THE IDEAL
On either side of them tall palm-trees raised their splendid heads high
above the shrubs and sweet-smelling plants that clustered like a
protecting wall about their feet, and as Beatrice and her companion passed
a sharp bend it seemed as though they had been suddenly cut off from the
chattering crowd behind them and had entered into a wonderful, silent
world in which they were alone.
Was it the beauty of her surroundings, or was it the man beside her, which
sent the curious, almost painful emotion through her angry heart? For she
was angry--angry with her mother, with herself and him--chiefly with him.
He had been too sure. And yet she was flattered. Also, it was a pleasure
for the first time to be with some one with whom she could drop her
weapons and have no fear. She looked up at him, and found that he was
watching her.
"It was not good-by for ever," he said. "We have met again."
Her anger suddenly subsided. His slow English, with its foreign accent,
his dark features and native dress reminded her vividly that he was of
another (implied, inferior) race, and therefore not to be judged by
ordinary standards. She gave herself up to the pleasure of the moment.
"You have overthrown destiny," she said, smiling. "You have made the
impossible possible. How was I to know all that when I prophesied we
should not meet again?"
"I have not overthrown destiny," he answered. "I have fulfilled it."
"Are you sure of that?"
"Quite sure."
She looked away from him up to the golden dome of the temple which rose
before them against the unclouded sky. Because she had thrown down her
weapons, and in the irresponsible pleasure of the moment become herself,
she acquired a power of penetration and understanding which is denied to
those who with their own hearts closed seek to know the hearts of others.
"Do you know," she said suddenly, "when Colonel Carmichael presented
himself to you, and all the others, I watched you, and I rather fancy I
read something on your face which you didn't want to show. I wonder if I
am right."
"It is possible," he answered gravely. "In this last hour I have already
begun to regret that I have never studied to control my emotions. I show
when I am surprised, disappointed, or--startled. Hitherto, there has been
no reason why I should not do so. But now that I am among my equals, it is
different."
She bit her lip, not in anger but in an almost pained surprise at this
man's ignorance of the world into which he was entering. He was not
presuming to place himself on the level with the Englishman; it seemed as
if he were inoffensively lifting the Englishman up to himself. She was
sorry for him as one is sorry for all kindly fools.
"Tell me what you read!" he begged, after a moment. "Perhaps you will know
better than I myself. I am almost sure you will."
"I read disappointment," she answered. "Was that so?"
His brows contracted slightly.
"I _was_ disappointed," he admitted, "but that was my own fault. I had
never met English people--only heard of them. What I had heard made me
imagine things which it seems have no reality."
"Did you expect demigods?" she asked.
"I do not know what I expected--but it was something different. You know
the men I have met to-day. Are they all great-hearted and brave?"
She did not laugh at the question, though there was cause enough to have
excused it.
"I can not tell you," she answered. "Only circumstances can bring such
virtues to light, and hitherto the circumstances have been lacking. All
men do not wear their heart on their sleeve," she answered, not without
malice.
He nodded.
"I am glad to hear you say that, for no doubt you are right. I am very
ignorant, I fear, and was foolish enough to expect heroes to have the face
and figure of heroes. It grieved me for a moment to find that I was the
tallest and best-looking among them. Now that you have explained, I see
that the greatness lies beneath."
This time she laughed, and laughed so heartily that he joined in with her,
though he did not know what had caused her amusement. He took pleasure in
watching her when she laughed. Her statuesque beauty yielded then to a
warm, pulsating life, which transformed her and made her seem to him more
human, more attainable. For he had never shaken off the belief that she
and a divine agency were closely linked together.
"You must not compare yourself with Englishmen," she said, when she had
recovered, "neither in face, nor stature, nor ideals. You must always
remember that we are of another race."
"And yet you fulfilled my highest ideal."
"Perhaps I am the exception," she retorted, dangerously near another
outburst. "Did all the women this afternoon fulfil your ideal?"
"No!" very decidedly.
"There! You see, then, that I am the exception. Besides, I am not a man.
Men require to be differently judged, and we have perhaps other ideals."
