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there was no sleep yet for Elizabeth or her aunt. They were feverishly at work till midnight,
shortening a pair of Mrs Lackersteen’s jodhpurs, and letting out the calves, to fit Elizabeth.
‘I hope, dear, you can ride a horse?’ said Mrs Lackersteen.
‘Oh, of course! I’ve ridden ever such a lot, at Home.’
She had ridden perhaps a dozen times in all, when she was sixteen. No matter, she would manage
somehow! She would have ridden a tiger, if Verrall were to accompany her.
When at last the jodhpurs were finished and Elizabeth had tried them on, Mrs Lackersteen sighed to
see her. She looked ravishing in jodhpurs, simply ravishing! And to think that in only a day or two
they had got to go back to camp, for weeks, months perhaps, leaving Kyauktada and this most
desirable young man! The pity of it! As they moved to go upstairs Mrs Lackersteen paused at the
door. It had come into her head to make a great and painful sacrifice. She took Elizabeth by the
shoulders and kissed her with a more real affection than she had ever shown.
‘My dear, it would be such a shame for you to go away from Kyauktada just now!’
‘It would, rather.’
‘Then I’ll tell you what, dear. We won’t go back to that horrid jungle! Your uncle shall go alone.
You and I shall stay in Kyauktada.’