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Show - n c it nnn rp rp SiJS P ill W f vj uu u Lil UlJ SJJ ISiJ Li BY TALBOT JVIUNDY o . o- ft I IMIf, ClI.VrTEIl XXI-Continued. 19 At the foot of the stairs, Norwood pulled out his cardcase, produced a card and gave it to one of the palace pal-ace servants: "Send that up to Miss Lynn Harding. Hard-ing. Say I will be waiting outside. I will meet her near the front sps." He walked out. Under the glare of the portico light he pulled out his handkerchief, raised his right arm and waved it. O'Leary's shrill whistle answered: long-short, long-short "Order received re-ceived and executed okay!" O'Leary had released the Bengali doctor. CHAPTER XXII Lynn looked like a ghost in white chiffon. She turned instinctively to the right and stepped into the darkness. dark-ness. She stood within a few paces of the spot where, one night ago, she had bridled at Norwood's blunt comments. com-ments. It seemed as if a whole lifetime life-time had passed in the interval. The guitar and the songs on the wall were a far-off memory. Norwood strode out of the darkness. dark-ness. "Silence!" he said. "Not a word. Nothing so easy on the nerves as saying nothing." They continued walking until they came to a moonlit lotus pond and stood together staring at the reflections reflec-tions of trees. A little animal jumped into the water and swam. They watched the ripples spread until un-til they reached the marble banks. At last Norwood spoke: "Feeling better?" "I can't analyze it I suppose I'm feeling guilty." "Want some more silence?" "No. I would rather you'd say what you think." Norwood chuckled: "You remember remem-ber the parrot. I draw extra pay for thinking and not talking. I have only one virtue." "You say only one virtue? What is it?" "I never use double meanings." "Are you telling the truth?" "Yes." ! "Good. Then please say what you think of me, straight, without any -double- meanings or . reservations. Let's get that over with." "Very well, Lynn. But are you quite sure you won't be belligerent about it? I didn't bring you out here to start a fight." It wasn't the first time he had called her Lynn, but she noticed it. When Rundhia first called her Lynn she actually hadn't noticed it. "I never am belligerent," she answered. an-swered. "No? What a pity. Of course, I don't expect to be shot but I don't even want to make you really angry. an-gry. You're a bit angry now, aren't you?" "Yes, but with myself. I'm not angry with you. Go ahead, punish me. I'll take it Say what you think." "Do you promise you won't hit back, or make a scene, or accuse me of hidden motives?" "Captain Norwood, kindly go ahead and tell me. I've treated you very badly and you're entitled to revenge. I will listen. And I won't answer back." "Don't promise." "Say what you think," she insisted. in-sisted. 'T v.inlr thp same now that I did when I first saw you." "What is it?" "Perhaps I'm not being quite accurate. ac-curate. It wasn't until that astonishing aston-ishing picnic at the palace that I made up my mind to marry you. I fell in love with you at first sight, without guessing who you were, when I saw you with the Maharanee Mahara-nee in the carriage. When I saw you on horseback in the early morning, morn-ing, it was all over as far as I'm concerned nothing further to argue about. I've committed myself to the hilt. How about you?" Lynn caught her breath. "I I never dreamt of it!" "I know you didn't. And you're not dreaming now. We're both of us stone-cold sober and wide awake." "Do you always make love like this." "I don't even know the first rules of the game. I'm a chronic bachelor, bache-lor, suddenly converted." "But Captain Norwood" "The only girl I ever fell in love with calls me Carl or else calls the police." "But" Lynn laughed. "Are there any police." "Try Shout for them. An Indian night is as full of eyes as the sky is of stars." "But I wouldn't know what to say to the police. I'd better call you Carl." "And now to use one of your phrases, let's get this over with: I'm a pauper. I've four hundred pounds a year and an Engineer Captain's Cap-tain's pay." "Carl, I hope you don t thinK I'm wealthy. I haven't a cent in the world. I've been disinherited. "You have? Is that e ictual fact7" "Yes. Aunty hasn't even left me a reputation." That's marvelous! Oh, my God, what luxury! I was scared stiff." "You? Scared?" "Yes. Scared of you. Afraid you'd think I was after your money." "Carl, I haven't a cent." "All