CHAPTER V
POPPIES
ON the night after the reconciliation with her husband, the night also after her search for a slave in the palace, the Lady Ahalya went to bed in a temper, without having roused Neila, her maid. During the night, while she slept, some subtle change surely worked upon the brain and heart of the Ranee; for she herself, and Neila too, knew afterward that this night was, with her, the beginning and the end of all things. For the next three or four days Neila’s life was made miserable; but Ahalya did not attempt to account even to herself for the freaks, moods, and whims which changed with such rapidity that, before human power could gratify one, the next had made the work all to do over again. Not for an entire week did the long-suffering attendant get an inkling of what was really the trouble; and then she went into a state of consternation that Ahalya made no attempt to lessen. For the Ranee’s secret mind was running continually now, perhaps without her own volition, on the most dangerous of topics:—how she might see the Asra again. This was not a matter so absolutely impossible as Fidá deemed it. Life in the Indian zenanas was not quite that of the harems of Arabia; though, as Ragunáth knew, this one was certainly well guarded. By degrees, however, Ahalya approached her end. How it came about, who could say? But Neila found herself presently acting in the character of a spy. This eunuch and that she questioned; now and then she ventured into the great courtyard or, more warily, into the palace itself: observing, listening, asking a question of one slave or another, till Fidá’s daily habits had become familiar to her. Then, after so much patience, opportunity arrived. One afternoon at the very end of the month, after the Rajah had partaken of his afternoon meal and gone to rest, Neila herself saw the slave Fidá set out alone into the fields, along the old temple road. This incident being duly reported to her mistress, Ahalya’s face lighted like a child’s.
“I, too, am going to walk on the temple road! Yes, yes, Neila, I am going! Seek not to detain me. I am going to gather the late poppies in the temple field to make a rouge for my face. Come, prepare me!”
The unhappy Neila protested violently, all her courage failing. Gradually she had been drawn into Ahalya’s madness; but now, brought face to face with possible consequences, she rebelled. There was a scene between her and her mistress such as had never been known before. But while Neila wept on the border of hysterics, Ahalya, the power of her great malady holding her above such things, remained dry-eyed, firm, commanding. What wonder that Neila in the end submitted? Nevertheless, one thing the maid insisted on. She and Kasya must follow their lady, as indeed many times before they had followed her unconventional rambles; or Ahalya should leave the zenana only over her, Neila’s, body.
Twenty minutes later the three set out along the temple road, Neila bearing with her certain fiercely given instructions that had caused her heart to grow leaden in her breast. Kasya, as they proceeded, wondered more and more about the relations between his mistress and her maiden; for Ahalya was walking with a rapidity that sent the blood into her cheeks and her heart pounding; while the traces of tears on the other’s face were fresh enough to denote some unusual incident before the expedition. A little more and his suspicions, ever ready because ever needed, would have been aroused. But, at this juncture, Fate, more powerful even than Love, stepped in and took command of the day. The three had not proceeded half a mile from the palace when there came running to them a little slave-boy, who, halting beside Kasya, spoke a few rapid words in his ear that turned the eunuch’s mind from all thought of the Lady Ahalya and her walk. The Ranee Malati, it seemed, had called for her son to be brought to her; and the young Bhavani, the most important person in Mandu after the Rajah, was not to be found. For a moment or two Kasya hesitated. He had no choice but to go.
“I beseech the pardon of the Lady Ahalya. I must return to the zenana.”
Ahalya’s face brightened. “Go then,” said she.
“I will send after thee another of the eunuchs.”
“It is not necessary.”
“Lady—thy lord would be angry. I dare not—”