alicia was up in time to see the travellers off; with her own hands she filled the provision-basket, and helped robin to pack her father’s portmanteau. she was resolved to show herself to be a capable, energetic missionary mem. all her idle days were over: alicia had grand designs in her head. she looked so bright, animated, and happy as she bade the travellers good-bye, that robin, as he walked beside his father’s tattu, laughingly observed, “i think that our pretty exotic is taking root already, and promises to climb up bravely. to get so soon over the loss of a piano, the breaking of bottles, and the smashing of porcelain, shows a spirit worthy of harold’s bride.”
what was one of the principal causes of alicia’s cheerfulness on that friday morning may be seen from a letter which she wrote to a sister in england on the following monday.
“february 28, 1868.
“dearest lizzie,—i promised to give you a full and particular description of my new home at talwandi; but i would rather delay so doing till i have brought some order out of chaos, some beauty out of confusion. everything is now in the rough. i am going to be so busy, so desperately busy, that i am not at all sorry that my father-in-law and robin are away on a preaching tour. i want to give them a grand surprise on their return, and a surprise also to my harold, who is so dreadfully busy all day long with his native boys or his translations that he has no time to consider whether he lives in a palace or a wigwam.
“but first i must tell you what i think of harold’s father, though i have seen but little of him as yet. mr. hartley is tall, but stoops slightly, as if from weakness. he is pale and thin and somewhat wrinkled—less from age, i think, than from toil. harold has certainly a likeness to his parent; but, oh! i trust that my noble-looking husband, whose form is so erect, whose step so elastic, may never have such a worn-out appearance, such a faint voice, as the veteran worker. i feel a very great respect, almost reverence, for my new father; but he inspires me with something a little like awe. mr. hartley is almost too polite, for in the courtesy which he shows to me as a lady he seems half to forget that i am his daughter. i should like him to clap me on the shoulder and call me ‘pussy,’ as dear papa used to do. mr. hartley will rise when i enter the room, nor resume his chair until i am seated, though i would often prefer standing or running about. the dear man listens with such courtesy to what i say that i dare hardly open my lips lest i should utter something silly. then i feel that mr. hartley lives in a sphere so very much higher than my own, that i am humbled and a little constrained by his presence. perhaps when i know him better this feeling may wear away. at present, my father appears to me something too high and spiritual for earth—like the rainbow which we admire but cannot touch. yet robin is as playful as a kitten with his father, who evidently enjoys his fun. harold regards his parent with much veneration and love. it is beautiful to see the confidence and affection existing between father and sons.
“to quit this subject, i must tell you of the grand work which i started last friday, almost as soon as the travellers had left us. my harold knows nothing about it; i only said to him as he went off to the school which he holds (in a mango grove, i believe), ‘please give nabi bakhsh and mangal strict orders to obey me in whatever i tell them to do.’ ‘i am sure that i may trust my little queen with despotic power,’ replied harold, smiling. ‘your subjects shall obey your commands, if you can make them understand them.’
“no sooner had my husband left me than i ordered a big bowl, or rather my basin, full of paste, and flew off to my work in my own little home. foreseeing, like a prudent housewife, that nothing elegant could be procured at talwandi, i have brought a quantity of the loveliest wall-paper that ever i saw—pale lilac ground, as smooth as satin, with a pattern of roses twining over a trellis of gold. nothing can be more tasteful, or more suited to make ‘paradise’ (as i have named our little bungalow) a sort of fairy bower. i had nabi bakhsh and mangal to help me in the work of papering my room; for though i have brought a huge brush, i could not do all the pasting myself. i could, however, trust nothing that required common sense to my assistants: for i found mangal putting my roses upside down; and when i bade nabi bakhsh hang my pictures on some brass nails which robin had fixed in the wall, i saw the drawing representing our church so placed that the tower and trees hung downwards, suspended, as it seemed, from the sky! of course, it was absurd to begin to hang up pictures before i had papered the room; but i did so because it gave me such pleasure to see them whenever i glanced up from my work. nor could i resist the pleasure of filling the book-shelves (also robin’s kind thought) with my very prettiest books.
“how i laboured that day! how i swung my big brush, and dashed the paste over the brick-work! you would have laughed, lizzie, to have seen your ailie perched on a ladder, now stopping to look down to direct or scold her assistants, now dabbing paste on the ugly bare wall, which was not graced with even a coating of whitewash. i worked and worked till hands were tired and head was throbbing and eyes aching from looking up. then i stopped to admire my rosy bower, and went on again with fresh vigour. i pasted away as long as the light lasted, and then, not wishing harold to see the work incomplete, i left my huge roll of paper (a good deal lessened in size) on the floor, sent mangal to look after cooking the dinner, quitted the house, and locked the door behind me. no one should enter ‘paradise’ as long as one brick remained uncovered in its bare ugliness in that room.
