Banked Fires Part 62

"He's 'some' kid! Do you remember trying to interest me in the Meredith infant when it was a glorified dummy in long clothes?"

"Yes, and you wasted your energies trying to fix its attention when it did not know you from a mango tree!" They laughed heartily at the recollection.

"Where are the Merediths, by the way?"

"They are stationed at Darjeeling, which suits the baby very well--perhaps you don't know that there is another baby?"

"I believe Jack wrote something of the sort, some little time back."

"A baby girl this time, and getting on splendidly."

"Where is the first?--still with the grandparents?"

"Yes. I saw him not long ago--such a beautiful boy and so independent!

The old people are so proud of him. Do you know that Jack and Kitty are at home?"

"No! When did they come? I did not know that women were allowed pa.s.sages?"

"They managed to 'w.a.n.gle' it, somehow. Jack had malaria and was ordered home by the doctors. It was a most exciting voyage, from all accounts, for their boat was chased by a submarine in the Bay of Biscay and escaped two torpedoes by a miracle."

"Horrible!"

"Kitty says she would not have missed the experience for anything; but Jack declares the anxiety has taken ten years off his life."

"Dear old Jack! Where are they? I shall look them up."

"Staying with his people. They are in love with Kitty and can't make enough of her."

"And what are your plans now that the war is over?"

"Brian expects to return to India, in which case, we go with him."

"You'll take the baby?"

"Most a.s.suredly! Master Tommy is not going to be left behind by his Mummy--not on any account!"

"But the climate? I thought it does not agree with babies?"

"It agrees quite well; at least for the first few years. I am not so sure about it later on, but, 'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' We'll begin to think about sending him home when he turns seven. You see, we have the hills, and life is too short for unnecessary partings."

"I am with you there! How are Mr. and Mrs. Bright?"

"As usual, thank you. Father retires after the New Year, and they will live in Edinburgh. And what of your plans, Tommy?"

"I dare say I shall be back in the Police again, before long."

"And have you not found any one yet as a life-partner, to make India worth while?" she asked kindly.

Tommy smiled. "I am in no hurry, being difficult to please. I shall have to find the lady whose price, according to old Solomon, is 'far above rubies,' or remain in single blessedness all my days."

"You'll find her right enough if you _know where_ to look, and _how_!"

said Honor laughing. "Her natural element is the country home."

THE END.

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

The Reproof of Chance

The Blind Alley

The Daughter-in-Law

Baba and the Black Sheep

Sinners All

Mistress of Herself

_A Selection from the Catalogue of_

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Blue Aloes

By Cynthia Stockley

Author of "Poppy," "The Claw," "Wild Honey," etc.

No writer can so unfailingly summons and materialize the spirit of the weird, mysterious South Africa as can Cynthia Stockley. She is a favored medium through whom the great Dark Continent its tales unfolds.

A strange story is this, of a Karoo farm,--a hedge of Blue Aloes, a cactus of fantastic beauty, which shelters a myriad of creeping things,--a whisper and a summons in the dead of the night,--an odor of death and the old.

There are three other stories in the book, stories throbbing with the sudden, intense pa.s.sion and the mystic atmosphere of the Veldt.

Unconquered

By Maud Diver

Author of "Captain Desmond, V.C.," "Desmond's Daughter," "The Great Amulet," etc.