and kicked her, she looked only more frightened
and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah
to come to Missie Sahib.

There was something mysterious in the air that
morning. Nothing was done in its regular order
and several of the native servants seemed missing,
while those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about
with ashy and scared faces. But no one would
tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. She
was actually left alone as the morning went on,
and at last she wandered out into the garden and
began to play by herself under a tree near the
veranda. She pretended that she was making
a flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus
blossoms into little heaps of earth, all the time
growing more and more angry and muttering to
herself the things she would say and the names
she would call Saidie when she returned.

"Pig! Pig! Daughter of Pigs!" she said,
because to call a native a pig is the worst insult
of all.

She was grinding her teeth and saying this over
and over again when she heard her mother come
out on the veranda with some one. She was with
a fair young man and they stood talking together
in low strange voices. Mary knew the fair young
man who looked like a boy. She had heard that
he was a very young officer who had just come

[[3]]

p002 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p003w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p004

v?