"That also is possible," he assented, "and I know that, because the
English are such a great people, their ideals must be very high, perhaps
higher than mine. Since I am now to go among them, I wish to know what
they consider necessary in the character of a great man.".
"That is too hard a question," she said hurriedly. "I can not describe the
national ideal to you, because I am too ignorant and have never thought
about it. You must ask some one else."
They had come to the end of the path and stood before a square opening, on
the other side of which the two massive gopuras of the temple rose in
their monumental splendor two hundred feet above them. They were still
alone. None of the sightseers seemed to have found the sacred spot, and
for a moment she stood still, awed in spite of herself.
"I should be quite content with _your_ ideal," he said gently, breaking in
upon her admiration. "I feel that it will be the highest."
"You ask of me more than I can answer."
"I beg of you!" he pleaded earnestly. "I have my reasons."
Again she bit her lip. It was too absurd, too ridiculous! That she, of all
people, who had seen into the darkest, most sordid depths of the human
character, and long since learned to look upon goodness and virtue as
exploded myths, should be set to work to draw up an ideal which she did
not and could not believe in, seemed a mockery too pitiful for laughter.
Yet something--perhaps it was a form of national pride--stung her to the
task, moreover stung her to do her best and place beyond the reach of
these dark hands a high and splendid figure of English ideals.
To help herself, she sought through the lumber-rooms of her memory, and
drew thence a hundred ideas, thoughts and conceptions which had belonged
to a short--terribly short--childhood. Like a middle-aged woman who comes
suddenly upon a hoard of long since forgotten toys, and feels an emotion
half pitying, half regretful, so Beatrice Cary displayed to her companion
things that for years had lain forsaken and neglected in the background of
her mind. The dust lay thick upon them--and yet they were well enough.
They would have been beautiful, had she believed in them, but, like the
toys, they had lost the glamour and illusionary light in which her youth
and imagination had bathed them.
"Our highest ideal of a man we call a gentleman," she said slowly. "It is
a much-abused term, but it can mean a very great deal. What his appearance
is does not so much matter--indeed, when one looks into it, it does not
matter at all, save that you will find that the ugliest face can often
give you an index to a lovely character. The chief thing that we require
of him is that he should be above all meanness and pettiness. He must be
great-thinking and great-feeling for himself and others, especially for
others. You will find that a good man is always thinking or working for
those others whose names he may not even know. Whatever power or talent he
has--however little it may be--he concentrates on some object which may
help them. It is the same with his virtues. He cultivates them because he
knows that there is not a high thought, or generous impulse, or noble deed
which does not help to lift the standard of the whole world."
"Of what virtues are you speaking?" Nehal Singh interposed.
"Oh, the usual things," she returned, with a note of cynicism breaking
through her sham enthusiasm. "Honesty, purity, generosity,
loyalty--especially loyalty. I do not think a man who is true to himself,
to his word, to his friend, and to his country can ever fall far below the
ideal." She took a deep breath. "It is a very poor description that I have
given you. I hope you have understood?"
"Yes, I have understood," he answered. "And this man--this gentleman--can
be of all nations?"
So deeply ingrained is national prejudice, even in those who profess to
regard the whole world with an equally contemptuous eye, that for an
instant she hesitated.
"Of course," she said then. "Nationality makes no difference."
They crossed over the broad square, through the gopura, into the inner
temple. Nehal Singh, who had sunk into a deep meditation, roused himself
and called to her notice many curious and beautiful things which she would
otherwise have passed by without interest. Whether it was his loving
description, or whether it was because she was calmer, she could not say,
but the place impressed her with its stately magnificence as it had not
done before.
"The ages seem to hang like ghosts in the atmosphere," she told her
companion, in a hushed undertone.
He assented, and the dreamer's look which had haunted his eyes for
twenty-five years crept back into its place.
"Who knows what unseen world surrounds us?" he said quietly.
They had already left the first court behind them and passed the Sacred
Pool, a placid, untroubled mirror for the overhanging trees and towering
minarets. There they had paused a moment, watching their own reflections
which the warm evening sunshine cast on to the smooth surface. Then they
had moved on, and now stood before the entrance of the Holy of Holies.
