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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Potter's Thumb, by Flora Annie Steel
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: The Potter's Thumb
+
+Author: Flora Annie Steel
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2012 [EBook #39985]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POTTER'S THUMB ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (Indiana University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=LyHQAAAAMAAJ
+      (Indiana University)
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE POTTER'S THUMB
+
+
+
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          FLORA ANNIE STEEL
+
+
+
+
+
+                                LONDON
+
+                          WILLIAM HEINEMANN
+
+                                 1900
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+
+                          THE POTTER'S THUMB
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I
+
+
+'Tis only the potter's thumb, Huzoor.'
+
+As she raised the parti-coloured rag covering the child's body, the
+noonday sun streamed down upon a pitiful sight. Yet her eyes, despite
+the motherhood which lay in them, accepted it, as the sun did, calmly.
+Emotion, such as it was, being reserved for the couple of Englishmen
+who stood by: and even there curiosity and repulsion froze the surface
+of pity, especially in the younger of the two faces.
+
+In good sooth, not a pleasant sight for mankind, to whom sickness does
+not as a rule bring that quick interest born of a desire to aid which
+it does to most women. The brown skin was fair with the pallor of
+disease, and the fine, sparse, black hair showed the contour of the
+skull. The unnatural hollows of the temples emphasised the unnatural
+prominence of the closed eyelids, round whose ragged margin of clogged
+lashes the flies settled in clusters. Below this death's-head was an
+over-large body, where, despite its full curves, each rib stood sharply
+defined, and whence the thin limbs angled themselves in spidery
+fashion.
+
+'The potter's thumb?' echoed Dan Fitzgerald interrogatively. He was a
+tall man, broad in the shoulders, lean in the flank, and
+extraordinarily handsome; yet the most noticeable quality in the face
+looking down at the very ordinary woman squatting upon a very ordinary
+dust-heap, was not its beauty, but its vitality. 'Is that a disease?'
+he added, almost sharply.
+
+She gave the native cluck of emphatic denial. 'No! Huzoor. The child
+dies because it does not drink milk properly; yet is it the potter's
+thumb in the beginning. Lo! many are born so in this place. The
+doctor-sahib who put the _tikka_ on the arms for smallpox said
+Hodinuggur was too old for birth--that it was a graveyard. I know not.
+Only this is true; many are born with this; many die of it.'
+
+'Die of the potter's thumb--what potter?'
+
+Her broad face broadened still more into a smile. 'The Huzoor doth not
+understand! Lo! when the potter works on the clay, his hand slips
+sometimes in the moulding. It leaves a furrow, so,'--her brown finger,
+set with tarnished silver rings, traced a girdle round the baby's naked
+breast--'then in the firing the pot cracks. Cracks like these,'--here
+the finger pointed to the sherds among which she sate,--'so when
+children are born as this one, we say 'tis the potter's thumb.
+Sometimes there is a mark,'--again the finger softly followed the line
+it had traced before--'this one had it clear when he came; sometimes
+none can see it, but 'tis there all the same, all the same. The
+potter's thumb has slipped; the pot will crack in the firing.'
+
+Her voice took a cadence as if accustomed to the words.
+
+'What _is_ she saying?' interrupted George Keene impatiently. He was a
+middle-sized lad of twenty or thereabouts, powerfully made, with grey
+eyes and white teeth gleaming in an aquiline, sunburnt face.
+
+'Something ghastly,' replied Dan. 'It always is so, you'll find, my
+dear boy, when you dip below the indifferent calm of these people. It's
+like deciphering a tombstone. But come on. We are due already at the
+World, the Flesh, and the Devil's.' Then he paused, gave a short laugh,
+and flung out his hands in an impulsive gesture. 'By the Powers!' he
+went on, his face seeming to kindle with the fuel of his own fancy,
+'it's gruesome entirely. This heap of dust they call Hodinuggur, as
+they call thousands of such human ant-hills all over India; for
+wherever when you dig, the bricks grow bigger and bigger till, _hocus
+pocus_! they vanish in the dust from which God made man--_that_ is
+Hodinuggur; the old city, it means. What city? who knows! Then in the
+corner of this particular one a survival'--his eager hand pointed to
+the pile of buildings before them--'not of those old days, for no
+Moghul in India dates beyond Timoor, and these people are Moghuls; but
+of that Mohammedan civilisation which overwhelmed the older one, just
+as we in our turn are overwhelming the Moghul--who in the meantime
+bullies the people by virtue of an Englishman's signature on a piece of
+parchment----'
+
+'But I suppose we found the Diwan in possession when we annexed----'
+began George stolidly.
+
+Dan scorned the interruption and the common-sense. 'Oh, 'tis queer,
+looked at any way. A mound of sherds and dust higher than the gateway
+of the palace. I'll go bail that reed hut yonder on the top is higher
+than old Zubr-ul-Zaman's tower. He lives up there winter and summer,
+does the old Diwan, looking out over his world and the strength of
+it--that's what his name means, you know. His son, Khush-hal Beg, lives
+in the next storey. A Jack Falstaff of a man--that's why I call him the
+Flesh. Then Dalel, the Devil, roams about seeking whom he may devour.'
+
+'A charming trio; and what part have I to play in the drama?' asked
+George with a laugh.
+
+'St. George, of course.'
+
+The lad laughed louder. 'So I am in baptism. George for short. Born on
+the saint's day--father a parson--fire away, old chap--don't let me
+pull Pegasus.'
+
+'Sure! my dear boy, and aren't you sent to fight them all? Sent into
+this wilderness of a place to be tempted----'
+
+'Oh, don't talk rot, Fitzgerald! I suppose you mean about the
+sluice-gate; but it's sheer folly.'
+
+'Is it? My two last subordinates didn't find it so. Perhaps the
+potter's thumb had slipped over their honesty. So the authorities gave
+me you--a real white man--and said it was my last chance. Think of that
+now, my boy, and be careful.'
+
+George Keene frowned perceptibly.
+
+'That's a fine old gateway,' he said, to change the subject. As they
+approached it a flock of iridescent pigeons rocketed from the dark
+niches to circle and flash against the sky. It was a great square block
+of a building cut through by one high arch of shadow, and showing the
+length of the tunnel in the smallness of the sunlit arch beyond. On the
+worn brick causeway, as they entered, half in the sunshine, half in
+shade, lay the scattered petals of a pomegranate blossom which some
+passer-by had flung aside.
+
+'By Jove, what a colour!' said Fitzgerald: 'like drops of blood.'
+
+George Keene frowned again. 'If I had your diseased imagination I'd
+engage lodgings in Bedlam. Seriously, I mean it. Fellows like you are
+get rid of it in words--all froth and fuss; but if that sort of thing
+ever got a real grip on me--Hullo! what's that?' He flushed through his
+tan in sheer vexation at his own start. From the deep recesses, which
+on either side of the causeway lost themselves in shadow, came a clash
+as of silver bells, and something through the arches showed white yet
+shadowy; something of exceeding grace, salaaming to the _sahib-logue_;
+something sending the scent of jasmine flowers into the hot air.
+
+'That is Chandni,' said Dan, passing on regardless of the salutation,
+'she generally sits here.'
+
+George, imitating his companion, felt the thrill still in his veins.
+'Chandni!' he echoed, 'that means silvery, doesn't it?'
+
+'Moonshine also. They call her Chandni-rat or Moonlit-night as a rule.
+If tales be true, there is a good deal of the night about her. She and
+Dalel--but here he comes, innocently, from a side door. The Devil loves
+moonshiny nights.'
+
+The figure approaching them was not outwardly of diabolic mould, being
+altogether too insignificant. The oval face was barely shadowed by a
+thin beard curling in an oiled tuft on either side of the retreating
+chin, and the only Mephistophelian feature was the narrow line of
+moustache waxed upwards towards the eyes. The dress was nondescript to
+absurdity. A biretta-shaped Moghul cap, heavy with church embroidery,
+sate jauntily on the long greasy hair; a blue velvet shooting-coat, cut
+in Western fashion, was worn over baggy, white cotton drawers, and
+these again were tucked away into sportsmanlike leather gaiters, ending
+in striped socks and patent leather highlows. Such was Mirza Dalel Beg,
+the Diwan's grandson. Behind him came lesser bloods of the same type:
+one with a falcon on his wrist; all with curious eyes for George Keene,
+the new-comer.
+
+'Hullo, Dalel sahib!' cried Dan in English. 'Keene, let me introduce
+you in form to his Highness.'
+
+The Mirza thrust out a small, cold, clammy hand; but thereinafter
+relapsed into such absolute inaction, that George found no little
+difficulty in finishing the ceremony.
+
+'Ana, I see!' said his Highness jerkily, in a voice many tones too low
+for his chest measurement. 'Glad to see you, Keene. You shoot, I lend
+you gun or rifle. You hawk, we go hawk together. You hunt, you use my
+crocks. Come, see my stable.'
+
+Dan's eyebrows went up expressively. 'Don't tempt him to-day, Mirza
+sahib,' he interrupted gravely. 'We are already due at the State
+audience with your grandfather. Aren't you to be there as
+heir-presumptive?'
+
+Dalel crackled with a high-toned laugh which did not match his voice.
+'Bosh! My gov'nor is there in swagger dress. He likes. I am different.
+Good-bye, Keene. You must come often, and we will go shoot, hunt, polo,
+billiard, and be jolly. Ta, ta! I go to stables.'
+
+The two Englishmen walked on in silence for a while. Then George Keene
+looked at his companion with a queer smile.
+
+'So, that's the Devil?--that--that heterogeneous bounder----'
+
+'Heterogeneous bounder is good--parlous good,' replied Dan, still
+gravely; 'but here is our reception party, so, for heaven's sake, look
+dignified, and don't shake hands, mind, unless they offer to do so.
+They know their own rank, you see; you don't know yours--as yet.'
+
+The lad, as he obeyed orders, felt that he knew very little of anything
+in India; the fact being evident in the surprise with which he noted
+the squalid appearance of all things, save the ruinous masonry; even of
+the state-room where, on a cane-bottomed chair, set on a filthy striped
+carpet, a mountain of flesh awaited them. It did not need his
+companion's whisper to make him understand that this must be the
+heir-apparent Khush-hal Beg, for the fat man, coming forward to the
+appointed stripe--thus far and no further--held out his hand.
+
+'The Huzoor is young,' he wheezed in a stately dignified voice. 'But
+youth is a great gift. With it even the desert need not be dull. 'Tis
+only as we grow older----' He paused and crossed his hands over his fat
+stomach with a sigh, as if to him the only consolation for age lay
+there. Dan shot one of his almost articulate looks at his companion as
+they passed on to a narrow stone stair where there was barely room for
+single-file order up the steep steps. Up and up it went seemingly in
+the thickness of the wall, with little loopholes sending a faint light
+at the turns; up and up, breathlessly, till the party emerged on the
+roof of the Diwan's tower, where, in a pavilion set round with arched
+arcades, they found the old man himself, backed by a semi-circle of
+shabby retainers, whose gay clothes showed tawdry in the pitiless
+sunlight.
+
+Yet Dan's whisper of 'the World' provoked no smile in his companion,
+for there was nothing to smile at in Zubr-ul-Zaman, old and shrunken as
+he was. So old that those steep stairs cut him off from his kind; so
+old that his chin lay upon his breast, his palms upon his knees, as
+though both head and hands were weary of the world. What his heart
+thought of his ninety and odd years of life none knew. None could even
+guess, for the simple reason that Zubr-ul-Zaman had never showed that
+he possessed a heart. Of brains and skill he had no lack even now; but
+of pity, love, tenderness, only this was certain, that he had never
+sought them even in others. Yet the English boy had eyes only for that
+wrinkled, indifferent face, while Dan Fitzgerald, seated on one of the
+two cane-bottomed chairs set opposite the Diwan's red velvet one,
+explained in set terms why George came to be seated in the other. Not a
+pleasant tale altogether, told as it was with official boldness of
+expression. Briefly, the sluice-gate of the canal had been opened too
+often, and Government did not intend it to occur again.
+
+When he ceased, the Diwan raised his head slowly, and George felt an
+odd thrill at his first sight at those luminous dark eyes; a thrill
+which continued as, at a sign from the old man, the court rhetorician
+standing surcharged with eloquence at the Diwan's right hand, burst
+into a stream of polished Persian periods which, hitting the keynote of
+the empty pavilion, roused a murmurous echo in its arcades. It reminded
+George of the general confession in his father's church on a week-day
+when the choir was absent; one certain note followed by faint efforts
+after repentance. The fancy, indeed, clung closer to facts than his
+ignorance of the language allowed him to perceive, as the speech dealt
+chiefly in regrets for the untoward events in the past which had made
+it incumbent on '_Gee Uff Keene sahib bahadur_' to languish in the
+wilderness of Hodinuggur, though doubtless the presence of the said
+'_Gee Uff Keene sahib bahadur_' would cause that desert to blossom like
+a rose, despite the want of water. These reiterations of his own name
+made George feel a sense of unknown responsibility, as of a baby at its
+own christening. He looked anxiously at Dan, his sponsor, but the
+latter was now conversing with the Diwan in the usual explosive
+sentences followed by the decorous silences due to dignity, while the
+attendants brought forward divers round brass trays covered with
+Manchester pocket-handkerchiefs and laid them at the visitors' feet.
+George's share consisted of three, one containing dried fruits and
+sugar, one of various rich cloths topped by a coarse white muslin
+_pugree_, the third conglomerate. A French clock, with Venus Anadyomene
+in alabaster, some pantomime jewelry, a green glass tumbler, a tin of
+preserved beetroot, a lacquered tray with the motto 'for a good boy,'
+and various other odds and ends. Among them a small blue earthenware
+pot. Was it blue after all, or did a gold shimmer suggest a pattern
+beneath the glaze? A queer, quaint shape, dumpy, yet graceful. That
+broad, straight ring around it should have marred its curves but failed
+to do so; strange! how these people had the knack of running counter to
+recognised rules, and yet---- Here George was recalled to the present
+by Dan whispering--
+
+'Take it, man! Take it!'
+
+Looking round he saw the latter removing something from a tray, and his
+own head being full of the blue pot, his hand naturally went out
+towards it.
+
+'No! no!' continued Dan, in the same voice, 'the _pugree_.'
+
+'But I've got one already!'
+
+The instinctive greed of the reply made his companion smile as he
+explained that the _pugree_ was put there on purpose. But, as he spoke,
+the Diwan signed to an attendant who stepping forward, transferred the
+blue pot to the tray of dried fruits.
+
+'It is nothing,' came the courteous voice, setting aside all
+disclaimers; 'our potter makes them.'
+
+'I did not know they could put such a good glaze on nowadays,' remarked
+Fitzgerald, yielding the point. 'A first-rate piece of work indeed;
+does the man live here?'
+
+Khush-hal Beg turned to the speaker breathlessly. 'He is crazy, Huzoor.
+The Lord destroyed his reason by an accident. The old wall fell on his
+house one night and killed his daughter. Since then he lives away,
+where naught can fall, like the crazy one he is.'
+
+The stress and hurry of the speech were evident, even though the fat
+man was still suffering from the stairs.
+
+'Thank the Lord! that's over,' said Dan piously, when the last
+diminishing tail of escort left them with but one orderly to carry the
+spoil. 'I ought to have warned you about the _pugree_--but there! you
+might have done worse--the French clock, for instance. Come! let's
+strike home across the mound. I want to show you a dodge of mine on the
+canal cut.'
+
+He plunged headlong, after his wont, into professional matters till
+even George, fresh from college technicalities, could scarcely follow
+him, and found himself wondering why a man of such vast capacity should
+have succeeded so indifferently; for Dan Fitzgerald was not a _persona
+grata_ at headquarters. To be that, a subordinate often has to conceal
+his own talents, and this man could not even conceal his faults. Some
+folk are so self-contained that a burden of blame finds no balance on
+their shoulders; others are so hospitable that they serve as hold-alls
+both for friends and foes; and there was plenty of room both for praise
+and blame in Dan Fitzgerald's excitable Celtic nature.
+
+'What's that?' cried George suddenly. With the best intentions his
+attention had wandered, for everything in that circle of dun-coloured
+horizon domed with blue was new to him. Dan paused, listening. An odd
+rhythmic hum came from the highest hut, which was separated from the
+others by palisades of plaited tiger-grass shining in the afternoon
+light like a diaper of gold.
+
+'The potter's wheel!' he cried, his face changing indescribably in an
+instant. 'Come on, Keene, and let us see the man who made your first
+bribe!'
+
+He gave no time for reply, but turning at right angles through a gap
+threaded his way past piles of pots and sherds until he ran the sound
+to earth. Literally to earth--a circle of the solid earth spinning
+dizzily in front of a man buried to his waist. At least so it seemed at
+first to George Keene's ignorance of potters and their wheels. A
+circle, dazzling at its outer edge, clearer at the centre where
+something beneath a steady curved hand shot up, and bulged; then, as
+the whirr slackened, sank into a bomb of clay.
+
+'Salaam alaikoom!' came a pleasant voice as the worker sat back in his
+seat-hole so as to ease his feet. He was a mild-faced old gentleman
+with nothing remarkable about him save a pair of shifty eyes--the light
+hazel eyes seen so rarely in a native's face.
+
+'Salaam alaikoom,' returned Dan. 'The little sahib has never seen a
+wheel worked. Will you show him?'
+
+'Wherefore not, Huzoor? The sahib could come to none better, seeing we
+of Hodinuggur have spun the wheel of life for years--for ages and ages
+and ages.'
+
+The words blent with the rising cadence of the wheel as he leant
+forward to the task again. Faster and faster upon the wheel with a
+swaying motion. Only the potter's hand poised motionless above the
+whirring clay which showed--as children say--like a top asleep. Then
+suddenly came the turn of the potter's thumb, bringing a strange weird
+life with it. One protean curve after another swelling, sinking,
+shifting, falling. The eye could scarcely follow their swift birth and
+death, until the potter, sitting back once more, the slackening wheel
+disclosed the hollows and bosses.
+
+'The clay is good,' he said, as if deprecating his own skill, 'and it
+fires well.'
+
+'When the thumb does not slip,' put in Dan quietly. The potter turned
+to him in sudden interest.
+
+'The Huzoor knows the sayings of the people, that is well; it is not
+often so. Yea! it slips--thus.' The wheel still span slowly, he shifted
+his hand almost imperceptibly and a deep furrow scored itself upon the
+biggest boss. 'So little does it,' he went on, 'a grit clinging to the
+skin--a wandering thought. It is Fate. Fuzl Elahi, the potter, cannot
+help it.'
+
+'Fuzl Elahi? Then you are a Mohammedan?'
+
+He shook his head. 'I am as my fathers were. The Moghuls call me so,
+the Hindus otherwise; but it means the same. By the grace of God,
+potter of Hodinuggur since time began. Lo! my fathers and my children
+are in the clay. I dug a grave in the dust for the boy; the girl dug
+hers for herself. It was deep, Huzoor. I search for it always; in vain,
+in vain.' The wheel set up its rhythmic hum once more, but the hands
+lay idle.
+
+'Poor old chap,' said Dan aside, 'I suppose he is thinking of the
+accident; but by the powers, Keene, it is a situation. Seated here on a
+pinnacle--a crazy irresponsible creator----'
+
+'Ask him if he made the pot, please,' interrupted George brutally. 'If
+I could get a pair, I'd send them to the _mater_. Those things are
+always in pairs, you know.'
+
+'Pairs! you intolerable Philistine! A potter's vessel trying to be
+matched before it's broken in pieces. Think of the tragedy--the humour
+of it.'
+
+'Will you ask, or shall I?'
+
+Fitzgerald grinned maliciously. 'You. I like to hear you stuttering.'
+
+George smiled, rose, and taking the blue pot from the attendant's tray
+laid it on the potter's wheel.
+
+'Did you make that?' he asked, in English. His meaning was palpable.
+
+'No, Huzoor.'
+
+'If you did not, who did?' he continued, his triumph mixed with anxiety
+for the future; but the old man's thoughts did duty for an answer.
+
+'Without doubt my fathers made it; since it is an Ayodhya pot.'
+
+'Ayodhya,' broke in Dan, 'that means old, Keene; you'll have to send it
+back. I half suspected it was valuable, from that old fox's look. But
+he said it was made here, the sinner! Can you make pots like that, oh!
+Fuzl Elahi?'
+
+The old man smiled. 'None can give the glaze, Huzoor, there is a
+pattern in it, but none can catch the design. Even I know it not; that
+is the secret of Ayodhya.'
+
+'What is he saying? What is Ayodhya?' asked George irritably.
+
+'Same as Hodi--old; it means here the half-forgotten heroic age. Well,
+as you can't get a pair, we had best be moving. Salaam! potter-ji, and
+don't let your thumb slip too often in the future.'
+
+'God send it hath not slipped too often in the past,' he replied, half
+to himself.
+
+An hour afterwards the two Englishmen sat on the low parapet of the
+canal bridge looking out over a world-circle of dusty plain, treeless,
+featureless, save for the shadowy mound of Hodinuggur on one side, and
+on the other a red brick house dotted causelessly upon the sand. A
+world-circle split into halves by the great canal, which eastwards
+towards the invisible hills showed like a bar of silver; westwards
+towards the invisible sea like a flash of gold, at whose end the last
+beams of the setting sun hung like the star on a magician's wand.
+
+'_Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink_,' murmured Dan
+Fitzgerald discontentedly. 'Upon my soul, it must be rough on them
+watching it all day long, and knowing that if they could only get _you_
+to open the sluice _they_ would get rupees on rupees from the Rajah.
+That's how it stands, you see. It isn't so much for their own bit of
+land, but for the bribe. I sometimes wish the overflow cut had been
+higher up, or lower down; but we had to protect the big embankment
+against abnormal floods. Confound the thing! what business has it to
+put hydraulic pressure on us all?'
+
+'Don't feel it much as yet,' said George cheerfully, with his eyes on
+the palace, which was gaining an unreal beauty from the dust of ages.
+For the village cattle were homing to the thorn-set folds, and the
+cloud from their leisurely feet lay in a golden mist between the
+shadowed plain and the shadowed mound rising against the golden sky. A
+lingering shaft of light showed the white fretwork of the Diwan's tower
+clear against the pale purple of the potter's thatch beyond.
+
+'Perhaps not. You will, though. The wilderness plays the dickens with
+civilisation sometimes.'
+
+'Does it? I don't believe it will with mine. Not that sort. I haven't
+your imagination, your sensitiveness, your poetical----'
+
+'Pull up,' said Dan, laughing. 'You'll come to my vices soon, and as
+I've pet names for most of them, I object to have them scientifically
+classified. But I wish I hadn't to leave you there.' He pointed
+distastefully to the red parallelogram of a house with the initials of
+the Public Works Department stamped on each brick like the broad arrow
+on a convict. 'It isn't fit for a youngster like you. But as it can't
+be helped, there's the key. For my sake don't let the World, the Flesh,
+or the Devil wheedle it out of you.'
+
+'All right,' replied the boy, pocketing the Chubb. 'If you are engaged
+to be married, go and do it right off. Promotion in due course
+guaranteed.'
+
+Dan Fitzgerald, looking down at the sliding water, was silent for a
+minute. 'You've hit the right nail on the head,' he said at last.
+'That's why I'm anxious; but by the powers! your work is cut out for
+you if you are to keep me from getting into hot water.'
+
+'It isn't the water that does it,' muttered George, as they strolled
+off to dinner, 'it's the spirits.'
+
+That was the truth in more senses than one. George had been living with
+his superior officer for two months at headquarters, and his cool,
+clear head had noted the fascination which stimulants of all kinds had
+for Dan's excitable nature. But he had said nothing, after the manner
+of men. Therefore it came as a surprise even to himself when that
+evening something made him say hurriedly--
+
+'Better not, Fitzgerald; you've a long ride before you.'
+
+Dan, his hand on the whisky bottle, paused, surprised in his turn; but
+George seemed to feel that key in his pocket outline itself against the
+thumping of his heart.
+
+'Are you afraid I won't leave you any?' asked the elder quickly. 'I'll
+send you a bottle by post, if that's it. Come! hands off, youngster;
+don't be a fool! That's enough.'
+
+The angry red was not on his cheek only. It had spread to the boy's, as
+he stood back in a sudden flare of utterly unexpected dignity.
+
+'Quite enough, Mr. Fitzgerald. 'I've been your guest for two months, I
+know; but you are mine now. This is my house, and that's my bottle.
+I'll trouble you to put it down.'
+
+For an instant it seemed on its way to the speaker's head; then it was
+pushed aside scornfully; the next Dan held out his hand.
+
+'Thanks. No one has taken that trouble for years. What made you do it?'
+
+But the English boy's shame at his own impulsiveness was on George now,
+and he laughed uneasily. 'I--I believe it was that confounded key,' he
+began. Dan's smile was transfiguring.
+
+'God bless the boy!' he cried, with the ring of tears and laughter in
+his rich brogue. 'So you're the Keeper of the Key of the King's
+conscience, are you? The saints protect you; for see! your sort don't
+know mine. We leave off the effort after virtue where you begin, and I
+spend more solid holiness in refusing a glass of sherry than you do in
+keeping all the Ten Commandments. Sure the sun's got into my head, and
+I must be off to the water cure.'
+
+He was out of the room, out of the house, standing on the bridge
+abutment and stripping as for dear life before George caught him up
+breathlessly and asked if he were quite mad.
+
+'Not yet!' came the joyous voice. 'I'm going to swim up stream till I'm
+beat, and come down with the current--an epitome of my life!'
+
+The rapid Indian twilight had fallen into night, but the moon had
+risen, and the air was warm with tho first touch of spring which in
+Northern India treads close on the heels of the new year. Fitzgerald
+pausing for a second showed like a white statue on the buttress; then
+his curved body shot into the shadow with the cry--
+
+'I come, Mother of All!'
+
+Tristram's cry when he sprang to 'the sea's breast as to a mother's
+where his head might rest,' thought George, watching with the vague
+anxiety inseparable from the disappearance of life beneath the water.
+Ah! there he was--safe; turning his head to call out 'Don't wait,
+please! Tell the syce to have the mare ready for me in half an hour.'
+
+Yet George did wait, watching the arrowy ripple cleaving the steel-grey
+path which led straight up to the steel-grey sky where the stars hung
+sparkling. If, he thought, they were reflected in the still water ahead
+as they were in the still water below the bridge, Dan must feel as if
+he was swimming in the ether!
+
+Decidedly, imagination was catching. George Keene was reminded of the
+fact again as he stood looking over to the mound of Hodinuggur, and
+listening to the last echo of the horse's hoofs bearing Dan away from
+the wilderness. There was a light in the Diwan's tower, another in the
+potter's hut. He wondered vaguely which was really the highest; then,
+to check such idle thoughts, began on the first duty of youth in a
+foreign land--home letters.
+
+'Dear father,' he wrote fluently, 'I arrived at Hodinuggur, my
+headquarters, to-day. It is----'
+
+Half an hour afterwards he tore up the sheet angrily and went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was band-night in the public gardens; mail night also; a combination
+of dancing and picture papers, ensuring a large attendance in the big
+hall, which had been built, gravely, as a memorial to some departed
+statesman. But now English girls hurried through its dim corridors to
+the ladies' dressing-room, intent on changing tennis shoes for dancing
+slippers. English women took possession of the comfortable nooks
+between the pillars where there was room for two. English boys lounged
+about the vestibule, finishing their cigars and waiting for the band to
+strike up. English men drifted to billiards and whist, or to their own
+special corner in the reading-room.
+
+A weird-looking place even at noon was the big hall set round with
+paste and paper mementoes of the semi-historic festivals held beneath
+its high arched roof; with shields from the Prince of Wales' ball,
+flags from the Imperial installation, trophies from the welcome given
+to our soldiers after an arduous campaign. But seen now by the few
+lamps lit at one end it looked positively ghostly, as if it must be
+haunted by a thousand memories of dead men, and women, and children who
+had flitted across the kaleidoscope of Rajpore society. Up in the
+gallery the native band, after playing 'God save the Queen' to the
+Aryan brother outside, was tuning up for dance music. And by-and-bye a
+couple would come waltzing out of the shadows into the bright
+reflections of the polished floor, and waltz back again. Then three or
+four couples, perhaps ten or a dozen; not more. Viewed from the other
+end, where the non-dancers sat in darkness, the scene looked like a dim
+reflection of something going on in another world.
+
+And outside, under the rising moon, the builders of the hall trooped
+home to the packed highways and byways of the native city, full, no
+doubt, of that silent, evergreen wonder at the strange customs of the
+ruling race which is an integral part of native life; that ruling race
+which, with all its eccentricities, rules better than even the fabled
+Vicramiditya himself!
+
+In the far corner of the inner reading-room a girl stood looking at the
+new number of the _Scientific American_, keeping a stern watch the
+while on the present possessor of the _Saturday Review_. A tennis bat
+lay on the table beside her, and her workmanlike flannels and tan
+shoes showed what her occupation had been. For the rest, a well-made,
+well-balanced girl, looking as if she walked well, rode well, danced
+well, and took an honest pride in doing so. Her face was chiefly
+remarkable for a pair of beautifully arched eyebrows, and her best
+point was undoubtedly the poise of her head with its closely plaited
+coif of hair.
+
+A sort of snore followed by a thud, told that people were passing in
+and out through the swing-doors of the outer room. Here, however, as
+befitted the abode of more serious literature, all was peaceful; almost
+empty in fact, and its only other female occupant was a medical lady
+deep in the _Lancet_.
+
+'Oh Gordon!' called a voice from the outer room, 'have you seen my
+daughter?'
+
+'Miss Tweedie is here, sir,' replied the young man addressed. 'She has
+been for the last five minutes trying to make up her mind whether to go
+and dance, or brain Dr. Greenfell for keeping the _Saturday_ so long.'
+
+'Really, Mr. Gordon!' cried Rose Tweedie aghast. 'No indeed not--Dr.
+Greenfell! I didn't really--I mean I was of course, but I don't
+now--Oh, it's awfully good of you.' Then as the apologetic little
+doctor moved away, pausing to say a few words to a tall grey-haired man
+who was entering, she turned aggressively to the offender: 'Why did you
+say that, Mr. Gordon?'
+
+'Why, Miss Tweedie? Because you insisted yesterday that women preferred
+the truth, even when it was rude. And it was true. I suppose, as your
+father wants you, I have no hope of this dance; and I'm engaged for all
+the others.'
+
+Rose Tweedie's eyebrows went up. 'How lucky for you--I mean, of course,
+how unlucky for me.' Then she added in more conciliatory tones, 'I'm
+not dancing to-night; these shoes won't do.' She thrust out her shapely
+foot with the careless freedom of a child.
+
+'I can see no fault,' he replied artificially, putting up his
+eye-glass, 'they appear to me quite perfect.'
+
+'Your knowledge of women doesn't apparently extend to their
+understandings,' she retorted quickly, her voice, as usual when she was
+irritated, showing a trace of Scotch accent. 'Oh father! if you want me
+to come home, I'm ready.'
+
+Colonel Tweedie hesitated. A single glance at him suggested that the
+late Mrs. Tweedie must have been a women of strong individuality, or
+else that Rose had reverted to some ancestral type.
+
+'Not, not exactly, my dear. I only--wanted to--er--speak to you.'
+
+'Good-bye, Miss Tweedie,' said Lewis Gordon, taking the hint. 'Oh! by
+the way, sir, if your daughter will remember I'm a personal assistant,
+and excuse shop for an instant--Fitzgerald came back to-day from
+Hodinuggur.'
+
+Rose Tweedie's face lit up. 'Did he say how Mr. Keene liked it?' she
+asked eagerly.
+
+'I'm afraid not; but he can scarcely be expected to like the desert
+after--Rajpore. I shouldn't--under the circumstances. That is all, sir;
+except that he reports everything satisfactory, so far.'
+
+The Colonel gave a little cough; it was his way of starting the
+official machine inside the social one. 'I hope--for Mr. Fitzgerald's
+sake it--it--er--may remain so. The past scandals have been a
+disgrace--er--to the Department.
+
+'Not to him, though,' broke in Rose hotly. 'I think he is quite one of
+the nicest people I ever met.'
+
+'And what is more, the ablest man we have in our service,' added Lewis
+Gordon heartily. The girl's face softened at his tone. If he would only
+speak like that always, instead of simpering and scraping!
+
+'Well, father, what is it?' she asked when he had gone. The other
+readers had drifted away, and the medical lady looked as if even the
+last trump would not rouse her from the post-mortem she was perusing,
+so to all intents and purposes they were alone. Colonel Tweedie gave
+another little cough; it was an unusual occurrence in private matters,
+and she repeated her question with quickened interest.
+
+'I want you, my dear, to go and speak to--to Mrs. Boynton. I've--I've
+asked her to come into camp with us this time.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+Pages full of words would fail to give a better idea of Rose Tweedie's
+mental outlook than this simple interrogation. Briefly, she must have a
+reason, good, bad, or indifferent, for everything. Her father, being
+her father and knowing this, had several ready.
+
+'Dacre's wife isn't strong enough to face the sand, and you must have a
+chaperon--I mean another lady--you never need a chaperon of course, my
+dear--but if anything happened--besides, we shall be very busy, and it
+will be lonely--I thought it better than leaving you at home--it isn't
+as if she were quite an outsider--she is Gordon's cousin, and he is my
+personal----'
+
+'The widow of a cousin, you mean,' she interrupted with emphasis. 'A
+cousin he scarcely knew; and he never even saw _her_ till he returned
+from furlough last year.'
+
+'Didn't he, my dear?' said the Colonel feebly. 'Still, they are
+relations. Call each other by their Christian names, and----'
+
+This time a laugh interrupted him; rather a hard laugh for a girl.
+
+'What a number of cousins the Rajpore ladies must have!' she began.
+
+'Not Mrs. Boynton, Rose; not Mrs. Boynton,' protested the Colonel with
+spirit.
+
+'No, I admit it. She is perfectly lady-like. I don't really dislike her
+a bit.'
+
+'Dislike! my dear Rose! who could dislike so--so----'
+
+'I admit it again, father. She is charming. I catch myself watching
+her, just as if I were in love with her like all the nice men are.'
+
+'Really, my dear Rose----'
+
+'Well, dear, why not? She is perfectly sweet. Then she has such tact.
+Do you know she never allows an ungentlemanly man to fall in love with
+her? I often wonder how she manages it. It's awfully clever of her.'
+Rose, standing by the fire, shifted a log with her foot and the sparks
+flew upwards. 'Of course I would rather have had a girl; but I suppose
+it wouldn't have done. There! don't worry, dear! Go off to your whist.
+I'll settle it all.'
+
+'My dear girl----'
+
+She told him calmly that there was no need for gratitude, and Colonel
+James Tweedie, R.E., head of a great Department, slunk away abashed to
+the card-room. Rose was very fond of her father, though she understood
+him perfectly--after the manner of modern children; accepting him
+reasonably, with all his weaknesses, as the parent Providence had
+assigned to her. And why, if she would have him, should he not marry
+Mrs. Boynton? The mother, who had died when Rose was born, had been
+well remembered; the Colonel was still middle-aged, and when his
+daughter married might have long years of solitude before him. Would it
+be fair for her to object? It was another of Rose Tweedie's
+characteristics that this question came uppermost in her dealings with
+both friends and foes. No! it would not be fair; there was no reason
+against it. None.
+
+So she walked off calmly to the big hall, waiting to see Gwen Boynton's
+graceful figure--paired with some worthy partner, of course--come
+swaying out into the ring of light. But she was disappointed; for the
+very simple reason that the lady she sought was sitting with Lewis
+Gordon in the most comfortable corner in the whole building.
+
+'Miss Tweedie!' said an eager voice behind her, as she stood
+instinctively marking the rhythm of the dance with one foot. 'Have you
+seen Mrs. Boynton? I can't find her anywhere.'
+
+She turned gladly. It was Dan Fitzgerald, representing, as he always
+did, humanity at its handsomest. 'So you're back! No, Mr. Fitzgerald.
+She is not dancing, anyhow; but as those are the last bars, that is
+cold comfort. What a pity! when you came down to the hall on purpose.'
+
+He flushed up like a girl; and she pointed to the gardenia in his
+button-hole.
+
+'You don't go in for decoration except on state occasions,' she
+continued, 'and then you weren't at tennis. I always keep a look-out
+for you there; that back-handed return of yours from the line beats me.
+I've been trying it with the _chuprassie_ bowling at me, but it didn't
+come off somehow. You must teach me when we are in camp.'
+
+'Of course I will,' replied Dan cheerfully. Lewis Gordon would have
+simpered and said, 'Delighted, I'm sure.' The remembrance vexed Rose by
+its very appearance; as if it mattered what Gwen Boynton's cousin said
+or did. And the vexation accounted for the phrasing of her next words.
+
+'Mr. Keene sent me a message, didn't he? No! How stupid of him! It was
+about his _Nature_. I was to have it, and he was to let me know what he
+wanted me to do with it.'
+
+Dan's face, which had showed perplexity, cleared. 'Ah, it's the
+magazine you're meaning. Sure you puzzled me entirely, for it is not
+nature you want, Miss Tweedie, though, 'tis true, one can't have too
+much of a good thing.'
+
+It was a distinct compliment, or meant to be one, but Rose listened to
+it gaily, and five minutes after, despite her shoes, was whirling in
+and out of the shadows, full of the keen enjoyment which dancing brings
+to some people.
+
+Lewis Gordon, lounging lazily in his dark corner, noticed her with a
+certain irritated surprise. It was a more inconsequent, therefore a
+more womanly action than he expected in a girl who annoyed him by
+refusing to take either of the two places he assigned to women folk in
+his Kosmos. There were those of whom wives and mothers could be made
+discreetly, safely; and those who would be utterly spoilt by the
+commonplace process. He turned to his cousin feeling no such difficulty
+in regard to her classification. Yet in the dim light nothing could be
+seen save the outline of a small head, a huge fur boa, and long curves
+ending in a bronzed slipper catching the light beyond the shadow in
+which they sat.
+
+'Shall we not dance?' he asked. 'It is the best waltz of the three.
+Then I could bring you some coffee and we could rest--on our laurels.'
+
+'No, thanks. I was engaged to Mr. Fitzgerald for the last, and I must
+give him time to cool down.' The voice was sweet, refined, careless.
+
+'I believe you are afraid of Fitzgerald.'
+
+There was a touch of hauteur in the sweetness now.
+
+'It is the second time this evening you have hinted at that, Lewis. I
+suppose--being a sort of relation--you know something of that boy and
+girl entanglement before I married your cousin. Is it so?'
+
+Her unexpected and unusual frankness took him aback into faint excuse.
+
+'There is nothing to apologise about, I assure you,' she went on,
+regaining her carelessness. 'You may as well know the facts. I was
+engaged to Mr. Fitzgerald. We were both babies, and my people
+disapproved. Then your cousin proposed, and good sense came to us; for
+we were not suited to each other. _Du reste_, Mr. Fitzgerald and I are
+still friends, and he is the best dancer in Rajpore.'
+
+There was a pause, before he said quietly, 'Why not be quite frank,
+Gwen, and say he is in love with you still? Surely that is palpable.'
+
+'Perhaps. But I prefer to leave such questions alone, even with my
+cousin. Especially since that cousin has done me the honour of telling
+me many times that he is devoted to me himself.'
+
+He smiled at her deft evasion.
+
+'What is the use of any one being devoted to you, Gwen, if you are
+going to marry Colonel Tweedie?' he replied half jestingly.
+
+'I did not know I was going to marry him; but I am certainly going to
+look after Miss Rose Tweedie in camp--if she will have me. Do you think
+I shall want a new riding-habit, Mr. Gordon?'
+
+'I really cannot help you on that question, Mrs. Boynton.'
+
+She leant towards him, so that he could see the laugh pass from her
+pretty eyes. 'Don't be foolish, Lewis. You have been too good and kind
+to me for that. You, who know my affairs as well as I know them myself,
+must see that I have scarcely any choice between marrying again, and
+going home to live with my mother-in-law, or starving in some horrid
+poky lodging. How I should hate either! I can't live without money,
+Lewis. I don't spend much--but it goes somehow. Then my pension as a
+civilian's widow is but genteel poverty. Clothes are so expensive to
+begin with; yet even your best friends don't care for you unless you
+are well dressed.'
+
+The real regret in her tone made him quote a trite saying about beauty
+unadorned.
+
+'Rubbish!' she interrupted, sinking into her cushions again. 'Beauty is
+like the blue teapot; you must live up to it. I must marry some one who
+can afford a well-dressed wife. I must indeed, in common honesty to my
+future creditors. Personally I should prefer it to the mother-in-law.
+Besides, if I went home I should never see you again, Lewis. I should
+not like that--would you?'
+
+If the words in themselves were a direct challenge, they came from the
+shadow where she sat, so daintily, so airily, that half a dozen replies
+were possible without trenching on sober affirmation or denial. Yet her
+hearer hesitated. There must always be a time when a man settles
+whether or no he shall ask a certain woman to be his wife, and this was
+not the first time the idea of marrying his cousin had occurred to
+Lewis Gordon. He was not the head of a Department, but he was in a fair
+way to become one in the future. He had money of his own, and she liked
+him in a way. As for her? she was perfection as a companion. As a
+wife?----
+
+'My dear Gwen! I should hate it,' he said fervently, being certain of
+so much. But when he had said the words, they sounded too little, or
+too much, so he took refuge in jest again. '_Faute de mieux_ I should
+prefer the family party; that is to say, if you could induce your
+future stepdaughter, Miss Rose, to bear with my presence.'
+
+The light on the bronze slipper shifted, showing an impatient movement
+of the pretty foot.
+
+'Impossible, I should say,' came the voice, airy as ever; 'but as you
+seem to be imitating the barber's fifth brother to-night, why not
+settle that she should marry? Girls do, sometimes, especially in
+India.'
+
+As she spoke a couple swooped out into the almost empty circle of
+polished floor. The waltz, nearing its end, gave them a swinging
+measure, and those two were dancers indeed. One could not choose but
+look, until, as the last chord crashed, they stopped as if petrified,
+to smile at each other, before hurrying away. Lewis Gordon watched
+them, his hands on his knees, a cynical smile on his face.
+
+'By all means!' he said languidly. 'Suppose we say Dan Fitzgerald, and
+so get rid of our two _betes-noir_ at once.'
+
+Mrs. Boynton started from her cushions and gathered her boa together.
+
+'What nonsense we are talking! Stupid nonsense into the bargain--which
+is intolerable. I am ashamed of myself. Come! let us have some coffee
+and forget our folly.'
+
+Her companion rose to accompany her with a shrug of his shoulders. I
+beg your pardon, even though I fail to see the enormity of my offence.
+Fitzgerald, if he were once settled----'
+
+She interrupted him with a gay laugh. 'So you aspire to the barber's
+office in other ways; would like to _ranger_ your friends. When I am
+duly installed as chaperon I must consult you on matrimonial questions;
+but not till then, if you please, Lewis. Ah! there is Mrs. Dacre, I
+haven't seen her for an age; not since I went to Meerut.'
+
+He took his dismissal placidly, as men do in a society where they
+cannot claim the undivided attention of at least one woman. Besides,
+Gwen Boynton's chief charm lay in the impossibility of forgetting
+that--provided she did not wish to do something else--she would be
+quite as gracious to the person who cut into your place as she had been
+to you. Furthermore that he was sure to hold as good a hand, and know
+the game as well as you did; for Mrs. Boynton, as Rose Tweedie had
+remarked, admitted no inferior players to her table. Seen now in the
+full light of the coffee-room she showed slight and graceful in the
+soft grey draperies which she wore as half mourning for the late Mr.
+Boynton--a perfectly unexceptional man who, on the verge of retirement,
+had lost all the savings of a long bachelorhood in one unfortunate
+venture, and had died of the disappointment. Beyond a perfectly lovely
+mouth and the faultless curves of chin and throat, there was nothing
+remarkable in her face; nothing at least to account for her remarkable
+charm. That, however, was indubitable; even Lewis Gordon, sipping his
+coffee outside the circle which gathered round her quickly, kept his
+eyes upon her. So he noticed hers turn more than once to Dan
+Fitzgerald, who stood at the table waiting to replace Rose Tweedie's
+tumbler of lemonade. 'She is afraid of him,' he thought. 'I wonder why?
+Perhaps she hasn't got over her fancy either; that is the only thing I
+can think of likely to create a difficulty.' Then he went off to
+button-hole another Secretary about business, and forgot even Gwen
+Boynton.
+
+Yet, if half an hour afterwards he had by chance wandered into that
+portion of the gardens devoted to zoology he would have seen something
+to confirm his suggestion. For the two figures leaning over the iron
+rail surrounding the ornamental water were those of Mrs. Boynton and
+Dan Fitzgerald. The moon shone on the water; the clumps of bamboo and
+plantains on the central island showed softly dark; masses of feathery
+tamarisk trees and the sweeping curves of a sandhill or two beyond the
+garden shut out the world. Otherwise it was not a suitable spot for
+sentimental interviews, by reason of the ducks and geese, whose sleepy
+gabblings and quackings were apt to come in unsympathetic chorus to
+lovers' talk, while the adjutants, standing in pairs side by side,
+their heads under their wings, were over-suggestive of Darby and Joan.
+The conversation between these two, however, was sufficiently sensible
+to stand the test of their surroundings.
+
+'It is really absurd,' she said in (for her) quite a querulous voice.
+'I accept a pleasant invitation to make myself useful to the Tweedies,
+who have always been most kind to me,--and my cousin. And why every one
+should jump to the conclusion that I am going to marry a man who is
+almost old enough to be my father I cannot imagine. Really the world is
+too idiotic.'
+
+'You don't lump me in as the world, do you, Gwen?' he answered in a
+lower tone. 'Surely you make a difference--surely there's some excuse
+for me, dear? I haven't seen you for six weeks, Gwen; you've been away,
+remember. And I hurried so for that promised dance, which you forgot.
+Yes; we'll say you forgot it. Then every one is talking of your going
+into camp with the Tweedies, wondering at your giving up the pleasures,
+the society, hinting at some reason----'
+
+'If you can't trust me, Dan, that is an end of everything,' she
+interrupted sharply. 'No, don't!--please, don't! One never knows who
+mayn't come this way. Do let us be reasonable, Dan. We are not boy and
+girl now, to squabble and make it up again. You tell me always that I
+love you--have always loved you--will never love any one else; and
+perhaps you are right. Isn't that confidence enough for you?' She tried
+her utmost to keep an even tone, but something made the unwilling smile
+on her lips tremulous.
+
+'It is, dear, and it isn't,' he said, his face showing soft and kindly
+in the moonlight. 'If I were only as sure of the rest of you as I am
+that you love me! But it was so, Gwen, in the old days; yet you threw
+me over. I knew it then, and it made me go to the devil--more or less.
+For if I had had the pluck to say, "You sha'n't," you would have been
+happier. I spoilt your life as well as my own by my cowardice. And I'm
+as bad as ever now, Gwen,--afraid to make you poor. Why don't I speak
+up, Gwen, instead of giving in to the worst part of you?--instead of
+waiting for promotion and making you more extravagant by paying the
+bills?'
+
+'You needn't have reminded me of that!' she cried hotly; 'I'm not
+likely to forget it.'
+
+He stared at her for an instant in sheer downright incredulity. Then he
+laid his hand on hers sharply, and with the touch something that was
+neither dislike nor fear, yet which seemed to alarm her, came to her
+face.
+
+'Don't say that, Gwen! you don't--you can't mean it. For you know it is
+all yours--that I'd starve to give you a pleasure. Ah, Gwen! if you
+would only marry me to-morrow you'd never regret it. Why shouldn't you,
+dear? There's no fear; look how I've got on since you gave me the hope
+two years ago when I came to you in your trouble. If I had only had the
+pluck then to marry you straight away----'
+
+'But it was impossible,' she broke in quickly, as if to lure him from
+the point. 'What would people have said? It was so soon.'
+
+'What do I care? But now there is no reason--no reason at all. I'll get
+my promotion all right. Keene is there at Hodinuggur, so nothing can go
+wrong again. Gwen, why shouldn't you marry me to-morrow?'
+
+'To-morrow!' she echoed faintly; yet for the life of her unable to
+repress that tremulous smile.
+
+'Yes. Ah! my darling, you don't know what the uncertainty means to a
+man like I am. You don't know--you don't understand. If I only had you
+to myself, I would not fear anything. And you wouldn't, either, if I
+had the chance of teaching you what it means to a woman to have some
+one between her and the world--some one to hold her fast--some one----'
+
+She shrank now from his increasing emotion.
+
+'Don't! oh, don't! you frighten me. And don't be hurt or angry, dear.
+I've promised to marry you sometime--I have indeed. Oh, Dan, how
+foolish you are!'
+
+She laid her delicately gloved hand on his arm, as he leant over the
+railings, trying to hide the bitter pain her look had given him; but he
+only shook his head.
+
+'You can't make me different from what I am,' she went on almost
+pettishly; 'you can't, indeed.'
+
+'I could, if I had the chance. That is all I ask.'
+
+'And you will have it some day, Dan. Perhaps you are right, and I
+should be happy. Only, what is the use of talking about it just now? We
+have settled so many times that nothing can be done until your
+promotion comes. That will be next year, won't it? if nothing goes
+wrong at Hodinuggur. Oh, Dan, do cheer up. I have to go out to dinner,
+and it is getting late; but I'll drop you at the Club, if you like. I
+didn't mean to hurt your feelings; you know that; but you are so
+impetuous. Dan, do come! the geese are making such a noise, I can
+scarcely hear myself speak.'
+
+It was true. Something had disturbed the peace of the pond, for a
+confused gabbling and quacking filled the air. Dan tried to fight
+against it for a minute, then with an inward curse gave up the
+struggle. As they walked back to the carriage Gwen felt grateful to the
+birds. They had saved the Capitol, for a very little more of Dan's hurt
+feelings might have made her promise anything. It was her way when
+brought face to face with pain. To make up for what he had suffered she
+was very gracious to him as they strolled along the winding walks set
+with English flowers, and the barred cages where big yellow tiger's
+eyes gleamed out of the shadows; gleamed quite harmlessly of course.
+But when she returned that evening to the rooms in the hotel which she
+occupied during the winter months her mood had changed; for Lewis
+Gordon had been at the dinner. She went over to her writing-table, took
+out a bundle of receipted bills and looked at it with a distaste seldom
+displayed towards such a possession. How foolish, how wrong, how unfair
+to poor Dan it had been to let him pay; and what a dreadful tie to her,
+for of course if he did not get his promotion she could not possibly
+marry him and then the obligation would be unbearable. Gwen, brooding
+over the situation by the fire, felt aggrieved. She was one of those
+women who, paradoxical as it may seem, gain the power of exciting
+passion by their own absolute lack of comprehension as to its first
+principles. To say she had no heart would have been an unkind calumny.
+She was really very fond of Dan; more fond of him when he was absent
+perhaps than when he was present, but she had not the remotest
+conception of what his love meant to him. So as she sat thinking of him
+in her seamless dress--Gwen's evening dresses always had a seamless
+look, and the lace about her fair shoulders always seemed pinned on
+with cunning little diamond brooches glittering and sparkling--she told
+herself that it all depended on promotion, and that, in its turn,
+depended largely on a boy whom she had never seen, who had gone to live
+in the desert with the sole purpose of forcing her to keep her promise.
+A queer tie indeed between that branded bungalow set in the sand, and
+her refined little sitting-room.
+
+And at that moment George, pondering over a cigar in the verandah
+before turning in, was meditating, not upon the mysterious mound of
+Hodinuggur, with the light in the Diwan's tower challenging the feeble
+flicker in the potter's house, but on something far more mysterious
+than either--his dinner. That dinner of six courses, compounded out of
+the desert fowl in various stages of existence, to which his factotum,
+a man whose imaginative faculty outran his creative power, had given
+such topsy-turvy yet familiar names. Wherefore? Why was it deemed
+necessary to feed a sahib on salt-fish concocted out of chicken and
+anchovy sauce, and then to give dignified support to the fraud by
+handing round the conventional egg-sauce? George gave up the puzzle and
+went to bed depressed by the consideration that if Hodinuggur was
+strange and unkenned to him, he was quite as strange and unkenned to
+it.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III
+
+
+Chandni was standing in her cool recesses of shadow at the farther end
+of the gateway which adjoined the little strip of bazaar leading past
+the palace. A bazaar but a few yards long, yet retaining in that small
+space a specimen of all the vices which in past times had made the
+Moghuls of Hodinuggur infamous. A couple of young men with uncovered
+heads were dicing on a string bed thrust under a patched, dyed awning
+stretched from balcony to balcony. A group of half-a-dozen more were
+quarrelling vilely over a quail fight beside the liquor-seller's booth,
+gay in its coloured bottles. Two or three of various ages, heavy with
+drugs, were sprawling and nodding in the gutters. Just across the
+street a sutara-player was twanging away, and above him a girl,
+powdered and painted, bent over the wooden balcony flinging snatches of
+hideous song on the passers-by, and shrieking with coarse laughter at a
+naked monstrosity who, as he begged, made capital of his misfortunes.
+On this girl, with her grease-smirched hair and Brummagem jewelry,
+Chandni, from her shadows, cast glances of scorn, which she transferred
+after a time to Dalel Beg, who sat crouched up against a plinth smoking
+a rank hookah and sipping a 'rajah's peg' of brandy and champagne. He
+had discarded European dress entirely, and the few clothes he wore
+smelt horribly of musk.
+
+Against the darkness of the arch behind her the woman's tall figure
+showed like a white shadow. Not a scrap of colour anywhere save in her
+stained lips and the pomegranate sprig she twirled idly in her hand.
+Keeping time with it to the thrum of the sutara; keeping time also with
+a clash of the silver anklets hidden by the long gauze draperies of her
+Delhi dress.
+
+'Yea! Dalel!' she said mockingly, and the creamy column of her throat
+vibrated visibly with her smooth round voice. ''Tis over true what the
+little sahib said of thy coarse attempts. The pack of us are fools. The
+sahib-logue's drink yonder steals what brains God gave thee; then Meean
+Khush-hal was never aught but a big belly, and the Diwan--Heaven keep
+him for the best of the lot--sits too high. There remains but Chandni
+the courtesan, and she----'
+
+'Hath failed,' broke in Dalel with a forced explosion of malicious
+laughter. 'Lo! thou hast not had a civil tongue for others since he
+flouted thee. Sure the plant must be trampled in the dust ere it
+blossoms. Have patience, heart's delight.'
+
+He was too weary even in his malice to seek the amusement of watching
+the rage grow to her face as she stood behind him.
+
+'Whose fault----' she began hotly; then with a louder clash of the
+anklets ended in a laugh. 'Lo! 'tis past. And what care I? 'Tis naught
+to me, but if the treasure-chest of Hodinuggur be empty, 'tis good-bye
+to Chandni. She goes back to Delhi.'
+
+'Nay! nay!' whimpered Dalel with a maudlin shake of the head, as he
+sought comfort in finishing the tumbler. 'We will succeed yet; but the
+boy hath no youth in his veins. I know not how to take him as the
+others. Yet have we done our best----'
+
+'Best,' echoed the woman scornfully. 'Stale old tricks. A gold piece
+under his plate at dinner forsooth! That was soon over in a beating for
+the servant who should have seen it put there. A dish of oranges
+stuffed with rupees which the same servant, wise man, kept for himself.
+A gun he would not take! a dinner he would not eat! a horse he would
+not ride! Even a woman he would not look at. What care I? there be
+others who will. Stale old tricks indeed! insipid as uncooled water on
+a summer's day, or that thing yonder'--she pointed to the opposite
+balcony--'compared to me. Think not I did not see thee ere I came out,
+oh! Dalel. Not that I care. There be others, and Delhi is but a day's
+journey.'
+
+'Mayhap the tricks are old,' he muttered in sullen discomfiture. 'Hast
+new to advise?'
+
+She laughed. 'Not to thee; thou hast not the wit for it. And there is
+naught new. The crazy potter is right when he saith the world is in the
+dust. Sure every ploughman knows, that no matter what the surface be,
+the sand lies under all. Thou hast but to dig deep enough.'
+
+She had moved forward to lean against the plinth. In the action her
+thin draperies clung to the long curve of her limbs from hip to ankle.
+Her right hand supported her head, which was thrown back against it, so
+that the arm framed her face. It was the attitude of the Medea in
+Pompeian frescoes; the face of a Medea also till the downward glance of
+her eyes met an upward one from the sutara-player. Then with a flash
+and a laugh the pomegranate blossom flew out into the sunlight and fell
+at the young man's feet. Dalel clutched at her savagely amid a volley
+of coarse English oaths.
+
+'Let me go, beloved!' she giggled. 'Did I not say the sand lay under
+all? What! art jealous? jealous of Chandni the courtesan? Wouldst have
+me Dalelah since thou art Dalel? If that be so, I will put thee in good
+temper again.'
+
+She snatched at an old banjo hanging on a nail, sank down amid her
+draperies like a cobra on its coil, and began recklessly to sing
+'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay,' while Dalel waggled his head, but half
+mollified.
+
+'Thou canst not dance it though,' he maundered sleepily. 'Not as 'twas
+pictured in the English papers at the Jubilee Institute. Thou art no
+good at all. I will change thee for a half-caste girl. Yet if there be
+no money in the treasury? Lo! Fate is hard, and I have done my best.'
+
+And still the song of civilisation went on, full of incongruous
+barbaric intervals. The girl in the balcony retreated in a huff before
+an accomplishment unknown to her: the quail-fighters laughed at the
+noise. Only George Keene, wandering about one of the inner courts of
+the palace, seeking a good spot whence to sketch a certain blue-tiled
+mosque, found himself unconsciously whistling a refrain, and paused to
+listen in sickening suspense. Yes, it was! Fitzgerald was right when he
+said the country was being ruined by culture! What an inconceivable,
+unthinkable contrast to that great ruined courtyard, its blue tiles
+decorated in endless writing with the Attributes of God. At least how
+inconceivable it would have been six weeks ago, when he had first seen
+the mosque with Dan as his companion. For George Keene was becoming
+accustomed to being, as it were, depolarised. It would have made him
+very angry had any one told him that Hodinuggur had already altered his
+outlook on life, though it could scarcely have failed to do so. To
+begin with Dalel Beg's occidental follies, grafted on to a sound stock
+of ancestral vices, made him, as he leered over a billiard cue and
+tried to induce George to bet, quite a startling study. Not so
+disturbing, however, as the sober, gentle, inoffensive villagers with
+the confession, 'It is God's will,' on their patient lips. Content to
+toil and die, smiling over the fact. Surely, something ailed the
+terminology of religion if these were Heathen, and certain Western folk
+in his father's suburban parish were Christians? Then there was the mad
+potter in whose walled yard George listened to the oddest old-world
+tales, and the Diwan with whom the lad played chess. To tell truth, he
+never climbed up for that purpose to the tower without a breathlessness
+not altogether to be accounted for by the steepness of the stairs. Face
+to face with the old man, sitting still as a statue before the pieces,
+George felt himself face to face with something he could not set aside
+with a sneer. Yet he might have been playing with an automaton for all
+the interest Zubr-ul-Zaman displayed, while he, on his part, was
+agonising in anxiety. But once his hand had left the piece, the old
+man's would rise from his knee, hover over the board for a second, then
+swoop down unerringly with the murmur, 'My play is played.' And the
+move generally disposed of all George's deep-laid plans, for the Diwan
+was a passed master in chess. Yet the lad returned again and again for
+a beating, being dogged in his turn. He was, in fact, on his way from
+one when Chandni and the banjo started his thoughts along a familiar
+channel. Certainly they were an odd people, and somehow it was
+difficult to write home letters which should at once reflect the truth
+and give satisfaction to the British public.
+
+Meanwhile Chandni, desisting with Dalel's first reliable snore, threw
+the banjo aside and reviewed the position. There was no mist of reserve
+between her and her profession. She had been born to it, as her
+forebears had been. Her success in it was rather a matter for pride
+than shame; her only anxiety being the future. Should she linger on as
+she had been doing in hopes that out of sheer conservatism Dalel Beg
+would attach her to him permanently by some of the many possible
+marriages? Or should she risk the life of a go-between in her old age,
+return to Delhi and amuse herself? The reappearance of the painted girl
+in the balcony decided her; she would not give way to such creatures as
+that until the emptiness of the Treasury was indubitable. Yet as she
+sat rolling the little pellets of opium for her midday dose between
+her soft palms she looked at her lover distastefully. He was no good,
+and if the sluice-gates were to be open that year she must bestir
+herself--she and the Diwan. So much was settled before she swallowed
+the dream-giver and threw herself full length on the bare string bed
+set deep in the shadows. Then the silence of noon fell on that sinful
+slip of bazaar. Even the quails ceased to challenge from their hooded
+cages, and the sutara-player with the pomegranate blossom stuck in
+behind his ear had forgotten the giver in sleep. But out in the fields
+the peasants were at work on their scanty crops, and George Keene as he
+entered the red brick bungalow paused to listen to a cry which never
+failed to impress him. The cry of praise to the giver with which the
+villagers drew water from the wells which stood between them and
+death. Truly in that wilderness of sand, water was the mother of all
+things. What wonder if it became the motive power in life? What wonder
+that, like the silver sword of the big canal, it cut the world into
+halves--the people who wanted, and the people who did not want the
+sluice-gates opened. With a laugh at his own fancy he went in to
+lunch, wondering this time what form the desert fowl would take: it
+certainly was the mother of all food! Hodinuggur might have its serious
+aspects, but on the whole it was farcical as well as tragical, and
+'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay, counterbalanced that cry of thanksgiving.
+
+And that same evening, while he was reading the last number of the
+_Nineteenth Century_ in the verandah, Chandni had an interview with the
+old Diwan on his tower, which, had George been aware of it, would have
+seemed to him farcical beyond belief, though it was deadly earnest to
+the actors. She sat at the old man's feet so as to be within earshot of
+a whisper, since walls, especially in an Indian palace, have ears. That
+was why Diwan's chair was set out in the open under the star-gemmed
+dome of the sky which paled to its circled setting of plain that, seen
+from the height, seemed in its turn to curve, cup-like, to meet the
+sky. The decent domino she had worn on her way was cast aside out of
+sheer coquetry, so that her supple figure, unadorned save for the heavy
+chaplets of jasmine flowers shrouding the filmy muslin, might stand
+outlined above the low parapet among the stars. For Chandni was shrewd.
+The ordinary jewels of her class might have aroused memories in the old
+man, and she wished to impress him with her individuality.
+
+'Nay, daughter,' he said approvingly, 'I well believe failure was not
+thy fault. As for thy plan--speak.'
+
+She drew her lips closer to his ear, and laid one hand on his knee, as
+if to hold his attention.
+
+'Father! all men care for something. He cares not for what he has been
+given. Let us try others. If they fail, well and good. Now there is one
+thing such as he favour--God knows why?--but I have seen them myself in
+the bazaar at Delhi--sahibs who have come over the black water to buy
+ragged rugs and battered brass pots. Why? Because, forsooth, they are
+old! The crazy potter would say it was because they remember them. I
+know not. But this boy pokes about the old things--questions of the old
+tales.'
+
+Zubr-ul-Zaman nodded approval. 'True, he favoured the Ayodhya pot; but
+he returned it.'
+
+Chandni's eyes sparkled, then fell. 'So! that is one thing to begin
+with. Then he is of those who watch flowers grow and birds build their
+nests; who paint colour an paper for the love of it. Again, when the
+fowler fails in all else he baits the snare with pity, and sets a
+decoy-bird a-fluttering within the net. This boy gives quinine to
+the old wives, and fish-oil to the babes born with the Potter's
+thumb-mark.' Her laughter crackled joylessly.
+
+'Words--words,' muttered the old man impatiently. What wouldest thou
+do?'
+
+She drew closer, and the movement sent a wave of perfume from the
+jasmine chaplets into the air.
+
+'Lend me Azizan for a week, and thou shalt see.'
+
+Scent, so people say, is the most powerful stimulant to bygone
+memories; perhaps that was the reason why her words brought such a
+pulse of fierce life to the old face. 'Aziz! Nay! she is of the house.'
+
+'Why not say of the race, father?' retorted Chandni coolly. 'Nay! in
+such talk as ours truth is best. Thinkest thou I am a fool when I
+go to dance and sing in the women's quarter? Is it not sixteen years
+since the potter's daughter disappeared on the night of the great
+storm'--hath not this fifteen-year-old the potter's eyes--Heaven shield
+us from them!' Her hand went out in the two-fingered gesture used to
+avert the evil eye in West as well as East.
+
+Zubr-ul-Zaman scowled at her.
+
+'There be other girls and plenty; take them,' he began. 'Besides, she
+is betrothed. I will not lose the dower.'
+
+'Wherefore shouldest lose it? I said a week, and Zainub, the duenna,
+will see to safety. He will but paint her picture.'
+
+The Diwan spat piously. 'And what good will such accursed idol-making
+do?' he asked more calmly.
+
+''Twill bring the quarry within reach; he lives too far away now. Give
+me the girl, my lord, else will I know that the Diwan Zubr-ul-Zaman
+Julal-i-dowla Mustukkul-i-jung is afraid of the potter's eyes.'
+
+'As thou art, daughter of the bazaars,' he retorted fiercely. 'Shall I
+set them on thee and thine?'
+
+Chandni essayed an uneasy laugh. 'I will do her no harm,' she muttered
+sullenly. 'I will not even speak to her if thou wilt. Zainub shall do
+all.'
+
+Half-an-hour afterwards Chandni, wrapped in her white domino, paused on
+her way home at the door leading to the women's quarters and knocked.
+After a while an old woman appeared at the latticed shutter. The
+courtesan whispered a word or two, the door opened, and the two
+disappeared down a dark passage.
+
+''Tis Chandni come to dance.' The whisper ran through the airless,
+squalid rooms, causing a flutter among the caged inhabitants. Out of
+their beds they came, yawning and stretching, to sit squatted in a
+circle on the bare floor, and watch Chandni give a spirited imitation
+of the way the mem-sahibs waltzed with the sahib-logue. It was not an
+edifying spectacle, but it afforded infinite satisfaction to the
+audience. An audience which has to take its world at second-hand, and
+in the process has grown careless as to abstract truth. The young women
+tittered, the old ones called Heaven to witness their horror, and then
+they all sat without winking an eye while the courtesan sang the songs
+of her profession.
+
+But little Azizan's light eyes saw nothing at which to smile or to cry
+in either performance. She was young for her years, and very sleepy;
+besides, she was betrothed to an old man whom she had never seen,
+because, as all the other girls took care to tell her, she really was
+too ugly to be kept in the family. And that sort of thing takes the
+zest from life.
+
+When the entertainment was over, Chandni sat and talked with Zainub,
+the duenna, until dawn, with that careless disregard of bed-time, which
+makes it quite impossible to foretell at what hour of the day or night
+a native of India will be asleep or awake.
+
+But George Keene, over the way in the branded bungalow, was safely
+tucked up in sheets and blankets, whence nothing short of an earthquake
+would have roused him.
+
+An earthquake, or else a prescience of the hideous caricature Chandni
+had been making of the _trois temps_ over in the palace.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+
+George Keene was trying to translate the cloth-of-gold sunlight into
+cadmium yellow, with the result that the blue of the tiles in his
+sketch grew green, and the opal on the pigeon's breasts as they sidled
+along the cornice, was dimmed to dust colour.
+
+The courtyard with its blind arcades of Saracenic arches surrounding
+the mosque, lay bare and empty, as it always did save at the hours of
+prayer. He looked across it with a dissatisfied expression, noting the
+intense colour of certain tiles which were mixed up with those more
+modern ones bearing the Arabic letterings. The former reminded him of
+the Ayodhya pot, and set him a-wondering if he should ever have an
+honest chance of procuring one like his first bribe. The old potter,
+his authority in such matters, had told him they were still to be
+found, more or less broken, in the digging of graves, or the sinking of
+wells. Hitherto, however, he had failed to hear of one. Yet, the
+possibility remained, since those tiles, which must be centuries older
+than the _cafe chantant_ sort of proscenium on which they were inlaid,
+had survived. The latter he saw clearly, now he came to draw it, had
+been added on to an older building behind; probably a Hindu temple. So,
+when all was said and done, that figure of a grave and reverend
+Mohammedan moulvie, which he had intended to put in the foreground,
+might not have so much right to be there as a priest of Baal. It was a
+confusing country!
+
+When he looked up again from his work, he gave a start; for a totally
+unexpected model was squatting on the flags of his foreground. A mere
+slip of a village girl; and yet was she of the village? More likely a
+stranger--perhaps one of the southern tribes of whom the potter told
+tales--since her dress was odd.
+
+It consisted of a reddish purple drapery, more tike wool than cotton in
+texture, with a stitched border in browns and creams such as the desert
+folk embroider on their camel trappings. It was an admirable piece of
+colouring against that blue background, and he began upon it at once,
+reckless of the averted face; for he was accustomed to be thus watched
+furtively from afar, and knew that the least notice would end in
+instant flight, as of a wild animal. Besides, the faces were apt to be
+disappointing. This one, however, was not, and his first glimpse of it
+gave him quite a shock. Without being beautiful, it was most peculiar;
+a golden brown face, with a long straight nose, and a wide, curved
+mouth; golden brown hair under the reddish purple of the veil; golden
+brown eyes, and a golden brown arm circled with big bronze bracelets
+stretched out so that the hand rested on----!
+
+He gave an irrepressible exclamation and half rose from his seat. Down
+fell his box and brushes, and over went the dirty water streaming
+across his hard-won sunshine. He mopped at it hastily with his
+handkerchief--as hastily as he dared; but when he looked up the girl
+had gone. He sat down and eyed the spot where she had been
+suspiciously; not because of her disappearance--there had been time for
+that--but because he was doubtful of his own eyes in thinking that her
+hand had rested on an Ayodhya pot. If so, what a rare chance he had
+lost; if not, he must be going to have fever, and had better go home
+and take some quinine. Go home, however, _via_ the potter's house, and
+ask that inveterate gossip if he knew anything of an odd-looking child
+with light eyes--here George gave a low whistle, paused in his packing
+up of paint-boxes, and looked round again to where the girl had
+squatted, feeling that it was foolish of him not to have noticed the
+resemblance before. Doubtless the girl was a relation of some sort,
+though the old man had always strenuously asserted that he had none
+living. Perhaps he had meant no male ones; yet, strangely enough, Fuzl
+Elahi did not seem to share that contempt for girls which all the other
+natives of George Keene's acquaintance professed. He often talked about
+his dead daughter, and whenever he talked he became excited and
+restless; indeed, the fear of thus arousing him made George somewhat
+reticent in his description of the girl he had seen, which he confined
+as far as possible to the dress.
+
+'She is not of Hodinuggur, Huzoor,' declared the old man confidently.
+'They who wear wool live far to the south. They never leave the
+hearthstone where their fathers lie buried. 'Tis the old way, Huzoor,
+and we of this place did it also long ago.' Suddenly his eyes lit up,
+he let the wheel slacken and clasped his hands closely over the dome of
+clay in its centre. It shot up under the pressure like a fountain.
+'Perhaps the Huzoor hath seen one of the old folk; they come and go,
+they go and come. I see them often; my fathers and their fathers, but
+never my daughter. She will not come, she will not come.' As his voice
+died away the cadence of the wheel recommenced, only to stop with a
+jar. 'Huzoor! Have _you_ seen her? A slip of a girl with a fawn face
+tinted like a young gazelle's? Not black like these people--but sun
+colour and brown--all sun colour and brown with little curls on her
+forehead----'
+
+For the life of him George could not help acknowledging the thrill that
+ran through him. The man was mad, of course, hopelessly mad; yet if he
+had seen the girl he could scarcely have given a better description.
+Perhaps he had seen her, knew all about her, and only pretended
+ignorance, to serve his own ends; that overweening desire, for
+instance, to pose as one apart from commonplace humanity, at which
+George alternately laughed and frowned.
+
+'Your daughter is dead, potter-ji, how can I have seen her?' he said
+rather brutally; yet what else was there to say with that glaring
+daylight shining down remorselessly on the squalid reality of the
+scene? It was an ordinary potter's yard, no more, no less; the kneaded
+clay on one side of the wheel, the unbaked pots lying on the other. In
+the outer yard a couple of children were playing in the dust, while
+their mother sought a satisfactory ring in one of the pile of
+ready-baked water-pots before bringing it with her to haggle and
+bargain over the price. Overhead a kite or two wheeled in circles, and
+down the slope, of course, lay the palace and its inhabitants; who were
+very ordinary examples of impoverished native nobility in its worst
+aspect. So George Keene meant to be brutal, his common-sense demanded
+it of him. But that evening, as he sat smoking as usual in the
+verandah, he saw a light flickering about the ruins, and told himself
+that, despite his reticence, the potter was in one of his restless
+moods, when he would seek for his daughter all night long, returning at
+dawn with a handful of dust, which he would knead to clay and mould
+upon his wheel into odd little nine-pins. Sometimes he would bury these
+in pairs upon the mound--George had seen him doing it--more often he
+would give them to the village children as toys. George had seen them,
+too, with sticks for arms and bits of charcoal for eyes, doing duty as
+dolls. He had laughed at the oddity of it all; but now in the soft
+darkness the thought sent that thrill through his veins once more. This
+would never do! He had been too long mooning about Hodinuggur sketching
+and playing chess. It was time to ride down the canal, bully the
+workman at the brick-kilns, and have a day or two at the bustard in the
+desert; so then and there he called to the factotum and gave his orders
+for breakfast to be ready twenty miles off the next morning. That would
+settle his nerves.
+
+When he returned, after four days, absence, he set to work rationally
+to finish his sketch. The cloth-of-gold sunshine was brilliant as ever,
+the blue tiles glowed, the prismatic pigeons sidled along the cornices.
+He told himself that Hodinuggur was not such a bad place if you refused
+to allow imagination----
+
+'The Huzoor gives medicine to the poor,' came a voice behind him.
+'Mother is ill; I want quinine.'
+
+It was the girl with the Ayodhya pot in her hand. George Keene laughed
+out loud in the satisfaction of his heart at his own wisdom.
+
+'What is the matter with your mother?' he asked judiciously.
+
+'She is sick, I am to get quinine,' repeated the girl. 'I came once
+before, but the Huzoor jumped up; so I became frightened and ran away.
+Since then I have come often, but the Huzoor was not here.'
+
+George felt vaguely that he too had run away before something
+ridiculously commonplace and simple, and in the effort to bolster up
+his dignity, his tone became pompous and condescending.
+
+'You are not frightened now, I hope?'
+
+The queerest demure look came to her downcast eyes.
+
+'Wherefore should I be afraid? The Huzoor is my father and mother.'
+
+George had heard the saying a hundred times. Even now, incongruous as
+it was, it pleased him by its flattering recognition of the fact that
+his benevolence and superiority were undeniable.
+
+'But, unfortunately, I don't carry quinine with me,' he began.
+
+'If the Huzoor were to bring it to-morrow when he comes to put paints
+on paper, his slave could return and fetch it,' she interrupted
+readily. He looked at her more sharply, wondering what her age might
+be. 'Shall I come, Huzoor?' she continued, with a certain anxiety in
+her grave face.
+
+'What else?' he answered quickly. It would suit him admirably, since he
+could come armed with rupees wherewith to bribe the Ayodhya pot from
+her, and with canvas and oil-colour more suitable to the portrait
+which, as he looked at her golden brown face and reddish purple
+draperies, he resolved to have. He would paint her against the dark
+mound of the ruins rising formless and void upon a sunset sky, and he
+would call it----
+
+'You had better tell me your name,' he said suddenly, 'then I shall
+know to whom I have to send the quinine in case you can't come.'
+
+Her white teeth flashed between the long curves of her mouth.
+
+'I am Azizan, Huzoor. I am quite sure to come, and I will bring the pot
+for the medicine.'
+
+It was almost as if she had divined his intention, he thought, as he
+watched her pass out through the gateway behind him. It was a queer
+chance altogether, all the greater because the name Azizan was
+familiarly commonplace. Briefly, it happened to be that of his
+factotum's wife. He had, of course, never seen that estimable female,
+but he had often heard her addressed in tones of objurgation when delay
+occurred between the courses, thus--'_Azizan! egg sarse. Azizan! salt
+fish is not without egg sarse_.' From which George inferred that she
+was responsible for the kitchen-maid's portion of the Barmecidal feast.
+The remembrance made him smile as he packed up his colours, resolving
+to do no more till he could begin in earnest on that most interesting
+study. He would have thought it still more interesting if he could have
+seen it slipping into the white domino which old Zainub, the duenna,
+held ready at the gate, where she had been warding off possible
+intrusion by the bare truth, that one of her palace ladies was within.
+For the custom of seclusion renders intrigue absolutely safe, since
+none dare put the identity of a white-robed figure to the test, or pry
+into the privacy of a place claimed by a veiled woman.
+
+'Now mind,' scolded Zainub, as they shuffled back to the women's
+apartments, 'if thou sayest a word of this to the girls thou goest not
+again; but the old bridegroom comes instead.'
+
+'I will go again,' said the girl gravely, 'I liked it. But the sun made
+my eyes ache without the veil. Yes! I will go again, amma-jan'
+(nursie).
+
+To tell the truth, she had small choice. We have all heard of an empire
+whereon the sun never sets, and where slavery does not exist. Even
+those who shake their heads over the former statement, applaud the
+latter. But slavery, unfortunately, is as elusive as liberty, and when
+not a soul, save those interested in making you obey, is even aware of
+your existence, individual freedom is apt to be a fraud. This was
+Azizan's case. Born of an unknown wrong, she might have died of one
+also, and none been the wiser. The zenana walls which shut her in, shut
+out the penal code of the alien. If she had chosen to be prudish, the
+alternative would have been put before her brutally; but she did not
+choose; for naturally enough, as she said, she liked the masquerade,
+even if the sun did make her head ache. So she sat all that afternoon
+under the lattice-window, whence, if you stood on tiptoe, you could see
+the flags in front of the mosque, and thought of the morrow; naturally,
+also, since it was a great event to one who had never before set foot
+beyond the walls of the women's quarter.
+
+Yet George had to wait a long time the next day ere she appeared and
+squatted down before him confidently. 'It was the black man who came
+with the Huzoor's things,' she explained quite openly. 'Mother would
+not let me come while he was here. The Huzoors are quite different;
+they are our fathers and mothers.'
+
+The repetition of the phrase amused George, and tickled his sense of
+superiority. It scarcely needed stimulus, for, like most of his race,
+he was inclined to consider the natives as automata, until personal
+experience in each case made him admit reluctantly that they were not.
+So he wondered vain-gloriously what certain politicians at home would
+say to this candid distrust of the black man, produced the quinine, and
+then offered Azizan five whole rupees if she would let him draw a
+picture of her, as he had of the mosque.
