"Unpopular! Why?" asked Belle in surprise. "I thought you said it would improve the condition of the people immensely."
"After a time. However it is no use discussing it; I shall write to Marsden and say,--well, I shall say, chiefly, that I also am filled with pious and benevolent intentions, but that I desire a free hand.
Meanwhile, as I see from Philip"s letter that Afzul has been priming you with pity which you have been handing on, I wish you wouldn"t.
Give the old man as much money as you like, of course; but don"t egg my partner on to socialism, there"s a good girl." He looked very bright and handsome as he bent over and kissed her. "Do you know, Belle," he said, laughingly, "you are the most transparent fraud in creation. I believe you set the old man on to Marsden; now didn"t you?"
She flushed scarlet. "I only told Afzul when he was speaking of it that the best way was to write a pet.i.tion. And Philip was an old friend."
"Just so; but we don"t want old friends, or new ones either, to interfere. I"m manager of this factory, and I intend to manage it my own way."
"Do you mean without consulting Philip"s wishes?"
He turned round on her sharply as he was leaving the room. "That is about it. He knows nothing of business, and should be glad to have some one to act for him who does."
There was, as usual, so much sound common sense in her husband"s words that Belle tried to crush down the dissatisfaction she could not help feeling at the idea of Philip being made responsible for actions of which he might know nothing. After all, had it really come to this, that she did not trust her husband to behave uprightly? The thought was poison to all peace, and she thrust it aside in horror at its very appearance. Yet a new element of trouble had entered into life and she found herself, quite unconsciously, keeping ears and eyes open for things which she had previously ignored. This did not escape her husband"s keen sight, and in his light, half-serious way he rallied her on this newly-developed interest in the business. The fact was they were beginning to understand each other too well; and now and again a tone came into John"s voice which sent the blood to her heart in a throb of fear and made her grovel, positively grovel, before her ideal of wifely duty. Then her husband would recover his careless good-nature, and the household run so smoothly that even Belle"s high-strung nerves scarcely felt a jolt.
So the spring came, bringing to the garden a rush of blossom well-nigh impossible of description to those accustomed to slow northern lands.
Belle could have picked clothes-baskets full of Marechal Niel roses from the bushes and yet have left them burdened with great yellow cups. The pomegranates glowed with a scarlet positively dazzling to the eyes; the gardenias were all too strongly scented; the bees and b.u.t.terflies drugged themselves with honey from the wild tangle of overgrown, overblown annuals which, forgetting their trim English habit, usurped the very paths by thickets of mignonette, sweet pea, dianthus, and a host of other familiar flowers. Belle, walking round her domain in the early morning when the nightly gift of dew still lay on the leaves, used to wonder how serpents could creep into such a paradise. The very isolation of the life had an irresistible charm.
What was the use of worrying about ideas? Where was the good of fretting over the mischances of that world which lay beyond this calm retreat?
Suddenly, however, that world a.s.serted its existence. She had still kept up her habit of morning rides, and though her husband was now up with the dawn, he was far too much absorbed in his work to accompany her save when business sent him beyond his own boundaries. Even then she began to notice his excuses for escaping her companionship, and when in her drowsy content she went so far as to express a half-jesting remonstrance, he would reply in the same tone, that he had no intention of slaving forever; and that this was his working day. By and by, when he had turned Marsden adrift, and could have the whole thing to himself,--why, he meant to have it and enjoy it.
Meanwhile it was much pleasanter for her to ride along the river bank and through the inundation lands, than in the dust southwards where his business took him so often. But this level expanse of bare fruitless soil had an attraction for Belle; and one day, losing her way on it, she made for the landmark of a village on the horizon, and thus found herself considerably beyond her usual distance from home.
It was a village with poverty and sloth written on the blistered, rain-marked, mud walls, and in the absence of fuel-heaps and thorn-enclosures. A sorry forsaken spot it was, despite the swarm of low-bred-looking brats who came out to stare at her as she rode at a foot"s pace through the widest lane. A woman stood slouching at the entrance to a courtyard, and Belle, pausing, asked her the way to Nilgunj. The scowl on the face raised to hers startled her, so did the words. "Are you Raby"s _mem?_"
Her answering a.s.sent met a rude reception in the curt recommendation to find the way herself, accompanied by a sudden closing of the door.
Then came a shrill clamour of voices from within, and one by one, over the alley walls, dark disapproving faces full of angry curiosity. The display of hostility might have gone no further if her horse, restive at being checked and, no doubt, disliking the crowd of children following close on its heels, had not sidled and backed, putting the young imps to hustling flight. This was naturally the signal for shrieks and abuse from the mothers, and though a touch of the whip recalled her beast to duty, humanity was not so reasonable. A little ragam.u.f.fin took up a piece of dirt and threw it after her; the others approved, and though fear of her horse"s heels kept the little arms at a comparatively safe distance, Belle Raby had nevertheless to submit to the indignity of riding through the village pursued by pelting urchins, and by no means pleasant abuse from over the walls. Her indignation was greater than her fear or even than her surprise, and the scornful glance with which she met the angry eyes on a level with her own silenced more than one of the tongues. But for a sense that it would have been undignified, she would dearly have loved to dismount, seize one of the ringleaders, and administer summary justice. The possible meaning of this unusual reception did not strike her until, emerging from the village still pursued by her tormentors, she came straight upon her husband. His look, as he recognised the position, filled her with alarm; and there was something in it of such absolutely uncontrolled pa.s.sion and hatred, that it flashed upon her that he, at least, must have good reason to understand the scene.
