noon
Else what was the use of the Gods ? She liked men and women , and she spoke of them -- of kinglets she had known in the past ; of her own youth and beauty ; of the depredations of leopards and the eccentricities of love Asiatic ; of the incidence of taxation , rack-renting , funeral ceremonies , her son-in-law -LRB- this by allusion , easy to be followed -RRB- , the care of the young , and the age 's lack of decency . And Kim , as interested in the life of this world as she soon to leave it , squatted with his feet under the hem of his robe , drinking all in , while the lama demolished one after another every theory of body-curing put forward by Hurree Babu . At noon the Babu strapped up his brass-bound drug-box , took his patent-leather shoes of ceremony in one hand , a gay blue-and-white umbrella in the other , and set off northwards to the Doon , where , he said , he was in demand among the lesser kings of those parts . ` We will go in the cool of the evening , chela , ' said the lama . ` That doctor , learned in physic and courtesy , affirms that the people among these lower hills are devout , generous , and much in need of a teacher . In a very short time -- so says the hakim -- we come to cool air and the smell of pines . '