Beatrice drew back with a gesture of alarm. A tall, white-clad figure had
suddenly stepped out of the shadowy portal and stood erect and
threatening, one hand raised as though to forbid their entrance. Long
afterward, Beatrice remembered the withered face, and always with a
shudder of unreasonable terror.
"Do not be afraid," Nehal Singh said. "He defends the entrance against
strangers. He will let you pass."
He went up to the old priest and spoke a few words in Hindustani, which
Beatrice did not understand. Immediately the Brahman stood aside, and
though his stern, piercing gaze never left her face, she felt that by some
means or other his animosity had been disarmed.
"What did you say to him?" she asked.
Nehal Singh shook his head.
"One day I will tell you," he answered; and some instinct made her
hesitate to press the question further.
Thus they stood once more before the great golden statue, this time side
by side. The sanctuary was built in the shape of a half-circle, the high,
vaulted roof supported by slender pillars of carved black marble. There
was no other attempt at ornamentation. The three-headed figure of the god
reigned in the center from a massive altar in solitary splendor, and from
a small opening overhead a frail ray of evening light mingled its pale
yellow with the brilliant crimson flame of the Sacred Lamp which burnt
before the idol, casting an almost unearthly reflection about the
passionless chiseled features. In spite of herself, Beatrice felt that the
place was charmed, and that the charm was drawing into its ban her very
thoughts and emotions. She felt subdued, quieted. It was as she had
said--the ages seemed to hover like ghosts about them, and her hard,
worldly skepticism could make no stand against the hush and mystery of the
past. Here generation after generation, amidst danger, battle and death,
men had bowed down and poured out their hottest, most fervent prayers, and
their sincerity and faith had sanctified the ground for Christian, Brahman
and skeptic alike.
Beatrice looked at the man beside her. She had the feeling that, while she
had stood and wondered, he had been praying; and possibly she was right,
though he returned her glance immediately.
"This is a holy place," he said. "It is holiest of all for me. Here I have
spent my most solemn happy hours; here God spoke direct to me and answered
me."
It seemed quite natural that he should speak thus so openly and directly
to her of his nearest concerns. The barrier which separated them perhaps,
after all, made the intercourse between them easier and less constrained
than it would otherwise have been. They had no responsibility toward each
other. They lived in different worlds, and if for a moment they exchanged
messages, it was only for a moment. When it was over, the dividing sea
would once more roll between them, leaving no trace of their brief
intercourse.
Remembering all this, she threw off the momentary sense of trouble.
"Tell me how and when that was," she said.
"I can not tell you--not now. One day I will. One day I shall have a great
deal to tell you, and you will have a great deal to tell me. You will tell
me of your faith. I know nothing of your God. All that has been kept
secret from me."
"How do you know I have a God?" she demanded sharply.
They had passed out of the sanctuary and were walking back toward the
entrance. He half stopped and looked at her in grave surprise.
"How do I know? How, rather, is it possible that it should be otherwise?
You are too good and beautiful not to have learnt at the feet of a great
teacher."
His naivete and confidence set her once more in a state between indulgent
amusement and anger. Another man she would have laughed at straight in the
face, but this simple belief in her goodness threw her out of her usual
stride, and in the end she left him without answer, save that which he
chose to interpret from her silence.
As they reached the great doorway through the gopura, a tall figure
advanced to meet them which Beatrice at once recognized in spite of the
gathering twilight. She had been expecting this new-comer for some time,
yet his appearance disturbed her as something undesirable.
"There is a man I like," Nehal Singh remarked, with a sudden pleasure. "Is
not Travers his name? He disappointed me least of all."
"You have an excellent judgment," Beatrice returned.
If there was an undercurrent of sarcasm in her approval, Nehal Singh did
not notice it. He advanced quickly to meet Travers.
"I am glad you have found your way here," he said. "It is the most
beautiful part of all, and perhaps I should have acted as guide to my
other guests. But my first duty was here." He turned to Beatrice with a
grave inclination.
Travers laughed.
"You need be in no alarm, Rajah Sahib," he said. "We have been enjoying
ourselves immensely, and no wonder, considering all the glories that have
been laid open to us. I have seen much wealth and splendor in India, but
not as here. I feel overwhelmed."
