TEMPORISINGS
While Jack counted the days to the arrival of the ship at Bombay, and
Joyce lived in anticipation of the reunion with her husband; while Honor
watched for the coming of Joyce and an end to an impossible situation in
Darjeeling; while Dalton played at friendship with the girl he adored,
since to desire more was like asking for the moon; and while Tommy was
breaking his heart with disappointment, and tormenting the Government of
Bengal for permission to join the Indian Army reserve, instead of
continuing to serve that Government by safe-guarding his District, it
seemed almost inconceivable that thousands of miles away, the destinies
of nations were in the melting pot, and the map of Europe in process of
re-making.
Immense armies were in training; miracles of organisation were taking
place within the British Empire. Always the greatest Naval Power, she
was rapidly becoming, also, a great Military Power.
The grand old army of "Contemptibles" was covering itself with
imperishable glory; Indian and Colonial troops were mobilising for the
assistance of the Motherland. In all parts of the world the clarion cry
was sounded--"To arms!"
The War was the absorbing topic in all the cities of the world.
But at little Muktiarbad and similar rural districts, the placid
monotony of daily life was barely stirred.
There was "a war on," of course, they said in the bazaars. India was
involved--that, also, was a matter of course. The fighting sons of India
could not be left out of such a fateful occasion as a war which called
for loyalty and support. But it was an impersonal matter to native
Muktiarbad. Doubtless, one of these wise dispensations of the Almighty,
that helped to thin out the too rapidly increasing population of the
world! It had no bearing on the lives and fortunes of the cultivator and
the shop-keeper, save, that, in the case of the latter, it enabled him
to put up his prices. But since the sun rose and set exactly as usual,
and the flowers bloomed, and the seasons remained unchanged, and the
daily life of the District continued undisturbed, where was the need to
worry?
True, there was occasionally talk in the bazaar of battles lost and won;
but talk was the life of the bazaar. Whatever happened, or did not
happen, the bazaar always knew about it and spread rumours that none
heeded, for rumours are always unreliable. What did they amount to,
anyway? Nothing came of them, so far as the countryside was concerned.
Now and again, it was said, that So-and-So, generally a stout Pathan,
who had seen active service on the frontier, had packed his bundle and
was off on his own initiative to offer his strong right arm for the
cause of the _Sarcar_ who was his father and his mother. His ancestors
had fought and bled--or died; won medals and gained pensions; he, too,
would gain medals and a pension, or lose his life if God so willed it.
"_Kismet ke bat!_"[18] Where was he going? God knew! Some day, if it was
so willed, he would return to tell.
[Footnote 18: With Fate lay the decision.]
Like as not, he would never return. When youth went a-travelling, the
attractions of the great world seldom released him from their thrall.
At the court-house, the Magistrate and Collector, officiating for
Meredith who was still on leave at Darjeeling, tried cases and settled
disputes, while the court-yard in front was covered with squatting
humanity, chewing _pan_ and awaiting their individual turns to be called
up before the _Hakim_ to tell--anything but the truth!
At the Club, the sahibs and memsahibs played tennis and bridge and
enjoyed their cold drinks as usual, just as though there were no
sanguinary battles raging afar, such as the world had never known in all
its history.
Once, during the month of August, a strange _babu_ had appeared in the
bazaar, and, perching himself upon a cask, had talked sedition for about
an hour to apathetic ears. Muktiarbad, being mainly Mohammedan, did not
like gentlemen of the Brahmin persuasion; so he had departed much
disheartened. Shortly after, another agitator--a Mohammedan this
time--had endeavoured to incite the peace-loving population to revolt by
preaching religious antagonism towards Christians.
But Muktiarbad was not to be roused. "Live and let live" was the
prevailing sentiment among its people. Besides, what was the use of
rebelling, since it would be futile against such a mighty race as the
British, who were also good rulers, taking no advantage to themselves
from their might, and giving each man according to his due? The needs of
the village folk were mainly personal, and so long as these were
supplied, what cared they if the rulers of the land were Christians.
They never interfered with the Moslem religion; why should Moslems
interfere with theirs? And so this man also departed discouraged.
