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 Contents vii

The Armenian Genocide as a Colonial Event 431

Imperial Ambitions and the Second World War 433
The Colonial Experience and the Second
World War 435
The Holocaust as a Colonial Event 438
The Aftermath of the Second World
War and Political Decolonization 440
Conclusion 445

chapter fifteen Unraveling Colonialism 446

The Challenge Facing Anti-Colonial Movements
and the Search for Unifying Ideologies 447
The Development of Emancipatory
Nationalism 449
Organizing Popular Resistance 453
The Diffusion of Emancipatory Nationalism:
A Global Perspective 456
Pan Movements 459
Settlers and Settler Nationalism 464
The Messy Reality of the Road
to Independence 466
Conclusion 469

part six The World We Live in,

1948 to Today 471
chapter sixteen Cold War Empires 473
A Cold War Imperial System? 474
Soviet and American Cultures of Imperialism 482
Cold War Colonialism 489
Conclusion 493

chapter seventeen Imperialism Now  495

Cultural Colonialism? 497
Economic Domination? 501
A Modern Chinese Empire? 508
Twenty-First-Century Soviet
and American Empires? 515
Conclusion 524

Glossary 525
Credits 531
Bibliography 535
Index 551

00-Streets-Salter-FM.indd 7 12/05/15 6:05 PM

 L i st of M a p s

Map 1. Early Modern Empires of Eurasia And Africa, c. 1550.

Map 2. Empires of the Americas, c. 1519
Map 3. The Enslavement of Africans, 1500–1900
Map 4. The Spread of Sugar Cultivation
Map 5. European Overseas Empires in the Atlantic, c. 1750
Map 6. Asian Empires, c. 1700
Map 7. Silver Flows, 1650–1750
Map 8. The Americas in 1831
Map 9. Industrial Centers of the World and the British Empire
as an Industrial Network, c. 1850
Map 10. The New Imperialism and the Expansion of Colonial
Holdings, 1866–1914
Map 11. Major Anti-Colonial Uprisings and Incidents, 1880–1920
Map 12. Empires and Patterns of World Trade, 1914
Map 13. European Population Movements, 1750–1914
Map 14. Migration Routes from China and India in the
Nineteenth Century
Map 15. The First World War on a Global Scale: Belligerent Empires
Map 16. European Empires, 1936
Map 17. Decolonization in Asia And Africa, 1945–1999
Map 18. The Cold War
Map 19. The Global Distribution of Wealth, 2014

viii

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 Ack now l e dgm e n t s

Empires and Colonies in the Modern World: A Global Perspective is the product
of a fruitful partnership between two authors and two networks of advisors,
peers, contributors, and critics. We would like to thank Patrick Manning for
guidance from the early days of this volume. Important advisors in the field of
world history include Alan Karras, Candice Goucher, Craig Lockard, and Anand
Yang. Trevor’s Africanist colleagues guided much of his work in this volume,
including Jonathan Reynolds, Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia, Dennis Laumann, and
Corrie Decker. Heather has long drawn inspiration from empire historians
Antoinette Burton and Philippa Levine and thanks her colleagues at Northeastern
University for their support. Equally important were our former and current
graduate students, including Rachael Hill, Lindsay Ehrisman, Brian Griffith,
Elizabeth Matsushita, Amitava Chowdhury, Maryanne Rhett, Shawna Herzog,
Cynthia Ross, Armand Garcia, and Malcolm Purinton. In addition, we test-drove
this book in several undergraduate classes. We’d particularly like to call out His-
tory 400 (Modern Imperialism and Colonialism) at San Francisco State University,
History 436 (Global Imperialism) at Washington State University, and several
graduate research seminars at Northeastern University. We also thank Antoinette
Burton, Robert L. Tignor, and Julia Clancy-Smith who read the entire manuscript
for Oxford University Press.
We must also credit scholars who have made important intellectual contribu-
tions to our work (although they share no blame for our errors). These include
early twentieth-century students and opponents of empire like John Hobson,
V. I. Lenin, W. E. B. DuBois, Eric Williams, Mohandas Gandhi, and Wolfgang
Mommsen as well as later materialist scholars like Ronald Robinson, John Gallagher,
Peter Cain, and Anthony Hopkins. It also includes the more recent and often
more culturally focused contributions of Edward Said, Franz Fanon, Frederick
Cooper, Ann Laura Stoler, J. P. Daughton, Catherine Hall, Stuart Hall, Tony
­Ballantyne, Antoinette Burton, Mrinalini Sinha, Noam Chomsky, and many,
many others. Their collective work has been very informative and useful in the
production of this book, although we have not always agreed with all of their
interpretations. Moreover, the continuing efflorescence of interest in the history

ix

00-Streets-Salter-FM.indd 9 12/05/15 6:05 PM

 x Ack now l e dgm e n ts

and legacy of modern empires substantiates the argument made in this book that
they are worth studying.
We would both like to thank our spouses and families for giving us the time
and opportunity to work on this project over the space of several years.
Finally, it remains for us to thank Charles Cavaliere, editor extraordinaire at
Oxford University Press, for his foresight and for his willingness to give us the
resources and attention to make this volume truly the best it can be.

Heather Streets-Salter
Trevor R. Getz

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 A bou t t h e Au t hor s

Heather Streets-Salter
Heather Streets-Salter is Department Chair and Director of World History Pro-
grams at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the author of
a variety of books and articles, including Martial Races: The Military, Martial
Races, and Masculinity in British Imperial Culture, 1857–1914, Beyond Empire:
Southeast Asia in World War I, and Traditions and Encounters: A Brief Global
History with Jerry Bentley and Herb Ziegler (now in its fourth edition).

