The India Fan (37 page)

He came forward and took both my hands.

rusilla! What a great pleasure.

He had aged quite a bit. He had lost that air of looking out on the world and finding it full of interest. There was a faint furrow between his eyes.

ow are you, Dougal?I asked.

He hesitated just for a second. h, well, thank you. And you?

he same,I said.

was delighted when I heard you were coming and so sorry to hear of your father.

es. It was a great sadness.

shall always remember those days when we talked together.A wistful look came into his eyes. It had always been easy to read Dougal thoughts though perhaps not always, for had I not believed at one time that he was growing fond of me? Fond of me he was. But not in the way I had thought.

And then Fabian came into the room and my attention was all for him.

He stood still, legs apart, studying me. But I was not able to read him as I did Dougal. I did see his mouth turn up a little at the corners as though he found something amusing in the fact that I was here.

ell,he said. iss Drusilla Delany. Welcome to India.

hank you,I said.

He had advanced, and he took my hands, looking intently into my face as he did so.

h still the same Miss Delany.

id you expect someone different?

was hoping I would find no change. And now I am content.He spoke lightly. hat did you think of the journey?

remendously interesting. A trifle uncomfortable, but a stimulating experience.

ou take a philosophical view, I see. I knew you would, of course. And I do hope the interest and stimulation outweighed the discomfort.

Lavinia had come into the room. Both men turned to her. She looked beautiful, with her hair dressed high on her head and her somewhat diaphanous gown clinging to her superb figure.

I immediately felt like an insignificant wren in the presence of a peacock.

Dougal went to her and they kissed perfunctorily. It was not what one would have expected from a husband and wife deprived of each other company for some months. I noticed the change in Dougal. He seemed apprehensive.

She turned to Fabian.

ell, sister,he was saying, ou seem to look better than ever. I guess you are delighted that Miss Drusilla has joined you.

Lavinia pouted. h, she disapproves of me, don you, Drusilla?

expect with reason,said Fabian.

rusilla would always be reasonable,added Dougal with an air of resignation.

f course, Drusilla is a paragon of virtue,said Lavinia mockingly.

ell, let us hope that you profit from her example,added Fabian.

e had better go in to dinner,said Dougal. reat Khansamah will be annoyed if we do not.

hen let us delay,said Fabian. believe that we should make the rules.

e can be very difficult in many ways,Dougal reminded him. He turned to me. e has complete control over the servants.

ll the same,protested Fabian, don intend to let him govern my life. But I suppose the food will be spoiled if we don go in. So perhaps Great Khansamah has reason on his side. We don want to give Miss Drusilla a bad impression, do we?

It was cool in the dining room large, salon-like place with French windows looking out onto a beautiful lawn with a pond, on which floated the familiar water lilies and lotus flowers. There was a faint hum in the air from the countless insects and I already knew that when the lamps were lighted the curtains would have to be drawn to prevent certain obnoxious creatures invading the room.

ou must tell us all about your journey,said Fabian.

I told them and mentioned our hazardous progress across the desert.

id you become friendly with any of your fellow passengers?asked Fabian. ne does on ships.

ell, there was a Frenchman. He was very helpful to us, but he was taken ill on the journey through the desert and we didn see him again. We met someone from the Company. You will know him, I expect. A Mr. Tom Keeping.

Fabian nodded. trust he was helpful.

h, very.

nd what do you think of India?asked Dougal.

feel I have seen very little of it so far.

verything is different here from in England,he said a little ruefully.

hat is what I expected.

The Great Khansamah had come into the room. He was dressed in a pale blue shirt over baggy white trousers; his puggaree was white and he wore a pair of dark red shoes of which, I discovered, he was very proud. He wore them with an air that was meant to imply that they were a sign of his great position.

verything is to the satisfaction,he said in a voice daring us to say that it was not.

Lavinia smiled at him warmly. t is very good,she told him. hank you.

nd the sahibs ?he said.

Fabian and Dougal told him that it was very satisfactory.

