initial commit of ebook 31399HEADmain

9 files changed, 41997 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/31399-8.txt b/31399-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9b8383
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31399-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13934 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Banked Fires, by E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Banked Fires
+
+
+Author: E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2010  [eBook #31399]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANKED FIRES***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Mary Meehan, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+BANKED FIRES
+
+by
+
+E. W. SAVI
+
+Author of "The Daughter-in-Law," "Sinners All," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     _"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
+     rubies."_--Proverbs xxxi., 10.
+
+
+
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+New York and London
+The Knickerbocker Press
+1919
+
+Copyright, 1919
+by
+E. W. Savi
+
+The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+                  To
+          MY SISTER, A. B. B.
+IN LOVING APPRECIATION OF HER INTEREST
+              AND HELP
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I.--The Lonely Encampment
+
+      II.--Mainly Retrospective
+
+     III.--The Civil Surgeon
+
+      IV.--A Point of View
+
+       V.--What Can't be Cured
+
+      VI.--The Leading Lady
+
+     VII.--An Anxious Experience
+
+    VIII.--The Dinner-Party
+
+      IX.--A Moment of Relaxation
+
+       X.--The Mission
+
+      XI.--A Sunday Observance
+
+     XII.--Infatuation
+
+    XIII.--Vanished
+
+     XIV.--The Indiscretion
+
+      XV.--The Aftermath
+
+      XVI.--Cornered
+
+     XVII.--Breaking Bounds
+
+    XVIII.--Secret Joys
+
+      XIX.--The Deluge
+
+       XX.--The "Ideal"
+
+      XXI.--The Real Thing
+
+     XXII.--A Desperate Resort
+
+    XXIII.--Temporisings
+
+     XXIV.--Suspense
+
+      XXV.--The Meeting
+
+     XXVI.--The Fair
+
+    XXVII.--A Difficult Task
+
+   XXVIII.--The Atonement
+
+   Epilogue: All's Well
+
+
+
+
+BANKED FIRES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE LONELY ENCAMPMENT
+
+
+An autumn evening in Bengal was rapidly drawing to a close, with a brief
+afterglow from a vanished sun to soften the rich hues of the tropical
+foliage, and garb it fittingly for approaching night. The grass beside
+the Government tents showed grey in the gathering dusk, while a blue
+haze of smoke, creeping upward, gently veiled the sheltering trees. But
+for the modulated chatter of servants, the stillness was eerie. The
+flat, low-lying fields, having yielded their corn to the harvester, were
+barren and without sign of life, for the cultivators had departed to
+their homesteads, and the roving cattle were housed.
+
+Far in the misty distance were the huts of the peasantry grouped
+together, with their granaries, haystacks, and pens; their date-palms,
+and the inevitable tank illustrating the typical Bengal
+village--picturesque and insanitary; too far for noxious smells to annoy
+the senses, or the intermittent beating of the nocturnal "tom-tom" to
+affect the nerves of the Magistrate and Collector during the writing of
+his judgments and reports.
+
+The spot for the encampment had been well chosen by the blue-turbaned
+_chaukidar_--the sturdy watchman of the village--who was experienced in
+the ways of touring officials; for even such a little matter as a site
+for pitching the tents of the _hakim_,[1] had its influence for good or
+ill; and what might not be the effect of a good influence on the temper
+of a lawgiver?
+
+[Footnote 1: Magistrate.]
+
+This one, especially, instilled the fear of God and of the British, into
+his servants and underlings in spite of his sportsmanship and
+generosity, for he had a great understanding of native character and,
+like a wizard, could, in the twinkling of an eye, dissect the mind and
+betray the soul of a false witness! None could look him in the face and
+persist in falsehood. He was a just man, and courageous; and when roused
+to wrath, both fierce and fluent. But the diplomatic domestic and
+cautious coolie, alike, respect justice and fearlessness, determination,
+and a high hand.
+
+Servants, engaged in culinary duties before open fire-places, gossiped
+in lowered tones of standing grievances: It was like the exactness of
+the Great to require a five-course dinner, served with due attention to
+refinement and etiquette in untoward circumstances, such as an
+improvised cooking-range of clay and bricks, a hurried collection of
+twigs, some charcoal, and every convenience conspicuous by its absence!
+And what a village to rely upon!--no shops; only a weekly market with
+nothing suitable to the wants of white men fastidious and difficult to
+please.
+
+Yet, the day that sahibs condescend to study the convenience of their
+Indian domestics, the prestige of the British Raj will be at an end.
+
+"Ho! _Khansaman-jee_!" cried an agitated voice in Hindustani. "With a
+little clemency, look quickly in the rubbish heap for the pepper pot.
+The _masalchi_,[2] out of the perversity of his youthfulness, has lost
+that and every other ingredient for the flavouring of the soup; and now,
+what can I do? Of a truth, this night will the Sahib give me much abuse
+for that which is no fault of mine. I shall twist the idle one's ear the
+moment he returns with firewood from the jungle, just to stimulate his
+mind and teach him carefulness."
+
+[Footnote 2: Scullion.]
+
+The _khansaman_[3] uncoiled his legs and rose from the ground where he
+had been peeling potatoes at his leisure with a table knife, and
+proceeded to do as he was bid. He was of an obliging nature and could be
+relied upon to perform odd jobs not strictly his duty, so long as they
+did not establish a precedent.
+
+[Footnote 3: Butler.]
+
+After some diligent searching among loose charcoal, dried twigs, kitchen
+rags, utensils, and vegetable parings, a rusty tin box was discovered
+and handed to the cook. Old Abdul grunted approval of his own
+intelligence, and after liberally sprinkling the soup with pepper from
+between a dirty finger and thumb, he wiped both, casually, in the folds
+of his loin-cloth.
+
+Altogether, the task of preparing dinner in camp was no mean effort. The
+business of the moment was to produce a clear soup with its artistic
+garniture of sliced carrots and turnips; to be followed by tank fish
+captured that afternoon from the property of a local Hindu landowner
+and, in the serving, robbed of its earthly flavour by a miracle of
+savoury dressing. Considering the lapses of the mate-boy's memory, this
+was a marvel of achievement. Next, the _entrée_ of devilled goat (called
+by courtesy, mutton) was also a difficulty; nevertheless with a lavish
+addition of mango chutney, it was on its way to completion. The "chicken
+roast" was a tolerable certainty in a deep vessel where it baked in its
+own juices, stuffed with onions, cloves, and rice. But the
+pudding--alas! black despair, invisible owing to natural pigment, was in
+possession of Abdul's soul. What to do, he grumbled, but to serve, in
+fear and trembling, that abomination of sahibs, a "custul-bile" (boiled
+custard), since every possible ingredient for a respectable pudding had
+been left behind at the last Rest Bungalow! What the master would say,
+might well be imagined, for these were not the easy-going days of his
+bachelorhood, when such makeshifts, varied with "custul-bake," could be
+imposed upon him with the regularity of the calendar; for, after a
+successful day's _shikar_, with a tiger spread at full length on the
+grass before the tent for the benefit of an admiring semicircle of
+enthusiastic villagers, the quality of a meal used to be a secondary
+consideration.
+
+Well--what use to repine? Even a cook must sometimes be excused, since
+he was not God to create something out of nothing. Peradventure, the
+timely indisposition of the babe within the tent would offer
+distraction. In the interludes of stirring the pots and declaiming
+against fate and the misdemeanours of the _masalchi_, the cook soothed
+his ruffled spirits with a pull at his beloved _hukha_.
+
+Yes, the Sahib was married, worse luck! and lived, above all, to please
+his Memsahib who, to him, was the sun, moon, and stars; the light of the
+world. And she?--of a sort wholly unsuited to the conditions of his
+life; a flower plucked to wither in a furnace-blast. The rough soil of
+the country was no place for a delicate plant; and such was also
+apparent in the case of her infant. Since its arrival from the hills
+where it was born, it daily faded as though a blight had descended upon
+its vitality; and now it was stricken with a fever.
+
+Devil take sahibs for their folly! This one had been content enough as a
+bachelor, hunting and shooting in his spare time, and consorting with
+his kind where games were played to pass the time away; what-for did he
+allow himself to be shackled thus during his visit to _Belait_? It
+passed understanding; for there were many _Miss Babas_ in the country,
+already acclimatised, from among whom he might have selected a suitable
+wife; one who could at least have made herself intelligible to his
+servants in their own language, instead of this one who created endless
+confusion by non-comprehension. But no! he had been unable to stand the
+allurements of her person. The rounded outlines of her slender form and
+the bloom on her flawless cheek had enslaved him, depriving him of the
+power to resist. Truly she was good to look upon, as every masculine eye
+betrayed by its open homage.
+
+In all the annals of the District, never had there been a more
+picturesque creature than this girl-wife, with her hair like ripe corn
+and eyes like full-blown flowers of heavenly blue. Even the servants in
+gazing on their wonder forgot to heed the orders she delivered through
+the ayah, whose linguistic powers commanded the respect of the entire
+establishment.
+
+The subject of the little lady from _Belait_ was a favourite theme of
+conversation when domestics congregated in the region of the kitchen to
+gossip and smoke, and criticism was condescending and tolerant because
+of her good looks, which made their inevitable appeal. But opinion was
+agreed that no longer was Meredith Sahib the same man. Henceforth, if
+they would keep their situations, they must satisfy his lady. Her little
+hand would point the way he must in future tread.
+
+And he, the respected Magistrate and Collector, representative of the
+Government in the District--a sahib whose word had authority over
+thousands on the land, and before whom all delinquents trembled!
+
+Such was the influence of beauty!
+
+According to the words of a local poet who sang his verses in the
+Muktiarbad bazaar to an accompaniment of tom-tomming:
+
+    _A beautiful wife is as wine in the head to her husband; as wax is
+         in the palm of her hand.
+    His wisdom cometh to naught in his dwelling; his will is bartered
+         for the things in her gift.
+    Beguiled is he by the words of her mouth, and he taketh only the way
+         that will please her.
+    Bereft is he of his power to govern, yet happy is he in the bonds of
+         enslavement._
+
+And these did he compose out of the rumours current in the market-place
+respecting Meredith Sahib and the Memsahib he had taken to wife. _Yah,
+Khodah!_ the white race were amazingly simple!
+
+The sound of an infant's distressed wail broke the calm of the
+descending gloom. Voices within the tent conferred together in agitated
+whispers. There was a call for hot water, and in a moment the Madrassi
+ayah rushed forth for the steaming kettle which was boiling for scullery
+needs, and carried it off without a question. The waterman, clad only in
+a loin-cloth, hurried round to the bath tent, and a diminutive, tin
+bath-tub was extracted. Apparently the child was to be immersed.
+
+"What has happened?" called the Sahib's body servant, the _bearer_, who
+was the major-domo of the camp. But the waterman, fully appreciative of
+his temporary importance, refused to reply as he disappeared from view.
+
+"Ice--ice!" the lady cried dashing through the bamboo chick and almost
+tearing it from its fastenings. "Give me ice quickly." She looked
+haggard and distracted. Dark circles ringed her eyes; her sleeves rolled
+above the elbows revealed rounded arms from which water dripped; her
+skirt was splashed; her blouse and hair were in disarray.
+
+"There is none, _huzur_," said the _bearer_ in Hindustani. "Hourly is it
+expected from Muktiarbad, but as yet it is not in sight."
+
+"What is he saying?" she cried vaguely in her distress, refusing to
+believe that there was none, which the corroborating action of a hand
+had implied.
+
+"No ice got it, Memsahib," volunteered the _khansaman_ in his best
+English, learned from a teacher in the Station bazaar. "All
+finish--melting fast--making saw-dust one porridge."
+
+"No ice?--my God! My child will die if I cannot have ice." She
+disappeared within the tent, wringing her hands, leaving the servants to
+hold council together on what was the best course to pursue.
+
+"Without doubt the little one is in a fit," ventured the cook. "Such is
+sometimes the case when the teeth press their way through the gums."
+
+"What folly," sneered the _khansaman_, "when the infant is barely three
+months old!"
+
+"Without doubt it is a fit," the cook repeated, "else why the hot bath?
+Such is the treatment the doctor-_babu_ ordered for the son of Amir
+Khan, my relative in Benares when, from fever, his eyes fixed and his
+limbs grew rigid."
+
+"Thou speakest true words," said the waterman approaching the group in
+visible excitement. "To see the limbs twisting and the eyes strained
+upward turns my stomach. Assuredly it will die--and the master
+away!--_ai ma!_--what a calamity!"
+
+"It will die, and we shall all be blamed because there was no ice,"
+sighed the _bearer_ feeling the weight of his responsibility.
+
+"God send that he be even now returning," prayed the _khansaman_
+devoutly. "The sun has long set, and any moment he may be here, for who
+can shoot a leopard in the dark?"
+
+"Tell Hosain to drive the _hawa-ghari_[4] quickly to the Station for the
+doctor and the ice. If he meet not the ice cart on the road, let him
+borrow all they will lend him at the houses of the sahibs," said the
+cook. "_Jhut!_--lose no time. In these illnesses the life of a child is
+as the flicker of a candle. A breath, and it is out; and once dead, who
+can restore it to life again?"
+
+[Footnote 4: Motor-car.]
+
+Servants ran to do his bidding while he returned to his pots and pans,
+anxious lest the roast should burn at the bottom of the pan, and the
+soup boil over.
+
+"For what dost thou concern thyself?" jeered an old watchman who stood a
+spectator of the scene. "All that thou cookest will be given to the
+sweeper's family. Who will eat of thy cooking tonight when the child is
+like to die?"
+
+"Not the sweeper and his family, _bhai_,[5] but we of the kitchen shall
+have a feast, have no fears." "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good,"
+was the essence of the cook's philosophy, and since there was no
+swine-flesh in the menu, there was no reason why Mohammedans should not
+enjoy the repast he was cooking for the Sahib's table. It was a
+dispensation of Providence that had not made him at birth a Hindu like
+the watchman, who took pride in the exclusiveness of his caste, yet
+feasted on the sly, on things forbidden.
+
+[Footnote 5: Brother.]
+
+Inside the tent the lady and the ayah together ministered to the small
+sufferer lying in the warm bath. The sympathetic servant supported the
+light body which had relaxed its rigidity, while the mother bathed the
+brows and head with cold water.
+
+"He is better, ayah, don't you think?" asked Mrs. Meredith, dependent on
+the woman's superior knowledge.
+
+"Plenty better, Ma'am. Heaven is merciful."
+
+"Or do you think he is dying? Don't lie to me."
+
+"He not dying, oh, no! See that black round his mouth?--now fast going.
+This is what they call _bahose_."
+
+"Thank God if it's only that. Children recover from fainting fits, don't
+they? Oh, ayah, I could not bear to lose my baby!" she cried in choked
+accents.
+
+"Say not like that. Got is goot and the baba will live. Now take out of
+the water, dry, and keep head cool," said the woman whose experience in
+the management of infants had gained her her present post at some
+considerable advantage to herself.
+
+They placed the limp form, when dried, on the cool sheets in its crib
+and hung upon its every breath.
+
+"Barnes-_mem_ saying, when bad with fever, lap plenty hot place, bed
+goot," the ayah remarked; "Barnes-_mem_," a former mistress, being a
+standard reference in nursery difficulties.
+
+"Had she many children?"
+
+"Children? My lort! Every year a child. She was plenty blest. One child
+for every finger, and a grand-child older than her last. Master, he
+shake his head and say, 'Damn-damn,' but Barnes-_mem_, she say, 'Let
+come; the Lort will provide.'"
+
+"Were they all brought up in India?"
+
+"In Calcutta they were born and grew up; no Darjeeling _pahar_;[6] no
+Munsuri _pahar_! All living; all plenty strong."
+
+[Footnote 6: Mountains.]
+
+"Yet most children cannot thrive out here--English, I mean."
+
+"English Memsahib making much fuss, like there is no Got Almighty.
+Everywhere there is sickness, also in _pahar_."
+
+Mrs. Meredith shivered at the cold consolation. After a short interval
+spent in anxious suspense, a clatter of hoofs announced the return of
+the Sahib. Raymond Meredith galloped into the camp and flinging his
+reins to a _saice_, leaped to the ground. A messenger had met him on the
+road with the disturbing news of his infant's bad turn. In another
+moment he was beside his wife, eagerly sympathetic and anxious to
+comfort her.
+
+At any other time she would have received him affectionately upon his
+return from a long day's outing, and he marked the change, excusing it
+on the plea of anxiety and distraction.
+
+"This is very sudden, darling," he said in lowered tones, placing his
+arms tenderly about her. "How did it happen?"
+
+His wife explained emotionally. "Baby was feverish when you left. You
+remember, perhaps, that I was worried and did not like being left
+alone?" she concluded resentfully, her eyes refusing to meet his.
+
+"He seemed a bit out of sorts, but nothing to alarm one," her husband
+allowed in self-defence. "You know, sweetheart, you are often needlessly
+anxious." He would have kissed her to soften the reproach, but she
+turned her face aside. "Anyhow, I had to go, you know that? The leopard
+had done enough damage in the village and was a danger to human life. An
+infant had been carried off from the doorway of its dwelling the moment
+its mother's back was turned. I simply had to hunt and shoot the beast,
+or let the people think I funked it. I managed to bag it in the end, but
+the fellow gave us a devil of a time," he continued, warming to his
+subject. "Had it not been for the pluck of the _chaukidar_, I might
+never have returned at all--" He waited for some evidence of concern.
+"He's a fine sportsman," he went on, though disappointed at her lack of
+interest. "With only a stout stick in his hand, he--" his voice trailed
+away as he became convinced that he was talking to an inattentive mind.
+"Don't worry, I'll send post-haste for Dalton. He'll be here before
+morning."
+
+"Anything might happen before morning," she cried brokenly.
+
+"You mustn't be so pessimistic."
+
+"The car was sent for the doctor when Baby was in convulsions," she said
+coldly. "It was terrible not having you here to advise. I have been
+desperate, and you--" a sob--"you were enjoying yourself in the
+jungles." She had not an atom of sympathy for the sport.
+
+"Surely you are not blaming me?" he cried deprecatingly, afraid that he
+had injured himself for ever in her sight.
+
+"It is not a question of blame; you have failed me, that is all."
+
+"That's a cruel thing to say, dearest!" he cried kissing her
+unresponsive lips at last, in the hopes of melting her hardness. "It is
+only that you are in a mood to be unjust, that you say so. You know I am
+happiest with you."
+
+"This is a cruel country which I shall hate to the end of my days," she
+returned miserably. "It is trying at every turn to rob me of my little
+baby."
+
+Meredith winced almost as though he had been struck. It was not the
+first time that she had expressed disgust for her life in India, which
+gave them their living, and every time her words gained in feeling.
+Early in the summer he had sent her to the hills because of an episode
+with a snake that had unnerved her and imperilled her condition as an
+expectant mother. He had not forgotten that her first arrival at the
+Station had synchronised with an outbreak of cholera, so virulent, that
+half the community of Europeans among whom she was to live were
+demoralised. It was a crying shame that Life should be so perverse. He
+yearned for her to settle down and take kindly to Station ways and
+doings, but fate eternally intervened. Muktiarbad was a merry little
+station, full of friendly souls eager to accept the youthful bride as a
+social leader for her husband's sake, he being the most popular of men.
+
+Meredith was aware of his own popularity and enjoyed it as a
+healthy-minded individual usually does when success has crowned his
+efforts to govern a large District with sympathy and tact. But already
+the young wife and mother was pining for "home," and was declaring that
+the India he loved was a "cruel country," which she would hate to the
+end of her days. How should he be able to pin her down to his side in a
+land she detested and feared? She was too young and uninformed to
+appreciate his position in the Government and her possibilities as a
+_Bara Memsahib_; and too delicately nurtured to endure the rough and
+tumble of life far from towns and cities, where money could not buy
+immunity from inconvenience and climatic ills.
+
+He had expected, as many another husband of a very young wife, to mould
+her ideas to fit his own; instead, his peace of mind was being steadily
+whittled away.
+
+"There is not even any ice to be had in this God-forsaken spot!" his
+wife's voice was saying helplessly.
+
+"Damnation!" he swore under his breath, enraged that the servants should
+have supplied him at the cost of the child; for he recalled the very
+acceptable iced beer he had drunk in the jungles after a dangerous
+exploit that had exhausted his energies and reduced him to a perspiring
+rag of humanity, even though it was autumn.
+
+The urgent need to find a scapegoat to suffer for this miserable muddle
+sent him outside with a stride and malignant intentions at heart. Never
+again while he toured with his family would he drink iced stimulants,
+however damnably hot it was in the sun.
+
+"What can I say?" whined the _bearer_ in indignant sympathy, cleverly
+averting the storm he saw ready to descend on the head of the guilty.
+"Such unusual heat for this time of the year, and that swine, the
+carter, who is now many miles distant, left the ice-box on the sunny
+side of the tent! Without sense is he, and possessed of a mind equal
+only to that of a sheep. So much shade to be had, yet of a perversity
+must he commit this brainless act! What can I do? Had this pair of hands
+not been incessantly occupied in performing urgent tasks for the comfort
+of the Memsahib, I might have cast eyes on the packing-case earlier, and
+myself have removed it to safety. But alas! how much can one poor
+servant do among so many who are idle and indifferent? So there it lay
+out of sight and the water running freely through the joins till there
+was one tank, and my bedding beside it, floating! Tonight I am without
+bedding, but what of that? With the child ill, will any one care to
+sleep?" He cast a triumphant eye around on a semicircle of admiring
+fellow-servants who were envying him his resourcefulness and powers of
+invention.
+
+"Who sent ice with me into the jungles?" Meredith asked fiercely.
+
+"Who, indeed, Image-of-God? Such an act of folly while the tender babe
+lay sick is not to be forgiven. Peradventure, it was the mate-boy of the
+cook who is of an imbecility past understanding, owing to his extreme
+youth. Not even the intellect of a cow has he. _Urre bap!_ Did he not
+leave at the Rest Bungalow----"
+
+"Be silent, you talk too much," said Meredith. "Go and chastise him for
+his interference. If I strike him I shall break every bone in his body.
+Never again let ice be sent anywhere with me if it is likely to run
+short at the camp, remember that," he said, impressing the fact on the
+_bearer_, as he knew full well that, in the native mind, very little
+importance is attached to a woman's needs in comparison with her
+lord's,--the superiority of the masculine sex being unchallenged. When
+ice travelled by rail some hundreds of miles three times a week to
+Muktiarbad, it invariably fell short when the servants were careless or
+assisted to make it vanish. Every silent witness of the colloquy knew
+that the Sahib's _bearer_ considered an iced whisky-and-soda his
+perquisite at the close of a strenuous day, and would continue to have
+it as long as ice came from Calcutta for the alleviation of sufferers
+from the climate.
+
+"Buck up, darling," said Meredith comfortingly, "you'll have the doctor
+here in no time. Dalton is a clever fellow and prompt. They say he will
+make a name for himself some day, he's such an able physician and
+surgeon. What he doesn't understand concerning the ills that flesh is
+heir to is not worth knowing, so we are jolly lucky to have him in such
+a potty little station as ours. What got him sent here is a mystery;
+usually we get fossils of the Uncovenanted service at Muktiarbad,
+whereas Dalton is--" "Sorry," interrupting himself as his wife put her
+hands to her head. "You've a headache, sweetheart, and it's not to be
+wondered at."
+
+"Is there nothing you can suggest for Baby in the meantime?" she
+questioned.
+
+"I shouldn't like to experiment, knowing nothing of kids--infants, I
+mean," he replied with irritating cheerfulness. "Had it been a horse or
+a dog"--he discreetly ceased and made tender love to her instead, for
+his darling girl was sobbing piteously. "Don't worry," he advised with
+masculine lack of understanding of maternal feelings, "babies are
+marvellous creatures; like sponges, my dear. Squeeze them dry and they
+swell out again. See how the youngsters swarm in the bazaars and
+villages. Nothing seems to kill them," he asserted ignorantly. "They get
+over almost any illness without a hundredth part of the care you lavish
+on our little scallywag. Keep his head cool and you'll see, he'll be as
+right as rain in the morning."
+
+"Cool without ice!" she said witheringly.
+
+"Cold water on the head with a dash of vinegar in it will do to carry
+along with till the ice comes."
+
+Somehow he was less concerned with the child's case than his wife's. Her
+distress, the added reason for her abhorrence of India, cut him to the
+heart and made him a coward of consequences. It was the child, that
+insignificant atom of indefinite humanity, that had intruded itself
+between them and was daily usurping his place in his wife's thoughts. At
+first he had been fool enough to imagine that it was going to be the
+link that would bind them closer together, instead of which it was the
+wedge that was surely driving them asunder. For its sake she was ready
+to put the seas and continents between them, and treat him as if he were
+of secondary importance in her life--the being who had to provide the
+wherewithal on which the human idol might be suitably reared. His own
+personal need of her was viewed as masculine self-indulgence and lack of
+spirituality.
+
+"I don't think you half realise what a wonderful thing has happened,"
+she had once said in the midst of her baby-worship. "Here is a miracle
+straight from God. A man-child who, if properly cared for, will become a
+useful citizen of the Empire; and he is my VERY OWN--yours, too," she
+condescended to add with her exquisite smile.
+
+"But where do I come in? I, who am already a useful citizen of the
+Empire?" he had delicately insinuated. "With due regard to nature and
+the multiplication table----"
+
+She had considered him coarse and had refused to smile. The matter of a
+family was entirely in God's hands and not to be treated with levity. He
+could have added a rider to that, but refrained; she was only a little
+girl of nineteen lacking the logical sense in the usual, adorable,
+feminine way. He was not hankering considerably after a family in the
+plural sense when in imagination he could see an intensification of the
+present situation which was forcing him into the background of domestic
+life. The baby, waking and sleeping, and all its multifarious concerns
+occupied its mother's time to the exclusion of all else, and it was no
+wonder that the father was feeling injured and a trifle lonely.
+
+Yet, in her childish way, she was fond of him, while unconsciously
+learning from him that, after all, men were truly long-suffering and
+unselfish creatures, patient, and forgiving.
+
+So he possessed his soul in patience, never tired of recalling the
+supreme episode of their married life, when, after the birth of their
+son, she had embraced him with a new affection, spontaneous and sincere.
+She had been so utterly ill that for a day and a night her life had hung
+in the balance, while he, like a maniac, had paced the footpath in mist
+and rain, praying as he had never prayed before for her restoration. It
+was in Darjeeling where he had gone hurriedly on receipt of a telegram,
+and never should he forget the anxieties of that journey. He had been
+ready to register any vow under the sun that he might ensure her
+recovery; and when he had crept with broken nerve and sobbing breath to
+her bedside, she had clung to his neck with blessed demonstrativeness
+kissing him of her own accord on the lips. Generally, he had kissed her.
+
+"You love me still, my precious?" he had asked fearfully. Mark the
+"still," for by her agony he was ready to believe he had forfeited the
+right to her love.
+
+"Aren't you my baby's Daddy?" she had replied happily with shining eyes
+and quivering mouth. "Of course I shall love you better now than ever."
+
+She loved him only through the child! However, Meredith did not quarrel
+with the process, so long as the fact was full of promise. It had always
+been a calm and unemotional affection, not in the least of the quality
+he craved, but his love and patience were equal to the demand made upon
+them, his mind having realised the unawakened condition of hers. "All
+things come to those who know how to wait," and he was learning
+patience, for his life was wrapped up in the person of his girl-wife.
+She was so infinitely lovable even when least comprehending his man's
+nature and holding herself aloof. Again, her charm was indescribable
+when, with adorable grace, she offered compensation, sorry for her
+uncomprehending selfishness; and he eternally rejoiced that, by the law
+of marriage, she was irrevocably his till death should them part, a
+bondage which he endeavoured to make her Eden, as it was his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MAINLY RETROSPECTIVE
+
+
+Dinner that evening was neglected as neither could eat.
+
+Tired and hungry though Meredith had been, his appetite for food
+vanished under the lash of his wife's resentment. She once said: "If my
+baby is taken from me, I shall cut this country forever. I shall hate it
+with an undying hatred. Nothing will induce me to live in it again and
+risk a repetition of tonight. It is not fit for Europeans--and yet, the
+tragedy of it is, we can only know it by experience!"
+
+"That is to say, if you had foreseen this, you would never have married
+me?" he put in sulkily.
+
+Silence gave consent.
+
+"Why shouldn't you give up, and find something to do at home?" she asked
+unreasonably.
+
+"You don't know what you are talking about," he returned shortly. Give
+up the "Indian Civil" and his splendid prospects, liberal future
+pension, and the life of sport men loved? For what? A desk in a city
+office; most likely a mercantile job on a third of the pay, and a life
+to which he was as much suited as a square peg to a round hole. All
+this, that the babe might be spared the illnesses that mortal flesh, in
+infancy, is prone to, particularly in the East. It was utter nonsense!
+For the first five years there would be need for special care and
+intervals spent in a hill climate. In due time would come the change to
+England and English environment necessary for the proper physical and
+mental training of his child. This was the course usually followed by
+English families in India of any social standing, and one which involved
+submission on the part of the husband to short periods of separation
+from the wife in the interests of the absent children. Thousands of
+married couples faced these conditions; why not they?
+
+He felt rebellious.
+
+What was the matter with his luck that it threatened not to work? He had
+no fortune on which to retire, only a modest return from savings
+judiciously invested, while his wife would have nothing more than a
+trifle till the death of her parents; and they were still young. To give
+up the Service would, under the circumstances, be madness and folly.
+
+Moreover, he loved the East. The climate had no grudge against his
+English constitution, and had been kind to him. He enjoyed the freedom
+of the life, India's great spaces; and the lurking risks made existence
+a great and continued adventure. In England it would be monotonous and
+flat. Though he loved the Motherland and was proud of her traditions, he
+was of the stuff that made empires, and his tact and understanding of
+the natives under his rule, made him an officer of exceptional ability
+and service to the Executive Government. Then there was big game
+shooting which he enjoyed, and all the happy freedom from narrow
+conventions. Give up, indeed!
+
+Time enough to think of retiring when past middle age with shaken nerves
+and a growing appreciation of golf. Not while he could ride a
+buck-jumper, handle a hog spear or a polo stick, and shoot straight. The
+thrill of tracking a wild beast to its lair was something to live for,
+and the hazards of his life made up its charm.
+
+The greatest of all hazards, had he realised it, had been his marriage
+with Joyce Wynthrop of Eagleton, Surrey.
