CHAPTER XV.
MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM.
"Onora, my dearest little one, have you anything to tell me?" Unableto bear the suspense any longer, Lady Cinnamond had pursued herdaughter to her room.
"No, mamma; only that he is gone."
"But you have not sent him away?"
"I told him again that I could not marry him."
"But I thought you cared for him!" Lady Cinnamond's regret was notunmixed with indignation. "When you thought he was dead, you said----"
It was Honour's turn to be indignant. "I said I couldn't tell, mamma.And I don't like him as much now as I did when I thought he was dead."
"These poor young men!" lamented her mother. "Then is the unfortunateMr Gerrard to be made happy at last? Or is it some one else?"
"It isn't any one!" cried Honour hotly. "Is it my fault if they willwant to marry me? I am sure I have made it clear to them over and overagain that I don't want to marry anybody."
"My child, that is a thing that nothing will make clear to a man," saidher mother solemnly--"especially when it is plain that you takepleasure in his society."
"But I don't. Mamma, I never told you, but long ago, more than a year,I lent _Sintram_ to Mr Charteris, without telling him how fond I was ofit. He gave it back to me all smelling of smoke, and said that hecouldn't make head or tail of it, but it struck him as uncommon silly."
"But, my dear, surely that ought to have warned you that your tasteswere not congenial. What can have made you think your feelings hadchanged?"
"Oh, mamma, I don't know." Honour paused for a moment, then hurriedon. "One doesn't remember that kind of thing when a person is dead,you know. And there seemed to be so many nice points about him that Ihad never guessed----"
"But which Mr Gerrard brought out? Well, your objection can'tapply----" Lady Cinnamond broke off hastily. "I won't worry you anymore to-night, dear."
"Good-night, mamma. I am sorry I was cross."
Lady Cinnamond left her reluctantly, for the rest of the family were onthe tiptoe of expectation to hear what had happened, and she hadearnestly hoped to be able to silence their jeers with the announcementthat Honour was engaged like other people.
"Well, mamma, is he coming to see papa in the morning?" demanded MrsCowper eagerly, as soon as her mother appeared.
"No, dear; I am sorry to say she has refused him again."
"Fastidious little puss!" chuckled Sir Arthur. "Faith! it'll be theother that will come to-morrow."
"Isn't Honour a queer quizzical sort of girl?" inquired Mrs Cowperearnestly of her parents. "Do you think she will accept Mr Gerrard,mamma?"
"My dear, I am afraid to say, but I should fear not."
"Why should she, if she don't want him?" said Sir Arthur briskly."Rosita, I don't like to see this eagerness to get rid of yourdaughters. It reflects badly upon your bringing-up of them, ma'am."
"Oh no, papa; how can you say so? It speaks well for mamma's happinessin her married life."
"I see Charles hasn't cured you of your pertness yet, miss--ma'am, Ishould say. Poor fellow! I wonder if I ought to have told him what hewas bringing upon himself?"
Justice demanded that Marian should immediately rise and pull herfather's hair, but in the middle of the operation she pausedtragically. "Something has just struck me," she said. "Why do we alltake it for granted that Honour must end by marrying one of these twomen? It may be some one we have never thought of that she really caresfor."
"My dear, don't imagine fresh complications," said her mother in alarm."All the available young men have proposed, so that she could have hadany one she liked."
"Perhaps she was afraid of her cruel father," suggested Mrs Cowper,deftly arranging Sir Arthur's hair into a curl in the middle of hisforehead. "Don't touch that, papa, whatever you do. I want Charley tosee it; it will give him a new view of your character. Of course it isthe persistence of these two men that makes you feel that one of themis fated to succeed. Others come and others go, but they go on forever."
"Perhaps it would be as well to forbid them both the house," suggestedher victimised father.
"Not both at once, papa! Why, neither we nor Honour should ever knowwhich was the right one, if they were both shut out together. You mustdo it in turn."
