How to Manage it: a novel

Chapter I

' How many can we call upon to-day?' ' Oh, we shall polish off all the ladies — the bachelors of course you needn't trouble your self about. Oh, I nearly forgot my card case — come along, all right noAv.' So saying, the speaker led the way to the door, where a first-rate ' turn-out,' consisting of an elegant Calcutta-built buggy and a fine chestnut Arab horse, with silver-mounted harness and everything complete, was waiting to take its owner and his friend a round of visits. Arthur Graham had, at the time I introduce him to my readers, been about three years in the service of the East India Com pany. His father, an Anglo-Indian of the old school, Avho had spent forty-five years in the VOL. I. B same honourable service, had returned to England Avith his colonel's full pay and off reckonings, to Avait till fortune or a proper valuation of his services should get him a divisional command.

He was one of those specimens, occasionally to be met with at Chel tenham and other watering-places, of veteran warriors, victims of the insalubrity of the Indian climate, who, after rising to the highest grades in the army, return to their native land, with grey hairs, plenty of money, and sound health, to enjoy the remaining portion of their liA*es, and weary out their juniors who wait in vain for the line-step. Having procured a cadetship for his second son, Ar thur Claverhouse, he gaA*e him an outfit and a hundred pounds, and shipped him off to Calcutta to seek his fortunes in the gorge ous East. In due course of time the young aspirant after military honours awoke one morning to find himself at the mouth of the Hooghly. They were a merry party, the passengers on board the good ship Plantage net, and had spent three months and a half pleasantly enough, with the usual routine of bickering, flirting, and real love-making to which the decks and saloons of East India men seem especially devoted.

And when the time for parting came, there were the customary tears shed, and farewell words spoken, and the passengers, accompanied by their friends and boxes, descended into 'budgerows' and ' dingies,' and made for shore. Arthur Graham landed, as many, alas! do not, with a heart all his oavii, untouched by the charms of beauty. A friendship had, hoAvever, sprung up between him and one of his fellow-pas sengers, Burleigh, a young civilian, bent on the same errand as himself of seeking a live lihood, though in a different and more pro fitable line — a friendship which Avas destined to stand the test of time much better than salt-water engagements of a similar kind generally do ; and when Graham was at Is lamabad with his regiment, the 75th Native Infantrv, in which at the time I write he had gained his lieutenancy, and saw his friend's name in the Calcutta Gazette as posted to the same place in the capacity of assistant ma gistrate, he Avas delighted.

There was a degree of similarity in the character of the two young men sufficient to form a foundation for the close intimacy that had sprung up between them ; but at a certain point this similarity ceased. Nature had made them both in the same mould, but edu cation parted them. Frank Burleigh was se\*eral years senior to Graham, and had the B advantage of spending two years at Oxford before he Avent to Haileybury : and as far as acquisition of knowledge is concerned, he had made a good use of his time. Gifted by nature, energetic and painstaking, and decidedly a man of genius, Burleigh's mind had early been taught to take nothing for granted, and to believe nothing till proved. As a child he had been called ' enquiring,' as a boy ' precise and argumentative,' and as a man he was a sceptic.

At Oxford he had fallen into the style of reasoning adopted by the metaphysical school, and carrying his ideas of German philosophy to Haileybury with him, he had laboured to inoculate the less acute minds of the students there AA'ith his favourite notions. The opposition he met with from men of superior talent to himself, had the effect of increasins* rather than counteracting o O his tendency to scepticism, and he parted from the college tutors after going through the usual course of education under them Avith credit and distinction, leaving on their minds the impression that their pupil would turn out a useful servant of government, but a dangerous member of society. Like Burleigh, Arthur Graham Avas by na ture bold, open-hearted, and honest : he had, however, been brought up by religious parents, and the lessons instilled into his heart in early childhood had remained uneffaced by his inter course with the Avorld in miniature as one meets Avith it in a public school.

