Part 20 (1/2)
Truly a sight never to be forgotten; a sight well worth a pilgrimage.
And then some swift remembrance made him glance downwards, and he saw before him the bleached skeleton of a man. Something in the att.i.tude of it, the feet hidden in the lake made him stoop curiously to see what its sapphire surface covered.
What was it?
He stood looking down into the rippling water that whispered and whispered to the flowers ceaselessly, for some time; then he turned and climbed the hill again.
But, even if he had taken anything with him to M[=a]nasa Sarovara, he left it behind him there beside the skeleton of a man with curiously deformed feet. But the blisters had gone.
RETAINING FEES
It is not always on rocks and rapids that the c.o.c.kle sh.e.l.l of human happiness meets with the direst s.h.i.+pwreck. Often in the quietest backwaters, where no current is, where not a ripple disturbs the still surface, disaster so absolute, so overwhelming comes, that the very tragedy of it sinks out of sight also, unrecognised, unrecorded.
Such a backwater was a little square of roof four pair back, in a tall tenement house in Lucknow, where one blazing hot day in June a buxom woman, with a yellow-skinned baby hitched to her hip outside the voluminous veil of dirty crushed calico, which for the present was mostly in folds about her feet, was haranguing three other women who sat working as for dear life in the hard unyielding shadow of the high walls, which were deemed necessary even here to shut out the possibility of prying eyes.
”What you need, honourable ladies,” finished Mussumet Jewuni decisively, ”is a 'bannister.'”
”A 'bannister!'” echoed the eldest of the three listeners. ”And what new-fangled thing is that?”
She did not slacken a second in her deft twirling of her distaff, neither did the others, despite their questioning eyes, relax their swift business. Indeed, as they sat in the shadows, the three might have served as a model for the Fates, since Khulasa Khanum span ceaselessly. Aftaba Khanum wound yarn on a circling bamboo frame, and Lateefa Khanum snipped with a very large pair of scissors at the s.h.i.+rt she was making; for, being many years younger than the others, her eyes were still fit for fine back-st.i.tching. Beautiful hazel eyes they were, too: large, soft, full of suns.h.i.+ne and shadow.
Jewuni dismissed one mouthful of betel nut and began on another ere she replied.
”A 'bannister' is a pleader, who, having been across the black water to London, knows new tricks wherewith to confound the old ones. 'Tis the only chance for justice, ladies. I know of such an one, and could bring him here to receive instruction, and mayhap there would be no need for the honourable ladies to answer in Court.”
Khulasa Khanum's hands froze in horror; she glanced anxiously towards Lateefa. ”Talk not like that before the child, woman!” she interrupted, almost fiercely. ”No strange man, as thou knowest, comes to this virtuous house, and no woman goes out of it.”
Both statements were absolutely true; these women, distant relations, yet bound to each other by the tie of a common poverty, a common wrong, had not set foot beyond that square of roof for years and no men--save those whose interest it was to keep them poor--had ever climbed the steep stair hole which showed like a cavernous shadow in the high back wall.
Yet Jewuni Begum laughed. She was a very different stamp of woman. Her oil-beplastered hair narrowing her forehead beyond even Nature's intention, and the soap curls at her silver and gold ta.s.selled ears were of a fas.h.i.+on which left little doubt as to her moral character; but, being a bottomless receptacle for the gossip of the whole town, owing to her husband's position as a paid tout at the Law Courts, the neighbourhood in general, and even that virtuous roof in particular, had left inquiry and condemnation alone for the present.
”Lo! Khanum!” she giggled, ”that is true enough, G.o.d knows; yet what avails it for reputation? None. 'Tis a rare joke, and I meant not to tell it thee; still, 'tis too good to be lost. In the Mirza's reply to the last pet.i.tion sent from this house for direct payment of the pension due to honourable ladies, it is written--my man saw it, and there was laughter among the writers, I will go bail--that the pet.i.tioners, being giddy young things, given to wanton ways, it is necessary for the honour of a princely family that they be held under restraint; such money as is due being expended lavishly, aye! and more, in securing the luxury due to gentlewomen of your estate.”
Here she herself went off into such chuckles that the yellow baby had to be s.h.i.+fted higher on her shaking side.
The three women ceased working, and looked at each other helplessly, while underneath their curiously fair skins a flush showed distinctly.
”Did they say that--of us?” asked Aftaba Khanum at last, in a faltering voice. Perhaps it was her occupation of winding hanks without tangle which made her always so keen to have all things clear.
”And of me?” echoed Khulasa faintly. Her old face had grown very grey, her hands, though they had ceased working, were no longer frozen; they trembled visibly.
Only Lateefa sat silent, a swift yet sullen anger on her still young face.
Jewuni giggled again. ”There was no distinction of decency, Khanum. But 'tis too bad, and that is why I spoke of a 'bannister' to confound such old tricks with new ones. However, 'tis no business of mine, only,” she paused in her conversation, and, going beside Lateefa, she lowered her voice, ”there is no need for st.i.tching s.h.i.+rts till shroud-time comes.
There be other ways, as I have told thee before, of earning money, aye!
enough even to pay a 'bannister's' fee, and get the truth made known.
So, if thou preferest to be as a hooded falcon, seeing nothing of the sport in life, sit and st.i.tch. If not, come to me and claim freedom--in all things.”