At Panipara, interest centred chiefly on the fact that the Government
had decided that the _jhil_ should be drained. The Great War was a
secondary matter. Wells were already in process of construction and, at
the end of the rains, before the water of the wide morass could be
poisoned with germs, usually bred in the drought of winter and spring,
the drainage was to be taken in hand and the health of the District
safeguarded forever. All this interference and annoyance had sprung from
the doctor Sahib, who was thereby the most unpopular sahib that had ever
been put in charge of the sanitation of a District. He was cursed by the
ignorant in the Muktiarbad bazaar and at Panipara village itself, but so
far his person had been respected, as it was known by some occult means
that he secretly carried firearms wherever he went.
In July, Honor had returned with her mother from Mussoorie in the
Himalayas, physically and mentally stronger for her prolonged absence.
Captain Dalton and she had corresponded as friends, all expressions of
personal feeling being rigorously excluded from the closely written
pages. Both had bravely "played the game," the faithfulness and
regularity of the letters, alone testifying to their unchanged devotion.
When they met again, Honor having braced herself to the ordeal, had
sustained it courageously, no one guessing how much it had cost her to
smile and shake hands with the doctor as naturally as she had done, the
moment before, with Tommy; for the meeting had taken place,
unexpectedly, at the Club.
Captain Dalton retired to his bungalow shortly afterwards, and the
tension had lifted. He had gone, Honor knew, instinctively, because he
could not bear to stand by, listening indifferently to the general
conversation when his heart was filled with longing to speak to her
alone. She had experienced the same inward impatience, but had learned a
greater self-control.
By and by, their meetings became frequent; but the self-imposed
restraint, mutually practised, had a wearing effect on the nerves of
both.
And all the while, gossip in connection with Ray Meredith filtered
through from various sources, and caused no little comment among his
friends.
At last a letter to Mrs. Bright from Mrs. Ironsides, who was spending a
month at the Sanitorium, placed it beyond doubt that Ray Meredith was
very securely in the toils of his former nurse who was in the same
hotel, in charge of a child suffering from jaundice.
"She has been in Darjeeling, with one pretext and another, I am told,
ever since Mr. Meredith recovered," the lady wrote, "and people are
beginning to look askance at her for the flagrant manner in which she
flaunts her ascendancy over him. It is a thousand pities his wife is not
with him, for he is at the woman's heels morning, noon, and night.
Rumour says their rooms adjoin! I should feel inclined to blame him
soundly were it not for the fact that he looks very delicate since his
illness, and that people recovering from sunstroke are not altogether
themselves. Possibly he is merely drifting for want of someone
sufficiently interested in him to save him! Whatever it is, this Mrs.
Dalton must be an abandoned creature, for she is indifferent to the fact
that she is creating a disgusting scandal. When you think of how devoted
that man was to his pretty little wife, you feel inclined, to believe
anything of men! But, as I say, he cannot be himself. Let us hope it is
only due to the sunstroke, and that his wife will come out soon and look
after him."
Honor took this news to heart and wrote the appeal to Joyce of which the
reader is already aware: she also gradually brought her mind to the
point of speaking frankly to Captain Dalton on the subject.
Since her return from the hills, two weeks before, she had not met him
alone, so that when she asked him, in a little note to see her at the
Club next morning on a matter of some anxiety, he was naturally full of
wonderment as he drove to keep the appointment.
The marker, alone, was in possession of the Club and in his office, when
Dalton arrived, so that the meeting was undisturbed.
"You are surprised that I should have sent for you?" Honor said, as she
stepped off her bicycle, having greeted him with a friendly nod. Had she
given him her hand he would have noticed that it was trembling.
"Pleased, as well as surprised," said he, feasting his soul on the
wholesome, girlish face with its frank, trustworthy eyes. "Has anything
happened?" He was longing to hear that her request was prompted only by
her great desire to have speech with him alone; but even as the thought
crossed his mind, he knew that Honor would never have made an
assignation with him for any personal reason. Not with those truthful
eyes!
"A great deal seems to be happening," she said as they walked into the
building side by side, and found themselves seats in the verandah.
Dalton had hoped she would have led him to one of the public rooms
where, at least, they would have been safe from the curious eyes of
passing natives; but that she did not, was consistent with her
character, for she was as open as the day.
Seated beside him, she told him of Mrs. Ironside's letter and of her
own, unhappy fears for Joyce, and her future relations with her husband.
"She should not have gone home so soon after her marriage," said Dalton.
"I guessed how it would be when the nurse took on the job, for Meredith
is a very charming fellow, and she is a woman without a conscience."
"Brian, we must stop it!" It had been "Brian" and "Honey" in the
letters.
"Not even an angel from heaven could, if Meredith is infatuated. I tell
you, she is a clever fiend."
