THE DANCING IS RESUMED.
"Oh, I love India--adore it, simply!" Mrs. Cary exclaimed, in the tone of
a person who, usually self-controlled, finds himself overwhelmed by the
force of his own enthusiasm. "There is something so mystic, so enthralling
about it, don't you think? I always feel as though I were wandering
through a chapter of the _Arabian Nights_ full of gorgeous princes,
wicked robbers, genii, or whatever you call them. Isn't it so with you,
Mrs. Carmichael?"
Her hostess, a thin, alert little woman with a bony, weather-beaten face,
cast an anxious glance at the rest of her guests scattered about the
garden.
"There aren't any robbers about here--except my cook," she said
prosaically. "My husband wouldn't allow such a thing in his department,
and in mine he is no good at all. As for the princes, we don't see
anything of the only one this region boasts of. He may be gorgeous, but I
really can not say for certain."
"Ah!" said Mrs. Cary, with a placid smile. "You have been in fairyland too
long, dear Mrs. Carmichael. That's what's the matter with you. You are
beginning to look upon it as a very ordinary, everyday place. If you only
knew what it is to come to it with a virgin heart and mind-thirsting for
impressions, as it were. That is how we feel, do we not, Beatrice?" She
half turned to the girl standing at her side, as though seeking to draw
her into the conversation.
"It is indeed new for _me_," the latter answered shortly, and with slight
emphasis on the personal pronoun.
"I was about to remark that this is scarcely your first visit to India,"
Mrs. Carmichael put in. "I understood that your late husband had a
government appointment somewhere in the South?"
Mrs. Cary's heavy face flushed, though whether with heat or annoyance it
was not easy to judge.
"Of course--a very excellent appointment, too--but the place and the
people!" She became confidential and her voice sank, though beyond
her daughter there was no one within hearing. "Between you and me,
Mrs. Carmichael, the people were _dreadful_. You know, I am not
snobbish--indeed I must confess to quite democratic tendencies, which
my family always greatly deplores--but I really couldn't stand the
people. I had to go back to England with Beatrice. The place was filled
with subordinate railway officials. Don't you hate subordinates, dear
Mrs. Carmichael?"
Mrs. Carmichael stared, during which process her eyes happened to fall
on Beatrice Cary's half-averted face. She was surprised to find that
the somewhat thin lips were smiling--though not agreeably.
"I really don't know what you mean by 'subordinates,'" Mrs. Carmichael
said, in her uncompromising way. "Most people are subordinates at some
time or other. My husband was a lieutenant once. I don't remember
objecting to him. At any rate," she continued hastily, as though to cut
the conversation short, "I hope you will like the people here."
"I'm sure I shall. A military circle is always so delightful. That is what
I said to Beatrice when I felt that I must revisit the scene of my girlish
days. 'We must go somewhere where there is military.' Of course, we might
have gone to Simla--I have influential friends there, you know--but I
wanted my girl to see a real bit of genuine India, and Simla is _so_
modern. Really a great pity, I think. I am so passionately fond of color
and picturesqueness--comfort is nothing to me. As my husband used to say,
'Oh, Mary, you are always putting your artistic feelings before material
necessities.' Poor fellow, he used to miss his creature comforts
sometimes, I fear."
Her laugh, painfully resembling a giggle, interrupted her own garrulity,
which was finally put to an end by a fresh arrival. A slight,
daintily-clad figure had detached itself from a group of guests and came
running toward them. Mrs. Carmichael's deeply lined, somewhat severe face
lighted up.
"That is my husband's ward, Lois Caruthers," she said. "She has been with
me all her life, practically. As you are so fond of genuine India, you
must let her show you over the place. She knows all the dirtiest, and I
suppose most interesting corners, with their exact history."
"Delightful!" murmured Mrs. Cary, with a gracious nod of her plumed
headgear. Nevertheless, she studied the small figure and animated features
of the new-comer with a critical severity not altogether in accordance
with her next remark, uttered, apparently under pressure of the same
irresistible enthusiasm, in an audible side whisper: "What a sweet
face--so piquant!"
An adjective is a pliable weapon, and, in the hands of a woman, can be
made to mean anything under the sun. Mrs. Cary's "piquant"--pronounced
in a manner that was neither French nor English, but a startling mixture
of both--had a background to it of charitable patronage. It was meant,
without doubt, to be a varnished edition of "plain," perhaps even "ugly,"
though Lois Caruthers deserved neither insinuation. Possibly too small in
build, she was yet graceful, and there was a lithe, elastic energy in her
movements which drew attention to her even among more imposing figures.
