Following a brief journey on horseback, during which Creighton speaks to Kim about his friendship with the boy’s father, they reach a great colonial residence in the outskirts of Delhi. The town house’s immense gardens border on the jungle. Elsa is awaiting their arrival. It is a surprise for Kim to discover that the girl he had fought in Umballa is the daughter of the Colonel, but Elsa’s surprise is greater when her father tells her that Kim was the child she spent her early childhood with. The Colonel shows Kim a portrait of his wife with baby Elsa in her arms. He tells Kim about the happy period in which both the women, Elsa’s mother and Kim’s mother, used to take their children out for a walk in the town house gardens. Kim asks the Colonel lots of questions since he wishes to recover every instant of that long-forgotten past.