As the Hindu engineer and Noreen ascended the steps of the verandah together, the girl said: 

“You are coming to the club this afternoon, are you not?”

“Yes, Miss Daleham, that is why I have been waiting at your bungalow to see you.  I wanted to ask if we’d ride over together.”

“Of course.  We must start early, though.  I want to see that the servants have everything ready.”

“I don’t think I’d be anxious to go if it were not your ‘At Home’ day,” said the Bengali, as they seated themselves in the drawing-room that Noreen had made as pretty as she could with her limited resources.  “I don’t like the club as a rule.  The fellows are so stand-offish.”

“You mustn’t think so, Mr. Chunerbutty.  They aren’t really.  You know Englishmen as a rule are not expansive.  They often seem unfriendly when they don’t mean to be.”

“Oh, they mean it right enough here,” replied the Hindu bitterly.  “They all think they’re better than I am, just because I am an Indian.  It is that hateful prejudice of the English man and woman in this country.  It is different in England.  You know I was made a lot of in London.  You saw how all the men in that boarding-house we stayed at before we sailed were my friends.”

“Yes; that was so, Mr. Chunerbutty,” replied Noreen, who was secretly tired of the subject, with which he regaled her every day.

“And as for the women—­Of course I don’t want to boast, but all the girls were keen to have me take them out and were proud to be seen with me.  I know that if I liked I could have picked up lots of ladies, real ladies, I mean, not shop-girls.  You should have seen the way they ogled me in the street.  I can assure you that little red-haired girl from Manchester in the boarding-house, Lily——­”

Noreen broke in quickly.

“Please don’t tell me anything about her, Mr. Chunerbutty.  You know that I don’t like to hear you speak disrespectfully of ladies.”  Then, to change the disagreeable subject, she continued:  “Fred will be back to breakfast soon.  Will you stay for it?  Then we can all ride together to the club.”

“Thank you.  I should like to,” replied Chunerbutty.  To show his freedom from caste prejudices he not only ate with Europeans, but even showed no objection to beef, much to the horror of all orthodox Hindus.  That a Brahmin, of all men, should partake of the sacred flesh of the almost divine cow was an appalling sacrilege in their eyes.

Leaving him with a book she attended to the cares of her household, disorganised by the absence of cook and butler, who had gone on ahead to the club with the supplies.