‘And then?’

‘Then they kill her and leave on boat.’

Compton pursed his lips in disapproval and shook his head: ‘Mister Moddie not good; he have done too much harm. Low-low sek-sek, you should not work for him Ah Neel. Yauh-jyuh – watch out, all who are close to him will suffer for what he has done.’

Neel fell silent as he considered this. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ he said. ‘But you know, Compton, it is also true that amongst those who are close to Seth Bahramji there are very few who do not love him. And I am not one of them – for if there is one thing I know about the Seth it is that he has a large and generous heart. This is what makes him different from the Burnhams and Dents and Ferdoonjees and the rest of them. You mark my words, those men will lose nothing in the end. It is Seth Bahramji who will be the biggest loser – and the reason for that is just this: he has a heart.’

Compton smiled: ‘You are loyal Neel. Sih-sih.’

‘We Achhas are a loyal people – it is perhaps our greatest failing. It is a sin amongst us to break faith with those whose salt we have eaten.’

‘Haih-bo?’ Compton laughed. ‘I will feed you salt when I see you next Neel.’

‘No need,’ said Neel smiling. ‘I have eaten your salt already.’

Compton smiled and bowed.

Joi-gin Ah Neel. Joi-gin Compton. Joi-gin.

*

It was not till later that night, after all his things had been packed, that Neel opened the envelope Compton had given him. He read the Commissioner’s letter to Queen Victoria several times, and then reached for a page of his unfinished Chrestomathy. Turning it over, on impulse, he translated a few passages into Bengali.

‘The Way of Heaven is fairness to all; it does not suffer us to harm others in order to benefit ourselves. Men are alike in this all the world over: that they cherish life and hate what endangers life. Your country lies twenty thousand leagues away; but the Way of Heaven holds good for you as for us, and your instincts are not different from ours; for nowhere are there men so blind as not to distinguish between what brings life and what brings death, between what brings profit and what does harm.

‘Our Heavenly Court treats all within the Four Seas as one great family; the goodness of our great Emperor is like Heaven, that covers all things. There is no region so wild or so remote that he does not cherish and tend it. Ever since the port of Canton was first opened, trade has flourished. For some hundred and twenty or thirty years the natives of the place have enjoyed peaceful and profitable relations with the ships that come from abroad.

‘But there is a class of evil foreigner that makes opium and brings it for sale, tempting fools to destroy themselves, merely in order to reap profit. Formerly the number of opium smokers was small; but now the vice has spread far and wide and the poison has penetrated deeper and deeper. For this reason we have decided to inflict very severe penalties on opium-dealers and opium-smokers, in order to put a stop for ever to the propagation of this vice.