+
+She had put up her hair to attend the hunt ball the year he was home on
+furlough and staying with his widowed sister, Lady Chayne, a neighbour
+of the Wynthrops, and it was love at first sight, with him. He had been
+forced to attend the ball against his will, only to meet his fate, it
+would seem.
+
+Thereafter, he had been obsessed with one ambition, and that was to win
+Joyce for his wife, in spite of the fact that he was fifteen years her
+senior and held an appointment in the East.
+
+Touched by his devotion and influenced by the opinion of others, she had
+yielded, feeling that Destiny was calling to her to fulfill her
+obligations to Life. Marriage with a good man of irreproachable
+antecedents, and children to rear in godliness and wisdom, was the
+religion of her upbringing. It had been impressed upon her as the
+natural vocation of woman so that the race might continue. She had
+played with dolls as the proper playthings of her childhood, and was
+prepared to exchange them for the children God should send her in some
+mysterious way to which marriage was the true gateway. Raymond Meredith,
+good-looking, kind, eligible, and full of love for herself was obviously
+the "Mr. Right" of schoolgirl tradition; the man to whom it would be
+correct to give herself in the bonds of holy matrimony, even as her
+mother had long ago given herself to her father--an example of
+unemotional attachment and tranquil orthodoxy.
+
+At first it had been wofully embarrassing to be made love to; and she
+wondered if her mother had been kissed so often and called all those
+silly love-names by her father before they were married?
+
+She also resisted the strange effect on herself of those ardent kisses,
+and was afraid to encourage feelings she had never before experienced,
+believing them immodest to indulge, and something she had to subdue with
+a determined effort. She would die sooner than confess to them. Passion
+might be all right for men with whom every initiative of life lay, but
+unbecoming for women to acknowledge, even to themselves. In fact, Joyce
+Wynthrop was a product of Early Victorian views on the subject of a
+girl's training, and an anachronism in modern times. She had been reared
+in rigid ignorance of life, her reading having been heavily restricted,
+her associates selected, so that when the time came to hand her over to
+a husband, he should find her beautifully unconscious and unique.
+
+To Meredith, her shy submission to his caresses, and her passionless
+response were the surest guarantee of her virginal past, and he was in
+no hurry to awaken the sleeping beauty to a deeper knowledge of herself.
+
+Joyce eventually decided for her peace of mind, that love-making
+belonged mainly to the period of Engagement, when everything was so new.
+Once having attained the object of his desire--that is, the possession
+of a wife--her lover would settle down to normal life, and no longer
+regard her eyelashes with wondering admiration, or exact kisses because
+her mouth was shaped like Cupid's bow. Men were so disturbing, if they
+were all like Ray Meredith!--delightfully disturbing,--only they must
+not know it, or peace and tranquillity would be impossible! After
+marriage there would be other things to think about, such as having a
+home, and, if the Lord willed it, a baby all their own, presented to
+them in some extraordinary and mysterious fashion.
+
+She had always adored babies and could rarely pass one in a perambulator
+without wanting to kiss it and know all its little history. To have a
+baby of her very own was a prospect so full of allurement, that she
+offered no coy objections when Meredith wanted the marriage fixed at the
+earliest possible date. Indeed, her calm was the despair of her girl
+friends who envied her openly. Wasn't she "terribly" in love with him?
+Wasn't she just "thrilled to death" with excitement at the prospect of
+having a husband and going all the way out to India?
+
+Joyce did not believe there was such a thing as being "terribly in
+love," which was a phrase invented by cheap novelists, whose literature
+she had never been allowed to read. She admitted she was growing very
+fond of her Mr. Meredith, and preferred him to any other man. Not that
+her experience of men was great--nevertheless, he was a "perfect dear."
+
+Her sister Kitty of the schoolroom, a young woman of rather decided
+opinions, reproached her severely for lack of enthusiasm over her very
+presentable lover. In her eyes, Ray Meredith was the ideal of a Cinema
+hero, with his clean-shaven, ascetic face, his muscular build, and
+adorable smile. "You should be flattered, my dear, that he condescended
+to choose you out of the millions of girls in the world," she remarked
+sagely. "You may be pretty, but hosts of girls are that. One has to be
+clever, and ... are _you_?... Why, you spelt vaccination with one 'c,'
+and vicinity with two only yesterday, and but for me, reading over your
+shoulder, you would have been disgraced for ever. I am not sure that he
+would not have broken it off! Then you know nothing whatever of
+politics--or football. Men are crazy about both, so you really are
+rather stupid, darling, or cold-hearted. Surely you must feel all
+squiggly down your back whenever Ray hugs and kisses you?"
+
+"What do you know about it?"
+
+"I'd be thrilled to my boots. Why, I feel like that every time they kiss
+in the film--really I feel an intruder, and as if I shouldn't look."
+
+"Silly penny stories untrue to life!" Joyce said as an echo of her
+father's scorn, but blushing, nevertheless.
+
+"Well, if you don't appreciate your lover, tell him to wait for me. I'll
+put up my hair year after next and take him like a shot."
+
+"Of course I appreciate him, or I should not be going to marry him,"
+said Joyce with the dignity of eighteen. "But it's folly to make so much
+fuss about marriage, seeing that it's the most ordinary thing in life,
+like being born, or dying."
+
+"The most incomprehensible thing in life, I should imagine," retorted
+Kitty, wide-eyed with curiosity. "Especially when you come to think of
+going away for good--or bad, maybe!--with a strange man you know next to
+nothing of; and all at a blow, having to share the same apartments with
+him. Merciful Providence! I am sure the Queen never did!"
+
+"It's supposed to be the correct thing," said Joyce rather scared.
+"Mother says, 'husbands and wives are one,' and 'to the pure, all things
+are pure'--whatever that has to do with it--so it would be illogical in
+the face of that to object to such a trifle as sharing a room. 'One has
+to tune one's mind to accept whatever comes, and to follow in the
+footsteps of one's parents,'" she quoted.
+
+"How I wish you were not going right away with him, immediately," sighed
+Kitty enviously. "You might so easily have told me all about it. Nobody
+tells one anything worth knowing, just as though there was anything to
+be ashamed about!"
+
+Joyce made no response for the good reason that her mind was wrestling
+with disquietude. However, in spite of so much that was mysterious, even
+alarming, she decided, as a prospective bride, to assume the dignity and
+reserve she had noticed in others and smile patronisingly on inquisitive
+sixteen.
+
+Shortly afterwards she was married, and she accompanied her "strange
+man" on their journey to the Unknown, much as a confiding child trusts
+itself to the guardianship of a loving nurse; prepared to accept as a
+duty whatever path he might require her to tread.
+
+In matters pertaining to sex, Meredith found her little more than a
+child; the result of her narrow upbringing by which she had been reared
+in ignorance of the primal facts of life and all that was common
+knowledge to the flapper of the day. But to his fastidious nature her
+unsophisticated innocence was the most captivating of any of the
+qualities he had met with in girls, and it became his most earnest
+desire to preserve it undefiled. The sweet simplicity of her mind he
+regarded as even more precious than her beauty. Having spent a decade in
+acquiring a disgust for a certain type of woman, he was inclined to
+over-estimate his surprising good fortune, and was content in the hope
+that time was on his side. Like a flower unfolding to the sun, the
+treasures of her womanhood would be all his one day, drawn forth by the
+warmth of his steady devotion.
+
+The obstacles in his way, however, seemed to increase as circumstances
+combined to fret and tantalise his hopes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night wore on--the Eastern night of cloudless moonlight with the
+scents of the earth rising from harvested fields to mingle with the
+pungency of smouldering fires. Somewhere an owl persistently hooted.
+
+Joyce recalled the superstition that the owl was a bird of ill omen and
+should not be allowed to perch in the neighbourhood of a sick room.
+Immediately she was seized with foreboding and her husband was
+dispatched to scare away the prophet of evil. On his return she was
+trembling and hysterical.
+
+"You must let me give you something, darling," he pleaded. "You'll
+collapse for want of food, and how then can you look after Baby?" It was
+inspiration which suggested the child's need of her, for she patiently
+submitted and drank a glass of milk. She changed her gown for a silken
+kimono, and sought rest among the pillows of her bed which adjoined the
+crib. Then, in subdued tones, she reproached her husband for never
+having studied the simple diseases of childhood,--so necessary in their
+case, when for months together they were expected to live in camp, far
+from the Station, and the reach of medical aid.
+
+"It is criminal," she cried. "If it had been a dog you would have known
+what to do. But your own child!" words failed her.
+
+"The next time we come out we shall bring 'Good-eve.' I believe it gives
+everything you want to know and a lot besides."
+
+"There'll never be a 'next time,'" she moaned. "Please God, when my pet
+is better he shall never again be taken so far from the doctor. This is
+the end of all camping for him."
+
+"So I am to be deserted?"
+
+"You are a man and able to look after yourself. Baby needs me far more
+than you do."
+
+Meredith refrained from any argument, feeling the futility of words in
+her distraught condition. In the darkened tent he brooded over his
+difficulties while his eyes strayed with jealous yearning to the slim
+form in the gaudy kimono. Instead of isolation in a canvas chair, he
+might so easily have shared her pillows while comforting her lovingly in
+his arms! but for the time being he was out of favour and unloved!
+
+Shortly before sunrise, Captain Dalton motored in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE CIVIL SURGEON
+
+
+From the moment of the doctor's arrival the tension of watching was
+eased; the very sight of his wide shoulders in the doorway of the tent
+brought instantaneous relief to Joyce whose faith, as far as her child
+was concerned, was material rather than spiritual. Though she had felt
+an instinctive shrinking from the man's society on the few occasions on
+which they had met, her whole heart went out to welcome him with earnest
+supplication. He possessed the knowledge, under God, to save her child;
+therefore, surely, was he Superman--a being apart, to be reverenced
+above his fellows.
+
+Captain Dalton of the Indian Medical Service, and Civil Surgeon of
+Muktiarbad, was an unfriendly being of peculiar personality, whom no one
+could comprehend. Ordinarily, he was repellent to intimacies; a reserved
+autocrat, and content to be unpopular. Though elected a member of the
+Club, he had little use for its privileges. Having fulfilled his duty to
+his neighbours by calling on them shortly after his arrival in the
+Station that summer, he had retired into professional and private life,
+and was as difficult to cultivate as the Pope of Rome. He rarely
+accepted invitations, and issued none. Men who called upon him received
+a rigid hospitality, nothing more, so that they soon ceased to visit him
+at all, at which he was relieved.
+
+That he was a gifted musician became generally known when classical
+strains from a grand piano were wafted through the Duranta hedge which
+encompassed his grounds, riveting passers-by to the roadway at some
+sacrifice to personal dignity, that they might listen and admire.
+Sometimes he was heard to sing to his own accompaniment in a voice of
+extraordinary richness and sympathy. The evening breeze would carry the
+tones of his fine baritone voice farther than the Duranta hedge; and
+though bungalows were widely separated by private grounds of many acres,
+with paddocks and lanes between, his neighbours would hang out of their
+windows to catch every note, and afterwards at the common meeting ground
+of the Club, discourse on the advantage of their proximity to the
+singer.
+
+All persuasions to repeat his performances in public met with obstinate
+discouragement, till, reluctantly, the Station left him alone. Injured
+feelings were nourished, and opinions concerning his conduct and manners
+grew harsh and unrelenting the instant his back was turned. To his face
+there was no failure of cordiality, for it is not politic in a small
+station to quarrel with one's doctor.
+
+It was on the polo-ground, on the occasion of a slight accident which
+might have been more serious, that Joyce first met Captain Dalton,--a
+bare fortnight ago. His appointment had taken place while she had been
+at the hills, and at the introduction she had resented the impudent
+scrutiny of his eyes, not realising the fact that she had been an
+arresting picture with the hue of mountain roses in her cheeks, and eyes
+like English forget-me-nots; in beauty and colouring a rarity in that
+rural district of Bengal.
+
+Perhaps the doctor wondered at the unusual combination of prettiness and
+simplicity, for, in his experience, good looks without vanity were
+something unique. Possibly he was sceptical, for a smile of satire
+lurked at the back of his inscrutable eyes. At any rate, he had found
+her an interesting study, and the jade-green orbs, reckoned his finest
+feature, seemed to assess her from top to toe, critically and coolly.
+Though he made no effort to engage her in conversation, he had lingered
+in her vicinity, listening to her childish prattle; and, contrary to
+expectations, long after the need of his services was past, he had
+loitered on the polo-ground till the Merediths had driven away in their
+car.
+
+On looking back, Joyce had felt a sense of resentment at his quiet
+contempt of the ladies present. His cynical study of herself without any
+attempt to cultivate her society annoyed her self-esteem.
+
+"He's positively rude!" was her indignant verdict, later. "I wonder
+people put up with him. And he has perfectly hateful eyes."
+
+"The ladies think them very handsome eyes," Meredith had insinuated.
+
+"They are very uncomfortable; like a thought-reader's. Anyhow, I shall
+not allow him to stare at me another time."
+
+"There's a saying that 'a cat may look at the queen,'" he had remarked
+mischievously.
+
+"It's a blessing, however, that one may choose one's friends!" she had
+finally stated; and her husband allowed the subject to drop, not
+displeased at her repugnance to the doctor whom he marked dangerous to
+feminine susceptibility and an unknown quantity.
+
+Captain Dalton had called the following Sunday at noon, and was received
+by both husband and wife for the conventional few minutes. Being the
+official holiday, it was recognised as the correct day for men to pay
+formal visits, and by an unwritten law, at the warmest hour in the
+twenty-four.
+
+Another time they had driven past each other in a lane, when Dalton
+gravely raised his hat in acknowledgment of her bow. Lastly, he had sat
+beside her at a Hindu dramatic performance held in the grounds of a
+local landowner, in celebration of a religious festival, and he had
+barely noticed her existence, being engaged with his host on the other
+side.
+
+On the whole, he had not made a favourable impression on Joyce Meredith.
+But what did it matter, now? He had come out to their camp, many miles
+away from the Station, post-haste to save her child, and for that she
+was thankful. All memory of the doctor's bad manners was forgotten when
+she saw him enter the tent with her husband, a strong virile being, from
+his keen eyes and locked lips to his brisk tread;--God's own agent to
+cure her babe; a blessed healer of the sick, to whom the mysteries of
+the human frame were revealed; who could fight even death!
+
+"Oh, Doctor," she cried piteously, the tears like great dewdrops on her
+lashes: "Baby has been so bad--I thought, once, I had lost him!"
+
+Without formal greetings, Dalton passed to the cot, and stooping over
+it, began his examination of the case.
+
+Appreciating the reproof conveyed by his silence, the little mother sat
+still while the examination proceeded, answering in tremulous tones the
+crisp, short questions hurled at her from time to time.
+
+By and by, when a certain drug had been administered and there was
+nothing to be done but wait for its effects to be apparent, he abruptly
+turned his attention to herself. Had she eaten anything? What had she
+fed on for the past twenty-four hours? He covered her wrist with his
+hand, studied her highly nervous face for a full minute, and then
+ordered her away to bed.
+
+"Take her out of this, Meredith, if you wish to avoid having two
+invalids on your hands. Is there another bed anywhere?"
+
+Meredith's own occupied the dressing-tent, since he was obliged to give
+up sharing his wife's on account of the baby's claim to the services of
+an ayah.
+
+"But, Doctor, I am not ill!" Joyce protested feebly, realising however
+now, that it was mentioned, that a collapse was imminent.
+
+"You'll do as we think best," he said shortly, "or I had better get
+out."
+
+"Who is to look after Baby?" she asked faintly.
+
+"I am here for that," he said more gently.
+
+After some futile objections, Joyce departed feeling unable to hold out
+a minute longer.
+
+"How are you feeling?" her husband's anxious voice was asking. "You are
+as white as a lily, darling."
+
+"I'll be all right when Baby is," she answered wearily.
+
+In a little while Joyce was put to bed with a sleeping draught and
+tucked in comfortably, her husband as skilful in his ministrations as
+any nurse. "Won't you kiss me before I go? Love me a little bit," he
+pleaded wistfully.
+
+"Go away Ray," she cried irritably. "Don't worry."
+
+"You've made me so miserable!"
+
+"It's nothing to what you made me!"
+
+"I made you!"
+
+"You--you were absent all day when Baby was so ill. It has nearly killed
+me."
+
+"Dearest, don't blame me unjustly."
+
+"Then let it drop. I am not wishing to discuss it; I am too tired."
+
+So was he, but he had no thought of himself while yearning over her, his
+lovely girl, more beloved in her stubborn antagonism than ever.
+
+Remembering the doctor's injunctions that she must sleep, he reluctantly
+retired to pace the grass in the dawn, a dishevelled figure in his
+shirt-sleeves with hands plunged into the pockets of his trousers. The
+cool air soothed his nerves and brought him a sense of drowsiness which
+he indulged in a long cane chair under the eaves of the dressing-tent.
+The camp was very still after the disturbances of the night, and the sun
+rose above the flat horizon like a ball of living gold, its searching
+rays awakening the sleeping servants in their _shuldaris_ by their glare
+and warmth.
+
+But Ray Meredith was worn out and slept heavily, oblivious, for the
+moment, of his anxieties and his surroundings, for, after all, he
+cultivated a broad perspective and a wide tolerance for his little
+girl's humours, since she was only "a kid in years and ideas."
+
+With the sun mounting rapidly into the heavens came sounds of life from
+the distant village. Far away, cow-bells tinkled musically as the cattle
+moved lazily to pasture lands; dogs barked and children's voices, shrill
+and joyous, echoed over the fields.
+
+Domestic servants at the camp were to be seen rolling up their bedding
+of sacking, preparatory to beginning the common round, the daily task.
+Not far from the temporary kitchen, the mate-boy squabbled with the
+village milkman over the supply of milk with its sediment of chalk,
+which he declared had all but killed the master's child. Let him
+remember that there was a doctor sahib on the spot, and what availed his
+protestations?
+
+"A raw infant, too, with a new stomach. Assuredly will the police drag
+thee into court."
+
+"Who said there was chalk!" almost wept the indignant _guala_
+gesticulating wildly in self-defence. "As God is my witness not a grain
+was in the milk. Have I no fear? Straight from the udder was it milked
+into the brass _lota_ and brought to the camp. Ask of all the village if
+I am not an honest man paying just tribute where it is asked, and giving
+full measure and pure, to one and all. Would I jeopardise my freedom for
+malpractices? What evil accusation art thou, _badmash_, hurling at me?"
+
+"We'll see who's a _badmash_!" the youth returned loftily. "Wait till
+the doctor Sahib gives evidence. Presently the Judge Sahib will say, 'O
+Amir, faithful one, speak concerning the sediment in the milk which thou
+didst show to the doctor Sahib, that the pestilential _guala_ may
+receive just punishment for his wrong-doing.' But I have a tender heart
+for the repentant and may consent to destroy the evidence, even refrain
+from showing it to the Sahib, if it is made worth my while. Allot for my
+own portion one seer of milk, and two for the servants, free of charge,
+and, peradventure, my memory concerning the chalk will fail when the
+moment of inquiry arrives."
+
+"Why didst not thou tell that it was perquisite thou wast wanting, for I
+would have given to thee without argument," sighed the _guala_, in
+visible relief. "I am a poor man, and honest, though the ways of my
+country-men are crooked, and I give in to thy demand that I might be
+spared false accusation and much humiliation. Take, brother, thy illegal
+_dusturi_;[7] how can such as I hope to escape _loot_, when from the
+_chaukidar_ to the sweeper all are robbing those who provide the
+_hakim's_ needs? Only from the _hakim_ himself is there straight
+dealing!--_ai Khodar_!"
+
+[Footnote 7: Commission.]
+
+Within the large tent the silence that reigned boded well for the child
+who was sleeping peacefully.
+
+Its improved condition was the latest bulletin issued by the ayah who
+had snatched a moment to enjoy a cheap cigarette in the open.
+
+"What a night!" she said in Hindustani, which she spoke almost as
+fluently as Tamil. "With both Sahib and Memsahib awake and watching, who
+could sleep? I had not the conscience to close my eyes. Nor has a morsel
+passed these lips, for, with the precious one at death's door, food
+turns to ashes in the mouth."
+
+"Thou art indeed a faithful one, Ayah-jee," said the _peon_.
+
+"It is my religion, for I am a Christian and have no caste to hold me
+back from any service that is required of me, _Baba-jee_. The child is
+my first thought, and to guard its life, my first care."
+
+"For which thou art paid handsomely, is it not so?"
+
+"That, of course! and money is a great convenience, _Baba-jee_."
+
+Joyce was still sleeping from the effects of the draught, when Meredith
+and the doctor breakfasted together. On no account was she to be
+disturbed. It seemed the doctor took a malicious delight in depriving
+the husband of the pleasure of carrying his wife the good news
+concerning the child; and he saw him depart to preside at his court
+under the trees, without a shade of sympathy for his visible distress.
+
+"Your wife will be all right," he said confidently, "so don't worry, but
+go ahead with your work. I am capable of looking after both mother and
+child."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," Meredith grumbled, "but you'll send for me,
+won't you, if anything's wrong?"
+
+"Most assuredly," was the reply. And the Magistrate took his seat at the
+camp table under a leafy mango tree, and was soon immersed in his duties
+to the State. Natives of all castes and creeds thronged the grass beyond
+the precincts of the court, and a hoarse murmur of voices soon filled
+the air, above which was constantly heard that of the crier naming a
+witness, or calling up a case.
+
+When the ayah brought Captain Dalton the news that her mistress was
+showing signs of waking, he poured out and took her a cup of tea,
+himself, and asked how she felt. "Not very bright, I can see," he
+remarked, placing his fingers on her pulse.
+
+"Have I slept long?" she asked drowsily.
+
+"Five hours."
+
+"But Baby?" she cried out in alarm, sitting up in bed, giddy and
+confused.
+
+"Baby's all right. Temperature normal, and sleeping like a cherub," he
+returned pressing her back on her pillows.
+
+"Oh, Doctor, is that true?"
+
+"You may think me a liar, if you like, but it isn't polite to call me
+one to my face," he said with a crooked, grudging smile.
+
+"Oh, how am I to thank you!" tears suffused her eyes as she seized his
+hand and carried it impulsively to her lips. "You have no idea of the
+relief you have brought me!"
+
+Dalton had; and by the answering gleam in his eye, showed he was
+rewarded for the whim which had prompted him to be the bearer of the
+good tidings. It amused him to play with this pretty child-wife, and
+sound the depths of her nature--if there were any!
+
+"What is your age?" he asked abruptly, with a doctor's licence to
+question a patient as he chose.
+
+"I was nineteen in summer."
+
+"You have no business with a baby when you are one yourself! Now for
+your tea," and he held the cup while she leant on her elbow to drink its
+contents, a shower of honey-gold hair falling about her face.
+
+"Is your head very bad?" he asked when she had finished.
+
+"How did you know that it ached?" she questioned.
+
+"I have ways of finding out. Your pulse and your flush, for example."
+
+"Then I am ill?" she asked in alarm. If she were to be ill, who would
+take care of the child?
+
+"A little ill."
+
+"Fever?"
+
+"Feverish."
+
+"But I may get up, in spite of it?"
+
+"Certainly not. Nor would you be of any use if you did."
+
+"But I must take care of Baby!"
+
+"I am doing that, already."
+
+"You are going to take care of me, too?"
+
+"Yes, if you are good and do all I tell you."
+
+"I'll be so good, for I want to get well. How long will it last?"
+
+"The fever? Who can say? However, I dare say it will be only a trifling
+thing."
+
+"Where is my husband?" she asked, wondering if Ray knew, and why he had
+not rushed to see her. She was so accustomed to being fussed over, that
+she missed the excitement. No doubt he was nursing injured feelings
+since her ill-treatment of him last night....
+
+"Listen, and you will hear the voices of the multitude before the Court.
+Mr. Meredith is trying cases and sentencing malefactors to various
+degrees of punishment," said the doctor.
+
+"Won't you call him?"
+
+"Are you sure he won't charge me with Contempt of Court?" he teased.
+
+"If I am going to be ill, I must have him come at once. But first
+promise me something," she cried, clinging to his hand with feverish
+excitement; "I cannot bear to stay in camp after yesterday's experience.
+Tell him that I must go back to Muktiarbad so as to have Baby near you.
+He might be ill again, and what should I do then!"
+
+"He might, certainly. Yes, I'll tell your husband, but not today. Today
+you will want to be taken care of, and we mustn't pile on the agony."
+
+"On whom? It would be such a relief to me!"
+
+"Not to your husband. I wouldn't mind betting he'd have a fit of the
+blues and be ill himself as a result."
+
+"Oh, no! Ray never gets ill. He is so strong. That is why he can't
+understand us. Oh, Doctor, I cannot live in India!" she wailed.
+
+"Are you very homesick?" he asked with the same grudging smile.
+
+"I hate India! It will kill Baby--won't you explain that to my husband?"
+
+"There is no reason why it should kill Baby."
+
+"How can you tell?--everything is against him here!"
+
+Dalton decided to humour her because of the deepening flush and starry
+eyes. The nervous fingers twined about his were hot with fever. "That's
+all right. Be happy, you'll go home in the spring if it depends on me."
+
+"Oh, thank you, you are such a dear!"
+
+Captain Dalton smiled less grudgingly. She was so perfectly ingenuous.
+In his critical eyes was a look of dalliance with a new problem. They
+were eyes that must often have studied human problems and not always to
+good purpose.
+
+"I suppose the kid is your first consideration?" he asked, amused.
+
+"He's so helpless!"
+
+"I see," he remarked oracularly. Before he left the tent he gave her a
+tablet from a phial which he carried in his vest-pocket.
+
+"Do you know," she ventured in the hurried accents of feverishness, "I
+did not like you a bit when I first met you."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"You are so different from what I had imagined."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"You seemed an animated iceberg--forbidding and--yes, almost
+disagreeable. You make most people afraid of you."
+
+"It matters very little to me what people think of me," he returned
+indifferently.
+
+"Don't you ever care for friends?"
+
+"I have no use for friends--besides, who are one's friends? I have
+ceased to believe in friendship," he sneered.
+
+She studied his face gravely. "I don't like to hear you speak like that.
+We would be your friends if you would let us."
+
+Dalton checked a laugh of genuine amusement, the first sound of mirth
+she had heard from his lips, and it was not pleasant hearing.
+
+"You are very good," he said tolerantly, "but it wouldn't work. I
+wouldn't suggest the experiment, if I may advise you."
+
+"I certainly shall not, if you are nasty," she pouted.
+
+Dalton laughed again disagreeably and went out.
+
+He was truly a conundrum, she decided, and difficult to know. Yet how
+kind he had been to her and careful of her child! for that she would
+always be grateful. But for him, anything might have happened! Strange
+fellow!--why was he so antagonistic to people when his profession made
+him a ministering angel to humanity? Joyce felt her head aching so
+violently at this stage that she abandoned the puzzle of Captain
+Dalton's nature and indulged in ecstasies over the thought of her baby's
+recovery. It made her so happy that, when her husband entered with the
+doctor, she flung her arms about his neck and apologised for her
+exhibition of bad temper. "I was horrible to you, Ray. Do forgive me,"
+sounded very sweet in her husband's ears. What the doctor thought was of
+no importance to her.
+
+Meredith mumbled transports of joy on her lips and was beside himself
+with anxiety that she should be feverish. He plied her with questions in
+his solicitude, and stood by in sulky jealousy while the doctor made his
+professional examination of her lungs and heart.
+
+Joyce said "ninety-nine" many times obediently, and was like a child in
+her unconsciousness of self. One all-absorbing thought occupied her
+mind, and that was her baby's well-being.
+
+"Isn't Captain Dalton an angel?" she cried when the examination was over
+and her lungs pronounced in perfect order. "I shall love him for ever
+after his kindness to us; only, he won't let me. He has no use, he says,
+for friends!"
+
+Dalton smiled grimly as he put away his stethoscope. "Have you ever
+heard of the qualities that go to make a good doctor?" he asked coolly.
+
+"Tell me," she demanded.
+
+"An unerring judgment, nerves of steel, and a heart of stone."
+
+"And have you managed to acquire all three?" she asked playfully.
+
+"The petrifaction of the last-named is quite an old story," he remarked,
+as he passed out of the tent.
+
+"You must not talk so much, sweetheart, with a rising temperature,"
+Meredith cautioned, fussing over her, while, outside, the trial of a
+notorious criminal was suspended till the Magistrate should think fit to
+return. "How did Dalton find out that you had fever?" he questioned
+suspiciously. "Did you send for him?"
+
+"Oh, no. He brought me news of Baby and gave me my tea. Isn't he queer?
+Not half so bad as people make him out to be. Oh!--and I was so
+overjoyed and excited that I kissed his hand. I wonder what he thought
+of my foolishness?" and she laughed at the joke; but her husband seemed
+to have lost his sense of humour, for he retired from the bedside to
+pace the drugget in distinct annoyance.
+
+"Damned officious of him," he grumbled. "You were not his patient."
+
+"I am _now_, so it's all right."
+
+"You shouldn't have forgotten your dignity."
+
+"I know it, but that's the way with me. I never remember that I have
+any!"
+
+"You are a married woman and no longer a child," he continued
+reproachfully.
+
+"I shall always be a silly fool, I'm afraid," she sighed. "However, he's
+only the doctor, and a doctor is something between an angel and an
+automaton."
+
+"The devil he is!" Meredith growled, kicking a hassock to the other end
+of the tent.
+
+"Come here, you big goose," she said wearily, stretching her limbs;
+"kiss me this instant, and go back to the malefactors. I want to sleep
+off this attack and get well quickly."
+
+Meredith could not bear to see her looking ill and wanted no second
+bidding to demonstrate his love for her. After kissing her most
+tenderly, he tucked her in comfortably, and, much against his
+inclination, left her to the doctor's ministrations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A POINT OF VIEW
+
+
+Dalton filled the ice-bag he had brought with him and settled down to
+nursing with the skill of a woman; and no hands could have been gentler.
+Occasionally the worried husband would pay the tent a flying visit and
+return to listen to a pleader's lengthy oration with all the attention
+he could muster under the troublous circumstances. Visions of his wife's
+flushed face lying still on the pillow with closed eyes would haunt him
+with agonising fidelity to detail--especially in relation to the
+attentive doctor hovering near, adjusting the bag or removing it to be
+refilled, and administering the necessary doses of medicine. He took
+special notice of Dalton in his new character of nurse, and had no fault
+to find with his manner. He was as silent as the Sphinx and as
+professional as a nursing sister, and though Meredith thought it
+objectionable that his wife should always have to be treated in illness
+by a male physician--there being no lady doctor within hundreds of
+miles--he was obliged to take comfort in the fact that his beloved could
+not be in better hands.
