CHAPTER XX
ERNIE IN INDIA
The Regiment was wonderfully well run for the men on its social side, for the Colonel was a bachelor, and much was trusted to Mrs. Lewknor.
She was at Ernie's bedside the day after he had his first attack of fever.
The little lady, so delicate, yet so strong, stood above the lad whose mother she might have been with a curious thrill.
He was so like his father, yet so unlike; and he was not only sick of fever, but dreadfully homesick too.
Mrs. Lewknor knew all about that, and the cure for it.
"Tell me about your people, Caspar," she said, after the ice had been broken.
The lad unloosed the flood-gates with immense relief.
He talked of Beachbourne, of Rectory Walk with the virginia-creeper on the wall and the fig-tree at the back; of his mother, of Mr. Pigott, even of Alf, and all the time of dad and the Downs.
On rising to go, Mrs. Lewknor said that when she came next day she would read to him.