" But Chunerbutty
volunteered to escort Noreen to the hills, as he had been summoned again to
his sick father's side, the said parent being supposed to be in attendance
on his Rajah who had taken a house in Darjeeling for the season. As a
matter of fact his worthy progenitor had never left Lalpuri. However,
Daleham knew nothing of that, and, being empowered to do so when Parry was
incapacitated, gladly gave him permission to go and gratefully accepted his
offer to look after the girl on the journey.
Noreen would much have preferred going alone, but her brother refused to
entertain the idea. Although she knew nothing of the suspicions of her
Bengali friend entertained by Dermot, she sensed a certain disapproval on
his part of Fred's and her intimacy with Chunerbutty, and it affected her
far more than did the open objection of the other planters to the Hindu.
Besides, she was gradually realising the existence of the "colour bar,"
illiberal as she considered it to be. But it will always exist, dormant
perhaps but none the less alive in the bosoms of the white peoples. It is
Nature herself who has planted it there, in order to preserve the
separation of the races that she has ordained. So Noreen, though she hated
herself for it, felt that she would rather go all the way alone than travel
with the Hindu.
The thirty miles' drive to the station of the narrow-gauge branch railway
which would convey them to the main line did not seem long.
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