The Covenant of Water

Digby has decided to travel to Madras, India (modern-day Chennai) to pursue his profession as a surgeon. Realizing that his lower-class status and Catholic identity will not allow him much opportunity in Scotland, he joins the Indian Medical Service. He must travel in second class due to his poverty and lower-class status. He contracts a gastro-intestinal illness—either sea sickness or food poisoning—and an Indian barrister takes care of him. When he disembarks, “he feels he’s arrived on a new planet” (94). He notices that the barrister must disembark via a separate line designated for “non-whites.”

Digby is taken to Longmere Hospital, his new place of employment, where he will become “Assistant Civil Surgeon” (97). He is to be apprenticed to Claude Arnold, who is a senior surgeon. The Anglo-Indian patients are separated from the general Indian population. Digby is plunged into surgery immediately, operating on an Indian patient with hydrocele (fluid that swells the scrotum). He is overwhelmed, but with the assistance of the nurses, he completes the surgery successfully.

Honorine Charlton becomes Digby’s trusted matron assistant in his first surgery and beyond. Digby settles into the routines of the hospital, though the climate of Madras is more difficult to adjust to. Digby notices that his supposed mentor, Claude Arnold, does little; his ward for Anglo-Indians is largely empty. Honorine is skeptical of the “mission of the British Empire” in India (107). While she notes that the British imperialists have brought railways and roads, she also acknowledges that their time in India is clearly limited.

Digby meets an Indian doctor, Ravichandran, or Ravi, who becomes more of a mentor than the white doctor, Claude Arnold. Ravi once had dreams of studying in London, but he realizes that history prevents him from doing so. Still, he assists Digby in his journey, offering “precisely the surgical education Digby sought when he came to India” (114). Ravi encourages Digby to serve his patients at all costs.

Talk of a coming war is in the air; it is 1934, and the Germans are restive. Digby is surprised to learn that Indians fought in World War I alongside the Europeans. If war comes again, it is likely that Indians will be conscripted again. He is starting to discover more about the history of the British Empire in India, and he notices the monumental buildings the colonists have constructed in their own honor.

Digby is also experiencing the pangs of loneliness, but Honorine counsels him not to fall for an Anglo-Indian woman. He treats the wife of an Anglo-Indian, Lena Mylin—even giving his own blood to save her—earning him a lifelong bond with the family.

Digby attends a Christmas party at Claude Arnold’s home, in a town described as “a vision of England rendered on the canvas of Southern India” (129). The homes are all constructed in English style, and the streets have English names. There, he meets Arnold’s wife, Celeste, who shows him the miniature Indian paintings she has collected. He is mesmerized. She notes that she has been in Madras for almost 20 years and that her husband sent their children away to boarding school in England against her wishes. He thinks that the home does not reflect her tastes, other than the paintings. She warns Digby against what she describes as her own mistake: “the mistake of choosing to see more in your future mate than the evidence has already suggested” (133).

Digby procures a car via his new Anglo-Indian friends. The car, named Esmeralda, is old but dependable. The privilege of having a car—and the manner in which he acquires it—leads Digby to realize how different life is for whites and Anglo-Indians than it is for indigenous Indians.

Celeste comes to visit Digby and takes him to see the famed stone temples at Mahabalipuram, overlooking the Bay of Bengal. She tells him that she, too, is an orphan. She also reveals that, though she is an Englishwoman by birth, she has never actually been to England. India has always been her home. They are both enthralled by the statues, and they discuss the adoration the carvers must have felt for the deities enshrined in the temples. Neither of the two are believers in a higher power, but these sculptors must have been. Celeste takes Digby back to his apartment and tells him goodbye, though the separation is clearly painful for both of them.

Digby cannot get Celeste out of his mind, though he realizes that a relationship with her would be impossible, as she is married to the senior surgeon at the hospital. Digby continues his work at the hospital, where one of his Anglo-Indian friends, Jeb, is to be operated on by Claude Arnold. The older doctor has diagnosed an abscess on Jeb’s neck, though Digby suspects it is an aneurysm: cutting into it could be fatal. Arnold—with the smell of alcohol on his breath—insists that Digby is wrong and cuts into it anyway. The patient dies on the table.

Jeb’s funeral brings in the entire Anglo-Indian community. It appears as if most of them know that Claude Arnold was incompetent in the matter; someone has written an anonymous letter to the local newspaper claiming as much. Celeste realizes that what she has always suspected about her husband is true. He is not an empathetic man.

Arnold comes to Celeste to suggest that the blame be pinned on Digby—and her. He wants to claim that she and Digby have been conducting an affair, so that he can besmirch Digby’s reputation, calling into question any potential testimony Digby can provide in court against Arnold. Celeste is insulted and horrified that her husband would use her in this manner. She goes to Digby’s quarters to warn him of the plot, but the intensity of the moment overtakes them. They make love. Celeste does not yet tell Digby of her husband’s plans.

Celeste returns to Digby’s residence to tell him what she failed to tell him on her previous visit. They soon fall into bed together again. It appears as if Arnold’s accusations against them—that they are having an affair—are coming true after the fact. Digby receives a letter from an anonymous party, warning him that Arnold is capable of almost anything to save his reputation. Digby decides he will not back down from his desire to testify against the irresponsible doctor. Secretly, he hopes Arnold will divorce Celeste so that he can have her to himself.

Celeste returns again to Digby, this time to say goodbye. She wants to protect Digby from her husband’s capabilities. He declares his love for her, but she rebuffs him. Still, they fall into bed together again, and Celeste falls asleep wondering why she would ever want to leave Digby.

Digby awakes some time later to the smell of smoke. His quarters are on fire, and Celeste has been engulfed by flames. Digby tries to rescue her.