Part 11 (2/2)
He added:
”I hope you will understand that I say this because it is my duty. I am not naturally unsociable, or bearish, or a surly misogynist. Rather the contrary. Quite the contrary.”
She remembered a slim, boyish, young lieutenant of Hussars with whom she had danced in a famous London ball-room more than twenty years back. That boy a woman hater! Struggle as she would the Mother-Superior could not keep Lady Bridget-Mary Bawne from coming to the surface for an instant.
But she went under directly, and left nothing but a spark of laughter in the beautiful grave eyes.
”I understand,” she said. ”Woman in time of peace may add a certain welcome pleasantness to life. In time of war she is nothing but a helpless incubus.”
”Let me point out, ma'am, that I did not say so. But she possesses a capacity for being killed equal in ratio to that of the human male, without being equally able to defend herself. In addition to this, she eats; and I shall require all the rations that may be available to keep alive the combatant members of the community.”
”Eating is a habit,” agreed the Mother-Superior, ”which even the most rigid disciplinarians of the body have found difficult to break.”
His mouth straightened sternly under the short-clipped brown moustache.
Here was a woman who dared to bandy words with the Officer Commanding the Garrison. He drew a shabby notebook from a breast-pocket, and consulted it.
”On the eleventh, the day after to-morrow, a special train, leaving No. 2 platform of the railway-station, will be placed by the British Government at the disposal of those married women, spinsters, and children who wish to follow the example of those who left to-day, and go down to Cape Town.
Those who prefer to go North are advised to leave for Malamye Siding or Johnstown, places at a certain distance from the Transvaal Border, where they will be almost certain to find safety. Those who insist upon remaining in the town I cannot, of course, remove by force. I will make all possible arrangements to laager them safely, but this will entail heavy extra labour upon the forces at my command, and inevitable discomfort--possibly severe suffering and privation--upon themselves. To you, madam, I appeal to set a high example. Your Community numbers, unless I am incorrectly informed, twelve religious. Consent to take the step I urge upon you, retreat with your nuns to Cape Town while the opportunity is yours.”
He folded his arms, having spoken this curtly and crisply. The Mother-Superior rose up out of her chair. It seemed to him as though she would never have done rising, but at last she stood before him, very straight and awfully tall, with her great stern eyes an inch above the level of his own, and her white hands folded in her black serge sleeves.
”Sir,” she said, ”we are here under the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese. We have received no order from His Eminence to quit our post--and until we receive it, give me leave to tell you, with all respect for your high official authority, that we shall remain in Gueldersdorp.”
Their looks crossed like swords. He grew crimson over the white unsunburned line upon his forehead, and his moustache straightened like a bar of rusty-red iron across his thin, tanned face. But he respected moral power and determination when he encountered them, and this salient woman provoked his respect.
”Let us keep cool----” he began.
”I a.s.sure you that I have never been otherwise,” she said, ”since the beginning of this interview.”
”Ma'am,” he said, ”you state the fact. Let me keep cool, and point out to you a few of the--peculiarities in which the present situation unfortunately abounds.”
He laid down, with a look that asked permission, his hat and cane and the odd glove upon the round, s.h.i.+ning walnut-table that stood, adorned with mild little religious works, in the geometrical centre of the Convent parlour, and checked the various points off upon the fingers of the gloved hand with the lean, brown, bare one.
”I antic.i.p.ate very shortly the outbreak of hostilities.” He had quite forgotten that he was talking to a member of the squeaking s.e.x. ”I have begun immediately upon my arrival here to prepare for them. The nucleus of a sand-bag fort-system has been formed already, mines are being laid down far in the front, and every male of the population who has a pair of capable hands has had a rifle put into them.”
She looked at him, and approved the male type of energy and action. ”If I had been a man,” she thought, ”I should have wished to be one like this.”
But she bent her head silently, and he went on.
”We have an armoured train in the railway-yard, with a Maxim and a Hotchkiss. We have a Nordenfeldt, a couple of Maxims more, four seven-pounder guns of almost prehistoric date, slow of fire, uncertain as regards the elevating-gear, and, I tell you plainly, as dangerous, some of 'em, to be behind as to be in front of! One or two more we've got that were grey-headed in the seventies. By the Lord! I wish one or two Whitehall heads I know were mopping 'em out this minute. Ahem! Ahem!”
He coughed, and grew red under his sun-tan. Her eyes were elsewhere.
”Ma'am, you must try to recollect that the Boer forces are armed with the newest Krupps and other guns, and that it is more than possible they may attempt to sh.e.l.l the town. In that case artillery of tremendous range, and a flight almost equal to that of sound itself--I won't be too technical, I a.s.sure you!--will be mustered against our crazy pieces, only fit for the sc.r.a.p-heap, or for gate ornaments. Understand, I tell you what is common knowledge among our friends--common jest among our enemies. And another thing I will tell you, ma'am. Those enemies shall never enter Gueldersdorp!”
She was radiant now, with that smile upon her lips, and that glow in the great eyes that met his with such frank approval. Confound it, what business had a nun to be anything like so beautiful? Would she pale, would she tremble, when he told her the last truth of all?
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