“Soon indeed!” exclaimed Alicia, fanning herself as she spoke2. “You need not speak of the future; have we not grilling3 days already? Are you not all driven into this little room because the morning sun makes the veranda4 like a furnace?—O Harold, surely the heat without and the fires within have made our bungalow5 habitable now!”
“Scarcely yet, my love,” was Harold’s reply.
Alicia would have laughed at petty discomforts6 in cooler weather; but with the thermometer making a sudden rise to ninety, with no intention of resting at that point, and with a host of flies and musquitoes coming out to enjoy the warmth, she felt her power of endurance rather severely7 tried.
“Oh, these hateful musquitoes!” exclaimed the young wife, trying, but with indifferent success, to ward8 off their attacks with her fan.
“I prefer the musquito to the fly,” observed Robin, whose face showed numerous signs that the former had not left him in peace. “The vulgar fly comes buzzing about you with apparently9 no definite object, settles on your pen and drinks the ink, and then makes a dash at your eye. The musquito is a more chivalrous10 foe11: he blows his trumpet12 as a challenge, and defies you to single combat. He is vigilant13 and active; so must you be if you wish to bring him down with a blow. You see my hand is now resting perfectly14 still on my knee: this is a ruse15 to invite an attack. The enemy sees it, and—there!” A sharp slap on that hand given by the right one resounded16 through the room; but the musquito had been too quick even for Robin, and soared aloft unhurt, blowing its horn in triumph. “I’ll have him yet,” said Robin gaily17.
“You make a joke of everything,” remarked Alicia.
“It is better to laugh than to cry over tiny troubles,” was Robin’s cheerful reply. “We missionaries18 should not want to roll along life’s road in an easy carriage, bolstered19 up, and enclosed in a musquito-net.”
“The weather makes my head ache,” said Alicia. “Robin, why do you smile?”
It would not have been easy for Robin to have explained the cause of that smile. It was the remembrance of his own prognostications. Alicia, made a little irritable20 by the heat and insect tormentors, felt somewhat annoyed.
“I will go to the fort,” she said, as she rose from her seat; “I have not been there for a week.”
“Is not the weather too hot for you?” asked Harold, glancing up from his desk; “the sun has now a good deal of power.”
“The sun is hot, but there is at least breathing-space in the fort,” said Alicia, who disliked the cramped21 accommodation of the crowded bungalow.
“I do not want it; I know the way now; I can go by myself,” said Alicia. She did not choose to set Robin smiling again at any weakness of hers.
When once in her doli, Alicia repented23 of the passing peevishness24 into which she feared that she had been betrayed. “It is a wrong, a mean thing,” thought the young wife, “to feel cross because others take small worries more patiently than I do. Robin is right: it is better to laugh than to cry over tiny troubles. A poor missionary25 I must be, indeed, if my fortitude26 cannot stand a hot room or the stinging of a musquito. Oh for a calm, firm, quiet spirit!”
Alicia had almost forgotten her headache before she reached the fort. For once the court-yard was clear of cattle, and the dogs seemed to understand that the white visitor was not a bear to be baited; they did not even growl27. Alicia, not unmarked but unmolested, made her way up the dark stair to the women’s apartments.
Again there was the interchange of saláms, again was the charpai dragged out and spread, again Alicia attempted to read, and again had the young missionary the vexation of being interrupted by irrelevant28 questions. As a resource from such tiresome29 and often puzzling inquiries30, Alicia again sang that bhajan of which native women never seem to be weary, a chord in their hearts being touched by that verse which may be thus rendered, though its melody suffers by the translation,—
“In this world happiness never can be found;
It is as water-drops spilt on the ground.”
“These women have hearts, if one could but reach them,” thought Alicia, as she saw tears rise to the eyes of a bibi. “They feel that the world is fleeting31 and vain. Oh, when shall we persuade them to raise their eyes to another, whose joys will never pass away! I am like one trying to open an iron door which is locked, and of which I have not the key. Oh, my Lord, do for me what I am unable to do! Make a clear way for thy feeble, unworthy child, and give her courage to enter and patience to persevere32.”
The young widow Premi approached with a fat heavy boy of some two years old sitting astride on her hip33, after the Indian fashion of carrying children. The slight frame of the girl seemed unsuited for supporting the weight; she was looking weary and ill.
“Is Premi, young as she is, the mother of that big boy?” asked Alicia. The bibis laughed, as they were wont34 to do on suitable or unsuitable occasions. Several answered at once, and it was with some difficulty that Alicia made out that the fat boy was a grandson of Premi’s deceased husband, and the fifth child of Darobti. Indian relationships are extremely puzzling to strangers, not only from the numerous words used to express them (there are at least five species of aunts), but from the custom of disregarding accuracy, and calling those indiscriminately “brothers” and “sisters” who may be cousins in a distant degree.
The fat infant was deposited in the arms of the fat mother, and forthwith began to torture her by dragging at her huge ear-rings—a favourite amusement of native babies, who appear to consider these glittering ornaments36 as made for their own special diversion. Poor Premi was sent off again to pound rice with the club which she was almost too feeble to wield37.
