Some seven or eight officers were sitting round the table in the
messroom of the 103d Bengal Infantry at Cawnpore. It had been a guest
night, but the strangers had left, the lights had been turned out in the
billiard room overhead, the whist party had broken up, and the players
had rejoined three officers who had remained at table smoking and
talking quietly.
Outside, through the open French windows, the ground looked as if
sprinkled with snow beneath the white light of the full moon. Two or
three of the mess servants were squatting in the veranda, talking in low
voices. A sentry walked backwards and forwards by the gate leading into
the mess house compound; beyond, the maidan stretched away flat and
level to the low huts of the native lines on the other side.
“So the Doctor comes back tomorrow, Major,” the Adjutant, who had been
one of the whist party, said. “I shall be very glad to have him back.
In the first place, he is a capital fellow, and keeps us all alive;
secondly, he is a good deal better doctor than the station surgeon who
has been looking after the men since we have been here; and lastly, if
I had got anything the matter with me myself, I would rather be in his
hands than those of anyone else I know.”
“Yes, I agree with you, Prothero; the Doctor is as good a fellow as ever
stepped. There is no doubt about his talent in his profession; and there
are a good many of us who owed our lives to him when we were down with
cholera, in that bad attack three years ago. He is good all round; he
is just as keen a shikari as he was when he joined the regiment,
twenty years ago; he is a good billiard player, and one of the best
storytellers I ever came across; but his best point is that he is such a
thoroughly good fellow--always ready to do a good turn to anyone, and to
help a lame dog over a stile. I could name a dozen men in India who
owe their commissions to him. I don’t know what the regiment would do
without him.”
“He went home on leave just after I joined,” one of the subalterns said.
“Of course, I know, from all I have heard of him, that he is an awfully
good fellow, but from the little I saw of him myself, he seemed always
growling and snapping.”
There was a general laugh from the others.
“Yes, that is his way, Thompson,” the Major said; “he believes himself
to be one of the most cynical and morose of men.”
“He was married, wasn’t he, Major?”
“Yes, it was a sad business. It was only just after I joined. He is
three years senior to me in the regiment. He was appointed to it a month
or two after the Colonel joined. Well, as I say, a month or two after I
came to it, he went away on leave down to Calcutta, where he was to meet
a young lady who had been engaged to him before he left home. They were
married, and he brought her up country. Before she had been with us a
month we had one of those outbreaks of cholera. It wasn’t a very severe
one. I think we only lost eight or ten men, and no officer; but the
Doctor’s young wife was attacked, and in three or four hours she was
carried off. It regularly broke him down. However, he got over it, as
we all do, I suppose; and now I think he is married to the regiment. He
could have had staff appointments a score of times, but he has always
refused them. His time is up next year, and he could go home on full
pay, but I don’t suppose he will.”
“And your niece arrives with him tomorrow, Major,” the Adjutant said.
“Yes, I am going to try petticoat government, Prothero. I don’t know how
the experiment will succeed, but I am tired of an empty bungalow, and I
have been looking forward for some years to her being old enough to come
out and take charge. It is ten years since I was home, and she was a
little chit of eight years old at that time.”
“I think a vote of thanks ought to be passed to you, Major. We have only
married ladies in the regiment, and it will wake us up and do us good to
have Miss Hannay among us.”
“There are the Colonel’s daughters,” the Major said, with a smile.
“Yes, there are, Major, but they hardly count; they are scarcely
conscious of the existence of poor creatures like us; nothing short of a
Resident or, at any rate, of a full blown Collector, will find favor in
their eyes.”
“Well, I warn you all fairly,” the Major said, “that I shall set my
face against all sorts of philandering and love making. I am bringing my
niece out here as my housekeeper and companion, and not as a prospective
wife for any of you youngsters. I hope she will turn out to be as plain
as a pikestaff, and then I may have some hopes of keeping her with me
for a time. The Doctor, in his letter from Calcutta, says nothing as to
what she is like, though he was good enough to remark that she seemed to
have a fair share of common sense, and has given him no more trouble
on the voyage than was to be expected under the circumstances. And now,
lads, it is nearly two o’clock, and as there is early parade tomorrow,
it is high time for you to be all in your beds. What a blessing it would
be if the sun would forget to shine for a bit on this portion of the
world, and we could have an Arctic night of seven or eight months with a
full moon the whole time!”
