{Written November 10, 1881. Received Allahabad}
Dehra,
Thursday.
My dear Sub Boss,
I proposed remaining here till Monday when suddenly this morning at dawn, I received orders to move onward on Saturday morning the 12th and be Meerut Sunday. Orders are no joke, so I obey and can do no better.
What possessed you to write to me as if I was coming decidedly to Allahabad? How can I come when I have to pass through Baroda and now I am more in the dark than ever. You do not write to me a word about Padshah. I was not aware he had already gone to Lucknow, and now I received a telegram from there asking for a Charter. I sent him one and remained perplexed. There are about 17 Fellows I hear, to be initiated at Bareilly, Fellows who joined long ago but are yet unbaptised unto the Holy Ghost. Therefore, I know not whether I have to go to Bareilly or not, whether I have to go to Lucknow or not, whether I will go this or that way to Bombay. Quien Sabe? It all depends on my boss's whims; and I verily believe that notwithstanding his youthful appearance he becomes old and is falling into his dotage (with all respect due to him). You think me incapable of ever making up my mind; you are regarding me as quasi insane. And what can I do? How can I say I go there or elsewhere, when at the eleventh hour he usually puts in an appearance and changes all my plans — as in the Lahore case. And [what] I should go to Allahabad for? What help can I give you? None. If I go to you then must I give up Baroda — unless you can find a way for me to go there from Allahd without returning back to Toondla or Delhi which would be a fearful expense. Write me to Meerut. If you answer immediately there, it will find me there. Address care of Babu Baldeo Prasad F.T.S. Headmaster Government Normal School.
There's Church, the Collector, and his wife (old Griffith's spoon) here with Scott, and of all the foul-tongued, wicked, slandering, wicked women — she is the queen. Speak of me, occasionally uttering improper things owing to my natural innocence and imperfect knowledge of English. She tells things that made the root of my hair turn red and burn with shame! With one wag of her tongue she dishonours any woman with the greatest unconcern possible. Why she is a friend of Mrs. Patterson's. We have a new Fellow, a Capt. Banon of the 39th of Gwalior. He is a great scholar, knows Sanskrit and other languages. A political officer. He is anxious to know you and be initiated by you and so Scott writes him a letter of introduction to you. He will come on purpose to Allahabad. He writes in his letter to Scott "I shall probably go to Gungotree next summer. There is a grand monastery at Toling where the head Lamas have great occult powers." Toling is where K.H. was when he first wrote to you. But there are only chelas of the first degree there and I doubt whether they would tell or show him anything. However, it is a good thing if he goes there.
Thanks for what you did for us with the "Englishman." It's a skunk of a sewer like the C. and M. Gazette and a first cousin to it. What do you think Hume did? He ordered 200 Copies of Rules with the seal on the top and now when they sent him the bill Rs. 4 he refused to pay it, saying, that as it cost us nothing he would not pay for it. Well, I will, and surely I will not cry for 4 rupees poor as I am. But to say that the Rules "cost us nothing" is good. Why the Rules ordered and paid by Tookaram Tatia are without the seal and quite different from these. So also he ordered first a hundred and fifty and then 500 copies of the Fragments of Occult Truth, saying he would take 200. Then he went down (before your departure) to 100; then when I was going away he said that he thought "a dozen would do." Now why in the name of wonder did he lead us into this unnecessary expense? Of course they can be sold at 4 annas but it will take a year or more and the printer has to be paid. I wanted and would have never ordered more than 100. Well, I won't say a word of course; only I will be more prudent in future. He is positively an extraordinary man: ready to throw thousands for a whim and when it is cooled off, "se faisant tirer par les cheveux" for a few rupees.
The poor Disinherited is very sick. He fell down a cud and nearly broke both his legs. Had it not been for another chela with him who had time and the presence of mind of doing what was needed to arrest him in the fall he would have broken himself to pieces down an abyss of 2,800 feet — a pic! M. says it is a fiendish "Red Cap" who did it; who caught the boy off his guard for an instant and positively took advantage of it in a wink; that he roamed for weeks around the house where there is no adept now but only three chelas and a woman. Of course the D. will soon be better but it is one more proof that even a chela and of the 1st degree can be off his guard sometimes and that accidents will happen in the best regulated families. Enclosed please find another proof of the high virtues of our Christian brethren. I send you the cover only, the contents consisting of the infamous Saturday Review article and another of last year from the N. Y. Times. Olcott's portion of a letter will explain to you the thing.
I'll write from Meerut if I have time. Did my boss write to you why?
Yours in Jesus,
H.P.B.
nee hahn Von Rottenstern-Hahn.
d—— it.
Ross Scott sends his love. I wish you heard Mrs. Collector Church swear!!
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