Part 42 (2/2)
She had paid her outrageous bill, left orders concerning her outrageous luggage, and walked out of the hotel almost unnoticed, because of the witchery of her most gracious manner which served to make her path easy--where men were concerned of course; and without let or hindrance she had cashed an outrageous cheque at her bank which left a few rupees to her credit, and had walked through the building to give orders as to her mail, and ask advice of the fair-haired, courteous young Englishman who rose from his table as she turned away with the sweetest words of thanks for the trouble he had taken in finding out for her how to get quickly to the Sunderbunds.
”I wonder why she's going there, of all places, in this infernal heat, and in such a desperate hurry, and I wonder if she's going alone!” he said half aloud as he drew beetles on his blotting-paper, and frowned as somebody, breathless from heat, sank heavily into the chair on the other side and slapped some doc.u.ments on to the table.
Leonie was acting quite subconsciously in all she did on that blazing morning.
Which does not mean that she was still walking in her sleep with her eyes wide open, or that she was not aware of her own movements.
Not at all. She was wide awake with a fixed determination to get to the temple in the Sunderbunds as quickly as she could.
Why?--well, who knows?
As far as the dream was concerned her mind had been a perfect blank when she had awakened the previous night groping over the plastered walls; but branded across it, in letters of blood, had been the one word Sunderbunds, standing out clearly against the fog which surrounded something terrible she could not understand. No, she did not understand, but she knew that everywhere she looked she saw the lettering; and that every sound she heard, the soft slur of the lift, the throb of the motor engine, the call of the indefatigable kite, cried the one word aloud; and that in some inexplicable way the resistless summons was connected with the man she loved.
What was she to know of the working of an eastern mind in the secret places of a Hindu temple?
Neither did it strike her as strange that a taxi, with its flag up for hire, should be standing opposite the bank door, blocking the way for arriving vehicles; or that, having persistently refused many irate would-be hirers, and patiently listened to the asperity of their remarks, the driver should have opened the door and held it back as she walked straight across the pavement, got in, and, without hesitating gave the address of the Whiteway Laidlaw Company.
It might have seemed odd to a stranger; still more odd would it have appeared to any chance pa.s.ser-by if they had overheard the following short conversation as Leonie got out at the shop.
”Can you drive me afterwards to Kulna?” she asked in her best but inefficient Hindustani.
”Even so, mem-sahib,” promptly replied the lithe, good-looking son of the East as he salaamed. ”If the mem-sahib will pardon her servant he would advise driving to Jessore and resting the night there at the dak bungalow, that is if the mem-sahib is not in too great haste!”
Leonie frowned, only understanding half of what was said.
”Don't you speak English?”
”No, mem-sahib; but my brother, who lives near the New Market but a minute's drive from here, speaks the mem-sahib's language. Also, he is a good bearer, having travelled widely. If the mem-sahib permits, I will call him to accompany her on her journey to Jessore.”
”Very well!” said Leonie, beckoning to a boy, who sprang towards her with a huge basket which, for a few annas, he would carry round the entire building after her, and into which she would throw her purchases of all sizes and shapes.
He emerged some time later jubilantly staggering with basket and hands full.
What a priceless mem-sahib who had not once complained about the price!
The brother had materialised! Oh, those brothers and fathers, and mothers and sisters, and all those relations who are always so strangely near at hand in India!
”If I may offer a suggestion,” said the soft voice in the delightfully choice English of the educated native of India who has sojourned in England, ”it would be that we drive only to Jessore, stopping at Bongong dak bungalow for tiffin. If the mem-sahib is sight-seeing, I will arrange everything in the most convenient and pleasant manner for her. From here to Kulna in one day would be a long and wearisome journey in this great heat.”
Leonie half turned with the slightest frown as she pa.s.sed her hand over her eyes.
Once again had come that suggestion of something familiar--a suggestion too fleeting to be caught.
”You can do exactly as you think best as long as I start for the Sunderbunds to-morrow morning.”
”The public boat does not start for three days, mem-sahib.”
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