The Lure of the Little Drum Author:Margaret Peterson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1913 Original Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you ... more »can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II MRS. HAMILTON INTERVENES Better be silent than thy purpose tell To others, and enjoin their secrecy. FOUR o'clock was chiming slowly and distantly from the church clock next afternoon, just as Mrs. Hamilton, slipping the final button of her glove into place, gathered her skirts round her and walked slowly down the steps of her house to the waiting rickshaw. John, the Hamiltons' elderly and respectable Goanese butler, stood at the foot of the steps, the rickshaw rug carried over his arm waiting to tuck it round his mistress when she had taken her seat. Mary Ann, the Madrasi Christian ayah and the only native from whom Mrs. Hamilton would willingly take personal service, followed her down the stairs. She carried Mrs. Hamilton's parasol, handkerchief, and book, also she had an eye for John, though her modest face with the saree half drawn across it would scarcely have led you to believe that of her. The four jampannis, looking spick and span in the green and white uniform, two of them in the shafts, two of them atthe back of the rickshaw, salaamed respectfully and showed their white teeth in a smile of welcome. The hillman, unlike his brother of the plains, is a cheerful friendly mortal; the mere good-nature of his smile robs it of any hint of impudence. Mrs. Hamilton settled herself back in the rickshaw, allowed John to tuck the rug round her, accepted parasol, book, and handkerchief from Mary Ann. "Tell the sahib when he comes in," she said to John, speaking in English (Mrs. Hamilton never, unless absolutely bound to, spoke to the natives in Hindu...« less