Mr. Fortune Read Online Free PDF Page A

Fortune gave to the boy, who with a rapid grace pulled others and wove two garlands, one of which he put round Mr. Fortune’s neck and one round his own. Then discovering that the tin box served as a dusky sort of mirror he bent over it, and would have stayed coquetting like a girl with a new coral necklace had not Mr. Fortune called him into the hut.
    In all Lueli’s movements there was a swiftness and a pliancy as though not only his mind but his body also were intent on complaisance and docility. A monkey will show the same adaptability, deft and pleased with his deftness, but in a monkey’s face there is always a sad self-seeking look, and his eyes are like pebbles unhappily come alive. Birds, or squirrels, or lizards whisking over the rock have a vivid infallible grace; but that is inherent, and proper to their kind; however much one may admire or envy them, they do not touch one into feeling grateful to them for being what they are. As Mr. Fortune watched Lueli folding up the priestly clothes, patting them smooth and laying them in their box, he felt as though he were watching some entirely new kind of being, too spontaneous to be human, too artless to be monkey, too sensitive to be bird or squirrel or lizard; and he wished that he had been more observant of creation, so that he could find out what it was that Lueli resembled. Only some women, happy in themselves and in their love, will show to a lover or husband this kind of special grace; but this Mr. Fortune, whose love affairs had been hasty and conventional, did not know.
    While they were breakfasting together in the verandah the missionary had a good look at his convert.
    Lueli was of the true Polynesian type, slender-boned and long-limbed, with small idle hands and feet: broad-minded persons with no colour prejudices might have described him as aristocratic-looking. This definition did not occur to Mr. Fortune, who had had no dealings with aristocrats and was consequently unaware of any marked difference between them and other people; but he reflected with satisfaction that the boy looked very refined for one who had been so recently a heathen. His eyes were rather small and his nose was rather snub, but these details did not mar the general good effect of regular features and a neatly shaped head. Though when he talked he pulled very charming faces, in repose his expression was slightly satirical. In colour he was an agreeable brown, almost exactly the colour of a nutmeg; his hair was thick but not bushy, and he wore it gathered up into a tuft over either ear, in much the same manner as was fashionable at the French Court in the year 1671.
    In spite of his convert’s advantageous appearance and easy manners Mr. Fortune judged that he was not the child of any one particularly rich or distinguished; for in these islands where the poorest are scrupulously clean and the richest may wear for sole adornment the sophisticated elegance of freshly gathered flowers, social standing may yet be deduced from the degree of tattooing. Lueli had greaves and gaiters of a pattern of interlacing bamboo-shoots, and in addition a bracelet round his left wrist and on his right shoulder-blade an amusing sprig. But this was all. And from the elegance of the designs and their wilful disposition it seemed as though he had been decorated for no better reason than the artist’s pleasure.
    When Mr. Fortune came to make inquiries he found that he had judged rightly. Lueli was one of a large family, which is rare in these islands. His mother was a fat, giggling creature, without a care in the world; even among the light-hearted people of Fanua she and her brood were a byword for their harum-scarum ways. Their dwelling was a big tumble-down hut in which there was scarcely ever any one at home except a baby; and though they had no apparent father or other means of sustenance, that was no obstacle to well-being in this fertile spot where no one need go hungry who could shake