Page:Alice Lauder.pdf/41

tasted prawn curry, have you? Ah! wait for that before you begin to talk about Paradise!”

“Oh, how prosaic, how tiresome you are!—on an evening like this, too!”

“Wait till you taste it, that’s all. Besides, I’ve seen this sort of thing so often before; there’s a terrible family likeness in tropical scenery everywhere. But there’s one thing new to me here.”

“What is that?”

“I’ve never met anyone exactly like you before, Miss Lauder.”

“I wonder if that is a compliment or not? If it is, I’ll add it to my collection. I have a few bottled up in spirits of wine. The best specimens were given me by the chief engineer. You must have noticed him coming out in the twilight every evening and sitting beside me in total silence for half an hour. That was his way of being complimentary, and I thought it very flattering. But it’s time to go in now.”

“No, don’t go yet,” said Campbell. “There’s a lovely view from the ramparts, and we’ll get a breeze there before dinner. It’s quite the thing to walk there at this time of the evening—if you can do without the engineer.”

They went down the shadow-lined red road, and presently stood on the ramparts and looked