THE COLONY
7
This, too, had been done with deliberate vulgarity. The commander
shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, "We wouldn't normally go in
for that sort of thing, but you people rather expect it of us." Observing
Satya's displeasure, he remarked, "Perhaps a little inappropriate. You
know, they come from one of your own temples. Forget which. Either
in Bagputana or Charnadras. One that goes like this. . . . Middle
period." He drew the outline of a temple in: the
air.
"I ·came," began Satya, "to ... "
"Oh, do sit down, at once. Don't stand on ceremony." The com–
mander offered him a cigar (Satya did not smoke) ; a drink (Satya
did not drink). "Well, you know, it's been such a long time. You
boys used to be much more communicative." He said this with an
ambiguous wink, which may also have been the tic of a burdened
administrator; the tone of
his
voice, however, was unmistakable. It
was as if he had said, "Politics is politics, let's not delude ourselves.
Instead of playing your silly old game, you could be holding down
a good spot as a magistrate."
Satya, in an unfriendly, severe and formal tone, finally made his
request. The commander, enjoying a paradox, replied that in an ef–
ficient society, where government fulfills its proper functions, even
those elements who seek to destroy it must depend on it for support.
"You want us to put our properties at your disposal," he continued,
in weary and ironic condescension, "so you may write a speech that
would send everything crashing down."
Satya remarked that the library at Allaban was hardly a govern–
ment property, since all its books were in the native language, as the
commander could ascertain by a visit; and that a speech intended
primarily for the overthrowing of the government did not require
research. One had only to say the obvious, with no more than natural
emotion, to arouse, if one wanted, the most violent reaction. Satya,
however, had to do some research, for his speech-and here, with his
most insolent courtesy, he pretended to take the commander into
his
confidence, which was as insulting to the official as the latter's
courtesy had been to the native-his speech was to survey the last
five years, and he would find it very embarrassing if the party's
younger intellectuals caught him in error while he reported events
in which he himself had been prominent.
The commander smiled delicately as
if
to show that he, too, was
acquainted with the ways of intellectuals. And, to demonstrate his
superior irony he replied, repeating himself, "It's quite well that you
come to us. By inviting government to participate in its own destruc-
