"Right you are! Mind that the children that do the ground picking get one pice a seer, and now I must go and put my traps together," concluded Tom, who seized this opportunity to scribble a chit to Mrs. Bourne, and expedited matters so successfully, that by eight o'clock, he and his sister were ready to start. They took leave of their guest in a duet of injunctions, with respect to his health. How he was not to ride too far, or expose himself to sun, or rain, and assuring him of their return within a week; then one in a chair, and the other on a pony, they took their way down the long winding ghât road, which led to the plains.
After breakfast Mallender, now "monarch of all he surveyed," visited the dogs, inspected the cattle, and held a solemn conference with the head maistrey. In the afternoon, he invested his head in a monstrous pith topee, and rode about the estate; it was four o'clock, when he returned to the bungalow for a tub and tea, but to his amazement, neither were forthcoming; he found instead, a little note from Mrs. Bourne, which said:
"Your luggage and servant are awaiting you at Kartairi. Tea is at 4.30. Yours sincerely, Emily Bourne."
"Well, if this does not take the entire biscuit! Of all the cool proceedings!" muttered Geoffrey, as he re-read the chit, and scratched his head.
"I suppose there's nothing else for it. The bedding is gone, I must stick to my sponge, and razors," and he followed them to Kartairi.
"I'm afraid, you think me a most arbitrary lady," said Mrs. Bourne, as she welcomed her guest, "but I was so afraid you'd make excuses, and entrench yourself alone at Bonagherry, that I sent over, and raided your room!"
"Awfully kind of you," he murmured.
"I daresay you are awfully vexed, but you really are not yet out of the wood. Barbie and I will look after you, and you will find we are not too bad to live with. Your bath is prepared, and tea will be ready in a quarter of an hour."
The Beamishes were absent not for one, but three weeks, and during the time, their late inmate found himself agreeably at home at Kartairi. The house was run on more English lines than Bonagherry. A certain amount of admirable cooking was accomplished at a little oil-stove in the back verandah, lights in bedrooms were not the old oil and wick in tumblers, but neat hand lamps. Those in the drawing-room wore pretty silk shades, and the effect was eminently restful. Here flowers abounded, there were luxurious, chintz-covered chairs, a piano, many sketches and photographs, and an ample supply of books and magazines.
As an officer's wife, Mrs. Bourne had visited various countries, and picked up a number of little portable treasures; she had taste too, and a marvellous knack of making any home comfortable, and refined. As the handsome, accomplished daughter of well-born people, it had been expected, that Emily La Haye (whose French ancestor had taken San Thomé) would contract a brilliant marriage; but to the disappointment of her parents, she "threw herself away" on a good-looking Captain in a line regiment,—an unpractical, extravagant, but popular fellow, who had no money sense whatever; and here she was left with two boys, and a pension of seventy pounds a year, struggling to make a living out of a coffee estate in Southern India.