an aunt had left me two hundred pounds, and I could wait a little
and choose; and so I came here."

It interested me. The courage that pale elastic type of woman
has!

"Have you ever regretted it? Would they take you back if you
failed?"

"Never, to both questions," she said, smiling. "Life is glorious.
I've drunk of a cup I never thought to taste; and if I died
tomorrow I should know I had done right. I rejoice in every
moment I live - even when Winifred and I are wrestling with
arithmetic."

"I shouldn't have thought life was very easy with Lady Meryon."

"Oh, she is kind enough in an indifferent sort of way. I am not
the persecuted Jane Eyre sort of governess at all. But that is
all on the surface and does not matter. It is India I care for
-the people, the sun, the infinite beauty. It was coming home.
You would laugh if I told you I knew Peshawar long before I came
here. Knew it - walked here, lived. Before there were English in
India at all." She broke off. "You won't understand."

"Oh, I have had that feeling, too," I said patronizingly. "If one
has read very much about a place-"

"That was not quite what I meant. Never mind. The people, the
place - that is the real thing to me. All this is the dream." The