The Rape Of Venice

Chapter 15

The Golden Age in Bengal

It was as Clarissa gave this anguished cry, and tears sprang to her blue eyes, that the Bengali servant again appeared at the door, salaamed and addressed Roger:

'More people to see you, Sahib. The Sir Curtis Beaumont, Sahib, and his Lady. They request receiving.'

At the unexpected news that these good friends too had been rescued, Roger and Clarissa's faces lit up with joy; but after a second, Clarissa's fell, and she exclaimed in consternation:

'Oh, Roger! How can we now receive them? They cannot yet know… but, oh, I'll sink through the floor from shame.'

To her amazement he was still smiling. Suddenly he leapt to his feet, seized her round the waist, threw her up in the air, caught her in a bear like hug as she came down and cried, Praise be to God! We're saved! Saved, saved, saved, my dearest dear!' Then, turning to the servant, 'Show them in. No one was ever more welcome.'

Before the Beaumont’s were half through the doorway, Roger had Sir Curtis by the hand and was wringing it like a pump handle. Lady Beaumont gave Clarissa a somewhat uncertain look; but Clarissa's face showed no trace of embarrassment, only transparent joy, as she ran towards the older woman, and next moment they were kissing one another most affectionately.

Drawing Sir Curtis into the room, Roger exclaimed: 'Sir. your arrival could not be more opportune. No one could be more delighted than Clarissa and myself to learn that you and your lady survived the Minerva disaster, but we'll talk of that anon. At the very moment of your being announced we were in the depths of despair about a matter that concerns us most closely. Should your memory not have deteriorated since we last met, you have it in your power to relieve us of all anxiety. Do you recall the conversation you and I had the morning after Clarissa became engaged to Sidney Winters?'

'Why, yes,' the judge smiled. 'You were greatly opposed to the match, and consulted me on the feasibility of applying to the Court when we reached Cape Town for an injunction restraining the marriage on the grounds that she was not yet twenty-​one.'

'And your reply, Sir; your reply?'

'It was to the effect that you lacked the legal status necessary to make such an application, because you were not her guardian; or, as you had led us to suppose, her uncle, but only a cousin of hers by marriage.'

'That's right!' Roger exclaimed joyfully. 'That's right! Thank God, Sir, that your memory is clear upon the point, for we are like to be charged with having committed incest.'

Lady Beaumont's face showed how shocked she was, and she said with swift disapproval,' Tis true, then, that you are living together? I could not believe it. Had I done so I would never have come here.'

'Oh, please, please!' Clarissa seized her hands. 'You don't understand. Roger had to pretend I was his wife to save me from an Arab who would have taken me for his harem, and…'

'And we were later married by a Protestant Missionary in Goa,' put in Roger swiftly.

'Yes… yes!' Clarissa endorsed the lie. Then, her face radiant, she cried, 'And it was the happiest day of my life; because I've been desperately in love with Roger for years.'

'Tut, tut!' murmured Sir Curtis. 'That's a strange statement, young lady, seeing that barely three months back, without the least pressure from anyone, you married Mr. Winters.'

Clarissa blushed scarlet as she recalled her real reason for marrying Winters, but covered her confusion with a bold white lie. 'I became engaged to him, Sir, with the intent of making Roger jealous. I hoped up to the last moment to bring him up to scratch. Then, in despair and finding myself so deeply committed, I felt that I must go through with it.'

'The fault was mine,' Roger declared, putting an arm round her waist. 'I knew she loved me, and I loved her; but most selfishly I had set my mind against marrying again. It is I who am to blame for all our troubles from the very beginning.'

Sir Curtis gave him a quizzical look. 'Are we to take it, then that Miss Marsham's presence in the Minerva was not due to any headstrong determination to see the gorgeous East, but that she smuggled herself aboard in pursuit of you?'

'Yes,' laughed Clarissa. ' 'Twas a monstrously unmaidenly act. But I confess it; you have hit upon the truth.'

'We owe you both a deep apology,' Roger added, 'for the deception we practised upon you; but at the time it seemed the only way in which I could preserve Clarissa's reputation.'

Lady Beaumont was smiling now, and said, 'For that I would be the last to blame you; and it seems that I am to be called on to save her reputation yet again.'

'Oh, dear Lady Beaumont!' Clarissa cried, throwing her arms round her ex-​chaperone. 'You are, indeed, our Fairy Godmother. It needs only that you and Sir Curtis should clear us of this terrible imputation for us to reach the seventh heaven; for I vow that Roger has already made me the happiest woman in the world.'

