be a thousand miles north or a thousand miles south.'
But he hadn't really answered my question, and I think he knew it.
'We are putting up at The Grand until we leave Bombay,' I said. 'You will come and see us, and tell us where you are sent to, won't you?'
'I'm staying with a friend in the fort,' he said, 'but I shall be sure to come round and see you before I go.' He looked round at me with his fresh, cheery smile. How I longed to take him by the shoulders and shake him, and tell him what a stupid, dear stupid young fool he was. He was suddenly in great spirits.
'I was going to ask you to do something I want very much,' he said, cheerily.
Now it may have been that I winced, remembering that last thing he had asked me to do for him and what had come of it, or it may have been that he really did change his mind.
'But I don't think I'll ask you now,' he continued, laughing as he watched my face. 'I'll put it off till a more convenient season. Good-bye.' And he went off, smiling back at me, while I sat there, wondering what it was he wanted of me, and what it was that had made me suddenly afraid to ask him what it was then and there.
