Part 39 (2/2)
”I wonder if it would offend them if we were to distribute what we can't use among the poor.”
”I am sure it would please the poor as much as it would please us.
They'll all be poor, you know. I have two hundred and eighty-three pairs of trousers and only seven s.h.i.+rts. If I could trade in two hundred and fifty pants for an extra s.h.i.+rt or two, I'd be a much happier bridegroom.”
”I dare say they can cut down some of my kimonas to fit you. I have at least three hundred.”
”I'd like that blue one and the polka dot up there. They'd make corking s.h.i.+rts. I'll trade you twelve of my umbrellas for one of those gra.s.s bonnets of yours. They've been showing too much partiality. Here you've got nearly one hundred suits of pajamas and I have but eleven.”
”Yes, but think of the suits of armor they've made for you and not one for me.”
”But I wouldn't have time to change armor during a battle, would I? One suit is enough for me. By George, they look worse than football suits, don't they? One couldn't drive a javelin through this chunk of stuff with a battering ram.”
Everywhere about them were proofs of the indefatigable but lamentable industry of their dusky friends. Articles inconceivable in more ways than one were heaped in the huge room. Nondescript is no word to describe the heterogeneous collection of things supposed to be useful as well as ornamental. Household utensils, pieces of furniture, bric-a-brac of the most appalling design, knickknacks and gewgaws without end or purpose stared the bewildered white people in the face with an intensity that confused and embarra.s.sed them beyond power of expression.
Shortly after their strange betrothal, Lady Tennys had become a strong advocate of dress reform for women on the island of Nedra. Neat, loose and convenient pajamas succeeded the c.u.mbersome petticoats of everyday life. She, as well as her subjects, made use of these thrifty garments at all times except on occasions of state. They were cooler, more rational--particularly becoming--and less troublesome than skirts, and their advent created great rejoicing among the natives, who, prior to the arrival of their white leaders, had worn little more than nothing and yet had been quite fas.h.i.+onable.
Tennys was secretly rehearsing the marriage ceremony in the privacy of her chamber, prompted and praised by her faithful handmaidens. To her, this startling wedding meant but one thing: the resignation of all intent to leave the island. The day she and Hugh Ridgeway were united according to the custom sacred to these people, their fate was to be sealed forever. It was to bind them irrevocably to Nedra, closing forever to them the chance of returning to the civilization they had known and were relinquis.h.i.+ng.
Ridgeway daily inventoried his rapidly increasing stock of war implements, proud of the prowess that had made him a war-G.o.d. He soberly prohibited the construction of a great boat which might have carried him and his fair companion back to the old world.
”If we are rescued before the wedding, dear, all well and good; but if not, then we want no boat, either of our own or other construction, to carry us away. Our wedding day will make us citizens of Ridgehunt until death ends the regime. Our children may depart, but we are the Izors of Nedra to the last hour of life.”
”Yes,” she said simply.
The fortnight immediately prior to the day set for the wedding was an exciting one for the bride and groom-to-be. Celebration of the great event was already under way by the natives. Great feasts were planned and executed; war dances and riots of wors.h.i.+p took place, growing in fervor and splendor as the day approached; preparations never flagged but went on as if the future existence of the whole world depended entirely upon the outcome of this great ceremony.
”Yesterday it was a week, now it is but six days,” said Hugh early one morning as they set forth to watch their adorers at work on the great ceremonial temple with its ”wedding ring.” The new temple was a huge affair, large enough to accommodate the entire populace.
”To-morrow it will be but five days,” she said; ”but how long the days are growing.” They sat beside the spring on the hillside and musingly surveyed the busy architects on the plain below.
”How are the rehearsals progressing?” he asked.
”Excellently, but I am far from being a perfect savage. It doesn't seem possible that I shall ever learn how to fall gracefully into that ring.
I believe I shall insist that you turn your head at the particular juncture, for I know you'll laugh at me,” she said with a great show of concern.
”I don't like that part of the service. It's a shame for me to stand by and to see you tumble at my feet. Firstly, it's not your place; secondly, it's liable to hurt you; lastly, I'd feel a most unmanly brute. Wonder if we can't modify that part of it somehow?”
”I might be carried in on a litter and set down in the ring, or we might stretch a hammock,” she said, laughing merrily.
”I'm determined on one point and that is in regard to the pile of soft gra.s.s. Pootoo promised to cut a lot of it and put it in the ring. You shan't break any bones if I can help it.”
”Pootoo is to be master of ceremonies in every sense of the word, I can see. I am the ward of a king.”
At last the day arrived.
They were to enter the ceremonial temple at high noon and in their ears were to be the sound of timbrels and bra.s.s, trumpets and drums and the glad though raucous songs of a kingdom.
<script>