, _byle-gharies_,[10] camels, monkeys, kites,
squirrels, bulbuls, _minahs_,[11] mongooses, palm-trees, and temples.
Cattle appeared to have no humps, crows to have black heads, and trees
to have no fruit. The very monsoon seemed inextricably mixed with the
cold season. Fancy the rains coming in the cold weather! Perhaps there
was no hot weather and nobody went to the hills in this strange
country of strange people, strange food, strange customs. Nobody
seemed to have any tents when they left the station for the districts,
nor to take any bedding when they went on tour or up-country. A queer,
foreign land.

But Monksmead was a most magnificent "bungalow" standing in a truly
beautiful "compound"--wherein the very _bhistis_[12] and _mallis_ were
European and appeared to be second-class sahibs.

Marvellous was the interior of the bungalow with its countless rooms
and mountainous stair-cases (on the wall of one of which hung _the
Sword_ which he had never seen but instantly recognized) and its army
of white servants headed by the white butler (so like the Chaplain of
Bimariabad in grave respectability and solemn pompousness) and its
extraordinary white "ayahs" or maids, and silver-haired Mrs. Pont,
called the "house-keeper". Was she a _pukka_ Mem-Sahib or a
_nowker_[13] or what? And how did she "keep" the house?

A wonderful place--but far and away the most thrilling and delightful
of its wonders was the little white girl, Lucille--Damocles' first
experience of the charming genus.

The boy never forgot his first meeting with Lucille.

On his arrival at Monksmead he had been "vetted," as he expressed it,
by the Burra-Sahib, the General; and then taken to an attractive place
called "the school-room" and there had found Lucille....

"Hullo! Boy," had been her greeting. "What's your name?" He had
attentively scrutinized a small white-clad, blue-sashed maiden, with
curling chestnut hair, well-opened hazel eyes, decided chin, Greek
mouth and aristocratic cheek-bones. A maiden with a look of blood and
breed about her. (He did not sum her up in these terms at the time.)

"Can you ride, Boy?"

"A bit."

"Can you fight?"

"A bit."

"Can you swim?"

"Not well."

"_I_ can--ever so farther. D'you know French and German?"

"Not a word."

"Play the piano?"

"Never heard of it. D'you play it with cards or dice?"

"Lucky dog! It's music. I have to practise an hour a day."

"What for?"

"Nothing ... it's lessons. Be