"Are you sure?"
"I promise you. It's in the British Empire's interest to portray other cultures as barbarous and uncivilised; that way there's less of an outcry when we conquer them and steal their resources. Lies have to be propagated if we are to retain the moral high ground."
Arundell shifted in his seat uncomfortably. To him, such statements sounded traitorous.
"Be that as it may," he grumbled, "I'm not at all happy. I'm concerned for my little girl's welfare and I hold you responsible."
"I cannot help that. The decisions I make are based on what I think is best. The decisions she makes are based on what she feels is best. The deci sions you make, likewise. We all act on what we know, what we see, what we are told, and how we feel. The simple fact of the matter is that not a single one of us operates under identical influences. That, sir, is why the future is always uncertain."
Henry Arundell stood and placed his hat upon his head.
"I am not mollified, sir," he said, somewhat resentfully.
Burton got to his feet. "Neither am I."
Isabel's father nodded and left.
Sir Richard Francis Burton wandered over to the bar and took a shot of whisky. A few minutes later, he put on his topper and his coat and, swinging his cane, walked out of the hotel and along the pavement toward Montagu Place.
The thick fog embraced him.
It was silent.
It was mysterious.
It was timeless.
It makes it seem as if, he thought, my world doesn't really exist.
MEANWHILE, IN THE VICTORIAN AGE…
SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON
After they completed their expedition to Africa's central lake region in, 1859, John Harming Speke returned to London ahead of Richard Francis Burton and claimed credit for the discovery of the source of the Nile. Some weeks later, Burton arrived and their feud commenced. The following year, while Burton toured America, Speke returned to the lakes but failed to collect convincing evidence that his assertion was correct.
In 1861, Burton married Isabel and accepted the consulship of Fernando Po. He did not allow his new wife to accompany him there and they didn't see each other again until December the following year.
Burton's duties on the disease-ridden island ended in 1864. That same year, in September, he was due to debate the Nile question with Speke at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in Bath. The day before the scheduled encounter, Speke died from a gunshot wound to his side while out hunting.
His death marked a turning point in Burton's career.
Burton became consul in Brazil, then Damascus, and finally in Trieste, and spent the rest of his life focusing on his writing rather than on exploration.
Queen Victoria did not award him a knighthood until 1886.
He died from heart failure in 1890. Controversy followed, when it became known that Isabel had burned many of his papers, notebooks, and unpublished manuscripts.
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
In 1866, Swinburne caused a sensation with the publication of Poems and Ballads I and quickly became the enfant terrible of the Victorian literary scene. Though he was quickly hailed as one of England's premier poets, his alcoholism took a heavy toll on both his health and his career. He also diverted much of his energy into his fascination with birchings and sexual deviancyhe had a condition known to modern medicine as algolagnia, which causes pain to be interpreted as pleasure-and critics generally agree that he never lived up to his potential.
In 1879, when he was forty-two years old, Swinburne suffered a mental and physical breakdown and was removed from the temptations of the London social scene by his friend Theodore Watts. For the remainder of his life, Swinburne lived in relative seclusion with Watts, losing his rebellious streak and settling into comfortable respectability until his death in 1909.
Swinburne's words "-of shame: what is it? Of virtue: we can miss it. Of sin: we can kiss it. And it's no longer sin" form part of his poem "Before Dawn" which appeared in Poems and Ballads, First Series, The Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne. 6 vols. London: Chatto, 1904.
"Not with dreams, but with blood and with iron, shall a nation be moulded to last," is from his poem "A Word for the Country" (undated).
Thou hast conquered, 0 pale Galilean;
The world has grown grey from thy breath;
We have drunken from things Lethean,
And fed on the fullness of death is from "Hymn to Prosperpine," which appeared in Poems and Ballads, First Series.
How he that loves life overmuch shall die
The dog's death, utterly:
And he that much less loves it than he hates
All wrongdoing that is done
Anywhere always underneath the sun
Shall live a mightier life than time's or fate's is from "Thalassius, Songs of the Springtides" which appeared in Poems and Ballads, First Series.
JOIN MANNING SPEKE
Much might be said about Speke's attitude toward Burton after their expedition to the lakes; his actions definitely raise questions about his character. However, it is quite wrong to accuse him of cowardice. Certainly, this is what he thought Burton had done when the explorer published his account of the attack at Berbera. Speke felt that Burton's command-"Don't step back! They'll think that we're retiring!"-was a personal slight. There is no evidence to suggest, though, that Burton ever meant it as such.
Without the advantage of flight, Speke's second expedition to Africa's central lake region took as long as the first. The subsequent debate with Burton, therefore, was not scheduled for September 1861, but September 1864.
OSCAR WILDE
The Great Irish Famine lasted from 1845 to 1852. Oscar Wilde was not a refugee from it, nor was he an orphan or paperboy.
As an adult he became a playwright, poet, author, and controversial celebrity. His epigrams are still celebrated today. They include: "By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community." "There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us." "I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I'm saying." "I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best." "When I was young, I thought money was the most important thing in life. Now that I'm old-I know it is.,, "One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation." Wilde died in 1900.
LAURENCE OLIPHANT
Laurence Oliphant never kept a white panther as a pet. He did, however, nurture John Hanning Speke's resentment of Burton.
In 1861, he became first secretary of the British Legation in Japan but soon after accepting the post there was an attack on the Legation during which he was severely wounded, losing the full use of one hand.
After a failed stint in parliament, he showed more promise as a novelist but then fell under the influence of the spiritualist prophet Thomas Lake Harris. From 1868, he lived as a farm labourer in Harris's cult, not breaking free until 1881.
He spent the rest of his life as an author until his death in 1888.