“You really had nothing to do with his going to Egypt? I was told to-day, on the very best authority, that you had sent him off because Evangeline—you know those young wives—they can’t bear anyone even to look at their husbands, can they? Do you know, I thought she was quite strange in her manner one evening at our house when he would talk to me all the time about India. We said something about the heat, and I remember I thought to myself, ‘Yes, my dear boy, you would find it very hot indeed out there with a wife who looks after you with those eyes!’ Why, half the women at any station would run after him on purpose, if they saw she was jealous.” “Yes,—women!” said Mrs. Vachell. “How these Christians love one another, don’t they? We are a very united sex when we are running with the hounds to show what the hare can do to please them.” “Then it really wasn’t you who made him go to Egypt?” Mrs. Carpenter persisted. “No. I am very much flattered at being mistaken for the War Office, but it wasn’t me. I should like to take the credit for ridding the country of the dullest regiment in England, but I am afraid I can’t truthfully.” “That is very sarcastic of you, dear Amy, but I know you don’t like soldiers,” said Mrs. Carpenter affectionately. “You have never mixed with them enough to know how honest and simple they are. What do you think of General Fulton, though, really and truly? He is an odd sort of man, isn’t he? I get on with him very well because I love his humour and we have great arguments together, but I know he is not popular as a rule. He is very naughty in the things he says to her sometimes, and she never seems to see. Emmie Trotter doesn’t like her at all; she thinks she is not genuine, but I don’t think that. I think she is perfectly sincere in the work she does but I don’t think she is business-like. Someone told me that Evan Hatton is coming back and going into business. Had you heard of it?” “Yes, I had heard that,” said Mrs. Vachell. “And Teresa has given up her work with Emma and is going to study unemployment from the most favourable standpoint, by having nothing to do. She is very lucky, I think, though I couldn’t do it myself.” “You mean you don’t care for the Varens’?” “I know nothing about them one way or the other. He used to be in and out of the University, I don’t know what for; learning to make chemical manures perhaps; but I never saw much of him. He belongs to what Mrs. Harding calls the ‘polo set’ and they don’t interest me.”