"
"Why does she not marry? Is there no man she can bear? She could have
the highest, that's sure." He spoke with passion and insistence. If she
were married his trouble would be over. The worst would have come to
him--like death. His eyes were only two dark fires in a face that was as
near to tragic pain crystallized as any the world has seen. Yet there
was in it some big commanding thing, that gave it a ghastly handsomeness
almost; that bathed his look in dignity and power, albeit a reckless
power, a thing that would not be stayed by any blandishments. He had the
look of a lost angel, one who fell with Belial in the first days of sin.
"There is no man she can bear--except here in Jamaica. It is no use.
Your governor, Lord Mallow, whom she knew in Ireland, who is distant kin
of mine, he has already made advances here to her, as he did in Ireland
--you did not know that. Even before we left for Virginia he came to see
us, and brought her books and flowers, and here, on our arrival, he
brought her choicest blooms of his garden. She is rich, and he would be
glad of an estate that brings in scores of thousands of pounds yearly.
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