"You've been itching to be rid of me ever since we got back, my dear, and as a general thing you don't in the least mind saying when you want to be alone. I wonder what's in those mysterious papers you're so anxious I shouldn't ask about. Good-night, Kitty dear."
"Good-night, Aunt Jane," said Kate, and opened the package.
The lecture was unexciting. It was the dull record of a dull but capable man, who knew his work thoroughly, did it accurately, and in the telling of it left out all the points that were in the least picturesque or interesting. Sir Edward had spent half a lifetime in Colonial administration, and the only times he rose into anything approaching eloquence was when he had to tell of some colonial interest that was ruthlessly sacrificed by some ignorant official at home for the sake of a vote or a fad. Four several instances he gave of this, and these stood out warmly against the gray background of the rest of the speech.
But to Kate, who knew her West Africa by heart, it was all dull enough reading till he came to almost the last paragraph.
"It is by a peculiar irony," the type report read, "that an agreement should recently have been come to by which the notorious King of Okky promises to discontinue his practice of human sacrifice. It is six-and-twenty years since I first went out to West Africa, and my immediate superior then was Major Meredith. He was a man of the highest ideals, and we all thought of tremendous capabilities. He saw what was wanted on the spot, and carried out his theories with small enough regard for ignorant criticism at home. By the exercise of tremendous personal influence, and at a fearful risk, he made his way to Okky City itself, saw its unspeakable horrors, and made a treaty with the then king. In return for certain concessions the king was to come under British protection, and of course give up objectionable practices. Well, I don't know whether there are any of the Anti-British party here, but I daresay most of you will think that the addition of a quarter of a million of square miles of rich country to the empire was no mean gift. Ladies and gentlemen, you little know what the Government was then. 'Perish West Africa' was one of their many creeds, and with Exeter--" [here the reporter had written the word "Disturbance," and evidently missed the next few sentences]--"I don't care whether you like it or whether you are decently ashamed, the thing's true. They refused to ratify the treaty, and my poor chief was censured for exceeding instructions. Well, the backers of the high-minded potentate, as I believe they called themselves, got their way, and I wish they were not too ignorant to realize what their mean little action caused in human lives. Putting the human sacrifice in Okky City at the very low estimate of eight thousand a year, in five-and-twenty years that brings the figure up to two hundred thousand black men and women whose blood lies at the door of those unctuous hypocrites who made it their business to break Major Meredith because he was an Imperialist."