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THE mail which came in that evening brought a letter to Campbell from a relation of his father’s, highly placed in the Indian Civil Service, where the Campbells had always distinguished themselves. The relative had been looking out for a suitable opening, and now wrote that he had secured the very thing—the very thing in this instance being the promise of a private secretaryship to a still greater personage, which might be considered as a very big step up the ladder for any young man with his head screwed on the right way. Arthur was not sure about the screwing of his head, but in any case the offer must be accepted, and at once. He must take the next steamer to India, and say farewell—a long farewell, probably—to all his fellow-passengers on board the “Suez.”

It was with very mingled feelings that he made some hurried preparations for this new departure, or, to speak more truly, with a sensa-