up. Then, too, ladies are greatly in the minority, and they are
accustomed to be made vastly more of than they are at home, and
the consequence is that the amount of envy, hatred, jealousy, and
all uncharitableness is appalling."

"No, no, Doctor, not as bad as that," the Major remonstrated.

"Every bit as bad as that," the Doctor said stoutly. "I am not a
woman hater, far from it; but I have felt sometimes that if John
Company, in its beneficence, would pass a decree absolutely excluding
the importation of white women into India it would be an unmixed
blessing."

"For shame, Doctor," Isobel Hannay said; "and to think that I should
have such a high opinion of you up to now."

"I can't help it, my dear; my experience is that for ninety-nine
out of every hundred unpleasantnesses that take place out here,
women are in one way or another responsible. They get up sets and
cliques, and break up what might be otherwise pleasant society into
sections. Talk about caste amongst natives; it is nothing to the
caste among women out here. The wife of a civilian of high rank looks
down upon the wives of military men, the general's wife looks down
upon a captain's, and so right through from the top to the bottom.

"It is not so among the men, or at any rate to a very much smaller
extent. Of course, some men are pompous fools, but, as a rule, if
two men meet, and both are gentlemen, they care nothing as to what
their respective ranks may be. A man may be a lord or a doctor, a
millionaire or a struggling barrister, but they meet on equal terms