CHAPTER XV.
A DISTRICT OFFICER.
Their aches, hopes, Their pangs of love, with other incident throes, That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain In life's uncertain voyage----
Boldero was one of the Queen's good bargains. His mind teemed withschemes for the regeneration of mankind. Disappointment could not damphis hopefulness, nor difficulty cool his zeal; he was an enthusiast forimprovement and the firmest believer in its possibility. Againststupidity, obstinacy, the blunders of routine, official _vis inertiae_,he waged a warfare which, if not always discreet, was sufficientlyvigorous to plague his opponents: 'See,' cries Mr. Browning'sphilanthropist,
I have drawn a pattern on my nail And I will carve the world fresh after it--
Boldero's nails were absolutely covered with new patterns, and thelittle bit of the world on which he was able to operate was continuallybeing carved into some improved condition. Nature having gifted himwith courage, high spirit, resource, inventiveness, enterprise,and--precious gift!--administrative effectiveness, and Fortune and theStaff Corps having guided his steps from a frontier regiment to acivilian appointment in the Sandy Tracts, his importance was speedilyappreciated. Wherever he looked at the machinery about him he saw thingsout of gear and working badly, and his mind was forthwith haunted withdevices to improve them. He saw material, money, time wasted; wheelcatching against wheel and producing all sorts of bad results by thefriction; office coming to dead-lock with office; one blundering headknocking against another; wants to which no one attended; wrongs whichno one avenged; sufferings to which no hand brought relief. Some men seesuch things and acquiesce in them as inevitable or relieve themselves bycynical remarks on the best of all possible worlds. Boldero felt it allas a personal misfortune and was incapable of acquiescence.
Thus he was for ever discovering grievances, which, when oncediscovered, no one could deny. His reports to Government sent a littleshudder through the Chief Secretary's soul. The Salt Board regarded himwith especial disfavour. Cockshaw cursed him for the long correspondencehe involved. Fotheringham thought him dangerous, rash, Quixotic. EvenBlunt accorded him but a scanty approval, Blunt's view being always therough, commonplace and unsentimental, and Boldero's projects involving aconstant temptation to expenditure. But the Agent was a finer judge ofcharacter than any of them, and his keen eye speedily detected Boldero'srare merits and his fitness for responsible employment. Boldero had morethan justified the Agent's hopes, and accordingly moved rapidly up fromone post to another.
He was now acting as chief magistrate of the district next to Dustypore.Here his energetic temperament had the fullest play. He built, heplanted, he drained. Sunrise found him ever in the saddle. He drove hisMunicipal Committee wild with projects of reform--water-supply,vaccination, canals, tanks, and public gardens. He fulminated the mostfurious orders, plunged into all sorts of controversies, was alwayswaging war in some quarter or other, and manufactured for himself even ahotter world than Nature had provided ready-made. He offended thedoctors by invading the hospitals and pointing out how the patients werekilled by defective arrangements; the Chaplain, by objecting to theventilation of the church and the length of the sermons; the EducationalDepartment by a savage tirade on the schools, and the General incommand by a bold assault on the drainage of the barracks. Altogether abustling, joyous, irrepressible sort of man, and, as the Agent knew, aperfect treasure in a land where energy and enthusiasm are hard to keepat boiling heat, and where to get a thing done, despite the piles ofofficial correspondence it gets buried under, is a result as precious asit is difficult of achievement.
When he first came to India he had been for a couple of years inSutton's regiment, and at the time of Sutton's illness the two hadalmost lived together. The intimacy so formed had ripened into a cordialfriendship, and Boldero had thus become a not unfrequent visitor at theVernons' house, where, though her husband pronounced him an enthusiasticbore, Felicia ever accorded him a kindly welcome.
He had now, however, carried away with him that which speedily cured himof enthusiasm, or, rather, forbade him to feel enthusiastic aboutanything but one. With his accustomed earnest precipitancy he had fallendeeply in love with Maud the first moment he had seen her, and all hisafternoon had been spent in that paradise which springs into suddenexistence beneath a happy lover's feet. Maud had been delighted with himfor being so handsome, so good-natured, and the latest comer. And, then,was not he Sutton's friend, whose care and kindness had brought himfrom Death's door? Maud thought of this with a gush of interest andrained the sweetest and most gracious smiles upon him in consequence.Those bright looks pursued him down the mountain's side, through thelivelong night, and next day into court and office and all the hundredbusinesses of a busy official's day. So bright were they, even inrecollection, that all the brightness seemed to have faded out ofeverything else. The details of his District, lately so full ofinterest, had become the dreariest routine. Improvements which, whenlast he thought of them, seemed of vital importance, faded away intouselessness or impossibility. A great pile of papers stood, ranged uponthe study table, inviting disposal. A week ago Boldero would have fallenupon them, like a glutton on some favourite repast, and driven throughthem with alacrity and enjoyment. Now he had not the heart to touchthem. A week ago the plains, with all their drawbacks, were pleasanterfar, for a healthy man, than the indolent comforts and dull frivolitiesof a Hill station. Now, alas! Elysium was the only place where life--anylife, that is, which deserved the name--was to be had.
Meanwhile, the object of his devotion was conscious only of having had avery pleasant afternoon and added one more to an already ample list ofagreeable acquaintances. By the time she arrived at Elysium next day,Boldero had faded into indistinctness, and his chance meeting with themfigured in Maud's thoughts only as one, and not the most striking,incident of a journey which had been to her full of things new,interesting and picturesque.