CHAPTER III
"Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain!"--_Schiller_.
"Let me see," he said slowly. "You have been in India I believe. Iwonder if you know anything about it!"
"I lived _ten_ years in the Punjab." This information was given withthe intense self-satisfaction peculiar to the feminine Anglo-Indian."With my husband," was added after a rather damping silence, "who wasknighted for certain--er--work he did in the Indian Civil Service."
"That doesn't mean that you know anything about the country, Mam.Leonie has been with you almost seven years, please correct me if Imake any mistake. She is seven this month you say. She was fourmonths old when she came over from India. Did her ayah come with her,by the way? No! Had she been good to the baby--yes! yes! I know, theyalways are, but these dreams indicate that the child has been badlyfrightened some time or another!"
"But she _couldn't_ be frightened at four months," vacantly interruptedSusan Hetth, who could not see the trend of the conversation, or theneed of the detailed interrogation. "She would be _far_ too young!"
"Too _young_!" snapped Sir Jonathan. "Rubbish! Do you know why youare afraid to-day of falling from a height?"
"No," replied Susan Hetth, cordially loathing the man, his methods, andhis manners.
"Because," he answered roughly, "you were frightened of falling fromyour mother's or your nurse's arms when you were a few months old, andthe impression of height and fear made upon your baby mind is stillwith you, _that's_ why!"
"The brute!" she thought, as she smiled the propitiatory smile of onewho is afraid and murmured, "How very interesting!"
"Is there anything else you can tell me about your little niece? nomatter how trivial a detail! Has she ever screamed for hours as shescreamed this morning? Does she get angry? I mean mad angry!"
"No!" replied the aunt. "From what her nurse and daily governess tellme she seems to be _remarkably_ sweet-tempered. You see I don't--Ihaven't--I don't see much of her. I'm--I've--you see I have _so_ manyfriends over here!"
The man snorted.
"I must say," she continued, "I have _never_ met a child so averse frombeing kissed or being made a fuss of--she _hates_ anyone to touch her,even--even _me_, her _mother_, as you might say; but they say she istractable, and has never been known to lose her temper, or slap, orscratch, as some children do--no! there is _really_ nothing to tellabout her--of course she walks a bit in her sleep, at least so herNannie says!"
The specialist's hand crashed on the table. "Good God, woman!" heflung at her, "what in heaven's name _are_ you modern women made of?How long has she been walking in her sleep? Tell me all you know _atonce_--and remember it's your niece's _brain_ and her future you aretalking about, so try and describe this sleep-walking with as muchinterest and regard to detail as you would if you were talking about anew dress. Why in heaven's name didn't you send her with thenurse--the _servant_--instead of coming yourself--I might have learntsomething about the child _then_!"
It seemed that Leonie while still quite a baby had walked about thenight nursery in her sleep; that she had been found in the day nurseryand on the lower landing, but had always gone back to bed withoutwaking; that she muttered a lot of rubbish which the nurse could notunderstand, and was always very tired next day. That now that she wasolder she slept in a room by herself as she became unaccountablyrestless and wide awake if anyone slept in the room with her. No! thenurse had never noticed the hour or the date, or anything, and that wasreally all, and "couldn't you give the child a dose of bromide."
Which sentence served to finish the history and to bring Sir Jonathanwith a bound from his chair.
"Bromide," he snarled, "_bromide_! Now, Lady Hetth, listen to me.There is something more than nerves and a highly strung temperament inthis. Next week I want Nannie, not _you_, to bring the child here on avisit. I know India and her religions as far as any Englishman daresay he knows anything about that unfathomable country--yes! Mam!religions--Hinduism--Brahminism--Buddhism--why, I've passed the bestpart of my life trying to unravel certain physical and psychicalthreads knotted up in India; but the years are slipping by, and time isgetting shorter and shorter, and but a tithe done out of all there isto do; but thanks be, my boy has inherited my love for this work, andwill carry on here when I have crossed the threshold and found thesolutions to my problems on the other side. Though I'm sure I don'tknow why I'm telling _you_ all this," he finished brusquely, "we willreturn to India."
"Yes! India is very, very interesting!" piped Lady Hetth, rising andstanding on one foot so as to rest the other suffering from anoversmall shoe.
"Very, _very_ interesting!" she continued unctuously and with theenthusiasm she reserved as a rule for the S.P.C.K.I, which lettersstand for an attempt to graft a new creed on to the tree of religion inIndia which was bearing _fruit_ at a period when we were hobnobbing incaves, with a boulder or good stout club as reasons for existence.
"I'll write and tell you when to send the child and her nurse, andbetween us we'll manage to keep her amused. And in the meantime stopall lessons and let her do exactly as she likes, and feed her up, Mam,feed her up, her bones are simply coming through her skin."
Again he laughed a great rumbling laugh, as lifting the child from theground he felt the little hands in his mane of white hair.
"You're nice," she decided, "vewy nice."
"Like to come and stay with me?"
"Oh, yes! if you won't--won't make me----!"
She stopped short.
"Well! what--won't make you what?"
"Nothing--Auntie pulled my dwess!"
The door closed softly.
Leonie of the Jungle Page 3