A few minutes later the messroom was empty, the lights turned out, and
the servants wrapped up in their blankets had disposed themselves for
sleep in the veranda.
As soon as morning parade was over Major Hannay went back to his
bungalow, looked round to see that his bachelor quarters were as bright
and tidy as possible, then got into a light suit and went down to the
post house. A quarter of an hour later a cloud of dust along the road
betokened the approach of the Dak Gharry, and two or three minutes later
it dashed up at full gallop amid a loud and continuous cracking of the
driver’s whip. The wiry little horses were drawn up with a sudden jerk.
The Major opened the door. A little man sprang out and grasped him by
the hand.
“Glad to see you, Major--thoroughly glad to be back again. Here is your
niece; I deliver her safe and sound into your hands.” And between them
they helped a girl to alight from the vehicle.
“I am heartily glad to see you, my dear,” the Major said, as he kissed
her; “though I don’t think I should have known you again.”
“I should think not, uncle,” the girl said. “In the first place, I was
a little girl in short frocks when I saw you last; and in the second
place, I am so covered with the dust that you can hardly see what I
am like. I think I should have known you; your visit made a great
impression upon us, though I can remember now how disappointed we were
when you first arrived that you hadn’t a red coat and a sword, as we had
expected.”
“Well, we may as well be off at once, Isobel; it is only five minutes’
walk to the bungalow. My man will see to your luggage being brought up.
Come along, Doctor. Of course you will put up with me until you can look
round and fix upon quarters. I told Rumzan to bring your things round
with my niece’s. You have had a very pleasant voyage out, I hope,
Isobel?” he went on, as they started.
“Very pleasant, uncle, though I got rather tired of it at last.”
“That is generally the way--everyone is pleasant and agreeable at first,
but before they get to the end they take to quarreling like cats and
dogs.”
“We were not quite as bad as that,” the girl laughed, “but we certainly
weren’t as amiable the last month or so as we were during the first
part of the voyage. Still, it was very pleasant all along, and nobody
quarreled with me.”
“Present company are always excepted,” the Doctor said. “I stood in loco
parentis, Major, and the result has been that I shall feel in future
more charitable towards mothers of marriageable daughters. Still, I am
bound to say that Miss Hannay has given me as little trouble as could be
expected.”
“You frighten me, Doctor; if you found her so onerous only for a voyage,
what have I to look forward to?”
“Well, you can’t say that I didn’t warn you, Major; when you wrote home
and asked me to take charge of your niece on the way out, I told you
frankly that my opinion of your good sense was shaken.”
“Yes, you did express yourself with some strength,” the Major laughed;
“but then one is so accustomed to that, that I did not take it to heart
as I might otherwise have done.”
“That was before you knew me, Dr. Wade, otherwise I should feel very
hurt,” the girl put in.
“Yes, it was,” the Doctor said dryly.
“Don’t mind him, my dear,” her uncle said; “we all know the Doctor of
old. This is my bungalow.”
“It is pretty, with all these flowers and shrubs round it,” she said
admiringly.
“Yes, we have been doing a good deal of watering the last few weeks, so
as to get it to look its best. This is your special attendant; she will
take you up to your room. By the time you have had a bath, your boxes
will be here. I told them to have a cup of tea ready for you upstairs.
Breakfast will be on the table by the time you are ready.”
“Well, old friend,” he said to the Doctor, when the girl had gone
upstairs, “no complications, I hope, on the voyage?”
“No, I think not,” the Doctor said. “Of course, there were lots of young
puppies on board, and as she was out and out the best looking girl in
the ship half of them were dancing attendance upon her all the voyage,
but I am bound to say that she acted like a sensible young woman;
and though she was pleasant with them all, she didn’t get into any
flirtation with one more than another. I did my best to look after her,
but, of course, that would have been of no good if she had been disposed
to go her own way. I fancy about half of them proposed to her--not that
she ever said as much to me--but whenever I observed one looking sulky
and giving himself airs I could guess pretty well what had happened.