+
+Elsewhere, the ayah crooned lullabies to the baby who no longer needed
+strict watching. She fed it from the bottle and wondered,
+philosophically, who would be the next to be taken ill; for experience
+told her that it was a mild form of epidemic chill, familiar to all at
+the changing of the seasons.
+
+Meals went forward with clock-like regularity, whether the sahibs were
+inclined for sustenance or not. The camp table in the dining-tent was
+laid with silver and crockery; a tight bunch of green leaves adorned a
+centre vase, and a gong rang at the appointed hour, while the dishes
+remained warm in the portable "hot case" where an open charcoal fire
+burned redly.
+
+"Isn't the fever rather persistent?" Meredith asked at dinner while
+toying with his food.
+
+"It's early to judge," said the doctor.
+
+"What do you think of it?"
+
+"Unquestionably a touch of the 'flu.'"
+
+"It isn't enteric?" the anxious husband asked fearfully. "I have a holy
+horror of enteric."
+
+"You make your mind easy, it is not going to be anything of the sort. I
+am afraid, however, you will have to give up all idea of Mrs. Meredith's
+camping for the present," he added definitely. "She and the child don't
+take kindly to canvas, and at this time of year we must avoid exposure
+to malarial conditions."
+
+"The District is particularly free from malaria," said Meredith.
+
+"Bengal is full of it; the many bogs and pools of stagnant water around
+are responsible for the anopheles mosquito."
+
+"It's dashed inconvenient when I must put in a deuced lot of camping in
+the cold weather."
+
+"Do most of it after Christmas," Dalton suggested.
+
+"It will be just the same--they won't be able to stand it."
+
+"Frankly, I don't think they will. Perhaps, both might be more
+acclimatised later on," was the diplomatic reply.
+
+Meredith passed another night on the cane chair which he placed
+alongside of his wife's bed, and was conscious during periods of rest
+that the doctor never slept at all. He was in and out of the tent at all
+hours of the night looking after his patient with untiring zeal. An easy
+chair in the dining-tent had served as his couch, and the English
+newspapers entertained him during the long hours of the night.
+
+Yet at the end of the vigil, Meredith knew Captain Dalton no better than
+before. He was still the silent, repellent being, with eyes of a
+thought-reader and a baffling smile which might have meant contempt or
+tolerance; he was altogether incomprehensible.
+
+By morning, Joyce was free of fever with a temporarily lowered vitality,
+and showing no ill effects. All day she convalesced happily, enjoying
+the petting she received from the men; Captain Dalton's methods being
+unobtrusive, but effective; Meredith's, on the other hand, being
+tactlessly affectionate and blundering.
+
+"You are a darling, Ray," she laughed, after a specially clumsy service,
+"but you were never born with a faculty for nursing, like Captain
+Dalton's. He is so capable; he never spills my mixture down my neck
+before I can drink it; nor does he pour out over-doses, and empty the
+surplus on the drugget!"
+
+"'Comparisons are odorous,'" he returned, looking hurt.
+
+"The tent is, if you like. It smells like a chemist's shop! Your proper
+place and function are in the court, and sentencing criminals to
+punishment."
+
+"You want to get rid of me so that you may have the doctor all to
+yourself! I wonder what you find in him at all. He fairly chokes one
+off."
+
+"I told you he was either an automaton or an angel; I find he is both,
+only he would like us to think him a bad angel."
+
+"A man knows himself best. So you want to desert me tomorrow?" he cried
+reproachfully.
+
+"Dear old thing!--you wouldn't have me stay if you knew that I should be
+miserable?" she coaxed, drawing down his face to be kissed.
+
+"Miserable with the husband who adores you?"
+
+"If you love me so much, you should be unselfish and think more of
+Baby."
+
+"Must Baby always count above his Daddy?"
+
+"Naturally he must be considered more, while he is so young and
+delicate."
+
+"Where then do I come in?"
+
+"You mustn't be jealous of your own child!" she cried reproachfully.
+"Think of his helplessness, his need of me!--Of course you need me,
+too," she said putting her palm over his mouth to stifle his eloquence
+on the subject of a husband's rights, "but then, there's a difference.
+You can manage without me, while he must not. A babe is a sacred trust
+to its mother."
+
+"And when he grows older and is impressionable, there will be a mother's
+_moral duty towards his soul_ to separate us. You and he at home, and I
+out here, alone! I know the jargon, having watched such comedies for
+years. Now it has come home to me. One hears that a child is a blessing
+from God.... I believe it is a blessing very much in disguise, for I see
+only the disguise at present."
+
+"Why look so far ahead?" laughed Joyce, determined to mend his humour.
+"By the time he is old enough to become a 'moral' responsibility, you
+will probably be only too glad to get rid of me. I am such a worry as a
+wife."
+
+"I wonder!" he ejaculated ruefully.
+
+Joyce reminded him of the many week-ends he could spend at the bungalow,
+when they would contrive to have very happy times. "I shan't be so
+anxious with a doctor on the spot, so to speak; and shall be ever so
+much more of a wife," she promised, looking adorable in the ribbons and
+laces of her snowy night-dress, backed with befrilled pillows.
+
+The prospect had compensations, he felt, but he found it hard to explain
+without incurring the imputation of selfishness, that, parted day after
+day from the light of her presence, deprived of the sight of her
+loveliness and the natural expression of his passion for her, he would
+assuredly ache unceasingly and pine himself sick. She would not
+understand, since she had little comprehension of the ways of mankind,
+so he could only sigh and capitulate.
+
+"At least there will be many honeymoons!" he allowed, trying to hide his
+disappointment in satire.
+
+"What a man you are!" she laughed. "Won't you ever get used to being
+married?"
+
+Meredith returned to his files and the clamouring multitude under the
+trees, for the remainder of the afternoon, with the noxious odours of
+bare-bodied humanity, besmeared with mustard oil, assaulting his
+nostrils. Meanwhile Joyce cultivated the doctor with innocent feelers of
+friendship while he administered afternoon tea.
+
+"I do think you are such a clever nurse," she said flatteringly, while
+he fed her on bread and butter. "You are like two persons in one--both
+doctor and nurse!"
+
+"Necessity is a good teacher," he returned shortly. "I have never nursed
+any one myself; others have generally taken my orders."
+
+"I should have imagined that you had done this all your life."
+
+Viewed in broad daylight at close quarters, when her brain was cleared
+of feverish delusions, he was not at all a handsome man. Too
+blunt-featured and heavy in the jaws; too square in the frame and thick
+of neck; but his eyes, with their power of reserve, were always a
+splendid mystery; deep-set and provoking, yet suggestive of nothing so
+much as banked fires, glowing and suppressed. Frequently they dwelt on
+her with the same satirical amusement of the polo-field, and she would
+waste much of her thoughts in wondering why. It was the look of a
+sceptic who had no intention of expressing his unbelief, and Joyce was
+irritated and annoyed. But she had no fault to find with his attentions,
+and was invariably won to gratitude for services rendered.
+
+She was very pretty--exceptionally so--and very simple; but, as pretty
+women were never simple, Dalton found entertainment in the study of her
+particular pose, as it seemed to him. If it were not a pose, then her
+husband was a short-sighted fool and he had no patience with him. The
+time was past for childish innocence and folly. Coquetry was very
+captivating, but to play with fire was dangerous, and if he mistook not,
+she would some day arrive at an understanding of human nature when it
+was too late to save her self-respect. Her beauty appealed to his
+artistic sense, but he had no admiration for shallow natures; hence his
+amused contempt.
+
+"You remind me of nothing so much as an oyster," she laughed, picking up
+a dainty piece of bread and butter and putting it in her mouth.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"You are living so much in your shell. Why do you do it?"
+
+"Why not, if it pleases me?" he asked pouring out two cups of tea.
+
+"Think of all you lose!"
+
+"I generally manage to take what I want," he replied with an insolent
+smile. "I rarely suffer from loss."
+
+"You lose love," said she wisely.
+
+"What do you know about it?" he questioned, fixing her with his
+penetrating eyes.
+
+"I love my husband----"
+
+"--And your baby, even more. Of course your experience is immense!"
+
+"You are sarcastic," she said reproachfully. "I love my husband and my
+baby in quite different ways. You have no wife or baby, so you cannot
+understand. Men like you go through life without knowing any of its real
+joys."
+
+"That is according to your point of view," he retorted. "In any case,
+marriage is a great gamble and it's best to avoid risks."
+
+"There's a girl you and I know..." Joyce put in reminiscently, seeing in
+mind a pleasing vision, "and the man who gets her will be the luckiest
+fellow in the world."
+
+"He certainly will."
+
+"How do you know whom I mean?"
+
+"You mean Miss Bright of Muktiarbad."
+
+Joyce opened wide her blue eyes which were the colour of forget-me-nots,
+and stared. "Are you a thought-reader?"
+
+"It was easy reading, for there is only one girl we mutually know who
+fits your description entirely, and she is Miss Honor Bright. She has
+been reared to live up to her name."
+
+"And you found that out though you hardly ever speak to her?"
+
+"It is rather wonderful, isn't it?" he asked with his crooked smile.
+
+"Then--why--?" There were limits to curiosity, but her expressive eyes
+spoke the rest of her question direct to his.
+
+"Why don't I cultivate Miss Bright? The answer is simple. I am not
+seeking a wife, and I have no interest in friendships."
+
+"How rude!" she cried reproachfully.
+
+Dalton laughed disagreeably and offered her more tea which she accepted,
+not knowing whether he was not after all the most churlish being she had
+ever met.
+
+"I wish I could understand you, Doctor, but I never shall," she sighed
+hopelessly, as she endeavoured to make herself comfortable among the
+tumbled bed-clothes. "I give you up as a difficult riddle."
+
+"You want your bed re-made," he returned changing the subject. "Shall I
+do it for you?"
+
+"You?--I can't fancy your bed-making!"
+
+"I'll show you that I can do that as well as most other things. But
+you'll have to move out."
+
+The cane lounge had been put out of the way and was not within easy
+walking distance for a shaky invalid; nevertheless Joyce was determined
+to try. While he transferred the cushions, she rolled herself in a shawl
+and made a brave effort to walk across, only to be overcome by
+giddiness.
+
+Dalton was in time to save her from falling and she was carried clinging
+in her panic to the column of his neck. "You shouldn't have attempted
+it," he scolded.
+
+"But I liked the way you swung me off my feet!" she said contentedly.
+
+"It is not one of my duties to wait hand and foot on my patients, I
+would have you understand," he said grimly with a lurking twinkle in his
+eye, wondering, the while, whether the giddiness was another pose. "It
+seems you like being fussed over," he remarked before laying her down
+among the cushions.
+
+"I love it!" she cooed ingenuously. "It's the only reason I don't mind
+being sick, to have Ray fuss and carry me about."
+
+He put her down immediately with the familiar expression of indulgent
+satire in his eyes. "You'll probably get plenty of fussing from
+everyone; but, in the case of the boys, remember to be merciful."
+
+"What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"There are some young fools who might, if encouraged, lose their heads,
+you know."
+
+"But there'd be no excuse, for I never flirt."
+
+"Pardon me, you flirt like an artist."
+
+Joyce thought it was horrid of him to say so, and wondered if she should
+snub him for his impertinence; only she did not quite know how. He had
+been so kind--perhaps he was only teasing? However she was reduced to
+offended silence while he made her bed with skill and expedition. He was
+not anxious that her husband arrive and find him so employed, and was
+glad to restore Mrs. Meredith to her nest of pillows without
+interruptions from without. Her utter lack of concern, either way, was
+illuminating, so that he had to revise his estimate of her once again,
+while his smile lost its satire.
+
+"Sure you are comfy?" he asked before leaving her.
+
+"Yes, thank you," she answered stiffly.
+
+"Haughtiness does not become you, dear lady. What have I done?" he asked
+coolly.
+
+"You said I was a flirt!" she pouted.
+
+"I'll take it back," he returned smiling broadly, thinking that she
+certainly flirted delightfully. But shallow natures always flirted just
+so.
+
+"I have never been accused of that--in my life."
+
+"It would be such a libel!" he conceded.
+
+"Thank you," she said graciously as she shot him a forgiving glance both
+radiant and alluring. "Do you know, I like you tremendously, though I
+began by thinking you hateful."
+
+"First impressions are often correct," he returned grimly, and retired.
+
+By and by, when she was alone with her husband and childishly about to
+recount the events of the afternoon with fidelity as to detail, she was
+diverted by his grave distress at the coming parting. It was cruel to
+inflict grief, and she wished he would be more reasonable.
+
+"Old thing!" she said affectionately, rubbing her soft cheek against his
+rough one; "think how much I, too, shall miss you! It won't be only on
+your side!"
+
+"Will you really miss me?" he asked infatuatedly.
+
+"All the time. I love having you about, and if I am lonely at nights, I
+have only to creep into your bed in the next room to be comforted. What
+ever shall I do when that bed lies empty?"
+
+It was heavenly to Meredith to hear this intimate revelation from her
+lips, always so shy of expressing her need of him. It was a great
+advance in the right direction, and his skies cleared as by magic. If
+absence truly made the heart grow fonder, he would have no cause of
+complaint against this short parting. It was the greater one in the
+spring, the shadow of which was already darkening his horizon, that he
+dared not contemplate.
+
+However, there was plenty of time yet, and no earthly good was to be
+gained by crossing bridges in anticipation.
+
+The following day saw an exodus from the camp. Meredith took his wife
+and child to Muktiarbad station, and saw them comfortably established in
+the Collector's bungalow, known as the Bara Koti,[8] then returned to
+his duties in the rural parts of his District, resolved to support his
+deprivations with cheerful resignation.
+
+[Footnote 8: Big House.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHAT CAN'T BE CURED
+
+
+Ray Meredith tried for the first few days to submit to his loss with
+fortitude, but the loneliness of the camp, after the experience of a
+sweet wife's companionship, was insupportable. There were no Europeans
+for miles around and there remained only the diversions of an occasional
+_shikar_. The tour of the previous autumn and winter months on which he
+had been accompanied by his girlish bride, had spoilt him for bachelor
+life; for though Joyce had disliked the inconveniences of camping, she
+had suffered them meekly, seeing that to have objected would have been
+both selfish and unkind. But the coming of the child had roused in her
+active opposition to all that might be harmful to its most precious
+health, and her husband was gradually discovering that he would
+inevitably have to accept the back seat.
+
+For the first time in his official career, the routine of his work
+wearied him with its monotony and staleness. Having his meals in
+solitary state affected his appetite and digestion, for he took to
+bolting his food just to get rid of the automaton behind his chair who,
+no doubt, mentally criticised his every act, and treasured up the memory
+of his idiosyncrasies to comment upon them, later, in the kitchen.
+
+During the day the business of hearing petitions, trying cases, and
+delivering judgments, occupied his mind and brought distraction, but in
+the evenings he could settle to nothing. Even his beloved pipe failed to
+bring him consolation.
+
+When darkness closed in with dense shadows where the moonlight failed to
+penetrate, and the peace of a world at rest was upon the countryside,
+when even the birds had ceased to chirp and flutter in their nests, the
+air would feel charged with expectancy. A footfall without would cause
+Meredith to lift his head from his papers or book, wondering if there
+was a message for him--Joyce taken ill--or the baby? The silence bred
+nerves, till a chorus of jackals howling in an adjacent paddy field
+would break the spell and come as a welcome relief.
+
+Often, the words of a book he tried to read conveyed no meaning to his
+mind till he had re-read a paragraph several times. Or the official
+report he had set himself to write was disturbed by mental visions of
+Station doings in which his young wife was perhaps taking part without
+his support and protection.
+
+She was so young and unsophisticated! It was perhaps his own fault that
+she was so, but he loved her all the more on account of it, and would
+not have had her otherwise.
+
+An instinctive distrust of Captain Dalton would not be stifled, and he
+disliked the thought of his innocent young wife being exposed to the
+subtle flattery of such unusual attentions as he had paid her in
+camp,--strictly professional, no doubt, but disagreeably intimate from a
+husband's point of view. Confound him!
+
+A young man of arresting appearance and strange personality, whose
+private life was unknown and whose conduct towards his neighbours was
+aloof and repellent, was best kept at a distance and treated with the
+formality which accorded with his profession, otherwise he would become
+a disturbing element. Already Joyce seemed to consider herself under
+obligations to him, and in her enthusiastic gratitude was prone to
+overstep the limits of dignified propriety which he wished her to
+observe. Would to heaven that the Government had sent them a married man
+as Civil Surgeon of Muktiarbad! Bachelors of mysterious habits and
+manners were totally out of place in a station so well supplied with
+womenkind.
+
+Meredith was thankful that there were so many women in the Station and
+all likely to be lavish with their attentions to his wife. She would
+seldom be left to her own devices or the society of the doctor, in whose
+care she was unreservedly placed. And Joyce was popular with the ladies
+despite the fact that she was too young to play her dignified rôle of
+leading lady with success. She played it with a charm all her own, and
+drew towards her the members of her own sex as well as those of the
+masculine. She was unique, he assured himself. He could trust her
+blindfold, even among wolves in sheep's clothing; for essentially she
+was a mother, and had every incentive to keep pure. Love of children and
+a respect for religion were sure safeguards against the wiles of the
+tempter; he could therefore make his mind easy, feeling that his wife
+possessed both.
+
+But jealousy is a weed of hardy growth, and once having taken root is
+difficult to destroy. There were memories to haunt him and give him many
+a sleepless night: Joyce seizing and kissing Dalton's hand in her frenzy
+of relief when he told her the good news concerning the child; her
+milk-white shoulder and bosom exposed for the stethoscope.... She might
+look upon Dalton as an "angel" or an "automaton," but no man, unless
+superhuman, is a stoic where a lovely woman is concerned.
+
+On the whole, it was a miserable week for Meredith in his solitude,
+despite the distractions of his office and constant journeys over the
+plain.
+
+His next encampment was a large Mohammedan village on the outskirts of a
+silk factory,--an important industry owned and worked by a prosperous
+Anglo-Indian.
+
+In duty bound, the Magistrate and Collector called on the ladies of the
+house, sending in the usual piece of pasteboard with his name printed
+thereon, and caught a fleeting glimpse of the wife in a dressing-gown
+and slippers scuttling to cover from the out-offices in the rear.
+
+After keeping him waiting for sometime in a musty drawing-room where
+cobwebs lurked in corners and everything looked the worse for time, she
+appeared in fearful and wonderful array,--layers of powder concealing
+the dusky tint of her complexion, innumerable jewels tinkling on her
+person, and hands badly manicured, but richly be-ringed.
+
+During his brief visit she talked volubly in "chee-chee," vigorously
+assisted by gesticulations, and her laughter was ear-splitting and
+vulgar in its enforced hilarity; so that Meredith, whose nerves felt
+badly jangled, rose to beat a hasty retreat, courteously resisting all
+the hospitable efforts of the hostess to keep him as a guest.
+
+At the Subdivision of Panchpokhur, he was introduced to the Deputy
+Magistrate's wife and twin baby boys who were splendid specimens of
+infantile vigour; and his praise and admiration were the passport to
+their mother's instant regard. She was a devoted wife and mother, placid
+and easy-going, and carried the air of one equal to any emergency.
+
+"I am amazed that they should look so strong," Meredith said as he
+watched the children racing over the grass in pursuit of straying
+poultry.
+
+"They seldom ail," said their mother, who, though country born, was
+perfectly English in her speech and manners. "I nursed them both,
+unaided," she said proudly, feeling disposed to venture this confidence
+to a man who was married and a father.
+
+"That, I suppose, makes a heap of difference," he remarked diffidently.
+"My wife was too ill after the birth of the kid, so it was put on the
+bottle from the start."
+
+"What a pity!" and the lady forthwith entered upon an instructive
+dissertation on the particular artificial foods that could be
+recommended.
+
+"Will this always make him delicate, do you think?" Meredith asked
+anxiously, not so much for the sake of the babe, as from the fear of all
+it would mean to himself in regard to his wife.
+
+"Perhaps not, but it is a bad handicap."
+
+Meredith sighed as he explained the reason of his touring alone.
+"Captain Dalton thinks the child should be within reach of medical aid
+after its go of fever. My wife, too, was a bit knocked over and cannot
+rough it this winter, I'm afraid."
+
+"The new Civil Surgeon?"
+
+"Yes. Came direct from Calcutta after the rains set in."
+
+"He is said to be very clever, but the natives don't seem to like him at
+all, as he is supposed to be rather fond of the knife."
+
+"A good surgeon, I am told. The natives are great cowards of surgery,
+and risk gangrene before they will consent to an operation."
+
+"That is so. He has his hands full, I should think," said the lady.
+"Elsie Meek, the daughter of a dear friend of mine, is dangerously ill
+at the Mission not far from Muktiarbad. I suppose you know that?"
+
+Meredith had heard a rumour to that effect, and wondered how Captain
+Dalton had managed to spare so much of his valuable time to the camp.
+
+"Mr. Meek is a Methodist who came out some years ago and married a
+school friend of my mother's. Their daughter was educated in England and
+joined them a few months ago. I am told she is a talented girl and
+totally unsuited to her life here," said his hostess. "Have you seen
+much of her?"
+
+"Very little, indeed, for her people don't belong to the Club and Miss
+Elsie has only been to see the Brights who are rather friendly with her
+parents. She came out in the summer."
+
+"Poor thing! Enteric is such a terrible disease, and she is very bad I
+hear."
+
+"She could not be in more skilful hands," said Meredith.
+
+Before he left the Subdivision, he had many illuminating talks with the
+wife of the Deputy on the subject of infants and how to rear them in
+Bengal.
+
+"I suppose," said he, "when my kid begins to teeth, the doctors will
+advise sending him and the mother home?" It was the probability he most
+dreaded.
+
+"I see no necessity for that," was the assured reply. "Doctors take too
+much responsibility upon themselves, when they so readily part husbands
+and wives. It has often been the cause of greater trouble than is to be
+feared from the climate. It should be remembered that teething is not a
+disease, but a natural process, which might be influenced by the
+digestion in any part of the globe. Poor India gets all the blame!--even
+when an ayah is careless with the feeding bottles. Why! those iniquitous
+ones with a long rubber tube, used in my mother's day, were called
+'Herods' for the number of children they killed. With proper attention,
+and the hills for a change when necessary, there is no reason why babies
+out here should not do perfectly well till they are seven. It is the
+growing and impressionable stage, and I'll allow that the moral example
+of human nature in the East is not of the best. I say it, who have been
+brought up entirely out here."
+
+"You are a tremendous credit to your upbringing," put in Meredith.
+
+"My people were very particular and I was never allowed an ayah to teach
+me self-indulgence, nor to associate with the servants' children on the
+estate; for what native children do not know of evil isn't worth
+knowing."
+
+The Subdivisional Officer's bungalow was a type usually to be found in
+rural Districts, built of bricks and mortar, whitewashed, and roofed
+with the thatching grass that grows on low-lying lands by the Ganges.
+Earlier in Raymond Meredith's career, Panchpokhur had been one of his
+own appointments, and every corner of the dwelling and its grounds was
+familiar to him: the tall goldmohur trees beside the gate, the range of
+out-offices and stabling, the high, flowering hedge of hibiscus, the
+primitive well by the palm tree, with its screeching pulley. Gazing from
+the verandah he could almost imagine himself a bachelor again in the
+first flush of an opening career, keen and interested. The low verandah
+was the same on which he was wont to sleep on hot summer nights, and
+breakfast upon, at sunrise, in his pyjamas. The deep, thatched roof was
+as cool and as picturesque as of yore, having been renewed many times in
+the seven or eight years that were gone. The difference in his
+surroundings lay in the greater cleanliness--which usually distinguished
+the abode of a married man from that of a careless bachelor--and also in
+the supplementary furniture which threw his old camp articles into the
+shade. He was able to recognise the more durable of his past possessions
+in various parts of the house where they appealed to him as old friends.
+In those days how little had sufficed him!
+
+All was now changed, for his life was dominated with the one idea of
+making his home attractive and suitable for the treasure it held.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After Panchpokhur, he moved on with his tents and the paraphernalia of
+camp life to parts thickly populated by Indians of all castes and
+creeds, and was received with pomp and ceremony befitting the
+representative of the Ruling Power. Addresses were read to him before a
+vast concourse of humanity; and members of the Local Municipal Board
+vied with one another in paying him the respect due to his official
+position.
+
+In the intervals of duty, he tramped jungle places for game, alone or in
+company with gentlemen from the neighbourhood; and, at the week-end,
+prepared to spend Sunday with his wife at Muktiarbad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LEADING LADY
+
+
+Meanwhile, Joyce at the Bara Koti, partially regained her confidence in
+life, and tried to make the best of her surroundings.
+
+The house stood imposingly in extensive grounds which had been
+artistically laid out by successive officials, in lawns, flower-bed,
+ornamental shrubberies, and a kitchen garden, all of which were
+maintained by four _malis_ and a regiment of coolies. A dense hedge of
+cactus separated the grounds from the roadway, with graceful bamboo
+clumps at intervals for shade; and a rustic gate led to the carriage
+drive, an avenue bordered by goldmohur trees.
+
+The building, which was one-storeyed, was of solid masonry, the floor
+being well raised upon arches. Wide pillared verandahs ran on every
+side, and the roof was of concrete supported by iron joists. The rooms
+were lofty and spacious, with high doors and many windows, furnished
+with glass shutters and Venetian blinds; and were designed to fulfil the
+requirements of married officials of important position in the
+Government, who were expected to maintain a dignified state and
+entertain in a style to correspond. In a word, it was Government House
+on a minor scale, with a lordly status to keep up in the Station and
+District.
+
+For his wife's sake, Meredith had endeavoured to make his home as
+attractive as possible so as to save inevitable comparisons between her
+present and past circumstances.
+
+However, there were drawbacks which even he could not avoid: the lack of
+the most ordinary conveniences of daily life, such as electric lights
+and fans, water pipes, telephones, and English shops; and of them all,
+it was to be feared that the last might yet prove the most to be
+deplored.
+
+The bathrooms, which were numerous, had no hot and cold water laid on;
+nor were there any but kerosene lamps to give light; and in lieu of
+electric fans, _punkhas_ with gathered frills were worked by means of a
+rope through a hole in the wall. Kurta, Moja, Juti, and Paji, were the
+four Hindu coolies employed in summer to keep the frill perpetually
+waving in whichever room it pleased the sahibs to sit; and the patient
+creatures sat cross-legged on the verandah floor, nodding over the rope
+till galvanised into activity by a shout from within.
+
+For baths, kettles of boiling water were fetched from the kitchen, fifty
+yards or so distant, and cans of cold water from a tank beyond the
+vegetable garden, by a semi-nude servant whose duty it was to do this
+and nothing else. It took Joyce many months to realise which of the
+numerous servants in her pay could be required to perform a particular
+task, so complicated were the differentiations created by caste.
+
+Muktiarbad was very much behind the times as to modern comforts and
+conveniences, but was entirely up-to-date in the fashions which the
+weekly journals depicted for the advantage of the gentler sex, and which
+the latest arrivals from "home" expressed. Moreover, Calcutta was only a
+few hundred miles away--a trifle in India--and contained first-rate
+shops and dressmakers. A week-end visit to the Metropolis for a round of
+shopping was a common habit of the ladies of Muktiarbad, with its handy
+train service; and if it added considerably to the cost of living, what
+would you, when the bazaar sold only Manchester goods in bales, and
+_saris_ for feminine apparel?
+
+Old Khodar Bux, who was available for eight annas per day, was a
+treasure to bachelor servants, as the only tailor to be had in the
+District.
+
+In all other matters, the Station was content, for officials were birds
+of passage, and what had sufficed the residents for years, was good
+enough for today. Private enterprise was sluggish, and the cost of
+transporting plant and material for the installation of electricity,
+prohibitive; so the sahibs continued to use kerosene oil; were fanned by
+coolies, and were dependent on wells and tanks for their water supply,
+leaving it to the larger towns and great centres to revel in all the
+luxuries of modern times.
+
+The possession of a large Daimler by the Collector, and of a two-seater
+Rolls-Royce by the doctor, filled the other English residents with envy;
+but they were anathema to the natives of the bazaars and villages. Rich
+Indians followed suit with cars of various sorts, but, generally, the
+machines were looked upon by the ignorant as ruthless inventions of the
+devil, and to be feared accordingly.
+
+Joyce lived an idle life at Muktiarbad, served hand and foot by a host
+of servants, and treated as a little queen by her neighbours. She did
+not even try to "keep house" after the approved method in the East, a
+bunch of keys jingling in her pocket, and everything that was of value
+locked safely away; a cook to stand behind her chair, once a day, to
+render the bazaar accounts; visits of inspection to the kitchen, an
+eagle eye kept on the dusting and sweeping, and the laundry-man's weekly
+wash duly checked; for Meredith's head _bearer_, who had assumed
+responsibilities in his master's bachelor days and was too valuable to
+be deprived of his office, continued to keep accounts and run the
+establishment on oiled wheels. Joyce held him in secret awe and respect.
+
+Her ayah instructed her in Indian ways and customs, and caste
+susceptibilities; and it was no little tax to remember how not to
+offend. The _bearer_ was not to be asked to carry trays of food, or the
+_khansaman_ to trim the lamps; the _masalchi_ had no responsibility with
+regard to the boots, or the sweeper with scullery concerns; and so on,
+and so forth. It was all very bewildering and made her nervous. She
+cared too little for India to take much trouble to improve her knowledge
+of the country or of the people, and was content to remain as an
+honoured guest in her own house, with her precious babe to worship and
+cherish with jealous devotion.
+
+On her return from camp, visitors dropped in to see her, foremost among
+them, Mrs. Barrington Fox, the wife of a railway official of some
+importance in the District; a lady young enough to have retained a
+belief in her power to charm. She had been very handsome at her _début_,
+ten years ago, but the ravages of the climate had not spared her
+complexion which was delicately assisted by art to retain its bloom. She
+had the air of being languidly bored with the monotony of her life, and
+seemed disposed to patronise the "leading lady" who never led, save when
+the laws of precedence obliged her to occupy the seat of honour at
+dinner parties in the Station. It was a temptation to Mrs. Fox to advise
+her in the way she should go, and she tactfully managed to hint at it.
