CHAPTER XXIII
TEMPORISINGS
While Jack counted the days to the arrival of the ship at Bombay, andJoyce lived in anticipation of the reunion with her husband; while Honorwatched for the coming of Joyce and an end to an impossible situation inDarjeeling; while Dalton played at friendship with the girl he adored,since to desire more was like asking for the moon; and while Tommy wasbreaking his heart with disappointment, and tormenting the Government ofBengal for permission to join the Indian Army reserve, instead ofcontinuing to serve that Government by safe-guarding his District, itseemed almost inconceivable that thousands of miles away, the destiniesof nations were in the melting pot, and the map of Europe in process ofre-making.
Immense armies were in training; miracles of organisation were takingplace within the British Empire. Always the greatest Naval Power, shewas rapidly becoming, also, a great Military Power.
The grand old army of "Contemptibles" was covering itself withimperishable glory; Indian and Colonial troops were mobilising for theassistance of the Motherland. In all parts of the world the clarion crywas sounded--"To arms!"
The War was the absorbing topic in all the cities of the world.
But at little Muktiarbad and similar rural districts, the placidmonotony of daily life was barely stirred.
There was "a war on," of course, they said in the bazaars. India wasinvolved--that, also, was a matter of course. The fighting sons of Indiacould not be left out of such a fateful occasion as a war which calledfor loyalty and support. But it was an impersonal matter to nativeMuktiarbad. Doubtless, one of these wise dispensations of the Almighty,that helped to thin out the too rapidly increasing population of theworld! It had no bearing on the lives and fortunes of the cultivator andthe shop-keeper, save, that, in the case of the latter, it enabled himto put up his prices. But since the sun rose and set exactly as usual,and the flowers bloomed, and the seasons remained unchanged, and thedaily life of the District continued undisturbed, where was the need toworry?
True, there was occasionally talk in the bazaar of battles lost and won;but talk was the life of the bazaar. Whatever happened, or did nothappen, the bazaar always knew about it and spread rumours that noneheeded, for rumours are always unreliable. What did they amount to,anyway? Nothing came of them, so far as the countryside was concerned.
Now and again, it was said, that So-and-So, generally a stout Pathan,who had seen active service on the frontier, had packed his bundle andwas off on his own initiative to offer his strong right arm for thecause of the _Sarcar_ who was his father and his mother. His ancestorshad fought and bled--or died; won medals and gained pensions; he, too,would gain medals and a pension, or lose his life if God so willed it."_Kismet ke bat!_"[18] Where was he going? God knew! Some day, if it wasso willed, he would return to tell.
[Footnote 18: With Fate lay the decision.]
Like as not, he would never return. When youth went a-travelling, theattractions of the great world seldom released him from their thrall.
At the court-house, the Magistrate and Collector, officiating forMeredith who was still on leave at Darjeeling, tried cases and settleddisputes, while the court-yard in front was covered with squattinghumanity, chewing _pan_ and awaiting their individual turns to be calledup before the _Hakim_ to tell--anything but the truth!
At the Club, the sahibs and memsahibs played tennis and bridge andenjoyed their cold drinks as usual, just as though there were nosanguinary battles raging afar, such as the world had never known in allits history.
Once, during the month of August, a strange _babu_ had appeared in thebazaar, and, perching himself upon a cask, had talked sedition for aboutan hour to apathetic ears. Muktiarbad, being mainly Mohammedan, did notlike gentlemen of the Brahmin persuasion; so he had departed muchdisheartened. Shortly after, another agitator--a Mohammedan thistime--had endeavoured to incite the peace-loving population to revolt bypreaching religious antagonism towards Christians.
But Muktiarbad was not to be roused. "Live and let live" was theprevailing sentiment among its people. Besides, what was the use ofrebelling, since it would be futile against such a mighty race as theBritish, who were also good rulers, taking no advantage to themselvesfrom their might, and giving each man according to his due? The needs ofthe village folk were mainly personal, and so long as these weresupplied, what cared they if the rulers of the land were Christians.They never interfered with the Moslem religion; why should Moslemsinterfere with theirs? And so this man also departed discouraged.
