He was handsomer than ever; bronzed by Nigerian sun, all the superfluous
flesh marched off him; every muscle in his frame taut and vigorous. And
at the same time a new self-confidence--apparently quite unconscious,
and the inevitable result of a strong and testing experience--was
enabling him to bring his powers to bear and into play, as he had
never yet done.
She recalled, with some confusion, that she--and Diana?--had tacitly
thought of him as good, but stupid. On the contrary, was she, perhaps,
in the presence of some one destined to do great things for his country?
to lay hold--without intending it, as it were, and by the left hand--oh
high distinction? Were women, on the whole, bad judges of young men? She
recalled a saying of Dr. Roughsedge, that "mothers never know how clever
their sons are." Perhaps the blindness extends to other eyes
than mothers?
Meanwhile, she got from him all the news she could. He had been, it
seemed, concerned in the vast operation of bringing a new African Empire
into being. She listened, dazzled, while in the very simplest, baldest
phrases he described the curbing of slave-raiders, the winning of
populations, the grappling with the desert, the opening out of river
highways, whereof in his seven months he had been the fascinated
beholder.
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