble she may have 
 been put to on your account. — Good-morn- 
 ing, Mrs. Hawthorn ! — Good-morning, Mr. 
 Hawthorn ! Your son, I suppose ? All, so 
 I imagined. — Good-morning, good-morning.' 
 He raised his hat with formal courtesy to 
 Marian, and bowed shghtly to the son and 
 father. Then he drew Nora's arm carefully 
 in his, and was just about to walk her im- 
 mediately off the steamer, when Nora burst 
 from him in the utmost amazement and 
 rushed up to kiss Mai'ian.
 
 266 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ' Papa,' she cried, ' I don't think you 
 understand. This is Marian Ord, don't you 
 know ? General Ord's daughter, that I've 
 written to you about so often. She's my 
 dearest friend, and now she's married to 
 Mr. Edward Hawthorn — this is he — and Aunt 
 Harriet gave me in charge to her to come 
 across with; and I must just say good-bye to 
 her before I leave her. — Thank you, dear, 
 thank you both so much for all your kind- 
 ness. Not, of course, that it matters about 
 saying good-bye to you, for you and we will 
 be such very, very near neighbours, and of 
 course we will see a great deal of one another. 
 — Won't we, papa ? We shall be near neigh- 
 bours, and see a great deal of Marian always, 
 now she's come here to live — won't we ? ' 
 
 Mr. Dupuy bowed again very stiffly. ' We 
 shall be very near neighbours, undoubtedly,
 
 IX ALL SHADES .(>: 
 
 lie answered with unruffled politeness; 'and 
 I shall hope to take an early opportunity of 
 paying my respects to— to your friend, 
 General Ord's daughter.— I am much obhged. 
 once more, to Mrs. Hawthorn for her well- 
 meant attentions. Good -morning.. — This way, 
 Nora, my dear. This way to tlie Orange Grove 
 carriage.' 
 
 'Father,' Edward exclaimed, in doubt and 
 dismay, looking straight down into his father's 
 eyes, ' what does it all mean ? Explain it all 
 to us. I'm utterly bewildered. Why did you 
 telegraph to us not to come? And why did 
 Nora Dupuy's father telegraph to her, too, an 
 identical message ? ' 
 
 Mr. Hawthorn drew a deep breath and 
 looked back at him with a face full of conster- 
 nation and pity. ' He telegraphed to her, too, 
 did he?' he muttered half to himself in slow
 
 268 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 reflection. ' He telegraphed to prevent her 
 from coming out in the Severn ! I might 
 have guessed as much — it's very Hke him. — 
 My boy, my boy — and my dear daughter — 
 this is a poor welcome for you, a very poor 
 welcome ! We never wanted you to come 
 out here ; and if we could, we would have 
 prevented it. But now that you've come, 
 you've come, and there's no helping it. We 
 must just try to do our best to make you 
 both tolerably comfortable.' 
 
 Marian stood in blank astonishment and 
 silent wonder at this strange greeting. A 
 thousand vague possibiHties floated instan- 
 taneously through her mind, to be dismissed 
 the next second, on closer consideration, as 
 absolutely impossible. Why on earth did 
 this handsome, dignified courtly old gentle- 
 man wish to keep them away from Trinidad ?
 
 IN ALL SHADES 269 
 
 He wasn't poor ; he wasn't uneducated ; lie 
 wasn't without honour in his own country. 
 That he was a gentleman to the backbone, 
 she could see and feel the moment she looked 
 at him and heard him speak. Wliat, then, 
 could be his objection to his son's coming out 
 to visit him in his own surroundings ? Had 
 he committed some extraordinary crime ? 
 Was he an ex- convict, or a fraudulent bank- 
 rupt, or a defaulting trustee? Did he fear 
 to let his son discover his shame ? But no. 
 The bare idea was absolutely impossible. 
 You had only to gaze once upon that fine, 
 benevolent, clear-cut, transparently truthful 
 face — as transparently truthful as Edward's 
 own — to see immediately that James Haw- 
 thorn was a man of honour. It was an in- 
 soluble mystery, and Marian's heart sank 
 within her as she wondered to herself what
 
 270 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 this gloomy welcome foreboded for the 
 future. 
 
