In Kali's Country: Tales from Sunny India

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haze which enveloped his brain, he let his eyes rove over the room as far as he could without physical effort. There in the corner was his desk. There, hanging above it, was the picture of the Taj which he had bought when Parsons had paid him a flying visit from England and they had gone to Agra together. Just to the right, out of the edge of his eye, he could see the foot of his steamer chair and, extending f

ing what she looked like-that she was tall and fair-when the wom

pulse, please," and pulling the omnipresent mosquito netting aside, she laid a cool h

d do your bidding. You'll be all right. I must go. Take one teaspoonful of this every hour," and she lifted a tumbler from the table. "At seven o'clock take half of this in the cup here," and she brought a flowered teacup int

t your boy in but you will have to ma

nly a boy in Anglo-Indian nomenclature, for he was a tiny native man about forty yea

e sharply as he lagged behind. "Aren't you ashamed to have left your master when he was sick! Now

ay. "There! You see it didn't hurt you. You haven't caught the cholera. Now, do as you

n India, had taken every risk, and had considered himself immune! That explained his extreme weakness, his befuddled brain, and the unus

very fine-featured and intelligent. And she was an American. He knew that last fact from her speech and from her appearance, too, for although Caldwell never had looked at ladies in his life, especially American ladies, except when politeness

up in spite of his weakness. There was only one other European in Baihar besides hims

g Englishman could command after a fit of c

her. She's a doctor

bering the words of the woman to the boy and making his tone as

w, ignoring in his reply his later entire disappearance while the doctor-m

en either by chastisement or preaching to teach the beauty of courage and

of time to think and, for the first time in his bachelor life, his thoughts centred ab

oul. So for several days with the punkah swinging over him the convalescent lay stretched out upon his steamer chair, the very picture of comfort and pleasant dreams. To have one's life saved by a woman and a good-looking one, too, touches even a crusty

h as so many government officials live through in parts of India, as in duty bound. Baihar, a city of about ten thousand inhabitants, is a purely religious city, where no business is transacted but religious business and where no pleasures are indulged in but those of religion; those of the Hindu religion being so vile that "Baihar" is almost another name f

oted to temple worship and the lusts of the priests. To say that Caldwell-Sahib had been horrified at the thought of a lone woman in that place would have put it too strongly, for he was simply disgusted. He said that she must be mad, certainly far beyond the realm of sense, let alone common sense, to have undertaken such

d in her foolish work, he would have died. Therefore, he was full of regret for his former unkind thoughts and he was, moreover, exceedingly grateful, for

ed bazaars where vile Hindu priests, dirty shopkeepers, men red-faced with smallpox, or hideous lepers must again and again have jostled rudely against her. He saw her, unattended, with difficulty passing the frenzied religious processions which accompany the silver car of the great god as it makes its sacred rounds, or

t swear, for she is a missionary, but by-by-by

nto confusion. His complex nature would no longer run according to his will. Staid, cold, hard, matter-of-fact Englishman though he was, his imagination played fantastic tricks with him and so through all these days while his body was regaining its lost strength, h

nt of the wall nearest to what he thought her window and watching the people who came and went from her compound; but never on these occasions did he catch a glimpse of her. As a courageous and polite Englishman, he should have gone in and thanked the good American lady for having saved his life, but he had grown to feel that there was only one way in which he wanted to thank her and he had not yet reached the height of courage where he could tell her ho

ine to take, but since she said 'Take it!' I will;" and even the blind man said as he passed, a strange light in his face, "She says to come to-morrow and she will c

e watched them he felt that he ought to go in and tell her of his love and take her away from such a dreadful life at once. Possibly she was wonder

s, as Caldwell-Sahib was standing in the narrow bazaar with, for a wonder, very few people

now brought to him an overwhelming consciousness that his bachelor dreams were at an end, that his hour had come, the happiest of a man's life; for when a man sees for the first time the li

d as she talked with the girl, the slender, strong hands which had ministered to him and saved his life.

rning. Strange how his

lance

upon him, slightly bowing a gre

tor-Sahib whose life you saved when he had the cholera," for apparently the girl was ast

he lady's reply, as she and t

expression on his face when he saw me in his house the morning he regained consciousness that I

east thirty dirty, but well-remembered and beloved native patients were waiting

shman sti