When he has eaten perhaps he will come.' 'Oh, villain and shameless rogue!' The jewelled forefinger shook itself at him reprovingly; but he could hear the old lady's chuckle.
'Nay, what is it ?' he said, dropping into his most caressing and confidential tone--the one, he well knew, that few could resist.
'Is--is there any need of a son in thy family?
Speak freely, for we priests--' That last was a direct plagiarism from a fakir by the Taksali Gate.
'We priests! Thou art not yet old enough to--' She checked the joke with another laugh.

'Believe me, now and again, we women, O priest, think of other matters than sons.

Moreover, my daughter has borne her man-child.' 'Two arrows in the quiver are better than one; and three are better still.' Kim quoted the proverb with a meditative cough, looking discreetly earthward.
'True--oh, true.

But perhaps that will come.

Certainly those down-country Brahmins are utterly useless.