"It rests with you!" said Honor appealingly.
"With me?" surprised.
"Joyce and her husband love each other. I will not believe that he has
ceased to care. Doesn't sunstroke somewhat dull memory?"
"For a time, yes,--possibly. Sometimes altogether. Meredith, however, is
all right, or will be when he regains his normal vigour."
"I take it that he is not his normal self, and that when he is, he will
be ashamed of the part he is now playing. Joyce's happiness is at stake.
She is a simple little thing and very fond of him. Their happiness must
be saved--even at a sacrifice."
"Well?"
"Oh, Brian!--you will have to take your wife back!"
Dalton stared dumbly at her. That Honor should ask him to take back the
woman who had wrecked his life and whom he despised as the commonest
prostitute in the land!----
"_You_ ask me that?" he breathed.
Honor bent her head. She could not but realise that the step she
proposed was a terrible outrage.
"Why, Honey!" His voice was choked. "Have you any idea of what you are
asking me to do?"
"It will be a great sacrifice--which--which I shall--share--" words
failed her and she looked away with a pathetic trembling of her lip.
"_You_ would wish it?" in wounded tones.
"I would hate the thought of it!--yet, something must be done. She might
find it more profitable to return to you and leave Mr. Meredith in
peace."
A painful silence.
"Honey, if she lived with me I should surely murder her! Do you know how
I detest the woman? Do you imagine I could take her back as a wife? I
would rather be shot."
Honor buried her face in her hands. In her heart of hearts she was
singing a paean of thanksgiving that he was still hers--only hers, though
divided from her by an impassable gulf!
"You could bear to see me reconciled to her?"
No answer.
"Honey," he cried desperately. "I would do anything in the world for
you!"
"But you cannot sacrifice yourself for a good woman's happiness?" she
questioned, hardly knowing what she said.
"Why should I for Mrs. Meredith?"
"Because you once owed her a debt--she was very good to you after----"
"My God!--yes!"
"This will kill her. She will hear--there are so many who will be ready
to give her chapter and verse of the scandal against her husband. But if
this--nurse--were with you, it would, perhaps, all blow over."
"Is it really your wish that I should do this thing? Remember, she is
hateful to me--and she can never, in any sense, be my wife again!"
"I am--glad!" she could not help exclaiming. "Then the sacrifice will
not be so terrible, after all!"
"Perhaps not," he answered, his eyes full on hers with a passion of
longing. "Will you let me think it over?"
"Decide quickly!" she begged him.
"There is nothing I would not do for you," he repeated.
Honor rose with her gracious smile of gratitude and trust, and they
parted without touching hands. When she returned home, the reaction from
the strain of their meeting prostrated her for hours. Her parents feared
that the climate of Muktiarbad was, at last, telling on her healthy
constitution as it had told on Ray Meredith's.
"Perhaps we shall have to send you home!" her mother sighed anxiously.
"Not a bit of it!" Honor asserted. "The cold weather will put me to
rights very soon."
"Perhaps you have something on your mind, darling?"
"I have. I am worrying badly for Joyce Meredith."
"Joyce will get nothing more than she deserves. Why should you suffer?
It is nobody's business to meddle between husband and wife."
"Somebody is already meddling, so it may need counter-meddling to put it
right."
"I shouldn't bother my head. We have enough to do without trying to act
Providence in the case of fools."
"We are not trying to act Providence, but Providence needs to use us. It
seems we are just so many pawns in the great Game."
"It has often puzzled me what Captain Dalton has been after," said Mrs.
Bright, eyeing her daughter rather narrowly. Fear had preyed
considerably on her mind, that the doctor had been playing fast and
loose with her child, to her sorrow. "You and he have been fast friends.
Once you told me there was an 'understanding'; but nothing seems to have
come of it, though you have corresponded very regularly."
"I showed you some of his letters, darling," Honor temporised, faithful
to her intention of bearing her own burdens alone, if possible.
"Nice, manly letters they were, and most interesting of his work and
things in general. But I am none the wiser."
"What did you understand of our friendship?"
"That there was an 'understanding,'" her mother repeated.
"I do dislike that word in the sense you are applying it!" said Honor
with a forced laugh. "We are not going to get married, anyway, for
Captain Dalton is a married man."
"Honey!" Mrs. Bright was dumbfounded. "Since when have you known this?"
