had bred, crippled by the loss of his pet clerk, and savagely angry
at the desolation in his charge, he had once damned the collective
eyes of his 'intelligent local board' for a set of haramzadas. Which
act of 'brutal and tyrannous oppression' won him a Reprimand
Royal from the Bengal Government; but in the anecdote as
amended for Northern consumption we find no record of this.
Hence we are forced to conclude that Mrs. Hauksbee edited his
reminiscences before sowing them in idle ears, ready, as she well
knew, to exaggerate good or evil. And Otis Yeere bore himself as
befitted the hero of many tales.

'You can talk to me when you don't fall into a brown study. Talk
now, and talk your brightest and best,' said Mrs. Hauksbee.

Otis needed no spur. Look to a man who has the counsel of a
woman of or above the world to back him. So long as he keeps his
head, he can meet both sexes on equal ground an advantage never
intended by Providence, who fashioned Man on one day and
Woman on another, in sign that neither should know more than a
very little of the other's life. Such a man goes far, or, the counsel
being withdrawn, collapses suddenly while his world seeks the
reason.

Generalled by Mrs. Hauksbee, who, again, had all Mrs. Mallowe's
wisdom at her disposal, proud of himself and, in the end, believing
in himself because he was believed in, Otis Yeere stood ready for
any fortune that might befall, certain that it would be good. He
would fight for his own hand, and intended that this second
struggle should lead to better issue than the first helpless surrender
of the bewildered 'Stunt.