"Bromide," he snarled, "_bromide_! Now, Lady Hetth, listen to me.
There is something more than nerves and a highly strung temperament in
this. Next week I want Nannie, not _you_, to bring the child here on a
visit. I know India and her religions as far as any Englishman dare
say he knows anything about that unfathomable country--yes! Mam!
religions--Hinduism--Brahminism--Buddhism--why, I've passed the best
part of my life trying to unravel certain physical and psychical
threads knotted up in India; but the years are slipping by, and time is
getting shorter and shorter, and but a tithe done out of all there is
to do; but thanks be, my boy has inherited my love for this work, and
will carry on here when I have crossed the threshold and found the
solutions to my problems on the other side. Though I'm sure I don't
know why I'm telling _you_ all this," he finished brusquely, "we will
return to India."

"Yes! India is very, very interesting!" piped Lady Hetth, rising and
standing on one foot so as to rest the other suffering from an
oversmall shoe.

"Very, _very_ interesting!" she continued unctuously and with the
enthusiasm she reserved as a rule for the S.P.C.K.I, which letters
stand for an attempt to graft a new creed on to the tree of religion in
India which was bearing _fruit_ at a period when we were hobnobbing in
caves, with a boulder or good stout club as reasons for existence.

"I'll write and tell you when to send the child and her nurse, and
between us we'll manage to keep her amused. And in the meantime stop
all lessons and let her do exactly as she likes, and feed her up, Mam,
feed her up, her bones are simply coming through her skin."