"There is still much for you to see," Nehal Singh answered with a proud
pleasure.
Other members of the party had by this time joined them, and Beatrice
dropped back to her mother's side. The whole thing had been, as Mrs. Berry
said, arranged, but not in the way the good lady supposed, and Beatrice's
task was at an end.
Travers hastened his step imperceptibly, so that the distance between him
and the rest was increased beyond hearing distance.
"Of course," he began, with a frank confidence which fell pleasingly on
his companion's ears, "I am a business man, and a great deal of my
admiration is from a business standpoint. You will perhaps hardly
understand me when I say that my flesh simply creeps when I think of all
the wealth that lies here inactive. Wealth is power, Rajah Sahib, and in
your hand there lies a power for good or evil which dazzles the senses of
a less fortunate man."
Nehal Singh lifted his face thoughtfully toward the evening sky.
"Power for good or evil!" he echoed. "It may be that you are right. But
power is a great clumsy giant, who can accomplish nothing without the
experienced guiding brain."
"I imagine you have both, Rajah Sahib."
"Not the experience. I have led a life apart. I feel myself helpless
before the very thought of any effort in the world. Yet I should be glad
to accomplish something--to help even a little in the general progress."
"You will learn easily enough," Travers broke in, with enthusiasm. "It is
only necessary to go outside your gates to find a hundred outlets for
energy and purpose. If you traveled two days among your people, you would
come back knowing very well what awaited your power to accomplish."
"I am glad to hear you say so," Nehal returned, smiling, "for I am
ambitious."
"Ambition and power!" exclaimed Travers. "You are indeed to be envied,
Rajah Sahib!"
"What would you do in my place?" Nehal asked, after a moment, in a lighter
tone, which concealed a real and eager curiosity.
Travers shook his head.
"The greater the power the greater the responsibility," he answered. "I
couldn't say on the spur of the moment. If I were given time, no doubt I
should be able to tell you."
"I give you till our next meeting, then," Nehal said gravely.
"Our next meeting? I trust, then, Rajah Sahib that you will condescend to
be the guest of the English Station?"
Nehal turned his head to hide the flash of boyish satisfaction which shone
out of his eyes. It was that he wanted--to go among this people, from
their own hearth to judge them, and to probe down into the source of their
greatness.
"It would give me much pleasure," he answered quietly.
It was Travers' turn to hide the triumph which the willing acceptance
aroused. Nevertheless, his next words were whimsically regretful.
"Unfortunately, we have no place in which to offer you a fitting welcome,
Rajah Sahib," he said. "For a long time it has been the ambition of the
Station to build some place wherein all such festivities could be properly
celebrated. But alas!"--he shrugged his shoulders--"it is the fate of the
Anglo-Indian to work for the richness and greatness of his country and
himself remain miserably poor."
"How much money would be required?" Nehal Singh asked.
"You will no doubt be amused at the smallness of the sum--a mere four
thousand rupees--but it is just so much we have not got."
Nehal Singh smiled.
"Let me at once begin to make use of my power," he said graciously. "It
would be a pleasure to me to mark my first meeting with you by the gift of
the building you require. I place the matter in your hands, Sahib Travers.
For the time being, until I have gained my own experience, yours must be
the guiding brain."
The good-looking Englishman appeared to be considerably taken
aback--almost distressed.
"You are too generous, Rajah Sahib!" he protested. To himself he commented
on the rapidity with which this fellow had picked up the lingo of polite
society.
All further conversation was cut short by a cry of admiration from the
crowd behind them. They had reached the chief entrance to the palace, and
suddenly, as though at a given signal, every outline of the building
became marked out by countless points of light which sparkled starlike
against the darkening sky. At the same instant, the temple to their left
took form in a hundred colors, and a burst of weird music broke on the
ears of the wondering spectators. It was a strange and beautiful scene,
such as few of them had ever seen. Fairy palaces of fire seemed to hover
miraculously in the evening air, and over everything hung the curious,
indefinable charm of the mysterious East.