Trevor R. Getz
Trevor R. Getz is Professor of African and World History at San Francisco State
University and winner of the American Historical Association’s James Harvey
Robinson Prize. He is the author or co-author of nine books and numerous
­articles including the award-winning Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic
History, forthcoming in a second edition from Oxford University Press. He is
currently working on a primer for constructing African history courses and an
edited volume on the history and legacy of slavery in Ghana.

xi

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 Timeline

Mārī-Djāta of Mali creates expansive West African state 1235–1255

Black Death sweeps Eurasia and North Africa 1340s–1380s
Zhu Yuanzhang establishes Ming dynasty 1368
Portuguese build castle of São Jorge da Mina in West Africa 1482
Final Chinese naval expedition under Zheng He 1433
First sub-Saharan Africans captured by European adventurers 1441
Mehmed II conquers Constantinople 1453
Wedding of Maximilian Habsburg to Mary of Burgundy 1477
Muscovite Grand Duke Ivan III conquers Novgorod 1478
Spanish decree demands Jews convert, emigrate, or face 1492
execution; Columbus makes landfall in America
First Spanish settlers established in the Caribbean 1493
Vasco da Gama enters Indian Ocean 1498

1500
Portuguese claim Brazil as a crown colony 1500
Hernán Cortés captures Tenochtitlan 1519
Mughal Emperor Babur defeats Delhi Sultanate 1526
Ottoman musketeers win decisive battle of Mohács 1526
Inca ruler Atahualpa killed by Spanish 1533
Ivan IV of Russia assumes the title Czar 1547
Division of Habsburg Empire 1556
Holy League defeats Ottoman fleet at Battle of Lepanto 1571
Spanish forces seize Manila in the Philippines 1571

xii

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 Timeline xiii

Matteo Ricci arrives in China 1582

Tokugawa Ieyasu suppresses Christianity in Japan 1587

1600
Brazil is the largest sugar producer in the world 1600
Founding of Dutch East India Company (VOC) 1602
English Virginia Company establishes settlement at Jamestown 1607
Thirty Years’ War in Europe 1618–1648
Russia’s territory reaches the Pacific Ocean 1639
Japan restricts European traders to city of Nagasaki 1641
Manchu forces enter Beijing, Qing Dynasty established 1644
Nearly 3 million enslaved Africans shipped to the Americas 1650–1750
Cape Colony established by VOC 1652
Kangxi assumes throne of China 1661
King Philip’s War 1675–1678
Glorious Revolution, England 1688
Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb suppresses non-Muslim 1699
merchants

1700
Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III retreats from Serbia 1718
Seven Years’ War between British-led coalition and France 1756–1763
Mughal-EIC Treaty establishes English rule in Bengal 1765
Bourbon reforms promulgated across New Spain 1765
Famine in British India 1770
Pugachev’s Rebellion in Russia 1773–1774
Thirteen British North American colonies declare independence 1776
First transport of British and Irish prisoners to Australia 1787
French Declaration of the Rights of Man approved 1789
Slave uprising begins in St. Domingue, will give birth to Haiti 1791
Establishment of Baptist Missionary Society 1792
Half of Russia’s population not ethnic Russian 1795
Napoleon Bonaparte invades Egypt 1798

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 xiv Timeline

1800
Followers of ‘Abd al-Wahhab occupy Mecca 1802
Slave rebellion in Cape Colony 1808
Hidalgo uprising in Mexico 1810
First steam-powered locomotive built in Britain 1815
United States promulgates Monroe Doctrine 1823
Bolivia becomes independent, ending Spanish rule 1825
in South America
France invades Algeria 1830
British seizes Falkland Islands from Argentina 1833
Abolition of slavery in the British Empire 1834–1835
Tanzimat reforms begin under Sultan Mahmud II 1839
First Anglo-Chinese Opium War, ending in Treaty of Nanjing 1839–1842
Taiping Rebellion 1850–1864
Britain and France create the Ottoman Bank 1854
Crimean War 1854–1856
U.S. fleet under Commodore Matthew Perry enters Tokyo 1853
Harbor
“Sepoy Rebellion” uprising in India 1857
French troops occupy Saigon, Indochine colony established 1859
Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs formed 1863
Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica 1865
Opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt 1869
Unification of Germany 1871
Beginning of 1870s depression 1873
Great Sioux War in North America 1876–1877
Destruction of the Zulu kingdom by British forces 1879
British forces occupy Egypt 1882
Berlin Conference 1884–1885
British annexation of Burma 1885
Leopold of Belgium assumes control over Congo Free State 1885
Cecil Rhodes seizes control over Matabeleland 1888
Ethiopian victory at the Battle of Adua 1896

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 Timeline xv

Exile of Asantehene Prempeh I of Asante, to the Seychelles 1896

British forces defeat the Mahdi’s army at Omdurman 1898
South African War 1898–1902

1900
Boxer Rebellion in China 1900
John A. Hobson’s publication of Imperialism: A Study 1902
Genocide of Herero and Nama peoples in German South-West 1903–1904
Africa
Congo Reform Association responds to devastation in Congo 1908
Young Turks (CUP) come to power in Ottoman Empire 1908
Japan formally annexes Korea 1910
First World War 1914–1918
United States occupies Haiti 1915
Publication of V. I. Lenin’s Imperialism: The Highest Phase 1916
of Capitalism
Easter Uprising in Ireland 1916
Shift from assimilation to association policies in French 1917–1922
colonies
Treaty of Versailles dismembers Ottoman Empire 1919
John F. Lugard writes The Dual Mandate in British 1922
Tropical Africa
Great Depression 1929–1939
Second Sino-Japanese War begins 1937
Second World War 1939–1945
World Bank and International Monetary Fund 1944
Arab League founded 1945
Jordan and the Philippines achieve independence 1946
India and Pakistan become independent states 1948
Mao Zedong proclaims the People’s Republic of China 1949
Korean War 1950–1953
Mau-Mau campaign in Kenya 1952–1954
Front de Libération Nationale leads Algerian uprising 1954
Bandung Conference (of non-aligned nations) 1955

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 xvi Timeline

Khrushchev argues for perpetual global revolution 1955

Gold Coast wins its independence as the Republic of Ghana 1957
China begins massive social transformation in Tibet 1959
United States invades Cuba at Bay of Pigs 1961
John F. Kennedy’s American University speech 1963
Soviet Union suppresses uprising in Czechoslovakia 1968
Last Portuguese colonies in Africa win independence 1975
Edward Said publishes Orientalism 1978
Iranian Revolution; Soviet Union invades Afghanistan 1979
Reagan administration begins support for Contra rebels 1981
in Nicaragua
First multi-racial democratic vote in South Africa 1994
Hong Kong returned from Britain to China 1997
NATO invites three former Warsaw Pact countries to join 1999