+"India is naturally strange to you, yet you do wonderfully!--I am sure
+you are very clever," she would begin, and then make some suggestion
+which Joyce was very glad to follow. For instance--"I hear the Padre
+from headquarters wishes to hold service here next Sunday. He ought
+really to put up with you, but the Brights have had him lately and
+unless you write and invite him he is likely to go straight to them.
+What do you think?" she asked lighting a cigarette.
+
+Joyce had been in the hills on the few occasions when the Reverend John
+Pugh had visited Muktiarbad from Hazrigunge and conducted Divine service
+in the reading-room of the Club.
+
+"Do you think I should?" she asked, anxious to do the correct thing.
+
+"I was thinking that the Brights take too much upon themselves. Mrs.
+Bright is only the wife of the Superintendent of Police after all, and
+your husband is the Collector."
+
+"But Mrs. Bright is a perfect dear."
+
+"Still she should not encroach on your rights. The District Chaplain
+usually stays with the Collector unless he has special friends in the
+Station with whom he divides his time. But do just as you like. I
+thought perhaps he would think you did not want him."
+
+"I should like to have him very much," Joyce said eagerly. "My husband
+will be here and it will be quite a pleasure to us both." So Joyce
+promised to write her letter of invitation.
+
+On the whole, she was never at her ease with Mrs. Fox, who had rarely a
+good word for her neighbours and voiced strangely radical sentiments
+concerning Life and its obligations. They were often startling,
+particularly as she made no secret of the fact that she and her husband
+never "got on." Between puffs of cigarette smoke she would scoff at the
+laws of marriage and speak with much leniency of divorce. Her sympathies
+were invariably with offenders, and Joyce thought her rather too fond of
+the society of men. Meredith feared and disliked her. The fear was on
+his wife's account, lest she should be contaminated. "I have no use for
+a woman of her type," he would say. "She has made a mess of her own life
+and is a poisonous influence to young women."
+
+"But it seems she has a perfect brute of a husband, who leaves her to
+herself while he runs up and down the line amusing himself with other
+women."
+
+"It's a lie," said Meredith sternly. "Fox is not a bad sort. Men rather
+like him, and he is a jolly good Traffic Superintendent. The Railway
+staff think a lot of him. I should not be surprised if he is fed up with
+her selfishness and the way she carries on with his assistants. No
+decent man tolerates that sort of thing."
+
+"If you talked to her for an hour, you'd think she was the injured
+party," said Joyce.
+
+"Then I'd rather you never talked to her."
+
+But that was ridiculous in a small station where everyone met everyone
+else every day, Joyce explained.
+
+So when Mrs. Barrington Fox called, full of gossip and friendliness, she
+was received politely. After the matter of the Padre was settled, she
+demanded to see the child and a quarter of an hour was spent in
+baby-worship.
+
+"He's certainly not looking so well as when you brought him from
+Darjeeling. Weaker, I should say, poor little chappie! I don't believe
+the place agrees with him--or with you, for that matter. You look a good
+deal paler. How do you feel?"
+
+"I am quite all right now, only a bit shaken," Joyce said doubtfully.
+Possibly she was not conscious how bad she actually was? Mrs. Fox was
+not comforting.
+
+"You mustn't run down, you know. The surest safeguard against epidemics
+and illnesses peculiar to this miserable climate is never to allow
+yourself to run below par."
+
+"But what is one to do? One doesn't deliberately do it."
+
+"No, but you should eat heaps of nourishing things. Drink plenty of
+milk, for instance. But never fail to boil it, and never leave it
+exposed to the air. Milk is the most dangerous thing you can take, on
+account of its susceptibility to germs of every kind; especially enteric
+and cholera. It simply asks for germs!"
+
+"And if you keep it covered, it goes bad!" cried Joyce alarmed since it
+formed the sole diet of her beloved infant.
+
+"It wouldn't be a bad plan to keep it in the refrigerator in bottles. I
+did that all the winter, last year, when I was on milk diet."
+
+"It will turn me grey to keep in mind the many things I must not do out
+here!" sighed Joyce.
+
+Mrs. Fox condoled with her out of fellow-feeling and congratulated her
+for having given up camping. "If it doesn't suit you or the kid, I don't
+see why you should be obliged to do it. Men have to learn not to be
+selfish."
+
+Joyce fired up. "Ray is anything but selfish. Sometimes I think it is I
+who am selfish; but if it were only myself, I would never say a word. We
+have to do our duty by the child."
+
+"Exactly so. I quite see the point of view. Here you have the doctor at
+hand. I am told he nursed you like a mother."
+
+Joyce wondered how Mrs. Fox had come to hear of it as, since her return
+to the Station, she had seen no callers. "How _ever_ did you know?" she
+asked ingenuously.
+
+"Oh, one hears things!" Mrs. Fox blew smoke through her nostrils and
+smiled knowingly. "And how do you like him on closer acquaintance?"
+
+Joyce thought he improved on acquaintance. Mrs. Fox annoyed her by that
+smile.
+
+"He is an enigma to most, but if I know his type, he is not a little
+dangerous. He can be exceedingly rude. I passed him on my way here and
+common politeness should have made him pull up for a word or two. But he
+rushed by in a cloud of dust with two fingers just touching the brim of
+his hat!--considering I was on foot, you can imagine my feelings. I have
+never been treated so by a man in my life--unless it is by my own
+husband; but then, there's no love lost," Mrs. Fox remarked.
+
+"Perhaps Captain Dalton was in a hurry," Joyce suggested.
+
+"Don't excuse him. He can be very nice when he likes. Yesterday there
+was Honor Bright hanging over her fence to talk to him, and though it
+was his busiest time, he was there quite a long while,--you know their
+gardens join. I saw them through Mrs. Bray's field-glasses. The Brays'
+verandah, as you know, looks on the Brights' grounds from beyond a
+paddock."
+
+"He thinks a lot of Honor," said Joyce remembering their conversation in
+camp.
+
+"Any one can see she is making up to him. But Mrs. Bright had better
+take care. No one knows anything of Captain Dalton's affairs. He might
+be married for all one knows. Honor Bright may be very popular in the
+District, but she'll get herself talked about and end all her chances of
+marrying well. Naturally it is the ambition of her parents to see her
+well settled, but she's far too unconventional. Did you hear of her
+escapade while you were in camp?"
+
+Joyce had not heard, but was eager to know all about it. She knew Honor
+was careless of conventions out of a contempt for small minds and a love
+of independence. All who knew her allowed that she was as "straight as
+you make 'em," and admired her open nature and clear eye.
+
+"Didn't she write and tell you?"
+
+"We seldom write to each other."
+
+"I thought you were bosom friends!--well, she was out alone looking for
+early snipe--someone had seen one in the fields beyond the bazaar--and
+while out, she was supposed to have been bitten by a snake----"
+
+"--Why do you say 'supposed'?" Joyce interrupted ready to spring to arms
+for her friend.
+
+"We'll say she was bitten, if you like; only, people bitten by snakes
+generally die, and she didn't. She tied a ligature and was limping home
+when she met Captain Dalton in his car on his way to a dispensary
+somewhere in the District. He took her up and home to his house where
+she stayed half the day alone with him. Her mother was week-ending in
+Calcutta, and Honor was in charge of her father's comforts and the home;
+but her father happened to have run out to Panipara for a rioting case
+which he and the police were bothered with; so Miss Honor stayed with
+the doctor till she thought fit to come home."
+
+"Bitten by a snake!" gasped Joyce in consternation. "Poor Honor!--how
+terrified she must have been!"
+
+"That's best known to herself and him. Since then, you'll observe that
+there is a sort of understanding between them."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"They seem to be on far better terms than he is with any one else in the
+Station, and Honor is falling in love with him. I am anything but blind
+to the symptoms!" and Mrs. Fox struck a match and lighted another
+cigarette.
+
+"I suppose they grew friendly over the treatment of her wound," said
+Joyce beginning to understand how it was that the doctor had learned to
+appreciate Honor Bright. Yet he was "not seeking to marry her."
+
+"I must get Honor to tell me all about it when I see her. Perhaps she
+does not know I am back?"
+
+"She knows right enough, for, as I have said, the doctor was with her
+yesterday, talking across the garden fence."
+
+Mrs. Fox smoked her second and third cigarette, drank tea with Joyce,
+and, when every topic of interest was exhausted, wended her way
+homeward, deploring the fact that her husband was too selfish to give
+her a motor-car. "He doesn't care for one, so I have to do without; and
+with only one riding-horse and that one lame, I am obliged to tramp the
+dusty lanes on foot."
+
+"I am also without a conveyance while my husband is in camp," said
+Joyce, "but it does not matter as I like walking."
+
+"I don't. My frocks are not suited to pedestrian exercise and cost too
+much--" which suggested the idea to Joyce that Mrs. Fox's expensive
+clothes accounted for her husband's economy in other directions. She
+watched her swaying languidly down the drive, a tall and graceful
+figure, stylishly dressed and pretty in a faded way, in spite of the
+delicate pink of her oval cheek and the brightness of her thin lips.
+What a pity it was that she had never a good word for any one, and made
+herself so ridiculous with the men, thought Joyce; it lowered her in
+their estimation and laid her open to impudence. Though she was
+attractive to many, she never succeeded in holding the attention of her
+admirers very long; which was humiliating to say the least of it. Joyce
+looked upon her as an example of a true flirt, and feared her
+accordingly--not on her husband's account, for Ray gave her a wide
+berth--but as a criminal at large. Women had whispered tales which she
+found impossible to credit; the world was so censorious! But on the
+theory that there was never any smoke without fire, she decided that
+Mrs. Fox was unscrupulous, and deplored the fact that the Station was
+obliged to put up with her. Apparently, so long as a husband
+countenanced his wife, no one else had any right to object to whatever
+she might do! It was a strange world!
+
+The trend of her thoughts reminded her of the doctor's estimate of
+herself, which he had subsequently withdrawn. But then, he could only
+have been teasing, for Joyce knew herself, and flirting was very far
+from her intentions at any time, or under any circumstance. For
+instance, she was very sure she would never allow any man but her
+husband to kiss her!--the bare idea was appalling!
+
+After the tennis hour at the Club, Honor Bright cycled up to the steps
+of the Bara Koti, and ran in to embrace Mrs. Meredith and welcome her
+home. "I am sorry not to have been able to come earlier, there was so
+much to do, and a tennis match in the afternoons," she said in her full,
+deep voice which Joyce thought so musical. Yet she never sang. God had
+given her a larynx, but the wicked fairies had robbed her of ear, so,
+though she loved music passionately, she could never produce a tune. "I
+must be fit only for 'treasons, stratagems, and spoils,'" she was once
+heard to say, "for it seems I was not born musical."
+
+However, it was pointed out to her that she was not just to herself; she
+had plenty of "music in her soul" to satisfy even Shakespeare; it was
+only her inability to use the divine instrument in her throat. "You put
+me in mind of 'Trilby.' Perhaps you will sing if you are hypnotised!"
+Joyce had told her.
+
+"Captain Dalton mentioned that you and Baby had both been ill. However I
+am glad to see _you_ so well. How is Squawk?"
+
+"How can you call him such a horrid name!" said Joyce reproachfully.
+
+Honor laughed heartily. "Tommy is responsible; you must scold him."
+
+"I shall, indeed. He's a bad boy!"
+
+"Not at all!--he's a Deare!" at which they both laughed, for Mr.
+Bright's assistant, like the Assistant Magistrate, had a name of
+infinite possibilities. A comic fate had thrown him and Jack Darling
+together in the same Station, and they were provocative of fun in more
+senses than the coincidence of their names afforded.
+
+The guest was carried off to see the son-and-heir in his crib and admire
+his indefinite features that were prophetic of beauty, and his limbs
+that were a miracle of elasticity.
+
+By and by, they settled down to talk and Honor was told of the Padre's
+approaching visit. "Mrs. Fox thinks we should ask him to put up with us
+this time, or he might be offended," she explained. "Will your mother
+mind?"
+
+"Mind? she'll be only too glad, for in private life the old man is a
+terrible bore! he tells the same joke over and over again, and Mother
+says she is determined not to laugh the next time. There ought to be
+some way of choking off stale jokes, don't you think, without offending
+the poor dear?"
+
+"Tell him one of his own. I am sure it will make such an impression that
+he'll never forget it."
+
+"He's so polite, that he'll laugh heartily as though he'd never heard it
+in his life!"
+
+"What a hopeless person! However, I shall be glad to save your mother
+from nervous prostration," said Joyce.
+
+"Mrs. Fox always gets news in advance of everyone else," said Honor. "I
+wonder how she does it?"
+
+"She says she hears a lot--Ray says, servants carry news about the
+District as fast as telegrams."
+
+"I hate to think that she takes the liberty of dropping in upon you
+whenever she likes. She's not a safe person, so I hope you are careful
+of what you tell her."
+
+"Generally, it is she who does the telling, and I the listening."
+
+"It won't do you any good, what she has to say!"
+
+"It won't do me harm. I heard from her today, that you had been bitten
+by a snake while I was in camp. How too terrible!--oh, Honey, how
+frightened you must have been!" In emotional moments, Joyce called her
+friend by her family pet-name.
+
+"I was dreadfully frightened--afterwards," said Honor, shuddering
+violently.
+
+"And you never told me!"
+
+"I could not write about it," said the girl with a sudden gravity that
+ennobled her face. "I don't like talking about it; it was a bad shock."
+
+"Tell me this once, and we shan't speak of it again," Joyce pleaded.
+
+She thought Honor's a beautiful face, though it had no actual claim to
+beauty apart from the brown eyes that were so frank and steadfast, and
+her regular teeth. The eyes were arresting in their depth of shade and
+power of expression, with dark lashes of unusual thickness; but for the
+rest, her complexion was tanned by reckless exposure to the sun, her
+nose had a saucy tendency, and her mouth, though shapely, was not by any
+means a rosebud; indeed, she had a wide smile which was readily excused
+for the charm of it, and because of her splendid teeth. Soulless men
+admired Honor for her eyes, her teeth, and her figure which was truly
+classical; others, for her honesty and directness, and the womanly
+sympathy which never failed. Tommy Deare was among the latter, and he
+had known her for the greater part of his life.
+
+Asked to talk of the episode of the snake, Honor's expression changed
+and she was strongly moved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AN ANXIOUS EXPERIENCE
+
+
+"Have you ever wondered what it must feel like to have sentence of death
+passed on you?" said Honor Bright thoughtfully leaning her chin on her
+hand, her elbow on a low table before her.
+
+"It must be too awful for description," murmured Joyce, large-eyed and
+sympathetic.
+
+"I shall always understand and feel for any one under sentence of death
+either by the Courts of Justice or from disease. When I felt the sharp
+prick on my ankle and looking down saw the snake glide into the
+undergrowth I believed it was all up with me. I had seen two or three
+natives who came up to the house for treatment die before my eyes. A
+_saice_ bitten in the stables by a cobra died in twenty minutes. A
+_mali_ cutting grass was struck on the hand and died in three quarters
+of an hour. A _punkha_ coolie on the verandah lost his life within an
+hour after being bitten by a karait.
+
+"I could not tell the character of the snake that had bitten me, but it
+was large and long, and many cobras are dark and lengthy creatures. My
+father shot one with No. 8, in the roots of a banyan tree this very
+year, and it measured over four feet."
+
+"But, Honey, dear, why ever were you walking in jungly places?" Joyce
+cried, wrought up to the verge of hysteria.
+
+"I was out after snipe. You know how I enjoy shooting, and I generally
+go alone, for I am not clever enough yet with my gun to be trusted to
+shoot in company with others. One is so afraid of accidents!
+
+"I had been walking along the 'aisles' of the paddy fields till I came
+to a swampy bit and found I'd have to walk through it if I had any hope
+of starting a bird. Just as I was stepping off the 'aisle,' a snake
+passed over my foot, and biting me on the ankle vanished in the swamp.
+It must have been some sort of a water-snake, but I did not know. All I
+knew was that I had been bitten by a snake that might be poisonous. It
+could easily have been an adder, or a karait--even a cobra--though I had
+not a minute in which to observe a hood or any distinctive marks. I
+immediately collected my faculties to think what was the best thing to
+do. I knew I had no time to lose. Mother was away in town shopping for
+the cold-weather needs, Dad was out for the day on a riot case. I did
+not even know if I should find Captain Dalton at home.
+
+"On the instant, I tied a ligature as tight as I could under the knee,
+and then started to run back to the Station as fast as my breath would
+allow. As I reached the main road I heard the sound of a motor, and, to
+my intense relief and thankfulness, it was the doctor on his way
+somewhere--I never asked where--my case was as desperate as any, and I
+put up my hand. He saw the 'S.O.S.' message in my face, which he
+afterwards said was the hue of chalk, and when he found out what was
+wrong, he just bundled me in and drove home like a streak of lightning.
+I wonder we did not kill someone or something in the bazaar. I shall
+remember to my dying day the way the people fell to right and left
+thinking, no doubt, the doctor was mad.
+
+"When we arrived at his bungalow he sprang out, ordering me to find my
+way to his consulting room while he went straight to his medicine chest
+for the remedies he keeps for cases of snake-bite. By that time my leg
+was feeling as heavy as lead--whether from the ligature or the poison, I
+do not know--but I could hardly put my foot to the ground. Still, I
+hobbled in and sat down to wait. It seemed ages, but was in reality only
+a minute or two, when he came and knelt down before me to deal with the
+wound. There was very little to be seen, just the punctures and a livid
+disk round them. Up till then we had scarcely spoken a word, or I have
+no memory of words having passed between us, but I can see his face, all
+set and stern, his mouth compressed, his eyes like living coals in his
+head intent on his work of rescue.
+
+"I hardly felt all he did; I was so deeply excited inwardly. Outwardly I
+was as calm as a stoic. I felt whatever happened I would have to keep my
+head to the last. I fully expected to feel desperately ill, and almost
+imagined the sensation beginning to creep over me, of numbness and
+chill. I had watched the symptoms in others, and could almost trace them
+arriving in me. Oh, Joyce, I wouldn't go through that time again if you
+gave me a fortune!--yet, I don't know--for one thing, I shall always be
+glad."
+
+"And that?" asked Joyce.
+
+"Oh, nothing--just an idea," she said hastily. "Captain Dalton cut deep
+into the flesh of my ankle and cauterised the wound; after that he
+injected something above my heart. I believe he was not satisfied with
+my pulse, for he brought me a stiff brandy-peg to drink. My hands were
+stone cold; he chafed them in his. In the meantime my leg swelled and
+looked all colours. It was most alarming yet he would not let me think
+of it. He, who is usually so silent, talked all the time of a thousand
+things that had nothing to do with snakes and their deadliness. He even
+made a joke or two. Once he wanted to know if I wanted any one--a lady
+to sit by me and cheer me up. But when I couldn't have Mother, and you
+were away, I wanted no one else, and told him so. I think he was rather
+surprised that I wasn't hysterical or troublesome; that I bore all that
+cutting about without uttering a sound. Every now and then he felt my
+pulse, and as time passed his face took on a wonderful look. You would
+hardly have believed he was the same man. The hardness was all melted
+and broken up, his eyes were so kind--he talked so pleasantly.
+
+"After some time I asked if he thought I was well enough to go home, but
+he preferred to keep me longer. He thought I would have to be watched
+for a bit and looked after. Later he explained that he was afraid of
+shock. I had been through such an anxious time. He carried me to his
+drawing-room, and while I rested on the sofa he diverted me with music.
+He played the most exquisite music, and sang me ever so many songs.
+Really, Joyce, nobody knows Captain Dalton. He has most extraordinary
+depths in his nature of which I have had only a fleeting glimpse."
+
+"Why is he so antagonistic to people as a rule?" Joyce wondered aloud.
+
+"He has had some great disappointment in his life. Someone has smashed
+up all his ideals and beliefs, or he would never be so suspicious and
+unfriendly. He is that; for who knows him a bit better today than five
+months ago when he first came among us?"
+
+"_You_ do, certainly, Honey!"
+
+"Not even I. I have been favoured with only a glimpse of his inner self.
+There are stores of wonderful goodness all hidden away underneath the
+nastiness and ill-humour he shows to the world!"
+
+"Do go on and tell me the rest," urged Joyce, excitedly. "What a fearful
+experience!"
+
+"It was. I thought of Mother and her grief were I to die,--of my
+father's desolation. They are both so wrapped up in me, having no other
+child, you know. I pictured myself lying dead and covered with
+flowers--you have no idea how involuntary was all this thinking!"
+
+"And you never cried or lost your head?"
+
+"I had not the slightest leaning that way. All I wanted was to die
+'decently and in order,'" Honor returned, smiling reminiscently. "I did
+not want to make a scene and upset Captain Dalton's nerves. Once, while
+feeling faint and sick, I gave him messages. I wanted him to tell Mother
+that I did not mind dying, a bit. That was not strictly true, for I love
+life as much as any one else, but I thought it would comfort her. I sent
+her my love and said that if I had to die, I was sure it was best for
+me, because everything happens for the best. 'Do you really believe
+that?' he asked. 'I am not quite sure I do,' said I, 'but I must think
+of everything that will cheer Mother and help her to be reconciled if I
+have to go.'"
+
+"How long were you obliged to be in suspense?"
+
+"Time passed so fast that I had been there four hours before he judged
+it was safe to bring me home. He drove me in his car and carried me to
+my bed where the ayah took over charge. He then went about his other
+duties. He was so kind and wonderful to me...." The colour rushed into
+Honor's face at a memory that would not be suppressed. "Just before he
+left, he came and stood beside me, looking so queer...."
+
+"How?" Joyce asked curiously. The only expression familiar to her on the
+doctor's face was quizzical amusement.
+
+"He has rather wonderful eyes," Honor said reminiscently, "and they
+seemed suddenly soft and misty. 'You are quite a heroine, Miss Honor,'
+he said. 'I shall think of you often when I am alone in my diggings, as
+the bravest girl I know;' and without any warning he took my hand and
+kissed it, ever so reverently, almost as though it were the hand of a
+queen, and was gone."
+
+"Didn't he come again?"
+
+"Many times to see how the wound was doing. The swelling had to be
+fomented--he had shown me how--the ayah was quite a brick about learning
+the way. Father was there too, and Mother had returned. Poor Mother wept
+enough for two, and Father drank a stiff whisky-and-soda to steady his
+nerves. Altogether it was a ghastly experience. I wonder what particular
+kind of snake it was!"
+
+"It was evidently poisonous, and the bite would have killed you if the
+doctor had not found you in time," said Joyce.
+
+"I have no doubt of it." Honor became suddenly aware of the lateness of
+the hour and rose to go. "I shall have to dress for dinner, and there's
+only a quarter of an hour to do it in!--Dear me, how I have talked!"
+
+"One minute--this happened only the other day, and yet you had
+associated with the doctor for five months before you were properly on
+speaking terms?" said Joyce, detaining her.
+
+"We used to see each other in the distance occasionally. He never came
+to the Club and showed no inclination for feminine society, so we never
+spoke more than to say 'Good-evening' once in the way!"
+
+"Yet he said quite a nice thing about you to me in camp."
+
+"Did he?--What did he say?" Honor asked, flushing.
+
+Joyce related the conversation faithfully, even to the doctor's
+concluding remark--"I am not seeking a wife, and have no interest in
+friendships."
+
+Honor winced as under a lash, and straightened herself.
+
+"You should not have pressed the point, Joyce. However, what does it
+matter? I am glad he thinks well of me, and that's all there is to it.
+He and I are of the same mind. I, too, am not seeking a husband, for I
+am very happy as I am. Good-bye, dear, I was commissioned with a message
+for you, but I have talked so much that it has been nearly forgotten.
+Mother wants you to dine tomorrow; just a few friends and Captain
+Dalton; and he has actually accepted the invitation."
+
+"It is never safe to ask me to dinner," said Joyce doubtfully. "I hate
+leaving Baby all alone at night."
+
+"He has a good ayah."
+
+"Oh, yes. She is absolutely trustworthy; but should he ail ever so
+slightly I shall stay at home. I could not go out and leave him the
+least bit out of sorts."
+
+"We shouldn't wish it. However, he might be quite all right, and then
+you'll come--bye-bye!" she waved her hand from the steps, mounted her
+bicycle, and was gone.
+
+So the dinner-party at the Brights' was a settled engagement and Joyce
+prepared to keep it. She had never been anywhere without her husband,
+and felt nervous and shy for the lack of his support. Moreover, her mind
+was haunted by nameless fears for the child who was to be left behind to
+the tender mercies of native servants. A thousand possibilities of evil
+presented themselves to her mind and robbed the outing of prospective
+enjoyment; consequently the next night when it came to the point of
+starting, she was full of regrets for her weakness in having consented
+to go. "Ayah," she said in a fit of childish confidence, "I care for
+nothing on earth so much as my darling baby, how can I leave him for an
+hour or two not knowing what is happening to him in the meantime?"
+
+"My Lort! what-for be frightened? Baba plenty well, sleeping sound. What
+can be?" the woman cried irritably. Could she not be trusted?
+
+Nothing could possibly happen in so short a time. How did other mothers
+fulfil their social engagements? Surely they did not all worry
+themselves and others to death over nothing? Joyce therefore resolved to
+become more normal in her habits, and proceeded to dress.
+
+Hardly, however, had she put foot in the hired victoria, when the ayah
+appeared, suggesting another look at the child. He had been coughing in
+his sleep, and considering the mother's anxieties she feared the
+responsibility of keeping the fact to herself.
+
+Joyce immediately sprang from the carriage and hurried to the bedroom
+where the child lay sleeping in its cot. "You are sure he coughed?" she
+asked listening in vain for a repetition of the sound.
+
+"Would I say it for nothing?" the Madrasi asked testily.
+
+"What would it mean?"
+
+"A little cold he has caught, or indigestion."
+
+"Then I cannot go out with any peace of mind," Joyce cried definitely.
+"What if he should have croup?"
+
+"Why say such words? Give little honey, and cough go."
+
+But Joyce was not satisfied. What was a dinner-party to her if her
+precious one was sickening for croup or any other fatal malady? Most
+infant maladies were fatal unless taken in time, and if she were away
+and he be taken ill, how would he fare? She decided that the Brights
+would have to do without her, and forgive the disappointment.
+
+Forthwith she unwrapped, and settled down to spend a quiet evening
+alone, with an ear strained to hear any return of the cough, and quite
+determined to send for the doctor should it recur.
+
+However, having upset his mother's nerves and thrown a dinner-party out
+of order, the infant slept soundly till morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE DINNER-PARTY
+
+
+At Muktiarbad, the usual form of evening entertainment was a
+dinner-party with music and bridge to follow; and Mrs. Bright, wife of
+the Superintendent of Police, was specially noted for her hospitality in
+this respect. The brief intervals spent at home by her husband between
+his rounds of inspection or inquiry in his District were always
+celebrated by herself and her daughter as festal occasions; and their
+friends were gathered together at short notice to eat, not the "fatted
+calf," as that would have offended the religious susceptibilities of the
+Hindus who held the animal sacred, but one of the fattened geese kept
+available for such occasions.
+
+The ladies did not always accompany Mr. Bright on his journeys about the
+District, as they were usually hurried and undertaken with scant
+preparation. Very little of the flesh-pots of Bengal sufficed to satisfy
+Muktiarbad's Chief of Police, who had been thoroughly broken in to the
+rough-and-tumble of official life in the _mafasil_. The presence of his
+family in camp was a hindrance to Mr. Bright, and he was better pleased
+to return, after his strenuous duties, to the peace of domesticity at
+his bungalow in the Station. Moreover, there was little of interest in
+the monotony of camping in lonely places for a young girl to whom her
+mother wished to give every opportunity of settling in life, whatever
+might be her own ideas respecting a vocation. Muktiarbad, though a rural
+backwater of Bengal, and pronounced by the gay-minded, a penal
+settlement, had matrimonial possibilities not to be despised by anxious
+parents with daughters to be happily disposed of.
+
+On the whole, it was a highly social if small community who made the
+most of their opportunities for enjoyment, accepting the limitations of
+the place to which it had pleased Providence and the Ruling Power to
+appoint them, with the usual healthy philosophy which has made India so
+rich in memories.
+
+It mattered little if they had to endure the discomforts of the climate
+and various inconveniences besides; others were in a worse case. Nor did
+it matter if they never reached the goal for which they strove--it was
+Kismet!
+
+Fatalism is a habit of mind peculiar to the people of the East, where
+the unexpected might happen at any time without warning; and it is not
+unusual for Europeans to slip half-consciously into the same mental
+attitude.
+
+It is consequently not surprising that, in spite of many lurking
+dangers, life in the rural districts is careless and free. Risks of
+cholera, sunstroke, and snake-bite, are taken boldly without a thought
+of possibilities. India has need of resourceful minds and nerves of
+steel; and no use for the faltering and irresolute.
+
+Even Mrs. Bright took chances for her family and friends when her cook
+at the eleventh hour sent to Robinath Mukerjea's store in the bazaar for
+tins of salmon (the fish procured from a local tank being deemed
+inevitably earthy in flavour); for Mukerjea bought his provisions at
+sales of old stock from the Army and Navy Stores, vowing they were fresh
+consignments from _Belait_; but no one was deceived when patronising his
+shop in spite of risks of ptomaine. However, a dinner cooked by Kareem
+Majid was an achievement more worthy of a Goanese than a Mohammedan, and
+none who dined at the Brights' was ever the worse.
+
+"My dear," Mrs. Bright had been heard to observe in earlier days, "were
+it not for Honor and the necessity to cultivate the acquaintance of
+one's own child, I should never leave India. How I miss that treasure,
+Kareem! He has been with us since we were married, and there never was a
+more useful servant. Whether in camp or in my own bungalow, it is just
+the same; he rises to every emergency and cooks like a French _chef_. At
+a pinch he'll valet my husband. He has even in an emergency fastened the
+hooks of my blouse at the back; and when Honor was a child, played with
+her when she had the measles and kept her from crying herself into a
+fit. When other servants ran away from the cholera, he stayed and did
+everything but sweep the floors! And when any one is sick, I have never
+known the equal of his 'chicken jugs'! He is so self-reliant, too. I
+have only to say, 'Kareem, six guests for dinner tonight. Don't ask for
+orders--do just as you please, only don't mention the subject of food as
+you value your life!' And he will _salaam_ and say, '_Jo hukum_,' after
+which I have no responsibility whatever; dinner up to time, everything
+cooked to perfection, and when you think of what an Indian cook-house
+is, really, you are overcome with admiration. Can you fancy an English
+cook consenting to turn out dinners under like conditions? You get
+notice in a day! And who thinks of sparing Indian servants? As many
+courses as you like, with a wash-up like a small mountain, which the
+_masalchi_ disposes of behind the pantry door on a yard or two of bamboo
+matting, with an earthen _gumla_, a kettle of boiling water, and an
+unthinkable swab! An English maid would have hysterics."
