Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/126

 Miss Moultrie, we are quite extraordinary in our capacity for sustained physical effort, especially on very little nourishment." His oddly tinted eyes rested upon her; their expression altered; from being savage, exulting, dominating, they became brooding, thoughtful. "Do you know, Miss Moultrie, I often think that at one time, perhaps thousands of years ago, we may have been a people of marvelous achievement. It is the history of the world that in time all great races become decadent; go down, down, down to the lowest rung of human existence, enter the valley of the shadow and there abide indefinitely until it is time to reëmerge and begin the ascent again. My race is now far down the scale, yet see how readily it responds to civilizing influences. Is there any other people who have stepped at one stride from pagan influence to civilization? whose aims are always like ours, toward elevation? Consider the degrading influences through which we passed in slavery, and yet consider, if you please, how we have risen when the opportunity has been presented."

"In Hayti?" asked Virginia innocently. Dessalines' face grew almost savage in expression. "Ah, no! because there the transition from slavery to mastery has been too swift; it should have been from slavery to liberty, and from liberty to mastery. In Hayti all is greed and avarice, the ownership by a few and jealousy of outsiders and of each other. White people are regarded with suspicion and distrust; the Haytians of my class foolishly insist that we are the superiors of the whites."

"How very odd!" exclaimed Virginia, her tact lost in surprise. 116