Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/232

 the town, was a road of wonder through an undis- covered country. Kuala Lipis itself-the ordered streets; the brick buildings, in which the Chinese traders had their shops; the lamp-posts; the native policemen standing at the corners of the roads, shameless folk who wore trousers, but no protecting sarong; the huge block of Government offices, for to her this far from imposing pile appealed as a stupendous piece of architecture; the made roads, smooth and metalled; the wonder and the strange- ness of it all dazed and frightened her. What could the white men, who already possessed so many marvellous things, want with her man, the leper, that they should desire to take him from her? And what had she of power or of stratagem to oppose to their night? Her heart sank within her.

She asked for me, since I had bade her come to me if she were in trouble, and presently she made her way along the unfamiliar roads to the big Residency on the river's bank, round which the forest clustered so closely in the beauty which no hand was suffered to deface. She was brought into my study, and seated herself upon the mat-covered floor, awed by the strangeness of her surroundings, and gazing up at me plaintively out of those great eyes of hers. which were wet with tears. Hers was the simple faith of one who has lived all her days in the same place, whither few strangers penetrate, and where every man knows his neighbour and all his neigh- bours' affairs. It never occurred to her that her words might need explanation or preface of any kind,