Possibly, also, she was too dark for the English ideal. Her black hair and
large brown eyes, together with the unrelieved pallor of her complexion,
gave her appearance something that was exotic but not unpleasing. _Enfin,_
as most people admitted, she had her charm; and her moods, which ranged
from the most light-hearted gaiety to the deepest gravity, could be
equally irresistible. She was light-hearted enough now, however, as she
smiled from one to the other, including mother and daughter in her
friendly greeting, though as yet both were strangers to her.
"I have come to fetch you, Aunt Harriet," she said, addressing Mrs.
Carmichael. "Mr. Travers has got some great scheme on hand which he will
only disclose in your presence. We are all gasping with curiosity. Will
you please come?"
Mrs. Carmichael nodded.
"I will come at once," she said. "I'm sure it's only one of Mr. Travers'
breakneck schemes, but they are always amusing to listen to. Lois, come
and be introduced. My adopted niece--Mrs. Cary--Miss Cary."
They shook hands.
"Lois, when there is time, I want you to do the honors of Marut. Miss Cary
especially has as yet seen nothing, and there is a great deal of interest.
You know--" turning to her visitors--"Marut is supposed to have been the
hotbed of the last rising."
"Indeed!" murmured Mrs. Cary vaguely. "How delightful!"
Lois Caruthers laughed, not without a shadow of bitterness.
"It was hardly delightful at the time, I should imagine," she observed.
"But what there is to see I shall be very glad to show you. Will any day
suit you?"
"Oh, yes, any day," Beatrice Cary assented, speaking almost for the first
time. "I have nothing to do here from morning to night."
"That will soon change," Lois said, walking by her side. "I am always
busy, either playing tennis, or riding, or getting up some entertainment.
The difficulty is to find time to rest."
"You must be a very much sought-after person," Beatrice observed, in the
tone of a person who is making a graceful compliment. The hint of irony,
however, was unmistakable.
"I am not more sought after than any one else," Lois returned, unruffled.
"Every one has to help in the work of frivolity."
"I shall be rather out of it, then," Beatrice said coolly. "I am not
amusing."
"It is quite sufficient to be willing, good-natured and good-humored,"
Lois answered.
They had by this time reached the group under the trees, where Mrs.
Carmichael and her companion had already arrived, under the escort of
a tall, stoutly built man, who was talking and apparently explaining
with great vigor. As Lois entered the circle, he glanced up and smiled
at her, revealing a handsome, cheerful face, singularly fresh-colored
in comparison with the deep tan of the other men.
"That is Mr. Travers," Lois explained. "He is a bank director or
something in Madras, and has been on a long business visit north.
He is awfully clever and popular, and gets up everything."
"Rich, I suppose?"
Lois glanced up at her companion. The beautiful profile and the tone
of the remark seemed incongruous.
"I don't know," she said rather abruptly. "He has four polo ponies.
Nobody else has more than two."
"Do you calculate wealth by polo ponies, then?"
Lois laughed.
"Yes, we do pretty well," she said--"that is, when we bother about such
things at all. Most people are poor, and if they aren't, they have to live
beyond their income, so it comes to the same in the end."
"Everybody looks cheerful enough," Beatrice Cary observed. "I always
thought poverty and worry went together."
"Who is that talking about poverty and worry?" asked a voice behind them.
"Is it you, Miss Caruthers? If so, I shall arraign you as a disturber of
the peace. Who wants to be bothered with the memory of his empty purse on
such a lovely day?"
Lois turned with a smile to the new-comer.
"No, I am innocent, Captain Stafford," she said. "It was Miss Cary who
brought up the terms you object to."
"Well, won't you introduce me, then, so that I can express my displeasure
direct to the culprit?"
The ceremony of introduction was gone through, on Beatrice Cary's side
with a sudden change of manner. Hitherto cold, indifferent, slightly
supercilious, she now relaxed into a gentleness that was almost appealing.
"This is a new world for me," she said, looking up into Captain Stafford's
amused face, "and I have so many questions to ask that I am afraid of
turning into a mark of interrogation, or--as you said--a disturber of
the peace."
"You won't ask questions long," he answered, with a wise shake of the
head. "Nobody does. Wherever English people go they take their whole
paraphernalia with them; and you will find that, with a few superficial
differences, Marut is no more or less than a snug little English suburb.
A little more freedom of intercourse--a little less Philistinism,
perhaps--but the foundations are the same. As to India itself, one soon
learns to forget all about it."
