“And you found your partner pleasant?--a rising young civilian. I nursed him through typhoid, and I know him well. He draws twelve hundred a month. If you married him you would take the _pas_ of Mrs. Langrishe.” “Dear Auntie,” bursting out into a peal of laughter, “how funny you are! I am not going to marry any one; you must deliver me at home a single young woman.” “What nonsense! However,” as if struck by a happy thought, “you might be engaged and still single; I saw you talking to Sir Gloster----” “Yes, he is rather agreeable--he was telling me about his tour among the old cities of the Deccan. And----” “And I noticed Miss Lalla trying to put in _her_ spoon. What a pushing little monkey she is--her aunt’s very double!” * * * * * To show her penitence, instead of the letter she had threatened--which lay like a nightmare on poor Mrs. Loyd--Mrs. Brande sent restitution the next day in the form of a dozen pine-apples and a basket of fresh eggs. They were gladly accepted as peace-offerings, and Mrs. Loyd heard no more about “the table of precedence.” CHAPTER XIX. LET US TELL THE TRUTH. A month had elapsed, and Shirani was as full and as gay as Miss Paske had predicted--there were dinners, dances, balls, theatricals, and picnics. Visitors had shaken down into sets, and discovered whom they liked and whom they did not like. In a short hill season there is no time to waste on long-drawn-out overtures to acquaintance; besides, in India, society changes so rapidly, and has so many mutual friends--the result of so many different moves--that people know each other as intimately in six months as they would in six years in England. There were “sets” in Shirani, though not aggressively defined: the acting and musical set, which numbered as stars Miss Paske and Mr. Joy; also Captain Dashwood, of the Dappled Hussars; Mrs. Rolland, who had once been a matchless actress, but was now both deaf and quarrelsome; and many other lesser lights. Then there was the “smart” set, headed by Mrs. Langrishe, who wore dresses more suitable to Ascot than the Hymalayas; drank tea with each other, dined with each other--talked peerage, and discussed London gossip; looked down on many of their neighbours, and spoke of them as being “scarcely human,” and were altogether quite painfully exclusive. There was the “fast” set--men who played high at the club, betted on races in England (per wire); enjoyed big nights and bear fights, and occasionally went down without settling their club account! And even Mrs. Brande had a set--yes, positively her own little circle for the first time in her life--and was a proud and happy woman. “It made a wonderful difference having a girl in the house,” she remarked at least twice a day to “P.,” and “P.,” strange to say, received the well-worn observation without a sarcastic rejoinder.