+
+'Is that the mosque?' she asked dubiously.
+
+George's reply was full of condescension, which it would not have been
+had he looked on Azizan in the light of a girl capable, as girls always
+are, of mischief; for the sketch was accurate to a degree. It ended in
+an offer of ten rupees for a finished picture of that odd, attractive,
+yellow-brown face. It was now resting its pointed chin on the tucked-up
+knees, round which the thin brown arms were clasped; and the smile
+which lengthened the already long curves of the mouth George set down
+to sheer greedy delight at an over large bribe, which, to tell truth,
+he regretted. Half would have been sufficient.
+
+'Then the Huzoor must really think me pretty.'
+
+The words might have been bombs, the sigh of satisfaction accompanying
+them a thunderclap, from the start they gave to his superiority. So she
+was nothing more nor less than a girl; rather a pretty girl, too, when
+she smiled, though not so picturesque as when she was grave.
+
+'I think you will make a pretty picture,' he replied with dignity.
+'Come! ten rupees is a lot, you know.'
+
+'I'll sit if the Huzoor thinks me pretty,' persisted Azizan, now quite
+grave. And her gravity, as she sat with the reddish purple drapery
+veiling all save the straight column of her throat and the thin brown
+hands clasping the Ayodhya pot, appealed so strongly to George Keene's
+artistic sense, that he would have perjured himself to say she was
+beautiful as a houri twenty times over if thereby he could have made
+her sit to him.
+
+She proved an excellent model; perhaps because she had done little else
+all her life but sit still, with that grave tired look on her face. So
+still, so lifeless, that he felt aggrieved when, without a word of
+warning, she rose and salaamed.
+
+'I must go home now, Huzoor,' she said in answer to his impatient
+assertion that he had but just begun. 'I will come to-morrow if the
+Huzoor wishes it.'
+
+'Of course you must come,' he replied angrily, 'if you are to get the
+ten rupees. Why can't you stay now?'
+
+Azizan might have said with truth that a hand from the gateway behind
+the sketcher's back had beckoned to her, but she only smiled
+mysteriously.
+
+George, left behind in the sunny courtyard, looked at the charcoal
+smudges on his canvas with mixed feelings. He had the pose; but should
+he ever succeed in painting the picture which rose before his mind's
+eye? To most amateurs of real talent, such as he was, there comes some
+special time when the conviction that here is an opportunity, here an
+occasion for the best possible work, brings all latent power into
+action, and makes the effort absorbing. Something of this feeling had
+already taken possession of George; he began to project a finished
+picture, and various methods of inducing his sitter to give him more
+time. Perhaps she had found it dull. Native women, he believed,
+chattered all day long. So when she came next morning, he asked her if
+she liked stories, and when she nodded, he began straightway on his
+recollections of Hans Andersen; choosing out all the melancholy and
+aggressively sentimental subjects, so as to prevent her from smiling.
+He succeeded very well so far; Azizan sat gravely in the sunshine
+listening, but every day she rose to go with just the same sudden
+alacrity. Then he told her the tale of Cinderella, and the necessity
+for her leaving the prince's ball before twelve o'clock; but even this
+did not make Azizan laugh. On the contrary, she looked rather
+frightened, and asked what the prince said when he found out.
+
+'He told her that he thought her the most beautiful girl in the world,
+so they lived happy ever after,' replied George carelessly.
+
+It was two nights after this incident that old Zainub the duenna paid a
+visit to Chandni in her shadowy recesses.
+
+'What is to come of this foolishness?' she asked crossly. ''Twas a week
+at first; now 'tis ten days. She used to give no trouble, and now she
+sits by the lattice in a fever for the next day. That is the plague of
+girls; give them but a glimpse outside and they fret to death. So I
+warned Meean Khush-hal sixteen years agone, when the mother took refuge
+with us during her father's absence on the night of the storm; but he
+listened not when he had the excuse of the wall. Yea, that is the
+truth, O Chandni! 'tis well thou shouldst know the whole, since thou
+hast guessed half. Mayhap thou wilt think twice when thou hast heard.
+Ai! my daughter! I seem to hear her now; I would not pass such another
+year with this one for all the money thou couldst give. Nor is it safe
+for me, or for thee, Chandni, with those eyes in the child's head. Let
+be--'tis no good. Would I had never consented to begin the work! I will
+do no more.'
+
+'True!' yawned Chandni, lounging on her bed. 'Thou art getting old for
+the place--it needs a younger woman. I will tell the Diwan so.'
+
+Zainub whimpered. 'If aught were to come of it, 'twould be different;
+but thou thyself hast but the hope of beguiling him to some unknown
+snare within the walls.'
+
+'An unknown snare is the deadliest,' laughed the other shrilly. 'What
+care I for the girl? 'Tis something to have him meet a screened inmate
+of the palace day after day; many things may come of that. If Azizan
+pines, tell her the wedding is delayed; tell her anything----'
+
+'Tell her!' broke in the old duenna between the whiffs of the hookah
+whence she sought to draw comfort. 'Sobhan ullah! There is too much
+telling as it is. _He_ tells her--God knows what!--not sensible
+reasonable things, like the tales of a parrot, about real men and
+women; but upside-down rigmaroles about beggar-maidens and kings and
+sighs without kisses. Lo! she hath them pat! But now, because I bid her
+hold her tongue from teasing me with them when I wished to sleep, she
+flung out her hands so, quite free like, saying if she might not speak
+them she would think them, since they were true words. He had told her,
+and the sahib-logue ever spake the truth.'
+
+Chandni burst into high pitched laughter. 'So! the little Moghulani
+learns fast! 'Tis not strange, seeing the blood which runs in her
+veins. The cross breed hath but given it strength. Lo! if this be as
+thou sayest, she would not thank thee for stopping her ears with the
+cotton of decency. Thus, for the eyes' sake, Zainub, thou hadst best
+let well alone, and give the girl the rein--while thou canst.'
+
+In good sooth the old dame felt the truth of Chandni's words, and
+knew herself to be between two stools. Either by interference, or
+non-interference, she ran the risk of Azizan's anger; more, perhaps, by
+the latter than the former. So the girl in her odd dress continued to
+steal out in the fresh mornings--for March had come with its hot
+glaring noons--to sit between George and the mosque, and to steal back
+again, obedient to that beckoning hand from the gate; Zainub's
+authority remaining sufficient for that, backed as it was by an
+ill-defined fear on the girl's part, lest the fate of Cinderella should
+befall her before the proper time. There was little conversation
+between the odd couple; chiefly because Azizan had none, and seemed to
+know nothing of her neighbours and the village. Her mother? Oh yes! she
+was better for the quinine. She was a purdah woman, more or less, and
+lived yonder--this with a wave of the hand palacewards. Yes! she had
+heard there was a potter, but she had never seen him. Oh, no! they were
+not related. Her dress? It was very old because they were very poor.
+Her mother had had it by her; it was very ugly. She would rather have
+'Manchester'; but they--that is to say, her mother--would not give it
+her. The Ayodhya pot? That was old also. She had asked her mother, and
+she was willing to sell it. When the Huzoor had finished the picture
+her mother would come, if she were well enough, and settle the price.
+If not, the Huzoor might go 'yonder' and speak to her mother. The
+Huzoors were their fathers and mothers. It was not like a black man.
+This much, no more, George gleaned during the morning hours which
+passed so swiftly for them both. He in a novel absorption and pride in
+the success of his own work. She? It is hard to say. She sat listening,
+while the pigeons sidled and coo'd, the blue tiles glowed, and the
+blind arcades shut out all the world save George and his stories. They
+were of the simplest, most uncompromising nature; partly because his
+sense of superiority made him stoop, perhaps unnecessarily, to Azizan's
+level; partly because his knowledge of the language, though long past
+the stuttering stage, did not extend to niceties of emotion. But loving
+was loving, hating was hating, when all was said and done. Sometimes
+the crudity of his own words made the lad smile, as, by the aid of his
+own complexity, he recognised how entirely they dealt in first
+principles; and then Azizan would smile too, not from comprehension,
+but from first principles also. The woman's smile born of the man's.
+
+It was different, however, when he laid down his brush with an elated
+laugh. 'There! that's done! and you have sat like--like anything.
+Earned your ten rupees and--Azizan! my dear little girl--what is the
+matter?'
+
+First principles with a vengeance, and the sunlight turning tears to
+diamonds as they rolled down those sun-coloured cheeks! He rose,
+divided between pity and impatience, and stood looking at her almost
+incredulously. 'Come, don't cry--there's nothing to cry about. Look!
+how pretty you are in the picture; but it wouldn't have been half so
+pretty if you hadn't sat so still. I owe you more than the ten rupees,
+Azizan, and that's a fact. What shall it be--money or jewels? What
+would you like best?'
+
+She did not answer, and with the same careless superiority he stooped
+and turned her downcast face to his; he was used to turning it this way
+or that at his pleasure. But this somehow was different; so was the
+sun-colour and brown he saw. Sun-colour indeed! He was only
+one-and-twenty, and the brightness and the glamour which seemed to fall
+in a moment on everything, as he saw the heart-whole surrender of her
+eyes, dazed him utterly; only one-and-twenty, and he had never before
+seen such a look as this that came to him from the sun-coloured face;
+but it was brown also! Truth is truth. It was not a sense of duty, it
+was a sense of colour which prevented him from kissing it then and
+there. So much may be said for him and his morality, that the
+difference between a brown and a white skin was the outward sign of the
+vast inward gulf between sentiment and sheer passion. The transition
+was too abrupt; for the time it shocked his culture, and brought a look
+to his face before which poor little Azizan gave a cry, and fled, just
+as she had fled on that first day when George had spilled the dirty
+water over the sunshine. He had spilled it now with a vengeance,
+and--over the sunshine of her face, sent shame--needless shame.
+'Azizan!' he called after her, his pulses bounding and beating,
+'Azizan!'
+
+Then he paused, since she would not; and told himself that there was no
+need for pursuit. She would come back, for there, as she had left it,
+lay the Ayodhya pot. Yes! she must come back. He could scarcely think
+of her without it clasped in her thin hands; so silent--yet all the
+time----? He gave a little laugh, tender, half regretful. Dear little
+Aziz! What a brute, what a fool he had been to bring that look to her
+face! His brain was in a whirl; he could think of nothing save her shy,
+confident eyes, and ask himself if, when all was said and done, that
+world beyond the desert held anything better despite its palaver and
+pretension? Did it not come back in the end to the old ways, to the
+first principles? He laughed recklessly at his own thoughts more than
+once as, scarcely seeing the ground beneath his feet, he made his way
+homewards to the branded red brick bungalow.
+
+The factotum was standing in the verandah.
+
+'The mem-sahib is waiting for the Huzoor,' he said calmly,
+
+'The mem! what mem?'
+
+'This slave knows not. She came half an hour gone, and said she would
+await the Huzoor's return.'
+
+'Wait! where?'
+
+The man pointed to the sitting-room. 'In there, Huzoor. She has since
+fallen asleep in the sahib's arm-chair.'
+
+George stared helplessly at the bamboo-screen which, hanging before the
+open door, prevented him from seeing inside. Who could it be? Rose
+Tweedie? The mere thought sent the first blush of the morning to his
+cheek, by bringing him back with a round turn to civilisation.
+
+'Here! take these things,' he said, thrusting the picture and the pot
+hastily into the servant's hand; 'and see!--wipe my boots--they are not
+fit to be seen.'
+
+And as the factotum carefully brushed the dust of Hodinuggur from
+George's feet, the latter had forgotten everything in wonder as to who
+the 'mem' could possibly be.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V
+
+
+It was a lady, whom he had never seen before, fast asleep in his
+arm-chair; _the_ arm-chair of bachelor's quarters, which, having served
+as a deck lounge on the way out, brings a solitary luxury afterwards to
+the bare sitting-room.
+
+Its present occupant appeared to find it comfortable, for she did
+not stir. It must be confessed, however, that there was not much to
+disturb even a light sleeper, for George's entrance was shy, and his
+surprise sufficient to petrify him for a time. She was dressed in a
+riding-habit, and a pair of neatly-booted feet rested on the only other
+chair in the room. Evidently she had made herself quite at home, for a
+helmet and veil lay with her gloves familiarly beside the cup and
+saucer set out on the table for the young man's breakfast. Altogether
+there was an air of easy proprietorship about the figure which lay with
+throat and cheek sharply outlined against the Turkey red cushions; one
+hand tucked behind the fair, rumpled hair, the other resting slackly on
+the knee. It increased George Keene's shyness by making him feel an
+intruder even in his own room, and without a word he turned,
+instinctively, to leave it. As he did so a glitter on the floor at his
+feet made him stoop to find a diamond pin. He stepped aside to lay it
+out of harm's way on the mantelpiece, and in so doing caught a closer
+view of the half-averted face.
+
+When he slipped out again into the verandah, he stood with his hands in
+his pockets and whistled softly; it was a habit of his when taken
+aback. A most surprising adventure indeed! An Englishwoman--a perfectly
+beautiful one into the bargain--at Hodinuggur alone! How on earth had
+she come there? From Rajpore, seventy odd miles of sheer desert to the
+north, or from the south? The Chief's camp had arranged to cross the
+sandy strip in that direction, perhaps on its return to look in on
+Hodinuggur, but that did not account for her being alone.
+
+The factotum having disappeared into the cook-room, George, in order to
+avoid calling, strolled thither, intent on further information. In so
+doing he became aware of his groom at work on a strange horse. The
+Huzoor was right, said the man with a grin, it was the mem's, and was
+it to have three or four pounds of grain? George, noticing the little
+Arab's hanging head, suggested a bran mash, and went on feeling as if
+he had tumbled into another person's dream. Yet no more was to be
+discovered. The mem had come, sent her horse round, and gone to sleep
+in the sahib's arm-chair. Furthermore, what did the Huzoor mean to do
+about his breakfast?
+
+George, who, to tell truth, was beginning to feel the pangs of hunger,
+hesitated between awaking his guest and taking his bath. He chose the
+latter alternative, moved thereto by the remembrance that he would be
+none the worse for a clean collar and what he termed 'all that sort of
+thing'; but half an hour afterwards, when he returned to the verandah
+with the refreshingly clean look of a newly-tubbed young Englishman,
+the situation had not improved. It had become worse, for, while the
+lady still slept, George felt ravenous; nor could he turn to his pipe
+as a palliative lest she should wake suddenly to find him reeking of
+tobacco--for he had always been a bit of a dandy, and fastidious over
+such things. This did not prevent him from feeling injured. No woman,
+be she ever so beautiful, had a right to take possession of a fellow's
+breakfast as she had done; and yet it was not so much her fault as the
+detestable Indian lack of pantries and larders, which led to every
+plate and knife, every eatable, save the desert-fowl in the cook-room,
+being, as it were, under the immediate guardianship of the Sleeping
+Beauty. Even if the store-closet had been in the bedroom, he might have
+'vittled free, off sardines and captain's biscuit. And still she slept.
+At last, in sheer desperation, he determined to wake her; and, raising
+the screen, was beginning a preparatory cough, when the sight of the
+breakfast-table suggested the possibility of a raid. The next instant
+his shoes were off and the boyhood in him uppermost, as he stole in,
+his eyes on the sleeper. 'A good conscience, and no mistake,' he
+thought, as he annexed the loaf and a tin of sardines. 'One of the
+Seven Sleepers, surely!'--this as he passed more leisurely to a pat of
+butter and a knife and fork; these he piled on the loaf, with a
+spoonful or two of marmalade. Apparently she had no intention of
+awakening for days! This thought led to a cup and some tea from the
+canister, finally to a milk jug; the latter proving fatal, for in
+retiring backward with his spoil through the screen, its contents
+dribbled on to his best suit, and the effort to prevent this,
+overbalanced the spoon of marmalade, which fell with a clatter.
+
+Some people wake to the full enjoyment of their faculties, and with the
+first glance of those grey-blue eyes, George saw that concealment--with
+half the breakfast-table clasped to his bosom--was impossible. He
+blushed furiously, and began to apologise; which was foolish, since
+excuses, if due at all, were clearly owed by the sleeper. She did not,
+however, make any.
+
+'How kind of you not to disturb me before, Mr. Keene,' she interrupted
+in a charming voice. 'Have you been in long?'
+
+Her coolness increased his apologies, making him assert on the
+contrary, he had but just returned. Only being rather in a hurry for
+his breakfast----
+
+'Apparently,' she interrupted again. 'Dear me, what a very
+miscellaneous meal it would have been! But, as I am awake, hadn't you
+better put it all down before the marmalade runs into the sardines?
+Then, as I am quite as hungry as you can possibly be, you might tell
+the man to bring breakfast.'
+
+George, if a trifle taken aback by her nonchalance, felt grateful for
+the opportunity, given with such easy grace, of getting at his shoes
+again before beginning explanations. On his return he noticed that she,
+also, had made use of the time to tidy her hair and restore a general
+daintiness of appearance. As he entered she was stooping to look under
+the table as if to seek something she had lost.
+
+'It is a little diamond pin,' she said; 'I left it here with my
+gloves.'
+
+'No,' he answered quickly, off his guard. 'It was on the floor--I
+mean--I--I think it is on the mantelpiece.'
+
+'Thanks, so much!' She took it gravely ere going back to the arm-chair.
+Then she looked up at him archly.
+
+'Was I snoring dreadfully when you came in first, Mr. Keene?'
+
+For the third time since he had become aware of her presence he
+blushed.
+
+'Snoring?--oh dear no,' he began angrily.
+
+'That is a relief. I was afraid I must have been, to make you perjure
+yourself so. As if any sane woman could believe that you went about
+Hodinuggur in that costume! I believe you have been in for hours and
+hours, and I'm so sorry, Mr. Keene; but you will forgive me when you
+hear my tale of woe.'
+
+George, with an odd little rapture at the thought, told himself he
+could forgive her anything because she was so beautiful.
+
+'I'm Mrs. Boynton,' she went on; 'you will have heard of me, I expect,
+from Rose?'
+
+He told her that he had heard of her from most people at Rajpore, which
+was the truth; but he did not say, which was also the truth, that their
+praises of her looks seemed to him miserably inadequate. No doubt,
+however, she saw this in his eyes, though she had too large an
+acquaintance with the expression to take any interest in it. Nice boys
+always admired her immensely, and this one looked very nice, with the
+beauty of cleanliness on him from head to foot, so she detailed her
+adventures with that confidence in sympathy and help which is such a
+charm to very young men. To say sooth George deserved it, for he was
+one of those who are born to stand between their womenfolk and that
+necessity for taking the initiative which--_pace_ the strong-minded
+sisters--most women cordially detest, and which is the cause of half
+the nervous exhaustion of the present age. So after a very short time
+he took possession of her future even more decidedly than she had taken
+possession of his bungalow. Briefly, the case lay thus. Colonel
+Tweedie's camp, owing to the increasing heat, had changed its route
+slightly, and was due, as the incoming post would doubtless let George
+know, at Hodinuggur next morning. To do this it had doubled up two
+marches across the desert into one, so as to include some inspection
+work before turning at right angles along the canal. Owing to this and
+some good sport on the way, every one had started by daybreak through
+the Bar; that is to say, hard waste land dotted with tufts of grey
+caper-bushes, and stunted trees, just high enough and thick enough to
+prevent one seeing more than twenty or thirty yards in any direction,
+since beyond that the clumps became a continuous hedge shutting out the
+world. Colonel Tweedie and his immediate staff having ridden on in
+haste, the shooting party, beguiled by the prospect of bustards, had
+spread themselves through the jungle on one side of the track, followed
+by their horses and grooms. Mrs. Boynton, however, preferring such road
+as there was, had been walking her horse along it in the expectation of
+being rejoined, when the sudden firing of an unseen gun made her Arab
+bolt. First along the track, then missing it at a bend, the beast had
+swerved into some bushes, where a thorny branch had caught in his long
+tail, making him perfectly unmanageable. After a mile or more, he had
+apparently broken into the track again, and sobered down to a walk,
+much to her delight. Then a solitary native traveller had passed, and
+assured her, as she imagined, that she was right for the sahib-logue's
+camp; so she had trotted on, until, fearing she might lose the track
+once more, she had been foolish enough to walk her horse back on its
+traces, thus completely losing all her bearings. Finally, at a fork in
+the almost invisible path, she had been forced to confess that she had
+not the least idea in which direction her destination lay, north or
+south, east or west; the sun, therefore, being of little use to her as
+a guide. (Here her pretty smile growing a trifle tremulous, made George
+profusely indignant with the desert.) Then, regaining her head, she
+remembered to have heard Mr. Fitzgerald--who, as Mr. Keene would know,
+had of course joined the camp on its entrance into the division--say
+that the more open country lay eastward, and so she had ridden as
+straight as she could into the shadows, that being her best chance of
+steering aright. (Here George grew clamorous over her courage.)
+Nevertheless, it had almost failed, she said, when on a sudden the
+great silver streak of the canal had appeared from among the bushes,
+and she had ridden along its banks till she came to a treeless waste
+with a big mound looming in the far distance.
+
+'I knew it must be Hodinuggur,' she finished with a sort of caress to
+her own comfort among the pillows, 'by Mr. Fitzgerald's description,
+and I knew you from Rose Tweedie's, so I felt it was all right. And
+now, Mr. Keene! don't you wonder I didn't snore, considering I had been
+in the saddle for eight hours?'
+
+George protested it was virtue itself for her to wake at all; but that
+she would have the whole day to rest, as it was manifestly impossible
+for her to return to the camp; absurd also, since the latter was to
+come on to Hodinuggur next day. So he would send to the Diwan and
+borrow a camel sowar, who would ride over with a note telling of her
+safety in the bungalow, and asking for anything she might require. For
+the rest, all he had was at her service.
+
+'But I shall be turning you out of house and home, shan't I?' she asked
+kindly.
+
+The young fellow's eyes softened. 'I don't think I ever thought of it
+as a home before,' he said with an embarrassed laugh at his own words;
+'but won't you come to breakfast? It's awfully nasty, I'm afraid----'
+
+'Then we can fall back on the sardines and the marmalade,' she
+interrupted gravely. This gravity was with her a perfect art, and gave
+a great charm to her gentle raillery.
+
+Perhaps the food was nasty; if so, George, for one, did not mind except
+for her sake. He thought of nothing but her comfort; of how he could
+welcome her to take possession of everything, himself included. Was she
+not the most beautiful, the most fascinating, the most perfect woman he
+had ever seen? Did she not deserve the best he could give her? So,
+while she was writing the note for the camel sowar, George slipped away
+to give instructions to the factotum. The bedroom must be swept and
+garnished, and the things pitched away anywhere. The drawers must be
+re-papered, a towel put on the dressing-table, and---- What a beastly
+hole it was, he thought ruefully as he left the man to his own devices;
+but half an hour afterwards his face cleared; for the factotum, having
+been in good services, had risen to the occasion. Not only was there a
+towel on the dressing-table, but two empty beer-bottles had been
+modestly draped into candlesticks, with the gilt ends of the pugree he
+had received from the Diwan, while the remainder of the muslin was
+festooned about the looking-glass. Azizan's portrait stood on the
+mantel-shelf with the Ayodhya pot in front, and two dinner plates on
+either side, the arrangement being completed by two of his best ties
+knotted in bows about his hunting crop, and the kitchen fan. A tinsel
+veil, borrowed from the compounder of _egg-sarse_, did duty as a
+bed-spread, supported by his Cooper's Hill tennis muffler as an
+antimacassar. In the middle of the room the factotum still lingered,
+benign and superior, one hand holding a hammer and tacks, the other a
+pair of striped silk socks, with the decorative effect of which he was
+evidently enamoured. In addition, a figure swathed in white sat
+modestly behind the dressing-room door.
+
+'It is my house,' said the man, with a large smile. 'Since it is not to
+be tolerated that the abode of princes should lack a female slave, the
+woman, at my command, takes the part of ayah. The Huzoor may rest
+satisfied. Azizan's knowledge of the mems equals this slave's of the
+sahibs.'
+
+Azizan! The smile left George's lips at the name; and before leaving
+the room he thrust the portrait into a cupboard, replacing it by an
+illuminated text which was lying neglected under a pile of wire
+cartridges.
+
+'The Huzoor is right,' declared the factotum cheerfully. 'The mems have
+them ever in their rooms. Lo! nothing is amiss.'
+
+George, as he turned at the door for a last look, felt that the advice,
+'Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together' emblazoned in
+Gothic characters, holly, and mistletoe, which a maiden aunt had sent
+him as a Christmas present, did indeed put the finishing touch to the
+solitude of the wilderness.
+
+'But where are you going?' asked Gwen.
+
+'I? Oh! they'll give me quarters in the palace, I expect. Perhaps I'd
+better go over now and see about it. Then I've inspection work,
+and--and a heap of other things. So perhaps I'd better say good-bye.
+I've told the servants about lunch and all that sort of thing. And your
+traps will be here before dark.'
+
+A very nice boy, indeed, thought Mrs. Boynton, and showed her thought.
+So George went over to the palace feeling quite intoxicated because he
+had been instructed without fail to dine in his own house; and after he
+had settled about his quarters with Dalel, and had ridden off on his
+fictitious tour of inspection, he dug the spurs into his pony out of
+sheer lightness of heart, and went sailing away over the desert,
+careless even of the direction in which he went.
+
+Dalel meanwhile had repaired to the shadowy arches in a state of
+boastful superiority. His friend Keene was coming over to stop in the
+palace. They would play cards, and be jolly, and drink. And the lad
+always carried the key of the sluice-gate on his watch-chain.
+
+'It is a chance indeed,' said Chandni, with a queer look. Then after a
+time broke in on Dalel's vapourings by snatching the banjo from the
+wall and breaking into a respectable and plaintive love-song.
+
+'Lo! thou hast thy way, and I have mine,' she laughed recklessly. 'Let
+us see who succeeds best.' So slipping on the decent white domino, she
+set off for the palace, and turned down the dark passage leading to the
+women's apartments. Doubtless it was a chance which must not be
+neglected.
+
+Between his desire not to disturb Mrs. Boynton's kindness too early,
+and his dislike to becoming a prey to Dalel at the palace, George in
+the end had to gallop his pony the last four miles, and then found
+himself with but ten minutes in which to dress. But he dashed up the
+narrow stair leading to the odd little arcaded room placed at his
+disposal by the Diwan, feeling confident in the factotum's forethought;
+and, sure enough, on the silk coverlet of the high lacquered bed lay
+his dress-clothes and white tie complete. Nothing else, except his
+sleeping-suit; so, choice being denied him, he flung himself into
+ceremonious black, discovering as he did so that two or three jasmine
+blossoms and a sprig of maidenhair fern had been pinned into the
+button-hole of his coat. The factotum was evidently determined he
+should play the right game. As he ran down the stairs again he wondered
+whence the man could possibly have procured the fern, and then
+remembered having seen a few fronds clinging, far down on the
+masonry of his well, into which the canal water filtered. The seed
+of this hill-born plant must have filtered with it; just as these
+strange items of knowledge--the shibboleth of dress-clothes and
+button-holes--filtered into the brains of these odd people. Life in
+Hodinuggur was really very amusing, and full of delightful surprises.
+Yesterday he had been waiting--without a collar!--for a Barmecidal
+feast, to-day in swallow-tail and a button-hole he was going to dine
+with the most beautiful woman in the world! and there, like a fairy
+tale, was the branded bungalow illuminated out of all recognition. And
+inside were more wonders in a table set out with flowers, and Mrs.
+Boynton coming forward to greet him with a bouquet of jasmine and
+maidenhair amid the soft ruffles of her white dress. It was humiliating
+yet still amusing, having to confess it came, not from his courtesy,
+but the factotum's sense of duty. Then the very sight of the man
+himself, in spotless raiment, lording it over Mrs. Boynton's kitmutgar
+was pure comedy. In fact when, dinner being over, George was left face
+to face with three napkin-swathed black bottles hung with foolscap
+tickets of port, sherry, claret, engrossed in the village
+schoolmaster's best hand, he gave one look at Mrs. Boynton before
+exploding into laughter, while she vowed to keep the _menu_ to her
+dying day, if only to show the folly of allowing facts to interfere
+with fancy.
+
+By and by, when coffee came in--the factotum diffident over the
+breakfast cups but triumphant over the under-footman with hot milk and
+sugar on a dinner-plate--they laughed again; yet the laughter brought a
+moisture to George Keene's merry grey eyes. In a vague way the boy knew
+what had happened, knew that the most beautiful woman in the world had
+not only taken possession of house and home, but of body and soul; and
+he was glad of it, despite the moisture in his eyes--glad to the
+heart's core as he chattered away confidentially, while she listened
+graciously, thinking what a charming boy he was, and what an excellent
+husband he would make by-and-bye for any girl. What an admirable
+son-in-law, in short, he would have made if she had had a daughter and
+he had had money; for women of her sort view mankind chiefly from the
+matrimonial point of view, and seek to give variety to the question by
+importing into it all their female friends.
+
+'That reminds me,' she said, as she listened to the hope that she was
+fairly comfortable which George tacked on to his good-night. 'You have
+the most fascinating blue pot on your mantelpiece. Where did you get
+it?'
+
+'Do you really like it?' he asked eagerly; 'if so, you can have it.'
+
+'My dear boy!' she laughed, 'I don't mean to appropriate _everything_
+you possess.'
+
+He looked at her with shining happy eyes. 'But it isn't mine as yet; it
+belongs to some one, though, who wants to sell it, and if you would
+give it to me, now, I'd finish the bargain to-morrow morning and you
+shall have it back by breakfast-time if it is to be had for love or
+money.'
+
+Love or money! The old formula came carelessly to his lips.
+
+Azizan meanwhile, crouching behind one of the palace arcades, and
+wondering when she would hear his foot on the stairs, was echoing the
+thought in another language. She was trembling all over from
+excitement, and fear, and hope; of what, she scarcely knew, she did not
+understand. They had dressed her in her best beneath the flimsy white
+veil which pretended to conceal the finery it really enhanced, and
+surely, she thought, if he had deemed her pretty when in that dreadful
+old shroud, he would be still kinder now. They had bidden her ask for
+the Ayodhya pot, and take him to settle the price with her mother. But
+of doing this she was not sure; she was sure of nothing save that she
+must see him again--must see him to make certain that he was not vexed.
+And then she would tell him that traps were being laid for him--at
+least she might tell him--but come what might she must see him; ay! and
+he must see her as she ought to be seen.
+
+It was not a very safe interruption for George to have found awaiting
+him in the long moonlit shadows of the arcades had he been in the same
+mood as the girl; not even though all the plotting and scheming would
+have seemed incredibly absurd to him at any time, and in any mood.
+Indeed, even by the dim light of the cook-room, where the factotum was
+putting away a copy of the _menu_ among his certificates as proof
+positive of his acquaintance with the appetites of the ruling race,
+Chandni's snare would have met with the derision it deserved; but in
+the dark intricacies of palace politics it seemed simple enough,
+especially to one of her vile experiences.
+
+But as it so happened George never went near the palace. He sat on the
+canal bridge till dawn, smoking one pipe after another, and looking
+aimlessly, dreamily at the dark windows of the bungalow. No one could
+have foreseen this, not even the lad himself. He had no intention of
+out-watching the stars when the balmy air and a feeling of measureless
+content first tempted him to pause and set aside the forgetfulness of
+sleep for a time--or would it have been sleep when _she_ was in the
+desert alone, with God knows what ruffians about? A rage grew up in him
+at the thought of Dalel and his kind, until the palace itself became
+distasteful. So, almost before he realised that he was on the watch,
+the gurglings of many camels and the thud of a mallet told him that the
+advanced guard of the big camp had arrived, and sent him across to the
+camping ground to warn the tent pitchers to be as quiet as possible.
+'May the angels of the Lord pitch their tents around us this night,
+used to be the favourite bidding prayer of a certain Scotch divine when
+he ministered to a volunteer congregation, until one day a veteran
+happening to be there said audibly, 'Then I'm hopin, they'll no mak
+muckle noise wi' the tent-pegs.' A tale which shows the danger of
+imperfect local colouring; a fact which was to be brought home that
+night both to Dalel and Chandni, for even then George did not return to
+the champagne and the snares. That incomprehensible love of the
+picturesque on which the latter had counted, kept him engrossed in the
+novel sight of a canvas city rising like magic from the bare sand.
+First came an autocrat with measuring tape and pegs mapping the ground
+into squares; then, one by one, in its appointed place, a great ghost
+of a thing, flapping white wings against the purple sky, to rise stiff
+and square above? fringe of even silvery ropes.
+
+It was not until a saffron-coloured glint in the east startled him into
+the thought that he was a confounded ass, that George, out of sheer
+lightheartedness, ran all the way back to the palace, stumbled up the
+steep stairs, and threw himself into the high lacquered bed to fall
+asleep before the saffron had faded into daylight. Perhaps it was as
+well, since even the Hodinuggur sun, which had been at work since the
+beginning of all things, might have stared to see a masher in dress
+clothes knocking into a Moghul palace with the milk. It stared instead
+at a more familiar sight; at a girl, face down on a bare string bed in
+the women's quarters, sobbing as if her heart would break.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Naturally enough George overslept himself. Naturally also he woke to
+feel himself hustled and bustled, for he was due to meet the incoming
+camp at the borders of his district at a certain hour; a feeling he
+proceeded to vent on the factotum for being late with the early tea
+which that worthy had had carried over from the bungalow in an odd
+little procession, tailing off to some of the large-eyed village lads
+and lasses learning betimes the customs of their rulers. In addition,
+George had promised Mrs. Boynton an answer about the Ayodhya pot, and
+now, even by hurrying, which he loathed, he could scarcely find time to
+seek Azizan in the old place. Still he did hurry, and leaving the camel
+which he was to ride gurgling in the courtyard, wasted five minutes in
+tramping up and down the flags in front of the mosque; finally, in
+vexation, returning by the short cut through the bazaar. In these early
+hours it had a deserted, yet still dissipated air, the few loungers
+looking as if they had been up all night. Only the quails challenged
+cheerfully from their shrouded cages. In the arched causeway, however,
+he came on Dalel Beg, most offensively European in costume and manner;
+for he too was bound on reception-duty.
+
+'Aha! Keene, old chappie,' he began with a leer, 'you sleep well after
+burra-khana (big dinner) with the mem. By Jove, you keep it up late.'
+
+George could scarcely refrain from kicking him then and there. But the
+thought that these people had possibly put their own construction on
+his absence from the palace made him feel hot and cold with rage and
+regret. To avoid the subject--the only course open to him--he hastily
+held out the Ayodhya pot which he was carrying, and asked the Mirza if
+he had any idea to whom it belonged.
+
+Now the Mirza's oblique eyes had been on it from the first; but at the
+question they narrowed to mere slits of compressed cunning.
+
+'Ah, so! very good. I know. Yes, yes! it belong to you, Keene, of
+course. Bah! it is worth nothing. I hate old trumpery matters. You are
+very welcome.'
+
+'You mistake, sahib,' retorted George haughtily, 'this does not, did
+not belong to your grandfather; it belongs to an old woman who lives
+near the palace. She promised to sell it to me, and now I'm rather in a
+hurry to complete the bargain. Mem Boynton sahiba wants it, and they
+leave to-morrow or next day.'
+
+Dalel Beg, who had been turning the pot over and over in his hand,
+laughed.
+
+'So you say it is another----'
+
+'Certainly it is another,' interrupted George, annoyed beyond measure
+by his manner; 'it belongs, as I said, to an old woman. She has a
+daughter called Azizan----' he paused, doubtful of putting Dalel on any
+woman's track.
+
+'Azizan!'--the Mirza signed his attendants to fall back with unwonted
+decision before he went on,--'Azizan! tell me, Keene, a young girl?
+with eyes of light like potter's?'
+
+Evidently he knew something of, and was interested in, the girl, and
+George, now that it was too late, regretted having mentioned her name.
+
+'Can't wait any longer now, I'm afraid,' he replied, glad of the
+excuse; 'just send one of your fellows up to my quarters with the pot,
+will you? Thanks, I've no time to lose.'
+
+Left thus cavalierly, Dalel Beg scowled after the young Englishman;
+then with a compendious oath turned back to the side door whence he had
+emerged, and, stumbling in his anger up the dark stairs, appeared again
+in Chandni's presence. He almost flung the pot beside her as she lay
+curled up on her bed, and then, driven to words by her arrogant silence
+began a volley of furious questions.
+
+What mischief had the woman been up to? How came it that the English
+cub had seen Azizan? Azizan, who after all was his half-sister, one of
+the race, though they did keep her out of his sight. And that oaf, that
+infidel---- His wrath was real, for beneath the veneer of modern
+thought the fierce jealousy of the Moghul lay strong as ever.
+
+Chandni gave a jeering laugh, 'Thou art too handsome for the maidens, O
+Dalel; too wicked also even for the race. Thou needest one like me to
+keep thee straight. Lo! there is nothing to know, nothing to tell.
+Hadst asked last night, the answer might have been other. I set a snare
+and it failed; for thou wert right--the boy is no boy, but a milksop.
+May fate send him death and us a black man in his place, else I stop
+not here!'
+
+Her jingling feet struck the ground with a clash and she yawned again.
+In truth she was tired of Hodinuggur, and longed for the Chowk at
+Delhi. Dalel, with a sneer adulterating his frown, looked at her
+vengefully, 'Wah! thou art a poor creature, putting the blame on
+others, after woman's way. Thy wiles are useless, forsooth, because
+the boy is a milksop. Then a strange mem comes and he sits drinking
+wine--my wine, look you, for his servant required it of me--until the
+dawn; then comes home tipsy after losing himself among the tent-pegs.'
+
+This was Dalel's version of the incident. It interested his hearer into
+provoking details by denial.
+
+'It is a lie,' she said calmly.
+
+'Daughter of the bazaars, 'tis true! did I not wait till nigh three
+with champagne and devil-bone, yet he came not? Did not his servant
+tell me but now I had stinted them in wine? Did not the tent pitchers
+say he wandered as a madman among the pegs? Was he not at me, even now,
+to get this pot for this mem, this woman?' So far his anger had swept
+him past its first cause; now he remembered and harked back to it. 'How
+came he by the pot, I say? how hath he seen a woman of our race?'
+
+'Ask the Diwan,' she replied coolly; 'for me that measure is over, I
+will dance to another tune.' And as she spoke, though her feet scarcely
+shifted, a new rhythm came to these jingling bells. ''Tis odd,' she
+murmured in a singing tone, as she lifted the pot and held it out at
+arm's-length, 'we come back to this old thing at every turn, and now
+his mem wants it. Leave it with me a space, O Mirza Dalel Beg. I will
+set it yonder in the niche where I take the seed of dreams; it may
+bring wisdom to them.'
+
+Dalel gave a contemptuous grunt.
+
+'Thou art no better than an old spay-wife with thy dreams and omens and
+fine talk. Sure the Hindu pig, from whom I took thee, hath infected
+thee with his idolatrous notions----'
+
+'See, I go not back to them and him,' she interrupted quickly, 'leave
+it, I say, if thou art wise. If the sahib seek it of thee, say one of
+thy women knows the owner and makes arrangement. Tis true, and thou
+lovest the truth, O Dalel.'
+
+As usual, her recklessness cowed him, and when he had gone and she sat
+rolling the opium pellets in her palms, the Ayodhya pot lay in the
+niche. Something had declared in its favour, and wisdom lay in
+humouring the mysterious will which nine times out of ten insisted on
+playing the game of life in its own fashion. Then she lay back half
+asleep, half awake, her hands clasped behind her smooth head, her eyes
+fixed on the shifting pattern beneath the glaze. The sun climbing up
+sent a bar of shine through a chink in the balcony roof. It slanted
+into the recesses, undulated over her curved body and reaching the
+niche made the Ayodhya pot glow like a sapphire. But by this time
+Chandni was dreaming, so she did not hear the merry laughter of a
+cavalcade passing through the Mori gate on its way to the canvas city
+in the camping ground. A cavalcade of aliens, with Rose Tweedie on a
+camel, her English side-saddle, perched on the top of a native pad,
+giving her such height that she was forced to stoop.
+
+'Another inch, Miss Tweedie,' cried George gaily, 'and you would have
+had to dismount; you will have to cultivate humility before trying
+Paradise!'
+
+'Sure Miss Rose is an angel already,' put in Dan Fitzgerald.
+
+But Lewis Gordon rode gloomily behind; partly because he himself was in
+a shockingly bad temper, partly because the camel he rode was a
+misanthropist. And these two causes arose the one from the other, since
+it was not his usual mount. That, when Rose Tweedie had taken advantage
+of Mrs. Boynton's absence to desert the dhoolies which were the only
+alternative conveyance across this peculiarly sandy march, had been
+impounded for the young lady on account of its easy paces. He
+remembered those paces ruefully, as, with low-pitched indignation he
+wondered why she could not have stuck to the more ladylike dhooli. Yet
+she looked well on the beast and rode it better than most men would
+have done on a first trial; than he would, at any rate. But these were
+aggravations, not palliations, of her offence; still, when, on
+dismounting, she came straight up to him, her natty top-boots in full
+evidence, the huge sola hat, borrowed from her father, making her slim
+upright figure show straighter and slenderer than ever, he was forced
+to confess that if she did do these horrible things she did them with
+infinite _verve_ and good taste.
+
+'I'm so sorry, Mr. Gordon!' she exclaimed eagerly, 'indeed I didn't
+know of the exchange father made till we had started, or I'd have stuck
+to the dhooli--indeed I would. What an awful brute it was! I saw it
+giving you a dreadful time. Do let me send you over some Elliman?'
+
+'I'm not such a duffer as all that, Miss Tweedie,' he began.
+
+'I didn't mean that, you know I didn't; but if you won't have the
+Elliman, take a hot bath, it's the next best thing I know for
+stiffness. You can tell your bearer to take the water from our
+bath-fire. And thanks so much, I enjoyed the ride immensely. Mr.
+Fitzgerald raced me at the finish, and I beat by a good head.'
+
+'A particularly good head, I should say,' he replied, out of sheer love
+of teasing, for he knew how intensely she disliked his artificial
+manner with women. The fact annoyed him in his turn. It was another of
+her unwarrantable assumptions of superiority; nevertheless he followed
+her advice about the bath.
+
+Indeed Hodinuggur for the rest of the day claimed suppleness of joint,
+in the mind at least. We all know the modern mansion where, entering a
+Pompeian hall you pass up a Jacobean staircase, along Early English
+corridors, and Japanese landings to Queen Ann drawing-rooms; mansions
+of culture, where present common-sense is relegated to the servants'
+attics. Hodinuggur was as disturbing to a thoughtful person unused to
+gymnastics; perhaps more so because a certain glibness of tongue in
+slurring over chasms and ignoring abysses, became necessary when, as
+fell to Lewis Gordon's lot, most of the day passed in interviews.
+Solemn interviews of State, then personal interviews with an ulterior
+object, finally begging interviews _pur et simple_. The other members
+of the camp, however, had an easy time of it, their attendance not
+being required. Dan Fitzgerald passed most of his day in vain hopes of
+a _tete-a-tete_ with Mrs. Boynton, for he was on tenter-hooks to
+explain the feeling with which, on returning late to the camp, he had
+found it in commotion over her loss; but Gwen, who always dreaded Dan
+when he had reasonable cause for emotion, avoided him dexterously,
+chiefly by encouraging George, who was nothing loth to spend his day in
+camp. At first the lad felt no little vexed to find himself shy and
+constrained among so large a party; but this feeling wore off quickly,
+and when he came, ready dressed for tennis, into the drawing-room tent
+at tea-time it seemed quite natural to be once more amid easy-chairs
+and knick-knacks, to see the pianette at which Rose sang her Scotch
+songs with such spirit littered with music, and to find her busy at a
+table set with all manner of delightful things to eat. He was boy
+enough to try so many of them, that Dan had to apologise for his
+subordinate's greed before they trooped out laughing to the very
+different world which lay beyond the treble plies of the tent--that
+mystical veil of white, and blue, and red, which, during the camping
+months, hangs between India and its rulers, giving rise to so much
+misunderstanding on both sides. It is the fashion nowadays to
+accentuate the faults of the latter, but much of the bad name given by
+superficial observers to Anglo-Indian society, is the result of that
+curious lightheartedness which springs from the necessity for
+relaxation, consequent on the gloveless hold India exacts on the
+realities and responsibilities of life. The saying, 'Let us eat and
+drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die,' is hurled unfairly at
+pleasure-seekers all the world over, simply because merriment has
+become associated with a low type of amusement. If we change the verbs,
+the blame vanishes; since to live happily is the end and aim of all
+morality. For happily means worthily to those who have any moral sense.
+Then in India the pursuit of pleasure must needs be personal, for there
+are no licensed purveyors of amusement. You cannot go to a box-office,
+buy seats, spend the day seriously, dine at a restaurant, and take a
+hansom to the play. As a rule you have to begin by building the
+theatre. So it is in all things, and surely after a hard day's work in
+bringing sweetness and light (and law) within reach of the heathen,
+even a judge with a bald head may unbend to youthful pastimes, without
+breaking the Ten Commandments!
+
+But Colonel Tweedie was not bald, and he played tennis vigorously
+in what Rose called the duffers' game, with Mrs. Boynton, the
+under-secretary, and Lewis Gordon who pleaded shortsightedness as an
+excuse for not joining the Seniors against the Juniors, where Rose and
+George challenged all comers. Yet he owned it was pretty enough to see
+the former sending back Dan's vicious cuts with a setting of her teeth
+ending in a smile either at success or failure. Pleasant to see the
+alertness, confidence, confidentialness between the boy and girl; to
+hear his quick 'Look out,' evoke the breathless 'I've--got it,' as the
+ball whizzed to some unguarded spot. It was a fierce struggle and the
+wide-eyed villagers who had trooped out to see the strange doings on
+their ancestral threshing-floor, gathered instinctively round the
+harder game.
+
+'Ari, sister!' murmured a deep-bosomed mother of many to her gossip, as
+they squatted on one of the heaps of chaff which had been swept aside
+from the hard beaten floor. 'That one in the short skirt is a
+_budmarsh_.[1] Her man will need his hands.' Yet an unrestrained
+chuckle ran round the female portion of the audience as Dan,
+over-running himself in a hopeless attempt after the impossible,
+scattered a group of turbaned pantaloons, who, retreating with shaking
+heads to re-form further off, muttered in wondering rebuke, 'Hai! Hai!
+does not shame come to her.' But a third section, ranged in rows, gave
+an exotic 'hooray!'--a ridiculous, feeble little cheer, started by a
+young man in a black alpaca coat, and accompanied by still feebler
+clapping. This was the village school and its master, claiming its
+right to be a judge of 'crickets.'
+
+'You have the better half of creation on your side, Miss Tweedie,'
+remarked Lewis, when, the games being over, the men were resuming their
+coats. 'What is more, the rising generation of the worser half also.
+The boys were unanimous for the "Miss"; we miserable men being left to
+the support of past ages. India is doomed. Another decade will see
+woman's rights rampant.'
+
+She turned on him readily, as she always did. 'The boys applauded
+because the rising generation, thank heaven, is being taught to love
+fair play--even towards women.'
+
+'At it again!' interrupted Mrs. Boynton plaintively, 'really I must get
+you two bound over to keep the peace.'
+
+'Then I shall have to hire another camel for my luggage,' said Lewis
+gravely, 'for Miss Tweedie knocks me and my arguments to bits.'
+
+Gwen turned aside impatiently, saying in a lower voice, 'How foolish
+you are, Lewis! One would have thought you would have tired of it by
+this time.'
+
+'On the contrary,' he replied in his ordinary tone: 'the bloom is
+perennial. I wither beneath the ice of Miss Tweedie's snubs, and revive
+beneath the sun of her smiles like--like a bachelor's button.'
+
+And Rose did smile. Her contempt always seemed to pass by the man
+himself, and rest on his opinions. Even there, much as she loathed
+them, she was forced to confess that they did not seem to affect his
+actions; that it was impossible to conceive of his behaving to any
+woman, save as a gentleman should behave. Yet this thought aggravated
+the offence of his manner by enhancing its malice aforethought, and
+made her frown again.
+
+'Come! there is light enough for a single yet, Mr. Keene,' she said
+imperiously, and George, with one regretful glance at Mrs. Boynton,
+obeyed. Lewis Gordon looked after them, shrugged his shoulders, and
+strolled off to the messroom-tent.
+
+'It really is shameful of Lewis to tease Miss Tweedie as he does,'
+began Gwen, who, finding herself unavoidably paired with Dan, instantly
+started what she thought a safe topic of conversation. He looked at her
+with absent eyes.
+
+'A shame, is it? but when a man likes a girl he is very apt----'
+
+She broke in with a petulant laugh. 'Are you asleep, Dan? What could
+induce you to think that?'
+
+'What? Why, love of course! Set a thief to catch a thief. A man can't
+be in love himself without----'
+
+He certainly was not asleep! but she managed to double back to safer
+ground. Yet his words recurred to her that evening during the half hour
+_tete-a-tete_ which she accorded with the utmost regularity to Colonel
+Tweedie in his capacity of host; Rose meanwhile singing songs to the
+younger men who gathered round the piano, leaving those two decorously
+to the sofa.
+
+'There is a little song I want Mrs. Boynton to hear,' called the
+Colonel during a pause. 'I forget its name--you haven't sung it
+for a long time, and I used to be so fond of it. A little Jacobite
+song--really a charming air, Mrs. Boynton.' Rose flushed visibly--at
+least to the feminine eyes in the party--and shook her head.
+
+'But you must remember it, my dear,' persisted her father; 'do try.'
+
+'Oh yes! please do try! I should so like to hear it,' echoed Gwen
+curiously, her eyes full on the blush. Rose, conscious of it, felt
+herself a fool, and looked still more uncomfortable.
+
+'Talking of Jacobite songs,' remarked an indifferent voice beside her,
+'I wonder, Miss Tweedie, if you know a great favourite of mine, called
+"Lewie Gordon"--don't laugh, you boys, it's rude. If so, please sing
+it. I haven't heard it for years; people are always afraid of making me
+vain.'
+
+She gave him a quick, grateful look, as, with a nod, she broke into the
+song.
+
+
+             'O send Lewie Gordon hame,
+              And the lad I daurna name,
+              Tho' his back be to the wa',
+              Here's to him that's far awa'.'
+
+
+She sang with greater spirit than before, a sort of glad recognition of
+his kindly tact leading up to the decision of the climax:
+
+
+             'That's the lad that I'll gang wi'.'
+
+
+Yet after all, amid the chorus of thanks, she heard him say in his
+worst manner, '"The lad I daurna name!" how like a woman!' And he added
+to the offence; for, when the little under-secretary remarked
+diffidently that he had always understood that the song referred to
+Charles Edward, though whether to the old or the young Pretender he
+could not say, Lewis, as he dawdled away to his nightly task of
+breaking up the _tete-a-tete_, murmured that at any rate it referred to
+a _pretendu_. But Rose had caught Gwen's appealing look from the sofa
+also, and rising, closed the piano with a bang and suggested a round
+game. If her intention was to punish the offender, who hated that form
+of amusement, she failed ignominiously; for he sat on the 'Stool of
+Repentance' with perfect nonchalance, and, when it came to her turn,
+paid her such double-edged, charmingly caustic little compliments, that
+she had to join in the laugh they raised. It was, in fact, past
+midnight ere the Colonel, with many allusions to the delight of such
+company, said they really must go to bed, and they trooped in a body
+out of the big tent to seek their several quarters.
+
+'I'm glad not to make a casual of you to-night,' said Mrs. Boynton
+softly to George.
+
+'Almost wish you were,' he replied, giving a rueful look towards the
+red brick prison on the farther side of the canal. 'This is home; that
+is exile.'
+
+Dan nodded his head sympathetically. 'I know that feeling. It comes
+from jungle stations. And the bungalow does look cheerless in
+comparison. Odd; for one naturally associates a camp with wars and
+tumults, battles, murders, and sudden death; all the evils of a
+transitory world, in fact. But you must have noticed, Mrs. Boynton, the
+extraordinary air of peace, security, almost of permanence which tents
+have in the moonlight. Look! might they not be solid blocks of marble
+fastened by silver cords?'
+
+'I noticed it last night when I was watching them being put up,' began
+George unguardedly. Mrs. Boynton looked up quickly. Rose, who was
+leaning against a rope by the door of her tent which stood next the
+mess, glanced along the line of the camp.
+
+'Silver cords and marble blocks,' she echoed. 'Yes! but it sounds like
+the New Jerusalem.'
+
+'I always thought,' remarked Lewis Gordon argumentatively, 'that it was
+the tents of Midian. I'm sure some one told me so when I learnt hymns.
+Or was it hosts of Midian and tents of Ishmael? Anyhow, they had
+nothing to do with Paradise, and I for one have been prowling round
+long enough. So good-night, Gwen; don't grow wings in the night,
+please; it would be so disconcerting. Good-night, Miss Tweedie.'
+
+Being close beside her he held out his hand.
+
+'Good-night; I hope you are not very stiff.'
+
+'I almost wish I were, for then you would sympathise with
+misfortune--like a woman,' he replied in a low voice, and as he passed
+to his own tent next hers, she heard him quote the lines--
+
+
+             'Tho his back be to the wa',
+              Here's to him that's far awa'.'
+
+
+She looked after him, her face showing soft in the moonlight, then,
+with a good-night to the others, disappeared in her turn.
+
+George lingered, giving still more rueful glances at the bungalow. 'I
+suppose I must be off too. Oh! by the way! it's all right about the
+Ayodhya pot. Dalel Beg tells me his women know the owner, so you will
+have it to-morrow. Good-night, Fitzgerald.'
+
+Dan, thus left alone to walk two tents-length with Gwen, felt that fate
+was on his side at last; more probably _she_ was, since her fine tact
+told her it was never wise to ignore his passion entirely. Besides,
+something in her shrank from treating him always as a mere outsider.
+
+'I've been longing for this chance all day,' he began at once in a tone
+that was in itself a caress.
+
+'Do you think I am quite blind?' she interrupted, a trifle petulantly;
+'the only wonder is that every one in the camp didn't see it also. You
+are so reckless, Dan! Of course you wanted to tell me how you felt when
+I was lost, and all that; as if I couldn't imagine it!' she gave in to
+a smile that was almost tender as she spoke--'Why, Dan! I can see you!
+with a face yards long, and the whole camp, Chief and all, under orders
+in half a minute. Fire-escapes, life-preservers, first aid to the
+wounded, everything mortal man could devise to avert disaster, ready
+before the rest had time to think! Do you suppose I don't know what you
+are, Dan?' The odd, composite ring in her voice sank as she added, in a
+lower tone, 'sometimes I almost wish I didn't.'
+
+They had reached the place where their ways separated; hers to the last
+tent forward, his to the second row, and she held out her hand with a
+smile to say good-night. His heart beat hard at her half-reluctant
+admission of praise; besides, Gwen Boynton was not the sort of woman
+who could smile thus, and yet expect to end the interview then and
+there; perhaps, again, she did not wish it so to end. In her relations
+with this man, she often found it difficult to know what she did, or
+did not, desire.
+
+'Gwen,' he said eagerly, standing close, with his warm nervous hands
+clasping hers, 'did you think of me--then?--when you knew you were
+lost, I mean--did you, Gwen?--I don't often ask anything of you, my
+darling--you might tell me--It isn't much to ask--Did you, Gwen?'
+
+She gave something between a laugh and a sob. 'Did I? Oh! Dan, you
+know I did. There, that is enough--you said that was all you wanted.
+Good-night, Dan.'
+
+He went over to his quarters happy as a king. As for Gwen, the personal
+influence his immediate presence had over her passed away quickly, and
+that which his real absence from her life invariably produced did not
+come to soften the curious dread with which she recognised, that in her
+trouble of the day before, her first thought had indeed been for him.
+How foolish she had been in letting him re-enter her life at all! but
+he had come back in her first loneliness when the future had seemed
+very black. Now it was different, now it was once more that choice
+between poverty and comfort which she had made in her girlhood. With
+what pain, none--save Dan, who, alas! always understood--would believe.
+And if the choice was necessary then, what was it now with her acquired
+habits, her knowledge of the world? They would both be miserable if
+they married without money. Then the thought of the bills came, as it
+always did to remind her of the tie they imposed. Even if Lewis, whom
+she liked and respected, were to make up his mind to marry, she could
+not accept him without dismissing Dan. Yet how could she dismiss him,
+even for his food, until that money was repaid? Poor Dan! he loved her
+dearly, and in a way she cared for him as she had never cared for any
+of her other lovers. Yet the decision which had turned out so
+comfortably ten years before was still the right decision. Many of
+those lovers had been as devoted to her; and yet they had recovered
+from their rejection. Then the remembrance of George Keene's admission
+that he had been out watching the stars made her smile. He was a nice
+boy, who already deemed her an angel; but Lewis objected to wings, and
+of the two that was the most convenient view for the woman.
+
+While she was coming to this conclusion George had been looking after
+her interests, for on his return to the bungalow he had been startled
+by the sudden uprisal of a veiled female from a shadowy corner of his
+verandah.
+
+'I am Azizan's mother,' said a muffled voice. 'The Mirza sent me. I
+have been waiting the Huzoor's return. There is the pot if the Huzoor
+will give ten rupees for it. It is much, yet the pot brings luck.'
+
+'Ten!' echoed George in delight, taking it from her. 'Yes! you shall
+have that; then I owe Azizan also. Shall I pay you?'
+
+'My daughter is as myself,' replied the voice. 'It is ten for the
+picture, and ten for the pot.'
+
+George fetched the money and counted it carefully into the shrouded
+hand.
+
+'That is all, I think?' he asked.
+
+'Huzoor, that is all. May the blessing of the widow and the fatherless
+go with the merciful Protector of the Poor.'
+
+But while he was thinking, as he undressed, how pleased Mrs. Boynton
+would be, the veiled figure was pausing in the moonlight to speak to
+the factotum.
+
+'You have seen nothing, you are to say nothing. And the Diwan sends
+these to the servant-people.' Then came twenty careful chinks, this
+time into a clutching hand, and Chandni, hurrying back to the city,
+laughed silently to herself. The idea of bribing the little sahib's
+servants with his own rupees would please Dalel, and put him into a
+good temper again; so if this plan matured, her future would ripen with
+it. As she passed the sleeping camp she paused, wondering in which tent
+lay the mem who had succeeded so easily where she had failed. The
+lights were out in all save two, and the double row of glistening white
+roofs struck even her insensibility with a savage recognition of
+undeserved peace and security. They were no better than she; no better
+than those shadowy crouching figures of the village bad-characters set
+out here and there to keep watch and ward, on the principle of setting
+a thief to catch a thief; a plan which at least secures a deserving
+criminal should thefts occur. For it was in the East that the strange
+hybrid between altruism and egotism which we call a scape-goat was
+invented by mankind.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+
+One of the lights Chandni saw came from Lewis Gordon's tent. He was
+hard at work, not altogether from sheer industry. Sleep with him--oddly
+enough in one claiming such serenity of temperament--had to be
+approached discreetly, and for many days past a disturbing current of
+thought had required the dam of good solid official business before he
+could trust himself safely to the waters of Lethe. He had not been
+constantly in his cousin's company for six weeks without learning to
+appreciate her infinite charm. She was emphatically a woman to ensure a
+husband's success as well as her own. A man would never have to
+consider enemies with her at his side, whereas with many others--Rose
+Tweedie for instance--it might be necessary to fight your wife's
+battles as well as your own. This comparison of the two arose from no
+conceit on his part in imagining that any choice lay with him. Simply,
+he could not avoid comparing the only two women in his daily
+surroundings. At the same time he was fully aware that Gwen would marry
+him if he asked her, and the question which had at first assailed him
+in the hall at Rajpore, recurred again and again, disturbing him
+seriously by alternate attraction and repulsion. He had seen too much
+of fascinating wifehood to care for possessing a specimen himself, yet
+Gwen would marry him because she considered it would further their
+mutual interests; and that, surely, was a more reliable foundation for
+a permanent contract than a girlish affection. Quite as pleasant, too,
+as the hail-fellow-well-met liking, which seemed to be Rose Tweedie's
+notion of love. George Keene and she were like a couple of boys
+together. The remembrance jarred, though he went on working with a
+smile at the thought of her eager readiness to take up the glove on all
+occasions.
+
+Rose, meanwhile, lay awake next door frowning over the same readiness,
+and then frowning at her own frowns, since what was it to her if
+Lewis Gordon were nice or nasty? He himself did not care what she
+thought, and would end by marrying his cousin, though in his heart of
+hearts----
+
+Rose sat up in bed angrily. What did she know or care of Lewis Gordon's
+heart? _Dieu merci!_ Gwen Boynton was welcome to it, but she should not
+drag George Keene captive as she seemed welcome to do. George was too
+good to hang round a pretty woman, like Lewis----
+
+This was intolerable. To escape the tyranny of thought she rose,
+slipped on her white dressing-gown, lit the lamp she had extinguished,
+and sat down to read a stiff book till she felt sleepy. The process was
+not a long one, for she was really fatigued, and ten minutes saw her
+turning down the lamp once more.
+
+What happened next she scarcely knew; only this--a glare of light--a
+feeble crash. Then fire in her eyes, her face, her hands--fire at her
+feet, licking along the thin carpet, soaking up the folds of her filmy
+dress. The bed lay close at hand; she was on it in a second, wrapping
+the blankets round her, and beating out the runnels of flame, with
+eyes, brain, and body absorbed in the immediate personal danger. When
+that was over, and she looked up, she sprang to her feet on the bed
+with a cry. The fire was everywhere, creeping up the sides of the tent,
+filling it with suffocating smoke. She wound her trailing skirts round
+her and made a dive for the first outlet--for her only chance of
+escape! The thick wadded curtain swinging aside let in a wind, making
+the smouldering cotton flame; but the next instant she was outside,
+constrained to pause, wondering if by chance it was nothing but a bad
+dream. For the camp lay serene and peaceful in the moonlight; not a
+sound, not a sign, even from her own tent. She stood positively
+irresolute, staring back at what she had left. Was it a dream? Then,
+suddenly a faint drift of smoke rose through a crevice in the cloth.
+
+'Mr. Gordon!--Mr. Gordon!' She burst through the thick, guided by the
+light in his tent to the nearest help. 'Your knife--quick! my tent is
+on fire! Quick, or the whole camp will catch!'
+
+The blood was flowing from a cut over her forehead, one arm showed bare
+through scorched muslin, the draperies caught round her were singed and
+blackened, the stamp and smell of fire was on her from head to foot.
+Lewis, starting to his feet, stared at her.
+
+'Oh, quick! please, quick! Your pen-knife--anything! Cut down the
+tents--Mr. Fitzgerald said it was the only----'
+
+He had grasped the position ere she could finish, snatched up a
+hunting-knife and was out; she, with a pen-knife, close at his heels.
+
+'Good God! how the wind has risen,' he muttered, as they ran. 'No, not
+mine!--The mess-tent first; the wind is that way.'
+
+As they flew past her tent, the scene seemed peaceful as ever; but ere
+the guy-ropes of the next were reached, a swirl of smoke and flame,
+prisoned until then by the outer fly of canvas, swept straight up into
+the sky in the first force of its escape; then bent silently to the
+breeze. So silently!--not a roar, not a crackle--just a pyramid of fire
+splitting the taut canvas into long shreds, which the wind flung in
+pennants of flame on the mess-tent as those two hacked silently at the
+ropes. There was no time for words; no time for thought. A quiver
+came to the solid-looking pile, a shimmer in the moonlight. Another
+rope--another--then a sudden sway, a crash of glass and china from
+within. Down! but with a creeping trail of fire within its folds!
+
+There was no lack of helpers by this time. Knives, hatchets were at
+work right and left upon the ropes lest the message of fire should find
+the tents taut. Colonel Tweedie was shouting confused orders in front.
+Dan Fitzgerald, after a quick inquiry if all were safely out, was back
+in the rear row, where the danger grew with delay. The din was
+deafening, yet the flames made no noise; it was the dark humanity
+yelling, as it capered over the big tent, treading out the curling
+snakes of fire. Seen against the glare of a burning pyramid behind, the
+figures showed like the demons in a mediaeval Judgment beating the lost
+souls down to the worm which dieth not.
+
+Rose, standing to rest, now that abler arms were at work, felt a
+hurried touch on her shoulder, and turned to see Lewis Gordon holding
+out an ulster which he had fetched from his tent.
+
+'Put it on,' he said unceremoniously, 'or you'll catch cold.'
+
+She flushed with surprise, then, as she complied, realising for the
+first time the havoc fire had made in her dress, continued to blush
+with an odd feeling of resentment.
+
+'Where is Mrs. Boynton?' she asked quickly, to cover her confusion. 'I
+suppose you--I mean, she is safe, of course?'
+
+'Of course. I haven't seen her though; but I heard your father calling
+to her. She must be with him. I'll see.'
+
+'Mrs. Boynton? God bless my soul, isn't she with Rose?' cried Colonel
+Tweedie, who was still shouting excited orders to the crowd of coolies.
+'She answered me and her tent is down. She must be out.'
+
+'Mrs. Boynton! Has any one seen Mrs. Boynton?' Gordon's cry ran down
+the line without response.
+
+'Gwen!--Gwen! the fools must have cut the thing down on top of her!' He
+had dashed up to the mass of ropes and canvas lying without beginning
+or end, in hopeless chaos. 'Gwen! Gwen!--are you there?'
+
+A muffled cry was audible now in the hush of the workers.
+
+'Not stunned, that's one thing,' he muttered to himself before shouting
+encouragement. Rose was at his elbow and caught his whisper.
+
+'The sparks, for God's sake, Miss Tweedie! I trust you. If the tent
+smoulders she may suffocate before we--Coming, Gwen, coming directly!'
+
+But no obstacle against eager help was ever more successful than that
+tortuous heap of heavy canvas, full of blind folds and entangled ropes,
+stayed fore and aft, and still fastened beyond possibility of removal
+to the bamboo-strengthened sides and the yet uncut guys. The seekers
+dived into the folds again and again to find themselves meshed; while
+Rose, with a sickening fear at her heart lest she should miss one,
+watched the sparks and shreds drifting by in clouds settling here,
+there, everywhere, and needing swift command to the little band of
+helpers. 'Quick, quick!--yonder by the corner. Another there! Stamp it
+out--quick! Well done!'
+
+'What is it? what is it?' A new voice rose above the turmoil as Dan
+Fitzgerald came running from the rear grasping the truth as he ran.
+'No, no?' he panted. 'No use, Gordon--too long. Get to the guys, for
+God's sake--the thickest--half a dozen men. Colonel, the right corner,
+please, sir; Gordon, the left; Smith, round to the back. They are not
+cut there, and see that the pegs hold--they _must_ hold. Miss Tweedie,
+put a man to each stay as the front rises. I want the doorway--the door
+_must_ show. Brothers,' he continued in Hindustani to the men who were
+fast falling into place, 'we have to raise the tent again. _Remember,
+the tent rises at the word!_ Gordon, are you ready? All ready?----
+
+He paused, gave a rapid glance at the sparks, and lowered his voice.
+'It has to be done sharp, Colonel, or----' Again he hesitated between
+fear of letting the prisoner know her imminent danger, and fear of not
+enforcing the necessity for speed. Rose understood, and racked by
+anxiety as she was, felt a thrill of recognition at Dan's quick thought
+which, even in such a moment, enabled him to remember that, as Mrs.
+Boynton knew but little Hindustani, he could continue in that language.
+'The tent is certain to catch fire, but it may be smouldering now; so
+we must risk it. Remember that I _must_ get in and out before the
+canvas yields, or---- So be sharp. Gordon! you give the word!'
+
+There was an instant's silence, broken by a voice. Then a shout, a
+heave, and Rose straining at a rope as she never strained before, felt,
+rather than saw, something rise, pause, sink; rise again fluttering,
+swaying.
+
+'Higher! higher!' shouted Dan, standing close in, ready for a dive at
+the door. 'All together, Gordon. Shah-bash, brothers! My God! it's
+caught already!'
+
+A blot of shadow near her showed the coming doorway, and, half clear as
+it was, she saw Dan dash into it with the cry, which was echoed from
+outside as a little runnel of fire quivered up the half-stretched
+canvas.
+
+'Stand fast! stand fast!' shouted Gordon at the guy. 'Run in, half of
+you, to the bamboos; they may hold longer than the stays.'
+
+Rose was at one in a moment and clung to it, seeing nothing, thinking
+of nothing, but that irregular square of shadow. When would he come
+through it again? The tangles within! how would he thread them? For the
+pole having slipped from its supporting pegs had slid along the ground
+and would not rise more than half-way; so the inner fly-sides must be
+hanging in a maze--a maze of smouldering canvas. Horrible! a burning
+pall! Ah! would he never come?
+
+Suddenly came another cry, as a great sheet of fire ran up the right
+ridge and the men at the rope fell backwards under the slackened strain
+of the parting canvas; yet still the corners held. But for how long!
+Oh! would he never come out?
+
+'Mr. Fitzgerald! Mr. Fitzgerald! be quick, oh please be quick.'
+
+It was a foolish, aimless little cry, yet somehow it raised a new idea
+in her mind. What if he had lost his way in that hideous tangle? She
+was at the blot of shadow in an instant calling again and again. Too
+late! surely too late, for the bamboo lintel to which she clung so
+frantically swayed. Not down yet--yes! down, and she with it, half
+kneeling still. She heard a cry from Lewis bidding the others run in on
+the fire and stamp it out; but as she staggered to her feet still
+holding on to the lintel something else staggered out beside her.
+
+'All right,' gasped Dan, before the great shout of relief rose up
+drowning his voice. When it had passed and they crowded about him, he
+had set Gwen's feet on the ground and drawn the folds of blanket from
+her face, though his arm was still round her as she clung to him,
+scarcely believing in her safety.
+
+'Only frightened--half suffocated,' he went on, struggling to get back
+his breath. 'Couldn't some one bring her a glass of water--don't move
+yet--they will bring it to you here. It is all over--except the
+shouting.'
+
+Rose standing aside, giddy with sudden relief, could hardly believe it
+could be over. Yet the coolies were rubbing themselves and laughing
+over their sprawl in the dust when the tent collapsed, and the tent
+itself was blazing away unheeded on the ground. Yes! it was over, and
+so quickly that George Keene, roused by the crash of the messroom-tent,
+came too late for anything save sympathy. He gave that to the full; not
+unnecessarily, for in truth the condition of the camp was pitiable.
+Lewis Gordon's tent, being the only one to windward of the original
+outbreak, was left standing; the rest were either smouldering in ashes
+or severely damaged beyond the possibility of re-pitching without
+repair, while the extent of other injuries must remain unknown till
+dawn brought light, and time allowed the fires to die out undisturbed;
+for any letting in of air while the wind remained so high might cause a
+fresh blaze.
+
+Colonel Tweedie, looking a perfect wreck in his striped flannel suit,
+fussed about uncertain and querulous, while George and Dalel Beg, who
+had arrived from the palace, competed for the honour of putting up the
+ladies during the remainder of the night; Dalel, minus the least
+vestige of European attire, being re-inforced after a time by Khush-hal
+Beg, breathless but dignified, bearing the Diwan's urgent prayer to be
+allowed the honour of helping a beneficent Government in its hour of
+need.
+
+Dan with an impatient frown on his face waited for decision till his
+patience failed. Then he buttoned-holed Lewis--who amid all the wild
+costumes looked almost ridiculously prim in his dress suit--and
+expounded his views vehemently, the result being that the Chief
+concluded in favour of the palace. If, as was possible, they might be
+forced into halting for several days, the old pile would hold them all,
+and a regiment besides. So, after a time, odd little square dhoolies,
+smelling strongly of rose-attar, came for the two ladies, and in them,
+duly veiled from public gaze, they were hurried along, much to their
+amusement. The gentlemen after a raid on Lewis Gordon's wardrobe,
+following suit, all except the under-secretary, who, coming last, found
+nothing available save a white waistcoat and a pair of jack boots, in
+which additions to a pyjama sleeping-suit he looked so absurd that the
+others sat and roared at him, as men will do at trifles when still
+under the influence of relief and excitement, until George carried him
+off to his bungalow, promising to return him next morning clothed and
+in his right mind. Thus the night ended in comedy for all save Mrs.
+Boynton. To her, clothes were anything but a triviality, and as she lay
+among silk quilts and hard roly-poly bolsters in the little strip of a
+room to which she and Rose were taken, pending the preparation of a
+state suite upstairs, she mourned sincerely over the probable fate of
+her wardrobe. Had it remained in the leather trunks escape might have
+been possible, but, knowing they were to halt for a day at least, she
+made the ayah hang up all the dresses round the tent. Poor Gwen seemed
+to see them, like Bluebeard's wives in a row, getting rid of their
+creases, and the thought of under-garments which might be uninjured
+gave her no consolation.
+
+Rose was more calm, remembering that her riding-habit had, as usual,
+been moved in order to be brushed, and would most likely be produced
+next morning. Besides, she was worn out by the excitement, and forgot
+even the smart of a large scorch on her arm in the memory of that five
+minutes during which she had waited for Dan to come out of the fiery
+maze. Despite her boasted nerves, the stress and strain of it all came
+back again and again, making her set her teeth and clench her hands.
+Yet Gwen, who had so narrowly escaped a dreadful death, was grumbling
+over the loss of her dresses. Rose, lying in the dark listening to the
+plaintive regrets, felt scornfully superior, not knowing that her
+companion was deliberately trying to forget, to ignore, a like
+memory--the memory of her own feelings when Dan fought his way to her
+at last. If that sort of thing went on he would end by marrying her in
+spite of her wiser self; and then they would both be miserable. She was
+not a romantic fool, and yet--a very real resentment rose up against
+him as she remembered her own confidence, her own content. She felt
+vaguely as if he had taken advantage of her fear, and that something
+must be done to prevent a recurrence of this weakness on her part. If
+she could only pay back the money he had paid for her, matters would be
+easier to manage. As it was, even Lewis, with his easy-going estimate
+of women, would not stand the knowledge of her indebtedness to another
+man, so something must be done, something must be changed. That, oddly
+enough, was the underlying grievance which found expression in petulant
+assertions that Fate was doubly hard in making her fair; had she been
+dark like Rose, the part of Eastern Princess she would have to play
+until another consignment of civilised dresses arrived from Rajpore
+would have been fun. As it was, she would look a perfect fright.
+
+She did not, however. Had she not been aware of this fact ere she made
+her appearance next morning in the long flowing robes and veil of a
+Delhi lady, she must have gathered it from the looks of her companions.
+But she had appraised herself in one of the big mirrors in the suite of
+state apartments halfway up the stairs, and decided that she would wear
+a similar costume at the very next fancy ball.
+
+This in itself was sufficient to chase any save immediate care from a
+mind like hers. In addition, even a stronger character would have found
+it difficult to avoid falling in with the reckless merriment which had
+seized on all the other actors in the past night's incident. Partly
+from relief at its comic ending, partly because the charm of absolute
+novelty, the zest of the unexpected, enhanced the pleasure of extremely
+comfortable quarters--for Lewis in his capacity of personal _aide_ had
+decided against the dark state suite of apartments on the second storey
+in favour of the roof above, with its slender balconies, long arcades,
+and cool central summer-house open on all sides to the air. Here, high
+above the sand swirls, safe from the sun, they would be far better off
+than in tents during the growing heat of the days Gwen, leaning against
+a clustered marble pillar, looking down on the red-brown slant of
+windowless wall spreading like a fort to the paved courtyard below,
+said it was like living on a slice of wedding-cake. A solid chunk
+below, above a sugar filigree; whereat George, delighted, assured her
+that the whole palace itself viewed from afar had always reminded him
+of the same thing. Filigree or no filigree, she said it was charming,
+and the central hall of the twelve-doored summer-house was a marvel of
+decoration; fast falling to decay no doubt, yet losing no beauty in the
+process, since the floriated white tracery overlaying the background of
+splintered looking-glass was so intricate that the eye could scarcely
+follow the pattern sufficiently to appreciate a flaw. Seated there in
+coolest shadow you could see through the inner arches to the long slips
+of vaulted rooms on all four sides; through them again to the blue sky
+set in its rim of level plain, save to the north where the view was
+blocked by the Diwan's tower rising a dozen feet or more from the
+terraced roof, with which it was connected by a flight of steps barred
+by a locked iron _grille_. Thus the roof lay secure from all intrusion
+except from the courtyard, whence an outside stair, clinging to the
+bare wall, gave access to the state rooms below, and thence, still
+slanting upwards, to the lowest terrace of roof. Rose, leaning over a
+balcony looking sheer down to where the servants, like ants, were
+running to and fro over the preparations for breakfast, declared she
+would use one of the four little corner-rooms of the summer-house as
+her bedroom. All it needed was a curtain at the inner arch, when it
+would be infinitely preferable to those dreadful rooms downstairs all
+hung with glass chandeliers and silvered balls, which made her inclined
+to hang herself in sympathy. In the hopes rather, suggested Lewis, of
+improving the style of the decoration; a remark which brought the
+usual frown to the girl's face. In truth, Rose Tweedie in her trim
+riding-habit did not suit her surroundings half so well as Gwen Boynton
+in her trailing tinsel-decked robes. On the other hand, Colonel Tweedie
+would have done better in not yielding to the temptation of playing
+'Sultan' to Mrs. Boynton's 'Light of the Harem'; for native costume
+does not suit an elderly Englishman. But the opportunity had been too
+strong for him.
+
+'My dear father,' said Rose helplessly, when she first caught sight of
+her parent in a khim-khab coat and baggy trousers. She might have said
+more, had not Mrs. Boynton's grave compliment on his appearance sent
+the girl away impatiently to lean over the balcony once more, and
+wonder if they were ever going to bring breakfast.
+
+To her, when he appeared, went Dan Fitzgerald, without even a look at
+the others.
+
+'Thanks, Miss Tweedie,' he said in a low tone. 'I hadn't time to say it
+last night. I _had_ lost myself, and your voice---- However, it can be
+only "_thank you_," and you have that.'
+
+Rose, with a smile, let his hand linger in hers for a second as their
+eyes met; honest, friendly eyes.
+
+And George Keene also passed straight to her.
+
+'Better! That is all right. By Jove, you were bad, when I found you
+outside the fuss when it was all over. You would have fainted, if it
+hadn't been for the whisky and water--which, by the way, I stole from
+Gordon's flask----'
+
+'You didn't tell him?' interrupted Rose quickly.
+
+'Not I! I knew you wanted it kept dark about the scorch. It's better, I
+hope? Why, you have curled your hair over the cut on your forehead.
+What a dodge!'
+
+His young face was overflowing with a sort of pride in her pluck, when
+Mrs. Boynton came up. She was in a mood which craved attention, and
+some of her slaves had passed her by to give Rose the first word.
