I forgot. Of course. Happy to meet you, old man, any time
you like. Got everything you want,--cheroots, ice, bedding? That's all
right. Well, _au revoir_, Dirkovitch."

"Um," said the other man, as the tail-lights of the train grew small.
"Of--all--the--unmitigated[23]--"

Little Mildred answered nothing, but watched the north star, and
hummed a selection from a recent burlesque that had much delighted the
White Hussars. It ran:--

"I'm sorry for Mister Bluebeard,
I'm sorry to cause him pain;
But a terrible spree there's sure to be
When he comes back again."

NOTES

[1] _The Man Who Was_ was written in 1889.

[2] 46:6 anomaly. Deviation from type.

[3] 47:1 Hussars. Light-horse troopers armed with sabre and carbine.

[4] 47:1 Peshawur. City in British India.

[5] 47:7 Tyrones. From a county in Ireland by this name.

[6] 47:26 Burmah. In southeastern Asia. Part of the British Empire.

[7] 47:27 Irrawaddy. Chief river of Burma.

[8] 48:27 Sotnia. Company of the Cossacks.

[9] 50:14 rupee. Indian coin worth about forty-eight cents.

[10] 50:21 vendettas. Private blood-feuds.

[11] 51:14 Punjab. Country of five rivers, tributaries of the Indus.

[12] 81:26 Sambhur. A rusine deer found in India.

[13] 51:26 nilghai. Antelope with hind legs shorter than its
fore-legs.

[14] 54:9 expurgated. Purified.

[15] 57:23 renegade. One who deserts his faith.

[16] 58:26 candelabrum. Stand supporting several lamps.

[17] 61:3 urbanely. Politely.

[18] 63:2 Chepany. Town in Siberia.

[19] 63:4 Zhigansk. Town in Siberia.

[20] 63:4 Irkutsk. Province and city in Siberia.

[21] 63:17 Sebastopol. Seaport in Russia.

[22] 65:26 Au revoir. Till we meet again.

[23] 66:6 unmitigated. As bad as can be.

BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

_Essays on Modern Novelists_, William Lyon Phelps.

_A Kipling Primer_, Knowles.

_Rudyard Kipling_, Richard Le Galliene.

"Kipling to French Eyes," _Bookman_, 26: 584.

"Life of Kipling," _Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"Life of Kipling," _The Universal Encyclopedia_.

BIOGRAPHY

Rudyard Kipling, the most vigorous, versatile, and highly endowed of
the present-day writers of fiction, was born in Bombay, India,
December 30, 1865. His place of birth and extensive travelling make
him more Anglo-Saxon than British. His father was for many years
connected with the schools of art at Bombay and Lahore in India. His
mother, Alice MacDonald, was the daughter o