"And after making one welcome for a week or so, pick a quarrel with himand install the other? Precious undignified, my dear child, but a manmust make sacrifices for the sake of his family."
"Ah, but that's just what you don't do!" cried Marian, roused torecollection of a grievance of her own. "How could you all but promiseCharley that if a peaceful mission was sent to Agpur, he should commandthe escort?"
"But surely, my dear, I was sacrificing my own comfort in promising tospare him?"
"No, you were sacrificing me!" pouted his daughter. "I was makingsigns to you the whole time, not to let him go unless he would take mewith him, and he won't. He has been horrid about it."
"My dear Marian, you could not possibly go, with the hot weather comingon!" cried her mother, aghast.
"Nor in any weather whatever," said Sir Arthur firmly. "Your signalswere lost on me, Marian, but nothing would induce me to consent to yourgoing to Agpur. The place is clearly in a most disturbed state, andthe good faith of the new Rajah extremely doubtful."
"Then don't let Charley go," was the prompt rejoinder.
Sir Arthur raised his eyebrows. "You must settle that with yourhusband yourself, my dear. I have promised to allow him leave for thepurpose if he wishes it."
"And he will say that you are depending on him to command the escort,and I must settle it with you!" complained Marian. "And nobody reallythinks about me at all."
"My dear, it will be an excellent opportunity for Charles to bringhimself into notice, whether the progress of the mission is peaceableor not. And if he goes, you and Honour shall have a run up to thehills, if Lady Antony will be so good as to look after you. But atpresent it is quite uncertain whether a mission will be despatched atall. We may have war instead."
"Well, I think you might send one of Honour's young men, papa," saidMarian, half crying. "She doesn't care about either of them, and ifanything happened to Charley I should die."
"Oh, my dear, we will hope she cares for Mr Gerrard," interposed LadyCinnamond hastily, seeing her husband's brow grow thunderous. Marianhad transgressed the unwritten law which forbade the General'swomankind to meddle in the slightest degree with his professionalappointments, and had added to her misdeeds by weeping.
"She doesn't. I don't believe she has it in her. You'll see,to-morrow," and with this Parthian shot Mrs Cowper quitted the room intears, meanly leaving her mother to allay the tempest she had raised.On the morrow poor Lady Cinnamond was almost tempted to think as shedid with regard to Honour, for Gerrard, putting his fortune to thetouch without, as he assured himself, the slightest hope of success,met the same fate as his friend. Perhaps his way of broaching thesubject was unfortunate.
"Our lamentations over Charteris were rather premature, weren't they?"he asked her, with an assumption of lightness which suited her mood aslittle as his.
"How could you mislead me so dreadfully about him?" demanded Honour,moved to indignation by her wrongs.
"Mislead you? Why, I never said a word that wasn't true!" Gerrard wasunfeignedly surprised.
"I suppose not," she admitted unwillingly. "But you dwelt only on hisgood points, and I--I almost thought I had misjudged him. But when Isaw him there was no difference. He brought a smell of smoke into theroom with him, and talked slang, just as he always did."
"But why should one recall obvious things like that? Would you havehad me try to belittle him to you--if you must think worse of a man forsuch trifles as smoking and using slang?"
"Trifles in your estimation, perhaps; not in mine."
"Well, at any rate it shows you can't care for him," said Gerrarddespairingly, "or you wouldn't notice them."
"I consider that r
emark extremely rude and uncalled-for," said Honour,with spirit. "You have no right whatever to pass judgment upon myfeelings."
"Pardon me, but how can I help it? Perhaps you mean that if Bob leftoff slang and smoking he would be all right?"
"And if I did, how would it concern you?"
"Oh, merely that I think you ought to tell him, or let me."
"You think he would do it?"
"Like winkin'. Oh, I _beg_ your pardon. I would, I know, just as Iwould do any mortal thing you cared to ask me. Ask me, Honour. Can'tyou give me a bit of hope?"
