Doolan said.
"Eve was tempted by an apple, but Eve had not lived long. You see,
an apple will tempt a child, and flowers a young girl. Diamonds
are the bait of a woman."
"You would not care for diamonds yourself, Mrs. Doolan?"
"I don't know, my dear; the experiment was never tried--bog oak
and Irish diamonds have been more in my line. Jim's pay has never
run to diamonds, worse luck, but he has promised me that if he ever
gets a chance of looting the palace of a native prince he will
keep a special lookout for them for me. So far he has never had the
chance. When he was an ensign there was some hard fighting with the
Sikhs, but nothing of that sort fell to his share. I often tell him
that he took me under false pretenses altogether. I had visions of
returning some day and astonishing Ballycrogin, as a sort of begum
covered with diamonds; but as far as I can see the children are
the only jewels that I am likely to take back."
"And very nice jewels too," Isobel said heartily; "they are dear
little things, Mrs. Doolan, and worth all the diamonds in the
world. I hear, Mrs. Prothero, that your husband has a good chance
of winning the race for Arabs; I intend to wager several pairs of
gloves on his horse."
"Yes, Seila is very fast. She won last year. But Nana Sahib has had
the horse that won the cup at Poona last year, and is considered
one of the fastest in India, brought across from Bombay. Our only
hope is that he will put a native up, and in that case we ought to
have a fair chance, for the natives have no idea of riding a waiting
race, but go off at full speed, and take it all out of their horse
before the end of the race.
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