everybody.’
‘Yes, Auntie.’
‘Tell them the guests are beginning to arrive. Do sit down. Have we met before?’
‘I’ve not had that pleasure, Your Highness.’
‘Please call me Aimee. Pandy and I are divorced. I keep the title because it is useful and servants and shop people like it and Pandy’s new wife doesn’t. Are you a friend of someone I know?’
Perron explained his mission and drew her attention to the package and envelope which were on the table, propped against the lamp where Aneila had presumably left them.
‘Captain Purvis?’ she asked, reaching for the letter. ‘He must be one of Jimmy’s friends. When Jimmy is in Bombay he brings so many people.’ She opened the letter. The paper it was written on seemed to displease her. She held it between the tips of two fingers whose nails were elegantly manicured and varnished. ‘Leonard?’ she said. ‘Leonard Purvis?’ And presently, ‘Whisky?’ The note although short called for concentration. ‘Chillingborough and Cambridge? Why does he tell me this? Why shouldn’t you have studied at Chillingborough and Cambridge? So many Englishmen do. Who is Leonard Purvis?’
‘A member of an economic advisory mission to the Government of India.’
‘Are you also in this mission?’
‘No, I’m concerned with army education.’
‘What does the mission do?’
‘I don’t think it does anything.’
‘And what do you do?’
‘Very little.’
‘What a relief. People are always dashing about. What is your first name?’
‘Guy.’
‘Have you another?’
‘Lancelot.’
She frowned.
‘There’s also Percival,’ he said, and added, ‘but I’m not keen on it.’
‘Names are a terrible problem. It is best to make them up. Will you stay to my party? It may be boring but it is difficult to tell in advance. It depends on who comes. If it is too tedious I just come back to my room and tell the servants to lock up the drinks and go to bed. It is the only way to get rid of people. Anyway tonight I will be optimistic because it has begun well. Where are you staying?’
‘In a place called Kalyan.’
‘Oh, then you are on Zipper. Nearly all the military people who come here nowadays are on Zipper.’
He thought it wiser to let this pass.
He said, ‘It’s very kind of you to invite me to stay and I do have an evening off duty. But if I’m too early shall I come back later?’
‘Oh, no. Other people will be here in a minute. If not ask Aneila to entertain you. Ask her to play the gramophone, and then you can dance. She is a very good dancer but needs practice with men. She loves it when I bring her to Bombay. Her mother is so strict with her. Her mother is my sister, the one who married that business man and has become very serious as a result. Before you go would you be so kind as to ring the bell?’
Perron stood up, touched the button on the wall which she had indicated, murmured his thanks and took his leave. On his way out he had an urge to turn back and explain who he was and why he was there. He had never enjoyed the part of his job which involved deceiving people and tonight deception seemed irrational. He believed that if he confessed his true identity and purpose to the Maharanee she would probably be amused, for the few seconds it took her to forget and concentrate again on her own affairs. But, leaving the room, closing the door and facing the long cluttered passage ofmore closed doorways he re-accommodated himself to the masquerade because Aneila was in the act of greeting more guests, let in this time by a servant. Again there had been no sound of a bell. A woman servant was hastening down the corridor to the Maharanee’s room. Perron wondered whether he was going deaf or whether the bells rang on a note that only members of the household had learned to detect; but before he could become more than passingly interested in the subject his attention was taken by something of potentially more serious consequence.
Among
‘Yes, Auntie.’
‘Tell them the guests are beginning to arrive. Do sit down. Have we met before?’
‘I’ve not had that pleasure, Your Highness.’
‘Please call me Aimee. Pandy and I are divorced. I keep the title because it is useful and servants and shop people like it and Pandy’s new wife doesn’t. Are you a friend of someone I know?’
Perron explained his mission and drew her attention to the package and envelope which were on the table, propped against the lamp where Aneila had presumably left them.
‘Captain Purvis?’ she asked, reaching for the letter. ‘He must be one of Jimmy’s friends. When Jimmy is in Bombay he brings so many people.’ She opened the letter. The paper it was written on seemed to displease her. She held it between the tips of two fingers whose nails were elegantly manicured and varnished. ‘Leonard?’ she said. ‘Leonard Purvis?’ And presently, ‘Whisky?’ The note although short called for concentration. ‘Chillingborough and Cambridge? Why does he tell me this? Why shouldn’t you have studied at Chillingborough and Cambridge? So many Englishmen do. Who is Leonard Purvis?’
‘A member of an economic advisory mission to the Government of India.’
‘Are you also in this mission?’
‘No, I’m concerned with army education.’
‘What does the mission do?’
‘I don’t think it does anything.’
‘And what do you do?’
‘Very little.’
‘What a relief. People are always dashing about. What is your first name?’
‘Guy.’
‘Have you another?’
‘Lancelot.’
She frowned.
‘There’s also Percival,’ he said, and added, ‘but I’m not keen on it.’
‘Names are a terrible problem. It is best to make them up. Will you stay to my party? It may be boring but it is difficult to tell in advance. It depends on who comes. If it is too tedious I just come back to my room and tell the servants to lock up the drinks and go to bed. It is the only way to get rid of people. Anyway tonight I will be optimistic because it has begun well. Where are you staying?’
‘In a place called Kalyan.’
‘Oh, then you are on Zipper. Nearly all the military people who come here nowadays are on Zipper.’
He thought it wiser to let this pass.
He said, ‘It’s very kind of you to invite me to stay and I do have an evening off duty. But if I’m too early shall I come back later?’
‘Oh, no. Other people will be here in a minute. If not ask Aneila to entertain you. Ask her to play the gramophone, and then you can dance. She is a very good dancer but needs practice with men. She loves it when I bring her to Bombay. Her mother is so strict with her. Her mother is my sister, the one who married that business man and has become very serious as a result. Before you go would you be so kind as to ring the bell?’
Perron stood up, touched the button on the wall which she had indicated, murmured his thanks and took his leave. On his way out he had an urge to turn back and explain who he was and why he was there. He had never enjoyed the part of his job which involved deceiving people and tonight deception seemed irrational. He believed that if he confessed his true identity and purpose to the Maharanee she would probably be amused, for the few seconds it took her to forget and concentrate again on her own affairs. But, leaving the room, closing the door and facing the long cluttered passage ofmore closed doorways he re-accommodated himself to the masquerade because Aneila was in the act of greeting more guests, let in this time by a servant. Again there had been no sound of a bell. A woman servant was hastening down the corridor to the Maharanee’s room. Perron wondered whether he was going deaf or whether the bells rang on a note that only members of the household had learned to detect; but before he could become more than passingly interested in the subject his attention was taken by something of potentially more serious consequence.
Among
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