e is certainly good looking; he talks extremely well, and is, I
should say, very well read and intelligent."

"He can be very amusing when he likes, Doctor. Once or twice when he has
been with us he has seemed to forget himself, as it were, and was full
of fun and life. You must allow that it is a little singular that a man
like this should altogether avoid society, and night and day be absorbed
in his work."

"I have thought sometimes," Mr. Hunter said, "that Bathurst must have
had some great trouble in his life. Of what nature I can, of course,
form no idea. He was little more than twenty when he came out here, so I
should say that it was hardly a love affair."

"That is always the way, Hunter. If a man goes his own way, and that way
does not happen to be the way of the mess, it is supposed that he must
have had trouble of some sort. As Bathurst is the son of a distinguished
soldier, and is now the owner of a fine property at home, I don't see
what trouble he can have had. He may possibly, for anything I know, have
had some boyish love affairs, but I don't think he is the sort of man to
allow his whole life to be affected by any foolery of that sort. He is
simply an enthusiast.

"It is good for mankind that there should be some enthusiasts. I grant
that it would be an unpleasant world if we were all enthusiasts, but
the sight of a man like him throwing his whole life and energy into his
work, and wearing himself out trying to lessen the evils he sees
around him, ought to do good to us all. Look at these boys," and he
apostrophized Wilson and Richards, as they appeared together at the
door. "What do they think of but amusing themselves and shirking their
duties as far as possible?"

"Oh, I say, Doctor," Wilson exclaimed, astonished at this sudden attack,
"what are you pitching into us like that for? That is not fair, is it,
Major? We amuse ourselves, of course, when there is nothing else to do,
but I am sure we don't shirk our work. You don't want us to spend our
spare time in reading Greek, I suppose?"

"No; but you might spend some of it very profitably in learning some of
these native languages," the Doctor said. "I don't believe that you know
above a dozen native words now. You can shout for brandy and water, and
for a light for your cigars, but I fancy that that is about the extent
of it."

"We are going to have a moonshee next week, Doctor," Wilson said, a
little crestfallen, "and a horrid nuisance it wil