Possibly--nay, certainly--the child had had less need of sympathy
than the man, but the Colonel's heart froze toward him, and his formal
response to his host's greeting was icy with the unconquerable
consciousness of the gulf between them.
Yet, for eyes unblinded by preconceived aversion, Nehal Singh was at that
moment good to look upon. He was simply dressed in white, with no jewels
save for a great diamond in his turban, and this very simplicity threw
into strong relief his unusually well-built figure and the features to
whose almost classical perfection was added a strength, a force of
intellect which classical beauty is too often denied. Quietly and
modestly, conscious of his own worth, ignorant and inexperienced of the
world, he was utterly unaware of the stone barrier that his guests
presented to his own open-hearted welcome. For him the whole of his past
life concentrated itself on this moment when the gates of the Universe
rolled back, and he advanced to meet the representatives of its Greatest
People. He thought, in the simple, natural egoism of a man who has lived a
life cut off from others, that they would understand this and feel with
him.
What his own feelings were he hardly knew--perhaps among them, though
unrecognized, was the faintest chill of disappointment. He had had no
definite expectations, but his imagination had unconsciously been at work,
and touched with its illuminating fire the sons of the heroes whose deeds
had filled his quiet existence with romance, painting his picture of them
with colors which the reality did not justify.
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