"How can I? You would not be satisfied--either of you--if I said Iwould marry you just to escape from unpleasantness of this kind. Imean"--hastily, as she caught sight of his face--"I dislike so muchhurting people's feelings, but with you and Mr Charteris I seem able todo nothing else. If you would only both take my answer as final, andlet us all be happy and friendly together as we were before this ideacame into your minds!"
"We weren't," said Gerrard doggedly. "I was introduced to you two daysbefore Charteris was, and all that time I was in terror, guessing whatwould happen as soon as he saw you. And sure enough, he raved aboutyou all night, until I put a stop to it by throwing things across theroom."
"Please don't tell me things of that kind," said Honour, her colourrising. "They do not interest me. You have a great influence over MrCharteris. Why not use it to make him see things sensibly, and give upthese attempts?"
"Because I wouldn't do it myself. If you could say that you felt theleast kindness towards one of us, then the other would withdraw--ortowards any one else, then both of us, I hope, would do the properthing and leave him in peace. But while there's still a fairchance--why, I shall hold on, and so will old Bob, if I know anythingof him."
"That is exactly what Mr Charteris said," remarked Honour musingly."Well, I am very sorry, and I wish I could get you to look at thingsmore sensibly, but really it is not my fault."
"You can't even hold out any hope for the future?"
"It would merely be unkindness if I did. If you would only----"
"No, please, that's enough," said Gerrard, and withdrew. Charteris waswaiting for him on their verandah.
"By the look of gloom on your ingenuous countenance, Hal----" he began.
"Oh, _bus, bus_[1]!" said Gerrard wearily. "Yes, old boy, we're in thesame boat, as before."
"There's one comfort, she won't get her bachelor Governor-General forsome time," remarked Charteris; "for this man Blairgowrie that they'resending out is married."
"I hate stale jokes!" muttered Gerrard.
"You seem to have come off rather worse than I did. Look here, Hal;I'm going to propose a modification of our agreement. I've had firsttry this time, and next time you shall have it, without drawing lots.It's precious hard on you, if you are the right man, that you shouldonly be able to approach her when she's already been rubbed the wrongway by my impudent pretensions."
"I ain't the right man. No one is. But you're a good chap, Bob, andI'm not too proud to accept with thanks. At this moment, I confess it,I don't feel as if I should ever summon up courage to come to thescratch again, but no doubt it'll be different in a year or so."
"I believe you, my boy--especially when you know that if you don't takeyour chance, I shall. But what stately form comes this way? Our MrJames, as I live!"
"I happened to be passing, and I thought I would look in to tell youthat it has been settled about Agpur," said James Antony, depositinghis massive form in the chair vacated for him. "What! ain't there roomfor me unless you stand, Charteris? Shocking the luxury in which youyoung fellows live nowadays! Well, I'm glad the business is finishedsomehow, since my brother will perhaps be contented to trot peaceablyback to the hills, but I can't say that your friend Sher Singh has gotanything like his deserts. He is to be recognised and, withinreasonable limits, supported, provided he fulfils certain not veryonerous conditions. Nisbet is to visit Agpur City and settle thepreliminaries of the frontier business and the affair of the Rani GulabKur's jointure, and will probably remain there as Resident. Well,well! if Sher Singh ain't loyal to us in future, he ought to be!"
"I hope Nisbet will have a strong escort, sir," Gerrard ventured tosay, emboldened by the speaker's evident, though unexpressed,dissatisfaction with the arrangement. James Antony looked at himseverely from under bushy brows. His loyalty to his more brilliantbrother never permitted him the luxury of criticising his decisions inpublic, and he had gone farther than he intended in allowing hisfeelings to appear.
"The escort will be sufficient, of course. Charley Cowper goes incommand--has special leave for the purpose. They start next week."
"Then I shall have to hurry back to Darwan," said Charteris.