2000
September 11 attacks in United States 2001
U.S. occupation of Iraq 2003
Chinese and Vietnamese navies clash 2005
Russian forces invade Georgia 2008
Arab uprisings 2010
Crisis in Ukraine; Russia annexes Crimea 2014
Scottish independence vote fails to pass 2014

00-Streets-Salter-FM.indd 16 12/05/15 6:05 PM

 Introduction

Turn on a television, pick up a newspaper, or walk around a college campus and

you are likely to hear the words empire or imperialism. You may notice that these
terms are used in a variety of ways: to refer to a powerful business conglomerate,
the strong-arm tactics of powerful states over weaker ones, or the international
influence of cultural forms like music or food. In general, these uses have nega-
tive connotations, but sometimes they simply refer to something large and
powerful, such as a “business empire,” which may or may not be meant as some-
thing undesirable. Taken together, the meaning attached to these terms is often
quite loose, making their precise meaning seem amorphous or vague.
The purpose of this introduction is to define these and other key terms used
throughout this book, including empire, imperialism, colonialism, modern, and
even global. For us, these terms have precise meanings that cannot be separated
from their historical context. At the same time, we recognize that even when the
same words are used by people across the world or over time, the meanings they
signify are often very different to different authors and audiences. In other sec-
tions of this book, we will study many of the scholars who have defined empire,
imperialism, and colonialism in their own terms: John Hobson, Immanuel
Wallerstein, Hannah Arendt, Rosa Luxemburg, Ronald Robinson, Aimée Césaire,
Wolfgang Mommsen, Vladimir Lenin, David K. Fieldhouse, Joseph Schumpeter,
Edward Said, Franz Fanon, Eric Hobsbawm, Anthony Hopkins, Peter Cain,
Antoinette Burton, Philippa Levine, Ann Stoler, and many others. We will also
meet many groups who used these terms for their own purposes, and others who
lived under imperial rule or in colonial situations without making use of these
words. Finally, we will explore whether these terms are still useful in the context
of the world in which we live today.
In this introduction, however, we define each of these words as they are used in
this volume. Our definitions are shaped by our thesis. We propose that imperialism
and colonialism in the modern period were shared experiences in a global con-
text. We believe that empires in different parts of the world over the past 500 years

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 1 12/05/15 1:12 PM

 2 I n t roduct ion

can be effectively compared and moreover are linked to each other in such ways
that they share certain attributes. Therefore, our definitions are more global than
many that came before. Additionally, we believe that imperialism and colonialism
were total experiences. They were not just political or economic but also influ-
enced social organization and cultural formation. Similarly, we argue that em-
pires were so integrated that the experiences of the inhabitants of the imperial
core and the imperial periphery were closely linked and helped to shape each
other and also that concurrent empires influenced one another. Therefore, our
definitions are meant to reflect the totality of these experiences.
The definitions provided in this chapter balance the need for useful explana-
tions of important concepts with an acknowledgment of their complexity. They
are intended to be practical tools both for deconstructing primary sources writ-
ten in the vernacular and for interpreting secondary sources. They are designed
to acknowledge the values ascribed to these words while at the same striving for
objectivity. Finally, they are constructed as keys to decoding both the real-life
experiences of empire and the scholarly debate about them.

Empire
Depending on how the term is used, the existence of empires can be said to pre-
date the evolution of the terms that describe them. Most experts agree that the
Akkadian confederacy of Mesopotamian city-states under a single ruler achieved
the shape and structures of an empire around 2350 bce, although scholars dis-
agree as to how that empire was understood by its architects and inhabitants. The
western European word empire has been traced back only as far as the Latin verb
imperare, which means “to command.” In the period of the Roman monarchy
that preceded the establishment of the republic, Roman rulers possessed imperium,
or the ability to execute the law, lead the army, hold public assembly, and make
sacrifices. Following the elimination of the monarchy in 509 bce, this right
was transferred first to the elected consuls, and later as the state expanded to the
praetors, or magistrates. Thus from its inception, the term empire was related to
notions of rulership and sovereignty. This interpretation survived the fall of
Rome and was resurrected in the European early modern period. King Henry
VIII of England, for example, used the term to express his independence from
both the Church in Rome and the continental powers following his divorce from
Catherine of Aragon in 1534. With the Union of the Crowns in 1603, King James
I named his composite kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland “the
Empire of Great Britain.”1 By doing so, James claimed absolute sovereignty over
all four territories. This history cemented the place of sovereignty at the center of
the definition of empire, and correctly so. Among the most important processes
in the development of the empires described in this book were the consolidation

1
Nicholas Canny, “The Origins of Empire: An Introduction,” in The Oxford History of the British Empire,
vol. 1, The Origins of Empire, edited by Nicholas Canny (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 1.

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 2 12/05/15 1:12 PM

 I n t roduct ion 3

of power, authority, and legitimacy in the persons of a monarch or dynasty and

their courts and supporting bureaucracies.
Yet there was an alternate understanding of the term empire that also emerged
from the Roman period: the notion of political and military expansion beyond
the homeland or ethnic community into other regions. For the Romans, this
elaboration began with the conquest of Sicily in 241 bce. In order to govern this
new province, Rome sent out a treasury official. However, this officer had not
been granted imperium by the Senate, and he therefore had difficulty executing
laws and resolving local disputes. Accordingly, the treasury official was replaced
by a praetor, who carried imperium overseas for the first time. As Rome’s terri-
tory expanded in the late Republic period, Romans began to think of their new
provinces as the imperium Romanum: those places to which Roman authority
extends. From both conquered people and undefeated opponents they learned
new techniques and technologies that they could put to use in administering
their far-flung territories. Mesopotamia, especially, had a long history of large
empires such as the Akkadian, Assyrian, and Persian. Roman generals campaign-
ing in this region rapidly adopted the techniques and the finery of Mesopotamian
rulers and brought them back to Rome. By the time of Caesar Augustus, ca. 31 bce,
Romans were willing to accept the accession of a hereditary emperor. Upon seiz-
ing power, Augustus styled himself princeps, or “first person,” and ruled almost
unchallenged both in Rome and throughout what was now, properly, an empire.2
In the centuries following the fall of the Roman empire, various successor states
claimed to have inherited the mantle of its imperial power—notably Byzantium,
the Carolingian Empire of the Franks, and the Germanic Holy Roman Empire.
In each case, ruling elites made use of the notion of imperium, and in some cases
the term itself, thus providing channels by which both the word and the idea of
empire were brought down to the modern era.
The modern terms empire and imperialism emerged within Romance and
Germanic European languages, including English, in the fifteenth century as a
result of three widespread trends. The first was the emergence of increasingly
centralized powerful states in Europe, a trend shared with parts of Asia and
Africa. The second, related, trend was the increasing competition between these
expanding states. Finally, there was the emergence of maritime empires that
brought the monarchs of western Europe to rule over subjects who were cultur-
ally and ethnically distinct from themselves. Thus, seventeenth-century monarchs
like James I of Britain, in styling themselves emperors, were asserting sovereignty
both at home and overseas. The meaning they ascribed to these claims still
inform our understandings of empire as
a large political body which rules over territories outside of its original borders.
It has a central power or core territory—whose inhabitants usually continue
to form the dominant ethnic or national group in the entire system—and an