At Panipara, interest centred chiefly on the fact that the Governmenthad decided that the _jhil_ should be drained. The Great War was asecondary matter. Wells were already in process of construction and, atthe end of the rains, before the water of the wide morass could bepoisoned with germs, usually bred in the drought of winter and spring,the drainage was to be taken in hand and the health of the Districtsafeguarded forever. All this interference and annoyance had sprung fromthe doctor Sahib, who was thereby the most unpopular sahib that had everbeen put in charge of the sanitation of a District. He was cursed by theignorant in the Muktiarbad bazaar and at Panipara village itself, but sofar his person had been respected, as it was known by some occult meansthat he secretly carried firearms wherever he went.
In July, Honor had returned with her mother from Mussoorie in theHimalayas, physically and mentally stronger for her prolonged absence.
Captain Dalton and she had corresponded as friends, all expressions ofpersonal feeling being rigorously excluded from the closely writtenpages. Both had bravely "played the game," the faithfulness andregularity of the letters, alone testifying to their unchanged devotion.
When they met again, Honor having braced herself to the ordeal, hadsustained it courageously, no one guessing how much it had cost her tosmile and shake hands with the doctor as naturally as she had done, themoment before, with Tommy; for the meeting had taken place,unexpectedly, at the Club.
Captain Dalton retired to his bungalow shortly afterwards, and thetension had lifted. He had gone, Honor knew, instinctively, because hecould not bear to stand by, listening indifferently to the generalconversation when his heart was filled with longing to speak to heralone. She had experienced the same inward impatience, but had learned agreater self-control.
By and by, their meetings became frequent; but the self-imposedrestraint, mutually practised, had a wearing effect on the nerves ofboth.
And all the while, gossip in connection with Ray Meredith filteredthrough from various sources, and caused no little comment among hisfriends.
At last a letter to Mrs. Bright from Mrs. Ironsides, who was spending amonth at the Sanitorium, placed it beyond doubt that Ray Meredith wasvery securely in the toils of his former nurse who was in the samehotel, in charge of a child suffering from jaundice.
"She has been in Darjeeling, with one pretext and another, I am told,ever since Mr. Meredith recovered," the lady wrote, "and people arebeginning to look askance at her for the flagrant manner in which sheflaunts her ascendancy over him. It is a thousand pities his wife is notwith him, for he is at the woman's heels morning, noon, and night.Rumour says their rooms adjoin! I should feel inclined to blame himsoundly were it not for the fact that he looks very delicate since hisillness, and that people recovering from sunstroke are not altogetherthemselves. Possibly he is merely drifting for want of someonesufficiently interested in him to save him! Whatever it is, this Mrs.Dalton must be an abandoned creature, for she is indifferent to the factthat she is creating a disgusting scandal. When you think of how devotedthat man was to his pretty little wife, you feel inclined, to believeanything of men! But, as I say, he cannot be himself. Let us hope it isonly due to the sunstroke, and that his wife will come out soon and lookafter him."
Honor took this news to heart and wrote the appeal to Joyce of which thereader is already aware: she also gradually brought her mind to thepoint of speaking frankly to Captain Dalton on the subject.
Since her return from the hills, two weeks before,
she had not met himalone, so that when she asked him, in a little note to see her at theClub next morning on a matter of some anxiety, he was naturally full ofwonderment as he drove to keep the appointment.
The marker, alone, was in possession of the Club and in his office, whenDalton arrived, so that the meeting was undisturbed.
"You are surprised that I should have sent for you?" Honor said, as shestepped off her bicycle, having greeted him with a friendly nod. Had shegiven him her hand he would have noticed that it was trembling.
"Pleased, as well as surprised," said he, feasting his soul on thewholesome, girlish face with its frank, trustworthy eyes. "Has anythinghappened?" He was longing to hear that her request was prompted only byher great desire to have speech with him alone; but even as the thoughtcrossed his mind, he knew that Honor would never have made anassignation with him for any personal reason. Not with those truthfuleyes!
"A great deal seems to be happening," she said as they walked into thebuilding side by side, and found themselves seats in the verandah.Dalton had hoped she would have led him to one of the public roomswhere, at least, they would have been safe from the curious eyes ofpassing natives; but that she did not, was consistent with hercharacter, for she was as open as the day.
Seated beside him, she told him of Mrs. Ironside's letter and of herown, unhappy fears for Joyce, and her future relations with her husband.
"She should not have gone home so soon after her marriage," said Dalton."I guessed how it would be when the nurse took on the job, for Meredithis a very charming fellow, and she is a woman without a conscience."
"Brian, we must stop it!" It had been "Brian" and "Honey" in theletters.