These young puppies are all alike, and we are not without experience of
the species out here.
“Seriously, Major, I think you are to be congratulated. I consider that
you ran a tremendous risk in asking a young woman, of whom you knew
nothing, to come out to you; still it has turned out well. If she had
been a frivolous, giggling thing, like most of them, I had made up my
mind to do you a good turn by helping to get her engaged on the voyage,
and should have seen her married offhand at Calcutta, and have come up
and told you that you were well out of the scrape. As, contrary to my
expectations, she turned out to be a sensible young woman, I did my best
the other way. It is likely enough you may have her on your hands some
little time, for I don’t think she is likely to be caught by the first
comer. Well, I must go and have my bath; the dust has been awful coming
up from Allahabad. That is one advantage, and the only one as far as
I can see, that they have got in England. They don’t know what dust is
there.”
When the bell for breakfast rang, and Isobel made her appearance,
looking fresh and cool, in a light dress, the Major said, “You must
take the head of the table, my dear, and assume the reins of government
forthwith.”
“Then I should say, uncle, that if any guidance is required, there will
be an upset in a very short time. No, that won’t do at all. You must go
on just as you were before, and I shall look on and learn. As far as I
can see, everything is perfect just as it is. This is a charming room,
and I am sure there is no fault to be found with the arrangement of
these flowers on the table. As for the cooking, everything looks very
nice, and anyhow, if you have not been able to get them to cook to your
taste, it is of no use my attempting anything in that way. Besides, I
suppose I must learn something of the language before I can attempt to
do anything. No, uncle, I will sit in this chair if you like, and
make tea and pour it out, but that is the beginning and the end of my
assumption of the head of the establishment at present.”
“Well, Isobel, I hardly expected that you were going to run the
establishment just at first; indeed, as far as that goes, one’s butler,
if he is a good man, has pretty well a free hand. He is generally
responsible, and is in fact what we should call at home housekeeper--he
and the cook between them arrange everything. I say to him, ‘Three
gentlemen are coming to tiffen.’ He nods and says ‘Atcha, sahib,’ which
means ‘All right, sir,’ and then I know it will be all right. If I have
a fancy for any special thing, of course I say so. Otherwise, I leave it
to them, and if the result is not satisfactory, I blow up. Nothing can
be more simple.”
“But how about bills, uncle?”
“Well, my dear, the butler gives them to me, and I pay them. He has been
with me a good many years, and will not let the others--that is to
say, the cook and the syce, the washerman, and so on, cheat me beyond a
reasonable amount. Do you, Rumzan?”
Rumzan, who was standing behind the Major’s chair, in a white turban and
dress, with a red and white sash round his waist, smiled.
“Rumzan not let anyone rob his master.”
“Not to any great extent, you know, Rumzan. One doesn’t expect more than
that.”
“It is just the same here, Miss Hannay, as it is everywhere else,”
said the Doctor; “only in big establishments in England they rob you of
pounds, while here they rob you of annas, which, as I have explained to
you, are two pence halfpennies. The person who undertakes to put down
little peculations enters upon a war in which he is sure to get the
worst of it. He wastes his time, spoils his temper, makes himself and
everyone around him uncomfortable, and after all he is robbed. Life is
too short for it, especially in a climate like this. Of course, in time
you get to understand the language; if you see anything in the bills
that strikes you as showing waste you can go into the thing, but as a
rule you trust entirely to your butler; if you cannot trust him, get
another one. Rumzan has been with your uncle ten years, so you are
fortunate. If the Major had gone home instead of me, and if you had
had an entirely fresh establishment of servants to look after, the case
would have been different; as it is, you will have no trouble that way.”
“Then what are my duties to be, uncle?”
“Your chief duties, my dear, are to look pleasant, which will evidently
be no trouble to you; to amuse me and keep me in a good temper as far
as possible; to keep on as good terms as may be with the other ladies of
the station; and, what will perhaps be the most difficult part of your
work, to snub and keep in order the young officers of our own and other
corps.”
