Mr Perowne's home at Sindang was kept up in almost princely style, and
he was regarded as the principal inhabitant of the place. Both English
and Chinese merchants consulted him, and the native dealers and rajahs
made him the first offers of tin slabs, rice, gambier, gutta-percha, and
other products of the country, while a large proportion of the English
and French imports that found favour with the Malays were consigned to
the house of Perowne and Company.
People said that he must be immensely rich, and he never denied the
impeachment, but went on in a quiet, bland way, accepting their hints,
polite to all, whether trading or non-trading, while his table was
magnificently kept up, and to it the occupants of the station were
always made welcome.
When fate places people in the tropics, they make a point of rising
early. Helen Perowne was up with the sun, and dressed in a charming
French muslin costume, had a delightful drive, which she called upon
Grey Stuart to share, before she met her father at breakfast--a meal
discussed almost in silence, for Mr Perowne would give a good deal of
his attention to business matters over his meals, a habit against which
Dr Bolter warned him, but without avail.
The repast was nearly finished, when a servant entered and announced
that the Sultan Murad was coming down the river in his dragon-boat, and
evidently meant to land at the stage at the bottom of the garden.
"What does he want?" said the merchant, absently. "Been collecting
tribute, I suppose, and wants to sell. Go and see if he lands," he said
aloud, "and then come back."
"This is the way we have to make our money, my dear," said Perowne,
smiling, but without seeing the increased colour in his child's face.
"The Sultan is here, sir," said the man, returning.
"Where?" asked Mr Perowne.
"In the drawing-room, sir. Shall I bring in fresh breakfast?"
"I don't know. I'll ring. I've done, Helen. I say, young lady, what a
colour you have got! You stopped out too long in the sun this morning."
"Oh, no, papa, I think not," she replied; "but it is hot."
"You'll soon get used to that, my dear. I don't mind the heat at all.
Party went off very well last night, I think."
The merchant was by this time at the door, wondering what proposal the
Rajah had to make to him, for all these petty princes stoop to doing a
little trading upon their own account, raising rice in large quantities
by means of their slaves; but, man of the world as the merchant was, he
did not find himself prepared for the proposition that ensued.
In this case Helen was more prepared than her father, though even she
was taken by surprise. She had had her suspicions that the Rajah might
take her soft glances and gently-spoken words as sufficient permission
for him to speak to her father; and though she trembled at the possible
result, there was something so deliciously gratifying to her vanity that
she could not help enjoying the position.
To be asked in marriage by a real sultan! What would the Miss
Twettenhams say? and if she accepted him she would be sultana. The idea
was dazzling at a distance, but even to her romance-loving brain there
was something theatrical when it was looked at with the eyes of common
sense.
She could not accept him. It was absurd; and after all, perhaps he had
no such idea as that in coming. It was, as her father thought, some
matter of business, such as he had been in the habit of visiting her
father about over and over again, and such as had resulted in the
intimacy which made him a welcome guest at the house.
She thought differently, however; and though she assumed surprise, she
was in nowise startled when her father returned.
"I say, Nelly!" he exclaimed, looking annoyed, and completely off his
balance, "what the dickens have you been about?"
"About, papa?" said the girl, raising her eyebrows, "I don't understand
you!"
"Then the sooner you do the better! I've quite enough to worry me
without your foolery! Here's the Rajah come to see me on business."
"Very well, papa, I don't understand business," she said, quietly.
"But you'll have to understand it!" he cried, angrily. "Here, he says
that you have been giving him permission to speak to me; and as far as I
can understand him, he proposes for your hand!"
"The Rajah, papa! Oh! absurd!"
"Oh, yes, it's absurd enough, confound his copper-coloured insolence!
But it puts me in a fix with him. If I offend him, I shall offend his
people, or he'll make them offended, and I shall be a heavy loser. Did
you tell him to speak to me?"
"Certainly not, papa!"
"Perhaps I misunderstood him, for he speaks horrible English. But
whether or no, he proposes that you shall be his wife."
"His wife, papa! Why, he has a dozen!"
"Yes, my dear, of course; but then these fellows don't take that into
consideration. What the deuce am I to do?"
"Tell him it is an insult to an English lady to propose such a thing!"
said Helen, haughtily.
"Yes, that's easily said; but you must have been leading the fellow on."
"He was your guest, papa, and I was civil to him," said Helen, coldly.
"A deal too civil, I'll be bound! I'm sick of your civilities, Nell,
and their consequences! Why can't you get engaged like any other girl?
I wish to goodness you were married and settled!"
"Thank you, papa," she replied in the same cold, indifferent manner.
"Yes, but this fellow's waiting to see you. What am I to say."
"What are you to say, papa? Really you ought to know!"
"But it's impossible for you to accept him, though he is very rich."
"Quite impossible, papa!"
"Then he'll be offended."
"Well, papa, that is not of much consequence."
"But it is of consequence--of great consequence! Don't I tell you it
will cause me serious loss; and besides that, it is dangerous to affront
a fellow like this. He is only a nigger, of course, but he is a
reigning prince, and has great power. He's as proud as Lucifer; and if
he considers that he is affronted, there's no knowing what may be the
consequences."
