their buggies, drove to the mess-house, which was a quarter of a
mile away.

"I should think Miss Hannay will prove a valuable addition to our
circle, Doctor," the Adjutant said. "I don't know why, but I gathered
from what the Major said that his niece was very young. He spoke
of her as if she were quite a child."

"She is a very nice, sensible young woman," the Doctor said;
"clever and bright, and, as you can see for your-selves, pretty,
and yet no nonsense about her. I only hope that she won't get spoilt
here; nineteen out of twenty young women do get spoilt within six
months of their arrival in India, but I think she will be one of
the exceptions."

"I should have liked to have seen the Doctor doing chaperon,"
Captain Doolan laughed; "he would have been a brave man who would
have attempted even the faintest flirtation with anyone under his
charge."

"That is your opinion, is it, Doolan?" the Doctor said sharply. "I
should have thought that even your common sense would have told you
that anyone who has had the misfortune to see as much of womankind
as I have would have been aware that any endeavor to check a
flirtation for which they are inclined would be of all others the
way to induce them to go in for it headlong. You are a married
man yourself, and ought to know that. A woman is a good deal like
a spirited horse; let her have her head, and, though she may for
a time make the pace pretty fast, she will go straight, and settle
down to her collar in time, whereas if you keep a tight curb she