I must say, I think Mr. Dodge manifested a want of consideration in
quitting his company with so little ceremony. The gentleman was hurt, I'll
answer for it, and he would say as much if he could only make out to
explain himself on the subject. Sir George, I regret we had not the
honour of your company on the occasion, for I have been told these Arabs
have a proper respect for the nobility and gentry. Mr. Dodge and myself
were but poor substitutes for a gentleman like yourself."
The trained humility of Mr. Monday was little to the liking of Mr. Dodge,
who by the sheer force of the workings of envy had so long been
endeavouring to persuade others that he was the equal of any and every
other man--a delusion, however, in which he could not succeed in
persuading himself to fall into--and he was not slow in exhibiting the
feeling it awakened.
"Sir George Templemore has too just a sense of the rights of nations to
make this distinction, Mr. Monday," he said. "If I left the Arab sheik a
little abruptly, it was because I disliked his ways; for I take it Africa
is a free country, and that no man is obliged to remain longer in a tent
than it suits his own convenience. Captain Truck knows that I was merely
running down the beach to inform him that the sheik intended to follow,
and he no doubt appreciates my motive.
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