His manners Avere blunt and unpolished, and in his anxiety to speak the truth he sometimes overlooked the fact that there are truths AA'hich need not ahvays be spoken : aware of a certain tendency to unsociability in his disposition, he did his best to counteract it by courting popularity among his companions, but it Avas only where he was thoroughly knoAvn that he Avas really liked. Those Avho knew him slightly thought him reserved and censorious, and seldom cared to cultivate his acquaintance; but in his own regiment there was no officer so popular. He Avas a keen sportsman, a first-rate rider, and not a bad hand Avith a cue ; and in all games and amusements he Avas the first to start and the last to give in. Attenti\*e to his Avork, he soon mastered the details of military duty. Born in India, though educated in England, to Avhich country he Avas taken Avhen six years old, he soon acquired a perfect colloquial knoAV ledge ofthe language, and as most ofthe native officers and many of the oldest non-commissioned officers in the regiment had served under his father, and recollected Graham him self as a child, and not a feAv had played Avith him, and even dandled him in their arms, he was as great a favourite in the ranks as among the officers : it Avas generally said in the corps, that the men Avould do anything for Graham, and go anywhere w*ith him ; and so, to do them justice, they would — at one time.

Of his family I need say but little further than that misfortune had cast a shade over the path of life that Colonel Graham once thought he would tread in sunshine to the graA^e. His wife, whom he had loA'ed tenderly, met a violent death in Affghanistan — at the time when crooked policy and ill-starred ambition had led English ladies, under the guardianship of British troops, to settle down in quiet con fidence in the capital of a fanatical Mahometan kingdom in Central Asia. In plainer Avords, she perished in the Cabul massacre; and if neither Eyre nor Kaye, nor any of the histo rians of the war, have described that lady's melancholy fate, it is no fault of mine. After the revelations once made of the mutilation of the Affghan despatches, who dares to deny anything that anybody chooses to assert did take place at Cabul?

But in truth it has no thing to do Avith my story, and so I may pass on without discussing the question further; and if any critic chooses to assert that Mrs. Graham did not perish at Cabul, it can make no possible difference to anybody if I choose to assert she did. Sad as was this blow to the colonel's feelings, it was scarcely so great as one he was smarting under at the time, and Avhich cast a shade of sadness over his Avhole life ; and that was the ill-conduct of his eldest son, several years older than Arthur. He Avas a favourite child of nature, ingenious, clever, active alike in mind and body, and seemed destined to ex cel in any Avalk in life. But he was reckless, wild, selfish, and unprincipled. For years he gave his father, and all who had the care of his education, the greatest possible amount of anxiety and trouble, and ended in absconding from his home one day after his father had been speaking seriously to him about his way of life, and endeavouring by persuasions and entreaty to Avin his unruly child back to the paths of virtue.

From that time none of his friends ever heard of him, and it Avas supposed he had ended his days in some drunken broil, or enlisted as a private soldier and gone abroad. This brief account having been given of two of the characters that appear prominently in the following narrative, let us folloAv them in their projected round of visits upon the residents at Islamabad. 'Who are Ave to call upon?' asked Burleigh of his friend as soon as they passed through the garden gate : ' tell me as Ave go along.' ' First and foremost there are the Stevenses ; but I shall not take you there first.' ' Why not ? ' ' Because if we go there first we shall stay all the morning — we'll go to the Smiths' first.' ' Which way ? ' ' Turn to the right — there, the second house on the left-hand side of the road is theirs.' ' Who are these people ? ' ' Smith belongs to my regiment, a captain — here Ave are.' They pulled up at the door of a neat little bungaloAV, surrounded by a neat little burnt-up garden : a child of five years old was playing in the verandah Avith a very sulky -looking bearer; an orderly sepoy, of the 75th Narive Infantry, Avas lounging about before the door way.

