Sir Ralph Cairns, the famous diplomat, was talking on this subject to Professor Ironside.
"The Japanese are extraordinarily quick," he was saying, "the most adaptable people since the ancient Greeks, whom they resemble in some ways. But they are more superficial. The intellect races on ahead, but the heart lingers in the Dark Ages."
"Perhaps intermarriage is the solution of the great racial problem," suggested the Professor.
"Never," said the old administrator. "Keep the breed pure, be it white, black, or yellow. Bastard races cannot flourish. They are waste of Nature."
The Professor glanced towards the bridal pair.
"Perhaps," said Sir Ralph, "but in her case her education has been so entirely European."
Hereupon, Lady Everington approaching, Sir Ralph turned to her and said,--
"Dear lady, let me congratulate you: this is your masterpiece."
"Sir Ralph," said the hostess, already looking to see which of her guests she would next pounce upon, "You know the East so well. Give me one little piece of advice to hand over to the children before they start on their honeymoon."
"Everywhere," replied Lady Everington, "they are going to travel."
"Then let them travel all over the world," he answered, "only not to Japan. That is their Bluebeard's cupboard; and into that they must not look."
There was more discussion of bridegroom and bride than is usual at society weddings, which are apt to become mere reunions of fashionable people, only vaguely conscious of the identity of those in whose honour they have been gathered together.
"Geoffrey Barrington is such a healthy barbarian," said a pale young man with a monocle; "if it had been a high-browed child of culture like you, Reggie, with a taste for exotic sensations, I should hardly have been surprised."
"And if it had been you, Arthur," replied Reggie Forsyth of the Foreign Office, who was Barrington's best man, "I should have known at once that it was the twenty thousand a year which was the supreme attraction."
There was a certain amount of Anglo-Indian sentiment afloat among the company, which condemned the marriage entirely as an outrage on decency.
"What was Brandan dreaming of," snorted General Haslam, "to allow his son to marry a yellow native?"