+
+To make existence possible to the residents of Muktiarbad, there was the
+great, straggling bazaar on the outskirts of the Station ready to supply
+the necessaries of life. An enlightened confidence in the rule of the
+sahibs and in their honour and justice was a tradition with the local
+population whose trust in the _Sarcar_ was unbounded; for sedition had
+not yet poisoned the minds of the peace-loving, contented agriculturists
+and shopkeepers who were as conservative as they were simple. It was
+only in outlying villages that occasional trouble brewed when ignorant
+and superstitious minds were played upon by malcontents.
+
+Ten minutes' grace was allowed to Mrs. Meredith--no more--and Mr. Bright
+offered his arm to Mrs. Barrington Fox and led the way to the
+dining-room. Mr. Barrington Fox was seldom to be persuaded into
+accepting Station hospitalities; and usually made the time-worn excuse,
+as on the present occasion, of inspection duty on the line. The Station,
+however, understood it to mean that he had ceased to find pleasure in
+his wife's company and was determined not to be victimised.
+
+The dining-room at the Brights' was a large apartment, whitewashed like
+a hospital ward, but redeemed by hunting pictures on the walls, graceful
+drapery, and good furniture. A _punkha_ with a mat frill hung motionless
+overhead, as weather conditions were sufficiently altered to dispense
+with an artificial breeze; and the dining table beneath it presented an
+inviting aspect with its glittering mass of silver, glass, and flowers.
+A draught-screen concealed the door of ingress from the pantry where the
+business of serving was carried on by the _khansaman_ assisted by a
+group of white-robed domestics. Agitated whispers from behind the screen
+were infallible indications of mistakes retrieved in the nick of time;
+otherwise, the occasional blow of the ice hammer, or the rolling of the
+ice machine on the outer door-mat were the only sounds audible from the
+dining-room.
+
+Mrs. Bright, full of confidence in her staff and indifferent to mistakes
+which were not inexcusable, showed a complete detachment from the
+details of serving while she entertained her guests.
+
+A little reshuffling of the order of precedence, when Mrs. Meredith's
+non-appearance was assured, had disposed of Tommy Deare to his entire
+satisfaction. Left to shift for himself he moved to the other side of
+Honor Bright whom Jack Darling had piloted in. He was a plain,
+freckle-faced boy of twenty-two with plenty to say for himself, and a
+most engaging smile. In height he was on a level with Honor who was
+considered tall; yet, to his disgust, he was referred to as a "little
+man." But since it was recognised that "valuable goods are packed in
+small parcels," he assured his friends of his inestimable worth, and was
+comforted.
+
+"Mrs. Meredith is too absurd about that kid of hers," Mrs. Fox was heard
+to remark in the first hush that fell with the arrival of the soup.
+"Isn't it the baby who is ill tonight?" to Captain Dalton.
+
+"If I had known, I should have mentioned it," said the doctor above his
+soup plate. The rudeness of the reply was characteristic of him.
+
+"I understood from Mrs. Meredith that she and her offspring are in your
+charge. How neglectful of you to know nothing!"
+
+"I am ready to attend to them when called in," he replied.
+
+"Then you have not been wanted!" she laughed spitefully. "It must be
+very mortifying never to be wanted except when you are of use!"
+
+"A doctor is the one man whom you are only too glad to see the last of,"
+said Dalton coldly.
+
+"All the same, I shouldn't be a bit surprised if it's the baby who is
+ill, and you are sent for before dinner is over. Mrs. Meredith said it
+would be the only reason that would stop her coming," put in Mrs.
+Bright, anxious to soothe.
+
+"I hope not, indeed!" cried Mrs. Fox. "For now we've got you we mean to
+make you sing. Don't imagine we'll let you off."
+
+The doctor bowed a stiff acknowledgment, which meant nothing, and
+entered into conversation with the Executive Engineer on the subject of
+a morass which he had condemned in his Sanitary Report, and recommended
+to be drained.
+
+"The villagers won't stand it," said Mr. Ironsides. "They draw their
+drinking water from that _jhil_, and providing them with wells instead
+will not console them for its loss. Incidentally, they use it also for
+laundry purposes and bathing," he laughed.
+
+"Exactly. So the sooner it is done away with the better for their health
+and the health of the District. Malaria and cholera have their source at
+Panipara."
+
+"I hope you are not trying to deprive us of our duck-shooting, Doctor,"
+said Mr. Bright in alarm. "We depend upon Panipara Jhil for game in the
+winters, and there is little sport besides, in this God-forsaken place."
+
+"It will have to go if you want immunity from sickness," said Dalton.
+
+"If _they_ don't mind it, I don't know why _we_ should. It rages chiefly
+in Panipara village itself, and is nothing to us."
+
+"It comes on here afterwards with the flies," said Tommy.
+
+"A few natives, more or less, wiped off the face of the earth hereabouts
+would be a benefit to Muktiarbad," drawled young Smart of the Railway
+from his seat on Mrs. Fox's right, which, by an unwritten law was always
+accorded to him at Station dinners.
+
+"How very unfeeling!" cried two or three ladies in unison.
+
+A vigorous argument arose to which Honor listened, deeply interested.
+Panipara Jhil lay a few miles outside the Station, with the village of
+the same name lying on its banks. It occupied an area of a square mile
+or two of marsh land, was overrun with water-weeds and lotus plants, and
+dotted about with islands full of jungle growth and date-palms--a
+picturesque but unhealthy spot, dear to lovers of sport.
+
+"The natives haven't the foggiest idea of hygiene," said the doctor
+finally. "But they cannot be argued with. They will continue their
+filthy habits though twenty to thirty per cent. of them get wiped out by
+cholera annually. Drain the _jhil_ and give them wells, and there'll be
+little or no sickness afterwards. Incidentally, several hundred _bighas_
+of ground will be reclaimed for agricultural purposes, which will be a
+benefit to the owner."
+
+"The Government will take its own time to consider the proposition, and
+a few years hence, when it has exhausted all the red tape available, it
+will be put through," said Honor. "In the meantime, the cholera, like
+the poor, will be 'with us always!'"
+
+"I shouldn't be at all surprised," said the doctor meeting her eyes in
+swift appreciation of her verdict.
+
+He said no more to her, for others intervened and the conversation
+changed.
+
+Captain Dalton looked a trifle more cynical and dissatisfied than usual,
+Honor thought. His strong jaw and irregular features hid his thoughts,
+but not their reflection which showed a mental unrest. He was clearly
+not a happy man, and was plainly a discordant element in light-hearted
+company. "A real wet blanket," Tommy whispered in her ear. "If one makes
+a joke he either doesn't hear it, or thinks it not worth laughing at.
+Something has turned him sour, so he hates to see people happy."
+
+But Honor was not in agreement with him. "I grant he is an embittered
+man--he looks it; but he is quite willing that you should enjoy yourself
+so long as you don't force your high spirits on him. If one's mind is
+not in accord with blithesomeness, one surely might be excused from
+taking part in it."
+
+"I do believe you like the blighter?" Tommy cried reproachfully.
+
+"I have every reason to," she answered stoutly.
+
+"Because he cured you of snake-bite? Doctors get a pull over us poor
+laymen when it comes to matters of life and death. They do their duty,
+and you are grateful for all time," at which Honor laughed heartily, for
+Tommy was looking personally injured.
+
+"There's Mrs. Meredith!" he continued. "She talks of him with tears in
+her eyes as though he were a saint--Old Nick, more likely!--He has been
+endowed with every virtue when he has none, simply because he put the
+Squawk to rights." Tommy had seen Joyce that afternoon and went on to
+describe his visit. "She was looking topping, so was the kid; which
+makes it all the more mysterious, her not turning up. But, my word, she
+is pretty! One might be excused for any indiscretion when she makes eyes
+at one!"
+
+However, to his disappointment, Honor showed no symptoms of jealousy.
+"I'll wager she neglected you for her baby!" She said. "Mrs. Meredith
+has no interest in young men."
+
+"She had plenty in me. We grew quite intimate--talked of the weather and
+_anopheles_ mosquitoes, and improved the occasion by rubbing _eau de
+Cologne_ on the bites."
+
+"How very thrilling! and she forgot all about you the moment you had
+left!"
+
+"Everyone forgets all about Tommy the moment he has left," put in Jack,
+thinking it about time to remind them of his presence.
+
+He was a handsome young athlete of twenty-five, with the reputation of
+having played in the Rugby International. He owned a complexion
+inconveniently given to blushing. He and Tommy chummed together in a
+three-roomed bungalow near the Police Court and were generally known as
+inseparables. Both played polo and tennis with skill and kept the
+Station entertained by their high spirits and resourcefulness.
+
+Honor's attention was diverted by an animated discussion among her
+elders respecting the duties of a wife and mother in the East.
+
+"A mother is perfectly justified in taking her child home if it cannot
+stand the climate," Mrs. Fox was saying.
+
+"I suppose the question to be decided is, whom a woman cares most for,
+child or husband--whether she will live away from her husband for the
+sake of the child, or from the child for the sake of the husband,
+presuming that the climate is not suitable to children," said a guest.
+
+A strident voice was heard to remark that women had no business to marry
+men whose careers were in the East, if they meant to live away from them
+most of the time. "It's a tragedy for which doctors are mainly
+responsible," with a sniff and a challenging glance at Captain Dalton.
+
+"Oh, you doctors!" laughed Mrs. Bright, shaking her finger at him. "See
+what mischief you are accountable for!--ruined lives, broken homes!"
+
+"In many cases, it is a charity to part husbands and wives," said the
+doctor grimly.
+
+"Hear, hear!" from Mrs. Fox, at which Mrs. Ironsides was shocked.
+
+"I hope Mrs. Meredith will not go home so soon," she said. "It will be a
+pity, when she and her husband have been so lately married. Somebody
+should influence her to remain and give the hills a trial. They seem to
+suit children very well."
+
+"If she goes home it will be nothing short of a calamity," said Honor
+quietly, thinking of Ray Meredith's devotion and his wife's
+unsophisticated and undeveloped mind. "It would never do unless she
+means to return immediately."
+
+"A child of tender years needs its mother," said a lady whose heart
+yearned for her little one in England. "No stranger will give it the
+same sympathy or care."
+
+"It is a difficult problem to which there is no solution," said Mrs.
+Bright.
+
+"I always feel, when I see a wife living for years at home while her
+husband remains out here, that there is no love lost between them. The
+children serve as an excellent excuse for the separation," said Honor,
+colouring at her own audacity in voicing an opinion so pronounced. "No
+reason on earth should be strong enough to part those who care deeply
+for each other."
+
+"Hear, hear!" murmured Tommy under his breath, while Mrs. Fox laughed
+disagreeably. "An excellent sentiment coming from you, Miss Bright, who
+have no experience. Long may you subscribe to it."
+
+Honor blushed still deeper. "I have my ideals," she returned.
+
+"I trust they will never be shattered!" the lady sneered.
+
+Again Dalton's eyes met Honor's with strange intentness. Feeling out of
+her depth she had looked involuntarily to him for the subtle sympathy,
+instinct told her was in his attitude to her, and she had received it
+abundantly in the slow smile which softened his expression to one of
+absolute kindness. It created a glow at her heart, to linger with her
+for the rest of the evening.
+
+"Whenever I used to run home on short 'leave of absence' to see if Honor
+had not altogether forgotten me," said Mrs. Bright, smiling
+reminiscently, "and dared to hint at an extension, my husband would
+squander all his T.A. in cablegrams threatening to divorce me on the
+spot in favour of some mythical person if I did not return by the next
+mail. Wasn't that so, dear?"
+
+"Gross exaggeration, my love. I could never get you to take a
+respectable holiday, for just as I was beginning to enjoy my liberty as
+a grass-widower, you would bob up serenely with 'No, you don't' on every
+line of your rosy face. It was worth anything, however, to see those
+English roses back again."
+
+("The reason why Honor is such a nice girl," a lady once told Captain
+Dalton, "is because she has such a charming example of love in her home.
+Love is in her bones; her parents are so perfectly united that it is
+impossible for Honor to be anything but a good wife. Parents are
+immensely responsible for their children's psychology.")
+
+"I have never ceased to thank Providence that I have no children!" said
+the wife of a railway official, with a sigh of contentment, "so the
+tragedy of separation has never affected me. I can honestly say that I
+have never left my husband for more than a day since we married, fifteen
+years ago!" and she reared her thin neck out of her evening gown and
+looked about her for congratulations.
+
+"Lord, how sick of her he must be!" whispered Tommy under his breath, to
+the delight of Jack and Honor. "Life would be stale and unprofitable if
+I could not repeat the honeymoon every autumn when my wife returned from
+the hills. So thrilling to fall in love with one's own wife every year!"
+
+"Which proves that you will make a very bad husband," said Honor
+severely. "Out of sight out of mind."
+
+"He won't talk so glibly of sending his wife to the hills when he has
+discovered that she has been carrying on with Snooks of the Convalescent
+Depôt while he has been stewing in the plains," said Jack with a _blasé_
+air.
+
+"Since when have you turned cynic, Mr. Darling?" Honor asked,
+astonished. "It doesn't become you in the least!"
+
+"Jack had an enlightening holiday in Darjeeling last month when he had
+ten days during the _Pujas_," Tommy explained with reprisals in his eye.
+"It accounts for his attitude of mind. Having strict principles and a
+faint heart, no one had any use for him up there but Mrs. Meredith and
+the Y. M. C. A.----"
+
+"Don't listen to him, Miss Bright," Jack interrupted.
+
+"--So in sheer desperation he turned nurse to Squawk and ran errands for
+its mother, wondering the while how it was that some men had all the
+luck!"
+
+"Draw it mild, I say!"
+
+"And now he sits up half the night composing odes to her eyebrows and
+boring me stiff with his sighs."
+
+"Liar!" laughed Jack. "I couldn't write poetry to save my life."
+
+"It doesn't prevent him from trying. Then there's her photograph----"
+
+"It isn't hers, I told you!" Jack protested. "Tommy, you're a villain."
+
+"It's jolly like her, what I saw of it when it fell out from under your
+pillow."
+
+By this time Jack was crimson. He relapsed into sulky silence and
+devoted himself to his plate with appetite. Honor Bright wanted no
+better evidence of the fact that he was heart-whole, though she
+continued to wonder whose was the photograph he was treasuring so
+sentimentally.
+
+Dinner progressed through its many courses towards dessert, when toasts
+were drunk to "Absent Ones," and "Sweethearts and Wives,"--the usual
+conclusion to dinners at the Brights'; then, with a loud scraping of
+chairs, the ladies rose and filed out of the room.
+
+Later, when the gentlemen appeared having finished their smokes, it was
+discovered that Captain Dalton had retired. He had excused himself to
+his host on the plea of a late visit to his patient at Sombari, three
+miles out, and was gone.
+
+"Dear, dear!" sighed Mrs. Bright. "How very disappointing! Evidently he
+had no intention of singing tonight, and I hear he has such a divine
+voice!"
+
+"But we don't begrudge that poor girl his attention when she is so ill,"
+put in Mrs. Ironsides.
+
+"Indeed, no. I wonder how she is."
+
+"Pretty bad, from all accounts," said Mr. Bright.
+
+"Her poor mother must be distracted. The only real happiness she has in
+life is the companionship of this only child. Mr. Meek is so
+narrow-minded and autocratic in domestic life. He must be sorry now that
+he deprived the child of so many opportunities of innocent amusement."
+
+"Not at all," said a guest. "He will congratulate himself that he kept
+her unspotted from the world. Muktiarbad is his idea of unadulterated
+godlessness. We are such a bad example to his converts, you know, with
+our tennis on Sundays!"
+
+"Poor little Elsie! I hope she will recover," said Mrs. Bright.
+
+Honor felt a distinct sense of depression when she heard that Captain
+Dalton had gone quietly away without even a hint to herself that he had
+had no intention of staying. It was clear that he had no interest in
+remaining; his excuse she disregarded, for he could have visited Sombari
+earlier in the evening when he knew that he was engaged to dine out. She
+believed he liked her ... but he was "not seeking to marry her," as he
+had said to Joyce in camp, so it was her duty to rise above the folly of
+thinking too much of a man who would never be anything more to her than
+a mere acquaintance. With a determined effort to stifle feelings of
+wounded pride and disappointment, she ordered Tommy to the piano to
+beguile the company with ragtime ditties at which he was past-master,
+and while he played and others sang, notably Bobby Smart, who was not to
+be chained to the side of Mrs. Fox, the latter was left to cultivate the
+acquaintance of the shy Apollo, Jack Darling, whom the Brights and Tommy
+had hitherto absorbed.
+
+Jack met her ravishing smile with a blush of self-consciousness, fearing
+all eyes upon himself as he accepted the seat beside her on a
+chesterfield. He was so obviously new to the art of intrigue, so
+conspicuously ingenuous, that he had the charm of novelty for her. She
+believed that Mrs. Bright was manoeuvring to get him for a son-in-law
+and was chafing at Honor's lack of worldly wisdom in dividing her
+favours equally between him and Tommy whose prospects in life were less
+brilliant. The situation was one entirely after her own heart, to make
+or mar with impish deliberation. In spite of his comparatively inferior
+social standing and unattractive appearance, Tommy was popular with the
+girls for his ready wit. He dared to be unconscious of his disadvantages
+and stormed his way into the front rank of drawing-room favourites; but
+he was too unimpressionable and discerning to suit Mrs. Fox's taste, so
+she left him alone to see what she could make of Jack whose
+guilelessness was a strong appeal to women of her type. His development
+under her guidance seemed the only excitement life had to offer her in
+this rural backwater, and she was not one to miss her opportunities.
+
+"I'd dearly love to act sponsor to a boy like you in the beginning of
+his career, Jack," she cried with a tender inflection of the voice. "By
+the way, I'm going to call you 'Jack'--may I?"
+
+"Certainly, if you care to," he returned awkwardly.
+
+"Oh, you are priceless! What an opportunity you missed for a pretty
+speech!" and she laid her hand caressingly on his for a moment to
+emphasise her delight in him.
+
+"Why? what should I have said?" he asked, laughing boyishly, and wincing
+under her touch. The suggestion of intimacy in her manner somewhat
+embarrassed him.
+
+"I should like to see you a few years hence when your education is
+complete," she returned, evading his question teasingly. "But you
+mustn't marry, or you will be utterly spoilt."
+
+"There is no immediate prospect of that!" he said laughing and giving
+away the fact that he was heart-whole. "But won't you take up the job
+tonight and begin instructing me?"
+
+"I am sorely tempted to," she replied, smiling affectionately on him.
+"You must really learn your possibilities. They are limitless. After
+that, everything will come naturally,--assurance, the wit to grasp
+opportunities, and a bold initiative, without which a man is no good."
+
+"No good?--for what?" he pressed ingenuously.
+
+"To pass the time with, of course, O most adorable infant!" she laughed
+silently, returning his look with an expression of half-veiled
+admiration.
+
+In stations where officials came and went with meteoric suddenness owing
+to the reshuffling of the governmental pack of human cards, friendships
+were as sudden as they were transient. Jack Darling having arrived at
+Muktiarbad while Mrs. Fox was at a hill station, their acquaintance was
+only in its initial stage.
+
+"Look at Mrs. Fox," whispered Mrs. Ironsides to Mrs. Bright. "She is
+doing her best to spoil that nice boy with her flattery! You can tell
+that she is pouring conceit into him by the bucketful. Shameless
+creature! I wonder her husband doesn't send her home."
+
+"She prefers India," Mrs. Bright showed a restless eye.
+
+"Mr. Smart will be only too glad if Mr. Darling relieves him of his
+attendance on Mrs. Fox. Did you notice how he yawned at table while she
+was talking to him?"
+
+"He lives in her pocket, all the same, and is always at her beck and
+call."
+
+"Was my dear. I have noticed a great change latterly, and I hear he is
+going to be transferred. Mr. Fox knows his people at home and is
+arranging it."
+
+"And he knows his wife better," said Mrs. Bright with satire. It seemed
+at Muktiarbad everybody knew everybody else's affairs.
+
+She allowed a brief interval to pass and then, using her privilege as
+hostess, captured Jack on the pretext of sending him to the piano, with
+Honor to select his song from a pile of music in a canterbury. By the
+time the ballad was finished and a chorus was in full swing, Mrs. Fox
+had been carried away by Mr. Bright to make a fourth at auction in
+another room.
+
+Jack watched her go somewhat regretfully, wondering the while,
+shamefacedly, if he would be able to have another talk with her that
+night, and consigning all scandalmongers to perdition, who had dared to
+make free with her name. He refused to believe ill of so charming a
+lady, and was not surprised that Bobby Smart had found her company
+attractive--why not? When a brute of a husband spent all his time down
+the line instead of trying to make life pleasant for his wife, it was no
+wonder she was obliged to find entertainment for herself in the society
+of other men! Hers was a poor sort of life, anyway.
+
+When the party broke up, Mrs. Fox elected to walk home as a tribute to
+the glorious moonlight, and Jack was commandeered to act as her escort.
+It was a good opportunity for the lady to show that renegade, Master
+Bobby Smart, that he was not indispensable. His yawn at dinner deserved
+a reprisal.
+
+Bobby Smart, however, was not slow to profit by his release from escort
+duty, and wasted no time in pleasing himself. "I'll drop you home,
+Deare," he said cheerfully, "and we'll have a whisky-and-soda at your
+bungalow before you turn in."
+
+"I should wait till I'm asked," said Tommy lighting a cigarette and
+dropping the match in a flower-pot on the verandah.
+
+"I knew you were pining to have me round for a _buk_."[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: Chat.]
+
+"You can come in if you promise to go home by midnight," Tommy
+condescended. "I'll not be kept up later."
+
+"On the stroke. That's a jolly good whisky you have. I was going to send
+to Kellner's for the same brand today, but forgot."
+
+Tommy climbed into Smart's trap and consented to be driven home. His
+hospitality and Jack's was proverbial at Muktiarbad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A MOMENT OF RELAXATION
+
+
+On leaving the Brights' dinner-party, Captain Dalton made his way to his
+car and sped out upon the moonlit road. An appreciable hesitation at the
+gate ended in his taking a course in an opposite direction to that in
+which lay Sombari and his patient.
+
+A misty peacefulness of smoke and quietude brooded over the Station.
+Darkened bungalows looked like sightless monsters dead to the world, and
+the silent lanes were alive alone with fireflies scintillating like
+myriad stars in a firmament of leaves. At Muktiarbad, there was little
+else for the English residents to do after the Club had closed its door
+at nine, but eat, drink, and sleep. Theatres never patronised _mafasil_
+stations, and cinemas had not yet found their way so far into rural
+Bengal. In the bazaar also, which was strictly the native quarter of the
+town, the night was silent save for intermittent tom-tomming on the
+favourite _dholuk_,[10] or, here and there, the murmur of gossiping in
+doorways. Behind mat walls men gambled or slept, and by the pale light
+of the moon could be seen the smoke of burning cow-dung--kindled for the
+destruction of mosquitoes--curling upward from the clusters of thatched
+huts, and filling the air with opalescent mist.
+
+[Footnote 10: Indian drum.]
+
+But Captain Dalton had no business in the bazaar.
+
+If Honor Bright could have seen him then, she would have been surprised
+at the look of indecision on his usually determined face. Freed from the
+restraint of curious eyes watching for revelations of himself, the man's
+face wore a more human expression; his peculiar half-smile of
+toleration, or contempt, relaxing the lines of his stern mouth.
+
+For a couple of furlongs he drove fast, then slowed down to a noiseless
+glide as he ran past the tall cactus fence bordering the Collector's
+domain. At the end of the fence where it turned at right angles dividing
+the "compound" from a paddock, the engines were reversed in the narrow
+lane, till the car came back to the rustic gate beyond the culvert.
+
+It lay hospitably open in the usual way of gates in the Station, and
+gave access to the grounds. There was only a momentary pause while
+Dalton seemed to make sure of his intention, and the next instant he was
+moving slowly up the drive between the handsome goldmohur trees of the
+avenue. In the dark shadow of one of these, he shut off his engines and
+stepped to the ground.
+
+All about him, the garden was bathed in silver light, each shrub and
+arbour steeped in tranquil loveliness, while footpaths gleamed white
+amidst stretches of dusky lawns; the whole presenting a scene of
+veritable enchantment under the soft radiance of the moon; a gentle
+breeze, the while, rustling among the leaves.
+
+In front of him lay the wide, squat bungalow with its flat roof
+ornamented by a castellated balustrade of masonry, and supported by tall
+pillars. The verandah was in darkness but for a hurricane hand lantern
+on the top step.
+
+He was not sure that he had the right to intrude at that late hour even
+with the pretext of a semi-official inquiry ... but lights in the
+drawing-room and the tones of the piano, rich and sweet, ended his
+indecision. The staff of servants being reduced by their master's
+requirements in camp, there was no one at hand to announce his arrival.
+Even the peon, supposed to keep watch against the intrusion of toads and
+snakes, had betaken himself to the servants' quarters behind the
+bungalow, for his last smoke before shutting up the house for the night.
+
+Joyce was playing Liszt's _Liebestraum_ with diligence, but no feeling.
+Her execution was good, but her soul being yet unawakened, she played
+without understanding, and Dalton's musical sense suffered tortures as
+he listened for a few moments; then, abruptly parting the curtains, he
+ruthlessly interrupted the performance by his entrance, conscious on the
+instant of the alluring picture she made,--or, rather, would make, to
+senses that were impressionable. Having outlived that stage, he could
+only survey at his leisure the curve of her youthful cheek and the small
+bow of her mouth that seemed to demand kisses; watch the lights dance in
+the gold of her hair, and amuse himself with the play of her eyelashes.
+She was dressed in rich simplicity, the only colour about her, apart
+from the shell-pink of her face and the natural crimson of her lips, was
+a deep, red rose in her bosom. He inhaled its perfume as she ran to him
+and seized his hand in impetuous welcome, while he could not but
+appreciate the exceptional opportunity afforded him of improving their
+acquaintance.
+
+"How did you know that I was longing to send for you but lacking in
+courage?" she asked, holding his hand in both hers with extreme
+cordiality, born of her gratitude for his late services. Her manner was
+that of a child towards a respected senior, and was not without a
+certain charm.
+
+"You did not come to dinner," he replied with his grudging smile, "so I
+had to call and see why. You are such a grave responsibility to me in
+your husband's absence."
+
+"Does it weigh very heavily on you?" she asked coquettishly.
+
+"As you see, it dragged me here at this late hour!"
+
+"Poor you!" she sympathised; then instantly pulled a long face and
+explained her alarms deprecatingly while she drew him--still holding his
+hand--to her bedroom that he might see the child for himself and judge
+of his condition.
+
+It was her habit to have the baby's crib by her bed, and the ayah close
+at hand in case of disturbed nights, while Meredith was compelled to
+retire to a separate suite, adjoining hers. "Such a young infant needs
+his mother, you selfish old Daddy, and must not be deprived." Arguments
+respecting the advantages of employing an English nurse and establishing
+a nursery had been swept aside as arbitrary and unfeeling. As if she
+could ever consent to a hireling occupying her place with her beloved
+child! Others might do as they pleased and lose their place in their
+little ones' affections, but not she! Fathers should consider their
+offspring before themselves. When Meredith had looked unconvinced and
+injured, she had tried to soften the blow by cajoleries, in the use of
+which she was past-mistress. Silly goose! as if the same roof did not
+cover them both! and didn't she belong to him and no one else in the
+world?--"Was he going to be a cross boy, then, and make his little
+girl's life miserable with big, ugly frowns?..."
+
+The doctor gave the child a brief examination as he and Joyce leant over
+the crib, shoulder to shoulder. She seemed so unconscious of the close
+contact and of its effect on the average masculine nature that he
+mentally decided she was either a simpleton or a practised flirt, given
+to playing with fire.
+
+"I shall sleep so much better tonight now that I know there is nothing
+seriously wrong with my precious darling!" she said, returning beside
+him to the drawing-room and tantalising him with brief glances from her
+shy, sweet eyes.
+
+"You worry quite unnecessarily, take it from me," he returned. "Don't
+put him in a glass case, and he will do all right. You should go out
+more."
+
+"I shall, when Ray comes back. He has the car."
+
+"Play tennis every afternoon at the Club."
+
+"I daren't! I play so badly," she pouted.
+
+"Then come driving with me," he said on an impulse which he regretted
+the moment after, for it would deprive him of the scant leisure he
+usually devoted to a treatise he was writing. It was not his habit to
+sacrifice himself to strangers and people in whom he was not greatly
+interested. However, the study of the little spoiled beauty might prove
+entertaining since she was not as transparent as he had imagined. The
+mystery of her undeveloped nature, her childish outlook on life, her
+ingenuousness and coquetry, were all somewhat unusual and appealing. He
+could not quite gauge her feeling for her husband who worshipped the
+ground she trod on. She probably took him for granted as she took the
+solar system, and was not above practising her arts innocently on others
+to relieve the monotony of her days. Like most pretty women, he judged
+her fully aware of her prettiness, and not bound by too rigid a sense of
+propriety. It might amuse him to test how far she would permit herself
+to go--or the men who admired her physical beauty; and as he had no
+friendship for her husband, he was not troubled by too many qualms on
+Meredith's account. With a big score to settle against Life, he
+considered himself at liberty to choose the nature of his compensation,
+and so be even with Fate.
+
+"I should dearly love to drive with you," Joyce said engagingly,
+thinking of his perfect little car and the triumph it would be to tame
+this unsociable and reserved person in the eyes of all the Station. What
+a score for her little self!
+
+Being essentially of a friendly disposition, she saw no reason why he
+should not become her particular friend. Not as if she were a creature
+like Mrs. Fox, or other women who flirted--perish the thought! There
+could therefore be no possible wrong.
+
+"Have you ever driven your car?" he asked indulgently.
+
+"Never."
+
+"Nervous?"
+
+"I don't think so, only no one ever showed me how."
+
+"Shall I teach you?"
