Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow [79]
grinning. He answered very mildly, "I have seen rain on days that began like this." And then he added, "I believe I can understand your attitude. It derives from the kindliness of the Arnewi. They have made the impression on you which so commonly they make. Do not forget that Itelo is my special chum and was my sidekick in situations making for great intimacy. Ah, yes, I know the qualities. Generous. Meek. Good. No substitutes should be accepted. On this my agreement is total and complete, Mr. Henderson." I put my fist to my face and looked at the sky, giving a short laugh and thinking, Christ! What a person to meet at this distance from home. Yes, travel is advisable. And believe me, the world is a mind. Travel is mental travel. I had always suspected this. What we call reality is nothing but pedantry. I need not have had that quarrel with Lily, standing over her in our matrimonial bed and shouting until Ricey took fright and escaped with the child. I proclaimed I was on better terms with the real than she. Yes, yes, yes. The world of facts is real, all right, and not to be altered. The physical is all there, and it belongs to science. But then there is the noumenal department, and there we create and create and create. As we tread our overanxious ways, we think we know what is real. And I was telling the truth to Lily after a fashion. I knew it better, all right, but I knew it because it was mine--filled, flowing, and floating with my own resemblances; as hers was with _her__ resemblances. Oh, what a revelation! Truth spoke to me. To _me__, Henderson! The king's eyes gleamed into mine with such a power of significance that I felt he could, if he wanted to, pass right straight into my soul. He could invest it. I felt this. But because I am ignorant and untutored in higher things--in higher things I am a coarse beginner, because of my abused nature--I didn't know what to expect. However, under the light of King Dahfu's eyes I comprehended that in bombing the cistern I had not lost my last chance. No sir. By no means. Horko, the king's uncle, was still marshaling the procession. Over the palace walls came howls and sounds surpassing anything I ever heard from mortal throats or lungs. But as soon as there was a lull the king said to me, "I easily gather, Mr. Traveler, that you have set forth to accomplish a very important matter." "Right, Your Majesty. One hundred per cent right," I said, and bowed. "Otherwise I could have stayed in bed and looked at a picture atlas or slides of Angkor Wat. I have a box full of them, in color." "Deuce. That is what I meant," he said. "And you have left your heart with our Arnewi friends. We agree, they are excellent. I even have conjectured if it is environment or nature. Frequently I have inclined to the innate and not the nurture side. Sometimes I would like to see my friend Itelo. I would give away a very dear treasure to hear his voice. Unfortunately I cannot go. My office � official capacity. Good impresses you, eh, Mr. Henderson?" In the flash of the sun, tiny gold platelets within my eyes blinding me, I nodded. I said, "Yes, Your Highness. No bunk. The true good. The honest-to-God good." "Yes, I know how you feel over it," he said, and spoke with a weird softness or longing. I could never have believed that I could take this from anybody, or would ever have to, and least of all from this person in the royal hammock, with the purple large-brimmed hat, and the teeth sewed onto it, the huge, soft, eccentric eyes tinged very slightly with red, and his pink swelling mouth. "They say," he went on, "that bad can easily be spectacular, has dash or bravado and impresses the mind quicker than good. Oh, that is a mistake in my opinion. Perhaps of common good it is true. Many, many nice people. Oh yes. Their will tells them to perform good, and they do. How ordinary! Mere arithmetic. 'I have left undone the etceteras I should have done, and done the etceteras I ought not to have.' This does not even amount to a life. Oh, how sordid it is to book-keep. My whole view is opposite or contrary, that