looks after the indian empire ordained that wonder should blunder and drop the final e that the should help him and that the note which ran dear mr � can you set aside your other engagements and lunch with us at two to morrow his has an hour at your disposal then should be given to with the he nearly wept with pride and delight and at the appointed hour off to a big paper bag full of the in his pockets he had his chance and ee meant to make the most of it of had been so solemn about his conference that wonder had arranged for a private � no a d c s no wonder no one but the who said that he feared being left alone with like the great of but his guest did not bore the on the contrary he amused him was nervously anxious to go straight to his and talked at random until was over and his asked him to smoke t n v i plain tales from tee hills was pleased with because he did not talk shop as soon as the were lit spoke like a man beginning with his theory his fifteen years scientific labors the of the ring and the excellence of his while the watched him between half shut eyes and thought evidently this is the wrong tiger but it is an original animal s hair was standing on end with excitement and he stammered he began groping in his coat tails and before the knew what was about to happen he had tipped a of his powder into the big silver ash tray j j judge for yourself sir said y shall judge for yourself absolutely on my honor he plunged the lighted end of his cigar into the powder which began to smoke like a and send up fat greasy wreaths of smoke in five seconds the room was filled with a most and sickening � a that took fierce hold of the trap of your and shut it the powder then and and sent out blue and green sparks and the smoke rose till you could neither see nor breathe nor gasp however was used to it of he shouted bone meal thousand feet smoke per inch not a could live � not a y but his had fled and was cough ing at the foot of the stairs while all like a hive red came in and the head who speaks english came in and came in and ladies ran downstairs screaming fire for the smoke was drifting through the house and out of the windows and along the and and across the gardens no one could enter the room where was on his till that powder had burned itself out then an de camp who desired the v c rushed through the rolling clouds and hauled into the hall the was prostrate with laughter and could only his hands feebly at who was shaking a fresh of powder at him glorious glorious sobbed his not a as you justly observe could exist i can swear it a magnificent success then he laughed till the tears came and wonder who had caught the real on the entered and was deeply shocked at the scene but the was delighted because he saw that wonder would presently depart with the was also pleased for he felt that he had smashed the medical ring few men could tell a story like his when he took the trouble and the account of my dear good wonder s friend with the powder went the round of and made wonder unhappy by t i i tales from the hills but his told the tale once too often � for wonder as he meant to do it was at a wonder was sitting just behind the and i really thought for a moment wound ap his that my dear good wonder had hired an to clear his way to the throne every one laughed but there was a delicate in the s tone which wonder understood he found that his health was giving way and the allowed him to go and presented him with a flaming character for use at home among big people my fault entirely said his in after seasons with a twinkling in his eye my must always have been distasteful to such a man there is a tide in the affairs of men which taken any way you please is bad and them in forsaken and no decent soul would think of visiting you cannot stop the tide but now and then you may arrest some rash adventurer h m � will hardly thank you for your pains we are a high caste and enlightened race and in ant is very shocking and the are sometimes peculiar but nevertheless the notion � which is the continental notion � which is the notion � of arranging marriages of the personal inclinations of the married is sound think for a minute and you will see that it must be so unless of course you believe in in which case you had better not read this tale how can a man who has never married who cannot be trusted to pick up at sight a sound horse whose head is hot and upset with visions of domestic felicity go about the choosing of a wife he cannot see straight or think straight if he tries and the same exist in the case of a girl s fancies but when mature married and discreet people arrange a match between a boy and a girl they do it sensibly with a view to the future and the young couple live happily ever afterwards as everybody knows properly speaking government should establish a matrimonial department with a jury of a judge of the chief court a senior and an awful warning in the shape of a love match that has gone wrong 