Isobel laughed. “That doesn’t sound a very difficult programme, uncle,
except the last item; I have already had a little experience that way,
haven’t I, Doctor? I hope I shall have the benefit of your assistance in
the future, as I had aboard the ship.”
“I will do my best,” the Doctor said grimly; “but the British subaltern
is pretty well impervious to snubs; he belongs to the pachydermatous
family of animals; his armor of self conceit renders him invulnerable
against the milder forms of raillery. However, I think you can be
trusted to hold your own with him, Miss Hannay, without much assistance
from the Major or myself. Your real difficulty will lie rather in your
struggle against the united female forces of the station.”
“But why shall I have to struggle with them?” Isobel asked, in surprise,
while her uncle broke into a laugh.
“Don’t frighten her, Doctor.”
“She is not so easily frightened, Major; it is just as well that she
should be prepared. Well, my dear Miss Hannay, Indian society has this
peculiarity, that the women never grow old. At least,” he continued,
in reply to the girl’s look of surprise, “they are never conscious
of growing old. At home a woman’s family grows up about her, and are
constant reminders that she is becoming a matron. Here the children are
sent away when they get four or five years old, and do not appear on the
scene again until they are grown up. Then, too, ladies are greatly in
the minority, and they are accustomed to be made vastly more of than
they are at home, and the consequence is that the amount of envy,
hatred, jealousy, and all uncharitableness is appalling.”
“No, no, Doctor, not as bad as that,” the Major remonstrated.
“Every bit as bad as that,” the Doctor said stoutly. “I am not a woman
hater, far from it; but I have felt sometimes that if John Company,
in its beneficence, would pass a decree absolutely excluding the
importation of white women into India it would be an unmixed blessing.”
“For shame, Doctor,” Isobel Hannay said; “and to think that I should
have such a high opinion of you up to now.”
“I can’t help it, my dear; my experience is that for ninety-nine out of
every hundred unpleasantnesses that take place out here, women are in
one way or another responsible. They get up sets and cliques, and break
up what might be otherwise pleasant society into sections. Talk about
caste amongst natives; it is nothing to the caste among women out
here. The wife of a civilian of high rank looks down upon the wives of
military men, the general’s wife looks down upon a captain’s, and so
right through from the top to the bottom.
“It is not so among the men, or at any rate to a very much smaller
extent. Of course, some men are pompous fools, but, as a rule, if two
men meet, and both are gentlemen, they care nothing as to what their
respective ranks may be. A man may be a lord or a doctor, a millionaire
or a struggling barrister, but they meet on equal terms in society; but
out here it is certainly not so among the women--they stand upon
their husband’s dignity in a way that would be pitiable if it were not
exasperating. Of course, there are plenty of good women among them, as
there are everywhere--women whom even India can’t spoil; but what with
exclusiveness, and with the amount of admiration and adulation they get,
and what with the want of occupation for their thoughts and minds, it is
very hard for them to avoid getting spoilt.”
“Well, I hope I shan’t get spoilt, Doctor; and I hope, if you see that I
am getting spoilt, you will make a point of telling me so at once.”
The Doctor grunted. “Theoretically, people are always ready to receive
good advice, Miss Hannay; practically they are always offended by
it. However, in your case I will risk it, and I am bound to say that
hitherto you have proved yourself more amenable in that way than most
young women I have come across.”
“And now, if we have done, we will go out on the veranda,” the Major
said. “I am sure the Doctor must be dying for a cheroot.”
“The Doctor has smoked pretty continuously since we left Allahabad,”
Isobel said. “He wanted to sit up with the driver, but, of course, I
would not have that. I had got pretty well accustomed to smoke coming
out, and even if I had not been I would much rather have been almost
suffocated than have been in there by myself. I thought a dozen times
the vehicle was going to upset, and what with the bumping and the
shouting and the cracking of the whip--especially when the horses
wouldn’t start, which was generally the case at first--I should have
been frightened out of my life had I been alone. It seemed to me that
something dreadful was always going to happen.”
