My Mother — Page 119
Devotion and Sympathy 119 Her last few words were charged with so much emotion that Lady Willingdon, who had been patting Mother’s hand while she was speaking, could no longer restrain herself and almost shouted at the Viceroy, ‘What is this, and what are you going to do about it?’ He tried to soothe her gently with, ‘My dear, I have discussed the matter with Zafrulla’, and then addressing Mother in the same gentle tone explained, ‘These matters are primarily the concern of the Governor and I cannot order him about them. If I did that he would resent it. Had the Governor-General given me orders about such matters when I was Governor of Bombay and later of Madras I would also have resented it. ’ She countered, ‘I do not suggest that you should order the Governor or rebuke him, but surely you have to supervise him, and you can advise him gently and courteously that he should pay attention to our grievances and should seek to remove them. ’ ‘Certainly, I shall do that. ’ But Lady Willingdon’s indignation was not mollified merely by that much. She had been trying to comfort Mother with kind and affectionate gestures and words, and now directed me, ‘Tell Mother, in these very words, tell her I shall give the Governor of the Punjab what for, I shall give him what for!’ One day in January 1936 perceiving that she seemed melan- choly I asked Mother whether she was worried by anything. She told me that the previous night she had—in her dream—heard someone say: ‘Asadullah Khan has been assassinated and he left directions that his eldest brother should look after his children. ’ I tried to comfort her by assuring her that dreams were subject to interpretation, and a calamity could be averted by almsgiving and