The Hope of Shridula Read Online Free Page A

I am coming to you on his behalf."
    "I see. And exactly to what end have you come, might I ask?"
    "My uncle tells me to be asking you that we can be cooperating together to be keeping peace in this part of India."
    Dr. Cooper's jaw tightened. He set his teacup down and straightened his back. "Could it be, Rajeev, that you yourself are one of the agitators of whom you speak?"
    "No, no, sahib. I am being—"
    "A follower of the criminal, Mohandas Gandhi, perhaps?"
    "I am to be following the Mahatma, yes. The Great Soul, most certainly. But I am being no agitator. I am to be seeking a peaceful solution for India, the same as the teacher Gandhiji is doing. And more than that, I—"
    "Peaceful solution, indeed!" Scowling, Dr. Cooper jumped to his feet. "Stirring up Indian mobs so that they riot and strike against the Crown—a great empire which has benefited your people on every side, I must stress!—can hardly be called seeking a peaceful solution. Not at all. No matter what the complaint might be."
    Rajeev Nathan remained in his seat. As Dr. Cooper looked on impatiently, the Indian took his time downing the last swallow of his tea. When he finally stood and spoke again, the friendly tone had disappeared from his voice. "Change is to be coming, Doctor," Rajeev Nathan stated. "You must be choosing a side. But I warn you: choose most carefully. You will not be having a second chance."
     

     
    "Oh, my!" Miss Abigail exclaimed when she stepped into the compound's great room that evening. In her day, she had always used that room as a reception area for the clinic. Now here it was set up as a formal English dining room. Abigail's cottage was just across the courtyard, yet how long had it been since she was last here? One month? Two? She shook her head to knock away the cobwebs that fogged her memory. Time and events did seem to drift together in a most disconcerting way.
    "What is it?" Susanna Cooper asked in her clipped manner. The young woman always sounded impatient to get the present interaction over with and to move on to something more important. That's how she looked, too—breathless and harried, the color always rising in her pale cheeks.
    "Nothing, dear," Miss Abigail said. She brushed the question away with a wave of her hand. "It's just that everything has changed so. Dr. Moore's large green chair is gone, and . . . what else? Oh, my secretary desk!"
    "It is about time, I should say. That dusty old furniture looked as though it had been here for a century."
    A century? Of course it had not! The mission clinic opened just a few years before Miss Abigail arrived in 1905. She opened her mouth to say as much when she realized how long ago 1905 actually was. Forty-one years! She looked at Susanna's fresh face and slim figure. Surely, that would seem a century ago to one so young. So Miss Abigail sighed and said nothing. She eased herself down into the new straight-backed chair (such an uncomfortable contraption!), adjusted her yellow cotton sari (her nicest), and folded her hands in her lap.
    "My dear Miss Davidson." Dr. Cooper, who had quietly entered the room, reached for her hand and touched her fingers in a most cursory manner. "How good of you to join us this evening. We shall take utmost care to get you back to your bed before too late an hour."
    Miss Abigail rolled her eyes.
    The doctor settled himself in a more comfortable-looking chair, picked up a book, and resumed reading. Susanna sat on the sofa across from him and extracted her needlework from the bag at her feet.
    "How are the children?" Miss Abigail asked. "I never see any of them running about. I suppose they keep busy, what with their chores and studies to mind."
    "Children?" Susanna looked mystified.
    "The abandoned ones. The little castaways."
    Susanna glanced at the old lady with pity in her eyes. The doctor never looked up from his book.
    "The other Indian children such as young Lelee. I see that sweet girl when she brings me my tea each morning, though