The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-06-21

YOU nave quite nnlShed your tea, we may
as Well discuss matters now
! = The mans tone was quite level-busi-
| nesslike, in fact-the tone that he would
use later in the day when debating let
tiers to his Babu typist. There was no in
/ dicatioh that he was Interested in the
! matter other than from a business stand
| point. He settled himself rather more stiff
| ny In his chair, waiting for her to speak
! But she only trailed the bit-.of creeper
| over the edge of the yeranda looking
| straight in front. of herewith eyes that
We're curiously hard for so childish a
1 face.
1t was not particularly- attractive
scene; the fiat was midway in narrow
I street and the white gray walls
of the opposite buildings were broken
! only by struggling peepuI tree and
| Stunted palm. Beyond the yeranda by
| dint of a craning neck, one caught a
| cheerful glimpse of a disused churchyard
| but closed jhilmills and drawn chicks al
/ ready shut out that much Of the view
! for it was 7:30 a. nj. in May, and the
mercileSs blue blaze was starting to bring
4 salvation by f1re, for one more day upon
1 Calcutta, which would smell worse with
out the heat
The narrow outlook had always seemed
| TO Nina the epitome of the big travesty
| She had found India; her home visions
were of marble mansion more or less
white, with a retinue of dark servants
In snowy garments. feathery palms and
\ flaming blOSSomed bushes growing at her
doors, and trees thick with oranges
! guavas and mangoes Irrespective always
| of the time of the year and the precise
! situation Of BengaDy She had found a
| three fiat, with no front" as she
wrote home in dismay; her suburban
! provincial mind could not take to the
word compound, and, in any case, the
| fiat had none. -
In short. out of the depths Of her ignor-
| ance she had come out to find heaven and,
all that is in it on 500 rupees a month.
| with a husband of forty odd and had
| found-thiS. N
| Can you make any suggestions as to
l-What-we can arrange?" His voice was
| measured still; he had, at least found
| that sort of pathetic dignity which comes
| to most men (and many of the women)
| in the land where only death hurries His
| wife-barely seven months out and restless
under the misery of cher first hot weather
| was far from lit. s-iab
| L want to go home She broke out
taking quick breathS and tearing the tiny
| pink petals from the ereeper. I'm sick
| of this hateful place, and the heat-and
nobody here! 1t was bad enough in the
cold weather, but now-it,s hateful!'
.FTere. glanced at the pretty face and it's
fretful eyes with the. same look. half ju-
| dicial and half absentzminded, that he had
| given shortly before to the bearer as he
| swept a cup off the chota hazri tray
| Something of failure from boyhood he
| had thrown for happiness So late in life
that he was hardly surprised himself he
had drawn one. Of the many losing num-
bers. But each day helped to blunt the
4 regret and make him look forward almost
with relief, to the Inevitable return to his
I old existence =. = %
1T is certainly aspity that you came
out, he replied slowly. Il am sorry that
/ you have found the life -so-Tunpleasant,
! and I canahardly give YOU a more luXnri-
Gus place, on my present income @-'
oh, can go home--to my, own homes"
Allan Frere5 flushed an69his lips went
| i tfSnk not he answered !. quietly
| You see; Nina, ayou are. my wife and
land doesn't mt affect ! my 1ysi POSITION
+ But i thought tpaopfe,I separated when
they couldn't 9agree's-zthe- man WINGED
! and we never shall get on together, so
what is the. good Of keeping up this
There's some question of dignity; you
! see," he said LATTER a pause! LAS lie is. you
may find it somewhat difficult at home
! alone Unfortunately, marriages can
| be undone because of difference in
tastes and ternpers; and l shall not trouble
| you mucFLI'm not likely to come home -
The girl moved her rings restlessly and
| kept her eyes away. ~ 1.}.
| you'll find it rather hot going home
now Frere went en-, after a long ST
| lence, and it will be worse later on.
| Would you-like to go UP to Darjiling I'M
! til September, and then-just as you pre-
/ mo, no. don't want to go to the
/ hills; l want to go home-nowp''2 And,
] with the angry. miserable tears of a de-
4 fant child in her eyes, she walked past
him to the little room he had tried to
convert into a 'boudoifs' to please her,
| swinging the 'purdaA behind. her fierce
/ ly. -Ce8Gsiz -c7u ~
/ For no apparent reason Frere walked
round che table toa,reach the .veranda
| stairs; as. he. passed her long chair, he
dropped his hand Oh TIE top OF it and
! er she had torn. Ifoff''f
The last week had been such a whirl
| that she had hardly had time to think
| certainly not time tofthihl1 SO much of her
! sorrows.
Frere had taken hey passage in the next
| to see her on board ht Garden Reach, as
| they were to leave the river in the early
morning. With wholly feminine irration-
/ atty, she was complaining to herself that
he might have got away. from the office.
| at least for this last day shat there would
| be no particular reason and small salts
i faction in doing so did not occur to her.
She had dressed early, from sheer rest
4 lessness. and moved from one room to an
other of the dismantled fiat for the last
| time, trying to arrive at a mood of salts
| faction and only reaching one of fretful
| doubt.
| He had been too on and grim and self
4
| and she had thought to find India such a
| different place, and didn't know that they
| would really be poor there and not "in
| society a bit; and-and-this was the
only way out of it. She was young and
pretty, and why should she spoil any more
| of her life?
Coming to a pause at the little side
| window which looked on to not very
/ savory back compound, she saw native
| a woman-walk softly to corner where
/ fat brown baby sprawled in the com
fort of a cool sleep. Nina knew her
| vaguely as Rupi. the mehtar's wife. in
the usual Anglo-Indian fashion she had
not thought of her before except as q
brown automat0n. The woman crouched
down. watching the sleeper with satisfac-
ton; her attitude was, perhaps, not quite
so touching to Western notions as that
| of the mother who hugs her baby in her
| arms but there was the same thing thrOb-
| bling behind the differing ways. Some-
| thing of what it means caught the girl
| suddenly as she stood there, withAail her
little world broken around her by her own
| hands Perhaps. if this had happened
| things would have been different and they
| wouldn't have made such a mess of it.
She leaned over the jhiimills, watching
| the mother-iove ON the brown face and
then the placid baby blinking. until the