When I sit down and try to analyse the thoughts and feelings that I had
towards Kailas Babu, I see that there was a still deeper reason for my
dislike. I will now explain.
Though I am the son of a rich man, and might have wasted time at
college, my industry was such that I took my M.A. degree in Calcutta
University when quite young. My moral character was flawless. In
addition, my outward appearance was so handsome, that if I were to call
myself beautiful, it might be thought a mark of self-estimation, but
could not be considered an untruth.
There could be no question that among the young men of Bengal I was
regarded by parents generally as a very eligible match. I was myself
quite clear on the point and had determined to obtain my full value in
the marriage market. When I pictured my choice, I had before my mind's
eye a wealthy father's only daughter, extremely beautiful and highly
educated. Proposals came pouring in to me from far and near; large sums
in cash were offered. I weighed these offers with rigid impartiality in
the delicate scales of my own estimation. But there was no one fit to be
my partner. I became convinced, with the poet Bhabavuti, that,
In this world's endless time and boundless space
One _may_ be born at last to match my sovereign grace.
But in this puny modern age, and this contracted space of modern
Bengal, it was doubtful if the peerless creature existed as yet.
Meanwhile my praises were sung in many tunes, and in different metres,
by designing parents.
Whether I was pleased with their daughters or not, this worship which
they offered was never unpleasing. I used to regard it as my proper due,
because I was so good. We are told that when the gods withhold their
boons from mortals they still expect their worshippers to pay them
fervent honour and are angry if it is withheld. I had that divine
expectance strongly developed in myself.
I have already mentioned that Thakur Dada had an only grand-daughter. I
had seen her many times, but had never mistaken her for beautiful. No
thought had ever entered my mind that she would be a possible partner
for myself. All the same, it seemed quite certain to me that some day or
other Kailas Babu would offer her, with all due worship, as an oblation
at my shrine. Indeed--this was the inner secret of my dislike--I was
thoroughly annoyed that he had not done so already.
I heard that Thakur Dada had told his friends that the Babus of
Nayanjore never craved a boon. Even if the girl remained unmarried, he
would not break the family tradition. It was this arrogance of his that
made me angry. My indignation smouldered for some time. But I remained
perfectly silent and bore it with the utmost patience, because I was so
good.
As lightning accompanies thunder, so in my character a flash of humour
was mingled with the mutterings of my wrath. It was, of course,
impossible for me to punish the old man merely to give vent to my rage;
and for a long time I did nothing at all. But suddenly one day such an
amusing plan came into my head, that I could not resist the temptation
of carrying it into effect.
I have already said that many of Kailas Babu's friends used to flatter
the old man's vanity to the full. One, who was a retired Government
servant, had told him that whenever he saw the Chota LAct Sahib he always
asked for the latest news about the Babus of Nayanjore, and the Chota
LAct had been heard to say that in all Bengal the only really respectable
families were those of the Maharaja of Cossipore and the Babus of
Nayanjore. When this monstrous falsehood was told to Kailas Babu he was
extremely gratified and often repeated the story. And wherever after
that he met this Government servant in company he would ask, along with
other questions:
"Oh! er--by the way, how is the Chota LAct Sahib? Quite well, did you
say? Ah, yes, I am so delighted to hear it! And the dear Mem Sahib, is
she quite well too? Ah, yes! and the little children--are they quite
well also? Ah, yes! that's very good news! Be sure and give them my
compliments when you see them."
Kailas Babu would constantly express his intention of going some day and
paying a visit to the Lord Sahib. But it may be taken for granted that
many Chota LActs and Burra LActs also would come and go, and much water
would pass down the Hoogly, before the family coach of Nayanjore would
be furbished up to pay a visit to Government House.
One day I took Kailas Babu aside and told him in a whisper: "Thakur
Dada, I was at the Levee yesterday, and the Chota LAct Sahib happened to
mention the Babus of Nayanjore. I told him that Kailas Babu had come to
town. Do you know, he was terribly hurt because you hadn't called. He
told me he was going to put etiquette on one side and pay you a private
visit himself this very afternoon."
Anybody else could have seen through this plot of mine in a moment. And,
if it had been directed against another person, Kailas Babu would have
understood the joke. But after all that he had heard from his friend the
Government servant, and after all his own exaggerations, a visit from
the Lieutenant-Governor seemed the most natural thing in the world. He
became highly nervous and excited at my news. Each detail of the coming
visit exercised him greatly,--most of all his own ignorance of English.
How on earth was that difficulty to be met? I told him there was no
difficulty at all: it was aristocratic not to know English: and,
besides, the Lieutenant-Governor always brought an interpreter with him,
and he had expressly mentioned that this visit was to be private.
About midday, when most of our neighbours are at work, and the rest are
asleep, a carriage and pair stopped before the lodging of Kailas Babu.
Two flunkeys in livery came up the stairs, and announced in a loud
voice, "The Chota LAct Sahib has arrived!" Kailas Babu was ready, waiting
for him, in his old-fashioned ceremonial robes and ancestral turban, and
Ganesh was by his side, dressed in his master's best suit of clothes for
the occasion.
