Under the Deodars | Page 9

this second struggle should lead to
better issue than the first helpless surrender of the bewildered 'Stunt.
What might have happened it is impossible to say. This lamentable
thing befell, bred directly by a statement of Mrs. Hauksbee that she

would spend the next season in Darjiling.
'Are you certain of that?' said Otis Yeere.
'Quite. We're writing about a house now.'
Otis Yeere 'stopped dead,' as Mrs. Hauksbee put it in discussing the
relapse with Mrs. Mallowe.
'He has behaved,' she said angrily, 'just like Captain Kerrington's pony
only Otis is a donkey at the last Gymkhana. Planted his forefeet and
refused to go on another step. Polly, my man's going to disappoint me.
What shall I do?'
As a rule, Mrs. Mallowe does not approve of staring, but on this
occasion she opened her eyes to the utmost.
'You have managed cleverly so far,'she said. 'Speak to him, and ask him
what he means.'
'I will at to-night's dance.'
'No o, not at a dance,' said Mrs. Mallowe cautiously. 'Men are never
themselves quite at dances. Better wait till to-morrow morning.'
'Nonsense. If he's going to 'vert in this insane way there isn't a day to
lose. Are you going? No? Then sit up for me, there's a dear. I shan't
stay longer than supper under any circumstances.'
Mrs. Mallowe waited through the evening, looking long and earnestly
into the fire, and sometimes smiling to herself.
'Oh! oh! oh! The man's an idiot! A raving, positive idiot! I'm sorry I
ever saw him!'
Mrs. Hauksbee burst into Mrs. Mallowe's house, at midnight, almost in
tears.
'What in the world has happened?' said Mrs. Mallowe, but her eyes

showed that she had guessed an answer.
'Happened! Everything has happened! He was there. I went to him and
said, ''Now, what does this nonsense mean?" Don't laugh, dear, I can't
bear it. But you know what I mean I said. Then it was a square, and I
sat it out with him and wanted an explanation, and he said Oh! I haven't
patience with such idiots! You know what I said about going to
Darjiling next year? It doesn't matter to me where I go. I'd have
changed the Station and lost the rent to have saved this. He said, in so
many words, that he wasn't going to try to work up any more, because
because he would be shifted into a province away from Darjiling, and
his own District, where these creatures are,is within a day's journey '
'Ah hh!' said Mrs. Mallowe, in a tone of one who has successfully
tracked an obscure word through a large dictionary.
'Did you ever hear of anything so mad so absurd? And he had the ball
at his feet. He had only to kick it! I would have made him anything!
Anything in the wide world. He could have gone to the world's end. I
would have helped him. I made him, didn't I, Polly? Didn't I create that
man? Doesn't he owe everything to me? And to reward me, just when
everything was nicely arranged, by this lunacy that spoilt everything!'
'Very few men understand your devotion thoroughly.'
'Oh, Polly, don't laugh at me! I give men up from this hour. I could
have killed him then and there. What right had this man this Thing I
had picked out of his filthy paddy - fields to make love to me?'
'He did that, did he?'
'He did. I don't remember half he said, I was so angry. Oh, but such a
funny thing happened! I can't help laughing at it now, though I felt
nearly ready to cry with rage. He raved and I stormed I'm afraid we
must have made an awful noise in our kala juggah. Protect my
character, dear, if it's all over Simla by to-morrow and then he bobbed
forward in the middle of this insanity I firmly believe the man's
demented and kissed me.'

'Morals above reproach,' purred Mrs. Mallowe.
'So they were so they are! It was the most absurd kiss. I don't believe
he'd ever kissed a woman in his life before. I threw my head back, and
it was a sort of slidy, pecking dab, just on the end of the chin here.' Mrs.
Hauksbee tapped her masculine little chin with her fan. 'Then, of course,
I was furiously angry, and told him that he was no gentleman, and I
was sorry I'd ever met him, and so on. He was crushed so easily then I
couldn't be very angry. Then I came away straight to you.'
'Was this before or after supper?'
'Oh! before oceans before. Isn't it perfectly disgusting?'
'Let me think. I withhold judgment till tomorrow. Morning brings
counsel.'
But morning brought only a servant with a dainty bouquet of