2
See, for example, Frank Tenney, Roman Imperialism (New York: MacMillan, 1914). See also
A. P. Thornton, Doctrines of Imperialism (London: John Wiley, 1966), 29–31.

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 3 12/05/15 1:12 PM

 4 I n t roduct ion

extensive periphery of dominated areas. In most cases, the periphery has been
acquired by conquest. . . . Empires, then, must by definition be big, and they must
be composite entities, formed out of previous separate units. Diversity—ethnic,
national, cultural, often religious—is their essence. But in many observers’ un-
derstanding, this cannot be a diversity of equals. If it is, if there is no relation of
domination between “core” and “periphery,” then the system is not an empire.3

This consensus understanding of empire is fundamentally a structural definition

of empire. In other words, it seeks to explain what an empire looks like, largely by
suggesting that empires possess certain key features that separate them from
other models of social and political organization. The important features of this
definition are that the term empire describes relationships between polities or
states, that one or more of these states exhibit certain types of control over the
others, and that they possess inequality and differentiation within the empire.
Each of these features is derived from the core principle of state sovereignty at
home and abroad.
We can see, therefore, that modern Western definitions of empire are chiefly
applied to certain types of states or polities. Admittedly, as the term has become
more widely used, it has also come to be applied to supranational orders, indi-
viduals, and monopolistic businesses.4 In these cases, however, the user is merely
implying that the business, group, or individual possesses the unchallenged
power and perhaps extensive holdings commonly imputed to imperial states.
Most scholarly critiques of empire, while debating, elaborating, and limiting this
power, continue to accept state authority and power as the key features of em-
pires. In the popular textbook The Dynamics of Global Dominance, for example,
political scientist David B. Abernethy argues that empire is defined not only by
the strictly legalistic notion of sovereignty but also by the real exertion of control.
Like Howe, Abernethy depicts empires as having a core state or “mother country”
(the metropole) and dominated states outside of the core that are claimed as
possessions (colonies). The metropole, he asserts, exerts both legal and physical
control over the colonies. For Abernethy, as for many political scientists, whether
or not a state is an empire can be empirically determined by assessing whether or
not it fulfills certain conditions: not only that the metropole formally claims sov-
ereignty over the colonies and has this claim recognized by other great powers,
but also that the metropole establishes structures of control in the colonies.5
For Abernethy, the only empires that exist are those that both formally claim
sovereignty over the domestic and external affairs of a colony and exert real

3
Perhaps most significant is the recent publication of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001). Hardt and Negri define the “new” empire as an
unguided and acephalous process of globalization.
4
David B. Abernethy, The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415–1980
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000).
5
Stephen Howe, Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 14–15.
Howe describes this as a consensus definition and goes on to develop a somewhat more complex
definition of his own.

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 4 12/05/15 1:12 PM

 I n t roduct ion 5

control over those affairs. However, for decades, scholars have recognized a
looser definition of empire that encompasses situations in which a dominant
state exerts some control over the economic and political institutions of another
state without claiming sovereignty. Often termed informal empire, this situation
has been widespread during various periods of the last two centuries (and per-
haps earlier) and arguably exists in today’s world as well. German historian Jürgen
Osterhammel describes informal empire as a situation in which
[t]he weaker state remains intact as an independent polity with its own political
system. It can conduct its own foreign policy and regulate routine domestic
­a ffairs. There is no colonial administration, but occasionally—especially in the
area of finance—a mixture of foreign and indigenous administration. . . .
Nonetheless, the weaker state is only sovereign to a limited extent. “Big Brother”
guarantees privileges for himself in “unequal treaties” as the result of selectively
applied pressure (“gunboat diplomacy”). . . . “Big Brother” is represented by
consuls, diplomats or “residents,” all of whom intervene in domestic policy in
an “advisory” capacity, particularly in conflicts over succession, and under-
score their “advice” with the threat of military intervention when it appears
warranted. . . . Informal empire . . . presupposes a distinct economic superiority
of Big Brother.6

Definitions of informal empire, like this one, tend to remain focused on issues of
control rather than legal sovereignty, and occasionally control is exerted by cor-
porations or groups without sovereign authority acting in lieu of a state. This has
led some scholars to reject the term as “unacceptably vague” because it seems to
cover all kinds of situations in which a party or institution exerts control over a
state without claiming to be sovereign.7 Indeed, the line between informal empire
and mere influence is vague. That the term remains in wide use, however, indi-
cates its usefulness to scholars seeking to reconcile differences between the
clearly defined sovereign reach of formal empire on the one hand and evidence of
imperial control that extends outside the metropole and the formal colonies on
the other. This includes dependencies (semi-autonomous states with ambiguous
sovereign status), protectorates (polities in which indigenous authorities and
occupying forces share sovereignty and authority), and sometimes dominions
(a specific twentieth-century term for British overseas territories heavily settled
by British emigrants). It also includes client-states over which the empire claims
no sovereignty at all but still extends some control. Together with formal colo-
nies, these states form a continuum that is often termed the imperial periphery.
It is the relationship between the periphery and the metropole that differenti-
ates empire from other forms of political and social organization. Specifically,
empires are characterized by an internal inequality of status and treatment. In-
habitants of the periphery are generally not considered citizens, but rather

6
Jürgen Osterhammel, Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1997).
7
Winifred Baumgart, Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion,
1880–1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 6.

