guessed that to be a member of the Club is the first thing needful in India. It's a kind of hall mark that you can't well do without. Membership may not mean that you are anybody very much, but non-membership certainly means that you are nobody at all.
'It is not that our Mofussil Clubs are at all exclusive,' Berengaria went on, 'in fact, they generally err far too much the other way. But even they have to draw the line somewhere. Why, actually only the other day, there was a talk of proposing the Penincs.'
The Peninos, I found, claimed to be Portuguese. It's wonderful how many Portuguese there are in India. Considering the fewness of the original Portuguese adventurers they must have been a wonderful race.
"Mrs. Penino is large and fat,' discoursed Berengaria. 'All Eurasians grow large and fat very soon if they don't get skinny and wizened. It's hard to know which is the lesser evil of the two.' Berengaria sighed as if she had a personal interest in the question. 'Which would you rather be, Nicola, large and fat or skinny and wizened?'
Of course I was diplomatic.
'Oh, large and fat,' I said decidedly. 'I never could stand people who looked as if they were starved.'
Berengaria smiled with delight. Though she is not a Eurasian it cannot be denied that she has already developed a tendency towards the large and fat.