“You can take it easy this morning, Isobel,” the Major said, when they
were comfortably seated in the bamboo lounges in the veranda. “You want
have any callers today, as it will be known you traveled all night.
People will imagine that you want a quiet day before you are on show.”
“What a horrid expression, uncle!”
“Well, my dear, it represents the truth. The arrival of a fresh lady
from England, especially of a ‘spin,’ which is short for spinster or
unmarried woman, is an event of some importance in an Indian station.
Not, of course, so much in a place like this, because this is the center
of a large district, but in a small station it is an event of the first
importance. The men are anxious to see what a newcomer is like for
herself; the women, to look at her dresses and see the latest fashions
from home, and also to ascertain whether she is likely to turn out a
formidable rival. However, today you can enjoy quiet; tomorrow you
must attire yourself in your most becoming costume, and I will trot you
round.”
“Trot me round, uncle?”
“Yes, my dear. In India the order of procedure is reversed, and
newcomers call in the first place upon residents.”
“What a very unpleasant custom, uncle; especially as some of the
residents may not want to know them.”
“Well, everyone must know everyone else in a station, my dear, though
they may not wish to be intimate. So, about half past one tomorrow we
will start.”
“What, in the heat of the day, uncle?”
“Yes, my dear. That is another of the inscrutable freaks of Indian
fashion. The hours for calling are from about half past twelve to half
past two, just in the hottest hours. I don’t pretend to account for it.”
“How many ladies are there in the regiment?”
“There is the Colonel’s wife, Mrs. Cromarty. She has two grown up red
headed girls,” replied the Doctor. “She is a distant relation--a second
cousin--of some Scotch lord or other, and, on the strength of that and
her husband’s colonelcy, gives herself prodigious airs. Three of the
captains are married. Mrs. Doolan is a merry little Irish woman. You
will like her. She has two or three children. She is a general favorite
in the regiment.
“Mrs. Rintoul--I suppose she is here still, Major, and unchanged? Ah, I
thought so. She is a washed-out woman, without a spark of energy in her
composition.-’ She believes that she is a chronic invalid, and sends
for me on an average once a week. But there is nothing really the matter
with her, if she would but only believe it. Mrs. Roberts--”
“Don’t be ill natured, Doctor,” the Major broke in. “Mrs. Roberts, my
dear, is a good-looking woman, and a general flirt. I don’t think there
is any harm in her whatever. Mrs. Prothero, the Adjutant’s wife, has
only been out here eighteen months, and is a pretty little woman, and in
all respects nice.-There is only one other, Mrs. Scarsdale; she came out
six months ago. She is a quiet young woman, with, I should say, plenty
of common sense: I should think you will like her. That completes the
regimental list.”
“Well, that is not so very formidable. Anyhow, it is a. comfort that we
shall have no one here today.”
“You will have the whole regiment here in a few minutes, Isobel, but
they will be coming to see the Doctor, not you; if it hadn’t been that
they knew you were under his charge everyone would have come down to
meet him when he arrived. But if you feel tired, as I am sure you must
be after your journey, there is no reason why you shouldn’t go and lie
down quietly for a few hours.”
“I will stop here, uncle; it will be much less embarrassing to see them
all for the first time when they come to see Dr. Wade and I am quite a
secondary consideration, than if they had to come specially to call on
me.”
“Well, I agree with you there, my dear. Ah! here come Doolan and
Prothero.”
A light trap drove into the inclosure and drew up in front of the
veranda, and two officers jumped down,-whilst the syce, who had been
standing on a step behind, ran to the horse’s head. They hailed the
Doctor, as he stepped out from the veranda, with a shout.
“Glad to see you back, Doctor. The regiment has not seemed like itself
without you.”
“We have been just pining without you, Doctor,” Captain Doolan said;
“and the ladies would have got up a deputation to meet you on your
arrival, only I told them that it would be too much for your modesty.”
“Well, it is a good thing that someone has a little of that quality in
the regiment, Doolan,” the Doctor said, as he shook hands heartily with
them both. “It is very little of it that fell to the share of Ireland
when it was served out.”
