THE DELUGE
One day, at the close of April, when the thermometer was unusually high,
Ray Meredith fell a victim to a stroke of the sun, and had to be carried
in from camp like a dead man. His friends were thrown into
consternation, telegrams were flashed to headquarters, and even the
bazaar discussed his danger with bated breath. Captain Dalton, always at
his best in critical moments, rose all at once to great heights in the
estimation of the District. It was told of him how he was not only
physician but nurse to the Collector, and no woman could have been more
deft or capable in the sick-room than he was. But no one knew that a
sense of obligation to his conscience as well as to the sick man was
driving him hard, so that, for the time being, all personal
considerations were swept aside,--even his cherished plans which were
nearing completion,--in order that he might save a useful life to which
he owed some reparation.
Mrs. Bright was filled with admiration, and Honor with adoration. Both
held themselves in readiness to be of use as necessity might demand, and
were full of concern for Joyce so far away. Yet no cable was sent to
tell her of her husband's state.
"From a rational point of view, it would be folly," said Mrs. Bright.
"If he should die, we can send a cable to prepare her, and follow it up
with another soon afterwards. Should he recover, we will have given her
a nasty fright for nothing. By the time mail day comes round, we shall
have something definite to say, and a letter will do quite well." To
this Honor was obliged to agree, but it seemed terrible to her loving
heart that a wife should be in ignorance of her husband's peril, and
thus be deprived of importuning the Almighty with prayers for his
recovery. So much of good in life depended on prayer, that she felt it
necessary to pray on behalf of Joyce for the life of the husband so
precious to her. According to her convictions, God works through the
agency of his creatures, and as no stone was being left unturned by the
doctor whose whole heart was in his profession, Ray Meredith stood a
good chance if God were merciful to the reckless man who had scorned the
deadly rays of an Indian sun.
"I am so thankful he has you to take care of him," she once said during
a private interlude, when Dalton held her in his arms under the great
trees of the avenue and kissed her good-night. "Poor, poor Joyce! She
would break her heart if she were to lose him--and she away! She would
never forgive herself for going."
"If, in spite of all our efforts, he should not recover, you may take it
that he is fated to die of this stroke. One can't kick against Fate."
"There is no such thing as Fate! If you do your best, God helping, he
will recover, I am sure of it. I am praying so hard for his wife's sake.
If we keep in touch with God and do our best unremittingly, it is all
that is wanted of us."
"If any one's prayers ever reach heaven, I am sure yours do!... Do you
ever pray for me?"
"Always!"
"What for, specially?"
Honor hesitated for a moment, then murmured, "That we may never be
parted in life, and that I may succeed in making you happy."
Dalton kissed her reverently. "Any more than that? Do you never say,
'Make him a good boy'? I need that more than anything. It is what
mothers teach their kiddies to say, but it's forgotten when they grow
up."
"I'll say that, too, if you wish it."
"Say it every night of your life; and also that my sins may be forgiven
me. They are many!"
The evening the nurse arrived from Calcutta to take charge of the case,
Meredith was improving in spite of the insupportable heat. _Punkhas_
waved unceasingly in the bungalows, and quantities of ice were consumed.
People moved about without energy, mopping their faces and yearning for
the relief of a nor'wester, while a "brain-fever" bird cried its
melancholy cadences with aggravating monotony, from a tree in the
Collector's garden, where every leaf and twig had a thick coating of
dust. A grey pall in the north-west tantalised with its suggestion of a
possible thunderstorm, which, if it burst, would instantly cool the
overcharged atmosphere; and anxious eyes glanced at it with longing.
Honor drove to the railway station in the Daimler to fetch the expected
nurse, and was in time to meet the express as it steamed in with its
long train of coaches, in which every window gaped, revealing in the
third-class compartments the spectacle of semi-nude humanity packed like
sheep in pens, perspiring, and anxious for the moment of release.
When the crowd on the platform had thinned, she saw a lady in a nurse's
cloak and bonnet, waiting by her trunks, the belabelled condition of
which advertised the fact that the owner was a much travelled person.
She was strikingly handsome in a bold and arresting way, with dark eyes
capable of expressing much, and full, red lips parted upon slightly
prominent teeth. She looked as if she could be extremely fascinating,
but there was something about her that did not inspire Honor with
confidence,--though she freely admired her grace and aplomb,--and she
thought she looked more like an actress than a nurse. Surely the stage
would have better suited one of her type! She wondered.
