he had sent me a sketch of it, and I very much wished he hadn't.
One felt that the gift would carry a trifle of irony.

'He has told me,' she said once brusquely, 'how good you have been
to him.'

'Is he coming to Simla again?' I asked.

'Oh yes! And please take it from me that this time he will conquer
the place. He has undertaken to do it.'

'At your request?'

'At my persuasion--at my long entreaty. They must recognize him--
they must be taught. I have set my heart on it.'

'Does he himself very much care?' I asked remembering the night of
the thirty-first of October.

'Yes, he does care. He despises it, of course, but in a way he
cares. I've been trying to make him care more. A human being isn't
an orchid; he must draw something from the soil he grows in.'

'If he were stable,' I mused; 'if he had a fixed ambition somewhere
in the firmament. But his purpose is a will-o'-the-wisp.'

'I think he has an ambition,' said Miss Harris, into the dark.

'Ah! Then we must continue,' I said--'continue to push from
behind.'