Banked Fires
CHAPTER V
WHAT CAN'T BE CURED
Ray Meredith tried for the first few days to submit to his loss withfortitude, but the loneliness of the camp, after the experience of asweet wife's companionship, was insupportable. There were no Europeansfor miles around and there remained only the diversions of an occasional_shikar_. The tour of the previous autumn and winter months on which hehad been accompanied by his girlish bride, had spoilt him for bachelorlife; for though Joyce had disliked the inconveniences of camping, shehad suffered them meekly, seeing that to have objected would have beenboth selfish and unkind. But the coming of the child had roused in heractive opposition to all that might be harmful to its most precioushealth, and her husband was gradually discovering that he wouldinevitably have to accept the back seat.
For the first time in his official career, the routine of his workwearied him with its monotony and staleness. Having his meals insolitary state affected his appetite and digestion, for he took tobolting his food just to get rid of the automaton behind his chair who,no doubt, mentally criticised his every act, and treasured up the memoryof his idiosyncrasies to comment upon them, later, in the kitchen.
During the day the business of hearing petitions, trying cases, anddelivering judgments, occupied his mind and brought distraction, but inthe evenings he could settle to nothing. Even his beloved pipe failed tobring him consolation.
When darkness closed in with dense shadows where the moonlight failed topenetrate, and the peace of a world at rest was upon the countryside,when even the birds had ceased to chirp and flutter in their nests, theair would feel charged with expectancy. A footfall without would causeMeredith to lift his head from his papers or book, wondering if therewas a message for him--Joyce taken ill--or the baby? The silence brednerves, till a chorus of jackals howling in an adjacent paddy fieldwould break the spell and come as a welcome relief.
Often, the words of a book he tried to read conveyed no meaning to hismind till he had re-read a paragraph several times. Or the officialreport he had set himself to write was disturbed by mental visions ofStation doings in which his young wife was perhaps taking part withouthis support and protection.
She was so young and unsophisticated! It was perhaps his own fault thatshe was so, but he loved her all the more on account of it, and wouldnot have had her otherwise.
An instinctive distrust of Captain Dalton would not be stifled, and hedisliked the thought of his innocent young wife being exposed to thesubtle flattery of such unusual attentions as he had paid her incamp,--strictly professional, no doubt, but disagreeably intimate from ahusband's point of view. Confound him!
A young man of arresting appearance and strange personality, whoseprivate life was unknown and whose conduct towards his neighbours wasaloof and repellent, was best kept at a distance and treated with theformality which accorded with his profession, otherwise he would becomea disturbing element. Already Joyce seemed to consider herself underobligations to him, and in her enthusiastic gratitude was prone tooverstep the limits of dignified propriety which he wished her toobserve. Would to heaven that the Government had sent them a married manas Civil Surgeon of Muktiarbad! Bachelors of mysterious habits andmanners were totally out of place in a station so well supplied withwomenkind.
Meredith was thankful that there were so many women in the Station andall likely to be lavish with their attentions to his wife. She wouldseldom be left to her own devices or the society of the doctor, in whosecare she was unreservedly placed. And Joyce was popular with the ladiesdespite the fact that she was too young to play her dignified role ofleading lady with success. She played it with a charm all her own, anddrew towards her the members of her own sex as well as those of themasculine. She was unique, he assured himself. He could trust herblindfold, even among wolves in sheep's clothing; for essentially shewas a mother, and had every incentive to keep pure. Love of children anda respect for religion were sure safeguards against the wiles of thetempter; he could therefore make his mind easy, feeling that his wifepossessed both.
But jealousy is a weed of hardy growth, and once having taken root isdifficult to destroy. There were memories to haunt him and give him manya sleepless night: Joyce seizing and kissing Dalton's hand in her frenzyof relief when he told her the good news concerning the child; hermilk-white shoulder and bosom exposed for the stethoscope.... She mightlook upon Dalton as an "angel" or an "automaton," but no man, unlesssuperhuman, is a stoic where a lovely woman is concerned.
On the whole, it was a miserable week for Meredith in his solitude,despite the distractions of his office and constant journeys over theplain.
His next encampment was a large Mohammedan village on the outskirts of asilk factory,--an important industry owned and worked by a prosperousAnglo-Indian.
In duty bound, the Magistrate and Collector called on the ladies of thehouse, sending in the usual piece of pasteboard with his name printedthereon, and caught a fleeting glimpse of the wife in a dressing-gownand slippers scuttling to cover from the out-offices in the rear.
After keeping him waiting for sometime in a musty drawing-room wherecobwebs lurked in corners and everything looked the worse for time, sheappeared in fearful and wonderful array,--layers of powder concealingthe dusky tint of her complexion, innumerable jewels tinkling on herperson, and hands badly manicured, but richly be-ringed.
During his brief visit she talked volubly in "chee-chee," vigorouslyassisted by gesticulations, and her laughter was ear-splitting andvulgar in its enforced hilarity; so that Meredith, whose nerves feltbadly jangled, rose to beat a hasty retreat, courteously resisting allthe hospitable efforts of the hostess to keep him as a guest.
At the Subdivision of Panchpokhur, he was introduced to the DeputyMagistrate's wife and twin baby boys who were splendid specimens ofinfantile vigour; and his praise and admiration were the passport totheir mother's instant regard. She was a devoted wife and mother, placidand easy-going, and carried the air of one equal to any emergency.
