A SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
Honor Bright rode straight to the Bara Koti to tell Joyce of Elsie
Meek's death, not without a grim satisfaction in the thought that the
news was certain to fill her friend with self-reproach; on other
accounts her feelings defied analysis.
Joyce was writing home-letters for the mail in her morning-room when
Honor was announced, and she was arrested, in her expressions of welcome
by the look on her visitor's face, which was unusually pale and her
great brown eyes, always so friendly and tender, cold and grave.
"What is it?" she asked fearfully, as she searched her memory for any
unconscious offence to her friend.
"I have just come from Mrs. Meek who is prostrated with grief. Elsie is
dead. She died at sunrise this morning."
"Dead?--Elsie Meek?... I did not know she was so bad!" Joyce looked
shocked and distressed.
"I left as Captain Dalton arrived--they are blaming him for not having
gone there last night. He was expected, but"--she made a gesture of
despair.
"Oh, Honor!--was it because he was here? He came to see if we were
ill--I had been nervous about Baby--and when I knew that it was nothing,
I kept him for music till--till quite late. Is it my fault?" The lovely
face looked stricken and blanched.
"I don't know--perhaps indirectly; but _he_ knew. He should not have
stayed."
"I persuaded him because I was dull--but I never knew!--I never dreamed
she was so bad! Oh, Honey!" and Joyce broke into a passion of tears. "I
shall never be happy again. I shall always feel that I was responsible!"
"He should never have stayed with you!--his duty was clear," said Honor
sternly. "The responsibility rests entirely with him. But didn't you
know that being alone and without your husband, you were inviting
criticism by allowing him to stay--at that late hour? People in these
_mafasil_ stations are so censorious."
"I did not think it mattered," said Joyce without a shadow of resentment
at such plain speaking. She stood with hands clasped, looking like a
child in trouble, and Honor's heart began to melt. "He's only the
doctor, you see, and he was so good to us in camp. Do you think I was
wrong, Honey?" flinging her arms about Honor's neck and hiding her face
in her bosom. Who could censure so much sweetness? So she was held in a
close embrace and tenderly kissed.
"I have no right to speak--forgive me," said Honor.
"But you are privileged, because I love you," said Joyce. "Say what you
please. I am so unhappy!--so miserable!"
"We must be miserable only for harm consciously done. You could never do
that."
"I could not bear that you should condemn me," Joyce went on, clinging
to her for consolation. "It seemed such a simple thing--it _was_."
"Yes, of course," Honor agreed against her judgment. "Only it would be
hateful that you should be talked about by the people here--as Mrs. Fox
is, for example."
"I should loathe it!--for I am not like her. You don't think that for a
moment?"
"Never!--that is why I'll not have you misjudged," said Honor kissing
her wet cheek.
"Why are people so horrid? I like Captain Dalton. He is so nice--so
different from what people think him--agreeable! He took my rose, and I
pinned it in his coat. He showed me how I should play the _Liebestraum_,
and----"
"He--took--your rose?"
"Yes. It was in my dress ... and was so sweet--and he said I should be
called 'Joy.' He is going to show me how to drive his motor-car so that
I may take Ray by surprise one day. I must go out more than I do, and
not worry so much about Baby for he is here to look after him. Oh! he is
very kind--surely he never meant to neglect Elsie Meek?"
"He knows best about that--but, Joyce," Honor was strangely agitated and
hid her telltale eyes in a cloud of Joyce's sunny hair, "you will never
do anything that you cannot tell your husband?"
"How do you mean? I always tell Ray everything."
"That is all. He will advise you what it is best not to do. It is no
business of mine."
"And I'll always tell you, too," the little wife said affectionately.
But Honor mentally decided it would be better for her not to hear
anything more about Captain Dalton's visits. "I don't count--I am a mere
outsider."
"You do. You are such a great help to me. I wish I had half your manner
and self-confidence."
