Sydney C. Grier

“ But when charming ladies take it into their pretty heads to go there, what is poor Hubby to do? ‘My dear, believe me, I can’t take you with me.’ ‘Oh, but you will, won’t you?’ ‘Quite impossible, my dear.’ ‘Ah, but you can do it if you like, I know. And you must.’ And he does—naturally.”
Richard Ambrose chuckled disagreeably, and the colour rose in his wife’s cheeks. “It’s a bachelor y’are, sir, by your own confession,” she said sweetly to the stranger. “No married man would dare to draw such a picture. The best I can wish you is that you may find how true it is!” ”

“ Eveleen hardly heard her, so much engrossed was she in greeting her brother.
“Well, Brian?” sitting up eagerly as he came in.
“Well, old Evie!” he stooped and kissed her. “Been more than a little bit seedy—eh?”
“Ah, what do I signify? Let me look at you, Brian. D’ye know, I believe you’re—grown!”
“Will you listen to the woman! Grown, am I? Grown thin, my dear, till you could count the bones of me!” ”

“ You won’t feel bound to show yourself at table if you ain’t equal to it? Ambrose and I will devour our grub in solitude, like a pair of uncivilised bachelors again.”
“As if I’d allow that! Sure I’ll be there!” and Eveleen nodded brightly as she disappeared under the curtain that hung before the doorway of her room. Her mercurial spirits were recovering fast from the gloom of the voyage. Everything was interesting, and therefore cheerful—the new country, the unfamiliar house, this dear chivalrous Colonel Bayard. ”

“ Colonel Bayard was in camp in the morning—very well pleased with himself in the honest conviction that his expedition had contributed materially to the General’s success. His force, on the other hand, were so disgusted that their comrades found it advisable not to mention the battle to them. To spend a whole day in trying to set fire to a forest which would not burn, and from which the enemy had silently vanished in the night, while eight miles away a life-and-death struggle was going forward—as the booming of the guns showed,—this was enough to make any troops angry. ”

“ Keen-eyed watchers on its ramparts might even have been able to trace the course of yesterday’s battle—be able now to discern what they read as the victor’s advance. The slow pace at which the cavalry moved, owing to the fatigue of their horses, must have seemed to the Khans and their followers the relentless deliberation of fate, for the Vakils who were on their way from the city with Captain Keeling and his flag of truce besought Sir Harry with anguish as soon as they beheld him to stop the march until he himself was present to control his troops. ”

“ She would never have lifted a finger to hold him had he wished to be free! She raged against him a little now as she stood solitary in the middle of the absent Mrs Bayard’s drawing-room, seeing nothing of her surroundings. If he must be sarcastic and cross, why try to humiliate her in the presence of a stranger, instead of keeping his horrid remarks till they were alone together, and she could answer them as they deserved? There was little of the patient Griselda about Eveleen Ambrose. ”

“ She sprang up wildly at last, and meeting the surprised glance of Ketty, who had been hugging herself in the complacency natural to the bearer of appalling tidings, bade her harshly to go out—make enquiries—bring more news. Ketty was nothing loath. The present popularity of her mistress shed its lustre over her, and she knew she would be a welcome guest among the wives of the soldiers in the courtyard. Out she went, and Eveleen, who had stood rigid with her hand to her heart, crossed the room again and sank on her knees beside her husband. ”

“ He had had little to do with women in his hard life, but the few ladies with whom he had come in contact did not trouble themselves to amuse the men around; they left it to the men to amuse them. Richard Ambrose had never been particularly successful in this respect, but he felt the attitude was the right one. As Eveleen told herself bitterly one day on catching sight of his disapproving face on the outskirts of the circle which her hunting stories had set in a roar, it really seemed that the only person who didn’t like Mrs Ambrose was Mrs Ambrose’s husband! ”

“ Well, Heaven grant me to be worthy of my wife and girls, and not disgrace ’em!”
“Sure y’are the first ever mentioned disgrace in the same breath with yourself, Sir Harry,” said Eveleen earnestly. He glowered at her.
“Young troops—never saw a fight before, and a leader with no experience of high command! The Duke’s battles were ended when he was ten years younger than I—Napoleon’s the same. Yet there’s a kind of elation in the delightful anxiety of leading an army—and such an army—against a force twenty times its number. How many proud Arabits will have bit the dust by this hour to-morrow! ”