'And you, my love,' smiled Roger, 'although I don't deserve it, have made me the happiest man.'

Champagne was sent for and an hour went swiftly while the four of them told of their adventures since they had parted in sight of the Minerva going down. They also discussed the matter of young Winters and the marriage settlement. Roger produced the document from his big fish-​skin wallet, and Sir Curtis said there could be no question about Clarissa's legal title to the money. He added that Winter’s firm was a very rich one, so he would not be jeopardised if called on to pay out a sum running into five figures. On that assurance Clarissa stuck to her intention of making her claim and the judge said that after Christmas he would introduce them to a good lawyer who would handle the matter for her. The following day was Christmas Eve, and on it Lady Beaumont was giving a reception; so it was agreed that no better opportunity could be found for her to present Mr. and Mrs. Roger Brook to Calcutta society.

After the Beaumont’s had left, Roger and Clarissa, now almost intoxicated with joy at this most fortunate outcome to their affairs, sent for the clothiers again, who, with the willingness of Orientals to work all night, promised that they should have at least one set of European garments apiece by the following day.

On Christmas Eve, lolling side by side on the cushions of a hired palanquin, which was borne by a team of sweating natives, they had their first proper sight of central Calcutta, and were much surprised to find that its principal streets and open spaces differed little from those of a large English town For the past half-​century the architects had copied faithfully the prevailing fashion in London, and some of the larger private mansions might have been lifted bodily from Grosvenor Square. By contrast with the adjacent streets of native houses made from wood and bamboo, they looked all the stranger, and the more so as their gardens had nothing in common with those at home, their most striking features being tali palms, deodars, baobabs and other tropical trees. But the people in the streets and the new bazaar which against strenuous opposition by property owners had been erected in the middle of the town-​they found fascinating, for the crowds were larger, and displayed a far greater variety of colourful costume, turbans, hats made from leaves, and strange weapons, than in any other place in India that they had so far visited.

In those days every city displayed evidence of great wealth side by side with the direct poverty, but such contrasts were far more evident in this eastern metropolis than in the capitals of Europe. Most of the well-​dressed Europeans and many richly robed Bengalis were escorted in their palanquins by a dozen or more servants dressed in colourful liveries; yet half the native population wore only a single ragged garment, and at the mouth of every alleyway crouched cripples and beggars who appeared to be in the last stage of destitution.

The mixture of smells was indescribable, as the better off of both sexes, white and brown alike, soused themselves with perfumes, many of the women wore garlands of flowers, and from market and warehouses there frequently came a fragrant whiff of aromatic herbs; but these pleasant scents were never strong enough to overcome for more than a moment the all pervading odour of stale sweat and rotting garbage, which at times was augmented to a revolting stench coming from some dead pariah dog or the corners at which men and women were often to be seen relieving themselves in public without shame.

On the waterfront, hundreds of coolies, wearing only a loin cloth were humping the rich cargoes that scores of lighters and small schooners had brought up from the ships at anchor in Diamond Harbour at the mouth of the Hooghly. Bills of Exchange and canvas bags of gold running into many thousand pounds a day were being chaffered over between merchants, ships' captains, agents and the Parsee bankers; yet in the ghats that led down to the river there huddled scores of emaciated figures picking the lice from one another's hair and bathing their sores in the dirty water.

Every boat that drew alongside holding a passenger was met by a bevy of young girls, many of whom were obviously not yet in their teens, offering themselves for prostitution; and, from the upper windows of the houses in all the streets outside the European quarter, more prosperous houris with gold buttons in their nostrils, ignoring Clarissa, called down invitations to Roger to return and visit them.

Yet wealth was far from being confined to the Europeans. In the better part of the city, there were scores of shops jewellers, silk-​merchants, saddlers, silversmiths, sword-​makers, confectioners and wine merchants-​which rivalled those of London, and the great majority of them were native owned.

At the Beaumont's reception that evening, they were presented to Sir John Shore, the Governor General. He had succeeded Lord Cornwallis in '93 and was a very different type from that handsome, much-​beloved soldier. Sir John had spent a lifetime in the Company's service and risen to its highest post by his industry, honesty and capability as a civil administrator; but he was an ugly ungracious man, incapable of inspiring affection, and of a deeply religious bent which did nothing to add to his popularity in a society which, though outwardly elegant, found its principal distractions in drunkenness and lechery.

