The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-06
STEVENS MEETs A RAJAH.

LF'rom the London Daily NALL
At the door Of the stucco palace a
disheYelled sentry presented arms with
even more than the usual fervor. Then
UnderstOOd-and perceived coming
slowly, and quite noiselessly toward
me down a corridor a small human fig
ure. 1t wore a white turban, a tabard
of lilac silk lined with salmon satin. a
long muslin scarf round the neck, snow
white linen drawers, tight, yet shape
less, and white cotton socks. 1t came
up, always quite noiselessly, appearing
to be moved rather than to move; I
saw a brown face, melting black eyes,
a long haired, fine haired, oiled, black
beard.
The figure took my hand in a hand
that seemed made of souff1et, and with
the same mysterious, unmoVing motion
led me across a high-roofed hall, with
chandeliers ike forest trees and the
paint peeling off the skirting board in
to a. Verandah that overlooked a reel
ing chasm of torrent bed and a lower
ing heave of mountain beyond. He sat
me in chair beside him, the inter-
prefer opposite, then turned and fixed
his eyes on me. If the movements were
inhuman the eyes We're unearthly. Eyes
weary beyond satfety--eyes utterly
passionless and purposeless, as if their
owner neither desired anything nor in
tended anything, had neither never had
interest in the world or had quite fin
ished with it. Looking into those black
pools of sheer emptiness. you wondered
whether he were a new born baby or
million years old; you almost wondered
if he We're alive or dead.
That was the Rajsh And then, in a
voice that seemed to fall among US
from nowhere. he told the fat-cheeked,
gold-spectacled babu to tell me he
trusted l was in the enjoyment of good
healtht
Awhile the conversation f1oated at
this level, and 1 began to think that
this Nirvana-eyed Rajah was-if one
may so speak of princes-a fool. But
presently the babU's circumambient
periods began to coil themselves round
a definite subject, and the Ra@ah was
instructing me on the political ques-
ton of the hour. 1t does not matter to
you what the question was; it did not
matter to me. The interest to me lay
in comparing what the Rajah suggest
ed with what I knew to be true.
In black and white he said nothing, but
he hlnted worlds. The Suggestions We're
so subtly nebulous that you could hardly
pc sure that they meant anythlng at az,
the subject seemed to be in the air rather
impossible to speak a language so evasive
and had to fly to brutal verbs and nouns.
depreciation of their Guinness; SO thar
at last / had the Satisfaction of knowing
that we We're both talking about the same
But the astonishing and inhuman fea-
he h9nr which I Knew to be false1 which
he knew me to know to be false. At least,
and might have known that / would ask
him about things and believe what he said.
Yet, without the least encouragement, he
insinuated and insinuated and insinuated
away, till l felt almost traitor to sit and
listen to him He can not have thought
I should take his side, or that 1 could be
of any service to him if I did; but that
appeared to matter nothing. Intrigue was
his nature, and in default Of a better con
federate he kept his hand in by trying
to intrigue with me.
And then suddenly, without a flicker in
the eyes of either rajah or interpreter:
His highness hopes that on your return
to your country you will write to him
from time to time, and give him your ad-
vice affairs of state"
gaSped. His highneSS has heard much
of your good name and high reputation
pursued the bland, relentless voice-he had
first heard, and forgotten, my name three
hours before" and he is sure that your
opinion on the government of his country
would be very valuable to him.
And while 1 still gasped. his highness
motionleessly rose, ea handed me out OF the
In English. do not forget me-