right. More preliminaries. Mostly I live in a tent. My servants are scandalous rogues, who know nearly as much as I do about crime and treachery and worse." Lynn laughed: I never lived in a tent, and I've been kept away from sinners. I'm a very ignorant person. per-son. You'd better think again, hadn't you?" "No. I've finished thinking about that. But how about you? It's your last chance. Lynn, you're on the edge of the abyss of matrimony. Any questions?" "Millions of questions! Billions! I don't even know you. I'll ask them afterwards." "Good. That's the style. There'll be lots of time afterwards. Well, you've refused to call the police, and you've promised not to talk back or make a scene. So I'll be damned if I'll wait any longer. Lynn, I love you." The Indian night and the Indian stars; the perfumed silence and the moonlit lotus pool all merged into Jr S1- t r 1 Lynn looked like a ghost in white chiffon. a consciousness of love one moment mo-ment of eternity that swept away the past one moment of unselfcon-scious unselfcon-scious mystery in which the lover and the loved were one and all life was their realm, all values were in true perspective. Love was real. Everything else was illusion and unreal. un-real. Until gradually, even in Carl Norwood's arms, Lynn's awareness of earth resumed its spell and she looked away at their reflections in the moonlit lotus pond. "Look, CarL See us! Look." "Shadows." Then he spoke strangely: "Shadows of reflections that reflect what? You and I are shadows. We move in response to something else. What is it?" "Carl are you real? Is that you talking?" "I suspect it's the real me talking to the real you. Lynn, I'm steeped in eastern thought. Life's good. We're growing getting wiser grad ually, mat s wny 1 spareu nuit-dhia nuit-dhia He'd have been hanged if I hadn't done what I did. Now he'll get some money from the Maharanee Maha-ranee and live in Europe." "But Carl " Lynn hesitated. "Perhaps I shouldn't say it." "All right, I'll say it for you. He'll go to Europe and do it again. And blots of women won't have sense enough to stand him off until he's ruined them and sneered and gone." "Yes, I was thinking of that. It was a mean thought." "No, it wasn't." "The way I thought it, it was mean. Carl, I believe you because I can't disbelieve you, not for any other reason. It seems impossible. How can such a man as you are, with such thoughts as you think, possibly pos-sibly love me? I believe I deliberately deliberate-ly tempted Rundhia. The Maharanee Maha-ranee " Norwood chuckled. "All right, I'll say that for you, too. She 5-aid he really loved you. He'd be a fool if he didn't. The trouble is, he is a fool. So it won't last Not that it makes any difference." "But if I've made him wretched" wretch-ed" "That's his business. Each of us pays for his own mistakes." "But that was my mistake." "Your end of it was yours. But you paid cash. Rundhia doesn't. He lets the bill run at compound interest in-terest Everybody makes mistakes. Nobody's worth a damn who hasn't made 'em." "Bad ones?" "The worse the better. The rule is, learn and don't repeat. On that condition there's no aftermath. You pay once and that's all." "Carl, do you mean that a person's per-son's past isn't" Norwood laughed: "Sink of lnjqm- ty, Lynn, unchastened Jezebel, come to think of it I left your past history his-tory seated on a trunk on the path outside the guesthouse. What with the mosquitoes and her temper she'll be cooking up a future unless we go to her rescue." "Carl, I'm shameless. I really am. I'd forgotten her." "Did you ever have toothache? One forgets that, too, afterwards." "But this isn't afterwards. You don't know Aunty. Carl, I'll go to her. You mustn't come. Please, really, you mustn't She will say things that I don't want you to hear. They're not true but she'll say them." "Are you sure?" "You mean, am I sure they're not true?" "I mean, are you sure she'll say them?" "Yes. She always does when she's angry." "Let's find out" "CarL I'm" "You're embarrassed. So'm I. It's good for both of us, so let's do it together." They took their time, strolling along shadowy moonlit paths toward the guesthouse, too interested in each other to notice voices until they were quite close up beneath the darkness of the overhanging trees. The trunks no longer stood in a row on the garden path. There was a light in the servants' pantry at the rear, and a smell of cooking. Light poured through the living-room living-room window. "Hush," said