Sir Robert Abercrombie, the Commander-​in-​Chief, Admiral Elphinstone, Commanding the Bengal Squadron and General Brisco, the Commander of the Company's Troops, were also there. The first, who was purblind and looked like a Skye terrier, but was at that date Britain's most brilliant soldier, Roger had already met in the West Indies. The second,' who had recently been conducting a drive against French pirates along the Assam coast, was an old friend of Roger's father. The third he found a pleasant but unusually stupid man.

Among the legal lights were Sir Robert Chambers, Sir William Dunkin, a Mr. Macnaghten and a Mr. Hickey. The first two were Sir Curtis's colleagues on the Supreme Court, the third the High Sheriff and the fourth a lawyer whom Sir Curtis introduced as the gentleman he had had in mind to act for Clarissa in the matter of the settlement.

The ladies were by no means so numerous, but under Lady Beaumont's wing Clarissa was most kindly received by them and they were all agog to hear about her narrow escape from becoming a permanent inmate of the harem of the Vali of Zanzibar. Men as well as women were soon clustering round her, and it gave her a secret thrill to be able, for the first time. to reply to the many invitations that were pressed upon he: that she 'was mightily obliged but left all such arrangements to her husband'.

Roger noted with interest that many of the men still wore powder and that their clothes were much gayer than had in recent years become the prevailing mode in London. In fact, but for the difference in the language spoken, he felt as though he had gone back a decade in time and was once more attending a soiree in Paris in the days before the Revolution. Being an exquisite by nature, nothing could have pleased him better, and he promptly made up his mind to order some more suits for himself of brighter silks, with wide skirts, deep cuffs and plenty of gold galloon.

He was, however, much surprised, when the party had been under way for some time, to see in the distance young Winter scowling at him. Etiquette in England was still most strict upon such matters as precedence on going in to dinner, who should be admitted to social functions at the Assembly Rooms in County Towns, and who should be permitted to sit in the presence of their betters. The higher grades of professional men were becoming more and more admitted to the friendship of the quality, but tradesmen never, with the one exception of wine merchants, who had always been accepted into county society.

But Roger soon learned that in India matters were very different. In the early days of the settlements the number of Europeans had been so small that, for the sake of company, the very few gentry among them had been forced to ignore such arbitrary considerations as birth and breeding.

In consequence, matters had continued that way, and now the only qualifications needed for the entree to Government House circles were passable manners, coupled with enough money to keep a good establishment and return hospitality.

During the weeks that followed, Roger and Clarissa had ample evidence of what was meant by hospitality in India. Bengal particularly was a land of 'easy come, easy go'. By judicious bribery, skilful speculation, or even astute honest trading, fortunes could be made in a matter of months, and they were generally spent just as quickly.

Everybody who was anybody at all lived in a house with at the least twenty rooms, kept a score of servants, riding horses, a carriage and palanquins. All the wealthier ones kept open house, had guests staying for months at a stretch, and never knew until the meal was served if they would sit down twelve or thirty to dinner.

Only the cooler hours of the morning were devoted to work. At half-​past three they sat down to an enormous meal, slept after it, and in the evenings amused themselves either with dancing, gambling, music, amateur theatricals, or bachelor suppers from which they were generally carried away by their servants, dead drunk, in the small hours of the morning. It was an uproarious, hectic life, to which only men with iron constitutions could stand up for more than a few seasons and it was not to be wondered at that the Calcutta grave-​yard contained more stones erected to men who had died in their thirties than to stalwarts who had stuck it out till their fifties.

Christmas in strong sunshine was a new experience for Roger and Clarissa, and they were enabled to enjoy it to the full as, at the Beaumont reception, Sir Curtis and his Lady had, once and for all, scotched the scandalous rumour that they were uncle and niece. They now had not a care in the world, except for the swarms of mosquitoes that plagued them nightly and compelled them to sleep under stuffy curtains. To escape this pest, as far as was possible, and the smell of unwashed humanity which pervaded every quarter of the city, they rented a small furnished house on higher ground, some distance from the river, and moved in there early in the New Year of '97.

Mr. William Hickey found it for them and helped install them in it. A few days after Christmas they had had a conference with him about Clarissa's settlement and he proved all in favour of her proceeding with her claim.

He told them that Winters was one of the richest merchant-​houses in Calcutta, and that the late Sidney Winter’s estate must be worth near a quarter of a million; so his son, Gideon, would still be a very lucky young man if he came into the greater part of that sum. He then went on to reason that, in the normal course of events, had the elder Winters married again it would have been to a middle-​aged woman who, on his death, would have been unlikely to find another husband, so would certainly have claimed her legal due; therefore why should not Clarissa do so? He was also firmly of the opinion that to claim less than the full sum would show a lack of conviction in the justice of the claim and, moreover, by demanding the full hundred thousand they would protect themselves against a disappointing final settlement should the judges decide to cut down the award to Clarissa.

