After dinner that same evening Alderbury sat in the verandah with Eola and her brother. The end of the verandah was enclosed with a trellis over which creepers were trained. From the roof hung a lantern that shed a subdued light. If Eola desired to work or her brother to read, a lamp was brought and placed upon a table. This evening the lamp was not required. While the servants waited at table, Alderbury could not speak of the subject uppermost in his mind. No sooner had the coffee been handed round and the cigars lighted, than Ananda's name was brought up, and he described his visit to the convert. The chief thing accomplished was the moral support he had been able to give to the convert. He devoutly hoped that it would sustain Ananda until something could be effected to improve his condition. All that had happened since his return home was quite sufficient in itself to induce depression; and there was always a danger lest depression should be followed by apostacy. "I want your help, Wenaston," said Alderbury suddenly. "You shall have it," the other responded without hesitation. "You promise without knowing what it is." "You want to borrow the motor-car. It shall be ready at sunrise to-morrow. I can't drive you myself, much as I should like it. I haven't time. The chauffeur will take you where you want to go." "I shall be very grateful. The car transforms travelling from purgatory to pure delight. It was not the car, however, that was in my mind. I want something else--help for Ananda. His money won't hold out a week longer, and then it will be in the power of his people to starve him." "He will have to take food from his pariah servant--a practical beginning of his education in the brotherhood of man," remarked Wenaston. "Lately no food of any description has been sent to his room. Unless I am very much mistaken the supply will stop altogether." "And his father will give him no money?" "I am sure of that." "What are Ananda's rights as a son? Can't he claim assistance and support from his nearest relatives by his caste laws?" "If he were still a member of the Hindu religion he could claim house-room, food and clothing from his father. These benefits are conceded by the unwritten law of caste custom. Having abandoned his faith and become an outcaste, he loses all his rights legal and social." "Are you sure?" "Quite certain. I called on the chief lawyer in the town on my way back to find out what his position really was--the reason I was late for tea, Miss Wenaston--and from him I learned the law regarding converts to Christianity as it stands in the native State." "Is it different from the law in British India?"