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 5 12/05/15 1:12 PM

 6 I n t roduct ion

subjects, without political freedom or rights to the extent these are enjoyed by
inhabitants of the metropole. Often the distinction between citizen and subject is
based not only on location of residence but also on a sense of ethnic or cultural
difference. There are economic and political components to this discrimination
as well; empires are largely implemented and maintained for the benefit of one or
more classes or factions in the metropole, often at the cost of inhabitants of the
periphery. In order to maintain the empire, the distinction between citizen and
subject must be constantly policed and re-established, often through the use of
violence. The result is that empire has come to be explicitly linked with the op-
pression of periphery populations.
However, it is important to note that the relationship between the various
units of the empire is usually multifaceted and reciprocal, if admittedly uneven.
This is a relatively recent discovery for scholars and is partly a result of the flour-
ishing of studies of colonialism in the period following the demise of European
formal overseas empires in the 1960s and 1970s. In these decades, a new wave of
researchers—many former colonial subjects themselves—began to focus on colo-
nized peoples not only as victims but also as actors in pursuit of their own goals.
This focus helped lead to the recognition that inhabitants of the imperial periph-
eries helped to shape empires, operated both within and against them, and ulti-
mately brought them down. In the process, they reshaped the societies of imperial
metropoles as well. As two leading historians of colonialism, Ann Laura Stoler
and Frederick Cooper, have asserted,
Europe’s colonies were never empty spaces to be made over in Europe’s image
or fashioned in its interests; nor, indeed, were European states self-contained
entities that at one point projected themselves overseas. Europe was made by its
imperial projects, as much as colonial encounters were shaped by conflict
within Europe itself.8

In this interpretation, empire is more than just an uneven political grouping in

which one polity exerts control over others. Empire is, instead, the product of
innumerable interactions between the metropole and the periphery. It is pro-
duced from the connective tissue of laws and lawyers, orders and administrators,
agents, pressure groups, traders, missionaries, students, scholars, soldiers, and
servants that bind the periphery and the metropole together. The identities of
various groups within the empire are also constructed in part through the power
that they have over each other and their views of each other. Thus, literary schol-
ars and historians from Edward Said to Catherine Hall and Mary Renda as well
as anthropologists such as Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff have shown how
our sense of who we are in the United States and Europe was largely shaped
through discussions of the ways in which we are not like Africans, Haitians,
Indians, or Arabs.

8
Ann Laura Stoler and Frederick Cooper, “Between Metropole and Colony,” in Tensions of Empire:
Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World, edited by Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1997), 1.

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 6 12/05/15 1:12 PM

 I n t roduct ion 7

Empire is therefore located within each of the colonies, protectorates, depen-

dencies, and dominions as well as the metropole. It is also, however, to be found
between and among the political and geographic designations. This conception
of empire, which has come to dominate the field of imperial studies, thus views
empire as a single reality. Its practitioners examine the relationships and connec-
tions established and shaped by forces from all over the empire. They explore
these relationships from a variety of perspectives: not only those of policymakers
but also colonial and metropolitan populations, imperial migrants and tran-
sients, and the many individuals whose identity and background was mixed.
The same emphasis on perspective has led to a reinterpretation of empire as a
process with a beginning and an end. Certainly, empires are impermanent. But
how are they formed, and why and to what extent do they disintegrate? The idea
that the formation and collapse of empires is observable leads us to view empire
not only as a set of structures but also as processes that unfold on a global stage.
Empires are born by a process by which one polity comes to exert control over
other states or peoples without fully integrating them. Empires collapse when
either this control ends or full integration is achieved, thus terminating the
dominance–subordination relationship. In some cases, however, the end of empire
is caused by the defeat or eclipsing of one empire by another. In these cases, very
often imperial structures and relationships are transferred and transformed,
rather than destroyed.
By assimilating these new, more globalized and reciprocal definitions of
empire with older but still relevant strands, we arrive at a definition of empire
that is informed not only by issues of sovereignty and control but also by inter-
action and that not only explains imperial structures but also reflects imperial
processes.
Empire, then, is an agglomeration of multiple polities and diverse populations
bound together in an uneven relationship in which one polity exercises signifi-
cant control over the others and, in many cases, claims sole sovereignty over all
of the polities. This relationship is characterized by an intricate network of politi-
cal, economic, cultural, legal, communication, and demographic ties. An empire
is born when disparate polities or peoples become suborned to a dominant polity.
It can be said to have ceased to exist when the constituent polities re-establish
sovereignty over themselves or become so integrated into the dominant polity
that there is no longer any significant difference between them either by law or in
practice. In many cases, however, one empire segues into another, a process that
is denoted by the transfer of the imperial metropole to a new location.

Imperialism
The origins of the Anglo-French term imperialism are well established. Like
empire, it is an adaptation of the Latin word imperium, resurrected to serve a
specific purpose. It first appears in documents emanating from the court of French
King Louis-Philippe, who applied it to express his power within France—a

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 7 12/05/15 1:12 PM

 8 I n t roduct ion

purpose similar to Henry VIII’s use of empire.9 The term was subsequently popu-
larized by the supporters of the Bonapartist Emperor Napoleon III in the 1860s,
and they too used it to signify the French monarch’s domestic power and author-
ity. It rapidly crossed the channel to Britain, where the term empire was already
being used to describe Britain’s vast overseas possessions. Here it came to signify
patriotism and support for the intercontinental empire, two sentiments that were
increasingly interlinked. Used in this way, however, it did not necessarily imply
expansionist inclinations, but rather a sense of kindred spirit or community
across the oceans with the British expatriates settled in Canada, Australia, and
other parts of the empire.10
Thus by the last decades of the nineteenth century, the word imperialism had
come to be understood in English as an expression of the conviction that Britain
and its overseas colonies were one and the same. It was therefore intertwined
with domestic patriotism and a sense of ethnic nationalism. In the 1880s, how-
ever, a series of economic crises rooted in increasing competition against other
major powers for colonial markets and raw materials mobilized British public
opinion in support of renewed imperial expansion into new areas, many of which
had not been previously settled by Anglophone Europeans. Proponents of this
rekindled expansionism came to be labeled imperialists as well, and imperialism
came to be affixed to a universe of ideas tied together by their common applica-
tion as justifications for the acquisition of colonies. The term thus used was
equally applicable to humanitarian concepts of a civilizing mission, to extreme
racialism, and to patriotic jingoism.
By the early twentieth century, when J. A. Hobson began to describe the post-
1880 scramble for colonies and influence as a “new imperialism,” the term had
assumed its modern form.11 Most subsequent definitions of imperialism agree
that it refers to an ideology or set of doctrines, that it implies domination, that it
reflects international affairs, and that it involves actions and ideas in support of
expansionism and the maintenance of empire. Nevertheless, the term is still
somewhat differently interpreted by specialists working on domestic studies of
the major imperial powers, by historians and political scientists seeking to un-
derstand global events and trends, and by scholars who focus on empire as a unit.
A logical starting place for understanding imperialism is in the internal af-
fairs and social organization of imperialist metropoles. The term never really lost
its domestic connection, in part because of the close relationship between the
development of modern imperialism and modern nationalism, two contempo-
rary worldviews that are inextricable. Some regional specialists have even de-
fined imperialism simply as the “extension of national policies into active world