Then he bowed and retired.

e really has a great opinion of himself,murmured Dougal.

he trouble is,replied Fabian, o has the rest of the household.

hy is he so important?I asked.

e is employed by the Company. This is for him a permanent post. He regards the house as his and those of us who use it are merely his passing guests. That is how he sees it. Of course, he is very efficient. I suppose that is why he is tolerated.

think he will be easy to get along with,said Lavinia.

e will if he gets complete subservience,Fabian told her.

hich you resent,I said.

won have my life ruled by servants.

don think he sees himself as that,said Dougal. o himself he is the great Nabob, the ruler of us all.

here is something about him that makes me wary,said Fabian. f he becomes too arrogant I shall do my best to get him replaced. Now what news from home?

ou know the war is over,I asked.

t is about time, too.

hey have brought the men home from the Crimea and the nurses are looking after them. They did a wonderful job.

hanks to the redoubtable Miss Nightingale.

es,I said. t took a great deal of hard work to make people listen to her.

ell, the war is over,said Fabian. nd it ended in victory for us Pyrrhic victory, I fear. The losses were tremendous and the French and Russians suffered more than we did, I believe. But our losses were great.

hank Heaven it is all over,said Dougal.

t took us a long time,commented Fabian. nd I don think it has done us much good here.

ou mean in India?I asked.

hey watch closely what the British are doing and I have come to the conclusion that attitudes have changed a little since it started.

He was frowning as he looked into his glass.

Lavinia yawned. She said, believe the shops here are very much like those in Bombay.

Fabian laughed. nd that is a matter of the utmost importance, which you will no doubt quickly investigate.

hy should the attitude change because of a war far away?I asked.

Fabian leaned his arms on the table and looked intently at me. he Company has brought great good to India so we think. But it is never easy for one country to impose its customs on another. Even though the changes in some cases may be for the better, there is necessarily a certain resentment.

here is undoubtedly resentment here,agreed Dougal.

nd it alarms you?I asked.

ot exactly,replied Fabian. ut I think we have to be watchful.

s that one of the reasons why the despotic rule of the Great Khansamah is tolerated?

see you have grasped the situation very quickly.

h, Drusilla is so clever,said Lavinia. ar cleverer than I could ever be.

ou do show a certain perception, since you are able to see it,said her brother. lthough I must say it is rather obvious.

abian is always beastly to me,said Lavinia, pouting.

am truthful, dear sister.He turned to me. hings have changed a little in the last year or so. And I think it may have something to do with the war. There were accounts in the papers of the suffering endured by our men and of the long siege of Sebastopol. I sensed that some were regarding that with a certain satisfaction.

ut surely our prosperity helps them.

t does, but all people are not so logical as you and I. There is something such as cutting off one nose to spite one face. I fancy there are many here who would be ready to do just that to let their own prosperity suffer for the sake of seeing us humiliated.

t sounds rather a senseless attitude to take up.

here is a strong sense of national pride in us all,put in Dougal. ndependence is dear to most of us, and some fear to lose it, even if retaining it means dispensing with certain comforts.

hat would be the result of this feeling?I asked.

othing we shouldn be able to handle,said Fabian. ut it shows itself now and then. The Khansamah of this house is a man of overweening pride, as you have seen.

think he is rather fun,said Lavinia.

f you recognize that he is the head of the household, all will be well,said Fabian. believe he is not a man whom it would be wise to cross.

hat could he do?

ake things uncomfortable in a hundred ways. The servants would obey him. They daren do anything else. If there is a growing restlessness in the country, it is probably due to the way we have brought in new laws. They are afraid we are going to impose our ways on them to such an extent that their native institutions will be stifled out of existence.

s it right to do that?I asked.

Fabian looked at me and nodded. huggery. Suttee hey are evils which have been suppressed by the British. You looked surprised. I see you are unaware of these matters. Both are pernicious, wicked, cruel customs long overdue for suppression. We have made the performance of them against the law. There were many Indians who lived in fear of these practices, but at the same time they resent our coming here and making them criminal acts. Dougal, of course, has made a study of all this.

e would,said Lavinia.