+
+'What are you two discussing so eagerly?' she began. 'Good-morning, Mr.
+Keene. How delightfully commonplace you look in exactly the proper
+breakfast costume for a young Englishman!'
+
+George blushed. He would have given worlds to say that she looked
+anything but commonplace, but was too young to venture on it. But he
+looked the sentiment, and Gwen smiled bewilderingly back at him. She
+was made that way, and could not help it.
+
+'Isn't it quaint up here?' she went on, leaning over the balustrade and
+looking, as Rose had been doing, at the servants filing up the steps
+with silver dishes of sausages and bacon, and all the accessories of an
+orthodox English breakfast, regardless of the feelings of their
+pig-loathing hosts. 'I declare, I have fallen in love with everything.'
+
+'Yourself included, I hope,' added Lewis, joining the group; or, to put
+it politely, you have fallen in love with everything, and everything
+has fallen in love with you. And no wonder. The fact is, Gwen, that you
+do suit your present environment to perfection. I should not have
+believed the thing possible--but so it is.'
+
+As he sat on the coping with his back to the landscape, he bent forward
+looking at her critically--'No!' he went on; 'I should not have thought
+it possible, but you look the part.'
+
+'It must be awful, though, to be a native,' remarked George fervently.
+His eyes were on Colonel Tweedie as he spoke. That conspicuous failure
+was, however, only partly responsible for his opinion. In a more or
+less crude form the childish hymn of gratitude for having been born in
+order to go to a public school survives wholesomely amongst young
+Englishmen.
+
+'I don't know,' dissented Gordon languidly. 'A civilised conscience is
+a frightful interference with the liberty of the subject. Personally, I
+object to the native views of comfort, pleasure, and all that. But I
+can imagine some very good fellows preferring them. They are not nearly
+such a strain on the nervous system. For instance, Gwen, were you
+really the Shah-zadi you look, there would have been no necessity for
+sending back those brocades over which I found you weeping half an hour
+ago. You would have appropriated them without demur. Wouldn't she,
+sir?'
+
+The Colonel gave his little preparatory cough, and looked grave.
+
+'It wasn't a brocade, Colonel Tweedie,' protested Gwen. 'It was simply
+the most lovely piece of old-gold satin in the world. It stood up of
+itself, and yet was absolutely invertebrate in its folds. Perfect! The
+same on both sides too. I had half a mind to be double-faced myself,
+and take it when Mr. Gordon's back was turned.'
+
+'Why didn't you?' retorted the latter cynically. 'You are the only one
+of us who would not be criminally responsible for the action. Isn't
+that so, sir?' He was mischievously amused by his chief's evident
+dislike to the subject.
+
+'Should I be responsible?' asked Rose, surprised.
+
+'Your father would be, for your action. Wouldn't you, sir?'
+
+This was too much even for reticent dignity.
+
+'I--er--don't--I mean, doubtless; but--er--it is not--er--a subject
+which comes within the range of practical politics.'
+
+'I should hope not,' cried Rose. 'My dear dad! fancy your being
+responsible for my actions. It isn't fair!' Her face of aggrieved
+decision made the others laugh.
+
+'Perhaps it isn't, Miss Tweedie,' remarked Lewis gravely; but I can
+assure you that we officials are all responsible for our female
+relations in the first degree. A merciful Government has, however,
+drawn the line at cousins. So Mrs. Boynton could only lose her own
+pension, if she were found out.'
+
+Gwen made a _moue_ of derision.
+
+'That is not much to risk. I wish I had known this before. Lewis! do
+you think you could prevail on them to give me another chance with the
+satin?'
+
+'What on earth is delaying the breakfast?' fussed Colonel Tweedie,
+moving off. He hated _persiflage_, especially between his guest and his
+secretary.
+
+'Coming, sir, coming,' said George, leaning over to look; 'there is a
+regular procession of silver dishes filing up Jacob's ladder.'
+
+'Oh dem silver dishes,' hummed Rose gaily, leaning over to look, too.
+'How funny it is, isn't it?'
+
+'Funny!' echoed Dan, 'it is simply appalling.'
+
+Perhaps the sudden sense of the utter incongruousness of it all
+accounted for the silence which followed, as they stood on the balcony,
+which clung like a swallow's nest to the bare walls. Below them, beyond
+the courtyard, lay the shadowy arcades of the bazaar and the great pile
+of the Mori gate. Beyond that again the bricks and sand-heaps of
+Hodinuggur, with the village creeping up to be crowned by the grass
+palisades where the potter sat at work.
+
+'Talking of bribes, said Dan absently, after the pause, 'I've often
+wondered how a fellow feels when he has been informed that her gracious
+Majesty has no further need of his services. They seldom go beyond that
+nowadays, but that must be bad enough.'
+
+'Very much so, if the bribe has been insufficient, assented Lewis,
+
+'Mr. Gordon! how can you?' began Rose, pausing, however, at the sight
+of his satisfied smile.
+
+'You should adopt the sun with the motto "Emergo" as your crest, Miss
+Tweedie. It would suit both your thoughts and deeds,' he replied
+teasingly.
+
+'Don't mind him,' put in Dan; 'he always was weak in his grammar, and
+doesn't know that rise must be the correct present tense of Rose.'
+
+'But, really,' persisted Lewis, when the laugh ended; 'if a man _had_
+taken a bribe, the first thought to one of his _genre_ would naturally
+be if the game was worth the candle. If he _hadn't_--why, dismissal
+from the public service is not always misfortune. There is the
+disgrace, of course, but, personally, I have never been able to
+understand the sentiment of the thing; it appears to me strained. Half
+your world, as a rule, dislikes you; it believes you capable of
+murdering your grandmother at any moment. Yet the fact doesn't distress
+you. It is inevitable that some people should think ill of you. So why
+should you care when they invent a definite crime for you to commit? It
+doesn't affect your friends.'
+
+'Well, I don't know,' said George Keene sturdily. 'That's all very
+philosophical, but I believe I should shoot myself.'
+
+'No! you wouldn't, old chap; unless you wished people to consider you
+guilty.'
+
+'This conversation is becoming gruesome,' put in Mrs. Boynton; 'let us
+change it; though Lewis is right, for Government service seems to me a
+doubtful blessing----'
+
+'But an assured income,' interrupted Dan, with a laugh.
+
+Lewis Gordon turned on him quite hotly. 'I like your saying that,
+Fitzgerald--you of all people in the world. Why, man alive! if I had
+your power I would chuck tomorrow, and die contractor, engineer,
+K.C.I.E.' and the richest man in India!'
+
+Gwen Boynton looked up in quick interest. 'Really! do you mean that
+_really_, Lewis?'
+
+'I won't swear to the K.C.S.I.' or the superlative, but Fitzgerald
+knows perfectly that I always say he has mistaken his line of life. We
+want hacks. People to obey orders, not to give them.' As he spoke he
+glanced meaningly at Colonel Tweedie walking about fussily, and then at
+his friend's face.
+
+Dan swung himself from the balustrade where he had been perched. 'Some
+one must give orders, and I mean to stick on for my promotion. It must
+come next year. So that is settled. Are you not coming to breakfast,
+Mrs. Boynton?' She met his smile without response as she turned away.
+
+'Dear me! the others have gone in already, and I was so hungry. But one
+doesn't often get the chance, Mr. Fitzgerald, of considering an old
+friend in a new character. It was quite absorbing--for the time.'
+
+So the balcony was left to the sunlight, and some one who had been
+watching it from an archway in the bazaar, withdrew to the shadow where
+she rolled the little pellets of opium in her soft palms and prepared
+for her midday sleep. The burning of the tents had been a real piece of
+luck, the mem--that was she no doubt in the native dress--would be in
+the palace for two or three days, and women were women whether fair or
+dark. This one, too, looked of the right sort. Chandni's dreams that
+day were of a time when she would have the upper hand in Hodinuggur and
+become virtuous, for it paid to be virtuous under the present
+Government. Dalel should start a women's hospital. Then the Sirkar
+would give him the water every year, and the necessity for scheming
+would disappear. In the meantime they must not be niggardly. That did
+not pay with women, since, if they were of the sort to take bribes,
+they were of the sort not easily satisfied.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+'Come and see our mad potter before you go home, Miss Tweedie,' pleaded
+George Keene, 'he really is one of the shows, isn't he, Fitzgerald?'
+
+They had been doing the sights of Hodinuggur as an afternoon's
+amusement; tennis in a riding-habit having no attractions for Rose.
+Mrs. Boynton, however, on the plea of being a zenana lady, had elected
+to remain on the roof, Colonel Tweedie keeping her company until the
+time came for his return visit of state to the Diwan on his tower.
+Lewis might have made the same choice had he been given it; but he was
+not. So he had preferred loafing round the ruins to toiling after
+problematical black buck with the sporting party, and made a pleasant
+companion, as even Rose admitted; being ready with information on most
+points, and between the references talking affably with Dan regarding
+the respective merit of Schultze _versus_ brown powder; thus leaving
+the younger couple to themselves. So his change of manner stood out
+with unusual distinctness as Rose turned to him for consent to George
+Keene's invitation.
+
+'As you please, Miss Tweedie; we are your slaves. A mad potter sounds
+cheerful; he is the man, I suppose, who made that jolly little pot
+Keene sacrificed to my cousin's greed this morning. When you are as old
+as I am, my dear fellow, you will really keep the pretty things out of
+the sight of ladies. I always do, nowadays. There was a little woman at
+Peshawur, I remember--she had blue eyes--who wheedled----'
+
+'Mrs. Boynton was most welcome to the Ayodhya pot,' blurted out George
+hastily.
+
+'_Cela va sans dire!_ It is just because we love to give the pretty
+things to the pretty creatures that it becomes unwise to let the pretty
+creatures see the pretty things.'
+
+'Then it is your fault, to begin with,' interrupted Rose hotly.
+
+'Exactly so. I'm sure, Miss Tweedie, you have heard me say a dozen
+times that we men are to blame for all the weaknesses of women. They
+are simply the outcome of our likes and dislikes; and they will remain
+so until there is a perpetual leap-year.'
+
+'For heaven's sake, Keene,' said Dan, laughing, 'lead the way to the
+potter's or there will be murder done on the King's Highway! Don't mind
+him, Miss Rose! He "only says it to annoy because he knows it teases."
+He doesn't really believe anything of the kind.'
+
+Lewis, his eye-glass more aggressive than ever, murmured something
+under his breath about the inevitable courses of nature, as Rose, with
+her head held very high, followed George Keene into the potter's yard.
+
+It was a scene strangely at variance with the party entering it.
+Indeed, old Fuzl Elahi, who had never before set eyes on an
+Englishwoman, would have started from his work had not George detained
+him with reassuring words:
+
+'He tells his yarns best when he is at the wheel,' he explained as he
+dragged forward a low string stool for Rose. 'And I want you to hear an
+awfully queer one called "The Wrestlers." You know enough of the
+language to understand him at any rate.'
+
+'Miss Tweedie is a better scholar than most of us,' remarked Lewis
+Gordon curtly from the seat he had found beside Dan on a great log of
+wood; one of those logs so often to be seen in such courtyards--relics,
+perhaps, of some ineffectual intention of repair long since forgotten.
+This one might, to all appearance, have fallen where it lay in those
+bygone days of which the potter told tales, when the now treeless
+desert had been a swampy jungle on the borders of an inland sea.
+
+The afternoon sun, slanting over the grass palisades, played havoc with
+the humanity it found gathered round the wheel by sending their shadows
+distorted to long lengths across the yard, and tilting them at odd
+angles against the irregular wall of the mud hut beyond. Altogether a
+conglomerate pyramid of shadows, with the potter's high turban
+dominating it as he sat silent, spinning his wheel. And as the clay
+curved and hollowed beneath his moulding hand a puzzled look came to
+the light eyes, which, usually so shifty, were now fixed with a sort of
+fascination upon that strange figure in the riding-habit.
+
+'It is not there,' he muttered uneasily, 'I cannot find a clew.'
+
+George gave Rose the triumphant glance of a child displaying a
+mechanical toy when it behaves as it ought to behave. The potter was
+evidently in a mad mood, and might be trusted for a good performance.
+
+'Now, Fuzl Elahi, we want "The Wrestlers," please. The Miss sahiba has
+never heard it.'
+
+'How could she?' broke in the old man sharply. 'She does not belong to
+that old time. She is new. I cannot even tell the old tale if she sits
+there in the listener's place. I shall forget, the old will be lost in
+the new; as it is ever.'
+
+'Change places with me, Miss Tweedie,' put in Lewis with a bored look.
+'I am not regenerate out of the old Adam, am I, potter-ji?'
+
+But as he rose the pliant hand went out in a gesture of denial. 'There
+is room on the log for both, and crows roost with crows, pigeons with
+pigeons. The big Huzoor can sit on the stool if he likes. I know him. I
+have seen him many and many a time.'
+
+'Only once, potter-ji,' protested Dan, as he and Rose changed places
+and the wheel began to hum.
+
+'The post is going from Logborough junction to St. Potter's burgh,'
+murmured Lewis discontentedly. 'If we are going to play round games I
+shall go home.'
+
+'Do be quiet, Gordon!' put in George eagerly; 'he is just beginning,
+and it really is worth hearing.
+
+But Lewis was incorrigible. '_Proxime accessit_,' he went on, to Rose,
+'what crime in your past incarnation is responsible for your being
+bracketed with me in this?'
+
+'Oh, do listen,' protested George again.
+
+'Listen! Who could help listening to that infernal noise?--I beg your
+pardon, Miss Tweedie, but it is infernal.'
+
+It was startling, certainly. A shrill moan coming from the racing,
+rocking, galloping wheel as the worker's body swayed to and fro like a
+pendulum. It seemed to rouse a vague sense of unrest in the hearers, a
+dim discomfort like the remembrance of past pain. Then suddenly the
+story began in a high-pitched persistent voice, round which that
+racing, galloping rush of the wheel seemed to circle, hurrying it,
+pushing at it, every now and again sweeping it along recklessly.
+
+
+      'It was a woman seeking something,
+       _Over hill and dale, through night and day, she sought for
+         something_.
+
+
+       The wrestlers who own the world wrestled for her,
+       On the palm of her right hand wrestling for her,
+       "She is mine, she is mine," said one and the other,
+       _While over hill and dale, through night and day, she sought
+         for something_.
+
+
+       "O flies? you tickle the palm of my hand,
+       Be off and wrestle down in your world."
+       So they brought flowers and grass as a carpet,
+       Wrestling on as she sought for something--
+       _Over hill and dale, through night and day, seeking for
+         something_.
+
+
+       "Your carpet is hot, be off, you flies."
+       So they brought her trees and water for cooling,
+       Wrestling on as she sought for something--
+       _Over hill and dale, through night and day, seeking for
+         something_.
+
+
+       "The grass grows long with the water," she cried,
+       "Be off, O flies, and tickle your world."
+       So they brought her flocks to devour the grass,
+       Wrestling on as she sought for something--
+       _Over hill and dale, through day and night, seeking for
+         something_.
+
+
+       "They have trodden my palm as hard as a cake."
+       So they caught up a plough and ploughed her hand,
+       Wrestling on while she sought for something--
+       _Over hill and dale, through day and night, seeking for
+        something_.
+
+
+       "You have furrowed my palm; it tickles and smarts."
+       So they brought a weaver and wove her lint,
+       Wrestling on while she sought for something--
+       _Over hill and dale, through night and day, seeking for
+         something_.
+
+
+       "Foul play! Foul play! Look down and decide,"
+       "Not I, poor flies, I must search for something."
+       So they caught up a town to watch the game.
+       "He is right! He is wrong!" cried old and young.
+       "He is wrong! He is right!" And so war began.
+       While they wrestled away and she sought for something,
+       _Over hill and dale, through night and day, seeking for
+         something_.
+
+
+       "What a noise you make; I am tired of flies."
+       So she swept them into a melon rind.
+       "Be quiet, flies! lie still in the dark."
+       She clapped her palm to the hole in the rind.
+       "I'm tired of it all, I will go to sleep;
+       When morning comes I will seek for something--
+       _Over hill and dale, through night and day, I must seek for
+         something_".
+
+
+       She rested her head on her palm, and slept,
+       Down in the valley close to the river;
+       Slept to the tune of the buzzing flies,
+       Wrestling and fighting about fair play.
+       And while she slept the big Flood came,
+       And the melon pillow floated away.
+
+
+       And all within swarmed out to the sun--
+       Grass, and herds, and ploughs, and looms.
+       People fighting for none knows what.
+       "I have made a new world," she said, with a laugh.
+       "A brand-new world; and the flies have gone.
+       But the palm of my right hand tickles still,
+       May be it will cool when I find what I seek."
+       So she left her new world down by the river,
+       Left it alone and sought for something--
+       _Over hill and dale, through night and day, seeking for
+         something_.'
+
+
+The galloping wheel, which had responded always to the mad hurry of the
+recurring refrain, slackened slowly. Rose gave a sigh of relief, and
+glanced at Lewis Gordon to see if he too had been oppressed by that
+shrinking recognition of a stress, a strain, a desire, such as she had
+never felt before; but he was leaning forward, his chin on his curved
+hand, intent on listening, so she could not see his face.
+
+'By the powers,' came Dan Fitzgerald's voice above the softening hum,
+'the old chap has made an Ayodhya pot--the same shape, I mean.'
+
+'He always does when he tells this story,' broke in George, quite
+pleased with the success of his entertainment. 'I don't think he quite
+knows why he does it, however. Sometimes he says the woman was looking
+for one; sometimes that she always carries one in her left hand to
+balance the world in her right. But he always takes the unbaked pot to
+the ruins and buries it with two of those odd little ninepins, he calls
+men and women, inside it. He is as mad as a hatter, you know.'
+
+'Several hatters,' assented Gordon fervently, 'but it is an interesting
+theory of creation.'
+
+'Now don't,' protested Dan, sitting with his long legs crunched up on
+the low stool close to the potter. 'It is too human for dissection
+by the Folklore Society. But I'm surprised at one thing. The
+wrestlers--they are persistent figures in Indian tales, Miss
+Tweedie--are generally represented as giants. They are pigmies here.'
+
+'The Huzoor is right and wrong,' replied the potter in answer to an
+inquiry; 'the pailwans were neither pigmies nor giants. They were as
+the Huzoor--two and a half haths round the chest--neither more nor
+less.'
+
+'That's a good shot,' remarked Dan in English, 'forty-five inches
+according to my tailor. You have an accurate eye, potter-ji,' he added
+in Hindustani, 'only half an inch out.'
+
+'Not a hair's-breadth, Huzoor,' replied the old man mildly. 'The
+measures of the pailwans is the measure of the Huzoor. I have it here;
+my fathers used it, and I use it.'
+
+He sought a moment in the little niche, hollowed, close to his right
+hand, out of the hard soil forming the side of his sunken seat, and
+drew from it a fine twisted cord of brown, red, and cream coloured
+wool. It was divided into measures by small shells strung on the twist
+and knotted into their places.
+
+'Hullo!' cried Gordon eagerly, 'that must be hundreds of years old.
+Those are sea-shells, and very rare. Simpson at the museum showed me
+one in fossil the other day. I wonder how the dickens the old man got
+hold of them?'
+
+'Two and a half haths,' repeated Fuzl Elahi absently, 'the potter's
+full measure for a man in the beginning and the end.' He leaned forward
+rapidly as he spoke, passed the cord round Dan Fitzgerald's chest, and
+drew the ends together. The curled spirals of the two shells lay half
+an inch apart. 'So much for the garments,' he muttered. 'Yea! I knew
+it. The measure of a true pailwan to a hair's breadth.
+
+'And what am I, potter-ji?' asked George, laughing.
+
+The puzzled look came back to the old man's face. 'The Huzoor may be a
+pailwan too. Times have changed.'
+
+'Rough on a fellow, rather!' exclaimed the boy, still laughing. 'Here,
+Fitz! chuck me over the thing. Is that fair, Miss Tweedie?'
+
+She laughed back into his bright face, as he pulled his hardest to make
+the two second shells meet, then shook her head.
+
+'Not on yourself, Mr. Keene. You are more of a hero than that, I should
+say.'
+
+The potter's eyes were on her, then back on George. 'Everything is
+changed,' he muttered again, 'even the measure of the pots.'
+
+'Then you measure them, do you?' asked Gordon, to whom George had
+handed the cord, and who was now examining it minutely.
+
+'Surely, Huzoor. The first one of each batch. Then the hand learns the
+make.'
+
+'Try what make you are, Gordon?' suggested Dan.
+
+'Not I. Here, potter-ji, catch. Miss Tweedie and I, according to the
+best authority, are abnormal; we are not ordinary pots, so I, for one,
+decline to be measured by their standard. And now, if some of us are to
+be in time for such trivialities as dinner, we ought to be going.'
+
+The potter rose also and stepped out of his hole. Seen thus at full
+length, he showed insignificant, his hairy, bandy, almost beast-like
+legs, contrasting strangely with the mild high-featured face, with its
+expression of puzzled anxiety, as he laid a deprecating hand on George
+Keene's sleeve.
+
+'Wants bucksheesh, I suppose,' murmured Lewis. 'I have some rupees
+somewhere, if you want them, Keene.' But it was not money; it was only
+leave to speak to the 'madr mihrban.'
+
+'That's a nice name for you, Miss Rose,' said Dan softly--'Mother of
+mercy--a name to be glad of.'
+
+She blushed as she went forward a step, asking, 'What is it? what can I
+do for you?'
+
+He stooped to touch her feet with his supple hands ere replying.
+'Huzoor! it is a little thing. Fuzl Elahi, potter of Hodinuggur, has a
+daughter somewhere. Perhaps she has gone to the Huzoor's world; it is
+new, I do not know it. If the "madr mihrban" were to see her, she might
+tell her to come back--just once--only once. I would not keep her. But
+now I have no answer when my father says: "Where is thy little
+Azizan?"'
+
+'Azizan!' echoed George quickly. But the old man seemed almost to have
+forgotten his own request. He stood looking past the strangers, past
+the village, past even the ruins, into the sunset sky.
+
+'I will send her--if I see her,' said Rose gently, with tears in her
+eyes; for George had told her the story of the lost daughter, and the
+sudden, diffident appeal touched her. Yet the vast gulf between her and
+the old man touched and oppressed her still more, as she left him
+standing alone beside his wheel.
+
+'Well!' said Lewis Gordon, when in silence they had reached the road
+again. 'You may call that amusement, Keene, if you like; I don't. When
+I get home, I shall have a sherry and bitters.'
+
+'He _is_ rather a gruesome old chap,' admitted George cheerfully. 'I
+felt a bit creepy myself the first time I heard that song--by the way,
+Miss Tweedie, talking of creepiness, did I tell you about the Potter's
+Thumb? I didn't! Oh,--that is really a grand tale.' He told it,
+happily, as an excellent sequel to the show, while Dan, in one of his
+best moods, piled on the imaginative agony about Hodinuggur generally,
+until Lewis announced his intention of returning to the palace by the
+longer way. He would be late, of course, but that was preferable to
+having no appetite for dinner!
+
+'By Jove! seven o'clock,' cried Dan, looking at his watch. 'And you and
+I, George, have to get over to the bungalow. We must run for it.'
+
+Rose watched them racing down the path, laughing and talking as they
+ran, with a troubled look.
+
+'Fine specimens, Miss Tweedie,' remarked Lewis after a pause. 'I don't
+think you need fear their cracking in the fire.'
+
+'I--I--' faltered Rose, taken aback by his comprehension.
+
+'Am Scotch! That's sufficient excuse. I notice we seldom get rid of our
+native superstition. Besides, it _was_ uncanny--the yard-measure and
+the Potter's Thumb, and that horse-leech of a woman, who was never
+satisfied. I felt it myself.'
+
+She knew he was speaking down to her as a nervous woman; yet she did
+not resent it, because it was a distinct relief not to be taken
+seriously.
+
+'I wish they had not been measured, for all that,' she persisted. 'You
+will own it was odd, won't you?'
+
+'Not so odd as Dan himself! He has been cracked ever since I knew him.
+And Keene is one of the sterling sort, certain of success; besides, he
+measured himself! Now, before you go upstairs to dress, if your Scotch
+blood is still curdling, as mine is, have a half of sherry and bitters
+with me. Crows roost with crows, you remember.'
+
+His friendliness beguiled her into playfulness.
+
+'Crows indeed! then I've a better opinion of you than you have of me. I
+thought we were meant for the pigeons.'
+
+'To bill and coo?'
+
+If she could have boxed his ears, it would have relieved her feelings.
+As it was, she raced upstairs, in a fury, without vouchsafing one word
+of resentment, and paced up and down her tiny room with flaming cheeks.
+Could a girl be expected, for ever and aye, to be on the outlook for
+such openings? Of course Gwen Boynton would have laughed easily--would
+not have minded, perhaps; but then Gwen was charming--everything
+apparently that a woman ought to be!
+
+Rose looked at herself in her dusty habit. She would have to go down to
+dinner in it, and challenge comparisons with Gwen in her silks and
+tinsel. Why should she? No one would care, no one would have a right to
+care if she did stay in her room with a headache. The next instant she
+was ashamed of the impulse. What did it matter?--they were welcome to
+their opinion. As for her, she would adopt no feminine excuse; she
+would leave those little devices to men's women. So she brushed her
+habit, and went out, with a heightened colour, to join the others.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Rose Tweedie's sneer against men's women lacked point, since it so
+happened that Mrs. Boynton, in the opposite corner-room of the
+pavilion, was, at the very moment, setting aside the temptation of
+pleading a headache as an excuse for not appearing at dinner. And she
+had more reason to seek quiet than the girl, though a new dress lay
+ready on the bed; for Gwen loved to dazzle her world, and had spent
+some of her leisure in instructing a native tailor how to run up a web
+of coarse native muslin bought in the bazaar into a very decent
+semblance of a fashionable garment. But the pleasure of the trick had
+gone out of it. Something had happened. Something incredible, yet,
+given the surroundings, natural enough. Something about which she must
+make up her mind. It seemed scarcely a minute ago since she had passed
+in swiftly to the solitude of her room in order to think. She, Gwen
+Boynton, in native dress, with a white scared face and something in her
+hand. Now she had to pass out of that room again as an Englishwoman,
+and the transition left her oddly undecided. Indeed, as she paused for
+a moment ere taking the plunge, with one hand on the embroidered
+draperies doing duty as a door, it seemed almost as if she were
+awaiting some command, some voice which would relieve her of
+responsibility. Then she smiled and passed on to meet the surprised
+admiration of her little world; for she had never looked better in her
+life, and she knew it. The creamy muslin suited her in its careless
+folds, her excitement showed itself becomingly in flushed cheeks and
+bright eyes, and the chorus of wonder at her cleverness made her
+gracious beyond compare. They had been away so long, she said, airily,
+that she had had to amuse herself somehow, and were there not miles of
+muslin to be bought in every bazaar, and many men to put stitches into
+it? Any one could have done it. Rose, listening with a certain contempt
+in her look, told herself that Gwen said truth; any one could have done
+it who thought it worth while to take so much trouble for the sake of
+personal effect; yet a regret rankled somewhere, mingling with the
+resentment which came as Gwen called attention, somewhat garishly, to
+more of her good works. Did they not admire the room? When Colonel
+Tweedie had gone off to the Diwan she had consoled herself by pulling
+about the furniture; and did not the Ayodhya pot look sweet on the
+corner-stand she had improvised out of three bamboos, a brass platter,
+and a yellow silk scarf?
+
+'You should have packed it away in your box at once,' remarked Lewis
+coolly. 'Keene may repent his good-nature, or some of us may steal it.
+The colour is admirable.' As he spoke he walked over to the stand as if
+for closer examination.
+
+'Don't touch it, please,' cried Mrs. Boynton hastily. 'You--you will
+spoil my draperies.'
+
+'A thousand pities, when they are so artistic,' put in Colonel Tweedie,
+glad of the opportunity. 'That is dinner, Mrs. Boynton. I've had it
+laid in the small pavilion so as to keep this as your drawing-room.'
+
+'Thanks! but everything is delightful; simply fascinating! In spite of
+what Mr. Keene said this morning, I begin to wish I were a native.'
+
+'For the sake of the satin?' asked Lewis, who was following close
+behind with Rose. Gwen flashed back a brilliant look at him.
+
+'No! not the satin. That game would not be worth the candle.'
+
+Apart from the question of satin, Mrs. Boynton had excuse for admiring
+the _mise en scene_. The violet sky, spangled with stars, seemed made
+apparently but for one end--to hap and hold that terraced roof which
+was clearly outlined against it by the light streaming from the
+pavilions on to the fretted white marble balustrades. At the corners
+were shadowy cupolas, and there in the arched summer-house at the
+farther end, close upon the velvet darkness, was a table set with
+silver and glass, fruits and flowers. At one side, so as to divide the
+ladies equally, was Rose, in her habit, doing the duty of hostess with
+a little air of gravity and preoccupation; at the other, Gwen, in her
+soft clouds of muslin, keeping the men in a state of admiring
+gratification through their eyes and their ears. They gathered round
+her too, when, dinner being over, they adjourned to the balconies for
+coffee and cigars. It was deliciously cool; a faint breeze stirred
+Rose's hair as she sat a little apart from the others watching the
+twinkling lights go up and down the stair which formed the only tie
+between that world on the roof and that world in the courtyard below.
+
+'We ought to go to bed early,' said Lewis, Coming to stand before her.
+'You are half-asleep--no wonder, after last night!--and Gwen is what
+superstitious Scotch folk call "fey." Then, if we have to join that
+detestable hawking-party to-morrow morning, we shall have to get up at
+five.'
+
+'You needn't go unless you like,' she replied curtly. 'Mrs. Boynton has
+cried off.'
+
+'I am not Mrs. Boynton's personal assistant, Miss Tweedie; I happen to
+be your father's--so duty calls.' As he spoke he seated himself on the
+balustrade and leant forward, his elbows on his knees, to watch the
+group on the other side of the arcade.
+
+'If I didn't know that Gwen despises that sort of thing,' he went on in
+dissatisfied tones, 'I should say she had rouged this evening. Her way
+of showing fatigue, I presume; though, of course, neither of you have
+the common-sense to confess you are tired. Women are all ascetics at
+heart; at least they believe in the virtue of martyrdom. They have
+different ways of showing it, that's all. Gwen spends her fatigue in
+dress-making and conversation to please, and you, I'll go bail, haven't
+even a proper bandage on that scorched arm----'
+
+'Mr. Gordon!'
+
+'Yes! I saw you imagined I was blind--suppose we say like to imagine
+it; but I really had my eye-glass, Miss Tweedie. Besides, it doesn't
+require microscopic sight to see some things.'
+
+'What a profound remark!' interrupted Rose, to hide her pleased
+surprise at his unusual consideration. At the same moment Gwen's gay
+laugh rang out, soft yet clear. Either the sound or the speech annoyed
+the hearer on the balustrade, for he frowned as he slipped his dangling
+feet to the floor.
+
+'As profound as I can make it this evening, for I'm not ashamed to
+confess myself dog-tired. Couldn't tell a crow from a pigeon; so I
+shall be off. Good-night, Miss Tweedie, I wish you would persuade Gwen
+to go to bed. It is easier to give good advice than to take it.'
+
+Rose remained looking at the twinkling lights, and wondering if Lewis
+were really jealous of his cousin, till seeing the others go back to
+the central summer-house she followed suit.
+
+'Tired!' echoed Gwen sharply, in reply to her information that Lewis
+Gordon had stolen away. 'Are we not all tired? I feel as if I had been
+up since the beginning of time seeking for something I could not find.
+My bed, perhaps. Good-night, Rose.'
+
+They were an odd couple, as they bent to kiss each other in that
+mirrored room, where the oddness was reflected again and again in the
+myriad scraps of looking-glass on the walls. Each curved fragment
+giving and taking an eternity of Gwen's and Rose's bending to kiss each
+other.
+
+
+   'I am tired of it all, I will go to sleep;
+    When morning comes I will seek for something,
+    _Over hill and dale, through night and day, I must seek for
+      something_.'
+
+
+The remembrance evoked by Gwen's chance words sent a little shiver
+through the girl; and with it came a sudden pulse of sympathy for the
+woman who, now that she saw her close, did indeed look haggard and
+worn.
+
+'No wonder you are tired,' she said gently. 'Even I feel as if I could
+sleep for days.'
+
+'But you are coming to hawk surely,' broke in George. 'Do, please! it
+won't be any fun without you.'
+
+'Not a bit,' assented Dan. 'Gordon ordered your horse, I know, and told
+them to take you your tea at five punctually.'
+
+'You must go, Rose,' put in Gwen with a shrug of her white shoulders.
+'Diana _Chasseresse_ mustn't disappoint her votaries. I'm glad my habit
+was burnt.'
+
+She did not look it, and Rose, as she went off to her corner room
+wondered if Gwen could be jealous of her. The idea was absurd, but
+pleasing; and she fell asleep placidly over variations of the
+possibility.
+
+But just over the way with that dark mirrored room between them, Gwen
+lay awake, with one hand thrust under the pillow where she could feel a
+tiny paper parcel. Should she keep it, or should she not? Should she
+say anything of the scene burnt in on her memory, or should she not?
+She seemed to see it as a spectator, not as the only actor in it. To
+see a woman in native dress in that room set round with eyes; the
+Ayodhya pot in her hand, and in her tinsel-edged veil the jewels which
+had fallen from its false bottom. Jewels which if sold would buy her
+freedom, perhaps save her, and Dan too, from a great mistake. It was a
+chance. A chance most likely unknown to any one in the wide world save
+herself, for who would have knowingly sold a pot containing three huge
+pearls and an emerald for ten rupees? Nor was she bound to give more to
+the seller. Land was bought so, but if the mines were found afterwards,
+that was the buyer's good luck, even if he had guessed. Facts like
+these, accepted apparently by the honest and honourable, go far to give
+such as Gwen immoral support. No one could possibly know; she herself
+would not have known save for that chance slip, and the eyes made keen
+and eager through fear of some slight injury to the treasure.
+
+It was a chance of escape from the danger which had come home to her
+sharply in the past twenty-four hours. The danger of yielding to her
+own weakness about Dan made clear by his actions; the new danger,
+suggested by his words, of her losing her hold on Lewis. Could the
+latter really be attracted by Rose? The events of the evening gave
+colour to the possibility. If so, there was no time to be lost. She
+must be free; free to do as she chose. No one would know. Nobody
+would dream of bribing one so powerless as she. And if the jewels had
+been put there knowingly, it was only her risk. No one else was
+responsible--Lewis had said so----
+
+So she argued, coming round always to the same thought, till the first
+glint of dawn brought sleep, as it so often does to weary eyes. Perhaps
+in the thought that the sun will rise, the world go on, no matter what
+we do, or think, or say.
+
+She slept so soundly that all the bustle of the hawking party failed to
+disturb her; and when that was over the long stretch of terraced roof
+lay empty of all sound or sign of life, save for the green parrots
+shrieking and swooping about the carven work. A pair of them had built
+in a loophole, whence the young ones kept up a simmering, bubbling
+noise, like a boiling tea-kettle; a comfortable homely sound out of
+keeping with the bare beauty of stone, and sunlight, and hard blue sky.
+
+Down in the courtyard below, two badge wearers in scarlet and gold
+lounged on the stairs, barring the roof from intrusion, chatting to the
+passers-by, and discussing the news which had just been brought in by
+the camel which was crouching beside a pile of fodder in the centre of
+the yard, while its owner stretched his limbs, cramped with riding all
+night across the desert, in front of the cook-room. Halfway up the
+stairs on the landing leading to the state-rooms, Mrs. Boynton's ayah
+squatted, combining business with pleasure, by being within reach of a
+call and her forbidden hookah, at one and the same time. A bundle of
+letters lay beside her, intended as a peace-offering against the
+possible smell of smoke.
+
+The sun climbed up silently, shifting the shadows on the silent roof.
+That was the only movement, until suddenly a figure in a white domino
+peered through the _grille_ which barred the flight of steps leading to
+the Diwan's tower. Then came the grate of a rusty key in a lock, and
+the figure flitted, silently as the shadows, to the summer-house, and
+paused in the mirror-room. Perhaps the transformation which Western
+taste and Mrs. Boynton's clever fingers had wrought in its adornment,
+was pleasing, perhaps the reverse. The _burka_, however, is of all
+disguises the most complete, since it blots out form, colour,
+expression, even movement. The figure showed indeed like a white
+extinguisher in the centre of the room, until, with a swaying of ample
+folds it glided over to the corner stand where the Ayodhya pot stood
+out from Gwen's artistic drapery. Then something slid out, still
+shrouded in white folds, from the extinguisher, raised the vase, shook
+it slightly, replaced it, and slid back again in a horrible
+invertebrate protoplasmic sort of movement, calculated to send a shiver
+through a spectator. But there was none. The thing had the whole roof
+to itself save for that fair-haired sleeper in the corner room who lay
+with one hand clasping a little packet hidden under her pillow. Her
+face was turned to the doorway in full view of those latticed eye-holes
+belonging to the _burka_, which after a time came to look in on her
+from the half-raised curtain, and let in with a shaft of sunshine, a
+vista of blue skies and marble balustrades with two red and green
+parrots pecking at each other. It may have been the light, more
+probably the disturbing effect the dim consciousness of other eyes
+fixed on our own has upon most people, which roused Gwen Boynton. But
+she opened hers suddenly and started up in bed, her heart throbbing
+violently, though the curtain had fallen and not a sound was to be
+heard.
+
+'Comin', mem sahiba, comin',' came in immediate answer to her
+imperative call as the ayah, thrusting her hookah aside, snatched at
+the letters, and shook what smoke she could from her voluminous
+garments. A trifling delay, but enough to allow the thing up-stairs to
+flit round the summerhouse again; even to pause a second at the
+_grille_.
+
+'It makes too much noise. I will leave it open,' it muttered as it
+disappeared up the steps with the rusty key held in its formless clasp.
+
+'Where were you?' asked Gwen, her heart still throbbing. 'And who was
+that who looked in on me from the door? There was some one: I'm sure
+there was some one.'
+
+'Me, mem sahiba,' grinned the woman readily. 'Me, ayah. Look in several
+time. Mem always neendi par; sota! sota! like baba.[2] Ayah waitin'
+close to bring dak. Many letters for mem sahiba.'
+
+Mrs. Boynton looked at her doubtfully. It was not the ayah whom she had
+seen; of that she felt certain. On the other hand, if the woman really
+had been sitting outside it was more than probable the whole thing was
+a dream. No harm had come of it, anyhow; so five minutes after she was
+dividing her attention between early tea and a long epistle from an
+absent admirer. Gwen's victims were always excellent correspondents,
+perhaps because of that gracious indifference in which lay her great
+charm, since a letter had quite as good a chance as a man of whiling
+away her kindly, sympathetic leisure.
+
+But when the ayah was brushing at the pretty hair Gwen's mind reverted
+to the question which had kept her awake. As so often happens--the
+learned say by unconscious cerebration--it appeared to have settled
+itself. Independently of Dan, or any secondary matter of that sort,
+money would be useful. Most useful, seeing she had just lost the best
+part of her wardrobe and had a season at Simla in immediate prospect.
+Now she came to think of it, Hodinuggur owed her some reparation for
+the loss it had inflicted upon her. Besides, it would be wiser to wait
+and see if the presence of jewels in the pot were suspected by any one
+or not. If the latter, it would clearly be flying in the face of a good
+Providence to mention her discovery. So, by the time she was ready to
+face her world, that world seemed quite simple and easy to face.
+
+Chandni thought the same thing as she sat at the Diwan's feet in the
+big balconied room of the tower overlooking the canal, telling him in
+whispers of the success of her plan so far. The jewels were no longer
+in the pot. The mem must have them, for, as she had found out through a
+khitmutgar, the mem had been alone during many hours, and had been
+making a mess in the room with trumpery platters and pots.
+
+'She may send it back yet,' said the Diwan cautiously. 'Lo! I am old,
+and this I have learnt through long years: Trust not a woman not to
+change her mind till she be dead.'
+
+The courtesan laughed. ''Tis as well for some men she is born so,
+father. But a night's thought is as death to a woman. Life is too short
+to give more to such things. And that night is over without a sign.
+Give her yet one more, an thou wilt; after that, say that Chandni hath
+dug the channel. 'Twill be thy task to turn the water into it.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X
+
+
+Among those things which come by Nature and are not to be taught, may
+be reckoned a pretty seat on horseback. One may be a good rider without
+it, a poor one with it; but when grace and skill are combined a man
+certainly shows at his best on horseback. It was so with Lewis Gordon.
+He sat his lean little country-bred as if it belonged to him; not as
+the usual phrase runs, as if he were part of his horse. For that is a
+description which ignores the essence of the thing to be described;
+which is, surely, the mastery a man has over something which is _not_
+himself. Part of his horse! The very words conjure up a man paralysed
+to the waist and jelly above, agonising over a cavalry seat.
+
+If Lewis Gordon were grateful to Providence for anything, it was for
+making and keeping him a light weight, and thus rendering him
+independent of Australian or Arab mounts. The fourteen-hand pony which
+he had picked up--a mere bag of bones--at a native fair, had to be hard
+held when trotting alongside of Colonel Tweedie's big Waler, yet she
+had only cost him a tenth of the price. As she forged along, quivering
+with impatience, Bronzewing was a pretty sight, the sunlight shining
+red through her wide nostrils, and shifting in golden curves over the
+bronze muscles which were almost black in shadow. Rose Tweedie always
+admired it immensely, and, illogically enough, felt inclined to be more
+lenient on the rider. She told herself it was because he wore
+spectacles on horseback, and they were less offensive than the
+eyeglass, which permitted variations of method in his outlook. She did
+not even fall foul of his indifference when he dawdled about, a picture
+of aimless dejection, at the hawking party; in fact, she had a sneaking
+sympathy with his feelings. It was dreary work watching unfortunate
+grey partridges beaten up from one bush by coolies, only to be pounced
+on by a hawk ere it could reach the shelter of the next cover. She also
+shared his disgust at Dalel Beg, who, in top-boots, red coat, and
+doe-skins, took a keen interest in the gorging of young hawks on the
+entrails of the still struggling victims, and gave shrill 'yoicks' and
+'gone a ways' at each fresh flutter. Khush-hal Beg watching the sport
+from a bullock-cart on which he reclined among cushions was purely
+comical; his son purely offensive.
+
+'I think,' remarked Lewis slowly, 'he is the worst specimen of
+civilisation I ever met; and I think this is the deadliest
+entertainment I ever was at. And both those facts mean something.'
+
+Rose laughed, and suggested that it would have been different had they
+come across bustard. They, she had heard, were worth hawking. Her
+companion shook his head.
+
+'I've seen it on the frontier at its best. You lose the essence of
+sport; that, I take it, lies in pitting your strength, or skill, or
+endurance against the quarry. In hawking you ride behind the skill; and
+as the country is easy, the whole thing resolves itself into the pace
+of your horse; in other words, what you paid for the beast.'
+
+'Not always! I'd back Bronzewing against the field any day,' cried Rose
+impulsively.
+
+He looked up with quite a flush of pleasure. 'Well! she should do her
+best to win the gloves for you, Miss Tweedie.'
+
+The reply came as naturally as the remark which provoked it, but it
+made the girl feel suddenly shy and say hastily--
+
+'She looks as if she wanted to be off now; how that partridge startled
+her!'
+
+'Not a bit of it. She is only longing, as I am, for a hunt.'
+
+'A hunt?'
+
+'Yes! a partridge-hunt. Have you never seen one?' He gave a rapid
+glance round. 'There are too many bushes here, but Keene may know of
+some fairly-open country, with perhaps a thorn-hedge or two for you to
+jump--that is to say, if you have had enough of this festive scene.'
+
+Five minutes after, George Keene, Dan Fitzgerald, Lewis Gordon, and she
+were sweeping along in line across low sand-hills in order to dip down
+into a harder plain among stretches of level, dotted sparsely with low
+caper-bushes, with here and there a patch of cultivation showing
+vividly green against its whitey-brown frame of desert, and here and
+there a bit of plough ready for the summer crop.
+
+There is nothing more invigorating in the world than riding in line at
+a hand-gallop across such country in the freshness of early morning,
+especially when the party has gay hearts and light heads. Rose felt
+that it was worth all her purely feminine amusements put together, and,
+with a flush of enjoyment on her face, besieged Lewis Gordon with
+high-pitched questions as to what they were going to do; he calling
+back his answers, so that their voices rose above the rhythmical
+beating of the horses' hoofs.
+
+'We are going without dog or coolie, gun or any lethal weapon
+whatever--as the code says--to ride down and capture the grey partridge
+or _Ammoperdix bonhami_! Have you seen it done, Fitzgerald?'
+
+'Heard of it only. The pace must be good.'
+
+'Racing speed; no less. Therein lies the fun.' He gave a quick glance
+at Rose's tackle, and frowned. 'You should have a stronger bit,' he
+began when she interrupted him.
+
+'It is the same as yours.'
+
+'Perhaps. But a lady can't ride like a man, especially in this sort of
+work. If I had noticed it before, I----'
+
+'Nonsense! I always ride with a snaffle, and Shahad is as steady as a
+house.'
+
+'That is no argument. In my opinion a lady should----'
+
+The rest of the wrangle was spared to the company, for at that moment a
+partridge buzzed out of a bush at their feet, Bronzewing's equanimity
+gave way, and with a snort of eagerness she burst after it, Shahzad
+following suit; both beasts heading straight as a die after the quarry,
+heedless of their riders or their discussions.
+
+'Give him his head, Miss Tweedie,' shouted Lewis, as he shot past. 'He
+has done it before and knows the game! Off we are!'
+
+Off indeed, helter-skelter, behind the grey-brown buzz of wings showing
+against a blue sky.
+
+'Ride it! Ride it! Keep an eye on it! I'll do back,' came Lewis
+Gordon's voice, boyishly excited, as, with hands down, he veered the
+mare a point or two by main force, until, as she caught sight of a
+heavier' clump of bushes comprehension came to the game little beast,
+and she headed straight for it.
+
+'Where? Oh! Where?' cried Rose distractedly to Dan Fitzgerald, who was
+now racing beside her.
+
+'Right ahead--there--don't you see?'
+
+Just a brown speck against the blue sky still, but skimming faster and
+faster to meet the brown horizon. There still, no--yes--
+
+_Gone!_
+
+Rose gave a cry, which was echoed by an exclamation from Dan, as
+instinctively they reined up, feeling the chase was over. George,
+hurrying up from behind, where his pony had been playing the fool,
+found them staring disconsolately at the bushes.
+
+'Lost it, I suppose,' said Lewis, as he rejoined them. 'It is always
+difficult to keep it in sight on the horizon. However, you have had a
+good burst, Miss Tweedie. See! we started there--a good mile back. Have
+you any idea how you got here?'
+
+'None! I suppose I rode; but I saw nothing but a sort of big bumble-bee
+buzzing in front of me. Shahzad did the rest.'
+
+'As I said, not for the first time, which confirms me in saying he is
+only a Gulf Arab, for partridge-hunting is a Persian sport. Only don't
+tell your father, please; he would never forgive me.'
+
+As he turned in his saddle, resting one hand on the mare's quarters in
+order to speak to Rose, voice and face full of almost boyish enjoyment,
+the girl felt that this was a new development of his character, and
+that she liked it better than the old ones.
+
+'Now, as we go along, I'll explain. That bird took us by surprise,' he
+went on eagerly. 'Four is an ideal number, though I've had rare fun
+riding partridge single-handed. Number one ought to make the pace,
+keeping both eyes on the bird. Number two keeps his on the going, so as
+to save Number one from coming to grief over rough country. Number
+three rides cautious, landmarks the flight, and is ready to turn if the
+bird breaks back--you can't when you are going full speed, unless the
+bird towers. Number four rides cunning, cuts off curves, and heads for
+likely covers. The whole aim being to press the partridge so hard that
+it has no time to settle in shelter, but, after skimming down to a
+bush, runs through it, and takes to wing again on the other side.'
+
+'And gets away, I suppose,' muttered, George Keene, still out of
+temper. 'Don't see the fun of it.'
+
+'Wait a bit,' retorted Lewis gaily. 'Now you must remember that the
+_role_ you have to play depends on how the bird breaks. There is no
+time to settle. The nearest in must ride it, the rest choose their
+parts as best--steady, mare, steady!'
+
+It was only a faint '_te-tetar--te-tetar_,' in the far distance, but
+Bronzewing started, and even George's pony cocked its ears; while
+humanity went on breathlessly in line, the horses' feet at a walk
+giving out a hollow sound on the hard soil, the yellow sunshine casting
+hard shadows.
+
+'Look out!' cautioned Lewis, in a whisper. 'There's a partridge running
+on ahead; by you, I think, Fitzgerald.'
+
+'Don't see it?'
+
+'Farther to the left. The mare sees it. We must trot a bit, or it won't
+rise fair. Steady, lass, steady!'
+
+'I see it,' came in excited tones from George, 'by the big bush, Miss
+Tweedie.'
+
+'That's another,' cautioned Lewis again. 'Take care and don't----'
+
+_Whirr, buzz! Whirr, buzz!_
+
+'Ride it! Ride it!'
+
+The cry came from two quarters; but Shahzad was already extended, and
+Rose forgetful of everything save those brown wings low down against
+the horizon. She was closer on them this time, for she could see their
+skimming swoop as they neared a heavy clump of cover. Yet she felt she
+must lose them, as she had done before, when to her relief she saw
+Lewis shoot ahead.'
+
+'All right,' he shouted, 'I'm on. Look out for yourself.'
+
+There was a cut of his thong against thorns as he rose Bronzewing to a
+hedge which Rose had not seen. But she had scarcely steadied herself in
+the saddle from the half-considered leap in his wake before the
+partridge was down and up again at right-angles to its first flight;
+Lewis meanwhile bringing the mare round all he knew, and shouting,
+'Ride it, Miss Tweedie! ride it.'
+
+Shahzad, still steadied by the jump, was in hand, and, therefore, on
+the track in a second, snorting in mad hurry and excitement, and the
+bird was not quite so fast this time, or Rose was riding straighter,
+for she saw the last skim of the wings change to running feet as it
+touched the grey brown earth which tinted so perfectly with its
+plumage.
+
+'Not there! not there!' came that warning voice from behind. 'It's run
+on. The next bush--put Shahzad over it.'
+
+A leap, a scurry, a flutter, and the quarry was up again, heading in
+its hurry for an impossible open, backed by bare plough. Bronzewing
+being now alongside, Rose found leisure to glance round for the others.
+
+'Gone after the second partridge,' said Lewis. 'I was afraid of it.
+There's a hedge twenty yards ahead, Miss Tweedie, I'll mark.'
+
+They were over it, almost in the stride, and now the bird was below the
+horizon, a mere shadow of darker brown against the plough.
+
+'I've lost it! I've lost it again!' The despairing cry came from Rose's
+very heart as she tugged vainly at Shahzad. When she succeeded in
+bringing him up, she saw that Lewis was slipping from the mare.
+
+'AH right!' he cried cheerfully, dropping his white handkerchief on the
+ground, 'it's somewhere about! That's the place I marked; now for sharp
+eyes.'
+
+Up and down the bare furrows he searched, followed by Bronzewing, her
+reins dangling. Up and down, with such patience, that Rose, gaining
+confidence, began to search also. Only, however, to lose hope, as
+minute after minute brought no result.
+
+'I don't believe it's here,' she remarked at last; and with the words
+saw Lewis Gordon stoop to pick up something she had passed by, thinking
+it was a clod of earth.
+
+'Your first partridge!' he said with a kindly laugh, as he placed the
+bird upon her lap. There it lay unhurt, wide-eyed and motionless as it
+had lain among the furrows.
+
+'Why doesn't it fly away?' asked Rose, with a little catch in her
+breath, as she gently stroked the mottled back.
+
+'It will, soon. At present it's winded. Give it five minutes, and we
+could ride it again; but we won't. It flew game, and I needn't ask if
+you enjoyed it.'
+
+No need, certainly. The very horses panting, nose down in each other's
+faces, seemed discussing past pleasure.
+
+'It is safe from kites now,' said Lewis. 'Throw it up, Miss Tweedie.'
+
+The next instant a skimming flight had ended in a covert of thorns and
+Lewis was on his mare ready to start.
+
+'It wouldn't head for the open again, I bet, he said, 'they get as
+'cute as an old fox after a time. To your left, please, that rise
+yonder is Hodinuggur.'
+
+'But we might ride again, surely? It would give the others time to come
+up, began Rose, fiercely bitten with the game.
+
+'Best not. The ground here is bad going; all littered with bricks.
+And you could barely hold Shahzad that last time. A snaffle is hard
+work--for a lady.'
+
+Rose refrained from open retort. Lewis had given her a morning's
+amusement, and she owed him something; for all that, she made a mental
+determination to ride partridge as often as she chose with a snaffle.
+His objection was only part of that wholesale depreciation--here a
+partridge buzzed out of a bush, and partly from impulse, partly from
+sheer opposition, she gave Shahzad the rein. A bit of bravado in which
+she reckoned without the excited horse. Ere she had gone fifty yards,
+she realised it had the bit between its teeth. What was worse, she saw
+that Lewis realised it also.
+
+'Look out for bricks,' he called, spurring Bronzewing alongside for a
+moment, 'and don't try to follow when the bird breaks back, as it is
+sure to do, for cover.'
+
+The words were still on his lips, when the partridge towered and
+turned. Shahzad, no novice at such tricks, pulled up short, nearly
+throwing Rose over his ears. Then, with a bound, he dashed off
+sideways, catching Bronzewing on the flank as she swerved, and throwing
+her rider's foot from the stirrup. The mare staggered, pulled herself
+together smartly, set her hoof on a loose brick, and came down heavily;
+while Rose, tugging vainly at her beast, went sailing away to the
+horizon, with the memory of that crashing fall seeming to paralyse her
+strength. When she did manage to turn, Bronzewing was on her feet; but
+her rider lay where he had fallen. The girl's heart stood still an
+instant in that utmost fear which will come first--was he _dead_? Yet,
+as she galloped back she told herself, fiercely, that it was
+impossible; people fell so often, and did not hurt themselves. But not,
+surely, to lie as he lay, with eyes wide open and one arm under him as
+if he had pitched head-foremost. Rose had never seen an accident
+before, and at first all her helpfulness seemed lost in a senseless
+desire to gather him up in her arms and hold him safe. Then the thought
+of her own foolishness came to her aid. He had been right! Women were
+no good!' A man would have known what to do, and as she thought these
+things, she searched, comically enough, in his pockets for a flask, as
+if unconsciously reverting to the first resource of the male animal;
+but she could find none, and there was no water. What was to be done,
+save to chafe his hands and call to him vainly, while a perfect agony
+of negation clamoured against her growing fear. He could not be dead!
+He was such a good rider. He must have fallen before and not been
+killed. Why should he be killed this time? He could not be killed on
+such a bright sunny morning--when they had been so happy--when he had
+been so kind. Ridiculous, trivial little thoughts, such as make up the
+sum of such scenes.
+
+Finally she rose, resolved by her very despair. Water and help she must
+have. If no nearer than the palace, then to the palace she must go.
+Shahzad had taken advantage of liberty to seek a wheat field, but
+Bronzewing would carry her with the stirrup over. The mare, however,
+distrusting strangers, sidled off, still circling faithfully round her
+master. Then the girl's hopes and fears centred themselves on the
+immediate necessity for success. She coaxed, wheedled, cajoled,
+forgetting all else, till all of a sudden Bronzewing paused to whinny,
+and Rose, looking round instinctively, recognised the magnitude of her
+past despair in the light of her great relief as she saw Lewis Gordon,
+raised on one elbow, looking at her in a dazed sort of way. She was on
+her knees beside him in a minute, confessing the past fear she had so
+strenuously denied while it existed.
+
+'I thought you were dead!' she cried. 'I thought you were dead.' She
+was trembling and shaking all over, quite visibly, and he gave an
+unsteady laugh.
+
+'Thumped the back of my head; that's all. No!' a spasm of pain passed
+over his face as he sat up. 'My collarbone's gone. Well! it might have
+been worse. The ground is uncommonly hard.'
+
+Worse indeed! Rose could not speak for a lump in her throat; but the
+loquacity of escape was upon him.
+
+'Must have pitched on my shoulder, luckily. I don't in the least
+remember how it happened. We were partridging, I suppose; but my mind
+is an absolute blank. No wonder! my head is just splitting; but I can
+walk home all right.'
+
+And when she proposed riding Bronzewing for help, he negatived it
+firmly on the ground that the mare wasn't broken in for a lady; a man
+never having such a strong hold on his individual quips and cranks as
+when he realises that he has been within an ace of losing them
+altogether; whence comes the proverbial captiousness of convalescents.
+
+So she had to be content with giving him a hand up and walking beside
+him, feeling a sad trembling in the knees joined to a general sensation
+of having gone to pieces. He, on the contrary, talking and laughing in
+magnificent, manly fashion.
+
+'You had better tell me how it happened,' he said, as they neared the
+palace. 'People make such a fuss, that it is as well to be prepared.
+Did you see me come to grief?'
+
+Rose hesitated for a moment to own up; then she did it wholesale.
+
+'You told me not to ride because of the snaffle, but I did. I lost
+control of Shahzad; he charged Bronzewing. She put her foot on a loose
+brick, and--and I'm very, very sorry.'
+
+'Stupid little beast,' he said, looking round at the mare, who was
+following them like a dog. 'I expect she wants re-shoeing.'
+
+The evasion was kindly meant; but she regretted it. It seemed somehow
+to set her aside. But this was her portion in all things, for with
+Lewis in his room, scientifically bandaged by Dan and nursed by his
+cousin, Rose's part resolved itself into doing audience for her
+father's fussing. He had a capacity for it at all times, but Fate had
+provided him with special reasons for it now. Another delay! and when
+it was absolutely necessary that he should hold a Canal Committee at
+Delhi early in the week, how was he to manage without his personal
+assistant? Then there were private reasons for annoyance which he did
+not confide to Rose, but which that clear-sighted young lady fully
+understood. If Lewis had to remain a few days longer at Hodinuggur, his
+cousin would remain also; in which case Dan Fitzgerald would stay to
+look after them. Now Dan, ever since the fire, had been in the
+Colonel's black books. He had, as it were, thrust himself forward and
+made himself conspicuous. Finally, any woman must feel gratitude to a
+man who had saved her life. It was all of a piece--all the result of
+disobedience to his superior wisdom. Why had Rose set fire to the camp?
+Had he not warned her a hundred times against sitting up to read? Why
+had she charged Lewis? Had he not begged her fifty times to ride in a
+more reserved and ladylike fashion?
+
+Rose could only fall back on George for comfort, and he, for reasons of
+his own, was utterly unsympathetic. A broken collar-bone, he said, was
+nothing--except an awful nuisance to every one else. To tell truth, the
+only person in that up-stairs world who was satisfied at the new turn
+affairs had taken was Gwen Boynton. It suited her admirably in more
+ways than one. So she sat after lunch and talked with Colonel Tweedie
+in the balcony until his ill-humour vanished in a bland flood of
+conviction that this eminently charming woman really was full of
+sympathy for his difficulties, and thoroughly impressed with his
+responsible position. In fact, when she had apologised for returning to
+duty and her patient, he came and let loose his satisfaction upon his
+daughter. Nothing was more useful to a man having authority than the
+companionship of a really sensible woman of the world. It enabled you
+to do justice to yourself, to adopt the course you considered best
+without undue hesitation. Therefore he would start for Rajpore, as he
+had always intended to do, on the following day, taking Mr. Fitzgerald
+with him to supply Gordon's place. He knew something of the current
+work, and it would be a kindness, serving to show--er--that--er--there
+was really nothing against him at headquarters.
+
+'That was very considerate of Mrs. Boynton,' interrupted Rose quickly.
+She saw the meaning of this man[oe]uvre so far that it roused her
+resentment, even though, after all, it would be better for Dan than
+dangling about with a sore heart while Gwen nursed the sick man. Better
+for George also, since the _partie carree_ could not well consist of
+three and a dummy. George should talk to her, and so be kept from
+dangling also.
+
+Thus Dan himself was the only one to look blank at the proposal, and
+even he admitted its reasonableness when Mrs. Boynton pointed out the
+many advantages it would have. This was during the _tete-a-tete_, in a
+bell-shaped cupola, which she allowed him over their tea. To tell
+truth, Gwen always behaved with the strictest and most impartial
+justice to all who had claims upon her, and she would have felt herself
+unkind had she allowed poor dear Dan to go away feeling aggrieved. She
+was very sorry he had to go, or rather, to be strictly accurate, she
+was sorry that common-sense dictated that he should go. Had all things
+been consenting, there was no one in the wide world she would so gladly
+have had for a husband. Now, when a woman of Mrs. Boynton's type, which
+is at all times kindly disposed to lovers, has an idea of this sort
+firmly fixed in her mind, she can be very kind indeed, even in her
+dismissals. So Dan was perfectly happy after he had sat beside her, and
+given her a second cup of tea, and handed her the bread and butter,
+though he made wry faces over her lecture on the necessity for
+subordinating his opinions to Colonel Tweedie's.
+
+'And, Dan,' she said, when the _tete-a-tete_ had lasted long enough,
+'as you are going to Delhi, you might take a parcel for me to Manohar
+Lal, the jeweller's. It is quite small, but you might just send it
+round--the shop is in the Chowk--by the bearer. I wouldn't trouble you,
+but it is a chance, as you are going that way. It won't bother you,
+will it?'
+
+'Bother,' echoed Dan in the tones which men in his condition use on
+such occasions.
+
+'Then, I'll give it you now. I was going to send it by post, so it is
+addressed, and all the instructions are inside; but it would be safer
+if you took it--as you happen to be going.'
+
+She repeated the phrase as if to convince herself of its truth. Yet
+when, on returning with her commission, Dan seized the opportunity of
+taking the parcel to kiss the fingers which held it, she felt something
+of a traitor. Even though, in sending the jewels she had found to be
+appraised, she told herself she had no other intention beyond, if
+possible, getting enough money to repay the loan she had so unwisely
+taken. That was all; and this chance of sending to Delhi by a safe hand
+had decided her so far--no more.
+
+'Good-bye, dear Dan,' she said; 'I always miss you so much when you go
+away.'
+
+That night Chandni reported progress to the Diwan. The mem's ayah had
+let out that the big Huzoor, Fitzgerald sahib, was the greatest friend
+the mem had. She must be a regular bad one, if all tales were true. And
+the big sahib was going to Delhi, the most likely place in which jewels
+would be sold. She would write to her craft, who were good clients of
+the goldsmiths, and bid them keep a sharp look-out. It would at least
+do no harm.
+
+'Thy father must have been the devil,' said Zubr-ul-Zaman admiringly;
+'yet will I reward thee, as thou hast asked, if all goes well.
+
+'Does not all go well?' laughed the woman. 'The fire, and the fall?'
+
+'And the girl?'
+
+'Oh, naught of the girl!--the lance-player hits not the peg first time.
+That part is done, that tune played, for good or evil. The bridegroom,
+they say, comes next week. 'Tis well; we want no evil eye to change the
+luck.'
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The _diners a la russe_ on the roof had not passed unnoticed by the
+world below. How could they? Over such strange doings curious tongues
+must need wag, setting other curious eyes to peep and peer; especially
+in the women's apartments, where life was so empty of novelty and where
+a crowded squabbling glimpse, from some lattice, of arrival or
+departure was all the inmates could hope for, beyond, of course, the
+ceremonial visit which the English ladies paid to a circle of selected
+wives.
+
+But there, in company dresses and company manners, the chief women of
+three generations had found it impossible to ask enough questions to
+throw any light on the one absorbing phenomenon of utter shamelessness
+in their visitors; and after Colonel Tweedie's departure disputes began
+to run high in that rabbit-warren of dark rooms and darker passages,
+centred round a bit of roof walled in to the semblance of a tank, which
+lay to the right of the Diwan's tower.
+
+The elder women, led by the old man's last remaining wife, a still
+personable woman of forty, upheld the theory which has had so much to
+do with British supremacy in the past; namely, that the sahib-logue,
+being barely human, must not be judged by ordinary human standards. As
+likely as not, their women were not women at all. The younger party,
+however, consisting largely of Dalel Beg's many matrimonial ventures in
+the forlorn hope of a son, declared that the true explanation lay the
+other way; namely, in the excess of frail humanity. Both positions
+being argued with that absolute want of reserve which is the natural
+result of herding women together away from the necessity for modest
+reticence which the presence of even their stranger sisters brings with
+it. That lack of reserve in the mind by which nature compensates
+herself for the seclusion of the body, and which makes those who have
+real experience of the working of the zenana system put their finger on
+it as the plague-spot of India; a plague-spot which all the women
+doctors sent to bolster up the system by exotic and mistaken
+benevolence will never cure.
+
+And to the war of words, Azizan listened listlessly as she crouched for
+hours beside that slit in the prison wall, whence on tip-toe she could
+see the flag-stone before the mosque on which she had sat when he was
+painting her picture. She had ceased to cry, ceased to do anything save
+mope about in the dark with dull resentful eyes taking in the emptiness
+and hopelessness of all things; even her desires going no further than
+a vague wish that she could have seen the flag-stone where the sahib
+had sat, instead of that dull, uninteresting, unconsecrated one. But in
+that house of languid, listless, useless women her dejection might have
+passed unnoticed save for the fact that old Zainub, the duenna, began
+to be troubled with an old enemy--the rheumatism.
+
+Up-stairs on the roof, the connection between Azizan's tears and
+Zainub's sciatica would have seemed far-fetched, obscure; down-stairs,
+however, it was self-evident, clear as daylight. Briefly, Aziz had the
+evil eye, like her grandfather the potter, and she was using it, as her
+mother had used it. Sixteen years before, after nursing that mother in
+the damp dungeon, where useless cries could be deadened, Zainub had
+nearly died of rheumatic fever. Not from the damp, of course; simply
+from the evil eye. Nothing, in fact, had saved her life then, save a
+promise to protect the baby. And now for the sake of money, she had
+brought grief on the child, and unless that grief could be assuaged,
+the result was certain; she would die. The pains were already upon her,
+and a dozen times a day she cursed her own folly in helping Chandni;
+Chandni who, when the ruse failed, had thrown her over with a paltry
+fee. Yet old Zainub, even while she blamed herself, confessed that no
+duenna could have foreseen such a coil about nothing; but then the
+world was full of strange new wickedness. In the old time no girl in
+her senses would have met the suggestion of carrying on the intrigue on
+her own account as Azizan had done, with vehement denial and glowering,
+unhappy eyes. The thought of them sent additional twinges through poor
+old Zainub's bones. George Keene, who had taken up his quarters in the
+state-rooms of the palace, so as to be near Lewis Gordon at night,
+never dreamt how narrowly he escaped the invasion of an old beldame
+beseeching him to remove a curse from her. He had for the time almost
+forgotten the Azizan episode; even the surprise which the potter's
+mention of his daughter's name had aroused he set aside for the
+present. There would be time enough for inquiry when he was alone once
+more; when the absorbing interest of the present had gone out of his
+life.
+
+So the tragedy down-stairs was completely hidden from those up-stairs.
+It is so often in India. Occasionally we gain a glimpse behind the
+veil; for instance, when the periodical scare as to the number of human
+brains required to keep up British prestige seizes on some cantonment.
+A scare which it may interest the 'Peace with Dishonour, party to know
+is apt to follow on any lowering of the Lion's tail. Then there are two
+simple syllables, known doubtless to many readers of this veracious
+story as they are to the writer of it, which if uttered casually--say
+in dinner-table conversation--will of a certainty lead to your servants
+leaving your service without delay. These things sound unreal,
+farcical, no doubt; so would George, as he handed their bread and
+butter to the ladies up-stairs, have deemed the fear which prompted old
+Zainub's wheedling words as she crouched by Azizan's bed plying her
+with greasy sweetmeats.
+
+'Eat some, my pigeon--a morsel, beloved! Why wilt not be comforted,
+child? Say what is in thy heart, and if Zainub's old hands can compass
+it, 'tis thine.
+
+'I want nothing. Let me be,' muttered Azizan.
+
+Zainub rocked herself to and fro, partly in despair, partly to allay a
+sharper twinge of the enemy, and looked round dismally as if for some
+inspiration of comfort. There was not much to suggest it in those bare
+walls, inexpressibly squalid, dirty beyond belief; save the cemented
+floor, which underwent a daily sprinkling from a skin water-bag, and a
+daily lashing with a reed broom. There was a mark of the passage of
+that skin bag up the narrow stairs in a cleaner streak along the grimy
+walls, and a mark of that reed broom in the spatter-work dado of slush
+round the room. The smoke of rushlights blackened the arched niches,
+their oily dribblings seamed the once whitewashed walk below, and
+centuries of cobwebs hung on the rough rafters. There was no furniture
+of any sort or kind, excepting the low stool on which Zainub crouched,
+and the string cot whereon the girl had flung herself recklessly. Not
+even resting fairly, but half on, half off, each listless curve showing
+her indifferent despair; her flimsy veil crushed into a pillow, her
+unkempt yet braided hair showing she had not thought of it for days. No
+uncommon sight in the zenana, when so and so's 'constitution is
+disturbed,' as the phrase runs.
+
+'Would it soothe thee to talk of it?' whined the old lady.
+
+'No! no!' Aziz sat up in sudden anger. 'I hate him. I hate everybody.'
+Then, her own confused emotion being strange and new to her, she sought
+refuge with a whimper in her old sullenness.
+
+'Ari! pretty one,' replied Zainub, relieved at something tangible.
+'Thou art right to hate him. Yet grieve not, since he hath gained
+naught of thee. Thou hast passed him by scornfully.'
+
+On the face turned to the dirty wall something like a smile quivered.
+
+'He hath the pot--the Ayodhya pot,' murmured Aziz half to herself. 'He
+kept that--he liked that.' The duenna beat her shrivelled hands
+together and laughed shrilly.
+
+'Wah illah! he hath kept it, sure enough, but he will rue it. Look you!
+I know not the ins and outs; yet will the pot bring him evil. Yea! even
+though he hath given it to the mem up-stairs.'
+
+Azizan was on her feet ere the words were finished, her eyes aflame,
+her whole figure trembling with excitement.
+
+'He hath given it away! Mai Zainub, is it truth? He hath given it to
+the mems! Ah! how I hate them. It is mine! I will have it back. I
+will--I will.'
+
+She flung herself once more on the bed, almost choking with her
+passionate cries, wild in her uncontrolled jealousy, while Zainub,
+mystified and half impatient, deprecated the foolish, impossible
+desire. Did she not want revenge? Well, the pot was to bring it about.
+It would bring money to the treasury also, and before that
+consideration what mere personal whim could stand? Finally, it was not
+hers, but the Diwan's, who had a right to let the pot go as he chose.
+
+Azizan's ultimatum came swiftly with a savage gleam in her light eyes.
+
+'Then I will die; and others shall die, too.' The girl was no fool; she
+could see through the secret of Zainub's docility by the light of many
+a covert allusion of her companions to her strange eyes. Well, if the
+power was hers she would use it, so give her back the Ayodhya pot or
+take the chance. Zainub crept away disconsolate; even with her
+life-long experience of the vagaries in which hysterical girls indulged
+she demanded shrilly of High Heaven if there had ever been contrariety
+equal to Azizan's. To set aside the possibility of revenge! Still she
+must do her best, and if the mem had the Ayodhya pot in the palace
+there was always a chance of being able to steal it. As a beginning she
+spent some of Chandni's rupees on sweetmeats, and, hiding the tray
+under her domino, set off to pay her respects to Mrs. Boynton's ayah.
+
+'The _burka_ is certainly a most mysterious garment,' remarked Gwen, as
+she lent over the balcony just as Zainub shuffled through the courtyard
+on her errand. 'Did I ever mention the fright I had one morning? I woke
+thinking that a pair of those latticed goggles were glaring at me; but
+it was only Fuzli looking in to see if I was awake. Still it alarmed
+me.'
+
+'Women have a hard time of it,' said Lewis languidly from the arm-chair
+at her side, where he was playing the part of interesting invalid after
+four days of unwelcome fever. 'How I should hate to have nerves!'
+
+'We are not a whole army of martyrs, however,' objected Rose swiftly.
+'I, for one, decline to be credited with them.'
+
+As she sat pouring out the tea with George Keene's help her face rather
+belied her words. She looked fine-drawn and eager, her eyes bright, yet
+tired. Gwen smiled confidentially at her companion.
+
+'People in good times never have nerves, so you and Mr. Keene have no
+excuse for them at present. By the way, you must have been successful
+with the partridges today, for I assure you, Lewis, they were not in to
+breakfast till past twelve.'
+
+Not much in the words--much in the manner. It made Rose bring her cup
+of tea to the balcony and stand looking with a satirical smile at the
+pair seated there before she turned to George.
+
+'We think Mr. Gordon is in a good time also! don't we, Mr. Keene? You
+should break something too; Mrs. Boynton would be quite equal to
+another patient.'
+
+The crudeness, not to say rudeness, of her own words startled her into
+adding hastily, 'For she is a good nurse; isn't she, Mr. Gordon?
+
+'First-class for one,' he replied coolly; 'but I doubt her managing
+three. Therefore, if Keene is going to break something, as you suggest,
+it would be as well if, for a change, you took some care of yourself.
+At present you look miserably ill.'
+
+Rose flushed into health at once.
+
+'I? Rubbish! If you have quite finished tea, Mr. Keene, let us go on
+with that match at tennis.'
+
+'There they go, supremely happy,' commented Gwen from her post of
+vantage after a pause. 'I'm a shockingly bad chaperon, but that is your
+fault, Lewis, for getting fever. Do you think _monsieur le pere_ will
+be very angry?'
+
+He shifted irritably. 'My dear Gwen, don't overdo it, for goodness
+sake. I'm grateful; you know that quite well. But if you want me to
+believe that Keene is in love with Miss Tweedie, I must decline to
+agree. The lad is palpably in love with you; as we all are. As for
+Miss Tweedie, I decline to have any opinion at all. Girls of her type
+are beyond me. She looks ill, of course, but no woman can stand
+half-a-dozen hours in the saddle before breakfast and half-a-dozen
+singles before dinner, with, I suppose, half-a-dozen problems before
+lunch and half-a-dozen books before bed. The thing's absurd, and as you
+don't seem able to stop it, it is as well we are leaving Hodinuggur so
+soon.'
+
+His distinct loss of temper made Gwen change the subject outwardly, but
+retain it inwardly as a justification of her tactics. They had been
+very simple. A word to George of gratitude for his care of Rose, a
+playful remark to the latter on her marked anxiety for the patient's
+comfort had left the elder woman mistress of the situation. She was in
+no hurry, however, to bring it to a crisis. Time enough for that when
+they should nave returned to civilisation, and she had that letter from
+the jewellers which might even now be waiting for a certain Mrs.
+Arbuthnot at the post-office at Rajpore.
+
+Perhaps she might not have found Rose so ready to acquiesce in plans
+through which the young girl saw perfectly if they had not fallen in
+with the latter's convenience. It was easier that Lewis Gordon should
+believe her occupied with George, and better for the boy than dangling
+after Gwen all day; _he_ was too good for that sort of thing. She told
+herself this savagely, many times a day; even when, with a worldly
+wisdom beyond her years, she was playing the part of elder sister and
+confidant to the lad's ardent admiration. As for him, he was supremely
+happy between the occupations of worshipping the most perfect woman in
+the world and being companion to the jolliest girl he had ever known.
+
+The day had been hot and sultry, unusually so for the time of year, and
+as the four stood saying good-night to each other for the last time on
+the roof the sheet lightning was shimmering in a faint haze low down on
+the eastern horizon.
+
+'Rain,' said Lewis Gordon in a low voice to Rose. 'Lucky for that dusty
+dhoolie journey to-morrow evening. In the meantime, I hope it may cure
+your headache.'
+
+'I have no headache,' she replied coldly.
+
+'I'm glad you did not say no head; that perjury could have been proved.
+Good-night.'
+
+He turned to his cousin and let his hand linger in hers affectionately,
+
+'Don't be alarmed if the storm is a bad one.'
+
+'Of course I shall be alarmed,' she answered gaily. 'Then you and
+Mr. Keene will have no peace; for you don't suppose I intend to stay
+on the roof in order to be struck by lightning. I shall turn you out
+down-stairs at a moment's notice.
+
+George with adoring eyes on his divinity suggested eagerly that if he
+returned to the bungalow the ladies could move down at once. Gordon no
+longer required any one at night, and it would be more comfortable.'
+
+'Nonsense,' cried Rose impatiently. 'I don't believe it will rain.
+Anyhow, I shall stay where I am, storm or no storm.'
+
+'Nerves or no nerves,' parodied Lewis, 'Keene shall come into my room,
+Gwen, and I will order his to be got ready for emergencies. Then, if
+nature does convulse, you can seek shelter without disturbing us. Even
+Miss Tweedie will allow the wisdom of that arrangement from a
+masculine, and, therefore, selfish point of view.'
+
+She did allow it, inwardly. The worst of Lewis Gordon was his knack of
+being right in a way which forced her into disagreement. This
+consciousness accentuated her obstinacy, and even when Mrs. Boynton,
+pathetic and plaintive in a trailing white dressing-gown, sat on the
+edge of the girl's bed beseeching her to let discretion be the better
+part of valour, she would not yield. She was not going to give colour
+to Mr. Gordon's caricature of womanhood. Besides, it was close
+down-stairs. She had a headache, and liked the air. Finally, she was
+not afraid of being left alone; Gwen could go down if she wished.
+
+As she watched the little procession bearing pillows and blankets file
+down the stairs, with the ayah in the rear, protesting that 'big storm
+come kill missy baba for laugh old Fuzli,' she felt glad to be left
+alone. Her head did ache; what is more, her pulses were bounding with a
+touch of sun-fever. It would be gone by morning; yet Lewis, perhaps,
+had been right also in saying that she had been exposing herself too
+much. The inclination to rest her hot head on the cool marble
+balustrade and sit there under the restful sky was strong, but with an
+instinct of fight she set it aside almost fiercely, and after looping
+back the curtains of the corner-room so as to let in what air there
+was, lay down decorously. But not to sleep. A dreary disturbing round
+of thought kept her awake, sending her back and back again to the same
+point--the assertion that she had certainly been overdoing it. That was
+the cause of her depression. Until suddenly, causelessly, her native
+truth rebelled against the self-deception, and she sat up in the dark
+pressing the palms of her hot hands together. What was the use of lying
+to herself? Was it not better to confess frankly that with all his
+faults Lewis Gordon interested her more than any one else in the world?