Their talk reverted to Elsie Meek, and Joyce learned something of the
mother's grief. She was anxious to call immediately at the Mission to
offer her condolences, and decided to attend the funeral which was to
take place that afternoon. It was eventually settled that Mrs. Bright
should call for her in the dogcart, and Honor would ride.
Consequently, when Ray Meredith motored in that afternoon, his wife was
absent attending Elsie Meek's funeral, a simple ceremony at a tiny
cemetery on the Mission property. The coffin, made of packing cases and
covered with black calico, was carried by pastors, and the service was
conducted by Mr. Meek himself, who scourged himself to perform the
pathetic task as a penance to his soul.
It was dusk when Joyce returned, a subdued little person in black with a
bursting heart which was relieved by a flood of tears in her husband's
arms. He was very pitiful of her in her wrought-up state, and he soothed
her with tender caresses.
It was very comforting to Joyce to be petted, and by degrees her
weakened self-esteem was restored. Nothing was very far wrong with
herself or her world while her husband loved her so, and Honor Bright
remained her friend. Meredith would not allow his beloved to blame
herself, though it was hardly the thing to entertain a visitor of the
opposite sex so late at night when her husband was in camp; but the
circumstances were exceptional; his little darling was nervous and
lonely, and Dalton was a gentleman. Poof! he wouldn't for a moment allow
that the doctor did not know his own business best; and very likely
Elsie Meek's case had been hopeless from the start. With a weak heart,
anything might happen in typhoid. Anyhow, he was not going to let his
little girl worry herself sick and she was to cheer up on the instant
and think no more about what did not concern herself. The main thing
was, he had returned for the week-end, and wanted all her love and all
her smiles to reward him for his long abstinence; and Joyce obediently
kissed him and beamed upon him through her tears, wondering in her
childish soul why husbands were so exacting in their love--their ardour
so inexhaustible. Women were so very different--but men!
"With a wife like you, what can you expect?" Meredith cried, when she
had expressed her views with naivete. Which was all very flattering and
calculated to spoil her thoroughly, but Meredith was in a mood to spoil
her thoroughly after their enforced separation.
* * * * *
On Sunday morning, Honor followed up the notice which had been pinned on
the board at the Club concerning evensong at the Railway Institute, by
cycling round to various bungalows and exacting promises of attendance
from her friends.
Muktiarbad was behind hand in the matter of a church building, the
proposal having been shelved by the authorities with the usual
procrastination. The Roman Catholic missionary lived in ascetic
simplicity in the Station, and took his meals in native fashion wherever
he preached the Faith.
There was no Episcopal clergyman nearer than the headquarters of the
Division, eighty miles away; so it was only when his duties permitted
it, that the District Chaplain paid a flying visit to Muktiarbad to
minister to the spiritual welfare of his flock. Otherwise, it devolved
on the Collector to officiate at Divine worship, as a paternal
government enjoined this duty on the leading official in the stations
not provided with resident clergy.
Thus it was that on most Sunday evenings Mr. Meredith read the Church
Service in the general room of the Club to a congregation consisting
mostly of ladies, while Jack Darling, usually flushed and breathless
after tennis and a lightning change, went through the ordeal of reading
the lessons.
To make certain of a couple of unreliable members of the choir, Honor
cycled last of all to a picturesque little bungalow near the Police
Court, and dismounted at its tumble-down gate. From frequent removals
for jumping competitions for raw ponies, it was considerably damaged and
swung loosely on its hinges, swayed by every wind that blew.
The bungalow was thatched, the eaves supported by square pillars; and
the verandah was screened by bamboo trellis-work up which climbed the
beautiful _Gloriosa superba_.
Boars' heads, buffalo horns, and the antlers of deer, ornamented what
could be seen of the walls inside, and the tiled flooring was scattered
over with long-arm easy chairs and "peg-tables."
A gravelled walk led to the steps, bordered on either side with
straggling marigolds and dwarf sunflowers, dear to the hearts of
_malis_, but evidently the worse for the depredations of the village
goats. Date-palms drooped gracefully above a tank in the background, and
a gorgeous hedge of acalypha hid the outhouses and kitchen.