"I have been sent to fetch you. My name is Honor Bright."
"Oh, how d'you do! How kind you are! You see, I have 'some' luggage,"
was the reply.
"It will all fit on the car," and signing to a couple of coolie porters,
Honor gave them directions and led the way through the booking office to
the entrance porch. After they had taken their seats and the car had
started, the nurse learned all about the case, in which she showed only
a passing interest. "A married man, did you say?" she asked carelessly.
Honor had not said so, but answered in the affirmative.
"Wife at home?"
"In England; yes."
"And what's your doctor like? I always like to know for one has so much
to do with the doctor, and it's just as well to understand something
about him beforehand," she said, with ill-concealed eagerness.
"I should not describe Captain Dalton better than to say he is very
direct and never wastes words," said Honor, smiling at her first
impressions of Brian Dalton. Her secret knowledge of him thrilled her
happily.
"And what of his looks? Is he as handsome as"--she bit her lips,
stumbled in her sentence, and concluded, "as his pictures? I have seen
his portrait in a photo group of surgeons at the Presidency General
Hospital, in Calcutta."
"I have never thought about his being handsome," said Honor. "He has a
strong face, and an expressive one--on occasions."
"I am told he is a hard man. How does he impress you?"
"I dare say he could be as hard as flint; but I have not experienced
that side of his nature."
"It's a funny little place, this," said the nurse who had not troubled
to give Honor her name. "I rather fancy it. I suppose you manage to have
quite good times since everyone must know everyone else quite
intimately. Like a large family!"
"I am quite fond of it, for I have many good friends."
"I could imagine putting up with it for a change; but to live here year
in and year out, so far away from town and the bustle of life, would
bore me stiff. However, _chacun a son gout_!"
At the house, the nurse was shown her room and left to unpack and
arrange her things, and change into nursing attire. Tea was served to
her in the morning-room though it was nearing the dinner hour, and Honor
remained to entertain her till the doctor returned from another case;
Mrs. Bright having temporary charge of the patient.
Soon afterwards, Captain Dalton arrived and Honor saw him step briskly
into the room. She retired to a distant corner, herself, leaving him to
confer with the nurse and acquaint her with the nature of the case,
utterly unprepared for the scene that followed.
For a moment, she was paralysed at the sight of the doctor's ghastly
pallor and startled eyes as they lighted upon the stranger's face.
"You?" he breathed through stiffened lips.
"Yes, Brian. I was given the chance as Nurse Grey was ill. I had to see
you again!" her voice was fiercely agitated. "Won't you hear me?"
"Good God! Don't you understand that you are nothing to me?--less than
nothing!" His eyes blazed.
"Yet you never divorced me! That gave me hope. Have you no forgiveness?
No pity?"
A stony silence.
"Oh, you are hard!--_hard_! It is not fair to punish any one forever for
one mistake----"
"Mistake, do you call it?"
"Sin, if you will have it. Are _you_ sinless? After all, we are but
human, and we forgive as we hope to be forgiven." She made a movement as
if to fall at his feet, and Honor rushed blindly from the room. Her one
instinct was to get away somewhere and hide--hide from the knowledge so
ruthlessly thrust upon her. It was too horrible to contemplate. She
shuddered from head to foot, and shivered as with ague. Out into the
open she ran, among the dust-laden crotons and azaleas, and the florid
shrubberies of the Indian garden, now bathed in soft moonlight. Scarcely
heeding her footsteps, she stumbled to a bench beneath a laburnum. If it
harboured reptiles, she was indifferent. Let her be bitten and die! She
was crushed and bowed to the earth with a burden of grief too great to
endure,--too hopeless to think upon.
What was it that he had offered her? Had he meant to insult her?
Never! He loved her too well. He would have killed himself rather than
have treated her lightly.
What was it then?
Her mind refused to act. It acknowledged only one thought, and that was,
severance--immediate, final--from the being she loved most on earth.
That was inevitable.
Brian Dalton was married. He had been married all the time. Joyce had
misunderstood; or he had lied to her.
No. She would not allow to herself that he had lied. His was not a petty
nature given to lying, or to the faults of the weak and timid. He was a
daring and defiant sinner, "risking damnation," as he had once said, for
the desire of his heart. She could now understand his bitterness, his
recurring moods of sadness and almost of remorse; for he was plotting
all the while against the honour of the girl he respected as well as
loved.