“ Eveleen turned innocent eyes upon him. “Sure I’m afraid to talk, Sir Harry. I’m in a shocking bad temper this evening, and I’d maybe say something I oughtn’t.”
“Meaning that I’m in a shocking bad temper, I suppose? My apologies, ma’am—my most humble apologies. Not that I ever do lose my temper—you’re wrong there.” Eveleen wished she had eyes in the back of her head, to see Brian’s face when he heard this. “I’m apt to be betrayed into using strong language occasionally—very wrong, I know, and I try to break myself of the habit,—but I assure you I have the sweetest temper in the world. ”

“ Whatever excitement there might be for the men, who rode daily to the Fort to discuss Lord Maryport’s treaty with the Khans in durbar, life at the Residency was the very acme of dulness for the woman left at home. If Eveleen had expected to be able to resume her former pursuits, she was mistaken. She blamed herself bitterly for not having brought a horse—difficult though it might have been for poor Captain Franks to find room for it—for the lack of one played into the hands of her natural enemies. ”

“ The General’s face cleared wonderfully. “Why, so they ought! There are times when no man who is a man ought to keep his temper. And I am proud to say that on occasions like that I have never failed—yes, I think I may say I have never failed—to lose mine.”
Eveleen fought with a wild desire to laugh. “True for you, I’m sure, Sir Harry—most thoroughly. W-will we gallop now?” she welcomed almost hysterically a broad stretch of smooth sand in front, for the General had glanced round suspiciously, and she was afraid of disgracing herself for ever. ”

“ With tulwar and shield and lance, the wild men swaggered where they would, responsible only to the Khans—and not always very amenable to them—and caring nothing for anybody else. Eveleen admired their showy little active horses, the ease and grace of the riders, and the bright silks and embroidered shawls of their apparel, but she had sense enough to realise that they were not people it would be desirable to meet if she were riding alone. ”

“ It’s good to be here again, Mrs Ambrose—I don’t even regret my lost furlough, though my passage home was taken for this week. But the delays in getting back from Bombay! I have been fretting like a war-horse—but not for his reason. I don’t want to plunge into a battle—far from it. My one desire is to prevent fighting. It was a horrid blow to hear at the landing-stage that Sir Henry had actually marched against the Khans, but I trust—I hope—I may yet be in time to put an end to this lamentable adventure. ”

“ Leaving two men to look after Shab-ud-din, he led the way again towards Qadirabad, Eveleen following him, with the syce at her stirrup, and the escort bringing up the rear. The sun was very hot by this time, Bajazet was tired and stumbled more than once, and Eveleen drooped in her saddle, trying to nerve herself in advance for the ordeal of meeting a justly incensed Richard. She met him sooner than she expected, in a cloud of dust, with an escort of Khemistan Horse. Carthew drew aside, with an admirable air of contempt alike for the service he had rendered and for its object. ”

“ It’s the wonderful old chap he is! Y’ought have seen him on the way there, Evie—coming straight from writing his endless letters with his hands all crippled to turning out Her Majesty’s Europeans to drag the guns up the sandhills that were too much for the camels. They run ’em up one steep place of a thousand feet or so in five minutes, all joking and cheering, and old Harry dashing the briny drops from his manly eyes, and swearing he loved the British soldier more than any man on earth. ”

“ Tears and fury strove in Eveleen’s voice.
“They would regard it as quite friendly to invite a man to divorce his wife that she might marry some one else. The unfriendly way would be to take her without asking. Now really, my dear! I thought you would look upon it as a good joke, or I wouldn’t have told you.”
“And I suppose he said your wife was a crosspatch, and as ugly as sin, and altogether you’d do well to be rid of her and get another?”
“You must think me a very patient fellow, my dear! And ’pon my honour,” slowly, “I begin to believe I must be.”
“Ambrose, you have made a joke! ”

“ How they had managed to abstract the poor little man from his own boat, under the eyes of his servants, was a mystery, but everything was mysterious to-night.
He repeated his question as Eveleen hesitated a moment.
“Why, let them take us over to the other side,” she answered—the desire to be as far as possible from the Kajias conquering all other considerations. “I’d rather choose the desert than their camp.”
“There is no time. They are afraid of the storm.” Mr Firozji’s voice sounded as if he was frightened himself. ”