Honor's appearance at the gate was the signal for a wild stampede from
the verandah by Jack and Tom, who were enjoying a "Europe morning," to
change into suitable garb; an orderly being dispatched meanwhile to
crave the lady's indulgence. Rampur hounds and fox-terriers received her
effusively on the road, and showed their appreciation of her presence by
leaving marks of muddy paws on her drill skirt.
Tommy was the first to appear neatly apparelled, and smoothing his wet
hair with both hands. He was followed soon afterwards by Jack, looking
like an overgrown schoolboy in flannels. They hung about the gate since
she could not be induced to enter, and pulled rueful faces on receiving
instructions as to their duty at six-thirty, sharp.
"I believe there has been a riot at Panipara," put in Tommy with
inspiration. "It is my duty as a police official to take instant notice
of the fact and visit the spot for an inquiry."
"It can wait till Monday morning--or, you can send your Inspector," said
Honor.
"I have a poisonous report to write"--began Jack.
"No sulking!" said Honor with determination. "You have to set a good
example, both of you."
"I don't mind the service, a bit, and the hymns are fine," said Tommy,
"but I distinctly object to sitting still and having illogical arguments
when I cannot answer back hurled at my head."
"I shouldn't mind even that, for I needn't listen to them," said Jack;
"but I do wish he would cut his sermons short. The last time he was at
it for half an hour till I fell asleep and all but swallowed a fly."
"You and Tommy are worse than heathens and want a Mission all to
yourselves," said Honor with twitching lips. (When Honor's lips revealed
a hidden sense of humour, the boys' spirits effervesced.) "There is
hymn-practice at three this afternoon at the Institute," she informed
them. "Shall we have _Abide with me_, for a change?"
"'Abide with you,' certainly," said Tommy bubbling, while Jack put in a
plea for one of the old favourites. "_Sun of my soul_ is hard to beat,"
he said.
"Jack has a fixed belief that the world has missed a great tenor in
him," remarked Tommy. "He was bawling so loudly in his bath yesterday
morning, that I was on the point of fetching my gun thinking there was a
jackal around,--fact!"
"Liar! I was singing _O Star of Eve_, and you annoyed me by joining in.
Execrable taste."
"Well?--we shall count on both of you for the choir."
"If any one will be so kind as to lend me a prayer-book," said Tommy
reluctantly. "Jack used mine on a muggy night to keep the window open,
and as it rained half the time, my property was reduced to pulp. The
least he might do is to give me another."
"You can share mine," said Honor magnanimously. "That's fixed."
"Thanks, awfully. I love sharing a prayer-book with someone who knows
the geography of it. The last time I went to church was at Hazrigunge
when the Commissioner's Memsahib collared me as I was going to bridge.
Miss Elworthy, the parson's sister,--elderly and still hopeful, handed
me her book of Common Prayer; but I'm dashed if I could find the
Collect! At any ordinary time I would have pounced upon it right enough,
but knowing her eyes were upon me, I could do nothing but make a
windmill of the pages with only the 'Solemnisation of Matrimony' staring
up at my distracted vision, till I began to think Fate had designs.
Really, it made me quite nervous, I assure you!"
"I shall have to give you Sunday-school lessons," said Honor, laughing
heartily. "You are a bad boy, Tommy."
"I never attempt to find the places," said Jack. "It's the most
difficult thing in the world when you are nervous and the parson is off
at great speed, like a fox with the pack at his heels. My Church Service
was a present from my old aunt when I was confirmed and is in diamond
print, so that when I hold it upside down, no one is a bit the wiser."
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" cried Honor.
"Not at all. I always say 'Amen' at the right moment."
"It is always a case of 'Ah, men!' at Muktiarbad, where church is
concerned," saying which she sprang on her bicycle and fled with the
sound of loud groans in her ears.