Consecutive thought was impossible; she was bewildered and numbed by the
suddenness of the blow. Through it all she moaned as though in physical
pain, "Brian!--oh, Brian!" Not for a minute did she doubt that he loved
her. He had given abundant evidence of his sincerity; but unable to get
her by fair means, he had determined to try foul. He had fought the
fight of his life, and had failed.
"Yes--I had to see you again," the nurse had said. And then,--"You never
divorced me!"
The words, "never divorced me," kept repeating in her brain. The nurse
had spoken, forgetful of Honor's presence or imagining that she had left
the room. He, too, had seemingly forgotten her presence or failed to
notice that she was still in the room.
She was handsome, this woman who had been--_was_--his wife! Honor
recalled the flashing eyes, the sensuous mouth, and quailed. Having once
loved her, might he not be won to love her again? She was his. He had no
right to think of another.
No other had any right to think of him!
Honor writhed in misery.
"Are you sinless?" his wife had asked him.
From his own showing, he was a most deliberate sinner, ready to
sacrifice an innocent soul for his own gratification. Only a miracle had
stopped him.
Words he had spoken returned to her mind--
"Your God to whom you pray every night of your life will see fit to save
you from such as I!"
The pathos of his dread, the wistful appeal in his voice, had touched
her deeply. She could hear it still, and her heart went out to him in
sympathy. Her poor, unhappy darling! But,--had God really interfered to
save her from the pit he was digging for her feet?
If he were free, she would have no wish to be saved from him, sinner
though he were. She would take him gladly, and, God helping, slay the
demon in him forever.
But he was not free. The task was not for her.
The Church would not marry them if it were known that he was not free.
It did not enter into her consciousness that she could go to him in
spite of God or the law. Defiance of laws, human and divine, was
impossible to Honor who had been reared to respect both from her cradle.
Therefore, all was at an end; and yet, she had no anger in her heart
towards Brian Dalton; only love and pity, and grief for the parting
which was inevitable--a blasting, desolating grief.
Presently, footsteps sounded on the gravel. Someone was wandering in the
garden in search of her. It was a man's tread. It was Dalton's; she
recognised the impatience, the determination in it, inseparable from the
man. Yet she made no sign. She dared not, though she wanted him with all
her heart. Sobs threatened to strangle her and were fiercely suppressed.
What right had she to his love now that she knew all? What use had she
for his explanations and apologies? She was choked, dry-eyed,
frightened.
She was afraid of herself, for, at the first sound of his footsteps, the
beating of her heart had deafened her. She wanted him as much as he
wanted her, and she trembled, feeling powerless to deny her love its
human expression. It was compelling. What could be the end of it?
She bowed her face upon her quivering arms whispering, "God help
me!--God help me," yet straining her ears to catch every sound without.
And she made no resistance when Dalton at last found her, and, seating
himself at her side, drew her tenderly to his breast.
It was long before either spoke. Honor felt it was for the last time. He
feared it might be for the last time.
"You know?" he asked in a voice hoarse and strange.
"Yes," she whispered trembling as she clung to him.
"Yet you do not spurn me?"
"How could I, when I love you so!"
"Such a scoundrel as Brian Dalton?"
"I only know how much I love you!"
An inarticulate sound resembling a stifled sob came from him. After a
while----
"What are you going to do with me, Sweet?"
What answer could she give him but one? "What I must!" Yet she clung all
the closer.
"Though you love me?"
"I shall love you till I die. But we have to--we must--part!"
His arms about her were like bands of iron. He was scarcely aware of the
force with which he crushed her to him.
"It cannot be done," he said almost to himself.
"Why did you not divorce her?" Honor asked resentfully.
"To punish her. Ah!--my God!--Punishments come home to roost. Some day I
will tell you the whole sordid story. There is no time now--I have to go
back to Meredith."
"We must say good-bye here," she returned with a desperate attempt to be
calm.
"Never 'good-bye'!" Yet he had no hope. Honor's conscience had
decided--the conscience he had once feared would sit in judgment on his
sin against herself; and yet it had uttered no word of reproach.
For a full minute he held her away from himself, trying by the light of
the moon to see the look in her eyes. He wanted to plead with her to fly
with him to another land where none should know their history; but his
words died in his throat as he gazed upon her white and stricken face.
"Honey, be merciful to me in your thoughts!" he cried, instead, kissing
her forehead, her eyes, and denying himself her lips.
"Just let me go right away. Give me courage--help me!"
