“Not exactly his story, but what he said to me. It made me wonder whether I had done right in coming here. Perhaps you don’t know that when I agreed to come it was expressly stipulated that I was to make no attempt to introduce Christianity into the King’s household?”
“That seems a very obvious and necessary precaution,” said Dick, delighted to find Georgia talking to him so frankly. “You could do no good, as Jahan Beg said; but you might do a great deal of harm, both to the poor women and to the Mission.”
“But it almost seems to me that I was wrong in reasoning in that way. It is like hiding one’s colours—nearly as bad as doing evil that good may come.”
“Not doing evil, surely, Miss Keeling? As a medical missionary, half your work is concerned with the bodies of your patients. You can do that half still, and you are not forbidden to answer questions if the ladies ask them.”
“But I know they won’t ask me questions of that kind. My Khemistan experiences have shown me that they will only talk about the merest trivialities, or else ask me for poisons.”
“Then it can’t be your fault. At any rate, you will make friends with the ladies, and perhaps the memory of your visit may prepare the way for a regular missionary when the country is opened up later on,” suggested Dick, the fluency of his reasoning astonishing himself.
“I am afraid I looked upon Kubbet-ul-Haj too much as a stepping-stone to Khemistan. I thought perhaps the Government might allow me to settle on the frontier and practise there if I accomplished this business successfully.”
“Well, do you know, I think that was rather a good idea, Miss Keeling. You might even itinerate into Ethiopia if the King was well-disposed towards you, and there could be no mistake as to your status then. But you are not thinking of refusing to treat the poor Queen now that you are here, and leaving her to go on suffering until a lady doctor with a more elastic conscience can be sent out?”
“No, of course not; it would be cruel as well as absurd. Besides, it would be breaking my word. But don’t you ever feel puzzled about your duty, Major North, or afraid that in some particular case you may have acted wrongly?”
“I don’t think so,” returned Dick, meditatively. “Not that I am a very good judge, for things have always been pretty clear for me. I have been under orders a good deal, you know, and then my only business was to obey, and when you are thrown on your own responsibility, you only try to do your duty, and act on the square. You know your father’s motto, Miss Keeling? Two or three of his Khemistan men have told me that he gave it to them when they began to work under him. This was the way it usually went: ‘You are here for the honour of your country and the good of the natives,’ he would say when they joined. ‘Never desert a friend, never disown an agent, never deceive an enemy. You will go on duty to-morrow, and may God bless you.’ I wish I had known him. It is a distinction to have served under such a man.”