* * * * *
Choir practice was well attended, and the "Inseparables" were obediently
on hand to swell the singing of the popular hymns and even attempt a few
chants. At the finish, Mrs. Fox made room for Jack on the organ stool,
and while he worked the pedals, she played a voluntary by Grieg to their
own entertainment and the distraction of the company.
"Fair joint production, if Jack would only remember he is not working a
sewing-machine," said Tommy. "It puts me out of breath to listen."
"The bellows sound like an asthmatic old man about to suffer spontaneous
combustion," said Honor moving away from the vicinity of the American
organ, vexed to see the transparent arts practised by Mrs. Fox to lead
Jack captive.
Divine service when conducted by the District Chaplain was held at the
Railway Institute which was more centrally situated than the Club for
the bulk of the European community at Muktiarbad, and the occasion was
typical of the generality of such functions in the small, _mafasil_
stations lacking a church building. Families of officials,--Government
and Railway, non-officials, and subordinates, found seats for themselves
in the neighbourhood of their respective acquaintance, and there was
only a sprinkling of the masculine element, the majority being husbands
whose demeanour, as they followed in the wake of their wives, was
suggestive of derelict ships being towed into port.
The choir were accommodated near the American organ at which Mrs. Fox
presided with ostentatious skill. Jack's stealthy effort to elude
observation in a distant corner was frustrated by Honor on her way in,
who whispered her commands that he was to occupy the seat reserved for
him as the sole tenor available.
Tommy, on the other hand, put in attendance with laudable docility,
claiming a place beside Honor; and all through the sermon occupied
himself with the marriage service, till a gloved hand recovered
possession of the prayer-book and a pair of brown eyes reproved him
gravely.
"You paid no attention whatever to the service," she afterwards remarked
scathingly.
"It is just what I did, right through," he returned meekly. "It's the
only service that interests me."
"It was irrelevant matter!"
"Which made me miss the benefit I might have derived from the seed
falling on prepared soil. Alas! see what you are responsible for!"
"I? I take no responsibility for you. And was the soil really prepared
this time?" she teased.
"It was torn by the plough of eagerness and harrowed with anxiety lest I
should be late and lose my place beside you," he returned feelingly.
Outside on the gravelled path, Mrs. Bright was informed by Mrs.
Ironsides that she had counted sixty women in "Church," and only sixteen
men, twelve of whom were married. "Scandalous!--I call it. And this is a
country, where, in the midst of life one is in death!"
On their way home, Meredith and Joyce, with the parson in the car, came
upon the doctor taking a "constitutional" in the moonlight and insisted
on carrying him off to pot-luck.
Tommy attached himself to the Brights and received a similar invitation,
while Jack was annexed by Mrs. Fox whose husband was at home and "would
be charmed."
The invitation was given openly and Jack had no hesitation in accepting
it, curious to know how the elusive Barrington Fox would appear on
closer acquaintance.
They walked together across the railway lines and past unkempt hedges of
Duranta in full bloom towards the group of residences reserved for
officials of the Railway, each within its own garden and bounded by
barbed wire as a protection against stray cattle.
The Traffic Superintendent's house was built on a more generous scale
than the others, though uniformly of red brick picked out with buff.
Shallow arches supported the concrete roof, and the verandah in front
was gay with ornamental pot-plants and palms of luxuriant growth. Many
doors opened upon it, and through them could be seen a lamplit and
graceful interior, veiled by misty lace curtains. The verandah itself
was left for the moon to illuminate.
Long residence in India and natural good taste had taught Mrs. Fox the
art of furnishing with an eye to the needs of the climate, so that her
rooms had the charm of restfulness, ease, and coolness. Most of her
drawing-room chairs were of Singapur rush-work; the mat was of green
grass, the _punkha_ frills of art muslin. The walls were distempered in
cool greys and neutral tints; while on all sides were palms, large and
small, and china-grass in dainty flower-pots of coloured earthenware. A
Japanese draught screen, embroidered in silk upon gauze and arranged
carelessly, put a finish to the most picturesque drawing-room Jack had
yet seen in Bengal.
