"Besides, ladies, you must remember that I have a vivid recollection of you all; which would, alone, have guarded me against falling in love with any dusky maiden."
"I rather doubt your word, Mr. Bullen," the colonel's wife said; "you were always very ready to make yourself pleasant, and do our errands, and to make yourself generally useful and agreeable; but I do not remember that you ever ventured upon making a compliment before. You must have learnt the art somehow."
The lady laughed.
"I could hardly help comparing you with the women round me, but I really had a vivid remembrance of your kindness to me."
"In future, Mr. Bullen, we shall consider you as discharged from all duty. We have heard of other gallant deeds that you have done; and henceforth shall regard you, with a real respect, as an officer who has brought great credit upon the regiment. I am sure that, henceforth, you will lose your old nickname of 'the boy,' and be regarded as a hero."
"I hope not," Lisle said; "it has been very pleasant to be regarded as a boy, and therefore to act as a sort of general fag to you. I hope you will continue to regard me as so. I have always considered it a privilege to be able to make myself useful to you, and I should be very sorry to lose it.
"I can assure you that I still feel as a boy. I know nothing of the world; have passed my whole time, as far back as I can remember, in camp; and have thoroughly enjoyed my life. I suppose some day I shall lose the feeling that I am still a boy, but I shall certainly hold to it as long as I can."
"I suppose you had some difficulty in speaking with the natives?" the doctor's wife said.
"At first I had but, from continually talking with them, I got to know their language--I won't say as well as Punjabi, but certainly very well--and I shall pass in it at the next examination."
"I wish all subalterns were like you," the colonel's wife said. "Most of those who come out from England are puffed up with a sense of their own importance, and I often wish that I could take them by the shoulders, and shake them well. And what are you going to do now?"