The Rains Came--A Novel of Modern India by Bromfield Louis

Author:Bromfield, Louis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, film/TV adaptation, India
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1937-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

From Ransome’s house, Mrs. Simon, agitated by an odd mixture of emotions which included rage, exultation, triumph, suppressed lechery, and confusion, drove in her ancient Ford to the bungalow of Mrs. Hoggett-Egburry. It stood at some distance from the town on the edge of the parade-ground. When Mrs. Simon arrived she found her friend alone, seated morosely in a vast chair, corsetless and clad in a flowing peignoir of pale pink and lace, brooding over the absence and neglect of Mr. Hoggett-Egburry, who had gone off, as usual, alone, to Delhi, leaving her behind to swelter in Ranchipur. She was not drinking, because she had reached the saturation point a little after she had returned from her trip to Mrs. Simon’s to relate the “news,” and once the saturation point had been reached more brandy only made her feel sullen and sick. Most of Ranchipur knew when Mrs. Hoggett-Egburry had reached the saturation point; she became petulant and quarrelsome and the curious accent which she had invented for herself slipped away beyond control, replaced by her native Putney cockney. Also she ceased to talk pukka and had even on occasion been known, while saturated, to use such expressions as “God blimey” and “bloody.”

In spite of her saturation she brightened a little at the sight of Mary Lou Simon stepping out of the old Ford. Immediately she said, pouting a little as if she were still nineteen and possessed of a flossy prettiness: “You must stay to tiffin and keep me company. I have a terrible migraine.”

Mrs. Simon accepted at once and sent a servant to say that the Reverend Mr. Simon was not to expect her. It always flattered her that Lily Hoggett-Egburry should desire her company, and now she was full of exciting news—the revelation about the depravity of the Smileys, the outrageous behavior of Fern, the description of the interior of Ransome’s house which had “intrigued” Mrs. Hoggett-Egburry for so long, but above all the prospect, which she knew would dazzle her friend, of Fern’s marriage to Ransome. In fact, she was fairly bursting with items certain to titillate the bank manager’s wife, saturation or no saturation.

All this Mrs. Hoggett-Egburry had been waiting impatiently, too impatiently, perhaps, with a brandy bottle in the house, to hear since five in the afternoon. At once Mrs. Simon proposed that they go into the sitting room where what she had to tell was less likely to be overheard by some barefooted servant.

This room was as overcrowded as Ransome’s rooms had been empty. In it were crowded masses of bric-à-brac, Benares brass, photographs, cushions, dubious objets d’art, including an enlarged, colored, and life-sized photograph of Mrs. Hoggett-Egburry in her prime, at the moment she had made her first appearance on the stage in “Puss in Boots.” All these things were arranged without plan of any sort; in fact, the room very closely resembled the inside of Mrs. Hoggett-Egburry’s head at the moment her friend had discovered her on the verandah.

Amid the magpie collection of souvenirs they put their heads together while Mrs.

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