He had long been
anxious to imitate Holkar's method of celebrating the Dussera or Durga
Festival, particularly that part of it where a bull is sacrificed in public
by the Maharajah on the fourth day of the feast. The _Dewan_ had always
opposed it, but now he suddenly veered round and suggested that it should
be done. In Indore all the Europeans of the cantonment and many of the
ladies and officers from the neighbouring military station of Mhow were
always invited to be present on the fourth day. The old plotter proposed
that, similarly, some of the English community of the Duars, the Civil
Servants and planters, should receive invitations to Lalpuri. It would seem
only natural to include the Officer Commanding Ranga Duar. And to tempt
Dermot into the trap Chunerbutty suggested Noreen as a bait, undertaking to
persuade her brother to bring her.
The Rajah was delighted at the thought of her presence in the Palace. The
_Dewan_ smiled and quoted two Hindu proverbs:
"Where the honey is spread there will the flies gather," said he. "Any lure
is good that brings the bird to the net."
The consequence of the plotting was that Noreen Daleham, fretting in
Darjeeling at having to wait for her brother to come there for the Puja
holidays, received a letter from him saying that he had changed his mind
and had accepted an invitation from the Rajah of Lalpuri for her and
himself to be present at the celebrations of the great Hindu festival at
the Palace.
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