As they dropped the Doctor’s hand the Major said, “Now, gentlemen, let
me introduce you to my niece.” The introductions were made, and the
whole party took chairs on the veranda.
“Do you object to smoking, Miss Hannay; perhaps you have not got
accustomed to it yet? I see the Doctor is-smoking; but then he is a
privileged person, altogether beyond rule.”
“I rather like it in the open air,” Isobel said. “No doubt I shall get
accustomed to it indoors before long.”
In a few minutes four or five more of the officers arrived, and Isobel
sat an amused listener to the talk; taking but little part in it
herself, but gathering a good deal of information as to the people at
the station from the answers given to the Doctor’s inquiries. It was
very much like the conversation on board ship, except that the topics of
conversation were wider and more numerous, and there was a community
of interest wanting on board a ship. In half an hour, however, the
increasing warmth and her sleepless night began to tell upon her, and
her uncle, seeing that she was beginning to look fagged, said, “The best
thing that you can do, Isobel, is to go indoors for a bit, and have a
good nap. At five o’clock I will take you round for a drive, and show
you the sights of Cawnpore.”
“I do feel sleepy,” she said, “though it sounds rude to say so.”
“Not at all,” the Doctor put in; “if any of these young fellows had made
the journey out from Allahabad in that wretched gharry, they would have
turned into bed as soon as they arrived, and would not have got up till
the first mess bugle sounded, and very likely would have slept on until
next morning.
“Now,” he went on, when Isobel had disappeared, “we will adjourn with
you to the mess-house. That young lady would have very small chance of
getting to sleep with all this racket here. Doolan’s voice alone would
banish sleep anywhere within a distance of a hundred yards.”
“I will join you there later, Doctor,” the Major said. “I have got a
couple of hours’ work in the orderly-room. Rumzan, don’t let my niece be
disturbed, but if she wakes and rings the bell send up a message by the
woman that I-shall not be back until four.”
The Major walked across to the orderly room, while the rest, mounting
their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a quarter of a mile
away.
“I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to our
circle, Doctor,” the Adjutant said. “I don’t know why, but I gathered
from what the Major said that his niece was very young. He spoke of her
as if she were quite a child.”
“She is a very nice, sensible young woman,” the Doctor said; “clever and
bright, and, as you can see for your-selves, pretty, and yet no nonsense
about her. I only hope that she won’t get spoilt here; nineteen out of
twenty young women do get spoilt within six months of their arrival in
India, but I think she will be one of the exceptions.”
“I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon,” Captain
Doolan laughed; “he would have been a brave man who would have attempted
even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his charge.”
“That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?” the Doctor said sharply. “I
should have thought that even your common sense would have told you that
anyone who has had the misfortune to see as much of womankind as I have
would have been aware that any endeavor to check a flirtation for which
they are inclined would be of all others the way to induce them to go in
for it headlong. You are a married man yourself, and ought to know that.
A woman is a good deal like a spirited horse; let her have her head,
and, though she may for a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go
straight, and settle down to her collar in time, whereas if you keep a
tight curb she will fret and fidget, and as likely as not make a
bolt for it. I can assure you that my duties were of The most nominal
description. There were the usual number of hollow pated lads on board,
who buzzed in their usual feeble way round Miss Hannay, and were one
after another duly snubbed. Miss Hannay has plenty of spirits, and a
considerable sense of humor, and I think that she enjoyed the voyage
thoroughly. And now let us talk of something else.”
After an hour’s chat the Doctor started on his round of calls upon the
ladies; the Major had not come in from the orderly room, and, after the
Doctor left, Isobel Hannay was again the topic of conversation.
“She is out and out the prettiest girl in the station,” the Adjutant
said to some of the officers who had not seen her. “She will make quite
a sensation; and there are five or six ladies in the station, whose
names I need hardly mention, who will not be very pleased at her coming.
She is thoroughly in good form, too; nothing in the slightest degree
fast or noisy about her. She is quiet and self-possessed. I fancy she
will be able to hold her own against any of them. Clever? I should say
‘certainly’; but, of course, that is from her face rather than from
anything she said. I expect half the unmarried men in the station will
be going wild over her. You need not look so interested, Wilson; the
matter is of no more personal interest to you than if I were describing
a new comet. Nothing less than a big civilian is likely to carry off
such a prize, so I warn you beforehand you had better not be losing your
heart to her.”