"I am amazed that they should look so strong," Meredith said as hewatched the children racing over the grass in pursuit of strayingpoultry.
"They seldom ail," said their mother, who, though country born, wasperfectly English in her speech and manners. "I nursed them both,unaided," she said proudly, feeling disposed to venture this confidenceto a man who was married and a father.
"That, I suppose, makes a heap of difference," he remarked diffidently."My wife was too ill after the birth of the kid, so it was put on thebottle from the start."
"What a pity!" and the lady forthwith entered upon an instructivedissertation on the particular artificial foods that could berecommended.
"Will this always make him delicate, do you think?" Meredith askedanxiously, not so much for the sake of the babe, as from the fear of allit would mean to himself in regard to his wife.
"Perhaps not, but it is a bad handicap."
Meredith sighed as he explained the reason of his touring alone."Captain Dalton thinks the child should be within reach of medical aidafter its go of fever. My wife, too, was a bit knocked over and cannotrough it this winter, I'm afraid."
"The new Civil Surgeon?"
"Yes. Came direct from Calcutta after the rains set in."
"He is said to be very clever, but the natives don't seem to like him atall, as he is supposed to be rather fond of the knife."
"A good surgeon, I am told. The natives are great cowards of surgery,and risk gangrene before they will consent to an operation."
"That is so. He has his hands full, I should think," said the lady."Elsie Meek, the daughter of a dear friend of mine, is dangerously illat the Mission not far from Muktiarbad. I suppose you know that?"
Meredith had heard a rumour to that effect, and wondered how CaptainDalton had managed to spare so much of his valuable time to the camp.
"Mr. Meek is a Methodist who came out some years ago and married aschool friend of my mother's. Their daughter was educated in England andjoined them a few months ago. I am
told she is a talented girl andtotally unsuited to her life here," said his hostess. "Have you seenmuch of her?"
"Very little, indeed, for her people don't belong to the Club and MissElsie has only been to see the Brights who are rather friendly with herparents. She came out in the summer."
"Poor thing! Enteric is such a terrible disease, and she is very bad Ihear."
"She could not be in more skilful hands," said Meredith.
Before he left the Subdivision, he had many illuminating talks with thewife of the Deputy on the subject of infants and how to rear them inBengal.
"I suppose," said he, "when my kid begins to teeth, the doctors willadvise sending him and the mother home?" It was the probability he mostdreaded.
"I see no necessity for that," was the assured reply. "Doctors take toomuch responsibility upon themselves, when they so readily part husbandsand wives. It has often been the cause of greater trouble than is to befeared from the climate. It should be remembered that teething is not adisease, but a natural process, which might be influenced by thedigestion in any part of the globe. Poor India gets all the blame!--evenwhen an ayah is careless with the feeding bottles. Why! those iniquitousones with a long rubber tube, used in my mother's day, were called'Herods' for the number of children they killed. With proper attention,and the hills for a change when necessary, there is no reason why babiesout here should not do perfectly well till they are seven. It is thegrowing and impressionable stage, and I'll allow that the moral exampleof human nature in the East is not of the best. I say it, who have beenbrought up entirely out here."
"You are a tremendous credit to your upbringing," put in Meredith.
"My people were very particular and I was never allowed an ayah to teachme self-indulgence, nor to associate with the servants' children on theestate; for what native children do not know of evil isn't worthknowing."
The Subdivisional Officer's bungalow was a type usually to be found inrural Districts, built of bricks and mortar, whitewashed, and roofedwith the thatching grass that grows on low-lying lands by the Ganges.Earlier in Raymond Meredith's career, Panchpokhur had been one of hisown appointments, and every corner of the dwelling and its grounds wasfamiliar to him: the tall goldmohur trees beside the gate, the range ofout-offices and stabling, the high, flowering hedge of hibiscus, theprimitive well by the palm tree, with its screeching pulley. Gazing fromthe verandah he could almost imagine himself a bachelor again in thefirst flush of an opening career, keen and interested. The low verandahwas the same on which he was wont to sleep on hot summer nights, andbreakfast upon, at sunrise, in his pyjamas. The deep, thatched roof wasas cool and as picturesque as of yore, having been renewed many times inthe seven or eight years that were gone. The difference in hissurroundings lay in the greater cleanliness--which usually distinguishedthe abode of a married man from that of a careless bachelor--and also inthe supplementary furniture which threw his old camp articles into theshade. He was able to recognise the more durable of his past possessionsin various parts of the house where they appealed to him as old friends.In those days how little had sufficed him!
All was now changed, for his life was dominated with the one idea ofmaking his home attractive and suitable for the treasure it held.
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After Panchpokhur, he moved on with his tents and the paraphernalia ofcamp life to parts thickly populated by Indians of all castes andcreeds, and was received with pomp and ceremony befitting therepresentative of the Ruling Power. Addresses were read to him before avast concourse of humanity; and members of the Local Municipal Boardvied with one another in paying him the respect due to his officialposition.
In the intervals of duty, he tramped jungle places for game, alone or incompany with gentlemen from the neighbourhood; and, at the week-end,prepared to spend Sunday with his wife at Muktiarbad.