"As if it was
worth your while to sit in the sun, and detain us all, to draw
fancy pictures out of your own head!"
"What on earth are you talking about?" exclaimed Mr. Y - -. "Do
you mean to say you do not recognize the lake?"
"Listen to him - the lake! Where is the lake, if you please? Were
you asleep, or what?"
By this time all our party gathered round the colonel, who held
the drawing. Narayan uttered an exclamation, and stood still,
the very image of bewilderment past description.
"I know the place!" said he, at last. "This is Dayri - Bol, the
country house of the Takur-Sahib. I know it. Last year during
the famine I lived there for two months."
I was the first to grasp the meaning of it all, but something
prevented me from speaking at once.
At last Mr. Y - - finished arranging and packing his things, and
approached us in his usual lazy, careless way, but his face showed
traces of vexation. He was evidently bored by our persistency in
seeing a sea, where there was nothing but the corner of a lake.
But, at the first sight of his unlucky sketch, his countenance
suddenly changed. He grew so pale, and the expression of his
face became so piteously distraught that it was painful to see.
He turned and returned the piece of Bristol board, then rushed
like a madman to his drawing portfolio and turned the whole contents
out, ransacking and scattering over the sand hundreds of sketches
and of loose papers. Evidently failing to find what he was looking
for, he glanced again at his sea-view, and suddenly covering his
face with his hands totally collapsed.
We all remained silent, exchanging glances of wonder and pity, and
heedless of the Takur, who stood on the ferry boat, vainly calling
to us to join him.
"Look here, Y - -!" timidly spoke the kind-hearted colonel, as if
addressing a sick child. "Are you sure you remember drawing this view?"
Mr. Y - did not give any answer, as if gathering strength and thinking
it over. After a few moments he answered in hoarse and tremulous tones:
"Yes, I do remember. Of course I made this sketch, but I made it
from nature. I painted only what I saw. And it is that very
certainty that upsets me so."
"But why should you be upset, my dear fellow? Collect yourself!
What happened to you is neither shameful nor dreadful. It is only
the result of the temporary influence of one dominant will over
another, less powerful. You simply acted under `biological influence,'
to use the expression of Dr. Carpenter."
"That is exactly what I am most afraid of.... I remember everything
now.
