At any rate, come first night, even if you can't come on the others."
"Certainly I will, Major, if you will let me bring Bathurst in with
me; he is going to stay with me for the races."
"By all means, Doctor; I like what I have seen of him very much."
"Yes, he has got a lot in him," the Doctor said, "only he is always
head over heels in work. He will make a big mark before he has done.
He is one of the few men out here who has thoroughly mastered the
language; he can talk to the natives like one of themselves, and
understands them so thoroughly that they are absolutely afraid to
lie to him, which is the highest compliment a native can pay to
an Indian official. It is very seldom he comes in to this sort of
thing, but I seized him the other day and told him that I could
see he would break down if he didn't give himself a holiday, and I
fairly worried him into saying he would come over and stay for the
races. I believe then he would not have come if I had not written
to him that all the native swells would be here, and it would be an
excellent opportunity for him to talk to them about the establishment
of a school for the daughters of the upper class of natives; that
is one of his fads at present."
"But it would be a good thing surely, Doctor," Isobel said.
"No doubt, my dear, no doubt; and so would scores of other things,
if you could but persuade the natives so. But this is really one of
the most impracticable schemes possible, simply because the whole
of these unfortunate children get betrothed when they are two or
three years old, and are married at twelve.
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