9
Heinz Gollwitzer, Europe in the Age of Imperialism 1880–1914 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1979), 10.
First published 1969.
10
Philip D. Curtin, ed., Imperialism (New York: Walker and Company, 1972), ix.
11
John A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954), 71–93. First pub-
lished 1902.

01-Streets-Salter-Introduction.indd 8 12/05/15 1:12 PM

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Miss
Devereux, spinster
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
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you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Miss Devereux, spinster

Author: Agnes Giberne

Release date: February 12, 2024 [eBook #72933]

Language: English

Original publication: London: James Clarke & Co, 1893

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS

DEVEREUX, SPINSTER ***
Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as
printed.

MISS DEVEREUX,
SPINSTER

BY

AGNES GIBERNE

AUTHOR OF "SUN, MOON AND STARS," "SWEETBRIAR,"

ETC.

"Take thou no thought for aught save right and truth,

Life holds for finer souls no equal prize."
L. MORRIS
 NEW EDITION

LONDON

JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 & 14 FLEET STREET

[All rights reserved]

CONTENTS

BOOK I.

IN CHILDHOOD'S HOUR.
CHAPTER

I. A MIDDLE-AGED YOUNG LADY

II. TAKING SHAPE

III. "DEAR AUNT"

IV. SEVERELY SMITTEN

V. QUITE TOO UTTERLY

VI. AN APPEAL AND ITS RESULTS

VII. PREPOSTEROUS

BOOK II.

AFTER SEVEN YEARS.

I. MRS. KENNEDY'S NOTIONS

II. MUD AND BRAMBLES

III. HUSBAND AND WIFE

IV. A STRIFE FOR THE MASTERY

V. IN THE GORGE AGAIN

VI. FRICTION

VII. AN UNWILLING WITNESS

VIII. ON THE MARSHES

IX. BROUGHT HOME

X. THE AFTER SMART

XI. NEW GROUND

XII. THE WIGGINSES AND MAIDENHAIR

BOOK III.
 ACTION AND REACTION.

I. A ROUGH DIAMOND

II. OLD FATHER THAMES

III. AMATEUR CRITICISM

IV. THE PROCESS OF FORMATION

V. PROTECTOR AND PROTECTED

VI. "NOT IN MY SET"

VII. THE SOCIAL BOARD

VIII. DARK-EYED EMMIE

IX. COMPLEXITIES OF LIFE

X. CONFIDENTIAL WITH THE DOCTOR

XI. ON THE ROCKS

XII. TAKING COUNSEL

XIII. BOULEVERSEMENT

BOOK IV.

THE UPSHOT OF IT ALL.

I. DUTTON GOSSIP

II. THE "SPANISH GIPSY"

III. IF IT WERE TRUE

IV. ROUGH WINDS

V. SUCCEEDING CALM

MISS DEVEREUX, SPINSTER

BOOK I.

IN CHILDHOOD'S HOUR.

"A silent creature, thoughtful, grave, sincere."

JEAN INGELOW.

CHAPTER I.

A MIDDLE-AGED YOUNG LADY.

 "Sensibility, how charming!"
BURNS.

"IF only I had some one to tell me what to do!" sighed Miss
Devereux, an anxious pucker wrinkling her forehead.

It was the first time in Sybella Devereux' life that she had
ever had to stand alone.

The morning-room which she occupied was better fitted for

summer than winter uses. Indian matting covered the floor;
Indian drapery clothed the walls; light cane chairs of foreign
make were scattered among tables no less fragile. This
being June, a fringe of Gloire de Dijon roses peered in at
the open French window. Had it been December, the
morning-room would have been forsaken.

Sybella Devereux had taken one of the slight chairs, beside

one of the flimsy tables. A writing-case was open, and two
or three letters were outspread.

Few would have guessed her at first sight to be within a few

months of forty. She had lived the sheltered life of many
English daughters in easy circumstances—a life of moderate
occupation, of small trouble or responsibility. Sybella had
taken life as she found it. She was not a woman to carve
out a career for herself in the face of circumstances. She
counted herself delicate, and liked to be comfortable. If any
latent force of character had existed in her originally,
circumstances had tended to smother rather than to draw it
out.
From babyhood she had been thought of, guarded, cared
for, directed, never left to decide for herself. As an arm or
leg will wither if tied up and not used, so the power of
mental decision had withered in her from lack of exercise.

Years had trickled past in monotonous ease, and her

girlhood had lingered long after the lawful stage, "dying
hard." It was ample time for Sybella to be settling down
into old maidhood; at least according to all laws of fiction.
She did not, however, yet count herself to be an old maid.

There were no lines of grey in her hair; and if the cheeks

were rather thin, rumpling into suspicious ridges when she
smiled, that was only because she had always been "so
delicate, you know!" She wore slight mourning for a sister-
in-law, the wife of her only brother, who was expected
home shortly from India; otherwise she would not have
hesitated to sport a white dress with blue ribbons, as suited
to the season.

That which marked Sybella as apart from the young

ladyhood of the day was not so much any definite look of
middle-age; it was rather a certain sentimentality, a self-
conscious bashfulness, belonging entirely to a past
generation. Girls of sixteen and eighteen growing up around
Sybella were twenty times as practical, as independent, as
much at their ease, as was she.

