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the Army on a shooting expedition. He used to say to Azalea,
    “The moment I saw your mother I fell in love with her. She was the most beautiful and graceful creature I had ever seen in my whole life!”
    Later Azalea learnt how he loved his wife’s mind, her understanding and her sympathy, and even her strange emotional mysticism.
    It was difficult for any European to understand the spiritual yearnings which motivated her, but she was extremely happy with Derek Osmund, and looking back, Azalea could never remember hearing her father and mother quarrel.
    ‘They both loved people, they both wanted to bring happiness to the world in which they lived,’ she would think to herself when she was alone.
    It was her mother who had taught her to see beauty not only in the flowers, the birds and the snow-capped mountain peaks, but also in the colourful Bazaars, the moving kaleidoscope of people from all parts of India and in the faith of those who bathed in the River Ganges.
    ‘Everywhere Mama found beauty!’ Azalea would often think.
    Then she would try not to hate the coldness of the house where she lived with her uncle and aunt, the harshness of their voices, their expressions of anger, the manner in which they looked at her.
    It was all so ugly, but she tried, although always in vain, to find, as she was certain her mother would have done, some beauty even in her uncle’s pomposity, or her aunt’s spiteful and unnecessary fault-finding.
    Deep in her memory was the time when her mother had talked to her of the beauty of jade which had been carved by the Chinese for thousands of years, and of their paintings which were more artistic and more perceptive than those done by any other artists in the world.
    She also told Azalea that the Chinese had an ingrained sense of honour and a scrupulous honesty, which was part of their character. Yet this seemed very much at variance with what her uncle had to say about the Chinese in Hong Kong.
    ‘It will be so wonderful to see for myself!’Azalea thought.
    And yet the fear persisted in her mind that some catastrophe, some change of mind on her aunt’s part, or perhaps an order from the War Office would at the very last moment prevent them from leaving.
    The General sailed two days before them on a troop ship which carried reinforcements to the Colony.
    Even then, Azalea was half-afraid that illness or an accident would prevent them from reaching Tilbury, but her fears were groundless!
    As they stepped out of the train to see the ship waiting for them at the quayside she felt her heart begin to beat with an excitement she had not known since she had left India.
    Lady Osmund had been even more than usually disagreeable the last two days before they sailed, and it seemed to Azalea as if she could do nothing right.
    Trunks that were packed had to be unpacked. Things which Lady Osmund had said were to be left behind were suddenly required to be taken with them, and the choice of clothes in which the twins were to travel was changed a dozen times.
    Gowns arrived from the dressmaker at the very last moment, a sunshade that was lost turned up in the kitchen, although no one could explain how it could have got there.
    When finally they drove away from Battlesdon House Azalea felt so tired that she was afraid she would fall asleep before they reached the railway station.
    Her aunt settled down to ask about dozens upon dozens of articles that had been packed, but which she was certain had been forgotten.
    Fortunately Azalea had a good memory.
    “In the round-topped trunk, Aunt Emily,” she murmured.
    “In the square leather case.”
    “In the tin trunk!”
    “In the valise!”
    She had the answer to every question, and finally her aunt lapsed into silence. The twins said nothing, although occasionally they giggled with each other.
    They were pretty girls, almost identical in appearance, and with their fair hair, blue eyes and pink-and-white skin were the perfect example of the ideal English