"John! don"t do anything, please don"t!" she cried as he threw himself from his horse. "They are only children."
"I"m not going to run after those little demons, if you mean that," he replied, giving her the reins of his mount to hold; "but they have parents, I suppose. I"ll be back in a moment. Don"t be afraid, Belle; they are curs, every one of them. But they shall pay for this, in more ways than one."
He came out five minutes afterwards, followed by a protesting and most venerable looking pantaloon, representative of that past age in which a white face was, verily, a sign of kingship. He took no notice of the lavish appeals and apologies, but, putting his note-book in his pocket, remounted. "I"m sorry you came this way," he said as they rode off; "but, as I often say, you have a faculty for getting into mischief which is surprising in such an eminently virtuous person as you are, Belle. However, you mustn"t do it again. In fact I should prefer your keeping to my land for the next two or three months."
Belle, given time to think, had lost much of her courage in dismay at this most unexpected insight into the world beyond her gates. Could such a state of affairs be necessary? "Why,--" she began.
"My dear child, don"t ask _me_ why! I can"t supply reason to these pig-headed brutes. And don"t, for goodness" sake, make a fuss over it, and bring Marsden"s soft-heartedness down on me just when I need to have a free hand. I told you I should be unpopular, and I am; that is the long and short of it; more unpopular than need be, for somehow the people have got an idea that I could help if I chose. Why didn"t Marsden put their appeals in the waste paper basket, as I do, instead of raising hopes by referring to me?"
"Has he been referring to you?"
Her husband looked at her and laughed. "I"m not going to give myself away in confidence. As I said before, I"m awfully sorry you came out this way and chanced on that village. It is the worst about here. For all that, there is no need for any anxiety, I a.s.sure you. Afzul and his bandits are worth a hundred of these curs; and once the people see I am a man of my word, they will come in sharp enough."
"But if Philip--"
"Bother Philip! He is a trump of course, but I think he has mixed himself up a little too much in this business. I shall be glad when he is out of it."
"Surely if you were to explain--"
"My dear Belle, explanation is nothing to demonstration. In six weeks"
time, when the first flood comes, I shall prove myself right, and waltz in, hands down, an easy winner. That is to say if n.o.body fouls me now out of goodness, and righteousness, and all charitableness."
It was one thing to be told this, another to find comfort in it, and as the days pa.s.sed Belle grew more and more uneasy. She felt sure all could not be fair and square; that there must be some antagonistic element at work to make the unpopularity so intense. Perhaps because she watched for it so keenly, it seemed to her that discontent showed itself more and more freely on the faces of the people she did meet in her now limited walks. One evening she had a bad five minutes listening to a row in the coolies" quarters with her husband"s clear voice dominating the clamour. She was still pale when he came whistling through the garden as if nothing had happened. It was only, he said, a war of words between Kirpo and Afzul. There had always been a jealousy between them; the latter declaring that such a hideous female was not worthy to touch any man"s bread, for the former had risen by favour from mere cooliedom, to act as cook for a gang of Hindu workers; the woman retorting that the hillmen were no better than pirates, ready, despite their professions of horror at meats prepared by idolaters, to steal her supplies if her back was turned.
Afzul had of late been growing idle and uppish; so John had sided with Kirpo in this particular dispute.
"I think Kirpo is rather uppish too," replied Belle. "I heard her ordering some of the men about as if she was their mistress."
Her husband laughed easily. "Just like a native! The fact being that Kirpo is useful to me at present, by giving me information I can rely upon; and she presumes on the fact. When the floods have come I shall be able to dispense with her,--with a variety of things, in fact. I shall not be sorry; I hate being beholden to people."
Belle bent her head over her work and sewed faster. "I don"t like Afzul, I don"t like Kirpo, and I like the unpopularity least of all.
Oh, John, could you not give way a little? I am sure Philip--"
"Now look here, Belle, I said just now that I hated being beholden to any one, and you yourself made enough to-do when I borrowed this money from Marsden. And you"ve fussed and worried about it ever since, because you think he consented for your sake. Perhaps he did; and so I mean to show him he should have consented for his own. I call that a laudable ambition which should satisfy your pride. Now in my opinion the only road to success lies my way. That, I think, should settle the matter once and for all. Of course I am not infallible; but, unless something very unexpected turns up, you will be laughing at your own fears this time two months. Now, as I told Kirpo to come up to the office as soon as it was dark, let me get some peace and quiet first.
