acteristic squeeze of Lord
Chetwynde's hand, which made it numb for half an hour afterward.
"It's possible, my boy, for it's the actual fact. But still, I must
say, you're about the last man I expected to see in these diggins.
When I saw you in London you were up to your eyes in business, and
were expectin' to start straight off and make a bee-line for India."

"Well, that is what I'm doing now; I'm on my way there."

"On your way there? You don't say so! But you'll stay here some
time?"

"Oh yes; I've some little time to spare. The fact is I came here to
pass my leisure time. I'm expecting a letter every day which may send
me off. But it may not come for weeks."

"And you're going back to India?" said Obed.

"Yes."

"I should think you'd rather stay home--among your friends."

"Well--I don't know," said Lord Chetwynde, with assumed indifference.
"The fact is, life in India unfits one for life in England. We get
new tastes and acquire new habits. I never yet saw a returned Indian
who could be content. For my part, I'm too young yet to go in for
being a returned Indian; and so after I finished my business I
applied for a reappointment."

"There's a good deal in what you say," remarked Obed. "Your British
island is contracted. A man who has lived in a country like India
feels this. We Americans, accustomed as we are to the unlimited
atmosphere of a boundless continent, always feel depressed in a
country like England. There is in your country, Sir, a physical and
also a moral constraint which, to a free, republican, continental
American, is suffocating. And hence my dislike to the mother
country."

They walked on together chatting about numerous things. Obed referred
once more to India.

"It's queer," said he; "your British Empire is so tremendous that it
seems to cover the earth. After I left the States it seemed to me
that I couldn't go any where without seeing the British flag. There
was Australia, a continent in itself; and Hong Kong; and India,
another continent; and Aden, and Malta. You have a small country too,
not much larger than New York State."

"Well," said Lord Chetwynde, with a smile, "we once owned a great
deal more, you know. We had colonies that were worth all the rest.
Unfortunately those colonies took it into their heads to set up for
themselves, and started that independent nation of the Stars and
Stripes that you belong to. If it hadn't been for that abominable
Stamp Act, and other acts