When the Chota LAct Sahib was announced, Kailas Babu ran panting and
puffing and trembling to the door, and led in a friend of mine, in
disguise, with repeated salaams, bowing low at each step and walking
backward as best he could. He had his old family shawl spread over a
hard wooden chair and he asked the LAct Sahib to be seated. He then made
a high-flown speech in Urdu, the ancient Court language of the Sahibs,
and presented on the golden salver a string of gold _mohurs_, the last
relics of his broken fortune. The old family servant Ganesh, with an
expression of awe bordering on terror, stood behind with the
scent-sprinkler, drenching the LAct Sahib, and touched him gingerly from
time to time with the otto-of-roses from the filigree box.
Kailas Babu repeatedly expressed his regret at not being able to receive
His Honour Bahadur with all the ancestral magnificence of his own family
estate at Nayanjore. There he could have welcomed him properly with due
ceremonial. But in Calcutta he was a mere stranger and sojourner,--in
fact a fish out of water.
My friend, with his tall silk hat on, very gravely nodded. I need hardly
say that according to English custom the hat ought to have been removed
inside the room. But my friend did not dare to take it off for fear of
detection: and Kailas Babu and his old servant Ganesh were sublimely
unconscious of the breach of etiquette.
After a ten minutes' interview, which consisted chiefly of nodding the
head, my friend rose to his feet to depart. The two flunkeys in livery,
as had been planned beforehand, carried off in state the string of gold
_mohurs_, the gold salver, the old ancestral shawl, the silver
scent-sprinkler, and the otto-of-roses filigree box; they placed them
ceremoniously in the carriage. Kailas Babu regarded this as the usual
habit of Chota LAct Sahibs.
I was watching all the while from the next room. My sides were aching
with suppressed laughter. When I could hold myself in no longer, I
rushed into a further room, suddenly to discover, in a corner, a young
girl sobbing as if her heart would break. When she saw my uproarious
laughter she stood upright in passion, flashing the lightning of her big
dark eyes in mine, and said with a tear-choked voice: "Tell me! What
harm has my grandfather done to you? Why have you come to deceive him?
Why have you come here? Why----"
She could say no more. She covered her face with her hands and broke
into sobs.
My laughter vanished in a moment. It had never occurred to me that there
was anything but a supremely funny joke in this act of mine, and here I
discovered that I had given the cruellest pain to this tenderest little
heart. All the ugliness of my cruelty rose up to condemn me. I slunk out
of the room in silence, like a kicked dog.
Hitherto I had only looked upon Kusum, the grand-daughter of Kailas
Babu, as a somewhat worthless commodity in the marriage market, waiting
in vain to attract a husband. But now I found, with a shock of
surprise, that in the corner of that room a human heart was beating.
The whole night through I had very little sleep. My mind was in a
tumult. On the next day, very early in the morning, I took all those
stolen goods back to Kailas Babu's lodgings, wishing to hand them over
in secret to the servant Ganesh. I waited outside the door, and, not
finding any one, went upstairs to Kailas Babu's room. I heard from the
passage Kusum asking her grandfather in the most winning voice: "Dada,
dearest, do tell me all that the Chota LAct Sahib said to you yesterday.
Don't leave out a single word. I am dying to hear it all over again."
And Dada needed no encouragement. His face beamed over with pride as he
related all manner of praises which the LAct Sahib had been good enough
to utter concerning the ancient families of Nayanjore. The girl was
seated before him, looking up into his face, and listening with rapt
attention. She was determined, out of love for the old man, to play her
part to the full.
My heart was deeply touched, and tears came to my eyes. I stood there in
silence in the passage, while Thakur Dada finished all his
embellishments of the Chota LAct Sahib's wonderful visit. When he left
the room at last, I took the stolen goods and laid them at the feet of
the girl and came away without a word.
Later in the day I called again to see Kailas Babu himself. According to
our ugly modern custom, I had been in the habit of making no greeting at
all to this old man when I came into the room. But on this day I made a
low bow and touched his feet. I am convinced the old man thought that
the coming of the Chota LAct Sahib to his house was the cause of my new
politeness. He was highly gratified by it, and an air of benign serenity
shone from his eyes. His friends had looked in, and he had already begun
to tell again at full length the story of the Lieutenant-Governor's
visit with still further adornments of a most fantastic kind. The
interview was already becoming an epic, both in quality and in length.
When the other visitors had taken their leave, I made my proposal to the
old man in a humble manner. I told him that, "though I could never for a
moment hope to be worthy of marriage connection with such an illustrious
family, yet ... etc. etc."
When I made clear my proposal of marriage, the old man embraced me and
broke out in a tumult of joy: "I am a poor man, and could never have
expected such great good fortune."
That was the first and last time in his life that Kailas Babu confessed
to being poor. It was also the first and last time in his life that he
forgot, if only for a single moment, the ancestral dignity that belongs
to the Babus of Nayanjore.