More, he knows that
when Fletcher _sahib_ returns, he will speak lightly of the accident, so
that the _mem-sahib_ will have no fear. 'A broken shaft is soon mended,'
he will say. 'My servant has returned to Farabad--to a man he knows. We
will rest under the trees but a furlong from this place till he comes
back.' But, most gracious, he will not come back. There is no place at
Farabad at this time of the fair where the work could be done. Moreover,
the _saice_ has his orders, and he will not seek one. He will go back to
Kundaghat with the mare, but he will walk all the way. It is fifteen
miles from here by the road. He will not reach it ere nightfall. He will
not return till after the darkness falls, and then he will miss the
road. He will not find Fletcher _sahib_ and the gracious lady before the
sunrise."
Thus, in brief but telling sentences, the old native revealed to the
white-faced woman before him the whole abominable plot. She listened to
him in a growing agony of doubt. Could it be? Was it by any means
possible that Fletcher, desiring to win her, but despairing of lessening
the distance she maintained between them by any ordinary method, had
devised this foul scheme of compromising her in the eyes of society in
order to force her to accept him?
Her cheeks burned furiously at the intolerable suspicion. It made her
wholly forget that the man before her was an evil-looking native of whom
she knew nothing whatever.
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