In the Permanent Way

ly at a cage full of avitovats, twinkling little brown birds with a suspicion of red amid their brown; flitting, slender, silent little birds, never

ste natives, and darker by a good bit than that of a girl some one or two years his junior

for his face was undeniably weak, though handsome, kindly, and soft. He wore a white drill suit, clean, but sadly frayed; and his grey wide-awake was many sizes too large for his small head. Perhaps it was the knowledge of this, combined with a vague suspicion that the hat knew quite as much about bird-fancying as the head within it, which made him, in his perplexity, take it off, place it on his slack knees and drop the four-anna piece into it, as if it had better decide the question. Sitting so, with bare head, he looked handsomer than ever, for its shape was that of a young Adonis. It was, in fact, the only thing about him, or his life, which corresponded with his name, Agamemnon Menelaus. The surname, Gibbs, used after

ad eyes," went on the bird-catcher with a yawn. "Next moulting the

reast-pocket. He had another anna there, part of a monthly stipend of one rupee for attending the choir, which he had intended to spend on sweets--preserved pumpkins for choice; but the avitovats, with their promise of scarlet plumage, cozened his ind

en

pigeons. "Ka-boo-tri, ka-boo-tri, ka-boo-tri," gurgled the pigeon, as if pleased at the motion. It was a blue-rock, showing a purple and green iridescence on the breast, and the girl's dress matched its colourings exactly; for her ragged cotton skirt had washed and worn to a dark neutral tint, and

l," suggested the bird-catcher cavalierly. He had been too far to

hey might be hens, you know." There was a half-perceptible quiver of his handsome head as if to watch the girl. The bi

en

stinctively by rising to go. "Ka-boo-tri, ka-boo-tri," came the gurgle of the pigeon

er, angrily. "God made the rainbow, but the devil made the dye-pot! Y

bootri did it," he remarked with bl

en passed the look on to the girl who still sat

is Friday she would kill herself. 'Tis a trick of words she hath learned of her trade," he went on with a curious mixture of anger

"Thou wilt be disgraced if thou give it her much longer, friend," he said calml

n-law; but she is a child still, neighbour, and a good daughter too, helping h

ted the parrot-seller. "

ri! Kab

racer as she did so. The bird was practised also, and without a flutter flew off into the blue like an arrow from a bow; then, as i

She was wonderfully fair, with a little pointed chin, and a wide firm mouth curiously at va

suming the fact as the best way of discovering the truth

y?" Then suddenly she smiled. "

ad the dove's name, but was no better than a peacock, a peaco

arms she began the pigeon's note--the pigeon's name and her own--"Ka-boo-tri, ka-boo-tri, ka-boo-tri!" It was as if a bird were calling to its mate, and the answ

lmy white muslin with a pale pink inner turban folded across his forehead and showing triangularly beneath the white outer one. He was one of the richest bankers

ever at one, with sparrows, for a pice or two. She hath business in her, and a right feeling. She takes once and hath done with it till the value i

in her, and right feeling. It was not their turn to pay; so, cuddling a captured pigeon to her breast, she set off in an opposite direction, threading the bazaars and

suggest sherbets to each other, and go away finally to consult a soothsayer for a suitable day on which to take their little screw or

geon's feet. Then she caressed it again, stroking its head and crooning to it. Finally with a bound she started to her feet, flung it from her to flutter forlornly in the air, her level black eyebrows

n balcony of an old house. "Look out and see who 'tis. If 'tis Kabootri, thou canst take eight annas

like a young Bacchante, dancing with fury, showing her small white teeth, and, apparently, dragging her poor victim by one leg, or whirling it cruelly round her

a pice for its freedom. To all of which Kabootri replied with a fresh method of doing the victim to death. She played her part with infinite spirit, but her antagonist was in a hurry to get some orders for Manchester goods off in time for the English mail, so his performance was but half-hearted, and ere she had well begun her list of horrors, the eight-anna bit cam

n sailing as it had been with Sri Parasnath. Newcomers there were, even old customers striving in modern fashion to shake themselves free from such deliberate blackmailing, who needed to be reminded of her methods; methods ending in passionate tears over her own cruelty in the first quiet spot she could reach. But of late years she had grown cunning in the avoidance of irretrievable injury. A dexterous slipping of the cord would leave her captive free, and she herself at liberty to go

errupted brusque

d you s

revocably from her native neighbours. He did not sing now,--his voice had begun to crack,--but he looked well in a surplice, and the chaplain knew he would have to pay the monthly stipend in any case. So, this being Friday, Aggie was on his way to evensong, polished boots an

hens," she said with an odd

each other, while the pigeon gurgled and