He then turned to Lois, who was intent on watching Mr. Travers.
"You weren't on the race-course this morning," he said in an undertone.
"I missed you. Why did you not come?"
"I couldn't," she said. "There was too much to be done. We are rather
short of servants just now, for reasons--well, that, according to you,
ought not to be mentioned on a fine day."
He laughed, but not as he had hitherto done. There was another tone in
his voice, warmer, more confidential. It attracted Beatrice Cary's
attention, and she looked curiously from Lois to the man beside her.
About thirty-five, with a passably good figure, irregular, if honest,
features, and an expression usually somewhat grave, he made no pretensions
to any exterior advantage. He could apparently be gay, as now, but his
gaiety did not conceal the fact that it was unusual. Altogether, he had
nothing about him which appealed to her, but Beatrice Cary was inclined
to resent Lois' obvious intimacy with him as something which accentuated
her own isolation.
"Can you make out what Mr. Travers is saying?" Lois asked, turning
suddenly to her. "I can't hear a word, and I'm sure it's awfully
interesting. Captain Stafford, do you know?"
"I can guess," he answered, half smiling. "When Travers has a suggestion
to make, it usually means that some one has to stump up."
There was a general laugh. Travers looked around.
"Some one has accused me falsely," he declared. "I have a prophetic sense
of injury."
"On the contrary, that is what I am suffering from," Stafford retorted.
"Since hearing that you have a new scheme, I have been hastily reckoning
how many weeks' leave I shall have to sacrifice to pay for it."
Travers shook his head.
"As usual--wrong, my dear Captain," he said. "My scheme has two parts. The
first part is known to you all, though for the benefit of weak memories, I
will repeat it. Ladies and gentlemen, in this Station we have the honor of
being protected from the malice of the aborigine by two noble regiments.
We count, moreover, at least thirty of the fair sex and forty
miscellaneous persons, such as miserable civilians like myself, and
children. Hitherto, we have been content to meet at odd times and odd
places. When hospitality has run dry, we have resorted to a shed-like
structure dignified with the name of club. Personally, I call it a
disgrace, which should at once be rectified."
"I have already contributed my mite!" protested a young subaltern from the
British regiment.
"I know; so has everybody. With strenuous efforts I have collected the sum
of five hundred rupees. That won't do. We require at least four times that
sum. Consequently, we must have a patron."
"The second part of your programme concerns the patron, then?" Captain
Webb inquired, with an aspect of considerable relief. "Not yourself, by
any chance?"
"Certainly not. If I had any noble inclinations of that sort I should have
discovered them a long time ago. No, I content myself with taking the part
of a fairy godmother."
"I'm afraid I don't follow," Stafford put in. "What is the fairy godmother
going to do for us? Produce a club-house, a patron, or a cucumber?"
"A patron, and one, my dear fellow, whom I should have entirely overlooked
had it not been for you."
"For me!"
"It was you who made the discovery that the present Rajah is not, as we
thought, an imbecilic youth, but a man of many parts and splendidly
adapted to our requirements."
"I protest!" broke in Stafford, with unusual earnestness. "It was by pure
chance that, in an audience with the Maharajah Scindia, the late regent of
Marut, I got to hear that his whilom ward was both intelligent and
cultured. I believe it was a slip on his part, and, seeing that Rajah
Nehal Singh has shunned all English intercourse, I can not see that there
is any likelihood of his adapting himself or his purse to your plans."
"Oh, bosh!" exclaimed Travers impatiently. "You are too cautious,
Stafford. Other rajahs interest themselves in social matters--why not this
one? He is fabulously rich, I understand, and a little gentle handling
should easily bring him around."
There was a chorus of bravos, in which only one or two did not join. One
was Colonel Carmichael, who stood a little apart, pulling his thin grey
moustache in the nervous, anxious way peculiar to him, his kindly face
overshadowed.
"On principle," he began, after the first applause had died down, "I am
against the suggestion. Of course, I have no deciding voice in the matter,
but I confess that the idea has not my approval. I know very well that, as
you say, other native princes have proved themselves useful and valuable
acquisitions to English society. In some cases it may be well enough,
though in no case does it seem to me right to accept hospitality from a
man to whom we only grant an apparent equality. In this particular case I
consider the idea--well, repulsive."
"May I ask why, Colonel?" Travers asked sharply.
"By all means. Because less than a quarter of a century ago the father of
the man from whom you are seeking gifts slaughtered by treachery hundreds
of our own people."
An uncomfortable, uneasy silence followed. Captain Stafford and Lois
exchanged a quick glance of understanding.
