'I would tell the bearer to darwaza band them. I'd put their own
colonels and commissioners at the door to turn them away. I'd give
them to the Topsham Girl to play with.'

'The Topsham Girl would be grateful for the gift. But to go back to
the salon. Allowing that you had gathered all your men and women
together, what would you do with them? Make them talk? They
would all with one accord begin to flirt. Your salon would become
a glorified Peliti's a ''Scandal Point" by lamplight.'

'There's a certain amount of wisdom in that view.'

'There's all the wisdom in the world in it. Surely, twelve Simla
seasons ought to have taught you that you can't focus anything in
India; and a salon, to be any good at all, must be permanent. In two
seasons your roomful would be scattered all over Asia. We are
only little bits of dirt on the hillsides here one day and blown down
the khud the next. We have lost the art of talking at least our men
have. We have no cohesion '

'George Eliot in the flesh,' interpolated Mrs. Hauksbee wickedly.

'And collectively, my dear scoffer, we, men and women alike, have
no influence. Come into the verandah and look at the Mall!'

The two looked down on the now rapidly filling road, for all Simla
was abroad to steal a stroll between a shower and a fog.

'How do you propose to fix that river? Look! There's The Mussuck
head of goodness knows what. He is a power in the land, though he