The sound of the thud, thud of that club went to the gentle heart of Alicia. “Premi looks so ill,” she observed.
“Only because yesterday was her fast-day,” said Jai Dé, an old woman who had but one eye, the other having been lost in small-pox, and who possessed38 but two teeth, which seemed by their extra size to try to make up for the absence of all the rest.
Alicia did not understand the word for “fast,” and it took her some time to make out, partly by means of signs, that on the preceding day Premi had touched no food, and that she was fasting still.
“What bad thing has she done that you should starve her?” exclaimed the indignant lady.
The Hindus looked surprised at the question, which betrayed such ignorance of what they thought that every one knew or ought to know.
“Premi is a widow: of course she fasts every fortnight,” said Chand Kor; and so, as if tired with conversation on so insignificant39 a subject, she asked Alicia to sing.
Alicia was in no mood for singing; she rose and made her excuses as well as she could for not lingering longer in the zenana. “The sun is hot; my head pains me,” she said, in reply to the women’s expostulations. The words were true; but it was rather pain in the heart than pain in the head which so shortened Alicia’s visit. Amidst the sound of the jabber40 of many voices, and a child’s loud roar which reached her as she groped her way down the stair, there came to the lady’s ear that hateful thud, thud which told of the hopeless toil41 of a weak and helpless slave. Alicia’s soul was full of indignant pity.
“Oh, this cruel, wicked system!” exclaimed Alicia. “How long shall the cry of innocent young victims, doomed42 to life-long misery43, go up to Heaven? Before the English took possession of the Panjab, the probable fate of this fair girl-widow would have been to be burned alive with the corpse44 of an old man whom she could never have loved; but was such a fate worse than that which the young creature must endure for perhaps forty—fifty years,—even more? It is shameful—it is horrible! But this one victim may be rescued. I have a plan in my head, and I will speak of it to my husband. I think that the merciful Being who breaks the captives’ chains may have sent me to this dark spot to set one prisoner free.”
Alicia’s mind was absorbed in forming projects as she was carried home in her doli. She found Harold and his father sitting in the veranda, as the sun was no longer pouring his beams from the eastern quarter, and the veranda did not face the south. The season had not yet arrived when it might be needful to close doors and windows to exclude the hot air, and to live in a kind of twilight45; because light is connected with heat. Before fiery46 June should arrive the new bungalow might be pronounced dry enough to be used by its owners, who would not, however, sleep in it, but aloft on the roof.
“O Harold, I must tell you of what I have seen, and what I have been thinking, and consult you as to what I must do,” cried Alicia, as, heated and flushed, she threw herself on the chair which her husband had vacated on her entrance.
Alicia in a hurried way described what she had seen in the fort, Mr. Hartley and Harold listening to her story with silent attention. Neither of the missionaries was wont to give violent expression to his feelings; nor was the sad subject of a Hindu widow’s wrongs at all a new one to them.
“And now I will tell you what I am set on doing,” continued Alicia; “I mean, of course, if my husband humour his little wife, as he always does. When our Paradise is ready (this sun must have made it as dry as a bone), I mean to bring Premi to live in that nice little convenient room behind my own, which Robin calls my box-room. I do not intend to call her my ayah [a servant], but I will teach her to keep all my things neat, and in her leisure time she shall learn to sew and knit and sing. If Premi turn out in the least bit clever—and there is intelligence in her fine dark eyes—I will teach her to read the Bible. Premi will be sure to become a Christian47, and she will be the first woman baptized in Talwandi!” Alicia’s face beamed with pleasure as she added, “Is not mine a capital plan?”
“It would be, were it practicable,” said Harold Hartley. He was sorry to throw any shadow of disappointment on the sweet countenance48 now so bright with hope.
“But where is the difficulty?” cried Alicia; “I can see none. Premi has nothing to make her wish to remain in that fort, where probably nobody wishes to keep her.”
“And yet,” said Mr. Hartley very gravely, “were we to bring Premi here, we might bring on a serious riot in the district. She, being Kripá Dé’s sister, must like himself be of Brahmin caste. The Hindus would combine as one man against us, declaring that the sanctity of their homes was invaded. The Government so shrinks from interfering49 with social matters, that it would probably afford the poor widow no protection. Premi would be dragged back to the fort, probably be never again seen by a European, and possibly be poisoned by her family on suspicion of having broken her caste.”
Alicia turned inquiringly towards her husband, but could gain no hope from his looks.
“I have known three innocent persons arrested and brought into a European court of justice, on the bare charge of having abetted50 a Hindu widow’s attempt to escape from the bondage51 of which she was tired.”[4]
“Then can nothing be done for poor Premi?” exclaimed Alicia.
“You may do much, my love,” replied Harold; “not by freeing the captive, but by giving her that knowledge which is better even than freedom. You can tell Premi of a home beyond the grave, of a place at the Saviour’s feet, of the joy which far outweighs52 even the heaviest afflictions of earth.”
