Indeed, though
Sorais' cry against the 'foreign wolves' -- or, to translate
it more accurately, 'foreign hyenas' -- was sure to go down very
well with the nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt,
likely to be particularly effectual amongst the bulk of the population.
The Zu-Vendi people, like the Athenians of old, are ever seeking
for some new thing, and just because we were so new our presence
was on the whole acceptable to them. Again, Sir Henry's magnificent
personal appearance made a deep impression upon a race who possess
a greater love of beauty than any other I have ever been acquainted
with. Beauty may be prized in other countries, but in Zu-Vendis
it is almost worshipped, as indeed the national love of statuary
shows. The people said openly in the market-places that there
was not a man in the country to touch Curtis in personal appearance,
as with the exception of Sorais there was no woman who could
compete with Nyleptha, and that therefore it was meet that they
should marry; and that he had been sent by the Sun as a husband
for their Queen. Now, from all this it will be seen that the
outcry against us was to a considerable extent fictitious, and
nobody knew it better than Sorais herself. Consequently it struck
me that it might have occurred to her that down in the country
and among the country people, it would be better to place the
reason of her conflict with her sister upon other and more general
grounds than Nyleptha's marriage with the stranger.
Pages:
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359