“Of course he wouldn’t, my dear, bless him! for he’s a good, true man, though he does talk a bit hard sometimes, and every one likes him. See how good he is to all these Malay folk, who have no call upon him at all. Oh dear! it will be a hard time for every one when you do go away. I know I shall about cry my eyes out.”
“But I am not going away, Mrs Smithers,” said Minnie laughingly.
“Not going away, my dear? No, not this week, nor next week, nor next year perhaps. But you needn’t tell me; it would be against Nature for you to stop here always. Such a young lady as you can’t be allowed to do as she likes. All the same, though, my dear, I should be glad to see you go home.”
“You would, Mrs Smithers?”
“Yes, my dear, for I don’t think it’s nice for English womenkind to be out here amongst these betel-chewing, half-black people, going about in their cotton and silk plaid sarongs, as they call them, and every man with one of those nasty ugly krises stuck in his waist. Krises I suppose they call them because they keep them rolled-up in the creases of their Scotch kilt things. I often lie in bed of a night feeling thankful that I have got a good, big, strong husband to take care of me, bad as he is. For my Joe can fight. Yes, I often feel that we womenkind aren’t safe here.”
“Oh, for shame, Mrs Smithers! Who could feel afraid with about three hundred brave British soldiers to take care of them?”
“I could, miss, and do often. It’s all very well to talk, and I know that if these heathens rose up against us our British Grenadiers would close up and close up till the last man dropped. But what’s the good of that when we should be left with no one to take care of us? Oh, my dear! my dear!” said the woman, with a look of horror crossing the big brown face.
“Mrs Smithers, you must have been upset this week, to talk like that.”
“I—I ’ave, my dear; and it’s a shame of me to stand here putting such miserable ideas into your head; but I had a very hard day yesterday, for my Joe had been extra trying, and I couldn’t get a wink of sleep, for after being so angry with him that I could have hit him, I lay crying and thinking what a wicked woman I was for half-wishing that he was dead; for he is my husband, my dear, after all, and— Morning, ma’am—I mean, good-afternoon,” cried the woman respectfully. “I am so sorry to be late this week, and I hope the Doctor’s quite well.”