Sybella's father, Sir John Devereux, a kind-hearted and

placid old gentleman, who, like his daughter, took life much
as he found it, had died two years earlier. He left his small
property of Ripley Brow, with the Baronetcy, to his son
Theodore, a successful Indian civilian, stipulating only that
his widowed sister, Mrs. Willoughby, for thirty-five years his
companion and stay, should live there during the rest of her
life. Theodore offered no objections to this proviso. Until the
loss of his own wife broke him down, and destroyed the
charm of India, he much preferred to stay there, leaving
Ripley Brow to the management of his aunt and sister.

Or, rather, of his aunt. Sybella was the managed, not the
manager. The loss of her father made little difference in this
respect. She was still hedged round with care. She could
still go on with her mild circle of occupations—her attentions
to pet plants, her scraps of useless fancy work, her chit-
chat calls upon neighbours, her epistolary gushes to bosom
friends. The circle of occupations included also futile
attempts at painting, fitful readings and copyings of poetry,
dilettante dippings into social questions beyond her depth,
and through all an unswerving devotion to her own health.

The controlling spirit of the household had ever been that of

the stately and fascinating old lady, whose forceful nature
was in marked contrast with the indeterminate outlines of
Sybella's character. Mrs. Willoughby, far from accepting life
as she found it, expected everything to bend to her will.
Circumstances, in the shape of yielding parents, an
indulgent husband, a devoted and easy brother, a
submissive niece, ample means, and hosts of admiring
friends, had fostered to excess a naturally wilful tendency.
At the age of seventy-eight, Mrs. Willoughby could brook no
contradiction. Yet she knew how to make herself ineffably
charming.

Sybella was always "the child" to Mrs. Willoughby. Nothing

had ever been left in her hands. She had never so much as
dreamt of assuming her rightful position in her father's
house. Mrs. Willoughby had managed everything. At thirty-
nine, Sybella knew as much about housekeeping as an
infant. She had never chosen a dress for herself unadvised.
She had never written a cheque. She had never glanced
into household accounts.
Now, without warning, the vigorous old lady, to whom
illness was a thing unknown, had been smitten down by
paralysis. The reins of government slid from her firm grasp
into the helpless hands of Sybella.

She looked most helpless, seated beside the rickety table of

wickerwork. Knowing nothing of real illness, though much
used to cosseting of small ailments in her own person, the
state of Mrs. Willoughby weighed upon her less than the
immediate need for decision upon a hundred minor matters.
In a few weeks, no doubt, her aunt would be up and about
again. Dr. Ingram had not exactly said so, it is true; but
Sybella hardly thought of any other possibility. The pressing
question was—how the world could run its course
meantime, without Mrs. Willoughby to direct it?

"If only I had some one to tell me what to do!" sighed

Sybella. "Just now especially—such an awkward time! A
month later it would not have been so bad. Dear Theodore
will be at home, and men always know about everything.
Till he comes, I really have nobody to turn to. And so many
things ought to be arranged."

She drew another plaintive breath, looked towards the

bookcase, and felt tempted to solace herself with Mrs.
Heman's "Songs of the Affections."

"I suppose I ought not. These letters have to be answered;

and I don't in the least know what to say. If there were
some one whom I could consult. I am so at a loss where to
turn. Mr. Kennedy—I am sure he would do anything in his
power. But then he is not exactly businesslike. Dear aunt
always says that he is not. Only last week she was so vexed
because he forgot to acknowledge that subscription. And
yet he is such a good man; and he does preach such
beautiful comforting sermons! Still I am afraid he might not
know what to advise about the lawyer's letter, and that is
what I need most. Besides, dear aunt never quite likes Mrs.
Kennedy. I am sure she would be vexed if any of our private
affairs came before her. And Mr. Kennedy is so forgetful,
poor dear man! He might repeat things to his wife—men so
often do. That is the worst of being married."

Sybella twiddled her ivory pen-handle in an aimless way, as

she reviewed the situation.

"Then there is Mr. Trevelyan. If only he were a different sort

of man! It would seem so natural to turn to him—living in
his Parish. Quite impossible, of course—dear aunt
disapproving of his views as she does. And if there is one
man I do dislike more than any other, it is Mr. Trevelyan!
That manner is so unbearable. Of course, not going to his
Church, one could not very well ask his help, even if dear
aunt would approve. We have kept well aloof from the
Trevelyans till now—happily. Besides, even if there were no
other objections, he is a widower."

A blush mantled in Miss Devereux' cheeks.

"One has to be careful, especially in a place like Dulveriford.

Everything is so talked about. People might say—but, of
course, Mr. Trevelyan is out of the question . . . Then there
is Dr. Ingram. He will come in presently, and I might get his
advice—perhaps—but I am not sure. He is such a new
acquaintance—and then he is so shy! If only our dear old
Dr. Symonds were here, he would do anything in the world
for me. Dr. Ingram is different. They say he is much
cleverer than Dr. Symonds; but I can't quite make him out.
One does not feel at one's ease with him, somehow. I
should think he could be sarcastic. Besides, he is a widower
too. So, of course, I have to be careful. It is extraordinary,
the number of widowers in this neighbourhood—and rather
tiresome! I do think clergymen and doctors ought not to be
unmarried, for the sake of other people. It makes things so
uncomfortable."

Sybella, leant her cheek pensively on her hand. She was

given to attitudinising in a mild fashion. A tap, twice
repeated, was unheard; and the door opened.

"If you please, Miss—"

"Pearce! Yes; do you want anything?"

"General Villiers desires to see you, Miss."

Sybella started up in a flutter.

"General Villiers! Not from India! My brother's friend!

Impossible! It must be somebody else. General Villiers
would never have left Sir Theodore to come by an earlier
mail; unless, indeed, they have come together. Sir Theodore
there too? No! But you are sure it is General Villiers, of
Dutton Park?"

Pearce signified that there could be no mistake. He was an

old retainer. General Villiers was well known to him, not
only as Sir Theodore's intimate friend, but as the present
owner of Dutton Park, a neighbouring property. The estate
had been left to General Villiers some two years earlier by
an aged relative, and he had not yet been home to inspect
it. He was expected to arrive three weeks later, with Sir
Theodore and little Cyril.

