Page:Quartette - Kipling (1885).djvu/108

 My quotation was hardly out of my lips before we had rounded the corner above the Convent; and a few yards further on could see across to Sanjowlie. In the centre of the level road stood the black and white liveries, the yellow-panelled 'rickshaw, and Mrs. Keith-Wessington. I pulled up, looked, rubbed my eyes, and, I believe, must have said something. The next thing I knew was that I was lying face downward on the road, with Kitty kneeling above me in tears. "Has it gone, child?" I gasped; "for God's sake, say it's gone." Kitty only wept more bitterly. "Has what gone? Jack dear, what does it all mean? There must be a mistake somewhere, Jack—a hideous mistake." Her last words brought me to my feet—mad—raving for the time being.

"Yes, there is a mistake somewhere," I repeated; "a hideous mistake. Come and look at It!" I have an indistinct idea that I dragged Kitty by the wrist along the road up to where It stood, and implored her for pity's sake to speak to It; to tell It that we were betrothed; that neither Death nor Hell could break the tie between us, and heaven only knows how much more to the same effect. Now and again I appealed passionately to the Terror in the 'rickshaw to bear witness to all I had said, and to release me from a torture that was killing me. As I talked I suppose I must have told Kitty of my old relations with Mrs. Wessington, for I saw her listen intently with white face and blazing eyes:—"Thank you, Mr. PansyPansay [sic]. That's quite enough. A sober scoundrel for a husband would be had enough, but a drunken one is rather more than I care for. Syce, ghora láo." The syce, impassive as Orientals always are, had come up with the recaptured horses; and as Kitty sprang into her saddle I caught hold of the bridle, entreating her to hear me out and forgive. My answer was the cut of her riding-whip across my face from mouth to eye, and a word or two of farewell that even now I cannot write down. So I judged and judged rightly that Kitty knew all; and I staggered back to the side of the 'rickshaw like the drunken man she believed me to be. My face was cut and bleeding, and the blow of the riding-whip had raised a livid blue wheal on it. Just then, Heatherlegh, who must have been following Kitty and me at a distance, cantered up. "Doctor," I said, pointing to my face, "here's Miss Mannering's signature to my order of dismissal, and I'll thank you for that lakh as soon as convenient." Heatherlegh's face, even in my abject misery, moved me to laughter. "I'll stake my professional