Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/33

Rh establishment, was now conspicuous among the most indefatigable of mountain climbers.

At the same time he remained a reader and a student, being at once a great amateur of deeds of physical prowess and of sporting games of skill, recalling in this respect the accomplished men and harmonious livers of the Renaissance.

On the death of his grandmother whom he adored, he had come back and taken up residence in his native country, a filial affection for which had clung to him from boyhood, and whose impulsive and outspoken denizens would naturally be pleasing to his frank and generous mind.

The aborigines of Smaragdis belonged to that Celtic race, from which the Bretons and the Irish have sprung. In the Sixteenth century inter-marriage with the Spaniards intensified and perpetuated the predominance of dark blood over the blond. Kehlmark knew that these islanders, who, with their swarthy and strongly-marked complexions, were very distinct from the pink-and-white skinned peoples that surrounded them, had made themselves exceptional also by the stubborn resistance they had offered to the introduction of Christian, and especially of