563296589345

nowhere in the stifling hot-weather days!–had caught her cotton frock and blown it against her,
showing the outline of her body, slender and strong like a tree. Her sudden appearance beside the
older, sun-scorched woman was a revelation to Verrall. He started so that the Arab mare felt it and
would have reared on her hind legs, and he had to tighten the rein. He had not known until this
moment, not having bothered to inquire, that there were any young women in Kyauktada.
‘My niece,’ Mrs Lackersteen said.
He did not answer, but he had thrown away the polo-stick, and he took off his topi. For a moment
he and Elizabeth remained gazing at one another. Their fresh faces were unmarred in the pitiless light.
The grass-seeds were tickling Elizabeth’s shins so that it was agony, and without her spectacles she
could only see Verrall and his horse as a whitish blur. But she was happy, happy! Her heart bounded
and the blood flowed into her face, dyeing it like a thin wash of aquarelle. The thought, ‘A peach, by
Christ!’ moved almost fiercely through Verrall’s mind. The sullen Indians, holding the ponies’ heads,
gazed curiously at the scene, as though the beauty of the two young people had made its impression
even on them.
Mrs Lackersteen broke the silence, which had lasted half a minute.
‘You know, Mr Verrall,’ she said somewhat archly, ‘we think it rather unkind of you to have
neglected us poor people all this time. When we’re so pining for a new face at the Club.’
He was still looking at Elizabeth when he answered, but the change in his voice was remarkable.
‘I’ve been meaning to come for some days. Been so fearfully busy–getting my men into their
quarters and all that. I’m sorry,’ he added–he was not in the habit of apologising, but really, he had
decided, this girl was rather an exceptional bit of stuff–‘I’m sorry about not answering your note.’
‘Oh, not at all! We quite understood. But we do hope we shall see you at the Club this evening?
Because you know,’ she concluded even more archly, ‘if you disappoint us any longer, we shall begin
to think you rather a naughty young man!’
‘I’m sorry,’ he repeated. ‘I’ll be there this evening.’
There was not much more to be said, and the two women walked on to the Club. But they stayed
barely five minutes. The grass-seeds were causing their shins such torment that they were obliged to
hurry home and change their stockings at once.
Verrall kept his promise and was at the Club that evening. He arrived a little earlier than the others,
and he had made his presence thoroughly felt before being in the place five minutes. As Ellis entered
the Club the old butler darted out of the card-room and waylaid him. He was in great distress, the
tears rolling down his cheeks.
‘Sir! Sir!’
‘What the devil’s the matter now?’ said Ellis.
‘Sir! Sir! New master been beating me, sir!’
‘What?’
‘Beating me, sir!’ His voice rose on the ‘beating’ with a long tearful wail–‘be-e-e-eating!’
‘Beating you? Do you good. Who’s been beating you?’
‘New master, sir. Military Police sahib. Beating me with his foot, sir–here!’ He rubbed himself
behind.