Mr. Barrington Fox, however, was not at home. A telegram was found to
have arrived, intimating that he had been detained at a wayside station.
"Such a nuisance!" Mrs. Fox exclaimed, laying down the telegram which,
as a matter of fact, she had received earlier in the day. "You'll have
to put up with only me. Do you mind?"
"It is not for me to mind," he answered awkwardly. "If you think I might
stay, I shall be delighted."
"Then you shall. Who cares?--not my husband who has long ceased to mind
what I do or how I am left to pass the time," she said bitterly.
"You must often be very lonely?" he ventured sympathetically. He had
heard many rumours of Fox's neglect of his wife--of the temptations to
which she was exposed and to which a woman placed as she was might be
excused for yielding. Plenty of fellows paid court to her, and a good
few had grown attached--yet, barring Smart who was a cad and a bounder,
he was sure that none could cast a stone.
"I am always desperately lonely," she sighed, as she sank into a
chesterfield and motioned him to the seat beside her. "You little know
how it preys upon me; how I welcome a sympathetic friend! but--why speak
of it?" she passed him her cigarette case, and they began to smoke
companionably. "So few understand me," said she in subdued tones. "So
many misunderstand! I ask you, what is life worth to a young woman
in my position?" her chest heaved, her eyes filled with self-pity.
"And who can stifle nature and be happy?--the ache for human
sympathy--tenderness--love...." she brushed the moisture from her eyes
with a diminutive handkerchief, and smiled a wintry smile. "I refuse to
talk only of myself!--let us talk of you, dear Jack. You are a dear and
I have so longed to make a friend of you," she interrupted herself to
say.
Jack coloured furiously while filled with indignant pity for her. Poor
girl!--after all, she was quite young!... He did not care how old she
was; she was young enough to be pitied for the rotten time her selfish
husband gave her.
They spent a supremely innocent evening looking through albums of
photographs and talking football and polo. The dinner was excellent, and
Mrs. Fox, clever in the art of entertaining, modelled her conversation
to suit his manly tastes, in the end breaking down all his natural
shyness and placing him on terms of easy friendship. When Jack
eventually rose to go he was flattered by her open reluctance to part
with him; her pleasure in his society had been so frank and appealing.
"I have never enjoyed an evening so much in my life, Jack," she said
cooingly. "Why are you so different from other men?"
"Am I?" he asked in some confusion as she retained his hand in hers.
"In a thousand ways. I almost wish I had never met you, Jack!"
"Why?" he asked, his breath suddenly short, his heart beating a rapid
tattoo in his breast. For the life of him he could not say the easy
pretty things that fell so naturally from other men's lips.
"Because--Oh! why, you must know--I shall always be making comparisons
which are odious, and remember, I have to put up with only odiousness!"
"I hate to think of it," he said huskily.
"It is sweet to think you mind."
"It makes a fellow--mad to do something. It's damned hard and cruel for
you!"
"Never mind, dear boy. Come again, come often, will you?" she pleaded,
leaning her head against the pillar behind her and looking languishingly
up at him with the moonlight full on her face and throat, bathing her in
a pale radiance.
Jack's eyes swept the deserted verandah. He did not know that the
servants were well drilled in the etiquette of keeping out of the way
when the lady of the house entertained a male visitor. "Good-bye," he
said indistinctly, moving a step nearer.
"Good-bye," she returned almost inarticulately, her eyes melting to his
own. "I shall weep my heart out when you are gone."
"Why?" he demanded unsteadily.
"For the things that I have missed. I always dream of a man just like
you--you are the man of my dreams come to me--too late!--and my heart
has been starved so long!"
"Don't," he said sharply. "I am not made of stone."
Their faces were very near together, so near, that Jack had only to
stoop to press her lips fiercely with his.
