This was the work of his uncle, he was convinced; but he did not express his thoughts aloud. He thanked Mrs. Hulver for her kindly offices and sat down to wait. She gave him a book to read, and did her best to make him feel at ease. "You stay and dine with me. A good hot square meal will do you no harm. It will be cooked by myself in the verandah and it will be ready soon after twelve--hot soup, fried fish, vegetable curry and stewed guavas; and we will eat it here in this room. As William--that was my first husband--used to say: 'Better be in at the end of a feast than the beginning of a fight'--and a losing fight it will be for you, Mr. Ananda, if you get among those boys in their present temper." CHAPTER XIV A surprise was in store for Mrs. Hulver the next morning in the shape of a telegram from her son. He had arrived at Bangalore, and he proposed taking three days' leave to pay his mother a visit at once. Her head was fairly turned with delight, and she hurried off to tell the good news to her young mistress. She thrust the telegram into Eola's hand. "Read it, miss. You will have to go through it two or three times before you can take it all in; at least, I had to do so; but then I'm flurried; and as William--that was my second--used to say: 'Flurry never fires straight!'" "Can we manage to put him up?" asked Eola, wondering whether she ought to offer her pretty spare room to the young corporal. "Quite easily, miss. A camp bed in my sitting-room will do nicely." "Are you sure that you would not like the spare room for him----" Mrs. Hulver interrupted her with a gesture of horror. "A common soldier in the spare room, miss! and the room just done up, too! No, indeed! A missionary may use it if he is a friend of the house; but Dr. Wenaston should not stoop any lower. With the new curtains and carpet the room is fit for the Governor himself. As William--that was my third--used to say: 'The finest trappings in the world don't alter the breed of a horse.' My son may look very smart in his corporal's uniform, but for all that he's only the son of a man in the ranks." Eola's delicate sense of hospitality was not satisfied. With the spare room empty she felt that the door should not be shut against an Englishman, whose character was perfectly respectable, but whose rank differed from her own. "If it is inconvenient to you to have him in the sitting-room, I should be very pleased to let him use the spare room," she said.