Page:Under the Deodars - Kipling (1890).djvu/11



In the pleasant orchard-closes 'God bless all our gains,' say we; But 'May God bless all our losses,' Better suits with our degree." —The Lost Bower.

HIS is the history of a Failure; but the woman who failed said that it might be an instructive tale to put into print for the benefit of the younger generation. The younger generation does not want instruction. It is perfectly willing to instruct if any one will listen to it. None the less, here begins the story, where every right-minded story should begin; that is to say at Simla, where all things begin and many come to an evil end.

The mistake was due to a very clever woman making a blunder and not retrieving it. Men are licensed to stumble, but a clever woman's mistake is outside the regular course of Nature and Providence: since people know that a woman is the only infallible thing in this world, except Government Paper of the '79 issue, bearing interest at 4 per cent. Yet we have to remember that six consecutive days of rehearsing the star part of The Fallen Angel, at the New Gaiety Theatre where the plaster was not properly dry, might have brought about an unhingement of spirits which, again, might have led to eccentricities.

Mrs. Hauksbee came to "The Foundry" to tiffin with Mrs. Mallowe, her one bosom friend; for she was in no sense a woman's woman. And it was a woman's tiffin, the door shut to all the world; and they both talked mysteries.

"I've enjoyed an interval of sanity," Mrs. Hauksbee announced, after tiffin was over and the two were comfortably settled in the little writing-room that opened out of Mrs. Mallowe's bed-room.