"And what of me?"
"I leave you the gift of my heart. I can never take it back."
"Do you forgive me?"
"Love always forgives."
"God bless you! I think I must have been insane. I would have earned
your hatred in time. How shall I face life without you?"
Honor gave him her lips sadly. "In our different ways--we shall face it.
Just at first it will be very hard, but not impossible if we have
courage to do what is right. To stay on here after this, is more than I
can bear; so I must go away--just for a bit, to learn how to be brave.
When I come back--if you are still here, we might both bear it better."
"My poor Honey! What a beast I have been! As for me--you will find me
here right enough. I shall not go to Australia _now_!--but I shall never
bear it better."
They parted a little later in heavy sorrow. Honor left him bowed and
broken on the garden bench, and stumbled home unseeingly.
Afterwards, she learned in one of Dalton's letters--for he would not be
denied that medium of communion with her--the full story of his past
humiliation.
He had married a nurse at Guy's when he had been a medical student, and
she had left him six months later for his best friend. She had been
proved as faithless as she was handsome, with a baleful influence over
men. Not long afterwards, the man she had led astray was killed in a
railway accident, and since then, she had, on various occasions, tried,
without success, to persuade Dalton to take her back. Apparently, she
had not resigned hope with the years, for she had followed him to India,
believing that time was her greatest ally, since it dims the memory of
wrongs.
When he had discovered her presence in Calcutta, and learned that she
had joined a nursing home in a fashionable quarter, he had applied for a
transfer to quiet Muktiarbad, giving as his reason, his need of rest
from his too strenuous labours in the capital. His desire was to gain
time and to keep out of the way of any possibility of coming into
professional contact with his wife.
At Muktiarbad he was able to forget his troubles, and, to his relief,
seemed to have been forgotten by the Government and left to enjoy his
peace undisturbed. However, through her connection with a nurses'
association, his wife had accidentally learned of Nurse Grey's summons
to Muktiarbad and had cleverly contrived to work things so as to go
herself, instead.
"If I had only done the right thing in the beginning, and severed the
tie, legally, things might have been very different today," was the
burden of his cry. Instead, in the recklessness of despair, he had cut
the ground from under his own feet, and by his desire for revenge,
destroyed any possibility of future happiness for himself. Passion for
the woman was dead. Her beauty revolted him; her character he loathed
and despised. "It is amazing to me," he wrote in deep contrition and
humility, "that such an egotistical, conscienceless blackguard as I,
should have been given the inestimable boon of your wonderful love!--to
be allowed to retain in my keeping such a pure and faithful heart! It is
my most treasured possession. My feeling for Honor Bright is my
religion. To the memory of her, Brian Dalton, one-time scoundrel, kneels
in worship."
* * * * *
When Mrs. Bright returned home from Meredith's bedside and found Honor
nerveless and prostrated with white cheeks and dark rings round her
eyes, she was convinced that it was high time her daughter was sent to
the hills.
"I told you so in March when the weather grew unbearable; and now, you,
too, have got a touch of the sun!" But Honor's cheek was cool and
symptoms of sun or heat stroke were lacking. "How do you feel?" the
anxious lady questioned. Being in ignorance of the nurse's identity and
having no clue to Honor's state, she was worried and at a loss.
"I am only feeling rather exhausted, Mother darling," said Honor
wearily. Since she had not taken her mother into her confidence while
she was happy, she felt she had no right to burden her with her sorrow.
"Shall I ask Captain Dalton to come and see you?"
"Not on any account!" Honor hastened to say.
"I know it is rather embarrassing when a doctor is an intimate
friend--and an unmarried man! Still, considering--" Mrs. Bright was
thinking of the "understanding" and wondering when it was going to
become something definite. However, Honor was not the girl to hector or
question on matters that concerned herself alone. The question of her
indisposition was more pressing than any. "Have you a headache?" she
asked anxiously.
Honor could truthfully say that her head ached. "When I have slept, it
will, I dare say, wear off."
"I hope so, for I should not like to think that you are going to be
ill."
"I am not ill; but, perhaps, dear, if you can spare me, I had better get
away tomorrow before the heat becomes worse. May is always such an
appalling month in the plains."
"I shall speak to your father immediately about it," Mrs. Bright said,
relieved to find something she could do to avert a break-down of her
daughter's usually excellent health. "The Mackenzies at Mussoorie will
be delighted to have you for a month or two as a paying guest. We have
only to wire. And if they have no room, they can secure one for you near
by."
