IN THE SHADOW
ginia, joked with Sir Henry, chatted with Guijon, who worshiped him, took daily diminishing doses of a fever decoction in a green bottle, and missed not one detail or vibration of the conditions about him.
"Dessalines wants us for Saturday afternoon," Giles announced at luncheon. "Due notice will arrive later, so nobody must make other plans. He is going to give us what he calls a fête aquatique on the river."
"He has the Haddington cottage, Maurits," said Sir Henry. "Directly on the river. He told me that he had taken it for the summer, as he wanted a quiet place in which to read. It is rather odd that he should have chosen England as his educational field; most Haytians go to France, do they not?"
"Ten out of ten go to Paris," replied Leyden. "I have heard of their going to Germany, to England, but it is rare. None by any chance ever goes to the United States."
"Dessalines once spoke of that," said Giles. "He told me that Haytians went to Paris, studied a little, were petted and made a good deal of, and usually ended by getting in debt and going home to take it out of the country. He said that he came to England because the life was cleaner and more wholesome, and he was over here to go ahead and not backward. He said that it was easy enough to go backward in Hayti, … what?"
"I think that it does him great credit," said Lady Maltby. "I have never known a negro before, socially, and Count Dessalines had quite altered my ideas in regard to the possibilities of his race." She turned to Virginia with a smile. "I suppose that Manning would be quite furious to hear me say that, my dear."
100
