l with her husband if she
wants to, and William says she's on the same footing. You see, we've
been together all our lives, more or less, since my people died. It
isn't as if she were an ordinary sister.'

'All the sisters I've ever heard of would have stayed where they were
well off.'

'She's as clever as a man, confound her,' Martyn went on. 'She broke
up the bungalow over my head while I was talking at her. Settled the
whole _subchiz_ [outfit] in three hours--servants, horses, and all. I
didn't get my orders till nine.

'Jimmy Hawkins won't be pleased,' said Scott. 'A famine's no place
for a woman.'

'Mrs. Jim--I mean Lady Jim's in camp with him. At any rate, she says
she will look after my sister. William wired down to her on her own
responsibility, asking if she could come, and knocked the ground from
under me by showing me her answer.'

Scott laughed aloud. 'If she can do that she can take care of
herself, and Mrs. Jim won't let her run into any mischief. There
aren't many women, sisters or wives, who would walk into a famine
with their eyes open. It isn't as if she didn't know what these
things mean. She was through the Jaloo cholera last year.'

The train stopped at Amritsar, and Scott went back to the ladies'
compartment, immediately behind their carriage. William, a cloth
riding-cap on her curls, nodded affably.

'Come in and have some tea,' she said. 'Best thing in the world for
heat-apoplexy.'

'Do I look as if I were going to have heat-apoplexy?'

'Never can tell,' said William, wisely. 'It's always best to be
ready.'

She had arranged her belongings with the knowledge of an old
campaigner. A felt-covered water-bottle hung in the draught of one
of the shuttered windows; a tea-set of Russian china, packed in a
wadded basket, stood ready on the seat: and a travelling spirit-lamp
was clamped against the woodwork above it.

William served them generously, in large cups, hot tea, which saves
the veins of the neck from swelling inopportunely on a hot night. It
was characteristic of the girl that, her plan of action once settled,
she asked for no comments on it. Life with men who had a great deal
of work to do, and very little time to do it in, had taught her the
wisdom of effacing as well as of fending for herself. She did not by
word or deed suggest that she would be useful, comforting, or
beautiful in their travels, but continued about her business
serenely: put the cups back without clatter whe