"Just as well you should be on the spot," agreed James Antony. "You goto Habshiabad, I suppose, Gerrard?"
"I suppose so, sir."
"Precious little enthusiasm over the prospect, I see. Well, it is acome-down for the acting-Resident of Agpur."
"That was entirely a thing out of the usual run, sir." Gerrard rousedhimself in self-defence. "I was warned not to expect to continue onthat footing, and I didn't for a moment."
"I can find you plenty of work here, if you prefer it. Ah, I see," helaughed. "The woman is spoiling Eden, as usual. Get married, getmarried, and you'll think no more about her."
"Thank you for your advice, sir. Your own experience?" asked Charteris.
James Antony looked first furious, then almost contrite, and finallygave way to a huge burst of laughter. "Curious how one falls in withother people's way of talking, when one knows it is absolutely false!"he said. "No, it is not my experience, and you know it, you young dog.I married my wife because I couldn't do without her, and it has beenthe same story from that day to this. That's my experience, and youcan't do better than follow it."
"But then one of us would have to put the other out of the way--eh,Hal?" said Charteris dolefully, as Mr James departed, his greatshoulders still heaving with laughter.
* * * * * *
When Mr Nisbet and Captain Cowper left Ranjitgarh the following week,Gerrard went part of the way with them. They travelled by water, theirrespective escorts marching by land, and he would have a day or two towait at one of the riverside towns until his men came up. The hotweather would soon begin, and the river was low, so that the progressof the boats was agreeably diversified by frequent groundings, now onthe shore and now on a sandbank, and the heat and the glare of thewater furnished an excuse for much grumbling. Nisbet was a quiet,inoffensive man, who found perpetual occupation and solace in writing,reading, re-reading and annotating innumerable documents, of which heseemed to carry a whole library about with him, but his contentment waspowerless to infect his companions. Captain Cowper was low-spiritedowing to the parting from his wife, for after inducing Sir Edmund andLady Antony to postpone their return to the hills for two days that shemight see him off, Marian had disgraced herself and her parents bymaking a scene--though happily not in public--at her husband'sdeparture. Her frantic entreaties to him not to go, or if he must go,to take her with him, her dire forebodings of evil, had made it veryhard for him to leave her; and when neither her father's anger, norLady Cinnamond's warnings that she would do herself harm, were able toquiet her sobs, Captain Cowper had been obliged to tear himself awayfrom her clinging hands without a proper farewell. It was no comfortto picture her lonely misery in the hills, with no one but Honour, ofwhose tenderness he had the very lowest opinion, to act as confidant,and her husband spent many hours daily in writing letters, and makingsketches of any object of interest that offered itself, for her benefit.
Little as he had in common with his two companions, Gerrard dreaded themoment when he would step ashore on the left bank of the Bari, thenceto strike southwards and take up his new work at Habshiabad. Theabsolute isolation from men of his own colour which this would entailwas not a prospect he could face with any pleasure.
From Charteris hewould now be separated by the whole breadth of Agpur, unless they bothjourneyed far to the south-west, where for a short distance theboundaries of Darwan and Habshiabad ran along opposite banks of theriver Tindar, while of Nisbet and Cowper in Agpur itself it wasunlikely that he would see anything, as the frontier dispute with whichthey were to deal concerned the other side of the state. Moreover, itwas impossible not to feel that his work had been taken out of hishands and given to them to do. Whatever the situation in Agpur mightbe, he had contributed, however involuntarily, to make it what it was,and others were now about to take it in hand, without the advantage ofhis past experience, and with the drawback of inheriting whatever odiumattached to him.