+Perhaps it was love--yes! she cared for him as she cared for no one
+else in the world, and was it not detestable to blush and deny the fact
+instead of being straightforward? At any time this indictment of her
+honesty would have been intolerable; now, with fever running riot in
+her veins it forced her to exaggerated action. She had been behaving
+like a romantic school-girl in a novel. In future there should be no
+possibility of her denying the fact that she had wilfully, and without
+due cause, fallen in love with a man who did not love her. Yes, fallen
+in love! Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes shining when the light of
+the candle she lit fell on them. As she passed quickly into the
+mirror-room the thousand facets gave back her eagerness, her
+determination, as she deliberately chose out Lewis Gordon's photograph
+from a folding frame standing below the Ayodhya pot. She stood for a
+moment looking at it, struggling with her pride, then she passed back
+into her room again and thrust it under her pillow. That was an end of
+all lies at any rate. After that she would never be able to deny the
+truth. She gave an odd, almost happy little laugh as she crept into her
+bed again, where, after a time, she fell asleep with one hand guarding
+something under the pillow: just as Gwen had guarded something in her
+corner-room a few nights before.
+
+No doubt it was the growing coolness of the night which soothed the
+girl; on the other hand, it may have been the testimony of a good
+conscience not ashamed to confess facts. The lightning shimmered over
+her sleeping face, and, as it shimmered, showed a black arch of cloud
+looming from the east. By and by the wind rose, bringing with it the
+fresh earthy smell of distant rain.
+
+It was now between second and third jackal cry, that is to say, the
+deadest hour in the Indian night, when even natives and dogs sleep. Yet
+there were two figures stealing round the base of the Diwan's tower to
+the piled ruins of the old wall which had fallen on the potter's house
+long years before; fallen suddenly in the night, after just such a
+storm as that now sweeping up with the wind.
+
+'Ari, heart's core!' pleaded a cracked voice, 'sure the rain begins
+even now, and God knows what the old stairs be like. 'Tis sixteen years
+gone since they were used. Holy Fatma, what a flash! 'Tis no night for
+women-folk to be out; be wise and leave it. To-morrow, perchance, when
+they pack up the things, I may lay hands on it.'
+
+'Be still, mai! What good to talk when 'tis settled? What didst say?
+Straight up to the hole in the wall, three steps down to the ledge,
+along that to the window slit in the Diwan's stair, so by them to the
+gate; thou hast the key. No, 'tis open, thou sayest. Is not that right?
+Lo, mai, 'tis easy.'
+
+'In the old days; but the lattice parapet is gone, they say, and a
+false step--O Aziz, be wise! Would God I had not told thee of it.'
+
+A faint laugh echoed into the pitchy darkness. 'Thy aches and pains
+would never have reached the pot otherwise, O mother!'
+
+The hint was not lost on old Zainub. She stumbled on hastily until a
+shimmer of lightning showed an opening half hidden by _debris_ in the
+base of the tower into which she crept.
+
+'See, here are the matches,' she whimpered, 'and witness, O Aziz! I
+have done all, even to letting thee wear the old dress, since it
+pleaseth thee, though wherefore, God knows----'
+
+''Tis light and strong,' interrupted the girl hastily. 'Stay you here,
+mother; I will be back ere long.'
+
+A box of Swedish _taendstickors_ made for the British market with a
+portrait of Mr. Pickwick on the cover, was an incongruous item in the
+scene, yet one of them looked tragic enough as it sent a glow through
+Azizan's brown fingers and showed a broken flight of steps.
+
+'I will be back ere long,' she repeated at the first turn. Then the
+light went with her into the very heart of the wall.
+
+Zainub sat crouching in the dark, shivering and groaning. 'Ai! my
+sins,' she muttered, hiding her face from a sudden flash of lightning,
+'the pains of Jehannum are on me already. I perish of fear; the breath
+leaves my body.' She rocked herself backwards and forwards ceaselessly,
+moaning and muttering; a weird figure guarding the stair up which
+Azizan was toiling by the light of other _taendstickors_. Beyond the
+possibility of a half torpid snake, or a shower of loosened bricks from
+above, there was as yet no danger, even to one so unused to effort as
+the zenana girl. Thus she had time to think of what she was to do when
+she reached the roof. For one thing, she had to steal the Ayodhya pot;
+for the rest, she was not sure, but something ready for impulse lay
+tucked away in the waist-folds of the old woollen dress. A glimmering
+slit showing its arched top against a lighter darkness of sky brought
+her back to the present. This must be the hole in the wall; and beyond
+it lay a chasm of night. She lit another match and held it over the
+gulf. The flame burned steadily, for the stair, in winding through the
+wall of the tower, had brought her to leeward of the storm. Nothing
+was to be seen save the blackness of clouds above, the blackness of God
+knows what below. Then as she stood peering out into the darkness a
+shiver of silent lightning revealed a silver plain far down beneath her
+feet, and above, to the right, silver balconies and cupolas. That must
+be the roof whither she was bound.
+
+The expenditure of more matches disclosed the three steps downwards,
+and at right angles a ledge along the wall ending in a buttress some
+thirty feet off. That must be the support of the Diwan's stair. Both
+steps and ledge had once been protected by a latticed parapet; now they
+were edged by the blackness of the gulf. The ledge, however, seemed
+perfect as ever, and the rest was, after all, mere fancy; especially at
+night when you could not see. Should she risk it? The match she held
+left indecision on her face as it flickered out. The storm, close at
+hand, took breath as it were for the onslaught in a long pause of
+intense, silent darkness. Then a sudden shimmer shot over the old
+tower, spreading a silver mantle upon the slender figure of a girl
+clinging to the wall. Darkness again; and then once more the same
+sight. A girl with her face against the wall moving step by step
+slowly, deliberately. Nearer and nearer each time to the buttress. Then
+a little cry, too inarticulate for comprehension, rose on the still
+air, and when the next shaft of light came it found nothing but the
+bare wall. The figure was gone.
+
+So much might have been seen by any watcher on the roof, but there was
+none. It lay still, deserted. The very wind, stirring the folds of the
+curtain Rose had looped aside, made no noise, and the light and the
+dark played their game of hide and seek in silence. An odd game in the
+mirror-room, and the arches on arches of shadow leading to it. Each
+separate scrap of looking-glass would blaze out like a star, sending a
+beam on the blue bowl of the Ayodhya pot, then dive into the dark
+again, carrying a reflection of the scene with it in triumph. Miles of
+shadowy arches, millions of blue bowls glowing amid countless stars;
+thousands of looped curtains showing a girl asleep on a white bed.
+
+After a while the stars carried a new sight; a girl in a strange dress
+crouching by the bed. The lightning shimmered keenly over this group
+several times, bringing into glittering relief something held by the
+crouching figure, and something held close to a flushed cheek by the
+sleeping girl. The one was a knife, the other a photograph of a young
+man in an immaculate coat and an irreproachable tie. Different things,
+indeed, yet the girls who held them differed little. They were both in
+dreamland; for Azizan, as she crouched beside Rose, felt that she was
+in a new world. The whiteness, the stillness, the solitude, guarding
+the pure sleep of girlhood--the refinement, the peace, made her think
+involuntarily of the dead laid out for their last rest. She gave a
+quick little sigh; her hand relaxed its grasp, then tightened again, as
+a flash showed the photograph clearly. It was a picture of some one. If
+it was his picture, why then----
+
+She struck a match softly and peered closer. No! She paused, taking
+advantage of the light to look at the sleeper. Rose stirred.
+
+'Who is it?' she murmured, in the low quick tones of those who talk in
+their sleep.
+
+The watcher's hand closed silently round the match extinguishing it.
+
+'I am Azizan, Huzoor.'
+
+The immediate answer had its effect. Rose nestled her head to the
+pillow once more, and from the ensuing darkness her breathing came soft
+and regular. Suddenly, with a crash the thunder rolled right overhead,
+the wind hushed, the heavy drops of rain fell, each in a distinct plash
+for a second, then merged into a hissing downpour on the hard roof.
+
+Rose started up in bed, just as the quivering shaft of lightning blazed
+through the mirror-room upon a girl in an odd dress, holding the
+Ayodhya pot close to her breast. A girl with odd light eyes.
+
+'I am Azizan, Huzoor.' The words seemed still in her ears, recalling a
+confused memory of the potter and her own promise.
+
+'Your father wants you, Azizan,' she said half in a dream, and the
+sound of her own voice woke her thoroughly to darkness. Had she been
+dreaming? The wind rising, now the storm had broken, swept rain-laden
+through the open door, extinguishing the matches she struck hastily, so
+that the first glimmering of her own candle was echoed by the ayah's
+lantern as the latter came paddling over the streaming roof with
+petticoats held high over her trousered knees, and shrill denunciations
+of the missy-baba's obstinacy high above the storm. Rose Tweedie's
+thoughts flew to Lewis Gordon's warning, and his wisdom reminded her of
+her own foolishness. That was not a dream; and she blushed violently
+over it as she thrust the photograph out of sight before her attendant
+rolled the bedding into a bundle and staggered with it down-stairs. As
+the girl followed ignominiously in the mackintosh and umbrella supplied
+by that injured official, she told herself she must indeed have had
+fever, to commit such a ridiculous piece of folly. Her ears tingled
+over the very recollection of what had perhaps saved her life.
+
+Meanwhile, the girl with the Ayodhya pot, whom Rose, in her absorbing
+shame, had decided must have been a dream, was stumbling down the
+broken stairs once more, her courage gone, her chaos of emotion reduced
+to one heart-whole desire to reach Zainub in safety. How she had
+crossed the ledge again she scarcely knew; she had dropped the
+_taendstickors_ on the way, and, as she felt her way step by step in the
+dark, she was sobbing like a frightened child. Half-way down a
+displaced brick in the outside masonry allowed the lightning to glimmer
+over a sort of landing, where she paused for breath. God and his
+Prophet! What was that huddled up on the next step? She had to await
+another flash ere she could decide; and in the interval her heart beat
+with sickening, fearful curiosity.
+
+'Mai Zainub! Mai Zainub!' Her cry of relief and content came swift as
+the flash. There was no answer save renewed darkness, bringing
+downright terror with it. Still that was a human form warm under her
+touch.
+
+'Mai Zainub! Mai Zainub!'
+
+There was no flutter beneath the hand seeking the heart. Could she----?
+Then came a blaze of light, and the familiar face all unfamiliar; the
+fixed eyes wide open, the jaw fallen.
+
+The next instant she was dashing down the stairs recklessly; down and
+down, out into the open, over the _debris_; anywhere, so as to leave
+that horror behind. The wind caught her, the rain blinded her, the
+thunder crashed overhead, as she ran on blindly, till with a cry she
+slipped on a loose brick and fell, stunned, against a mass of broken
+masonry. So she lay, looking almost as dead as the poor old duenna
+huddled up on that landing in the secret stair, where, with one final
+twinge at her heart, the rheumatism had left her for ever.
+
+An hour after, when the storm had passed, and a faint greyness told
+that the dawn was at hand, a feeble light began to flicker about the
+ruins: up and down, up and down, as if it sought for something. It was
+Fuzl Elahi, the potter of Hodinuggur, looking for his dead daughter. He
+had looked for her after every storm for sixteen years; and this time,
+with the Miss sahib's promise to send her back lingering in his memory,
+he sought in hope.
+
+When the sun rose, three things were amissing from the palace at
+Hodinuggur: the Ayodhya pot, Azizan, and the old duenna.
+
+Up-stairs, while George, and Gwen, and Rose, all for private reasons of
+their own, acquiesced, Lewis Gordon declared that some servant must
+have broken the former in dusting the room, and, as usual, made away
+with the pieces.
+
+Down-stairs the same unanimity prevailed. Aziz and Zainub had their
+reasons for running away. They would be found ere long, since no one
+near at hand dare shelter them, and the old woman could not go far.
+
+If the folk up-stairs had known of the disappearance down-stairs, they
+might have connected the two losses, but they did not. So none of these
+three things were traced, and no one cared very much: especially Gwen
+Boynton. The pot might have reminded her of Hodinuggur, and now she was
+leaving it there were some things she intended to forget. Besides, no
+one now could ever say she had taken the jewels.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII
+
+
+'I never was so tired of any place in my life,' remarked Mrs. Boynton.
+'It was not so bad at first; but nothing would ever induce me to
+attempt the wilderness again.'
+
+She was back in the big hall at Rajpore once more, the centre of a
+circle assembled to bid her welcome; for Gwen was not the sort of
+person to come or go unnoticed. She looked charming in a new dress
+which she had ordered on the morning after the fire to be ready
+against her return. The band was playing, the dim lights were twinkling
+above the polished floor, people were coming and going through the
+swing-doors, and Dan, devoted as ever, was waiting for his promised
+first waltz. A sheer bit of vanity was this promise on Gwen's part; she
+liked to re-enter her familiar world looking perfection, and Dan was
+the best dancer in the room. Yet she lingered with her hand on his arm
+to glance at Lewis Gordon, who, still wearing a sling, stood on the
+outside of the circle trying not to look bored.
+
+'And I don't think civilised people ought to go to those wild places
+and live in uncivilised ways,' she continued, clinching the argument
+against Hodinuggur. 'It is demoralising living on the roof without
+doors and windows. Look at my cousin. I don't believe he will ever
+settle down to work again.'
+
+'"No locks had they," etc.' quoted Lewis. 'I shouldn't have thought you
+were likely to disapprove of Arcadia anyhow, or Hodinuggur either. I
+assure you, Graham, Mrs. Boynton played the "Light of the Harem" to
+perfection.'
+
+She met the general chorus of belief with a little shudder, not all put
+on.
+
+'I hope not. If I thought that, I would have elected to stay in my room
+till I could appear like a Christian. But it only bears out my
+contention. Civilised people should eschew barbaric environments. They
+are not safe.'
+
+'A bad look-out for me,' laughed George, who had been given three days,
+leave in order to escort the party to headquarters. Gwen turned to him
+in kindly familiarity.
+
+'You! Oh, I'll except you as beyond temptation, if you like. Shall you
+be here on my return? the next is ours, remember.'
+
+She knew quite well that the boy had remembered little else since she
+had given the promise half an hour before; but she knew also how sweet
+the reminder would be with all those older aspirants standing by. And
+she was always anxious to please when she could. Lewis Gordon, however,
+lifted his eyebrows and walked over rather aggressively to Rose
+Tweedie.
+
+'Why aren't you dancing?' he asked. I am unfortunately a cripple; but
+Keene, I am sure, would be horrified if he saw you sitting down. May I
+tell him?'
+
+'No, thanks. I don't feel up to dancing to-night. I fancy I have been
+overdoing myself a little over tennis and riding at Hodinuggur.'
+
+There was no challenge in her manner, but Lewis chose to suppose one.
+
+'Your wisdom, Miss Tweedie, is of that truly feminine type which begins
+when the cake is finished. But it is refreshing to find you have these
+womanly weaknesses; without them you would be unassailable.'
+
+'If the carriage is here,' remarked Rose quietly, 'I think I shall go
+home. If you see my father, Mr. Gordon, tell him I have done so.'
+
+His manner changed in an instant.
+
+'I will tell him now, and join you, if I may, for a lift back to the
+Club. I am out of it also: my brute of a bearer has bandaged me all
+wrong, and I must get it altered.'
+
+Rose, with an ambulance certificate, would have liked to offer help,
+but had to be silent. Even on such a charitable errand Mrs. Grundy
+would have been horrified at a visit to a bachelor's quarters. And
+while she acknowledged the limitation, Rose felt irritated by it as she
+stood waiting by the door for Lewis Gordon's return, and watching Mrs.
+Boynton skim by like a swallow under Dan's guidance. Why should the
+married women have all the chances?
+
+'She waltzes beautifully, doesn't she?' asked Lewis, finding her so
+engaged.
+
+'She does everything beautifully,' replied Rose coldly.
+
+It was not a good beginning for their drive together; but it was always
+so, and as she watched the carriage taking her companion on to his
+quarters after it had set her down, she told herself disconsolately
+that they seemed to have a bad effect on each other, and to show to the
+very worst advantage in each other's company. She, at any rate, was
+never so painfully uncompromising in her condemnation of other people's
+foibles; perhaps because she did not care whether they existed or not.
+But she did care dreadfully when Lewis was in question; that was the
+worst of it.
+
+Mrs. Boynton was not long either in leaving the hall; in fact, George
+Keene's promised waltz was but half through when she exclaimed at the
+lateness of the hour, and after salving over his disappointment with an
+invitation to tea on the morrow, bade her coachman drive home. An
+order, however, which she changed at the gates of the garden, so that
+the carriage instead of turning westward towards the civil station,
+chose the eastward road towards the native town. Towards the
+post-office also, which lay close to the Dukhani Gate of the city. For
+a letter, addressed to a certain Mrs. Arbuthnot, should be waiting 'to
+be called for'; and at that hour, a few minutes before closing-time,
+all but subordinates would have left the office. So a veiled lady
+asking for a letter would run no risk of being recognised. Yet as Gwen
+Boynton drove home again along the dark Mall, with the expected letter
+still unread in her pocket, she told herself there was really no need
+for such precautions; only it was as well to prevent those gossiping
+native jewellers from advertising the fact that mem Boynton sahiba was
+so hard put to it that she had to sell her trinkets. That was all; yet
+each passing carriage, as it flashed its lamp rays on her face, seemed
+desirous of proclaiming the fact that she had been citywards to the
+eyes of its unseen occupants. She felt a feverish desire to know who
+those occupants might be, and a distinct dislike to and distrust of the
+whole business rose up in her, making her glad to find time had run so
+short that she must dress at once for the dinner-party given to welcome
+her back to Rajpore. With a feeling of relief from immediate certainty,
+she threw the letter, still unopened, on the sitting-room table as she
+passed it. But half an hour after, when she returned in her trailing
+white garments, the sight of it changed her mood. It would be better to
+know. After all, the jewels might be paste and worth nothing. It would
+almost be a relief if it were so.
+
+She sat down by the table and turned the envelope over and over in her
+delicate hands. It might mean so much; it might mean so little. And
+what in either case did she intend to do? She had literally no idea, as
+with reluctant fingers she tore slowly at the envelope.
+
+It seemed to her as if ages had passed before she realised that she was
+staring down at those few words telling her, briefly, that the jewels
+sent were worth six thousand rupees, and asking her if she would have
+the money in notes or by bill of exchange.
+
+How simple it was! No question of taking or leaving. Only whether it
+should be in notes or by bill of exchange. And six thousand would not
+only pay Dan--if indeed she decided on that--it would leave something
+over for the coming season at Simla. A welcome something indeed! when
+all one's wardrobe had been burnt; and people were so particular how
+she was dressed. Then, if one came to think of it, did she not deserve
+some compensation for that loss of her dresses? Trivial thought! going
+further towards decision than any of the others. In the midst of her
+meditations a white-robed servant appeared at the door saying
+indifferently--
+
+'Gordon sahib salaam deta.'
+
+Another triviality; yet she rose quickly, thrusting the letter into her
+pocket. So he had come already! She had known well enough that he would
+miss her, that he would come to seek her, but this was soon indeed. She
+gave the permission to show him in calmly, and yet the woman's triumph
+at her own power came uppermost, as, awaiting his entry, she turned to
+finish the fastening of a bunch of white gardenias. Her back was
+towards him, but he could see, and she knew that he could see her
+framed by the long mirror, like a picture. Her hair a golden setting to
+the diamond stars, her white arms whiter than her white dress, whiter
+than the furred cloak hanging loosely from her white shoulders, or the
+huge ostrich-feather fan dangling from her slender waist. Lewis thought
+instantly of Fedora in the ballroom scene; then, that on the stage or
+off it he had never seen a more utterly desirable woman to present as
+your wife for the world's approval. That is a feeling which decides
+many marriages.
+
+'It seems a shame to trouble you,' he began, 'but the bearer _is_ such
+a fool. The sling is always too high or too low, and I want to go to
+the club. I thought you wouldn't mind seeing to it, and I saw by the
+light in this room that you were still here.
+
+Every word of this speech, though the speaker was unconscious of it,
+showed Gwen that her cousin had been thinking the very thoughts she
+wished him to think. Translated by her feminine finesse it stood thus--
+
+'You are too lovely to be bothered, but then, you do everything so
+well. It is too deadly dull without you, so, knowing I could rely on
+your sympathy, I kept a look-out for some sign of your presence.' Now,
+when a woman hears everything she desires in the words of a man, her
+reply is generally a return in kind. In this case, words were of less
+importance than those pretty, soft, white hands so solicitous over his
+comfort.
+
+'Is that better?' she asked. Her concern was absolutely honest, for
+she was a woman every inch of her, loving to cosset and care for her
+men-folk. Those hands were so close to his cheek that their softness
+seemed to thrill through him. After all, was it not a wife's part to
+flatter and cajole? to make life soft and sweet? Who could do that
+better than she?
+
+'Dear little hands,' he said, laying his suddenly on one and pressing
+it tight to his breast. Then a quick passion blazed in his eyes.
+'Gwen,' he cried, 'oh, Gwen! how sweet you are!' The ring in his own
+voice satisfied him. Yes! this was happiness, and he stooped to kiss
+the face so close to his own. And then? She was beautiful as ever; he
+was cool as ever. The glamour had gone, the world was as it had been
+before his fate was settled. For he had settled it definitely, though
+he scarcely knew if he were glad or sorry for the fact.
+
+'Am I to beg your pardon, dear?' he said gently, looking into her
+gracious eyes; 'or will you believe that you have so spoilt me that I
+cannot get on without the spoiler? Will you forgive me, and try and put
+up with me, Gwen?'
+
+'Of course I will forgive you, Lewis,' she began plaintively; and then
+the lack of emotion in her own voice, her own heart, struck her
+disagreeably. Yet what else could she expect when her first thought had
+been one of gratitude for that offer of six thousand rupees in her
+pocket? For all that, she felt aggrieved, thinking illogically how
+different it was with Dan. Unwonted tears rose to her eyes and made her
+face tender as she went on.
+
+'And why should I not spoil you, Lewis? You know I am always glad to
+help--anybody. And, after all, we are cousins. After all, there is
+always _that_ between us.'
+
+She did not know why she offered him this excuse, this loophole of
+escape. Not from calculation or finesse, certainly, yet it touched him
+as nothing else would have done; for he, too, had felt the flatness of
+it all; he, too, had thought vaguely that the sacrifice of his freedom
+deserved more solid satisfaction in return.
+
+'Yes, dear,' he replied, half playfully, 'there is that. But there is
+something more, is there not, Gwen? At least I hope so--for you have
+spoilt me--I cannot do without you.'
+
+It was her hand, however, that he kissed this time. And then the
+carriage being announced, he escorted her to it most decorously, taking
+care, with all the attentive calm of a husband, that her dress should
+not suffer from the wheel. The fact struck him ruefully as he went off
+to the club, feeling that his fate was definitely settled; though, of
+course, the matter need not be made public at once. Gwen would be sure
+to prefer that her season at Simla should be untrammelled by open
+engagements, and he was in no hurry. Leave was inconvenient till the
+cold weather, so during the rains when people wanted amusement they
+could afford them the excitement of the news.
+
+Gwen's feelings as she drove to her dinner-party were of the same
+nature. It was settled, definitely settled of course, but no one need
+know of it; no one must guess at it until she had given Dan his
+_conge_. It was the first time she had ever really put that thought
+into words, and the very suggestion made her heart sink. There would be
+no lack of emotion about that interview at any rate. Even the
+preliminary of paying back the debt seemed beset with difficulties. He
+was so quick to understand, so hard to turn aside once he had the least
+clew to her feelings. Finally, after much cogitation she decided on
+waiting until she had actually received the money from Delhi. It would
+be more difficult for him to refuse the notes down on the table;
+besides, George Keene's leave would be over, he would have returned to
+Hodinuggur, and the possibility of confidences given under the
+influence of strong excitement would be over. For Gwen had not failed
+to notice the strong friendship growing between the two; in a way, she
+was vexed at what seemed to her a childish, almost absurd, deference to
+the lad's opinion on Dan's part. Dan, who was his superior in every
+possible way; that is to say if he chose to be reasonable. Last of all,
+the delay meant a closer proximity to that annual flight to the Hills
+which would provide her with a safe retreat. So she set the idea aside
+for a time and became cheerful over the respite.
+
+George, having tea with her next day, thought her if possible gayer,
+brighter, more charming than ever; especially when his talk turned on
+his hero, Dan Fitzgerald. Now, no one had ever heard Mrs. Boynton say
+an unkind word of her neighbours; indeed, the peculiar _cachet_ this
+gave to her personality made her remembered in after years by all
+admirers, not so much as a beautiful, as a perfectly gracious woman. To
+George, accustomed chiefly to the high-spirited freedom of sisters,
+this virtue seemed divine, the more so, because the world generally
+disapproved of Dan--of his recklessness and want of reverence. Gwen
+Boynton, on the contrary, found nothing to regret, save that Mr.
+Fitzgerald was not the finest man _out_ of the service, instead of _in_
+it; since, as Mr. Gordon said, he was too good to slave among men years
+his junior. Whereupon George, his young face full of importance,
+informed her as a dead secret, that the reason Dan stuck to his colours
+was that a girl had promised to marry him whenever he got his
+promotion. That would be in the next spring at the latest, since, as
+he, George Keene, was in charge of the sluice no prejudicial
+_contretemps_ could possibly occur. And Gwen with an actual smile at
+the mystification--which so many women dearly love--reminded him that
+even when folk did their best, slips came between cups and lips.
+
+The lad laughed joyously.
+
+'Oh! I don't venture to stand sponsor for the young woman, of course; I
+only meant that Dan would get his promotion if it depends on that gate
+being kept shut. I carry the key about with me like Hare did in the
+"Pair of Spectacles." It's "peculiarly inconvenient," of course, but as
+they say on the Surrey side, "the villain who would reach it must pass
+over my dead body."'
+
+Gwen, who had a fine taste, admired the determination underlying the
+jest. Mr. Fitzgerald, she said, was lucky in such a friend.
+Nevertheless it might be a doubtful kindness, since the loss of
+promotion might induce him to seek fairer fortune elsewhere.
+
+She insisted on this argument even with herself, yet her heart beat
+uncomfortably fast, when, delay having been extended to the limit of
+possibility she sat awaiting Dan's arrival in the pretty room which was
+so like herself in its softness and its solid attention to comfort
+beneath all the delicate tasteful ornamentations The three thousand
+rupees in notes were ready for use in her pocket, and a long letter
+from Hodinuggur in George's fine bold handwriting lay on the
+writing-table beside the bouquet of flowers which Lewis had sent her
+from his garden that morning. From the next room came the sound of the
+ayah dusting out boxes against the immediate packing up. All Gwen's
+excuses for delay had vanished; yet she found it hard as ever to face
+one man's confidence--the confidence which showed in his glad greeting.
+It forced her into beginning remotely, half affectionately, by regrets
+over his want of tact at the Delhi conference. It had not been an
+unqualified success so far as Dan's departmental popularity went. How
+could it, when he had deliberately but savagely attacked the wisdom of
+his elders? True, the under-secretary had sniggered in describing the
+scene, and even Mr. Gordon had laughed amid his vexation, saying that
+none knew better than he, what a confounded ass Colonel Tweedie could
+be when confronted in public with new ideas, at the same time it had
+been needless, almost brutal on Fitzgerald's part, seeing he had right
+on his side; that alone should have made him temperate. Of course, once
+his method had been suggested, no other was open to any one out of a
+lunatic asylum; all the more reason for mercy in bringing the fact
+home. So Gwen in her soft voice attempted to convey her blame to the
+sinner, who, with his hands in his coat-pockets stood before her
+trying to look penitent and only succeeding in looking provokingly
+_debonnair_.
+
+'But sure it's the blatant stupidity of the world that is its greatest
+crime,' he protested. 'Don't I remember my mother saying to us, "Oh,
+children! I don't mind your being naughty--I can whack you for that;
+but I will not have ye stupid."'
+
+Gwen laughed. Who could help it, over that picture of home training so
+utterly unfit for one recipient, at least? Indeed, she was conscious of
+a wish that her companion were more dull; less full of eager vitality.
+It made that inevitable task so hard!
+
+'Dan,' she began desperately in sudden resolve, 'I want to talk about
+business. The fact is, I've had a windfall of money lately. And
+so--I--I intend to pay you back that loan of yours. It isn't fair----'
+
+He was on his knees beside her, to get a closer look at her face ere
+she had finished. 'What is it, Gwen?' he asked rapidly. 'You owe me
+nothing. What do you mean? There is no question of money between us,'
+he went on in answer to her silence. 'There never was but once. There
+never shall be again. Is it anything else, Gwen?--anything in which I
+can help; or are you only feeling afraid of the future? Tell me
+outright, dear.'
+
+Where was the good, she thought petulantly, of delays and preparations
+when he met her first hint in this direct fashion; yet against the
+grain, for she hated scenes, she took her courage in her hand and spoke
+up--
+
+'Yes, I am afraid; afraid of the future for you as well as for
+myself--O Dan! I really wish you would sit down like a Christian and
+listen properly. Kissing my hand is no answer. And I am serious. This
+idle foolish promise of thinking about it all seriously next year when
+you get your promotion is not fair on you--don't laugh, Dan, it isn't.
+It ties you down, and prevents you doing yourself justice. And then it
+isn't fair on me.'
+
+He interrupted her quickly. 'How is it not fair on you, Gwen? I don't
+see it. You do not like any one else as much as you like me; you know
+you don't. And if this half promise to me holds you back from marrying
+some one you do not like as you like me, why, then,' his voice lowered
+to tender gravity, 'I thank God for it as I should thank Him for any
+good He sent into your life.'
+
+'You do not understand,' she retorted querulously. 'Surely I am the
+best judge of myself, and there is no reason why I should want to marry
+some one else because I don't think it would be right to marry you. I
+should make a bad wife, Dan, to any poor man; and I should not be
+happy. Surely, surely, I ought to know best! It isn't as if I were the
+inexperienced girl I was before. I have been married for years, and I
+think, yes I am sure, that I am happier as I am.' Her last words
+degenerated into something between a laugh and a sob. It really was too
+ridiculous, too grievous, that she, Gwen Boynton, with all her
+knowledge of the world, should not be considered fit to judge for
+herself.
+
+'Married!' he echoed thoughtfully, and something in his voice arrested
+her. 'No, Gwen, my dear, you have never been married. You don't even
+understand what it means to be married; for your knowledge of it is all
+evil. That's the worst of it. Don't be angry, dear, I'm not going to
+lecture like Mrs. Grundy on the sin of a loveless marriage, or the
+degradation of one, like the sentimentalists. Surely, surely a man or a
+woman may marry from pity, from honour, from self-devotion, and yet
+touch the perfection of the tie. But you,'--he paused a while, 'you did
+not only lose the love of it, Gwen; the thing itself was never yours.
+The facing of life, hand in hand; two of you where there was but one
+before. See! there is my hand, Gwen, and there is yours. A difference,
+isn't there? But how close they fit, each to each! How close and
+warm,'--he paused again to smile at her. 'What is it the song says,
+Gwen, about giving your hand where your heart can never be? Fudge! It
+should be, "How can I give my heart where my hand can never be?" Yes!
+there they are, close, and I am there too, my darling. Ready, always
+ready. Never again, Gwen, without the touch of a hand, like--how does
+it run?--like children frightened in the night, like children crying
+for the light. Never again, Gwen, never again.'
+
+They were sitting together side by side on the sofa, her hand held in
+his so lightly that she could have withdrawn it without an effort. But
+it lay there in his clasp as she sat listening to the soft voice.
+Listening on, even when it ceased, as if its spell lingered. They were
+not even looking at each other. Beyond the silent room, through the
+open door, the sunshine showed Gwen's bearer cleaning the lamps with a
+dirty duster. Not a romantic sight; but it is to be doubted if either
+saw it, for their eyes were blinded by the great darkness in which they
+found themselves, trustfully, hand in hand.
+
+At last, with a little shiver, she tried to move, but his fingers
+closed on hers more firmly.
+
+'Too late, Gwen! Too late. You should have taken it away when you had
+the chance,' he said joyously. 'Oh, Gwen, my darling, if we were
+married you would forget to be afraid, as you did just now; didn't you,
+Gwen?'
+
+'I believe you mesmerise me,' she replied, trying to jest, 'and
+forgetting bills doesn't help to pay them; does it, Dan?'
+
+'So you are back at the money again. Well, I don't care. Money or no
+money; promotion or no promotion----'
+
+'No! no!' she interrupted, yielding, as she always did, to his
+decision, 'that really is not fair--the bargain was promotion--it was
+indeed.'
+
+'Promotion be it,' he assented with a contented laugh, 'though I can't
+for the life of me see what it has got to do with the matter.'
+
+'You would at least have more pay,' she put in, wondering faintly the
+while how it came about that they should be discussing such questions
+when she had meant to be so firm. 'I could not marry a pauper; could
+I?'
+
+'Indeed, and indeed, it might be the best thing for you; then nobody
+would give you credit, dear, but me. And I--Oh, Gwen, my dear, my
+dear,--you might be bereft of everything--of all, save your own self,
+and sure I would give you credit for the all, still. Credit!' he echoed
+to his own words, 'isn't it absurd to be talking of it, as if either of
+us could be debtor or creditor to the other.'
+
+That was all she gained from the interview. That, and the unwelcome
+remembrance of full five minutes when the touch of her lover's hand and
+the sound of his voice had made her forget the world, the flesh, and
+the devil.
+
+But not for long. As she sat after Dan had gone, trying to comfort
+herself by the fact that one never knew what might happen, that
+they might all be dead and buried before the necessity for action
+arose--which, by the way, was her favourite consolation--she looked up
+to see the servant standing at the door, doubtfully expectant.
+
+'What is it?' she asked languidly.
+
+'The vakeel of the Diwans of Hodinuggur, Huzoor. He hath brought an
+offering, and desires an audience.'
+
+'The Diwans of Hodinuggur!' repeated Gwen, startled.
+
+'The agent, Huzoor. Shall I tell him the mem sahiba is going to eat the
+air in her carriage? It is but to say something about a pot, he bade me
+mention. A pot that the Huzoor fancied.'
+
+Gwen stood up, holding to the table.
+
+'Now!' she said after a pause, 'show him in now.'
+
+Mrs. Boynton's neat victoria waited for its mistress long after the
+smiling and obsequious visitor had given his shoe-money to the servant
+and departed. Waited patiently till, as it grew dark, the ayah came out
+and removed the cushions and parasols. Mem sahiba was not well, and
+would not go to the gardens; she would not go out to dinner either, so
+the horses could be put up. Then, the bearer coming into the verandah
+with the lighted lamps, a shrill altercation began over the shoe-money;
+the ayah asserting that when the visit was to a lady, her female
+attendant had a right to half, and even the grooms putting in a claim
+on the ground that they had been present. Their mistress, lying on the
+sofa where but a short time before she had sat hand in hand with Dan
+Fitzgerald, heard the dispute and had not the courage to rebuke their
+greed.
+
+And yet the vakeel of the Diwans had simply brought a message, that if
+the mem sahiba would like another Ayodhya pot, _similar in all respects
+to the last_, one could doubtless be found and forwarded without delay.
+She had refused the offer promptly, decisively; but the fact of its
+having been made filled her with regrets and alarms. If--oh! how lonely
+she felt, without a soul to stand between her and trouble. Then Dan's
+words recurred to her! bankrupt of everything yet credited with all!
+They brought no comfort, however; only a vague irritation against the
+speaker. But for him she would not have been tempted; but for him she
+would never have kept the discovery of the jewels secret--if indeed it
+was a discovery. Could it be a bribe? For what? Had they found out her
+entanglement with Dan Fitzgerald? Her vexation blazed up at the bare
+suspicion, and though every fresh proof of the attraction he had for
+her unstable nature invariably resulted in a recoil of the pendulum,
+she was conscious this time that it had never before swung back so far.
+He was to blame; yes! he was undoubtedly to blame for the whole
+miserable business.
+
+She felt herself too much upset for Lewis Gordon's sharp eyes to be a
+safe ordeal, so, as he was to be one of the dinner-party, she sent an
+excuse, and spent the long evening in nursing her wrath; a very
+necessary process if Gwen Boynton was to bear malice, since her temper
+was of the sweetest. Even with this encouragement the next morning
+found her ready with excuses for everybody, herself included. After
+all, matters were not so serious. Three days would see her safe in
+Simla, where six thousand rupees would be better than three, infinitely
+better than none; and it would be quite easy to keep her understanding
+with Lewis dark for some time to come. Then what proof could any one
+have that she had kept, or even found the jewels? Who was to say that
+the pot had not been stolen, jewels and all? As for the jewellers who
+had bought them, they neither knew her real name nor address. The only
+possible danger lay in weakly yielding to conscience in the way of
+attempted restitution. Besides, if the pearls were really meant as a
+bribe, surely those who offered it deserved to lose them and gain
+nothing; for, of course, the idea of gaining anything from her was
+preposterous.
+
+She went to the hall that evening, cheerful as ever, and exclaimed
+airily at the changes one short twenty-four hours had wrought in the
+shifting society of mid-April. The Grahams had left, the Taylors were
+to start that evening if there was room in the train laden with women
+and babies flying before the punkahs. Laden, too, with melancholy
+husbands conveying their families to the foot of the hills, whence they
+would return to stew in solitude. Lewis Gordon divided these
+unfortunates, cynically, into two classes--those who would be sent home
+in charge of the khansamah, with a menu of the first month's dinners,
+and an almost tearful injunction not to let the master, when he went
+out to dine, eat things which were likely to disagree with him; and
+those given over to the 'bottlewasher' who 'can cook a little, you
+know.' And there was truth in his cynicism. Mankind is not like an
+Am[oe]ba, all stomach, yet nothing can be closer to tears than two
+sights often to be seen during an Indian hot weather: the one, a meal
+sent away untouched in favour of a clean whisky and soda; the other, an
+elderly Mohammedan at a big dinner-party waving the lobster salad away
+behind his master's back, and presenting him with cheese and biscuits
+instead. There is full-blown tragedy in both. Tragedy also in Lewis
+Gordon's cheerful remark to his companion--
+
+'And, by the by, Robinson has been ordered home next mail. They were
+afraid of abscess. So that jolly little house at Simla is going
+a-begging. He asked me if I knew of a tenant, but it is rather late in
+the day, I fear, even though he only asks half-rent.'
+
+'I'll take it,' said Gwen calmly. 'Don't stare so. The fact is, I have
+had a little windfall of money lately, and I hate hotels. This will be
+almost as cheap, and much more comfortable.'
+
+'Infinitely so,' assented Lewis. The house was fully a mile nearer his
+quarters at Colonel Tweedie's and that was a great convenience,
+especially during the rains.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+'Send it back! It is hers; it is not mine! He gave it her! I stole it.
+Don't tell. Oh! send it back! send it back!'
+
+Over and over again, through the long hot days and nights, the murmur,
+in its monotonous hurry, blent with the hum of the potter's wheel. The
+old man had removed the latter to the farther courtyard, where he sat
+working feverishly, yet without avail, so far as the village people
+could see through the door, beyond which they were forbidden to go. The
+simple folk were agog at the potter's strange looks and strange ways.
+He never seemed to cease working, for even when the familiar sound of
+the wheel was hushed something like an echo of it rose from within.
+Those were the times when he stood wistfully in the dark airless hut
+beside a restless head turning itself from side to side on the hard
+pillow, and keeping time to the monotonous rhythm of the murmur, 'Send
+it back, send it back.'
+
+'Yea! dear heart, I will send it.' Then there would be silence for a
+while; but only for a while, since the fever strengthened day by day.
+Small wonder, when all Nature seemed in the grip of heat. The
+thermometer, we are told, is accurately divided into degrees. If so,
+the fallacy of such classification is self-evident, since every one
+with experience knows that the difference between eighty-four degrees
+and eighty-six degrees of Fahrenheit's instrument embraces the
+difference between comfort and discomfort. Between these two points
+that engine of torture, the punkah, trembles ere it begins the steady
+swing which is only one degree less awful than the unsteady swing
+necessitating the occultation of boots and other light articles of
+furniture with a human head. Doubtless to the uninitiated it seems a
+trivial affair to loop a parti-coloured rope through hooks in the
+rafters, and to attach to it a whitewashed board with a newly starched
+frill tacked to its lowest edge, thereinafter making mysterious
+dispositions of a leathern thong, the neck of an old whisky bottle
+thrust through the mud wall, and a circumambient flask of evil-smelling
+oil. But those who know what it is, on returning from a morning ride,
+to find the punkah in possession of your home, feel a chill at the very
+thought, such as the thing itself will never produce by legitimate
+means. The hot weather is upon one, and God only knows if fever,
+cholera, home-sickness, sheer deadly _ennui_, will allow you to pass
+through it unscathed as an honest gentleman.
+
+George Keene, however, over in the branded bungalow, knew nothing of
+the horrors of a hot weather in the jungles, and, while poor little
+Aziz lay moaning out her impotent repentance, was actually
+superintending the swinging of his punkahs; which is equivalent to a
+man personally conducting his own hanging. He even, after the manner of
+engineers, took pride in a device which was to secure a perfect silence
+in the infernal machine. All unwitting of a time when, in the scorched
+darkness, it might be preferable to curse a monotonous scroop giving
+tangible excuse for wakefulness, than to lie visualising the unseen
+swoop, as of some vampire eager to suck your heart's-blood.
+
+Those two degrees of heat bring a thousand other changes. Even at
+Hodinuggur, arid as it always was, they intensified the drought till a
+drop of water seemed as visionary a consolation to the parched horizon
+as it must have been to poor Dives in the fires of hell. The very canal
+denied its nature as it slipped past yellow and thick with silt from
+the clayey defiles of the lower hills, each little swirl and eddy
+looking as if streaked and pitted in mud. Yet the chill of its snowy
+birth came with the flood, so that in the red-hot evenings George's
+factotum used to call through the yellow-dust haze to the groom who sat
+on the edge of the canal, apparently moored to his place by a
+soda-water bottle tied to a string, and then Ganesha would haul in the
+strange buoy and scramble up the bank with it rapidly, so as to give
+the master's dinner-drink a chance of being cool.
+
+All this amused George Keene hugely at first. He drew caricatures of it
+for the rectory, and sent a very impressionist sketch of his world to
+Mrs. Boynton. It consisted of a dust-storm, a caper-bush, and a
+rat-hole. She put it on the mantelpiece of the pretty drawing-room in
+the little house among scented pine-woods, where she was just beginning
+to appreciate the soothing effect of having a decent balance at your
+banker's. Her lady-visitors laughed and said it was very clever, but
+some of the men looked queer and muttered 'poor devil' under their
+breath. Not that George looked on himself in that light. On the
+contrary, Hodinuggur amused him. Its dreary antiquity was all new to
+him, and as he went through the cool, dark passages of the old palace
+on his way to play chess with the Diwan, he learnt to admire some
+things about it; notably the thickness of its walls, through which the
+sun never filtered, though it soaked piteously into his red-brick
+bungalow. Upon the roof Zubr-ul-Zaman shrivelled under the heat almost
+as much as a certain figure which still lay huddled up on the landing
+of the secret stair in the thickness of the tower beneath him as he sat
+at chess. Below that again Khush-hal Beg lay stark naked, like a huge
+baby, in a swinging cradle, which was pulled to and fro by a drowsy
+coolie, while a bheestic supplied the fat carcass alternately outside
+and inside with tepid water from his skin bag, and as the latter
+shrank, Khush-hal swelled visibly--horribly.
+
+Yet further, in the bazaar by the Mori gate, Dalel Beg, abandoning
+Europe-fashion under the stress of climate, slept all day and waked all
+night, doing both more viciously than before, like a snake rendered
+lively and dangerous by the heat. But Chandni, from her cool arches,
+smiled calmly, even when 'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay' rose from the opposite
+balcony, which was now occupied by some one who could dance as well as
+sing. To tell truth, she was glad to be quit of Dalel's amusement for a
+time. Such deviations from her control never lasted long, and this time
+she knew that the Diwan himself was on her side. So she lounged about
+in the shadows, watching the pigeons in the niches, and rubbing her
+soft palms together. Sometimes a pellet of opium lay between them;
+sometimes nothing at all, for it was a trick of hers. Sometimes, on the
+other hand, it was a great deal; neither more nor less than one of the
+Hodinuggur pearls, which were as well known to all the jewellers of
+that part of the country as the Koh-i-nur diamond is to the keeper of
+the regalia. That was why Chandni on her return from Delhi, whither she
+had gone ostensibly to learn new music-hall songs for Dalel's benefit,
+had laughed so triumphantly at her own cleverness as she sat at the
+Diwan's feet telling him what she had done.
+
+'It was easy, with my cousin a jeweller; and we of the bazaar know a
+trick or two with goldsmiths. Manohar Lal hath the pearls, sure enough.
+All thou hast to do is to offer him a rupee more than he gave the mem
+(which will not be half their value). The Hindu pig will take it,
+seeing it is better than having the yellow-trousered ones[3] set on him
+as a receiver of stolen goods.'
+
+Zubr-ul-Zaman looked at her approvingly from under his bushy eyebrows.
+She was a clever woman, but he would improve on her plan. He would put
+the screw tighter on the Hindu pig, and get the pearls back in exchange
+for a promise to pay. So far, however, Chandni's plot had been
+unexpectedly successful. Both George Keene, by giving the Ayodhya pot
+to the mem, and Dan Fitzgerald, by taking the jewels himself to Manohar
+Lal, as Chandni's spies said he had done, were mixed up in the affair.
+There was sufficient foundation for an _esclandre_, of course, but how
+would that help them? They did not merely want revenge, as is so often
+the case, they wanted the key of the sluice-gate. The courtesan
+standing with wide-spread arms to fold her veil around her decently ere
+she left the Diwan's presence, laughed shrilly at his difficulties.
+
+'How? sayest thou. Who can tell? Save this. The mem will send for more
+if she get the chance. That is our way. One rupee claims another. Bid
+the vakeel at Rajpore go to her and suggest a marrow to the pot. All
+things go in pairs, and we could send it through Keene sahib. For the
+rest we must wait. There is a time yet, and if we are to work by fear
+of exposure, that comes ever at the last moment. I play for a high
+stake, as I have told thee, O my father! and I mean to win.'
+
+Then it was that the old man, with regretful thoughts of his past
+youth, had promised her one of the pearls in pledge for a future, when,
+if she succeeded, she could wear the whole necklace as Dalel's wife.
+That was how she came to be rolling the pearl against her palm lazily
+one moonlit night, when George, who began to find the long empty
+evenings coming at the end of a long empty day rather wearisome,
+strolled over for the first time since his return from Rajpore to see
+the potter, and while away half an hour in hearing some of his tales.
+Rather to his surprise--since he knew nothing of the novel freak for
+solitude--he found the outer palisade barred by thorn bushes, and going
+a little farther along to where it joined the mud wall, vaulted over
+the latter lightly into the inner courtyard. It was empty, and the door
+of the hovel closed. Supposing the old man to be absent, he turned to
+go, when a low cough from within made him pause and knock.
+
+The next instant the potter burst out on him with eyes ablaze. 'Devils!
+wilt not leave me in peace?' he began before recognising his visitor.
+Then his manner changed; he drew the door to behind him, saying
+hurriedly, 'This slave mistook; the children tease. But if the Huzoor
+wants songs he must come to the outer court. The wheel is there now.
+Will not the Huzoor come?'
+
+He moved away like a plover luring an intruder from its nest, but
+George paused again to listen to a repetition of the quick, low cough.
+
+'Who is that ill?' he asked unwarily. The potter echoed the sound
+instantly.
+
+'It is I who cough, Huzoor,' he went on, still moving away. Pity of
+God, how I cough! And I have fever, too. Mercy of the Most High! fever
+always with mutterings hard to understand. But 'tis no matter. The
+potters of Hodinuggur do not die; we go and come, we come and go.'
+
+He had reached the wheel and set it a-spinning. But it seemed pivoted
+askew in its new place and whirled in fitful ovals. Then he looked up
+with a foolish laugh.
+
+'My thumb will slip often now, Huzoor. Maybe 'twere better Fuzl turned
+no more pots.'
+
+The thought made him slacken the wheel to silence. He sat staring at it
+vacantly, while George looked at him, wondering at the change in the
+old man. His face had the weary, over-strained expression of those who
+have wilfully forsaken sleep; the look which comes to those who are on
+the rack day and night beside a sick-bed, and George, remembering the
+cough, jumped to the conclusion that the potter had an invalid in the
+hut. Most likely some female relation; whence his desire for secrecy.
+To be sure, the old man had often said he lived alone, but in India one
+never could be sure how far modesty interfered with truth. So, being
+accustomed to such vicarious prescribings, the young man suggested he
+should send some medicine for the cough.
+
+His companion brightened up immediately, 'It is not all a cough,
+Huzoor,' he replied hurriedly. 'It is fever. God! what fever. It is
+only a little cough, with a rattle, as of dead wheat-straw under my
+bosom as I draw breath; quick, quick, with curving nostrils like a
+horse galloping fast.'
+
+The vivid accuracy of the word-picture made George realise an idea
+which had of late haunted his fancy. The idea of a hand-to-hand fight
+with death alone, unaided, as the beasts of the field meet the
+destroyer. Here was some one doing it; dying, perhaps, of pneumonia,
+when others were being nursed through a finger-ache. The pity, the
+injustice of it struck him fairly. Then the potter's voice going on
+softly gave inconsequent answer to the vague doubt surging against the
+boy's youthful content.
+
+'Not that it matters, as I tell myself in the night season when I am
+worst. We of Hodinuggur do not die. We go and come, we come again and
+go.'
+
+Something in his own words, perhaps, seemed to arrest the old man's
+attention, and he paused.
+
+'Huzoor!' he cried suddenly, 'I have something which belongs to the
+madr mihrban. If the Huzoor would write an address.'
+
+'Belonging to Miss Tweedie,' echoed George in surprise.
+
+'Do not thanks belong to those who earn them!' replied the potter
+evasively. 'If the Huzoor could write. I have pen and ink. Lo! it is
+naught but potter's work, and the miss was kind.'
+
+He fumbled in the niche beside his seat, and drew out a parcel done up
+in waxcloth. Evidently a pot of some sort, thought George, beginning to
+print boldly, as one of his profession should, with the slant-cut
+native pen. The moonlight shone full on the potter seated at his wheel,
+and the young Englishman pencilling Rose Tweedie's name. What was that
+rising on the stillness of the night? A murmur from the hut? George
+could not say for certain, as the old man set his wheel a-humming
+instantly, but once more the feeling of injustice, the flash of pity
+came to disturb his self-complacency. The feeling lasted longer this
+time, and as he walked home his thoughts were full of that uncertainty
+which is so hateful to the young. The Mori gate showed black and white
+in the moonshine; a clash of silver bells rose from the shadows as he
+passed; a pomegranate blossom fell at his feet. He took a step aside to
+crush it fiercely, passionately; it lay between that and picking it up
+he felt uneasily. Life here, at Hodinuggur, was so simple, so confusing
+in its simplicity. To live and to die. Was that all?
+
+He spent the remainder of the evening in writing to Mrs. Boynton,
+putting his heart into reserved, half-jesting hints at his own puzzles.
+And as he wrote, the potter, standing at the door of his hut, was
+listening to a murmur coming from the darkness within.
+
+'It is sent, dear heart! She has it. No one shall know,' he answered
+softly. Then there was silence for a while. But only for a while. The
+murmur came again and again through the hot night, to be stilled by the
+same reply.
+
+The post in due time brought Mrs. Boynton her letter. She read it with
+great interest, and then promptly put it into the fire; her favourite
+maxim being, that the keeping of letters was, at any rate, one reason
+for the slow progress of humanity; since improvement was dangerous when
+you were tied down in black and white to past opinions. And the
+postman, after leaving the snug little house in the pine-woods, came on
+to Colonel Tweedie's with a packet for Rose. Half-an-hour afterwards
+the girl was sitting with the contents of the parcel on the table in
+front of her, puzzling her brains why any one should have sent her back
+the Ayodhya pot, or one exactly like it. There could be no doubt about
+it, however. She took up the wrapper more than once; but the clear
+print, if unmistakable, was also unrecognisable. She felt carefully
+inside, hoping for a scrap of paper, a hint of any kind; but there was
+nothing save a few bits of crumbling clay, leaving a rough rim near the
+bottom of the pot. And all the time her first impression remained
+unaltered. There was a mistake; it had been meant for Mrs. Boynton.
+Undoubtedly it was meant for her. Under ordinary circumstances Rose
+would most likely have taken the Ayodhya pot over to the little house
+without more ado, but, though she did not acknowledge it to herself,
+she could not treat its occupant in an ordinary way. Besides, there was
+an element of mystery in the whole affair, and Rose hated mystery. The
+memory of her dream on the night of the storm at Hodinuggur annoyed
+her. She had slurred it over at the time, merely mentioning it as part
+of a feverish attack; but now she wondered if the Diwan, or some one
+else, could really have arranged a theft. And gradually there grew up
+in her one distinct dislike to the whole business. She would have
+nothing to do with it. She would say nothing, but simply send the thing
+back whence it came. She would not even suppose that George had sent
+it; she would return it straight. After all, it might be another pot,
+and if she made a mistake in thinking this, they would know the truth
+at Hodinuggur. A knock at the door roused her, and she slipped the vase
+behind another on the mantelpiece ere she said 'come in.'
+
+'Only to say, Miss Tweedie,' came in Lewis Gordon's voice from the
+threshold, 'that I shall not be in to lunch. Your father has given me a
+half-holiday, and, like a good little boy, I am going to spend it with
+my relations. You will be at the Graham's tennis, I suppose? We shall.'
+
+'No. I shall utilise my half-holiday with my relations also,' she
+replied. 'Father and I will go for a ride. I don't often get him to
+myself.'
+
+'Then _au revoir_ till dinner. How comfortable your little snuggery is!
+It and Gwen's drawing-room are the two prettiest rooms in Simla.'
+
+There was a hard, almost angry look on Rose's face as she repacked the
+parcel. Gwen's pretty room should at least be none the prettier for the
+Ayodhya pot.
+
+The result being that three days after this Chandni sat at the Diwan's
+feet once more, holding it in her hands.
+
+'So I am right, O father!' she cried, with that shrill laugh of hers;
+'the mem hath sent for more. Lo! I shall wear the pearls ere long.'
+
+'If they are sent again, thou mayest lose them this time,' retorted the
+old man, but there was no warmth in his warning. He had begun to
+believe in her luck, and the two sat in the purgatorial heat on the
+roof, imagining evil as unconcernedly as if the universe could hold no
+fiercer fire for the wicked. The pearls must be sent again, of course,
+and the parcel given to be addressed by Keene sahib. So much was clear.
+And Manohar Lal might be told to offer a less sum this time.
+
+'Thy father was the devil!' remarked Zubr-ul-Zaman again--this time
+more suavely, 'and pearls or no pearls thou shalt have Dalel. For look
+you, Khush-hal is a waterbutt, a grease jar, and Dalel hath forgotten
+how to deal fair, even by himself; but thou hast brains. So bring thine
+ear within reach of a whisper. There is much to tell of Hodinuggur ways
+ere I forget with age.'
+
+She bent her head back till it almost rested on the old man's breast
+and brought her flower-decked ear close to his mouth. One elbow touched
+his knee, the hand giving light support to her chin: the attitude of
+one all ears to hear. The Diwan, still as a statue, nothing but a
+voice. A queer couple up there on the roof overlooking the red-hot, red
+brick house, where George Keene was being introduced to what is
+familiarly called a go of fever.
+
+Even that was to begin with somewhat of an amusement, for a certain
+feeling of self-complacency comes with the first intermission. After
+the tortures and fires of the damned for some hours, the sudden and
+complete escape from them seems to rebound to the credit of your
+constitution, and you are confirmed in the impression that you are a
+fine fellow. But it is not long before the fever fiend can knock that
+sort of conceit out of a man if it chooses. In George's case it did
+choose, and, having got him well in its grip, refused, after a day or
+two, to let him go again.
+
+The factotum lingered round with something he called beef-tea, and
+another thing he called barley-water. Which was which, the patient,
+with his mouth full of Dead Sea apples and quinine, could not say; nor
+after a time did he very much care. He cared for nothing; unless indeed
+it was to get rid of that vision of the schoolroom in the rectory--a
+schoolroom with a cheery-cheeked boy roasting blackbirds at the fire.
+If you didn't twist the bit of brown worsted stolen from your sister's
+work-basket, then the birds slackened--slackened like the potter's
+wheel. Oh! it was a lifetime of twisting, or there you were plumb,
+burning with a horrid smell. When the factotum sat in the room the
+blackbirds didn't; but then he breathed. Wasn't it rough that a man
+could not stop breathing for half-an-hour just to oblige a friend? Yet
+if the breathing beast sat outside, a '_whittering_, beast came in its
+place. '_Whitter! Whitter!_' under the bed; behind the boxes. That was
+the worst of a musk rat; no one could possibly tell where it would
+'_whitter_' next. It wasn't its fault, of course; it meant no harm.
+Poor little beggar! what a rummy sight it must be, if the yarn was
+true, taking its kids out for a walk, tail by tail, in a string! And
+then to George's infinite surprise and discomfiture, the feeble laugh
+ended in a flood of tears; tears like a woman's, drenching the dry, hot
+pillow. That was one comfort, they were as good as a water-cart! So
+they came again between the laughs; for George, seventy miles away from
+a white face, was down with the worst type of jungle fever.
+
+Sometimes when he felt a little better the factotum brought out the
+medicine-chest and between them they made wonderful compounds, which
+the latter administered when his master had gone back to the
+blackbirds.
+
+It is a common enough experience, and George, not being a whit behind
+many another young Englishman, fought his way through it pluckily,
+while Ganesha, the groom, fished for soda-water bottles all day long,
+and the water carrier circled round the house, cooling the dust with
+sprinklings, and keeping an eye on the punkah coolie during the
+factotum's absence over more barley-water or beef-tea.
+
+Scorching nights, blistering days, devils in sparrow shape, the fringe
+of the towel pinned to the punkah, flicking your nose, yet sparing the
+mosquito battening on your cheek. All this George knew, till discomfort
+itself grew dim, and he ceased to care for anything in this world or
+the next.
+
+Then after a time there was something dead cold--cold as ice--trickling
+down his nose, and that surely was Dan's face. At any rate it was Dan's
+voice.
+
+'It's all right, dear boy. Sure the doctor's ridden out too, and you'll
+be round in a jiffy.'
+
+It is an Eastern record of life which tells us of a love passing the
+love of women, and, even in these latter days one sees it more often
+East than West; perhaps, paradoxically, because men have so often to
+play a woman's part towards each other in India. Dan Fitzgerald in
+particular was as gentle as any sister of mercy, and stronger than
+most. To be sure he sat on the bed smoking, and after a day or two his
+language over the barley-water was simply disgraceful. But by this time
+George had come back from No-man's-land and could remember a little
+booklet called 'Home Comforts Abroad,' which had been given him by his
+grandmother. So Dan ferreted it out from the bottom of a box full of
+canal records, and ordered the charcoal brazier into the verandah. Then
+he stirred diligently while George, propped up by pillows, read out the
+directions weakly. The result being that the factotum bore away a
+deadly mixture in triumph, because even with this surpassing love in
+his heart for the compounder, the boy could not swallow it.
+
+Nevertheless, wearied out by feeble laughter, he slept the first real
+sleep of recovery and woke to extol the factotum's beef-tea. That
+functionary being thus appeased, the little red brick furnace out in
+the wilderness became a home indeed; that is to say, an abode of love,
+and peace, and a great contentment.
+
+It was on the very day of promotion to an arm-chair and a cigarette
+that George received a letter from Colonel Tweedie, enclosed in one
+from Rose. His eyes grew moist as he read it; he had to pause ere he
+could turn to where his companion sat busy over his share of the post,
+and even then his voice faltered.
+
+'You--you _beast_, Dan!'
+
+The words were uncomplimentary; the tone was a caress. His hearer did
+not affect to misunderstand.
+
+'Well, it will be jolly for you at Simla. The gayest fortnight of all
+just before the rains, and there is nothing like a whiff of hill air
+for killing the microbes. Besides, the Tweedies' house is awfully jolly
+to stay in.'
+
+'But you?--you will be here,' said George remorsefully, despite the
+eager pleasure in his eyes.
+
+Dan laughed.
+
+'It isn't the first time I've been in a jungle station. Are you
+thinking of the whisky bottle again? Sure I'll take a temperance ticket
+for the fortnight, if it would make my keeper easier.'
+
+'Don't be a fool, Dan.'
+
+He came round to lean over the back of George's arm-chair.'
+
+'Is that the thanks I get for warming a viper in my bosom? But I must
+get back to the office for a day or two first. Then I'll start you off
+with my blessing and all the boiled shirts you have in the world. And
+more, by token, that picture of the girl with the Ayodhya pot that's
+lying underneath them. Why didn't you show it me before? It's the best
+thing you ever did, and must go to the exhibition. Always put your best
+foot foremost up at Simla among the big-wigs. That is my advice.'
+
+'Which you don't follow yourself.'
+
+'But I do!--only my foot's a beetle-crusher, and the worms don't like
+it. So that is settled, and we will tell the washerman about the white
+ties. And look here, George, I'll bring the duplicate of that key back
+with me. Then you can take yours, and I shall know----'
+
+George's hand went up to the back of his chair as if to find another to
+clasp; then he changed the _venue_ with an odd little laugh.
+
+'Give me a light, old man. I--I can't keep this cigarette going,
+somehow.'
+
+As Dan stooped over him their eyes met, and that was enough.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+The angel Azrael had turned aside from other doors in Hodinuggur
+besides that of the red-hot bungalow across the canal. Fuzl Elahi, the
+potter, sat once more at his work, with the old calm on his face. The
+wheel was back in the inner yard again, where the westering sun sent a
+creeping shadow of the high wall almost to the edge of the spinning
+circle. It spun so slowly that the eye could see the blue outline of a
+pot upon the moulding pirn.
+
+
+      'It was a woman seeking something,
+       Over hill and dale, through night and day she sought for
+           something.
+       "Foul play! foul play! look down and decide."
+       "Not I----"'
+
+
+The chant stopped in a start. There was a grip on one shoulder, a thin
+brown hand over the other pointing accusingly at the wheel.
+
+'Why didst lie to me?' panted a breathless voice, low yet hard. 'Why
+didst say thou hadst sent it to her? Why? why?'
+
+'I lied not, heart's delight.'
+
+The slackening wheel, as his hands fell away from it, showed the
+Ayodhya pot, as if in denial of his words; yet he repeated them gently,
+looking back the while at the girl who had crept from the open door of
+the hut behind him. 'I sent it; but it hath come back, as all things do
+in Hodinuggur; as even thou didst, Azizan. Be not angry with thy
+father. Lo, it is fate!'
+
+She set his deprecating hand aside roughly.
+
+'Let be, father--if father thou art. I tell thee 'tis the pot. Give it
+me here. Yea; 'tis so, and thou hast put a false bottom of new clay to
+it. Wherefore?'
+
+The old man's forehead wrinkled in perplexity.
+
+'I do it always. Let me finish the task, Aziz. Chandni, the courtesan,
+will give money for it, as always; then thou shalt have violet sherbet
+to allay the cough. Pity of me! how thin thou art!'
+
+In truth the girl was emaciated to skin and bone: her small face seemed
+all eyes; yet, though she swayed as she stood from sheer weakness,
+there was energy and to spare in her grip on the Ayodhya pot.
+
+'Chandni!' she echoed; then suddenly the fire died down, the tension of
+her hold slackened. 'Lo, wherefore should I care if it be lies or
+truth,' she muttered to herself; 'the old man is crazy, and 'tis the
+Diwan's when all is said and done--not hers. Here, take it, poor soul.
+I care not now, so I be left alone in peace.'
+
+'Art not angry with thy father, Aziz?' he asked humbly; but there was
+no answer. He watched her languid retreat to the hut almost fearfully.
+'Lo, she forgets the things I have remembered, and I forget those she
+remembers, he murmured, before he broke once more into his chant with a
+quavering voice.
+
+This forgetfulness of the girl's, showing itself so often, was a
+perpetual wonder to the old man, who never for an instant doubted that
+his dead daughter had indeed returned to him. 'Nay, but thou knowest
+beloved!' he would remonstrate against her ignorance. 'Hast not played
+in the Mori gate, and bought sweetmeats of old Bishno, perched on my
+shoulder like any tame squirrel?'
+
+'Mayhap, mayhap!' she would answer impatiently. 'I care not. There was
+a Hindu girl, I remember, who did not weep as the others used to do.
+Life was a dream, she said. We would forget it soon in another. Mayhap
+'tis true and I have forgotten.'
+
+It suited her to deceive the old man. When she had first realised the
+position, she had been too weak to do more than wonder at it. Then, by
+degrees, while she still lay helpless, the potter's talk, her own
+recollections of old Zainub's hints, joined to the extraordinary
+similarity in those extraordinary eyes, had given her a shrewd guess as
+the truth. And with it came a fierce savage delight in her inheritance
+of witchcraft. It meant revenge; revenge and safety. The potter deemed
+her a ghost from another world; the village folk should think the same.
+So she hid herself away in the dark hovel, spending the long hot days
+in dreaming of a time when she could creep out on some moonlit night
+and frighten the wits out of the world which had wronged her; for her
+whole nature was jangled and out of tune. She hated everything and
+everybody, herself included; at least so she told herself as she sat
+idle, listless, brooding over revenge. It was not difficult for her to
+avoid observation. To begin with, the village folk were afraid of the
+potter's eyes at the best of times, and of late strange tales had been
+told. Finally, Mai Jewun's longed-for son had been born with a distinct
+thumb-mark, and had died. The only person, in fact, who could have
+allayed these fears lay shrivelling into a mummy with the heat on the
+old secret stairs; so Azizan might have wandered through the village
+had she chosen without fear of anything save sending all the women into
+hysterics, and making the men give themselves up as doomed to die. She
+did not care to wander, however; she cared for nothing save to sit
+crunched up at the lintel of the hovel door and stare into vacancy
+until the dawn sent her back to the darkness within.
+
+The potter found her so when he returned from taking the pot back to
+the Mori gate late in the evening. The fading daylight struggled still
+with the rising moon, making confused havoc among the shadows, and
+giving an odd iridescence to the dust-laden air. From without came a
+barking of dogs, an occasional cry, every now and again a group of
+bleatings from the goat-pens. All the every-day commonplace sounds of
+village life; and in the courtyard the same lack of outward novelty.
+Only an old man with his pugree off eating his supper of millet cakes
+and water beside a sick girl.
+
+'Ari, beloved, cough not so!' came his tender voice. 'Lo! I will go but
+now for the sherbet. Dittu was away when I passed his shop. And see, I
+will seek out the sahib ere he leaves to-morrow and ask for more
+medicine. It did thee good.'
+
+The girl's breath came faster.
+
+'Leaves? Wherefore?'
+
+'He hath been ill, dear heart, so Chandni says. He goes to the mem
+sahiba in the hills.'
+
+Azizan's hand clutched the old man's arm. 'And the pot! what of the
+pot?'
+
+He shook his head. 'Maybe it was for her. I know not. Cough not so,
+beloved. See, I will fetch the sherbet.' He bent over her, as he rose,
+in gentle pleading. 'Go not from me when I am away, Aziz. Lo! I will be
+back ere long.'
+
+She gave a short laugh, and sank back, still breathless from her fit of
+coughing.
+
+'Go! whither should I go? God knows!' The old man sighed as he turned
+away, to look back more than once at the listless, dejected figure. So
+it remained for an instant after his had disappeared through the outer
+yard; then, as if galvanised, it rose suddenly, and the thin arms were
+flung out passionately.
+
+'She shall not have it. Chandni shall not give it to her. She shall
+not, she shall not.'
+
+Five minutes after, trembling half with weakness, half from sheer
+hurry, Azizan was on her way through the village wrapped in a white
+sheet snatched from the hut. What she was going to do she scarcely
+knew, just as she scarcely knew whither she was going. Though within a
+stone's-throw of her birthplace, the path down which she stumbled was
+as unfamiliar to her feet as the tempest of emotion was to her mind. A
+fever of excitement, anger, mistrust of everything and everybody surged
+through her veins. The road was silent, deserted; but even had it been
+thronged, the girl would not have hesitated. Amid all the confusion,
+but one thing was certain: Chandni must tell the truth; she must be
+found and made to tell the truth. But where? Yonder was the Mori gate;
+she had seen that before through the lattice, and that, at any rate,
+was a landmark. She would go there first and see. As she came within
+ear-shot of the tunnelled causeway, a woman's voice rang out in shrill
+laughter from the dark recesses to the right. Her first instinct was to
+pause; then second-thought made her keep straight on her way as if to
+pass through, till at the farther end of the causeway she turned
+suddenly to the left and sank down behind a plinth. It was as if a
+shadow had disappeared. A minute to regain her breath, and then she
+crept farther into the darkness, where, unless some belated gossipers
+should choose that side of the arch, she was secure. From over the way
+a clash of anklets and a low full voice, contrasting strangely with
+those high trills of laughter assured her that she had come straight
+upon her quarry. The rest was patience, till, sooner or later, the
+woman would be left alone. Sooner or later the laugh must cease; sooner
+or later even wickedness must tire and turn to sleep. So the girl sat
+crouched into herself in the curiously impassive attitude of her race,
+her thin arms round the thin knees whereon her small chin rested. Not a
+very startling sight outwardly; though, to describe what lay within is
+wellnigh an impossible task with an audience of Western ears; for
+Azizan's knowledge would be to such ears incompatible with her
+ignorance, her jealousy and passion with her patience. Such an audience
+must remember an upbringing foreign to all their experience, and
+imagine her, still as a statue, though the blood raced like liquid fire
+in her limbs and throbbed like sledge-hammers in her temples. The moon,
+sinking slowly, sent a slanting yellow light through the dust-haze,
+visible beyond the arched causeway; the village dogs ceased one by one
+the nightly challenge to their fellows; yet, still the laugh went on.
+Would wickedness never tire? The wonder, and her own heart-beats lulled
+the girl to a drowsier patience. She woke to silence, and, standing up,
+strained eyes and ears into the shadows. Not a sound. She stole softly
+across the causeway, slipped into the recesses at the right, and
+listened again. A low breathing from one corner made her feel a way
+towards it, and her touch, light as a breeze, hovered over a figure on
+the ground wrapped from head to foot in a sheet like a corpse; yet she
+knew it could scarcely be Chandni, for she would not choose so airless
+a spot. But there must be rooms above, and a roof above that, and they
+were worth a trial before going on to the bazaar. Slowly, for she knew
+nothing of where she was, Azizan groped her way to some winding stairs,
+thence to a suite of low chambers, empty of all save the pigeons
+rustling and cooing at her step in the dark. Upwards again till, at a
+turn, an archway gave on a terraced roof not six feet square; and
+there, lying on a string cot, which, from its narrow resting-place,
+seemed suspended in mid-air, she saw the soft curves of a woman's
+figure outlined against the moon-lit dust-haze beyond. It was not a
+place for a sleep-walker's slumbers; not a place even for a restless
+one; but Chandni slept the sleep of the unjust, which, nine times out
+of ten, is sounder than that of the just. Her conscience never troubled
+her; and in addition she belonged to a race apart from the customs and
+creeds of the people. A race born to the profession of pandars and
+prostitutes, openly, shamelessly.
+
+So, not being afraid, like other women-folk, of sleeping in the
+moonlight with face uncovered, she lay carelessly as she had thrown
+herself down, her tinsel-set veil turned aside by one arm thrust under
+her head, the other stretched almost straight into the gulf of dusty
+air, which glittered faintly like the ghost of a sunbeam. Beneath its
+filmy net covering the bold sweep of her bosom rose and fell softly,
+with its faded burden of the past day's jasmine chaplets. They gave out
+a last breath of perfume as Azizan's thin brown fingers closed round
+the sleeper's throat.
+
+'If thou stirrest,' whispered the girl to the startled eyes as they
+opened, 'I kill. Feel!'
+
+Only a prick above the heart, but joined to that scorching, stifling
+grip, it was sufficient to send the coming shriek back from Chandni's
+lips. She lay terror-stricken, staring up at the wild light eyes which,
+catching the moon rays as they dipped to the horizon, seemed to glow
+with a pale fire. This was no ghost! it was something worse than that;
+something that meant more than mere fright.
+
+'Why didst send the Ayodhya pot to her? Why? Give it me back!'
+
+Chandni slackened all over in sudden relief. If she could have laughed
+with that hand on her throat the shrill sound would no doubt have risen
+on the hot air. So that was all? Nothing but jealousy! Of all things in
+the world the easiest to rouse--or to allay--by lies, and she had
+plenty of those at her command. So many, that poor Azizan, after a
+time, wondered sullenly how she came to be sitting amicably on the
+string cot beside the woman whom she had meant to coerce.
+
+'Poor little chicken,' said the courtesan in contemptuous consolation.
+'So thou wouldst have killed me, thy best friend? One who seeks to
+destroy the mem! 'Twill be the ruin of her, look you, and then he will
+have none of her. That is their way. She will not get him; so pine no
+more, child. Lo! I will teach thee how to have lovers and to spare.'
+
+'I want no lovers,' muttered the girl angrily. 'If 'tis to harm her,
+and thou hast sworn to that, I care not. And thou hast sworn to let me
+be also. That is enough.'
+
+As she rose, folding her white veil round her, Chandni felt sorely
+tempted to give the little push which must have overset the weak
+balance, and sent Azizan to certain death below. But the thought that,
+if looks said the truth, fate would do the work for her ere long
+without scandal, stayed her hand. Besides, the knowledge that the girl
+was alive and intent on revenge might be of use in dealing with the
+palace-folk, if they showed themselves traitorous to her claims. So,
+when she had watched Azizan go stumbling down the stairs, Chandni
+rolled over lazily to meet the midnight wind which was springing up,
+and shortly afterwards fell like a child, into dreamless slumber, long
+before Aziz, who had sunk down on a step of the silent causeway, hoping
+to regain strength for the homeward journey, felt equal to the task. A
+deadly despondency had replaced her excitement; yet beneath this again
+lay a dull resentment against fate. If she had understood, if she had
+known, as Chandni seemed to know, the ways and thoughts of these white
+people, she might have done better. She had meant no harm--no harm in
+her world at least--for she was not bad. He might, as Chandni said,
+turn away from the mem for being wicked, but he would never have
+had cause to turn from her, if she had only known. She never would
+have done anything to displease him--never have done, or said or
+looked---- The sting of shameful memory drove her from her
+resting-place to stumble on recklessly in the direction of a twinkling
+light upon the mound. That must be the potter's house and he must be
+watching for her; there she would at least find shelter. But it was not
+the house; it was the potter himself seeking for her among the ruins.
+His face, by the light of the cresset he carried, showed haggard, and
+its anxiety soothed her, even while it sent a new pain to her heart. He
+was unhappy at losing her, and she? O God! how her own heart ached!
+Must it always be so when those you loved were lost? Then would _he_
+feel so if he had to turn away from the mem? Would it send that pain
+into _his_ heart?
+
+The question was insistent, imperative, as, scarcely listening to the
+old man's deprecating delight she followed him back to the darkness of
+the hut. Even there it haunted her. Through the hot night, through the
+long hot day as she lay huddled up out of sight. 'Would he care? And if
+he did care, would she be glad or sorry for his pain?'
+
+The moon and the setting sun were disputing possession of the world
+again, when George lay on a lounge chair in the verandah of the red-hot
+bungalow. The air was fresher, if not cooler there, and the factotum
+within was disturbing the foundations of the round world in attempting
+to pack his master's things; among them Azizan's picture, and a parcel
+which had been sent from the palace addressed to Mrs. Boynton.
+Something, it was said, she had asked the vakeel at Rajpore to get for
+her. The lad, though still weak, was joyous to the heart's core in the
+knowledge that another hour would see him on his way to spend his
+holiday in the society of the most perfect woman he had ever seen. That
+was how he viewed his world. Gwen was in full focus; the rest of
+humanity out of it; even poor Dan, who was at that moment riding
+his hardest across the desert in order to take over charge of the
+sub-division at its outermost limit, and so give the boy every possible
+second of his leave. Not a very just estimate of relative values, but a
+very usual one when Narcissus is absorbed with the reflection of
+himself.
+
+'Salaam Aliakoom,' came a breathless voice behind him. He turned to see
+Azizan, who had sunk as if exhausted on the verandah steps. He stared
+at her silent with surprise, in which a certain shamefaced annoyance
+was mingled. He had no desire to be reminded of her existence at
+present, and even if, as he had felt inclined to suspect, there was
+some mystery about her, he could do no good by inquiring now, on the
+very eve of his departure.
+
+'I have come for the pot, Huzoor,' she began without preamble. 'They
+took it from me. Lo! I was poor, and the poor have no voice. Justice!
+Justice!'
+
+'Took it from you?' echoed George, his annoyance increasing at this
+plunge into the past. 'Do you mean by force?' She nodded. 'But,' he
+went on, 'you sold it. I gave the money to your mother when she came
+here--on the night the tents were burnt.'
+
+'My mother died before that, Huzoor. It was not my mother who came, but
+a bad one from the palace. It is true that I never sold it, never got
+the money; and now I want the pot back again. It brings luck. I will
+not sell it.'
+
+'But why didn't you come at once and tell me?' asked George angrily.
+'Then I might have done something: now----'
+
+She interrupted him eagerly.
+
+'Your slave has been ill; as the Huzoor may perchance notice.' Her
+wistful tone made George look at her more closely.
+
+'Very ill I should say,' he assented shortly. 'You are not fit to come
+so far. Why did you? Why didn't you send some one else?'
+
+'I thought the Huzoor would not believe unless he saw me,' she answered
+after a pause. 'I heard the Huzoor was going away to-day, and I wanted
+the pot. Surely he will give it back! The protector of the poor has so
+many things; his slave has but this one thing.'
+
+Her face was outlined against the white pillar beside which she sat,
+and with all the languor of sickness on it still showed strong in its
+entreaty. Something in it struck George with regret, even amid the
+pressing desire to kick somebody which her words had roused in him.
+
+'Give it back,' he echoed savagely. 'Of course I would, if I could; but
+I can't. It was stolen----'
+
+'It has been found again, Huzoor.'
+
+'Perhaps; but I haven't found it. I'm very sorry, my good girl, but I
+haven't got it.'
+
+'The Huzoor mistakes. He has it. It is in the parcel that came from the
+palace. They took it from me again to send it back to the mem.'
+
+George stared at her, unable to believe his ears.
+
+'Took it again then you were the thief--is that it?'
+
+There was a slight pause ere she replied. 'The Huzoor always speaks the
+truth. I stole it--but it was mine.'
+
+George gave a low whistle; then a sudden grimness came to his face.