To the question, if the lady Avas at home, the sulky bearer vouchsafed no reply, but, taking tAvo cards from Graham's hand, went inside to see : after the lapse of a feAv minutes he returned and said, the ' mem sahib ' was not at home. The Avhite lie of ' not at home,' Avhen the individual of whom it is spoken is in the next room, perhaps looking through the window at the visitor who is subjected to this gratuitous deception, has unhappily been imported along with many other customs of polite life in the West which we should have done Avell to have left in the other hemisphere. A Avhite lie it is generally called in England, Avhich means, I suppose, a lie that does not deceive, or a lie that may be blamelessly told (in either case the explanation is an anomaly). Certainly not one in a thousand, Avhen told by a servant in England that his or her mistress is ' not at home,' goes aAvay with the impression that the lady in question is on that account necessarily out ; everybody knoAvs that it means nothing more than ' that for some reason or other it is inconvenient to admit you,' and in this sense the expression may be excused as a conven tionality : but in India this is scarcely the case.

Very possibly neither party may be deceived, but the native servant who conveys the mes sage cannot understand so well as Ave do the nature of a so-called conventionalism, and in his ideas he is the bearer of a direct falsehood from one Avhite face to another. The habit is the more to be regretted as there is no necessity in this country for adopting it, the expression 'the door is shut,' (or 'darAvaza band,') being quite as polite and as much to the purpose as ' not at home,' and has this advantage, that it is giving utterance to a direct truth instead of a direct falsehood. ' Thank goodness for that,' said Graham in an under-tone — 'drive on, Frank. Slowfellow Smith. Mrs. S. decidedly vulgar; she sleeps all day or muddles about the house in a dressing-gown, leaving that pretty little child to the tender mercies of that tame ourang-outang to teach him all kinds of mischief, and give him a chance of getting fever in the hot wind.

Keep along the road : Mrs. Murray lives down at this end ofthe station. Murray is a good fellow,' (Graham went rattling on, as his friend had nothing to do but to listen while he looked after his horse, which Avas a spirited animal, and required a tight hand,) 'he's only lately married. Mrs. Murray is a nice person, or Avould be, if she could extend her ideas beyond her George and baby; but she can't.' ' And the husband?' ' Oh, Murray, he has two prominent ideas, and they are Eliza and the baby ; but he's a good Irregular Cavalry officer, at least so every one says, and as thoroughly goodnatured a felloAv as ever breathed, noisy though. — Here we are — take care how you turn; don't, for goodness' sake, drive against the shrubs.' A winding gravel road, flanked by grass plots interspersed with floAvering shrubs, led up to the verandah of a large bungalow. ' Holloa, Graham ! glad to see you,' said, or rather roared, (he never spoke under a roar,) Captain Murray, emerging through an open glass door on to the verandah, as Burleigh pulled up. ' Come in ; baby 's awake, and Mrs. Murray much better to-day.

Introduce me.' ' Burleigh of the civil service, an old ship mate of mine — Captain Murray.' The trio Avalked inside. Mrs. Murray's elegant figure was reclining gracefully in an easy chair, while her fingers were occupied with some fancy work, such as is usually seen in the hands of ladies who have a young baby to make pretty caps for. A work basket stood on the table; an open book turned doAvn flat on its face, and a second easy chair in close proximity to the table, and opposite Mrs. Murray, plainly showed the domestic duties the husband had been engaged in, viz., reading aloud while his Avife was work ing. A little distance off Avas a group of three natives, two ayahs and one bearer, engaged in taking care of a little child apparently about three months old. The room was comfortably, even handsomely furnished, for Captain Murray was commanding a regi- HOAV TO MANAGE IT. ment of irregular cavalry, the 19th, the right Aving of which was stationed at Islamabad.

A desultory conversation was kept up for a few minutes, about the weather, and com parisons were hazarded between the heat this year and last, and the prospect of a favourable season to come, when the harmony ofthe party and the interest of the conversation were suddenly interrupted by the child's bursting into a loud fit of crying ; and so great was the per turbation of both mamma and papa at the occurrence of this untoward event, that Bur lei oh and Graham deemed it best to take them selves off. They Avere proceeding steadily down the road after leaving Captain Murray's house, Avhen their attention Avas attracted by the sound of ' tomtoming ' or beating of native drums, shouting, chattering, singing, and other indications of the approach of a natiA'e proces sion : immediately afterwards a large crowd of natiA*es gaudily and fantastically dressed, some mounted on camels, some on horses, and one more conspicuous than the rest, on an elephant with shoAvy trappings, appeared from a turn in the road advancing with little order or resu larity.