'Let us get the maximum award we can,' said Mr. Hickey. 'Then, afterwards, if Mrs. Brook cares to overlook young Gideon's rash and offensive behaviour towards you both, and forgo a moiety of the money, that will be her affair.'

Clarissa shook her head. 'Please, Mr. Hickey, I'd much prefer to have naught to do with it. I wish you to draw up a deed, upon the signing of which I will have made over to Mr. Brook my entire interest in the settlement; then it will be for him to decide how much we should return of whatever sum you succeed in obtaining for us.'

Roger at once saw the way her mind was working. Her one desire was to make him this gift, and by the deed she would have given him whatever the court awarded her. If he chose to return part or all of it to Winters, or give the money to charity for that matter, she could still feel that she had brought him a handsome dowry.

Hickey, however, demurred on the grounds that life in Bengal was a most uncertain asset. Young people as well as old, he told them, were quite frequently taken off overnight by a bloody flux, or a galloping consumption. Tactfully he intimated that should Roger be stricken down and Clarissa find herself unable to produce her marriage lines, apart from the money he could raise for her on this claim she might find herself destitute.

However, after some discussion, Roger suggested a way out. Mr. Hickey should draw up for Clarissa the deed of gift in accordance with her wishes, and for him a will by which he left half his estate to her and the other half to his daughter, Susan; and that was agreed upon.

They found the lawyer a most genial man, and he soon became a close friend of theirs. He was an Irishman, although born in a street off Pall Mall, and the son of a lawyer of the first standing, who had many rich connections. It was, no doubt, mixing with youngsters much better supplied with money than himself that had got him early into trouble, as he was the type of man who could not resist the lure of good company, yet would rather have died than not pay his way.

Over their wine one night he confided to Roger that in his youth he had been 'a rare pickle".

While still a schoolboy, sleeping with his sister's pretty nursemaid had given him a taste for women, and equally early he had developed a liking for strong liquor. These drains upon a slender purse, freely indulged in during many a hectic night out with dissolute young companions, had got him so deeply into debt that no sooner was he apprenticed to the law than he had given way to the temptation to embezzle his master's funds.

His kindly father had paid up for him again and again, and at last sent him with good introductions to the West Indies. But he had failed to make good there and returned to London, where he had again plunged into every sort of excess. Having made the capital too hot for him, he had decided to try India and, although almost without funds, had carried off a rich man's beautiful mistress, who had later lived with him in Calcutta as Mrs. Hickey. To his life-​long distress, this beautiful creature soon met her death from being stricken with a sudden chill; but in other matters her lover had proved more fortunate.

In spite of his heavy drinking, he was shrewd and capable, and his conviviality had proved an asset in the raffish society of Calcutta. Within a few years he had built up a practice that brought him many thousands, and he continued to spend them almost as quickly as he made them; for, although he was now within a year or two of fifty, he was still 'a rare pickle'.

He now had two houses, one in the city and another, which he had had built for himself, farther up the river at the old Dutch settlement of Chinsurah. His cellars were said to contain the finest champagnes, hock and claret in Bengal; he maintained over sixty servants and two pretty concubines. The death of a third, named Jemdanee, in the previous summer was still causing him great sadness. She had been his favourite, and all who had known her spoke of her as quite an exceptional girl, as she spoke English fluently and had been greatly liked by his friends. But her loss did not prevent him continuing to entertain with his accustomed lavishness.

Before moving into their own house, Roger and Clarissa spent a weekend with him at Chinsurah, and they were amazed to find it another 'Grosvenor Square mansion" set down in the middle of the country. But it was equipped with every facility for enjoyment, among them a great gilded barge with a crew of uniformed oarsmen and a private band of instrumentalists. It was through Rickey's having sent them out alone in this luxurious water-​carriage that Clarissa, in great excitement somewhat tinged with awe, suddenly recognised a stretch of the river and realised that she was now actually living the vision she had seen while under Rinaldo Malderini's hypnotic influence.