 'Father,' Edward exclaimed, looking at 
 him once more with appealing eyes, ' do ex- 
 plain to us what you mean ? Why didn't you 
 want us to come to Trinidad ? The suspense 
 is too terrible ! We shall be expecting some- 
 thing worse than the reality. Tell us now. 
 Whatever it is, we are strong enough to bear 
 it. I know it can be nothing mean or dis- 
 honourable that you have to conceal from 
 us ! For Marian's sake, explain it, explain 
 it!' 
 
 The old man turned his face away with a 
 bitter gesture. ' My boy, my boy, my poor 
 boy,' he answered slowly and remorsefully, ' I 
 cannot tell you. I can never tell you. You 
 will find it out for yourself soon enough. 
 But I I — I can never tell you ! '
 
 IN ALL SHADES ^yt 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 Edward and Marian spent their first week in 
 Trinidad with tlie Hawthorns senior. Mrs. 
 Hawthorn was kindness itself to Marian : a 
 dear, gentle, motherly old lady, very proud 
 of her boy — especially of his ability to read 
 Arabic, which seemed to her a profundity 
 of learning never yet dreamt of in the annals 
 of liuraanity — and immensely pleased with 
 her new daughter-in-law : but nothing on 
 earth that Marian could say to lier would 
 induce her to unlock the mystery of tliat 
 alarming telegram. * No, no, my dear,' she 
 would say, shaking her head gloomily and
 
 272 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 wiping her spectacles, whenever Marian re- 
 curred to the subject, ' you'll find it all out 
 only too soon. God forbid, my darling, that 
 ever I should break it to you. I love you 
 far too well for that. Marian, Marian, my 
 dear daughter, you should never, never, 
 never have come here ! ' And then she 
 would burst immediately into tears. And 
 that was all that poor frightened Marian 
 could ever get out of her new mother-in- 
 law. 
 
 All that first week, old Mr. Hawthorn was 
 never tired of urging upon Edward to go 
 back again at once to England. ' I can 
 depart in peace now, my boy,' he said ; ' I 
 have seen you at last, and known you, and 
 had my heart gladdened by your presence 
 here. Indeed, if you wish it, I'd rather go 
 back to England with you again, than that
 
 IN ALL SHADES .73 
 
 you should stay in this unsuitable Trinidad. 
 Why bury your talents and your learninrr 
 here, when you might be rising to fame and 
 honour over in London ? What's the use of 
 your classical knowledge out in the West 
 Indies? What's the use of your Arabic? 
 What's the use of your law, even ? We have 
 nothing to try here but petty cases between 
 planter and servant : of what good to you 
 in that will be all your work at English 
 tenures and English land laws? You're 
 hiding your light under a bushel. You're 
 putting a trotting horse into a hansom cab. 
 You're wasting your Arabic on people who 
 don't even know the diiTerence between 
 Greek and Latin.' 
 
 To all which, Edward steadily rephed 
 that he wouldn't go back as long as this 
 mystery still hung unsolved over him ; and 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 J^ ^^^ SHADES 
 
 that, as he had practically made an agree- 
 ment with the Colonial Government, it would 
 be dishonourable in him to break it for 
 unknown and unspecified reasons. As soon 
 as possible, he declared firmly, he would take 
 up his abode in his own district. 
 
 House-hunting is reduced to its very 
 simplest elements in the West Indian colonies. 
 There is one house in each parish or county 
 which has been inhabited from time imme- 
 morial by one functionary for the time being. 
 The late Attorney-General dies of yellow 
 fever, or drinks himself to death, or gets 
 promotion, or retires to England, and another 
 Attorney-General is duly appointed by con- 
 stituted authority in his vacant place. The 
 new man succeeds naturally to the house 
 and furniture of his predecessor — as natu- 
 rally, indeed, as he succeeds to any of his
 
 IN ALL SHADES 275 
 
 Other functions, offices, and prerogatives. 
 Not that there is the least compulsion in the 
 matter, only you must. As there is no other 
 house vacant in the community, and as 
 
 nobody ever thinks of building a new one 
 
 except when the old one tumbles do^vn by 
 
 efflux of time or shock of earthquake the 
 
 only thing left for one to do is to live in the 
 place immemorially occupied by all one's 
 predecessors in the same office. Hence it 
 happened that at the beginning of their 
 second week in the island of Trinidad, Ma- 
 rian and Edward Hawthorn found themselves 
 ensconced with hardly any trouble in the 
 roomy bungalow known as Mulberry Lodge, 
 and hereditarily attached to the post of 
 District Court Judge for the district of West- 
 moreland. 
 
