“Harm? No, I don’t think there is,” said Dr Bolter. “She’s very handsome, and she has been spoiled by flattery.”
“Administered by foolish men like someone we know,” said the lady.
“H’m! yes – well, perhaps so; but really she is too bad. The fellows seem to run mad after her.”
“Did you see her talking to the Rajah last night?”
“Yes, I saw her; and then poor Hilton began to singe his wings in the candle, and next week she will have somebody else. I know what I’d do if I had to prescribe for her.”
“And what might that be, sir?”
“I’d prescribe a husband, such a one as Harley – a firm, strong-minded, middle-aged man, who would keep a tight hand at the rein and bring her to her senses. I daresay she’d make a man a good wife, after all.”
“Perhaps so,” said Mrs Doctor, pursing up her lips; “but meantime, as you are not called upon to prescribe, what is to be done?”
“To be done? Why, nothing.”
“Oh! but something must be done, Bolter. You ought to speak to Mr Perowne.”
“And be called an idiot for my pains. No, thank you, my dear. In all such delicate matters as these a lady’s hand – I should say, tongue – is the instrument to set matters right. Now, I should say the proper thing would be for a quiet, sensible, clever, middle-aged lady – may I speak of you as a middle-aged lady, my dear – ”
“Don’t be stupid, Henry. I’m forty-four, as you well know, and I never pretended to be younger.”
“No, of course not. You fired forty years at me in a platoon when I proposed, like the dear, sensible old darling you are.”
“Tut! Hush! Silence, sir! No more of that, please.”
“All right, my dear. Well, as I was saying, suppose you have a quiet talk to the girl yourself.”
Mrs Bolter knitted her brows and looked very thoughtful.
“I don’t know,” she said. “It might do good, or it might not. I will think about it.”
“And about my going away for three days, my dear.”
“Oh, one moment, Henry,” said Mrs Doctor. “There was something else I wished to ascertain.”
“What, another something else?” groaned the doctor.
“Yes, another something else, sir. You promised me, that if you could not quite check that terrible habit of yours of talking about Ophir and King Solomon, that you would modify it.”
“Yes, my dear,” said the doctor, giving his ear a rub, and accompanying it by a submissive look.
“I heard you last night exciting the ridicule of all the gentlemen by your pertinacious declarations regarding that mythical idea.”
“Don’t say ridicule, my dear.”
“But I do say ridicule, Henry, and I object to having my husband laughed at by ignorant people – he being a very clever man. So be careful in the future. Now you may go.”
“For three days, my dear?”
“Yes; and pray take care of yourself.”
“I will, my darling,” he cried, in delight; and he was about to embrace the lady warmly, when a step was heard in the veranda, and a voice exclaiming:
“May I come in?”
Volume One – Chapter Twenty Three.
A Little Cloud
“Yes; come in Mr Harley,” and the tall, stern-looking Resident entered the room with the free at-home-ness of people living out at a station where circumstances force the Europeans into the closet intimacy.
“Is anything the matter?” exclaimed the doctor’s wife, as she saw his anxious face.
“Well, not yet,” he said; “but I must confess to being a little nervous about something that has happened. Don’t go away, Bolter.”
“Only going to make a few preparations for a run out. Back directly.”
“No, no,” said the Resident; “you would oblige me by staying. I think, Bolter, you will have to give up all thought of going out at present.”
“Then something is the matter!” said the doctor.
“Oh, it isn’t doctor’s work – at present,” said the Resident, smiling. “The fact is, the Rajah has been hanging about Perowne’s place a good deal lately.”
“Yes, we had observed it,” said Mrs Bolter, severely.
“And the foolish fellow seems to think he has had a little encouragement from Miss Perowne.”
Mrs Doctor nodded and tightened her lips as the Resident went on:
“The result is, that he has been to Perowne’s this morning and proposed in due form for her hand.”
“Why, the scoundrel has got about a dozen wives,” cried the doctor.
“Yes, and of course Perowne tried to smooth him down and to soften the disappointment; but he has gone away furious. I have just come from Perowne’s, and I called to put you on your guard.”
“Think there’s any danger?” said the doctor, sharply.
“Can’t say. You know what these people are if they do not have their own way.”
“Yes,” said the doctor, thoughtfully. “They can be crafty and cruel enough I know; and they don’t love us any better than they did ten years ago, when I was all through the old troubles.”
“Of course,” said the Resident, “if there should be any threatening of trouble you will come across to the island till it is over. I would not show that we are at all uneasy, doctor; only be upon one’s guard.”
“Yes,” said Mrs Doctor, who had been listening attentively, “that will be best. There may be no trouble over the matter, Mr Harley, and I think we should, as you say, be doing wrong by seeming to be alarmed.”
“Then my expedition is quashed for the present,” said the doctor, dolefully.
“It can wait, I am sure,” said his lady, quietly; and her lord resigned himself to his fate as the Resident repeated his advice about not spreading the alarm and exciting the natives by whom they were surrounded, and then left them to go to the fort on the Residency island – a picturesque little clump of rocky earth that divided the river into two parts. On mounting upon the bamboo landing-stage the first person he encountered was Captain Hilton.
Knowing as he did that the young officer had been very attentive to Helen Perowne of late, he hesitated for a few moments, naturally feeling a repugnance to speak upon such matters to one whom other men would have considered a rival; but after a little thought he laughed to himself.
“I am a fatalist,” he muttered, “and I am not afraid. Here, Hilton,” he said, aloud, “I want to speak to you. Ah, there’s Chumbley, too. Don’t take any particular notice,” he continued, as he noted that several of the natives were about. “Have a cigar?”
He drew out his case as he spoke, and Lieutenant Chumbley coming sauntering up in his cool, idle way, the case was offered to him, and the three gentlemen went slowly along the well-kept military path towards the little mess-room.
“Anything wrong?” said Captain Hilton, eagerly; and as he spoke the Resident saw his eyes turn in the direction of Mr Perowne’s house on the east bank of the river.
“Not at present; but the fact is, I am afraid Mr Perowne has seriously affronted the Rajah this morning, and I think it would be as well to be upon our guard.”
“Got any more of these cigars, Harley?” said Chumbley, quietly.