Hickey engaged for them a head bearer named Chudda Gya, a trustworthy man who spoke quite good English, and it was he who hired most of the other servants. What with jemadar, durwan, chubdars, consumahs, hurcarrahs, peons, a kitchen staff, and women to serve Clarissa, they seemed a positive horde, and Roger became considerably alarmed at the thought of what their keep and wages would run him into. But Chudda Gya explained a trifle stiffly that it was not enough for a gentleman to have six men carrying him in his palanquin, he must have at least three more to run ahead shouting aloud his name and quality, and so on, throughout the establishment. The duties of many of them seemed to overlap and often they appeared idle, but the house seemed to run itself with smooth efficiency, the sort of food they ate cost very little and, as Chudda Gya allowed no one except himself to rob his master, Roger found that, after all, his expenses were not unduly excessive.

They soon acquired a small farmyard at a ridiculously low outlay-​hens a penny apiece, sheep for one and eight pence, cows for about six shillings, and ducks, geese, calves and deer in proportion but the natives who reared the poor creatures fed them so ill that they all had to be fattened up before they were fit to serve at a European table.

As it was still the cool season, they were not greatly troubled by the heat, although for the hottest hours of the day they always undressed and lay down to doze in the gentle twilight provided by roller blinds made from hundreds of thin green bamboos. Every morning early they went for a long ride, and later in the day they often went shooting. The country outside the city abounded in game, and the usual practice was to shoot it from the back of an elephant. Clarissa greatly enjoyed accompanying Roger on these expeditions but when he now and again joined a party to hunt wild boar on horse-​back, he would not let her come with him as ho counted her too precious to expose her to the slightest danger in the evenings there was always some party at which they were welcome, a subscription dance or a play put on by the amateur dramatic society, and Clarissa was wise enough never to seek to restrain Roger when, at times, he felt like accepting an invitation to one of the bachelor evenings at which everyone drank deep and roared out bawdy songs at the tops of their voices.

In mid January there came one ripple to mar the surface of this delectable existence, which for them had become an indefinitely prolonged honeymoon. Colonel George Gunston of the Dragoons, having been transferred from Madras, arrived in Calcutta. Gunston, a heavily handsome, florid redheaded man a few years older than Roger, had been at Sherborne with him and, as the bully of the school, had made his life a misery.

Since then they had come into collision on several occasions. Each had wounded the other in a duel with pistols. Roger, who was by far the finer swordsman, had humiliated Gunston in a fencing display held before a number of ladies, for the favour of one of whom they had been rivals. More recently, they had met in Martinique, and after a violent quarrel Roger, who was Governor, had ordered Gunston, who was the Garrison Commander, to leave the island.

They were, therefore, like oil and water. But in the restricted society of Calcutta, they could not avoid meeting frequently as guests under the same roof; so they resigned themselves to exchanging chilly civilities, while Gunston, who had hotly pursued Clarissa during the short time that he had been with her in Martinique, blandly ignored Roger's scowls and renewed his attentions to her as Mrs. Brook.

Although Gunston was a typical product of the fox-​hunting, cock-​fighting landed-​gentry of the day, he was by no means a fool. He had, too, a healthy zest for life which made him good company with either men or women, and this, together with his high-​coloured good looks, soon made him much sought after by the belles of Calcutta. In consequence, Clarissa would not have been human had she not shown her appreciation of his obvious preference for herself. At the receptions and dances where they met, Roger would have made himself a laughing stock if he had played the part of a jealous husband by remaining beside her the whole evening, and he naturally resented his old enemy's seizing on any opportunity to carry her off for a tete-​a-​tete; so after a while he asked her to discourage Gunston's attentions.

But Clarissa only laughed and shrugged her slim shoulders declaring that she was quite capable of keeping George in his place, that he was an amusing fellow and really not at all a bad sort, and that she thought it foolish of Roger not to patch up their old quarrel.

Being fully convinced that he had no real grounds for jealousy Roger said no more; but the situation continued to irritate him until, early in February, he was unexpectedly relieved of it by Gunston's sudden disappearance from the scene. In due course he learned that his enemy had been temporarily lent to the Company, and had been sent up country with a detachment of troops to remonstrate with the young Rajah of Bahna, who had the previous year succeeded his father and was making difficulties about the payment of twelve lakhs of rupees which were due to the Company.

Half way through February another Colonel appeared in Calcutta and one to flutter the hearts of its belles. This was the Honourable Arthur Wesley, commanding the Thirty-​third Foot. He arrived with his regiment, having caught it up at Cape Town, but he had sailed from England several months later than his men, and his elder brother, Lord Mornington, being a junior member of the Government, had given him a number of official letters for delivery in Bengal. One of these was for Roger, and the Colonel naturally called to hand it over in person.

