Robert thinks it time to take command.

'Fiddle-de-dee. Bring your mistress a cup of tea, my girl.'

'Yes, sir. Here is the tea-caddy, ma'am. I can't take the
responsibility; but this is the key.'

'Robert,' Alice says falteringly. 'I daren't break into Amy's caddy.
She mightn't like it. I can wait.'

'Rubbish. Give me the key.' Even Fanny cannot but admire the Colonel
as he breaks into the caddy.

'That makes me feel I'm master of my own house already. Don't stare at
me, girl, as if I was a housebreaker.'

'I feel that is just what we both are,' his wife says; but as soon as
they are alone she cries, 'It's home, home! India done, home begun.'

He is as glad as she.

'Home, memsahib. And we've never had a real one before. Thank God, I'm
able to give it you at last.'

She darts impulsively from one object in the room to another.

'Look, these pictures. I'm sure they are all Amy's work. They are
splendid.' With perhaps a moment's misgiving, 'Aren't they?'

'_I_ couldn't have done them,' the Colonel says guardedly. He