Peter shook his head. "I've never noticed it myself--you really must be mistaken. What would I be doing with lavender?" "It was there all the same," Mrs. Crosbie continued. "I'm certain of it. You must have got some from somewhere. Do find out--I'm sure I'm not wrong. Ask your boy." Peter said something to Lalkhan, who explained volubly. Tom Crosbie grinned; he understood even fluent Hindustani. His wife did not. Peter looked a little uncomfortable. Lalkhan salaamed and left the room. "Well?" Mrs. Crosbie asked. "It seems," Peter said slowly, "there _is_ something among the sheets. I've sent Lalkhan to get it." Lalkhan returned, bearing a salver, and laid on the salver was one of Jan's lavender bags. He presented it solemnly to his master, who with almost equal solemnity handed it to Mrs. Crosbie. "There!" she said. "Of course I knew I couldn't be mistaken. Now where did you get it?" "It was, I suppose, put among the things when poor Mrs. Tancred had the flat. I never noticed, of course--it's such an unobtrusive sort of smell...." "Hadn't she a sister?" Mrs. Crosbie asked, curiously, holding the little sachet against her soft cheek and looking very hard at Peter. "She had. It was she who took the children home, you know." "Older or younger than Mrs. Tancred?" "Older." "How much older?" "I really don't know," said the mendacious Peter. "Was she awfully pretty, too?" "Again, I really don't know. I never thought about her looks ... she had grey hair...." "Oh!" Mrs. Crosbie exclaimed--a deeply disappointed "Oh." "Probably much older, then. That explains the lavender bags." Silent Thomas Crosbie looked from his wife to Peter with considerable amusement. He realised, if she didn't, that Peter was most successfully putting her off the scent of more than lavender; but men are generally loyal to each other in these matters, and he suddenly took his part in the conversation and changed the subject. Among Peter's orders to his butler that morning was one to the effect that nothing the Miss-Sahib had arranged in the bungalow was to be disturbed, and the lavender bag was returned to rejoin its fellows in the cupboard. It was four years since Peter had had any leave, and it appeared that the lavender had the same effect upon him as upon Mrs. Crosbie. He felt homesick--and applied for leave in May. CHAPTER XII "THE BEST-LAID SCHEMES" Peter had been as good as his word, and had found a family returning to India who were glad to take Ayah back to Bombay. And she, though sorry to leave Jan and the children, acquiesced in all arrangements made for her with the philosophic patience of the East. March was a cold month, and she was often rather miserable, in spite of her pride in her shoes and stockings and the warm clothes Jan had provided for her. Before she left Jan interviewed her new mistress and found her kind and sensible, and an old campaigner who had made the voyage innumerable times.