Read The India Fan for Free Online Page B

it says in the Bible, I believe. So it came to me.
    as it because of the fan?I asked tremulously.
    h, the fan. How young we were! How innocent of life! We went to the bazaar together, for when we were officially engaged that was allowed. It was wonderful. Bazaars are so fascinating, though I was always a little afraid of them, though not with Gerald, of course. It was thrilling the snake charmers the streets the strange music the pungent smell that is India. Goods to sell beautiful silks and ivory and strange things to eat. It was exciting. And as we went along we saw the man selling fans. I was instantly struck by them. ow lovely they are!I cried. Gerald said, hey are very pretty. You must have one.I remember the man who sold them. He was badly crippled. He could not stand up. He sat on a mat. I remember the way he smiled at us. I did not notice it then, but afterwards it came back to me. It was evil. Gerald unfurled the fan and I took it. It was doubly precious to me because he had given it to me. Gerald laughed at my delight in it. He held my arm tightly. People looked at us as we passed along. I suppose it was because we looked happy. Back in my room I opened the fan. I put it on a table so that I could see it all the time. When my Indian servant came in, she stared at it in horror. She said, eacock-feather fan Oh no, no, Missie Lucille they bring evil You must not keep it here.I answered, on be silly. My fiance gave it to me and I shall always treasure it for that reason. It is his first gift to me.She shook her head and covered her face with her hands as though to shut out the sight of it. Then she said, will take it back to the man who sold it to you . . though now it has been yours the evil is there but perhaps a small evil.I thought she was crazy and I wouldn let her touch it.
    She stopped speaking and the tears began to run down her cheeks.
    loved the fan,she went on after a while. t was the first thing he gave me after our engagement. When I awoke in the morning it was the first thing I saw. Always, I told myself, I will remember that moment in the bazaar when he bought it for me. He laughed at my obsession with it. I did not know it then, but I do now. It had already cast its spell on me. t is only a fan,said Gerald. hy do you care so much for it?I told him why and he went on, hen I will make it more worthy of your regard. I shall have something precious put in it, and every time you see it you will be reminded of how much I care for you.
    e said he would take it to a jeweller he knew in Delhi. The man was a craftsman. When I received the fan back it would indeed be something to be proud of. I was delighted and so happy. I ought to have known happiness like that does not last. He took the fan and went into the centre of the town. I have never forgotten that day. Every second of it it is engraved on my memory forever. He went into the jeweller shop. He was there quite a long time. And when he came out they were waiting for him. There was often trouble. The Company kept it under control, but there were always the mad ones. They didn see what good we were bringing to their country. They wanted us out. Gerald family was important in the country as my family was. He was well known among them. When he came out of the jeweller they shot him. He died there in the street.
    hat a sad story. I am so sorry, Miss Lucille,I said.
    y dear child, I see you are. You are a good child. I am sorry you took the fan.
    ou believe all that was due to the fan?
    t was because of the fan that he was in that spot. I shall never forget the look in my servant eyes. Somehow those people have a wisdom we lack. How I wish I had never seen that fan never gone into the bazaar that morning. How blithe and gay I had been and my foolish impulse had taken his life and ruined mine.
    t could have happened somewhere else.
    o, it was the fan. You see, he had taken it into the jeweller shop. They must have followed him and waited for him outside.
    think it