E-text prepared by Al Haines
Transcriber's note:
The name "Lena" appears several times in this book. In the original book, the "e" in "Lena" was e-macron.
THE PATH TO HONOUR
by
SYDNEY C. GRIER
Author of 'The Power of the Keys,' 'A Young Man Married,' Etc., Etc.
William Blackwood and SonsEdinburgh and London1909
* * * * * *
NOVELS by SYDNEY C. GRIER
Modern East Series.
The Advanced Guard His Excellency's English Governess Peace with Honour The Warden of the Marches
Balkan Series.
An Uncrowned King A Crowned Queen The Kings of the East The Prince of Captivity
Indian Historical Series.
In Furthest Ind Like Another Helen The Great Proconsul
Balkan Series. II.
The Heir The Heritage
The Power of the Keys
A Young Man Married
Edited by Sydney C. Grier
The Letters of Warren Hastings to his Wife.
* * * * * *
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I. "IF IT BE A SIN TO COVET HONOUR----" II. HER SIDE OF THE CASE III. THE OLD ORDER AND THE NEW IV. "A-HUNTING WE WILL GO" V. GERRARD FINDS FAVOUR VI. THE CROWNING PROOF VII. ON GUARD VIII. THE SUPERFLUOUS CHARTERIS IX. IN SLIPPERY PLACES X. THE DOOR IS SHUT XI. MURDER MOST FOUL XII. THE ONE WHO WAS TAKEN XIII. THE ONE WHO WAS LEFT XIV. THE IDEAL AND THE REAL XV. MUTTERINGS OF THE STORM XVI. THE MILD CONCERNS OF ORDINARY LIFE XVII. THE ISSUES OF AN AWFUL MOMENT XVIII. THE CAMPAIGN OF VENGEANCE XIX. AS OTHERS SEE US XX. A DAY OF VICTORY XXI. FAINT HEART AND FAIR LADY XXII. THE TRIUMPH OF THE DEAD XXIII. RUN TO EARTH XXIV. HONOUR AND HONOURS
THE PATH TO HONOUR.
CHAPTER I.
"IF IT BE A SIN TO COVET HONOUR----"
The time was towards the close of the 'forties of the nineteenthcentury, and the place the city of Ranjitgarh, capital of the greatnative state of Granthistan, which was not yet a British possession,but well on the way to becoming one. This ultimate destiny wasentirely undesired by the powers that were, who had just appointedColonel Edmund Antony--a fanatical upholder of native rights, accordingto his enemies--as British Resident and protector of the infant princeoccupying the uneasy throne. The task of regenerating Granthi societyfrom the top, much against its will, and welding its discordantelements into a peaceful, prosperous, and contented buffer state (thething was known, though not as yet the name) against encroachingEthiopia on the north, promised to be no easy one, but Colonel Antonywas undertaking it confidently, with the support of two or three of hisbrothers and a picked band of assistants drawn from the army and CivilService. That moral suasion might be duly backed up by physical force,ten thousand British and Indian troops, under the command of aPeninsular veteran, General Sir Arthur Cinnamond, were garrisoning thecitadel of Ranjitgarh and holding the lines of Tej Singh in thesuburbs. The city thus overawed Colonel Antony was wont to call thewickedest place in Asia, in blissful ignorance of the sins not only ofdistant Gamara, but of towns much nearer home. Its streets were filledwith a swaggering disbanded soldiery that had faced the might ofEngland and the Company in four pitched battles during the last decade,shameless women peered from its every lattice, and its defence ofreligion took the form of frequent bloodthirsty "cow rows," but he sawin its wickedness no insuperable bar to the success of his policy. Intwelve years or so the British would retire, leaving a reformed nationto govern itself. Meanwhile, in order to emphasise the transientnature of the occupation, a Mohammedan tomb served as the Englishchurch, and a single house of moderate size was made to accommodate theResident and all his assistants, becoming the scene of as much hardwork and high endeavour as might have sufficed to redeem an empire.
