One long, lingering look and I departed, never to see again this woman I had so fondly, so hopelessly loved.
You now know the exact nature of the covenant I have felt constrained to violate.I have told you her story in her own words.I wrote it out immediately after my interview with her and have read it so many times, during the last twenty years, that I have committed it to memory.The recollection of that last meeting, of her kiss and her grateful look has been throughout all these long, weary years the one verdant spot in the desert of my life.
[Moro Scindia paused here, as one who had reached the end of his narrative, and I continued my interrogations.]
Q.Although you never again saw your cousin you must, I think, have heard something of her fate.
A I learned of it through Nana Kandia, the servant who had secretly embraced Lona's cause, and who had borne her message to me.It seems that, after my interview with her, my cousin was seized with a consuming desire to see her English lover once more before her death; so she devised a plan by which, with Kandia's help, Darrow Sahib was to be secretly conducted to her under cover of night.She wrote a letter asking him, as a last request, to meet her messenger on Malabar Hill, and instructing him how to make himself known.
This she gave to Kandia to post early in the morning of the day upon which their plan was to be put into execution.As he was about leaving the house Ragobah called him into his chamber and demanded to know what was taking him forth so early in the morning.Kandia saw at once that the purpose of his errand had been discovered, and determined to meet the issue bravely."I was going to post a letter, Sahib," he replied quietly."Let me see it!" Ragobah roared."Ihave no right to do so," Kandia replied, springing toward the door.
But be was not quick enough for the wary Ragobah, who felled him to the floor with a chair before he had reached the threshold.When he returned to consciousness he found his assailant, who had skilfully opened the letter, standing over him perusing it in malicious glee.When he had finished reading he carefully resealed it and placed it in his pocket.Then he called two of his servants and gave Kandia into their charge with orders to gag him, to bind him hand and foot, and, as they valued their lives, not to permit him to leave the room till he ordered it.
What occurred between that time and the return of Ragobah, wounded and furious, late in the evening, we can only surmise.He doubtless posted the letter, and went himself to meet Darrow Sahib on Malabar Hill.When he returned home he hobbled into his wife's apartment and then ordered Kandia to be sent to him.His left leg was badly crushed and his face, contorted with pain and fiendish malevolence, was horrible to look upon.
"Our trusty friend here," he said, addressing his wife and pointing to Kandia, "could not conveniently post your letter this morning, my dear, so I did it myself." Lona's face turned ashen pale, but she made no reply.
"I thought," he continued in his sweetest accents and with the same demoniac sarca**, "that you would be anxious to know if the Sahib received it, - our mail service is so lax of late, - so I went tonight to Malabar Hill to see, for I felt certain he would come if he got your note, and, sure enough, he was there even ahead of time.I was obliged to forego the pleasure of bringing him to you on account of two most unfortunate accidents.As you see I hurt my foot, and poor Darrow Sahib slipped and fell headlong into the well in the little cave.As it has no bottom I could not, of course, get the Sahib out, and so was obliged to return, as best I could, alone." As he finished this heartless lie, every word of which he knew was a poisoned dart, Lona fell fainting upon the floor.Kandia raised her gently, expecting to find her dead, but was able at length to revive her.The first words she said were directed to Ragobah in a voice devoid of passion or reproach, - of everything in fact save an unutterable weariness.
"I am ill," she said; "will you permit Nana to get me some medicine which has helped me in similar attacks?" Ragobah's reply was directed to Kandia.
"You may do as the Sahibah bids you," was all he said.
Kandia turned to Lona for instructions and she said to him, "Get me half an ounce of - stay, there are several ingredients - I had better write them down." She wrote upon a little slip of paper, naming aloud the ingredients and quantities as she did so, and then asked Kandia to move her chair to an open window before he left.When he had done so, she passed him the note, saying, "Please get it as quickly as possible." As he took the paper she seized his hand for a moment and pressed it firmly.He noticed this at the time, but its significance did not dawn upon him until he had nearly reached his destination, when, all at once, he realised with a pang that the momentary pressure of the hand and the mute gratitude which shone from the eyes were meant as a farewell.His first impulse was to hurriedly retrace his steps, but before he had acted upon it, the thought occurred to him that she intended to poison herself with the drugs he was about to procure.If this were the case, there was no great need of hurry.Then he began to recall to mind the names of the drugs she had mentioned as she wrote and to reflect that not one of them was poisonous.With this new light all his former uneasiness returned.He strove to reassure himself with the thought that she might, in order to mislead Ragobah, have spoken the name of a harmless drug while she wrote down that of a poisonous one.
It was easy to settle this question, and he determined to do so at the next light.He unfolded the paper, expecting to see a prescription, but read instead these words:
"To MORO SCINDIA;