I think Haydn would suit me to-day; there is no forced sentiment in him, jolly old chap!"
So Belle played Haydn, and John dozed in his chair till the darkness settled deep enough to hide Kirpo as she stole through bye-paths to the office verandah. There, behind a creeper-hung pillar, she waited till John"s tall figure showed itself at the writing-table. Then she went forward, and raising the bamboo _chick_ said softly: "I am here, _Huzoor!_"
"All right! Come in and shut the door."
Some one hiding in the oleander bushes in full view of this incident muttered a curse, and settled himself down in a new position. So what Shunker had said was true, and, disfigured as she was, Kirpo still kept her hold on the _shaitan sahib_. But for a promise he had made to the usurer not to antic.i.p.ate the great revenge brewing for John Raby"s discomfiture, Ramu (for it was he, once more out of prison) would have asked nothing better than to have waited patiently till Kirpo appeared again, and then in the darkness to have fallen on her and killed her outright. As it was he sat with eyes fixed on the door, controlling his pa.s.sion by the thought of future and less hazardous revenge upon them both. He had a long knife tucked away in his waistcloth, but it seemed to him as if he could feel its sharp edge and see its gleaming curve plunging into flesh. Truly a venomous, dangerous animal to be lurking among the white oleanders in Belle"s paradise, as she sat playing Haydn, and John, with a contemptuous smile on his face, was listening to Kirpo"s tales. She knew a good deal did Kirpo, but not all. She did not know, for instance, that her husband lay among the oleanders, else she might have hesitated in playing the part of spy; though she was no coward, and her revengeful desires were keen.
By and by she came out, and a crouching, shadowy figure followed her through the garden, and then struck across the barren plain to the village which John Raby had described as the worst of the lot; the village of which Belle used persistently to dream; the village where even the children looked at her with eyes of hate. Her husband did not dream of anything. He used to sleep the sleep of the just, and wake fresh as a lark to the pursuit of the one reality in his life,--money.
And even in its pursuit he was content, because it occupied him so thoroughly that he had no time to notice minor details. Sometimes Belle irritated him, but the instant after he would smile; it was a way women, especially good women, had,--they could not help it.
Sometimes he fell foul in spirit of his senior partner, but not for long. What were such trivialities in comparison with the main fact of general success? Belle was a good wife, Marsden a good friend; above all, the concern was a good concern, a rattling good business; and he, John Raby, had plucked the plum out of Shunker"s very hands. That last thought was always provocative of a smile.
Meanwhile the Lala was smiling too. The reappearance of Ramu,--who seemed to keep all his virtue for the purpose of procuring a ticket-of-leave,--had considerably strengthened the usurer"s hands by providing him with one absolutely reckless tool. When the time came for setting fire to the carefully laid train he would not have to seek for a match; and that, when one had to deal with these slow-brained peasants, was a great gain. With such a leader he looked forward confidently to mischief sooner or later. Kirpo might tell tales, but there were some tales Shunker meant to keep secret, till the right moment came for turning pa.s.sive opposition into active interference.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Belle"s paradise did not last long. In less than three weeks the hot winds came to shrivel the bursting buds and turn even the promise of blossom into a sign of death. The sunshine took a deeper yellow glow, the blue faded from the sky, an impalpable dust began to settle on all things. Down in the sand stretches below the house the net-work of the river grew finer day by day, and the mudbanks left by shrinking streams a.s.sumed airs of perpetuity by clothing themselves with green herbs, as if the time of floods were not nigh to swallow them up once more. All else, far and near, seemed fainting in a great thirst, longing for the crisis which was to bring them life.
But Belle, though the floods had not yet come, felt one calm still morning as if the waters had gone over her head, and she had no power to resist the current which swept her from her feet. It was a trivial thing which roused the feeling; only a word or two in one of Philip"s letters which she held in her hand as she stood beside her husband"s writing-table.
"I quite admit it, my dear girl," he was saying calmly. "Marsden has written to me on that subject several times, and I have replied as I thought fit. It is quite possible I may have given him the impression I was willing, or even that I was going, to do more than has really been done. What then?"
"Only this," she replied hotly; "that you have degraded him in the eyes of these people. He promised inquiry and--"
"He had no business to promise anything. He referred it to me, and he has no right to complain of my decision."
"He does not complain! When has he ever complained?" she interrupted, trying hard to keep the pa.s.sion from her voice. "You can read what he says, if you like. He thinks,--I do not ask how--that you have done your best."
"Exactly! I _have_ done my best for the business."
"He did not mean that. Oh, John, the shame of it will kill me! To take everything from a man, even his honour and good name--"
"You don"t appear to be so much concerned about mine. But I promised to pay Philip back his money in two years, and I mean to do it. Be reasonable, my dear child. Some one must take the responsibility; some one must take the odium which is unfortunately inseparable from success. Why should you complain because I take it cheerfully?"
Belle crushed the letter closer in vexed despair. "I can never make you understand! Do you not see it is a question of right and wrong?