So busy was the girl with her live plaything that she had not seen us dismount and approach her, and it was not till our feet sounded on the boards of the verandah that she looked up with a little start, and tried to rise to her feet.  Now any one who has sat sideways in a netted hammock, with feet swinging to the ground, and all the weight in the middle of the thing, knows how difficult it is to get out with grace, or indeed in any way short of rolling out and running for luck.  You may break all your bones in the feat, and you both look and feel as if you were going to.  Though we both sprang forward to her assistance, Miss Westonhaugh had recognised the inexpediency of moving after the first essay, and, with a smile of greeting, and the faintest tinge of embarrassment on her fair cheek, abandoned the attempt; the quaint little jackal sat up, backing against the side of the house, and, eyeing us critically, growled a little.

“I’m so glad to see you, Mr. Isaacs.  How do you do, Mr.——­”

“Griggs,” murmured Isaacs, as he straightened a rope of the hammock by her side.

“Mr. Griggs?” she continued.  “We met last night, briefly, but to the point, or at least you and my uncle did.  I am alone; my uncle is gone down towards Kalka to meet my brother, who is coming up for a fortnight at the end of the season to get rid of the Bombay mould.  Bring up some of those chairs and sit down.  I cannot tell what has become of the ‘bearer’ and the ‘boy,’ and the rest of the servants, and I could not make them understand me if they were here.  So you must wait on yourselves.”

I was the first to lay hands on a chair, and as I turned to bring it I noticed she was following Isaacs with the same expression I had seen on her face the previous evening; but I could see it better now.  A pleasant friendly look, not tender so much as kind, while the slightest possible contraction of the eyes showed a feeling of curiosity.  She was evidently going to speak to him as soon as he turned his face.

“You see I have been giving him lessons,” she said, as he brought back the seat he had chosen.

Isaacs looked at the queer small beast sitting up against the boards under the window, his brush tail curled round him, and his head turned inquiringly on one side.

“He seems to be learning manners, at all events,” said my friend.

“Yes; I think I may say now, with safety, that his bark is worse than his bite.”

“I am sure you could not have said so the last time I came.  Do you remember what fearful havoc he made among my nether garments?  And yet he is my god-child, so to speak, for I gave him into your care, and named him into the bargain.”

“Don’t suppose I am ungrateful for the gift,” answered Miss Westonhaugh.  “Snap!  Snap! here! come here, darling, to your mistress, and be petted!” In spite of this eloquent appeal Snap, the baby jackal, only growled pleasantly and whisked his brush right and left.  “You see,” she went on, “your sponsorship has had no very good results.  He will not obey any more than you yourself.”  Her glance, turning towards Isaacs, did not reach him, and, in fact, she could not have seen anything beyond the side of his chair.  Isaacs, on the contrary, seemed to be counting her eyelashes, and taking a mental photograph of her brows.