The Coming Race
Page 26
Chapter XXVII.
One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flew in at theopen window and alighted on the couch beside me. I was always pleasedwith the visits of a child, in whose society, if humbled, I was lesseclipsed than in that of Ana who had completed their education andmatured their understanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth withhim for my companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in which Ihad descended into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if he wereat leisure for a stroll beyond the streets of the city. His countenanceseemed to me graver than usual as he replied, "I came hither on purposeto invite you forth."
We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far from thehouse when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who were returningfrom the fields with baskets full of flowers, and chanting a song inchorus as they walked. A young Gy sings more often than she talks. Theystopped on seeing us, accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me withthe courteous gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their mannertowards our weaker sex.
And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank inher courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothing thatapproaches to that general breadth and loudness of manner which thoseyoung ladies of the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom the distinguished epithetof 'fast' is accorded, exhibit towards young gentlemen whom they do notprofess to love. No; the bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinaryis very much that of high-bred men in the gallant societies of the upperworld towards ladies whom they respect but do not woo; deferential,complimentary, exquisitely polished--what we should call 'chivalrous.'
Certainly I was a little put out by the number of civil things addressedto my 'amour propre,' which were said to me by those courteous youngGy-ei. In the world I came from, a man would have thought himselfaggrieved, treated with irony, 'chaffed' (if so vulgar a slang wordmay be allowed on the authority of the popular novelists who use itso freely), when one fair Gy complimented me on the freshness of mycomplexion, another on the choice of colours in my dress, a third, witha sly smile, on the conquests I had made at Aph-Lin's entertainment. ButI knew already that all such language was what the French call 'banal,'and did but express in the female mouth, below earth, that sort ofdesire to pass for amiable with the opposite sex which, above earth,arbitrary custom and hereditary transmission demonstrate by the mouth ofthe male. And just as a high-bred young lady, above earth, habituatedto such compliments, feels that she cannot, without impropriety, returnthem, nor evince any great satisfaction at receiving them; so I whohad learned polite manners at the house of so wealthy and dignifieda Minister of that nation, could but smile and try to look pretty inbashfully disclaiming the compliments showered upon me. While we werethus talking, Taee's sister, it seems, had seen us from the upper roomsof the Royal Palace at the entrance of the town, and, precipitatingherself on her wings, alighted in the midst of the group.
Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitable deferenceof manner which I have called 'chivalrous,' yet not without a certainabruptness of tone which, as addressed to the weaker sex, Sir PhilipSydney might have termed 'rustic,' "Why do you never come to seeus?" While I was deliberating on the right answer to give to thisunlooked-for question, Taee said quickly and sternly, "Sister, youforget--the stranger is of my sex. It is not for persons of my sex,having due regard for reputation and modesty, to lower themselves byrunning after the society of yours."
This speech was received with evident approval by the young Gy-ei ingeneral; but Taee's sister looked greatly abashed. Poor thing!--and aPRINCESS too!
Just at this moment a shadow fell on the space between me and the group;and, turning round, I beheld the chief magistrate coming close upon us,with the silent and stately pace peculiar to the Vril-ya. At the sightof his countenance, the same terror which had seized me when I firstbeheld it returned. On that brow, in those eyes, there was that sameindefinable something which marked the being of a race fatal to ourown--that strange expression of serene exemption from our common caresand passions, of conscious superior power, compassionate and inflexibleas that of a judge who pronounces doom. I shivered, and, inclining low,pressed the arm of my child-friend, and drew him onward silently. TheTur placed himself before our path, regarded me for a moment withoutspeaking, then turned his eye quietly on his daughter's face, and, witha grave salutation to her and the other Gy-ei, went through the midst ofthe group,--still without a word.