"Oh, Jack!--" she cried emotionally. "You mustn't make me love you--you
darling!" yet she returned his kiss with equal fervour. "Oh, go--go
quickly," she breathed. "You must not stay----"
Dazed and bewildered, Jack took her at her word and went swiftly down
the steps, nor did he halt when her voice called after him to stop and
return. "Oh, Jack!--come back--come back, I cannot let you go!"
Nevertheless, he went without a backward look, wondering within himself
if all men found it so easy to tread the path of dishonour. Where it
might lead him if he allowed his baser instincts headway, he could
guess, and with a mighty effort he made up his mind to apply the brake
there and then. Poor woman!--he could not blame her--it was he alone who
had had no excuse--not a shadow of an excuse for the outrage. She, a
disappointed wife was like a being temporising with suicide. Small blame
to her if she took the plunge. It was for men of sound brain and clear
judgment to save her--not supply the means of self-destruction.
Did she wish him to believe that she already loved him?
Then he must assist her quickly to recover from the delusion, for Jack
well knew that there is a difference between love and the feeling that
could simulate it to the destruction of honour and self-respect. Passion
had swept him off his feet with sudden violence and he was shaken to the
depths with fear of himself, for he had let himself go unpardonably and
was ashamed.
All the way to his bungalow he walked with bowed head, alternately
thrilled with temptation, and abased at his moral collapse; the latter,
because he cherished an ideal and was now convicted in his own
estimation as unworthy.
The ideal had been established in the _Puja_[13] holidays he had spent
in Darjeeling playing with the "Squawk" and listening to its mother's
innocent reminiscences of her home and her people in England. He had
found a wonderful thing: a beautiful woman without vanity--a
child-nature in a woman; an ideal wife; one who respected her husband
and obeyed him while idolising their child. Wedded to such purity a
husband's life was paradise, and Jack accounted him a lucky man. It was
refreshing to bask in her presence and hear her describe her simple
past, so transparently virtuous and inexperienced, into which a certain
name was always intruding. "Kitty" the little sister was mentioned
constantly. Always "Kitty!" She had said this or that, she had done so
and so. She was a little wonder, full of charm, and so intensely human
that the picture of her had haunted his imagination.
[Footnote 13: Hindu festival.]
"Is she like you?" he had asked wondering if Nature could possibly have
twice excelled herself.
"We are considered rather alike, but she has twice the courage and
initiative that I have, and her eyes are the deepest violet you have
seen."
"Haven't you a photo of her?" curiosity had impelled him to ask.
"Oh, yes. A beauty, taken by Raaf's in Regent Street." She had fetched
the photograph and Jack had fallen straightway in love with the
sparkling face so full of charm and sunshine. The small features were
not unlike Mrs. Meredith's, but where they lacked her beauty, they made
up a thousandfold in attraction. It was a face to hold the attention, to
follow to the ends of the earth. From Mrs. Meredith's description, Kitty
was brimful of life and high spirits, affectionate and generous, but
quite a "handful" to manage. "She always dared infinitely more than ever
I did, and was always the first to get into scrapes! But so loyal and
honourable!"
"I should imagine every fellow for miles around must be head and ears in
love with her!"
"That, of course, but she is not a bit silly about boys, being
practically a boy herself in disposition. Only lately she has begun to
do up her hair and is to be presented next season when she will be
considered 'out.'"
"And be married straight away!"
"I suppose so," said Joyce proudly. "She is such a darling!"
"I can believe it," said he.
Jack had been so completely captivated by Kitty's photograph that Joyce
had generously told him to keep it. She had other copies and thought it
as well that he should cultivate an ideal for the elevation of his soul.
"It is good for a man to look up to a really good girl with admiration
and trust; it should make him determined to become worthy of the
possession even of her picture."
"It is something for a fellow to live up to," Jack had blushingly
returned, full of delight in the gift. He mentally resolved to go in
search of the original the very first time he obtained furlough and to
be satisfied with no other. If the Fates would only keep her fancy-free
for himself!
