to lose. Are you going? No? Then sit up for me, there's a dear. I
shan't stay longer than supper under any circumstances.'

Mrs. Mallowe waited through the evening, looking long and
earnestly into the fire, and sometimes smiling to herself.

'Oh! oh! oh! The man's an idiot! A raving, positive idiot! I'm sorry I
ever saw him!'

Mrs. Hauksbee burst into Mrs. Mallowe's house, at midnight,
almost in tears.

'What in the world has happened?' said Mrs. Mallowe, but her eyes
showed that she had guessed an answer.

'Happened! Everything has happened! He was there. I went to him
and said, ''Now, what does this nonsense mean?" Don't laugh, dear,
I can't bear it. But you know what I mean I said. Then it was a
square, and I sat it out with him and wanted an explanation, and he
said Oh! I haven't patience with such idiots! You know what I said
about going to Darjiling next year? It doesn't matter to me where I
go. I'd have changed the Station and lost the rent to have saved
this. He said, in so many words, that he wasn't going to try to work
up any more, because because he would be shifted into a province
away from Darjiling, and his own District, where these creatures
are,is within a day's journey '

'Ah hh!' said Mrs. Mallowe, in a tone of one who has successfully
tracked an obscure word through a large dictionary.