Thus much have I
attained."
Further than that triumphant moment he did not think, but he thanked
God for the ideal which had been set him--the Great People's ideal of
a man--and for the afterward which he knew must come.
Thus absorbed in his own reflections, he reached Travers' bungalow,
and a ray of light falling across his path, brought him sharply back
to the present reality. He looked up and saw that a table had been
pulled out on to the verandah, and that four officers sat round it,
playing cards by the light of a lamp. At Marut there was always a
heavy superfluity of men, and these four, doubtless weary of standing
uselessly about, had made good their escape to enjoy themselves in
their own way. Nehal Singh hesitated. He felt a strong desire to go up
and join them, to learn to know them outside the enervating, leveling
atmosphere of social intercourse where each is forced to keep his real
individuality hidden behind a wall of phrases. Now, no doubt, they
would show themselves openly to him as they were; they would admit him
into the circle of their intimate life, and teach him the secret of
the greatness which had carried their flag to the four corners of the
earth. Yet he hesitated to make his presence known. The study of the
four faces, unconscious of his scrutiny, absorbed him.
The two elder men were known to him, although their names were
forgotten. Their fair hair, regular, somewhat cold, features led him
to suppose that they were brothers.
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