"Not even an angel from heaven could, if Meredith is infatuated. I tellyou, she is a clever fiend."
"It rests with you!" said Honor appealingly.
"With me?" surprised.
"Joyce and her husband love each other. I will not believe that he hasceased to care. Doesn't sunstroke somewhat dull memory?"
"For a time, yes,--possibly. Sometimes altogether. Meredith, however, isall right, or will be when he regains his normal vigour."
"I take it that he is not his normal self, and that when he is, he willbe ashamed of the part he is now playing. Joyce's happiness is at stake.She is a simple little thing and very fond of him. Their happiness mustbe saved--even at a sacrifice."
"Well?"
"Oh, Brian!--you will have to take your wife back!"
Dalton stared dumbly at her. That Honor should ask him to take back thewoman who had wrecked his life and whom he despised as the commonestprostitute in the land!----
"_You_ ask me that?" he breathed.
Honor bent her head. She could not but realise that the step sheproposed was a terrible outrage.
"Why, Honey!" His voice was choked. "Have you any idea of what you areasking me to do?"
"It will be a great sacrifice--which--which I shall--share--" wordsfailed her and she looked away with a pathetic trembling of her lip.
"_You_ would wish it?" in wounded tones.
"I would hate the thought of it!--yet, something must be done. She mightfind it more profitable to return to you and leave Mr. Meredith inpeace."
A painful silence.
"Honey, if she lived with me I should surely murder her! Do you know howI detest the woman? Do you imagine I could take her back as a wife? Iwould rather be shot."
Honor buried her face in her hands. In her heart of hearts she wassinging a paean of thanksgiving that he was still hers--only hers, thoughdivided from her by an impassable gulf!
"You could bear to see me reconciled to her?"
No answer.
"Honey," he cried desperately. "I would do anything in the world foryou!"
"But you cannot sacrifice yourself for a good woman's happiness?" shequestioned, hardly knowing what she said.
"Why should I for Mrs. Meredith?"
"Because you once owed her a debt--she was very good to you after----"
"My God!--yes!"
"This will kill her. She will hear--there are so many who will be readyto give her chapter and verse of the scandal against her husband. But ifthis--nurse--were with you, it would, perhaps, all blow over."
"Is it really your wish that I should do this thing? Remember, she ishateful to me--and she can never, in any sense, be my wife again!"
"I am--glad!" she could not help exclaiming. "Then the sacrifice willnot be so terrible, after all!"
"Perhaps not," he answered, his eyes full on hers with a passion oflonging. "Will you let me think it over?"
"Decide quickly!" she begged him.
"There is nothing I would not do for you," he repeated.
Honor rose with her gracious smile of gratitude and trust, and theyparted without touching hands. When she returned home, the reaction fromthe strain of their meeting prostrated her for hours. Her parents fearedthat the climate of Muktiarbad was, at last, telling on her healthyconstitution as it had told on Ray Meredith's.
"Perhaps we shall have to send you home!" her mother sighed anxiously.
"Not a bit of it!" Honor asserted. "The cold weather will put me torights very soon."
"Perhaps you have something on your mind, darling?"
"I have. I am worrying badly for Joyce Meredith."
"Joyce will get nothing more than she deserves. Why should you suffer?It is nobody's business to meddle between husband and wife."
"Somebody is already meddling, so it may need counter-meddling to put itright."
"I shouldn't bother my head. We have enough to do without trying to actProvidence in the case of fools."
"We are not trying to act Providence, but Providence needs to use us. Itseems we are just so many pawns in the great Game."
"It has often puzzled me what Captain Dalton has been after," said Mrs.Bright, eyeing her daughter rather narrowly. Fear had preyedconsiderably on her mind, that the doctor had been playing fast andloose with her child, to her sorrow. "You and he have been fast friends.Once you told me there was an 'understanding'; but nothing seems to havecome of it, though you have corresponded very regularly."
"I showed you some of his letters, darling," Honor temporised, faithfulto her intention of bearing her own burdens alone, if possible.
"Nice, manly letters they were, and most interesting of his work andthings in general. But I am none the wiser."
"What did you understand of our friendship?"
"That there was an 'understanding,'" her mother repeated.
"I do dislike that word in the sense you are applying it!" said Honorwith a forced laugh. "We are not going to get married, anyway, forCaptain Dalton is a married man."
"Honey!" Mrs. Bright was dumbfounded. "Since when have you known this?"
