The Rajah of Bungpore

The Rajah of Bungpore by Francis Hopkinson Smith

At Sherry's restaurant, the unnamed narrator dines with his old friend Marny, a once-poor illustrator turned wealthy, celebrated portrait painter. Across the crowded café another table is being prepared for John Stirling, who arrives leading a merry party of six guests, including the banker Crofield and the millionaire John Riggs of Denver. Stirling's easy charm draws every passerby's affectionate greeting, and Marny explains that his nickname is "the Rajah." Marny describes Stirling as a young man of many talents — an artist, musician, and linguist — who is nonetheless perpetually broke. He is, in Marny's words, "a purveyor of cheerfulness," trading his good humor for dinners, bills paid, and invitations. When Stirling's friends fall ill or fall into debt, he nurses or rescues them without complaint; Marny recalls Stirling caring for him for five weeks during a bout of inflammatory rheumatism, smuggling in delicacies from society hostesses. Stirling never truly sponges: when he owes money, he quietly arranges for friends to cover him, and he always repays, often with charming illustrated notes rather than blunt cash, treasured by his creditors as keepsakes. The narrator, a struggling landscape painter skeptical of such an unconventional way of living, presses Marny for the origin of Stirling's nickname. Marny recounts a story told by Ashburton, an English Alpine Club globetrotter. Ashburton, restless after adventures in Yucatan, decided to trek the Himalayas and recruited Stirling as a companion, despite Stirling having no money and no interest in mountaineering. Aboard the steamer to Calcutta, Stirling entertained passengers with charades, rescued a man overboard, taught navigation, and told stories to children, charming everyone, including a Maharajah who wanted him to stay a year. At a spot called Bungpore, Ashburton left Stirling in a bungalow with two servants while he went off climbing for two months. Stirling declined to accompany him, reasoning it would double Ashburton's expenses, and instead stayed behind, ostensibly to study Hindustanee. When Ashburton returned, he found Stirling transformed into "the Rajah of Bungpore": his servant, now resplendent in turban and pajamas, led Ashburton to a marquee where Stirling reclined amid a retinue of attendants, purchasing pearls, ivories, and other treasures from merchants as though he were royalty, with a "Grand Vizier" handling payment. The truth, Marny explains, is that the Maharajah from the steamer, learning someone was camped on his land, arrived with soldiers ready to act, but on discovering it was Stirling, showered him with gifts — tents, servants, elephants, and gold — turning the camp into a genuine miniature court. Stirling refused the Maharajah's offer to move him into the palace, insisting on staying put, and every peddler who came by was funneled to him. By the time Ashburton returned, Stirling had amassed a fortune in curios, half of which he gave to Ashburton and half to his friends back home, including a tusk now hanging in Marny's studio. Back at Sherry's, a waiter brings Marny a bill and Stirling's card reading, "Not a red and no credit. Sign it for Jack." Marny laughs, signs it, and charges it to his own account. As the narrator and Marny leave, Stirling toasts Marny before his guests as "the Velasquez of modern times." Weeks later, the narrator visits Marny's studio and finds a new portrait of Riggs on the easel, along with smaller studies of the Riggs family — commissions Stirling evidently arranged from that single dinner. The narrator quietly leaves, dines alone, and reflects that Marny is right: to hear the band, one must keep up with the procession — concluding that his own philosophy of prudent, hardworking life is, by comparison, "a failure."

By Francis Hopkinson Smith · First published 1894 · Genre: Adventure, Historical Fiction, Romance · 5,576 words

First lines

It was the crush hour at Sherry's. A steady stream of men and women in smart toilettes -- the smartest the town afforded -- had flowed in under the street awning, through the doorway guarded by flunkeys, past the dressing-rooms and coat-racks, and were now banked up in the spacious hall waiting for tables, the men standing about, the women resting on the chairs and divans listening to the music of the Hungarian band or chatting with one another. The two cafés were full -- had been since seven o'clock, every table being occupied except two. One of these had been reserved that morning by my dear friend Marny, the distinguished painter of portraits -- I being his guest -- and the other, so the head-waiter told us, awaited the arrival of Mr. John Stirling, who would entertain a party of six.

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adventure · historical fiction · colonialism · India · British Raj · cultural clash · romance · mystery · exploration · society · class struggle · politics

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