"For quite a long time; since early summer, in fact. You have met his
wife--Mrs. Dalton, the nurse. Everyone here fancied her name was a
coincidence. She worked to come here that she might see her husband and
get him to take her back." Having said so much, Honor went on to explain
further the cause of the breach between husband and wife and the
irrevocable nature of it. "I am telling you this, dear, as you have a
right to know the truth, being my mother. It is, however, a personal
confidence, which no one else need share," Honor concluded.
"Why did you not mention it to me before?" Mrs. Bright asked while a
light dawned on her mind.
"Because I have been very sorry for him, and, somehow, I felt I ought to
respect his confidence. But it will, inevitably, be known in time, and
then you will be able to say you were not uninformed."
"Honor, are you in love with Captain Dalton?" Mrs. Bright asked
pointedly.
Honor winced. "Yes, Mother. And he loves me."
Mrs. Bright looked faint. "_You_, my child, in love with a married man!"
This was, indeed, a blow! It accounted, fully, for Honor's
discouragement of eligible suitors in Mussoorie, which had greatly vexed
her mother at the time. "This is dreadful!"
"Not at all, except for the fact that it is naturally a grief to me,--to
us both; for, as you see, we can never marry."
Mrs. Bright was entirely astray. When other girls were convicted of
being in love with married men, it had always sounded so immoral! But no
one could think of Honor as such. She was plainly an upright and
honourable girl.
"Yet you encouraged his writing, and answered his letters! You meet, to
all appearances, as if nothing is wrong. What am I to make of it?"
"That we are very much to be pitied. Writing and meeting openly are all
that are left to us."
"He should have gone away--severed his connection with Muktiarbad. Not
have stayed to fan the flame!"
"Life is too short for needless sacrifices, Mother darling. Having made
the greatest, we refuse to suffer more than we need. Sometimes, if you
are starving for food, a bare crust will keep you alive. We are
subsisting on bare crusts and are grateful."
"I consider Captain Dalton has not behaved at all well. He knew his
position and went out of his way to make you care!"
"Ah, no!--it just happened!" said Honor, her eyes suddenly flooded with
tears.
Mrs. Bright looked at her daughter's white and sorrowful face, and away
again. She could not bear to see the suffering there. All the traditions
of her life caused her to stand aghast at the idea of dalliance with a
sin so subtle and alluring as this. It should be the root-and-branch
method. Nothing else would suffice to save her child! Yet her own eyes
overflowed in sympathy.
"Oh, my poor little Honey!" She held out her arms and Honor took refuge
in them to weep unrestrainedly. "We are trying to be so good!" she
cried.
After kissing her daughter tenderly, Mrs. Bright said: "You cannot
temporise with forbidden fruit, Honey. Eve did, you know. You are but
human, therefore fallible, however good you are trying to be. The time
will come when the heart, torn with longing, becomes too weak to resist.
Specious arguments are insidious and irresistible, and you will go down.
_Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!_ That is why
we pray, _Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil_. Our
Lord understood human nature better than we ever shall, that is why
there is only one thing to do, and that is, to fly from temptation. We
pray to be 'delivered,' but praying alone doesn't suffice if we are to
be honest with ourselves and God. There is nothing that will save us,
but _doing right_."
"We are doing nothing wrong!" Honor pleaded.
"The wrong lies in the lack of moral courage to deal drastically with
the wound. If poison remains, it is bound to fester. Captain Dalton
should go away."
"We were obliged to let ourselves down gently. It has been so
miserable!" Down went Honor's head on her mother's shoulder, and the
tears fell fast.
Tears also fell on her dark head. Mrs. Bright's heart was wrung with
pity. She had said enough for the present, so now devoted herself to
soothing her beloved child's sorrow with her never-failing sympathy.
Honor was a good girl, and to be trusted entirely to look her trouble
squarely in the face and conquer it; and the mother's heart was lifted
in prayer that she might be enabled to aid and strengthen her child.
It was very shortly after this that war broke out, and there was so much
to think of and talk about in the Station, that private affairs were
temporarily set aside. The newspapers were read eagerly in detail;
correspondence with dear ones over the seas was quickened with new
interest; and everyone, even in such a little place as Muktiarbad, found
plenty to do to help in the common cause. War-work parties were
organised, at which the ladies engaged in knitting woollen comforts for
the troops, and in making up parcels to be dispatched to the front and
to prisoners in Germany; and every member had some bit of war news to
discuss with the others at the Club as they rested from their games
under the waving _punkha_.
