The strangers were presented as "Captain and Mrs. Hayes-Billington," and Mrs. Paget-Taylor murmured to my aunt that he was "a far away connection, at present on leave from India." Captain Hayes-Billington was a stout well-set-up man of thirty, with regular features and a heavy dark moustache, but his face had a puffy appearance; indeed, he was altogether puffy, and to me his arms and legs recalled inflated air cushions, so tightly did his grey suit encase them. He was not in the least overawed or dumbfounded, as were some, by the magnificence of Torrington, but chatted away to Aunt Mina about "my regiment," "my appointment," and "my mines," and carried round the tea-cups with the address of long practice. Mrs. Hayes-Billington also took part in the general conversation. She had a sweet, rather low voice, and exhibited when she spoke glimpses of beautiful teeth. Her manners were easy and assured, and her smile was radiant. Such smiles thawed Aunt Mina's usual manner of ice and iron. She was always amenable when she realised that people were not afraid of her. This stranger was fearless, and listened to her account of the super-griffon's asthma with an admirably assumed air of absorption and sympathy. It was wonderful how rapidly she stole into my aunt's good graces. They discussed Monte Carlo, and the rapacity of milliners, and compared their experiences of French hotels. The visitor also exchanged a few sentences with Bev, who, instead of fleeing from callers as usual, was sitting, tea-cup in hand, staring at Mrs. Hayes-Billington with wide open pea-green eyes.
She inquired the name of his regiment, which query, strange to say, delicately flattered his greedy vanity.
"Not in the army?" she repeated incredulously, "I certainly thought you were in the Guards."
"Oh, no," he rejoined, "I am going into the Diplomatic Service"; which was the first that anyone had heard of it!
It transpired that the couple were spending a whole week at the Dower House ere returning to India in a month's time, and presently I screwed up my courage and ventured to ask her how she liked the East.
"Oh it's all right, as long as one is young," she answered in a deep, rather vibrant voice, looking at me steadily with her marvellous dark eyes. "We have always been in the Punjaub, but this time we are bound for the Deccan. Herbert has been given a very good appointment there. It will be an entirely new country."