We have a hot and tiring day before us, and I advise
sleep for those to whom it is vouchsafed. If the weather continues to
improve, the next tide will bring us a smooth sea. Given that, and a
dark night--well--we may make history. Who knows?"
CHAPTER VII
CROSS PURPOSES
Though Iris gave such warlike counsel, it would be doing her a grave
injustice to assume that her gentle disposition was changed because of
the day's sufferings. The erstwhile light-hearted schoolgirl and
youthful mistress of her uncle's house had been subjected to dynamic
influences. The ordeal through which she had passed, unscathed bodily
but seared in spirit, had left her strung to a tense pitch. Relaxation
had not come--as yet. She only knew that she resented to the uttermost
the Brazilians' malevolent fury. Hers was a nature that could not
endure unfairness. It was unfair of David Verity to seek to mend his
shattered fortunes by forcing her into a hateful marriage; unfair of
both Verity and Coke to found their new venture on a great fraud; and
monstrously unfair of these island factionaries to vent their spite on
an innocent ship. So, for the hour, she was inspired. It is the
high-souled enthusiast who devotes life itself to a cause; those who
practice oppression have ever most to beware of in the man or woman
whose conscience will not condone a wrong.
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