Part 23 (1/2)

But then he could make the latter for less than they could at the regimental factory, where they had to use filters, and satisfy the inspecting doctor that everything was according to rule and regulation; just as they had to satisfy him at the regimental dairies that the few drops of milk given to the soldier in barracks were as pure as care could make them.

The purity, of course, raised the price of milk to the authorities; but they did not grudge the expense to themselves in such a good cause.

Besides, if the soldiers wanted more milk--and some of the boys fresh out from home were still young enough to prefer a tumbler of it to one of bad spirit and tepid soda--there was always plenty of the cheaper quality to be bought at the sweetmeat shops.

And of these, as well as of fruit shops and sherbet shops, there were many in the bazaar where Miss Leezie and her kind lodged in the upper stories; so that either above or below, the dwellers in the barracks round the corner could find enough to satisfy the appet.i.te.

Therefore the smell of carbolic was conscientiously mingled with that of decaying melon rinds, sour milk, drains, and musk; and the outcome of the atmosphere was left to Providence.

The immediate result was not savoury; especially in the low stuffy room, as yet shut out from the light and air of the balcony by wadded _portieres_, in which a woman, lounging in one corner, was idly allowing her fingers to flirt on the parchment of a drum--one of those small, quaint drums shaped like Time's hour-gla.s.s, which produce what Grace Arbuthnot had told herself was the most restless sound on G.o.d's earth.

It had the same pa.s.sion of unrest, here in this squalid room, though it was scarcely loud enough to stir the air heavy with that horrible compound of smells.

The woman was Miss Leezie herself, as yet negligent in purely native _deshabille_; for the afternoon was still young, and she knew that custom would be late owing to the Artillery Sports. Indeed, she was going to them herself, by and by, with some of her apprentices, in a hired carriage. But she was not taking Sobrai; for Sobrai was wilful, oddly attractive withal, and therefore dangerous to the discipline of cantonments. With an evil tongue also, so that Miss Leezie looked over in lazy anger to the opposite corner of the room, whence a shrill a.s.sertion that the speaker would not be put upon had just risen.

'Then thou hadst best go back to the city and Dilaram, fool!' said the mistress of the house sharply; 'for if thou stayest here, it must be to walk sober, as we all do, to the time of the fifes and drums. My house hath a good name, and I will not have it given an ill one for all the apprentices in Nushapore. So if thou wilt not obey, go! There be plenty of that sort, unlicensed, beyond the boundaries. But we are different; we are approved!'

She leant back with palpable pride against a wall which found its only purification from the rub of red coats, and that civilised flavouring of carbolic in the smell of drains and garbage.

Sobrai scowled sulkily. She had set her heart on going to the sports in a conglomerate attire of white flounced muslin, tight silk trousers, nose-ring and kid gloves; preferably on the roof of the hired green box on wheels within which Miss Leezie would sit in dignified state.

'I did not come hither to rot within four walls? I could have done that in the city,' she shrilled, louder still.

'Hold thy peace, idiot!' interrupted Miss Leezie, 'if thou dost dare to raise a commotion now, when at any moment the Lat-_sahib_ himself may come driving past, 'twill be the worse for thee!'

'Wah! thou canst do nothing,' answered Sobrai; feeling cowed, despite the a.s.sertion, by Miss Leezie's tone.

'Nothing!' echoed the latter, with a hideous laugh. 'Nay, sister, such as thou art at the mercy of a whisper. I have but to make it, and out thou goest, neck and crop, to the sound of the fifes and drums. Nay, more'; she rose slowly, and with the hour-gla.s.s of bent wood and parchment in her hand crossed to stand in front of the sullen figure, and go on drumming softly in imitation of a march. Then after a glance at the other drowsy figures in the room, she leant down to the girl's ear to repeat savagely--'Ay! and more. I can put thee in, as well as turn thee out. Put thee in the four walls of a real prison. Remember the stolen pearls, Sobrai!'

The girl laughed defiantly, cunningly. 'Lo! hast thou thought of _that_ at last? but I am no fool, Leezie. I counted the cost ere I gave them in payment to thee. See you, _thy_ blame for receiving them is as _mine_ for taking them. That is the _sahib's_ law. And then, who is to say they are stolen? Not Jehan. He would not own his loss, if the owning meant that the city should know one of his women, Sobrai Begum, princess, was in Miss Leezie's house. That would be dishonour, for all it hath such a good name!'

She essayed a giggle, but it failed before the coa.r.s.e sensuous face, where the _blanc de perle_ of full dress still lingered in almost awful contrast to the veil of Eastern modesty.

'Listen, fool!' replied the past mistress in the rules and regulations within which vice is safer than virtue. 'Listen, and quit striving.

Thou art mine. Not only as those others,' she flirted her hand from the drum to the dozing girls, 'whom fear of the fife and drum keeps in my power. I would not have taken thee without other leading strings, knowing thee as I do--wilful, ay! and clever too, girl--with patience, sure to do well'--she threw this sop in carelessly.--'But I found the reins to my hand. Or ever I took thy pearls, I knew there were more than Jehan's amissing; for the police come ever to us first.'

'More than Jehan's?' echoed Sobrai stupidly. 'What then?'

'This,' whispered Miss Leezie fiercely. 'Those four paltry pearls shall not be Jehan's leavings on the carpet, but earnest for the whole string of the same set; mark you, the same set,' she laughed maliciously, 'which thou didst steal from the Lady-_sahib_. It is all in the power of the police, and they are my friends. So if thou dost so much as raise thy voice, I will raise mine.'

'From the Lady-_sahib_,' faltered Sobrai, aghast.

'Ay, from the Lady--_sahib_. Hark! that will be the Lat himself coming to satisfy himself all is as it should be. Shall I tell him now, when I make my _salaam_ as is due, or wilt thou promise?'

She paused, her hand on the _portiere_, ere going into the balcony, and waited for a sign of surrender from Sobrai.

'But it is not true'--protested the latter.

Miss Leezie laughed. 'As true as aught thou canst bring; since, as thou sayest, Jehan will not own up. Quick! shall I speak?'

Sobrai sate stunned, silent, then dropped her head between her knees.