darkness in the endeavour to get away when the show is over. To bring a crowd like that together is to court disaster. It is absolutely criminal.'
People were beginning to go, and I looked round hopefully for Berengaria. But I felt already that I should be kind of nervous and not sleep well that night.
'But nothing has happened yet,' I said, determined to be cheerful to the last.
'Ah,' he said, looking at me with a curious expression, 'ah, so people think. But they don't know.' He nodded his head mysteriously. I looked inquiry. He lowered his voice, and glanced round furtively. 'Dreadful things have happened,' he whispered, 'but—they've hushed them up.'
'But why did you come to Delhi if you think it is all as bad as this?' I asked as he helped me on with my cloak.
'Because I had to,' he whispered significantly. 'We were given no choice—we had to come. Native princes and Government officials, we're all alike, were simply dragged along at the chariot wheels.' His voice sank lower still and grew more mysterious. 'There are lots of us dying, dying of the cold, the fatigue, the anxiety, nay, some of us have died, but—they've hushed it up.'
Sir Peter Tweet himself looked so careworn and anxious that I became quite sympathetic.
'Oh, do take care. Don't die, Sir Peter,' I said.
'No,' he replied, 'no, I won't if I can help it, though it would serve them right. But I won't, because—they would only hush it up if I did.'