Burleigh's horse, Jimmy, as it was called, exhibited manifest signs of displeasure and consternation, which increased as they approached the disorderly rabble in front of them. ' Jimmy will never stand all this, if these felloAvs don't keep quiet or get out of the Avay,' said Burleigh, getting a little anxious. 'I wonder this sort of thing is alloAved in canton ments.' There was a deep ditch on either side of the road, which was, however, broad enough to allow a carriage or buggy to pass any ordinary impediment Avith ease and safety to all parties. ' I never saAv such a thing before,' replied Graham, making at the same time signs to the natives to get out of the way. The horse became momentarily more restive, swerving first to one side, then the other. ' Keep his head straight.' ' I can't,' said Burleigh. ' Keep quiet, you brutes ! ' shouted Graham, in Hindustani.

It was too late : AA'ith a bound and a scream, Jimmy, Avith the bit between his teeth, dashed off to one side of the road, in spite of the driver's efforts to restrain him. The groom, who Avas running behind, let go his hold, and made a frantic and unsuccessful effort to get at the animal's head. The natives, instead of making way to alloAv the vehicle to pass, or restraining their untimely clamour, raised a loud shout, half of derision, half defiance. This completed the business, and the next instant the buggy and horse had come-to in the ditch, the former fairly overset, and the latter plunging, kicking, and struggling in his vain efforts to disentangle himself from the broken harness. Graham was thrown clear off the concern into the road, and would have been severely injured by the fall, had he not been shot right into the arms of a fat native, who subsided beneath the blow, and formed an animated cushion upon which the young officer alighted harmlessly and unscathed.

Burleigh was less fortunate, for he was found by his friend, who went immediately to his assistance, lying insensible and bleeding in the ditch, with his arm beneath the buggy step. The mob of natiA'es who had caused this cata strophe offered no assistance, but seemed, at last, awestruck into silence. With the groom's help, Graham extracted Burleigh from his perilous position ; consciousness speedily returned, and a hasty examination showed that. though much bruised, cut, and bleeding, he had no bones broken. The groom and Gra ham then proceeded to unfasten the harness and release Jimmy, Avho did not appear to relish his share of the disaster anv more than his master. Burleigh Avas too much bruised and shaken to be of any use, and sat down on the side of the road. The mob, after a short respite, recommenced the clamour afresh, which increased Jimmy's discomfiture con siderably : and as they passed Burleigh, one of the natiA'es near him, seeing that he was bleeding, called out to the rest, ' The first Fe ringhee blood;' an observation which elicited shouts of laughter from the rest.

Burleio*h watched them as they Avent by, astonished at the extraordinary disrespect evinced in their behaviour, and endeavouring to impress upon his memory the features of those that passed nearest him, so as to be able to recognise them. The harness was too much broken to allow of Jimmy being put in again ; so the two friends betook themselves to Capt. Murray's bungalow, where they rested, and then drove home in his dog-cart.

Chapter II

The military station of Islamabad was situated, as is usually the case in India where troops are located in the immediate neighbourhood of large cities for the purpose of overawing the population, about two miles from the native town. The latter was a large and populous place, inhabited mostly by Mussulman merchants, tradesmen, artisans, &c, and surrounded by a succession of gardens and handsome buildings, belonging to the different NaAvabs or Mahometan gentlemen, whose ancestors had possessed property in that neighbourhood ever since the days of the Moghul dynasty, and who had been confirmed in all their rights and privileges by the British Government Avhen the country had passed into its hands. The mode of life passed by these Indian gentlemen was very much what we should expect to see in men situated, as they are, with no intellectual resources to Avhile aAvay the time, no regular employment of any kind, and no lack of all those means of HOAV TO MANAGE IT. 17 enjoyment and Oriental luxuries for Avhich the East is so notorious.

