Part 48 (2/2)

'The very man I want!' said Ram Nath in English, with such an elaborate lack of surprise at Chris's costume that the latter felt instantly that it was known, and had been discussed in Shark Lane. 'If you will wait a moment, I will walk--er--back with you.' The hesitancy showed that something else was known also, and Chris felt a faint resentment come to lessen his forlornness as he waited while Ram Nath disappeared towards the temple and reappeared again wiping his hands daintily with a hemst.i.tched pocket-handkerchief.

'We of the world,' he explained as he tucked his arm English fas.h.i.+on into Chris Davenant's, 'have to keep in touch with the priests. You disagree, I know; but I hold you wrong. We are driven to acquiesce in much we think untrue in order to keep our hold on the ma.s.ses. What other hold have we but their ignorance, if they deny our wisdom?'

The forlornness deepened again round poor Chris. Here was the Swami's argument upside down.

'What was it you wanted to see me about?' he asked resignedly, feeling that he could not go on with that subject.

'About this afternoon,' began Ram Nath, and Chris stared blankly.

What! was it possible! his companion continued; had he forgotten that the afternoon was to see the realisation of their long-cherished project of founding an Anglo-Vernacular College? It came back to Chris then, and he hastened to deny what had really been the case; whereupon Ram Nath went on, mollified. At the last moment, it seemed, some one had remembered that Lady Arbuthnot--who had kindly consented to lay the stone--ought to be presented with a bouquet; and Hafiz Ahmad had claimed the honour for his wife, thereby raising so much jealousy in Shark Lane that he, Ram Nath, thought the only solution of the difficulty was to intrust the giving to Mrs. Chris, as wife of the Vice-President of the Managing Committee (Chris heard himself so described with a sense of absolute bewilderment); only, of course, it might not, perhaps, be convenient now.

Chris came back to sudden perception of the other's meaning.

'She will be very glad,' he said quickly; 'I will tell her when I go home.'

It was done in a moment; but Chris felt his dream to be madder than ever as he realised that his afternoon's occupation would be standing in a frock-coat simpering, while Viva presented a bouquet. How prettily she would do it! How beautifully she would be dressed! Then in the evening? In the evening would the Swami come and ask for an answer?

Meanwhile, Ram Nath was full of relief. That would settle the difficulty; really a most serious one, since nothing must mar the harmony of the memorable occasion. It would be singularly appropriate too, because, in order to ensure a large attendance, it had been arranged to hold an Extraordinary Chapter of the 'National Guild for Encouraging Comrades.h.i.+p,' to which most of the English officials and their wives belonged. In fact, it was to be a memorable occasion, and one that would fully justify our popular Lieutenant-Governor in, for the nonce, waving his rule against Sunday ceremonials in order to allow all employees to be present. Having here cut in on the lines of the speech he had prepared for the afternoon, Ram Nath was fluency itself, and went on and on quite contentedly, while Chris, absorbed in that vision of himself in a frock-coat, listened without hearing. After all, which was the real Krishn Davenund, which the ideal? One was the older certainly; but change must come to all things.

They had reached the river steps by this time, and he paused--making Ram Nath pause also--to look down on a scene which had not changed a hair-breadth in essentials for thousands of years. Yet Chris Davenant's eye noted one change of detail, in a moment, as a woman pa.s.sed him on her way to fill her waterpot. There was a new sort of amulet on her wrist; an amulet made out of a bra.s.s cartridge casing. He glanced round quickly to see if other women were wearing it, and, by so doing, recognised rather a momentous fact; namely, that there were singularly few women to be seen, and that all who were, belonged to the working cla.s.s.

He turned to Ram Nath instantly and pointed out both signs, as to one who ought to know their value. 'What is up?' he said briefly. 'You must have seen these amulets being sold, as I did. Is it a trick? and who is doing it? and why?'

His companion shrugged his shoulders. 'The priests, I should say--it is on a par with the paper which fell from heaven. There is always something. You think we ought to protest; but why? Such manifestations of the temper of the ma.s.ses strengthen the hands of the Opposition by engendering a fear of resistance in the Government, and so making for the considerate treatment at which we aim. It is not as if such trivialities could do harm.'

'They might--there is some hope of mischief behind them--there must be----'

'Mischief!' echoed Ram Nath acutely; 'you know as well as I that there are many folk in Nushapore whose only hope lies in mischief, and here comes one of them.' He pointed to Burkut Ali, who, accompanied by a servant carrying a bundle of kites, was pa.s.sing towards the bastion beyond the bridge. He was followed by other claimants to the 'Sovereignty of Air,' which was due to be decided that evening after the kites had been chosen and entered for the compet.i.tion. Ram Nath looked after the faded brocades contemptuously. 'Poor devils!' he said--as an Englishman might have said it--'one cannot help pitying them, and yet, between ourselves, if we were in power we couldn't do anything else with them; though, of course, as the Opposition, it does not do to say so! But to return to our argument. Believe me, the ignorant ma.s.ses are helpless without a lead, and we, the educated party, will not give it towards anything unconst.i.tutional.'

'But others might. Burkut Ali, for instance.'

'Burkut Ali? Not to-day, at any rate! He will be occupied in the Sovereignty of Air--really an appropriate employment, is it not?'

replied Ram Nath lightly. 'And as we--and all Nushapore which carries any weight--will be otherwise engaged also, this affair of amulets--even if there is anything in it--will be like the heaven-sent paper by tomorrow. I, at any rate, know of no reason why this should not be so,' he added a trifle resentfully, seeing the look on his companion's face, 'and if I don't, who should? Well! good-bye, if you are not coming on.'

Chris felt doubly relieved; partly at the almost unhoped-for straightforwardness of Ram Nath's words, but mostly because he had been growing conscious during the conversation of the fact that, wherever he might find comrades.h.i.+p, it was not here. Still in that same weary bewilderment, therefore, he seated himself on the uppermost step and looked down to where, in the deep shadow of the archway of _Mai_ Kali's temple, he could just see--above the heads of a little crowd listening to a declaiming priest--a hint of the idol's red outstretched arms.

They brought back to him, in an instant, the sense of his own personal powerlessness. Gripped on either side by East and West, what could he do? In the afternoon a frock-coat! In the evening the Swami with his question! How should he, how _could_ he answer it? How could he condemn Naraini to a living death? How could he give up the past with its good and evil, the future with its evil and its good? Putting himself aside, for the truth's sake, what ought he to do? G.o.d! how powerless he was!

_Mai_ Kali's widespread arms seemed to close on him, to choke him.

Till suddenly, a swift vitality came back to him, as a whistle--mellow as a blackbird's--made itself heard behind him. He turned with a smile, with a sense of relief, knowing it was Jan-Ali-shan.

It was. Jan-Ali-shan coming to feed the monkeys. Jan-Ali-shan looking marvellously spruce, alert, self-respecting, seeing that most of his night's rest had been on a brick stair!

'Mornin', sir!' he said, touching his cap decorously; but his hand lingered to hide a smile, as he added with deep concern, 'Ain't lost nothin' more o' your wardrobe to-day, sir, I hope?' Then his recollections got the better of his politeness, and the laugh came openly. 'Beg pardin, sir, I'm sure, but wen I think o' 'ole 'Oneyman and them pants--oh! Lordy Lord!'

The recollection, however, brought more than amus.e.m.e.nt to poor Chris, who, in truth, felt as if he had lost everything. It brought a sense of grateful comrades.h.i.+p, and there was quite a tremble in his voice, a mist in his eyes, as he said, 'It's all very well to laugh, but you saved my life that day, Ellison; you know you did. I've often thought of it since----'

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