+
+"Will you? What a dear you are!" she cried with eyes sparkling and
+dimples in full play as she seized the lapels of his coat and made him
+swear not to back out. "It will be great! What a surprise for Ray--you
+won't mention it? I can fancy myself hopping into the chauffeur's seat,
+and whoof! gliding away before his eyes. I shall dream of it all night."
+
+"And of me?" he asked looking at his watch and recalling his intention
+to visit Sombari before midnight.
+
+"Of course. That goes without saying if it is about your car!" twirling
+lightly on her toe with the grace of a born dancer.
+
+"I find it difficult to believe you are married," he said with a crooked
+smile. "Your husband should call you 'Joy.'"
+
+"He invents all sorts of pet names far sweeter."
+
+"Anyhow, I shall think of you as 'Joy,'" he amended, taking up his cap
+from the piano.
+
+"I can't fancy you thinking of any one so frivolous as myself," she
+laughed. "But you are not going, surely? We haven't even begun to talk!"
+
+The open piano and her frank disappointment drew him to dally with
+temptation, and he seated himself on the music stool, uninvited, to run
+his fingers over the keys. "You were playing the _Liebestraum_. Will you
+let me play it to you?" he coolly suggested, anxious to give her a
+lesson as to how it should be interpreted; and without waiting for her
+consent, began to play.
+
+Joyce drew up full of interest and pleasure to listen and watch,
+instantly aware that he was no self-advertised musician. As she had no
+conceit in regard to her one and only accomplishment, she was ready and
+willing to learn from him.
+
+Dalton played with the technique and sympathy of a great artist. Though
+the opening movement was soft and low, every note fell like drops of
+liquid sweetness, clear and true--the melody thrilling her with its
+tender appeal. Insensibly it grew stronger and louder, the pace
+quickened, till the crash of chords and the rippling rush of sound
+caused her to hold her breath in an ecstasy lest she should be robbed of
+a single delight. Now and then, she glanced at his face and she knew
+that, for the moment, she had ceased to exist for him. His strange,
+jade-green eyes with their flecked irids had widened as though with
+inspiration. He saw visions as he played, gazing intently into space;
+Joyce wondered what he saw, sure that it was beautiful, and passionately
+sad. Gradually, the passion and dignity of the music having reached its
+climax, it grew weary and spent. The glorious melody sighed its own
+requiem and softly died away on a single note.
+
+For a moment neither spoke, till Joyce gave a hysterical sob that broke
+the spell. "It is too wonderful--the way you play!" she cried
+breathlessly. "It makes my flesh creep and my heart stand still. I know
+now why you chose to play the _Liebestraum_!----"
+
+He smiled back at her like the culprit he was.
+
+"I had dared to attempt its murder!--believe me, I shall never play it
+again!"
+
+"I wanted to show you how it might be played, but I do not dare to
+criticise."
+
+"You have done so, scathingly!--Oh! I feel so small."
+
+"Then I am sorry I played it."
+
+"I am infinitely glad. You will have to teach me something more than
+motoring," she said wistfully, her blue eyes pleading. "You will have to
+tell me how I should play. I want to hear you all day long!"
+
+He smiled at her enthusiasm. "I shall be delighted to give you all the
+help I can."
+
+"Honor Bright said yesterday that you once sang to her--I am jealous!
+Won't you sing to me?"
+
+"Did she tell you of the occasion?"
+
+"Yes, and how good you were to her."
+
+"She is a heroine--_Honor Bright_," he repeated her name with curious
+tenderness.
+
+"She thinks you are a wonderful person, altogether."
+
+"Does she?" he asked quickly, a shadow falling suddenly over his face at
+a thought which was evidently disturbing. "How am I wonderful?"
+
+"I don't know. She said something about great depths in your nature. She
+believes you are tremendously good, inside, but that you will not show
+it because you have been hit very hard and feel like hitting back."
+
+He was silenced for a moment.
+
+"What made her say that?" he asked while continuing to draw subdued
+harmonies from the instrument.
+
+"It was to explain your attitude towards people. You are so hard and
+cold. But what does all that matter? The main thing is, I want you to
+sing, and you must!" She laid her hands over his on the keys with pretty
+imperativeness, and put an end to the chords.
+
+"Look at the time," said he, drawing attention to the gilt clock on an
+occasional table. The phrase "hard and cold" echoed in his ears to mock
+him.
+
+"It is certainly late!" she gasped, as she realised that the hands
+pointed to a quarter past eleven. "But I am so lonely and dull. Do sing
+to me!"
+
+A mischievous smile twisted his lips as he struck the opening bars of
+_The Dear Homeland_. "It's an old ballad and will probably bore you to
+tears," he said, before beginning to sing. Joyce had often heard it
+sung, but never with the feeling Captain Dalton threw into it for her
+benefit alone. It was a strong and direct appeal to nostalgia, and the
+quality of his voice, together with the words, dissolved her into tears
+of positive distress. When he had finished, she was weeping silently
+into her little hands,--unaffectedly and sincerely.
+
+"I cannot bear it!" she sobbed childishly. "Why did you choose that when
+you knew how I am longing for home and the home faces!"
+
+"I am a brute, am I not?" he said repentantly, taking down her hands and
+drying her eyes with his handkerchief. "Was it a nasty fellow, then, to
+tease?"
+
+"It was," she laughed hysterically with downcast lids and sobbing
+breath, looking adorable with her saddened wet eyes and crimson flush.
+
+"Come, I'll make up for it and sing you something quite different." And
+he was as good as his word, singing passionate love-songs that swore
+eternal devotion to a mythical "Beloved," till a clock, striking twelve,
+brought him abruptly to his feet.
+
+"Do you always allow your visitors to stay so late?" he asked while
+saying good-night.
+
+"I never have visitors at night when I am alone," she returned,
+surprised. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because you are too pretty and will have to be careful. Pretty women
+have enemies of both sexes."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that men will want to make love to you if you are too kind, and
+women will tear your reputation to shreds."
+
+He watched the flush deepen in her cheeks: she was uncertain how to take
+his remark, but decided he had not meant a liberty.
+
+"I think I shall always fear women more than men," she said finally,
+thinking of the slanderous tongues of her sex.
+
+"Am I forgiven for having made you cry?" he asked.
+
+"Of course. Thank you so much for the songs. You sing like an angel."
+
+"A very bad one I'm afraid," he returned. "With your leave I shall take
+this rose as a pledge," he said drawing it from the brooch at her bosom
+and laying it against his lips. "Look, it is fading fast. Will you fix
+it in my coat?"
+
+Joyce unaffectedly complied. He was welcome to the rose as a reward for
+his beautiful music. "When you get home, put it in water, and it will
+fill your room with fragrance," she said patting it into position.
+
+"--And my mind of you?" he suggested tentatively, knowing full well that
+he would forget all about her and her rose the moment he was out of
+sight of her dwelling. Already he was wondering why he had allowed
+himself to waste so much of his valuable time in trifling and whether he
+would have dared the same liberty with the rose had it been resting on
+Honor Bright's bosom. With Honor, somehow, a man would have to plead for
+favours and value them for their rarity when obtained. No man in the
+Station took liberties with Honor Bright, and every man thoroughly
+respected her. Dalton shook his mind free of the thought of Honor
+Bright.
+
+"I shan't mind if the rose recalls me to you, so long as you promise to
+forget my _Liebestraum_!" said Joyce.
+
+"I shall remember only the tears I caused you to shed, and never be so
+cruel again." Dalton passed out into the verandah accompanied by his
+hostess who desired to speed the parting guest. "When does your husband
+return?" he asked.
+
+"Tomorrow night. I am counting the hours," she replied. "Haven't you
+heard that 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder'?"
+
+"I don't subscribe to that sentiment," he retorted with a disagreeable
+laugh as he walked towards the car.
+
+She certainly had the makings of a dangerous flirt, he decided, though,
+at present, she was only feeling her way. Time would develop her powers
+and then, God help the young idiots who would lose their heads! Most of
+all, God help her fool-husband--the besotted idealist! In a few years,
+Joyce Meredith would be no better than most lovely women in the
+East--notably such as flourished in the hill stations of India.
+
+Dalton was amused, and laughed aloud at his own weakness and folly. He
+had not wanted her rose--yet, at the moment, the propinquity of her
+beauty had magnetised him and given him the desire for a closer
+intimacy--possibly a kiss!--so he had put his lips to the rose! Feminine
+witchery had made utter fools of men through the ages! Given further
+chances of intimacy, a rose might not again suffice!
+
+By the time Dalton had reached the crossroads, indecision had again
+taken possession of him, and he hesitated at the wheel. He had left the
+Brights' party fully intending to run out to Sombari, but had been
+diverted; and now it was too late. They would not be expecting him after
+midnight. He yawned, thoroughly tired, as he had had a strenuous day,
+and decided to call at the Mission fairly early in the morning, instead.
+There was nothing he could do for the sufferer more than was being done
+by the trained nurse he had procured for the case.
+
+Satisfied in mind that bed was the best place for tired people, Dalton
+turned his car and drove it to his own bungalow next door to the
+Brights'.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE MISSION
+
+
+Life at a small station like Muktiarbad would have been a dull affair
+for any young girl not constituted like Honor Bright. Being endowed with
+plenty of common sense and sincerity of purpose, she found a great deal
+to occupy her in her restricted circle by throwing herself into the
+business of the moment, heart and soul. If it were an early morning
+ride, she enjoyed every yard of it, and all there was to see and do.
+Even the flat countryside with its endless fields of paddy and mustard
+were good to view because Muktiarbad was "home" to her.
+
+"Define the word 'home,'" she was once asked when very young. "Where
+Mother is," was her ready reply. "Where Love is," would be her later and
+more comprehensive amendment.
+
+When she played tennis she played to win, and her enthusiasm infected
+others, till the game was worth the energy, however great the heat. If
+house-duties were imposed on her, they were accomplished thoroughly and
+cheerfully. Honor striding across the back-yard to examine the horses in
+their stalls, the condition of their bedding, and to see them fed; or to
+inspect the chicken run; or visiting the kitchen to view pots and pans
+which were arranged at a particular hour, bottom up, in a row, to prove
+how perfectly aluminium could be made to shine, was a refreshing sight;
+and the grace of her gait, the freedom of her movements, and the
+brightness of her looks, brought sunshine to hearts on the darkest days.
+
+In spite of Mrs. Bright's confidence in her faithful Kareem Majid, she
+never neglected to supervise those details of housekeeping in India that
+make all the difference between sickness and health, economy and
+extravagance. "For, however wonderful the dear servants are, they do
+want watching," she would explain to inquiring friends. "You simply have
+to see what they are up to, or run terrible risks of microbes in the
+kitchen, horses falling ill, and eggs getting beautifully less. They are
+without the remotest idea of sanitation for man or beast, and revel in
+dirt if you let them, poor things! And honesty is not their strong
+point; they have to be checked on all accounts, or they will sell
+vegetables from your kitchen garden to your neighbours who have none; or
+sell you your own hens' eggs, and do heaps of other iniquitous things
+you could hardly dream of!" So Honor was carefully instructed in the
+ways of housekeeping from the moment of her return to the East, and was
+an able lieutenant to her mother.
+
+"Besides, it is only right and proper, since, one of these days you will
+have a house of your own and ought to know how to run it, or I pity the
+unfortunate man you marry!" Mrs. Bright remarked when introducing her
+daughter to further mysteries in the art of housekeeping. "Which puts me
+in mind of Tommy Deare," she continued, eyeing Honor gravely. "What do
+you mean to do with him?"
+
+"I don't mean to do anything with him," laughed the girl.
+
+"You know he is in love with you--any one can see that."
+
+"I know, because he won't let me forget it," Honor said ruefully.
+
+"Yet you are often about with him, riding and playing tennis--is it fair
+to fan his hopes?"
+
+"He knows perfectly how I feel towards him. Short of putting him in
+Coventry I can do nothing less than I am doing."
+
+"But the worst of it is that he keeps others off!" Mrs. Bright
+exclaimed. "There's Jack Darling who lives with him--such a nice boy and
+a very excellent suitor from every point of view----"
+
+"He is not a suitor, by any means," interrupted her daughter.
+
+"He might have been if his friend were not over head and ears in love
+with you!"
+
+"I should not have encouraged him. Jack does not appeal to me. He is
+very dear and charming, but not the sort of man I should lose my heart
+to. He is weak--and I love strength."
+
+"But, dear, surely you are not favouring Tommy?--he will never be
+anything great in our Service. You have the example of your own father
+who has come to the end of his prospects on an income that would have
+been hopelessly inadequate had there been boys to educate and start in
+life! That's what our Service is worth! While Jack--!" words failed her
+to express her estimation of the Indian Civil Service of which Jack was
+a promising member.
+
+"But dear Mother, I am not going to marry a Service!" laughed Honor.
+"When I fall in love with a Man it won't much matter what job he is in,
+or what prospects he has. And if he is in love with me, and wants me,
+why"--she left the obvious conclusion to her mother's imagination. "But
+rest assured, whoever he may be, he will never be Tommy!" she added by
+way of consolation.
+
+The morning after the dinner-party was typical of late October in the
+plains of Bengal, with its dewy freshness of atmosphere and a nip in the
+north wind that was an earnest of approaching winter--if the season of
+cold weather might be so termed, when fires were never a necessity, and
+frost was rare. It was, however, a time of pleasant drought when the
+state of the weather could be depended upon for weeks ahead, with blue
+skies, a kinder sun, and dead leaves carpeting the earth without
+denuding the trees of their wealth of foliage.
+
+Outside the Bara Koti a light haze was visible through the branches of
+the trees, lying like a thin veil on the distant horizon; and, overhead,
+light fleecy clouds drifted imperceptibly across the blue sky. It was
+the hour popularly believed to be the best in the twenty-four, which
+accounted for Mrs. Meredith's ayah wheeling the baby through the dusty
+lanes, in a magnificent perambulator, "to eat the air."
+
+"_Hawa khané_," translated Honor Bright critically, as she drew rein and
+moved her pony aside to make way. She was riding, in company with Tommy
+Deare, to Sombari that she might learn the latest news of Elsie Meek, a
+girl of her own age and one for whom she had much sympathy. Elsie had
+been undergoing the training necessary to fit her for becoming a
+missionary, irrespective of her talents in other directions; and Honor
+had often thought of her with sympathy. But Mr. Meek had his own ideas
+respecting his daughter's career, and Mrs. Meek had long since ceased to
+voice her own. "_Hawa khané!_--how queerly the natives express
+themselves!" Her remark had followed the ayah's explanation of her
+appearance with the child. "Mother says it is a mistake for delicate
+children to be out before sunrise to 'eat the air.'"
+
+"Eat microbes, I should suggest," corrected Tommy. "A case of 'The Early
+Babe catches the Germ.'"
+
+"How smart of you!--how do you do it so early in the morning?"
+
+"Inherent wit," said Tommy complacently. "You press a button and out
+comes an epigram, or something brilliant."
+
+"You've missed your vocation, it seems. I am sure you might have made a
+fortune as another George Robey!"
+
+While Tommy affected to collapse under the lash of her satire, she leapt
+from the saddle to imprint a kiss on the rose-leaf skin of the infant's
+cheek. "What a perfect doll it is--did any one see any thing half so
+adorable!"
+
+"It seems to me like all other babies," Tommy remarked indifferently.
+"When it isn't asleep it is bawling; when it isn't bawling it's asleep.
+I have yet to understand why a girl can never pass a pram without
+stopping to kiss the baby in it!" Nevertheless, he thought it a pleasing
+habit with which he was not inclined to quarrel, but for the delay it
+occasioned in the ride.
+
+"I would like you to tell Mrs. Meredith that the Squawk is like all
+other babies in the world and hear what she has to say!" Honor said
+indignantly. "This one is angelic!"
+
+Tommy dismounted with the air of a martyr and peered at the bundle
+containing a human atom almost smothered in silk and laces. "Hallo! its
+eyes are actually open! It is the first time I have seen the miracle.
+Peep-bo!" he squeaked, bobbing his head at the apparition and crooking a
+finger up and down a few inches from the infant's nose.
+
+"Tommy, you are a silly!" Honor exploded with laughter. "As if it can
+understand. You might be a tree for all it knows!"
+
+"Then all I can say is, I have no use for kids until they develop some
+intellect." He assisted her to remount and they continued their way to
+Sombari. Soon, the last of the bungalows was left behind and they were
+cantering side by side along the main road which divided paddy fields
+still containing stagnant rain water and the decaying stalks of the
+harvested corn. At intervals on the road pipal trees afforded shelter to
+travellers by the wayside. In the distance, across rough country
+overgrown with scrub and coarse, thatching grass, could be seen the
+minarets of an ancient ruin--Muktiarbad's one and only show-place for
+sightseers--too familiar to the inhabitants to excite even passing
+notice.
+
+In the meantime Honor soliloquised aloud--"I do so wish we could get
+Mrs. Meredith more reconciled to India," she sighed. "She has only one
+point of view at present, and that is a mother's. If she could only be
+made to see her husband's point of view and realise also her duties as a
+wife, she would be perfect, for Joyce Meredith is very lovable and good.
+I never knew any one so pretty and so free from personal vanity. But she
+is too sure of her husband. Too certain that he will go on worshipping
+her no matter what she does or how she treats him; and, after all, I
+suppose even love can die for want of sustenance. It seems to me she
+gives all she has to give to the baby, and her husband is left to pick
+up the crumbs that fall from her table!"
+
+"It will end as all such marriages end," said Tommy. "She is only half
+awake to life, and too pretty for every-day use. Meredith should awaken
+her by flirting with Mrs. Fox; otherwise someone else will do it by
+flirting with his wife. I wouldn't put it beyond the doctor."
+
+Honor stiffened visibly. "Why do you say that?" she asked coldly.
+
+"Well, he is given every opportunity. Last night, for instance, on our
+way home from your place, Smart and I saw his motor in the avenue of the
+Bara Koti. It was under the trees with a shaft of moonlight full on the
+steering wheel. If he had wanted to make it invisible, he ought to have
+reckoned on the hour and the moon. We thought he had gone to Sombari,
+but he was singing to Mrs. Meredith."
+
+"Is that true?" Honor asked in low tones of pained surprise.
+
+"We both pulled up outside the cactus hedge till the song was finished.
+He was singing _Temple Bells_!"
+
+So he had not gone to Sombari after all! It had only been an excuse for
+him to get away from the party. He was evidently not above lying,
+and--Joyce Meredith was so beautiful!
+
+And Joyce had been alone!
+
+Honor flushed hot and cold with sudden emotion which she could hardly
+understand because it was so new to her: passionate resentment towards
+Joyce Meredith for the impropriety of receiving a visit from Captain
+Dalton at that late hour. Her position as a married woman did not cover
+such indiscretion. How would Ray Meredith feel if he heard that his
+adored wife was entertaining the doctor at midnight, and alone? It
+sounded abominable, even if innocent in intention.
+
+It was not right! it was _not_ right!...
+
+At the same moment, pride rose in arms to crush her resentment. What
+business was it of hers what Joyce Meredith did, or Captain Dalton,
+either? They were not answerable to her for their conduct--or
+misconduct....
+
+Captain Dalton might please himself as far as she was concerned. He was
+hardly a friend. Why should she be so deeply affected by his acts? Yet
+her heart was wrung with pain at the mere thought that he had spent the
+rest of the evening entertaining Joyce Meredith who was as beautiful and
+as foolish as a little child. Any man might be excused for losing his
+head when treated to her innocent familiarities.
+
+They were innocent. Of that she was sure, for Joyce coquetted with
+either sex impartially and unconsciously.
+
+All through her silent brooding Tommy talked incessantly. He had passed
+from the subject of the doctor and Joyce Meredith to Bobby Smart who had
+obtained a transfer to a distant station on the railway, and was
+rejoiced that he would soon see the last of Mrs. Fox with whom he was
+"fed up."
+
+"I don't admire him for talking about her, or you for listening," said
+Honor, paying scant attention to the subject of Bobby Smart.
+
+"I didn't. I had to shut him up rather rudely; but Bobby is
+thick-skinned and, like some fellows one meets, a dangerous gossip, and
+the last man a woman should trust."
+
+"I wonder much why women are so blind. They are fools to care for, or
+trust men," Honor said gloomily, and looking depressed.
+
+"You must never say things like that to me," Tommy blurted out,
+offended. "You must discriminate between those who are honest and those
+who are the other thing. You might trust me with your life--and
+more----"
+
+"I dare say all you men say that!"
+
+"And all don't mean it as I do. _I_ am discriminating; consequently,
+there is only one girl in the world for me...." He choked unable to
+proceed, and looked the rest into her clear eyes.
+
+"Don't, Tommy!--this is why I hesitate to come out with you," she said,
+looking annoyed.
+
+"I can't help caring for you," he answered defiantly. "It's an
+unalterable fact, and you may as well face it. I have cared ever since
+school-days. It has been my one hope that you too would care--in the
+same way."
+
+"And I have tried to show you in a hundred ways that it is of no use,"
+she said kindly. "Can't you be content to be--just pals?"
+
+"No. So long as you remain unmarried I shall keep on hoping."
+
+"And I cannot do more than tell you it is of no earthly use." She
+avoided looking at him again for the knowledge that his face betrayed
+the depth of his disappointment. "Perhaps it would be better if we gave
+up riding and tennis together, and you tried to take up some other
+interest?" she suggested.
+
+But Tommy laughed unboyishly with a cracked sound in his throat. "I
+won't say anything more about it, if it annoys you, Honey, but don't for
+God's sake give me the push. I'm coming to the Club just the same for
+tennis with you, and shall call to take you out riding when I may--like
+this. You need not worry about what I have said. I dare say I'll get
+along--somehow ... so long as you are not keen on someone else," he
+added. It seemed he would never be able to stand that!
+
+"I am not keen on--any one else," she said, lifting her head with a
+resolute air. "But I do want you to know that I am not the marrying
+sort. I love the idea of being an old maid and having crowds of
+friends--and perhaps a special pal--that's you, if you like, old boy,"
+she added graciously holding out her hand which he gripped with energy.
+"So that's all right, eh?"
+
+While he made the expected reply, which was naturally insincere,
+considering the state of his sore heart, both observed a cloud of dust
+moving rapidly towards them which quickly resolved itself into a rider
+galloping at full speed.
+
+When he was nearer his pace slackened from exhaustion, and Honor
+recognized one of the pastors of the Mission, an Eurasian, his face pale
+and stricken and dripping with sweat.
+
+A chill of foreboding struck at her heart as she asked for news of the
+sick girl, Elsie Meek.
+
+"She is dead," came the blunt reply. "I am now on my way to the doctor
+who should have seen her last night, but he never came." He rode on
+without waiting to hear Tommy exclaim, "Good God!" and Honor give an
+inarticulate cry of surprise and sorrow.
+
+"I thought she was going on all right," said Tommy gravely.
+
+"I had no idea she was so bad!" said Honor. Both had pulled up uncertain
+what to do. "Poor, poor Mrs. Meek!" said Honor, thinking of the lonely
+woman who struggled to live her life happily in surroundings which had
+failed to prove congenial, and whose one compensation was the
+companionship of her daughter,--the one being in the world she loved and
+lived for. She thought of the unsympathetic husband whose Christianity
+savoured of narrow prejudices and exacting codes, and she pitied the
+bereaved mother from the bottom of her heart. "I feel so guilty to think
+that we had the doctor to dinner last night when he might have spent
+that time at Sombari!" Honor cried regretfully.
+
+"That was for him to judge. At any rate, he need not have finished the
+evening at the Bara Koti singing love-songs to Mrs. Meredith."
+
+"Poor little Elsie!" Honor sighed, ignoring the allusion to Joyce. She
+was guiltless of blame as she did not know. "Tommy, you had better
+return and tell Mother. I am going straight on. There is now more reason
+for my calling on Mrs. Meek."
+
+"It will be a painful visit--can't you postpone it?"
+
+"I would rather not. I feel someone should be with her. Mother will go
+later, I know; but I must go at once."
+
+Very reluctantly, Tommy turned his horse's head homeward, and lifting
+his _topi_ in acknowledgment of her parting gesture, rode swiftly away
+leaving her to continue her road to the Mission.
+
+The settlement came into view beyond a straggling village which had
+given the Mission its name, and was composed of bungalows grouped about
+a wide "compound": chiefly schoolhouses of lath and plaster, with
+innumerable sheds and outhouses for dormitories and technical
+instruction. As Honor approached, she was conscious of a great stillness
+broken only by the sound of intermittent blows of a hammer. When she
+passed into the grounds through a gate in a neatly kept fence of split
+bamboos, she saw through the open window of a shed, a carpenter busily
+engaged on the grim task of preparing a coffin out of a deal
+packing-case. In India burial follows on the heels of death with almost
+indecent haste, and the sight of a rude coffin in the making, sent no
+thrill of horror through the young girl. It was something to be expected
+in a place where no professional assistance of that sort could be
+reckoned upon in circumstances as sudden as these. Instead, a great
+sadness came over her, and tears filled her eyes to overflowing, for it
+was not so very long ago that Elsie Meek, a young girl like herself had
+come out to India full of life and laughter, yearning to give her
+energies scope, and trying for the sake of her gentle mother, to appear
+contented with the meagre life afforded by her surroundings. Honor
+suffered a pang of regret that she had not spared more time from her own
+pleasures to help Elsie to a little happiness. She had so appreciated
+visits from the Brights, and had been so keenly interested in the doings
+of the Station people, with whom she was rarely allowed to associate.
+
+What a futile life! Poor little Elsie Meek!
+
+At the Mission bungalow where Honor dismounted, a group of missionaries
+were sombrely discussing in whispers the necessary details connected
+with the funeral. Mr. Meek sat apart, bowed with depression, his face
+lined and haggard with grief. This was the man's world--Sombari
+Settlement--the child of his creation; yet how hollow were his interests
+and ambitions today!
+
+Many years ago he had been financed by zealous Methodists and sent out
+to India to establish a mission in rural Bengal. After careful search he
+had chosen Sombari on the outskirts of Muktiarbad for the field of his
+labours. By degrees, his untiring efforts had prospered and Sombari was
+now a large community of pastors and converts, and he, himself, an
+Honorary Magistrate of second-class powers, in recognition of his
+influence among the people. Mr. Meek had a reputation for converting the
+heathen with a Bible in one hand and a cane in the other, and his
+methods were justified by the results seen in the confidence he inspired
+in his followers. He was a strong man, popularly credited with being
+just, if unmerciful, and was respected by the natives for miles around
+as hard men are, in the East; and they rarely appealed against his
+judgments.
+
+The same spirit had ruled Mr. Meek's domestic life and had reduced his
+wife and daughter to the position of appendages of the Mission. It was
+nothing to him that they professed no vocation for the life; the
+discipline was wholesome for unregenerate human nature which is prone to
+crave for what is worldly and unprofitable. He was responsible for the
+souls in his care; and he conceived it his duty to protect them
+according to _his_ lights--not _theirs_. Having safeguarded them from
+the snares and temptations of Station life which represented the World,
+the Flesh, and the Devil, he was filled with righteous satisfaction
+concerning their safety hereafter, and ceased to trouble himself with
+their yearnings in the present.
+
+Mrs. Meek, who had once been a governess in a private family, was of a
+mild, easy-going nature, incapable of resisting tyranny. Since her
+marriage, her naturally submissive mind had become an echo of her
+husband's, although she was not always in agreement with his opinions;
+yet it was the line of least resistance, and "anything for a peaceful
+life" was her motto. Her greatest comfort had come with the birth of her
+daughter, who, later, was reared by her maternal relatives in England.
+They had means, while the Meeks had barely enough for their own needs,
+so Elsie had received a good education of which her relatives had borne
+the cost, and at the finish, came out to her home at Sombari under the
+protection of missionary friends travelling to India.
+
+Though Mrs. Meek had not seen her daughter for the best years of her
+childhood, her love for her had become the absorbing passion of her
+life. For years she had carried about a heart aching with longing for
+this treasure of her own flesh and blood, so that their reunion altered
+her whole life. So long as she had her child's companionship and
+affection, she was blessed among women; even the little world of Sombari
+was glorified.
+
+But, alas! on that morning of Honor Bright's visit, death had robbed
+Mrs. Meek of all that life held for her. Honor understood how completely
+she was bereft, and her own heart overflowed with sympathy. Her one ewe
+lamb had been taken, and in her grief, the foundations of the mother's
+faith were shaken.
+
+She turned her face to the wall and cried out against her Maker. "From
+him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath!" was the
+burden of her sorrowful cry.
+
+"What had I to make life worth the living! My child was all in all to
+me, and she has been snatched from me! Of what use is religion since
+even my prayers could not avail? It is comfortless. God is cruel. He
+tramples on our hearts. He has no pity." Such were the outbursts of the
+poor, stricken heart.
+
+She was the picture of abandonment in the comfortless room, ascetic in
+its lack of dainty feminine accessories. The floor was covered with
+coarse bamboo matting such as the Brights used in their pantry and
+bathrooms. Cretonne _pardars_[11] hung in the doorways; the furniture
+was rough and country-made; the bed-linen and coverings were from the
+mills of Cawnpur. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," had
+been Mr. Meek's justification for confining his expenditure to the
+barest necessaries of life. But, on the other hand, he indulged himself
+in his hobby for raising prize cattle for the local _Mélas_[12]. Prize
+cattle had their use and did not come under the head of extravagance as
+did furnishing according to taste and fancy; so Mrs. Meek and her
+daughter had to suffer the lack of the refinements of life to the
+mortification of their spirits and the discomfort of their bodies, in
+order that their souls might be purged of the vanities and lusts of the
+flesh.
+
+[Footnote 11: Curtains.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Fairs.]
+
+"You must not fight against the decrees of the Almighty," said the nurse
+reproachfully, as Honor knelt beside the bed and embraced the unhappy
+mother.
+
+"Don't talk all that clap-trap to one in torment," said the girl
+contemptuously. "People are too ready to put all the blame on God when
+they are bereaved."
+
+If a thunderbolt had fallen in the room it could not have had a more
+startling effect than this outburst of Honor's. The nurse recoiled in
+horror thinking she was in the presence of a free-thinker who is first
+cousin to an atheist, and Mrs. Meek choked back her sobs to stare
+wide-eyed at her visitor who had dared to voice such heresy under a
+missionary's roof.
+
+"Isn't it God's will when one is afflicted? That is what we are taught,"
+said the nurse indignantly.