Colonel Wesley was a very different type from Gunston. He was tall and spare, thin faced, blue eyed, with a thin mouth that suggested an ironical sense of humour, and an aggressively conky nose. Seeing that the letter bore the cypher of 10 Downing Street, Roger waved the Colonel to a chair and asked leave to read it at once. It was from Mr. Pitt, and ran:

My dear Mr. Brook,

I learn from Lord Edward Fitz-​Deverel that your dudgeon carried you off to India, and I trust this will find you in Calcutta. Even your annoyance with me scarcely justifies your having gone so far afield when you know very well that you are better fitted than any other man to render your country and myself certain particular services.

Lord Grenville failed to reach an understanding with Signor R.M., but that was in no way due to your unfortunate rencontre with him, and he has now left this country. His departure relieves those concerned of the necessity of taking steps against you; so 1 am in hopes that your friends here may have the pleasure of welcoming you home before many months are past.

May I add that, despite our occasional differences of opinion, I have long regarded myself as among them and, trusting the same sentiments may animate yourself, I shall be happy to find you fresh employment whenever you have a mind to it.

There was a postscript to the letter which read:

Henry Dundas is at my elbow as J write. He asks to be remembered cordially to you, and says that, from your past appreciations of affairs in foreign lands, he judges that no one could give him a shrewder report of conditions in India than yourself: so he also awaits your return with some impatience.

From a man so cold and unbending by nature as William Pitt, the missive could be regarded as both warm and as near to an apology as he would ever get. Seeing Roger's smile of gratification, Colonel Wesley said:

'It seems, Sir, that I have brought you good news.'

Roger's smile deepened. 'Indeed you have, Sir. I came to India because, on account of a duel, 1 was forced to leave England, and this is my permit to return home.'

'Then you are lucky, Sir,' came the prompt reply. 'My period of exile has but just begun, and God alone knows when it will end.'

Having clapped his hands, and sent his consumah for wine, Roger remarked. 'If I am right in supposing you to be a brother of the Earl of Mornington, and you were averse to serving in India, I wonder that his Lordship, now being Junior Lord of the Treasury, was unable to secure for you an appointment more to your liking.'

The Colonel gave a wry smile. 'It would ill-​become me to complain of my brother. He has, I am sure, done his best for me, but Dublin Castle remained deaf to his appeals. I should explain, perhaps, that as an Anglo-​Irish family it is to the Castle that we look for patronage, and on and off I have been kicking my heels as an A.D.C. there for years; but the Viceroy could never be got up to scratch to do anything substantial for me. He even refused me a seat on the Revenue Board and, meanwhile, as a younger son without fortune, my debts became so plaguey worrying that there was nothing for it but to escape my creditors by seeking service abroad;

'You even thought of leaving the army, then?'

'Only from desperation and because I saw small prospect of advancement in it. As 1 am considered the fool of the family, if is probably best that I should continue to make soldiering my career.'

Roger laughed. 'You are mighty frank, Sir. But permit me to say that you do not strike me at all as the type of pin-​head that I have met with only too often among army men.'

'Thanks for your good opinion, Mr. Brook; but I must confess that my education leaves much to be desired. I never could abide Latin or Greek, so my brother removed me early from Eton. In fairness to him, I should say that lack of money was the main cause. As you may, perhaps, have heard, my father, the first Earl, was a musician of considerable talent. He was, indeed, Professor of Music at Trinity College, Dublin; but he expended so great a sum on supporting amateur societies that he dissipated his fortune, and we have since been driven even to selling our family seat. As I took so ill to the classics my brother decided to spend what he could afford on sending one of my younger brothers to Eton in my place.'

'You interest me greatly. What happened to you, then, after you left Eton?'

To economise, my mother went to live abroad, and I spent a year with her in Brussels. My tutoring there was most sketchy and, as far as learning was concerned, I benefited hardly more from a year at the Academy of M. de Pignerolle in Angers. Though there, at least, I acquired a good seat on a horse and some little polish. At eighteen I was gazetted an Ensign in the Seventy-​third. As the regiment was here in India at the time, I was under no necessity to join it. Two exchanges in the following year got me two steps in promotion without my even setting foot on a barrack square. I then became an A.D.C. at the Castle and sat for our family borough in the Irish Parliament. In the summer of '94, as a Lt.-Colonel, I took the Thirty-​third to Ostend, where we acted as rearguard in the evacuation of that town. With the disastrous winter campaign in the Low Countries that followed, I'll not trouble you. It was bloody. Sir, positively bloody; and I lost more men from frost-​bite than from bullets. Only a remnant of us got back to Ireland in the Spring of '95. Since then I have done little but dance futile attendance on the Viceroy and avoid the duns; and there, Mr. Brook, you have my undistinguished story.'

