[rice-water], but that was all right.'

'It's perfectly disgusting,' said his sister, with blazing eyes. 'A
man does something like--like that--and all you other men think of is
to give him an absurd nickname, and then you laugh and think it's
funny.'

'Ah,' said Mrs. Jim, sympathetically.

'Well, _ you_ can't talk, William. You christened little Miss Demby
the Button-quail last cold weather; you know you did. India's the
land of nicknames.'

That's different,' William replied. 'She was only a girl, and she
hadn't done anything except walk like a quail, and she _does_. But it
isn't fair to make fun of a man.'

'Scott won't care,' said Martyn. 'You can't get a rise out of old
Scotty. I've been trying for eight years, and you've only known him
for three. How does he look?'

'He looks very well,' said William, and went away with a flushed
cheek. '_Bakri_ Scott, indeed!' Then she laughed to herself, for she
knew the country of her service. 'But it will be _Bakri_ all the
same'; and she repeated it under her breath several times slowly,
whispering it into favour.

When he returned to his duties on the railway, Martyn spread the name
far and wide among his associates, so that Scott met it as he led his
paddy-carts to war. The natives believed it to be some English title