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Updated: May 25, 2025
As I told you, I only landed at Calcutta last night." Ralston was silent for a few moments. "I think you may be able to help me," he said at length. "There's a man here in Calcutta," and Ralston related what he knew of the history of Shere Ali, dwelling less upon the unhappiness and isolation of the Prince than upon the political consequences of his isolation.
Ralston, Claire Keith, Clarence Vaughan and two strangers, stood within the walls of Oakley. They moved on like shadows to the rear end of the hall, up the servant's stairway, and straight to the west wing. Evidently they were expected here too, for in obedience to a light tap, the door opened, and they passed quietly within the outer room of John Arthur's prison suite.
Lady Elizabeth has been so kind to ask him to dine here to-day, and commissioned me to invite whoever I pleased to meet him. First we wrote to your brother, but be could not come; and then to Dr. Holland, but he was engaged to Holland House. In his note to me he says, "I have seen Mr. Ralston several times, and have been greatly pleased with his ingenuousness, acquirements, and agreeable manners."
She knew vaguely that some sort of disturbance was expected at Khanmulla, and that it might spread to Kurrumpore. But her baby was too ill for travel; she had practically forced this truth from Major Ralston, and so she had no choice but to remain. She knew very well at the heart of her that it would not be for long. No thought of personal danger troubled her.
So far as you're concerned, Armstrong, it's a selfish accident that turns you Squire of Dames; but you're in the tourney now, and you've got to behave respectably. 'If you mean by behaving respectably that I've got to hold by Madge, and live all this down if I can, and do my best to flutter through life on a broken wing, I am with you. 'I mean that, and more than that, said Ralston.
As for you, my dear," he gave her a whimsical look, "the sooner you are gone the better I shall be pleased. Lady Harriet and the Burton contingent left to-day." "I hate going!" declared Mrs. Ralston almost tearfully. "I shouldn't have promised if I could have foreseen all that was going to happen." He squeezed her arm. "All the same you promised. So don't be silly!"
Tessa was in a deep sleep by the time she arrived, but, hearing that Stella did not need him, Bernard still maintained his watch, only permitting Mrs. Ralston to relieve him while he partook of luncheon with her husband. Netta did not appear for the meal to the unspoken satisfaction of them both.
I want to hear," replied Shere Ali. "Go on, please! How did the Englishwoman come to Mecca?" "She was a governess in the family of an officer at Cawnpore when the Mutiny broke out, more than forty years ago," said Hatch. Ralston leaned back in his chair with an exclamation of horror. Shere Ali said nothing. His eyes rested intently and brightly upon Hatch's face.
"Now who would you say was going to win this fight?" continued the jockey, cocking his head with an air of shrewdness, which said as plainly as words, "You are the one to tell if you will only say." Shere Ali expanded. Deference and flattery, however gross, so long as they came from white people were balm to his wounded vanity. The weeks in Calcutta had worked more harm than Ralston had suspected.
Ralston stooped over him and took the baby away, and he laid his head down upon the pillow by Stella's and wished with all his soul that the Gate before which her feet had halted would open to them both. Someone came up behind them, and stood for a few seconds looking down upon them. He was aware of a presence, but he knelt on without stirring as one kneeling entranced in a sacred place.
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