“Well, you know, Prothero, subalterns do manage to get wives sometimes.”
There was a laugh.
“That is true enough, Wilson; but then, you see, I married at home;
besides, I am adjutant, which sounds a lot better than subaltern.”
“That may go for a good deal in the regiment,” Wilson retorted, “but
I doubt if there are many women that know the difference between
an adjutant and a quartermaster. They know about colonels, majors,
captains, and even subalterns; but if you were to say that you were an
adjutant they would be simply mystified, though they might understand if
you said bandmaster. But I fancy sergeant major would sound ever so much
more imposing.”
“Wilson, if you are disrespectful, I shall discover tomorrow, on parade,
that No. 3 Company wants a couple of hours’ extra drill badly, and then
you will feel how grievous a mistake it is to cheek an adjutant.”
The report of those who had called at the Major’s was so favorable that
curiosity was quite roused as to the new-comer, and when the Major drove
round with her the next day everyone was at home, and the verdict on
the part of the ladies was generally favorable, but was by no means so
unqualified as that of the gentlemen.
Mrs. Cromarty admitted that she was nice looking; but was critical as
to her carriage and manner. She would be admired by young officers, no
doubt, but there was too much life and animation about her, and although
she would not exactly say that she stooped, she was likely to do so in
time.
“She will be nothing remarkable when her freshness has worn off a
little.”
In this opinion the Misses Cromarty thoroughly assented. They had never
been accused of stooping, and, indeed, were almost painfully upright,
and were certainly not particularly admired by subalterns.
Mrs. Doolan was charmed with her, and told her she hoped that they would
be great friends.
“This is a very pleasant life out here, my dear,” she said, “if one does
but take it in the right way. There is a great deal of tittle tattle in
the Indian stations, and some quarreling; but, you know, it takes two to
make a quarrel, and I make it a point never to quarrel with anyone. It
is too hot for it. Then, you see, I have the advantage of being Irish,
and, for some reason or other that I don’t understand we can say pretty
nearly what we like. People don’t take us seriously, you know; so I keep
in with them all.”
Mrs. Rintoul received her visitors on the sofa. “It is quite refreshing
to see a face straight from England, Miss Hannay. I only hope that you
may keep your bright color and healthy looks. Some people do. Not their
color, but their health. Unfortunately I am not one of them. I do not
know what it is to have a day’s health. The climate completely oppresses
me, and I am fit for nothing. You would hardly believe that I was as
strong and healthy as you are when I first came out. You came out with
Dr. Wade--a clever man--I have a very high opinion of his talent, but my
case is beyond him. It is a sad annoyance to him that it is so, and
he is continually trying to make me believe that there is nothing the
matter with me, as if my looks did not speak for themselves.”
Mrs. Rintoul afterwards told her husband she could hardly say that she
liked Miss Hannay.
“She is distressingly brisk and healthy, and I should say, my dear, not
of a sympathetic nature, which is always a pity in a young woman.”
After this somewhat depressing visit, the call upon Mrs. Roberts was a
refreshing one. She received her very cordially.
“I like you, Miss Hannay,” she said, when, after a quarter of an hour’s
lively talk, the Major and his niece got up to go. “I always say what I
think, and it is very good natured of me to say so, for I don’t disguise
from myself that you will put my nose out of joint.”
“I don’t want to put anyone’s nose out of joint,” Isobel laughed.
“You will do it, whether you want to or not,” Mrs. Roberts said; “my
husband as much as told me so last night, and I was prepared not to like
you, but I see that I shall not be able to help doing so. Major Hannay,
you have dealt me a heavy blow, but I forgive you.”
When the round of visits was finished the Major said, “Well, Isobel,
what do you think of the ladies of the regiment?”
“I think they are all very nice, uncle. I fancy I shall like Mrs.
Doolan and Mrs. Scarsdale best; I won’t give any opinion yet about Mrs.
Cromarty.”