He carried the picture home and Tommy was tormented with curiosity
concerning the face which was so like Mrs. Meredith's and yet not hers.
The memory of that afternoon at Darjeeling and of the photograph in his
dispatch-box came to taunt Jack in the moonlight as he wended his way to
the bungalow at the Police Lines, fresh as he was from the experience of
a married woman's kisses given in response to his own.
Tommy was at home and awake when he came in, and remarked bluntly
concerning his extraordinary pallor.
"How did it go off? Was Barrington Fox Esquire particularly cordial?"
"He wasn't there," came gruffly from Jack.
"Not there?"
"I'll repeat it if you like."
"Don't be ratty. I was only expressing natural surprise. Possibly she
knew he wouldn't be there when she asked you."
"You are as uncharitable as everyone else."
"No, I am merely somewhat discerning."
"It does you credit."
"My son, hearken to the words of wisdom and the voice of the
sage--'Whoso is partner with a thief, hateth his own soul----'"
"Oh, go to blazes," said Jack pouring himself out a whisky-and-soda.
"'A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.'"
"I've been to Church--Drop it."
"'Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
friend,'" Tommy persisted with a twinkle in his eye.
"Thanks, I'm much obliged but it isn't necessary. Have a cigarette."
It was mentioned that the doctor dined at the Bara Koti that evening.
When the news of an extra mouth to feed was conveyed to the cook in the
kitchen, Abdul surveyed three snipe among potato chips with a problem of
multiplication vexing his soul.
"With the _padre-sahib_ they are three, yet without warning they bring a
fourth! Now what to do? _ai khodar_!--how to arrange?"
"Why disturb thyself, brother?" said the _khansaman_ sympathetically as
he put extra plates on the rack of the hot-case in which an open fire in
a cast-iron cooker burned fiercely. "Cut each bird in two and make toast
for each portion, in this way there will be some left for thee and me.
If the master say aught, ask if it is his almighty will that the
_shikari_ be sent out at a moment's notice in the moonlight to shoot
another bird."
The fine sarcasm of his advice created a general laugh of good-humour
among the servants assembled to serve the dinner. "In my last place,"
continued the Mohammedan butler, "my Sahib who had no wife would, out of
sheer provocation, bring six or eight sahibs home to eat with him, and
could we protest? _Yah, khodar!_ that instant with two kicks would we
have been dismissed, and he so ready with his boot! No! Quickly we put
water in the soup; with much energy we opened a tin of salmon, cut up
onions, fetched a cucumber from the vegetable garden for salad. Then in
the fowl-house, what a cackling and screeching as the _masalchi_ chased
fowls and cut their throats! _Jhut!_ they were cleaned and how long does
it take to grill meat? In fifteen minutes from the order, the dinner was
ready, pudding and all. When a store-room is well-stocked, it is like
_jadu_[14] to make a dinner for one capable of feeding six and even
eight!"
[Footnote 14: Magic.]
All great talkers are unconscious egotists, as the Merediths found the
Reverend John Pugh who enjoyed the sound of his own voice even when he
was not in the pulpit, and retailed stock jokes and anecdotes to the
company in general, forgetful of the fact that the same jokes and
anecdotes had been recounted by him at every house on his visiting list.
At dessert Joyce was glad to slip away to the drawing-room taking with
her the doctor, who was permitted to smoke while he played to her on the
piano.
Joyce noticed that he was disinclined for conversation and was out of
sorts and dull, as though inwardly disturbed and uninterested even at
his music. He took an early opportunity to leave and was accompanied to
the doorstep by Joyce, her husband being still pinned to the dining-room
by the parson whose anecdotes were inexhaustible.
"When next you see your friend, Miss Bright," said he, apropos of
nothing, as he shook hands again, "tell her, will you?--that I know how
to take a snub."
"Why?--has Honor snubbed you?" she asked surprised.
He smiled unpleasantly. "It was equal to a knock-down blow."