 Marian laid herself out at once for callen?, 
 
 t9
 
 276 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 and very soon the callers began to drop in. 
 About the fourth day after they had settled 
 into their new house, she was sitting in the 
 big, bare, tropical-looking drawing-room — a 
 great, gaunt, square barn, scantily furnished 
 with a few tables and rocking-chairs upon 
 the carpetless pohshed floor — so gaunt that 
 even Marian's deft fingers failed to make it 
 at first look home-like or habitable — when 
 a hght carriage drew up hastily with a dash 
 at the front-door of the low bungalow. The 
 young bride pulled her bows straight quickly 
 at the heavy, old-fashioned gilt mirror, and 
 waited anxiously to receive the expected 
 visitors. It was her first appearance as mis- 
 tress of her estabhshment. In a minute, 
 Thomas, the negro butler — every man-ser- 
 vant is a butler in Trinidad, even if he is 
 only a boy of twenty — ushered the new-
 
 IN ALL SHADES 277 
 
 comers pompously into the bare drawin«f- 
 room. Marian took their cards and glanced 
 at them hastily. Two gentlemen — the Hon- 
 ourable Colonial Secretary, and tlie Honour- 
 able Director of Irrigation. 
 
 The Colonial Secretary sidled into a chair, 
 and took up his parable at once with a very 
 profuse and ponderous apology. ' My wife, 
 Mrs. Hawthorn, my wife, I'm sorry to say, 
 was most unfortunately unable to accompany 
 me here this morning. — Charmingly you've 
 laid out this room, really ; so very different 
 from what it used to be in poor old Mac- 
 murdo's time. — Isn't it, Colonel Daubeny?— 
 Poor old Macmurdo died in the late yellow 
 fever, you know, my dear madam, and Mr. 
 Hawthorn fills his vacancy. Excellent fellow, 
 poor old Macmurdo— ninth judge I've known 
 killed off by yellow fever in this district since
 
 278 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 I've been here. — My wife, I was saying, when 
 your charming room compelled me to digress, 
 is far from well at present — a malady of the 
 country : this shocking climate ; or else, I'm 
 sure she'd have been delighted to have called 
 upon you with me this morning. The loss is 
 hers, the loss is hers, Mrs. Hawthorn. I shall 
 certainly tell her so. Immensely sorry.' 
 
 Colonel Daubeny, the Honourable Direc- 
 tor of Irrigation, was a far jauntier and more 
 easy-spoken man. ' And Mrs. Daubeny, my 
 dear madam,' he said with a fluent manner 
 that Marian found exceedingly distasteful, ' is 
 most unfortunately just this moment down — 
 with toothache. Uncommon nasty thing to 
 be down with, toothache. A perfect martyr 
 to it. She begged me to make her excuses. — 
 Mr. Hawthorn' — to Edward, who had just 
 come in — ' Mrs. Daubeny begged me to make
 
 IN ALL SHADES 279 
 
 her excuses. She regrets that she can't call 
 to-day on Mrs. Hawthorn. Beautiful view 
 you have, upon my word, from your front 
 piazza.' 
 
 'It's the same view, I've no doubt,' Ed- 
 ward answered severely, * as it used to be in 
 the days of my predecessor.' 
 
 ' Eh ! What ! Ah, bless my soul ! Quite 
 so,' Colonel Daubeny answered, dropping hi.s 
 
 eye-glass from his eye in some amazement 
 
 * Ha ! Devihsh good, that — devilish good, 
 really, Mr. Hawthorn.' 
 
 Marian was a little surprised that Edward, 
 usually so impassive, should so unmistakably 
 snub the Colonel at first sight ; and yet she 
 felt there was something very offensive in the 
 man's familiar manner, that made the retort 
 perfectly justifiable, and even necessary. 
 
 They lingered a little while, talking very
 
 28o IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ordinary tropical small-talk ; and then the 
 Colonel, with an ugly smile, took up his hat, 
 and declared, with many unnecessary assever- 
 ations, that he must really be off this very 
 minute. Mrs. Daubeny would so much regret 
 having lost the precious opportunity. The 
 Honourable Colonial Secretary rose at the 
 same moment and added that he must be 
 going too. Mrs. Fitzmaurice would never 
 forgive herself for that distressing local malady 
 which had so unfortunately deprived her of 
 the privilege and pleasure, — Good-moming, 
 good-morning. 
 
