ws had made
the journey out from Allahabad in that wretched gharry, they would have
turned into bed as soon as they arrived, and would not have got up till
the first mess bugle sounded, and very likely would have slept on until
next morning.

"Now," he went on, when Isobel had disappeared, "we will adjourn with
you to the mess-house. That young lady would have very small chance of
getting to sleep with all this racket here. Doolan's voice alone would
banish sleep anywhere within a distance of a hundred yards."

"I will join you there later, Doctor," the Major said. "I have got a
couple of hours' work in the orderly-room. Rumzan, don't let my niece be
disturbed, but if she wakes and rings the bell send up a message by the
woman that I-shall not be back until four."

The Major walked across to the orderly room, while the rest, mounting
their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a quarter of a mile
away.

"I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to our
circle, Doctor," the Adjutant said. "I don't know why, but I gathered
from what the Major said that his niece was very young. He spoke of her
as if she were quite a child."

"She is a very nice, sensible young woman," the Doctor said; "clever and
bright, and, as you can see for your-selves, pretty, and yet no nonsense
about her. I only hope that she won't get spoilt here; nineteen out of
twenty young women do get spoilt within six months of their arrival in
India, but I think she will be one of the exceptions."

"I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon," Captain
Doolan laughed; "he would have been a brave man who would have attempted
even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his charge."

"That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?" the Doctor said sharply. "I
should have thought that even your common sense would have told you that
anyone who has had the misfortune to see as much of womankind as I have
would have been aware that any endeavor to check a flirtation for which
they are inclined would be of all others the way to induce them to go in
for it headlong. You are a married man yourself, and ought to know that.
A woman is a good deal like a spirited horse; let her have her head,
and, though she may for a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go
straight, and settle down to her collar in time, whereas if you keep a
tight curb she will fret and fidget, and as likely as not make a
bolt for it. I can assure you that my d