"But that is so unlike Honor. How do you mean?"
"I am not complaining, for I dare say I deserve it, but I would like her
to know that I shall not willingly put myself in the way of the same
again."
"Oh--" light had dawned on Joyce. "It must be because she thinks you
failed Elsie Meek. She heard that you never went to Sombari on Friday
night though you left the party for the purpose of seeing how she was
doing. Honor came here straight from the Mission."
"It was on the steps of the Mission bungalow that we met, and I was
sentenced without a charge."
"Are you very angry?"
"I don't think I am," he returned proudly. "It is nothing of
consequence."
"But would it have made any difference had you gone?" she pressed. "I
ask because I feel responsible for having kept you with me." Her voice
quavered with emotion and her lovely eyes drooped.
"It would have made no difference." Captain Dalton condescended to
explain Elsie Meek's condition and the fatal consequence of the sudden
exertion she had taken in her delirium and high fever. "She needed very
close watching. Unfortunately that was not given."
"Then it was the nurse's fault?"
"It was an accident. They could not afford a second nurse and Mrs. Meek
was physically unfit to do her share."
"I shall tell Honor."
"Please do not do so. I prefer to let the matter stand. It will be quite
for the best," and with that he was gone.
However, Joyce took the first opportunity of repeating the conversation
to her friend. "So you see, dear," she concluded as they talked together
at the Club the following afternoon, "he was not at all to blame."
"Perhaps not, but it makes no difference. I am deeply disappointed in
him. It was his duty to have gone, and a man who is capable of
neglecting a duty for pleasure falls short of the standard I cherish,"
returned Honor coldly.
"I did not know you could be so hard!" said Joyce reproachfully.
"I am not hard. It is absolutely nothing to me and Captain Dalton cares
very little what I think."
Joyce wondered if that were so, for she remembered his abstraction; his
mention of Honor had been a bolt from the blue.
"I do not understand why he said 'it would be quite for the best,'"
Joyce speculated.
"It proves how little he cares one way or another!" Honor answered,
wounded but proud. "And I have had a lesson never to mistake a goose for
a swan again."
"But he was good to you!"
"And for that I immediately dressed him up in every virtue; I was just a
fool--like any schoolgirl! Please don't let us talk of Captain Dalton
any more. He does not interest me at all."
She knew it was untrue to say that, but it was too late to recall her
words as she turned and faced Captain Dalton, himself, who had come up
from behind them and must have heard her concluding remarks. He was
apparently searching for the Collector who had returned reluctantly to
camp and, as Honor passed on with a bow, which he acknowledged
distantly, he and Joyce moved away together.
"I wish you would chase Honor and bring her to reason," said Joyce
childishly.
"I would much prefer to stay with you, if I may?" said he impressively.
"Besides, why should I?"
"Because," said Joyce with childish impulsiveness, "Honor Bright was
very fond of you."
In a flash, Dalton's eyes seemed to dilate and then contract. "What
makes you think so?" he asked abruptly.
"I knew it--I felt it. She could not hide it from me."
"Did she ever say anything?" he asked with assumed indifference.
"Not in words--but when she spoke of you--oh, the light in her eyes, and
the changing colour!--perhaps I should not tell you this?--but
misunderstandings are wretched."
Her blue eyes apologised so prettily that he smiled with peculiar
radiance.
"You are a very good friend," he said with amused indulgence.
"Who wouldn't be that to a girl like Honor!"
"And if I tell you I appreciate that, you must forgive me if I would
rather not discuss Honor Bright any more. Are you very lonely now your
husband has left?"
"I shall be, after today!" she pouted in self-pity.
"Then I shall call round for you tomorrow afternoon and take you for a
spin?"
"I shall look forward to it. Will you teach me to drive?"
"With pleasure."
"How delightful of you!"
"The pleasure will be equally mine," he said quite charmingly for him;
and after further pleasantries rather foreign to his habit, he left her
and drove away.