David Durance Quotes in Indian Ink
DURANCE Indianization. It’s all over, you know. We have Indian officers in the Regiment now. My fellow Junior here is Indian, too, terribly nice chap—he’s ICS, passed the exam, did his year at Cambridge, learned polo and knives-and-forks, and here he is, a pukkah sahib in the Indian Civil Service.
FLORA Is he here?
DURANCE At the Club? No, he can’t come into the Club.
The case was dismissed on a technicality, and the policemen were awfully sweet, they got me away through the crowd in a van. My sister was asked to leave school. But that was mostly my own fault—the magistrate asked me why all the poems seemed to be about sex, and I said. “Write what you know”—just showing off. I was practically a virgin, but it got me so thoroughly into the newspapers my name rings a bell even with the wife of a bloody jute planter or something in the middle of Rajputana, damn, damn, damn, no, let’s go inside.
DURANCE Would you marry me?
FLORA No.
DURANCE Would you think about it?
FLORA No. Thank you.
DURANCE Love at first sight, you see. Forgive me.
FLORA Oh, David.
“Heat collects and holds as a pearl at my throat,
lets go and slides like a tongue-tip down a Modigliani,
spills into the delta, now in the salt-lick,
lost in the mangroves and the airless moisture,
a seed-pearl returning to the oyster—
et nos cedamus amori …”
DURANCE Where did you get such a thing?
FLORA His Highness gave it to me.
DURANCE Why?
FLORA Because I ate an apricot. Because he is a Rajah. Because he hoped I’d go to bed with him. I don’t know.
DURANCE But how could he … feel himself in such intimacy with you?
[…]
DURANCE … but I’m in a frightfully difficult position now.
FLORA Why?
DURANCE Did he visit you?
FLORA I visited him.
DURANCE I know. Did he visit you?
FLORA Mind your own business.
DURANCE But it is my business.
FLORA Because you think you love me?
DURANCE No, I … Keeping tabs on what His Highness is up to is one of my … I mean I write reports to Delhi.
FLORA (Amused) Oh heavens!
The terror of the Empire Day gymkhana, the thrower of mangoes at the Resident’s Daimler.
Quite possibly. Or with Captain Durance. Or His Highness the Rajah of Jummapur. Or someone else entirely. It hardly matters, looking back. Men were not really important to Flora. If they had been, they would have been fewer. She used them like batteries. When things went flat, she’d put in a new one … I’ll come to the gate with you. If you decide to tell Mr Pike about the watercolour, I’m sure Flora wouldn’t mind.
David Durance Quotes in Indian Ink
DURANCE Indianization. It’s all over, you know. We have Indian officers in the Regiment now. My fellow Junior here is Indian, too, terribly nice chap—he’s ICS, passed the exam, did his year at Cambridge, learned polo and knives-and-forks, and here he is, a pukkah sahib in the Indian Civil Service.
FLORA Is he here?
DURANCE At the Club? No, he can’t come into the Club.
The case was dismissed on a technicality, and the policemen were awfully sweet, they got me away through the crowd in a van. My sister was asked to leave school. But that was mostly my own fault—the magistrate asked me why all the poems seemed to be about sex, and I said. “Write what you know”—just showing off. I was practically a virgin, but it got me so thoroughly into the newspapers my name rings a bell even with the wife of a bloody jute planter or something in the middle of Rajputana, damn, damn, damn, no, let’s go inside.
DURANCE Would you marry me?
FLORA No.
DURANCE Would you think about it?
FLORA No. Thank you.
DURANCE Love at first sight, you see. Forgive me.
FLORA Oh, David.
“Heat collects and holds as a pearl at my throat,
lets go and slides like a tongue-tip down a Modigliani,
spills into the delta, now in the salt-lick,
lost in the mangroves and the airless moisture,
a seed-pearl returning to the oyster—
et nos cedamus amori …”
DURANCE Where did you get such a thing?
FLORA His Highness gave it to me.
DURANCE Why?
FLORA Because I ate an apricot. Because he is a Rajah. Because he hoped I’d go to bed with him. I don’t know.
DURANCE But how could he … feel himself in such intimacy with you?
[…]
DURANCE … but I’m in a frightfully difficult position now.
FLORA Why?
DURANCE Did he visit you?
FLORA I visited him.
DURANCE I know. Did he visit you?
FLORA Mind your own business.
DURANCE But it is my business.
FLORA Because you think you love me?
DURANCE No, I … Keeping tabs on what His Highness is up to is one of my … I mean I write reports to Delhi.
FLORA (Amused) Oh heavens!
The terror of the Empire Day gymkhana, the thrower of mangoes at the Resident’s Daimler.
Quite possibly. Or with Captain Durance. Or His Highness the Rajah of Jummapur. Or someone else entirely. It hardly matters, looking back. Men were not really important to Flora. If they had been, they would have been fewer. She used them like batteries. When things went flat, she’d put in a new one … I’ll come to the gate with you. If you decide to tell Mr Pike about the watercolour, I’m sure Flora wouldn’t mind.
