'Guy, I have something I want to say to you,' she murmured.
His heart gave a sudden thud against his ribs and he felt himself change colour.
'Oh, my dear, don't look like that, it's not so very terrible,' she laughed.
But he thought her voice trembled a little.
'Well?'
'I want you to do something for me.'
'My darling, I'll do anything in the world for you.'
He put out his hand to take hers, but she drew it away.
'I want you to let me go home.'
'You?' he cried, aghast. 'When? Why?'
'I've borne it as long as I can. I'm at the end of my tether.'
'How long do you want to go for? For always?'
'I don't know. I think so.' She gathered determination. 'Yes, for always.'
'Oh, my God!'
His voice broke and she thought he was going to cry.
'Oh, Guy, don't blame me. It really is not my fault. I can't help myself.'
'You asked me for six months. I accepted your terms. You can't say I've made a nuisance of myself.'
'No, no.'
'I've tried not to let you see what a rotten time I was having.'
'I know. I'm very grateful to you. You've been awfully kind to me. Listen, Guy, I want to tell you again that I don't blame you for a single thing you did. After all, you were only a boy, and you did no more than the others; I know what the loneliness is here. Oh, my dear, I'm so dreadfully sorry for you. I knew all that from the beginning. That's why I asked you for six months. My common sense tells me that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I'm unreasonable; I'm being unfair to you. But, you see, common sense has nothing to do with it; my whole soul is in revolt. When I see the woman and her children in the village I just feel my legs shaking. Everything in this house; when I think of that bed I slept in it gives me goose-flesh ... You don't know what I've endured.'
'I think I've persuaded her to go away. And I've applied for a transfer.'
'That wouldn't help. She'll be there always. You belong to them, you don't belong to me. I think perhaps I could have stood it if there'd only been one child, but three; and the boys are quite big boys. For ten years you lived with her.' And now she came out with what she had been working up to. She was desperate. 'It's a physical thing, I can't help it, it's stronger than I am. I think of those thin black arms of hers round you and it fills me with a physical nausea. I think of you holding those little black babies in your arms. Oh, it's loathsome. The touch of you is odious to me. Each night, when I've kissed you, I've had to brace myself up to it. I've had to clench my hands and force myself to touch your cheek.' Now she was clasping and unclasping her fingers in a nervous agony, and her voice was out of control. 'I know it's I who am to blame now. I'm a silly, hysterical woman. I thought I'd get over it. I can't, and now I never shall. I've brought it all on myself; I'm willing to take the consequences; if you say I must stay here, I'll stay, but if I stay I shall die. I beseech you to let me go.'
And now the tears which she had restrained so long overflowed and she wept broken-heartedly. He had never seen her cry before.
'Of course I don't want to keep you here against your will,' he said hoarsely.
Exhausted, she leaned back in her chair. Her features were all twisted and awry. It was horribly painful to see the abandonment of grief on that face which was habitually so placid.
'I'm so sorry, Guy. I've broken your life, but I've broken mine too. And we might have been so happy.'
'When do you want to go? On Thursday?'
'Yes.'
She looked at him piteously. He buried his face in his hands. At last he looked up.
'I'm tired out,' he muttered.
'May I go?'
'Yes.'
For two minutes perhaps they sat there without a word. She started when the chik-chak gave its piercing, hoarse, and strangely human cry. Guy rose and went out on to the veranda. He leaned against the rail and looked at the softly flowing water. He heard Doris go into her room.
Next morning, up earlier than usual, he went to her door and knocked.
'Yes?'
'I have to go up-river today. I shan't be back till late.'
'All right.'
She understood. He had arranged to be away all day in order not to be about while she was packing. It was heartbreaking work. When she had packed her clothes she looked round the sitting-room at the things that belonged to her. It seemed dreadful to take them. She left everything but the photograph of her mother. Guy did not come in till ten o'clock at night.
'I'm sorry I couldn't get back to dinner,' he said. 'The headman at the village I had to go to had a lot of things for me to attend to.'
She saw his eyes wander about the room and notice that her mother's photograph no longer stood in its place.
'Is everything quite ready?' he asked. 'I've ordered the boatman to be at the steps at dawn.'
'I told the boy to wake me at five.'
'I'd better give you some money.' He went to his desk and wrote out a cheque. He took some notes from a drawer. 'Here's some cash to take you as far as Singapore and at Singapore you'll be able to change the cheque.'
'Thank you.'
'Would you like me to come to the mouth of the river with you?'
'Oh, I think it would be better if we said good-bye here.'
'All right. I think I shall turn in. I've had a long day and I'm dead beat.'
He did not even touch her hand. He went into his room. In a few minutes she heard him throw himself on his bed. For a little while she sat looking for the last time round that room in which she had been so happy and so miserable. She sighed deeply. She got up and went into her own room. Everything was packed except the one or two things she needed for the night.
It was dark when the boy awakened them. They dressed hurriedly and when they were ready breakfast was waiting for them. Presently they heard the boat row up to the landing-stage below the bungalow, and then the servants carried down her luggage. It was a poor pretence they made of eating. The darkness thinned away and the river was ghostly. It was not yet day, but it was no longer night. In the silence the voices of the natives at the landing-stage were very clear. Guy glanced at his wife's untouched plate.
