"Cannot say that I do! How are you getting along, Jimmy?" "Oh, all right. The pater thought he was sending me to penal servitude, but it's rather jolly. They are not a bad lot--these Muffineers--awfully sporting, but it's a rotten regiment. However, the duty is easy." "How do you kill time?" "Oh, there's polo, and squash rackets, some fair shooting--duck and snipe, partridge; quite a lot of small game----" "And no other game?--eh, Jimmy? Sport was never in your line. Piccadilly, Hurlingham, the theatres and halls, used to be your orbit." "Oh, I put in my days all right, though the climate undermines my moral character, and I eat enormously, and sleep many hours. When the hot weather comes, I'll trek for the hills!" "Ah--I hope you won't get into mischief there. Had your father consulted _me_, I should have told him he was turning you out of the frying-pan into the fire!" "Bah! the pater is only terrified that I should marry, that's all. No one marries in India--we carry on----" "Oh, do you? And--what about Mrs. de Lacy? Have you dropped her?" "I wish to goodness she'd drop _me_, Malcolm!" declaiming with uplifted hand and cigarette. "The pater was right there, though I'm the last man to tell him so! Nita is awfully up-to-date--plays bridge like a book, smokes like a chimney, has a ripping good figure--but twelve years, you know--I say, come, it's a good bit of a start, eh?" "On the wrong side--yes. Uncle Horace wrote me a raving letter--he has a tremendous idea of what he calls 'A suitable alliance.' I fancy I see him and your father together at the club, wagging their heads over your 'case.' I bet your Uncle Horace prescribed India----" "He has never been out, eh?" and Jimmy grinned significantly from ear to ear. "Well, I can't say I bear the old boy a grudge. I'm glad I came. Every one does India now; the Taj is as familiar as Charing Cross. I've been here four months--and the days have just slid along. I've had a blazing good time!" "Ahem! Then--James--I'm much afraid you're at your old games. And yet--there are not many women of your style in the station----" "That's true, oh, observant sage! Find the lady? By the way"--giving the conversation a sudden twist, "what are you doing to-day?" "I don't quite know. Mrs. Chandos--asked me to tiffin----" "What infernal cheek!" half sitting up; "you are not going to be such an ass as to give yourself away like that. If you do, she will nail you. Who enters there, leaves hope behind." "What do you mean----?" "Oh, you know--and you know too, that it's no good hankering after that girl--not a little bit. I grant you she is handsome and ladylike, but--keep her relations well in your mind's eyes. Think of the future cousins in the bazaars." "Oh, you be hanged! Of course you have never been near the place?"