' He was never an amiable character.
What do the ladies of the city say of this strange social situation?
I never knew that the old beast had a daughter till to-day."
Captain Hardwicke wearily replied: "They all hold aloof, of course,
after some very rough rebuffs, as I believe the old boy will clear
out for good when he gets his baronetcy. It's possible that the
girl is half a foreigner after all," mused Hardwicke. "The duenna
is surely a continental."
"Yes; but she seems to be a very nice person. I was there to-day
at tiffin," finally said Major Hawke,
"She had very little to say, and cleared out at once. I did not
see Miss Johnstone." They fell into an easy, rattling chronicle of
things past and present, and before the two hours' ride was over,
the astute Major felt that he had divined General Willoughby's
object in sending his pet aid-de-camp to reconnoitre Hawke's lines
and pierce the mystery of his rumored employment.
"I suppose that you will come up and duly report to the Chief,"
rather uneasily said Captain Hardwicke, as they neared the Club on
their return. Hawke cast a glance at the superb domes of the Jumma
Musjid towering in the thin air above them, as he slowly answered:
"I am only here on a roving secret commission. I shall call, of
course, and pay my personal respects to His Excellency, the General
Commanding. I am an official will-o'-the-wisp, just now, but my
blushing honors are strictly civil, and, by the way, in expectancy.
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