“i was at first—though dreadfully tired—in high glee when harold returned. he was tired too, and needed his meal, which mangal took ages to prepare. it had never occurred to me that the khansamar could not cook while he was pasting. when the food came at last, i took to shivering instead of eating, and my looks awakened alarm in the mind of my tender husband. harold took my hand; it burned with fever, and i was obliged to confess to a pain in my head. it appeared that i had taken a chill. harold was uneasy at my having even a touch of indian fever so soon after my arrival. i was condemned to imprisonment and a strong dose of bitter quinine. do not be alarmed, dear lizzie; mine was only a passing attack, and it gave me the luxury (was it selfish to enjoy it?) of more of the company of my beloved. i believe that the school-lads had a holiday on saturday, for harold scarcely quitted my side. i was very much better on sunday; but my dear jailer would not let me quit my room, and gave me a little english service there. it was a happy, peaceful sabbath to me. the time when harold was away holding religious converse with a young hindu who reads the gospel, i spent in learning a good many verses from the urdu bible, which, when i repeated them in the evening, won for me the prized reward of my husband’s praise. to-day (monday) i had hoped to go on with my papering work; but as there happened to be a rough wind, and the fever had left a cold on my chest, harold bade me keep one day more in the house.
“‘i forgot to ask you for the key of our new bungalow,’ said he; ‘pray give it to me now, for we must keep all the doors open during the daytime, and have a large fire burning within. i had a tree cut down on purpose to have plenty of wood to burn. i ought to have seen to this matter before; but give me the key now, please, my love.’
“now, for harold to have had the key would have spoilt the charming surprise which i was preparing for him. this would never do; so i begged my husband not to wait for the key, and i promised to send nabi bakhsh to throw open all the doors and pile up roaring fires. harold went off to his inquirers, and i—shall i confess it to you, lizzie?—i became so much interested in my studies that i quite forgot my promise. there was no feeling of cold to remind me that fires may be needed, for the days are quite warm, to me even hot, though at night the air becomes fresh. it is now too late to have the doors opened, so i am spending the twilight, before harold returns, in writing to you. i shall be too busy to-morrow pasting and papering to do more than add a line to tell of the success of my work.
“harold is later than usual; he is probably having a religious conversation with kripá dé, whom he thinks almost, if not quite, a christian in heart. i have only seen the lad once or twice, but i am exceedingly struck with his appearance. kripá is as fair as an englishwoman, only the complexion has in it no tinge of colour; it is, i hear, one not uncommon among kashmiris. kripá dé has a delicacy of feature and grace of—there is the step of my harold! no more writing to-day.
“tuesday.—o lizzie, i little thought how this long letter was to end,—how my bright fancies, my eagerly pursued occupation, were to bring nothing but disappointment! i have only too much leisure for writing to-day, and must relieve my mortified spirit by telling my troubles to you.
“i was almost impatient for harold to go out to his work, so eager was i to resume mine. i hurried off to my little house, after calling to mangal to prepare a fresh supply of paste, and asking nabi bakhsh to get some one to bring plenty of logs for a fire (coals are unknown in talwandi). i knew that i had been imprudent in not having had a fire lighted on friday, and that i had brought fever on myself and trouble on my husband by neglecting this simple precaution. i will not be so foolish again.
“well, to go on with my story. i turned the key in the lock of my door, pushed it open, and entered the room where i had left my fancy paper, some on the wall, some on the floor. yes, i entered with eager step, and then—stood simply aghast. ugly dark damp-marks had completely marred what i, with such labour, had put up but three days ago; and worse still, my pictures, my choice pictures, were almost completely spoilt. i felt inclined to sit down and cry; but to have given such way to my vexation would have been unworthy of harold’s wife. it was a comfort, i thought, that the larger portion of the beautiful wall-paper had not yet been put up; that, at least, should be kept to be used after the house should have become quite dry. i went up to my large roll (which, you remember, i had left on the brick floor), and saw—oh, how shall i describe what i saw with mingled astonishment and disgust! the paper, with its roses and golden trellis, was, as it were, alive with odious little white maggots. it almost sickened me to see them; i could not touch one of the horrid things. i called loudly for nabi bakhsh, and when he appeared i could only point to the disgusting mass on the floor. ‘dimak,’ he said calmly, as if there were nothing astonishing in the sight. then nabi bakhsh walked leisurely to the wall, and knocked down a quantity of branching excrescences of something like mud, in shape a little resembling coral, but of the colour of mire. this, too, was alive with grubs, and again the moslem said, ‘dimak.’ there is no danger of my ever forgetting that hateful word.
“as i stood almost petrified with this my first introduction to white ants, one of the plagues of india, i was startled by the unexpected entrance of harold. he had returned for some book, and seeing the door open had walked in.
“harold asked no questions; he saw at a glance what had happened. ‘call the mihtar [sweeper], and have all this cleared away at once,’ he said to nabi bakhsh. then gently taking my hand, my husband led me out into the open veranda. i was too much agitated to be able to speak. i attempted to smile, but failed.
“‘i am very sorry to find the white ants in possession already,’ said harold. ‘we must fight them in this bungalow, as we have fought them in my father’s. happily a good supply of tar is left; some shall immediately be put round the lower part of the walls, and below the rafters, or the wood-work will become the prey of greedy little foes.’
“‘the rafters!’ i murmured faintly; ‘would the dimak bring down our very roof over our heads?’
“‘if we gave them time and opportunity they would do so,’ was the not consolatory reply. ‘but be assured, my alicia, that active measures shall be taken at once.’
“and what was the result of these active measures, lizzie? i have just come in from looking at my poor, certainly misnamed, paradise. all my pretty paper has been pulled down and cleared away, and men are putting a funeral band of hideous black all round the upper part of the walls, along the rafters, and a few inches above the floor. there is a bespattering of the tar in unsightly spots even where it is not supposed to be needed. the whole effect is horrible, and my new bungalow smells like an old steamer. i do not know whether to laugh or to cry.”