+'And you say it is in that parcel they sent addressed---- By Jove, if
+it is,' he added in English as he rose hastily. A minute after, when he
+returned from within, his face was still more grim.
+
+'Here! take it,' he said, thrusting the blue curves of the Ayodhya pot
+at her, as if in haste to be rid of it--and her. 'When I get back I'll
+inquire, and if what you say is true----' He paused, reduced in his
+anger to thinking incoherently of Dalel Beg and horsewhips. How dare he
+send it to her, mixing her up, as it were, in such a discreditable
+affair? 'Well,' he continued, looking impatiently at the girl, 'that's
+all, I suppose. You don't want anything more, do you?' The attitude in
+which she was sitting reminded him perforce of the sunshine glowing on
+the blue-tiled mosque and of the sidling pigeons--of a past, in short,
+of which he did not care to be reminded, and a hardness crept over his
+face.
+
+'That is all,' she replied, rising to go. 'But the Huzoor should not be
+angry. The pot belonged to this slave.'
+
+'Angry?' he echoed, with a sort of lofty consideration. 'Why should I
+be angry with you? Every one has a right to their own surely. Now you
+have got it, go home and get stronger, my child. Salaam, Azizan!'
+
+'Salaam Alaikoom, Huzoor.'
+
+He took up his cigar again, relieved to find it alight; for he felt
+that he needed soothing. On his return, Dalel must be brought to book
+and smashed; meanwhile he was not sorry that the cursed pot had finally
+passed into the hands of its rightful owner, for it had a knack of
+appearing and disappearing in a way which annoyed his common-sense.
+Now, he need never see it or its owner again. One palpable reason for
+the latter probability made him give a compassionate glance after the
+thin, small face where consumption had set its mark indubitably, and
+which he had seen for the last time.
+
+No! not the last. She too was pausing to look back from the gateless
+gateway, guiltless of a fence on either side, which served no purpose
+save arbitrarily, uselessly, to divide one portion of a dusty road from
+another. So he saw her outlined against the shadows which softened the
+havoc sickness had wrought in her young face; a graceful figure, seen
+as he had painted her against the purple mound of Hodinuggur, with the
+pot clasped to her breast.
+
+Yes! when Mrs. Boynton saw the picture she would be pleased; that is to
+say, if he showed it to her at all. The thought absorbed him, and when
+he looked up the shadows were empty.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Ten days had passed since George, after many hours of deadly
+discomfort, found himself admitting that the world was not such an
+intolerable place, even in India; that, when all was said and done,
+there were some things in it worth looking at.
+
+Those who have experience of these convalescent journeyings will
+know at once that this must have been just about that turn of the
+upward-trending road where a bridge slants the dhooli across the dry
+torrent-bed, so that the traveller can see a stream of pink oleander
+blossoms filling the narrow ravine. The morning sunshine lies yellow on
+the red, parched hillocks, the red rocks crumble from thirst, but the
+heat-hidden water proclaims its presence beneath them by that glory of
+flowers. Nothing else, far or near, suggesting moisture; save, perhaps,
+the candlestick-euphorbia, reminding one vaguely of the Ark of the
+Covenant. Not a very welcome reminder, in this land of drought, where
+even a deluge of rain would be a blessing; so, at least, thought
+George, all unwitting of the times now close at hand, when a racing,
+roaring demon would fill the narrow valley, the oleander flowers would
+seem adrift, and the arch of the bridge would echo to the metallic
+churnings of the boulders below, until, maybe, it would take a fancy to
+join them, and leave travellers staring at each other across an
+impassable torrent.
+
+Another slanting turn or two, and the candlestick bush is left behind.
+The red-flowered indigo hides the dry, red soil, and from it rise
+strange shrubs with sparse foliage and abundant blossom--yellows and
+whites and lilacs--with here and there a burnished pomegranate, vivid
+green and crimson. A sweet scent fills the air from grey aromatic
+herbs, among which the wild bees keep up a perpetual hum. It is the
+land of honey and honey bees. Butterflies also. There goes a purple
+emperor, and, by Jove! yonder is one of those swallowed-tailed whoppers
+you have seen somewhere in a glass case. The head sinks back on the
+pillow again, tiredly content, to watch the scarlet flash of a
+sun-bird. Was that a fern hidden in the crevice of the yellowing rocks?
+Yes! parched, dwarfed, but still a fern. So on and up, until the
+coolies set the dhooli down on a bit of real green grass beside the
+tiny trickle of the spring whence they slake their thirst, and some one
+from a shingled hut hung with flowering, fruiting gourds, brings the
+sahib a red-brown earthen pot. A land of milk this--somewhat smoky, no
+doubt, yet still milk. Over the tops of the fragrant pine-trees
+something blue climbs up and up into the sky. Can it be a hill?--the
+hills '_from whence cometh your help!_' The memory of some early
+morning service in the odd little station church comes over you, with
+the punkahs swinging overhead, the Deputy-Commissioner reading the
+psalms, and the involuntary stir northwards of the small knot of
+worshippers as the words sink straight into their hearts, bringing
+thoughts of dear faces looking down on the heat-sodden plains. Yes!
+those are the hills; for, as the coolies slither through the slippery
+pine needles, the faint blue mist blending into the clouds rises, and
+the headman, pausing, points to a cluster of white dots. Those are the
+sahib-logues' houses.
+
+The path steepens; George pulls up the neglected shawl as shelter from
+the growing cool; and as he is hurried along the curving road to find
+old familiar friends in every flower and leaf his renewed vitality
+expresses itself, oddly enough, in the inward conviction that here
+at last is a place in which one could _die_ comfortably. Not that
+George, or any other convalescent in his position, contemplates
+the possibility of death; why should one when life has suddenly
+become attractive?--when one can breathe instead of merely drawing
+breath?--above all, when it is safe to go out into the garden without a
+hat, and pick a carnation for your buttonhole before strolling over to
+have tea with the most perfect woman in the world.
+
+Those ten days, therefore, passed like wild-fire. George knew no more
+how he had spent them than how he had spent all his money. Chiefly, it
+may be said, on sweets at Peliti's, kid gloves, and new ties. It was
+the first time the young fellow had ever been let loose on equal terms
+in the very best of society--a society, moreover, bent on amusing
+itself. That he should follow its example was a foregone conclusion;
+and it must be owned that he certainly got his money's worth in solid
+enjoyment. There is always one particular period in the life of every
+man and woman when the sun seems to stand still in the heavens on
+purpose to make pleasure perpetual. This had set in for George, and it
+had its usual effect in giving a fine-drawn, eager expression to his
+face. Small wonder, perhaps, seeing that, as a rule, he never went to
+bed till three in the morning, and that the days passed in one
+ceaseless round of amusement. It seemed incredible, even to himself,
+that, not a fortnight past, he had been agonising at Hodinuggur on
+beef-tea and barley-water. But then Hodinuggur itself was incredible;
+almost as much so as the fact that he had proposed to wear his old
+white shirts, washed by a desert-washerman at Simla! They were thrust
+aside in a bottom drawer now, and their place filled by brand-new ones
+from a Europe shop; for how could one dance with the most perfect woman
+in the world in a shirt that had no deportment? How, in fact, could you
+do anything without reference to the certainty that your unworthy self
+would form a part of perfection's environment? That is what it comes
+to, when a steady, honest young fellow like George falls down on his
+knees to worship a pretty face and a gracious smile. No doubt it was
+not a very admirable occupation, but it seemed so to him, as it seems
+to that majority of mankind which does not ask itself questions; simply
+because he had been taught, as we have all been taught, to look on
+sentimental love between the sexes as something almost divine. Thus,
+the real issues being hopelessly confused, this new feeling of
+passionate worship had all the effect of a new religion upon him. So
+other things besides old shirts were thrust out of sight. Among them
+Azizan's picture. The idol should not see it till the depths of deceit
+regarding the Ayodhya pot had been fathomed, lest in any way
+perfection's ears should be sullied by a queer story. By and by, when,
+on returning to Hodinuggur he had time to unravel the mystery, he might
+send the portrait to her as the best piece of work he had ever turned
+out; but now? Why now, as usual, it was time to ride over on the hired
+pony--of whose mane and tail you were inwardly ashamed--to the pretty
+little house among the pine-woods, and there, in Paradise, try to
+forget that but three days' more leave lay between you and purgatory.
+Certainly not an admirable occupation; but the novelty, the excitement,
+the supreme pleasure had gone, like wine, to the boy's head, producing
+that exalted condition of mind and body, which has been described as
+leaving one in doubts whether to have another whisky and water, or to
+say one's prayers and go to bed.
+
+Lewis Gordon, standing in the back verandah, watched the young fellow
+ride off with a frown.
+
+'It's too bad of Gwen,' he murmured to himself, as he went back to
+finish dressing. 'I can't think what the fun can be. But the boy is
+having a good time; that's one thing. And I suppose we all have to go
+through it some time or another.'
+
+When he had done putting himself into an extremely dandified racing
+kit, he passed through into the office again and began work steadily on
+some files. _He_ was not on leave, and if he had to ride a steeplechase
+at half-past four, that was no reason why he should waste an hour in
+dawdling down to Annandale beside Gwen's _dandy_. There was no reason,
+either, for his doing duty with Colonel Tweedie and his daughter, who
+had ordered their horses at three. Time enough if he galloped down at
+four, when the road would be pretty clear, instead of being clogged by
+a perfect procession of women and coolies masquerading in ridiculous
+costumes; whence it may be inferred that Lewis Gordon was in a bad
+temper. As a matter of fact, he had been more or less so ever since he
+arrived at Simla, despite the welcome he received from Gwen's constant
+smiles, exquisite dresses, and admirable lunches. Perhaps he was
+conscious that some one would have to pay for all these amenities,
+and the prospect of responsibility in the future weighed on him;
+not in a pecuniary point of view, but in reference to the fact that the
+debtor would be his wife. For, like most men of his _genre_, he was
+fastidious over the duties of women who were in any way connected
+with him. Anyhow, he was distinctly dissatisfied with his world, as he
+sat, buried shortsightedly up to his nose, in piles of paper; his
+racing-colours, white with a crimson hoop, looking ridiculously out of
+keeping with his occupation.
+
+A clatter of hoofs told him that the Colonel and Rose were off. He
+could see them from his window passing a turn of the road below the
+house, their figures outlined for a moment against the dim blue of the
+valley. She sat straight, certainly, and as he watched her, a smile
+came to his face as he remembered the partridge-hunt; but it was
+replaced immediately by a frown. For the memory of Hodinuggur conjured
+up that of Dalel Beg, who had come up to Simla for these races, and
+had, in Lewis's opinion, been making himself most objectionable.
+
+There was no reason on earth, of course, why Dalel should not come; no
+reason on earth why the Governor-General should not shake hands
+with him, or any one else--that was part of the duty for which
+Governor-Generals were paid; but that Gwen Boynton should shake hands
+with him and allow him to speak to her familiarly, was different. That
+was a matter of feeling, not a matter of reason. Apart from the
+question of colour, Dalel was an objectionable brute--could scarcely be
+otherwise, considering his up-bringings. That much of this was sheer
+insular prejudice on Lewis Gordon's part may be true. If put to it, he
+would have frankly confessed to many another objectionable brute with a
+white face; but that the dark-skin should enter into the question is at
+present inevitable in India, where it is typical of those theories and
+practices which make real social intercourse between the upper classes
+of the two races an impossibility--_at present_.
+
+And, to say sooth, Dalel was not nice, outwardly or inwardly. Even the
+best tailor in Simla could not make him look aught but intolerable in
+his elaborate riding-gear, as he paused on his way to the racecourse
+before a small shop in the bazaar; a dark hole of a place, squalidly
+bare of all save a sign where, in crooked lettering, it was announced
+that 'MUNAHRLALLOFDELHIJEWLERGOLDWORKS' was ready 'TOBYANDSELL.'
+
+'No news of the pearls yet?' asked Dalel in an undertone of the man in
+dirty white waist-cloth and low turban, who came out hastily to cringe
+at his stirrup.
+
+'Huzoor, no! The ayah saith they have not come. Perhaps the little
+sahib----'
+
+A measured shuffle of footsteps and a gay laugh arrested the
+deprecating voice. It was Mrs. Boynton, carried by four men arrayed in
+white; she herself being a vision of angelic spotlessness. Beside her,
+his hand on the shafts of her _dandy_, his young face intent on hers,
+came George Keene. It needs great ignorance or great experience to walk
+in this fashion, without appearing either ridiculous or unseemly.
+George looked neither; only supremely happy.
+
+'Who was that?' he asked, as his companion bowed. Her little gloved
+hand resting so close to his tightened nervously.
+
+'Dalel Beg. He bowed to me.'
+
+George gave a quick glance backwards. 'By Jove, so it is! What cheek!'
+
+He thought so, honestly, as they passed on between the irregular rows
+of shingled huts, leaving the group before the jeweller's shop, looking
+after them curiously. Past the bazaar, down many a turn, till a bare
+zigzag showed on the hill-side beneath them, and below that again a
+green oval of valley set in trees. The eye following each angle of the
+descent, could see, as it were in terraces, an almost continuous stream
+of _dandies_, _rickshaws_, and ponies, all bent towards that grassy
+oasis where a tent or two gleamed white, and a crowd of humanity
+already swarmed like bees.
+
+There is no gayer crowd in the universe than this of Simla out for a
+holiday; though, even as it passed downward, a man with a sober face
+and a telegram in his pocket passed upwards on a sorry errand. Ten
+minutes before that telegram handed in to the Club tent had hushed the
+laughter into silence for a while. 'Cholera, of course,' said some one
+after that while. 'I heard yesterday from Galbraith it was getting
+rather stiffish in those parts. Poor old Jackson! After all these
+years, too.' And then the recipient had ridden off in hot haste,
+because the poor widow--the widow of his best friend--was coming
+down at four with his wife to see the steeplechase, and it would be
+best to prevent _that_, if possible. A sorry errand indeed, past those
+holiday-makers, to whom he had to give back greeting, irrespective of
+that death-message in his pocket lest the news might travel too fast.
+Even to the pallid, pretty-faced young wife raising herself eagerly
+from her cushions as he passed to ask if Mrs. Jackson had heard from
+her husband that morning. She had had no letter; but of course Mr.
+Jackson would have mentioned it if there had been anything wrong with
+Charlie? Doubtless, Mr. Jackson would have done so, came in answer to
+the wistful eyes, ere the messenger rode on full of that wrathful,
+surprised grief which such scenes bring to the average Englishman. And
+it must not be forgotten that it is in such scenes as these that the
+foundation of all that is best in our Indian empire is laid. Going
+to the hills! Whose fault is it that the phrase conjures up to the
+English ear a vision of grass-widows, flirtations, scandals,
+frivolities! Surely it is the fault of those who, telling the tale of a
+hill-station, leave out the tragedy of separation which makes our rule
+in India such a marvel of self-sacrifice both to the woman and the man.
+
+Yet below, in the Club tent, and round the shady ring the laughter went
+on after its brief check. Mrs. O'Dowb, whose husband had held hill
+appointments ever since he married a big-wig's daughter, improving the
+occasion against her bitterest foe, Mrs. Larkins, by declaring that
+some women had no sense of duty, and seemed to forget that they had
+sworn at the altar to cherish their husbands. To which her little
+enemy, using the sharp tongue which captivated mankind in general,
+assented smilingly; she herself knew women who could not be brought to
+understand that their absence must be a far greater comfort than their
+presence. Whereat there was war.
+
+A gay crowd indeed! with here and there a surge, accompanied by murmurs
+of 'Your Excellency,' and a steady circle round some recognised leader
+holding her little court. Not much interest on the whole, however, over
+the races, save among a knot of men near the betting-tent, when Dalel
+Beg, hand in glove with a shady lot of men from a newly-opened hotel,
+went swaggering about with his jockey's colours pinned on to his coat.
+
+'I'm not on duty to-day,' replied a handsome man to Gwen Boynton's
+inquiry why he was not as usual in the tent. 'A contingent of bad lots
+brought their ponies up and rushed the meeting. They do it sometimes,
+and then it isn't good enough for old stagers. All we stewards can do
+is to keep 'em as straight as we can, and that isn't easy. Weight for
+weight, inches for inches, Mrs. Boynton, I'll back an Indian gymkhana,
+where nobody has any money to pay, and all the subalterns think they
+know something about a horse--especially their own--to lick creation in
+sheer crookedness. And when the profession come down like a wolf on the
+fold, as they have done to-day, it is crookeder still. And all about a
+_pari mutual_ for the most part.' The look of disgust on the speaker's
+face was almost comical.
+
+'Poor Major Davenant!' smiled Gwen sympathetically. 'But the chase will
+be good. Mr. Gordon is in it.'
+
+'I wish he wasn't.'
+
+A wish which was echoed by Rose Tweedie, who stood within earshot. For
+the last half hour she had been trying to keep her eyes away from the
+zigzag--now almost deserted--on the opposite hill-side. An ineffectual
+attempt; ineffectual as her wish, for there, coming down at a rattling
+pace, was an unmistakable figure. She clasped her hands tighter on her
+riding-whip, impatient at her own nervousness, and went on talking to
+George Keene.
+
+'No! you are not a creditable patient. You don't look a bit better than
+you did a week ago; I am not sure you don't look worse. And you have
+only three more days; you should ask father for an extension.'
+
+Mrs. Boynton turned round quickly. 'What a splendid idea! Do, Mr.
+Keene! Rose will back you up, and so will I. You mustn't go before the
+Club ball.'
+
+The young fellow flushed, but shook his head, with a laugh. 'And poor
+old Dan down in the wilderness? Not I. It is only excess of amusement,
+Miss Tweedie. I shall soon get over that at Hodinuggur.'
+
+His face sobered at the very thought.
+
+'Poor fellow,' murmured Gwen in an undertone, and he brightened up
+again.
+
+'How many gloves was it to be on Bronzewing, Miss Tweedie. You promised
+to back her against the field, you remember,' came a voice, making Rose
+start. How nice he looked with his covert coat just showing the white
+and crimson! She hated herself for thinking such things, and yet she
+thought them all the same; it seemed to her, sometimes, as if she were
+always thinking of him; but she had given up hating herself for
+that--that had to be faced, and kept secret, like this strange feeling
+of dread. She had seen dozens of men ride steeplechases before without
+a flutter at her heart: but now----
+
+'You bet? Then I lay you three to one against. You need not pay,
+lady-fashion,' interrupted another voice ere she had time to reply. It
+was Dalel Beg, swaggering along fresh from a Vice-Regal hand-shake to
+assert his rights in society; notably with Mrs. Boynton, much to her
+tall companion's horror, for he had done his best on two occasions to
+get the offender kicked off a racecourse. The Mirza's flabby hand was
+now thrust out at Rose, but the riding-whip seemed a fixture in both of
+hers, as it would have been had the hand offered been fair instead of
+dark, for there was a certain class of men with whom the girl never
+shook hands. Lewis Gordon, watching her with curious impatience, as he
+often did in society, had often been forced to confess unwillingly that
+her instincts in this respect were generally right. This time her
+refusal gave him distinct pleasure.
+
+'I don't bet lady's-fashion,' she replied coolly; then turning to
+Lewis, went on in the same tone: 'I believe I did promise, Mr. Gordon;
+so perhaps Major Davenant wouldn't mind half-a-dozen pairs to one on
+the mare.'
+
+'Double the odds wrong way up,' smiled the Major, crossing over to her
+side. 'You wouldn't make your fortune as a bookmaker, I'm afraid.
+However, I'll take it, if you let me hedge for you.'
+
+'You don't know Bronzewing. I do.'
+
+'You don't know the field. I do. In fact, Gordon, if I had had any idea
+we were to be inundated with down-country ruck, I should have advised
+you to scratch. They don't want outsiders.'
+
+'They will have to thole them, as we say north of the Tweed,' replied
+Lewis. As a rule he was shy of admitting his Scotch birth, and the
+pronoun sounded sweet in Rose's ears.
+
+'What an arrant pirate you are, Gwen,' he said in a low tone as he took
+the place beside her _dandy_ vacated by Dalel Beg, who, after returning
+to her for consolation, had gone on to the tent. 'You have been betting
+against me, haven't you, dear?'
+
+'Against Bronzewing, you mean. What chance can she have with the
+Confederation's Waler? If you were riding _it_--and I am so badly off
+for gloves.' As she looked at her lavender-cased fingers plaintively,
+she was as pretty and well-dressed a picture of gracious womanhood as
+the imagination could paint. The fact was mollifying and brought
+admiration to his eyes.
+
+'Don't see it. Seems to me you want nothing. What a jolly shawl that
+is! too good, surely, to be crumbled up that way.'
+
+He was right. A white cashmere with a broad bordering in faint greys
+and lavenders is hardly the thing for a dust-cloth. Perhaps she was
+aware of the fact; anyhow, she coloured up.
+
+'Not at all. I bought it for a mere song. Isn't it time you were
+weighing-in or something of that sort? they have been ringing a bell.'
+
+'Directly. You see, I'm dressed and ready.'
+
+'Yes, I see. You look so nice.'
+
+Rose might have made the remark with far more fervour than Gwen could
+conjure into it, and yet the latter scored the points, for Lewis
+strolled off feeling less dissatisfied with life than before. Men are
+trivial creatures when they have to do with that trivial creature,
+woman.
+
+To a large proportion of men, a horse-race is a most uninteresting
+affair; to the majority of women, it is a mere accessory to a misused
+wedding-breakfast or a somewhat spoilt _fete champetre_. This one was
+no exception to the rule, and the interest of the resident racers being
+reduced to a minimum, there was little excitement beyond the immediate
+circle by the tents.
+
+'Game little beast that of Gordon's,' remarked Major Davenant after
+Lewis had cantered past. 'Pity she hasn't a chance, but I'm afraid she
+is out-classed. By George, they are off, and she--no! That's a pity.'
+
+A short man standing close by laughed.
+
+'For Gordon. I know that dun beast; seen him down country; warranted to
+wear out the temper of any but his stable companions. Is Bronzewing
+keen, Miss Tweedie?'
+
+'Very.'
+
+'I thought so. There--back again. Gordon looks pleasant, doesn't he?'
+
+His face certainly showed irritation, his hand did not; and as he
+turned the mare to face the starter again, he leant forward to pat the
+fine bronze neck.
+
+There was greater interest this time as the pace slackened to a walk.
+
+'Splendid line,' commended the Major--'now then, starter! Oh! dash the
+mare! No--by Jove, that was well done.'
+
+'For the dun,' echoed the short man. 'Smart; very. Wonder how he
+managed it?' For as the flag fell, Bronzewing had reared straight on
+end, only to shoot forward with a bound which more than compensated for
+the delay on which the others had counted.
+
+'Didn't you hear?' cried Rose, clasping her hands. 'It was the
+partridge's note did it. He--Mr. Gordon gave it. You heard, didn't you,
+Mr. Keene?'
+
+'Yes! I heard.' He was as excited as she was. 'By Jove, what a sell for
+that dun brute! Look, there they are. He is in--right in to the posts;
+trust Gordon for that.'
+
+Now to be in to the posts means something when you have to go twice
+round a course which follows the narrow oval of a valley. Except at the
+ends of the ellipse when a less clever-footed beast than Bronzewing
+might find trouble in the sharp curve.
+
+'Oh! how badly that man rides,' cried Rose. 'He can't hold his horse.
+Ah!' She felt a wild inclination to cover her eyes--to get away--not to
+see; for, as the horses rose to a stone wall, a sudden swerve of his
+left-hand neighbour carried Lewis Gordon's foot clear out of the
+stirrup.
+
+'All right, Miss Tweedie, over like a bird. But you are right. Green
+rides badly.' And the short man looked at the Major comprehensively.
+
+'Jimmy,' called the latter quickly, when the horses showed again at the
+end curve as they came round on the winning post for their first turn,
+Bronzewing fourth and ousted from her inner place by Blue-and-white,
+who was making the pace over the straightest bit in the course; 'get me
+all you can from them on the mare--in Simians Gad! I should like to let
+those fellows in.'
+
+'But she is behind, ever so far behind,' interrupted Rose, divided
+between regret and relief that she would not have to watch a reckless
+tussle at the end, with its thousand possibilities of mishap.
+
+'There isn't a beast near her at the jumps, and if Gordon--he's saving
+her now, Miss Tweedie--gets the inner lap again top and bottom; it is
+as near a moral as racing ought to be. Lord! how she took that water!
+Well done, little 'un, well done!'
+
+He was almost as excited as George, who was craning forward to catch a
+last glimpse of the trail of bright colours skimming round the farthest
+turn behind some trees.
+
+'By Jove! he is in again, and how Green is riding him! Stick to it,
+man, stick to it! Game little lady! not an inch to spare, and waltzed
+over it as if she had the floor to herself. They mean Blue-and-white to
+win; that's clear. Ah! now it's on the straight! Now Green will shoot!
+H'm--not much to spare in that cross. Green's in--that's an end.
+Blue-and-white wins, unless he makes a mistake.' Major Davenant put
+down his field-glasses with a sigh.
+
+On they came; the Red-hoop and the Green almost neck and neck, close
+in to the posts. Keeping pace half a length behind in the clear,
+Blue-and-white saving breath for his awkward beast at the last hedge;
+behind them, a trail of colours like a pennant streaming backwards. Now
+they are at the sharpest corner, and a murmur rises as Bronzewing
+shoots ahead, making the Green give way.
+
+'Hullo, what's that?' cries the Major; 'a foul? Did any one see it?'
+
+There was no time for an answer as yet. Green, seeing his work over,
+slacks to pace, and there is nothing but an easy hedge and a couple of
+hundred yards galloping between the Crimson-hoop, Blue-and-white and
+the winning post. Inch by inch Bronzewing gives way before the swinging
+stride of the Waler, but she presses him hard, too hard for the last
+fence, easy as it is. They rise almost at the same second. It is the
+mare's last chance against those longer, clumsier legs, and she gains
+it. Blue-and-white sways in his saddle as his beast, touching the rail,
+staggers, jumps short, and rolls over easily. Green, half a length
+behind, is alongside in a second, but a second too late; for Lewis
+Gordon wins by that second, and no more.
+
+Rose, who for the last minute has been completely blinded by the
+beating of her own heart, was left alone amid feminine congratulations,
+the men having gone to offer theirs in person to the winner.
+
+'Oh, Jimmy, my boy! I wish I'd said thousands, mourned Major Davenant
+as he passed his pal in the outer tent.
+
+Jimmy whistled softly. 'Just as well you didn't; they claim a foul for
+Green, and it looks bad. I wish you had been on. Williams and Gray are
+such duffers, and Van Souter'--a shrug of the shoulders completed his
+meaning effectually.
+
+'A foul! Well, I must own it looked like one to me. What does Gordon
+say?'
+
+'Looks black as thunder. Go inside and see. Most of the field swear to
+it; but it isn't like Gordon.'
+
+There was not much judicial serenity about the inquiry which was being
+made in the steward's tent; nor much of the pomp and circumstance of
+justice either. Nothing but a bare tent, a cane-bottomed chair or two,
+and the weighing-machine, where Lewis still sat listening to Dalel Beg,
+who was volunteering information. An Englishman in like position would
+have been told to hold his tongue; but what are vaguely termed
+political considerations affect the question in regard to the native
+nobility, especially at headquarters.
+
+'I beg your pardon, I'm sure,' interrupted one of the judges
+diffidently; 'but if you will allow me--since the claim is
+made--perhaps Mr. Crosbie--that is, I think, your name, sir?--will
+kindly tell us what occurred.'
+
+The man in green silk bowed. He was a gentlemanly-looking man, with a
+suspicion of past military training in his carriage.
+
+'I regret it excessively, and I am sure it was quite unintentional on
+Mr. Gordon's part, but there can be no question about the foul. As most
+of those present can bear me out in saying, I had taken and kept the
+inner place fairly. Mr. Gordon was riding for it also. At the corner
+post his mount was too eager, and the foul occurred. So violently that,
+as you see, two buttons have been almost wrenched off my breeches. I
+quite admit that I recovered an outside place without much delay; but I
+beg to remind the judges that the race was lost by a second.'
+
+'And I beg to remind the judges,' added the Blue-and-white jacket,
+'that I was on a level with Mr. Crosbie and Mr. Gordon, a little
+farther out, and saw the whole affair. It was not Mr. Gordon's fault;
+but the foul was indubitable.'
+
+'And what have you to say about it, Mr. Gordon?'
+
+'I?' He rose quietly and went over to Green. 'I should advise Mr.
+Crosbie to try benzine collas. It's the best thing I know for taking
+paint off breeches--doesn't stain at all. By the way, Davenant, I've
+often told you that is a most awkward post. It's just on the angle, and
+if you haven't perfect control over your beast, it is almost sure to go
+the wrong side, as Mr. Crosbie's did, and then, if the thing is newly
+painted as it is to-day you--you spoil your clothes.'
+
+He turned on his heel as he drawled out the last words and walked away.
+
+'I utterly deny, I--I--it is impossible----' stuttered Green and Blue
+together.
+
+He looked back from the door. 'Exactly so; I leave you, gentlemen, to
+settle how Mr. Crosbie got that red paint on his left knee, when,
+according to you, he was hugging the post with his right. It is an
+interesting question, and I shall be glad to hear the judges, decision,
+when they have arrived at it.'
+
+He was in a towering temper despite his cool words; and Mrs. Boynton
+felt quite a pang of alarm as he apologised curtly for not being able
+to wait for her, saying he was in a hurry to get home to some important
+work. That, however--as she noticed keenly--did not prevent him from
+spending five minutes beside Rose Tweedie in eager conversation. Of
+course, Lewis Gordon was not such a fatuous idiot as to allow the mere
+gain or loss of half a dozen pairs of kid gloves to affect his
+arrangements for the future; but it certainly affected him in the
+present, and Gwen was quite aware of the fact, and felt glad that the
+proceedings of the _pari mutual_ were strictly confidential. As she
+went home, listening gracefully to George Keene's adoring small-talk,
+her mind was full of care. Now at these periods of life when the sun
+stands still in the heavens, and a man acquires the art of talking
+about the most trivial details in a tone which is a caress, he is apt
+to pall, unless the caress means as much to the woman. So Gwen sent
+George home from the turn up to her house, and went alone through the
+scented pine-woods, where the long shadows lay across the path. Her
+face, now there was no necessity for a smile, looked haggard and
+anxious; utterly out of keeping with the luxury of her surroundings,
+and the comfort of the flower-decked verandah, where the ayah stood
+waiting to receive her mistress. Some one else was waiting too, in
+highly starched muslin and a low-wound white pugree showing a triangle
+of pale-pink folds above the forehead. A smirk was on his face, a
+wooden pen-box under his arm, and an attendant was squatting beside
+more boxes done up in a Manchester handkerchief.
+
+'Mem sahiba see my thing? Gold-work, Delhi-work, Cashmir-work--all
+work.'
+
+He thrust a card into her hand--
+
+
+                      'Manohar Lal, from Delhi.'
+
+
+She turned away quickly. 'I don't want anything. Ayah! how often have I
+told you never to let these people come?'
+
+'Manohar Lal say he know Mem sahiba,' murmured the ayah sulkily, moving
+off with the wraps.
+
+'No need to buy, Huzoor,' said the crafty lips. 'I have good things to
+look. Or I buy. Anything. Gold-work, silver-work, pearls. I buy three
+big pearls of lady in Rajpore last months. Shall I open boxes, Huzoor?'
+
+'Yes; you can open them,' said Gwen quickly.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+Deodars and soft green stretches of turf, surrounded by a map of Asia
+in high relief; silver streaks of rivers at the bottom of the map;
+snowy peaks and passes at the top of the map, just as if they were set
+there to show comparative lengths and heights. Such was the scene from
+the ridge chosen out for what is called a Rajah's picnic. What Rajah or
+Maharajah, what Nizam or Nawab, matters not. Some one of the many
+feudatories who crowd to prefer their claims to something at Simla had
+asserted his dignity by giving a picnic to society, and society had
+consented to come and eat _pate de foie gras_ and drink champagne on a
+hill-side, at the expense of a man to whom one or other of these two
+things was an abomination. That is the case in a nutshell; and so long
+as the _pate_ was not bought cheap from a box-wallah, and the champagne
+was drinkable, nobody cared whether the host was or was not performing
+the whole duty of man in tempting his fellows to do those things which
+he himself considered worthy of purgatorial pains. But then, to
+nine-tenths of the guests the host was a mere lay figure imported into
+society on certain occasions, in order to give it local colour by the
+display of gold tissue and diamonds.
+
+Barring the shock it gives to first principles in some minds, a Rajah's
+entertainment is generally pleasant enough; never more so than when it
+takes the form of a picnic--which, by the way, the natives translate
+adroitly into pagul khana, or 'fool's dinner.' This one was no
+exception to the rule. Two huge flat-roofed tents, open on all sides
+save for a deep valance of gay applique-work, and supported by fern and
+flower-wreathed poles, served as marquees, where a most elaborate lunch
+was laid out in a style worthy of the great Simla caterer. What the
+cost was to be per head to the unfortunate noble playing the part of
+host is a trivial detail. So, to him, was the lunch itself, seeing that
+in this particular case, the host was a Hindu of the strictest caste;
+too pure, too proud even to sit down at a table spread with such
+abhorred viands. His part consisted, therefore, in receiving the
+company in a Cashmir shawl tent with silver poles, yawning between the
+handshakes, and thereinafter, when the outcasts were safely started on
+the champagne and the _pate_, jolting back joyfully in a _jhan-pan_ to
+Simla in order to purify himself in unmentionable ways before eating
+his own dinner. The next day or the day after he would pay the bills,
+some official would be told off to congratulate him on the success of
+the entertainment; perhaps, if he was a great swell, to say that
+H---- E----y had enjoyed it immensely. And then the only thing
+remaining to be done would be to enter the cost in the State accounts.
+Under what heading outsiders cannot presume to say; possibly
+civilisation.
+
+But none of the guests troubled themselves about these details. The sky
+was blue as blue could be, the grey bloom on the spreading deodar
+branches glinted white in the strong light, the shadows beneath them
+showed black. Across the valley, contours of terraced crops round a
+cluster of apricot-trees marked the village sites. Blue air lay between
+you and them, blue air between them and the snows, blue air gave a
+thousand iridescent tints to the plains rolling up into the southern
+sky beyond the dotted ridge of Simla. And below you, drifting up the
+valleys like grazing sheep, were little fleecy mist-clouds,
+inconsequent, hopelessly astray.
+
+'Poor things! How lost they look!' said Gwen gaily, pointing at them
+with her white lace parasol.
+
+'A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind,' quoted one of her circle.
+'Mrs. Boynton knows what it is for a heavenly being to be condemned to
+earth.'
+
+'That sounds prettier than it is. An angel astray! Lewis! defend me
+from my friends!'
+
+She turned to him with the prettiest air of appeal, the sweetest
+confidence in a regard, which to the outside world was cousinly, to
+these two something more. Such a bait seldom fails to rouse a man's
+vanity, even if it leaves his heart untouched.
+
+'My dear Gwen,' he replied readily, 'there is no need for defence. The
+angel is not astray since you are here with us, and we are in
+Paradise.'
+
+George Keene applauded with both hands as he sat at her feet looking
+out over the plains. Once more it seemed incredible that there should
+be such a place on God's earth as Hodinuggur.
+
+'Well, some of us will be sitting at the gate thereof disconsolate ere
+long,' remarked a man leaning against a rock, with a cup of black
+coffee and a cigarette. 'By the way, Keene, we might share a tonga the
+day after tomorrow.'
+
+'Mr. Keene is not going,' interrupted Mrs. Boynton quickly. 'No one
+wants him down there, and we need dancing men dreadfully. Miss Tweedie
+had spoken to her father about it?'
+
+'And you?'
+
+The question, which came almost in a whisper, was answered by a smile
+only; but it brought a sort of mist to George Keene's young eyes as he
+looked out over the plains again. The spiritual exaltation of it all
+was almost too much at times for the hard-headed young fellow who had
+clothed his own honest uprightness with a woman's softness and
+sweetness, in order to worship it.
+
+Now, as a matter of fact, Mrs. Boynton had said nothing to Colonel
+Tweedie about the lad's leave; still, as she fully intended doing so in
+the course of the afternoon, her smile was perhaps excusable. 'What is
+more, she kept to her intention. Half an hour afterwards any one rash
+enough to do so might have interrupted a _tete-a-tete_ she was
+conceding to the Colonel in the shade of a huge deodar tree to one side
+of a level stretch where two mud tennis-courts had been laid out. But
+no one did. A certain officialdom prevails in Simla society, and the
+heads of departments have recognised rights and privileges. The
+Colonel, however, would scarcely have admitted that he owed his good
+fortune to his seniority, for he felt juvenile in a new lounge suit
+with very baggy trousers--quite the thing for lolling about in on the
+grass while a pretty woman leant over the shafts of the _dandy_ she was
+using as a seat, and asked for your opinion on a number of trivial
+personal questions. Yet Gwen Boynton was in earnest about it all--to
+judge from her eyes--as she let the conversation drift further afield.
+
+'He is such a nice boy--one of those boys who make a woman think how
+delightful it would be to have a son in her old age. But he looks as if
+he would be the better of another week in the hills; and I suppose even
+you cannot manage that.'
+
+He smiled condescendingly.
+
+'The Lieutenant-Governor might object, of course.'
+
+'Then you can! Ah! Colonel Tweedie, if you would! He really isn't fit
+to go down, and Mr. Fitzgerald, who is as strong as a horse, could
+easily stop at Hodinuggur. He wouldn't like it, of course, but it won't
+hurt him. Only----' She paused, looked at her companion, and shook her
+head gravely.
+
+'Only?' echoed her elderly admirer, his heart, which had melted like
+wax at her cavalier mention of Dan, stiffening again at what might be
+consideration for that most ill-advised person.
+
+'Only George won't consent to that, I'm afraid. He has such a
+ridiculous attachment to Mr. Fitzgerald. And I suppose it would be
+quite impossible to leave the place even for a few days without a
+really first-class man in charge. What a comfort it must be for you to
+have officers on whom you can rely, like Mr. Fitzgerald.'
+
+Colonel Tweedie gave his little preparatory cough. 'No doubt,
+no doubt. At the same time, I am not aware that Mr. Fitzgerald's
+presence--er--is so--er--indispensable. The fact is, my dear Mrs.
+Boynton, that, owing--er--to previous occurrences, we were anxious to
+keep him out--er--out of the responsibility as much as possible. In
+fact, but for his own request I should not--er--have arranged for
+him to take Mr. Keene's work at all. To refuse, however, would
+have--er--given rise to--er--unfounded comment, and so----'
+
+She interrupted his halting mixture of dignity and desire to be at once
+considerate and captious with a sigh.
+
+'Poor Mr. Fitzgerald, he has been unlucky. And I suppose if anything
+were to go wrong when he was there you would have to take notice of it.
+How dreadful for him! Perhaps, after all, it would be better for George
+to go back. One would need to be omnipotent to carry out all one's
+kindly impulses, wouldn't one, Colonel Tweedie? And we women are so
+helpless.'
+
+He leant forward and laid his hand close to hers as it rested on the
+framework of the _dandy_. 'Unless you have a stronger arm at your
+disposal, as you have now--my dear lady--if only for your kindness to
+my daughter, and, as you say, young Keene is not quite the thing.
+Besides--I--I mean you--I mean there are privileges which----'
+
+What those privileges were remained unexplained, though Gwen, no doubt,
+had a shrewd guess at them, for, just at that moment Dalel Beg, having
+no fear of Departments before his eyes, came swaggering up in a
+bright-green velvet coat.
+
+'Aha, you here! Hi, you kitmutghar, bring me champagne cup. Jolly,
+Tweedie, ain't it?' The Colonel's face belied the proposition, but the
+new-comer was not one of those who look for support to surroundings; he
+was a law unto himself only. 'You see I wear swagger clothes like you,
+Mrs. Boynton. Rajah Sahib old-style man, so I come as native of India
+to please him. He is neighbour, Mrs. Boynton, by Hodinuggur, down
+waste-water canal cut. You give him water, sir, he give you lakhs on
+lakhs.'
+
+This time the Colonel's expression was a study, but Gwen, despite her
+usually keen sense of the ludicrous, did not add a smile to the Mirza
+sahib's crackling laugh.
+
+'I regret,' began the head of the Department loftily, but Dalel's mind
+was full of one thing only, and that was himself; his immense
+superiority over the Rajah Sahib, his equality with the sahib-logues.
+
+'Hi, kitmutghar. _Ai, soor ke butcha kyon nahin sunte ho?_ (Ah, son of
+a pig, why don't you listen?) _Ek_ glass curacoa. Cup what you call
+hog-wash, eh, Tweedie? Rajah, poor chap, know nothing about cup.
+Khansamah do him in the eye, hee, hee! Poor old chappie. Gone home to
+do poojah and have baths. What rot!'
+
+'Will you take me to get a cup of coffee?' said Gwen hastily to Colonel
+Tweedie. 'I won't trouble you to bring it here; it spills so in the
+saucer and then it drops over one's best frock.'
+
+The courteous excuse for escape, which came quite naturally to Gwen's
+lips, pleased neither of her companions. The gracious instinct
+prompting it, which to Colonel Tweedie seemed uncalled for, was totally
+lost on the Mirza. He scowled after her, and muttering something as he
+tossed off the curacoa, went off to bestow his favours elsewhere.
+
+A minute or two afterwards, George Keene ran up to the empty _dandy_
+and pushed something under the cushion.
+
+'She won't mind,' he said half aloud, 'and it's safer there than in the
+tent. Wouldn't do to lose it here, of all places in the world. All
+right, Markham, I'm coming! Spin for court. Rough? Rough it is. If I'd
+only known they were going to put me up in the doubles, I'd have come
+in flannels.'
+
+With coat and waistcoat off, however, his white shirtsleeves rolled up,
+showing young, white round arms, and his Cooper's Hill scarf doing duty
+as a belt, George looked workman-like enough to play in the impromtu
+match of civil against military; and being of wholesome mind and person
+straightway forgot the round world in the effort to keep one ball
+a-rolling.
+
+The sun hung in the west above a frilled edging of lilac-tinted hills,
+the snows began to glisten, the valleys on either side grew fathomless
+as the mist rose from the streams dashing through them. On the ridge
+itself the deodars sent long shadows eastward, though the yellow
+sunshine still seemed to crisp the tufted parsley-fern among which
+civilisation grouped itself in cliques and sets for afternoon tea, and
+in which the servants, decked in gorgeous liveries for the occasion,
+flitted about like gay butterflies. A great content was on all; perhaps
+the memory of an excellent lunch lingered with the men, the gratifying
+consciousness of being well-dressed with the women, but the most of
+them felt that it was good to be there, transfigured, as it were, on a
+hill-top, forgetful even of Simla, whose shingled roofs showed on a
+jagged outline to the south. Yet Gwen Boynton, who, as a rule, would
+have shown at her best in such a scene, a situation, a society, pleaded
+a headache as an excuse for getting away early; so that when George
+came back to where he expected to find her _dandy_, she was already on
+her way back to Simla.
+
+'What is it, Mr. Keene?' asked Rose, who was mounting her pony close
+by.
+
+'Oh, nothing; only I put my watch and keys under the cushion of Mrs.
+Boynton's _dandy_, and now she has gone off. If you see her on the
+road, you might tell her. I have to play a return match--bad luck to
+it!'
+
+'You don't look very unhappy,' laughed the girl, as he finished the
+task of putting her up by professional little tugs at her habit to make
+it sit wrinkle-less. 'And oh! by the way, it's all right about your
+leave. Father has arranged it; he told me so just now.'
+
+'How good you are! If I could only leave my interests in your hands,
+always, the future would have no terrors for me, as they say in the
+melodramas. Good-bye, Miss Tweedie, till dinner-time, and--you won't
+forget about the watch, will you? I don't want Mrs. Boynton----'
+
+'I'll take care she doesn't make off with it,' interrupted Rose,
+wilfully unsympathetic, as she moved away at a walk. A hundred yards or
+so along the broad ride--which had been cut for the occasion in the
+hill-side from the high road to the picnic place--a zigzag bridle-path
+led down into the valley. Rose had never ridden that way, but she knew
+that, once at the stream below her, a recognised short cut would take
+her direct to her destination. At the worst, she might have to dismount
+and lead her horse for a while, and there was something decidedly
+fascinating in a downward path at all times, more especially when every
+step showed something new stealing into vision out of a blue mist. In
+addition, she would avoid the rush of people, and of late Rose Tweedie
+had found a large proportion of her fellow-creatures very tiresome;
+perhaps because humanity is only gifted with a certain capacity for
+liking, and she expended too much of hers on one person. The first mile
+or so fully justified her choice; the path, if steep, was safe, and,
+after passing over a small bridge, she was about to follow a track,
+apparently leading down the right side of the ravine to the road below,
+when she heard a faint shout behind her to the left. With her
+experience of the Himalayas, she stopped instantly, knowing she must be
+on the wrong track, and retraced her steps, expecting, after a few
+turns, to come on the shepherd or coolie, who, having seen her from
+above, had raised the warning cry. Instead of this she came on Lewis
+Gordon, riding at what was really a breakneck pace for the style of the
+path. He pulled up suddenly.
+
+'Miss Tweedie! you don't mean to say it was you I saw on the other
+bank? I had half a mind not to shout, for a man with a clever pony
+could do it easily. What a piece of luck for you I did!'
+
+She flushed up at once. 'I'm afraid I don't see it in that light. I've
+no doubt I could have done it as easily as a man, and it is annoying to
+be brought back half a mile out of your road for nothing.'
+
+'Unless that road happens to be a mile longer to begin with, as it is
+in this case,' replied Lewis coolly. 'But you really ought not to have
+tried the short cut alone. Your father, of course, had arranged to meet
+the Lieut.-Governor, and Keene couldn't get away; but if you had asked
+me, I should have been delighted to do my duty--I suppose you won't let
+me say pleasure; that is reserved for my juniors.' There was a certain
+snappishness in the conclusion of his speech which somehow appeased
+Rose's wrath.
+
+The futility of many proverbs has scarcely a better example than that
+one which sets the orthodox number for anger at two, when almost
+universally it is either one or three. For the spectacle of another man
+losing his temper is almost sure to soothe the first offender, unless
+dispassionate humanity reappears in the shape of a spectator. So Rose
+said sweetly that he was always very kind, and she certainly would have
+asked him to pioneer her, had she anticipated any difficulty; since no
+one could give a better lead over than Bronzewing and her rider. And
+then, having reached the valley and a broader path, they dawdled along
+it at a walk beside the very edge of a stream splashing and dashing
+over its pebbly bed, and curving round tiny meadows just large enough
+to serve as a stand for some huge walnut tree. The soft mist they had
+seen from above, now they were in it, only intensified the blueness of
+the shadows or the gold of the sunlight following the contours of the
+hills. Down in the hollows the maiden-hair fern grew like a forest, out
+in the open great turk's-cap lilies rose higher than the blue and white
+columbines, and in every cranny the potentilla hung out its bunches of
+scarlet, tasteless, strawberry-like fruit.
+
+Side by side they strolled for a mile or more, along a level grassy
+path, as if there were no such thing as effort in the world, as if
+civilisation and comfort, dinner and bed, all the necessaries of life
+in fact, did not lie two thousand feet or so over their heads.
+
+'This way, I'm afraid,' said Lewis at last, turning his pony into a
+road joining the path at right angles; an engineered road with drains
+and retaining walls, scientific, uninteresting, guiltless of ups and
+downs, facing the ascent evenly.
+
+'Oh dear!' cried Rose in tones of regret. And then they both laughed.
+But the peace of the valley went with them, so that their gay chatter
+echoed up the zigzagging road to where glimpses of a _dandy_ toiling on
+ahead showed through the trees. Its occupant looking downwards could
+see them far below, the girl in front, the man behind, their voices
+becoming clearer and clearer, until just at the last turn where the
+zigzag merged into the high road, each careless word was distinctly
+audible as they came scrambling up below the retaining wall, which at
+this point carried the branch to its junction with the main road. Gwen
+Boynton's hand closed tight on the shaft of her _dandy_, partly in
+sympathy with her thoughts, partly because the coolies swung round the
+last corner sharply. The wall, which was not two feet high at the first
+turn sloped rapidly up to some fifteen feet before ending in the one
+which supported the big road. As is usually the case, it was built in
+steps or terraces giving the required slant of support. Just as the
+_dandy_ was at the turn of the road a horseman, followed by two mounted
+orderlies, came clattering along it; perhaps this frightened Rose's
+pony; perhaps the sudden swerve of the _dandy_ to get out of the
+new-comer's way just as the girl was about to pass it, actually forced
+her mount into shying and backing. Anyhow, it did. There was a
+struggle, a rattle of stones over the edge, a slip, then a jerk back as
+the beast found a momentary foothold for its hind legs on the narrow
+step some two feet down. A cry of dismay broke from the spectators--for
+with the next movement a fall backwards seemed inevitable--but it ended
+in one of relief, as Rose wheeled the pony clear round with swift
+decision, and giving it a cut with her whip leapt into the road below.
+It was a bold stroke for life instead of death, and as the pony came on
+its knees with the shock, it seemed for an instant as if both it and
+its rider must go rolling over and over down the side of the hill. The
+next they had both struggled to their feet, and stood quivering all
+over, but safe and absolutely unhurt. Lewis, who had pulled up at the
+corner aghast with impotent horror, was back beside them, almost
+incoherent in his relief and admiration.
+
+'And--and--I only had a snaffle,' said Rose with a tremulous laugh not
+far removed from tears. She felt it imperative, if she were to be calm,
+that they should descend to commonplace at once, being aided in this by
+Dalel Beg, who having reined in at the sight of a disaster for which he
+was partly responsible, was now standing by Gwen's _dandy_ oblivious of
+apology.
+
+'Shahbash. Well done indeed. Pretty! pretty. You are rippin' rider,
+Miss Tweedie. If you race, you win like Gordon. Aha! Gordon. I
+congratulate you for lucky accident of paint. That Crosbie take me in
+also. He swore it was foul, Mrs. Boynton, and I thought I saw foul--you
+believe that, eh, Gordon?'
+
+Lewis, to whom the temporising decision of the judges, that foul or no
+foul, Mr. Crosbie was out of it by having been at the wrong side of
+some post at some part of the course, had been irritating, scowled up
+at the group above.
+
+'I am sure you saw foul,' he replied. 'Now, Miss Tweedie, if you
+please. The beast is all right and the sooner you get home for a quiet
+rest the better.'
+
+He was so occupied with the shock to her that he scarcely seemed to
+realise that it must have been one to his cousin also, though Rose as
+she passed paused to say that she was absolutely unhurt and that it was
+nobody's fault but her own for riding an unsteady pony on the hills.
+They had gone on nearly half a mile before she recollected George
+Keene's message.
+
+'I don't see the necessity for going back at all,' said Lewis crossly,
+'but since you are so determined to obey orders, I'll go. If you ride
+on at a reasonable pace I'll catch you up again in no time---- What was
+it he left in her _dandy_?'
+
+'His watch,' called Rose after him.
+
+As he galloped back his temper was none of the best. He objected to a
+great many things. To George's familiarity with Gwen, to Rose's
+familiarity with George, and as he came on the _dandy_, to Dalel Beg's
+familiarity with it; for the Mirza had dismounted and was walking along
+with his hand on the shaft--just like an Englishman. The sight enlarged
+the focus of Lewis's displeasure, making it include Gwen.
+
+'It was only a message from Keene,' he said curtly in reply to her
+welcoming smile. 'He asked Miss Tweedie to tell you, but she forgot; so
+I came back. He put his watch in your _dandy_ to keep it safe.'
+
+'His watch!' echoed Gwen, feeling at the same time among the cushions.
+'Yes! here it is. Lewis! what am I to do with it? Won't you take it?'
+For, without drawing rein he had turned his pony and was riding off. He
+looked back carelessly.
+
+'Keep it, I suppose, till Keene comes to claim it. That won't be long.'
+
+As he rounded the next curve in the road, Mrs. Boynton and Dalel Beg
+were left face to face with George Keene's watch between them. It had a
+Chubb's key attached to the chain, and Dalel Beg's eyes, as he stood
+beside the _dandy_, clothed in a green velvet coat and European
+rowdyism, were attached to the key. Gwen's were on Lewis's retreating
+figure, and there was real jealousy and anger at her heart.
+
+An hour and a half later, George, galloping the hired pony along the
+Mall after the manner of very young men on hired ponies, pulled up at
+the side of Mrs. Boynton's _dandy_ in pleased surprise.
+
+'I'm so glad!' she exclaimed before he could say a word; 'there is your
+watch.'
+
+As she handed it over to him their eyes met, and his took an expression
+of concern.
+
+'I'm afraid your headache is very bad. You should have been at home
+hours ago.'
+
+'On the contrary, it is better,' she replied quickly. 'I came by the
+low road and dawdled. Besides, I had to call at the dressmaker's, and
+she kept me waiting for ages. By the way, Colonel Tweedie says you are
+to have another week's leave----'
+
+'So his daughter told me. How good you both are to me! Only, Hodinuggur
+will be worse than ever--afterwards.'
+
+He would have liked to say 'after Paradise,' but he refrained. She gave
+a nervous little laugh.
+
+'Don't think of it yet. I hate thinking. It does no good, for one never
+knows what mayn't happen. You are safe for a week, anyhow.'
+
+As she lay awake that night in defiance of her own wisdom, thinking
+over the matter in all its bearings, she told herself that he was safe
+for more than a week. Every one was safe. At the worst, Dan might lose
+his promotion, but even that would be no unmixed evil if it forced him
+into independence. Indeed, if he knew of her worries, of the snare laid
+for her, of the covert hints about an _esclandre_ involving both him
+and George Keene which were wearing her to death, he would gladly
+sacrifice something for the sake of safety. If by any chance the sluice
+were to be opened during that week of absence, how it would simplify
+the whole business! And, after all, what had she done? nothing. Surely
+a woman might go and see her dressmaker sometimes and leave her _dandy_
+outside? Was it her fault if the dressmaker lived in a house close to
+the bazaar in full view of Manohar Lal's shop? Was it her fault if the
+coolies slipped away to smoke their hookahs? Was it her fault that the
+key of the sluice was behind the cushions of the _dandy_, and that
+Dalel Beg knew it was there? What had she done? What had she said?
+Nothing. Had she not set aside the Mirza's suggestion that she should
+look in on Manohar Lal's new jewelry on her way home, by saying that
+she had no time, that she must go to the dressmaker's? Had she not
+hitherto refused to listen to hints or threats? Had she not even defied
+Manohar Lal? And now would it really be her fault if any one had taken
+advantage of her absence? Gwen turned her face into the pillow and
+moaned helplessly, telling herself that never was woman before so beset
+by misfortune. She had meant no harm, yet George had given her the pot,
+and Dan had taken the jewels to Manohar Lal's. There was no proof, of
+course, but the _esclandre_ would kill her, and that must be averted at
+all costs.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Mrs. Boynton was physically incapable of being constant to anything
+disagreeable, even to her own thoughts. The love of ease which came
+uppermost in her made it impossible; so, as she sat waiting for George
+Keene on the following evening, she had forgotten the vague remorses
+and regrets which had assailed her the night before. All she chose to
+remember was the fact that both George and Dan would be away from
+Hodinuggur _if anything happened_. What more could any one ask from one
+in her position? She made a pretty picture in the pretty room. A wood
+fire blazed on the hearth, a scent of English flowers filled the air.
+Everything, from the books on the table to the graceful figure in white
+satin and pearls on the wicker chair, told a tale of delicacy and
+refinement, of what it is the fashion nowadays to call culture. On the
+mantelpiece, among a Noah's Ark of china beasts, and supported by a
+placid brass Buddha, George Keene's sketch of the dust-storm, the
+_kikar_-tree, and the rat-hole, struck a dissonant note in the general
+harmony; but Gwen's ears were too much attuned to content for her to
+notice it. Briefly, she was full of solid relief; not only because
+escape from a tight corner seemed assured, but that such relief had
+come in the nick of time. For Lewis Gordon had been over to tea, saying
+things which made it imperative that something definite should be
+settled about Dan's promotion and prospects. Saying, for instance, that
+he was growing sick of doing orderly duty at the Tweedies, house, and
+wanted one of his own. That she needed a firm hand to prevent her
+wasting her pension on _pari mutuels_, and beneath these jesting
+complaints she had seen real discontent and a determination for change
+in the future. And was he not right? Her whole mind gave its assent to
+his wisdom. What an unspeakable relief it would be to find herself back
+in a straight path; not only for her own sake, but for the sake of
+others--of those two especially whom she had implicated all
+unwittingly. But for them she would have defied the plotters; but for
+them she would never have stooped to flatter Dalel Beg, and take shawls
+and ornaments at nominal prices from Manohar Lal; to do any of those
+things, in short, with which their covert hints had forced her to rivet
+the chain which bound her to deceit. At least so she told herself, but
+then she was a proficient in the art of playing the thimble trick on
+her own mind, and, as often as not, was really incapable of saying
+where the motive power of her own actions lay. So, as she sat in the
+wicker chair waiting for George Keene, she felt quite virtuous over the
+sacrifice of her own honourable instincts on the shrine of friendship.
+Even if _anything did happen_, all real blame would lie with Colonel
+Tweedie for allowing both George and Dan to be absent; but what was
+blame to the head of a Department? It slipped from him like water from
+a duck's back. And then, in regard to the water itself? Even Lewis
+allowed that the poor people might just as well have it as not----'
+
+'Keene sahib _salaam deta_,' said the servant, interrupting her
+soliloquy of smooth things. She rose with outstretched hand and kindly
+smile.
+
+'Punctual as ever. We shall be in time for number two----' then she
+paused abruptly in careless surprise. George, who had been told off as
+escort during the three-mile _dandy_ ride to the Town Hall, was still
+in his light morning suit. Smart enough in his new shirts and ties, and
+with a carnation in his buttonhole, but still scarcely in the costume
+for a bachelors' ball. 'What is the matter? Aren't you coming?' she
+asked quickly as he stood silent yet disturbed, for the sight of her
+always had the nature of an electric shock upon him.
+
+'To see you so far, of course. To the ball? I'm afraid not. You see I
+have to start to-night.'
+
+'Start? Where?
+
+'For Hodinuggur; where else?' He spoke lightly, but his face
+contradicted his tone. When is it a light matter to leave Paradise?
+
+'Nonsense!' broke in Gwen sharply, startled out of all save negation.
+'You must not go.'
+
+'Must, I'm afraid,' he echoed, and his voice was a trifle unsteady.
+'You see,' he went on more confidently, 'I ought never to have taken
+that offer of extra leave. I knew it at the time, but I thought Dan
+would stop, and the temptation---- However, I'm off now.'
+
+'Now?' she echoed in her turn, still lost in her surprise.
+
+'To-night I mean. Of course I have no chance of a tonga, so I must go
+by dhooli. It is a bore, but it can't be helped.'
+
+The phrase seemed to bolster up his manliness, and he smiled at her.
+Such a pleasant-faced boy! so clean, so wholesome, so full of promise
+for the future. A pang shot through Gwen's heart at the sight of him
+and roused quick opposition to unlucky chance.
+
+'But why? It isn't as if you were keeping him--I mean Mr. Fitzgerald.
+We settled all that; he goes back to Rajpore all the same.'
+
+'So Gordon told me this afternoon. That is why I must return--the place
+can't be left alone, of course.' As he stood leaning against the
+mantelpiece his eye caught his own sketch, and he took it up half
+mechanically. 'To think I shall be back in that hole the day after
+to-morrow,' he said with a short laugh. He felt very sore, yet
+determined to face his pain in dignified fashion. 'Meanwhile,' he
+added, 'you must not be late. Is that your cloak?'
+
+The futility of being tactful, even for your most familiar friends, was
+being borne in upon Gwen Boynton with the remembrance of her own
+certainty that Dan Fitzgerald's return to Rajpore must be necessary to
+the lad's acceptance of the leave. And here he was declaring it to be
+the stumbling-block! The thought sapped the very foundation of her
+general security, and made the results which this change in his plans
+might produce in hers strike her confusedly. She set aside the wrap he
+held out, with quite a tremulous hand.
+
+'You are very foolish. Nobody wants you to go. Even Dan----'
+
+'Perhaps,' he interrupted, feeling set up, as it were, by her evident
+regret. 'But, if anything were to go wrong, you know, I should never
+forgive myself.'
+
+The words were to a certain extent quite meaningless to him; he did not
+even seriously contemplate the possibility they suggested and yet they
+roused her fears, her regrets.
+
+'But if anything were to go wrong,' she answered, forgetting caution in
+her eagerness, 'it would be better you should be away. Surely you must
+see that it would be better for you both to be away--if--if _anything
+should happen_.'
+
+He smiled indulgently. 'But nothing can happen if I am there. And it
+means such a lot to Dan. I think I told you that he is engaged to a
+girl----'
+
+'Yes! yes! I know; I know. But, as I said, if I were the girl----' She
+broke off hurriedly, then began again. 'George, what has that to do
+with the question? Nothing will happen, of course, and then you will
+have lost your pleasure for nothing. Don't go! It is foolish. It is
+unkind--when we all want you to stay--when I want you--I do indeed--you
+will stay, won't you, George?--just to please me.'
+
+To do her justice, she seldom stooped to use her own personal charm as
+she did then, wilfully; but the case was urgent--the boy must not go.
+George stared at her incredulously for a moment. 'Don't,' he said in a
+low voice; 'please don't.'
+
+'But it is true, George,' she went on, laying her hand on his arm. 'I
+do want you to stay; I do indeed.'
+
+His hand met hers suddenly, almost unconsciously, to fall away from it
+again in a gesture of quick renunciation.
+
+'No! no!' he began in the same low tones, 'it isn't true--how can it be
+true?' Then his whole nature seemed to cast reserve aside, and his
+voice rose passionately. 'Why should you care? I have never thought you
+could--never--I swear to you never! How could I? Do you not see it is
+only what you are to me, not what I am to you? What does that matter?
+But for the other--for what you have been, and are, and will be all my
+life?--Ah! that is different--Yet you know that! well enough--you must
+know--for I can't tell it--not even to you.'
+
+And there, English boy as he was, she saw him on his knee stooping to
+kiss the hem of her garment. It was cut in the latest fashion, full
+round the edge, and bordered by pearls of great size. They might have
+been of great price also--the Hodinuggur pearls, for instance--and
+George been none the wiser. He saw nothing but a blaze of light through
+the open gates of heaven showing him a woman, transfigured, glorified?
+And she? There was nothing before her eyes save a boy at her feet--a
+very ordinary boy, whose every-day admiration she had accepted
+carelessly; yet it was she who, covering her face with her hands,
+shrank back as if blinded.
+
+'Don t,' she cried in sharp accents of pain. 'You don't know--I--I
+don't like it.'
+
+He was on his feet again in an instant, blushing, confused. 'I--I beg
+your pardon,' he stammered. 'I don't know what induced me to--to behave
+like--like a fool.'
+
+In sober truth he did not, being all unused to self-analysis, and far
+too young to understand his own instinctive recoil from the cheap
+cajolery which had caused his outburst. But she was older; she
+understood. He would not let her stoop, and yet--ah, God! how low she
+had stooped already! So the emotion she had wantonly provoked in him
+caught her and swept her from her feet.
+
+'Oh, George!' she cried, coming a step nearer and thrusting her hands
+into his as if to hold him fast and make him listen. 'It was a mistake!
+I meant no harm--no harm to any one--least of all to you.'
+
+'No harm!' he echoed blankly. 'What harm have you done?'
+
+She looked at him, realising her own imprudence, yet for all that not
+sufficiently mistress of herself for caution. A worse woman than she
+might have kept silence; but she could not. The shame, the dread of
+betraying the lad who trusted her so utterly forced her on.
+
+'Don't ask, George!' she pleaded. 'I can't tell you--indeed there is
+nothing to tell. Only you must not go down to Hodinuggur now. Believe
+me, it is better you should not. I can give you no reason, but it is
+so. Don't go, George, for my sake.
+
+'For your sake,' he echoed, still more blankly. 'Why? I don't
+understand--Mrs. Boynton, I----' He paused; his hand went up in a
+fierce gesture, and came down in still fiercer clasp on the
+mantelpiece. His eyes left her face, shifting their startled,
+incredulous gaze to his own grim jest leaning against the brass Buddha.
+'Unless--unless----'
+
+There was a dead silence.
+
+'If there is anything to tell,' he said at last, 'tell it me for God's
+sake; it would be better--than this. Why am I to stay?--for your sake.'
+
+Tell! How could she tell the horrible truth; and yet if he knew all he
+might be able to help. Then the need of support, the craving for
+sympathy, which at all times make it hard for a woman in trouble to
+keep her own counsel, fought against the evasion suggested by caution.
+
+'Oh, George! I meant no harm--I did not, indeed.' The weak appeal for
+mercy, which presages so many a miserable confession, struck cold to
+the lad's heart. He walked over to the table and flung himself into a
+chair, hiding his face in his clasped hands.
+
+'You had better tell me everything,' he said in a muffled voice. 'Then
+I shall know what to do--don't be afraid--it--it won't make any
+difference.'
+
+Once more his words roused her self-scorn and made her forget herself
+for a time. 'But it must make a difference, I want it to make a
+difference,' she cried hotly, crossing to the table in her turn, and
+seating herself opposite him. 'Yes! I will tell you. It is the only
+thing to be done now.'
+
+She was never a woman given to sobs and tears, and even through the
+shame of it all, there was a relief in telling the tale.
+
+'Yes! yes!' he said once, interrupting that ever recurring plea of her
+own innocence of evil intent, 'of course you meant no harm. So you took
+the jewels and sold them to Manohar Lal for six thousand rupees.'
+
+The fact, recounted in his hard, hurt voice, seemed to strike her in
+its true light for the first time, and she looked up wildly from the
+resting-place her head had found upon her bare crossed arms.
+
+'Did 11, she asked, pushing the curls from her forehead. 'Yes, I
+suppose I did. It seems incredible now. Oh, George, what shall I do?
+what shall I do?'
+
+It did seem incredible, and yet his fears as to what she might yet have
+to tell him, proved his credence of what he had already heard.
+
+'You had better go on,' he answered dully. 'I can't say what is to be
+done till I have heard all.'
+
+The sound of his own voice shocked him. Was it possible that he was
+sitting calmly listening to such a story from her lips and asking her
+to go on? The curse of the commonplace seemed to settle upon him,
+depriving him even of his right to passionate emotion.
+
+'Is that all?' he asked wearily, when she had told him of everything
+save the empty _dandy_ waiting outside the dressmaker's shop. His
+question came more from the desire to help her along should there be
+more to tell than from curiosity or fear. Since, from the very
+beginning, he had been vexedly conscious of his own relief in
+remembering that she had returned his watch and chain before she had
+even reached home.
+
+The query, however, roused in her a sudden fierce resentment against
+her own humiliation. Every syllable of that story, now that it was
+told, seemed an outrage on that love of smooth things which was her
+chief characteristic, and a sort of vague wonder at her own confidence
+made her answer swiftly.
+
+'That is all I know. Is it not enough?' After all, it was true; what
+more was there to tell save the barest possibilities?
+
+Her reply left George face to face with action, yet he sat on silent,
+unable even to speak. At last he rose, and crossing to where she leant
+face downwards over the table, stood beside her with quivering lips. 'I
+am sorry,' he began, then stopped before the fatuity of his own words.
+
+'Do you think I am not sorry too?' she broke in recklessly, raising
+herself to look him full in the eyes. 'I wish I were dead--if that
+would help; but it won't. Something must be done; and done at once.
+George! Why should you go down? To stay is so simple, and it will hurt
+no one--believe me, it is best--best for us all.'
+
+She was back to the position she had taken up before her appeal to his
+passion had recoiled upon herself, but he could not follow her so far,
+and he gave a bitter laugh.
+
+'For you and for me, no doubt. But for Dan? Remember what the possible
+loss of promotion means to him. Besides, I have promised. No! I must go
+down, that much is certain.'
+
+'And after?'
+
+For the life of him he could not tell. He seemed unable to think of any
+course of action save the palpably proper one of going straight to the
+Chief and telling him of the plot laid against the sluice-gate. His
+instinct for this remaining clear and well defined amid all the
+confusion. As he stood silent, almost sullen, she laid her hand
+quickly on his arm. 'You will not be rash, George--for my sake you will
+not----'
+
+'Whatever I do will be for your sake,' he said unsteadily.
+
+'And you must not be angry with me. Indeed and indeed, I meant no harm
+at first, and afterwards I was so frightened; so afraid for you all.
+Oh, don't be angry with me, George.'
+
+He set her hand aside with a hopeless gesture, and turned away to hide
+the tears in his eyes. She did not understand, and a great dumbness was
+upon him. He could say nothing. After all, what was there to say? She
+had done this thing, meaning no harm, and he must save her, and
+himself, and Dan from the consequences, somehow. He took out his watch
+mechanically and looked at the time. Barely ten o'clock! So it was
+possible to destroy heaven and earth in half an hour!
+
+'It is time you were going,' he said, in quite a commonplace tone. 'I
+can see you so far. You had better go. Gordon--and the others--might
+wonder.'
+
+It was the first time he had ever hinted at the supposition that some
+definite tie existed between her and her cousin; this, and his cynical
+acceptance of the fact that in the tragedy of life action must be
+swayed by the desire of the spectators as much as by the emotions of
+the actors themselves, brought home to Gwen her crime against the boy's
+youth, and for the first time she broke into a sob.
+
+'Oh, George! why did I do it? why did I do it?'
+
+Why, indeed? A pitiable thing, surely, to stand silent without an
+answer. Pitiable also for the woman, forced by considerations into
+self-control. Into bathing her face, possibly powdering it, certainly
+re-arranging the pretty artful curls, and so setting off through the
+dark night to the Town Hall, as if nothing had happened. For what loss
+of liberty is comparable to that entailed on the possessor of a fringe
+which will come out of curl, even with the damp of tears?
+
+The first clouds of the coming monsoon were drawn over the heads of the
+hills like an executioner's cap, and George, riding the hired pony
+behind the _dandy_, felt as if he were following the funeral of a faith
+condemned to death. A dreary little procession this, despite its goal,
+as it wound its way between the dark chasm of the valleys on the one
+side and the dark shadow of the hills on the other. And then, like some
+enchanted palace set between earth and sky, that pile upon the ridge
+sending long beams of light and fitful snatches of dance-music across
+the ravines came into view; so familiar, yet so strange. So were the
+twinkling lamps, the crowd of _rickshaws_ and _dandies_ blocking up the
+angles and arches, the red carpet in the porch, the red streak of baize
+climbing up the white stairs.
+
+He kept that pearl-edged hem of her garment from the dust till she
+reached them.
+
+'Have you settled what you are going to do?' she asked in a low voice,
+as he held out his hand to say good-bye. He shook his head.
+
+'I'll settle it somehow, you needn't be afraid.'
+
+'I am not afraid. But, if the worst comes to the worst, I will not let
+others suffer for my fault. So be careful--for my sake.'
+
+'Whatever I do will be for your sake--you know that.'
+
+He stood watching her go up the stairs; up and up, until the last trail
+of that hem disappeared amid the coloured lamps and flowers. That was
+the end of it all!--of all save Hodinuggur and the desire to kill
+somebody. First of all, however, there must be safety for her; and that
+might be secured by money. During that three miles' ride his thoughts
+had been busy over possibilities, and one of them made him turn the
+hired pony's nose towards Manohar Lal's shop instead of homewards.
+There was no power in India like the power of rupees, he thought; and
+they--with the Club still open and half a dozen young fellows as
+reckless as oneself ready to back the chance of one living to pay just
+debts--were not difficult to borrow for a month or two. Especially when
+there was something--not much--but still a few hundred pounds or so to
+come when the dear old governor---- George choked down a sob in a curse
+at the hired pony for stumbling over the ill-paved alley.
+
+The dawn had broken when the patient beast pulled up for the last time
+by the verandah of Colonel Tweedie's house. A drowsy servant dozed
+against the long coffin-like dhooli, the bearers crouched outside,
+nodding in a circle round a solitary hookah.
+
+'The Huzoor having lost chance of the mail, may perhaps delay till
+eve,' suggested the half-roused torch-bearer, mechanically corking up
+his useless bottle of oil at the sight of the growing glow in the east.
+
+George, his face flushed yet haggard, stood for an instant looking over
+the pine woods to where, had the light been stronger, he might have
+seen the angle of a little house among the trees. After all, why should
+he not stop now, if only to see her gratitude? Twelve hours, delay was
+not much, especially when she was safe. Why need that be his last sight
+of her going up the stairs with the pearls----pearls!--
+
+An hour afterwards, when the sun tipped over the lower hills to make
+the morning glories, festooned from rock to rock, open their eyes, they
+opened them upon the coffin-like dhooli going rapidly down hill to the
+accompaniment of shuffles and grunts, and recurring protestations that
+the sahib was '_do mun puccka_.'[4] If the heaviness of heart could
+have been measured, George might have weighed a ton.
+
+Even at the best of times the descent from the cool hills to the hot
+plains is never easy, and in this case paradise lay behind, purgatory
+in front.
+
+'I am so sorry Mr. Keene has gone,' said Rose Tweedie at breakfast. 'I
+shall miss him dreadfully.' Lewis Gordon's eyebrows went up
+superciliously.
+
+'No doubt; but he was right to go, in more ways than one.'
+
+Colonel Tweedie, busy over a virtuous plate of porridge and milk which
+in some mysterious way he regarded as a sign of youth, gave his
+preliminary cough.
+
+'I scarcely agree with you, Gordon. In my opinion there is--er--a
+savour--of--of insubordination; or, not to speak so strongly--a--a want
+of respect, in this sudden departure. Of course, the zeal and the--the
+desire to do his duty--are pleasing, very pleasing in so young a man.
+At the same time, a little more confidence in--er--the judgment of----'
+
+'Mr. Gordon wasn't thinking of that, father,' interrupted the girl,
+with her grey eyes showing some scorn for both her companions; 'he
+meant to imply that George--Mr. Keene--was better away from Simla.'
+
+'Your perspicacity does you credit, Miss Tweedie; I did mean it. He has
+been going rather fast, and will be none the worse of saving up some
+more rupees at Hodinuggur.'
+
+'If he had the money to spend, I don't see why he shouldn't spend it in
+having a good time,' she retorted quickly. 'He won't ask you to pay the
+bills, will he?'
+
+'Hope not, I'm sure; but the bearer brought quite a little pile of them
+to me this morning by mistake.'
+
+Rose bit her lip. 'Perhaps you will be kind enough to tell your man to
+put them back into Mr. Keene's room. I'll forward them when I write.
+Are you coming with me to the Grahams, this afternoon, father?'
+
+But Colonel Tweedie was not to be diverted from the
+Head-of-the-Department frown he had been preparing.
+
+'I am sorry to hear it. To say the least, it is bad taste to--to----'
+
+'Leave I.O.U's instead of P.P.C.'s,' remarked Lewis flippantly. 'But
+really, sir, I don't see how he could help it, after all. He had to go
+in such a hurry.'
+
+'I deny the necessity,' continued the Colonel pompously. 'I fail to see
+any just cause for setting his opinion against that of--of his elders
+and superiors.'
+
+'Unless he had private reasons of his own,' suggested his daughter.
+
+'My dear Rose, a public servant can have no private reasons.'
+
+There was an epigrammatic flavour about the remark which, to the
+Colonel's ears, completely covered its absolute want of sense. He felt
+vaguely that he had said something clever, and that it might be as well
+to let it close the subject, which he did by answering the previous
+question as to whether he would go to the Grahams'. Certainly, if it
+did not rain; but the barometer was falling fast, and a telegram had
+come to the office that morning to say the monsoon had broken with
+unusual violence at Abu. It might be expected north at any moment. On
+which the two men fell to talking about dams and escapes, inundations,
+cuts, and such like things, while Rose sat silent, indignant with
+Lewis, yet disturbed at the confirmation his hints gave of her own
+fears. George had been reckless, there could be no doubt of that. Had
+not one of her partners last night told her that he had left George
+playing poker at the Club but half an hour before? George who had
+declared he had not time to put in an appearance at the ball!
+
+When breakfast was over she went into the lad's empty room for the
+bills, and took the opportunity of giving a housewifely glance round to
+see if nothing had been left behind or taken away in the hurry. The
+former, certainly, for there was the bottom drawer quite full;--old
+shirts and ties, a rather battered pot-hat, and beneath the whole a
+picture.
+
+She stood looking at it blankly. What a very odd coincidence! The girl
+of her dream! The girl with the quaint dress and the Ayodhya pot
+clasped to her breast. Why had George brought it up to Simla and never
+showed it to any one? Why, when the pot was stolen, had he said nothing
+about the girl? though, on the other hand, she herself had kept silence
+about her dream. She puzzled over it for some time; at last, finding
+certainty on but one point--namely, that for some reason or another
+George had wished to keep the picture secret--she took it away to her
+own room. For she was of those who regard unspoken wishes on the part
+of a friend to be quite as binding as any they may express.
+
+Just about the same time Gwen Boynton, still in her bed, was looking at
+something else George had left behind him, but this had only been an
+envelope carefully addressed to her. It contained two pieces of paper
+signed by Manohar Lal. One was a receipt for a diamond necklace, on
+which Rs. 6000 had been lent. The other, of later date, giving a
+quittance in full for the same sum plus interest.
+
+How simple! Why had she never thought of such a plan before? But where
+could she have raised the money necessary to buy freedom? Besides--she
+buried her face among the pillows in vain desire to shut out the
+conviction which rushed in on her, as she recognised that if the
+plotters had gained what they wanted from the empty _dandy_ outside the
+dressmaker's house, they would naturally be quite ready to deal with
+George and take money for a security they were already pledged to give.
+Which, in fact, they would have given, since the canons regulating
+bribery in India are strict in regard to value returned for value
+received. Every penny, therefore, of the money George must have paid
+for these papers, was so much clear unexpected gain to Manohar Lal _if
+the plotters had already attained their object_.
+
+Still she was safe, and even if anything happened nobody could blame
+George. Now she had had time to consider the whole bearings of the
+matter she told herself such blame was impossible; while as for
+Dan----! If he would only leave Government service and make money, she
+was ready to marry him to-morrow! She had woven a conscience-proof
+garment for herself out of the old hair-splitting arguments long before
+George's dhooli had reached the level plain. When it did, the clouds
+had banked themselves against the higher hills, shutting out the boy's
+farewell glance. As he climbed into the country gig in which forty
+miles of dusty road had to be covered, the barometer was falling fast,
+and the driver remarked cheerfully, that when the rain came, the
+cholera would increase. It had been bad at the third stage that day,
+and one of the coolies belonging to the Government bullock train had
+died on the road about five miles farther on. The sahib might perhaps
+still see the body lying there.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+The last twelve hours before the advancing rains break over your
+particular portion of the fiery furnace!--who can describe them? Who,
+having once endured them, can need description as an aid to memory? The
+world one incarnate expectation, blistering, parched, like the tongue
+of Dives. The heavenly drop of water for which you long, squandered on
+the hot air, moist with a vanguard of vapour, so that the breath you
+draw is even as the breath you exhale. If indeed you breathe at all; if
+indeed by sensation of touch or temperature you can differentiate
+yourself from the sodden heat of all things, or get rid of the
+conviction that, like the devils in a still hotter place, you are an
+integral part of the business!
