Page:Quartette - Kipling (1885).djvu/117

 —Well, it's all the same you know-to Auntie;-and the solemn old native swells, all shawls and whiskers, who come in to make a salaam and offer you a couple of rupees in a silk handkerchief; and as to roughing it, I don't believe anybody ever does rough it in India. Confess now, papa, there is just a touch of humbug in this talk of hardship and roughing it? Why, compared with Miss Verjuice's school or with sea-side lodgings, I call this luxurious. (Glancing round.)

—Yes, Edie; but then at the sea-side, instead of a crusty old father, you had that silly aunt of yours to spoil you; and her precious military friends to roam about the beach and gather shells with. She told me all about it!

—Oh! did she?

—Yes, and how you were admired by this and that young jackanapes, till I declare, if I hadn't interfered, the next time I should have seen my little Edith would have been as Mrs.—Mrs. What the deuce was the name of the young coxcomb who was first in the running?—I have it! Mrs. Frank Wilmot! A most circumstantial person is your aunt Matilda!

(affecting to be angry).—Auntie is the dearest, kindest and quite the best creature in the world, and you may say what you like, papa, although I don't care two pins for the gentleman, who, after all, was the son of one of Auntie's oldest friends, I must say that, compared with some people I know, he is simply perfection!

—Yes! of course, child, they always are! But, thank goodness, it's a pretty far cry from Southsea to the Punjab, and, like a good girl, you will forget these childish follies. We'll make a burra mem of you yet, and develop no end of accomplishments. You ride like Di Vernon for your own pleasure, you play whist like Maskelyne's automaton for mine, and you learn oriental literature for Smallweed's. How do you get on with your Hindustáni?

—Oh, famously! Mr. Smallweed takes such pains. I can say Khitmutgár khána láo and Ayah dustana kahan hai? and I can order Prince and tell the sais to give him a bran mash; and I should be able to take the khánsáma's accounts if you would only let me. And one picks up new words daily. By the way, papa, what is an ooloo ka batcha?

—Ooloo ka batcha means literally a young owl, but is generally used in a figurative sense and addressed to a