ey pay
a visit of ceremony to the Zenana of a native, if they were to try to
teach their wives to be discontented with their lots--for that is
what it would be--they would be no longer welcome. Schools are being
established, but at present these are but a drop in the ocean. Still,
the work does go on, and in time something will be done. It is of no use
bothering yourself about it, Isobel; it is best to take matters as you
find them."

Isobel made no answer, but she was much disappointed when Dr. Wade,
dropping in to tiffin, said his guest had started two hours before
for Deennugghur. He had a batch of letters and reports from his native
clerk, and there was something or other that he said he must see to at
once.

"He begged me to say, Major, that he was very sorry to go off without
saying goodby, but he hoped to be in Cawnpore before long. I own that
that part of the message astonished me, knowing as I do what difficulty
there is in getting him out of his shell. He and I became great chums
when I was over at Deennugghur two years ago, and the young fellow is
not given to making friends. However, as he is not the man to say a
thing without meaning it, I suppose he intends to come over again. He
knows there is always a bed for him in my place."

"We see very little of him," Mary Hunter said; "he is always away on
horseback all day. Sometimes he comes in the evening when we are quite
alone, but he will never stay long. He always excuses himself on the
ground that he has a report to write or something of that sort. Amy and
I call him 'Timon of Athens.'"

"There is nothing of Timon about him," the Doctor remarked dogmatically.
"That is the way with you young ladies--you think that a man's first
business in life is to be dancing attendance on you. Bathurst looks at
life seriously, and no wonder, going about as he does among the natives
and listening to their stories and complaints. He puts his hand to the
plow, and does not turn to the right or left."

"Still, Doctor, you must allow," Mrs. Hunter said gravely, "that Mr.
Bathurst is not like most other men."

"Certainly not," the Doctor remarked. "He takes no interest in sport of
any kind; he does not care for society; he very rarely goes to the club,
and never touches a card when he does; and yet he is the sort of man one
would think would throw himself into what is going on. He is a strong,
active, healthy man, whom one would expect to excel in all sorts of
sports; h