CHAPTER FIVE
Van Oudijck felt in a more pleasant mood than he had done for weeks:his house seemed to have recovered after those two months of dullboredom; he thought it jolly to see his two rascals of boys rompinground the garden, even though they did all sorts of mischief; andabove all he was very glad that his wife was back.
They were now sitting in the garden, in undress, drinking tea, athalf-past five. It was very strange, but Leonie at once filled thegreat house with a certain home-like feeling of comfort, because sheliked comfort herself. At other times Van Oudijck would hurriedlyswallow a cup of tea which Kario brought him in his bedroom: to-daythis afternoon tea made a pleasant break in the day; cane chairsand long deck-chairs were placed outside, in front of the house; thetea-tray stood on a cane table; there were roasted bananas; and Leonie,in a red silk Japanese kimono, with her fair hair hanging loose, layback in a cane chair playing with Doddie's cockatoo and feeding itwith pastry. It was different at once, Van Oudijck thought: his wife,so sociable, charming, pretty, telling scraps of news about theirfriends in Batavia, the races at Buitenzorg, a ball at the Viceroy's,the Italian opera; the boys merry, healthy and jolly, however dirtythey might make themselves in playing. He called them to him andromped with them and asked them about the grammar-school--they wereboth in the second class--and even Doddie and Theo seemed differentto him: Doddie was now plucking roses from the potted trees, lookingdelightfully pretty and humming a tune; and Theo was communicativewith mamma and even with him. A pleased expression played aroundVan Oudijck's moustache. His face was quite young still; he hardlylooked forty-eight. He had a quick, bright glance, a way of looking upsuddenly with an acute, penetrating air. He was rather heavy of build,with a tendency to become still heavier, but yet he had retained asoldierly briskness and he was indefatigable on his circuits: he wasa first-rate horseman. Tall and powerfully built, content with hishouse and his family, he wore a pleasant air of robust virility,with a jovial laughing expression around his moustache. And,relaxing himself, stretched out at full length in his cane chair,he drank his cup of tea, and gave utterance to the thoughts whichgenerally welled up in him at such moments of satisfaction. Yes, itwas not a bad life in India, [3] when all was said, in the B.B. [4]At least it had always been good for him; but then he had been prettylucky. Promotion nowadays was a desperate business: he knew any numberof assistant-residents who were his contemporaries and who had nochance of becoming residents for years to come. And that certainly wasa desperate position, to continue so long in a subordinate office,to be compelled at that age to hold one's self at the orders ofa resident. He could never have stood it, at forty-eight! But tobe a resident, to give orders on his own initiative, to rule aslarge and important a district as Labuwangi, with such extensivecoffee-plantations, with such numbers of sugar-factories, with somany leased concessions: that was a delight, that was living, thatwas a life grander and more spacious than any other, a life withwhich no life or position in Holland was to be compared. His greatresponsibility delighted his authoritative nature. His activitieswere varied: office work and circuit; the interest of his workvaried: a man was not bored to death in his office-chair; after theoffice there was out-of-door life; and there was always a change,always something different. He hoped in eighteen months to become aresident of the first class, if a first-class residency fell vacant:Batavia, Samarang, Surabaya, or one of the Vorstenlanden. [5] And yetit would go to his heart to leave Labuwangi. He was attached to hisdistrict, for which he had done so much during the past five years,which in those five years had attained its highest prosperity, in sofar as prosperity was possible in these times of general depression,with the colonies poor, the population impoverished, the coffee-cropsworse than ever, sugar perhaps threatened with a serious crisis intwo years' time. India was in a languishing condition; and even in theindustrial eastern portion of the island inertia and lack of vitalitywere spreading like a blight; but still he had been able to do muchfor Labuwangi. During his administration the people had thrived andprospered; the irrigation of the corn-fields was excellent, after hehad succeeded in tactfully winning over the engineer, who at first wasalways in conflict with the B.B. Miles and miles of steam tramway hadbeen laid down. The secretary, his assistant-residents and controllerswere his willing coadjutors, though he kept them hard at work. But hehad a pleasant way with them, even though the work was hard. He knewhow to be jolly and friendly with them, resident though he was. He wasglad that all of them--controllers and assistant-residents--representedthe wholesome, cheerful type of B.B. official, pleased with their life,liking their work, though nowadays given much more than formerly tostudying the Government Almanack and the Colonial List with an eyeto their promotion. And it was Van Oudijck's hobby to compare hisofficials with the judicial functionaries, who did not represent thesame alert type: there was always a slight jealousy and animositybetween the two orders.... Yes, it was a pleasant life, a pleasantsphere of activity: everything was all right. There was nothingto beat the B.B. His only regret was that his relations with theregent [6] were not easier and