The greater part of them spent their time in the ' Zenana,' or in lounging about their gardens, occasionally relieving the monotony of such an existence by the amusement of the chase or hawking. Those Avho Avished to exert themselves sought and easily obtained employment under govern ment, as deputy magistrates or subordinate officers connected Avith the administration of justice, but to the generality these duties entailed too great mental application, and interfered too much with that easy sensual style of life so highly prized by Asiatics. A few of the more refined and better educated amused themselves by listening to the works of Persian authors, Avhich were read aloud to them by men retained in their service for the purpose ; and several of the native neAvspapers published in one or two of the principal cities in Northern India and Bengal, under the high flowing titles ofthe ' Star of Islam,' the ' Well- AA'isher of India,' the 'Indian Patriot,' &c, Avhose columns generally teemed with sedi tious sentiments and treasonable expressions against the British government, found their Avay into the houses of these gentlemen, and Avere listened to Avith great attention.

The early morning Avas generally devoted VOL. i. c by the class of men I speak of to whatever out-of-door exercise they deemed it advisable or felt it convenient to take ; the middle of the day was spent in sleep; and when the sultry heat of noon had someAvhat abated, the degenerate descendants of the Moghul conquerors of Hindustan might be seen dressed in light floAving robes, reclining listlessly upon their carpets, enjoying their pipes and chatting together on the common topics of the day ; others remained alone and indoors; and while the ever-present hooka filled the apartment with its fragrant scent, a ' Munshi,' squatted on the ground at a respectable distance from the master of the house, read aloud in a sing-song voice and in a nasal twang the melodious couplets of Hafiz or Sadi, or the more stirring tales recorded by the fluent pen of Firdousi.

The cooler hours of evening were spent in the 'Zenana,' or in wandering under the orange and lime trees which were planted on each side of the straight rectangular garden paths so fashion able in the eyes of native horticulturists, and so unsightly in our OAvn. Although the greater proportion of the in habitants of Islamabad were Mussulmans there were, as a matter of course, am onothe 120,000 beings that thronged its crowded streets and populated suburbs, a great many Hindoos of all classes, castes, and families. They were mostly those engaged in trade and petty shopkeeping : a few wealthy partners of the great native Indian bankers of Benares occupied a lofty and well-built edifice in the finest part ofthe town, and the Hindoo religion was fairly represented by a fine temple and college of priests adjoining, built outside the city, in a grove where the wide-spreading man go, the elegant pine, and the broad-leaved plaintain, combined with their variegated and rich foliage to afford a picturesque and shady resort to the lazy Brahmins and deluded votaries of Mahadeo, who daily repaired to the spot in crowds.

The principal person, however, in the native society, was, as he was calledpar excellence, the NaAvab of Islamabad. His name was Zeinat ul-abadeen, which signifies the ' ornament of the Avorshippers.' The greater part of the city and of the surrounding district belonged to this nobleman, whose father had been in debted to the British government for deciding in his favour a lawsuit of many years' standing with a rival claimant to the greater part of the estate, and for supporting that decision by a military demonstration, rendered neces sary by the vigorous and spirited opposition c shoAvn by the ex-NaAvab Moozuffer-ood-deen, an adventurer, Avho having nothing to lose and everything to gain by putting forward a false claim, and supporting it by evidence, which is always to be purchased in India, Avas at one time very nearly winning the case ; but the cunning of the Asiatic was in this instance no match for the skill and tact of the English judges.

The worthlessness of the evidence being detected, a decree was given against the claimant, and afterwards confirmed by the decision of the superior tribunal. The ad venturer, disgusted at what he chose to consider injustice, and with his character stamped as an impostor, retired from public life, and, selling off what remained to him of his pro perty, took his departure for Mecca. The present Nawab was a young nobleman of five and twenty years of age, and in intelligence, activity, and good sense, ver}* far superior to the rest of the native gentlemen around. His large property gaA*e him some employment, and although all details were managed by subordinates, the mere fact of superintending their labour and looking over accounts occasionally gave him, what his friends in the neighbourhood had not, at any rate, nominal employment.

