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Ch 4 - A Passage to India · A Passage to India

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  Chapter four. The collector kept his word. Next day, he issued invitation
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  cards to numerous Indian gentlemen in the neighborhood, stating that he would be at
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  home in the garden of the club between the hours of five and seven on
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  the following Tuesday, also that missus Turton would be glad to receive any ladies
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  of their families who were out of poor da. His action caused much excitement
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  and was discussed in several worlds. It's owing to orders from l G was
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  mahmoud Ali's explanation. Turton would never do this unless compelled. Those high officials
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  are different. They sympathize. The Viceroy sympathizes, they would have us treated
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  properly, but they come too seldom and live too far away. Meanwhile,
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  it is easy to sympathize at a distance, said an old channel woman with
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  a beard. I value more the kind word that is spoken close to my
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  ear. Mister Turton has spoken it from whatever cause he speaks, we hear.
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  I do not see why we need discuss it. Further quotations followed from
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  the Koran. We have not all your sweet nature, Nawab Bahadur, nor
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  your learning. The Lieutenant governor may be my very good friend, but I
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  give him no trouble. How do you do, Nawab Bahadur? Quite well?
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  Thank you, Sir Gilbert, how are you? And all is over?
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  But I can't be a thorn in mister Turton's flesh. And if he
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  asks me, I accept the invitation. I shall come in from Dilkusha,
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  especially though I have to postpone other business. You will make yourself at chip,
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  suddenly said a little black man. There was a stir of disapproval.
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  Who was this ill bred upstart that he should criticize the leading Mahammedan landowner of
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  the district, mahmoud Ali, though sharing his opinion, felt bound to oppose
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  it. Mister Ramchad, he said, swaying forward stiffly with his hands on
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  his hips. Mister mahmoud Ali, mister Ramchand the Nawab Bahadur can decide what
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  is cheap without our valuation. I think I do not expect I shall make
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  myself cheap, said the Nawab Bahadur to mister Ramchand, speaking very pleasantly,
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  for he was aware that the man had been impolite, and he desired to
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  shield him from the consequences. It had passed through his mind to reply,
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  I expect I shall make myself cheap. But he rejected this as the less
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  curs alternative. I do not see why we should make ourselves cheap. I
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  do not see why we should. The invitation is worded very graciously. Feeling
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  that he could not further decrease the social gulf between himself and his auditors,
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  he sent his elegant grandson, who was in attendance, on him to fetch
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  his car. When it came, he repeated all that he had said before,
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  though at greater length, ending up with till Tuesday than gentlemen, all
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  when I hope we may meet in the flower gardens of the club. This
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  opinion carried great weight. The Nahwa Bahadur was a big proprietor and a philanthropist,
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  A man of benevolence and a decision. His character among all the communities
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  in the province stood high. He was a straightforward enemy and a staunched friend,
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  and his hospitality was proverbial. Give do not lend after death? Who
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  will thank you? Was his favorite remark. He held it a disgrace to
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  die rich when such a man was prepared to motor twenty five miles to shake
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  the collector's hand. The entertainment took another aspect, for he was not like
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  some eminent men who give out that they will come and then fail at the
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  last moment, leaving the small fry floundering. If he said he would come,
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  he would come. He would never deceive his supporters. The gentleman whom
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  he had lectured now urged one another to attend the party, although convinced that
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  heart that his advice was unsound. He had spoken in the little room near
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  the courts where the pleaders waited for clients. Clients waiting for pleaders sat in
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  the dust outside. These had not received a card from mister Turton. And
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  there were circles even beyond these people who wore nothing but a loincloth, people
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  who wore not even that, and spent their lives in knocking two sticks together
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  before a scarlet doll. Humanity grading and drifting beyond the educated vision, until
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  no earthly invitation can embrace it. All invitations must proceed from heaven. Perhaps,
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  perhaps it is futile for men to initiate their own unity. They do
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  but widen the gulfs between them by the attempt so at all events, thought
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  old mister Greysford and young mister Soorley, the devoted missionaries who lived out beyond
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  the slaughter houses, always traveled third on the railways, and never came up
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  to the club. In our father's house are many mansions, they taught,
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  And there alone will the incompatible multitudes of mankind be welcomed and soothed. Not
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  one shall be turned away by the servants on that veranda, be he black
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  or white. Not one shall be kept standing who approaches with a loving heart.
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  And why should the divine hospitality cease here? Consider with all reverence the
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  monkeys. May there not be a mansion for monkeys? Also, Old mister
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  Greysford said no, but young mister Sorley, who was advanced, said yes.
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  He saw no reason why monkeys should not have their collateral share of bliss,
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  and he had sympathetic discussions about them with his Hindu friends and the jackals.
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  Jackals were indeed less to mister Soorley's mind, but he admitted that the
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  mercy of God, being infinite, may well embrace all mammals and the wasps.
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  He became uneasy during the descent to wasps and was apt to change the
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  conversation, and oranges, cactuses, crystals and mud and the bacteria inside mister
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  Soorley. No, no, this was going too far. We must exclude
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  someone from our gathering, or we shall be left with nothing. End of Chapter four