more agreeable. But it was not hisfault. He had always very conscientiously given the regent his due,had left him in the enjoyment of his full rights, had seen to itthat he was duly respected by the Javanese population and even bythe European officials. Oh, how intensely he regretted the deathof the old pangeran, the regent's father; the old regent, a noble,cultivated Javanese! Van Oudijck had always been in sympathy with him,had at once won him by his tact. Had he not, five years ago, whenhe arrived at Labuwangi to take over the administration, invited thepangeran--the type of the genuine Javanese noble--to sit beside him inhis own carriage, rather than allow him to follow in a second carriage,behind the resident's carriage, as was usual? And had not this civilitytoward the old prince at once won all the Javanese heads and officialsand flattered them in their respect and love for their regent, thedescendant of one of the oldest Javanese families, the Adiningrats,who were Sultans of Madura in the Company's time?... But Sunario,his son, now the young regent, he was unable to understand, unableto fathom. This he confessed only to himself, in silence, seeinghim always enigmatic--that marionette, that puppet, as he calledhim--always stiff, keeping his distance towards him, the resident,as though he, the prince, looked down upon him, the Dutch burgher,and wholly absorbed in all sorts of superstitious observances andfanatical speculations. He never said as much openly, but something inthe regent escaped him. He was unable to place that delicate figure,with the fixed, coal-black eyes, in the practical life of human beings,as he had always been able to place the old pangeran. The latter hadalways been to him, in accordance with his age, a fatherly friend;in accordance with etiquette, his "younger brother"; but always thefellow-ruler of his district. But Sunario seemed to him unreal, nota functionary, not a regent, merely a fanatical Javanese who alwaysshrouded himself in mystery:
"Such nonsense!" thought Van Oudijck.
He laughed at the reputation for sacrosanctity which the populacebestowed upon Sunario. He thought him unpractical, a degenerateJavanese, a crazy Javanese dandy.
But his lack of harmony with the regent--a lack of harmony incharacter only, which had never developed into actual fact: why,he could twist the mannikin round his finger!--was the only greatdifficulty which had arisen during all these years. And he would nothave exchanged his life as a resident for any other life whatever. Why,he was already fretting about what he would do later, when he waspensioned off! What he would have preferred was to continue as longas possible in the service, as a member of the Indian Council, asvice-president of the Council. The object of his unspoken ambition,in the far-away future, was the throne of Buitenzorg. But nowadaysthey had that strange mania in Holland for appointing outsidersto the highest posts--men sent straight from Holland, newcomerswho knew nothing about India--instead of remaining faithful to theprinciple of selecting old Indian servants, who had made their wayup from subcontroller and who knew the whole official hierarchy byheart.... Yes, what would he do, pensioned off? Live at Nice?
Withno money? For saving was impracticable: his life was comfortable,but expensive; and instead of saving he was running up debts. Well,that didn't matter now: the debts would be paid off in time, butlater, later.... The future, the existence of a pensioned official,was anything but an agreeable prospect for him. To vegetate at theHague, in a small house, with a gin-and-bitters at the club, among theold fogeys: br-r-r! The very idea of it made him shudder. He wouldn'tthink about it; he preferred not to think about it at all: perhaps hewould be dead by that time. But it was all delightful now: his work,his house, India. There was absolutely nothing to compare with it.
Leonie had listened to him smilingly: she was accustomed to hisquiet enthusiasm, his rhapsodizing over his post; as she put it, hisadoration of the B.B. She also valued the luxury of being a resident'swife. The comparative isolation she did not mind; she usually wassufficient unto herself. And she answered smilingly, contented andcharming with her creamy complexion, which showed still whiter underthe light coat of rice-powder against the red silk of her kimono andlooked so delightful amidst the surrounding waves of her fair hair.
That morning she had felt put out for a moment: Labuwangi,after Batavia, had depressed her with the tedium of an up-countrycapital. But since then she had acquired a large diamond; since thenshe had got Theo back. His room was close to hers. And it was sureto be a long time before he could obtain a berth.
These were her thoughts, while her husband sat blissfully reflectingafter his pleasant confidences.
Her thoughts went no deeper than this: anything like remorse wouldhave surprised her in the highest degree, had she been capableof feeling it. It began to grow dark slowly; the moon was alreadyrising and shining brightly; and behind the velvety banyans, behindthe feathery boughs of the coco-palms, which waved gently up and downlike stately sheaves of dark ostrich-feathers, the last light of thesun cast a faintly stippled, dull-gold reflection, against which thesoftness of the banyans and the pomp of the coco-palms stood out asthough etched in black. From the distance came the monotonous tinkleof the native orchestra, mournfully, limpid as water, like a xylophone,with a deep dissonance at intervals....
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