"I see you've addressed it to 'Miss Travers.'"
"Well, why not?" he protested; "I feel sure Nancy would not have opened it, had it been addressed to 'Mrs. Mayne.'"
Early that same afternoon Mayne rode down the ghât,—in what a different frame of mind, to the blithe expectations with which he had gaily ascended the same road! Near the foot of the hills he encountered a syce, who salaamed to him profoundly! Could there be anything ironical in that salute? The man was leading a remarkably hot grey pony; the pony was carrying a side-saddle.—An episode was closed.
CHAPTER XIV
"NANCY SITS WITH SORROW"
Nancy, the ayah, Togo and the luggage, arrived at Coimbatore station without any incident, much less a half-expected "hue and cry." Here Mrs. Simpson awaited them with her roomy bullock cart, drawn by a pair of huge Nellore bullocks, and carried the little party to her large and comfortable bungalow on the outskirts of the town. She was delighted to welcome her nursling,—to whom she had always been devoted.—She made her eat, and insisted upon putting her to bed, and treating her precisely as if she were still a small child!
When Nancy was at rest, in her spacious white cot, Jane Simpson sat by her side, and listened with tearful sympathy to details of the illness and death of her former master; for all this, she had been prepared, but the unexpected news of Nancy's marriage, reduced her to a condition of stunned, and horrified silence.
Jane Simpson was by nature excessively prim, a little narrow-minded, strictly conventional, but a most worthy person. Her house, her person, and especially her hands, were beautifully kept. When she had deposited Nancy at school in Eastbourne, she subsequently turned her attention to professional nursing, and after several years' experience, had attracted the attention of one of her patients, married him, and returned to India,—a country she abused for its slack unpractical ways, but nevertheless liked it all the same. Bob Simpson's pay was liberal, and although they had no family, Jane was a very busy and contented woman.