Pouring him another glass of wine, Roger said: You will find society here most mixed, but extraordinarily hospitable. Admittedly there is no war being waged at the moment by which you might advance your career; but if you enjoy dancing, music and good company, you might be stationed in far worse places than Calcutta.'

That's true enough,' agreed the Colonel. "When I first made up my mind that I must take to serving with my regiment it had just been ordered to the West Indies. Two starts were made. The first met with complete disaster: seven transports wrecked on Chesil Beach and the rest only getting back to English ports in tatters. The second met another gale so severe that the whole convoy was dispersed and thirty ships, mine among them, after weeks of desperate hazard were at length driven back into the Solent. Soon after there was a change of plan and we were ordered to India. But for that, I'd now be in the Caribbean, and like as not dead from Yellow Fever.'

Roger nodded. 'The toll it has taken of our troops out there is utterly appalling. I found two ways, though, of checking the scourge considerably. On the recommendation of a learned friend, I had the men drink a tizane made from chinquona bark each morning, and as frequently as possible sent batches of them to cruise off shore for a few days in local ships; so that they might get some good sea air into their lungs.'

"Mr. Brook, you interest me mightily,' the Colonel exclaimed. T have ever maintained that the health of his men should be the first concern of every commander. Good food, and plenty of it, warm clothing, frequent baths and compulsory attention to feet, will do more to win a campaign than knowing the contents of all the text books on tactics and strategy ever written. But I had no idea that you had been a soldier.'

'I have not had that honour, Sir,' Roger replied politely. 'The measures I spoke of were initiated by me when I was for a while Governor of Martinique. You have just spoken, though, of the trade of arms with an enthusiasm which belies the luke-​warmness you appeared to show a while ago.'

'I gave you first a wrong impression then. The man is a fool indeed who, having adopted a profession, does not make it the major interest of his life. I pray you, too, do not let me lead you to suppose that I despise books. I have brought out from England well over a hundred and they are mostly about India, its people and its wars. I am, too, learning Persian. Since I must serve here I'll neglect nothing which may make me proficient in doing so; I meant only to imply that, had I had my choice, I would have done my soldiering in Europe, as 'tis there that our struggles with the French must be decided.'

For a while they talked about the last season's campaigns on the Rhine and in Italy. When it emerged that Roger knew General Buonaparte, Colonel Wesley begged to be given the fullest possible account of this new star which had so suddenly arisen on the military horizon,

Roger sent for another bottle of claret and in the cool shade of the veranda they talked on for a further hour. He found that the Colonel knew far more than he did about the involved operations which had given the Army of Italy victory after victory, as he had studied every detail obtainable about them, but he could not hear enough concerning the French Army, its generals, officers, men, commissariat and development since the Revolution. Having been well acquainted with Dumouriez, Carnot, Dubois-​Crance, Barras, Pichegru, and many other men who had played a part in making France's new army, Roger was able to supply him with a mass of information.

As the Colonel at length rose to go, they were speaking again of General Buonaparte, and Roger said with a laugh, 'He once offered me a Colonelcy on his staff. Should I return to my old work, maybe the day will come when I'll ask it of him.'

'You lucky fellow,' Colonel Wesley smiled. "Could I but change my identity for a while, it's the sort of chance I'd give my right hand for. This sallow-​faced little Corsican has, I am certain, a real sureness of touch where the handling of an army is concerned. To think, too, that he was born in the same year as you and I, yet here are we still almost unknown to the world, and I am by far the worse off of us two, since I'm condemned to garrison duty here, perhaps for years to come; whereas he has already made himself France's most spectacular and successful General.'

Arthur Wesley need not have worried. During the course of that year Lord Mornington was to replace Sir John Shore as Governor General. By his desire, Arthur and the rest of the family were to change their name to the more aristocratic sounding form of Wellesley; and Arthur was to play a leading part in the final defeat of Tipoo Sahib. He was to leave India as Major-​General Sir Arthur, C.B. Ten years later, as Commander-​in-​Chief in Portugal, he was raised to the peerage and, although his Latin remained poor to the end of his life, he was in due course to surpass by far his clever elder brother; for he became His Grace the Duke of Wellington, Knight of the Garter, and Prime Minister of Great Britain.

