remembrance poured in from what Mrs. Brande was wont to term “her boys.” She (_very_ low be it whispered) was fond of young men! She liked Mark Jervis particularly, and would gladly have enrolled him in her brigade; for her boys were not merely Indian civilians--she had her recruits in the police, the opium department, the army, and the law. This friendless young Englishman actually held out against notes (or chits), messages, even visits, and steadily refused to “come and be nursed.” His cousin was more at home these latter days; he was packing and preparing for a move. “I say, Mark,” he said, “your wrist will be all right in about ten days, so Kane says. I advise you to think better of it, and follow on to Simla. It’s a ripping place--very different to dead-and-alive Shirani--I must go to-morrow, you know. I’ve promised to escort Mrs. Atherton and Miss Potter; the roads between this and the station are broken, and they are in a deadly fright. We shall do the whole journey together, and I have now only to ask and have.” “That is satisfactory, but as far as I’m concerned I’m a fixture here,” replied Mark, “and you know why. I wrote to my father again urgently, and told him that time was flying, that I was going back in October, but I would wait here till then.” “So you may! I know the style your father is, Mark. He is a man who has lived so long out here, he has become fossilized--nothing outside India appeals to him, not even his son. There are dozens like him; the easy-going life has penetrated to their very bones. He has his well-trained servants, his excellent food and liquor, his cheroots or his huka, his _Pioneer_, his long armchair, his pet grievance; he wants no more, least of all a smart young chap, with all sorts of advanced _fin-de-siècle_ ideas, to come and rout him out.” “This is a fancy sketch, Clarence.” “Well, grant it! I will draw you a true portrait from life, and I could draw you half a dozen.” “We will have one to begin with--don’t be too long about it, for I have promised to meet Scrope at four o’clock sharp; and I see Dum Sing waiting with the grey pony.”