Alicia sighed deeply, for she was sorely disappointed by the collapse53 of her scheme. She could not dispute the opinions of those whose benevolence54 equalled her own, and whose experience was so much greater. “I will do what I can,” she said submissively; “and as a beginning I will learn the translation of ‘Joyful55, joyful!’ to sing to poor Premi.”
4. A fact.
The entrance of Kripá Dé, the Kashmiri convert, with Robin gave a new form to the hopes of Alicia.
“If we cannot free Premi, surely her own brother can,” cried the young wife. “As Premi seems to be an orphan56, he is her natural protector; if Kripá Dé place her under our care, who has a right to object?”
Harold in a few sentences explained to the convert the lady’s anxiety to rescue Premi from her present wretched condition. “Would it be impossible for you to bring her here?” he asked in conclusion.
Kripá Dé looked astonished at the question. “Perfectly impossible,” was his reply. “I have no power in a matter like this.”
Alicia felt provoked at a brother’s tamely acquiescing57 in what she thought tyranny and injustice58. “Harold or Robin would not stand with folded hands,” thought she, “were a sister treated as a slave.” Then she added aloud, “Are you content that poor Premi’s whole life is to be passed in nothing but sorrow?”
“She had a happy childhood, Mem Sahiba,” replied the Kashmiri. “Often we played together. She made my kites, and proudly watched them rising higher than those of my companions. Often she laughed for joy when I gave her a share of my sweetmeats. Her life was very different then from what it was after her marriage.”
“Did Premi’s marriage grieve you?” asked Robin; “or were you too young to care about it?”
“Did I not care!” exclaimed Kripá Dé—“did I not care to have my little playmate taken away, to be given to an old profligate59 who had had half-a-dozen wives already! Mere60 boy as I was, I felt that the marriage was something cruel and wicked. When every one else was rejoicing—except the poor child who was crying—my soul was full of anger. I did not care for the fireworks; I would not touch the sweetmeats; I turned away my head, that I might not see the old bridegroom in his glittering dress, mounted on his white horse.”
“And did the marriage, mere ceremony as it was, quite separate you from Premi?” asked Robin.
“I was never able to play with her again, though I often saw her in the zenana,” replied Kripá Dé; “for she continued to live in the fort. She was kept a great deal more strictly61, and it was as if a high wall had been raised between us. I hoped that the child was happy; the women said that she was so, for she had plenty of jewels; but I never heard her laugh again as she did in the days that were gone. I do not think that Premi cared as much for jewels as our women usually do; she preferred chaplets of jasmine flowers. Premi was unlike any one else in the zenana.”
“She looks very much unlike the rest, there is so much more soul in her expression,” observed Alicia when Harold had translated to her the words of Kripá Dé.
“One night,” pursued the Kashmiri, “terrible news arrived. The bridegroom had had a fit, and fallen down dead. It was not he but his corpse that came back to Talwandi. I heard the wailing62 and the beating of the breasts in concert which are the signs of Hindu mourning. Darobti wept loudest and beat hardest. She rushed at Premi; she abused her; she struck her; she dragged the bracelets63 from the widow’s arms; she tore the rings from her ears;—she thought that she best honoured a dead father by heaping disgrace on his widow!”
“Did you see this and not protect the innocent girl?” exclaimed Robin fiercely.
“I could do nothing,” said Kripá Dé sadly. “Was it not dastur [custom]? Oh that the good God of whom you have told me would sweep all such customs away!”
Mr. Hartley rose from his seat and paced the veranda, with hands clasped and lips moving in scarcely audible prayer: “O Lord, overthrow64 this Jaggernath of cruel custom which is crushing under its iron wheels hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. Let the lightning of Thy power, or rather let the light of Thy truth, burst forth35. Save India’s enslaved daughters—the poor child-widows—from bondage worse than death!”
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1
robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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3
grilling
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| v.烧烤( grill的现在分词 )；拷问，盘问 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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discomforts
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| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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9
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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10
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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11
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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12
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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13
vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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14
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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ruse
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| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
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resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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18
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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19
bolstered
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| v.支持( bolster的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助 | |
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irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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23
repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
peevishness
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| 脾气不好；爱发牢骚 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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27
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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28
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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29
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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30
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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31
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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32
persevere
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| v.坚持，坚忍，不屈不挠 | |
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33
hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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37
wield
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| vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等) | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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39
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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jabber
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| v.快而不清楚地说；n.吱吱喳喳 | |
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41
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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42
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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45
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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46
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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47
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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48
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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49
interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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50
abetted
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| v.教唆（犯罪）( abet的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；怂恿；支持 | |
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51
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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52
outweighs
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| v.在重量上超过( outweigh的第三人称单数 )；在重要性或价值方面超过 | |
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53
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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54
benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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55
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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56
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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57
acquiescing
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的现在分词 ) | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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59
profligate
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| adj.行为不检的；n.放荡的人，浪子，肆意挥霍者 | |
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60
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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61
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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62
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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63
bracelets
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| n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 ) | |
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overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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