On an inner courtyard of the Residency there looked out a number ofsmall rooms, each of which was shared by two young men, who had muchado to bestow themselves and their possessions in the limited space andthe section of verandah that appertained to it. One room was much likeanother, with its camp-beds and table, and its miscellaneous assortmentof camel-trunks and tin cases piled up at the back or serving as seats;and each verandah was graced by two long chairs, usually to be found insociable proximity, with a view to the better enjoyment of theoccupants' brief periods of leisure. On one particular verandah,however, the chairs were placed as far apart as space would permit, andturned away from each other, so that Lieutenant Robert Charteris andLieutenant Henry Gerrard, of the Bengal Fusiliers and the Company'sEngineers respectively, might each delude himself into the thought thathe was alone in his glory. This arrangement was of the newest, but itwas already causing keen delight in the circles which had known the twoyoung men as inseparable friends. Born no farther apart than theRectory and Hall of a country village, they had learnt together underGerrard's father, the Rector, entered Addiscombe together, and passedout at the same time, Gerrard with an array of medals which secured himone of the coveted commissions in the Engineers, and Charteris,undistinguished save by proficiency in games and universal popularity,slipping contentedly into the Infantry. Appointed to the same station,they had seen a certain amount of active service in company, andcontinuing to gain the good opinion of those in high places, Gerrard asa promising scientific soldier and Charteris as a born leader of men,had both enjoyed the distinction of being selected by Colonel Antony ashis assistants at Ranjitgarh. But here discord stepped between them inthe fair form of Miss Honour Cinnamond, the youngest daughter of theGeneral commanding the Division, and after edifying the station forsome time by their ardent rivalry, Charteris and Gerrard were no longeron speaking terms. The station regarded it as an excellent joke, butto Colonel Antony, who took life seriously, it was a scandal and a sin,to be ended at once and peremptorily. Knowing his man, he had on thisparticular day announced his ultimatum to Gerrard.
"When is this foolishness going to end?" he asked impatiently, afterthe two young men had passed each other in his presence without a signof recognition--"this breach between you and Charteris, I mean?"
"I don't know, sir. Perhaps when we get to our districts----"
"I would advise you not to reckon upon that. I am thinking strongly ofsending Charteris back to his regiment."
"But the disgrace, sir!" Gerrard was thunder-struck. "You saidyourself that he was so well fitted for this work. It suits him too,and no mistake."
Colonel Antony frowned at the slang. "Is it possible that you perceiveany good in him?" he asked coldly.
"Why, sir,"--Gerrard was too much perturbed in mind to attempt toanswer the question,--"he could never go back contentedly to ordinarysubaltern's work after this. He will do something desperate--perhapseven get transferred to the Bombay side, and volunteer for Khemistan."
He spoke with bated breath, for to the Antony brothers and all theircircle the neighbouring province of Khemistan was a region of outerdarkness, ruled by two fallen angels bearing the names of General SirHenry Lennox and Major St George Keeling. It was a point of honour toassist their labours by harrying them with a constant dropping fire ofminutes and remonstrances, with an occasional round-shot in the shapeof interference on the part of the Supreme Government, deftlyengineered from Ranjitgarh. And the pity of it was that the men thusthwarted with the purest possible motives were carrying on a similarwork, and in the same spirit, as their opponents, but--and here camethe line of cleavage--on different methods. Colonel Antony's gravedark face was immovable.
"It is for you to save him if you choose, Gerrard. What! do you thinkthat I will allow the work here--the regeneration of the Granthi
state--to be endangered by petty, miserable squabbles between myassistants? I have seen too much of support withheld at criticalmoments because one man had a grudge against another. Here we are allbrothers. If Charteris intends to keep up this enmity, he must go."
"But if he is to blame, sir, so am I," confessed Gerrard reluctantly.
"I am glad to hear you say so. There can be no difficulty, then, inyour admitting as much to him. I own I had thought that since you weremore likely to be soon in a position to marry, he was probably thetrespasser on your ground. The young lady favours him, then?"
"No, sir, neither of us." Gerrard spoke bitterly, but Colonel Antonybrought his fist down upon the table with a resounding thud.
"What! you stand on the same footing, neither has cause for jealousy ofthe other, and yet this miserable alienation continues? You are indeedto blame, Gerrard. Go and ask your comrade's pardon, appeal to thememories of your youth and his, engage with him to bear this commondisappointment as gentlemen, as Christians! No man living has morecause to be grateful for the blessing of a good wife than I, but Itrust I should have been granted sufficient resolution to live solitaryfor ever had I perceived that my happiness was likely to mean abrother's misery, and imperil the hopes of a nation. You are notcalled even to make such a renunciation, since the matter is taken outof your hands--merely to acquiesce in a decision not your own."
