Dangerous Inheritance by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online

free to repudiate the other. There was something to be said for it, and now that moral standards had declined it might be that in many cases young people resorted to the practice with every intention of marrying afterwards. But, somehow, he did not think that the sort of hectic affaire that he believed Fleur and Truss to be having led to wedding bells.
    In the afternoon of Saturday the 26th, Mr. Douglas Rajapakse arrived. The Sinhalese are a small people, but he was above their average height and about five foot nine. His skin was dark but his features were Aryan. He had smooth black hair, a slightly curved nose, a sensitive mouth with beautiful white teeth, and fine eyes. His body was straight and slim and he was impeccably dressed in a brown suit that looked as if it had been cut by an English tailor. The Duke put his age down as a little under thirty.
    After tea, he and de Richleau went into conference for an hour, then he was introduced to the others just before dinner. He showed neither the subservience that many coloured people display towards Europeans, nor its opposite: a brash self-assertiveness. His manners were charming and over dinner he talked well and fluently.
    Soon Fleur got him on to the subject of his country and praised the progress it had made since receiving independence.
    â€˜You are kind,’ he said, ‘and in many ways we have been fortunate. Particularly in that the British left us such sound foundations to build on. We already had free education, of course, and a very good Public Health service; but there have been many other excellent developments in the past ten years. The great contribution of our first Prime Minister, Mr. D. S. Senanayake, was the reduction of malaria, which had been the scourge of a great part of my country for centuries. He also initiated the restoration of the ancient irrigation systems in the north of the island. These permanent gains will prove of far more benefit to us than many of the palliatives to popular opinion that have been brought in by our present Government. He was a fine man, and his loss was a great blow to us.’
    â€˜But Mr. Bandaranaike has done much more for the people,’ Fleur said quickly.
    â€˜For some of the people, Miss Eaton.’ Rajapakse’s white teeth flashed in a swift smile. ‘He came to power as the result of a vote-catching manifesto issued by the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, which was a coalition of his own Freedom Party, Mr. Philip Gunawardana’s Marxists and the Trotskyites. To retain the support of his extreme left-wing colleagues he has had to fulfil his promises to them, and you can hardly expect these policies to find favour with people like myself.’
    â€˜We’re all in the same boat these days,’ Truss put in. ‘The taxes my father has to pay are astronomical. That the distribution of wealth for the common benefit is a world trend there’s no escaping, and we’ve just got to face it.’
    â€˜I agree, Mr. Van Ryn. And the wealthier families in Ceylon are enlightened people. We are not at all averse to handing over a good part of our incomes for the public benefit, but that doesnot deprive us of the right to disapprove of the way in which our Government is spending it. Certain measures they are taking, too, are entirely contrary to the true principles of Socialism in which when younger I was a convinced believer.’
    Fleur raised her eyebrows. ‘So you were a Socialist?’
    â€˜Yes; and even in this company I am not ashamed to admit it.’
    â€˜Why should you be?’ Her young voice was eager. ‘I am one too. But in what way have they gone off the rails?’
    â€˜Since you are so well informed, Miss Eaton, you will probably know that in Ceylon there is a large minority of Tamils; some two million as against five and a half million Sinhalese out of a total population of eight million. One of the first principles of Socialism is equality, and the present