going
over the hot sandy dust towards the tent.

But the next minute she was back, to ask about some luggage--a
bullock-trunk or two--and she was coming up to me, as I eagerly stepped
forward to meet her, when she seemed, as it were, to take it into her
head to shy at me, going instead to Harry Lant, who had just come up,
and who, on hearing what she wanted, placed his hands, with a grave
swoop, upon his head, and made her a regular eastern salaam, ending by
telling her that her slave would obey her commands. All of which seemed
to grit upon me terribly; I didn't know why, then, but I found out
afterwards, though not for many days to come.

We had the route given us for Begumbagh, a town that, in the old days,
had been rather famous for its grandeur; but, from what I had heard, it
was likely to turn out a very hot, dry, dusty, miserable spot; and I
used to get reckoning up how long we should be frizzling out there in
India before we got the orders for home; and put it at the lowest
calculation, I could not make less of it than five years. But there, we
who were soldiers had made our own beds, and had to lie upon them,
whether it was at home or abroad; and, as Mrs Bantem used to say to us,
"Where was the use of grumbling?" There were troubles in every life,
even if it was a civilian's--as we soldiers always called those who
didn't wear the Queen's uniform--and it was very doubtful whether we
should have been a bit happier, if we had been in any other line. But
all the same, government might have made things a little better for us
in the way of suitable clothes, and things proper for the climate.

And so on we went: marching mornings and nights; camping all through the
hot day; and it was not long before we found that, in Miss Ross, we men
had got something else beside the children to worship.

But I may as well say now, and have it off my mind, that it has always
struck me, that during those peaceful days, when our greatest worry was
a hot march, we didn't know when we were well off, and that it wanted
the troubles to come before we could see what good qualities there were
in other people. Little trifling things used to make us sore--things
such as we didn't notice afterwards, when great sorrows came. I know I
was queer, and spiteful, and jealous, and no great wonder that for I
always was a man with a nastyish temper, and soon put out; but even Mrs
Bantem used to shew that she wasn't quite perfect, for she quite