Norwood. "Listen. Rule number one is don't talk in the dark. Rule number two is listen and learn, but never tell tales." The Maharanee's voice came quite distinctly through the open window: "If I, who am broken-hearted, can forgive my nephew Rundhia " An unmistakable voice interrupted: interrupt-ed: "You're being silly. Don't be sentimental. You probably ruined Rundhia by being sentimental. At your age you ought to know better. You should have spanked him when he was young, and kept him short of pocket money when he was older. old-er. I neglected to spank Lynn. That's the trouble and I'm ashamed of myself. Are you sure you know where she is? Are yod quite, sure? Who told you she is near the lotus pond with Captain Norwood?" "Six servants, ',' said the Maharanee, Mahara-nee, "and one gardener. Also the Chief of Police very kindly took the trouble to phone me about it." "Imagine the impudence of that girl!" "But I haven't noticed that she is impudent." "If she was in love with Captain Norwood she should have told me." "Do you think she knew it?" asked the Maharanee. "I knew it, late this evening. But do you think that Lynn knew it?" Aunty Harding cackled a chairwoman's chair-woman's ladylike laugh on two notes, politely derisive: "Knew it? Maharanee, what this younger generation knows is more than you and I ever will know. They're incorrigible. That girl has more whalebone in her will than there are cents in a dollar. It isn't brittle. You can't break it. It's resilient." "Yes," said the Maharanee, "this generation has its own ideas. It goes its own way. Lynn will go far." 1 Aunty coughed drily: "Go far? She will go to the devil, I don't doubt. But I have this consolation. If what you say is true, she has disgraced dis-graced herself with the only gentleman gen-tleman I have met in India." The Maharanee protested loyally: "His Highness my husband " "Oh, kings don't count," said Aunty. "They're middle class nowadays. now-adays. I can't forgive kings for the way they've sold out to the politicians. politi-cians. I never will forgive them. I'm' a Democrat and I'll die in my boots." "But you'll forgive Lynn?" "Getting back at me, are you? A little sarcasm, eh? Maharanee, if I can get that minx Lynn to forgive me before she has had time to slander slan-der me to Captain Norwood, I'll think I'm lucky. I'll be a wizard or is it a witch?" "Or are you a little wiser than you were?" the Maharanee suggested. suggest-ed. Norwood whispered: "How much did you bet? Are you still scared?" Moses Lafayette O'Leary's whistle piped from the nearby shrubbery a few notes of a private signal: C, D, F, C, D, F, C, D, F C. It startled star-tled Lynn. "What was that? It sounded like someone in hiding. Are we being watched?" "Yes, the night has eyes in India. They've a saying here that even diamonds dia-monds see in the dark. That's a very rough diamond informing me that all's clear and he's off home. You go in. I'll follow you presently. I want to speak to him." Norwood walked alone into the shrubbery. He almost walked into Moses O'Leary. "I warned you," said O'Leary, "about women. By the hundred they're all right. One's a problem. But you wouldn't listen. I suppose you'll get yourself a new man now to say yes to you and tell you you're Solomon. But Solomon had him a thousand wives, and concubines on top 0' that. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Am I out of a job?" "Where's your horse?" " 'Tain't a horse. I rode your baby-mare. She's near the gate." "When you get back to camp see that she's rubbed down carefully and give her a light blanket. Stand by and see it done. Dp you hear me?" "Yes, sir, Captain Norwood." "Here's the key to the whiskey. Help yourself. You've leave of absence until noon tomorrow. Turn up sober or I'll " "Is the Government broke?" "Here are ten rupees. But that's not Government money. It's personal. per-sonal. Don't get into trouble with it." "Well, sir, I've seen miracles in my day. I've seen you pick winners. win-ners. Maybe she's as reliable as she is good looking. Here's hoping. I'll say a prayer for you." "Don't keep that mare standing. Good night." , "Good night, sir, and here's hoping." hop-ing." Moses Lafayette O'Leary strode away into the night, until the sound of his footfall ceased on the dusty path and there was nothing mora heard of him but the tune that ha whistled: Oh, officers' wives get puddings and ple And soups and roasts and jellies. But poor Tommies' wives get sweet THE END |