“I rather like it,—that is, if it means India,” said a very young-looking ensign.
Sewell put up his eye-glass and looked at the speaker, and then, letting it drop, went on with his dinner without a word.
“There 's no man can tell you more about Bengal than Colonel Sewell there,” said Cave, to some one near him. “He served on the staff there, and knows every corner of it.”
“I wish I did n't, with all my heart. It's a sort of knowledge that costs a man pretty dearly.”
“I 've always been told India was a capital place,” said a gay, frank-looking young lieutenant, “and that if a man did n't drink, or take to high play, he could get on admirably.”
“Nor entangle himself with a pretty woman,” added another.
“Nor raise a smashing loan from the Agra Bank,” cried a third.
“You are the very wisest young gentlemen it has ever been my privilege to sit down with,” said Sewell, with a grin. “Whence could you have gleaned all these prudent maxims?”
“I got mine,” said the Lieutenant, “from a cousin. Such a good fellow as he was! He always tipped me when I was at Sandhurst, but he's past tipping any one now.”
“Dead?”