"I don't understand. It is so strange," Sybella went on

excitedly. "If my dear aunt—" and there was an unhappy
recollection that she must act for herself. "Perhaps I had
better see him in here," she said uncertainly.

"Yes, Miss!" and Pearce vanished.

A soldierly man entered, tall, upright as a dart, and slender

still, despite his more than fifty-five summers. He had
bronzed handsome features, and his hair was variegated
with gray. Close behind walked a small boy, white-faced and
pretty.

Miss Devereux had not seen the General for fifteen years.
She came forward in a hesitating manner, to be met by a
courtly bow and warm hand-clasp.

"I am grieved to hear of Mrs. Willoughby's illness. Pardon

my intrusion at such a time. Unhappily there is reason," the
General said in a deep, moved voice.

"Yes; oh, pray take a chair." Miss Devereux glanced round in

search of a support not too ethereal for six feet two of
human length. The General relieved her anxiety by
depositing himself with care upon a fragile construction of
cane. Fortunately he was not stout.

"If my dear aunt were here, she would—" Miss Devereux

began, and paused. "Yes, she is ill. I hope and trust she will
soon be better. Dr. Ingram seems to think—"

Another break. Sybella's lack of decision often showed itself

in unfinished sentences. Her words ran ahead of her ideas,
and had to be pulled up.

"Not Dr. Symonds?"

"No. Dr. Symonds retired lately. He has left Dulveriford.

Everybody was so sorry to lose him. Dr. Ingram is a very
clever man. They say he is too clever for the country, and
he only came on account of his wife's health; and, poor
thing, she died soon after. But we don't know him well yet.
And perhaps—"

Ideas failing anew, her eyes fell upon the boy, standing
shyly close to the General's knee.

"Is that a nephew of yours?"

"I have no nephews. He has been in my charge." The

General spoke solemnly, an underground rumble echoing in
his deep-toned voice. There is always something impressive
in a voice of that description; and it is particularly well
adapted for the carrying of bad news.

"I see. How kind! But you bring me news of my brother?

Dearest Theodore!" she ejaculated, clasping her hands.
Sybella could not help an occasional air of sentimentality. It
was natural to her; or, if acquired, it had become second
nature.

"Yes—"

"He is—I suppose we are to expect him by the date he

named. How unfortunate that you had to come first!"

No reply.

"I am so looking forward to his arrival. More than words can

express! Dear Theodore!" sighed Miss Devereux. "Ten long
years since I saw him last! Will he be much changed?"

The General muttered something incoherent under his

moustache.
Miss Devereux unclasped her hands, and clasped them
anew.

"If only dear Theodore could have resolved to come home a

year or two earlier! I never could think why he would not.
Keeping that poor little Cyril out all this time—it really has
been reckless. Nearly ten years old! Enough to ruin the
child's constitution."

"Particularly healthy station," murmured General Villiers.

"Yes, but the native surroundings—I have always heard that

the evil was so great—"

"It has been guarded against."

The boy pressed closer to the General's knee, his tiny hand
stealing into the veteran's brown fingers.

"They would do all they could, of course. But since poor

Olave's death, how could Theodore have time?—A busy
civilian, you know. I am afraid it has been a mistake. And
dear Evelyn all these years at school, never seeing her
parents or brother! Ten years' separation! It cannot be
right! Yes, she spent her holidays here—at first, always. She
has had a great many invitations of late from schoolfellows,
which she seemed to prefer. My dear aunt has been pained,
but Evelyn asked her father's consent. I have not seen the
dear girl now for eighteen months. Last summer, she went
abroad with friends, and last Christmas she had German
measles, so my dear aunt was afraid of the infection for
me."

This had no ludicrous sound for Sybella's ears. Though close

upon forty, she was so used still to being cared for as if she
were a maiden in her teens, so used to have her health
counted a prime consideration, that the statement came as
a matter of course.

If the General had been less sad, he might have found it

hard to restrain a smile.

"It will be all right now, however—now that our dear

Theodore is coming home, I shall be so glad to have his
advice and help. My dear aunt has always seen to
everything, and I am so inexperienced."

"Could I help you?" asked the General. He had something to

say which he did not know how to say. With the moral
cowardice of many a physically brave man, he was willing to
put off the evil moment.

"Would you not mind?" Sybella hesitated, recollecting that

here was another widower. But he had come to her; she
would not have to go to him; and he was an old family
friend.

"Would you really not mind? There is a letter from my

brother's lawyer which I cannot understand. Something
about investments. He uses such odd phrases. And a
cheque has come, which I sent to the Bank, and they would
not change it. They said it was not endorsed. Pearce says
that means writing one's name at the back. I have had to
do it before, but I never can remember if I ought to write
across or lengthways, and at which end."

General Villiers solved this knotty point, and glanced at the

lawyer's letter.

"Nothing of importance," he said. "I will explain it by-and-

by. I must not delay longer—speaking. I have brought you
sad news."
Sybella looked inquiring. General Villiers drew the child
forward.

"Can you see no likeness?"

The boy turned his face towards her—a fragile colourless

face, with violet eyes so dark as to be almost black, and a
mass of brown hair curling thickly over the little head.

"Sweet child!" murmured Sybella. Then, with a start, "Yes, I

do see! Surely! He is like poor Olave—strangely like. Hers
was such uncommon beauty. Dear little boy. He must be a
nephew—but Olave had no brothers or sisters. You don't
mean—it can't be that he—"

"Cyril, kiss your aunt."

Cyril crossed the short space between, and flung his arms
around Miss Devereux with a short sob, as if his heart were
full.

"My dear boy! You sweet child!" exclaimed Sybella,

embracing him with effusion. "Then this is our precious
Cyril, and Theodore has come home. Why has he stayed
behind? Is he not well? Tired with travelling? Cyril, my pet,
don't cry. Oh, pray don't. Is he hungry? What can I get for
him? Some seed-cake? Dear little boy! Why, Cyril, who
would ever guess you to be more than seven years old?
Such a tiny mite!"

The child pressed his face into her shoulder, and General
Villiers spoke slowly—

"Your brother was breaking down fast. The doctors said our
only hope was to get him away at once. It made no
difference to me, for I was waiting to come with him. He