 But as both gentlemen jumped into the 
 dog-cart outside, Edward could hear the 
 Colonial Secretary, through the open door, 
 saying to the Colonel in a highly amused 
 voice : ' By George, he gave you as much as 
 he got every bit, I swear, Daubeny.' 
 
 I
 
 IN ALL SHADES 281 
 
 To which the Colonel responded with a 
 short laugh : ' Yes, my dear fellow ; and 
 didn't you see, by Jove, he twigged it?' 
 
 At this they both lauglied together im- 
 moderately, and drove off at once laughing, 
 very much pleased ^vith one another. 
 
 Before Marian and her husband had time 
 to exchange their surprise and wonder at such 
 odd behaviour on the part of two apparently 
 well-bred men, another buggy drove up to tiie 
 door, from w^hich a tliird gentleman promptly 
 descended. His card showed him to be the 
 wealthy proprietor of a large and nourishing 
 neighbouring sugar-estate. 
 
 ' Called round,' he said to Edward, with a 
 slight bow towards Marian, * just to pay my 
 respects to our new judge, whom I'm glad to 
 welcome to the district of Westmoreland. A 
 son of Mr. Hawthorn of Agualta is sure to be
 
 282 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 popular with most of his neighbours.-— Ah — 
 hem — my wife, I'm sorry to say, Mrs. Haw- 
 thorn, is at present suffering from — extreme 
 exhaustion, due to the heat. She hopes you'll 
 excuse her not calling upon you. Otherwise, 
 I'm sure, she'd have been most delighted, most 
 delighted.— Dear me, what an exquisite pros- 
 pect you have from your veranda ! ' The 
 neighbouring planter stopped for perhaps ten 
 minutes in the midst of languishing conversa- 
 tion, and then vanished exactly as his two 
 predecessors had done before him. 
 
 Marian turned to her husband in blank 
 dismay. ' Edward, Edward ! ' she cried, 
 unable to conceal her chagrin and humilia- 
 tion, ' what on earth can be the meaning of 
 it?' 
 
 ' My darling,' he answered, taking her hand
 
 IN ALL SHADES 283 
 
 in his tenderly, ' I haven't the very faintest 
 conception.' 
 
 In the course of the afternoon, three more 
 gentlemen called, each alone, and each of them 
 in turn apologised profusely, in almost the 
 very self-same words, for his wife's absence. 
 The last was a fat old gentleman in the 
 Customs' service, who declared with effusion 
 many times over that Mrs. Bolitlio was really 
 prostrated by the extraordinary season. 
 ' Most unusual weather, this, Mrs. Hawthorn. 
 I've never known so depressing a summer in 
 the island of Trinidad since I was a lx>y, 
 ma'am.' 
 
 ' So it would seem,' Edward answere*! 
 dryly. ' The whole female population of the 
 island seems to be suffering from an extra- 
 ordinary compHcation of local disorders.'
 
 284 IN ALL SHADES 
 
 ' Bless my soul ! ' the fat gentleman ejacu- 
 lated with ■ a stare. ' Then you've found out 
 that, have you ? — Excuse me, excuse me. I — 
 
 didn't know Hm, I hardly expected that 
 
 you expected — or rather, that Mrs. Hawthorn 
 
 expected Ah, quite so. — Good-morning, 
 
 good-morning.' 
 
 Marian flung herself in a passion of tears 
 upon the drawing-room sofa. ' If anyone else 
 calls this afternoon, Thomas,' she said, ' I'm 
 not at home. I won't see them — I can't see 
 them ; I'll endure it no longer. — Edward, 
 darling, for God's sake, tell me, why on 
 earth are they treating us as if — as if I 
 were some sort of moral leper? They 
 won't call upon me. What can be the 
 reason of it.^' 
 
 Edward Hawthorn held his head between
 
 IN ALL SHADES 28s 
 
 his hands and walked rapidly up and down the 
 bare drawing-room. ' I can't make it out,' lie 
 cried ; ' I can't understand it. Marian — 
 dearest — it is too terrible ! ' 
 
 END OP THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 sPorrwwooDK awd co., !«KW.iTi;itCT sqOAU 
 
 LONDO!*
 
 ^