+
+And Hodinuggur on this sodden July day had small hope of future
+improvement to lighten the burden of the present, for it stood on the
+edge of the rainless tract, in the debatable land of meteorological
+reporters. Not more than a shower or two from that south-westerly
+column of cloud was due to bring up its scanty average of rainfall,
+which came, for the most part, from electrical dust-storms and such
+like turbulent, undisciplined outbreaks. So the heat lay over it
+hopelessly, and even the peasant patiently awaiting the return of the
+smith to mend his ploughshare, did so more from habit than from any
+expectation of needing the tool in any immediate future. After all,
+waiting was his chief occupation in life. Waiting for something to
+grow, or for something to be reaped; waiting for some one to be born or
+for some one to die. So, the smith being absent over some work for the
+palace, why should he not be waited for even though the sun was setting
+red behind the heat-haze? For one thing, it would be cooler to tramp
+home with the ploughshare over your shoulder. A tall, grave, bearded
+man was the peasant, sitting with his back against the wall, his hands
+hanging listlessly between his knees. The painted girl on the balcony
+above looked down and told him the news, calling him father,
+respectfully. No question of her trade here, with this dweller in the
+fields; only a pious 'God keep us all,' ere she became voluble over
+Shumshere the zither-player's seizure by cholera that morning as he lay
+fighting quails in the street. Doubtless he was dying, now the sun was
+setting; any moment the wail might arise from that seventh arch down
+the colonnade where he lodged. Whereat the long beard below wagged
+slowly over the fact that the Great Sickness had visited the hamlet
+also, bidding a crony or two wait no longer for anything; not even for
+ploughshares or rain. And then to solace themselves both courtesan and
+peasant quenched their thirst on huge chunks of water-melon, bought for
+a cowrie from the heap of green and red fruit which had just been shot
+off a donkey's back into the dust at one corner of the Mori gate; the
+donkey meanwhile browsing unrebuked at the edges of the pile.
+
+'Ari! father! There it is. Did I not say so?' remarked the painted one,
+pausing, as a low moan rising to a banshee skirl broke the sodden
+stillness of the air.
+
+'Ram! Ram!' ejaculated the peasant piously. 'It is a bad year for sure,
+rain or no rain.'
+
+So, having finished his water-melon, he broke a morsel of opium from
+the lump he carried in a fold of his turban, rolled it under his tongue
+and dozed off, still propped up against the wall. And the sunset faded
+leaving the world hotter than ever, though in the crypt beneath the
+staircase of the Mori gate the air was cooler than outside, despite the
+fire which flickered fitfully over the blackened arches. It flickered
+also on the silver bracelets circling Chandni's round brown arm as she
+lay curved across a string bed, her jingling feet swaying softly in
+tune with the tinsel fan she waved above the bold outlines of throat
+and bosom. And the fan, in its turn, kept time with the flicker of the
+fire, and the wheezing breath of a smith's bellows rousing the charcoal
+embers into dancing flame, or letting them die down to a dull red glow.
+
+'Thou art long, oh lohar-ji!' she said, looking backwards at the bare
+bronze figure crouching before a low anvil. 'All these hours to make a
+key--when thou hast a mould before thine eyes, too!'
+
+'True, oh mother! but the key is not as our father's keys, and
+the hand lacks cunning in new patterns. Lo! I had made one for the
+treasure-chest of kings in half the time. But there! 'tis done. See how
+it fits its bed like the seed of a pomegranate! God send it may do its
+work fairly and well!'
+
+'God send it may, for thy sake, smith-ji,' she replied carelessly.
+'Here, take the rupees, and have a care no key is forged to unlock thy
+tongue regarding this matter. The Diwan is old, but there are others
+behind him, and behind him again, and Chandni behind them all.'
+
+The reckless triumph of her words rang through the low arches, as she
+brought her feet to the ground with a clash.
+
+Five minutes afterwards she was looking down on a slender key lying in
+Zubr-ul-Zaman's nerveless hands.
+
+'I have won the prize,' she said; 'the pearls are mine.'
+
+The hands quivered, and the keen old eyes seemed to seek her out from
+head to foot, revelling in her beauty and her boldness. Then the light
+died out of them, the head sank again. 'The game is played,' he
+muttered. 'The game is played.'
+
+'Yea! it is played indeed.'
+
+The woman's contemptuous laugh echoed out into the dark night, through
+which George Keene, on a hired camel, was making his way across the
+desert. Not by the usual road, since that meant delay and Dan's
+questioning eyes at Rajpore, but by a side route, branching from the
+railway, farther to the south. A hot night, an intolerable smell of
+camel, dust in the eyes and nose and mouth, dust and ashes in the
+heart; in the endless darkness of all things even the twinkling lights
+of the palace seemed home-like and welcome to poor George, for though
+the consciousness of doing your duty soothes the mind, it is powerless
+before bodily discomfort; and George was wretchedly uncomfortable. To
+begin with, a high-paced camel driven at full speed is not an easy
+method of conveyance, nor does the necessity for having its unwashed
+attendant bumping in the after-saddle add to its charm, even though
+that saddle be to leeward of you--for which Heaven be thanked! And then
+the lad had had nothing to eat since a hastily-swallowed breakfast at a
+rest-house, save some smoked milk and a tough dough-cake brought him at
+the village where he changed camels. So, as he bumped through the
+silent night on the bubbling, breathing, silent-footed beast, with that
+silent breathing brute behind him, more than half George's slender hold
+on the joys of life lay in the prospect of supper, even though it must
+be one of the factotum's Barmecidal feasts. Such things defy the mind,
+especially when that mind is lodged in a young and healthy body. Thus
+while he could set his teeth over the remembrance of that half hour
+during which his world came to pieces in the hand, he could not prevent
+himself coming to pieces on the camel.
+
+It was a dark night indeed; so dark that the red-brick bungalow showed
+only by the white arches of its verandah; rising like a ghostly
+colonnade out of the shadow. The servants, houses too, were dark as the
+night itself, and silent as the grave. George, stepping stiffly into
+ankle-deep of yielding sand, called once, twice; then, giving in with
+irritation to his experience of native slumber, walked over in the
+direction of the cook-room. It was too sandy for snakes; besides,
+booted as he was, they could hardly reach him. Necessary thoughts these
+now that he was back in purgatory, with death for aught he knew coiled
+in the path and they came back to him naturally as part of the
+uncomfortable environment of life. He gave another call without the
+screen of tall grass sacred to the modesty of the compounder of egg
+_sarse_, and then impatiently set aside a mat at its entry.
+
+'They might as well be dead,' he muttered angrily, going up to a string
+bed in the centre of the little yard, whereon he could just distinguish
+a figure long enough to be a man.
+
+'Get up, you lazy brute!' cried George, shaking it by the shoulder.
+There was no answer, and he drew back hastily, shouting for some one,
+any one. A twinkling light showed from the stables, a drowsy
+exclamation rose from within the hut. So, out of the surrounding dark,
+came timorous steps, a hand bearing a cresset, a doubtful face or two
+peering at the intruder and yielding to surprised salaams; then
+suddenly breaking into garrulous clamour--'Ohi! ohi! 'Tis the Huzoor
+returned. And the Huzoor's faithful servant hath been summoned by the
+Lord. Lo! if the Huzoor had but come three hours ago there would still
+have been a kitmutghar (_lit_. worker) in his honour's house. But it
+was the Great Sickness, Huzoor, which waits not; all daylong ill in the
+Huzoor's cook-room, with great patience, and--Ohi! ohi! the sahib must
+be hungry, and lo! where is he who gave the Huzoor meats fit for his
+rank? Oh, my sister! Oh, bereaved one! Oh, widow! put thy grief from
+thee and prepare food for the master; in duty sorrow finds solace.'
+
+'Is--is he dead?' asked George, standing dazed, looking incredulously
+at the sheeted figure, dimly visible by the flickering rushlight. He
+had seen the man sleep thus dozens of times. At the question another
+sheeted figure, which had crept from the hut into the circle of
+light, broke into a gurgling cry: 'Ohi, _mere adme mur-gya--mere dil
+mur-gya--mur-gya_,'[5] and one or two later arrivals, in like disguise,
+crouched beside the voice, joining in the strange low whimper of the
+conventional wail. George fell back a step or two, repelled to his
+heart's core, shocked out of speech.
+
+'Weep not, oh widow!' snivelled the water-carrier, who, being the only
+Mohammedan male present, felt impelled to the duty of consoler. 'Didst
+not give him beef-tea? Ay! and barley-water likewise? even as the
+Huzoor when he was stricken. And did not the master arise to health
+thereby? Wherefore, is it not the will of God, plainly, that thy man
+should find freedom? Therefore place thy heart on comfort---- He will
+be buried at sunrise, Huzoor, so that the sahib will have no more
+annoyance; and by the fortune of the Most High, there is even now to be
+had without delay a servant who can cook--the one that is dead is as
+nothing to him--faithful to salt, having many certificates, mine own
+wife's cousin, a----'
+
+George, who by this time was half-way back to the dark house, cursed
+him and his wife's relations utterly; then bade him bring a light
+somehow. Meanwhile, scarcely conscious of what he was doing, the lad
+groped his way into the room where he had first seen her, and,
+stumbling against a chair, sat down mechanically, resting his head upon
+the back, over his crossed arms. Would the light never come? and when
+it came, what would it reveal? more dead men waiting to be roused? Oh,
+horrible--most horrible that remembrance of the limp---- No! no! he
+would not think of it. He would think of that other face asleep on the
+red cushions of the easy chair--but that was dead too--the face of a
+dead ideal. Ah! the light at last, thank God! and he could be sensible.
+
+Whatever it showed George, he showed it a mask terrible in its needless
+pain, ghastly in the hunted, shrinking look in the young eyes which
+used to be so bold. Even the water-carrier, dense as he was, saw it and
+understood vaguely.
+
+'This is a bad word that the Huzoor should return thus. It is not
+fitting his honour. If he had only waited till Fitzgerald sahib comes
+back----'
+
+'Comes back,' echoed George dully. 'Why should he come back?' Yet he
+knew quite well in his own mind that Dan also had judged it wrong to
+leave the fort unguarded as it were, and his mind wandered to the love
+he bore this man, while the water-carrier went on volubly about the
+sahib having gone in a hurry that morning and being very angry about
+something he had lost; something that the sahib's base-born personal
+attendant had said must have been stolen--as if----
+
+George, looking at all things with uncomprehending eyes, suddenly lost
+patience, cursed the speaker, quite quietly this time, and bade him go
+about his business.
+
+'Your honour's kitmutghar's widow can cook food if the Huzoor----'
+
+George did it a third time solemnly. When he was left alone, he glanced
+round quickly, as if uncertain of what the room might contain. The
+easy-chair with its red cushions; a bare bed--brought in, doubtless,
+for the sake of the larger room and cooler air--a dirty tablecloth on
+the table, littered with the crumbs and plates of Dan's last meal
+and left in slovenly native fashion to await deferred cleansing. A
+half-empty whisky-bottle and a water-surahi; that, at any rate, was
+something, and his hand went out to them instinctively. Even in his
+general confusion, however, the precepts of modern hygiene remaining
+clear, he deferred a drink till they brought him some tepid soda-water.
+Such precaution was necessary with cholera in the compound. Whatever
+else it may do, civilisation certainly intensifies the dread of death.
+The peasant and the courtesan had munched melons in the very shadow,
+but George's cultured nerves had no such courage. He was no coward, but
+he had received a shock which was bound to make its mark on the highly
+sensitised mind and body; bound to weaken them for the time.
+
+Ah! that was better! The room did not seem quite so dreary after the
+whisky and soda! Then he took another, and after that the outlook
+itself seemed less dreary, and he told himself that Dan had been right
+in saying that he, George, did not know the temptation of stimulants.
+Temptation?--if they brought you up to your bearings with a round turn
+in this fashion--Why! he felt twice the man he had been five minutes
+ago. Now he could think; now he could reason; now he could see clearly
+and decide what ought to be done. To begin with, she was safe. Those
+papers, joined to little Azizan's confession of having stolen the
+Ayodhya pot, made it quite impossible to prove she had ever known about
+the jewels. As for himself, that did not matter; though, as a fact, he
+was quite as safe as Dan. That is to say, the palace devils might raise
+a scandal, but the breakdown of their case in regard to her would show
+it was no more than revenge for their failure; for they would fail, of
+course. So far, nothing had happened. There was no water in the
+overflow cut; he had made sure of that as he rode along. And now that
+he was on the spot he could do quite as much, off his own bat, to
+prevent treachery as any one--the Colonel and all the Department to
+boot--could have done had he reported the whole affair. To-morrow the
+guard would be changed, and doubled to provide against any violent
+attempt; an unlikely event, as such an assault would take time, and he
+meant to pitch his tent down at the sluice so as to be on the spot at
+night, and during the day he could watch from the bungalow. Against
+other and more stealthy treachery he was also provided absolutely--so
+absolutely that he gave a short laugh as he drew a couple of Chubb's
+keys and a lock from his wallet. That would puzzle them if they came
+thinking they had hit on the old fastening. But that also was for
+to-morrow; there remained only to-night. No! not to-night; since
+already it was past one o'clock. What wonder that he was tired--did any
+one in the wide world know or care how tired? He stood up sharply,
+every vein tingling now; his whole mind aglow despite his weariness. He
+must have something to eat first, of course--his very determination
+insisted on that; but not from those plague-stricken purlieus out
+yonder--cautious civilisation insisted on that. There must be biscuits
+or something of that sort in the cupboard, and as he crossed over to it
+the memory of his raid while _she_ slept among the red cushions
+returned to make him laugh again.
+
+
+             'And when she went there
+              The cupboard was bare.'
+
+
+The childish doggerel fitted the occasion and left him smiling at some
+ship's biscuit--the last resource by sea or land--left at the bottom of
+a tin. Dan certainly _was_ a bad housekeeper. The comedy of his
+disappointment struck him; the tragedy, needing the sequel to develop
+it, remained invisible like a photograph in film-embryo.
+
+It was dry work, eating ship's biscuit in a fiery furnace, with a
+ten-pound thirst upon you and whisky and soda within reach. When he
+stood up again the weariness seemed to have crept upwards, leaving
+nothing alert save his brain. Had he ever been so tired in all his
+life? As tired as _she_ must have been when she fell asleep in the
+chair he was just passing. His hand lingered on the back of it for an
+instant, almost caressingly.
+
+By Jove! what a furnace it was outside! Lighter than it had been,
+however, because of the suggestion of a moon low down in the heat-haze.
+And there was the potter's lamp twinkling like a star above the domed
+shadow of the Hodinuggur mound. Queer old chap--queer start the whole
+thing--if one came to think of it. A crazy, irresponsible creator! as
+Dan had called him. Why not he as well as another? Who knew? who cared?
+
+He stood so for a space, looking out with sensitive, seeing eyes to the
+broad shadows, formless save for the pinpoint flicker of the potter's
+light. Face to face at last, he and Hodinuggur; between them the
+sliding water, mother of all things. Then came a memory.
+
+
+              'Hath not the Potter power over the Clay?'
+
+
+Ah! if that was all the light amid the shadows of life, better far were
+darkness! If that he turned quickly, beset by uncontrolled, passionate
+contempt, uncontrolled, passionate desire for action, and beneath his
+shaking hand the lamp on the table flared out, smokily. A poor protest;
+yet the dark was better. Darkness and rest--if rest could come to one
+so tired as he was, as it had come to her. Not that it mattered if he
+were tired or not----
+
+Five minutes after, the twinkling light, could it have reached so far,
+would have found him asleep, peaceful as a child, among the red
+cushions where _she_ had slept. But even Azizan's eyes, set keen as
+they were by devotion, could not pierce the darkness. For the light
+George had seen was in her hand, as she stood looking out from the yard
+towards the other bank of the canal.
+
+'It hath gone out again,' she murmured; 'a servant likely, on no good
+errand; and the old man tells me the truth, I think. Another week ere
+he returns. I would it had been sooner, so that I might warn him. But
+there! 'tis the same! The task is mine in the end.'
+
+As she crossed back to the hut, she paused an instant to look, by the
+light of the cresset she shaded with her thin fingers, on the figure of
+old Fuzl Elahi asleep in the open beside his wheel.
+
+'Poor fool,' she said softly, as if to the sleeper. And after that even
+the potter's light disappeared, leaving both sides of the sliding water
+to darkness.
+
+The dawn came and went; the sun climbing into the sky turned it to
+brass--a brazen dome in which the sun itself seemed merged and lost.
+Yet still George slept on, undisturbed even by the water-carrier's
+cautious peepings through the chick.
+
+'Lo! the Huzoor is young, and he was broken into pieces by thy bad
+animal,' he said to the camel man who was impatiently awaiting payment.
+'Sleep is even as food and drink to him, and besides, ere he wakes, my
+wife's cousin, whom I have sent for, will be present to cook my lord's
+breakfast. There is great virtue in being _majood_ (created), and the
+man who cooks one meal hath himself to blame if he cook not many. If
+thou art hurried, go. Who wants thee and thy evil-smelling brute?'
+
+So George slept on, and when he woke at last it was to the confused,
+unreasoning consciousness of those who have been drugged. He stared
+round him incredulously, until out of the mist, as it were, the empty
+whisky bottle on the table grew clear, accusingly clear, and he sprang
+to his feet, becoming aware, as he did so, of a racking headache.
+
+Undoubtedly he had taken more whisky than usual; not perhaps without
+excuse, he added, as memory began to return. The next instant he was at
+the door. Yellow haze and yellow heat, and through it a silver streak
+steering for the south!----
+
+That was all he saw, but that little changed the whole world for him in
+the twinkling of an eye. The sluice-gate was open. The devils had
+won--they had won!--they had won!
+
+What use is there in saying that he felt this, that he felt that? What
+use in pointing out whether anger or regret came uppermost in the
+conglomerate of passion? As a matter of fact, George felt nothing
+consciously; not even when, after an hour or more, he came back wearily
+to the red-hot bungalow, out of the red-hot air.
+
+He sat down then on the table, now cleared of last night's crumbs, and
+relaid by the wife's cousin with that superfluity which marks new zeal
+in India, and tried to think of what he had thought, or said, or done
+since he first caught sight of that silver streak steering southward
+where no streak should be. But, after a time, he found himself deeply
+interested in reconstructing the pyramid of five forks intertwined,
+with which the new hand had adorned the centre of the table. What a
+fool! what an arrant fool he was, to be sure. Even if there had been
+any one upon whom to use the revolver, he would most likely have lost
+his opportunity or missed the beggar! But there had been nobody, and he
+might as well have left it at home, lying on the table ready, as it was
+now. The sluice-gate, not ten minutes before he woke, had been opened
+by a key--a key which had broken in the lock, making it impossible to
+close it again till it was repaired. Of course there were the other
+keys and the new lock; but what need was there for hurry now? No power
+in earth or heaven could hide the fact that the sluice-gate had been
+open. For months to come, miles on miles of crop ripening to harvest
+would proclaim the failure, the treachery. 'As ye have sown so shall ye
+reap.' Concealment was impossible; that much was certain--and the
+certainty brought with it an odd sort of content. Since it was all his
+fault from beginning to end, it was as well he should suffer. Yes! it
+had been opened quietly while the guard was eating his dinner; opened
+quietly while he, George, was asleep; why not say drunk at once--that
+was nearer the truth.
+
+And the Diwan! George's listless hands tightened as he thought of that
+brief interview with the old man on the roof. His own torrent of
+reckless abuse, the courteous regrets and replies ignoring his very
+accusations. But those palace devils could afford to eat abuse!
+Zubr-ul-Zaman had played, and the game was done indeed. But how? Half
+mechanically George drew out the key attached to his watch-chain and
+looked at it; carelessly at first, then carefully. And what he saw
+there clinging to the inner surface of a ward, changed heaven for him
+in the twinkling of an eye, even as the silver streak of water had
+changed the world.
+
+It was a very simple thing; only a piece of wax. How long he sat there
+staring at it he did not realise. The yellow haze outside grew ruddier
+with the sinking of the sun, the water-carrier, shadowed by a
+white-robed aspirant to the dead factotum's duties, hovered about the
+verandah expectantly.
+
+'What do you want, you fool?' bawled George, looking up, surprised at
+his own anger, surprised that anything should touch him save the
+thought that _she_ had known--must have known--that _she_ had done it,
+must have done it.
+
+The man edged in through the screen, signing to the white-robed one to
+follow his example.
+
+'Only to bring the Huzoor this,' he began noisily. 'Only to bring this
+proof of honesty to the feet of justice. Lo! it was found even now by
+this man with a foresight and quickness to be commended. In the sahib's
+own room, Huzoor, beneath the matting, thus causing the face of the big
+sahib's ill-begotten servant to be blackened by reason of his base
+insinuation of theft! Theft! How can there be theft in a house where
+the water-carrier is as I am, and the kit will be as this one--mine own
+wife's brother, Huzoor----'
+
+George broke out suddenly into dull laughter, 'Oh! go to blazes with
+your wife's brother--put the thing down there on the table, I tell you,
+and go--go--do you hear?'
+
+Anger, and something more than anger was back in his tone ere
+he ended, and the water-carrier, knowing his master's voice, fled. The
+white-robed one with the courage of ignorance risked all by a salaam.
+
+'At what hour will the Huzoor please to dine?'
+
+The young man looked at him curiously, feeling that the world was past
+his comprehension.
+
+'The usual time, I suppose.'
+
+As well this fool as another--as well to-morrow as to-day. Everything
+was trivial of course, and yet the trivial commonplace interruption had
+somehow brought home the reality of what had happened to the lad, and
+his head sank on his crossed arms once more in utter dejection. _She_
+might have told him, warned him. Surely when he had promised she might
+have done so much for his sake, and Dan's--by the way, what was it that
+Dan had lost and that chattering idiot had brought in with him?
+George's right hand trembled a little as it reached over the table to
+take a plain gold locket on a slender gold chain. It was familiar
+enough to him. Dan wore it day and night, and many a time had George
+chaffed him about the young woman, so it was no wonder the dear old man
+had been vexed at the thought of losing it. Losing it? or losing her?
+In the keen thrust of this thought, the locket slipped through George's
+fingers, and falling, opened. So it lay, face upwards, while the boy
+sat staring out into the room blindly, intent on the remembrance that
+after all it was not a case of whether a man or a woman should suffer;
+it was one woman or another. The woman _he_ loved or the woman _Dan_
+loved. A hundred thoughts beset him, but, analysed, they all resolved
+themselves to this: his love or Dan's. To save _her_ from even a breath
+of scandal he was willing to bear the blame; but how could this be
+without also imperilling Dan's future? No! if the worst came; if he
+could find no way--yet surely, surely, there must be some way, some
+simple way--of taking all the responsibility on his shoulders; then
+_she_ must be brave; _she_ must tell the truth and save this woman whom
+Dan loved--whose face lay there in the locket. His eyes sought it
+mechanically----
+
+'_Gwen_.'
+
+The sound, barely a whisper, scarcely stirred the sodden air. After a
+while he pushed back his chair slowly and crossed to stand once more
+looking out over Hodinuggur.
+
+It seemed to have a fascination for him; yet his mind held but one
+thought--a desire to get away--to find some place where there was
+neither truth nor lies, where he need say nothing--need think nothing.
+That surely would settle it.
+
+'_No, you wouldn't, old chap, not unless you wanted them to believe you
+guilty_.' Lewis Gordon's idle words as they had stood laughing and
+jesting on the balcony yonder but a few months ago came back to him;
+the only real, living memory in the chaos of his present pain. The
+scene reproduced itself before his haggard young eyes. Yes! that would
+settle it; and after all he was guilty. Why had he not told the
+Colonel? why had he slept? why----
+
+The sound was louder this time; yet not loud enough to disturb the
+servants, chattering across in the cook-room over the chances of
+perquisites under the new regime. Loud enough, for all that, to deafen
+the lad's ears for ever to questionings of truth or untruth.
+
+He lay on his back, face upwards, and a faint stream of blood oozing
+from the blue bruise just over his heart traced a fine girdle round his
+breast; perhaps to show that the potter's thumb had slipped, and the
+pot had cracked in the firing.
+
+Maybe a fiery furnace and a "ed-hot bungalow are overtrying even to the
+best of clay when it is fresh from the moulder's hand; but that is
+neither here nor there.
+
+The fact remains that George had run away; from truth and untruth, from
+himself and his fellow-men, but most of all from Hodinuggur and the
+crazy irresponsible creator; yet could he have realised the fact, no
+one in the wide, wide world would have been more incredulous of his own
+action. And as he lay dead, with a bullet through his heart, the
+barometer upon the mantelpiece was falling faster and faster, while
+Dan, with a telegram in his pocket, was riding all he knew across the
+desert to open the sluice-gate against the biggest flood within the
+memory of man. To open it so far and no farther, and so to prevent any
+weakening of the channel for a while. Too late! For already the
+peasants were knee-deep in their fields breaking through every obstacle
+which might stem the rising water. And still the barometer fell faster
+and faster; but the only one who could have understood the silent
+warning had deserted his post.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Azizan was waiting for darkness, like many another woman in India;
+waiting for the veil of night to destroy the veil of man's contriving.
+Not so much because she dreaded to show her face in the daylight, but
+because it suited her to keep up the mystery of her appearance.
+Waiting, however, for the last time; since once her work of warning was
+done there need be no more concealment, no more playing like a cat over
+a mouse with the palace folk. Once that was done, she meant to forget
+caution and kill some of them; for she felt that her own death was
+nigh, and revenge would sweeten the end of life. As she sat, her back
+against the wall, her knees drawn up to her chin, Azizan had no very
+distinct plans for that revenge, save that the Ayodhya pot which she
+had taken from its hiding-place in the stair of the old tower and kept
+in her bosom must be her chief aid. With its secret bribe of jewels, it
+would prove to the sahib that there was truth in the tale she had
+gathered during her nightly wanderings as a ghost about Hodinuggur.
+When that was done, she would be free in some of those nightly
+wanderings to kill the Diwan or his son, the man who killed her mother.
+Perhaps she might be able to kill both, and yet have some strength left
+for Chandni--Chandni who had told her so many lies. For there was a
+fire now in Azizan's light eyes, which quite accounted for the
+consideration which the courtesan had shown the girl when, more than
+once, Chandni had awakened to find them looking at her. Of course, by
+and by a stop must be put to this masquerading through the village, but
+at present it would be unsafe, when so much depended on good luck, and
+thus Azizan had hitherto been unmolested. Indeed, Chandni herself had
+taken malicious pleasure in countenancing current tales of the return
+of the potter's dead daughter; and once when Khush-hal Beg, during his
+son's absence, had deemed it well to single her out for favour, she had
+sent the hoary old sinner back to his swinging cradle like a quaking
+jelly from abject fear of what he might meet by the way. Still it was
+only when she was on the roof with the old Diwan that she ventured to
+speak in whispers of a time when this mad girl should be taught her own
+impotence for good or evil.
+
+So in the meantime, the freedom from interruption, and the dread which
+the mere thought of her existence roused in the simple village folk,
+conspired to increase Azizan's faith in her own supernatural power, and
+as she sat in the growing dusk no doubt of her own success assailed
+her; for the little sahib had returned--during the night. At least so
+said the old man, who, with all his craziness, was to be trusted.
+Therefore, in less than an hour, he would know all, since the day was
+dying down quickly; smothered in a hot haze-like smoke. There was not a
+shadow anywhere; only a dull darkness growing momentarily as the dull
+darkness had grown upon her mind day by day. For all that she had the
+power; the potter might mould the clay, the palace folk might plot and
+plan, but she, the woman with the evil eye, was stronger than they!
+
+'Aziz! Oh! thou art there still, Heaven be praised!' The cry roused her
+from a sort of dream to find the old man beside her, breathless as from
+running, his mild face, seen dimly in the darkness, full of piteous
+entreaty. 'Go not from me this night, oh Heart's-joy! Leave me not
+again in the storm!'
+
+'The storm! What storm, poor fool!' she asked indifferently.
+
+He laid his trembling hand on her arm. 'Listen! Thou canst hear the
+noise of many waters. They came before, so the fathers sang, and made a
+new world. Down yonder at the palace, where thou goest, 'twill run like
+the race of a river, and the stones of the old wall where thou liest
+will be crumbling into it. Go not there to-night, oh, Light of mine
+Eyes! It is safe here on the heights.'
+
+'There is no water,' she answered, with a short laugh, 'there will be
+none; save in the canal. The sahib will see to that now he hath
+returned.'
+
+'How can he see when he is dead----'
+
+'Dead,' she echoed. 'Bah! thou liest! He is not dead. There is no
+water, and there is no death----'
+
+She broke off suddenly, silenced by his look as he stood with one hand
+raised as if listening. In the breathless air a strange whispering
+reached her ear, and like an arrow from a bow, she flew to the gap in
+the palisade, whence she could see the dip between the ruins and the
+canal bank, and beyond that silver streak again to the bungalow dotted
+down upon the level plain.
+
+'_Dohai! Dohai!_'
+
+The Great Cry--the blind human cry of her race for justice burst from
+her instinctively. The next moment found her bare-faced in the open on
+her way to prove if the old man spoke truth in death also.
+
+'Azizan! go not! Leave not the House of Safety! It is the Flood of the
+Most High! Go not, oh! go not!'
+
+His unavailing plea came back to him unanswered from the night which
+had fallen suddenly, as the dust from below sprang electrically up to
+meet the dust above and hide everything from sight. But through the
+thick veil that rush of water rose louder and louder as the girl sped
+on her way. It was true what the old man had said, and she had seen it.
+There was a river by the old palace. Was the other thing true also? Was
+the sahib dead? Had they killed him? The darkness lightened a little as
+she ran over the bridge so that she could see a great swirl of yellow
+water shooting past the piers not three inches below the keystone of
+the arch. Lower down it had found the open sluice-gates, hurled them
+from their foundations and carried them with it as it burst through the
+embankment weakened by the new-made cuttings of the villagers, and had
+raced in a mad river to fling itself against the mound of Hodinuggur,
+tearing down yard after yard of crumbling sand as it turned abruptly
+from the collision, to try conclusions by a flank movement. Azizan saw
+none of this; nothing but the dim white arches where she had waited
+once before.
+
+'Sahib! Sahib!'
+
+No answer, and in her eagerness she crouched down at the closed door,
+tapping softly.
+
+'Sahib! Sahib!'
+
+There was only a quarter-inch planking between them, that was all, for
+they had left him as he fell till some other white-face should come to
+accept the responsibility of interference. Yet it did the work as
+effectually as all the barriers of custom and culture which had divided
+them in life.
+
+'Sahib! Sahib!'
+
+Could it be true? It must be true that he was dead; otherwise he would
+surely hear her cry!
+
+'Sahib! Sahib!'
+
+As she crouched she might have put out her hand and taken his, but for
+that trivial quarter-inch of wood between them; but he did not hear.
+Because he was dead? Perhaps, yet even in life he had not heard, he had
+not known. The light in the potter's yard, lit by her passionate love
+and care, had only served to arouse his contempt. Better darkness, he
+had thought, than such a light as that.
+
+'Sahib! Sahib!'
+
+At last she rose and stumbled across to the servants' quarters, seeking
+the certainty which she must gain somehow. A light glimmered behind the
+grass palisades, sacred to her namesake's modesty, and from within came
+the eager yet subdued tones of gossiping women. Azizan crept close, and
+crouching in on herself held her breath to listen.
+
+'Lo! I content myself with goodwill towards all men,' came the widow's
+voice self-complacently. 'Yet, O Motiya! wife of Ganesha the groom, I
+make bold to aver that this is no more or less than a judgment on----'
+
+'What! Dost think it to be really the Flood of Destruction?' broke in
+Motiya, whimpering.
+
+'_Ai fool!_ Who cares for the water? It flows south, not north; so we
+are safe. No! 'tis the sahib's death. Mayhap 'twill teach other folks'
+relations not to be in such a hurry to thrust themselves into other
+folks' service against the custom----'
+
+'But----'
+
+'_Ai teri!_ wouldest deny my right--the widow's right? _Ai! mere adme_,
+thy sahib is dead, and there is none to see justice done and employ thy
+relations! _Ai! mere dil murgya! murgya!_'
+
+As the renewed sense of her wrongs rose in the familiar wail, the women
+from within joined in it dutifully. Without, the girl, with her hands
+clenched and her wild eyes straining into the shadows, seemed to be
+caught and carried away by it also, and her shrill voice echoed theirs
+instinctively.
+
+'_Ai! mere sahib murgya. Ai! mere dil murgya! murgya!_'
+
+The women, scared to death at the unexpected aid, stopped suddenly, and
+the young voice rose alone.
+
+'_Ai! mere dil murgya! murgya!_'
+
+The sound of her own wailing brought home to her the truth, rousing her
+passion, her grief, her anger, to madness; and in one swift desire for
+revenge she turned and ran.
+
+'_Mere sahib murgya!_'
+
+The wail echoed over the wild swirl of the flood-water as she crossed
+the bridge once more. It was trembling now before its doom as the water
+rose inch by inch. And could that be rain? that large warm drop upon
+her hand, so large that it ran down between her fingers? Another on her
+upturned face, blinding her. If those were raindrops, and many of them
+came, it might, indeed, be the deluge of the Most High. And if it were?
+Had not the end of all things come to her already? Yet as she ran she
+looked curiously into the sky. Not a cloud was visible; only an even
+haze of grey vapour, through which now and again a great drop splashed
+down upon her, warm and soft.
+
+'_Ai! mere sahib! mere sahib!_'
+
+No more than a sob now; yet even that she hushed as the Mori gate
+showed black before her. Should it be Chandni? No, not yet; but for
+Dalel and the hopes of him, the woman would have cared nothing for
+water or no water. So she passed on through the causeway. One or two
+villagers, hurrying, like her, through the darkness, talking in scared
+whispers of the strange flood, fell back from her path terrified. A
+knot of men in the bazaar huddled aside as she slipped by like a
+shadow; even in the courtyard of the palace the watchmen, gathered
+round one pipe for the comfort of companionship in such uncanny times,
+gave no more than an uneasy glance at the half-seen figure which they
+did not care to challenge.
+
+Should it be Khush-hal Beg in his swinging cradle? He had betrayed her
+mother, and the knife she carried was long enough to reach through the
+fat to his heart, long enough to do the mischief, when held in reckless
+hands, even if aid came to the unwieldy body. No! it should not be
+Khush-hal either. Let him wait a while since he had done little to harm
+the sahib. The true quarry lay higher in the old man up yonder in his
+nest like a bird of prey; seeing all things with his keen old eyes,
+plotting and planning with his wise old brain. But for him, the others
+had not been; but for him the sahib would have been alive, and now he
+was dead. Each step of the stairs as she laboured up them seemed to
+need that cry of 'dead! dead!' to help her on her way; and they left
+her breathless on the first platform of the roof, where those huge
+drops of rain were falling in audible thuds upon the hard plaster.
+Faster and faster. This was not rain. Something must have given way in
+the sky, and, as the old man had said, it was '_Tofhan Ehlai_.' So much
+the better for her purpose. In the arcades on either side faint figures
+glimmering white in the shadows showed where some of the servants were
+sheltering. So much the better, also, since she might find the old man
+alone; not that she cared for that either, save in its greater
+assurance of success. He would not be in the pavilions at this time,
+but in the room to the north end of the tower, of which she had heard
+the women speak. The room with the big jutting balcony whence you could
+see north, east, and west, everything except Hodinuggur itself.
+
+By this time the raindrops, falling faster and faster, had become a
+sheet of water streaming down straight with such curious force that she
+staggered under it. A little sun-baked fireplace against which she
+stumbled dissolved to sheer mud ere she had recovered her balance, and
+a loosened brick on the last step upwards rolled down, beaten from its
+place ere her foot touched it. It was the Great Flood indeed, though
+every moment the sky grew lighter and she could now see her way
+clearly.
+
+'_Mere sahib murgya! murgya!_'
+
+She kept the wild fire glowing in heart and eyes by the murmur, until
+through an open door she saw what she sought--an old man seated at a
+chess-table, still as a statue. With a cry she darted forward,
+snatching at the knife in her girdle, then paused abruptly. Where was
+the hurry? he could not move. So with a half laugh of exultation she
+turned back deliberately to bolt the door--a strong door, as befitted
+one giving on the favourite sleeping-place of despotism. It would need
+time to force an entry there; more time than she would need to do her
+work. Meanwhile she must look at this arbiter of her fate ever since
+she was born--this tyrant whom she had never seen. What! was that all?
+that wreck of a man, with his head upon his breast? but as she came
+nearer, the light, such as it was, from the wide-arched balcony, aided
+by a cresset smoking in a niche, showed her something of the youth in
+his eyes. Perhaps it showed him something of the age in hers, for the
+Diwan paused in his first haughty challenge, then began again.
+
+'Hast come to frighten me, as thou frightenest the villagers, oh!
+Azizan, daughter of the potter's daughter?' he asked coldly. He was
+defenceless, and he knew it, save for craft of the brain.
+
+'Nay! I have come to kill thee, Zubr-ul-Zaman, Diwan of Hodinuggur,'
+she replied; 'to kill thee as thou hast killed the sahib.'
+
+A sound which might have been a laugh reached her as she took a step
+nearer, brandishing the knife; perhaps it was that which made her pause
+again in her turn; for laughter was hardly what she expected.
+
+'I did not kill the sahib, fool. He killed himself for love of the mem
+sahib: the fair mem who took the Ayodhya pot.'
+
+The girl fell back the step she had taken, and the hand bearing the
+knife went up to her forehead in a gesture matching her sharp cry of
+pain. The truth struck home; yet she caught at denial desperately.
+
+'Thou liest! She did not take it. I took it once--twice. I have the
+pearls--the Hodinuggur pearls. I--I--not she.'
+
+One of those curious spasms of life came to the wreck of a man, as it
+turned to look at the girl more closely.
+
+'So! Thou also hast brains. 'Tis the woman's _yog_[6] nowadays. My son,
+and my son's son, have none. Thou shouldst have been my granddaughter,
+Azizan, had I but known. Thou mayest be now.'
+
+His granddaughter! Of course! she had suspected so all her life, had
+known it to be so for months, yet she had never realised the fact till
+now; and an odd, inexplicable sense of kindred rose up in her against
+her will.
+
+'I shall kill thee, no matter who thou art,' she cried quickly.
+
+'Wherefore? What harm have I done to thee, Azizan? 'Twould have suited
+me better had the sahib fancied thy face. Thou hadst thy chance.'
+
+Something in her shrank back abashed before the naked truth of the old
+man's words. She had had her chance, according to her world, and she
+had failed. She had failed utterly; and yet---- Something else in her,
+strange, incomprehensible, clamoured against the verdict, and the
+deadly weariness, the passionate apathy she had so often felt before
+came over her. The knife dropped to her side, and half mechanically she
+looked out through the arches of the balcony to where the red-brick
+bungalow should stand. There was nothing to be seen but sheets of water
+streaming from above, while from below came a rush and a roar. Suddenly
+as she listened came another sound; a _pit-pat pat-pit_ on the floor in
+half a dozen places. The rain had conquered the thick-domed roof.
+
+'It is "_Tofhan Elahi_," she said, and even as she spoke a babel of
+voices rose at the closed door.
+
+'Open! open! The river saps the foundation. _Ari bhai!_ is he dead,
+that he hath no fear? Beat it down!--Oh, Diwan sahib!--Oh! servant,
+who hath closed the door?--Open! open!--Nay! without a smith 'tis
+hopeless--And I tarry not!--Listen! there goes more of the wall--Open,
+fools! open!'
+
+Amid the roar and rush, the vain blows and shouting, the old man's eyes
+were on Azizan's, not so much in appeal as in command. He could not
+move and his faded voice would never reach through the clamour, so his
+only safety lay in her obedience. But she shook her head, then crouched
+down--as if to wait till they should once more be alone--in her
+favourite attitude, her back against the wall, her knees drawn up to
+her chin, the knife still clasped in her hand ready for use. A louder
+roar came from without, a rattle as of bricks, mingled with cries of
+caution and alarm. Then gradually the blows and voices dwindled away
+from the ceaseless clamour of the rain and the intermittent rumblings
+of falling masonry, as the smallest crack widened beneath the pressure
+to a breach until, bit by bit, the solid walls seemed to melt away.
+
+'Why didst thou not open the door, fool?' The words in the greater
+silence were just audible to the girl.
+
+'Because I did not choose.'
+
+Again the odd sound like a laugh came from that bent figure.
+
+'The woman's reason. Why didst thou not choose, Azizan?'
+
+There was no anger, scarcely a trace of anxiety even, in his tone. He
+was no novice to the ways of women, and the girl's face told him that
+his chance of life was almost gone. What must be must, and death came
+to all; to the mad fool in her turn. The sombre fire of her eyes met
+his sullenly; but she made no answer, save to lay the knife down
+quietly on the sill of the arch against which she leant. The steel rang
+clear upon the hard red sandstone.
+
+The old Diwan's wrinkled hand hovered for a moment over the pieces on
+the board, then fell back upon his knees. So they sat staring at each
+other silently in the bow of the balcony. There was nothing more to be
+said. She had chosen; why, she knew not. And as the clamour of the rain
+and the rush of the river rose higher and higher, Zubr-ul-Zaman's head
+sank upon his breast with the old formula--
+
+'Queen's mate; the game is done.'
+
+The woman's reason, or unreason, had conquered the Strength of the
+World. But that was no new thing to the Diwan's wisdom.
+
+But to the people outside in the open, huddling together under the
+pitiless downpour for safety's sake, it was more or less of an
+amusement to wonder how long the old tower would hold out against the
+mad stream sapping at its foundations. Not long; for already the ruined
+wall had gone, disclosing a portion of the secret stair, where Zainub,
+the old duenna, lay parched up almost to a mummy. A hideous sight, no
+doubt, had there been light enough to see it; but there was not, and
+the refugees upon the higher ground could discern nothing but the block
+of the old tower and the swirling water below. A faint light came from
+the balcony of the room where the Diwan was known to be; and, as they
+watched it, people speculated how the door came to be fastened. Perhaps
+it had swung-to, perhaps---- Well, he must be dead, or would soon be
+dead, since rescue was impossible; and, after all, he had lived his
+time. Khush-hal had been saved from his swinging cradle, and then there
+was Dalel away up at Simla. Rulers enough for a poor country-side, if
+God spared it from the Great Flood; and if not, why then the old man
+was at least better off than they, exposed as they were to the
+elements. Far better; both he and the outcasts in their straw huts,
+which would hurt no one even if they fell. So the first in the land was
+as the last, and the last first. '_Sobhan ullah!_'
+
+As the rain slackened the night grew darker, until even the block of
+the tower ceased to show against the sky, and the little company of
+watchers could only hear the thunder of its fall.
+
+'God rest him,' muttered a peasant, muffled into a formless bundle in
+his blanket. 'He was a hard master, and the new one may be harder
+still. There will be a good crop anyway.'
+
+And down on the very edge of the boiling stream, when the rain ceased,
+a light went twinkling up and down, up and down. It was the potter
+looking for his dead daughter as the _debris_ of the old wall, beneath
+which she had been buried sixteen years before, crumbled away bit by
+bit before the furious stream.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+
+The dawn broke upon a new world as far as Hodinuggur was concerned.
+Where the desert had stretched thirsty and dry, lay a shoreless sea.
+Where the streak of silver had split the round horizon into halves, the
+double line of the canal banks looked like twin paths leading to some
+world beyond the waste of waters. They steered straight out of sight
+on either side, almost unbroken save for the great gap where the
+sluice-gate had stood. There the stream still swept sideways to circle
+round the island of Hodinuggur, which bore, like an ark, its company of
+refugees from the surrounding levels; a little company which
+straightway, taking advantage of the coming sun, began to wring out its
+wet garments and spread them to dry, until a general air of washing-day
+reduced the tragedy of the past night to the commonplace. And after
+all, what had happened? An old woman or two had been drowned, the Diwan
+and his tower swept away. But the world held too many old women and
+more than enough of nobles. For the rest, it had not been the Flood of
+the Most High; and though Death came to all in the end, and the
+loneliness of it must be dreary, still it was somehow more terrifying
+to die in batches, wholesale.
+
+So, clothed in their white, new-washed robes like the elect, they went
+down after a time in companies to see the extent of damage done to
+their belongings, and test how far it was possible to wade through the
+water towards the village homestead or two which rose above the flood.
+Canal-wards, of course, passage was barred, would be barred for days
+until the stream ceased flowing or a boat was brought. So the horseman
+whom they could see picking his way flounderingly along the northern
+bank might be the only survivor of the big world beyond, and they be
+none the wiser--for the time. It was Dan Fitzgerald who, after an
+enforced shelter at the half-way village, was wondering who could have
+taken the responsibility of anticipating the telegram he carried in his
+pocket by opening the sluice-gates, and so, in all probability saving
+the big Sunowlie embankment farther down. For the sluice had been
+opened; that was evident to his experience at once, since without the
+lead of the current to cut, the flood would have swept on to do its
+worst elsewhere. Well! whoever had done it, be he watchman or Diwan,
+deserved something at the hands of the Department, and be the past
+record a bad one or not, this act should have its reward--its just
+reward--if he could compass it.
+
+Ten minutes after, he had driven the chattering servant from the room,
+and grief-stricken, yet convinced into a sort of calm acceptance of the
+inevitable, had lifted the poor lad's body tenderly to the bed. He
+scarcely even thought of a reason for the tragedy; perhaps there was
+none, for Dan in his rough and ready life had seen such a thing before;
+had known the useless search for some adequate cause. And was there not
+cause enough here for a sudden loss of balance? That race down from
+Paradise to Purgatory!--the intolerable journey--the horrible
+homecoming; and then the cursed bottle he had left. The remembrance
+sent his whole mind into useless regrets. If he had only ridden faster,
+if somehow he could have been there in time to prevent the loneliness,
+the awful desolation of it all! for he had been through such loneliness
+himself, and knew what it had meant to him. Perhaps, taking his own
+excitability as a standard, he over-estimated the effect on George's
+nature. At any rate, as he stooped mechanically to pick up the revolver
+round which the boy's dead hand had still been closed, he felt that,
+given the necessity for sudden return, the rest might be inferred. And
+then, beside the revolver he saw the open locket, with Gwen's smiling
+face staring up at him. _Gwen!_ Great God! what did it mean? His own
+locket, of course, and yet----he sat down at the table white as death,
+looking first at the pretty face, then at the still figure on the bed,
+now decently shrouded from the glaring light of day. And by degrees the
+colour returned to his cheek. No! it could not be so. She was not
+cruel, only careless; and ah! what a grief this would be to her!
+Besides, George was not one to put a life-long regret of that sort into
+a friend's life. So pondering, he realised that among other incidents
+of the home-coming had been that of learning who his sweetheart really
+was. That, then, did not happen at Simla, so that could not have been
+the cause of the lad's sudden return.
+
+Why, then, had he come? The new lock and keys lying on the table, gave
+him a clew, and his quick wits suggested danger to the gates. Then it
+came to him in a flash confusedly, almost irrationally, that it had
+been done for his sake and hers, and he was on his knees by the bed in
+a minute.
+
+'Oh! George! George! why did you do it?'
+
+So with the answering silence came a decision, impulsive, yet
+immutable. Such blame as could be taken he would take. No one should
+know or dream of failure. No one should ever say--'Ah, poor fellow, he
+shot himself; must have been something wrong, you know.' Rapidly he
+counted the costs, the possibility of silence. Hodinuggur, separated
+from him by an impassable stream, could not be taken into account, so
+he must accept the risk there. It would not be much, if the servants'
+tale was true, that they had only discovered their master's death when
+the storm began, and had done no more than send word to the palace. No
+one, then, could have seen the body save those four or five servants,
+who loved their master, and worshipped rupees, and, above all, desired
+peace and quiet, and not the dangerous rakings up of the past which
+always followed on the advent of the police. Then for the Department
+itself. What he had said in his ignorance was true. Whether George had
+opened the sluice when, as the servants said, he went out in the middle
+of the day, or whether the palace folk had done it, the Department, in
+either case, owed the opener a debt of gratitude. If the latter, the
+Moghuls would be glad to keep silence; if the former, even if they set
+up a claim for compensation for damage, they would have been due so
+much had he, Dan, arrived in time to carry out his orders; thus no
+injustice would be done.
+
+So half an hour afterwards, one of the servants started along the path
+to the outer world with a telegram to headquarters, and that evening,
+when the flood had subsided a little, Dan chose out the driest spot he
+could find in the sandy compound, and read the Church service over his
+friend's body. No one, he told himself, should know the truth; except
+some day perhaps, Gwen, when she came there as his wife. Then he would
+tell her, the pity, the needlessness of it all; and yet the
+needlessness had this virtue in it, that it made concealment possible;
+for the flood had swept away the error, if error there had been.
+
+The telegram reached Colonel Tweedie next morning, among many more
+telling of disaster and death along the line of the great canal. Yet
+none was more pitiful than this one which ran thus--
+
+
+'_Opening of sluice-gate, as ordered, saved Sunowlie embankment, but
+palace injured. George Keene died yesterday of cholera. Very prevalent
+here. Details by post_.'
+
+
+'Dear! dear!' fussed the Colonel. 'How very sad! What a blow to poor
+Mrs. Boynton. She is so tenderhearted, and really, she was almost
+unnecessarily interested in that boy.'
+
+They all thought of her; even Lewis Gordon, as yielding to that odd
+desire to see for oneself which besets us all when bad news comes by
+telegram, he sat looking at the flimsy message of evil; yet his first
+words were of Rose.
+
+'Your daughter will feel it also, sir; feel it very much, I'm afraid.'
+Then he paused, to resume in more ordinary tones. 'I had, I think,
+better start at once, sir. I can report all along the line, and wire if
+your presence seems necessary. I hardly think it will be, and it is
+useless inconveniencing yourself for nothing.'
+
+Colonel Tweedie bridled. 'I am not accustomed to consider my own
+convenience as against the public service'--he was beginning pompously,
+when Lewis cut him short.
+
+'I'm afraid I wasn't thinking so much of you, sir, as of Miss Tweedie.
+This will be a great blow to her.' He thought so honestly, and as he
+jolted down the hill in a tonga half an hour afterwards he told himself
+he was glad to have escaped the necessity for seeing her grief, even
+while he was conscious of a curiosity to know how she would take the
+news. There was no such difficulty in imagining Gwen's behaviour. He
+could almost see the pretty pathetic face keeping back its tears, and
+hear the soft voice saying with a little thrill in it that George was
+the nicest, dearest boy she had ever met, and that she would never
+forget his kindness and goodness to her--never! never!
+
+As he thought of this his expression was not pleasant, for Gwen had, in
+his opinion, done her level best to turn the lad's head, and so must
+surely know that she was talking bunkum. A man would know it; though
+perhaps it was not fair to judge a woman by a man's standard of truth,
+and Gwen, doubtless, was as genuine as she knew how to be; as genuine,
+anyhow, as Rose Tweedie, with her pretensions of utter indifference to
+all sentiment. Well, poor girl! she was face to face with realities
+now, for she had certainly cared a good deal for George, even to the
+extent of trying to keep him from Gwen's wiles. Poor George! a fine
+young fellow, who, for one thing, had been saved a bad heartache.
+
+He had intended passing on as quickly as possible to Hodinuggur, but
+being delayed by the necessity for settling endless requisitions for
+repairs, had barely reached Rajpore ere Dan Fitzgerald returned,
+reporting that there was no reason for him to go out. Permanent repair
+was impossible till the rains should be over, as every lesser flood
+must run down the channel cut out for it by this deluge, and everything
+to ensure the further safety of the palace had been done. Barring the
+Diwan's tower, there had not after all been much damage, as the jewels
+and treasure in the vaults below had been saved: besides, the bumper
+crops which would follow on the inundations would more than compensate
+for any loss. There was, however, a certain anxiety in Dan's face as he
+said this.
+
+'Well, even if they were to claim,' replied Lewis complacently, 'the
+saving of the Sunowlie bank would be dirt cheap at a few thousands. It
+cost us over two lakhs, and I was in an awful funk about it, thinking
+we must be too late. I tried to intercept poor George with a wire,
+knowing he would take the order quicker as he was already on the way.
+
+Dan's whole soul leaped towards the possibility. 'Then he got it after
+all. I was wondering----' he paused, angry at his own imprudence.
+
+'Wondering what?' asked Lewis impatiently. 'I was going to say I missed
+him, and then I didn't see how you could possibly get there in time. By
+the way, when did you get my wire?'
+
+'About an hour after you sent it off,' said Dan uneasily. He did not
+care for Lewis Gordon's sharp, practical eyes on these details.
+
+'That is, say, ten o'clock on the morning of the 6th, I suppose. Good
+riding, indeed! And that reminds me. The report from the Rajah's
+people, which came through your office, says that the water first ran
+through the cut about middle day on the 6th. Manifestly impossible. You
+had hardly left Hodinuggur. It's a trifle, of course but you had better
+stamp on the inaccuracy, and show you are on the watch, or they will go
+on to cooking generally.'
+
+'Yes----,' replied Dan slowly. This simple difficulty in concealing the
+discrepancy of time had escaped him before; but he was fully alive to
+it now. Most men in his place would have set the question aside, at all
+costs, for further consideration, and risked the possible consequences
+of the evasion. But Dan's mind was of finer temper; he could trust it
+to thrust home at any moment. This is the true test of power, and it is
+only the second thoughts of the commonplace which are better than their
+first. So he took advantage of the occasion calmly, knowing his man.
+
+'But they are right. I did not open the gates. I believe George did,
+but even of that I am not sure. However, you shall judge for yourself.
+I don't ask for confidence, of course. I haven't the right; but I
+expect you will give it all the same.' Then boldly, plainly, yet with
+one reservation, he told the tale of what he knew and what he surmised.
+George had shot himself--of that there was no doubt. The sluice had
+been opened, in his opinion, by treachery, of which George, at Simla,
+had received some hint, and which he had arrived too late to prevent;
+though this also was mysterious, since the gates had not been opened
+till long after George's arrival. The guard at the sluice had been
+drowned or had disappeared, and the new Diwan, Khush-hal, professed
+pious ignorance. In fact, only this much was certain, that the Sunowlie
+embankment had been saved, that George had taken the responsibility on
+himself even to death, and that the flood had made it possible to keep
+his memory from stain. For the sake of his friends alone, was not this
+desirable? This hint, no more, he gave of the inner tragedy connected
+with the locket. Yet as those two men sat looking at each other across
+the office-table littered with papers, their thoughts, all unknown to
+each other, flew to the one woman; but the memory brought tears to
+Dan's dark eyes, and left Lewis's hard as the nether millstone in the
+conviction that Gwen was at least morally responsible for George
+Keene's death. It came to him as a certainty, and yet a contemptuous
+tolerance came with it. She had not meant, of course--women never
+did--to play fast and loose with the boy's head. Yet she had done so.
+He had spent too much money, he had been careless; honest, perhaps,
+though even that might not be so, no one could tell. Why then should
+they try to find out now, when it was all irrevocable, when no harm
+could come out of silence? And George had been a good sort; too good
+for such an end; besides, even for Gwen's sake silence was best. He
+felt very bitter against her, very sore; yet such things must not be
+said about his future wife as might be said if the truth were really
+known.
+
+'I suppose it had better remain as it is,' he said at last, moodily.
+'Cholera has served its turn in such a case before--one of the
+advantages of living in a land of sudden death. Poor George! I daresay
+there was treachery.
+
+Dan, shading his eyes with his clasped hands, was silent a moment. 'If
+there was, he had no part in it. I wonder if you remember a
+conversation in the balcony at Hodinuggur about what a man would do in
+such a case. "No, you wouldn't, not unless you wanted to be thought
+guilty." Do you remember saying that, Gordon?'
+
+Lewis nodded; it was not a pleasant memory.
+
+'I can't tell you the whole. But I am convinced George shot himself to
+save me. He knew'--what, perhaps, you don't--that I was engaged to a
+woman----'
+
+Gordon pulled some papers towards him impatiently, and took up a pen,
+as if to end the subject.
+
+'I suppose it is always "_cherchez la femme_"; yet it does not seem to
+me an agreeable factor in existence.'
+
+'_Cherchez la femme!_' echoed Dan. 'Why not? They are our mothers and
+sisters, our sweethearts and wives, after all. And have you ever
+thought, Gordon, what it must be like to look back over a lifetime, and
+see next to nothing that you would rather have left undone? Or, if
+you're pious, to take a sort of pride in pillorying yourself for a
+cross word or a tarradiddle? There isn't a man in a million with that
+record, but half the women one meets--ay! half the women one
+patronises--have it. Perhaps it is small blame to anything but fate;
+still they have it.'
+
+'Or think they have--which has the same effect! You remind me of a
+countryman of yours, a doctor, I knew once. "The sex," he said, "can't
+do wrong, and when it does it's hysteria." However, let us leave that
+poor lad to rest in peace; in a way that is more worth than the
+happiness of any woman who ever was born. And, look here, make the tale
+of reports complete, send them to me, and I'll consign them, dates and
+all, to a pigeon-hole. That is the beauty of official mistakes; you
+_can_ pigeon-hole them and no one is the wiser, unless, indeed, some
+personal motive crops up. But that is not likely. So far as I can see,
+it is to no one's interest to make a row--not even if there is a woman
+at the bottom of it all.'
+
+There was a concentrated bitterness in his tone, due to no cynicism,
+but rather to an intensity of pain; for if Rose Tweedie belonged by
+birth to that strange latter-day feminine development which
+unconsciously sets passion aside both from mind and emotion, and will
+none of it spiritually or physically, Lewis belonged to that still
+larger class of men who have driven it from the mind: who say openly
+that it is despicable; but that the world cannot get on without it; who
+insist in a breath in its unworthiness and its necessity. Gwen, he said
+to himself after Dan had gone, was very woman, capable of ruining any
+man in a week if she chose, and then being sorrowfully surprised at
+the result. Still it would be unkind to wound her needlessly by telling
+her that result; the more so because she would certainly tell other
+people, and Rose Tweedie might break her heart over it. Even if the
+pigeon-holed mistake were found out, they might get up a fiction about
+the telegram having reached George after all. The compensation might
+have to be given; but even in that case he could see no need for raking
+up the mud, since the claim would be a just one.
+
+Nevertheless a week after, when he and Dan were once more seated
+opposite each other at the office-table, he felt vaguely uncomfortable.
+For a schedule of the dead lad's debts lay between them ready for the
+Administrator-General, and that showed an item of six thousand rupees
+borrowed on George's note of hand, backed by some youngsters on the
+very day on which he had left Simla.
+
+'It was a first holiday, you know,' said Dan regretfully. 'And
+Hodinuggur is such a hole. There were the races, you know,
+and--and----'
+
+'_Cherchez la femme_,' quoted Lewis; 'I don't blame him, not a bit. But
+if there had been an inquiry, Fitzgerald?-----'
+
+Dan shook his head and sighed fiercely. 'Yes! I know. For all that, he
+was straight--straight as a die! My only regret in keeping the thing
+dark is that some one has to go scot-free.'
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+A shivering woman in one pannier; in the other, such things as a
+breathless fugitive can gather together in one hurried half hour.
+Between them the hump of a camel, a camel which every instant seems as
+if it must split into halves as its long splay legs slither and slide
+in the mud that covers all things.
+
+Such was the method of Chandni's flight from Hodinuggur. Not a
+comfortable one, but under the circumstances necessary; nor was she
+altogether unprepared for that necessity. People of her trade know what
+to expect when they are attached to petty intriguing courts, where one
+ruler's meat is invariably the next ruler's poison. Besides, in this
+case she had to reckon on Khush-hal Beg's anger at the repulse she had
+given him on more than one occasion; given him, of course, with a view
+to future possibilities with his son Dalel, but that rather increased
+than diminished the offence. And now her patron, old Zubr-ul-Zaman, was
+dead, Khush-hal had supreme power, and what was more, three pearls were
+amissing from the Hodinuggur necklace; three pearls which could easily
+be traced home to her safe keeping, _and no further_, if needs be. So,
+at the first hint of inquiry, Chandni had deemed it wiser to seek the
+protection of the only man who knew something--if not all--about the
+intrigue which had ended so strangely in Providence setting aside the
+necessity for any intrigue at all. If Dalel chose to remain at Simla,
+where, no doubt, he was amusing himself hugely, she would not interfere
+with his amusements; that had never been her plan. She would only
+resume her empire over his weak, worn-out wickedness. And yet the
+flight entailed horrible discomfort. The splaying camel was to her what
+a bad passage across the channel is to a fashionable lady, and as she
+clutched wildly at the sides of the pannier, she decided that life was
+not long enough for a repetition of such experience. If she returned to
+Hodinuggur at all, it must be in a position which would ensure a
+different style of locomotion. Even the night journey by rail, cooped
+up behind iron bars in the wild-beast-cage-like compartment, labelled
+in three languages for 'modest women,' was, in comparison, comfort
+itself. Huddled up decently into a shapeless white bundle, she could at
+least think over the odd turn affairs had taken, and make up her mind
+what had best be done. The first thing, of course, was to bring Dalel
+to her heel. That ought not to be difficult, for though--the water
+having been procured--he might, like his father, find it convenient to
+underrate her services in the matter, she had one or two good cards to
+play in her adversary's strong suits which might with care save the
+trick. At any rate they ought to prevent any reckless disregard of her
+claims. First, they wanted the pearls back, and now that the Diwan was
+dead, she was the only person who could tell them the ins and outs of
+that transaction. Next, they wanted payment of the heavy _douceur_
+promised by the Rajah for good offices in making it possible for the
+water to irrigate that basin of alluvial soil to the south. But here
+again now that the Diwan was dead, they would find difficulty in
+proving that anything had been done--that the flood was not responsible
+for all, unless she chose to help them with her evidence.
+
+For the rest, give her Dalel and a bottle of champagne to herself for
+one hour. If in that space he did not come back, as he had done a dozen
+times before, to her empire of evil, she would have none of him. He
+would be dead to all she had to offer in fullest perfection. He would
+be beyond her influence, as it were, and so useless for her purpose.
+She was not going to marry a fool in order to wear a veil and live with
+a lot of women.
+
+By this time two coolies were carrying her up the hill from Solon, in a
+thing like a bird-cage slung on poles; so small, so square, that she
+had to sit in it cross-legged and bolt upright. But though she could
+not sleep, even with the aid of opium, and though the hill-sides, after
+the first rush of the rains, were clothed with tinted blossoms, and the
+winding valleys green as emeralds with young rice, Chandni never parted
+the thick patchwork curtains shrouding her from the public gaze, until
+the setting down of the dhooli warned her of an opportunity for a
+gossip and a pipe. Then her feet came over the side with a challenging
+clash of their silver bells, and a quick stir run round the sleepy,
+sun-sodden stage where travellers, and coolies, and sweetmeat sellers
+lay huddled together in the shade. Even the cowboy driving his cattle
+from the bales of fodder on their way up for the sahib-logue's ponies,
+paused to look at her with a grin, while his beasts ate on. The bees
+were flitting from flower to flower, a golden oriole flashed through
+the green transparency of the walnut-trees, and below the branches the
+great emerald hearts of the yam leaves outlined themselves against the
+sapphire distance of the valley, which was divided from the sapphire
+distance of the sky by the glittering pearly spikelets of the snowy
+range. Sapphires and pearls echoed and re-echoed in ever-receding
+distance by the white clouds dividing one sea of ether from another.
+
+But in all this world there was nothing worth a look, apparently, save
+Chandni, the courtesan, swinging her silver anklets over the edge of a
+dhooli; to judge at any rate by those human eyes.
+
+She did not go straight to her destination, but paused at a house in
+the bazaar where such as she were all too welcome. There was never any
+mincing of words or thoughts with Chandni. To one end she had been born
+a courtesan, and to this end she lived to the best of her ability. So
+she paused to clothe herself in clean clear muslins, and hang great
+garlands of tuberose and jasmine about the column of her massive
+throat; to redden her lips, and give a deeper shadow to her eyes;
+looking at herself the while in the thumb-mirror worn on her left hand.
+No more, no less intent upon appearing at her best than many a person
+who has not been born to that end; many a decent, respectable person,
+who would be dreadfully shocked at having her innocent half hour before
+the cheval-glass evened to Chandni's most reprehensible occupation.
+Perhaps the difference lies in the size of the mirrors; at any rate it
+is not palpably apparent elsewhere.
+
+Mirza Dalel Beg was living, she knew, in a European house, as the upper
+ten of natives love to do. Why, is, in five cases out of six, a
+mystery. The sixth, no doubt, has acquired exotic tastes; the remaining
+five, no doubt, consider it good style to pretend them. So, after
+paying roundly for the privilege of toilet-sets and dinner-services,
+they prefer the water-carrier with his skin bag to a lavatory, and a
+big platter on the floor to all the neatly-laid dining-tables in
+creation.
+
+A curious example of the fascination which useless comforts have for
+some people came to light during one of the many Embassies from Cabul
+which British diplomacy, or the want of it, has inveigled into India.
+During its stay there, district-officers were instructed to provide the
+whole horde of barbarians with house-room in European fashion so as to
+avoid invidious distinctions. As a rule, the local Parsee was invited
+to furnish a requisite number of empty houses with the necessary repp
+curtains, French clocks, Britannia-metal teapots, and German prints,
+needed for the night's hospitality. Next day, so runs the tale, there
+never was a soup-plate to be found. Occasionally the guests packed up a
+French clock; once, it is affirmed, a sponge-bath went amissing, but
+unless they ate them, that Embassy must have gone back to Cabul with
+some hundreds of dozens of soup-plates stowed away among the official
+presents of watches that won't go, and guns that won't fire; and soup
+is not a national dish in Afghanistan.
+
+So Dalel Beg had rented a house which he got cheap, because three of
+its previous tenants had died of typhoid fever. It was a pretty place
+enough, shut in somewhat by the ravines which furrow the lower part of
+the ridge, but with an outlook beautiful beyond belief over the plains.
+The single dahlias--refuse run wild from many a garden above--found
+foothold in every cranny of the rocks, and great sheets of morning
+glories climbed over the broken rails fencing the narrow path from the
+steep declivity, which seemed to leap at one bound to the pale blue of
+the valley below. Chandni, stepping out of her dhooli, looked at it all
+distastefully, reached forth a strong, ring-bedecked hand, appropriated
+a yellow dahlia, which she stuck behind her ear, and called. Then the
+bells clashed again as she walked with a free step over to the verandah
+of the house, raised the chick, and looked in, while the dhooli-bearers
+squatted down beside the railings, and apparently resumed a
+conversation begun in the bazaar. For the rest, sunshine and silence.
+
+Chandni, dazzled by the glare outside, could at first see nothing
+clearly; the room, though to her unaccustomed eyes crammed full of
+useless things, seemed empty of what she sought. Then suddenly there
+came a shrill, unformed voice--
+
+'Go away! We don't want you. Mam-ma, send her away. Go, I tell you! The
+Mirza is married now; I am his wife.'
+
+The girl who came forward was not more than fifteen by the look of her,
+with a frizz of hot-pressed light hair over her forehead, and a skin
+which gave one the impression of being bleached, perhaps because of the
+coal-black eyes set in the narrow sharp face; yet with a certain
+attractiveness about the figure, dressed as it was in the height of
+fashion, with sleeves to the ears, and a waist requiring the surgical
+bandage of folded silk to prevent it from breaking in two.
+
+His wife! Chandni, from her full height and magnificent development,
+looked at her as distastefully as she had looked at the view from the
+terrace. Neither were to her liking: they both appealed too much to the
+imagination. This other woman who came in answer to the call was
+better, though past her prime and pulpy; drowsy, too, from the snooze
+she had been enjoying on the sofa. Still with a torrent of capable,
+tell-tale abuse for the intruder.
+
+'Ari!' laughed Chandni contemptuously, when the fat lady paused for
+breath. 'So thou too hast been of the bazaar? But I want not thee, or
+that half-fledged thing who calls herself a wife. I want Dalel--where
+is he?'
+
+'Mamma!' cried the unformed voice in English, breaking down over its
+own feeble passion. 'Send her away, I tell you! The Mirza will be back
+soon, and she must not be here. Don't fool with words. Call the
+servants. _Ai! budzart!_ (base-born). I will throw you down the _khud_!
+(hill-side).'
+
+Chandni laughed again--laughed louder as, in response to the girl's
+cry, a face showed itself behind her.
+
+'Salaam, oh _bhai_! (brother),' she said, nodding her head at the
+new-comer. 'Ah! 'tis thou, Mohammed? look you, this image saith she
+will fling me down the _khud_. If it came to force, my pigeon, I know
+which would have the Mirza; but I will not fight for him thus, he is
+not worth it. So, he fancies thee? God help him. Sure, thy mother is
+the better woman.'
+
+'Come, come, mother Chandni,' urged the servant in response to shrill
+commands. 'This is no place for thee now. These are mem's. And he hath
+married her,' he went on fast and low. 'Yea! 'tis true, the _nikka_
+hath been read, so abuse is vain. Come, thou canst see him elsewhere.'
+
+'Nay! I will see him here--here with his mem,' retorted Chandni airily.
+Then she turned swiftly on the elder woman, who, going to the door, was
+about to call for further assistance. 'What harm shall I do thee, fool,
+who art as I am with a piebald skin, or as this one, who would be as I
+am had God made her a woman. Lo! ask thy servants who Chandni the
+courtesan is, and what she has been, ay! and will be--if she chooses.'
+
+It was an odd scene. The room decorated into bastard civilisation; the
+girl depending on a lack of pigment in her skin for all her claims to
+mem-ship, that being the only trace of her unknown European father; the
+mother without even this distinction, yet clinging to her taint of
+'Western blood, as to a patent of nobility; clinging to it farcically,
+in fringe and furbelow, in fashion generally. Before them, as it were,
+against them, stood Chandni, in her trailing white Delhi draperies and
+massive garlands, a figure which might have served as model for some of
+those strange solemn-eyed statues, half Greek, half Indian, which are
+found buried in the sand-hills of the frontier. There was a little
+crowd of dark expectant faces at the door now, towards which she nodded
+familiarly.
+
+'Go back! oh brothers! I do no harm. 'Tis not my way with women folk. I
+wait the Mirza's return. Then, if I am not wanted, I will go. Lo!
+Chandni the courtesan hath no need to keep a man in a leash; she hath
+no need to have the _nikka_ read, my little pigeon, as thou hast. Ari!
+so the pictures in the papers Dalel used to bring me are true, and 'tis
+a beauty to have no body and a big head.
+
+Beatrice Norma Elflida D'Eremao, presently her Highness Mrs. Dalel Beg,
+gave a little scream of rage, and stamped her tiny high-heeled shoes
+upon the floor. Mrs. Lily Violet D'Eremao, her mother, known in her
+time by many a _sobriquet_ until she settled down to sobriety and the
+education of a fair daughter, screamed too, in voluble abuse; but they
+were both quite helpless before the white-robed figure standing between
+them and the sunlight with a laugh on its red lips, which did not leave
+them when into the midst of the scene came Dalel Beg, got up in his
+dandy riding gear; only the folded pugree remaining to tell the tale of
+his birth. Perhaps because the ideas within the head it covered needed
+some such excuse for their existence. His face was hideous in its sheer
+malice, livid, not with passion or fear, but from that hatred of
+opposition which belonged to his race. And Chandni, recognising this,
+swept him a low salaam, graceful to the uttermost curve of each finger,
+a salaam which would have made Turveydrop die of envy, a salaam such as
+one sees once or twice in a lifetime. A minute before she might have
+given it in derision; now she yielded it to the lingering majesty in
+this pitiful representative of a long line of tyrants.
+
+'Long life attend my lord,' she said, in those liquid tones of set
+ceremony, which her class pride themselves on acquiring. And even among
+them Chandni had a silver tongue: none near her, so the report ran.
+
+Dalel Beg's eyes saw, his ears heard. They would not refuse their
+wonted office, and yet as he took a step nearer, he raised the hunting
+crop he held.
+
+'Go!' he cried. 'Go! Mohammed! Fuggu--turn this scum of the bazaars
+from the door.'
+
+'Which scum of the bazaars?' she asked coolly. 'This--or that?'
+
+It was not scorn exactly, it was an indifferent contempt which seemed
+to leave no denial possible, and which held action arrested.
+
+'Which is it to be, Mirza sahib?' she asked again, crossing swiftly to
+where the girl stood as if to measure her height against that small
+insignificant figure. 'There is not much to choose between us, except
+in the outside--and thou hast eyes!'
+
+'Fuggu! Mohammed! Dittu! Scoundrels, turn her out! call the Kotwal!
+Turn her out, I say!' shrieked the Mirza, fast loosing all dignity in a
+sort of animal admiration for this woman, who, he knew, would come back
+to him at a word. A word he dare not give,--which he did not wish to
+give, as yet.
+
+'Softly! softly! oh, my brothers,' came that liquid voice. 'There is no
+need to touch Chandni the courtesan. The master hath his right, and I
+will go. I only ask a word, and sure my words are better for the ear
+than theirs.'
+
+It was incontestably true, for mother and daughter were now at the
+highest pitch of the Eurasian accent aggravated by hysterics, and the
+men stood uncertain, siding, every one of them, with that which was
+familiar.
+
+'The word is this,' she went on boldly, 'I have done my part. Is there
+to be payment?'
+
+Dalel's face lost its last trace of dignity and settled down into mere
+spite.
+
+'So! it is payment. Lo! mother-in-law, hold thy peace! 'Tis nothing but
+a bad debt, a debt without a bond! Payment! Go, fool, and ask it of the
+old man--the old devil who was drowned. Ask not here--here we need all
+the money we can get.'
+
+Then in his delight and content in this opportunity for malice, he
+forgot a suspicion of fear which had been with him hitherto, and
+turned to the girl with a leer and a laugh: 'Aha! we want the _oof_
+ourself, don't we, Tricks? Lo! I give you gold watch and chain to-day.
+I give you gold bangle to-morrow, if you're good girl. But that
+one--nothing--nothing.'
+
+He echoed the last words jeeringly in Hindustani, cutting with his whip
+towards Chandni as one cuts at a dog to frighten it from the room.
+Perhaps he was nearer than he thought; anyhow, the uttermost end of
+lash touching the silver bells on her ankle set them jingling. A slight
+thing to make two women cease their cries, and half a dozen men or more
+hold their breath involuntarily; yet it did, commanding silence for
+that clear voice.
+
+'Lo! thou hast given me something, oh Mizra Dalel Beg! which no man
+hath given before to Chandni the courtesan. It is enough. I go.'
+
+So far dignity went with her. But at the door she turned to give the
+women back in kind and with interest the abuse which they had given to
+her. Even with a despicable cheat like the Mirza, there was a
+reputation to keep up--he was at least the descendant of worthy men who
+had done their best for such as she; but with those two women, even as
+herself, but without her claims, why should she be silent?
+
+Yet ere she was half-way back to the bazaar she had forgotten them and
+their abuse; forgotten everything save that clash of the silver bells.
+That was an end--an end for ever to Dalel. In a way she was glad, for
+he was unendurable when sober, and not much better when he was drunk.
+Now nothing remained save the necessity for compensation and revenge.
+If the Moghuls would not pay, there were others who would. The mem, for
+instance, who had taken the pearls. And those who had spread it abroad
+that the little sahib had died in his bed, they would not care to have
+their truth impugned. They had bribed the servants no doubt, the Diwan
+was dead, and they had held the water sufficient inducement for the
+others. But she? She had had nothing, and she meant to have something.
+And then when she had got her money's worth for silence, she would go
+and sell that silence to the Rajah, unless indeed by that time the
+Moghuls had bidden higher for her speech. Without her evidence the
+question as to whether the bribe were honestly due for favours done
+could not be settled. She would begin with the mem; not by demanding
+money, but the pearls, since most likely they had been disposed of and
+the difficulty of getting hold of them again would, as it were,
+increase her power of screw. If at the end of a month the sahib-logues
+defied her, she would offer her silence or her speech to the highest
+bidder, and give her evidence for either. After that, a merry life,
+even if it had to be a short one; for the mere taste of comparative
+freedom she had had that morning in the wooden house in the Simla
+bazaar, had aroused the old reckless instincts, and before the evening
+was over the news that Chandni, singer and dancer from Delhi, had come
+to the place, was on the tip of every native's tongue.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Mrs. Boynton had behaved very much as Lewis Gordon had anticipated on
+hearing of George Keene's sudden death from cholera. She had wept
+honest tears over the dear lad, even while she could not help feeling
+happier than she had done for months; happier because of the flood
+which had come and gone, sweeping away with it all her difficulties,
+all her troubles. Yet it brought her one unavailing regret that she
+should so unnecessarily have put the bitter pain of hearing her
+confession into those last days, and that he should have gone down to
+his death not thinking ill of her exactly--the dear lad would never
+have done that--but hurt, disappointed, unhappy. She would have liked
+him to have seen a certain letter which lay in a drawer of her
+writing-table. A letter addressed, sealed, stamped, ready for sending,
+which she had only kept back one day. Only one; yet, but for that lucky
+chance it might have fallen into Dan's hands while George was ill and
+brought needless pain into another kind heart; for there was, thank
+heaven! no more need for humiliation and confession and promises of
+restitution. She had torn open the letter in order to read it again,
+and had been quite satisfied with its straightforward avowal of
+responsibility and firm intention, should difficulties arise, of taking
+the whole blame on herself. Then she had put it away again as a
+perpetual witness to her repentance and amendment. And surely these
+virtues had a right to forgiveness? One person, she knew, would do more
+than forgive if he knew all, and this conviction joined to the sense of
+loss which his prolonged absence from her environment always produced
+in Gwen Boynton made her think very tenderly of Dan, who wrote her such
+kind, sympathetic letters from Hodinuggur about the dear lad. He was
+not jealous, and full of evil imaginings like Lewis, whose temper had
+certainly not been improved by his visit to the plains. Though she did
+not consciously feel the need of something stronger than the cousinly
+affection she had for him, there is no doubt that the shock of her own
+lapses from strict honesty, joined to that of George Keene's sudden
+death, had made her disinclined for final decision; so the fact that
+Dan would, from pressure of work, be unable to get leave that year, and
+Lewis, from the same cause, was not likely to be urgent in love-making,
+suited her capitally. She would have time to recover her tone. To this
+end she proceeded, with a curious strength of purpose, to dismiss the
+nightmare of the past from her mind. It was over. What had been, had
+been. She would 'reach out to the things which were before'; no! not
+reach out! She would not again be premature; she would let fate and
+luck have their say to the full.
