sture,
"she has been with me for more than a fortnight, and this is the first
time she has been beyond Kokine. It is all my fault; she has had such
a lot of housekeeping to see to and take over, and she is such a
delightful companion that I have not been able to bear her out of my
sight."

"But, dear Mrs. Krauss, we cannot allow you to appropriate Miss Leigh
altogether. I hope you will spare her to me now and then. Perhaps
Miss Leigh could come with me to the Gymkhana dance next week?"

"I should like it very much indeed," said Sophy, glancing
interrogatively at her aunt.

"Well, if I cannot take her myself, I shall be glad if you will
chaperon Sophy. She has not had any amusement yet and one is young but
once! And now we must go; no thank you, we won't wait for tea. I
intend to rush the child round the lakes--she has not seen them--and
then do some shopping in the bazaar."

After the departure of her visitors, Mrs. Gregory stood in the veranda
and watched them as they sped away together--the dark faded beauty, the
pretty, fresh girl--and said to herself:

"I wonder!"

CHAPTER XV

THE CHUMMERY

The chummery to which Douglas Shafto had been introduced was a rambling
old bungalow, and the edge of the Cantonment, sufficiently close to
offices and work. Although by no means modern, it boasted both
electric light and fans, and the rent was fairly moderate; the
landlord, Ah Kin, a Chinaman, called for it punctually on the first of
every month, but closed his slits of eyes to various necessary repairs.

Among the three chums already established was Roscoe, a dark, well-set
up man of five or six and thirty, with a clean-shaven, eager face,
artistic hands, and a pair of clever eyes. Roscoe had been in turn a
junior master, a journalist and actor. Dissatisfied and unsatisfactory
in these situations, his friends had found him an opening where he
would be at too great a distance to trouble them--in short, a billet in
a Burma oil company in Rangoon. Amazing to relate, the post suited him
and the rolling stone came to a standstill; well educated and
intellectual, endowed with a curious eye and a critical mind, he was
anxious to see, mark and learn the life of his present surroundings.
Out of business hours, Roscoe devoted himself to this task with such
whole-souled enthusiasm, that at times he actually imagined that he had
his finger upon the pulse of this strange, new world. The oldest and
least prosper