"For quite a long time; since early summer, in fact. You have met hiswife--Mrs. Dalton, the nurse. Everyone here fancied her name was acoincidence. She worked to come here that she might see her husband andget him to take her back." Having said so much, Honor went on to explainfurther the cause of the breach between husband and wife and theirrevocable nature of it. "I am telling you this, dear, as you have aright to know the truth, being my mother. It is, however, a personalconfidence, which no one else need share," Honor concluded.
"Why did you not mention it to me before?" Mrs. Bright asked while alight dawned on her mind.
"Because I have been very sorry for him, and, somehow, I felt I ought torespect his confidence. But it will, inevitably, be known in time, andthen you will be able to say you were not uninformed."
"Honor, are you in love with Captain Dalton?" Mrs. Bright askedpointedly.
Honor winced. "Yes, Mother. And he loves me."
Mrs. Bright looked faint. "_You_, my child, in love with a married man!"This was, indeed, a blow! It accounted, fully, for Honor'sdiscouragement of eligible suitors in Mussoorie, which had greatly vexedher mother at the time. "This is dreadful!"
"Not at all, except for the fact that it is naturally a grief to me,-
-tous both; for, as you see, we can never marry."
Mrs. Bright was entirely astray. When other girls were convicted ofbeing in love with married men, it had always sounded so immoral! But noone could think of Honor as such. She was plainly an upright andhonourable girl.
"Yet you encouraged his writing, and answered his letters! You meet, toall appearances, as if nothing is wrong. What am I to make of it?"
"That we are very much to be pitied. Writing and meeting openly are allthat are left to us."
"He should have gone away--severed his connection with Muktiarbad. Nothave stayed to fan the flame!"
"Life is too short for needless sacrifices, Mother darling. Having madethe greatest, we refuse to suffer more than we need. Sometimes, if youare starving for food, a bare crust will keep you alive. We aresubsisting on bare crusts and are grateful."
"I consider Captain Dalton has not behaved at all well. He knew hisposition and went out of his way to make you care!"
"Ah, no!--it just happened!" said Honor, her eyes suddenly flooded withtears.
Mrs. Bright looked at her daughter's white and sorrowful face, and awayagain. She could not bear to see the suffering there. All the traditionsof her life caused her to stand aghast at the idea of dalliance with asin so subtle and alluring as this. It should be the root-and-branchmethod. Nothing else would suffice to save her child! Yet her own eyesoverflowed in sympathy.
"Oh, my poor little Honey!" She held out her arms and Honor took refugein them to weep unrestrainedly. "We are trying to be so good!" shecried.
After kissing her daughter tenderly, Mrs. Bright said: "You cannottemporise with forbidden fruit, Honey. Eve did, you know. You are buthuman, therefore fallible, however good you are trying to be. The timewill come when the heart, torn with longing, becomes too weak to resist.Specious arguments are insidious and irresistible, and you will go down._Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!_ That is whywe pray, _Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil_. OurLord understood human nature better than we ever shall, that is whythere is only one thing to do, and that is, to fly from temptation. Wepray to be 'delivered,' but praying alone doesn't suffice if we are tobe honest with ourselves and God. There is nothing that will save us,but _doing right_."
"We are doing nothing wrong!" Honor pleaded.
"The wrong lies in the lack of moral courage to deal drastically withthe wound. If poison remains, it is bound to fester. Captain Daltonshould go away."
"We were obliged to let ourselves down gently. It has been somiserable!" Down went Honor's head on her mother's shoulder, and thetears fell fast.
Tears also fell on her dark head. Mrs. Bright's heart was wrung withpity. She had said enough for the present, so now devoted herself tosoothing her beloved child's sorrow with her never-failing sympathy.Honor was a good girl, and to be trusted entirely to look her troublesquarely in the face and conquer it; and the mother's heart was liftedin prayer that she might be enabled to aid and strengthen her child.
It was very shortly after this that war broke out, and there was so muchto think of and talk about in the Station, that private affairs weretemporarily set aside. The newspapers were read eagerly in detail;correspondence with dear ones over the seas was quickened with newinterest; and everyone, even in such a little place as Muktiarbad, foundplenty to do to help in the common cause. War-work parties wereorganised, at which the ladies engaged in knitting woollen comforts forthe troops, and in making up parcels to be dispatched to the front andto prisoners in Germany; and every member had some bit of war news todiscuss with the others at the Club as they rested from their gamesunder the waving _punkha_.