+
+"We are taught a lot of stuff which is not true," said Honor firmly. "It
+isn't sense to impute to a loving God acts of wanton cruelty, and we
+dishonour Him by so doing." She kissed Mrs. Meek's cheek and spoke
+tenderly to her of her sympathy and sorrow.
+
+"But, Miss Bright, are not life and death in God's hands?" the bereaved
+lady asked astonished.
+
+"Indeed, yes--with our co-operation. God needs our help as we need His.
+I could never believe that our dear ones are taken from us by God's
+will. He could not will us unhappiness. We have got to suffer as the
+result of ignorance and neglect, and a thousand other reasons which are
+Cause and Effect. Where we fail God, we must suffer."
+
+"How did we fail God? We did all we could!"
+
+"Yes--we always shut the stable door after the steed is stolen. God did
+not give your child the germ of enteric which constitutionally she was
+unfitted to cope with. It happened through some misfortune that God had
+nothing to do with, and, simply, she hadn't enough fight in her. There
+are times when we cannot understand why some things should be,
+especially if we feel that by stretching out His arm God can save us;
+yet He does not do so," continued Honor. "I prefer to believe that God
+fights for the life of our dear one along with us, and we both fail, we
+and God, because of some lack on our side that has hindered." Honor was
+not accustomed to holding forth on the subject of her views and would
+have said no more, but Mrs. Meek was roused to a new interest and
+persisted in drawing from her all she felt regarding the matter.
+
+"If you put your foot on a cobra and you are bitten, and no immediate
+remedies are at hand, you will certainly die. If you prayed your hardest
+to be saved and did nothing, you would certainly be disappointed. God
+has given us the means of saving life--science and medicine are His way
+of helping us through doctors--even then we fail if the patient has no
+strength to battle with disease. That is how I feel," she added loyally.
+"We don't blame those we love--so don't blame God unjustly."
+
+"Doctor Dalton said Elsie's heart was weak," moaned Mrs. Meek. "Perhaps
+had he come last night he would have noticed the change in her and done
+something to have helped her to live! Oh! Miss Bright, I feel it is
+owing to the doctor's neglect that I have lost my child. Why didn't he
+come last night?"
+
+Honor's eyes fell before the anguish in hers. "He was at dinner with us,
+and left us early intending to come on here. I don't know why he changed
+his mind," she murmured, feeling again the rush of wild resentment
+against Joyce Meredith for her beauty and allurement.
+
+"How strangely you talk!" Mrs. Meek went on as Honor relapsed into
+silence. "I never heard any one speak or think like this."
+
+"I have always felt that nothing harsh or bad can come from God," said
+Honor gravely. "He does not treat us cruelly just to make us turn to
+Him. It would have the opposite effect, I should imagine, and He knows
+that as he knows us. It is presumptuous of me to say anything at all,
+but it seems to me, we are responsible for much of our own sorrows, or
+it is the way of life since the Fall. Humanity has foiled the designs of
+God from the time of Adam, and has had to bear the consequences. But,
+always, God's goodness and mercy triumph, and we are helped through the
+heaviest of tribulation till our sorrows are healed. Pity and Love are
+from God, never agony and bereavement!"
+
+"Yet my husband says that the _cross is from God_, a 'burden imposed for
+the hardness of our hearts'!"
+
+"So that to punish you, God is supposed to have caused an innocent one
+all that suffering, and has snatched her from the simple joys of her
+life! Is that your husband's conception of a loving God? If I believed
+that, I would become a heathen, preferably."
+
+"It doesn't seem to fit in with such attributes as Mercy and Love!"
+cried Mrs. Meek, relapsing again into a flood of grief; for, after all,
+there was poor consolation for her in any theory since nothing could
+restore to her her beloved child.
+
+"Tell me," said Honor to the nurse who had led her to the adjoining room
+to take her last look at her dead friend, "wasn't her death rather
+sudden and unexpected?"
+
+"The doctor should have been here last night," said the nurse looking
+scared and uncomfortable. "She was so wild and restless and kept
+exciting herself in her delirium. Her heart was bad and nothing seemed
+to have effect. He should have been here, and not left her to me for so
+many hours, since early morning!"
+
+"When did the change set in?--could no one have gone for the doctor?"
+
+"It is a great misfortune that there was no one capable of relieving
+me," said the nurse looking distressed. "There was only the ayah, and
+she was supposed to be watching, yet allowed the patient to sit up in
+bed in her delirium when to lift an arm had been forbidden. All she
+could do was to cry aloud and remonstrate, which woke me and before I
+could do anything, the poor girl was--gone! Simply fell back dead. It
+was terrible! I fear I shall get into trouble, but the Meeks could not
+afford more than one nurse and Mrs. Meek and I were both worn out. I
+knew the ayah would blame me, as I blame her; but, humanly speaking, it
+would have happened in any case--even had her mother been in the room.
+It was truly most unfortunate. If the doctor had only been here he might
+have seen the necessity for a sedative or something!"
+
+It was the same cry: "If the doctor had only been here!" From all she
+could gather, Elsie had passed a restless night and had died of heart
+failure in the morning. An overtaxed heart had given out by the exertion
+of suddenly rising in bed.
+
+Honor doubted if Captain Dalton could have done anything by visiting his
+patient at night, yet his not having done so would always leave a
+reproach against him. She felt it and, yet, strangely enough, wanted to
+combat every argument that would have held him to blame.
+
+When she was leaving the bungalow she came face to face with Captain
+Dalton descending from his car; and so moved was she for the moment,
+that she would not trust herself to do more than bow stiffly as she
+passed, her face white in its repression, her eyes cold and distant. At
+sight of him her agony returned in force; her heart for a moment stood
+still. Why had he lied to them about visiting Sombari when it was Joyce
+Meredith he had meant to see? Joyce with her lovely face and winning,
+childish ways? Everyone must love Joyce because of her ingenuousness and
+extraordinary beauty. The doctor had nursed her in camp under intimate
+conditions ... and he had stolen a visit to her when duty had required
+him in an opposite direction.
+
+How was it possible to feel the same friendliness towards him with that
+wild resentment raging at her heart? So Honor ran out to her pony,
+sprang nimbly into the saddle, and rode rapidly away, feeling his
+searching eyes upon her till she was out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
+
+
+Honor Bright rode straight to the Bara Koti to tell Joyce of Elsie
+Meek's death, not without a grim satisfaction in the thought that the
+news was certain to fill her friend with self-reproach; on other
+accounts her feelings defied analysis.
+
+Joyce was writing home-letters for the mail in her morning-room when
+Honor was announced, and she was arrested, in her expressions of welcome
+by the look on her visitor's face, which was unusually pale and her
+great brown eyes, always so friendly and tender, cold and grave.
+
+"What is it?" she asked fearfully, as she searched her memory for any
+unconscious offence to her friend.
+
+"I have just come from Mrs. Meek who is prostrated with grief. Elsie is
+dead. She died at sunrise this morning."
+
+"Dead?--Elsie Meek?... I did not know she was so bad!" Joyce looked
+shocked and distressed.
+
+"I left as Captain Dalton arrived--they are blaming him for not having
+gone there last night. He was expected, but"--she made a gesture of
+despair.
+
+"Oh, Honor!--was it because he was here? He came to see if we were
+ill--I had been nervous about Baby--and when I knew that it was nothing,
+I kept him for music till--till quite late. Is it my fault?" The lovely
+face looked stricken and blanched.
+
+"I don't know--perhaps indirectly; but _he_ knew. He should not have
+stayed."
+
+"I persuaded him because I was dull--but I never knew!--I never dreamed
+she was so bad! Oh, Honey!" and Joyce broke into a passion of tears. "I
+shall never be happy again. I shall always feel that I was responsible!"
+
+"He should never have stayed with you!--his duty was clear," said Honor
+sternly. "The responsibility rests entirely with him. But didn't you
+know that being alone and without your husband, you were inviting
+criticism by allowing him to stay--at that late hour? People in these
+_mafasil_ stations are so censorious."
+
+"I did not think it mattered," said Joyce without a shadow of resentment
+at such plain speaking. She stood with hands clasped, looking like a
+child in trouble, and Honor's heart began to melt. "He's only the
+doctor, you see, and he was so good to us in camp. Do you think I was
+wrong, Honey?" flinging her arms about Honor's neck and hiding her face
+in her bosom. Who could censure so much sweetness? So she was held in a
+close embrace and tenderly kissed.
+
+"I have no right to speak--forgive me," said Honor.
+
+"But you are privileged, because I love you," said Joyce. "Say what you
+please. I am so unhappy!--so miserable!"
+
+"We must be miserable only for harm consciously done. You could never do
+that."
+
+"I could not bear that you should condemn me," Joyce went on, clinging
+to her for consolation. "It seemed such a simple thing--it _was_."
+
+"Yes, of course," Honor agreed against her judgment. "Only it would be
+hateful that you should be talked about by the people here--as Mrs. Fox
+is, for example."
+
+"I should loathe it!--for I am not like her. You don't think that for a
+moment?"
+
+"Never!--that is why I'll not have you misjudged," said Honor kissing
+her wet cheek.
+
+"Why are people so horrid? I like Captain Dalton. He is so nice--so
+different from what people think him--agreeable! He took my rose, and I
+pinned it in his coat. He showed me how I should play the _Liebestraum_,
+and----"
+
+"He--took--your rose?"
+
+"Yes. It was in my dress ... and was so sweet--and he said I should be
+called 'Joy.' He is going to show me how to drive his motor-car so that
+I may take Ray by surprise one day. I must go out more than I do, and
+not worry so much about Baby for he is here to look after him. Oh! he is
+very kind--surely he never meant to neglect Elsie Meek?"
+
+"He knows best about that--but, Joyce," Honor was strangely agitated and
+hid her telltale eyes in a cloud of Joyce's sunny hair, "you will never
+do anything that you cannot tell your husband?"
+
+"How do you mean? I always tell Ray everything."
+
+"That is all. He will advise you what it is best not to do. It is no
+business of mine."
+
+"And I'll always tell you, too," the little wife said affectionately.
+
+But Honor mentally decided it would be better for her not to hear
+anything more about Captain Dalton's visits. "I don't count--I am a mere
+outsider."
+
+"You do. You are such a great help to me. I wish I had half your manner
+and self-confidence."
+
+Their talk reverted to Elsie Meek, and Joyce learned something of the
+mother's grief. She was anxious to call immediately at the Mission to
+offer her condolences, and decided to attend the funeral which was to
+take place that afternoon. It was eventually settled that Mrs. Bright
+should call for her in the dogcart, and Honor would ride.
+
+Consequently, when Ray Meredith motored in that afternoon, his wife was
+absent attending Elsie Meek's funeral, a simple ceremony at a tiny
+cemetery on the Mission property. The coffin, made of packing cases and
+covered with black calico, was carried by pastors, and the service was
+conducted by Mr. Meek himself, who scourged himself to perform the
+pathetic task as a penance to his soul.
+
+It was dusk when Joyce returned, a subdued little person in black with a
+bursting heart which was relieved by a flood of tears in her husband's
+arms. He was very pitiful of her in her wrought-up state, and he soothed
+her with tender caresses.
+
+It was very comforting to Joyce to be petted, and by degrees her
+weakened self-esteem was restored. Nothing was very far wrong with
+herself or her world while her husband loved her so, and Honor Bright
+remained her friend. Meredith would not allow his beloved to blame
+herself, though it was hardly the thing to entertain a visitor of the
+opposite sex so late at night when her husband was in camp; but the
+circumstances were exceptional; his little darling was nervous and
+lonely, and Dalton was a gentleman. Poof! he wouldn't for a moment allow
+that the doctor did not know his own business best; and very likely
+Elsie Meek's case had been hopeless from the start. With a weak heart,
+anything might happen in typhoid. Anyhow, he was not going to let his
+little girl worry herself sick and she was to cheer up on the instant
+and think no more about what did not concern herself. The main thing
+was, he had returned for the week-end, and wanted all her love and all
+her smiles to reward him for his long abstinence; and Joyce obediently
+kissed him and beamed upon him through her tears, wondering in her
+childish soul why husbands were so exacting in their love--their ardour
+so inexhaustible. Women were so very different--but men!
+
+"With a wife like you, what can you expect?" Meredith cried, when she
+had expressed her views with naïveté. Which was all very flattering and
+calculated to spoil her thoroughly, but Meredith was in a mood to spoil
+her thoroughly after their enforced separation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On Sunday morning, Honor followed up the notice which had been pinned on
+the board at the Club concerning evensong at the Railway Institute, by
+cycling round to various bungalows and exacting promises of attendance
+from her friends.
+
+Muktiarbad was behind hand in the matter of a church building, the
+proposal having been shelved by the authorities with the usual
+procrastination. The Roman Catholic missionary lived in ascetic
+simplicity in the Station, and took his meals in native fashion wherever
+he preached the Faith.
+
+There was no Episcopal clergyman nearer than the headquarters of the
+Division, eighty miles away; so it was only when his duties permitted
+it, that the District Chaplain paid a flying visit to Muktiarbad to
+minister to the spiritual welfare of his flock. Otherwise, it devolved
+on the Collector to officiate at Divine worship, as a paternal
+government enjoined this duty on the leading official in the stations
+not provided with resident clergy.
+
+Thus it was that on most Sunday evenings Mr. Meredith read the Church
+Service in the general room of the Club to a congregation consisting
+mostly of ladies, while Jack Darling, usually flushed and breathless
+after tennis and a lightning change, went through the ordeal of reading
+the lessons.
+
+To make certain of a couple of unreliable members of the choir, Honor
+cycled last of all to a picturesque little bungalow near the Police
+Court, and dismounted at its tumble-down gate. From frequent removals
+for jumping competitions for raw ponies, it was considerably damaged and
+swung loosely on its hinges, swayed by every wind that blew.
+
+The bungalow was thatched, the eaves supported by square pillars; and
+the verandah was screened by bamboo trellis-work up which climbed the
+beautiful _Gloriosa superba_.
+
+Boars' heads, buffalo horns, and the antlers of deer, ornamented what
+could be seen of the walls inside, and the tiled flooring was scattered
+over with long-arm easy chairs and "peg-tables."
+
+A gravelled walk led to the steps, bordered on either side with
+straggling marigolds and dwarf sunflowers, dear to the hearts of
+_malis_, but evidently the worse for the depredations of the village
+goats. Date-palms drooped gracefully above a tank in the background, and
+a gorgeous hedge of acalypha hid the outhouses and kitchen.
+
+Honor's appearance at the gate was the signal for a wild stampede from
+the verandah by Jack and Tom, who were enjoying a "Europe morning," to
+change into suitable garb; an orderly being dispatched meanwhile to
+crave the lady's indulgence. Rampur hounds and fox-terriers received her
+effusively on the road, and showed their appreciation of her presence by
+leaving marks of muddy paws on her drill skirt.
+
+Tommy was the first to appear neatly apparelled, and smoothing his wet
+hair with both hands. He was followed soon afterwards by Jack, looking
+like an overgrown schoolboy in flannels. They hung about the gate since
+she could not be induced to enter, and pulled rueful faces on receiving
+instructions as to their duty at six-thirty, sharp.
+
+"I believe there has been a riot at Panipara," put in Tommy with
+inspiration. "It is my duty as a police official to take instant notice
+of the fact and visit the spot for an inquiry."
+
+"It can wait till Monday morning--or, you can send your Inspector," said
+Honor.
+
+"I have a poisonous report to write"--began Jack.
+
+"No sulking!" said Honor with determination. "You have to set a good
+example, both of you."
+
+"I don't mind the service, a bit, and the hymns are fine," said Tommy,
+"but I distinctly object to sitting still and having illogical arguments
+when I cannot answer back hurled at my head."
+
+"I shouldn't mind even that, for I needn't listen to them," said Jack;
+"but I do wish he would cut his sermons short. The last time he was at
+it for half an hour till I fell asleep and all but swallowed a fly."
+
+"You and Tommy are worse than heathens and want a Mission all to
+yourselves," said Honor with twitching lips. (When Honor's lips revealed
+a hidden sense of humour, the boys' spirits effervesced.) "There is
+hymn-practice at three this afternoon at the Institute," she informed
+them. "Shall we have _Abide with me_, for a change?"
+
+"'Abide with you,' certainly," said Tommy bubbling, while Jack put in a
+plea for one of the old favourites. "_Sun of my soul_ is hard to beat,"
+he said.
+
+"Jack has a fixed belief that the world has missed a great tenor in
+him," remarked Tommy. "He was bawling so loudly in his bath yesterday
+morning, that I was on the point of fetching my gun thinking there was a
+jackal around,--fact!"
+
+"Liar! I was singing _O Star of Eve_, and you annoyed me by joining in.
+Execrable taste."
+
+"Well?--we shall count on both of you for the choir."
+
+"If any one will be so kind as to lend me a prayer-book," said Tommy
+reluctantly. "Jack used mine on a muggy night to keep the window open,
+and as it rained half the time, my property was reduced to pulp. The
+least he might do is to give me another."
+
+"You can share mine," said Honor magnanimously. "That's fixed."
+
+"Thanks, awfully. I love sharing a prayer-book with someone who knows
+the geography of it. The last time I went to church was at Hazrigunge
+when the Commissioner's Memsahib collared me as I was going to bridge.
+Miss Elworthy, the parson's sister,--elderly and still hopeful, handed
+me her book of Common Prayer; but I'm dashed if I could find the
+Collect! At any ordinary time I would have pounced upon it right enough,
+but knowing her eyes were upon me, I could do nothing but make a
+windmill of the pages with only the 'Solemnisation of Matrimony' staring
+up at my distracted vision, till I began to think Fate had designs.
+Really, it made me quite nervous, I assure you!"
+
+"I shall have to give you Sunday-school lessons," said Honor, laughing
+heartily. "You are a bad boy, Tommy."
+
+"I never attempt to find the places," said Jack. "It's the most
+difficult thing in the world when you are nervous and the parson is off
+at great speed, like a fox with the pack at his heels. My Church Service
+was a present from my old aunt when I was confirmed and is in diamond
+print, so that when I hold it upside down, no one is a bit the wiser."
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" cried Honor.
+
+"Not at all. I always say 'Amen' at the right moment."
+
+"It is always a case of 'Ah, men!' at Muktiarbad, where church is
+concerned," saying which she sprang on her bicycle and fled with the
+sound of loud groans in her ears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Choir practice was well attended, and the "Inseparables" were obediently
+on hand to swell the singing of the popular hymns and even attempt a few
+chants. At the finish, Mrs. Fox made room for Jack on the organ stool,
+and while he worked the pedals, she played a voluntary by Grieg to their
+own entertainment and the distraction of the company.
+
+"Fair joint production, if Jack would only remember he is not working a
+sewing-machine," said Tommy. "It puts me out of breath to listen."
+
+"The bellows sound like an asthmatic old man about to suffer spontaneous
+combustion," said Honor moving away from the vicinity of the American
+organ, vexed to see the transparent arts practised by Mrs. Fox to lead
+Jack captive.
+
+Divine service when conducted by the District Chaplain was held at the
+Railway Institute which was more centrally situated than the Club for
+the bulk of the European community at Muktiarbad, and the occasion was
+typical of the generality of such functions in the small, _mafasil_
+stations lacking a church building. Families of officials,--Government
+and Railway, non-officials, and subordinates, found seats for themselves
+in the neighbourhood of their respective acquaintance, and there was
+only a sprinkling of the masculine element, the majority being husbands
+whose demeanour, as they followed in the wake of their wives, was
+suggestive of derelict ships being towed into port.
+
+The choir were accommodated near the American organ at which Mrs. Fox
+presided with ostentatious skill. Jack's stealthy effort to elude
+observation in a distant corner was frustrated by Honor on her way in,
+who whispered her commands that he was to occupy the seat reserved for
+him as the sole tenor available.
+
+Tommy, on the other hand, put in attendance with laudable docility,
+claiming a place beside Honor; and all through the sermon occupied
+himself with the marriage service, till a gloved hand recovered
+possession of the prayer-book and a pair of brown eyes reproved him
+gravely.
+
+"You paid no attention whatever to the service," she afterwards remarked
+scathingly.
+
+"It is just what I did, right through," he returned meekly. "It's the
+only service that interests me."
+
+"It was irrelevant matter!"
+
+"Which made me miss the benefit I might have derived from the seed
+falling on prepared soil. Alas! see what you are responsible for!"
+
+"I? I take no responsibility for you. And was the soil really prepared
+this time?" she teased.
+
+"It was torn by the plough of eagerness and harrowed with anxiety lest I
+should be late and lose my place beside you," he returned feelingly.
+
+Outside on the gravelled path, Mrs. Bright was informed by Mrs.
+Ironsides that she had counted sixty women in "Church," and only sixteen
+men, twelve of whom were married. "Scandalous!--I call it. And this is a
+country, where, in the midst of life one is in death!"
+
+On their way home, Meredith and Joyce, with the parson in the car, came
+upon the doctor taking a "constitutional" in the moonlight and insisted
+on carrying him off to pot-luck.
+
+Tommy attached himself to the Brights and received a similar invitation,
+while Jack was annexed by Mrs. Fox whose husband was at home and "would
+be charmed."
+
+The invitation was given openly and Jack had no hesitation in accepting
+it, curious to know how the elusive Barrington Fox would appear on
+closer acquaintance.
+
+They walked together across the railway lines and past unkempt hedges of
+Duranta in full bloom towards the group of residences reserved for
+officials of the Railway, each within its own garden and bounded by
+barbed wire as a protection against stray cattle.
+
+The Traffic Superintendent's house was built on a more generous scale
+than the others, though uniformly of red brick picked out with buff.
+Shallow arches supported the concrete roof, and the verandah in front
+was gay with ornamental pot-plants and palms of luxuriant growth. Many
+doors opened upon it, and through them could be seen a lamplit and
+graceful interior, veiled by misty lace curtains. The verandah itself
+was left for the moon to illuminate.
+
+Long residence in India and natural good taste had taught Mrs. Fox the
+art of furnishing with an eye to the needs of the climate, so that her
+rooms had the charm of restfulness, ease, and coolness. Most of her
+drawing-room chairs were of Singapur rush-work; the mat was of green
+grass, the _punkha_ frills of art muslin. The walls were distempered in
+cool greys and neutral tints; while on all sides were palms, large and
+small, and china-grass in dainty flower-pots of coloured earthenware. A
+Japanese draught screen, embroidered in silk upon gauze and arranged
+carelessly, put a finish to the most picturesque drawing-room Jack had
+yet seen in Bengal.
+
+Mr. Barrington Fox, however, was not at home. A telegram was found to
+have arrived, intimating that he had been detained at a wayside station.
+
+"Such a nuisance!" Mrs. Fox exclaimed, laying down the telegram which,
+as a matter of fact, she had received earlier in the day. "You'll have
+to put up with only me. Do you mind?"
+
+"It is not for me to mind," he answered awkwardly. "If you think I might
+stay, I shall be delighted."
+
+"Then you shall. Who cares?--not my husband who has long ceased to mind
+what I do or how I am left to pass the time," she said bitterly.
+
+"You must often be very lonely?" he ventured sympathetically. He had
+heard many rumours of Fox's neglect of his wife--of the temptations to
+which she was exposed and to which a woman placed as she was might be
+excused for yielding. Plenty of fellows paid court to her, and a good
+few had grown attached--yet, barring Smart who was a cad and a bounder,
+he was sure that none could cast a stone.
+
+"I am always desperately lonely," she sighed, as she sank into a
+chesterfield and motioned him to the seat beside her. "You little know
+how it preys upon me; how I welcome a sympathetic friend! but--why speak
+of it?" she passed him her cigarette case, and they began to smoke
+companionably. "So few understand me," said she in subdued tones. "So
+many misunderstand! I ask you, what is life worth to a young woman
+in my position?" her chest heaved, her eyes filled with self-pity.
+"And who can stifle nature and be happy?--the ache for human
+sympathy--tenderness--love...." she brushed the moisture from her eyes
+with a diminutive handkerchief, and smiled a wintry smile. "I refuse to
+talk only of myself!--let us talk of you, dear Jack. You are a dear and
+I have so longed to make a friend of you," she interrupted herself to
+say.
+
+Jack coloured furiously while filled with indignant pity for her. Poor
+girl!--after all, she was quite young!... He did not care how old she
+was; she was young enough to be pitied for the rotten time her selfish
+husband gave her.
+
+They spent a supremely innocent evening looking through albums of
+photographs and talking football and polo. The dinner was excellent, and
+Mrs. Fox, clever in the art of entertaining, modelled her conversation
+to suit his manly tastes, in the end breaking down all his natural
+shyness and placing him on terms of easy friendship. When Jack
+eventually rose to go he was flattered by her open reluctance to part
+with him; her pleasure in his society had been so frank and appealing.
+
+"I have never enjoyed an evening so much in my life, Jack," she said
+cooingly. "Why are you so different from other men?"
+
+"Am I?" he asked in some confusion as she retained his hand in hers.
+
+"In a thousand ways. I almost wish I had never met you, Jack!"
+
+"Why?" he asked, his breath suddenly short, his heart beating a rapid
+tattoo in his breast. For the life of him he could not say the easy
+pretty things that fell so naturally from other men's lips.
+
+"Because--Oh! why, you must know--I shall always be making comparisons
+which are odious, and remember, I have to put up with only odiousness!"
+
+"I hate to think of it," he said huskily.
+
+"It is sweet to think you mind."
+
+"It makes a fellow--mad to do something. It's damned hard and cruel for
+you!"
+
+"Never mind, dear boy. Come again, come often, will you?" she pleaded,
+leaning her head against the pillar behind her and looking languishingly
+up at him with the moonlight full on her face and throat, bathing her in
+a pale radiance.
+
+Jack's eyes swept the deserted verandah. He did not know that the
+servants were well drilled in the etiquette of keeping out of the way
+when the lady of the house entertained a male visitor. "Good-bye," he
+said indistinctly, moving a step nearer.
+
+"Good-bye," she returned almost inarticulately, her eyes melting to his
+own. "I shall weep my heart out when you are gone."
+
+"Why?" he demanded unsteadily.
+
+"For the things that I have missed. I always dream of a man just like
+you--you are the man of my dreams come to me--too late!--and my heart
+has been starved so long!"
+
+"Don't," he said sharply. "I am not made of stone."
+
+Their faces were very near together, so near, that Jack had only to
+stoop to press her lips fiercely with his.
+
+"Oh, Jack!--" she cried emotionally. "You mustn't make me love you--you
+darling!" yet she returned his kiss with equal fervour. "Oh, go--go
+quickly," she breathed. "You must not stay----"
+
+Dazed and bewildered, Jack took her at her word and went swiftly down
+the steps, nor did he halt when her voice called after him to stop and
+return. "Oh, Jack!--come back--come back, I cannot let you go!"
+
+Nevertheless, he went without a backward look, wondering within himself
+if all men found it so easy to tread the path of dishonour. Where it
+might lead him if he allowed his baser instincts headway, he could
+guess, and with a mighty effort he made up his mind to apply the brake
+there and then. Poor woman!--he could not blame her--it was he alone who
+had had no excuse--not a shadow of an excuse for the outrage. She, a
+disappointed wife was like a being temporising with suicide. Small blame
+to her if she took the plunge. It was for men of sound brain and clear
+judgment to save her--not supply the means of self-destruction.
+
+Did she wish him to believe that she already loved him?
+
+Then he must assist her quickly to recover from the delusion, for Jack
+well knew that there is a difference between love and the feeling that
+could simulate it to the destruction of honour and self-respect. Passion
+had swept him off his feet with sudden violence and he was shaken to the
+depths with fear of himself, for he had let himself go unpardonably and
+was ashamed.
+
+All the way to his bungalow he walked with bowed head, alternately
+thrilled with temptation, and abased at his moral collapse; the latter,
+because he cherished an ideal and was now convicted in his own
+estimation as unworthy.
+
+The ideal had been established in the _Puja_[13] holidays he had spent
+in Darjeeling playing with the "Squawk" and listening to its mother's
+innocent reminiscences of her home and her people in England. He had
+found a wonderful thing: a beautiful woman without vanity--a
+child-nature in a woman; an ideal wife; one who respected her husband
+and obeyed him while idolising their child. Wedded to such purity a
+husband's life was paradise, and Jack accounted him a lucky man. It was
+refreshing to bask in her presence and hear her describe her simple
+past, so transparently virtuous and inexperienced, into which a certain
+name was always intruding. "Kitty" the little sister was mentioned
+constantly. Always "Kitty!" She had said this or that, she had done so
+and so. She was a little wonder, full of charm, and so intensely human
+that the picture of her had haunted his imagination.
+
+[Footnote 13: Hindu festival.]
+
+"Is she like you?" he had asked wondering if Nature could possibly have
+twice excelled herself.
+
+"We are considered rather alike, but she has twice the courage and
+initiative that I have, and her eyes are the deepest violet you have
+seen."
+
+"Haven't you a photo of her?" curiosity had impelled him to ask.
+
+"Oh, yes. A beauty, taken by Raaf's in Regent Street." She had fetched
+the photograph and Jack had fallen straightway in love with the
+sparkling face so full of charm and sunshine. The small features were
+not unlike Mrs. Meredith's, but where they lacked her beauty, they made
+up a thousandfold in attraction. It was a face to hold the attention, to
+follow to the ends of the earth. From Mrs. Meredith's description, Kitty
+was brimful of life and high spirits, affectionate and generous, but
+quite a "handful" to manage. "She always dared infinitely more than ever
+I did, and was always the first to get into scrapes! But so loyal and
+honourable!"
+
+"I should imagine every fellow for miles around must be head and ears in
+love with her!"
+
+"That, of course, but she is not a bit silly about boys, being
+practically a boy herself in disposition. Only lately she has begun to
+do up her hair and is to be presented next season when she will be
+considered 'out.'"
+
+"And be married straight away!"
+
+"I suppose so," said Joyce proudly. "She is such a darling!"
+
+"I can believe it," said he.
+
+Jack had been so completely captivated by Kitty's photograph that Joyce
+had generously told him to keep it. She had other copies and thought it
+as well that he should cultivate an ideal for the elevation of his soul.
+"It is good for a man to look up to a really good girl with admiration
+and trust; it should make him determined to become worthy of the
+possession even of her picture."
+
+"It is something for a fellow to live up to," Jack had blushingly
+returned, full of delight in the gift. He mentally resolved to go in
+search of the original the very first time he obtained furlough and to
+be satisfied with no other. If the Fates would only keep her fancy-free
+for himself!
+
+He carried the picture home and Tommy was tormented with curiosity
+concerning the face which was so like Mrs. Meredith's and yet not hers.