"But if I am to blame, sir, so must Charteris be," protested Gerrard,feeling, as the Resident's associates not infrequently did, thatColonel Antony's standard was too high for this wicked world.
"That is quite possible. He believes that you have injured him?"
"I suppose so, sir."
"And he is conscious that he has injured you?"
"I can't say, sir. How should I know?"
"Then your duty is clear. Whether his conscience is awakened or not isuncertain, but you feel that you have, though unwittingly, done him aninjury. Go and repair it, leaving him to find out his part in thematter for himself."
It was this conversation that Gerrard was uncomfortably turning over inhis mind on the verandah. The natural man in him rebelled, verynaturally, against humbling himself to Charteris, who was at least asmuch to blame as he was, and had made his resentment offensivelyevident. But it was Charteris who would suffer if a reconciliation wasnot effected in some way. The argument was conclusive, as ColonelAntony had foreseen it would be. Gerrard looked round the corner ofhis chair, and rather sheepishly said, "Bob!"
There was no answer from Charteris, but his legs, the only part of himthat was visible, seemed to take on an air of indignant protest.Gerrard tried again. "Bob, look here! I want to tell you something."
This time Charteris sat up, exhibiting an angry countenance and a roughhead. "Don't want to hear it," he growled. "Hang it! can't a man beleft in peace in his own quarters?"
"No, but--I say, Bob," repeated Gerrard, feverishly anxious toanticipate the impending move, "the Colonel has been speaking tome--pitched it uncommon strong, he did. Do wait and hear what I haveto say! Why should we go on making asses of ourselves over a girl whohasn't a civil word for either of us?"
"What?" cried Charteris, pausing on the edge of the verandah. "She'sgiven you a _pucka jawab_[1] too?"
"Last night," said Gerrard laconically. Charteris came a step nearer.
"Will you kindly tell me," he said, addressing creation generally,"exactly what that girl wants? Hal, I could have sworn it was you whenshe refused me."
"And until she refused me, I could have sworn it was you. Pretty clearshe don't want either of us, ain't it? In fact, I may as well tellyou, as she doesn't seem to have done it, that she said she had nointention of marrying at all."
"Fudge!" cried Charteris, quite in the vein of the immortal MrBurchell. "Then she's here on false pretences. What does a spin. comeout for but to get a husband? No, you mark my words, my boy; she'swaiting for a bachelor Governor-General!"
Gerrard opened his lips to protest, but not feeling called upon torepeat the whole of his conversation with Miss Cinnamond, closed themagain. "Anyhow," he said at last, rather awkwardly, "as we're in thesame boat, don't you think we might come to an agreement of some sort,and do people out of a little of the fun they're having over us? 'OurMr James' told the Colonel to-day that we wanted our heads knockingtogether."
"James Antony is a coarse brute, and I should uncommonly like to seehim try it!" said Charteris, with concentrated fury. Then he came andstood over Gerrard, and looked at him curiously. "Were you going tosuggest that we should come to an agreement to give up all thoughts ofher?" he asked with extreme calmness.
"No, not for a moment."
"I'm glad to hear that, because I shouldn't think of doing it. I meanto go on asking her, over and over again, until she accepts me."
"And so do I," cried Gerrard, starting up, stung out of his usualquietness of manner. They glared at each other angrily for a moment,then Charteris laughed rather unsteadily.
"Basis for an agreement is rather wanting, ain't it? I regard you as aperson of ordinary sanity, so I don't imagine you were going to proposeeither that I should nobly resign her in your favour, or you in mine.Then what on earth is there left to do?"
"We have to think of her as well as ourselves," said Gerrard, trying tosteady his voice. "She may not marry at all, as she said"--Charterissnorted--"or she may marry some one else, neither of us. And I am surewe should both rather see her married to some one else, and happy, thanmarry her ourselves and know that she wasn't happy."
The construction of the sentence was involved, but its meaning wasclear. Charteris flung up his head contemptuously. "You're wrongthere," he said. "Speak for yourself. I want to see her married tome, and I'd undertake to make her happy. I shall be an uncommon goodhusband, I can tell you. What are you laughing at, pray?"
"I'm not laughing--at least, not exactly," gasped Gerrard, restraininghimself with difficulty. "Forgive me, old fellow. It was the pictureof you saying to the future Mrs Charteris, 'Be happy, or I'll know thereason why,' that overcame me."
