"Thank you," the major said, "that would suit us exactly. I shall drive in
my dog-cart, which will carry four of us; and if you will take Dick, that
will make it all right."

"What time do we start?"

"We are to be there by seven; we set it so late to give the ladies time to
breakfast comfortably before starting. I will call here at half-past six
for Dick; it will be all in my way. Good-morning."

Two minutes later the girls, Ned, and Dick came into the dining-room, and
the party sat down to luncheon--a meal always called tiffin in India. It
is a great mistake to suppose that people in India cannot eat because of
the heat; in the extreme heat of summer their appetites do, no doubt, fall
off; but at other times, they not only eat, but eat more largely than is
good for them; and a good deal of the liver complaint which is the pest of
India is in no small degree due to the fact that, the appetite being
unnaturally stimulated by hot and piquant food, people eat more than in
such a climate as this can be properly digested. The meal consisted of
curries, with which were handed round chutney and Bombay ducks--a little
fish about the size of a smelt, cut open, dried, and smoked with
assafoetida, giving it an intolerably nasty taste to strangers, but one
which Anglo-Indians become accustomed to and like--no one knows why they
are called Bombay ducks--cutlets, plantains sliced and fried,
pomegranates, and watermelons. They were waited upon by two servants, both
dressed entirely in white, but wearing red turbans, very broad and
shallow. These turbans denoted the particular tribe and sect to which
their wearers belonged. The castes in India are almost innumerable, and
each has a turban of a peculiar color or shape, and by these they can be
at once distinguished by a resident. On their foreheads were lines and