imable and kind
gentleman, Mr. Blount, an aristocrat to the backbone, but a gentleman,
Mr. Blount, a gentleman above all. His visit has given me the most
unalloyed----"

"He may be very kind," said Blount, "but my judgment has gone very much
astray if he is what he represents himself to be."

"Mr. Blount!" and the missionary looked genuinely shocked. "You are very
unjust, as well as very much in error. Mr. de Vere is a scion of one of
the noblest of our many noble English families. He told me so himself."

"Ah, did he! That just confirms me in my opinion of him. Now, look
here, Mr. Deighton," and his tone became slightly irritated, "I'm not
surprised that this Mr. de Vere--who, whatever he is, is _not_ a scion
of any noble English family--should impose upon men like Burrowes and
the German, but that he should impose on you does rather surprise me.
And yet I don't know. It is always the way, or nearly always the way,
that those whose education and intelligence should be a safeguard to
them against imposture, are as often imposed upon as the ignorant and
uncultured."

"Imposture, Mr. Blount! Do you mean to say----"

"I mean to say that this man De Vere with his flashy get-up and imposing
name is _not_ an English gentleman. He may deceive you and the men we
have just left, but he doesn't deceive me. I once lived in England a
long time ago, Mr. Deighton," here Blount turned his face away, and then
added dreamily, "a long time, a very long time ago, and met some fairly
decent people. And I no more believe that Mr. de Vere comes from a good
family than I do that Nathaniel Burrowes, a low, broken-down New Orleans
wharf-loafer, comes from one of the 'first families in Virginia' that
American newspapers are always blathering about" "What is wrong with
him, Mr. Blount?" "Nothing from your point of view--everything from
mine. And, so far as I am concerned, I don't mean to have anything to do
with these two English gentlemen and the yacht _Starlight_. Well, here
we are at the mission. Good-day, Mr. Deighton; I'm going to Lak-a-lak
to see how my timber-getters are doing." And with a kindly nod at the
troubled missionary, the big, dark-faced trader strode along the beach
alone.

III ~ BANDERAH

Banderah, the supreme chief of Mayou, was, _vide_ Mr. Deighton's report
to his clerical superiors, "a man of much intelligence, favourably
disposed to the spread of the Gospel, but, alas! of a worldly nature,
and clinging for wo