'I know. Is it too vile, do you think,' he said anxiously, 'to ask
a lady to share?'

'Lots of ladies do share it,' I replied, with amazing calmness; 'but
I must decline absolutely to enter into that.'

My frown was so forbidding that he couldn't and didn't dare to go
on. He looked dashed and disappointed; he was really a fool of an
applicant, quite ready to retire from the siege on the first
intimation that the gates were not to be thrown open at his
approach.

'Do you think you would like teaching?' I asked.

'I can teach. Miss--my only pupil here has made capital progress.'

'I am afraid you must not measure the Bengali art student by the
standard of Miss Harris,' I replied coldly. He WAS a fool. We
talked of other things. I led him on to betray his ludicrous lack
of knowledge of the world in various directions. At other times it
had irritated me, that night it gave me purest pleasure. I agreed
with him about everything.

As he selected his smoke to go home with I said, 'Send your
application in to the Director of Public Instruction, Bengal--Lamb
will tell you how--and I'll see what I can do.'

They were only too thankful to get him. As a student it seemed he
had been diligent both in London and Paris; he possessed diplomas or