"Take him away," he said to the Bearer. "You have told your story very well, Absalom."
He looked across at Coryndon when the room was empty, but Coryndon was fiddling with some crumbs at the edge of the table.
"Madness is the real explanation, I suppose," he said tentatively. "Madness and obsession."
"Obsession," echoed Coryndon. "That word explains almost every inexplicable act in life." He took up a knife and held it level on his palm. "There you have the normal condition, but once one end swings up you get Genius and all the Arts, or madness and crime and the obsession of one idea: one definite, over-mastering idea that drives every force harnessed to its car."
He got up and stretched his arms, and walked out through the veranda into his room, where Shiraz was folding his clothes and laying them in an open portmanteau. The old servant stood up and made a low salaam to his master.
"When the sun is down the wise traveller hurries to the Serai," Coryndon said to him. "I leave to-night for Madras, Shiraz, and you with me."
"The end of all things is just, Huzoor," replied the old man, a strange light of reflection in his dim pebble-like eyes. "Is it not written that none may rise so high, or plunge so deep, that he does not follow the hidden path to the hidden end? For like a wind that goes and returns never, or the shadow of a cloud passing over the desert, is the destiny of a man."
GLOSSARY
| Almirah | A press | |
| Babu | A clerk | |
| Butti | Lamp | |
| Charpoy | Bed | |
| Chota haziri | (Little breakfast) Early morning tea | |
| Dhobie | Washerman | |
| Durwan | Watchman | |
| Ghee | Butter | |
| Gharry | Cab | |
| Gaudama | Buddha | |
| Htee | Topmost pinnacle | |
| Hypongyi | Priests | |
| Inshallah, Huzoor | God give you fortune, Prince | |
| Joss | A god | |
| Khitmutghar | Footman | |
| Loongyi | Petticoat | |
| Napi | Rotten fish | |
| Nats | Tree spirits | |
| Pani walla | Water carrier | |
| Pwé | Feast | |
| Serai | Rest house | |
| Sirkar | Government | |
| Syce | Groom | |
| Tamasha | A show | |
| Thakin | Master | |
| Topi | Hat |