Charteris looked deeply offended, but after a moment joined in thelaugh. "Of course I know I can't put it pretty, as you could," headmitted grudgingly. "But I mean to marry her, and make her happy too."
"And so do I," said Gerrard again. "But it's quite clear she can'tmarry both of us, and mayn't marry either of us, ain't it? Well, whatI say is, let us carry the affair through decently, so that the bestman may win, if either of us wins at all. That appeals to you, doesn'tit?"
"Not a bit," said Charteris promptly. "You are the best man."
"Oh, don't be an ass. What do medals for mathematics matter here? Youare bigger than I am, and heaps better to look at. In fact, my dearBob, I might even say of you that you were the least little bit showy."Gerrard was falling back insensibly into the old chaffing tone, but alook on his friend's face warned him that the time was not yet quiteripe for this, and he went on hastily. "At any rate, each of us hasadvantages on his side, we'll say. Then let us fight fair. Youweren't thinking of proposing again every time you see her? In thatcase, it would soon be _darwaza band_[2] when you called, I'm afraid.Let us agree not to make any move, either of us, for a year--or sixmonths, if you insist upon it," as he read protest in Charteris's eye,"and then draw lots which shall speak first. If she accepts that one,the matter is settled--it's the fortune of war; if not, then the otherhas his turn. If she refuses both, then ditto ditto at the end ofanother six months."
Charteris, leaning against a pillar of the verandah, looked down at himand laughed. "If I didn't know you for a cunning old weasel, I shouldput you down as jolly green, Hal. Suppose she should meanwhileintimate, in the most unimaginably proper and delicate way, apreference for either of us?"
"For the present one or the absent one?" asked Gerrard drily. "Well,in either case, I think the present one ought to let the absent oneknow, before taking any action. But don't look so blue. You forgetthat we shal
l both be in our districts, at a safe distance fromRanjitgarh, for six months at least."
"And in the meantime she may marry some one else."
"Then we shan't have lost our friendship as well as her."
Charteris clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh. "I believe you, myboy! You don't know what a bore it has been this last fortnight,remembering what was between us whenever I wanted to tell you anything.Done with you, then, subject to necessary modifications to be agreedupon from time to time by mutual consent, and to the approval of thelady."
"But you wouldn't tell her?" cried Gerrard, aghast.
"Wouldn't I, just? Why, how is she to keep our joint memory greenagainst the assaults of eligible subcommissioners and fat Commissariatcolonels, unless she has this to remember us by? Hang suffering insilence! Let her know what fine fellows she has got waiting on hernod."
"Well, you can tell her," unwillingly.
"Not I. Be carried away into proposing again, and lose my turn? no,thank you. We will tell her together, my young friend, and keep ajolly keen eye on each other the whole time. And we'll do it at theball. Come, this is something like life!"
"But she may not choose to grant us an opportunity."
Charteris winked in the most vulgar manner. "What'll you take on it?Do you think she don't know she has set you and me by the ears? Ifnot, old Mother Jardine will soon enlighten her. And then--oh, myrevered Hal, can you doubt what her first move will be? To reconcileus, my boy, as if we were two dirty little snivelling urchins in hervillage school at home! Will she make us shake hands? Oh, ain't itglorious!"
He dropped into his chair, helpless with laughter, while Gerrardsurveyed him with distaste. It was some consolation to feel that Bobcould not possibly be properly in love, if he could thus contemplatethe likelihood of the object of his affections making herselfridiculous. But as if he had read his friend's thoughts, Charteris satup suddenly, and spoke with perfect gravity.
"Mind you, Hal, all this don't signify that I forgive you in the leastfor coming between her and me. I'm willing to call a truce becausefalling out is horrid inconvenient, and looks silly. But yourintrusive existence has turned love's young dream into a farce, andthis suggestion of yours can only make things worse. I never bargainedfor being a sort of Siamese twin, but that's how it comes out. Theunfortunate girl will never be able to think of one of us without theother. If she is dwelling affectionately on your modest merit, whatyou call, I believe, my swaggering dare-devilry will force itself intoher mind, and if any of my encounters with tigers or dacoits shouldreach her ears, they will only recall your powers of discussingtheology or reeling off poetry by the yard. Make no mistake. Youintrude, sir; and I resent it."
"And words can't express the depth of my resentment that you shouldhave poked your nose into my affairs," returned Gerrard heartily.
[1] Definite refusal.
[2] Not at home, lit. the door is shut.
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