XVI
WITH CASTE AGAINST HIM
"AND this is the swan-song. It begins with Cape Town and ends in an uncharted isle somewhere southwest of Australia. The telling recalls to me a new phase in Tib's character. It presents the spectacle of the old chap falling in love. While it was always impossible to conceive of him as married and settled down, it was characteristic of him to indulge in a hopeless predilection when immodest Cupid did loose the arrow. For while always touting the American girl as the best feminine line of goods in the world, what did my patron do but get foolish-hearted over the daughter of an English lord. And she, with all her insular, burglar-proof prejudices, was compelled to see him at his best, sturdy and resourceful, when all others failed her; is compelled to-day to remember that superbly dramatic finale in which he and she monopolized the spot-light; and whenever she rejoices in the gladness of living, so often must she think of him and humbly repeat that her world is
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