'Excuse my tearing my hair,' he said to the lady, 'but has the pack really hunted you down ?' 'It's all right,' she said, and when she looked at him she got miles prettier quite suddenly.

'I was just breaking to them...' 'Don't take that proud privilege from me,' he said.

'Kiddies, allow me to present you to the future Mrs Albert's uncle, or shall we say Albert's new aunt ?' * * * There was a good deal of explaining done before tea--about how we got there, I mean, and why.

But after the first bitterness of disappointment we felt not nearly so sorry as we had expected to.

For Albert's uncle's lady was very jolly to us, and her brother was awfully decent, and showed us a lot of first-class native curiosities and things, unpacking them on purpose; skins of beasts, and beads, and brass things, and shells from different savage lands besides India.