“ It was just as well that Shahbaz Khan should be convinced of the ability of British troops to reach and capture any objective whatever—no matter how distant and difficult,—as a gentle hint that when he was placed in power he also would find no place of refuge if he chose to misbehave. The British force, fretting at the leash which held it inactive after its hard training, was ready to go anywhere and fight anything, and moved out joyfully from Bori into the desert, to the number—after the manner of Anglo-Indian armies—of three thousand fighting men and twenty thousand camp-followers. ”

“ Sir Harry laughed triumphantly.
“Aha, Ambrose! your good lady has a sharp eye. Yes, ma’am; from this night’s bivouac the camp-followers are excluded. Their numbers and their lack of discipline would embarrass any force—have ruined many, in Ethiopia and elsewhere. The moment an attack is delivered the terror-stricken multitude, with cries of panic, seek the opportunity to escape, urging before them their animals, often their sole possession. The disorderly mass, rushing upon the troops, bursts through the ranks, and leaves an opening of which the enemy is waiting to take advantage. ”

“ Whether the Arabits were really beyond their masters’ control, or whether the spies in the village just outside the Agency wall had gauged the extent of the reinforcement and adjudged it negligible, morning light showed that the place was surrounded, though the various bodies of horse and foot whose presence could be distinguished betrayed no indecent alacrity to come out into the open or approach too near. There was nothing in the nature of a surprise, for Captain Montgomery lacked Colonel Bayard’s pathetic faith in the Khans, and even a night attack would have found the garrison prepared. ”

“ For the first time her eyes ceased to rest coldly on the Khan, evidently to his relief, as she stooped and laid the Seal on Richard’s breast, passing the chain round his neck.
“I receive the trust as an honour, tell his Highness,” she said to Carthew, “and I place his treasure in the safest spot known to me. As long as I live, and Major Ambrose lives, no harm can come to it. If it is removed or injured, the fault will not be ours.”
“Tell the Beebee she can be at ease,” said Kamal-ud-din, rather hastily. “No harm can befall her.” ”

“ The familiar dry tone brought Eveleen to her senses. She sat back and looked at him in dismay.
“Indeed, and if you did keep silence because you were afraid of my foolishness I wouldn’t wonder. I deserve it. To think of my calling out that way! But Bearer’s outside to warn us if anybody comes near, and every one’s too busy to care about us just now.”
Richard’s hand came on hers with a sudden heavy pressure. “Listen!” he murmured.
“Let the exalted magnificence listen to the words of this humble one,” pleaded the voice of Abdul Qaiyam. “In very deed there is no one within. ”

“ They never thought I’d come. But that only shows they don’t know me—eh?” said Eveleen cheerfully.
But she did not return to the paddle-box, choosing rather to sit at her tent-door, on the little piece of deck that was sacred to her use, in case Richard should be in the same mind when he returned. Not that she would mind Captain Franks—or any one else hearing anything he had to say; but if the poor man was determined to make an exhibition of himself, ’twas kinder to let him do it in private. ”

“ By the flashes of the lightning Eveleen noted grimly the miserable huddled figures forward, and guessed that the Kajias were not particularly happy in their conquest.
“If only there was a man on board worth a halfpenny—barring my poor Ambrose,” she said to herself, “we’d retake the ship in no time. But who is there at all? Firozji is no mortal use; if Bearer can fire a pistol, that’s the most he can do; and as for the boatmen, if they ain’t Codgers themselves, they’re every bit as bad. Indeed and they’re worse, for they ain’t sea-sick.” ”

“ The normal Early Victorian married woman, however young, was staid with a staidness that would be improbable in a grandmother at the present day. She laid down the law to other women with the assurance naturally conferred by her position on a dazzling eminence attained by sheer merit, and she made—or professed to make—her husband’s comfort and satisfaction her one object in life. Mrs Ambrose fell lamentably below this standard. Like Richard, Mrs Gibbons was compelled sorrowfully to believe that she had never really grown up. ”

“ At any rate, the truth remains that she was absolutely incapable of realising that there are times—and a good many of them—when the soul of a sick person yearns for nothing on earth but to be let alone. She could not let Richard alone. If she was not doing some totally unnecessary and undesired thing for him, she was thinking of something to do, and if she could not think of any thing, she was asking him to suggest something. His bearer knew exactly how to make him comfortable in bed, but it would have been asking too much of Eveleen to expect her to believe this. ”