She kissed him lightly on the forehead. "I will think and remember the whole time," she reassured him. "You needn't feel one bit afraid. I shall have heaps to do without bothering about men. I'm going to hem dozens of dusters, and the Padre's wife has promised to teach me no end of cooking, so I shall keep her to her word. You'll be back before I can turn round." "How can I leave you?" he said, with passionate reluctance. She laid on the breakfast-table a piece of paper she had brought from the bungalow. "Here's a telegraph form," she announced cheerily, "and my fountain-pen. I'm going to write out the wire for you. What shall I say?" She shifted her position and began to trace the words: "'Accept with many thanks starting soon as possible.' How's that?" "Well," he said grudgingly, "I suppose I'd better go." "You _are_ going," Trixie told him; "and when you are there you will bless your wife for making you go." She referred to Markham's letter and added the address. Then she rose and summoned with a call a lurking orderly, and gave him the form, with some money hitherto secreted in the palm of her hand. "Take that to the post office," she commanded him in halting Hindustani. In silence they watched the man leave the compound with alert, important progress, and Coventry gave a sigh of resignation. "You young bully!" he said in mock reproach. "You old idiot!" she retorted, laughing, and bustled back to grapple with her housekeeping. CHAPTER X THE RIVER After that there followed a period of unusual activity in the Coventry's bungalow. Guns and rifles were overhauled, ammunition ordered, boxes and cupboards were ransacked for garments suited to the jungle. Trixie entered keenly into all the preparations. She seldom did anything by halves; and she might almost have been joining in the expedition herself so lively was her interest in every detail. She asked endless questions concerning camps and elephants and tigers, and she listened breathless to all that George could tell her of the fascinations of the jungle. She dragged books on sport from the musty shelves of the club library, and read them with genuine enjoyment during two long, hot afternoons. Coventry to the last was more or less reluctant to leave her; but she ignored his hesitation, and when the hour of departure came she drove with him gaily to the railway station, and with a cheerful, smiling face saw him off by the night mail.