'If you've finished we might stroll down. I think you ought to be starting.'
She did not answer. She rose from the table. She went into her room to see that nothing had been forgotten and then side by side with him walked down the steps. A little winding path led them to the river. At the landing-stage the native guards in their smart uniform were lined up and they presented arms as Guy and Doris passed. The head boatman gave her his hand as she stepped into the boat. She turned and looked at Guy. She wanted desperately to say one last word of comfort, once more to ask for his forgiveness, but she seemed to be struck dumb.
He stretched out his hand.
'Well, good-bye, I hope you'll have a jolly journey.'
They shook hands.
Guy nodded to the head boatman and the boat pushed off. The dawn now was creeping along the river mistily, but the night lurked still in the dark trees of the jungle. He stood at the landing-stage till the boat was lost in the shadows of the morning. With a sigh he turned away. He nodded absent-mindedly when the guard once more presented arms. But when he reached the bungalow he called the boy. He went round the room picking out everything that had belonged to Doris.
'Pack all these things up,' he said. 'It's no good leaving them about.'
Then he sat down on the veranda and watched the day advance gradually like a bitter, an unmerited, and an overwhelming sorrow. At last he looked at his watch. It was time for him to go to the office.
In the afternoon he could not sleep, his head ached miserably, so he took his gun and went for a tramp in the jungle. He shot nothing, but he walked in order to tire himself out. Towards sunset he came back and had two or three drinks, and then it was time to dress for dinner. There wasn't much use in dressing n
ow; he might just as well be comfortable; he put on a loose native jacket and a sarong. That was what he had been accustomed to wear before Doris came. He was barefoot. He ate his dinner listlessly and the boy cleared away and went. He sat down to read the Tatler. The bungalow was very silent. He could not read and let the paper fall on his knees. He was exhausted. He could not think and his mind was strangely vacant. The chik-chak was noisy that night and its hoarse and sudden cry seemed to mock him. You could hardly believe that this reverberating sound came from so small a throat. Presently he heard a discreet cough.
'Who's there?' he cried.
There was a pause. He looked at the door. The chik-chak laughed harshly. A small boy sidled in and stood on the threshold. It was a little half-caste boy in a tattered singlet and a sarong. It was the elder of his two sons.
'What do you want?' said Guy.
The boy came forward into the room and sat down, tucking his legs away under him.
'Who told you to come here?'
'My mother sent me. She says, do you want anything?'
Guy looked at the boy intently. The boy said nothing more. He sat and waited, his eyes cast down shyly. Then Guy in deep and bitter reflection buried his face in his hands. What was the use? It was finished. Finished! He surrendered. He sat back in his chair and sighed deeply.
'Tell your mother to pack up her things and yours. She can come back.'
'When?' asked the boy, impassively.
Hot tears trickled down Guy's funny, round spotty face.
'Tonight.'
Flotsam and jetsam
Norman Grange was a rubber-planter. He was up before daybreak to take the roll-call of his labour and then walked over the estate to see that the tapping was properly done. This duty performed, he came home, bathed and changed, and now with his wife opposite him he was eating the substantial meal, half breakfast and half luncheon, which in Borneo is called brunch. He read as he ate. The dining-room was dingy. The worn electro-plate, the shabby cruet, the chipped dishes betokened poverty, but a poverty accepted with apathy. A few flowers would have brightened the table, but there was apparently no one to care how things looked. When Grange had finished he belched, filled his pipe and lit it, rose from the table and went out on to the veranda. He took no more notice of his wife than if she had not been there. He lay down in a long rattan chair and went on reading. Mrs Grange reached over for a tin of cigarettes and smoked while she sipped her tea. Suddenly she looked out, for the house boy came up the steps and accompanied by two men went up to her husband. One was a Dyak and the other Chinese. Strangers seldom came and she could not imagine what they wanted. She got up and went to the door to listen. Though she had lived in Borneo for so many years she knew no more Malay than was necessary to get along with the boys, and she only vaguely understood what was said. She gathered from her husband's tone that something had happened to annoy him. He seemed to be asking questions first of the Chink and then of the Dyak; it looked as though they were pressing him to do something he didn't want to do; at length, however, with a frown on his face he raised himself from his chair and followed by the men walked down the steps. Curious to see where he was going she slipped out on to the veranda. He had taken the path that led down to the river. She shrugged her thin shoulders and went to her room. Presently she gave a violent start, for she heard her husband call her.
'Vesta.'
She came out.
'Get a bed ready. There's a white man in a prahu at the landing-stage. He's damned ill.'
'Who is he?'
'How the hell should I know? They're just bringing him up.'
'We can't have anyone to stay here.'
'Shut up and do as I tell you.'
He left her on that and again went down to the river. Mrs Grange called the boy and told him to put sheets on the bed in the spare room. Then she stood at the top of the steps and waited. In a little while she saw her husband coming back and behind him a huddle of Dyaks carrying a man on a mattress. She stood aside to let them pass and caught a glimpse of a white face.
