Begumbagh | Page 6

Mrs Bantem, and she mentioned it. This party, then, I supposed
contained the lady herself; and it was as I thought. We had had to leave
Patna unexpectedly to relieve the regiment ordered home; and the lady,
according to orders, had followed us, for this was only our second day's
march.
I suppose it was my pipe made me settle down to watch the coming
party, and wonder what sort of a body Miss Ross would be, and
whether anything like her sister. Then I wondered who would marry

her, for, as you know, ladies are not very long out in India without
picking up a husband. "Perhaps," I said to myself, "it will be the
lieutenant;" but ten minutes after, as the elephant shambled up, I altered
my mind, for Captain Dyer was ambling along beside the great beast,
and his was the hand that helped the lady down--a tall, handsome,
self-possessed girl, who seemed quite to take the lead, and kiss and
soothe the sister, when she ran out of the tent to throw her arms round
the new-comer's neck.
"At last, then, Elsie," Mrs Colonel said out aloud. "You've had a long
dreary ride."
"Not during the last ten minutes," Miss Ross said, laughing in a bright,
merry, free-hearted way. "Lieutenant Leigh has been welcoming me
most cordially."
"Who?" exclaimed Mrs Colonel, staring from one to the other.
"Lieutenant Leigh," said Miss Ross.
"I'm afraid I am to blame for not announcing myself," said Captain
Dyer, lifting his muslin-covered cap. "Your sister, Miss Ross, asked me
to ride to meet you, in Lieutenant Leigh's absence."
"You, then--"
"I am only Lawrence Dyer, his friend," said the captain, smiling.
It's a singular thing that just then, as I saw the young lady blush deeply,
and Mrs Colonel look annoyed, I muttered to myself, "Something will
come of this," because, if there's anything I hate, it's for a man to set
himself up for a prophet. But it looked to me as if the captain had been
taking Lieutenant Leigh's place, and that Miss Ross, as was really the
case, though she had never seen him, had heard him so much talked of
by her sister, that she had welcomed him, as she thought, quite as an
old friend, when all the time she had been talking to Captain Dyer.
And I was not the only one who thought about it; else why did Mrs

Colonel look annoyed, and the colonel, who came paddling out,
exclaim loudly: "Why, Leigh, look alive, man! here's Dyer been
stealing a march upon you. Why, where have you been?"
I did not hear what the lieutenant said, for my attention was just then
taken up by something else, but I saw him go up to Miss Ross, holding
out his hand, while the meeting was very formal; but, as I told you, my
attention was taken up by something else, and that something was a
little, dark, bright, eager, earnest face, with a pair of sharp eyes, and a
little mocking-looking mouth; and as Captain Dyer had helped Miss
Ross down with the steps from the howdah, so did I help down Lizzy
Green, her maid; to get, by way of thanks, a half-saucy look, a nod of
the head, and the sight of a pretty little tripping pair of ankles going
over the hot sandy dust towards the tent.
But the next minute she was back, to ask about some luggage--a
bullock-trunk or two--and she was coming up to me, as I eagerly
stepped forward to meet her, when she seemed, as it were, to take it
into her head to shy at me, going instead to Harry Lant, who had just
come up, and who, on hearing what she wanted, placed his hands, with
a grave swoop, upon his head, and made her a regular eastern salaam,
ending by telling her that her slave would obey her commands. All of
which seemed to grit upon me terribly; I didn't know why, then, but I
found out afterwards, though not for many days to come.
We had the route given us for Begumbagh, a town that, in the old days,
had been rather famous for its grandeur; but, from what I had heard, it
was likely to turn out a very hot, dry, dusty, miserable spot; and I used
to get reckoning up how long we should be frizzling out there in India
before we got the orders for home; and put it at the lowest calculation, I
could not make less of it than five years. But there, we who were
soldiers had made our own beds, and had to lie upon them, whether it
was at home or abroad; and, as Mrs Bantem used to say to us, "Where
was the use