"I know of at least two people who will agree with me," continued the
Colonel, who had intercepted and possibly anticipated the glance.
"You are right, Colonel," Stafford said. "I bear no malice, and any idea
of revenge seems to me foolish. As far as I know, the present Rajah is all
that can be desired, but I protest against a suggestion--and what is
worse, a practice, which must inevitably lower our dignity in the eyes of
those we are supposed to govern."
The awkward silence continued for a moment, no one caring to express a
contrary opinion, though a contrary opinion undoubtedly existed.
Beatrice looked up at Captain Webb, who happened to be standing at her
side. Her acquaintance with him dated only from an hour back, but an
uncontrollable irritation made her voice her opinions to him.
"I think all that sort of thing rather overstrained and unnecessary," she
said. "Your chief business is to get the best out of life, and quixotic
people who worry about the means are rather a nuisance, don't you think?"
Captain Webb's bored features lighted up with a faint amusement.
"O, Lor', you mustn't say that sort of thing to me, Miss Cary!" he said in
a subdued aside. "Superior officer, you know! If you want an index to my
feelings, study my countenance." He pretended to smother a gigantic yawn,
and Beatrice's cool, unchecked laughter broke the constraint.
Travers look around with a return of his old good-humor.
"Well," he said, "I have two votes against my plans, but, with due
respect to those two, who are, perhaps, unduly influenced by unfortunate
circumstances, I feel that it is only just that the others should be
given a voice in the matter. Do you agree, Colonel?"
Colonel Carmichael had by this time regained his placid, gentle manner.
"Certainly," he agreed, without hesitation.
"Hands up, then, for letting Rajah Nehal Singh go his way in peace!"
Three hands went up--Colonel Carmichael's, Stafford's and Lois'. Beatrice
glanced at the latter with a smile that expressed what it was meant to
express--a supercilious amusement. Her indifference was rapidly taking
another and more decided character.
"Hands up for drawing the bashful youth into Circe's circle!" called
Travers, now thoroughly elated. A forest of hands went up. Captain Webb
and his bosom comrade, Captain Saunders, who, for diplomatic reasons had
remained neutral, exchanged grins. "You see," Travers said, turning with
deferential politeness to the Colonel, "the day is against you."
"The Old Guard dies, but never surrenders!" quoted the Colonel
good-humoredly.
"The next question is, on whose shoulders shall the task of beguilement
fall?" Travers went on, glancing at Stafford. "I suppose you, O, wise
young judge--?"
"It is out of the question," Stafford answered at once. "I consider I have
done enough damage already."
"What about your serpent's tongue, Travers?" suggested Webb. "When I think
of the follies you have tempted me to commit, I feel that you should be
unanimously elected."
Travers bowed his acknowledgments with mock gravity.
"Since there are no other candidates, I accept the onerous task," he said,
"but I can not go about it single-handed. The serpent's tongue may be
mine, but I lack, I fear, the grace and personal charm necessary for
complete conquest. I need the help of Circe, herself." His bright,
bird-like eye passed over the laughing group, resting on Lois an instant
with an expression of woebegone regret. Beatrice Cary was the next in
line, and his search went no farther than her flushed, eager face. "Ah!"
he exclaimed, "I have found the enchantress herself! Miss----" He
hesitated, for an instant unaccountably shaken out of his debonair
self-possession. Webb sprang to the rescue with a formal introduction, and
Travers proceeded, if not entirely with his old equanimity. "I beg your
pardon, Miss Cary," he apologized. "Your face is, strangely enough, so
familiar to me that I took you for an old acquaintance--perhaps, indeed,
you are, if in our modern days Circe finds it necessary to travel
incognito."
Beatrice joined in the general amusement, her unusually large and
beautiful eyes bright with elation.
"May I claim your assistance?" Travers went on. "Instinct tells me that we
shall be irresistible."
"Willingly," Beatrice responded, "though I can not imagine how I can help
you."
"Leave that to me," he said, offering her his arm. "My plans are
Napoleonic in their depth and magnitude. If you will allow me to unfold
them to you before the dancing begins--?"
She smiled her assent, and walked at his side toward the Colonel's
bungalow. On their way they passed Mrs. Cary, who, strangely enough, did
not respond to the half-triumphant glance which her daughter cast at her.
She turned hastily aside.
"Mr. Travers is no doubt--" she began, in a confidential undertone; but
her companion, Mrs. Carmichael, had taken the opportunity and vanished.
