laid herself out
to catch one of the young officers of the regiment, and was bitterly
disappointed at the failure of her efforts.

The report may have been untrue, for Jane Farran was by no means popular
with the other women, taking far too much upon herself, as they
considered, upon the strength of her father's rank, and giving herself
airs as if she were better than those around her. There were girls in
the regiment just as good looking as she was without any of her airs and
tempers. Why should she set herself up above the rest?

When, however, Sergeant-major Farran died suddenly of sunstroke after a
heavy field-day, whatever plans and hopes his daughter may have
entertained came to an end. Her name and that of her mother were put
down among the women to be sent, with the next batch of invalids, home
to England, and she suddenly accepted the offer of marriage of young
Sergeant Humphreys, whose advances she had previously treated with
scorn. They were married six weeks later, on the day before her mother
was to go down by train with a party of invalids to Calcutta. The
universal opinion of the women in the regiment was that the sergeant had
got a bad bargain.

"No man of spirit," one of them said, "would have taken up with a girl
who only accepted him because she could not do any better. She has got
her temper written in her face, and a nice time of it he is likely to
have."

It may have been true that Jane Humphreys had during her father's
lifetime had her ambitions, but she was a clever woman and adapted
herself to her circumstances. If, as the sergeant-major's daughter, she
had given herself airs, and had thrown herself in the way of the young
officers, and had been light and flighty in her manner, all this was
changed as soon as she was married, and even the most censorious were
obliged to admit that she made Sergeant Humphreys a better wife than
they had expected. His home was admirably kept, the gay dresses that had
been somewhat beyond her station were cut up and altered, and she
dressed neatly and quietly.

She was handy with her fingers, her things always fitted her well, and
she gained the approbation of the officers' wives, who had previously
looked upon her with some disfavour as a forward young person. She made
every effort to get on good terms with the wives of the other
non-commissioned officers, and succeeded at last in overcoming the
prejudice which, as Jane Farran, she had excited. There was no