Nehal Singh turned and found Lois Caruthers standing with Stafford a
little behind him. Both their names were forgotten, but the dark eager
face of the girl attracted him and at the same time puzzled him as
something which struck a hitherto unsuspected chord in his innermost self.
"You find it well?" he asked her.
"It is most beautiful," she answered. "It is good of you, Rajah Sahib, to
give us so much pleasure."
That was all she said, but among all his memories of that evening she
remained prominent, because she had spoken sincerely, warmly,
enthusiastically. Others thanked him--the Colonel's little speech at the
end was a piece of studied rhetoric, but it left him cold where her thanks
had left him warm, almost gratefully so.
On the whole, the first meeting between the English residents of Marut and
the young native prince was classified as a success. As they drove through
the darkness, the returning guests called terse criticisms to one another
which tended to the conclusion that the whole thing had not been at all
bad, and that for the circumstances the Rajah was a remarkably
well-mannered individual.
Beatrice Cary took no part in the light-hearted exchange. Her mother had
gone off with Mrs. Carmichael in her carriage, and Travers having offered
to drive her home, she had accepted, and now sat by his side, thoughtful,
almost depressed, though she did not own it, even to herself.
Try as she would she could not throw off the constantly recurring memory
of her parting with Nehal Singh. She made fun of it and of herself, and
yet she could not laugh over it--her power of irresponsible enjoyment had
been taken suddenly from her.
"You will not now say that we shall never meet again," he had said,
pressing something into her hand. "Now you will never forget," he had
added. "It is a talisman of remembrance."
What he had given her she did not know. It lay tightly clutched in the
palm of her hand--something hard and cold which she dared not look at.
She had not even been able to remonstrate or thank him. She had been
spellbound, hypnotized.
"It really has been splendid!" she heard Travers say in her ear. "Things
went just like clockwork. Five minutes' conversation got the whole
clubhouse out of him, and what you managed in your quarter of an hour,
goodness knows. You are a clever woman and no mistake!"
"Please--don't!" she burst out irritably.
"Hullo! What's the matter? What are you so cross about?"
"I'm not cross--only tired, tired, tired and sick of it all. Do drive on!"
Far behind them a solitary figure stood on the broad steps of the palace,
amidst the dying splendors of the evening and gazed in the direction which
the merry procession had taken. A long time it had stood there,
motionless, passive, the fine husk of the soul which had wandered out into
a new world of hope and possibilities following the woman whose hand had
flung the gates wide for him to enter in.
Another figure crept out of the shadows and drew near. Twisted and bent,
it stood beside the bold, upright form and lifted its face, hate-filled,
to the pale light of the stars.
"Nehal Singh, Nehal Singh--oh, my son!"
The prince turned coldly.
"Is it thou? Hast thou a dagger in thy hand?"
"I have no dagger--would to God I had! Nehal Singh, I have seen mine
enemy's face."
"How meanest thou? Thy enemy is dead."
"Nevertheless, his face is among the living. As a servant, I crept among
the strangers, and saw him straight in the eyes. He has grown younger, but
it is he. It is the body of the son, but the soul of his father in his
eyes--and, father or son, their blood is poison to me."
Nehal Singh knit his brows.
"Knowest thou his name?"
"Ay, now I know his name. It came back to me when I saw his face. Stafford
he was called--Stafford!" He crept closer, his thin hand fell like a vise
on Nehal's arm. "Kill him!" he whispered. "Kill him--the son of thy
father's betrayer!"
Nehal Singh shook himself free.
"I can not," he answered proudly, and a warm thrill of enthusiasm rang in
his voice. "I can not. They are all my brothers. I can not take my
brother's blood."
With a moan of anger the twisted figure crept back into the shadow, and
once more Nehal Singh stood alone.
Unconsciously he had accepted and proclaimed Beatrice Cary's ideal as his
own. The hour of bloodshed was gone, mercy and justice called him in its
stead. And in that acceptance of a new era his gaze pierced through the
obscurity into a light beyond. The jungle which had bound his life was
gone; all hindrances, all gulfs of hatred and revenge, were overthrown and
bridged. The world of the Great People stood open to him, and to them he
held out the casteless hand of love and fellowship.