The _dâk-wallah's_ arrival with his big brown wallet invariably excited my interest. From time to time he brought me letters from Mrs. Lakin. On one occasion her dispatch was so heavy as to require five annas postage, as it enclosed others. One was from Captain Hayes-Billington, to tell me that his wife had passed away. It was apparently written in great distress, the thin cheap paper blistered with tears:
"She asked me to be sure and let _you_ know; Dulcie was always fond of you. Ever since she came down here she has been failing, and by degrees just faded away out of life. She was glad to go--but _I_ am heart-broken."
Mrs. Lakin, who was my constant correspondent, announced in her letter that they were leaving Secunderabad immediately:
"My dear, such an uprooting after thirty years in India! I cannot bear to think of how our poor household gods will be scattered. Some, such as the Deschamps furniture, I intend to take home; some I shall send to the girls. One of them will give the old chestnut horse a stall and a feed. I have endowed my ayah and butler with a cow apiece, and distributed my poultry among the women in the lines--but what am I to do about your letters? I enclose two. How are your correspondents to find you? Here it is generally believed that you have returned to London; even Mrs. Soames is off the scent. She intends when the regiment does go home to look up your relatives and discover your whereabouts."
Mrs. de Castro was always gratified when I had a letter from "Miss Lucy," as she still called her. The letter invariably contained kind messages to "Jane."
"It seems only the other day since she came out to India," she remarked (when I told her the news), "and now she's going home for good. I remember her, such a slim young lady with lovely blue eyes and curly hair. It was not long before Mr. Lakin fell in love with her. He was only a lieutenant in a Madras Native Infantry regiment, but in spite of all her father and mother could say (and they said a _lot_) she would have him; and they took a little bungalow at thirty rupees a month at St. John's Hill. Well, the match didn't turn out so badly after all. Colonel Lakin will have a good pension, and after their long spell out here they'll enjoy themselves in England."