The Rajah's Heir: A Novel in 3 volumesDespard, C. (Charlotte)
General
The Rajah's Heir: A Novel in 3 volumes
Despard, C. (Charlotte)
India -- Fiction
As soon as the masquerade was arranged I determined on my disguise.
I would be an Indian of high rank. I consulted Chunder Singh, who
with the most obliging readiness entered into my project, undertaking
to dress and instruct me for the part. With this view we retired to
his cabin in the early part of the day. He happened to have in his
possession such a dress as Indian rajahs wear upon state occasions,
decked out with jewellery which appeared to be of great value. In
these he dressed me. Then he stained my face and hands a light brown,
deepened the colour of my hair and eyebrows, and wound a magnificent
turban round my brows. This done he began to show me the proper
gestures to use and speeches to make, I in the meantime watching him
closely, and trying to mould my behaviour on his. At first, so far as
I was concerned, it was a mere game; but presently I felt as though
an indescribable and mysterious change were coming upon me. I was not
copying him only--his mind was being reflected upon my mind. I was, in
fact, stepping out of my own individuality and into that of another.
I might have thought myself the victim of a curious illusion had it
not been that there was an answering change in Chunder Singh. For a
few moments I saw him stand as if paralysed, then a wonderful light
overspread his face, and with outstretched arms he came towards me
slowly, murmuring 'Brother! Brother!'
To the end of my days I shall remember the misery of that moment. I
retreated before Chunder Singh. I would copy his gestures no longer. I
took off the dress and sent him away. As soon as it was done, however,
I laughed at myself for my folly. What did my uneasiness mean? I was
the successor of a rajah and the inheritor of his wealth. If I could
play the part of a rajah, so much the better. When the evening came I
sent for Chunder Singh, and said that if he would forgive my abruptness
of the morning I would put on his dress again. I had told no one what
I intended to be; not even Mrs. Lyster. Why I made all this mystery I
can't exactly tell. It was partly, I think, to humour Chunder Singh.
I remember even pretending that I should not appear at all, not being
able to rig up a suitable dress. Only the first officer, to whom the
names were bound to be given in, was in possession of my secret.
I think, at the last moment, I should have drawn back, if it had not
been for Chunder Singh. As it was, almost everyone was out before I
could make up my mind to be presented. In the meantime the curious
change of the morning had come over me again, and I felt not so much
acting a part as living in it. That others shared my illusion was
evident from the puzzled faces of the little motley crowd, when I
appeared among them, and was presented in my turn to pretty Britannia,
under a high-sounding Indian title.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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