+
+One small fact showed her state of mind exactly. She dismissed her
+ayah, giving her as a parting present most of the articles which
+Manohar Lal had forced her into buying from him. The woman sulked, yet
+held her tongue, no doubt knowing through her patron, the jeweller,
+that so far as he was concerned the mem was safe; besides, when all was
+said and done, the bucksheesh was sufficient; under no circumstances
+could more have been expected. So, on the whole, life went quite
+smoothly in the pretty little drawing-room where poor young George had
+sat with his head on the table dazed and stunned by his bitter pain.
+
+Over the way, however, in Colonel Tweedie's house, things were
+different. Lewis Gordon, up to the ears in endless calculations, yet
+found time to notice that grief suited Rose very ill. And grief,
+forsooth, for a boy who had not cared a pin for her, who had run into
+debt, and gambled and lost his head completely over another woman; who,
+if the truth were known, had shot himself because--to take the most
+charitable view of the matter--he had not the pluck to bear
+disappointment. Naturally a young fellow felt being fooled--more or
+less--by a woman, because certain instincts were the strongest a
+man had--as a man. But one expected something more--or less--in a
+gentleman. And there was Miss Tweedie, who depended for attractiveness
+on the _beaute du diable_, looking pale and worn, over a mere
+sentimentalism; for she herself would be the first to deny that she had
+been what he, Lewis, would call 'in love' with George. Finally, though
+he, knowing to the full Gwen's responsibility for the boy's suicide,
+had every right, if he chose, to be hard on his cousin, why should this
+girl, who knew nothing, stand aloof and show her disapproval so
+plainly?
+
+'You don't understand girls,' said Gwen easily, in reply to some hints
+of his to this effect. 'Dear Rose can't help huffing me at present. I
+should feel the same, I'm sure, towards any one who had, to my mind,
+stood between me and my dear dead.'
+
+Lewis shifted irritably in his chair, and wished to goodness she would
+talk sense.
+
+'Sense! Why, you yourself are always blaming me in your heart because
+that poor boy thought me the most perfect woman in the world! You know
+you are! As if it was my fault. As if I ever encouraged such an idea in
+any one, or set up for being perfection.'
+
+It was true enough. She never posed as anything but a woman _pur et
+simple_. That was one of her charms in his eyes, and the injustice of
+cavilling at what he really liked made him say more gently--
+
+'I don't suppose you could help it, dear; and perhaps Miss Tweedie
+can't either. I don't pretend to understand women--have enough to do in
+trying to understand the atrocious English men put into their reports.
+But I wish you could come over sometimes as you used to do. The girl
+oughtn't to be allowed to eat nothing and grow so disagreeably thin.'
+
+Gwen gave an odd laugh. 'Well, I'll invite myself to luncheon
+to-morrow. It is bad for the girl--and so useless, into the bargain.'
+
+The common-sense of the last remark lingered in Lewis Gordon's mind
+comfortably as he went home. In more ways than one it was quite useless
+to dwell on George Keene's unfortunate death. No doubt Rose, if she
+knew all, would judge Gwen very harshly, and not only Gwen, but those
+who, knowing what they did, went on as if nothing had happened; but
+Rose Tweedie, the fates be praised, was not his judge.
+
+And yet when he passed the window of her room on his way to his own,
+she was in sober truth sitting in judgment on the figure she saw for a
+second between the draped curtains. He had been over as usual to Mrs.
+Boynton's--to the woman who had been the last to see George Keene, and
+who would say so little of that interview; the woman who no doubt was
+to blame if, as her father said, George had run into debt, and gambled,
+and lost his head. Lewis must know all this, perhaps more, yet he went
+on approvingly. By and by he would marry this woman--for they were
+engaged, of course, even now. Was not that enough to make any one
+unhappy who cared for him as she cared? Rose leant forward over the
+book her eyes were studying, and tried hard to bend her mind also to
+its consideration.
+
+Despite these thoughts she received Mrs. Boynton on the next day
+without a sign of disapproval; for Rose, like most unmarried girls at
+the head of a house, was intensely proud of her position. In society,
+if she did not care to speak to Gwen, she would not speak; if she did
+not care to have her in the house she would not ask her; but if she
+came, as she did now, uninvited, she was nothing more nor less than a
+guest to be treated as a guest should be treated. Perhaps Lewis Gordon
+had an inkling as to the cause of her graciousness, but Colonel Tweedie
+saw nothing but a renewal of those amenities the loss of which he had
+helplessly deplored during the past fortnight. It had put him out
+terribly, and left him completely puzzled as to its cause. Certainly
+not to any change in his mind, for the coolness had checked a steadily
+growing conviction that he would not only like, but that he also ought,
+to ask Mrs. Boynton to marry him. Rose was too much alone; she brooded,
+as the former had kindly pointed out, over life, and fancied herself in
+love with subordinates. She was too sensible for that sort of thing to
+be real, but the constant companionship of a woman of the world was a
+necessity to a young girl. It is surprising how many second marriages
+are inspired by sensible considerations; still more surprising why such
+prudence should then be thought virtuous, moral, blameless, yet be
+deemed _anathema maranatha_ in first marriages. There are some things
+which, as Dundreary said, 'no fellow can find out,' and one is the
+curious ethical code which has quite obscured the real issues of
+marriage, and made it possible for quick-witted husbands and wives to
+quarrel desperately with each other about things that have nothing to
+do with the tie between them. Colonel Tweedie, however, treated his
+secondary reasons with the greatest respect, and beamed pompously round
+the luncheon table as he announced his infinite regret that the duties
+of his responsible position made it necessary for him to leave such
+pleasant company sooner than he would otherwise have done. Mrs.
+Boynton, however, would readily understand that Councils of State were
+paramount to the public servant. Whereupon Gwen, after her fashion,
+took the edge off his anguish by saying that she also had to be at home
+early, seeing she had promised to interview some dreadful Madrassee
+creature who had been recommended to her as an ayah.
+
+'Why did you send old Fuzli away?' asked Rose suddenly. They had risen
+as they were speaking, and she had been standing by the window
+listening with a certain weariness in her face to her father's ornate
+regrets.
+
+'The old reason, "_I do not like thee, Dr. Fell_,"' laughed Gwen. 'I
+suppose it is very illogical--therefore, as Lewis would say, very
+womanly'--but I can't help disliking my world by instinct.'
+
+'That is monstrously unkind,' broke in the Colonel, eager as a boy over
+the opportunity, 'when your world can't help doing the reverse.' There
+is something very satisfactory apparently in a compliment to the person
+who makes it, and the Colonel felt and looked quite lighthearted over
+his.
+
+'When you have got rid of us all, Miss Tweedie,' said Lewis Gordon in a
+low tone which yet covered Gwen's little laugh, 'you should go out and
+have a jolly ride. I'm not using Bronzewing--she frets at waiting--so
+she is at your service, if you care----' he paused in quick surprise--
+
+Such a very little thing upsets a woman's balance at times; and
+Bronzewing had been the one subject over which she and Lewis had never
+quarrelled since the day of his accident. It was foolish, but the look
+on her face made him turn hastily from the window to his cousin, and
+catch at the first thing likely to give the girl time to recover
+herself.
+
+'I believe your ayah's coming here, Gwen; at least I see one of those
+little covered dhoolies descending from your house, and if there are to
+be _purda-nishin_ women about, sir, it is time we men were going.'
+
+'Don't be ridiculous, Lewis. It is somebody going to pay a visit to the
+khansaman's wife. The ayah wouldn't be _purdah_, and she wouldn't dare
+to come here; and if she did, I am not going to make a zenana out of
+Colonel Tweedie's drawing-room.'
+
+'But you could go into Rose's sitting-room, of course,' protested the
+Colonel; 'couldn't she, dear?'
+
+'But indeed, good people,' began Gwen, laughing, 'it can't----'
+
+Just then a servant, entering stolidly, announced a woman waiting to
+see Mem Boynton sahib.
+
+'I told you so,' cried Lewis joyfully, 'and, as a matter of fact, we
+ought to be off, sir. It will take us a good twenty minutes to the
+Secretariat.'
+
+'Show the woman into the Miss Sahib's office,' cried the Colonel
+fussily. 'Rose, my dear----'
+
+But the girl had taken the opportunity of escaping through the open
+French window.
+
+'Please don't mind,' said Mrs. Boynton. 'I know my way about this
+house--at any rate I ought to, seeing how hospitable and good you have
+been always. Good-bye. I hope your interview will prove more pleasant
+than mine is likely to be.'
+
+Their ponies were waiting, and she stayed to see them start and give a
+parting nod as they rounded the last visible turn of the path leading
+to the Mall. Gwen always added these pleasant friendly touches to the
+bareness and business of life. They came to her by instinct, and she
+herself felt cold and cheerless without them.
+
+Then, very well satisfied with herself, she crossed the long matted
+passage which ran from end to end of the house, separating the portion
+Colonel Tweedie reserved for his own use from that occupied by the
+office. Here, beside her father's private room, was Rose's little
+study, and beyond that again Lewis Gordon's quarters and the big glazed
+verandah where the clerks sat designing. It was quite a small room,
+and, as Mrs. Boynton entered it, seemed to her over full of perfume,
+possibly from the vase full of wild turk's-cap lilies on the table. The
+window was shut too, and Gwen as she made her way to the most
+comfortable chair, with scarcely a glance at the white-robed figure
+standing in the shadow of the curtains, gave a quick yet languid order
+to set the glazed doors wide open.
+
+'They are best shut if the Huzoor does not mind. I have that to say
+which requires caution.'
+
+Those round, suave tones, with almost the nightingale thrill in them
+belonged to no ayah, surely! Gwen looked round hastily. That was no
+ayah's figure either, tall, supple, unabashed. Instinctively the
+Englishwoman stood up and confronted her visitor, more curious than
+alarmed. Even to that ignorance of native life which is so typical of
+the mem-sahib--an ignorance not altogether to be deprecated--the
+woman's trade was unmistakable. That was writ large in the trimness and
+cleanliness, the spotless white, the chaplets of flowers, the scent of
+musk and ambergris filling the room; all the more reason for surprise
+at her presence there. Yet, even so, curiosity outweighed indignation
+and resentment in Gwen's cold questioning.
+
+'Who are you? What do you want?'
+
+The answer came quick, so quickly that it left the hearer with that
+breathless sense of pained relief that the worst is over, which comes
+with the clean sharp cut of a surgeon's knife.
+
+'I am Chandni of Delhi. I want the Hodinuggur pearls which the Huzoor
+took out of the Ayodhya pot.'
+
+There was no mincing of the matter here; none of that beating about the
+bush which, as a rule, Gwen loved. Yet the directness did not displease
+her; it seemed to rouse in her a novel combativeness, taking form in
+similar effrontery and cool assertion.
+
+'I don't know what you are talking about,' she said indifferently, 'and
+I don't want you. Go!'
+
+Her Hindustani, though limited, was of the imperative order and suited
+the occasion; yet it evoked one of Chandni's shrill mocking laughs.
+
+'The mem sahiba mistakes. She is not as I am, a daughter of the
+bazaars, and if it comes to words Chandni hath two to her one. So I
+come quietly to ask reasonably for my rights; not to dispute after the
+manner of my kind. There is no need to tell the mem sahiba the story.
+She remembers it perfectly. She knows it all as well as I. But this she
+does not know: The pearls are mine, and I will have them back, or their
+price in revenge.'
+
+'I think you are mad!' cried Gwen more hastily. 'Go! go instantly, or I
+will call the servants.'
+
+'That were not wise! Lo! I know all about the papers of safety, which
+Manohar Lal gave in exchange for the little sahib's rupees. But the
+pearls went not once, but twice.'
+
+'Twice!' The involuntary echo had a surprise in it which angered the
+courtesan.
+
+'Yes, twice! The mem knows that as well as I do. The Ayodhya pot----'
+
+'Was stolen from me in the palace,' put in Gwen; 'you stole it, I dare
+say.'
+
+Again Chandni laughed. 'If I did, what then? The mem got it again and
+sent it back through the post for more pearls. But we did not send it
+thus; we sent it by the little sahib, who gave it to the mem, and she
+sent the key in return. The papers are about the first pearls. These
+are the second, and there is no safety paper about them.'
+
+'It is not true!--it is a lie--he never took them--he never gave them
+to me,' cried Gwen, her courage, oddly enough, failing before what was
+to her an absolutely novel and unfounded accusation. 'I will not
+listen! Go! or I will call.'
+
+Chandni took a step nearer, lowering her voice. 'What! wouldst let the
+truth be known; when thou canst conceal it--for ever! Give me the
+pearls and no one shall know--no one shall cast dirt on the mem, and on
+the little sahib--no one shall know how he took the bribes for you--no
+one shall know thou didst beguile him as men are beguiled.'
+
+'I--I did not--it is a lie, I----' faltered Gwen, falling back till
+Chandni's hand closed like a vice on her wrist.
+
+'Wah! What use to deny it to me? Do I not know the trick? A word, a
+look, no more. What! do men send bullets through their hearts as Keene
+sahib did for no cause? Ari, sister! we know better.'
+
+The jeering comradeship was too much for caution even though the story
+of poor George's death passed by her as a wanton lie. Gwen, struggling
+madly, gave one scream after another for help, and, breaking from her
+persecutor, turned to fly. At the same moment Rose, who had been into
+her father's study for a book, burst through the door and stood
+bewildered at the scene.
+
+'Send her away! She tells lies--lies about me and George--lies about
+everything. Oh! have her sent away, Rose. Please send her away.'
+
+The girl, clasping the hands with which Gwen clung to her, turned on
+the intruder angrily, and an indescribable hardness and contempt came
+to her face, as she took in the meaning of the figure and its dress.
+
+'How dare you come here? Go this instant! Put on your veil, hide
+yourself, and go! Impertinent! Shameless!'
+
+There was no answering laugh now. 'The Huzoor speaks truth,' replied
+the courtesan quietly. 'I have no business here. I came but to see the
+mem, bethinking me she might listen better in the house of those who
+were friends to the little sahib----'
+
+But Gwen's immediate terror had passed, leaving her face to face with
+future fears.
+
+'Don't listen, Rose!' she interrupted in English. 'You should never
+listen to what women of that sort say about any one. She frightened me
+at first with her lies, but the wisest plan is to send her away. I'll
+call a servant.'
+
+Chandni, listening to the quick whisper, smiled.
+
+'The mem sahiba wants silence,' she said, nodding her head; but silence
+is ever unsafe unless tongues are tied. And mine will wag if not here,
+elsewhere, unless I get the Ayodhya pot.'
+
+Rose gave a quick exclamation, but Gwen's hand was on her arm, her
+voice full of passionate entreaty.
+
+'Don't, Rose! don't speak to her. I can tell you all. It is all lies;
+some rigmarole declaring that after the pot had been stolen at
+Hodinuggur it was sent back to me here at Simla, and that I returned it
+again. There isn't a word of truth in it; I never----'
+
+But the girl set aside her detaining hand with an impatient gesture,
+and crossed to where Chandni stood watching them.
+
+'You have made a mistake,' came the clear unfaltering voice. 'The
+Ayodhya pot was not sent to the mem sahiba, it was sent to me; and it
+was I who returned it. What then?'
+
+The frank admission brought a curiously similar expression to those two
+listening faces; it seemed to leave both, abashed, uncertain, so that
+Rose had to repeat her clear question before it gained reply.
+
+'What then?' echoed the courtesan at last, somewhat sulkily. 'How can I
+tell if this be so; and if it be so, how can I tell what came? Only
+this I do know: the pot went to Keene sahib the day he left. He gave it
+to some one. Let that some one answer. I care not who 'tis, so I have
+my pearls that were hidden in the pot.'
+
+'Pearls! There were no pearls in it when it came to me,' cried Rose
+quickly; then remembering the jagged edge of clay she had noticed
+inside, she turned to Gwen: 'Did you notice anything like a false
+bottom when you had it before?'
+
+The face into which she looked paled. 'You don't understand!' said Gwen
+petulantly; 'the woman says that these pearls were put there after it
+was stolen, so how could I notice anything when I tell you I never saw,
+never heard of it again? I told the woman so just now. I will tell her
+again before you! then I must, I will have her sent away, she has no
+business here.'
+
+But Chandni's recklessness had grown. 'I care not who has them. See!
+there are three of us here in this room who have handled the pot. Let
+her who hath it and its hoard speak truth, and save the little sahib.
+For he had it, sure enough; of that there is proof.'
+
+'Three of us!' repeated Rose absently, as if struck by a thought. Then
+obeying a sudden impulse, she went over to a portfolio standing in one
+corner of the room. 'You mistake,' she continued, her eyes full on the
+courtesan. 'There are not three, but four of us. Look! Keene sahib
+painted that.'
+
+Chandni fell back, averting her face from the portrait of Azizan, which
+Rose placed against an easel on the table.
+
+'The evil eye! the evil eye! God save us from the witch,' she muttered,
+thrusting out her right hand in that two-fingered gesture which is used
+against a baleful glance in both East and West. But Gwen pressing
+closer looked at the picture with a dawning light of relieved
+comprehension in her face.
+
+'Did he paint that--how pretty it is! And it explains--it
+explains--a--a great deal. He gave her the pot, I suppose--Well! it is
+a pity, but one ought not to be----'
+
+'Ought not to be what?' interrupted Rose fiercely, with a fine scorn in
+her face, scarcely less concealed than the contempt with which she
+turned to the other woman.
+
+'You both seem to know or understand this picture better than I do,'
+she said superbly. 'Perhaps you can tell me whom it represents?'
+
+'My dear Rose,' expostulated Gwen, aside; 'don't for pity's sake ask
+that creature. What would your father say if he knew? You may mix
+yourself up----'
+
+'Whose picture is it, I ask?' repeated Rose, unheeding. Then in the
+silence of Chandni's smile, and Gwen's frown, she turned passionately
+to the portrait itself. 'Why don't you speak and shame them? You look
+as if you could tell the truth, and if he made you so, it was true!'
+The very vehemence of her own fanciful appeal imposed on her, and she
+paused as if waiting a reply. It came with a laugh from Chandni.
+
+'She was another of the little sahib's friends. The miss saith true.
+There are three of them here. Which will give back the pearls and save
+him?'
+
+'Save him from what?' cried Rose, disregarding Gwen's appeals for her
+to leave the mad woman to the servants. 'What has Keene sahib done that
+you can dare to threaten?'
+
+The girl's bitter contempt roused all Chandni's savageness. After all
+she was the mistress, and this girl, despite her courage, in her power
+too; and what is more she should learn it.
+
+'From what? from the shame which comes to the sahib-logue when their
+pretence of honesty is found out--from the shame of having friends--the
+shame of taking jewels for those friends--the shame of being untrue to
+salt--Ask the mem how 'tis done, she knows--the shame of sending the
+key of the sluice-gate so that the water----'
+
+Her voice had risen with each sentence; now it ended in a gasp and a
+gurgle.
+
+'Open the door, please,' said Rose to Mrs. Boynton, who gasped also in
+the intense surprise of the girl's swift action. 'Don't struggle,
+fool!' she went on in the same hard tone, only the dead whiteness of
+her face and a catch as she drew breath telling of the wild passion
+surging in her veins. 'I won't choke you if you hold your tongue.'
+
+Once before Chandni had felt a girl's grip on her throat; a hot,
+straining grip. This was neither. It was the grip of a strong healthy
+hand made vigorous by constant use. Those fierce fights over bat and
+ball with the dead lad had had their share in the sheer muscle of her
+defence of him, before which Chandni's large softness gave way, leaving
+her not even a slandering tongue.
+
+'Put the veil over her face, please! I won't even have it known who
+dared to come here!' continued the girl, forcing the woman backwards
+step by step till they reached the door. Then she pushed her from it
+magnificently. 'Now go! and tell what lies you like elsewhere.'
+
+But her face changed as she turned when the door was closed and bolted
+to Gwen Boynton.
+
+'Is it true? For God's sake tell me if there is a word of truth in it,
+and I will find the money.'
+
+Gwen dissolved into helpless tears at once; tears at once of vague
+remorse, and a very real sense of injustice. 'True! oh, Rose, how can
+you ask? Of course it isn't true. I wouldn't have done it for the
+world. Indeed and indeed I never saw the Ayodhya pot again, and I don't
+believe George did. He was the soul of honour, and so good--so good to
+me. It is all wicked, wicked lies, unless, indeed, that girl--but
+there, I daresay she was bad like that horrid creature. Perhaps they
+stole the pot between them and are now trying to blackmail us.'
+
+'Stole the pot!' repeated Rose slowly, for the first time remembering
+her dream on the night of the storm at Hodinuggur. 'Yes! that is
+possible, and yet----.' She looked at Azizan's picture, and then back
+at Gwen, who was dabbing her eyes with a soft pocket-handkerchief. 'You
+are sure?' she began again.
+
+'Of course I am quite sure,' retorted Gwen, whose remorse had vanished
+in grievance at this impudent attempt to amend and enlarge the text of
+a past incident. 'I never saw or heard of the pot again. I may be weak,
+I may have done things for which I am sorry in the past, but whatever
+you may think, my conscience is clear. And as for the sluice? Dan
+opened it by order; besides, there was the flood. It is all an attempt
+to blackmail me, and I won't be blackmailed. I have done nothing they
+can take hold of, nothing--nothing.'
+
+Rose gave a sigh, almost of dissatisfaction. If it really was a case of
+blackmailing, payment would be but a temporary relief. Perhaps, as she
+had also suggested, the girl in the picture was in league with Chandni.
+She did not look that sort either. Nor did she look as if---- Rose
+glanced from the pure oval of the cheek and the fine long curves of the
+mouth to Mrs. Boynton's tear-stained face and frowned.
+
+'Some one has the pearls,' she said, 'and George's memory must be
+saved--somehow.'
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+'Come in!'
+
+The words were given in an impatient tone, for Lewis Gordon was busy,
+and he hated being disturbed; especially when, as now, he had taken his
+coat off, literally as well as figuratively, before a difficult file.
+
+The garment hung on the back of his chair, which, in obedience to a fad
+of his, was the only one in the office; a second one, he declared,
+being easily sent for if required, while its absence shortened many a
+trivial interruption. Otherwise it was a comfortable enough room, with
+a large French window set wide on a magnificent view of the serrated
+snows resting on the wall of blue distance, and framed by the curved
+tops of a forest of young deodars. The day was bright as a morning in
+the rainy season can be; bright by very contrast between the brilliant
+lights and shadows in earth and sky; bright as a rain-cloud itself when
+the sun shines on it. A fresh breeze came in with Rose Tweedie through
+the opening door and blew some papers off the table.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' came in duet as Lewis fumbled blindly for his
+coat; his eye-glass having deserted him in the surprise, after the
+manner of eye-glasses. As he did so, he felt injured. Not that he was
+such a crass idiot as to be outraged by a pair of shirt sleeves in
+himself or others. But he knew quite well that no man can look
+dignified, when struggling, even into a lounge-coat, and he liked to be
+dignified, especially with Rose Tweedie. His irritation, however, hid
+itself under a different cloak; that is to say, annoyance at a most
+unusual intrusion. Perhaps she read the expression of it in his face,
+for her first words were an excuse.
+
+'I came here--to your office, I mean--because I want to ask you
+something, and I didn't want you to feel hampered--not as a friend, you
+know.' Her eyes met his in confidence of being understood so far, at
+any rate, and he gave rather a stiff little bow.
+
+'You are very welcome. Won't you take a chair--the chair, perhaps I
+ought to say? I've been sitting all the morning, and shall be glad of a
+change; unless you require some time. If so, I will send----'
+
+'No, thanks, I prefer standing also,' she interrupted, with a quick
+flush. 'I only wanted to ask you a question. It is about George Keene.'
+
+'Yes----' he replied coldly, unsympathetically; and yet he was noting
+her anxious eyes and haggard face with a sort of angry wonder why she
+should make herself so unhappy. Rose's fingers held nervously to the
+edge of the table by which she stood.
+
+'Have you any reason--I mean, is there officially any reason to suppose
+that the Hodinuggur sluice was opened before the flood came down, or
+before Mr. Fitzgerald?'
+
+She paused with her eyes on Lewis's face. She had lain awake almost all
+the night thinking of Chandni's threats and hints, and with clear sight
+had seen that their worth or unworth depended largely upon the official
+report of what had actually happened at Hodinuggur. To her father she
+could not go without danger from his want of judgment; there remained
+Lewis, who was always just, always to be trusted in such matters.
+
+His heart gave quite a throb of dismayed surprise at her question, and
+forced him by contraries into still greater chilliness of manner.
+
+'I'm afraid I can't quite see your right to ask me such a question--as
+yet. Perhaps if you could give me a reason----'
+
+'Oh yes! I can give you a reason,' she interrupted, with a ring of
+scorn in her voice, 'though I think you might credit me with a good one
+where George is concerned, surely? Only if I have to tell, you had
+better send for the chair. I thought, perhaps, you would understand,
+for once.'
+
+The bitterness of her tone did not escape him, and accentuated his
+annoyance. As he handed her the chair and leant negligently against the
+table, his hands behind him, he told himself that he was in for
+_mauvais quart d'heure_ with this girl. Man-like she would expect to
+know all, womanlike she would expect sentiment to outweigh official
+integrity. These thoughts did not serve to soften his heart towards the
+dead lad even at the beginning, and as her story unfolded itself, his
+face grew sterner and sterner. Hers lightened. It was an infinite
+relief to have his advice--his help, and she told him so frankly, even
+while she appealed for it.
+
+'You needn't even answer my question, Mr. Gordon,' she went on
+earnestly. 'You will know so much better than I do what had best be
+done. I thought of going to see the woman myself----'
+
+'You didn't go, I hope?' put in Lewis hastily.
+
+'No! I made up my mind to ask you first. You see, if there is no truth
+in all this--no truth whatever----'
+
+'That is unlikely, I warn you,' interrupted Lewis. 'These women Really,
+Miss Tweedie, if you follow my advice--much as it may pain you at the
+time--you will leave this business alone, absolutely alone. It is not
+one with which--excuse me for even alluding to the fact--a girl such as
+you are should meddle. Unfortunately, we men have to face these things,
+and they are not pleasant, even for us.'
+
+'You speak as if you thought George was guilty,' said Rose hotly. 'What
+right have you to do that?'
+
+'I may have more right than you suspect. Believe me, Miss Tweedie, I am
+heartily sorry--especially for you; and, so far as is compatible with
+the facts, I will do my best to avoid official _esclandre_ should this
+matter really crop up. In the meantime, I am afraid I must decline to
+interfere in what Mrs. Boynton, you tell me, stigmatised as an impudent
+attempt at blackmailing. She has her faults, no doubt, like everybody
+else; but she has, excuse me for saying so, more knowledge of the world
+than you have. In fact, you could scarcely do better than take her
+advice on this point.'
+
+The girl, with a frown on her face, rose from her seat slowly.
+
+'Then you refuse to find out the truth? You are content to let this
+suspicion lie upon--upon me and upon your cousin?'
+
+Lewis smiled. 'That is rather far-fetched, Miss Tweedie, surely. The
+idea of suspicion with you is simply absurd; and as for Gwen! Well, I
+know you are ready to admit she has her faults; but she has called this
+claim impudent blackmailing, and you must excuse me if I incline to
+believe her.'
+
+'And for George Keene? Do you suspect him? Are you going to allow his
+memory to be smirched?'
+
+'I have told you I will do my best. For the rest, he must take the
+consequence of his own acts, I'm afraid. Indeed, I am sorry, very
+sorry,' he added hastily, impelled to it by the look on Rose Tweedie's
+face. It had grown ashen pale, yet she stood steadily before him, her
+eyes on his unflinchingly.
+
+'Then there is truth in it? You had better tell me. It would be kinder
+to tell me--if you can.'
+
+Perhaps, after all, it would. Perhaps, if this scandal had to come to
+light, it would be better she should be prepared. Even if it did not,
+was it not wiser she should know the real truth about George Keene, and
+so be able to judge him fairly? Not a bad boy, of course. That talk of
+bribery was no doubt false, and he had done no more in other ways than
+hundreds of boys in a like position. Even at Simla he had only run wild
+a bit, and for that he was not the only one responsible. Still, when
+all was said and done, he had shot himself, and that alone made the
+task of whitewashing him an impossibility if these women chose revenge.
+
+'Yes! there is some truth in it,' he said gravely. 'If you will sit
+down again, I will tell you everything I know, and then you can judge
+for yourself. I should like you to understand, however, that in spite
+of appearances, I don't believe George lent himself to anything more
+than--what you would--not you, perhaps--but most of us would expect in
+a young fellow of his age and his position. Life is--is rather
+intoxicating to--to some of us.'
+
+So, leaning against the table, he told her the truth, trying to do his
+task calmly and kindly, yet beset by a certain impatience at the still
+figure seated in his office chair, its elbows among his files, the
+coils of its beautiful hair showing beyond the hands in which the face
+was hidden. What business had it there? What business had the thought
+of its pain to come so close to him? closer even than his own reason,
+his own sense of justice?
+
+'And you have known that he shot himself from the beginning?' she
+asked, raising her head suddenly to look him full in the face. He
+assented with a distinct self-complacency.
+
+'Then what did you think made him do it? What did you think
+then--before you knew anything about the death or the opening of the
+gates?'
+
+The self-complacency vanished. 'There are many reasons or want of
+reasons, for that sort of thing, Miss Tweedie,' he said evasively. 'I
+did not--I mean it was impossible to say absolutely, and that is why I
+acquiesced in Fitzgerald's plan. It was more convenient to every one
+concerned.'
+
+'Much more convenient,' echoed Rose sharply. 'And you have known this
+all the time, and not----' she broke off, as if incredulous of her own
+half-uttered thought.
+
+'Certainly, I have known it, and we would have kept the secret too,
+Fitzgerald and I, but for this unfortunate business,' he retorted, and
+his tone was not pleasant.
+
+'Ah! _he_ is different; _he_ did not know! _he_ thought George had done
+it for his sake, to screen him. But you? What did you believe?' The
+girl's very voice was a challenge.
+
+'I must say, Miss Tweedie, that I scarcely see how my belief affects
+the question; or, pardon me, what it matters to you,' he replied,
+taking refuge once more in his indifference.
+
+'Do you not? Then I do. Not that it matters now,' she added in sudden
+passion, 'for I will have my own way in the future. If you won't help
+me, I can't help that; but I will have the truth. I will go down to
+this woman in the bazaar and make her tell me. Whether her story is a
+lie or not, there shall be no more concealment. I will not have it.'
+
+'And George Keene's memory?' he suggested, angered almost beyond his
+self-control by her unmistakable defiance. 'My advice is unwelcome, of
+course, but if you took it, and Mrs. Boynton's--only that is unwelcome
+too--you might save all scandal. I cannot say for certain that it
+would, but as I have told you, I would do my best. Officially even, I
+would do my best. That seems to be an offence also, for some reason,
+but I would do it as much for the sake of the Department as for the
+boy's. You--I know--think only of him----'
+
+She turned upon him like lightening, carried out of herself by her
+scorn, by her passion.
+
+'Of him! I was not thinking of him at all! I was thinking of you--of
+you only, as I always do. Why should you not know the truth? You will
+not care a pin whether I think of you or not. And I? I care for
+nothing--nothing so long as you do not blindfold yourself wilfully--so
+long as you are just and honest. Ah! you may think I am mad--perhaps if
+what you believe about men and women is true, I am--but it means
+everything--everything in the world to me that you should be so--just
+and honest; because what you are is more to me than all the world
+beside. That is the truth.' The last words came slowly as the fire of
+her passion died down; yet there was no uncertainty in them. 'I suppose
+I oughtn't to have said this,' she went on, turning from him to lean
+her elbows on the table, and rest her head on her hands wearily. 'But
+you won't mind, and I don't care. It can't hurt any man to know that he
+is loved--it can't.'
+
+'_Loved!_' The word sent a thrill through the man such as he had never
+felt before. '_Loved!_' was that what she meant? The thought broke
+through even his armour of surprise. He stood for an instant looking
+down at her, then turned slowly and walked to the window, to return,
+however, in a second, with quick clear steps breaking the silence of
+the room.
+
+'What do you mean!--I can't believe it. What do you mean?'
+
+His impatience would not wait for a reply in words. Her face would give
+it truly, that he knew, and he stooped over her, taking her by the
+wrists, in order to draw her hands apart. She turned to him then
+bravely enough.
+
+'Rose!'
+
+It was almost a cry, as, stooping lower still, he knelt before her, his
+eyes on hers incredulous, yet soft. Then suddenly, still clasping her
+slender wrists, he buried his face upon them on her lap, muttering--
+
+'Oh, I am sorry!--I am sorry!'
+
+Never since, as a child, he had said his prayers at his mother's knee,
+had Lewis Gordon so knelt to man or woman. And something of the child's
+unquestioning belief in an unselfish love came back to him, joined to a
+perfect passion of the man's clear-sighted remorse and regret for long
+years of past disbelief.
+
+'Don't,' she said, gently bending over him; 'please don't. There is
+nothing for you to be sorry about--indeed, there isn't.'
+
+Nothing to be sorry about! Once more he echoed this girl's words to
+himself with that strange thrill, as, recovering his self-command, he
+stood straight and stiff beside her, conscious only of one vehement
+desire to care for and to protect her.
+
+'What is it you want me to do?' he said at last unsteadily. 'Tell me,
+and I'll do it.'
+
+Then, woman-like, she began to cry; it is a way the good ones have when
+they succeed in imposing their own will on those they love.
+
+'I don't think I want you to do anything--particular,' she answered,
+trying to conceal her tears. 'I don't know; besides, I would much
+rather you did it your own way.'
+
+If the uttermost truth could be told about a man's emotion in such
+scenes, as it can be regarding a woman's, it would have to be confessed
+that Lewis Gordon came very near to crying also over this foolish
+unconditional surrender on Rose Tweedie's part. For he understood the
+irresolution of a generous nature before its own success, and what is
+more, the woman's desire to give the man she loves the glory of
+justifying her belief in him. He felt quite a lump in his throat, and
+had to seek escape from the tenderness of one sex in the decision of
+the other; for in nine cases out of ten these are but different methods
+of showing the same emotion.
+
+'I will go down and see this woman to-day; and then----' He paused, not
+in order to think over his next move--that undoubtedly would be to see
+Gwen Boynton--but to overcome a dislike to mentioning her name at all
+which suddenly assailed him. Why, he scarcely knew, except that it
+seemed mean, unmanly. Rose, however, saved him from the necessity by
+again repeating--this time almost abjectly--that she would rather not
+know; that she would be quite content to leave the matter in his hands.
+
+'Thank you,' replied Lewis, in such a very low tone that it was almost
+a whisper. It did not lead, however, as might have been expected, to a
+silence, but to a louder, more aggressive gratitude. 'I have to thank
+you--for many things. I won't affect to ignore or set aside what--what
+you did me the honour of telling me just now. That would be sheer
+impertinence on my----'
+
+Now, when he had got so far in a perfectly admirable sentiment,
+calculated to soothe both her feelings and his, why he should suddenly
+have found his hands in hers again, his heart full of an unpremeditated
+assertion that he was glad she loved him, cannot be explained
+logically; but so it was. Yet before the scared look in her eyes his
+own fell, he loosened his clasp, and the appeal died from his lips.
+There was no place for him or his questionings in her avowal. That
+hedged itself about from intrusion with a dignity he recognised. So
+what remained, save to pass on with as much of the same quality as he
+could compass to the work assigned to him.
+
+'I will come in and tell you what I have done this afternoon about five
+o'clock,' he said quietly; 'that is, if it is convenient.'
+
+'Quite, thank you.'
+
+The baldest, most conventional of tones on both sides. The baldest,
+most convenient holding open of the door for her to pass out--to pass
+out from a scene that would linger in his memory; in nothing else. The
+descent to normal diapason comes sooner or later, no matter how highly
+strung the instrument may be to begin with, and melodrama fades into
+padding. In real life it generally leaves some of the actors
+dissatisfied with the way the scene has played. Lewis Gordon felt this
+distinctly as he was left looking at his own chair, as if he still saw
+a girl's figure seated there, her elbows resting on the litter of
+official papers, and the great coils of her burnished hair showing
+beyond the hands which hid her face.
+
+'It can't hurt any man to know that he is loved.'
+
+She had said so; but she was wrong. It did hurt confoundedly. So that
+was what she meant by love, was it?----
+
+If any of the trivial interruptions which Lewis Gordon so much dreaded
+had come during the following five minutes, they would have found the
+coveted chair vacant, though the owner's face was buried in his hands
+among the files of memorandums and reports. Apparently he gained little
+consolation from them, for when he resumed work he looked about as
+upset and disordered as a tidy man can do when he is cool and properly
+clothed. Nor did they gain much from him during the next hour, which
+ticked away remorselessly from the chronometer by which Lewis loved to
+map out his day. He thrust them aside at last impatiently, and ordered
+his pony, thinking that may be when he had been through that visit to
+the bazaar he might feel less of a fool, and not quite so much
+depolarised. And yet she had said there was nothing to regret,--that he
+would not care,--that it would not matter to him if she thought of him
+or not!
+
+It was a queer world! He set his teeth over it as he rode reluctantly
+between the shingled arcades of the big bazaar, and then through a
+narrow paved alley, pitching, as it were, sheer down into the blue
+mists of the valley below; and so on to the balconied house where, from
+inquiries at the Kotwali, he learned that Chandni was lodging. The task
+before him was a disagreeable one, and he swore inwardly as he thought
+that but for his abject capitulation Rose would have attempted it
+herself. Rose! of all people. He began to understand that the feminine
+world could not be divided into two classes, since there was a third
+composed of one specimen. As he went on into the house the very
+cleanliness and order, contrasting so sharply with the dirt of
+surrounding respectability, struck him offensively on the girl's
+behalf, the giggling in the lower storey gave him a vicarious shock,
+and the obsequiousness of his introduction into the higher one, where
+Chandni sat secluded, actually made his cheek burn.
+
+'It can't hurt any man to know that he is loved.'
+
+He set aside the haunting words angrily, and began his task so soon as
+the patchwork drapery at the door fell behind him, leaving him face to
+face with white-robed salaaming grace.
+
+'See here, my sister, this is for the truth. 'Tis not often thy sort
+are asked for it; but I ask nothing else. I will take nothing else.'
+
+Checked thus in her languid welcome to the unknown guest, Chandni
+looked distastefully at the hundred-rupee note thrust into her hand,
+then at the giver; though both were to her liking. The latter she
+recognised instantly, having seen him among the party at Hodinuggur. So
+her seed of slander had taken root already.
+
+'My lord shall have that which he requires, surely. Wherefore else are
+there such as I?'
+
+The cynical truth of her answer showed him her wit at once, and he
+acknowledged it frankly when, half an hour afterwards, he felt himself
+baffled by the calm simplicity of her story. Most of it he had already
+heard, and the rest showed still more unpleasant details to have raked
+up should the worst come to the worst. Azizan, he was told, had been a
+palace lady, with whom George had had clandestine meetings, over which
+he had first become mixed up with the intrigues about the water. The
+key of the sluice had been sent from Simla, whether by the Mem or the
+Miss, or the sahib himself, Chandni did not know, could not say. Was
+she not telling the Huzoor the bare truth she knew to be true, and
+nothing else?
+
+'And how much do you want to keep all this quiet?' he asked calmly,
+when she had finished. It was as well to know her price, at any rate.
+
+For an instant the immediate temptation to take the bird in the hand
+made the courtesan hesitate. Then she struck boldly for higher game.
+
+'The pearls, Huzoor! The pearls, or my revenge!' This man, with the
+cool, refined face and the contempt which made her involuntarily
+remember the Miss sahib's also, affected indifference now, and would
+most likely offer her some paltry sum. She could afford to wait for the
+change which was sure to come; for she was not in the least afraid of
+anything Lewis could do, and, without being absolutely insolent, took
+care to show him the fact as she lolled about at her ease, chewing
+betel ostentatiously. She had nothing to gain here by affecting
+delicacy, so he might see her at her coarsest and worst; it contrasted
+better with his brains.
+
+The result being that Lewis Gordon came into Gwen's Boynton's
+drawing-room for his next interview looking depressed; partly because
+he had been riding through a tepid shower-bath. For recurring rain had
+washed away the bright promises of the morning and was falling drearily
+over the rank, dank grasses and beating down the fringes of delicate
+ferns growing upon the dripping branches of the oak trees, until they
+lost shape and became nothing but a green outline against the grey
+mist.
+
+Within, however, by the light of a blazing pine-wood fire, Mrs. Boynton
+looked bright yet soft, like a pastel painting, or a figure seen in a
+looking-glass; for she soon recovered from her emotions, and took pains
+to hide their effects even from herself. So the fact that she had lain
+awake half the night wondering if by chance Chandni's impudent lies had
+been prompted by any flaw in the chain-armour of security which George
+and the flood had forged for her, did not show in her face. For they
+were lies; even that tale of the dear lad's death, which had given her
+such a shock at the time, was nothing but the vile woman's wicked,
+cruel invention. Rose had evidently heard nothing and still knew
+nothing of it; besides, Dan did not know, and even if he had wished to
+keep the pain of such knowledge from her, Lewis, with his jealous
+blame, would have been sure to point a moral; a pointless moral at
+best, since George could have had no cause for despair. Had not the
+flood come to end even his anxiety? unless, indeed, there was any truth
+in the tale about the portrait. Yet why should truth be supposed in one
+incident when causeless wicked lying was evident in all the others? No;
+it was an impudent attempt at extortion, and must be met by denial.
+Therein lay safety, both for her and for poor George Keene's memory,
+since the conspirators would never face the evidence of those papers
+which they knew she held. So, as her cousin came in she greeted him
+with a smile changing to sweet concern at his ill looks.
+
+'I have a headache,' he replied curtly. 'No wonder; the smells and
+general abominations of the bazaar are enough to kill one, and I had to
+go down there. Besides, I'm damp, and I've had no lunch. Isn't that a
+long enough catalogue of ills? No, thanks; don't order anything for me.
+I'd rather have a cup of tea by and by.'
+
+It was the worst thing for him, he knew that. Nothing but a quiet cigar
+and a man's drink would have restored his balance. But he told himself
+captiously that he had been in a melodramatic atmosphere all the
+morning, and might as well go through with it to the bitter end. He
+felt demoralised, and so, almost out of contrariety, put himself at a
+further disadvantage by rushing at his fence.
+
+'Gwen,' he began abruptly, 'I've come to ask you for the truth.' He did
+not hand her a bank-note as he had to the other woman; yet the thought
+had crossed his mind bitterly that one of sufficient value might be
+useful. He had set it aside, of course, as utterly unworthy since, in
+common justice, he had no more right to prejudge Gwen's implication
+than he had to prejudge Rose Tweedie's. There was, no doubt, the fact
+of George Keene's suicide against the one; but that was no new thing.
+She had been judged on that count before, and he had decided to save
+her from the pain of knowing it; to that decision, also, he meant to
+keep if it were possible.
+
+Gwen's heart gave a great throb; she understood in an instant that the
+crisis had come sooner than she expected. Yet she was prepared for it.
+
+'I suppose Rose Tweedie'--she began coldly.
+
+'Yes; Rose Tweedie asked my advice, and I've been down to that woman in
+the bazaar. She sticks to her story. So now I have come to you----'
+
+'If you had come to me first, Lewis,' she interrupted with a vibration
+of real anger in her voice, 'I would have warned you not to waste your
+time in playing Don Quixote at Rose Tweedie's bidding. The woman is an
+impostor, and should be treated as such. I would have sent the police
+after her yesterday, had I thought it wise to take even so much notice
+of her lies. And now you have been to see her! It is too foolish--too
+annoying! And all because Rose went crying to you, I suppose, about her
+lover. Her lover, indeed! You are very soft-hearted, Lewis! Perhaps
+some day your desire to console will lead you into taking his place.
+
+He stared at her; that sort of thing being so unlike Gwen's usual
+sweetness; but his surprise did not equal his confusion, while his
+common-sense showed him her possible wisdom.
+
+'Miss Tweedie did not cry over her lover, I assure you, he began,
+feeling in very truth that the young lady in question had meted out
+more blame than sympathy; 'and I did not choose to allow such tales of
+you to pass unnoticed.'
+
+'So you listened to them again?' retorted Gwen in rising anger, which
+she wilfully exaggerated. 'Listened to what a common woman in the
+bazaar had to say of me! Really, I am obliged to you, Lewis! And she, I
+suppose, told you that I had stolen the pearls and the pot, and then
+taken it and a fresh bribe from poor George? 'Well, since you have come
+to me at last for the truth, I tell you, as I told Rose--who, perhaps,
+did not repeat it--that I have never seen the thing since the night of
+the storm at Hodinuggur. So I have less to do with it than she, since
+she confesses it was sent to her, and that she sent it back on the sly.
+Did she tell you that? and have you been asking her for the truth also?
+Or am I the only one who has to be questioned like that creature in the
+bazaar.'
+
+Gwen had never looked better than she did at that moment, with the
+unwonted fire of real indignation lighting up her face, and Lewis
+Gordon felt vexed that it awoke no thrill in him. Was he really
+allowing Rose Tweedie's open mistrust to bias him? The idea made his
+reply more gentle than it might otherwise have been.
+
+'Perhaps you are right to be angry with me,' he said quietly. 'I beg
+your pardon, if I have hurt you; but, indeed, it seemed best to me at
+the time. Perhaps, as you say, it would have been better to wait a
+while; until, for instance, I can consult with Fitzgerald. I wired him
+today to come up on three days' urgent private business. He knows a
+lot.'
+
+Gwen gave an odd sort of laugh, not unlike a sob, and her face
+softened.
+
+'I'm glad he is coming,' she cried passionately; 'very glad. He always
+understands, and he knows.' Yes! he knew and trusted her--he would
+stand by her even if he knew that one fatal mistake. Whereas Lewis
+would treat her as a Magdalen; as if she, Gwen Boynton, were a fit
+subject for a penitentiary!
+
+'Yes,' she repeated slowly, 'I am glad he is coming. You did the right
+thing there, Lewis, at any rate.'
+
+So, with this small consolation, he had to make his way back to give in
+his report to the girl who had told him that she loved him. Another
+delicate task, and he felt himself detestably awkward over it, the more
+so because Rose herself met him as if nothing unusual had occurred.
+
+'Well,' she said eagerly, 'what news?'
+
+He told her briefly that there was none. He had had three versions of
+truth--her own, Chandni's, and Mrs. Boynton's--and there seemed nothing
+to be done save wait for Dan's arrival. He might be able to throw some
+light on the subject--he was the last person, at any rate, who was
+likely to do so.
+
+'You forget the girl--the girl of the portrait, I mean,' suggested Rose
+quickly. Lewis frowned.
+
+'She disappeared, they say, just before we reached Hodinuggur. I should
+like, by the way, to see the picture, if you don't mind.'
+
+He stood looking at it in silence for some time.
+
+'And that, you say, was the face of your dream?' he asked at last.
+
+'The face, the dress, the pot clasped so to her breast. I seem to grow
+more sure of it every hour. And I am certain now it was she who said,
+"I am Azizan."'
+
+'That sort of certainty grows upon one unconsciously,' he replied,
+after another pause. 'I confess it is odd; but you can hardly believe
+it really was the potter's daughter! She has been dead these sixteen
+years. You think it was her ghost, perhaps; but did George paint the
+ghost?'
+
+Rose stood silent, her hands clasped tightly.
+
+'Who knows?' she said slowly. 'One knows so little. When I think of it
+all--of that strange old man with his refrain, "We come and go--we come
+and go," I seem to feel that odd, uncanny sense of helplessness which
+one has during a storm at sea, when you realise that the waves are not
+moving on at all, but rise and fall, rise and fall for ever in the same
+place. It is the ship which drifts within their power, giving them
+their wrecker's chance once more. And now--you will say that I am
+superstitious; but I almost regret that you should bring Mr. Fitzgerald
+into this business at all. You remember the potter's measure? Think of
+it, and how poor George himself----'
+
+She paused, her eyes full of tears.
+
+Lewis, watching her, told himself he would never understand women-folk.
+Here was a girl, overflowing with fanciful sentiment in some ways, who
+yet apparently had none to spare for the one subject round which
+sentiment was supposed to cling--love and marriage. In addition, here
+were two women, both of whom he desired to help, and yet they were at
+daggers-drawing about the best method of giving that aid. If he pleased
+one, he displeased the other; and anyhow, he got no comfort out of
+either.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+'Nay! thou hast given me enough, oh Mizra sahib. More than a free woman
+cares to have,' said Chandni, with a shrug of her massive shoulders.
+'Thou hadst thy chance to pay me fair.'
+
+Dalel Beg, clad in his European clothes, and perched in all the
+isolation of an esteemed visitor in the cane-bottomed chair of state,
+felt he would like to be on a level with those jeering lips as he used
+to be at Hodinuggur. Not for the sake of desire only, or for the sake
+of revenge, but for a mixture of both. As usual, the very audacity of
+her wickedness fascinated him, yet, now that wickedness was directed
+against himself he could have strangled her for it.
+
+'Pay thee! How can I pay thee,' he whimpered, 'when those low-caste
+white swindlers with whom I betted will not pay what I have won? When
+those white devils of women turn the place into a museum until every
+Parsee in the bazaar threatens to summon me to court?'
+
+It was not much more than a week since he had defied Chandni in the
+presence of the said white devils; but the interval had not been
+pleasant. Beatrice Elflida Norma's mamma knew all about Chandni's long
+years of hold on the Mizra Sahib, and he was totally unaccustomed to
+the nagging of wifely jealousy. Besides, something had happened which
+had opened his eyes to the danger of allowing the courtesan to have a
+free hand. A proposal had been made by the Canal Department to allow
+water to run permanently along the sluice-cut; the Rajah who owned the
+land to the south, having spent a whole season at Simla in order to
+work the oracle, and the flood having come opportunely as a warning to
+the experts that it might be wise to provide a more satisfactory outlet
+for the surplus water. Now, in this case, Hodinuggur, which, being for
+the most part barren desert, would benefit but little by the plan,
+might by judicious application of the screw make the Rajah pay for its
+consent, as a considerable portion of its best land would have to be
+taken up for various works. This sort of secret intrigue, these almost
+endless ramifications of rights and dues, underlie the simplest
+transactions in India, and are recognised by its people as an integral
+part of administration. Besides, Hodinuggur itself, in lieu of
+compensation for damage done--which for various reasons it had not yet
+claimed, one being a delay on the part of the Rajah in paying the
+promised fee for the opening of the sluice--might manage by the same
+judicious diplomacy to secure some trifling hold on the water-supply;
+something, in short, which might be used as a screw for the extortion
+of a perpetual, if small revenue. But for this, silence as to the past
+was necessary. Such considerations, to European ears, may seem almost
+too fine-drawn to be worth notice; but to Dalel Beg and Chandni they
+were quite the reverse, for he came from a long line of courtiers born
+and bred in such intrigues; men whose trade had passed with the corrupt
+courts of other days, while the memory of it survived in their title.
+Diwans of Hodinuggur; not Nawabs or Nizams, but Diwans, that is, in
+other words, prime minister. And she? Every atom of her blood came from
+the veins of those who for centuries had woven a still finer net of
+women's wit around the intrigues of their protectors. It is this
+extraordinary strength of heredity which, in India, makes the cheap
+tinkering of Western folk, who are compounded of butchers, bakers, and
+candlestick makers, so exasperating to those who have eyes to see. If
+English philanthropists would spend their motley benevolence on the
+poor, the diseased, and the drunken of their own country, it would be
+better both for it and for India, where the death-rate is no higher,
+drunkenness is practically unknown, and poverty is neither unhappy nor
+discontented.
+
+Thus Chandni and Dalel were well matched as she lolled back in her
+cushions with a laugh.
+
+'So she spends money! Lo! since thou hast married a "_vilayeti_" wife
+thou canst advertise, as the sahibs do, in the papers, that thou art
+not responsible for her debts. There is no sense in stopping half way
+as thou hast done. Thou shouldst have gone to a "mission" and been
+baptized instead of making that half-caste girl repeat the "Kulma" on
+promise that thou wouldst not in future claim the right of the faithful
+to other women. Yea! yea! I know the trick.'
+
+'If I have,' muttered Dalel, vexed yet pleased at her boldness, her
+shrewdness, 'such promises are easily broken. Divorce is easy.'
+
+'If thou hast money to pay the dower to her people--not when thou hast
+none! Lo! 'tis a mistake to try new ways of wickedness instead of
+keeping to the old ones.'
+
+So she dismissed him, feeling on the whole contemptuous over her
+adversaries so far; the Miss Sahiba's arms had been strong, for sure,
+but the men were worth nothing! nothing at all.
+
+Dan Fitzgerald, dangling his long legs disconsolately from Lewis
+Gordon's office-table two days after, said as much himself. 'The fact
+is, I ought to have killed her; only I didn't feel up to it to-day,
+after my journey. Oh, you may smile, Gordon!' he went on more eagerly,
+his face losing some of its dejection in his love of the extravagant,
+'but it's true. That sort of woman doesn't belong to our civilised age;
+and we are absolutely at a disadvantage before her. There was I, as the
+mad old potter said, with a hero's measure round the chest, driven to
+words and threats of a policeman. I couldn't, even at the time, but
+think of that old sinner Zubr-ul-Zaman and what her chance would have
+been with him--just an order, a cry, and then silence. Sure, one feels
+helpless at times when one stands face to face with that old world.
+What's the use of strength--what's even the use of brains nowadays
+except to make money? There was I, with that woman, I give you my word,
+at the end of her tether, but 'twas the hangman's rope to me if I went
+a step closer, and so I didn't.'
+
+'If _you_ didn't,' remarked Lewis grimly, 'there isn't a civilised man
+who will; so we had better try something else. Still, unless that woman
+is silenced, we must face an inquiry, and then the facts of poor
+Keene's death must come out. By the way, Miss Tweedie knows them, but
+we have agreed to keep them, if possible, from my cousin. There seemed
+no use----'
+
+'I'm glad of that,' interrupted Dan, with a sudden quiver of his mouth.
+'I should be sorry to have that memory spoilt.'
+
+He was pacing up and down the room now, his hands in his pockets, the
+brightness of his face absorbed as it were by a frown.
+
+'Gordon!' he said abruptly. 'I'd give everything I possess if I could
+lay my hands on that cursed pot. Not that it would satisfy the
+horse-leech's daughter unless it contained the pearls--which isn't
+likely, for I believe the whole story to be a myth. But the thought
+that it is somewhere visible, palpable to the meanest fool on God's
+earth, is maddening. Or even if we could say to that she-devil, "do
+your worst." Oh! why didn't you send that wire sooner, and save poor
+George from his needless death?'
+
+'Why didn't you tell the truth about it at first? you might as well ask
+that. It would have been better, as it turns out, if you had; but who
+can tell? As it is, I'm quite ready, as I told you before, to burke
+everything I can, in conscience; but, so far as I can see, it will do
+no good. If that woman breaks silence, the main facts must come to
+light.'
+
+'I wish I had killed her,' said Dan regretfully.
+
+'And I wish she were dead,' replied Lewis cynically, 'that is the
+difference between us. You are active, I'm passive, but we don't either
+of us seem to be of much use.'
+
+That was the honest truth, and they had to confess as much to Gwen
+Boynton that afternoon. She looked a little haggard as she listened
+even while she protested bravely that in her opinion the vile creature
+would never dare to put her lies to the proof. So they sat and played
+at cross purposes; for she could not tell them of the papers she held
+in absolute disproof of what would be the first accusation, and they
+wished if possible to save her from the knowledge of George Keene's
+suicide. Perhaps if they had set their own feelings aside and told her
+the truth, she might even then have confessed her lion's share in the
+blame. But only perhaps; for she was a clever woman, capable of seeing
+that her confession could do no good now, and that she had, as it were,
+lost her right to save poor George from suspicion. Besides, she had
+brought herself to believe in the duty of denial; for, like many
+another woman, she required a really virtuous motive before she could
+do a really wrong thing; in sober fact--even in her worst aberrations
+from the truth--never losing hold of a fixed desire to be amiable and
+estimable. To this self-deception, as was natural, Lewis Gordon's
+half-hearted belief was gall and wormwood, while Dan's wholesale
+confidence was balm indeed. She could not refrain from telling him so
+when the former, pleading stress of work, left the latter alone with
+her beside the cosy little tea-table glittering in the firelight; for
+Gwen was one of those people who will never have been more comfortable
+in body and soul than they are on their death-beds.
+
+'Now, don't spoil it all, dear, by wanting me to marry you to-morrow,'
+she said half-laughing, half-crying. 'We are all too busy for such
+talk, and too sad--at least I am. He was so good to me--you don't know
+how good. I shall break my heart if this vile creature succeeds in
+sullying his memory.'
+
+'It will not be your fault, dear, if she does; that is one comfort.'
+
+A chance shot may hit the quarry truer than the best aim, and Gwen
+turned quickly towards him with a little cry.
+
+'Dan! you will prevent it, won't you? You are so clever, and, really,
+it is for my sake as well as for his. For my sake you will, won't you?'
+
+'I do everything for your sake--you know that,' he answered simply.
+
+Gwen stared at him as if she had seen a ghost. Perhaps she did; the
+ghost of a dead boy who had said those very words to her in that very
+room not a month ago.
+
+'Gwen! what is it?' came Dan's voice sharply, anxiously. 'What is the
+matter?--tell me.'
+
+Yes! The past was repeating itself. _He_ had begged her to tell him
+also, and in her selfishness, her fear, she had yielded, and put a
+needless pain into his life at its close. She would not yield again; in
+denial lay her duty.
+
+'Nothing is the matter,' she echoed, 'save this--that you say we can do
+nothing. I do not believe it. God will never let these lies prevail--He
+will never let my poor lad's memory suffer--never, never!'
+
+If her mind could have been taken to pieces and strictly analysed as
+she gave utterance to this burst of real feeling, it would have
+afforded fruitful study to a whole college of psychologists. Yet the
+mental condition described as 'sitting in a clothes-basket and lifting
+yourself up by the handles' is quite common to humanity of both sexes,
+though women are as a rule the greater adepts in the art. Mrs. Boynton
+was really a firm believer in a Providence which was bound by many
+promises to help the virtuous, and George, therefore, had a claim to
+its assistance. The fact that Providence might possibly have appointed
+her as its instrument was a totally different affair, and did not
+interfere with the confused good faith and good feeling which made her
+voice thrill as she went on fervently, in answer to Dan's doubtful yet
+admiring face.
+
+'Oh, you mayn't think so--you perhaps don't believe as I do, Dan, in a
+Providence "which shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may"--you
+don't----'
+
+'Don't I?' he asked, catching fire, as it were, more from his own
+thoughts than her words. 'Oh, Gwen! my dear, it's little you know of
+me, then, if you think that. Don't I see it?--who but the blind do
+not--in everything? Isn't it that which makes me content to go on as
+I'm doing? Gwen! it's because I know that it is bound to come--that
+sooner or later you will take my hands in yours as I take yours just
+now. Yes, Gwen! it's Fate--but when will it be, my dear? When will it
+be?'
+
+She was never proof against this mood in the man, this tone in his
+voice.
+
+'Oh, Dan!' she cried, in a petulance that was all feigned, 'didn't I
+say you would be asking me to marry you to-morrow if I was so rash as
+to tell you that you were a comfort to me? As if that had anything to
+do with it.'
+
+'Sure it has everything to do with it!' replied her lover fondly. The
+future, in truth, gave him few fears: it was the present, with the
+chance of annoyance if that venomous woman remain unscotched in the
+bazaar, which caused him anxiety. On the other hand, it was the future
+over which Lewis Gordon frowned, as he sat trying to make up his mind
+about his own feelings, for though the present was palpably unpleasant,
+it seemed clear that the future would be worse, since they must face
+the possibility of a scandal boldly in the hopes that Chandni's
+story would break down; except perhaps as regarded George, and he,
+poor lad, had brought it on himself. And then, when all this was over,
+he--Lewis--was going to marry Mrs. Boynton. No doubt about it; for it
+was too late now to judge her for that other fault--far too late. He
+had condoned it with full knowledge of what he was doing, and the fact
+that Rose Tweedie's subsequent scorn had awakened a tardy blame did not
+alter the past. At the same time, he had an insane desire that Rose
+should be brought to see this as clearly as he saw it. In fact, the
+idea of talking over the matter with her, and perhaps taking her advice
+upon it, had an attraction for him; and though he heaped contumely on
+himself for the mere thought, it lingered insistently. It was partly
+that which made him pause to knock at her sitting-room door on his way
+to the drawing-room before dinner. She would be glad to have the last
+news of the miserable affair, he told himself, but in his heart he knew
+that was not the real reason--that he himself scarcely knew what the
+reason was. Reason? there was none! Only a foolish curiosity to
+understand better what this icicle of a girl meant by love. It did not
+seem to hurt her, at any rate. But as he entered to see her sitting by
+the fire, the reading-lamp on the table lighting up her dress, but
+leaving her face in shadow, he seemed to forget all these thoughts in
+the friendly confidence of her greeting.
+
+'I'm so glad you have come. I was wondering if you would. What news?'
+
+He shook his head. 'None. We have all had our chance, and failed.'
+
+'Not all,' she answered quickly, pointing to Azizan's portrait, which
+showed dimly above the mantelpiece against which he leant. 'You forget
+the girl--she has not said her say.'
+
+The unreality, the strangeness of it all, struck him sharply, not for
+the first time, as he replied after a pause--
+
+'And never will. She is dead. Fitzgerald managed to get that out of the
+woman to-day. She must have been hidden away--as a punishment, most
+likely--in some dungeon of the old tower, for her dead body was found
+among the ruins--by--by the old potter. Yes! I know what you are
+thinking of; but that is impossible. He was always searching about, you
+see, and so he was more likely than others to find anything that was to
+be found. It is a coincidence, I admit; but the fact of the death seems
+undoubted. The woman let it out in her anger--Fitzgerald is not a nice
+cross-examiner, I expect--and tried to gloze it over afterwards.
+Perhaps it is as well. That story may be best unknown.'
+
+'I don't agree with you,' said Rose quickly. 'I have been counting on
+her help--perhaps more than I realised--and now that her chance has
+gone----' The girl's eyes filled with tears, and her voice failed for a
+moment, 'it seems as if we could do nothing more to save him.'
+
+'I'm afraid not. You see, once we begin to question outsiders we show
+our hand. There is no alternative between the silence and defiance
+which Gwen advocates so strongly, and a bold and open inquiry. In my
+opinion it is time for the latter. You see, my cousin is not quite a
+fair judge. She does not know that Fitzgerald and I have so far
+concealed George Keene's suicide, and that from purely personal motives
+we, or at least I, cannot have this scandal sprung by an outsider. He
+would take the risk, he says; but I, in my position, conceive that it
+is not my duty to do so. He, however, has suggested that we four shall
+meet and talk it over finally before I take any action, so I took the
+liberty of asking Gwen to come over tomorrow morning. It is
+Fitzgerald's last day, and something must be done before he goes down.
+I don't see the use of this meeting myself--we have all, as I said, had
+our chance--but it can do no harm, and it may satisfy Gwen--and you.'
+
+'I am satisfied already,' she replied gently. 'You could have done no
+more than you have done; I see that now.'
+
+'I am glad,' he began, and then stopped, realising that he was not in
+the least glad of the evident finality in her meaning. Was she
+contented that things should end as they had begun? Had her passionate
+interest in him died down with his obedience to her orders? A sorry
+reward, surely! A most perplexing result of his repentance!
+
+'I _shall_ be glad,' he corrected himself, almost angrily, 'when we can
+get out of this muddle. Of course I have heard before of such
+intrigues, but I never came in personal contact with that sort of thing
+before. It is maddening. I scarcely seem to know whether we are in the
+nineteenth century or the ninth. Ever since we went to Hodinuggur we
+seem to have got mixed up in some antique dream; the whole thing is
+absurd--scarcely credible.'
+
+As he spoke the dinner-bell rang, and he held the door open for her to
+pass from the consideration of these things to the well-appointed table
+worthy of a house in Belgravia, where the dark-skinned, white-robed
+servants handed sherry with the soup, and vinegar with the salmon quite
+as naturally as Jeames or John in their plush liveries. But heredity
+was here also; Jeames or John's father may have been a day labourer or
+a gentleman at large, but not one of these could not have answered
+truthfully--'Huzoor, my father was servant to so-and-so or so-and-so in
+the great mutiny time, and his father served such and such a sahib in
+the Sutlej campaign, or in Cabul, or somewhere else.' Faithfulness or
+unfaithfulness to salt being, of course, a different question; though
+that also might possibly be one of heredity. Such thoughts strike one
+sometimes after years of complacent blindness, and on this evening they
+increased the sense of unreality which had already taken possession of
+Lewis Gordon. Nor did a remark of Colonel Tweedie's on his daughter's
+improved looks during the past few days amend matters. He felt that he
+might be living in that twenty-ninth century, when humanity may
+reasonably be supposed to have educated itself out of some frailties
+as, in the necessary glance at the young lady's face required by
+decorous assent, he met a perfectly unconscious, happy smile, so full
+of friendly confidence, that a positive gladness glowed at his heart
+that she should be content with him.
+
+Nevertheless he made one more effort to get back finally to the
+every-day world by riding over to the Club after dinner and listening
+to the gossip of the day. But there was nothing wrong with the world;
+it was going on, he found, as usual. He played a game or two of pool,
+talked gravely with Major Davenant over some new rules intended to
+prevent such another fiasco as the last race-meeting, heard the latest
+official canards, and listened more patiently than usual to some
+boys--who had to go down from leave next day--bemoaning the general
+beastliness of the country as a residence for an English gentleman. It
+was only, so the verdict ran, fit for niggers.
+
+Yet even this demonstration that life in the main was commonplace as
+usual, did not restore Lewis Gordon's general indifference. And the
+knowledge that this was so made him more than ever determined to carry
+his point when next morning the four met in Rose Tweedie's room, to
+settle the course of events.
+
+The rain after a downpour during the night had ceased, or, perhaps, had
+become too light to make its way through the thick white mist which had
+settled down like cotton-wool upon everything, blotting out the world.
+There was not a breath of air, not a sound save occasionally a soft
+pit-pat, as the vapour condensing on the roof dropped into the hearts
+of the rain lilies which fringed the verandah with their upturned
+orange cups. Yet it was neither dark nor dull as on a cloudy day. The
+whiteness of the mist was almost luminous, and through the wide-set
+windows sent a faint glow, like that from newly-fallen snow, on the
+faces of poor George Keene's four friends, and showed still more
+clearly on the even surface of Azizan's portrait as it stood upon the
+mantel-shelf. Rose stood beside it, looking beyond everything in the
+room, beyond the row of orange lilies, into the cotton-wool mist which
+seemed bent on suffocating the house and its inhabitants. There was
+silence in the room--the silence which comes to a discussion when the
+last objection has palpably fallen through, and a conclusion absolutely
+satisfactory to no one seems inevitable. Gwen, a flush of excitement on
+her cheek, lay back among the cushions of her easy-chair, nervously
+turning and twisting the rings upon her fingers. Dan Fitzgerald, who
+was seated close beside her, had evidently been the last to speak, and
+was now leaning towards her, his eyes fixed with kindly encouragement
+and sympathy on her face. Lewis Gordon, apart from the others,
+his elbows resting on the table, looked half regretful, half
+resentful,--the look of a man who knows he must take the initiative in
+a singularly disagreeable duty.
+
+At last through the silence came Rose Tweedie's voice reluctantly, yet
+with a sort of challenge in it: 'I suppose that is settled, and that we
+can none of us suggest any other reason why we should delay longer?'
+
+'I have told you before,' broke in Mrs. Boynton, 'that I have every
+reason to believe that no action will be taken by the woman; that she
+will never court inquiry.'
+
+'I did not mean that,' replied Rose, still with the same note in her
+voice. 'I meant that if none of us have any further knowledge beyond
+what we have already discussed, then Mr. Gordon's plan for a private
+yet open inquiry with my father's knowledge seems best. I, for one,
+have none. I know nothing, absolutely nothing, in favour of delay.
+Nothing that would prevent the possible danger to George Keene's
+memory.'
+
+Lewis Gordon followed fast on her words in swift, vexed comprehension
+of her challenge.
+
+'I fancy we are all able to say the same, Miss Tweedie. If we agree, I
+may have to speak of something I should not otherwise mention, but it
+is no reason for delay. On the contrary, it is a reason why open
+inquiry will be the safest, even for George Keene's memory. I know
+nothing better;--I wish I did.'
+
+'Nor I,' said Dan Fitzgerald, then paused, and rising from his chair
+crossed to the open door, whence he looked out, as Rose had done,
+beyond the rain lilies to the mist. 'I know better than any of you what
+poor George was; I know better than any of you what he did. If this is
+settled, I, too, will have to tell something to his credit; something
+that will make inquiry the better for him. Yet I'd give all I possess
+to save the necessity for it. But I'm lost,'--he stretched his hands
+out impulsively into the mist--'lost, as one might be out yonder--lost,
+as the lad's own explanation is lost in the mystery of death. It's hard
+to say so, George, but I can't help it.'
+
+He spoke as if to some one out of sight, and Gwen Boynton sate up
+suddenly, nervously, with a scared look in her eyes.
+
+'I think you are all wrong,' she said querulously. 'The woman must know
+that proof is against her story; but you will not believe it, and so I
+cannot help it. I cannot, indeed.'
+
+Her voice died away to a sort of sigh, and she sank back again,
+clasping her hands tightly together. Rose let hers fall from its grip
+on the mantel-shelf. Dan's tall figure leant more loosely against the
+lintel, and Lewis Gordon mechanically turned the pages of a book lying
+beside him on the table. The tension was over, and the relief of
+decision, even of helpless decision, held them silent in the silence
+for the moment. They had done their best. They had played their part in
+the strange play.
+
+Then suddenly out of the mist came a quavering, chanting voice--
+
+
+             'It was a woman seeking something
+              Through day and night----'
+
+
+'Listen!' cried Dan, his face ablaze. Rose's hand went up again to the
+picture hurriedly, and Lewis started to his feet; only Gwen looked from
+one to the other bewildered:
+
+
+             'O'er hill and dale seeking for something.'
+
+
+The voice grew clearer as if the singer was toiling up the unseen path
+below the lilies.
+
+
+             'Foul play! foul play!--look down and decide.'
+
+
+'The mad potter!' cried Dan, with wonder in his tone.
+
+'Azizan! it is her turn at last,' cried Rose, with a hush in hers,
+which sent a thrill through Lewis Gordon--though he only said
+prosaically--
+
+'I'll go and see who it is.'
+
+But Dan had forestalled the thought, and, vaulting the railings, had
+disappeared into the mist, whence they could hear him hallooing down
+the path to the unseen singer as they stood waiting by the lilies. Then
+came a quick greeting, a low reply, and so, clearer and clearer--though
+they could see nothing--every syllable of eager questioning and slow
+answer until, as if from behind a veil, the strange couple stepped into
+sight--Dan, eager, excited, towering above the bent, deprecating figure
+of the old potter.
+
+They had heard so much, those three in the verandah, that Rose without
+a pause could step forward and strike at the very root of the matter
+with the question, 'What is it? What is it that you want of me?'
+
+The shifty, light eyes settled on her face with a look of relief before
+the old man bent to touch her feet.
+
+'Madr-mihrban,' he said. 'Madr-mihrban--that is well!'
+
+He was still breathless from his swift climb beside Dan's long stride,
+and, as he straightened himself again, his long supple fingers, busied
+already about a knotted corner in the cotton shawl folded round him,
+trembled visibly.
+
+'Lo, I sent it before,' he went on in low excuse; 'but it returned, as
+all things return at Hodinuggur. Then she was vexed and could not rest.
+"Send it back! send it back," she cried all night long. Pity of God!
+what a fever; but now she sleeps sound----' He paused, to fumble closer
+at the knot.
+
+'You mean Azizan, your daughter?' suggested Rose softly, while the
+others stood silent, listening and looking, the whole world seeming to
+hold nothing for them save this tall girl with her bright, eager face,
+and that bent old man trying to undo a knot.
+
+'Huzoor--Azizan!' came the quavering voice. 'I looked for her so often
+till the Madr-mihrban came. Then I found her with the pot clasped to
+her breast, but the bad dreams would not let her sleep. "It is not
+mine; it is hers." It kept her awake always. So when I found her
+again, lying asleep by the river with it still in her bosom, I said to
+myself, "I will not set a writing on it, and put it in the box with a
+slit as I did last time, trusting it to God knows who, after the new
+fashion. I will take it myself in the old fashion and give it to the
+Madr-mihrban's own hands, and pray her hold it fast so it return not to
+wake the child; for she sleeps sound at last in the dust of her
+father's."'
+
+The knot was undone. The shaking fingers held the Ayodhya pot for a
+second, the white glare of the mist shining in a broad blaze of light
+upon its intense glowing blue. The next it had slipped from the
+potter's hand and lay in fragments on the ground!
+
+Still fragments of sapphire colour--moving fragments of milky white,
+rolling hither and thither like drops of dew on a leaf seeking a
+resting-place for their round lustre.
+
+Pearls!--the Hodinuggur pearls!
+
+And Gwen's voice, with a triumphant ring in it, became articulate above
+the old man's cry of distress and the low exclamations of the others.
+
+'So Azizan stole them, after all!'
+
+Rose turned on her sharply. 'Who knows. This much is certain, she has
+brought them back, and saved George when we could not.'
+
+'Yes! she has saved him,' assented Dan; 'we have that she-devil on the
+hip now!'
+
+Lewis Gordon stood silent a moment; he had grown very pale. 'You are
+both right, I expect,' he said quietly. 'It settles--everything.'
+
+Gwen drew a long breath of relief, but Rose seemed lost in thought.
+
+'No! not everything,' she said absently, half to herself. 'It does not
+tell us why George shot himself.'
+
+She scarcely knew she spoke aloud; she had forgotten everything but the
+dead boy.
+
+'_Shot himself!_, The words came back to her in a sort of cry. '_Shot
+himself!_ What do you mean? What does she mean?'
+
+Gwen stood as if petrified before those regretful faces. Then, as the
+truth struck at her, beating down her shield of self-deception, she
+turned at last, forgetful of all else, to the shelter of Dan's kind
+arms. 'Dan! Dan! it isn't true--it can't be true! say it isn't true.'
+
+He drew her closer to him, looking down into her agonised face with a
+perfect passion of tenderness and kissed it; forgetful in his turn, of
+everything save that she had come to him at last.
+
+'It is true, my darling; he did it to save me and you. Gwen! Gwen! it
+wasn't your fault--My God! she has fainted!'
+
+'I'm sorry,' began Rose, feeling paralysed by surprise, but Dan's kind
+smile was ready even in his distress.
+
+'Don't worry. It's best over, for I must have told her. You see we have
+been engaged for years, and George knew it. If I carry her to your
+room, Miss Rose, she will be better there. 'Tis the shock, and she was
+so fond of him, dear heart.'
+
+Lewis Gordon, left alone in the verandah while another man before his
+very eyes carried off the woman to whom he supposed himself to be
+engaged, felt that the world had broken loose from its foundations
+altogether. So that was the explanation! And then a low murmur of
+moaning from the potter arrested his attention, which, as is so often
+the case after a shock, had lost its airt and become vagrant.
+
+The old man, still crouched beside the fragments of the Ayodhya pot,
+was rocking himself backwards and forwards, and muttering to himself,
+'She will be angry; the Madr-mihrban will be angry, and then Azizan
+will not sleep.'
+
+Lewis walked up to him and laid his hand reassuringly on the thin, bent
+shoulders. 'I don't think the Madr-mihrban will be angry. I'm almost
+sure she won't.' His own words made him smile, until, as he looked at
+the old man's shifty, bright eyes raised to his doubtfully, he
+remembered the young sad face which George had painted. 'And Azizan is
+asleep,' he said gently; 'she will not wake again.'
+
+As he stooped to gather up the jewels his eyes were dim with unwonted
+tears--why, he scarcely knew.
+
+When Rose came back ten minutes after, leaving Gwen to Dan's kind
+consolations, she found Lewis leaning over the railings looking at the
+rain lilies through his eyeglass as if it had been a microscope. He
+turned to her with the air of a man who has made up his mind.
+
+'You thought I was engaged to my cousin, Miss Tweedie,' he said. 'So
+did I. Apparently I was mistaken. So let us set that aside, once and
+for all, and think over more important matters. There is no lack of
+other surprises, thank Heaven.'
+
+The semi-cynicism of his words did not sit ill on him, and Rose
+recognised that he had certainly chosen the most dignified way out of
+the difficulty. At the same time it left her free, unexpectedly free,
+to consider the position as an outsider, and all involuntarily, yet
+naturally enough, her first thought expressed itself in words:
+
+'I wonder what father will say?'
+
+This was too much both for temper and dignity, fortunately, also for
+humour. He gave her one indignant look, then relaxed into a smile.
+
+'Really, Miss Tweedie, in this Comedy of Errors I am only responsible
+for my part; and that, believe me, is rather a sorry one.'
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Whether Lewis Gordon spoke truth or not regarding the part he had to
+play, there could be no doubt that Dan found his anything but sorry. A
+subdued sort of radiance softened yet brightened the man as he came out
+to ask Rose for the loan of her _dandy_, Mrs. Boynton being anxious to
+get home as soon as possible. There seemed no need for words; the
+situation explained itself, and even Lewis, looking at his rival's
+eager face, could not help acknowledging that Dan was more likely to
+give Gwen the support she evidently needed than he was. Besides, the
+sudden change for the future seemed lost sight of in that, which the
+opportune arrival of the Ayodhya pot had on the present, and on
+Chandni's impudent claim. It was of course clear evidence against the
+truth of the story so far as Gwen was concerned, but whether it would
+prevent the woman raking up the true facts of George Keene's death, out
+of sheer wanton malice, was another thing. Lewis felt himself rather
+helpless before the phenomenon of such a nature as hers, and confessed
+as much when Dan came racing back, breathless and excited after seeing
+Mrs. Boynton safely home, for a council of war. He brought a quick
+decision and intuition with him. The sluice had been opened by
+treachery of course, and now that he was free to speak of his
+engagement, Dan told the story of the open locket, which to him seemed
+proof-positive that George had voluntarily taken the blame on himself
+when thrown off his balance by the discovery that the happiness of the
+man and the woman he loved best in the world depended on Dan's getting
+his promotion. How the sluice had been opened was another matter.
