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Ch 15 - A Passage to India · A Passage to India

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  Chapter fifteen, misquested, and Aziz and a guide continued a slightly tedious expedition.
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  They did not talk much, for the sun was getting high. The
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  air felt like a warm bath into which hotter water is trickling constantly. The
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  temperature rose and rose. The boulders said, I am alive, and the
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  small stones answered, I am almost alive. Between the chinks lay the ashes
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  of little plants. They meant to climb to the rocking stone on the summit,
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  but it was too far, and they contented themselves with the big group
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  of caves all root for these. They encountered several isolated caves, which the
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  guide persuaded them to visit, but really there was nothing to see. They
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  lit a match, admired its reflection in the Polish, tested the echo,
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  and came after him. Azziz was pretty sure they should soon come on some
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  interesting old carvings, but only meant he wished there were some carvings. His
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  deeper thoughts were about the breakfast. Symptoms of disorganization had appeared. As he
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  left the camp. He ran over the menu, an English breakfast porridge and
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  mutton chops, but some Indian dishes to cause conversation and pun afterwards. He
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  had never liked misquested as much as Missus Moore, and had little to say
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  to her, less than ever now that she would marry a British official,
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  nor had Adela much to say to him. If his mind was with the
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  breakfast, hers was mainly with her marriage. Simla. Next week get rid
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  of Antony A view of Thibet Tiresome wedding bells Agra in October see Missus Moore
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  comfortably off from Bombay. The procession passed before her, again blurred by the
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  heat, and then she turned to the more serious business of her life at
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  Chundrapor. There were real difficulties here, Ronnie's limitations and her own, but
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  she enjoyed facing difficulties and decided that if she could control her peevishness, always
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  her weak point, and neither rail against Anglo India nor succumbed to it,
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  their married life ought to be happy and profitable. She mustn't be too theoretical.
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  She would deal with each problem as it came up, and trust to
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  Ronnie's common sense and her own. Luckily each had abundance of common sense and
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  goodwill. But as she toiled over a rock that resembled an inverted saucer,
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  She thought, what about love? The rock was nicked by a double row
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  of footholds, and somehow the question was suggested by them. Where had she
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  seen footholds before? Oh? Yes, they were the pattern traced in the
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  dust by the wheels of the Nawab Bahadur's car. She and Ronnie, No,
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  they did not love each other. Do I take you too fast?
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  Inquired as ease, for she had paused, a doubtful expression on her face.
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  The discovery had come so suddenly that she felt like a mountaineer whose rope
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  had broken. Not to love the man one's going to marry, not to
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  find it out till this moment, not even to have asked oneself the question
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  until now, something else to think out. Vexed rather than appalled, she
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  stood still, her eyes on the sparkling rock. There was esteem and animal
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  contact at dusk, but the emotion that links them was absent. Ought she
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  to break her engagement off, she was inclined to think not. It would
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  cause so much trouble to others. Besides, he wasn't convinced that love is
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  necessary to a successful union. If love is everything, few marriages would survive
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  The honeymoon. No, I'm all right, thanks, she said, and
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  her emotions, well under control, resumed the climb, though she felt a
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  bit dashed. Azziz held her hand. The guide adhered to the surface like
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  a lizard and scampered about as if governed by a personal center of gravity.
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  Are you married, doctor Azziz, she asked, stopping again and frowning.
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  Yes, indeed, do come and see my wife, for he felt it
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  more artistic to have his wife alive for the moment. Thank you, she
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  said absently. She is not in Chandrapoor just now. And have you children?
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  Yes, indeed three, he replied in firmer tones. Are they a
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  great pleasure to you? Why? Naturally I adore them, he laughed.
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  I suppose so. What a handsome little Oriental he was, And no doubt
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  his wife and children were beautiful too. Four people usually get what they already
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  possess. She did not admire him with any personal warmth, for there was
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  nothing of the vagrant in her blood. But she guessed he might attract women
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  of his own grace and rank, and she regretted that neither she nor Rannee
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  had physical charm. It does make a difference in a relationship beauty, thick
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  hair, a fine skin. Probably this man had several wives. Mohammedans always
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  insist on their full four, according to missus Turton, And having no one
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  else to speak to on that eternal rock, she gave rein to the subject
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  of marriage and said, in her honest, decent, inquisitive way, have
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  you one wife or more than one? The question shocked the young man very
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  much. It challenged a new conviction of his community, and new convictions are
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  more sensitive than old. If she had said, do you worship one god
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  or several? He would not have objected. But to ask an educated Indian
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  Moslem how many wives he has? Appalling hideous? He was in trouble how
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  to conceal his confusion one one in my own particular case, He's buttered and
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  let go of her hand. Quite a number of caves were at the top
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  of the track, and, thinking damned the English, even at their best,
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  he plunged into one of them to recover his balance. She followed at
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  her leisure, quite unconscious that she had said the wrong thing, and not
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  seeing him. She also went into a cave, thinking with half her mind
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  sight seeing bores me, and wondering with the other half about marriage, end
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  of Chapter fifteen,