1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

61
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
out with unnecessary zeal, had not been of the wisest; and, sitting
alone through the long hours of that moonless night, she reproached
herself for not having shown herself more amenable, not to say
amiable, to the women among whom she had been thrown, and who had
so much in their power in the way of making her happy and
comfortable.
She realised, at last, for the first time, that not only was she now
probably among people who were indifferent to her, but among people
who were quite capable of showing her open enmit y and even
maltreating her.
Wearied at length, she fell asleep, and when she woke up it was with a
start and a consciousness that there was something wrong.
“I’ll just stay where I am to-day,” she thought, “or at any rate, till
some of them come and look for me and inquire what is the matter.”
But the sun rose up to its zenith, then sank slowly behind the hills, and
still the y did not come. Every one seemed to have forgotten her very
existence, which perhaps wounded her pride more than the most violent
abuse.
At last, driven by hunger, she descended the stairs and entered the
room which the women generally occupied. Her entrance was the signal
for giggling and nudgings and ill-suppressed jokes.
“I should like m y food,” the girl said reddening, “I am hungr y.”
“Well, there is no food for you now,” Mohamed Jan’s mother answered
shortly. “If you wanted food why did you not come down while we
were having ours? There’s none left now. We have given the remainder
to the men-servants, and it’s not much they’ll leave, but you can go
and see what there is outside.”
The girl turned to look. Her doing so was a signal for a loud outburst
of laughter. There was nothing, of course, left but some broken pieces
of bread. Quickly she stooped and picked these from among the
remnants of the meal, and hid them among the folds of her shawl,
unperceived as she both hoped and thought, but turning round she came
face to face with Mohamed Jan.
“Glad to eat to dogs’ food, I see, after your day of sulks. That is as it
should be. You’ll soon learn how to behave under my tuition.”
That evening she was not left unmolested as she had been on the
previous one. At short intervals the women kept opening her door, and
peeping in and laughing – she knew not at what, and probably no more
did they. The girl felt stung to the quick.
“I am but nineteen miles from home,” she said to herself, “and what is
that? Why should I sta y here to bear all these insults? I shall escape;
my father will not blame me when he knows,” and so she munched her