He had, however but little taste for duties of this kind. Debarred by prejudice and pride from taking military service under the British government, he contented himself by indulging a natural predilection for military display in drilling a small force of about 200 armed retainers, whom he was permitted to keep up as a kind of militia, and Avho Avere AvithdraAvn from their fields and homes once or tAvice a year, to live in camp and swell the retinue of their chief, when he made a tour on his estate. The Nawab of Islamabad, it will readily be believed, was a man of great consequence in the country. He had great influence among the Mahometan population, and could raise, if occasion required, a very considerable force. Tlie attachment of influential chiefs it has un fortunately not ahvays been the object of the British government to gain, for it has too often overlooked the fact that the good-will and fidelity of the native aristocracy would be the surest bulw*ark of its power.

But there were many exceptional cases to the general rule, and it had always been an object with the chief civil magistrate of Islamabad to culti vate the acquaintance of the NaAvab, and that nobleman's fondness for English society, and apparent desire to ingratiate himself AAdth English residents of all classes, as Avell as the acknowledged debt of gratitude he OAved to the British government for his present position, all combined to point him out as one of the most staunch supporters of the power of the East India Company to be found in the whole of Hindustan. With the officers, quartered at Islamabad, the Nawab was a general favourite. Was a tiger-hunting expedition proposed, a note from the magistrate would procure the ready offer of the Nawab's elephants, and he himself not unfrequently made one of the party: was a picnic to be given, the Nawab's gardens were at the disposal of the party : and about twice a year he was in the habit of giving a fete to AA'hich the European officers and ladies were invited, where they feasted on cold turkeys and champagne, under the marble alcoves in the gardens, while fountains played around them, and sAveet-scented flowers filled the air with fragrance.

About the time I have chosen for the opening of my story, one of these fetes took place, and all the English residents at Islamabad received invitations. The Nawab's residence, to which the gardens where the fete Avas to be given were attached, was at the farther side of the city. A large and handsome gateway admitted the visitor into the garden, the full extent of which, hoAvever, could not be seen from the entrance. A straight broad path, flanked by square borders for flowers, and regular roAvs of orange and pomegranate trees, led from the gateway to a large and elegantly shaped summer-house built chiefly of marble, decorated in the inside with mosaics of various colours and patterns : from the floor of the building your eye could Avander over the whole expanse of the garden, except where the sight was bounded by the trees, Avhose rich green foliage contrasted prettily with the light flowering shrubs noAv in full blossom.

There were tAvo or three marble reservoirs full of water, the largest of which Avas situated im mediately beneath the summer-house, and in most of them fountains Avere playing. The only arrangement that displeased the eye accustomed to a display of European horticul tural taste, were the straight paths, the square floAver-beds, and the exact regularity with which the lines, whether of shade, trees, ma sonry, or gravel walks, intersected one another at a right angle. Besides the principal building there Avere several other smaller summer houses, built all expressly on the same model, the same architecture (size being the only quality \*aried), the same pattern mosaics, the same bright dazzling whiteness about them all. In the central building there was a table covered with a white cloth, upon Avhich all the delicacies of European and Asiatic taste were placed in a strange proximity, but with the utmost profusion.

Plates and knives and forks Avere also there, and chairs for the guests to sit upon : a band of four or five table domestics, clad in snow-white garments, stood here and there ready to do the honours, and indeed the most fastidious connoisseur might be sure to find something to suit his taste. A dish of fruit Avould be flanked by tins of preserved oysters on one side, and hermetically-sealed lobsters on the other ; a cold turkey confronted by a small mountain of ' pillaos ; ' flat dishes of jelly and blancmange were surrounded by bottles of chutney and jars of preserA*ed In dian fruits; while the interstices of the table were covered Avith plates of roasted pistachio nuts, almonds in their shell, white unwhole some-looking sweetmeats of natiA'e, and boxes of bonbons of European, manufacture, dishes of oranges, apples from Cabul and Cashmere, and dried raisins.