residents may not want to know them."

"Well, everyone must know everyone else in a station, my dear,
though they may not wish to be intimate. So. about half past one
tomorrow we will start."

"What, in the heat of the day, uncle?"

"Yes, my dear. That is another of the inscrutable freaks of Indian
fashion. The hours for calling are from about half past twelve to
half past two, just in the hottest hours. I don't pretend to account
for it."

How many ladies are there in the regiment?"

"There is the Colonel's wife, Mrs. Cromarty. She has two grown up
red headed girls," replied the Doctor. "She is a distant relation
--a second cousin--of some Scotch lord or other, and, on the
strength of that and her husband's colonelcy, gives herself prodigious
airs. Three of the captains are married. Mrs. Doolan is a merry
little Irish woman. You will like her. She has two or three children.
She is a general favorite in the regiment.

"Mrs. Rintoul--I suppose she is here still, Major, and unchanged?
Ah, I thought so. She is a washed-out woman, without a spark of
energy in her composition.-' She believes that she is a chronic
invalid, and sends for me on an average once a week. But there is
nothing really the matter with her, if she would but only believe
it. Mrs. Roberts--"