He always has the decoration of the mess table on grand occasions; and when we give a dance the flowers and decorations are left to him as a matter of course." "I will ask him, uncle; but he is the last man in the world I should have thought of in connection with flowers and decorations." "He is a many sided man, my dear; he paints excellently, and has wonderful taste in the way of dress.

I can assure you that no lady in the regiment is quite satisfied with a new costume until it has received the stamp of the Doctor's approval.

When we were stationed at Delhi four years ago there was a fancy ball, and people who were judges of that sort of thing said that they had never seen so pretty a collection of dresses, and I should think fully half of them were manufactured from the Doctor's sketches." "I remember now," Isobel laughed, "that he was very sarcastic on board ship as to the dresses of some of the people, but I thought it was only his way of grumbling at things in general, though certainly I generally agreed with him.

He told me one day that my taste evidently inclined to the dowdy, but you see I wore half mourning until I arrived out here." The Doctor himself dropped in an hour later.
"I shall be glad, Doctor, if you will dine with us as often as you can during the four days of the races," Major Hannay said.

"Of course, I shall be doing the hospitable to people who come in from out stations, and as Isobel won't know any of them, it will be a little trying to her, acting for the first time in the capacity of hostess.