"That will be all right," said Honor listlessly. "I'll start tomorrow
night, if possible."
"It shall be possible. Such a sudden collapse!" commented Mrs. Bright.
"I do hope you will feel more fit in the morning."
"I'll be quite fit, never fear," said Honor. "Tonight I am only a bit
'off colour,' as Tommy says," and she tried to smile.
"I'll send a message down to the _dhobi_ to get your wash ready by noon
tomorrow. At these times one realises how infinitely more convenient is
a _dhobi_ than an English Laundry Company," and Mrs. Bright bustled away
that she might lose no time in letting the washerman know what was
expected of him. Though the laundry had been taken away that very
morning, she had not the slightest doubt that the task would be
completed to perfection before noon, for she knew the laundryman of
India to be as remarkable in his line as the Indian cook is in his.
The following evening, Honor left Muktiarbad station, with the faithful
Tommy to see her off in the train; and her mother was there to give her
a last hug and sundry forgotten injunctions at the eleventh hour. "Mind
you telegraph on your arrival--and don't forget to wear a woollen vest
next to your skin. It is so necessary to ward off colds. Give Alice
Mackenzie my love and say that I shall try to come up in the rains.
Good-bye, darling, and take care of yourself! If you want more money,
don't fail to let me know. Have you got your umbrella? Thank goodness! I
thought it was forgotten. Write soon; I hope you'll pick up and look
better when I see you next."
The train moved off and Mrs. Bright remarked to Tommy that she was quite
alarmed to see such a sudden change in her beloved child. Really, she
should have insisted upon her going away, the latest, a month ago.
"What is the matter? I, too, have been aghast at the change. Honey looks
positively ill," said Tommy.
"Nothing is the matter but the heat, it seems. I wonder why Captain
Dalton never came to see her off. I told him, when I was at the Bara
Koti this morning, that she was leaving by the 7:20. And they are such
good friends. I feel quite hurt."
"He is out somewhere in the District this evening. I saw him take the
main road in his car a little while ago, and travelling at break-neck
speed," said Tommy.
"Someone else taken ill somewhere, I suppose."
"Very likely."
"Still, I think he might have made a point of saying 'good-bye.'"
Tommy wondered, but said nothing. He had long made up his mind, as had
others in the Station, that Captain Dalton and Honor Bright were
engaged. He had also heard of lovers' quarrels and was ready, by the
look on Honor's face, to believe that a very serious misunderstanding
had taken place. Her abstraction, her ghastly pallor and haunted eyes
had given him positive suffering and a feeling of blind sympathy, which
had only found vent in loading the compartment with newspapers and
magazines snatched from Wheeler's bookstall.
To Honor's surprise, Captain Dalton appeared at a wayside station, and
leant his arms on the open window. The sight of him, his set face and
brooding eyes, made her heart stand still, while a sudden faintness
seized her. Behind him the Station hawkers were shouting their wares,
native travellers were bustling to and fro, and the air was alive with
sound, so that in the midst of all that confusion they were absolutely
alone.
"I am glad you have no one in with you," he said quietly. "I so wanted a
few words with you."
"How is Mr. Meredith?" Honor asked, trying to speak naturally.
He took both her hands and held them close, deaf to the question.
Meredith was out of danger and the nurse had become interested in her
charge. What were they and all else to the lovers so parted!
"Have you nothing to say to me?"
"I have said all that there is to say," she replied tremulously.
"I am going to write to you, and you must write to me. Do you understand
that this is imperative?"
"Is it?" she asked with beating heart. Oh, that they might at least hug
to themselves that innocent joy!
"If I do not write to you or hear from you, I shall be doing something
desperate. I cannot be responsible for myself. It will be the only thing
to keep me sane. You cannot dream how I am being punished. Don't add to
my punishment if you have any pity." His anguished eyes and quivering
lips were convincing. "You will have no fault to find with my letters,"
he added while she hesitated.
Honor promised.
A bell clanged noisily and the engine whistled.
"Oh, Honey!--how can you leave me like this?" he whispered holding her
eyes with his.
Honor moved impulsively towards him and their lips met in a passionate
and lingering kiss. The strength to resist his unspoken appeal was
melted by that silent demand. After all, they were parting!
"Good-bye," she said, the tears falling.
He stepped back as the train began to move, his gaze riveted on her
face, and jaws set with stern self-repression.