"Yes, you are," he said laughing. "All boys going out are. I was. But don't expect too much, my lad," he continued coldly. "There are grand and lovely bits of scenery, and times when the place looks too beautiful for earth; but, to balance this, deserts and storms, terrible rains, and dust borne on winds that seem as if they had come from the mouth of a furnace. There are times, too, when the state of the atmosphere affects your nerves, and life seems to be unendurable." "It doesn't sound very cheerful," I said bitterly. "No; and I am acting like a wet blanket to you," he said, with a sad smile. "But you will do your duty, and make friends, and it is not such a bad life after all." There was another silence, and I waited in vain for him to speak. "What regiment are you in, sir?" I said at last, as he stood with his back to me, as if wrapped in thought. "I?" he said, starting, and looking round. "Oh, I am in the artillery-- the horse artillery. I thought you would know." I shook my head. "We may run against each other sometimes out yonder; but it is a great country, and you may be stationed hundreds of miles away." "I hope so," I thought. "Rather a rough time to come for you, my lad," he said, with what I took to be a cynical smile; "but you will soon get used to the noise of the guns." "Of course," I said coldly. "Tell me more about the country. There are plenty of tigers, I suppose?" "Oh yes, but far more mosquitoes." "Well, I know that," I said. "You have never seen one, I suppose?" "No." "Then don't make the same mistake as the Irish private's wife at Madras." "What was that?" I said. "It is an old story that you may not have heard. She was on shipboard, and eagerly listening to an old sergeant's wife who had been there before; and this woman told her that one of the great troubles of the country was the mosquito. `An' what's a moskayto?' said the Irishwoman. `Oh, a horrid creature with a long trunk, and it plunges it into you, and sucks your blood.' At last they reached the coast, and the young Irishwoman was eagerly watching the shore with its troops of turbaned natives, palanquins, and mounted men, till suddenly a train of elephants came in sight, steadily nodding their heads and waving their trunks. The young Irishwoman drew a long deep breath, and looked as if she would never see home again, and the old sergeant's wife asked her what was the matter. `Oh,' she said, in a hoarse whisper, `is thim moskaytoes?'" Captain Brace appeared so different as he told me this little old anecdote, that I felt as if I should like him after all; but the light died out of his face again, and he looked at me in a troubled way, as if vexed with himself for having been so frivolous. "How long have you been back home?" I said, so as to keep up the conversation, for it was miserable to sit there in the silence. "Six months," he said gravely. "That's a good long holiday," I said merrily.