"It will drive me silly," Tommy had said from the first, "if I have to
loaf about in a place like this when all my pals and school
contemporaries have volunteered, or are in the thick of it, doing their
bit."
"You are doing your bit, just as any one who is killing Germans," said
Mrs. Ironsides who had returned from Darjeeling. "What is to become of
us all, if all medically fit civil officers are sent to fight? Why, we
should be murdered in our beds, if it were not for the Police!"
Tommy thought he would cheerfully risk Mrs. Ironsides being murdered in
her bed, if the Government would only allow him to serve "for the
duration"; and he continued to send in applications for leave to join
up, with a persistency worthy of the Great Cause, in the hopes that
constant dripping would wear away the stony indifference with which they
were treated.
One evening, towards the end of September, Captain Dalton sought Honor
at the Club. He had news for her, the gravity of which shadowed his
deep-set eyes and heightened the grim setting of his jaw.
In a room full of people engrossed in one another, he gravitated to her,
as usual, but surprised her by asking her to grant him a few words in
private. "Come out with me to the tennis courts," he commanded with a
definiteness she felt powerless to slight.
It was dark on the tennis courts with only a young moon shining;
nevertheless, Honor accompanied him forth, realising the fatefulness of
the coming interview. When they had reached the shadow of the Duranta
hedge that separated the courts from the building, and were seated on a
bench, he told her in a few words that he had decided to comply with her
wishes in the matter of his wife. It had taken him two months to bring
himself to the point of making the sacrifice, but at last it was made.
"Of course I am doing it to please you. You have set your heart on
helping Joyce Meredith, and as this is the only way, it shall be done
though it takes a mighty effort in the doing. I am writing to tell her
that she may return to my protection openly, as my wife; but, needless
to say, my wife only in name. If it will give her a chance to right
herself in the eyes of the world and help her to live as an honest
woman, she is welcome to make the fullest use of my offer. It certainly
might keep her from tampering further with Meredith's loyalty to his
wife. But I question whether it is not too late!"
"It is never too late!" said Honor, feeling numb and paralysed.
"That will be up to Mrs. Meredith. She is an unsophisticated little
thing, and, I dare say, Meredith will keep his mouth shut."
It was plain to judge that he was again full of envy of other men's
chances of happiness, for his tones reminded Honor of the man he was
when they first met. It was too dark to see his face.
"If she accepts your offer will she come here?" Honor asked shrinkingly.
"She will have to if she comes at once. But I expect soon to be put on
active service. My application to serve with the Army is receiving
consideration, and it is possible I shall have to go to France or Egypt
as there may be trouble with Turkey. In that case she will choose her
residence. Another medical officer will occupy my bungalow."
So it had come at last!
Honor had been fearing that the war would, in its relentlessness, claim
him also. It was said in the papers that there was a scandalous shortage
of surgeons for a war of such magnitude.
Suddenly she was seized with shivering. "You will go and we shall never
meet again!" fell from her lips independent of her will.
Dalton took her with determination in his arms and kissed her
passionately on the lips. "My own love!" he moaned over her. "My
precious one!"
This was what her mother had meant when she had spoken of her becoming,
in time, too weak to resist. For the moment her will was as weak as
water; she could only cling to him and yield to their mutual craving for
demonstrations of love. It was wrong, of course,--but, even so, it was
heaven so long as they could banish memory and think only of the joy of
enfolding arms, the meeting of loving lips!
"I shall be going away and we might never meet again!" he echoed her
words in passionate despair. "Pity me a little, when we meet, and let us
be happy! Promise!"
"I dare not promise," she cried, quivering with emotion in his arms. "I
love you, but help me to do right!"
For some time neither spoke while Dalton seemed struggling with the
might of his desire. They rested on the iron bench wrapped in each
other's arms, speechless for many moments till the peacefulness and
silence of the night brought them sanity and calm. Then, kissing her
once more with the tenderness of renunciation, he put her aside and rose
to his feet.
"I wonder you care for such a worthless hound as myself!" he said at
length. "I have no self-control. Go in, darling, I am going home to
scourge myself for attempting to lead you against the dictates of your
conscience. Forgive me, Honey, I was mad!"
Honor left him, shaken in every nerve, her self-confidence shattered.
"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall!" But it
rejoiced her that Brian Dalton had fought his battle with himself alone,
and had conquered. How much his appreciation of her high sense of honour
had contributed to his victory, she would never know.