'What shall I do?' she asked her husband.
'Get out and keep quiet.'
'Polite, aren't you?'
The sick man was taken into the room, and in two or three minutes the Dyaks and Grange came out.
'I'm going to see about his kit. I'll have it brought up. His boy's looking after him and there's no cause for you to butt in!'
'What's the matter with him?'
'Malaria. His boatmen are afraid he's going to die and won't take him on. His name's Skelton.'
'He isn't going to die, is he?'
'If he does we'll bury him.'
But Skelton didn't die. He woke next morning to find himself in a room, in bed and under a mosquito-net. He couldn't think where he was. It was a cheap iron bed and the mattress was hard, but to lie on it was a relief after the discomfort of the prahu. He could see nothing of the room but a chest of drawers, roughly made by a native carpenter, and a wooden chair. Opposite was a doorway, with a blind down, and this he guessed led on to a veranda.
'Kong,' he called.
The blind was drawn aside and his boy came in. The Chinaman's face broke into a grin when he saw that his master was free from fever.
'You more better, Tuan. Velly glad.'
'Where the devil am I?'
Kong explained.
'Luggage all right?' asked Skelton.
'Yes, him all light.'
'What's the name of this fellow – the tuan whose house this is?'
'Mr Norman Grange.'
To confirm what he said he showed Skelton a little book in which the owner's name was written. It was Grange. Skelton noticed that the book was Bacon's Essays. It was curious to find it in a planter's house away up a river in Borneo.
'Tell him I'd be glad to see him.'
'Tuan out. Him come presently.'
'What about my having a wash? And by God, I want a shave.'
He tried to get out of bed, but his head swam and with a bewildered cry he sank back. But Kong shaved and washed him, and changed the shorts and singlet in which he had been lying ever since he fell ill for a sarong and a baju. After that he was glad to lie still. But presently Kong came in and said that the tuan of the house was back. There was a knock on the door and a large stoutish man stepped in.
'I hear you're better,' he said.
'Oh, much. It's terribly kind of you to have taken me in like this. It seems awful, planting myself on you.'
Grange answered a trifle harshly.
'That's all right. You were pretty bad, you know. No wonder those Dyaks wanted to get rid of you.'
'I don't want to impose myself on you longer than I need. If I could hire a launch here, or a prahu, I could get off this afternoon.'
'There's no launch to hire. You'd better stay a bit. You must be as weak as a rat.'
'I'm afraid I shall be a frightful bother.'
'I don't see why. You've got your own boy and he'll look after you.'
Grange had just come in from his round of the estate and wore dirty shorts, a khaki shirt open at the neck, and an old, battered terai hat. He looked as shabby as a beachcomber. He took off his hat to wipe his sweating brow; he had close-cropped grey hair; his face was red, a broad, fleshy face, with a large mouth under a stubble of grey moustache, a short, pugnacious nose and small, mean eyes.
'I wonder if you could let me have something to read,' said Skelton.
'What sort of thing?'
'I don't mind so long as it's lightish.'
'I'm not much of a novel reader myself, but I'll send you in two or three books. My wife can provide you with novels. They'll be trash, because that's all she reads. But it may suit you.'
With a nod he withdrew. Not a very likeable man. But he was obviously very poor, the room in which Skelton lay, something in Grange's appearance, indicated that; he was probably manager of an estate on a cut salary, and it was not unlikely that the expense of a guest and his servant was unwelcome. Living i
n that remote spot, and so seeing white men but seldom, it might be that he was ill at ease with strangers. Some people improve unbelievably on acquaintance. But his hard, shifty little eyes were disconcerting; they gave the lie to the red face and the massive frame which otherwise might have persuaded you that this was a jolly sort of fellow with whom you could quickly make friends.
After a while the house boy came in with a parcel of books. There were half a dozen novels by authors he had never heard of, and a glance told him they were slop; these must be Mrs Grange's; and then there was a Boswell's Johnson, Borrow's Lavengro, and Lamb's Essays. It was an odd choice. They were not the books you would have expected to find in a planter's house. In most planters' houses there is not more than a shelf or two of books and for the most part they're detective stories. Skelton had a disinterested curiosity in human creatures, and he amused himself now by trying to make out from the books Norman Grange had sent, from the look of him, and from the few words they had exchanged, what sort of a man he could be. Skelton was a little surprised that his host did not come to see him again that day; it looked as though he were going to content himself with giving his uninvited guest board and lodging, but were not sufficiently interested in him to seek his company. Next morning he felt well enough to get up, and with Kong's help settled himself in a long chair on the veranda. It badly needed a coat of paint. The bungalow stood on the brow of a hill, about fifty yards from the river; and on the opposite bank, looking very small across that great stretch of water, you could see native houses on piles nestling among the greenery. Skelton had not yet the activity of mind to read steadily, and after a page or two, his thoughts wandering, he found himself content to watch idly the sluggish flow of the turbid stream. Suddenly he heard a step. He saw the little elderly woman come towards him, and knowing that this must be Mrs Grange tried to get up.
Collected Short Stories Volume 2 Page 8
