"kidnapped" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kipling Rudyard)

Deputy-Commissioner's Office, than to have contracted an alliance with
the Castries. It would have weighted his after-career less- even under
a Government which never forgets and оneverп forgives. Everybody saw
this but Peythroppe. He was going to marry Miss Castries, he was-
being of age and drawing a good income- and woe betide the house
that would not afterwards receive Mrs. Virginie Saulez Peythroppe with
the deference due to her husband's rank. That was Peythroppe's
ultimatum, and any remonstrance drove him frantic.
These sudden madnesses most afflict the sanest men. There was a case
once- but I will tell you of that later on. You cannot account for the
mania except under a theory directly contradicting the one about the
Place where marriages are made. Peythroppe was burningly anxious to
put a millstone round his neck at the outset of his career; and
argument had not the least effect on him. He was going to marry Miss
Castries, and the business was his own business. He would thank you to
keep your advice to yourself. With a man in this condition, mere words
only fix him in his purpose. Of course he cannot see that marriage
in India does not concern the individual but the Government he serves.
Do you remember Mrs. Hauksbee- the most wonderful woman in India?
She saved Pluffles from Mrs. Reiver, won Tarrion his appointment in
the Foreign Office, and was defeated in open field by Mrs.
Cusack-Bremmil. She heard of the lamentable condition of Peythroppe,
and her brain struck out the plan that saved him. She had the wisdom
of the Serpent, the logical coherence of the Man, the fearlessness
of the Child, and the triple intuition of the Woman. Never- no, never-
as long as a tonga buckets down the Solon dip, or the couples go
a-riding at the back of Summer Hill, will there be such a genius as
Mrs. Hauksbee. She attended the consultation of Three Men on
Peythroppe's case; and she stood up with the lash of her riding-whip
between her lips and spake.
-
{KIDNAPPED ^paragraph 20}
* * * * * * *
-
Three weeks later, Peythroppe dined with the Three Men, and the
"Gazette of India" came in. Peythroppe found to his surprise that he
had been gazetted a month's leave. Don't ask me how this was
managed. I believe firmly that, if Mrs. Hauksbee gave the order, the
whole Great Indian Administration would stand on its head. The Three
Men had also a month's leave each. Peythroppe put the "Gazette" down
and said bad words. Then there came from the compound the soft
'pad-pad' of camels- 'thieves' camels,' the Bikaneer breed that
don't bubble and howl when they sit down and get up.
After that, I don't know what happened. This much is certain.
Peythroppe disappeared- vanished like smoke- and the long foot-rest
chair in the house of the Three Men was broken to splinters. Also a
bedstead departed from one of the bedrooms.
Mrs. Hauksbee said that Mr. Peythroppe was shooting in Rajputana
with the Three Men; so we were compelled to believe her.
{KIDNAPPED ^paragraph 25}