When I fall in love with a Man it won't much matter what job he is in,
or what prospects he has. And if he is in love with me, and wants me,
why"--she left the obvious conclusion to her mother's imagination. "But
rest assured, whoever he may be, he will never be Tommy!" she added by
way of consolation.

The morning after the dinner-party was typical of late October in the
plains of Bengal, with its dewy freshness of atmosphere and a nip in the
north wind that was an earnest of approaching winter--if the season of
cold weather might be so termed, when fires were never a necessity, and
frost was rare. It was, however, a time of pleasant drought when the
state of the weather could be depended upon for weeks ahead, with blue
skies, a kinder sun, and dead leaves carpeting the earth without
denuding the trees of their wealth of foliage.

Outside the Bara Koti a light haze was visible through the branches of
the trees, lying like a thin veil on the distant horizon; and, overhead,
light fleecy clouds drifted imperceptibly across the blue sky. It was
the hour popularly believed to be the best in the twenty-four, which
accounted for Mrs. Meredith's ayah wheeling the baby through the dusty
lanes, in a magnificent perambulator, "to eat the air."

"_Hawa khane_," translated Honor Bright critically, as she drew rein and
moved her pony aside to make way. She was riding, in company with Tommy
Deare, to Sombari that she might learn the latest news of Elsie Meek, a
girl of her own age and one for whom she had much sympathy. Elsie had
been undergoing the training necessary to fit her for becoming a
missionary, irrespective of her talents in other directions; and Honor
had often thought of her with sympathy. But Mr. Meek had his own ideas
respecting his daughter's career, and Mrs. Meek had long since ceased to
voice her own. "_Hawa khane!_--how queerly the natives express
themselves!" Her remark had followed the ayah's explanation of her
appearance with the child. "Mother says it is a mistake for delicate
children to be out before sunrise to 'eat the air.'"

"Eat microbes, I should suggest," corrected Tommy. "A case of 'The Early
Babe catches the Germ.'"

"How smart of you!--how do you do it so early in the morning?"

"Inherent wit," said Tommy complacently. "You press a button and out
comes an epigram, or something brilliant."

"You've missed your vocation, it seems. I am sure you might have made a
fortune as another George Robey!"