+Chandni had always said by means of a key made after an impression sent
+from Simla; but this was manifestly impossible unless some servant had
+done it. Indeed he had never paid much attention to this assertion, for
+the woman in making it had contradicted herself more than once, and
+evidently had no definite story as to how the impression had been
+secured. In his own mind he had decided that the key itself had been
+stolen from the boy while he slept so heavily, and that the knowledge
+that this was so had had the lion's share in bringing about his
+self-sacrifice. So that even if the real facts came out, nothing beyond
+carelessness could be laid to George's charge, now that the potter was
+there to prove that Azizan had had the Ayodhya pot all the time, and
+that they were there to prove that the pearls had remained in the pot.
+So much for Chandni and the only possible cause of further action--a
+woman's wanton cruelty. For the rest, the old Diwan was dead, Khush-hal
+seemed to be out of it, and Dalel had everything to lose and nothing to
+gain by a scandal. Finally, these intrigues were always as a house of
+cards; remove one support and the whole structure disappeared.
+
+'Nevertheless,' said Dan, looking across the table with a grim smile,
+'I'm not going to take you down as a witness to my interview with that
+she-devil this afternoon. You are too fine for the work, and that's the
+fact.'
+
+'Can I lend you anything peculiarly barbaric in the way of a knife?'
+asked Lewis. 'I've a Malay crease in my room which fills most people
+with terror, though personally I should funk a woorali dart more than
+anything.'
+
+'Ah! you may jeer; but 'tis true. Sure! our fineness is at the bottom
+of half our mistakes in this country. Even in our kindness we treat
+these people as we would like to be treated ourselves--a poor
+philanthropy compared to treating them as they would like to be
+treated. And when we come to mere justice! Why, we might as well give a
+child who has disobeyed his mother the right to appeal against her in
+court. What chance would the child have to begin with, and then what
+good would it do? and what good is our complicated system of procedure
+save to put power into the hands of the educated few who naturally
+clamour for more? But there! This has nothing to do with Chandni. She
+wouldn't care a tinker's dam for what you'd say to her, because you
+would be regulating yourself by codes and sections instead of by the
+way she is made. I won't. I don't mind stooping to her level to get my
+will. So let me go with the old mad potter and his eyes, and see if
+between us we can't make a settlement. And then, please God, we will
+have done with the whole bad dream from beginning to end. So if you
+have three thousand rupees you can spare on a loan, I'll just have them
+handy in my pocket as a salve to her wounded feelings when I've got my
+own way.'
+
+What really happened at the interview Dan resolutely refused to say. On
+his return from the bazaar he asked for a whisky and soda and a hot
+bath to take the taste of it out of soul and body. Yet he returned
+triumphantly with a written declaration signed by Chandni, stating that
+she herself had stolen the key from George while he slept.
+
+'It isn't true, of course,' said Dan with a rueful look at Lewis, 'but
+upon my soul, no one could tell if it is, or not. My mind seemed a vast
+cobweb with lines going everyway into the outside world, but all
+beginning in that woman, and the only way was to smash through it. She
+has done worse things--that's one comfort. Maybe the pearls should have
+gone back to Hodinuggur direct, but she will make her bargain there,
+never fear, and by God they deserve----'
+
+He broke out then with curses into the tale of Azizan's birth, which it
+seemed had been his strong card--that and the potter's eyes. He had
+played the one against the other till he wormed the story out of his
+enemy, while the old man waited below, ready, if Dan failed to be told
+the truth, to bring his evil glance to bear on the question. That fear
+had really settled the matter; she had acknowledged the part Azizan had
+played in bringing her plans to naught, and confessed the wisdom of
+dancing to a different tune in the future.
+
+'We parted on the best of terms. She offered me cinnamon tea and
+fritters, and I took some as a sign of peace,' said Dan with a shudder.
+'And now I must be off and tell poor Gwen 'tis all settled for ever.'
+He lingered a moment as he rose, to add with a half shy, half happy
+smile, 'Were you very much surprised, old man?'
+
+'Very,' replied Lewis with dignity. But Dan still lingered.
+
+'I wonder what on earth the Colonel will say?' he remarked
+apprehensively after a pause.
+
+Then Lewis laughed; he could not help it. And actually the idea of
+playing second fiddle to Colonel Tweedie's disappointment in the eyes
+of the world, helped him materially in the interview which he had with
+his cousin next morning. Even without this, however, he would have
+felt it difficult to be severe, for he found her full of remorse and
+self-abasement; rather vague, perhaps, but still real. She would never
+forgive herself, she said, not so much for her indecision about Dan,
+for she had always loved him, and Lewis was well quit of her selfish
+regard. No! it was about poor George! She had sided with Simla in
+turning the boy's head, she had made too much of him and behaved most
+unwisely--really Lewis must let her say what she knew to be true--she
+had been over friendly, over confidential, and had asked him to do too
+much for her. All this and his foolish fancy about being the keeper of
+Dan's conscience, of which the latter had told her, had been too much
+for the dear, dear, lad's kind, sensitive heart. Then the terrible
+home-coming after all the pleasure and spoiling! Was not that enough,
+more than enough, to upset the balance? She was so insistent on this
+point that Lewis had to confess his assent to it, and finally went away
+feeling that she had more heart than he had given her credit for in the
+past, and that he might even be in a measure responsible for not having
+appealed to this better nature while he had the chance. Dan seemed to
+have done it successfully, for she had evidently given up all thoughts
+of a mercenary marriage. He understood her, she said plaintively, he
+knew her faults and yet he loved her; while Lewis--he must excuse her
+for saying so--had always treated her as if she had no heart, no
+sentiment; had always committed the unpardonable mistake of making her
+remember that she did not love him. Of course she had behaved
+abominably to everybody--far worse than they would allow, for they were
+all too good for her--but in the future she would have Dan, who was a
+tower of strength to her.
+
+In fact, like many another woman of her type--many a man also--Gwen
+Boynton had taken refuge from the greater remorse in the lesser one--if
+indeed there was a greater one?--if indeed the real limit of her
+sinning had not been that over-confidence to which she had confessed.
+Not in detail truly; still she _had_ confessed it with tears to Dan,
+and he had forgiven her _en masse_; as, no doubt, he would forgive in
+detail if she had thought it right to tell him what she had told
+George. But what right had she to put this pain into another man's
+life, or speak of that vague fear which even Chandni's confession of
+having stolen the key would not smother utterly? It would be worse than
+foolish! it would be wicked; and this dreadful doubt was her cross, her
+punishment, which she thoroughly deserved for doing as she had done.
+And when she had got thus far, remorse was once more in a clear open
+channel where it could spread itself out and lose its chill under the
+sunshine of Dan's kind consolations.
+
+Thus it really turned out that, after all, the person most upset by the
+unexpected _denouement_ of affairs was Colonel Tweedie.
+
+'Engaged for years,' he said angrily, in reply to his daughter's
+information. 'Well! I am surprised. A most extraordinary proceeding
+which er--er--complicates--the--er--If you had said "of late," I
+might have seen some sense in it, for during the last week or so even
+Gordon, who is generally to be relied upon, has been absent over his
+work--er--not to say--er--somewhat negligent. And of course being his
+cousin--the--er--interest----'
+
+Rose hastened to confess that the engagement had only, as it were, been
+a definite one during--here she hesitated a little--the last few days.
+Which tribute to his perspicacity soothed the Colonel's dignity, and
+encouraged him to further ventures in the seer's path by a suggestion
+that no doubt his daughter's improved appetite and appearance, which he
+had observed during the same period, was due to the proverbial interest
+which women took in the matrimonial affairs of their neighbours. Though
+for his part he must say that the friendly admiration he had had for
+Mrs. Boynton had been very considerably impaired by--er--the lack of
+judgment she had displayed in engaging herself to an assistant
+engineer, a man whose promotion, he believed, could not possibly come
+before the following July--if then. He went off to consult the
+departmental lists with portentous gloom, leaving his daughter
+defenceless before the truth. Certainly she had been much happier since
+Lewis had known her feeling for him, and what is more, Mrs. Boynton's
+decision in favour of Dan was a great relief in one way, though in
+another it was disturbing--confusing; for despite her theories Rose
+felt that the fact of his freedom to make other ties did make a
+difference in her relations with Lewis Gordon. It ought not to do so,
+of course; she was angry with herself for admitting the fact, but she
+was totally unable to juggle with realities, or escape, crablike, from
+a difficulty sideways. No thought of marriage or what she was pleased
+to call sentimental rubbish had marred the self-forgetfulness of that
+unpremeditated appeal she had made to her belief in him. No such
+thought existed even now, and that the fear of it should creep in was
+intolerable, absurd. No! she must feign the virtue of unconsciousness,
+even if she had it not, and by an increase of friendly confidence,
+combined with a strict attention to prose, prevent the awkwardness of
+the position from falling on innocent Lewis, and show him clearly that
+the altered situation had made no change in her, yet was not expected
+to make any change in him. Only by these means could she show him, what
+was really the truth, that her past avowal of interest was not mere
+sentiment.
+
+Lewis, for his part, also tackled the position with a boldness which he
+had denied to himself while he was still engaged to his cousin, still
+smarting under the curiously mixed sensations which the knowledge of
+the girl's real feelings had aroused. Then he had felt bound to
+conventional modes of thought, and, to tell truth, had been more or
+less afraid lest on inquiry a sentimental love for Rose might pop up
+somewhere like a Jack-in-the-box. For her confession had affected him
+in a perfectly incomprehensible way, and the only other explanation of
+it he had been loth to admit, since it ran counter to all his pet
+theories. What feeling could there be between a man and a woman save
+the one feeling? This warmth at his heart when he thought of her
+praise, this pain at the thought of her blame, could only be the old,
+old story; and yet he had been in love before, and this was not the
+same experience. Well, it might be milk-food suited to babes and women,
+but it was not strong meat for strong men; withal it was strangely
+satisfying, strangely final, so that when a return to commonplace diet
+became possible, he found himself in two minds about taking to it. She
+evidently had but one; she evidently had given him all she intended to
+give, and the only return he could make was by showing her that he did
+understand this, and that he did not think it necessary to salve over
+her wounded modesty by making love to her. Wounded modesty! The very
+thought seemed an insult. He could not agree with her theories
+altogether, but he could at least respect them.
+
+So for the next month, while Gwen was slowly recovering her shock, and
+all Simla was divided into factions over the surprise of her engagement
+to penniless Dan Fitzgerald, a very pretty little comedy was being
+enacted in the big house where Rose, as hostess, treated Lewis Gordon
+as a friend, and he returned the compliment in kind. There was
+absolutely no humbug, no effort about it at all. They were not in love
+with each other, they were not restless or moody or excited, but
+absolutely content and happy with things as they were. A state of
+affairs accentuated by the relief from anxiety, the improving weather
+and the charming gaiety and _verve_ of the society in which they lived.
+
+Thus it happened that Rose Tweedie had her chance of being wooed in the
+only possible way in which girls of her type can be wooed. One sees
+dozens of them nowadays in society; one will see more and more year by
+year, as the unnatural disproportion in the number of the sexes tends
+to intensify the present seclusion of the nicest girls from the men. It
+is not the fault of the latter. In a bevy of several hundred young
+ladies, the fortunate possessor of the handkerchief naturally throws it
+at some of those who press forward into individuality, or at some fair
+face which even a crush cannot hide. So the choice for a wife falls on
+beauty or brass. The latter may be too hard a term, yet the girls who
+are likely to make the most faithful wives, the most devoted mothers,
+are not those who are the readiest to attract and assent. On the
+contrary they do not fall in love, and men have no time to give them
+friendship. Friendship! They are engaged--nay, married--before the mere
+thought of such a thing crops up.
+
+So the younger generation of women is rapidly dividing itself into the
+girls who dress and the girls who don't dress. In other words, those
+willing to attract men by one certain if seamy side of their natures,
+and those who are not willing. Who does not know the opposite extremes
+of these two factions? The girl who forces you instinctively to think
+of a looking-glass, and the girl who makes you wonder if there be such
+a thing in her room. The girl with not a hair out of place, and the
+girl with a hiatus between her soul and her body, as the feminine
+phrase runs. Rose belonged outwardly to neither factions, yet in her
+heart she strenuously resented the old-fashioned theory that marriage
+was the larger half of a man's life and the whole of a woman's.
+Truthfully, though she was three-and-twenty, she had never felt the
+slightest desire to marry anybody, not even Lewis, and she felt in
+consequence proportionally grateful to him for behaving, at any rate,
+as if he believed the fact.
+
+Yet, even so, they sometimes found each other out, as for instance one
+day when he came back from his cousin's full of unexpected news. Dan
+Fitzgerald had sent in his resignation to the Department, and accepted
+an offer of employment from Australia.
+
+'I'm as glad,' said Lewis heartily, 'as if I had had the chance myself;
+partly because I couldn't make anything of it! Brown--that is the man
+who has wired for him--was out here contracting one of the big railway
+bridges. A bloated mechanic; began life as a riveter sort of fellow,
+but with a knack of making money and a keen eye beyond belief. I
+remembered his telling me that Dan was too good for us, and that if
+ever he came across a job in which he wanted help, he would try and
+steal him. This is some huge irrigation scheme--private--down South. If
+Dan succeeds, and he will if any one can, there will be millions in
+it.'
+
+'I suppose your cousin is delighted?' said Rose.
+
+'Gwen? Never saw a woman more relieved in my life. For, mind you,
+though she is awfully fond of Dan--fonder than I personally should have
+thought she could have been of any one--the idea of the poverty was
+telling on her. You know it is absurd to think of her as an assistant
+engineer's wife. It is really not an environment in which she was
+likely to shine, and when all is said and done on the romantic side
+people ought to consider surroundings in making a settlement for life.
+Besides, I am sure she is relieved to get away from us all and make a
+fresh start. She feels it more than I should have expected.'
+
+'Mr. Gordon,' said Rose suddenly, 'I'm very sorry I judged her so
+harshly that--that time. I've wanted to say so often; but _then_ it
+seemed foolish. As if it could have mattered what I said or thought.'
+
+'I don't think it did really matter,' he replied frankly. 'Rather the
+other way round, I expect. Yet I doubt if you did judge her as harshly
+as she judges herself now; so it is far better she should leave all
+these associations behind. If he and she had had to go inspecting at
+Hodinuggur, or even if she had to meet Dalel Beg and his wife--did I
+tell you I saw her at the vice-regal squash yesterday, a perfect child
+in the most awful get-up?--why, then, it would revive the old affair.
+And if, by chance'--he paused a moment--'One never knows what mayn't
+crop up, and Dan is a queer chap in some ways. He works by instincts,
+as it were, and hitherto they have led him right. If they didn't, and
+he found it out, I don't know what mightn't happen. He is not what I
+call a very safe man unless he is successful. So they are both lucky to
+get out of the uncongenial atmosphere which Government service is to
+him and poverty is to her. They start in smooth water, and I must buy
+my wedding-present, for they are to be married next month.
+
+'So soon?'
+
+'He has to leave at once. The wedding is to be at Rajpore after we all
+go down. No bridesmaids, and I'm best man. If you want to know the
+wedding dress, ask Gwen; she is sure to have settled it long ago. Women
+always do.'
+
+'I haven't,' protested Rose hastily. 'I shall be married in my
+every-day things.'
+
+She tried hard to be grave while Lewis roared with laughter, but in the
+end she joined in the joke against herself. For they never quarrelled
+now. What was there to quarrel about?
+
+It was on another of these pleasant peaceful days, that he came to
+lunch, with the news that Dalel Beg was even now detaining her father
+by abject apologies for past old-style misdemeanours at Hodinuggur, and
+profuse promises that in future it would be the abode of all the
+civilised virtues. Khush-hal Beg it appeared had died of apoplexy,
+brought on no doubt by the unrestrained orgies with which the fat man
+had celebrated his accession, and in consequence Dalel was king.
+
+'I don't quite understand it all,' he said thoughtfully. 'He is a fool,
+and yet he is playing his cards well. Do you know, I shouldn't be at
+all surprised to hear that Chandni was back again as chief adviser. She
+is a very clever woman. It seems that there is a scheme on foot for
+establishing stud farms or grazing paddocks for Government remounts. It
+is supposed to be cheaper and better in the end to buy them as
+yearlings and let them run loose, instead of being tethered heels,
+heads, and tails, in native fashion. And as the water supply is to be
+constant at Hodinuggur now, Dalel proposes that Government should
+utilise some of his waste land there, and put him in charge, or partly
+in charge. Of course it would bring him in a steady income if he gets
+his finger in the pie.'
+
+'He ought to get nothing,' interrupted Rose hastily; 'I believe he was
+at the bottom of all that intrigue. We shall never know what went on
+exactly, but there was intrigue, and that sort of thing should be
+punished.'
+
+'Undoubtedly; but as I said before, Dalel is a fool--except about a
+horse. It was the old man and Chandni; they belonged to that age. This
+man tries to break the Ten Commandments in two languages, and misses
+the idiom in both. But he does know the points of a horse, and as
+Government must keep up these old families and try to civilise them, it
+is as well to get some work out of them.'
+
+'Hodinuggur civilised! I can't imagine it,' echoed Rose. 'When I think
+of the old potter, and that mirrored room on the roof--of Azizan and
+the Ayodhya pot--it seems like some old dream of life into which we
+nineteenth century folk strayed by mistake.'
+
+'With disastrous results,' put in Lewis thoughtfully. 'Well! with half
+the _dramatis personae_ of the play dead, and the other half married, it
+ought to have come to an end now like a decently behaved melodrama. Not
+a very moral one, I'm afraid, Miss Tweedie, and virtue must be its own
+reward.'
+
+'What do you mean?' she asked.
+
+'You and I have been left out of the prizes altogether; but then, as
+the potter said, we didn't belong to his world.'
+
+'I wish you had not reminded me of that scene,' she interrupted
+hastily. 'I cannot help thinking of how Mr. Fitzgerald sat smiling at
+me while the old man measured him; just as George did when he measured
+himself, and he is dead.'
+
+'What a woman you are when all is said and done!' he replied, smiling
+at her. 'Still I do think that poetic justice has not been meted out
+all round. Gwen, for instance, has everything she wants, and I am out
+in the cold.'
+
+'Do you feel out in the cold?' asked Rose aggressively.
+
+He hastened to assure her that on the contrary he was quite warm and
+comfortable, but in spite of this the conversation languished till
+Colonel Tweedie came in, full of his intention of recommending Dalel
+Beg's plan strongly to the authorities.
+
+To call it Dalel Beg's was, however, as Lewis Gordon had suspected, to
+credit that gentleman with too much sense. It was Chandni's. When Dan
+Fitzgerald had left her after partaking in friendly fashion of cinnamon
+tea, she had put the pearls away in a safe place, and set herself, as
+she had been doing ever since she came to Simla, to amuse herself. She
+had looked after Dan as he rode away without the least malice, saying
+that there was a man indeed; one of the old sort like the Diwans. If he
+had had her in the old days, say at Hodinuggur, there would just have
+been one order, and then silence. She nodded her head and smiled over
+the thought. But now she had three thousand rupees and the pearls. She
+could not sell them of course, could not at present let any one know
+she had them. They were too well known, these Hodinuggur pearls, for
+Chandni to traffic in them without fear of being accused of theft. By
+and by, perhaps, she might trade them off on Dalel; but nothing of that
+sort was safe as long as Khush-hal was alive. So long too, as they
+thought the mem had them they would not dare to move in the matter, now
+that there was all this talk of a permanent water-supply; for Chandni,
+in the wooden-balconied house at Simla, heard all the latest talk, and
+had quite a bevy of respectable native gentlemen who drank sherbets at
+her expense. She heard also from a friend at court of this taking up of
+waste land, and as she listened to all the stir of intrigue after this
+thing and that thing, felt a pang of regret for that vanished dream of
+some day being a motive power in Hodinuggur. This court-life was as
+the breath of her nostrils, and if she had been in the place of that
+half-caste girl down in the house with the dahlias, she would not have
+been half starved and beaten; for if bazaar rumour said sooth, Dalel
+Beg had carried his occidental estimate of the marriage-tie to this
+almost incredible length.
+
+Then one day, after a rich Hindu contractor had roused her wrath by
+claiming her more or less as his special property, by reason of the
+money he had chosen to lavish on her, came the news of Khush-hal Beg's
+death in the odour of court sanctity. She could imagine it all down in
+the ruined palace out in the desert--the old ways, the old etiquette;
+poverty-stricken may be, yet still courtly. And why, in these pushing
+days when fat pigs like that Hindu made money, should they remain
+poverty-stricken? yet even so, it was better in a way to be Chandni of
+Hodinuggur, than Chandni of a bazaar, especially as one grew older.
+
+That same afternoon a patchwork-covered dhooli went jolting down to the
+house with the dahlias, which was a miserable spot now; deserted,
+forlorn. A miserable room also, whence the indignant Parsees had reft
+the French clocks and the _bric-a-brac_. A most miserable pair of women
+too, reduced to cooking their own food at the drawing-room fire, lest
+their over-looking neighbours might see them in the degradation of the
+cook-room--since the deepest degradation of all in Eurasian eyes is to
+be servantless.
+
+'Don't be a fool,' said Chandni to Mrs. D'Eremao's shrill abuse, as the
+former walked in upon them unceremoniously, and, squatting down, went
+on calmly chewing betel. 'You have nothing to do with the business.
+But, if she is wise, she will listen.' Beatrice Elflida Norma looked at
+her shrewdly and said, 'Be quiet, mamma, there is no harm in hearing
+what she has to say.'
+
+It was not much, but to the point. No doubt, if they appealed to
+English justice, they could force the Diwan to support his wife. But
+how? At Hodinuggur under lock and key. It would not be nice, and
+Chandni had tales to tell which made Mrs. D'Eremao's hair stand on her
+head even while she protested that _she_ was a freeborn British
+subject. Doubtless; but then they must give up all hopes of the
+position for which the girl had married such an atrocity. (Here
+Beatrice Elflida dissolved into tears.) Besides, that was not the way
+to treat a Mohammedan gentleman, an offshoot of the great Moghuls; but
+_she_ knew how to treat him, and for a consideration, was quite willing
+to use her influence with Dalel to set things straight. She did not
+want him, and had flouted his proposals of peace a dozen times, but she
+was quite ready, _for this consideration_, to make herself useful.
+Briefly, that consideration was a free hand if she could get it, no
+cabals against her position, and an assignment, in case of Dalel's
+death, of a good slice of that state pension, which, in such case,
+would be given to the wife. If there were children, so much the better,
+since the pension would be larger. In addition, they had to remember
+that refusal would not amend the position, since Dalel would no doubt
+bribe her back in some other way.
+
+So a week after this, her Highness Beatrice Elflida Norma of
+Hodinuggur's name appeared on the list of donors to a certain Fund,
+opposite no less a sum than one thousand rupees, and she herself
+appeared at the next viceregal squash in full native costume, with her
+hair quite straight, and many shades darker in colour. She sat and
+talked affably to a stout English matron about her husband's great
+desire to assimilate the lives of Indian women more closely to those of
+their European sisters; so that, on her return home, the stout English
+matron mentioned to her stout English husband, who happened to be a
+Commissioner, that the Hodinuggur creature seemed to have ideas and
+should be encouraged.
+
+And that evening, Dalel said to Chandni, ere he left the little
+balconied room where so many grave and reverend gossip-mongers sat
+drinking sherbet, 'Thou wilt return to Hodinuggur as thou hast
+promised.'
+
+'I will return; but not as before. I am free to come and go. And see
+that thou pay me back that thousand rupees out of the first batch of
+horses. Else Chandni goes, never to come again.'
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+It was a hot October. The rains coming early had stopped early, giving
+Lewis Gordon and Rose that charming sunshiny month on the Hills, of
+which mention has been made. A whole month of almost idyllic happiness
+and content.
+
+And now, after the usual hiatus of a visit or two for Rose _en route_,
+and a hasty tour for her father round some outlying canals, they had
+settled down for the cold-weather life at Rajpore. Perhaps it was only
+the rather unusual heat which made it seem less pleasing than usual to
+at least two of the party. And this was more evident to Lewis Gordon
+than to the girl, since she had the occupation and distraction of
+preparing for Gwen's approaching marriage. Naturally, it was to be
+a great function, for, while her admirers were legion, Dan's friends
+were many; besides, as everybody admitted, the bride and bridegroom
+alone would be worth going to see, worth remembering as a pattern
+pair of lovers. So the Tweedies were lending their house for the
+breakfast--which was to be a real breakfast, since the marriage was to
+take place so as to allow of a start by the cool morning mail; the
+regiment was lending its band for the wedding-march, and, on this tepid
+October afternoon, every garden in the place was sending white
+oleanders and hibiscus to the odd octagon church which had once been a
+Mohammedan tomb. Nay more! one devoted though disappointed lover far
+down by some distant canal had sent, by special messenger, a great
+basket of belated white lotus lilies, with a request that they might be
+trodden on by the bride's happy feet.
+
+Gwen, as she bent over this offering, sniffing at the faint almond
+scent of the huge, jewelled flowers, was a gracious sight to look upon.
+She had quite recovered herself, and in sober truth felt absolutely
+content. 'How nice of the dear thing!' she murmured sweetly.
+
+And so it was; very nice. One might give it another epithet and say it
+was almost heroic. But of this Gwen Boynton had no conception, and
+never would have one. That side of human nature, its passion, its
+tears, its temptations, its triumphs, had been left out of her
+composition. She roused it in others, she played with it prettily, she
+even spoke warily and discreetly about it; yet Rose Tweedie, despite
+her girlish disdain, had more real sympathy with it than she had.
+
+Dan, meanwhile, in Lewis Gordon's office, disregardful of the lack of
+chairs, was kicking his heels as he sat on the table, declaring loudly
+that he would of a certainty break down in replying to the toast which
+was to be given at the Club dinner in his honour that night. What the
+dickens did the fellows mean by giving him a dinner? What had he ever
+done for any of them? What had he ever been but a reckless,
+insubordinate, unsteady, loafing brute, who ought to have been kicked
+out of the service years ago?
+
+'I expect they know their own minds,' replied Lewis rather wearily. He
+had a headache; and he was telling himself it was liver when he knew
+quite well it was not; a most unsatisfactory denial since there is no
+phase of depression so unendurable as that when even a blue pill fails
+to hold out cheering hopes. Yet he spoke kindly and patiently also; for
+he must have been of base clay, indeed, who would not have recognised
+that Dan, transfigured as it were on the summit of his hopes, was a
+worthy sight in this work-a-day world, and that, in a measure, it was
+well to be there on the hill-top with him. 'Besides,' he added, 'I
+think I overheard Simpson saying something about a sick baby----'
+
+'Oh! bad cess to the baby,' interrupted Dan, seeking refuge in an
+excess of Celtic recklessness. 'Sure it's a boy now, and one can't see
+a child die for the want of ice when your pony has four legs. More by
+token, it had but three for a month after, poor beast. But what's that
+to do with it? It isn't so much that I'm too bad. It's the world that's
+too good for me, and that's a fact. When I think of all you fellows who
+have been so good and so patient with me, my heart's broke about it
+entirely--and when I think of George! sure, it's only Gwen's kind face
+that comforts me. Oh, Gordon! what have I done that she should be going
+to marry me to-morrow?'
+
+So he ran on, as many another man has run on; as most men, good and
+true, do run on when they are just about to marry the woman they love.
+
+And Lewis Gordon sat listening to him with a headache and a pain in his
+heart; for the most part thinking that if Rose could only see this man,
+only hear him, she might not be quite so disdainful of it all; might
+acknowledge that, be it bad or good in its essence, this feeling did
+step into a man's life for the time and claim him body and soul, to the
+detriment of neither.
+
+And by the by,' said Dan suddenly, 'I've been meaning to ask you for a
+long time, but I wasn't sure if you'd like it. And now that I'm going
+away for good and all, and you can't get out of being my best man, I'll
+risk it. When are you going to marry Miss Tweedie?'
+
+'Never,' replied Lewis firmly, roused into instant resistance. 'What
+put such a fancy into your head now?'
+
+'Now?' Dan's face was a study in tender humour 'It's been in my head
+for the last year, and in yours too. I told Gwen so, I remember, before
+we went to Hodinuggur that time, and I could see by her manner she
+thought so also.'
+
+Lewis looked at him with an odd expression. 'Then you were both
+mistaken, that's all.' And Fitzgerald, if you're quite done talking
+about yourself--I've a lot of work to finish, old chap----'
+
+Dan laughed. 'Well! I'll go; but it is true, Gordon, and what is more,
+she likes you; any one can see that.'
+
+True! absolutely true. Lewis knew it right well, none better, and the
+remembrance of the affection she had given him unasked filled him as
+ever with a glow of intense satisfaction. And yet he had to confess
+that he was not happy. That idyllic month spent in each other's company
+had been charming, but that fortnight of absence had been the reverse.
+And what he felt now was something very different from that calm,
+contented confidence in their mutual friendship which remained, thank
+Heaven, untouched by this new passion. For it was that, and nothing
+else. He had felt it before, for other women, this moody, restless,
+selfish desire of appropriation, and if Rose would not marry him he
+would probably feel it again for some one else. In a half-hearted way
+he almost regretted that it should have obtruded itself in this, the
+most perfect idyl of his life, and yet, call it what hard names he
+would, there it was, a palpable factor in the future. Rose was the best
+of friends; but she was also a very charming girl into whose company
+he had been thrown, and he had fallen in love with her; naturally
+enough--only it complicated matters.
+
+He gave a queer little grimace and began to add up a column of figures,
+telling himself that no doubt he would get over it as he had got over
+similar attacks before; and that at any rate he would wait and see.
+Anything seemed better than the risk of paining Rose by letting her
+think that after all he had failed to understand the absolute
+unconsciousness of her regard for him. And that she might think so,
+seemed more than likely, since with all his experience, all his
+knowledge, he was only just beginning to realise that this passionate
+love was indeed a thing absolutely apart from his affection for her. So
+much so, that it almost seemed to him that it would have been easier to
+tell her of the former, if the latter had not hedged her in with
+reverence and tenderness. It came to him, with a smile, that indeed and
+in truth it would have been easier had he been able to send the barber
+round with proposals to her father in native fashion; after all, there
+was an immense deal to be said for that side of the question.
+
+And then, in his careful methodical fashion, he began to add up the
+column of figures again. This time the total was different; a trifle to
+be easily set right, yet he was not used to such aberrations of
+intellect, and it annoyed him. He did it again, this time allowing no
+thoughts of Rose or anything else to obtrude themselves, and a new set
+of figures rewarded his perseverance. He laid the pen aside and faced
+himself resolutely. Yes! he had been doing atrocious work of late, he
+had been thinking of Rose all day long, he had not been able to settle
+steadily to anything, and, unless this could be stopped, the sooner he
+took advantage of the many changes in the Department--consequent on
+Dan's going and the usual cold-weather returns from furlough--in order
+to give up his present position, the better. There was nothing like
+breaking loose from one's surroundings at once, and he was due some
+promotion. But if he had to do this, Rose ought to know the reason. Why
+should she live in a fool's paradise? Why should she not face the facts
+of life as well as he? If she had been like other women he had known,
+he would have made love to her and proposed as a matter of course; but
+she was not like others; or rather what did he know of the matter, save
+that never by word, or look, or sign had she shown her knowledge even
+of the most elementary facts in life. How could you go to a girl like
+that and ask her to marry you straight off? What could you do save
+gloze over the question by phrases, by mixing it up with other things,
+even with that perfect, angelic, absolutely unselfish affection and
+regard which she had given him, and which he, apart from all this, felt
+for her. Still, it had to be done; in common fairness to her and to
+himself, he must tell her that he was a fool, and that life was quite
+unendurable without her; he must tell her, if only because there was no
+other earthly reason why he should give up the Secretaryship. And if
+this had to be, if he had to tell her, then there was no time like the
+present, when the necessity for action seemed clear to him.
+
+So ten minutes after, he walked into the room where Rose sat making
+wedding favours as for dear life, surrounded by a perfect _chevaux de
+fries_ of white satin ribbons, bows, and blossoms. The windows were set
+wide open on to the verandah where great baskets of white flowers lay
+awaiting her final visit to the church. On the table stood the lotus
+lily offering with a note from Gwen to say it was too good to be
+trodden on, and would Rose see the pretty things were put on the altar,
+where they would look quite sweet. The girl in her white dress with her
+brisk hands flying about scissors, needle, and thimble, and her mind
+busy with the coming marriage, seemed, like her surroundings, in
+unsympathising connection with his purpose; and the perception made him
+say discontentedly as he paused beside her to lean against the table--
+
+'I thought you didn't approve of wedding favours?' It was an opening of
+the siege at the very furthermost outworks of the position which she
+frustrated by a laugh.
+
+'Oh, it doesn't matter! other people seem to like them, and I've made
+you such a beauty. There it is, beside you on the table--take care!
+you're almost sitting on it. Smell it, it's real orange-blossom.'
+
+There was apparently not a vacant chair in the room. They were all
+occupied with white wreaths and true lovers' knots--but with a cross
+here and there he was glad to see--so he continued to lean against the
+table, smelling perfunctorily at his own favour, and thinking of the
+utter inconsequence of the feminine mind, until a certain irritation
+came to his aid.
+
+'I wish you would put that work down for a minute, Rose,' he said
+quietly. 'I have something I want to say to you.'
+
+Her hands paused, arrested among the white ribbons, her mind on one
+word; for he had never before called her by her Christian name. So she
+sat looking at him doubtfully, with the light from the windows behind
+her edging the great coils of her hair with bronze.
+
+'I have come to tell you that I'm a fool,' he began almost
+argumentatively. 'At least, I suppose it's foolish. I am quite ready to
+admit, if you like, that it is so; but the fact remains. I can't go on
+as we are--as we have been, I should say--any longer. Don't think it is
+because I cannot understand. I do--at least I think I do. You are my
+friend, Rose, and will be that always, I hope. I don't say the best
+friend I ever had, or ever shall have, because that has nothing to do
+with the question, and, besides, there aren't any degrees in
+friendship--you have taught me that. So I think you may admit that I
+understand you. The question is, if you will understand me.'
+
+He paused, and Rose's kind shadowless eyes noted with a sudden
+shrinking back from the sight, that his usual calm was broken by a
+palpable effort to steady his voice. He felt, indeed, that he had not
+the least clew to the girl's mind; that he was absolutely taking a leap
+in the dark. And that what he had to say now was, in reality, so
+foreign to every single word they had ever said to each other before,
+that even if she consented to marry him he could not be sure if she
+meant it--if she really understood the difference which he saw so
+clearly.
+
+'Rose,' he went on, 'the fact is, that I've fallen in love with--with
+you; and if you don't really want to marry me, I had better go away. I
+would take an out-district for a time. I've had enough--perhaps too
+much--secretary work.' He seemed to take refuge in details from the
+main point.
+
+'Why--why should you go away?' asked Rose in a low voice. 'We were very
+happy, weren't we?'
+
+Her eyes, which had sought her hands among the white satin bows, came
+back to his face anxiously, almost fearfully.
+
+'Why?' he echoed passionately, and as he went on his words, his voice,
+his manner trembled in the fine balance between the humour of the thing
+and its gravity. 'Ah, Rose, that is the question! Because I'm a fool,
+say you; because I'm a man, say I. Because I love you, Rose; because I
+think of you when I ought to be thinking of other things. Because I'm
+an idiot, and have gone all to pieces. Because it's torture to think
+you may go away and marry some one else. Because I can't even add up a
+column of figures without wondering what you will say now--now when I
+ask you to marry me? Because--yes! have it so--because I am a
+fool!----'
+
+He had held out his hands towards her, and hers were in them in an
+instant.
+
+'Oh, Lewis, what a wretch I've been!' she cried; 'but why didn't you
+ask me before?'
+
+'Why--didn't--you--ask me--before,' he repeated slowly. The favours
+which had fallen from her lap lay round about their feet, and those on
+the table were squashed remorselessly as he seated himself upon its
+edge with the air of a man who requires some physical support, and
+still holding her by the hands, drew her down beside him silently. 'I
+shall never understand you, dear--thank God!' he said at last in an
+undertone: then went on in a different voice--'It is a little
+confusing, Rose, you must admit. All this time, ever since you told me
+that you----'
+
+She interrupted him quickly, eagerly--'Ah, but that was a totally
+different thing altogether!'
+
+'Totally different,' he echoed meekly. 'Yes, of course!' And then he
+paused again with his eyes on hers. 'I suppose you would rather I
+didn't kiss you?' he began irrelatively, with a half smile of infinite
+tenderness.
+
+'Oh, I don't mind,' she put in hastily; 'it doesn't really matter--if
+you wish--only don't talk nonsense, Lewis; please don't. I do hate it
+so; it makes me feel inclined to put my head in a bag.'
+
+'Then I won't; I can't afford to lose sight of your dear face just
+now.'
+
+'Lewis!'
+
+'But if I don't say that sort of thing, what _are_ we to talk about?'
+he asked, only half in jest. 'The weather--the news? Not very
+interesting subjects either of them to a man when the girl he loves has
+just promised to marry him--for you have promised, haven't you, Rose?'
+
+She took no notice of his question.
+
+'Talk about,' she echoed, her kind eyes growing a little
+absent--'surely there are heaps of things to talk about besides you and
+me. There is the house we are going to have, Lewis; such a nice house!
+The prettiest drawing-room you ever saw; I will have it so. And a study
+for you, all to yourself, sir, where you can go when you're tired of
+me. And then the dinners, Lewis! That's one blessing of my having kept
+house for father. I know all about it. There won't be any cold mutton,
+Lewis; but the nicest little dinners.' She paused to nod her head
+wisely.
+
+'Well,' said Lewis, 'please go on; this is really most interesting.'
+
+'And the garden. 'I'll make you gardener, Lewis. I don't believe you
+know the difference between a carnation and a chrysanthemum now; but
+I'll teach you, and you shall tie them up for me--I hate tying up
+flowers. And I'll copy your reports for you, and keep the house quiet.
+And then, and then, everybody will be so hungry, Lewis, and there will
+be so many bills to pay; but it won't matter, for every one will be
+happy, and the children will brag about their home to all the other
+girls and boys----'
+
+'Go on, dear, go on!' There was a little tremble in his voice now, and
+as they sat ruining the wedding favours, his right arm drew her closer
+to him; but she seemed not to notice it. A half smile was on her lips,
+a certain sadness in her eyes.
+
+'And then, dear? Who knows--who can tell? There are so many things, and
+death comes--even to the little ones.' She paused, then went on more
+lightly--'And I'll grow stout; yes, I'm afraid so, Lewis. I'm the sort
+of girl, you know, who is apt to get stout. And you are sure to grow
+bald. Then I'll be cross, and you'll be cross; only it won't so much
+matter, for we will both be cross together--and no wonder, with the
+boys wanting cricket-bats, and the girls clamouring for music-lessons!
+So there will be more bills than ever. Then you and I will begin to get
+old, Lewis; and the girls will want me to sit up till three in the
+morning at balls, and I shall be so sleepy; but you shall stay at home
+and smoke, dear. And then the boys will get into scrapes--boys always
+do, don't they, Lewis--for they're not like girls, you know. And when
+they come to me to get them out of their trouble, I shall say: "No,
+dears, go to your father, he will understand; for he--for he is the
+best man I ever knew."'
+
+Her voice ended in a little sob; he could feel it, hear it, as if it
+were his own, for her face was hidden on his breast.
+
+'Rose! Rose! my dear, my dear!'
+
+It was almost a cry. He would have liked to kneel before his love, as
+he had done before the other, but with her there so close to his heart,
+he could only hold her fast and tell himself passionately that, in
+those long years to come, it should be even as she had said, and that
+never, in word, thought, or deed, would he sully her pure ideal.
+
+So they sat silent--for, to tell truth, other words seemed to him
+sacrilege, and she had said her say--until with a half apologetic smile
+she drew herself away.
+
+'I'm sure you are sitting on your favour, Lewis, and I've such a lot
+more to make; besides, I promised to go down to the church at half-past
+five. It must be that now, and I've wasted all this time.'
+
+'I've been here exactly seven minutes and a half,' he replied, gloomily
+taking out his watch; 'for I looked just before I came in.'
+
+She laughed. 'Well, that was very methodical of you; and I think, on
+the whole, dear, that you managed very nicely. And now, as I hear the
+carriage coming round, you might just help me to put in the flowers.
+Aren't the lotus lovely?'
+
+There was no help for it. She was hopelessly back in realities, and
+Lewis had to accept the position. After all, as he watched her drive
+off, like a bride herself in the midst of her white flowers, he told
+himself that she had managed to compress a great deal into those seven
+and a half minutes; a whole dream of life which must, which should come
+true. It would be more difficult for him than for her, of course;
+perhaps that was one reason why he was still thinking over it long
+after she had forgotten everything else in the fervour of a free fight
+with the parson, who objected on principle to lotus-blossoms in the
+chancel. They were a heathen flower, sacred to unmentionable beliefs
+and rites, and could not be admitted beyond the body of the church. It
+was but an offshoot of an old quarrel between these two, which renewed
+itself every Christmas and Easter-tide; but Rose, who by instinct
+understood the story which these particular flowers had to tell, opened
+up the whole question of symbolism hotly, finally marching off with her
+lilies in a huff to the lectern, whence, she told herself, their
+message of love and sacrifice might fittingly go forth. And while she
+worked away under the echoing dome of the old tomb, the band in the bit
+of public garden close by was clashing and bashing away at 'Rule
+Britannia, and 'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay,' much to the delight of ayahs
+leading sallow dark-eyed children by the hand, and a motley crowd of
+servants and shopkeepers from the neighbouring bazaar.
+
+Sometimes a palki gharry, like a green box on wheels, with four or five
+specimens of Tommy Atkins and a black bottle inside, would come
+rattling past, drawn by an anatomy of a horse, and leave a shower of
+gibes and greetings behind it for those other green boxes on wheels
+which were drawn up beside the road, while their gaily-dressed
+occupants chewed betel or strolled about with clanking feet among the
+long shadows thrown by the flowering shrubs. Light, and laughter, and
+noise; a whole eternity of time and space between this life and the
+girl under the dome, decorating the Bible with lotus-blossoms.
+
+'There's going to be a big shadi (wedding) in the girja ghur (church)
+to-morrow morning,' said one of the occupants, dressed in tight mauve
+silk trousers and a yellow veil, as she clambered back into the green
+box where a figure in white lay listening lazily. 'They are doing all
+sorts of pooja there to-day. It is that big, long sahib in the canals
+and Boynton sahib's widow. Ai, the sorry tale! Making a fuss of shadi
+about a woman who has had the misfortune to kill one man.'
+
+Chandni sat up suddenly. 'Tobah! a sorry tale, indeed! So she is to
+marry him! Lo, there is a man, indeed! but I wonder what he would say
+if he knew what I know now?'
+
+'Dost know aught? Dost know him?' began the other enviously.
+
+'I have seen him. He was down at Hodinuggur a week ago putting up a
+white marble stone to the young sahib who died there of the sickness
+last rains. They were friends, see you, great friends. Lo, tell thy
+driver to go on, Lalu; this wearies me, the folk have no manners.'
+
+They had not far to go; only to the Bedami bazaar, with its current of
+life below and its latticed balconies above. The full moon rose through
+the golden-dust haze to hang like a balloon above the feathery crowns
+of the palm-trees; the clatter of horses, hoofs bearing their owners
+home to dinner died from the Mall hard by; and Rose stood at the door
+of the tomb looking back into the shadowy dome, where the huge lilies
+showed like the ghosts of flowers. It would look very nice, she
+thought, in the cool light of early morning; and she would have it
+decorated in the same way when she and Lewis were married.
+
+But Chandni, as she paused to think of the future, thought of the past
+also.
+
+'He fought me fairly,' she said to herself; 'and for his beauty's sake,
+I could bear more than he gave. That is our way. But she! Lo, she is
+even as I, and he shall know it. I will put that in the platter as the
+wedding tribute, and it will help him to pay her back for me. 'Tis
+almost as well I had not learnt the tale from Dalel in those days. It
+comes better now.'
+
+So, as the night fell, she wrapped herself in the white domino of
+respectability, sent for another green box on wheels, and drove in the
+direction of the house where Dan was living. That was not difficult to
+discover; all that was necessary being a word of inquiry from the
+general merchant who sold everything heart could desire in the shop
+below the balcony. And the night was warm. She would as lief sit in the
+moonshine behind the hedge of white oleanders and talk to the
+gardeners, as stay in the stuffy bazaar with its evening odours of
+fried meats and pungent smoke.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+'I was never so happy or so sorry in all my life before, and I thank
+Heaven that I'm enough of an Irishman still to say so without being
+afraid of being laughed at.'
+
+He stood at one end of the table looking his best, as a gentleman
+always does in his evening dress--a curious fact, since there is no
+more cruel test for the least lack of good breeding. But this man stood
+it triumphantly, and not one of those other men seated that night round
+the long table but carries to his grave a remembrance of Dan
+Fitzgerald's look when he was bidding good-bye to his friends. The
+eager vitality of the man, always his strongest characteristic, seemed
+to have reached its climax.
+
+'I'm not going to say anything of her,' he went on, the rich, round
+voice softening. 'There isn't any need, since you all know her.
+Besides, though you have all come here to-night--why, I can't for
+the life of me tell--to wish us good luck in the future, it isn't so
+much of the future I'm thinking as of the past. It has been so happy,
+thanks to you all. And it's over. That is the worst of it. I suppose it
+isn't quite what a man is expected to say on these occasions; but the
+ladies--God bless them!--would, I'm sure, agree, if they could only be
+made to understand that marriage is the end of a man's youth. It
+doesn't alter the case at all that it may be the end of the woman's
+also, or that we get something that may be as good in exchange. What
+has that to do with the past?--the merry, careless past, which I've
+enjoyed so much, and to which I'm now saying good-bye. Well, Heaven
+help those who say good-bye to it without a solid reason, or have a
+sneaking intention of not really saying good-bye to it at all? for
+their lines are in evil places. And that sounds like a sermon, and you
+never heard Dan Fitzgerald preach before, and you never will again. It
+isn't only that I'm off with the morning to the other end of the
+world--to a new world, if it comes to that, worth this old one and the
+past and all of you put together, if you'll excuse my saying so--it is
+because even if I were stopping here I should be out of the old life as
+surely as if I were dead and buried. To begin with, I shall have to
+think of every penny I spend, so that I may have enough to pay for
+paradise! The world is full of paradoxes for me to-night; and I'm the
+greatest of them all myself; for I don't want to say good-bye, and yet
+I wouldn't miss having to say it for the world. Then it seems to me
+to-night as if I'd solved the puzzle; and there's Doveton--the old
+bachelor--grinning as if he knew I was a fool, and that I was making
+the biggest mistake of my life. I don't think so--I don't think I ever
+shall think so; I hope not, anyhow. And so, good-bye to you--goodbye!
+And may none of us, married or single, live to know the pain of a
+"heart grown cold, a head grown grey--in vain!"'
+
+Down the disordered table with its litter of glasses and flowers, its
+atmosphere heavy with the odours of dinner and drink, a hush lay for a
+second; not more. Then some one laughed, and with a roar of applause
+the general tone--varying from concert pitch to normal diapason
+according to the taste of the owner--struck into the old chorus; the
+refrain which, touching as it does the lowest and the highest ideals of
+humanity, has provoked more mixed sentiment and emotion than any other
+in the language:
+
+'_For he's a jolly good fel-low. For he's a jolly good fe-el-low_.'
+
+Love, admiration, assent. But to what? That lies in the creed of the
+singer.
+
+And Dan, as the chorus went swaying and surging about in the discords
+and harmonies, was left alone, silent--as it were on a pinnacle.
+
+Lewis Gordon, feeling responsible for his man, and noting his growing
+excitement, inveigled him out after a time for a quiet cigar on the
+verandah, and then suggested he should go to bed; whereat Dan laughed
+softly. Did not his best man see that the idea was palpably absurd when
+life itself was a dream--a dream that only came once to a fellow? When
+you hadn't a wish ungratified, save of course that some others he wot
+of might have as good luck as he.
+
+'If you mean me,' replied Lewis stolidly, 'I'm all right. I'm going to
+marry Rose Tweedie whenever she can spare five minutes from your
+wedding to arrange mine.'
+
+'You don't say so! By the powers, what a good matchmaker I am! And so
+it's settled. I say, Gordon, do you think there is any chance of her
+being up still?' put in Dan all in one breath.
+
+'Couldn't say; she had a lot of favours to make and remake when I last
+saw her, certainly,' replied Lewis, with an inward smile at the
+remembrance; 'but you can't go and call on her now; it's half-past ten
+at least.'
+
+'Can't I? There is nothing I couldn't do to-night, it seems to me. And
+_you_ are yawning. Oh, go to bed, old man! or you will spoil the show
+to-morrow.'
+
+'And you?'
+
+'I'm off too, but not to bed! No, you needn't be afraid. I'll turn up
+again in time.'
+
+The glamour of the soft Indian night was on Lewis also; even on those
+who one by one drifted from the laughter within to stand for five
+minutes, arrested by the peace without, before going on their way. And
+if this were so to men in the slack-water of life, what must it have
+been to Dan on the flood-tide of his threescore years and ten? To Dan
+with his vivid imagination, his soft heart, his excitable, impulsive
+nature. As he rode along noiselessly at a foot's pace through the sandy
+dust which looked hard as marble in the glare of the moon, he and his
+shadow were the only moving things in that world of light. No darkness
+anywhere! Not even in the distant arcades of trees. Only a soft grey
+mist of moonlight blending all things into the semblance of a mirage
+seen from afar. A fire-fly or two showed against the flowering shrubs
+in intermittent glimpses of light. Here, and then gone, as it were,
+upon the soft quiver of the insistent cicalas in the air.
+
+Was not life worth living, indeed if only for such a night as this!
+
+'_On such a night did young Lorenzo!_'
+
+But Dan Fitzgerald had passed beyond that flood-mark on the shore.
+Passion counted for much in the elation of mind and body which was the
+apotheosis of both; but love counted for more. The memory of a thousand
+griefs and pains with pity hidden in their hearts came to fill the
+mystic cup of life which the Unseen, Unknown Hand held out to him from
+Heaven--the Sangreal of Humanity--the sacraments of Birth and Death.
+The child dying of the potter's thumb-mark in the dust--that other in
+loving arms with the ice chilling even death's cold touch--George with
+the bullet piercing the friendship in his heart--Rose with her pure
+wisdom fearless and unashamed--these and many another remembrance
+seemed to blend sorrow and joy into peace, even as the moon-mist blent
+the world around him into vague beauty.
+
+And there was Rose herself! He could see her, as with the easy
+friendliness of India he paced his pony through the open gates of the
+garden, and so passed the house. She was still at work among the white
+flowers beside the door which was set wide upon the warm balmy night.
+
+'Is that you, Mr. Fitzgerald?' she called, pausing at the faint sound
+of his coming to look out into the flood of moonlight clear as noonday.
+
+'It is I, Miss Tweedie.'
+
+He had slipped from his pony and stood beside it welcoming her with
+outstretched hands as she came forth, eager with some message for the
+morrow which he might deliver.
+
+'Lewis has told me, and I'm so glad,' he said, breaking in on her
+words. 'It is the best wedding present I've had yet, and I came along
+on the chance of seeing you. I've something to give you. I meant it for
+to-morrow, as a parting gift--just a remembrance of your kindness to us
+both. But I'd rather give it to you with our best wishes.
+
+He unfastened something from his own wrist and put it, soft and warm,
+into her hand. It was a native amulet cunningly twisted of silk thread
+and pearls, with a triangle of some blue stone strung in the centre.
+
+''Tis only a glorified ram-rukhri,' he went on half-jestingly, 'the
+bracelet sisters give their brothers to bring them good luck. Only it
+is the other way round with you.'
+
+Rose looked at the blue of the triangle doubtfully, then at his kindly
+face.
+
+'Yes! it's a bit of the Ayodhya pot--the only bit that wasn't in
+pieces. And it has my name on the back, and--and George's.'
+
+'And George's?' echoed Rose softly.
+
+'Ay! He would have liked it, I know--for you were kind to him--kind to
+us both, always'--Madr-mihrban, as the old potter called you. And we
+two, George and I, are one part of the story; I was thinking of it as I
+came along just now----'
+
+She put out her hand with a sudden gesture. 'Don't think of it, Mr.
+Fitzgerald! Forget all about it. Go away and forget.'
+
+He gave a happy laugh. 'Why should I? I don't want to forget anything
+to-night--except my sins. The rest is all good. Let me put that on for
+you--so--goodnight! We'll say good-bye to-morrow.'
+
+So out on the deserted roads with the same happy unrest in his heart.
+He would go down and see the old familiar places in the garden opposite
+once more--even the pond where the ducks and geese had quacked and
+gabbled him into silence! Then through the hanging tassels of the grey
+tamarisk trees, round the gleaming white road to the blue-tiled
+minarets of the old watch-tower standing causelessly upon the level
+plain where four ways met, and so back station-wards to the stunted
+dome of the church. The throbbing of tom-toms proclaimed the nearness
+of the bazaar, but the building itself stood unassailably silent and
+deserted on its high white plinth, save for some one lying on a string
+bed set in a shadow by the door. Dan slipped from his pony again, and
+hitched the reins to a broken iron clamp in the stone-work of the
+steps. The door, he knew, would be open to let in the cool night-air,
+so he would look in--'go round the course' as a horsey friend of his
+had said when discovered doing the same thing before his marriage. The
+remembrance made him smile as he stepped into the dark building and
+paused, arrested by the strangeness of what he saw. For the dome was
+full of fire-flies brought hither in the flowers; full of a causeless
+glimpsing of pale green fire showing every instant the white heart of
+some blossom. And the air was burdened with scent; distinct, through
+all, a faint, deadly smell of bitter almonds. That must be from the
+lotus Gwen had mentioned, and there they were, in the upper shaft of
+moonlight through the upper window, standing like sentinels over the
+lectern.
+
+
+'_Om mani padma hom_.'
+
+
+What did it really mean, that invocation used by so many millions? What
+was the mystic jewel in the lotus? Something fair but far, no doubt,
+such as all religions promise. And then with a rush came the thought
+that Gwen would stand beside them on the morrow, fair and near!
+
+The echo of his pony's galloping feet made that throbbing in the bazaar
+pause an instant as if to listen. Pause and go on when he had passed.
+The darkened houses of his friends rose up beside him and were left
+behind; the Club with its still twinkling arches, the garden where
+Chandni sat gossiping and waiting her chance to kill his faith
+wantonly. All these he passed. Awake or sleeping he must be near Gwen
+for an instant--must bid her goodnight before the day came.
+
+The chiming, echoing gong from the secretarial office rang twelve,
+clear; then the others began. Here and there from the various centres
+of law and order, many-voiced from the massive pile of the distant
+city. He was too late then, yet not too late; for there was a light
+still in the little front room, despoiled of its prettiness now and
+littered with boxes. She was awake, busy like Rose over the morrow.
+
+'Gwen!' he called to her softly, for the chick was down, the door half
+closed.
+
+'My dear Dan!' Her voice, as she opened it and came hurriedly into the
+verandah, was full of amused horror and half-vexed kindness. 'Do go
+away, there's a dear! I never heard of such a thing, never! And the
+hotel is crammed full of people!'
+
+'It's only to wish you many happy returns of the day, dear!' he
+whispered fondly. 'When I've done that I'll go content. Who wouldn't be
+content with you, Gwen? And yet I wouldn't spare an inch of it all--I
+couldn't. Gwen! do you remember the day your bearer was cleaning the
+lamps out here, and we were sitting on the sofa?--odd, isn't it, how
+one remembers these things all in a jumble, the one with the other--and
+I said to you--the very words come back to me, dear, every one of
+them--"You might be bankrupt of everything, Gwen, of everything save
+yourself, and I'll give you credit for it all the same." Do you
+remember, dear? Well, I've come to take the promise back. You've spoilt
+me, Gwen, I can't do it.'
+
+'I--I don't understand,' she said faintly. 'I wish you would go, Dan.
+We can talk of it to-morrow--afterwards.'
+
+'To-morrow! Why's it's to-day already, our wedding-day! And if I can't
+keep the promise, am I not bound to take it back while I can? Not that
+I'm afraid--that is why I've come, to tell you, selfish brute that I
+am--that is why I want it all--every scrap of your beauty, your
+goodness. I'll take nothing else, dear, now; for I know it's yours, and
+what is yours is mine by right!'
+
+She had grown very pale, and a sort of terror came into her eyes.
+
+'Ah Dan! what is the use of talking? I give you all I can. My best--I
+can't do more--it isn't kind----' she broke off almost impatiently, and
+yet she did not move from his clasp.
+
+'Not kind, when I know what the best means? And yet, Gwen, it just
+comes upon me now that I couldn't stand it--if--if it were not so--not
+after this midsummer night's dream--of madness, if you will! Yes, dear,
+I'm going--I am indeed. But, Gwen--it's an idle fancy--and yet if there
+was anything it would be better to tell me now. You're not angry at the
+thought--it's only a thought. See, give me one kiss--just one, to be an
+answer for always.'
+
+What right, she asked herself fiercely, had she to hesitate? What
+possible right, standing as she did on the threshold of a new life,
+_where no one could possibly know?_ And so she was back on the low
+levels among the ordinary considerations of convenience and safety as
+she kissed him. But the touch of her lips sent his blood surging
+through his heart and brain; and without another word, another look, he
+turned and left her--content, absolutely content. Love, pity,
+friendship, passion, had all combined to raise him to the uttermost
+limit of vitality. He might come near it perhaps in the future; he was
+not likely ever to reach it again--not even without Chandni waiting to
+tell him the truth on his return to the odd little house at the other
+end of the station.
+
+He neither knew nor cared where he was going; but his pony, tired of
+these incomprehensible wanderings, set its galloping hoofs on the
+shortest road home--that is to say, through the densely-wooded grounds
+of the Residency. Along a grassy ride or two, across a short cut they
+sped. Dan forgetting even his joy in the keen effort of steering a
+runaway through the trees; a runaway unheld, free to go as fast, nay,
+faster than it chose, yet obedient to that grip to right or left. It
+was a mad ride, a mad rider--yet a masterful one, wrestling imperiously
+with that other will, when the gloom grew as the trees thickened, and
+darkness and danger came together in the hot night, prisoned by the
+dense foliage above. Dan, looking down at the pony's heaving flanks as
+it paused, wearied by its short, sharp, unavailing struggle against his
+strong hands, felt flushed and hot. Not wearied,--he could not be that
+on such a night,--but glowing, palpitating, excited; drunk almost as if
+with wine. But yonder stood a remedy in that long, low-thatched roof,
+supported on brick pillars, and hung round with heavy bamboo screens.
+Dan laughed as he slid to the ground, thinking of the twelve feet of
+clear cool water running fresh and fresh into the big swimming-bath at
+the one end, and out at the other to irrigate the green levels of the
+garden. Fresh and fresh all through the scorching summer weather, when
+life held no greater pleasure than to feel that cool water close in
+round the hot limbs. Frequented then, morning and evening, though
+deserted and empty through the colder months. Only the day before Dan's
+smooth dark head had come up from its depths rejoicing, and now the
+thought of it was luxury itself when the blood was beating in his
+temples, and racing at fever heat through his veins. More than once
+coming home at night, after careless, reckless enjoyment, he had
+stopped here, as he did now, to try the water-cure--as he had tried it
+in the canal at Hodinuggur.
+
+'I need it to-night if ever I did,' he said half aloud. ''Tis the wine
+of life has got into my head.'
+
+It was dark--almost too dark inside; that was because the fools had put
+down all the screens, when, on the contrary, they should be opened by
+night to let in the fresh air. He told himself that he would speak to
+the Secretary of the caretaker's neglect; yet how would that be since
+he would never see him again?
+
+Yes! it was the last time! and how many times had he not gone down
+red-hot from the spring-board as he would do now, to come up out of the
+dark water a new man, with all the evil tempers and the prickly heat
+quenched out of him?--sure, as a regenerating element, fire wasn't in
+it with water! A leap in the dark indeed! But that was what life was,
+and he was not afraid of it.
+
+The little bars of moonlight shining through the chinks between the
+bamboos came so far on the smooth white floor, then the soft depth of
+darkness where the cool water should be, and above it Dan poised for a
+second.
+
+'_I come! Mother of all!_'
+
+The oft, old-repeated cry rang joyously up into the roof, followed by a
+strange, dull thud, and silence--dead silence.
+
+The bath had been emptied that morning for the cold weather, and Dan
+Fitzgerald was lying face downward on the hard cement with a broken
+neck.
+
+Dead! Dead, without a word, a sigh, or a regret! And Chandni, growing
+tired of patience, went home to the bazaar, grumbling at her ill-luck,
+telling herself she might still write, if it were worth while.
+
+But Dan was beyond her spite, beyond other things which, even without
+that spite, might have killed the best part of him.
+
+Yet even in romance the sixth commandment outweighs all the others. The
+novelist may maim and degrade, may bear false witness against his own
+creations and filch from them the very characteristics which he has
+given them, in order to make degradation happy, but he must not kill;
+death in the verdict of the world being the only real tragedy.
+
+So at any rate seemed the opinion of most people when in the early
+morning the gardeners coming to their work found Dan's pony drowsing,
+half asleep, still tethered to a hibiscus bush, whose great
+blossoms--in topsy-turvy fashion--showed rosy-red in death and
+snowy-white in life.
+
+It was terribly sad, they said; an unredeemed tragedy, cruel, needless;
+altogether a manifestation needing much true Christian faith; one of
+the accidents of real life, so exasperating because so causeless, so
+inartistic because so unnecessary. These and many other comments the
+mourners made as, when the funeral was over, they returned home; and
+so, it being Sunday morning, went to church, where they sang 'Jerusalem
+the Golden' piously.
+
+Only Rose lingered, her kind, soft hands laying the half-dead lotus
+like sentinels on the grave; for Gwen's pure white cross of gardenia
+had, at her request, been buried on the coffin.
+
+'I can't somehow be so sorry,' she said to Lewis, between her sobs. 'He
+was so happy that last night. I seem to see his face still.'
+
+But the man caught his breath in hard. There was a verse which would
+ring in his ears, his heart; for he had helped to lift poor Dan, and it
+had come to memory then--
+
+
+              'Broken in pieces like a potter's vessel.'
+
+
+Yet, after all, what did it matter? but Rose must never know. In such
+things he would stand between her and needless pain.
+
+And Gwen? She, as the phrase goes, bore up wonderfully. Not that she
+did not love the dead man dearly, but because she did love him. For
+odd as it may seem--topsy-turvywise, perhaps, like the hibiscus
+flowers--she had the same consolation as Rose Tweedie.
+
+'I did not tell him,' she said to herself as she lay in her darkened
+room. 'He was happy to the last. I did my best--I did my best.'
+
+So she cried softly; and so, once more, she escaped from her own
+remorse, and was comforted.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Both for the reader's and writer's sake it is never fair to end a story
+as you would end a play in a situation, for the former tries--vainly it
+may be--to present life even in its trivialities, the latter only in
+its more dramatic moments. So, though there is little more to tell,
+save what might easily be filled in by the reader's own imagination, it
+would give a false impression of the real value of poor Dan
+Fitzgerald's tragic death, were the curtain to come down upon the rest
+of the _dramatis personae_ in the first bewilderment and sorrow which
+such unexpected and causeless accidents must always arouse. As a matter
+of fact, there is no grief which passes sooner from the daily life than
+that caused by death, especially when a real and unselfish love has
+existed between the dead and the living. The mind, after the first
+physical sense of loss has spent itself, refuses to believe in the
+extinction of a feeling which, in its own experience, has survived
+death, and so is comforted not by forgetfulness but remembrance.
+Besides, it is false art to end any history embracing the life of more
+than one person with the balance in favour of pain. For were this so in
+reality, pain would cease to be pain and become pleasure, because it
+would then be the normal condition of life; since it is clearly to be
+demonstrated physiologically and psychologically that it is in the
+disintegration of reminiscent habit that the phenomena of pain arise.
+Indeed, in the mind, pain is incredible, impossible, unless we have
+first formed the habit of pleasure; since it consists essentially in
+privation.
+
+Therefore the novelist who wishes to give a true picture of life will
+always leave his puppets content. Nor does this limit the field unduly,
+since it is clearly as much the duty and privilege of the writer to
+present new sources of content to his readers, as it is for him to
+present them with scenes, or situations, or characters of which they
+have no previous knowledge. Because Jones thinks the soul of bliss is
+incarnate in roast-beef and plum-pudding, is that any reason why the
+more ethereal Brown should be denied his cup of nectar? or that the
+philosophic Robinson, seeing that birth and death are alike inscrutable
+phenomena, should refuse empirically to believe that the one is joyful
+and the other sorrowful?
+
+But the public seems to think differently; 'Oh don't kill him, or her,
+or them,' it says cheerfully, 'let them enter into life halt, and
+maimed, and blind. What does anything matter so long as they have the
+average number of breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners allotted to
+humanity, and can thus go down to their graves in the fulness of time
+with the pleasing consciousness that their funeral _cortege_ is
+followed by a Noah's ark, consisting of the ghosts of the animals they
+have devoured?' For the world sides with Esau, who bartered away his
+birthright for a mess of pottage. And good pottage is, no doubt,
+warming, comforting, consoling. Yet some people who have it not are
+happy; for instance, the two hundred and odd millions of India--but
+then to them Birth and Death are alike the pivot on which the wheel of
+life spins.
+
+So thought the potter of Hodinuggur. So had thought his fathers who lay
+buried in the dust beside him, and though the old man had no son to
+step on to the treadles when his feet slipped from them, the wheel span
+steadily, and the women of the village, as they rung the temper of the
+water-jars before they bought them, nodded their heads saying--'Fuzl is
+a good potter. Look you, it comes with a man's birth. When he goes,
+we shall have to send for another. Meroo thinks he can make them,
+because the Sirkar taught him when he was three years in jail for
+cattle-thieving. But it takes more than three years to make a potter.'
+
+Still Fuzl Elahi showed no signs of going; on the contrary, he seemed
+to have a firmer hold on life than ever, as if Time had stood still for
+him. Rose Gordon remarked on the fact to her husband as they sat side
+by side one day on the old log. They had been married nearly a year,
+and he had brought her out for change of air on one of his inspection
+tours--for he had given up the Secretaryship on his marriage in favour
+of greater quiet and more freedom.
+
+'It is so strange, Lewis,' she said, 'you and I coming back, so
+changed. And so many things have changed! even the palace scarcely
+looks itself with that dreadful sort of Swiss chalet Dalel has built
+for Beatrice Norma tacked on to the ruins of the old tower. And George
+and Dan are dead, and the water is running in the cut yonder as if
+there had never been any tragedy about preventing it from running. Yet
+the village, with the potter sitting in the topmost house, is just the
+same.'
+
+Lewis Gordon smiled. 'You never read Megasthenes' account of his travel
+through India in the year B.C. 300 or you wouldn't be surprised. It
+might have been written today; for these people do not change except
+under pressure from without, and then they disintegrate suddenly. But
+the old man seems to me more sane than he was--more at rest. No doubt
+Azizan's death----'
+
+The familiar name caught the potter's ear and he looked up from his
+work.
+
+'Yea! she sleeps still, Huzoor. The breaking of the pot did not disturb
+her at all. She was weary, see you, after sixteen years of waking. So
+now when my fathers say, "Where is Azizan?" I can answer, "Hush! she
+sleeps! she will waken when she is refreshed." Lo! it is well the pot
+broke. It was accursed; bringing ill to all.'
+
+'There you see, Lewis!' began Rose eagerly----
+
+'It did not bring it to me, dear,' he replied, interrupting her, 'and a
+man can but judge from his own experiences. And then, as I have often
+told you, we really know nothing for certain----'
+
+'Except,' put in Rose obstinately, 'that poor George----'
+
+'Don't you think we ought to be moving?' he asked quietly. 'Remember
+you promised Mrs. Dalel to have tea in the chalet and inspect the son
+and heir, and you are tired enough as it is.'
+
+'But you said you wanted to go and see some slope or another, and I'm
+not in the least tired,' she insisted when they had left the yard and
+reached the road. 'Lewis! you never used to fuss this way. I wish you
+wouldn't.'
+
+'It is only another method of showing my real views on the mental and
+physical calibre of women. You must have read, my dear, of the
+wonderful recuperative power which the lower animals have of
+reproducing another tail when----ahem--by the way, this is not a safe
+spot! I remember saying something of the same sort on purpose to annoy
+when we were here before----'
+
+He paused, and looked down the narrow alley of the village to where the
+palace was beginning to share the unreal beauty which the dust-cloud
+from the feet of the homing cattle gave to the whole scene, by hiding
+the dull plain in a golden mist that gave distance and height to the
+low sand-hillocks behind which the sun was setting cloudlessly. A
+glorious sight, the dignity and calm majesty of which lingers long in
+the memory of those who have seen it in India, day after day, month
+after month; lingers to claim a higher place in the imagination than
+the more varied and complex sunsets of the West with their stormy
+contrasts and passionate beauty.
+
+'Leave me here,' she said suddenly. 'I should like it. I'll sit on that
+pile of old potsherds, and wait till you come back. It will rest me.'
+
+It was peaceful enough of a certainty, and silent too. Only every now
+and again the tinkle of a low-toned bell from some leader of the herds
+below chiming in on the musical moan of the potter's wheel heard over
+the low wall.
+
+
+                 'It was a woman seeking something.'
+
+
+The rhythm came back to her, stirring the old sense of curious unrest.
+Stirring it in others of her sex also, if one might judge by the eyes
+which, seeing the stranger alone, began to peer from the neighbouring
+hovels. Eyes followed by figures; deep-bosomed mothers most of them,
+with a slim girl or two doing nursemaid to other folks' babies.
+
+Nearer and nearer they came, attracted by the great feminine quality,
+until in answer to Rose's nod of welcome and encouragement they
+squatted near, yet far, gathered in as it were upon themselves, apart
+even from that other woman; even from her, with the cares of coming
+motherhood writ clear upon her, and causing her to look at those other
+mothers with kindly, friendly eyes.
+
+'Ari bahin!' said one with a nudge to her neighbour. 'Tis for sure she
+who played bat and ball last year like a boy. Wah! that is over; she
+knows her work now.'
+
+'I trow not,' replied another shrilly. 'She hath been sitting with the
+potter's eyes upon her this half hour past. She is bad, caring but for
+her pleasure.'
+
+'Mayhap she knows not,' said an older voice, 'and they have no mothers,
+these ones, nor mothers-in-law. Yea! 'tis true. My man went to dig for
+the sahibs the year there was no corn in the land, and he hath told me.
+They marry of themselves and there is none to see to them that they
+fall not into ignorant mischief. It is fool's work.'
+
+'No mothers-in-law?' tittered a bold-faced lump. 'Ai teri! that is no
+fool's work.'
+
+But the elder woman had risen, to stand a few steps nearer Rose,
+looking down at her with dignified wonder.
+
+'May the Lord send a son,' she began, going to the very root of the
+matter without preamble.
+
+'I will take what He chooses to send me, mother,' replied Rose,
+smiling.
+
+'Tsi-si-si!' The matron's pliant forefinger wagged _sideways_, in that
+most impressive gesture of denial never seen out of India.
+
+'Mention not such things, my daughter,' went on the grave voice, 'lest
+He take thee at the word. Then what wouldst say? And see! Go no more to
+the potter's yard. It is not safe. Wouldst have the son come to thee
+with his mark on the breast? I trow not.'
+
+They had come forward one by one to cluster round the speaker, their
+dark assenting eyes on Rose.
+
+''Tis not to be helped, though,' put in another. 'Do I not know? I,
+Jewun, whose son died of it this year; yet I remember the old ways and
+my mother's counsel. Lo! it is Fate; naught else. And 'tis better to
+crack and be done with it. Then folk know. Not like my new milk-jar
+this day. Sound to sight and touch, yet six good quarts of milk spilled
+on the ground, as it crumbled like sand ere a body could get a hand to
+it. The old man shall give me another in its place. It is not fair.'
+
+'Nay! Mai Jewun,' put in a third, 'a pot comes to pieces ever; if not
+one, then another way, when it is tired of going to the well for water.
+Thou hast naught to complain about. Ai sisters! hither returns the
+sahib! He will be angry that we have spoken to his mem.'
+
+'He will not be angry,' protested Rose; but the thought was beyond
+them. They were off swiftly, yet sedately, only the elder woman pausing
+to waggle her finger again, and say, 'Go not to the potter's. It is not
+well. I, Junto, mother of seven, say so.'
+
+There were tears in Rose's eyes when Lewis came up and in consequence
+he did look angrily at the retreating figures. She was pale and tired,
+he said, and must send an excuse to Mrs. Dalel. He would not have her
+knocking herself up with other folks' infants. So they went back
+quietly to the two white tents standing beyond the Mori gate, where the
+pigeons, as of old, circled iridescent round the dark niches. As of
+old, too, the clash of silver anklets came from the shadows, since
+Chandni was back again in her old haunts; but with a recognised
+position, for her Highness Beatrice Elflida Norma was a shrewd little
+person, and knew that she would need help to hold her own amid the
+intrigues of that surely-coming long minority which lay in the future.
+It is a recurring fraction that long minority, in the problem of our
+dealings with petty principalities and powers; for civilisation does
+not conduce to longevity with the native nobleman, and Dalel, with the
+income from the stud farm, was diligently burning his feeble little
+constitution at both ends. On the sly, however, for virtue, to all
+outward appearance, reigned at Hodinuggur. Only that morning Rose had
+inspected a female school with rows of nice little girls with very
+clean primers and brand-new slates. A brand-new visitors' book, too, in
+which Rose had, with some misgivings, inscribed her name at the end of
+a trite little remark on the blessings of education; for she was only
+just beginning to make up her bundle of opinions, and was not quite
+sure of them.
+
+But that night, as he was carefully guiding her steps through the maze
+of ropes and pegs to the door of the sleeping-tent, she paused suddenly
+to say to her husband--
+
+'Lewis! I'm glad we came here. I thought it would be so painful seeing
+George's deserted grave and reviving the old memories; but it has only
+seemed to make it all more natural, to make everything, somehow, more
+simple.'
+
+This, then, was what the years were bringing to Rose. She and Lewis
+were very happy; though sometimes, especially when they were out in
+camp together, alone, he would enter a feeble protest against her lack
+of sentiment. When, after work and dinner were over, they sat beside
+the roaring stove--the mingled lamplight and firelight making the tent
+cosy beyond belief--and he, laying down the volume of Thackeray from
+which he was reading aloud, would remark, for the hundredth time, that
+Rose was like one of his favourite heroines.
+
+'If you say those stupid things, Lewis,' she would reply, 'I will make
+you read shilling shockers, and then you can't--or I hope you won't.'
+
+'Oh! it is all very well to scoff,' he would continue in injured tones,
+'but I am the victim of an unrequited attachment. You are the heroine
+of my romance always, and you never had a romance at all.'
+
+'Well, dear! that is better than having one with some one else, isn't
+it?' she would reply placidly, and Lewis's hand would reach out to
+touch the one which was so busy with needles, and thimbles, and
+threads--just to touch it for an instant, in a certain shamefast,
+deprecatory acknowledgment of her wisdom. For he knew quite well that
+he, like most men, had had several romances in his life, and that the
+possibility of several more remained in him. Whether the climax of
+Rose's dream of the future ever came about, and the boys got into
+scrapes, cannot be told; for the simple reason that Lewis himself is
+still within the torrid zone of life. But he does his best to prepare
+for the crisis, and he follows his wife's lead in this; that he finds
+life more simple and less sad as time goes on and he faces its facts
+less egotistically.
+
+Gwen Boynton, however, found it quite the reverse. She married Colonel
+Tweedie two years after Dan's death, having, she said, buried all
+thoughts of personal happiness in the grave of the only man she had
+ever loved. This, as usual with Gwen's remarks, was true in itself, and
+yet left her free to marry for position without remorse; or rather,
+accurately speaking, to utilise her regrets as a motive for doing what
+she wanted to do without remorse. So she made Colonel Tweedie an
+excellent wife, much to his delight and comfort, for as Rose
+acknowledged, he sorely needed some one to keep him from fussing when
+she had gone to perform the same kind office to Lewis. Nevertheless,
+Gwen Boynton, when she came back to society after the shock of Dan's
+death, had lost some of her charm, and, from being a fascinating woman,
+had become elegant and interesting, as befitted one with a history.
+Life, she said, was so mysterious. Humanity a mere shuttlecock in the
+hand of Fate beaten backwards and forwards by devastating passions!
+Altogether the world was a sad sojourning in which a vague mysticism
+was the only anodyne for the sensitive.
+
+She became a half-hearted disciple of Madame Blavatsky's, and reached
+what may be called the climax of her kindly, absolutely untrustworthy
+nature, when with tears in her eyes and much gentle mournful
+resignation to the mysterious inevitable, she would tell the story
+which she had heard from Rose, of how Dan Fitzgerald and George Keene
+had been measured for heroes in the potter's yard, and of their sad
+deaths within the year. Of course it was incredible; and yet----?
+
+Thus, none of the actors in the little drama ever knew the whole truth
+about it. Gwen had the best chance so far as facts went, but she, being
+handicapped by her method of vision, failed to see her real part in the
+tragedy; for she resolutely set aside the possibilities of that hour
+during which her _dandy_ waited outside the dressmaker's.
+
+Besides, she knew no more than the rest of the other key to the
+position which lay in Azizan's love for George. And this was hidden
+even from him, though every night, winter and summer, an odd little
+light--like a lost star--twinkled on the summit of the shadowy Mound of
+Hodinuggur. It was the oil-cresset which the old potter put nightly on
+the girl's grave to prevent her from having bad dreams. The branded
+brick bungalow was empty and deserted now that the sluice-gate required
+no guarding, so there was no one to see its feeble yet persistent
+light; still it could be seen distinctly from the little enclosure
+where, on a white marble slab, the legend ran--
+
+
+                    'St. George Keene, aged 21,
+                     Who died alone at his post.'
+
+
+And between the two graves the gleaming streak of the big canal lay
+like a sword splitting the world into East and West.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+                        *    *    *    *    *
+       Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty
+                  at the Edinburgh University Press
+
+
+
+                              FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+[Footnote 1: Literally, _evil-walker_.]
+
+[Footnote 2: On sleep--sleeping, sleeping like a child.]
+
+[Footnote 3: The police.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Full two maunds.]
+
+[Footnote 5: My man is dead, my heart is dead--is dead.]
+
+[Footnote 6: Reign.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Potter's Thumb, by Flora Annie Steel
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