The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-07-11
square Of raw masonry into which an
active man might climb.


put on his calling clothes and called on
the ladies of the station, wondering how
long they would know him if they
knew of poor little Bisesa. At night,
when all the city was still, came the
walk under the evil smelling boorka,
the patrol through Jitha Megji's bustee,
the quick turn into Amir Maths gully
between the sleeping cattle and the
dead walls, and then, last of all, BIZ
sesa and the deep, even breathing of
the old woman who slept outside the
door of the bare little room that Durga
Charan allotted to his sister daughter
Who or what Durga Charan was Ire
jago never inquired. And why in the
world he was not discovered and knitted
never occurred to him till his madness
was over, and Bisesa- But this comes
later.
Bisesa was an endless delight to Ire
jago. She was as ignorant as bird,
and her distorted versions of the rumors
from the outside world that had reached
her in her room amused Trejago almost
as much as her lisping attempts to pro-
nounce his Nance Christopher. The
first syllable was always more than she
could manage, and she made funny lit
tie gestures with her rose leaf hands, as
one throwing the name away, and then,
kneeling before Trejago, asked him, ex-
actly as an English woman would do
If he were sure he loved her. Treiago
swore that he loved her more than any
one else in the world, which was true
After month of this folly the ext
gencies of his other life compelled Ire
jago to be especially attentive to a lady
of his acquaintance. The news few in
the usual mysterious fashion from
mouth to mouth till Bisesa's duenna
heard of it and told Bisesa. The child
was SO troubled that she did the house
hold work evilly and was beaten by
Durga Charan's wife in consequence.
A week later Bisesa taxed Treiago
with the Irritation. She understood no
gradations and spoke openly. Trejago
laughed. and Bisesa stamped her little
feet-little feet, light as marigold flow
ers, that could lie in the palm of a
mans one hand
Much that is written about "oriental
passion and impulsiveness" is exagger-
ated and compiled at secondhand, but
little of it is true, and when an Eng
lishman finds that little it is quite as
startling as any passion in his own
proper life. Bisesa ragged and stormed
and finally threatened to kill herself if
Trejago did not at once drop the alien
memsahib who had come between them.
Trejago tried to explain and to show
her that she did not understand these
things from western standpoint. BIZ
sesa drew herself up and said simply:
II do not know only this-it is
not good that should have made you
dearer than my own heart to me, sahib.
You are an Englishman. I am only
black girl '-she was fairer than bar
gold in the mint-s'and the widow of
black man. -
Then she sobbed and said: "But, on
my soul and my mother soul, love
you. There shall no harm come to you
whatever happens to me. /"
Trejago argued with the child and
tried to soothe her, but she seemed
quite unreasonably disturbed Nothing
would satisfy her save that all relations
between them should end. He was to
go away at once. And he went. AS he
dropped out at the window she kissed
his forehead twice, and he walked home
wondering
A week. and then three weeks. passed
without sign from Bisesa. Trejago,
thinking that the rupture had lasted
quite long enough, went down to Amir
Mathis gully for the fifth time in the
three weeks, hoping that his rap at the
sill of the shifting grating would be an
swered. He was not disappointed.
There was young moon, and one
stream of light fell down into Amir
Mathis gully and struck the grating,
which was drawn away as he knocked
FroM the black dark Bisesa held out
her arms into the moonlight. Both
hands had been cut off at the wrists.
and the stumps We're nearly healed.
Then, as Bisesa bowed her head be-
tween her arms and sobbed, some one in
the room grunted like wild beast, and
something sharp-knife, sword or spear
thrust at Trejago in his boorka. The
stroke missed his body, but cut into one
of the muscles of the groin, and he
limped slightly from the wound for the
rest Of his days
The grating went into its place.
There was no sign whatever from in
side the house, nothing but the moon
light strip on the high wall and the
blackness Of Amir Mathis gully behind.
The next thing Trejago remembers,
after raging and shouting like mad
man between those pitiless walls, is
that he found himself near the river as
the dawn was breaking. threw away
his boorka and went home bareheaded.
What the tragedy whether BIZ
sesa had in a fit Of causeless despair told
everything or the intrigue had been
discovered and she tortured to tell,
whether Durga Charan knew his name
and what became Of Bisesa- Trejago
does not know to this day Something
horrible had happened, and the thought