o you think she is EXCLUSIVE?" I asked Hilda as we strolled on
towards the stern, out of the spoilt child's hearing.

"Why, didn't you notice?--she looked about her when she came on deck to
see whether there was anybody who WAS anybody sitting there, whom she
might put her chair near. But the Governor of Madras hadn't come up from
his cabin yet; and the wife of the chief Commissioner of Oude had
three civilians hanging about her seat; and the daughters of the
Commander-in-Chief drew their skirts away as she passed. So she did the
next best thing--sat as far apart as she could from the common herd:
meaning all the rest of us. If you can't mingle at once with the Best
People, you can at least assert your exclusiveness negatively, by
declining to associate with the mere multitude."

"Now, Hilda, that is the first time I have ever known you to show any
feminine ill-nature!"

"Ill-nature! Not at all. I am merely trying to arrive at the lady's
character for my own guidance. I rather like her, poor little thing.
Don't I tell you she will do? So far from objecting to her, I mean to go
the round of India with her."

"You have decided quickly."

"Well, you see, if you insist upon accompanying me, I MUST have a
chaperon; and Lady Meadowcroft will do as well as anybody else. In fact,
being be-ladied, she will do a little better, from the point of view
of Society, though THAT is a detail. The great matter is to fix upon a
possible chaperon at once, and get her well in hand before we arrive at
Bombay."

"But she seems so complaining!" I interposed. "I'm afraid, if you take
her on, you'll get terribly bored with her."

"If SHE takes ME on, you mean. She's not a lady's-maid, though I intend
to go with her; and she may as well give in first as last, for I'm
going. Now see how nice I am to you, sir! I've provided you, too, with
a post in her suite, as you WILL come with me. No, never mind asking me
what it is just yet; all things come to him who waits; and if you will
only accept the post of waiter, I mean all things to come to you."

"All things, Hilda?" I asked, meaningly, with a little tremor of
delight.

She looked at me with a sudden passing tenderness in her eyes. "Yes, all
things, Hubert. All things. But we mustn't talk of that--though I begin
to see my way clearer now. You shall be rewarded for your constancy
at last, dear knight-errant. As to my chaperon, I'm not afraid of her
boring me; she bores herself, poor lady;