The evening before they were to reach Naoghat, Nawab Sadiq Ali's porton the Bari, and separate, they fastened up to the bank at a spot wherethere was no village, but only a few poor huts, and where a patch ofmarshy jungle held out the promise of wildfowl. Nisbet was busy withhis office Munshi, completing a catalogue of papers relating to theaffairs of Agpur, but Captain Cowper and Gerrard took their guns, andset off along the bank in opposite directions. The sport was poor, andafter shooting a brace and a half of birds and walking a long distance,Gerrard was warned by the gathering darkness to retrace his steps. Awhite mass at the foot of a tree in one of the drier parts of the bogattracted his attention in the distance, and on coming near enough tosee distinctly he found it was a respectably dressed elderly mansitting there motionless. As Gerrard approached, the old man rose andsalaamed courteously, and disclosed himself as the scribe of the RaniGulab Kur.
"O master of many hands, how is it I find you here?" asked Gerrard insurprise. "Are you waiting for a tiger to come and make a meal of you?"
"Nay, sahib, it is your honour I am awaiting. I bear a message from mymistress for your ear alone."
"But is her Highness in this neighbourhood? I should wish to wait onher and pay my respects."
"Her Highness is far away, sahib, but she does not forget the gratitudedue to your honour for your faithfulness to the dead. When we passedthrough Ranjitgarh, it was told her that there was a project ofmarriage between your honour and the daughter of the General Sahib withthe white hair, and she bade this slave note down the name, that shemight, if opportunity offered, do good to the General Sahib and hisfamily for your honour's sake. Hearing, then, that the Sahib whocommands the troops going to Agpur is sister's husband to the daughterof the General Sahib, she judged it well to send a warning."
"Her Highness can hardly be so far away, after all, if she heard thisnews in time to send you to meet me here, O venerable one," saidGerrard.
"I speak but as I am bidden, sahib. Her Highness entreats you to warnthat Sahib and his friend to put no trust in the fair words of SherSingh--and this not so much because he is treacherous, thoughtreacherous he is to the very depths of hell, as because he is weak.He sees it is not to his interest to provoke a war with the English atthis moment, but he is entirely dependent on his Sirdars--by reason ofhis faulty title to the throne, and his non-fulfilment of the promisesmade to them before his accession--and they have no care for him andhis safety. They have sent out messengers again, since those sentthroughout Granthistan returned without promises of help, and areseeking to enlist Abd-ur-Rashid Khan of Ethiopia, promising him thecity of Shah Bagh, which is to him as the apple of his eye, if he willinvade Granthistan from the north when the rising begins. Let theSahibs then beware, for blood once shed is not to be gathered up fromthe ground, and Sher Singh is not the man to defend his guests if thecity be howling for their death."
"I will warn them," said Gerrard. "And now come and lodge in our campfor this night, and in the morning go your way and carry my respectfulthanks to her Highness."
"It is forbidden, sahib. I depart immediately, to report to mymistress that I have performed her errand."
"So be it, then. Carry my deepest salaams to her Highness," andGerrard went on towards the camp. After supper he told Nisbet andCowper of the warning he had received for them. It caused no surprise.
"It's quite true about Abd-ur-Rashid," said Nisbet. "Ronaldson caughtone of his messengers sneaking about in his camp near Shah Bagh, tryingto corrupt his escort. That may have been in view of this very planfor a general rising, but he thought it was one of the usual schemesfor getting hold of Shah Bagh again."
"If Abd-ur-Rashid and the Granthis can manage to agree, we are likelyto come off badly," said Cowper.
"But they won't," said Nisbet. "The thieves are bound to fall out."
"After a time," said Gerrard, "but they may make it very unpleasant foryou first. And suppose your Granthis take sides with the Agpuris? Itook Granthis into Agpur and brought them out again, but then I had hadthem for some time first. I wish you knew more of your escort, andthey of you."
"My dear fellow," said Cowper, yawning, "we know at least that noGranthi is to be trusted. They are a set of _nimuk harams_,[2] and weshan't trust them. Sir Edmund chooses to trust Sher Singh, as he wouldany native that ever walked, but that's all the goodness of his heart,and we ain't going to be led away by it. Forewarned is forearmed."
[1] Enough.
[2] Perfidious, false to their salt.
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