"
For a few among the English party his words, spoken slowly and with a
simple sincerity, were not without their charm. Yet, little as he knew it,
he had succeeded in one short speech in touching two dangerous spots in
his relationship to his guests--his ancestry and his equality. But here
again his ignorance veiled from him what was written clearly enough on a
dozen frozen faces.
"I should be glad to be made personally acquainted with each of your
officers," he went on. "For men who serve under one flag should know each
other well."
Colonel Carmichael obeyed, thankful for any occupation which saved him the
necessity of replying; and one by one the solemn, unmoved faces came under
Nehal Singh's eager gaze, bowed, and passed on. Each resented in turn the
intense scrutiny of their host, and none guessed its cause. For them it
was the insolent stare of a colored man who had ventured to place himself
on an equality with themselves. They could not have known that he was
seeking familiar features, nor that, as one after another passed on, a
cold chill of disappointment was settling on a heart warm with
preconceived admiration and respect. They could not have known that his
unconscious presumption had hidden a real desire to find among them the
hero to whom his man's worship of courage and greatness could have been
dedicated. He was too young--and especially too young in worldly
wisdom--to realize that the outside man is not of necessity the man
himself.
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