Her companion smiled slightly, in a very unsympathetic way. His opinion of 'guardian angels' was taken from a practical and lamentably unpoetical point of view. Having played the part himself on several occasions with more or less conspicuous success, he inclined to a belief that the glory of guardian angelism is of a negative description. There are certain people in the world who will accept all and any service, and to whom the feeling of indebtedness is without a hint of shame. In time they come to consider such service as has previously and hitherto been rendered them in the light of a precedent. Gradually the debt seems to glide from the shoulders of the debtor to those of the creditor, and having once rendered a service, the renderer has simply placed himself under an obligation to continue doing so.
When Mrs. Huston, therefore, mentioned the fact that her sister was her guardian angel, the pathos of the observation was somewhat lost upon her hearer; who, moreover, was slightly prejudiced against Brenda because such guardian angels as had crossed his path were of a weak and gullible nature. He never made her acquaintance, but the impression thus conceived—though totally erroneous—was never dispelled by such small details of her story as came to his knowledge in later years.
'I hear,' the captain went on to explain, in his cheery impersonal way, 'scraps of family histories here and there, and then am rather surprised to meet members of these families, or persons connected with them.'
Mrs. Huston bravely quelled a desire to talk of her own affairs, and smiled vaguely.
'I have no doubt,' she said with mechanical pleasantness, 'that we have a great many mutual acquaintances—if we only knew how to hit upon the vein.'
'Of course we have—the world, and especially the Indian world, is very small.'
'I wonder who they are?' murmured Mrs. Huston, raising her eyes to her companion's face.
'Mention a few of your friends,' he suggested, looking down into her eyes somewhat keenly.
'No—you begin!'
He changed his position somewhat, and stood upright, free from the rail, but his glance never left her face.