Rujub, the Juggler by G. A. Henty (novels to read in english .txt) 📕

out to be Captain and Mrs. Doolan and Mr. Congreave, one of the civilians at the station. The Doolans arrived first.

“You have not seen Captain Forster yet, Isobel,” Mrs. Doolan said, as they sat down for a chat together. “I met him at Delhi soon after I came out. He is quite my beau ideal of a soldier in appearance, but I don't think he is nice, Isobel. I have heard all sorts of stories about him.”

“Is that meant as a warning for me, Mrs. Doolan?” Isobel asked, smiling.

“Well, yes, I think it is, if you don't mind my giving you one. There are some men one can flirt with as much as one likes, and there are some men one can't; he is one of that sort. Privately, my dear, I don't mind telling you that at one time I did flirt with him—I had been accustomed to flirt in Ireland; we all flirt there, and mean nothing by it; but I had to give it up very suddenly. It wouldn't do, my dear, at all; his ideas of flirtation differed utterly from mine. I found I was playing with fire, and was fortunate in getting off without singeing my wings, which is more than a good many others would have done.”

“He must be a horrid sort of man,” Isobel said indignantly.

Mrs. Doolan laughed. “I don't think you will find him so; certainly that is not the general opinion of women. However, you will see him for yourself in a very few minutes.”

Isobel looked up with some curiosity when Captain Forster was announced, and at once admitted to herself that the Doctor's report as to his personal appearance was fully justified. He stood over six feet high, with a powerful frame, and an easy careless bearing; his hair was cut rather close, he wore a long tawny mustache, his eyes were dark, his teeth very white and perfect. A momentary look of surprise came across his face as his eyes fell on Isobel.

“I had hardly expected,” he said, as the Major introduced him to her, “to find no less than three unmarried ladies at Deennugghur. I had the pleasure of being introduced to the Miss Hunters this afternoon. How do you do, Mrs. Doolan? I think it is four years since I had the pleasure of knowing you in Delhi.”

“I believe that is the number, Captain Forster.”

“It seems a very long time to me,” he said.

“I thought you would say that,” she laughed. “It was quite the proper thing to say, Captain Forster; but I have no doubt it does seem longer to you than it does to me as you have been home since.”

“We are all here,” the Major broke in. “Captain Forster, will you take my niece in?”

“I suppose you find this very dull after Cawnpore, Miss Hannay?” Captain Forster asked.

“Indeed I do not,” Isobel said. “I like it better here; everything is sociable and pleasant, while at Cawnpore there was much more formality. Of course, there were lots of dinner parties, but I don't care for large dinner parties at all; it is so hot, and they last such a time. I think six is quite large enough. Then there is a general talk, and everyone can join in just as much as they like, while at a large dinner you have to rely entirely upon one person, and I think it is very hard work having to talk for an hour and a half to a stranger of whom you know nothing. Don't you agree with me?”

“Entirely, Miss Hannay; I am a pretty good hand at talking, but at times I have found it very hard work, I can assure you, especially when you take down a stranger to the station, so that you have no mutual acquaintance to pull to pieces.”

The dinner was bright and pleasant, and when the evening was over Isobel said to her uncle, “I think Captain Forster is very amusing, uncle.”

“Yes,” the Major agreed, “he is a good talker, a regular society man; he is no great favorite of mine; I think he will be a little too much for us in a small station like this.”

“How do you mean too much, uncle?”

The Major hesitated.

“Well, he won't have much to do with his troop of horse, and time will hang heavy on his hands.”

“Well, there is shooting, uncle.”

“Yes, there is shooting, but I don't think that is much in his line. Tiffins and calls, and society generally occupy most of his time, I fancy, and I think he is fonder of billiards and cards than is good for him or others. Of course, being here by himself, as he is, we must do our best to be civil to him, and that sort of thing, but if we were at Cawnpore he is a man I should not care about being intimate in the house.”

“I understand, uncle; but certainly he is pleasant.”

“Oh, yes, he is very pleasant,” the Major said dryly, in a tone that seemed to express that Forster's power of making himself pleasant was by no means a recommendation in his eyes.

But Captain Forster had apparently no idea whatever that his society could be anything but welcome, and called the next day after luncheon.

“I have been leaving my pasteboard at all the residents,” he said; “not a very large circle. Of course, I knew Mrs. Rintoul at Delhi, as well as Mrs. Doolan. I did not know any of the others. They seem pleasant people.”

“They are very pleasant,” Isobel said.

“I left one for a man named Bathurst. He was out. Is that the Bathurst, Major Hannay, who was in a line regiment—I forget its number—and left very suddenly in the middle of the fighting in the Punjaub?”

“Yes; I believe Bathurst was in the army about that time,” the Major said; “but I don't know anything about the circumstances of his leaving.”

Had Captain Forster known the Major better he would have been aware that what he meant to say was that he did not wish to know, but he did not detect the inflection of his voice, and went on—“They say he showed the white feather. If it is the same man, I was at school with him, and unless he has improved since then, I am sure I have no wish to renew his acquaintance.”

“I like him very much,” the Major said shortly; “he is great friends with Dr. Wade, who has the very highest opinion of him, and I believe he is generally considered to be one of the most rising young officers of his grade.”

“Oh, I have nothing to say against him,” Captain Forster said; “but he was a poor creature at school, and I do not think that there was any love lost between us. Did you know him before you came here?”

“I only met him at the last races in Cawnpore,” the Major said; “he was stopping with the Doctor.”

“Quite a character, Wade.”

Isobel's tongue was untied now.