Mrs. Hulver's reply was to the effect that it should be as Miss Wenaston pleased. Ten minutes later the housekeeper might have been seen, in a huge mushroom topee and with a large white umbrella, crossing the compound in the direction of the camping-ground chosen by Alderbury's driver and servant. In the afternoon business took her to the town to make some purchases for young William, she explained to Ramachetty. CHAPTER XXV "How have you been getting on lately?" asked Eola as she sank into a cane lounge in the verandah. Alderbury stopped in his perambulation, gathered up a number of letters lying on the table where the tea was usually spread and made them into a neat packet. None of them required an immediate answer; they could all wait until he reached home. He intended to make the most of his one day's holiday. He had the whole morning before him; Wenaston was engaged till lunch, and Eola presumably had nothing to do but entertain her guest. It was a pleasant prospect, and he was conscious of a sense of luxury that did not often enter his life. He revelled in the unwonted leisure of the hour and took his time to reply. He seated himself in a chair by her side, and half turned so that he might have a full view of her face against the green creeper-covered trellis that shut in the end of the verandah. "I have a fair share of trouble balanced by some satisfaction." "Converts been doing anything very naughty lately?" He laughed in kindly fashion. In his large sympathetic soul he held his people dear, from the blackest little ball of a baby brought to him for baptism to the white-haired old woman; who persisted in calling him father though she was twice his age. "It is rather like having a very large nursery or school of children," he said. "Some of them are so good and others----" "Are up to tricks," Eola concluded for him. "Only between us confidentially." They both laughed in a way that showed a mutual understanding and not a little sympathy on the part of the woman, not so much for his work as for himself personally. "Do tell me their latest," she said softly. "It is not for publication. On your honour you won't give me and my people away to a missionary magazine?" "I promise." "Let me whisper my troubles in your ear, then. I have had a bother over a bell tower. Four months ago I sent five hundred rupees that I had collected for the purpose to the native pastor in charge of the little church at Ramapet; and I solemnly enjoined on him by letter the necessity of beginning the building of the tower at once. I have been to see it." "You have found that they have put up a glorified steeple, I suppose, costing twice as much as the sum you sent." "Wrong, dear lady, entirely wrong! The bell tower surrounds the property on which the church stands in the form of a wall; and in the corner of the compound is a new well." "What has become of the bell?"