irrigation bund and temple built by the celebrated Rani Lussonbhai. His Honour proposed to rebuild the bund, to dig the irrigation channels afresh, and to restore the halcyon days of Rani Lussonbhai to several hundred miles of now sterile country. Would I like to go? It was only about three days' ride; and Sir Rupert rode fifty miles a day? A seat in an office-chair is not good training for feats of this kind, and I had to decline the tempting offer. H. H. smiled softly to himself, and, after blinking at me for a minute and a half out of the corner of his left eye, sidled away and forgot my existence.
Another introduction that I also owed to Mr. Twitchley Crowdie's kindness had more momentous results. Dining in the Commissioner's camp one evening he beckoned to him a pale, distraught man, whose head was crowned by a disorderly thatch of hay-like hair tinged with grey; and whose dreamy blue eyes had a melancholy expression.
"Bubbleby, let me introduce you to Mr. Mudsworth. You will find him a congenial spirit. Clever, professional men like you ought to be acquainted; and, by the way, here is Miss Clara Bubbleby, looking charming." Then, sotto voce, to me—"You will have to sit next to Miss Clara at dinner, and you must entertain her, for the Judge who takes her in never talks except on the Bench." Our host then turned away, and Mr. Bubbleby introduced me to his wife and elder daughter. The mother was an acid and sharp-featured person, and Miss Bubbleby had dutifully inherited these characteristics; but Miss Clara, with a wisdom beyond her years, had devoted herself to plumpness and the cultivation of those qualities which go to make up what we call a "jolly girl."
She was a delightful dinner neighbour, for she chattered and laughed continually; the rest of the family reconnoitring us from their several posts with an air of approval. I learnt that "poor dear Papa" was the Local Funds Engineer and sadly unappreciated; that he was always busy on some new invention the merit of which was denied by jealous people. "Pa is so very clever, you know; and he meets so few who can sympathise with him." Sympathy is my strong point; and glancing down the table at his towzled head and "lost-my-way" sort of countenance, I promised myself that I would sympathise my hardest with the parent of so delightful a creature as Clara Bubbleby.
