Free The Devil in Clevely (Afternoon of an Autocrat) by Norah Lofts Page A

crossly. 'I am slow, but there is light yet, and when the light goes there are torches.'
    They passed the lion; and the long-necked, spotted giraffe; and the elephant that was here and not in the other courtyard because it had been born an albino; two striped wild horses from Africa; a reindeer which had been ailing on her previous visit and was now moribund; and an English hound dog with melancholy eyes.
    The cages were much better built and cleaner than the hovels in which most of Surunda's subjects lived, the courtyard immeasurably better kept than any of the city streets, but the unmistakable, acrid odour of captivity was all about, a miasma of sadness. She thought of the Rajah's women, collected, held captive in much the same way. Then she shrugged the thought aside. Why should I pity them? Am I free, who chose my own gaoler?
    They came to the archway which led to the elephant stables; they passed on. So it is not to be an elephant. Have I lost my sense of direction and are we in reality taking a short cut to some part of the palace? Perhaps a pullet-egg ruby after all.
    Beyond the arch. the bird cages lay. Surunda, panting from exertion, had not breath for speech and passed the birds as he had passed the animals, almost without a glance. Linda, from a mixture of politeness and interest, looked for the second time at the tall ostriches, the birds of paradise, the humming-birds brilliant and fragile as flowers, the lone, duck-billed platypus. She too was silent lest any comment should evoke a response for which breath would be grudged. But before the cage of the tiny birds which looked like blossoms she said, 'How beautiful!'
    "Wait. Until now you are seeing nothing.' In front of the last cage he paused, moved the stick forward and leaned on it with both hands. 'The golden pheasants of China,' he said simply. There were two of them; and even upon eyes so lately dazzled by the humming-birds their beauty struck with a pang. About the disposition of their green and white, red and blue, yellow and bronze feathers there was a suggestion of deliberate artifice, as though upon the instinctive skill and prodigality of nature a more mature and cunning design had been imposed. By comparison the other birds were gaudy, the work of a happy haphazard child: these were from a master hand; and it seemed that they knew it, for in addition to their complete beauty there was a real dignity, a matchless grace.
    Now she knew why he had brought her here; to show her his newest and loveliest acquisition. She said, without the care with which she ordinarily chose her words with him: 'They are the loveliest things I have ever seen in all my life.'
    'I am glad,' he said. 'They are for you.' They had arrived only two days earlier. He had wanted them for years, just as he had wanted one of the tiny dogs with feathered tails which were also Chinese. It was very difficult indeed to get anything out of China. All China was closed to all trade, just as he had closed Kilapore to the Company's trade. Nothing came out of China by legal means. Some silk, some porcelain was smuggled out, because hungry peasants and avaricious merchants could lay hands on silk and porcelain; but the golden pheasants were to be found only in the gardens of the wealthy, and the little dogs were strictly the preserve of royalty. Surunda had wished, but he had never hoped to own a specimen of either rarity. Almost four years earlier he had done one of his minor Polygars a great favour, and when repayment was mentioned he had brushed it aside airily, saying, 'One day you may give me a Chinese pheasant, or one of the dogs of Pekin'; which was tantamount to saying, One day you shall give me the moon or a slice of a rainbow.
    Yet, two days ago they had arrived, beautiful and dignified in a cage of wickerwork, with nothing to show that almost four years, a sum of money equivalent to two thousand English pounds, and the lives of five men had been expended upon their transportation from