And also insanely blind to their own interests; which even savages are not! [VERA _laughs as if beaten_.] I know the English mind already; I want to get inside the Bhojâli mind.
It is like the programme of a Baboo Protection Society. I hope the officials will like it.
I have thought of that. But I know too much of India to be even suspected of thinking ill of the officials. And Sir David's recommendation will soften them.
"Please give bearer every facility for attacking the reputation of my late colleagues;" is that it?
[_Rising._] I don't want to attack any one! Of course there may be cases. If I met an actual instance of foul play on our part----
[_Mockingly._] "Foul play!" It is to be as bad as that?
I suppose even Englishmen have occasionally done wrong?
And you go there expecting to find crimes committed by English officers?
In some cases, I am afraid--or if not crimes----
How considerate of you to begin with Bhojâl!
[_Sitting, in amused impatience._] Oh, let us start fair again! I begin with Bhojâl because a certain Sir David Carlyon was the Political Agent there, a gentleman who was afterwards Chief Commissioner of the province of Rajpoor.
Everybody who has heard of India has heard of his marvellous power of governing; also, everybody knows that if ever there was a war forced upon us against our will, it was the war of the annexation of Bhojâl.
Then, I want to begin my studies with the best possible instance.
[_After fidgeting for a moment._] Well, it makes me somewhat impatient. Suppose you do discover that in the summer of 1820 an English major threw a bootjack at his syce?
Forcing an unjust war on a weak tribe is a different thing from misdirecting a bootjack.
How are you to know the war was unjust? The people who made it had full knowledge. You come to judge them with very imperfect knowledge; and you appeal to the public, which has no knowledge at all!
[_Shaking his head._] When I write a book there is no danger of its appealing to the public.
That is shirking! Besides, _I_ am the public and it _did_ appeal to me.
Let Sir David deal with me! He did more for the natives than I am likely to ask.
[_Goes from table to small book-case with books._
[_Rising._] Let me help! Where does this go?