been born under the British flag of British
parents--though his mother was an Irishwoman she came from loyal
Ulster--and he repeated the statement as if it in some way justified his
attitude towards his fellow countrymen and excused his truculence in the
ear of a servant of the empire which he had the humour to abuse. I heard
him, I confess, with impatience, it was all so shabby and shallow, but
I heard him out, and I was rewarded; he came for an illustration in
the end to Simla. 'Look,' he said, 'at what they call their "Government
House list"; and look at Strobo, Signor Strobo. Isn't Strobo a man of
intelligence, isn't he a man of benevolence? He gave ten thousand rupees
last week to the famine fund. Is Strobo on Government House list? Is he
ever invited to dine with the Viceroy? No, because Strobo keeps a hotel!
Look at Rosario--where does Rosario come in? Nowhere, because Rosario is
a clerk, and a subordinate. Yet Rosario is a man of wide reading and a
very accomplished fellow!'

It became more or less necessary to argue then, and the commonplaces
with which I opposed him called forth a wealth of detail bearing most
picturesquely upon his stay among us. I began to think he had never
hated English rigidity and English snobbery until he came to Simla,
and that he and Strobo and Rosario had mingled their experiences in one
bitter cup. I gathered this by inference only, he was curiously watchful
and reticent as to anything that had happened to him personally; indeed,
he was careful to aver preferences for the society of 'sincere'
people like Strobo and Rosario, that seemed to declare him more than
indifferent to circles in which he would not meet them. In the end our
argument left me ridiculously irritated--it was simply distressing to
see the platform from which he obtained so wide and exquisite a view of
the world upheld by such flimsy pillars--and my nerves were not soothed
by his proposal to walk with me to the Club. I could hardly refuse it,
however, and he came along in excellent spirits, having effected the
demolition of British social ideals, root and branch. His mongrel dog
accompanied, keeping offensively near our heels. It was not even an
honest pi, but a dog of tawdry pretensions with a banner-like tail
dishonestly got from a spaniel. On one occasion I very nearly kicked the
dog.

Chapter 2.VII.

'The fact is,' I said to Dora as we rode down to the gymkhana, 'his
personality takes possession of one. I