"It will drive me silly," Tommy had said from the first, "if I have toloaf about in a place like this when all my pals and schoolcontemporaries have volunteered, or are in the thick of it, doing theirbit."
"You are doing your bit, just as any one who is killing Germans," saidMrs. Ironsides who had returned from Darjeeling. "What is to become ofus all, if all medically fit civil officers are sent to fight? Why, weshould be murdered in our beds, if it were not for the Police!"
Tommy thought he would cheerfully risk Mrs. Ironsides being murdered inher bed, if the Government would only allow him to serve "for theduration"; and he continued to send in applications for leave to joinup, with a persistency worthy of the Great Cause, in the hopes thatconstant dripping would wear away the stony indifference with which theywere treated.
One evening, towards the end of September, Captain Dalton sought Honorat the Club. He had news for her, the gravity of which shadowed hisdeep-set eyes and heightened the grim setting of his jaw.
In a room full of people engrossed in one another, he gravitated to her,as usual, but surprised her by asking her to grant him a few words inprivate. "Come out with me to the tennis courts," he commanded with adefiniteness she felt powerless to slight.
It was dark on the tennis courts with only a young moon shining;nevertheless, Honor accompanied him forth, realising the fatefulness ofthe coming interview. When they had reached the shadow of the Durantahedge that separated the courts from the building, and were seated on abench, he told her in a few words that he had decided to comply with herwishes in the matter of his wife. It had taken him two months to bringhimself to the point of making the sacrifice, but at last it was made.
"Of course I am doing it to please you. You have set your heart onhelping Joyce Meredith, and as this is the only way, it shall be donethough it takes a mighty effort in the doing. I am writing to tell herthat she may return to my protection openly, as my wife; but, needlessto say, my wife only in name. If it will give her a chance to rightherself in the eyes of the world and help her to live as an honestwoman, she is welcome to make the fullest use of my offer. It certainlymight keep her from tampering further with Meredith's loyalty to hiswife. But I question whether it is not too late!"
"It is never too late!" said Honor, feeling numb and paralysed.
"That will be up to Mrs. Meredith. She is an unsophisticated littlething, and, I dare say, Meredith will keep his mouth shut."
It was plain to judge that he was again full of envy of other men'schances of happiness, for his tones reminded Honor of the man he waswhen they first met. It was too dark to see his face.
"If she accepts your offer will she come here?" Honor asked shrinkingly.
"She will have to if she comes at once. But I expect soon to be put onactive service. My application to serve with the Army is receivingconsideration, and it is possible I shall have to go to France or Egyptas there may be trouble with Turkey. In that case she will choose herresidence. Another medical officer will occupy my bungalow."
So it had come at last!
Honor had been fearing that the war would, in its relentlessness, claimhim also. It was said in the papers that there was a scandalous shortageof surgeons for a war of such magnitude.
Suddenly she was seized with shivering. "You will go and we shall nevermeet again!" fell from her lips independent of her will.
Dalton took her with determination in his arms and kissed herpassionately on the lips. "My own love!" he moaned over her. "Myprecious one!"
This was what her mother had meant when she had spoken of her becoming,in time, too weak to resist. For the moment her will was as weak aswater; she could only cling to him and yield to their mutual craving fordemonstrations of love. It was wrong, of course,--but, even so, it washeaven so long as they could banish memory and think only of the joy ofenfolding arms, the meeting of loving lips!
"I shall be going away and we might never meet again!" he echoed herwords in passionate despair. "Pity me a little, when we meet, and let usbe happy! Promise!"
"I dare not promise," she cried, quivering with emotion in his arms. "Ilove you, but help me to do right!"
For some time neither spoke while Dalton seemed struggling with themight of his desire. They rested on the iron bench wrapped in eachother's arms, speechless for many moments till the peacefulness andsilence of the ni
ght brought them sanity and calm. Then, kissing heronce more with the tenderness of renunciation, he put her aside and roseto his feet.
"I wonder you care for such a worthless hound as myself!" he said atlength. "I have no self-control. Go in, darling, I am going home toscourge myself for attempting to lead you against the dictates of yourconscience. Forgive me, Honey, I was mad!"
Honor left him, shaken in every nerve, her self-confidence shattered."Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall!" But itrejoiced her that Brian Dalton had fought his battle with himself alone,and had conquered. How much his appreciation of her high sense of honourhad contributed to his victory, she would never know.