“And that bears seriously on our position here?”
“It does; for Rustam Khan is the strongest advocate of the English alliance, while Fath-ud-Din, out of pure contrariness, has fanned the hopes of the Scythians. There is a wretched Jew fellow, supposed to have been intrusted by the Scythian and Neustrian Governments with a secret mission, in the town now, but he is kept in the background until the King has made up his mind about you. Whatever Fath-ud-Din can do against you he will, you may depend upon that, and he is all-powerful just now. Rustam Khan finds it advisable to remain at home and pretend to be ill. He would have come to see you before this if he had only had himself to please, but he knows that his visit would be at once represented as part of a plot to dethrone his father and place himself on the throne. Even I have to be careful. Naturally I have spoken in favour of the English alliance, and joined with Rustam Khan in doing all I could to further it, but Fath-ud-Din has begun to smell a rat. He can’t dream that I am an Englishman, but I believe he thinks I have been in British territory and brought dangerous ideas into Ethiopia with me, and he would ruin me if he could. That is why I am bound, while supporting the object of your Mission here, to appear indifferent or even hostile to yourselves personally, and why I dare not be seen coming to your house. There is a horrible Yankee journalist about the place—have you come across him yet?—who tried to draw me, but I put on the very haughtiest oriental airs, and sent him away with a flea in his ear. I dare say he means me no harm personally, but I know he is very thick with Fath-ud-Din, and that is enough for me. He has not got much change out of Jahan Beg.”
“Mr Hicks has already presented himself here,” said Sir Dugald. “What with him, and Fath-ud-Din, and the Neustro-Scythian agent, and your precarious position in the country, Bigg, it would appear to a Western mind that our prospects of success were rather cloudy.”
“I will do what I can to help you,” returned Jahan Beg; “secretly, of course. In public you must expect to find me slightly troublesome in weighing your proposals, and rigid in exacting the full pound of flesh and an ounce or two extra; but such hints as I can give you privately I will. Don’t tell me what your instructions are; I don’t want to know them. I only say, don’t insist on the reception of a permanent British resident with an escort at Kubbet-ul-Haj, for you won’t get it, and you will be playing into the hands of Scythia. The Jew agent has assured the King already that you are sure to make that demand, and that such an arrangement would be the first step towards annexing the kingdom. If you must be represented here, stand out for a Consul-General at Iskandarbagh, the big town you passed just after crossing the frontier, with a native Vakil at the capital. Then don’t demand any territory. The Scythians have damaged their case already by hinting at a rectification of frontier. A reciprocal commercial treaty you are empowered to conclude, I suppose; but you must agree that no foreigner shall enter Ethiopia without the King’s passport. There will be difficulties, too, about the legal status of foreigners——”
“Excuse me, Bigg, but would you not prefer to discuss these things with me in the office? They are a little technical to form an evening entertainment for the ladies. Mr Stratford, perhaps you will kindly accompany us?”
“The ladies must excuse me, remembering that it is a long-desired relief to talk English once more to any one who can understand it properly. You have not presented me to your wife, Haigh.”
Sir Dugald performed the ceremony briefly, and then introduced the guest to Georgia, explaining that she was St George Keeling’s daughter.
“And you are the lady doctor?” said Jahan Beg. “I have one thing to ask of you, Miss Keeling. It is possible that at the Palace you may see my daughter, Nur Jahan, Rustam Khan’s wife. Have pity upon her, and don’t make her discontented with her life. She must stay here all her days, and she is happy with her husband and her baby. You need not describe to her English life and the Christian position of women, and all those other luxuries of civilisation of which you are the culminating product, need you? It could do no possible good, and it certainly would do a great deal of harm, for things of that kind are absolutely unattainable here.”
“I will try not to put new ideas into her head, if they would only make her unhappy,” said Georgia, rather doubtfully; “but surely you have told her about England?”
“I have told her nothing. ‘Where ignorance is bliss’—you know the rest. Although I have married her to a Mohammedan—and roused your indignation by doing so—I did what I could to keep her happy as his wife. She does not know that I am an Englishman, and I have never even taught her English; although for years I used to hold long conversations with myself or with imaginary friends when I was alone, that I might not forget my own language.”