Dougal did not glance at her. He turned to me. t is the Hindustani Thaga. We have called it thuggery. It is a worship of the goddess Kali, who must be the most bloodthirsty of all gods and goddesses ever thought of. She demands perpetual blood. Those who take the oath to her are by profession murderers. It is considered an honourable profession to murder.

urely everyone agrees that it is good to stop that,I said.

veryone except the Thugs themselves. But it is interference by foreigners with the customs of the country.

eople must have been terrified.

t was a religious community. Those people who took the oath lived by murder. It was not important whom they murdered, as long as they killed. They lived on the plunder they took from their victims, but the motive was not robbery, but to placate their goddess. They banded together in groups, falling in with travellers, seeking their confidences and choosing the appropriate moment to murder them.

ow diabolical!

hey usually killed by strangulation.

uite a number of them made use of the thorn apple,said Fabian.

h, that a special sort of drug,said Dougal. t grows profusely here. The leaves and seeds are used in medicine. When the leaves are dry they have a narcotic smell. You recognize this plant when you see it. The name is actually datura, but they call it thorn apple. You can see the tubular five-cleft calyx with a large carolla, shaped rather like a funnel. It has a prickly sort of capsule.

rust Dougal to get the scientific description,said Lavinia mockingly.

here nothing scientific about that,said Dougal. t is just easy for anyone to see.

fancy I wouldn recognize it if I saw it,said Lavinia. ould you, Drusilla?

don think so for a moment.

here you are, Dougal. Youe boring us with your description. I want to hear more about the poison.

t deadly,said Dougal. peculiar alkaloid called daturina can be distilled from it. Some of the natives use it as a drug. When they do, they become wildly excited. The world seems a beautiful place and they are almost delirious.

nd they like that?I asked.

h yes, indeed,said Dougal. t makes them feel wonderful while it lasts. But I believe it is followed by acute depression, which is usual in the case of these substances. Moreover, it can be very dangerous and in the end fatal.

ou were saying that these thugs used it to kill their victims.

t was one of their methods,replied Fabian, ut I believe the more usual was strangulation.

should have thought most people would have been greatly relieved that these thugs had been put out of action by the law.

Fabian lifted his shoulders and looked at the ceiling.

t is a matter of what we were saying independence or better rule. There are those who will always want the former. It is the same with suttee.

hat was abolished about the same time as thuggery,Dougal told me. hey really have a great deal to be thankful for to Lord William Bentinck. He was the governor of Madras for twenty years and then he became Governor General from 1828 to 5. You know what happens in suttee. A husband dies and his wife leaps into his funeral pyre and is burned to death with his body.

ow terrible!

o thought we all, and Lord William brought in the laws condemning suttee and thuggery,added Fabian.

t was a great step forward,commented Dougal.

o you know?put in Fabian. believe both are still practised in some remote places. It is a defiance of British rule.

Lavinia yawned again and said, eally, this is getting like a history lesson!

fascinating one,I said.

rusilla, don be such a. prig! You infuriate me. You just encourage them. I know what she going to say. f you don like it, Il go back home.She always threatening me with going back home.

hat,said Fabian gravely, s something we must persuade her not to do.

I was happy suddenly. It was the experience I had known before. It was like coming alive.

For the rest of the evening we talked of India, of the various castes and religions. Looking out on the lawn, I thought it was one of the most peaceful scenes I had ever encountered.

When I retired that night, it was long before I slept. I kept thinking about the evening, the old cruel customs of the country and the fact that I was living under the same roof as the two men had to admit itho had been most important in my life: Dougal and Fabian. How different they were! I was a little alarmed by the wistfulness I saw in Dougal eyes. He was sad and regretful. It was not difficult to see that his marriage had brought disillusionment to him; and he seemed, even in the brief time we had been together, to be turning to me for solace. I thought I would have to be careful. As for Fabian, he had changed little. I must not allow myself to become too impressed by him. I must remember that he was a Framling and they did not change. They would always believe that the world was made for them, and all the people in it made to suit their purpose. Moreover, I must not forget that Lady Geraldine might soon be coming out to marry him.