“I thought you would say that,” she laughed. “It was quite the proper thing to say, Captain Forster; but I have no doubt it does seem longer to you than it does to me as you have been home since.” “We are all here,” the Major broke in. “Captain Forster, will you take my niece in?” “I suppose you find this very dull after Cawnpore, Miss Hannay?” Captain Forster asked. “Indeed I do not,” Isobel said. “I like it better here; everything is sociable and pleasant, while at Cawnpore there was much more formality. Of course, there were lots of dinner parties, but I don’t care for large dinner parties at all; it is so hot, and they last such a time. I think six is quite large enough. Then there is a general talk, and everyone can join in just as much as they like, while at a large dinner you have to rely entirely upon one person, and I think it is very hard work having to talk for an hour and a half to a stranger of whom you know nothing. Don’t you agree with me?” “Entirely, Miss Hannay; I am a pretty good hand at talking, but at times I have found it very hard work, I can assure you, especially when you take down a stranger to the station, so that you have no mutual acquaintance to pull to pieces.” The dinner was bright and pleasant, and when the evening was over Isobel said to her uncle, “I think Captain Forster is very amusing, uncle.” “Yes,” the Major agreed, “he is a good talker, a regular society man; he is no great favorite of mine; I think he will be a little too much for us in a small station like this.” “How do you mean too much, uncle?” The Major hesitated. “Well, he won’t have much to do with his troop of horse, and time will hang heavy on his hands.” “Well, there is shooting, uncle.” “Yes, there is shooting, but I don’t think that is much in his line. Tiffins and calls, and society generally occupy most of his time, I fancy, and I think he is fonder of billiards and cards than is good for him or others. Of course, being here by himself, as he is, we must do our best to be civil to him, and that sort of thing, but if we were at Cawnpore he is a man I should not care about being intimate in the house.” “I understand, uncle; but certainly he is pleasant.” “Oh, yes, he is very pleasant,” the Major said dryly, in a tone that seemed to express that Forster’s power of making himself pleasant was by no means a recommendation in his eyes. But Captain Forster had apparently no idea whatever that his society could be anything but welcome, and called the next day after luncheon. “I have been leaving my pasteboard at all the residents,” he said; “not a very large circle. Of course, I knew Mrs. Rintoul at Delhi, as well as Mrs. Doolan. I did not know any of the others. They seem pleasant people.” “They are very pleasant,” Isobel said. “I left one for a man named Bathurst. He was out. Is that the Bathurst, Major Hannay, who was in a line regiment--I forget its number--and left very suddenly in the middle of the fighting in the Punjaub?”