Travers shook his head.
"The greater the power the greater the responsibility," he answered. "I couldn't say on the spur of the moment. If I were given time, no doubt I should be able to tell you."
"I give you till our next meeting, then," Nehal said gravely.
"Our next meeting? I trust, then, Rajah Sahib that you will condescend to be the guest of the English Station?"
Nehal turned his head to hide the flash of boyish satisfaction which shone out of his eyes. It was that he wanted—to go among this people, from their own hearth to judge them, and to probe down into the source of their greatness.
"It would give me much pleasure," he answered quietly.
It was Travers' turn to hide the triumph which the willing acceptance aroused. Nevertheless, his next words were whimsically regretful.
"Unfortunately, we have no place in which to offer you a fitting welcome, Rajah Sahib," he said. "For a long time it has been the ambition of the Station to build some place wherein all such festivities could be properly celebrated. But alas!"—he shrugged his shoulders—"it is the fate of the Anglo-Indian to work for the richness and greatness of his country and himself remain miserably poor."
"How much money would be required?" Nehal Singh asked.
"You will no doubt be amused at the smallness of the sum—a mere four thousand rupees—but it is just so much we have not got."