During the next few weeks, Roger and Arthur Wesley saw a lot of one another and became firm friends. At Hickey's invitation, the Colonel took the chair at the St. Patrick's Day dinner, which proved a most hilarious occasion, and the party did not break up till past three in the morning.

In March, two distinguished Generals arrived from England; Sir Alured Clarke, who was to take over as Commander-​in-​Chief, and Major-​General John St. Ledger who, from having for a long period been a boon companion of the Prince of Wales, had so depleted his fortune that, like Colonel Wesley, he had come to India to escape the unwelcome attention of his creditors.

For these two gentlemen a whole succession of bachelor evenings were given by the leading residents of Calcutta and, in consequence, Roger found himself staggering to bed at dawn several times a week. In such a society there was nothing reprehensible about that, as it was common practice; but Clarissa now and then reproached him mildly and he did begin to feel somewhat guilty about his neglect of her.

After the arrival of Mr. Pitt's letter, they had talked of taking a passage home before the monsoon set in, and it was fully understood between them that as soon as they reached England they would give out that they had been married by a Christian missionary in Zanzibar, then have the actual ceremony performed in some quiet village where they were known to no one.

But Roger had taken no steps about securing a passage, because they were both to be called as witnesses when the case of Clarissa's marriage settlement came before the Court. After Lady Beaumont's Christmas Eve reception, young Winters had wisely refrained from making any slanderous statements regarding their relationship, but he had instructed his lawyers to contest the validity of the settlement. Hickey was confident that the Court would give a verdict in Clarissa's favour, but the law could not be hurried, and no definite date could yet be given on which the case would be heard.

Meanwhile, the morning hours now frequently found Roger in a heavy sleep, which deprived Clarissa of their ride together. Within the household Chudda Gya would, in accordance with Indian custom, allow her nothing whatever to do. She had only to express a wish for it to be carried out, but even her one attempt to feed the chickens was swiftly and reproachfully prevented. The bachelor parties Roger attended entailed her spending more and more evenings at home alone, and she found a pet monkey and a parrot she had acquired poor substitutes for his company.

They still made love with fervour and lavished endearments on one another, but she could not help showing some resentment that he so often now seemed to prefer his friends' society to hers; and, while this was far from being the fact, he found great difficulty in persuading her of it, because he had got himself caught up in a round of engagements which he could not break without giving offence.

This was the case with a bachelor week-​end that William Hickey had planned to have up at Chinsurah. He had General St. Ledger, Colonel Wesley, Sir Alexander Seton, Captain de Lancy and several others coming, had arranged some horse-​racing and secured a turtle with a special chef to cook it for the main course of their Saturday dinner, and he positively refused to let Roger back out.

It proved one of the best parties of its kind that Roger had ever attended. For three nights in succession they drank, laughed, sang and played the fool from dusk to dawn, pulling themselves round at about eleven each morning by the time-​honoured remedy of 'a hair of the dog that had bitten them'- sufficiently at least to engage in erratic games of snooker, 'career wildly about on their horses, and disport themselves on the river.

In the cool of Monday evening, decidedly part worn and very bleary eyed, Roger returned home. He was still so bemused by the enormous quantities of champagne, claret, hock and Madeira he had consumed that, on riding up the drive to his house, he failed to notice that on seeing him the usual cluster of squatting servants swiftly made themselves scarce. It was not until no one appeared to take his horse that he realised something must be wrong.

Stamping into the house, he shouted for Chudda Gya, for his jemadar, and finally for Clarissa. There was no reply. Alarmed now, he ran upstairs and into Clarissa's apartments. He was in time to see one of her native women run from the room out onto the covered balcony, scramble over its rail and shin down one of its supporting posts to the ground, but she ignored his calls to stop as she scurried head down to the servants' quarters. Taking the stairs three at a time, he plunged back down into the hail, seized a drum stick and beat upon the big gong until the house was quivering with the sound.

After a few minutes Oiudda Gya appeared from the back of the house. Putting the tips of his fingers to his forehead, he bent almost double in a deep salaam; then he went down on his knees with the resigned look of a man who expects to be beheaded.

"What is the meaning of this?' Roger roared. 'Where has everybody got to? What has happened? Where is the Mem-​sahib?'

Displaying the calm of an Oriental reared to accept the gifts the gods may send one day and death the next, without revealing his feelings, Chudda Gya replied:

'She has left you, Sahib. On Friday evening a Sahib came here. An hour later the Memsahib ordered her bags to be packed and at dusk she went away with him.'