Rudyard Kipling : The Complete Novels and Stories. Редьярд Джозеф Киплинг

I want you to sail in and make the whole world bloom with your kindness. And you’ll do it, too. Confound it, Kate, we’ll do it! No one knows how good two people could be if they formed a syndicate and made a business of it. It hasn’t been tried. Try it with me! O Kate, I love you, I need you, and if you’ll let me, I’ll make a life for you!’

      ‘I know, Nick, you would be kind. You would do all that a man can do. But it isn’t the man who makes marriages happy or possible; it’s the woman, and it must be. I should either do my part and shirk the other, and then I should be miserable; or I should shirk you and be more miserable. Either way such happiness is not for me.’

      Tarvin’s hand found the Naulahka within his breast, and clutched it tight. Strength seemed to go out of it into him—strength to restrain himself from losing all by a dozen savage words.

      ‘Kate, my girl,’ he said quietly, ‘we haven’t time to conjure dangers. We have to face a real one. You are not safe here. I can’t leave you in this place, and I’ve got to go. That is why I ask you to marry me at once.’

      ‘But I fear nothing. Who would harm me?’

      ‘Sitabhai,’ he answered grimly. ‘But what difference does it make? I tell you, you are not safe. Be sure that I know.’

      ‘And you?’

      ‘Oh, I don’t count.’

      ‘The truth, Nick!’ she demanded.

      ‘Well, I always said that there was nothing like the climate of Topaz.’

      ‘You mean you are in danger—great danger, perhaps.’

      ‘Sitabhai isn’t going round hunting for ways to save my precious life, that’s a fact.’ He smiled at her.

      ‘Then you must go away at once; you mustn’t lose an hour. O Nick, you won’t wait!’

      ‘That’s what I say. I can do without Rhatore; but I can’t do without you. You must come.’

      ‘Do you mean that if I don’t you will stay?’ she asked desperately.

      ‘No; that would be a threat. I mean I’ll wait for you.’ His eyes laughed at her.

      ‘Nick, is this because of what I asked you to do?’ she demanded suddenly.

      ‘You didn’t ask me,’ he defended.

      ‘Then it is, and I am much to blame.’

      ‘What, because I spoke to the King? My dear girl, that isn’t more than the introductory walkaround of this circus. Don’t run away with any question of responsibility. The only thing you are responsible for at this moment is to run with me—flee, vamoose, get out! Your life isn’t worth an hour’s purchase here. I’m convinced of that. And mine isn’t worth a minute’s.’

      ‘You see what a situation you put me in,’ she said accusingly.

      ‘I don’t put you in it; but I offer you a simple solution.’

      ‘Yourself!’

      ‘Well, yes; I said it was simple. I don’t claim it’s brilliant. Almost any one could do more for you; and there are millions of better men, but there isn’t one who could love you better. O Kate, Kate,’ he cried, rising, ‘trust yourself to my love, and I’ll back myself against the world to make you happy.’

      ‘No, no,’ she exclaimed eagerly; ‘you must go away.’

      He shook his head. ‘I can’t leave you. Ask that of some one else. Do you suppose a man who loves you can abandon you in this desert wilderness to take your chances? Do you suppose any man could do that? Kate, my darling, come with me. You torment me, you kill me, by forcing me to allow you a single moment out of my sight. I tell you, you are in imminent, deadly peril. You won’t stay, knowing that. Surely you won’t sacrifice your life for these creatures.’

      ‘Yes,’ she cried, rising, with the uplifted look on her face. ‘Yes! If it is good to live for them, it is good to die for them. I do not believe my life is necessary; but if it is necessary, that too!’

      Tarvin gazed at her, baffled, disheartened, at a loss. ‘And you won’t come?’

      ‘I can’t. Good-bye, Nick. It’s the end.’

      He took her hand. ‘Good afternoon,’ he responded. ‘It’s end enough for to-day.’

      She pursued him anxiously with her eye as he turned away; suddenly she started after. him. ‘But you will go?’

      ‘Go! No! No!’ he shouted. ‘I’ll stay now if I have to organise a standing army, declare myself king, and hold the rest-house as the seat of government. Go!’

      She put forth a detaining, despairing hand, but he was gone.

      Kate returned to the little Maharaj Kunwar, who had been allowed to lighten his convalescence by bringing down from the palace a number of his toys and pets. She sat down by the side of the bed, and cried for a long time silently.

      ‘What is it, Miss Kate?’ asked the Prince, after he had watched her for some minutes, wondering. ‘Indeed, I am quite well now, so there is nothing to cry for. When I go back to the palace I will tell my father all that you have done for me, and he will give you a village. We Rajputs do not forget.’

      ‘It’s not that, Lalji,’ she said, stooping over him, drying her tear-stained eyes.

      ‘Then my father will give you two villages. No one must cry when I am getting well, for I am a king’s son. Where is Moti? I want him to sit upon a chair.’

      Kate rose obediently, and began to call for the Maharaj Kunwar’s latest pet—a little grey monkey, with a gold collar, who wandered at liberty through the house and garden, and at night did his best to win a place for himself by the young Prince’s side. He answered the call from the boughs of a tree in the garden, where he was arguing with the wild parrots, and entered the room, crooning softly in the monkey tongue.

      ‘Come here, little Hanuman,’ said the Prince, raising one hand. The monkey bounded to his side. ‘I have heard of a king,’ said the Prince, playing with his golden collar, ‘who spent three lakhs in marrying two monkeys. Moti, wouldst thou like a wife? No, no—a gold collar is enough for thee. We will spend our three lakhs in marrying Miss Kate to Tarvin Sahib, when we get well, and thou shalt dance at the wedding.’ He was speaking in the vernacular, but Kate understood too well the coupling of her name with Tarvin’s.

      ‘Don’t, Lalji, don’t!’

      ‘Why not, Kate? Why, even I am married.’

      ‘Yes, Yes. But it is different. Kate would rather you didn’t, Lalji.’

      ‘Very well,’ answered the Maharaj, with a pout. ‘Now I am only a little child. When I am well I will be a king again, and no one can refuse my gifts. Listen. Those are my father’s trumpets. He is coming to see me.’

      A bugle call sounded in the distance. There was a clattering of horses’ feet, and a little later the Maharajah’s carriage and escort thundered up to the door of the missionary’s house. Kate looked anxiously to see if the noise irritated her young charge; but his eyes brightened, his nostrils quivered, and he whispered, as his hand tightened on the hilt of the sword always by his side—

      ‘That is very good! My father has brought all his sowars.’

      Before Kate could rise, Mr. Estes had ushered the Maharajah into the room, which was dwarfed by his bulk and by the bravery of his presence. He had been assisting at a review of his bodyguard, and came therefore in his full uniform as commander-in-chief of the army of the State, which was no mean affair. The Maharaj Kunwar ran his eyes delightedly up and down the august figure of his father, beginning with the polished gold-spurred jack-boots, and ascending to the snowy-white doeskin breeches, the tunic blazing with gold, and the diamonds of