"He may carry me off perhaps, papa," said Helen, showing her white
teeth.
"Well, I wouldn't say that he might not attempt it!"
"Like a baron of old," said the girl scornfully. "Papa, I am not a
child! How can you be so absurd?"
"You can call it what you like," he said angrily; "but your folly has
got us into a pretty mess. Well, you must go in and see him."
"I? Go in and see him?" cried Helen, flushing. "Impossible, papa!"
"But it is not impossible. I told him I didn't know what to say till I
had seen you, and, what was the perfect truth, that I was quite taken by
surprise. Now the best thing will be for you to go in and see him and
temporise with him. Don't refuse him out and out, but try and ease him
off, as one may say. Gain time, and the fellow will forget all about it
in a month or two."
"Papa!"
"Ah, you may say--_papa_; but you have got me into a terrible muddle,
and now you must help to get me out of it. I must not have this fellow
offended. Confound the insolent scoundrel! Just like the savage. He
learns to wear English clothes, and then thinks he is a gentleman, and
insults us with this proposal."
"Yes; insults us papa: that is the word!" cried Helen, with spirit.
"Well, time's flying, and he is waiting, so go and see him at once, and
get it over."
"But I tell you, papa, I cannot. It is impossible!"
"Why, you were talking to him for long enough last night in the
drawing-room. Now, come, Helen, don't be ridiculous, but go and do as I
tell you; and the sooner it is done the better."
Helen Perowne pressed her lips tightly together, and a look came into
her face that betokened obstinate determination of the straightest kind.
"Papa, you make matters worse," she cried, "by proposing such a
degrading task to me. This man is, as you say, little better than a
savage. His proposal is an insult, and yet you wish me to go and see
him. It is impossible!"
"Don't I tell you that I have business arrangements with the fellow, and
that I can't afford to lose his custom? And don't I tell you that,
situated as we are here amongst these people, it is not wise to make
them our enemies. I don't want you to snub him. It is only for
prudential reasons. Now, come; get it over."
"I cannot see him! I will not see him!" cried Helen, passionately; and
she turned pale now at the idea of encountering the passionate young
Malay. For the moment she bitterly regretted her folly, though the
chances are that if circumstances tended in that direction she would
have behaved again in precisely the same way.
"Now look here, Nelly," said Mr Perowne, "you must see him!"
For answer she paused for a moment, and then walked straight to the
door.
"That's right," he said. "Temporise with him a bit, my dear, and let
him down gently."
Helen stood with the door in her hand, and darted at him an imperious
look; then she passed through, and the door swung to behind her.
"Confound him! What insolence!" muttered Mr Perowne, as he stood
listening. "Eh? No; she wouldn't dare! Why, confound the girl, she
has gone up to her room and locked herself in! What a temper she has
got to be sure!"
He gave his head a vicious rub, and then, evidently under the impression
that it was in vain to appeal again to his child, he snapped his teeth
together sharply, and walked firmly into the drawing-room, where the
Rajah stood impatiently waiting his return.
The young eastern prince was most carefully dressed; his morning coat
and trousers being from a West-end tailor, and his hands were covered
with the tightest of lemon-coloured gloves. In one hand was a grey tall
hat, in the other the thinnest of umbrellas. Altogether his appearance
was unexceptionable, if he had dispensed with the gaudy silken sarong
ablaze with a plaid of green, yellow, and scarlet.
His thick lips were wreathed in a pleasant smile, and his dark, full
eyes were half closed; but they opened widely for an instant, and seemed
to emit anger in one flash, as he saw that Mr Perowne came back alone.
"Where--is--miss?" he said, in a slow, thick tone.
"Well, the fact is, Rajah," said Mr Perowne, giving a laugh to clear
his throat, "I have seen my daughter, and she asked me to tell you that
she is suffering from a bad headache. You understand me?"
The young Rajah nodded, his eyes seeming to contract the while.
"She is of course very much flattered by your proposal--one which she
says she will think over most carefully; but she is so surprised, that
she can only ask you to give her time. I see you understand me?"
The Rajah nodded again in a quick, eager way.
"English girls do not say _yea_ all at once to a proposal like yours;
and if you will wait a few months--of course being good friends all the
time--we shall be able to speak more about the subject."
Mr Perowne, merchant, and man of the world, meant to say all this in a
quick, matter-of-fact, frank way, but he stumbled, and spoke in a
halting, lame fashion, growing more and more unsatisfactory as the young
Malay prince came closer to him.
"I--I think you understand me," he said, feeling called upon to say
something, as the Malay glared at him as if about to spring.
"Yes--yes!" hissed the Malay. "Lies--all lies! I came for friend. You
mock--you laugh in my face--but you do not know. I say I came for
friend--I go away--enemy!"
He went on speaking rapidly in the Malay tongue, his rage seeming to be
the more concentrated from the cold, cutting tone he adopted. Then,
nearly closing his eyes, and giving his peculiar type of features a
crafty, cat-like aspect, he gazed furiously at the merchant for a few
minutes, and then turned, and seemed to creep from the house in a way
that was as feline as his looks.