The light-hearted, superficial discussion, with its scarcely felt
undercurrent of tragic reminiscence, had lasted through the swift sunset,
and already dusk was beginning to throw its long shadows over the gaily
dressed figures that streamed up toward the bungalow.
On the outskirts of the garden lights were springing up in quick
succession, thanks to the industry of Mrs. Carmichael, who hurried from
one Chinese lantern to the other, breathless but determined. The task was
doubtless an ignominious one for an Anglo-Indian lady of position, but
Mrs. Carmichael, who acted as a sort of counterbalance to her husband's
extravagant hospitality, cared not at all. England, half-pay and all its
attendant horrors, loomed in the near future, and economy had to be
practised somehow.
Of the late group only Lois and John Stafford remained. They had not
spoken, but, as though obeying a mutual understanding, both remained
quietly waiting till they were alone.
"Shall we walk about a little?" he asked at last. "I missed our morning
ride so much. It has put my whole day out of joint, and I want something
to put it straight again. Do you mind, or would you rather dance? I see
they have begun."
"No," she said. "I would rather be quiet for a few minutes. Somehow I have
lost the taste for that sort of thing to-night."
"I also," he responded.
They walked silently side by side along the well-kept path, each immersed
in his own thoughts and soothed by the knowledge that their friendship had
reached a height where silence is permitted--becomes even the purest form
of expression. At the bottom of the compound they reached a large,
low-built building, evidently once a dwelling-place, overgrown with wild
plants and half in ruins, whose dim outlines stood out against the
darkening background of trees and sky. The door stood open, and must
indeed have stood open for many years, for the broken hinges were rusty
and seemed to be clinging to the torn woodwork only by the strength of
undisturbed custom.
Stafford came to a halt.
"That is where--" he began, and then abruptly left his sentence
unfinished.
"Yes," she said, "it is here. I don't think, as long as we live in India,
that my guardian will ever have it touched. He calls it the Memorial. My
father was his greatest friend, and the terrible fact that he came too
late to save him has saddened his whole life."
Stafford looked down at her. The light from a lantern which Mrs.
Carmichael, with great dexterity, had fixed among some overhanging
branches, fell on the dark features, now composed and thoughtful. She met
his glance in silence, with large eyes that had taken into their depths
something of the surrounding shadow. He had never felt so strongly before
the peculiarity of her fascination--perhaps because he had never seen her
in a setting which seemed so entirely a part of herself. The distant
music, the hum of voices, and that strange charm which permeates an Indian
nightfall--above all, the ruined bungalow with its shattered door and
silent memories--these things, with their sharp contrasts of laughter and
tragedy, had formed themselves into a background which belonged to her, so
that she and they seemed inseparable.
"Oh, Lois, little girl!" Stafford said gently. "I have always thought of
you as standing alone, different from everything and everybody, a stranger
from another world, irresistible, incomprehensible. I have just understood
that you are part and parcel of it all, child of the sun and flowers and
mysteries and wonders. It is I who am the stranger!"
"Hush!" she said, in a voice of curious pain. "Hush! Let us go back. We
must dance--whether we will or not."
He followed her without protest. The very rustle of her muslin skirts over
the fallen leaves made for his ears a new and fantastic music.
Close behind them wandered the two captains, Webb and Saunders, arm in
arm. At the entrance to Colonel Carmichael's Memorial Webb stopped, and,
striking a match against the door, proceeded to light his cigar. The tiny
flame lit up for an instant the languid patrician features.
"A cigar is one's only comfort in a dull affair like this," he remarked,
as they resumed their leisurely promenade. "Awful wine, wasn't it?"
"Awful. The Colonel is beginning to put on the curb--or his lady. It's the
same thing."
"It will be better when the club comes into existence," said Webb, blowing
consolatory clouds of smoke into the quiet air.
"It is to be hoped so. Spunky devil, that Travers. Wonder how he means to
do the trick. He knows how to pick out a pretty partner, anyhow."
"That Cary girl? Yes. Wait till the heat has dried her up, though. She'll
be a scarecrow, like the rest of them. By the way, what were her people?"
"Heaven knows--something in the D.P.W., I believe. The mother was dressed
in the queerest kit."
"I heard her talking about 'the gentlemen,'" remarked Webb, laughing, as
they went up the steps of the bungalow together.
The Memorial was once more left to its shadows and silence. At the edge of
the compound a group of natives peered through the fencing, watching and
listening. Their dark faces expressed neither hatred nor admiration, nor
sorrow, nor pleasure--at most, a dull wonder.
When they were tired of watching, they passed noiselessly on their way.