“Not a prejudice, Miss Anstruther, honestly not,” said Charlie. “We are antagonistic by nature, and we rub each other the wrong way already. You would scarcely think we had had time to have words together yet, would you?”
“Well,” said Charlie, “I told him that the hospital was quite behind the times, and horribly short of stores, and he as good as refused to do anything to it.”
“Possibly,” said Cecil, “he did not relish the stores being demanded in a your-money-or-your-life sort of tone.” Charlie laughed uncomfortably.
“You always contrive to put me in the wrong, Miss Anstruther. The fact is, he said one ought to be very careful with public money, and that he was not prepared to sanction the expenditure of any more at present. Then the prison, it is not in a particularly sanitary condition----”
“But that can’t be Sir Dugald’s fault,” objected Cecil.
“Oh, I don’t mean the town prison; I haven’t been poaching on the Pasha’s preserves just yet. I mean our private prison here, in the Residency. Now, Miss Anstruther, don’t say that you will never be able to dine here again in peace, on account of the shrieks of tortured victims ringing in your ears in the pauses in the conversation. The place isn’t so bad as all that. In fact, I daresay it’s a model jail, as things are here.”
“And you forget that you are in your beloved unchanging East, where no one makes any reforms,” said Cecil. “I am very sorry that you have taken this prejudice against Sir Dugald. I think he is a delightful man, and so kind.”
“How could he be otherwise than kind to you?” Charlie wished to know. “It is to his unfortunate subordinates that he shows his other side.”
“And I have no doubt they deserve it,” retorted Cecil, crushingly. “I do hope you will try to get on with him, and not start with the idea that you are bound to quarrel with him, because you have got on badly with your superiors before. If you are determined to bring about a dispute, I suppose it will certainly come, no matter how forbearing Sir Dugald may be, but that is not a very wise spirit in which to set to work. Surely you must see it yourself, don’t you? This is really an excellent chance for you, you know, and Lady Haigh will be dreadfully disappointed if you throw it away.”