should think so! All Cawnpore will turn out, and we shall have the
Lord of Bithoor and any number of Talookdars and Zemindars with their
suites. A good many of them will have horses entered, and they have some
good ones if they could but ride them. The Rajah of Bithoor is a most
important personage. He talks English very well, and gives splendid
entertainments. He is a most polite gentleman, and is always over here
if there is anything going on. The general idea is that he has set his
mind on having an English wife, the only difficulty being our objection
to polygamy. He has every other advantage, and his wife would have
jewels that a queen might envy."

Isobel laughed. "I don't think jewels would count for much in my ideas
of happiness."

"It is not so much the jewels, my dear, in themselves, but the envy they
would excite in every other woman."

"I don't think I can understand that feeling, Mrs. Doolan. I can
understand that there might be a satisfaction in being envied for being
the happiest woman, or the most tastefully dressed woman, or even the
prettiest woman, though that after all is a mere accident, but not for
having the greatest number of bright stones, however valuable. I don't
think the most lovely set of diamonds ever seen would give me as much
satisfaction as a few choice flowers."

"Ah, but that is because you are quite young," Mrs. Doolan said. "Eve
was tempted by an apple, but Eve had not lived long. You see, an apple
will tempt a child, and flowers a young girl. Diamonds are the bait of a
woman."

"You would not care for diamonds yourself, Mrs. Doolan?"

"I don't know, my dear; the experiment was never tried--bog oak and
Irish diamonds have been more in my line. Jim's pay has never run to
diamonds, worse luck, but he has promised me that if he ever gets a
chance of looting the palace of a native prince he will keep a special
lookout for them for me. So far he has never had the chance. When he was
an ensign there was some hard fighting with the Sikhs, but nothing of
that sort fell to his share. I often tell him that he took me under
false pretenses altogether. I had visions of returning some day and
astonishing Ballycrogin, as a sort of begum covered with diamonds; but
as far as I can see the children are the only jewels that I am likely to
take back."

"And very nice jewels too," Isobel said heartily; "they are dear little
things, Mrs. Doolan, and worth all the diamonds in the world. I hear,