"Ah ... still the same Miss Delany."
"Did you expect someone different?"
"I was hoping I would find no change. And now I am content." He spoke lightly. "What did you think of the journey?"
"Tremendously interesting. A trifle uncomfortable, but a stimulating experience."
"You take a philosophical view, I see. I knew you would, of course. And I do hope the interest and stimulation outweighed the discomfort."
Lavinia had come into the room. Both men turned to her. She looked beautiful, with her hair dressed high on her head and her somewhat diaphanous gown clinging to her superb figure.
I immediately felt like an insignificant wren in the presence of a peacock.
Dougal went to her and they kissed perfunctorily. It was not what one would have expected from a husband and wife deprived of each other's company for some months. I noticed the change in Dougal. He seemed apprehensive.
She turned to Fabian.
"Well, sister," he was saying, "you seem to look better than ever. I guess you are delighted that Miss Drusilla has joined you."
Lavinia pouted. "Oh, she disapproves of me, don't you, Drusilla?"
"I expect with reason," said Fabian.
"Drusilla would always be reasonable," added Dougal with an air of resignation.
"Of course, Drusilla is a paragon of virtue," said Lavinia mockingly.
"Well, let us hope that you profit from her example," added Fabian.
"We had better go in to dinner," said Dougal. "Great Khansamah will be annoyed if we do not."
"Then let us delay," said Fabian. "I believe that we should make the rules."
"He can be very difficult in many ways," Dougal reminded him. He turned to me. "He has complete control over the servants."
"All the same," protested Fabian, "I don't intend to let him govern my life. But I suppose the food will be spoiled if we don't go in. So perhaps Great Khansamah has reason on his side. We don't want to give Miss Drusilla a bad impression, do we?"
It was cool in the dining room—a large, salon-like place with French windows looking out onto a beautiful lawn with a pond, on which floated the familiar water lilies and lotus flowers. There was a faint hum in the air from the countless insects and I already knew that when the lamps were lighted the curtains would have to be drawn to prevent certain obnoxious creatures invading the room.
"You must tell us all about your journey," said Fabian.
I told them and mentioned our hazardous progress across the desert.
"Did you become friendly with any of your fellow passengers?" asked Fabian. "One does on ships."
"Well, there was a Frenchman. He was very helpful to us, but he was taken ill on the journey through the desert and we didn't see him again. We met someone from the Company. You will know him, I expect. A Mr. Tom Keeping."
Fabian nodded. "I trust he was helpful."
"Oh, very."
"And what do you think of India?" asked Dougal.
"I feel I have seen very little of it so far."
"Everything is different here from in England," he said a little ruefully.
"That is what I expected."
The Great Khansamah had come into the room. He was dressed in a pale blue shirt over baggy white trousers; his puggaree was white and he wore a pair of dark red shoes of which, I discovered, he was very proud. He wore them with an air that was meant to imply that they were a sign of his great position.
"Everything is to the satisfaction," he said in a voice daring us to say that it was not.
Lavinia smiled at him warmly. "It is very good," she told him. "Thank you."
"And the sahibs ... ?" he said.
Fabian and Dougal told him that it was very satisfactory.
Then he bowed and retired.
"He really has a great opinion of himself," murmured Dougal.
"The trouble is," replied Fabian, "so has the rest of the household."
"Why is he so important?" I asked.
"He is employed by the Company. This is for him a permanent post. He regards the house as his and those of us who use it are merely his passing guests. That is how he sees it. Of course, he is very efficient. I suppose that is why he is tolerated."
"I think he will be easy to get along with," said Lavinia.
"He will if he gets complete subservience," Fabian told her.
"Which you resent," I said.
"I won't have my life ruled by servants."
"I don't think he sees himself as that," said Dougal. "To himself he is the great Nabob, the ruler of us all."
"There is something about him that makes me wary," said Fabian. "If he becomes too arrogant I shall do my best to get him replaced. Now what news from home?"
"You know the war is over," I asked.
"It is about time, too."
"They have brought the men home from the Crimea and the nurses are looking after them. They did a wonderful job."
"Thanks to the redoubtable Miss Nightingale."
"Yes," I said. "It took a great deal of hard work to make people listen to her."
"Well, the war is over," said Fabian. "And it ended in victory for us—a Pyrrhic victory, I fear. The losses were tremendous and the French and Russians suffered more than we did, I believe. But our losses were great."
"Thank Heaven it is all over," said Dougal.
"It took us a long time," commented Fabian. "And ... I don't think it has done us much good here."
"You mean in India?" I asked.
"They watch closely what the British are doing and I have come to the conclusion that attitudes have changed a little since it started."
He was frowning as he looked into his glass.
Lavinia yawned. She said, "I believe the shops here are very much like those in Bombay."
Fabian laughed. "And that is a matter of the utmost importance, which you will no doubt quickly investigate."
"Why should the attitude change because of a war far away?" I asked.
Fabian leaned his arms on the table and looked intently at me. "The Company has brought great good to India ... so we think. But it is never easy for one country to impose its customs on another. Even though the changes in some cases may be for the better, there is necessarily a certain resentment."
"There is undoubtedly resentment here," agreed Dougal.
"And it alarms you?" I asked.
"Not exactly," replied Fabian. "But I think we have to be watchful."
"Is that one of the reasons why the despotic rule of the Great Khansamah is tolerated?"
"I see you have grasped the situation very quickly."
"Oh, Drusilla is so clever," said Lavinia. "Far cleverer than I could ever be."
"You do show a certain perception, since you are able to see it," said her brother. "Although I must say it is rather obvious."
"Fabian is always beastly to me," said Lavinia, pouting.
"I am truthful, dear sister." He turned to me. "Things have changed a little in the last year or so. And I think it may have something to do with the war. There were accounts in the papers of the suffering endured by our men and of the long siege of Sebastopol. I sensed that some were regarding that with a certain satisfaction."
"But surely our prosperity helps them."
"It does, but all people are not so logical as you and I. There is something such as cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. I fancy there are many here who would be ready to do just that ... to let their own prosperity suffer for the sake of seeing us humiliated."
"It sounds rather a senseless attitude to take up."
"There is a strong sense of national pride in us all," put in Dougal. "Independence is dear to most of us, and some fear to lose it, even if retaining it means dispensing with certain comforts."
"What would be the result of this feeling?" I asked.
"Nothing we shouldn't be able to handle," said Fabian. "But it shows itself now and then. The Khansamah of this house is a man of overweening pride, as you have seen."