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No, the people had nothing to do with the fall of our Government. What happened was simply that unruly mobs and private armies having tasted blood and power during the election had got out of hand and ruined their masters and employers. And they had no public reason whatever for doing it. Let’s make no mistake about that.
• • •
One day just before I left hospital Edna came to see me. We looked at each other without speaking. What could I say about that letter in which I had called her an uneducated girl and said many other crude things besides? But attack, they say, is the best defence. So I attacked. “Congratulations,” I said. “I will never contest his seat again.” I smiled falsely. She said nothing, just stood where she was, staring at me with those round, rock-melting eyes. “I am terribly sorry, Edna,” I said. “I have behaved like an animal . . . I will always remember that in all that crowd you were the only one who tried to help me.” My eyes clouded. “Don’t cry,” I said when I looked at her again and found my tears running down her face. “Please, my love, don’t. Come and sit here.” And SHE DID.
“Edna, I don’t know . . . I feel like a beast . . . believe me . . . about that letter . . . I was so unhappy . . . you can’t imagine how miserable I was. Will you ever forgive me?”
“Forgive you? For what? Everything you said in it is true.”
“Oh please don’t talk like that, Edna. I know how you must feel. But please I didn’t mean to . . . you know. I was so confused and I didn’t want to . . . I didn’t want you to go and marry that idiot. That was why . . . To God . . .” I tried instinctively to seal the oath by touching my lips and pointing to the sky with my swearing finger, forgetting momentarily in my confusion that my right arm was in plaster. I was reminded soon enough, and changed to my left finger which felt odd.
“Marry him? To be frank with you I did not want to marry him . . . All the girls in the college were laughing at me . . . It was only my father . . . I don’t claim to know book but at least . . .”
“Oh please, Edna——”
“. . . at least I thank God that I am better than some people with all their minister and everything. He is no better than any bush, jaguda man, with all his money. And what you said, about his wife’s jealousy——”
“Wait a bit,” I said, something having clicked inside my head and told me to pay some attention to what the other party was saying. “Wait a bit. Are we talking about my first letter or the second?”
“Second? Which second letter? Did you write two?”
“Yes, after I came to see you,” I said and then said to myself: Don’t let up, man! Attack and cover your defences. “Yes, when I came to see you and you made me so miserable . . . I wrote; you mean you didn’t get it?”
“No, I did not. After you came to see me? . . . It must be one of those the postmaster handed over to him.”
“Postmaster? I don’t understand.”
“Oh, you didn’t hear? The postmaster and the man are like this.” She dovetailed her fingers. “He was passing all my letters to him.”
“No! What a beast!”
“Have you ever seen a thing like that? It was only God that saved me from his hands.”
“God and Odili.”
“Yes, and Odili . . . What did you say in it?”
“In what? Oh the letter . . . Yes, well, the usual things.”
“Tell me.”
“I will, later. Let’s talk about new things now, about our future plans.” After a short silence of contemplation on this unbelievable piece of good fortune I said somewhat lightheartedly: “A whole Cabinet Minister prying into a little girl’s love-letters!”
“Have you ever seen such bad luck!” said Edna, and then something seemed to dawn on her and she asked: “But who is a little girl?”
I smiled and squeezed her hand, then pursued my own thoughts aloud.
“The inquisitive eye will only blind its own sight,” I pronounced. “A man who insists on peeping into his neighbour’s bedroom knowing a woman to be there is only punishing himself.”
It was then Edna’s turn to squeeze my good hand.
We heard my father’s voice greeting the nurse in the main ward and Edna quickly got up from my bed and sat on a chair.
“Ah, my daughter!” he said. “You have kept away so long. I began to think I had frightened you away.”
“No, sir,” she said embarrassed.
