errupted Mrs. Milward impatiently, "but she has
no way of getting about. Krauss takes the car and is away in it all
day. I gather that he has the strict German idea about a girl's being
brought up to cook, to sew, to slave, to find _all_ her interests in
her home! In fact, he told me so plainly; he also added that he had
paid for Sophy's passage and implied that he intended to have the worth
of his money--his pound of flesh!"

"Brute!" ejaculated Shafto.

"Agreed! I have enlisted one friend for the poor child. Polly
Gregory--she is so clever, clear-headed and decided, and will be a rock
of strength--she is sure to like Sophy, eh?"

"Oh yes, that will be all right!"

"I put in a good word for you too, Master Douglas."

"That was kind," and he swept off his straw hat.

"I wonder if that's meant sarcastic? Perhaps you think good wine needs
no bush? Yes, and I've told Polly I knew you as a boy--and how,
instead of quill-driving, you hoped to wear a sword."

"Hope told a flattering tale," he answered with a laugh. "Don't forget
that the pen is the mightier of the two."

"No," she dissented; "I back the sword, though it's rarely drawn now,
thank goodness. Well, I've said my say and given you my impressions
and instructions; we must go back and join the _Burra Mems_. I shall
write to you from Mandalay and see you later, when I pass through to
Calcutta. Now you had better go and try to get a set of tennis," and,
with a wave of adieu, Mrs. Milward strolled away across the grass, an
attractive personality with her fresh complexion, soft round face, dark
pencilled brows, and bewitching mauve toilet--which toilet was
subsequently tabooed by her daughter as "too young"!

"George," said Mrs. Gregory to her husband, "that new importation is a
nice boy; Milly Milward has known him since he was in blouses; he has
had rather hard luck; his father was swindled out of a comfortable
fortune, and he has to turn to and earn his bread."

"What we all do!" growled George.

"Yes, but some ways are so much more agreeable than others. His
profession was to have been along the path of glory."

"What is that?"

"Why, the Army, of course."

"And now his profession is checking inventories and cargoes. As he is
new to the business, he will have his hands fairly full for the next
few months; so, my dear Polly, don't turn his head just _yet_."

"As if I ever turned anybody's head."

"I cannot answer for others, but you ce