“Excellent!” ejaculated Sir Gloster, “and a first-class sample. She might tell them to furnish a few more on the same pattern.”
“I expect we shall find one quite enough for the present,” rejoined Miss Paske rather dryly.
“Have all the people nick-names?”
“Most of them; those who are in any way remarkable,” she answered, as they paced up and down. “That red-faced man over there is called ‘Sherry,’ and his wife—I don’t see her—‘Bitters.’ Captain Waring, who is abnormally rich, is called ‘the millionaire;’ his cousin, the fair young man in flannels, who keeps rather in the background, is ‘the poor relation;’ Miss Clegg is known as ‘the dâk bungalow fowl,’ because she is so bony, and the four Miss Abrahams, who always sit in a row, and are, as you notice, a little dark, are ‘the snowy range.’”
“Excellent!” ejaculated Sir Gloster.
“That man that you see drinking coffee,” pursued the sprightly damsel, “with the great flat mahogany face, is ‘the Europe Ham’—is it not a lovely name? Those two Miss Valpys, the girls with the short hair and immense expanse of shirt fronts, are called ‘the lads;’ that red-headed youth is known as ‘the pink un,’ and the two Mrs. Robinsons are respectively, ‘good Mrs. Robinson’ and ‘pretty Mrs. Robinson.’”
“Excellent!” repeated the baronet once more. “And no doubt you and I—at any rate I—have been fitted with a new name, and all that sort of thing?”
“Oh no,” shaking her head. “Besides,” with a sweetly flattering smile, “there is nothing to ridicule about you.”
She was certainly not going to tell him that he was called “Double Gloster,” in reference to his size.
Sir Gloster Sandilands was about thirty years of age, rustic in his ideas, simple in his tastes, narrow in his views. He was the only son of his mother, a widow, who kept him in strict order. He was fond of ladies’ society, and of music; and, being rather dull and heavy, greatly appreciated a pretty, lively, and amusing companion. Companions of this description were not unknown to him at home, but as they were generally as penniless as they were charming, the dowager Lady Sandilands kept them and their fascinations at an impracticable distance. She trusted to his sister, Mrs. Kane, to look strictly after her treasure whilst under her roof; but Mrs. Kane was a great deal too much occupied with her own affairs to have any time to bestow on her big brother, who surely was old enough to take care of himself! He was enchanted with India; and the change from a small county club and confined local surroundings, the worries of a landlord and magistrate, to this exquisite climate and scenery, and free, novel, roving life was delightful. He had spent the cold weather in the plains, and had come up to Shirani to visit his sister, as well as to taste the pleasures of an Indian hill station.