It had

been obliged to look out for some other means of livelihood. Ten years before, he had been a tent-pitcher in the small Attock Arsenal, where Craven had seen him. He liked his face, and, wanting a bearer at the time, had offered him service. been a fortunate chance, for the man had made a good servant, and was most loyally attached to his master. He was now sirdar bearer, with an indefinite authority over all the Hindus in the establishment. He was one of Ida's trials, being very fond of his own way, though she half-liked the man for the quiet steady fashion in which he opposed her; as it was part of a character where pride, fidelity, and a sense of honour, had a very considerable share.

Hunāman," said Colonel Craven again, looking up at the handsome bronze statue, who had stood there motionless at least as long as we have taken to describe him, "give my 'salaam' to the Mir Sahib, and ask him if he can come to me for a short

time;" and the man went rapidly off on his errand.

This Mir Sahib was our friend Saadut Khan, who had somehow in the course of years gained this further title.

Ida felt rather sad at this, for Saadut Khan's presence put an end for the time to any hope of talk to Arthur. He did not speak English very easily, though he had read a good deal of it, and understood it perfectly; so his talk was generally carried on in Persian, which had the advantage of · being understood neither by Ida nor the

servants.

As to Ida, he did not like her, without having any very tangible reason for it. What he lacked in sympathy he made up in very keen observation and affectionate loyalty to Arthur. He soon formed an opinion that the new English wife was something she should not be, or was not something she should be, and very keenly appreciated the misfit, and, even with his oriental views

on such matters, exaggerated it. Out of respect for his friend, he did not look much at her; out of love for him, he was very keenly critical when he did.

The feeling that she was going to be turned out gave Ida a little more courage. If he was to have all of it, might she not have some.

"You have not told me the news yet Arthur," she said. "Will you, if it is not

State secrets?"

Arthur looked up a little astonished.

Ida

was not given to show interest in public matters, and he never talked much to her about them.

"Well, darling," he said, "there is not much that I could tell if I wanted to. There are a few robberies in the cantonments, plenty of sedition and nasty feeling in the city, and many rumours of what is to be done beyond the frontier in various directions hostile to us. The garrison is to be reinforced, and Maxwell's battery is coming

up from Lahore by forced marches; you will be glad of that. Write, and ask them to put up with us till they get a house. They have a child have they not?"

66

Yes; a baby born last hot season," answered Ida.

Your

"You had best write this morning. letter will catch them at Pindee. I must get all the information I can out of Saadut. He is the only man in the district who has both will and power to be any good."

CHAPTER IX.

THE STATE OF THE DISTRICT.

IDA shook hands quite naturally with Saadut Khan, who would gladly have been excused the ceremony, though the cordial grasp he gave to Arthur's hand showed that it was not the institution of hand-shaking in itself that he disliked. His devotion to Arthur, and the close friendship that had existed between them for years, had not changed very much the general direction of his thoughts and opinions. As far as his mind had become Anglicised, it was from the inside outwards; not, as may be seen any day in young Indians who have received an English training, a process beginning at the outside and going or not going inwards.

Saadut was as thoroughly Mahomedan in creed, in dress, and modes of thought, as when Craven had found him lying by the