Insensibly his presence humanized them. Of a surety, the last part
Bertie dreamed of playing was that of a teacher to any mortal thing;
yet, here in Africa, it might reasonably be questioned if a second
Augustine or Francis Xavier would ever have done half the good among
the devil-may-care Roumis that was wrought by the dauntless, listless,
reckless soldier who followed instinctively the one religion which has
no cant in its brave, simple creed, and binds man to man in links that
are true as steel--the religion of a gallant gentleman's loyalty and
honor.
CHAPTER XX.
CIGARETTE EN CONSEIL ET CACHETTE.
"Corporal Victor, M. le Commandant desires you to present yourself at
his campagne to-night, at ten precisely, with all your carvings; above
all, with your chessmen."
The swift, sharp voice of a young officer of his regiment wakened Cecil
from his musing, as he went on his way down the crowded, tortuous,
stifling street. He had scarcely time to catch the sense of the words,
and to halt, giving the salute, before the Chasseur's skittish little
Barbary mare had galloped past him; scattering the people right
and left, knocking over a sweetmeat seller, upsetting a string of
maize-laden mules, jostling a venerable marabout on to an impudent
little grisette, and laming an old Moor as he tottered to his mosque,
without any apology for any of the mischief, in the customary insolence
which makes "Roumis" and "Bureaucratic" alike execrated by the
indigenous populace with a detestation that the questionable benefits
of civilized importations can do very little to counter-balance in the
fiery breasts of the sons of the soil.
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