The Foot of Time: A Novel of Australia and the South Seas: (1933)

10
THE FOOT OF TIME
tioning had pleased her servant, and an increasing
sense of disquiet pervaded her. Why should the
bearer find enquiry concerning his integrity relieving?
Why so fearful of questions about his private
life; knowledge of the coolie girls?
Clare stared at him. The harder she gazed the
more uncomfortable he grew. She wanted him to
feel uncomfortable, that she might, perhaps, the
more readily trap him.
"What are you frightened about, Abdul?" Lady
Arbuthnot asked at length, then noticed the poor
fellow actually moistened dry lips before replying.
"Not frightened at all, Mem-Sahib," he burst
out with great vehemence. "Abdul not thief, not
frightened at all of lady of Lord Bruce Arbuthnot
Burra Sahib Baronet!"
The manner in which the boy rolled off the
name, the awful altered tone of it, gripped her.
Diverting the conversation, Clare asked: "Do all
the coolie girls earn the same pay, Boy?"
"Not at all same pice, Mem-Sahib. Suppose pick
slow, not get much; suppose pick much, earn
plenty rupee, Mem-Sahib."
Clare indicated the coolie girl opposite to them.
"Does that girl there earn much?"
"Hah, Mem-Sahib, most quick girl on Sahib's
Estate."
"I thought you told me that you had never seen
her before. Why are you lying to me?"
Abdul turned a sickly hue under his swarthy
skin.
"Mem-Sahib excuse," he muttered hoarsely.
THE FOOT OF TIME 11
"Must brush Sahib clothes, polish boot; much have
do, Mem-Sahib."
He waited for no permission but fled as though
the devil were after him, as, maybe, perhaps he
was.
Clare glanced across at the coolie girl. She was
still there, but having finished the bush immediately
opposite the garden bungalow, was now working
upon the one next to it. Clare noticed that the
plucker commenced on the side furthest away from
the house—a procedure she had not followed before—thus
putting herself in a position to watch
the homestead should she have a mind to do so.
The girl did indeed glance up at frequent intervals,
but carefully avoided again meeting the magic
eyes of the English girl--watchin g her with a
curiosity for which she could not account.
"How perfectly ridiculous I am," Clare thought.
"The girl is probably Abdul's wife—one of his
wives!"
She looked across at the snows. They were hidden
in the clouds, covered in by them, and by their
eternal mantle of white. Twenty-nine thousand
feet above the level of the sea.
And now it was growing late. It was time Bruce
came in. Perhaps down there in the factory they
were sieving out the smaller grades—th e Orange
Pekoe Fannings, which blew about so terribly.
Unless he arrived soon there would be little enough
time for tennis before they had to change for dinner.
People always changed for dinner in the East.