+
+The memory of that afternoon at Darjeeling and of the photograph in his
+dispatch-box came to taunt Jack in the moonlight as he wended his way to
+the bungalow at the Police Lines, fresh as he was from the experience of
+a married woman's kisses given in response to his own.
+
+Tommy was at home and awake when he came in, and remarked bluntly
+concerning his extraordinary pallor.
+
+"How did it go off? Was Barrington Fox Esquire particularly cordial?"
+
+"He wasn't there," came gruffly from Jack.
+
+"Not there?"
+
+"I'll repeat it if you like."
+
+"Don't be ratty. I was only expressing natural surprise. Possibly she
+knew he wouldn't be there when she asked you."
+
+"You are as uncharitable as everyone else."
+
+"No, I am merely somewhat discerning."
+
+"It does you credit."
+
+"My son, hearken to the words of wisdom and the voice of the
+sage--'Whoso is partner with a thief, hateth his own soul----'"
+
+"Oh, go to blazes," said Jack pouring himself out a whisky-and-soda.
+
+"'A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.'"
+
+"I've been to Church--Drop it."
+
+"'Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
+friend,'" Tommy persisted with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Thanks, I'm much obliged but it isn't necessary. Have a cigarette."
+
+It was mentioned that the doctor dined at the Bara Koti that evening.
+
+When the news of an extra mouth to feed was conveyed to the cook in the
+kitchen, Abdul surveyed three snipe among potato chips with a problem of
+multiplication vexing his soul.
+
+"With the _padre-sahib_ they are three, yet without warning they bring a
+fourth! Now what to do? _ai khodar_!--how to arrange?"
+
+"Why disturb thyself, brother?" said the _khansaman_ sympathetically as
+he put extra plates on the rack of the hot-case in which an open fire in
+a cast-iron cooker burned fiercely. "Cut each bird in two and make toast
+for each portion, in this way there will be some left for thee and me.
+If the master say aught, ask if it is his almighty will that the
+_shikari_ be sent out at a moment's notice in the moonlight to shoot
+another bird."
+
+The fine sarcasm of his advice created a general laugh of good-humour
+among the servants assembled to serve the dinner. "In my last place,"
+continued the Mohammedan butler, "my Sahib who had no wife would, out of
+sheer provocation, bring six or eight sahibs home to eat with him, and
+could we protest? _Yah, khodar!_ that instant with two kicks would we
+have been dismissed, and he so ready with his boot! No! Quickly we put
+water in the soup; with much energy we opened a tin of salmon, cut up
+onions, fetched a cucumber from the vegetable garden for salad. Then in
+the fowl-house, what a cackling and screeching as the _masalchi_ chased
+fowls and cut their throats! _Jhut!_ they were cleaned and how long does
+it take to grill meat? In fifteen minutes from the order, the dinner was
+ready, pudding and all. When a store-room is well-stocked, it is like
+_jadu_[14] to make a dinner for one capable of feeding six and even
+eight!"
+
+[Footnote 14: Magic.]
+
+All great talkers are unconscious egotists, as the Merediths found the
+Reverend John Pugh who enjoyed the sound of his own voice even when he
+was not in the pulpit, and retailed stock jokes and anecdotes to the
+company in general, forgetful of the fact that the same jokes and
+anecdotes had been recounted by him at every house on his visiting list.
+At dessert Joyce was glad to slip away to the drawing-room taking with
+her the doctor, who was permitted to smoke while he played to her on the
+piano.
+
+Joyce noticed that he was disinclined for conversation and was out of
+sorts and dull, as though inwardly disturbed and uninterested even at
+his music. He took an early opportunity to leave and was accompanied to
+the doorstep by Joyce, her husband being still pinned to the dining-room
+by the parson whose anecdotes were inexhaustible.
+
+"When next you see your friend, Miss Bright," said he, apropos of
+nothing, as he shook hands again, "tell her, will you?--that I know how
+to take a snub."
+
+"Why?--has Honor snubbed you?" she asked surprised.
+
+He smiled unpleasantly. "It was equal to a knock-down blow."
+
+"But that is so unlike Honor. How do you mean?"
+
+"I am not complaining, for I dare say I deserve it, but I would like her
+to know that I shall not willingly put myself in the way of the same
+again."
+
+"Oh--" light had dawned on Joyce. "It must be because she thinks you
+failed Elsie Meek. She heard that you never went to Sombari on Friday
+night though you left the party for the purpose of seeing how she was
+doing. Honor came here straight from the Mission."
+
+"It was on the steps of the Mission bungalow that we met, and I was
+sentenced without a charge."
+
+"Are you very angry?"
+
+"I don't think I am," he returned proudly. "It is nothing of
+consequence."
+
+"But would it have made any difference had you gone?" she pressed. "I
+ask because I feel responsible for having kept you with me." Her voice
+quavered with emotion and her lovely eyes drooped.
+
+"It would have made no difference." Captain Dalton condescended to
+explain Elsie Meek's condition and the fatal consequence of the sudden
+exertion she had taken in her delirium and high fever. "She needed very
+close watching. Unfortunately that was not given."
+
+"Then it was the nurse's fault?"
+
+"It was an accident. They could not afford a second nurse and Mrs. Meek
+was physically unfit to do her share."
+
+"I shall tell Honor."
+
+"Please do not do so. I prefer to let the matter stand. It will be quite
+for the best," and with that he was gone.
+
+However, Joyce took the first opportunity of repeating the conversation
+to her friend. "So you see, dear," she concluded as they talked together
+at the Club the following afternoon, "he was not at all to blame."
+
+"Perhaps not, but it makes no difference. I am deeply disappointed in
+him. It was his duty to have gone, and a man who is capable of
+neglecting a duty for pleasure falls short of the standard I cherish,"
+returned Honor coldly.
+
+"I did not know you could be so hard!" said Joyce reproachfully.
+
+"I am not hard. It is absolutely nothing to me and Captain Dalton cares
+very little what I think."
+
+Joyce wondered if that were so, for she remembered his abstraction; his
+mention of Honor had been a bolt from the blue.
+
+"I do not understand why he said 'it would be quite for the best,'"
+Joyce speculated.
+
+"It proves how little he cares one way or another!" Honor answered,
+wounded but proud. "And I have had a lesson never to mistake a goose for
+a swan again."
+
+"But he was good to you!"
+
+"And for that I immediately dressed him up in every virtue; I was just a
+fool--like any schoolgirl! Please don't let us talk of Captain Dalton
+any more. He does not interest me at all."
+
+She knew it was untrue to say that, but it was too late to recall her
+words as she turned and faced Captain Dalton, himself, who had come up
+from behind them and must have heard her concluding remarks. He was
+apparently searching for the Collector who had returned reluctantly to
+camp and, as Honor passed on with a bow, which he acknowledged
+distantly, he and Joyce moved away together.
+
+"I wish you would chase Honor and bring her to reason," said Joyce
+childishly.
+
+"I would much prefer to stay with you, if I may?" said he impressively.
+"Besides, why should I?"
+
+"Because," said Joyce with childish impulsiveness, "Honor Bright was
+very fond of you."
+
+In a flash, Dalton's eyes seemed to dilate and then contract. "What
+makes you think so?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"I knew it--I felt it. She could not hide it from me."
+
+"Did she ever say anything?" he asked with assumed indifference.
+
+"Not in words--but when she spoke of you--oh, the light in her eyes, and
+the changing colour!--perhaps I should not tell you this?--but
+misunderstandings are wretched."
+
+Her blue eyes apologised so prettily that he smiled with peculiar
+radiance.
+
+"You are a very good friend," he said with amused indulgence.
+
+"Who wouldn't be that to a girl like Honor!"
+
+"And if I tell you I appreciate that, you must forgive me if I would
+rather not discuss Honor Bright any more. Are you very lonely now your
+husband has left?"
+
+"I shall be, after today!" she pouted in self-pity.
+
+"Then I shall call round for you tomorrow afternoon and take you for a
+spin?"
+
+"I shall look forward to it. Will you teach me to drive?"
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+"How delightful of you!"
+
+"The pleasure will be equally mine," he said quite charmingly for him;
+and after further pleasantries rather foreign to his habit, he left her
+and drove away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+INFATUATION
+
+
+Filled with the determination to set aside foolish jealousies and
+cultivate a more generous trust in human nature, the Collector returned
+to his administrative duties in camp which were designed to bring him
+personally into contact with the villagers in his jurisdiction.
+
+His bachelor experience of social life in the East had, unfortunately,
+not helped to supply him with much confidence in his own sex. However,
+men were not all ravening wolves let loose upon society, and it was an
+undeniable fact that no man, however unprincipled, would dare to make
+love to a married woman without her encouragement, or attempt to seduce
+her from her lawful allegiance without her co-operation. And Joyce was
+incorruptible because of her love for her child.
+
+Yet there were times when Meredith's heart yearned wistfully for his
+beloved wife, and for the power of second sight that he might see how
+things were going in his absence; and since he was denied that faculty,
+it was not a little comfort to him to know that Honor Bright was in
+intimate companionship with Joyce. He liked to think of her influence
+exerted to assist the development of the childlike mind; for Honor
+Bright was "one of the best," and would some day make some lucky fellow
+a splendid wife; of that there was no doubt whatever. It seemed a
+mystery that she was still unmarried when she had been out in India for
+a year or more! and Meredith wondered what men were about. It did not
+strike him that Honor was not to be had for the asking.
+
+It was well, however, for the Collector's peace of mind and the work
+upon which he was engaged, that he did not know of the motor drives
+which were to provide a surprise for him one day.
+
+"People are beginning to talk about them," Honor ventured, with
+reference to their frequency, shy of being misunderstood and afraid of
+being considered interfering; but she had not forgotten Ray Meredith's
+parting words spoken with wistful meaning--"Take care of my wife, she is
+such a kid!"
+
+She had accepted the responsibility and it was weighing heavily upon
+her.
+
+"Very impertinent of 'people,'" said Joyce in return.
+
+"You have to live among them, and in your position they want to look up
+to you as a sort of 'Cæsar's wife,'" said Honor smiling. "But it is, of
+course, a matter that lies between you and your husband entirely. If
+_he_ doesn't object----"
+
+"He knows nothing about my learning to drive, as it is to be a surprise.
+What concern is it of any one else?"
+
+"We generally stand or fall by what people think of us--don't we?
+However much we would like to ignore the fact, it remains
+unquestionable. If we do things liable to misconstruction, we are likely
+to suffer in the eyes of the world--and you see it every day. You
+yourself disapproved of and condemned Mrs. Fox, whose ways none of us
+admire or can stand."
+
+"Oh, Honey!" reproachfully--"would you compare me with Mrs. Fox? Why she
+does scandalous things!"
+
+"God forbid that I should! but Mrs. Fox did not begin by doing
+scandalous things. When she grew used to doing unconventional things she
+became consciously scandalous. Everything happens by degrees--even
+deterioration."
+
+"But you don't think there is any harm in my going for drives with
+Captain Dalton, Honey? He is so different. He is not the kind of man who
+gets women talked about, I should imagine. Why, half the time, he is
+glum and absent-minded, and he treats me just like a child." Joyce never
+resented Honor's plain-speaking.
+
+"It is no business of mine," said Honor, "except that you are my friend
+and I am jealous for your honourable standing here. I know nothing of
+Captain Dalton, but that he is a man like most others--and you might,
+some day, meet with a surprise."
+
+"What sort of surprise?" laughed Joyce sceptically.
+
+"I don't know--but you'll remember that I warned you. Meantime, go easy
+with your favours. You are rather generous, you know."
+
+Honor was thinking of Joyce's innocent demonstrativeness--inseparable
+from herself--which some men might not understand, and the doctor was
+but human after all. She had seen her toying with his watch-chain while
+arguing against following his advice for the good of her health; leading
+him by the hand to visit her baby in its crib; seizing the lapels of his
+coat in a moment of eager excitement. On each of these occasions Honor
+had been apart from them, an observer at a distance, engaged by others
+in conversation and desirous of appearing unconscious of the doctor's
+existence. Since the day she had shown silent disapproval of him on the
+steps of the Mission Bungalow, he had made no effort to bring about a
+better understanding and she was wounded to the quick, though she
+steeled herself to show utter indifference. Yet the sight of the doctor
+with Joyce in such intimate circumstances--latterly made more so by the
+frequent drives--had caused Honor's heart to twist with sudden anguish;
+for it was difficult to forget the day at his bungalow when he had
+fought for her life and called her the bravest girl he knew. A wordless
+sympathy had grown up between them since that day. His eyes had held for
+her a special message. Though he was "not seeking her for a wife" she
+felt that he had liked her more than a little, and she----?
+
+Now they were less than strangers; and Joyce, beautiful and confiding,
+was innocently flattering him with her preference. Where would it end?
+
+While Honor watched the development of Joyce's friendship with Captain
+Dalton, she was also aware of a change in Jack. Tommy had drawn her
+attention to Mrs. Fox's efforts to enslave Jack, whose own demeanour was
+beginning to show that all was not right with him. A new
+self-consciousness was apparent in his manner towards her, and he made
+blundering efforts to avoid being left alone in her company. He was
+evidently afraid of her--afraid of himself, too--because of the evil
+impulses her insidious influence had aroused in him.
+
+The fact was, Jack had arrived at a just appreciation of the truism,
+"Opportunity makes the thief." His respect for Mrs. Fox had expired
+after the episode on her moonlight verandah, and though he had made
+excuses for her, he was conscious they had rung hollow. Yet, in spite of
+his strict upbringing and the knowledge of danger, he had come to the
+psychological point when Opportunity was certain to make him a thief,
+for the memory of those kisses burned fiercely. He was as one who, by
+steeping himself in the vice of intoxication, begets a craving for
+alcohol, and he felt that his powers of resistance were on the wane. His
+cherished "ideal" was forgotten, and her portrait reposed face downward
+among envelopes and papers in his dispatch-box, while he kept out of
+Mrs. Meredith's way and neglected Honor Bright.
+
+"Jack's not the same man," Tommy confided to Honor. "He eats little and
+talks less. That woman will bring him to grief. I'd cheerfully shoot
+her."
+
+"What's the matter with Jack?" Honor asked, surprised. "What does he
+admire in her? I have no patience with him."
+
+"I don't know that he admires her. It's an infatuation. She has cast a
+spell over him somehow, since the night he dined with her alone, and he
+can't resist it. She writes to him almost every day."
+
+"And he answers her notes?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Jack is weak. I simply have no use for such weakness," said Honor
+contemptuously. "There is more hope for the villain who is deliberately
+bad than for the wobbly wretch who hasn't the strength to resist
+temptation. When the one repents, he is at least sincere; the other can
+never be depended upon to repent sincerely."
+
+"I never heard that before," grinned Tommy. "You would rather have Jack
+sin deliberately with his eyes open than fail in his efforts to keep
+straight?"
+
+"I have no patience for 'failures.' One could be angry with him for
+sinning deliberately, but hardly contemptuous. As it is, I have no
+opinion of Jack."
+
+Tommy made no complaint, for it was all to his own advantage. Though he
+was fond of Jack he had always regarded him as a dangerous rival, who so
+far had been merciful in not exerting his fascinations upon the only
+girl in their small circle at Muktiarbad. Since he was such a fool as to
+prefer dangling after a married woman, ten years his senior, his blood
+be on his own head.
+
+One evening, a few days later, Mrs. Fox discovered Jack Darling alone in
+the billiard-room knocking about the balls while waiting for someone to
+join him in a game. The rules of the Muktiarbad Club were lenient
+towards the ladies, who thus enjoyed privileges denied to them at larger
+stations. Mrs. Fox was therefore free to enter, and Jack was obliged to
+submit to his fate and comply with her request for a lesson in the
+science of "screws" and "potting." He had been priding himself on his
+wisdom and self-control in retiring from tennis and the society of the
+ladies, and had not reckoned on the perseverance of the one lady he
+wished to avoid.
+
+They played till others arrived; Jack was oddly moved by the sight of
+her slender hand, exquisitely feminine and appealing, as it poised the
+cue or lay on the green cloth of the table. Little intimacies were
+inevitable as he was further called upon to instruct her in the
+formation of a "bridge," or the handling of a cue; and he soon forgot
+his desire to escape, in the involuntary thrills her contact gave him.
+
+Eventually, she gracefully resigned in favour of a couple of members who
+looked their anxiety to play, and carried Jack off to escort her home.
+
+"You are quite sure you do not mind?" she asked softly.
+
+"Why should I mind?" he fenced awkwardly.
+
+"Because you have behaved lately as though you did not--not--like
+me...."
+
+"Have I?" he asked, flushing red in the darkness. "That isn't true."
+
+"I thought, perhaps, it was not true. That is why I was determined to
+have this opportunity for a talk."
+
+She did most of the talking while he barely listened, being conscious
+only of the thumping of his capitulating heart. But neither made any
+allusion to the tender episode on the verandah, from which Jack dated
+his undoing.
+
+In a quiet lane where the shadows lay deepest, he was asked to strike a
+match. Convicted of lack of courtesy, Jack hurriedly produced his
+cigarette case and offered it to her with confused apologies.
+
+"No thanks. Only a lighted match. I want to show you something," she
+said plaintively. And while he struck a light she rolled back her silk
+sleeve and displayed for his benefit a purple bruise on her shoulder
+where it curved down to the arm; an ugly, evil-looking thing staining
+the marble purity of the flesh.
+
+"How did that happen?" he asked greatly shocked and very sympathetic.
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+"Good God!--is it possible? Is he such a cad as all that?" What else was
+Jack to think?
+
+"Perhaps I had better say no more about it, only I thought you had
+better know." Only the inference was possible, and Jack stood
+stock-still burning with indignant fury that a woman should be subjected
+to such brutality at the hands of a man. The match burned down to his
+finger-tips and fell to the ground leaving the two in the shadows of the
+silent road.
+
+"It makes me feel pretty mad--what can I do?" he asked helplessly as she
+drew the sleeve down.
+
+"You can do nothing--but give me a little tenderness and love," she said
+with a sob, letting him take her in his arms.
+
+"You poor little woman!"
+
+"It is so lovely to feel that you care, Jack! Nothing matters so long as
+you care!" She clung to his neck inviting and returning his kisses.
+
+Further down the lane as they walked with his arm about her, they were
+startlingly rung out of the way by a cyclist who had come on them
+unawares. It was Tommy who had neglected to light his lamp, as the
+night, though dark, was clear and starry and municipal regulations were
+lax.
+
+"Do you think he recognised us?" Mrs. Fox asked anxiously.
+
+"Without a doubt," Jack spoke with annoyance.
+
+"But it's only Tommy and you are his friend. He won't give us away." She
+had no idea of the shame and embarrassment that Jack suffered at the
+thought that he had given his chum ocular proof of his folly, for Tommy
+had confessed that he despised Mrs. Fox, and that he had encouraged
+Bobby Smart to break away from her clutches. That there was truth in the
+gossip concerning Mrs. Fox and young Smart he could no longer doubt, but
+this made very little difference to him. As matters stood, he was
+committed and could not go back. Nor did he wish to. At least Tommy was
+loyal and would not give him away to the Station. Thoughts of the
+Station brought thoughts of Mrs. Meredith and Honor Bright whose
+good-fellowship he valued. Honor stood for all that was best in
+womanhood, and to be worthy of her companionship a man had to be as
+straight as a die. Joyce Meredith was "not in the same boat," though
+she, too, was a "bit of 'All-right.'" Her sister--? what chance had he
+of ever meeting her sister?--Jack laughed as he shook off a tendency to
+morbid regret and bade Mrs. Fox a resolute farewell at her gate. He had
+plenty to do preparing a judgment he had to deliver in court the
+following day, and begged to be excused. Another day--perhaps----
+
+Mrs. Fox fixed the day and parted from him tenderly, full of
+satisfaction at the success of her clever fiction. The accident which
+had occasioned the bruise had been of the commonest, but it had served
+her gallantly.
+
+Contrary to Jack's expectations, Tommy was not at all in the mood to
+rag, being silent for the greater part of dinner. However, when the
+genial influence of a whisky-and-soda had had time to work on his
+spirits, the young policeman apologised for not having carried a light
+on his bicycle. It was his way of introducing the subject which was
+haunting him with forebodings.
+
+"That's all right," said Jack. "But as one whose job is to enforce the
+law, I should imagine you would be more particular."
+
+"If that's all the law-breaking I do, I shan't come to grief, my son. It
+is very different in your case. 'Can a man take coals to his bosom and
+not be burned?'"
+
+"What the devil are you driving at?"
+
+"I get a tidy lot of wisdom out of old Solomon and I commend you to take
+up the dissertation from where I left off. You'll find a good deal to
+set you thinking."
+
+"Where am I to find it?" Jack asked with determined good-humour.
+
+"Proverbs--sixth, twenty-eighth; read from there, onward."
+
+"Thanks. I'll see what he has to say concerning such stupendous truths."
+
+"I commend you also to try him for advice on seeking a wife," said
+Tommy. "It will help you to form a judgment. Listen:
+
+"'_Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
+rubies_'----"
+
+"Blessed old cynic!" interjected Jack, adding, he had heard that before.
+
+"'_The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her_'--mark the word,
+'trust'.... '_She will do him good, not evil all the days of her life._'
+I can't remember it all, there is such a lot. He goes on to say, '_Her
+husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the
+land.... Strength and honour are her clothing and she shall rejoice in
+time to come_----'"
+
+"Personally, I should prefer something more decent as a garment,"
+murmured Jack, while Tommy searched his brains.
+
+"'_She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of
+kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not
+the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her
+husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously,
+but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain: but
+a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the
+fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates._'"
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Isn't it enough?"
+
+"And you mean to say you expect to find such a paragon of perfection in
+modern times?" Jack asked, pouring out some more whisky.
+
+"Till I do, I shan't marry," said Tommy.
+
+"Here's luck to you!" said Jack raising his glass to his lips,
+unconvinced. "I'm afraid you'll live to be an old bachelor."
+
+"I'm afraid I shall, though I have found her already," murmured Tommy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+VANISHED
+
+
+Honor Bright paid several visits to the Mission after Elsie Meek's
+death, hoping to be of use in cheering the bereaved mother. After the
+funeral most of the ladies had called to sympathise, Joyce among them,
+tearful and tender; but having nothing in common with Methodists who
+held aloof from Station society, her visit of condolence ended the
+intercourse, so that, but for Honor, Mrs. Meek would have been much
+alone. The girl would cycle down for an hour or so and chat with, or
+read to the grief-stricken woman while she worked garments for the
+converted heathen, thus affording her the priceless boon of sympathetic
+companionship.
+
+During these visits it became apparent to her how much the Padre had
+changed. He was hardly the same man. All his dictatorial ways were gone,
+his self-sufficiency vanished; he was, instead, bowed down with
+depression, he looked older than his years, and spoke with a new and
+strange humility.
+
+Very shyly, as though unaccustomed to the rôle, he was becoming the
+attentive husband with an anxious eye for his wife's comfort, and
+seeking to show her by unobtrusive services that he understood and
+shared her grief and was suffering the pangs of remorse. It was not easy
+for Mr. Meek to confess that he now realised he had been a hard husband
+and father, but his manner was tantamount to such a confession, and Mrs.
+Meek was deeply touched. The passionate love and devotion of nineteen
+years ago had long settled into a natural affection for the father of
+her child, and now when she was stricken to the earth with sorrow, the
+void in her heart craved to be filled, and she could feel he was
+striving to fill it.
+
+"You don't know how pathetic it seems to me," she confided in Honor,
+"his self-conviction and efforts to atone. He must have been fond of our
+child, deep down, though unable to show it, not being of a demonstrative
+nature. I think he feels he was narrow and bigoted not to have allowed
+her a few innocent pleasures such as girls enjoy among young people in a
+Station,--and it is too late now!"
+
+"There is nothing I can imagine so painful as unavailing remorse," said
+Honor.
+
+"It makes me sorry for him and though I have found it hard to forgive
+him, I have uttered no word of reproach. He is so altered. Although a
+good man and truly religious, he was yet growing unconsciously selfish
+and domineering--all that has now been swept away, and he is ready for
+any self-sacrifice--even to allowing me to visit my family in Scotland."
+
+"Will you go?"
+
+Mrs. Meek's work dropped in her lap while she gave herself up to
+thought. "No," she said at length. "I have lost touch with my people.
+Though they love me dearly, and I them, I don't feel as if I could leave
+my husband alone now that he is so broken and sad. We share the same
+bereavement, and need each other now more than ever before. Besides, he
+hardly realises how dependent he is upon me. I have done so much for him
+all these years that he will be utterly stranded without me. It would be
+cruel."
+
+Honor smiled at her affectionately, thinking it was very sweet--this
+spirit of love and forgiveness springing to life after years of habitual
+submission. A truly feminine quality, upon which the masculine nature
+has never failed to draw, and which would continue as long as women
+remained womanly for the salvation of men.
+
+While at Sombari, Honor heard news of Captain Dalton's doings in the
+District. His fame as a surgeon had spread far and wide with various
+results on the ignorant and enlightened. In the case of the former, he
+inspired more fear than respect, and Mr. Meek could tell of mischievous
+rumours afloat which he had done his best to dispel so far as his
+influence went. One of the tales in circulation was that Captain Dalton
+was an agent of the Government sent to cripple the youths of the
+District and otherwise render them helpless in the event of a
+revolution.
+
+"And when is such an event likely to happen?" the Padre had asked.
+
+Who can tell?--Weren't there mutterings and discontent in big
+towns?--All who travelled and went to the cities came back with news of
+great things to come if all that the people demanded was not granted by
+the _Sarcar_.
+
+"What are the people demanding?" Mr. Meek persisted in knowing.
+
+That was best known to the highly educated. What did the poor
+agriculturist know of what was good for the country? He was like sheep
+led to the pasture by those in authority. But when the _Sarcar_ sent
+among the sheep a butcher with no stomach for the suffering of the
+helpless ones, it was time to protest and to see to it that he was
+recalled or driven away. Some were for even more lawless methods of
+ridding the countryside of this monster who disembowelled the sick and
+suffering, severed limbs, and robbed people of their rights.
+
+Mr. Meek's inquiries elicited that the doctor had performed certain
+surgical operations in some cases of accidental injury, which the
+neglect of sanitary precautions had rendered necessary. An operation for
+appendicitis had resulted in death through bad nursing and failure to
+carry out instructions. The women of a zemindar's household had fed his
+son on solids too soon after the removal of his appendix, which act of
+ignorance and disobedience had produced inflammation, agony, and death.
+The doctor was regarded as his murderer, and evil looks followed him
+whenever he passed that way.
+
+"What butchery!" one had afterwards exclaimed at a council of five
+called to discuss the enormity of the doctor's conduct and his growing
+record of outrages upon humanity. "To extract a portion of the
+intestines was madness and murder, for who can exist without intestines
+as God made them?--and his effrontery to put the blame upon the women
+who in the tenderness of their hearts had fed the youth on _dhal_ and
+rice for the restoration of his strength--_ai Khodar_! What harm was
+there ever in plain _dhal_ and rice? It was but an excuse, and now there
+is Gunesh Prosad without a son to inherit his estate, and all because of
+this man who is sent among us to cut up human bodies while they are yet
+alive!"
+
+"It is a great danger to us. Someone must teach this _Sarcari_ butcher
+of human flesh a lesson, or where might it not end?" another had
+remarked in complete sympathy.
+
+"But," put in a third cautiously, fearful of making himself unpopular by
+repeating the tale with which he was fit to burst, "didst hear of that
+legend concerning the coolie of Panipara _busti_ who went forth as a
+beater for the hunt, the time the Collector Sahib and others took long
+spears and killed wild boars? He was gored, and lay on the grass
+disembowelled, and as one dead. Quickly on hearing of the accident came
+the doctor Sahib in his _hawa-ghari_, himself at the wheel, and leaping
+out he knelt on the grass, and in a twinkling with strange gloves, and
+water in a _gumla_[15], he washed the coolie's intestines and restored
+them where they belonged, after which with a needle, even as a _darzi_
+sews garments, he stitched up the wound! Those watching turned sick of
+stomach, but not so the doctor Sahib. Even the Collector Sahib turned
+his back and called for a glass of spirits. _Ai--Ma!_--how he did it
+was a miracle, but the man is at the hospital in the Station,
+recovering, and these are true words; on the head of my eldest born I
+swear I have repeated it just as it was told to me."
+
+[Footnote 15: Earthen receptacle.]
+
+"It is a fable; believe it not. More likely he is dead and his body
+already cremated."
+
+"Not so. I was told I could see him, if I willed, with mine own eyes.
+Many have journeyed to the Station so that they might with their own
+eyes behold him. The doctor Sahib may be unfeeling, even bloodthirsty,
+but he is devil-possessed with cunning to work magic."
+
+"Even so, he is a danger and should be removed. Who knows what excuse he
+might take to use the knife on thee and me and the little ones of our
+households? _Tobah!_ he is a wolf, not a man. And this one the _Sarcar_
+has sent among us to mutilate, kill, and rob us of our comforts and
+rights. Soon, he will take away the _jhil_ from Panipara _busti_ so that
+the people will be put to the labour of dragging water out of deep
+wells, and for the washing of their garments, they will have to walk
+many _kos_ to the river!"
+
+Mr. Meek had learned a great deal more from his converts of the sayings
+of the villagers and their feeling against Captain Dalton, all of which
+Mrs. Meek recounted to Honor in order that she might put the doctor on
+his guard. The latter, however, gave her no opportunity to speak to him,
+so she left it to Joyce to tell him of his growing unpopularity.
+
+This Joyce did on one of their outings in the Rolls-Royce and only
+succeeded in bringing a smile of amusement to the doctor's lips. He had
+no apprehensions whatever for his safety and the subject, therefore, was
+speedily forgotten. Joyce learned how to drive, and one afternoon in
+December had the supreme satisfaction of motoring out to camp and back
+again in the doctor's car. Her pleasure in his surprise was so childlike
+and exuberant that Meredith had not the heart to show his disapproval of
+the means by which she had attained this end, and smothered his own
+feelings that they should not damp her spirits.
+
+"It was very charming indeed of him to spare so much of his time to
+you," he said with reference to the doctor's tutelage. "But why should
+he take all that trouble, do you think?"
+
+"Because he likes me, of course," she replied ingenuously. "People don't
+usually do things for those for whom they care nothing," she said
+perching on his knee and lighting his cigarette for him. Her engaging
+impulses of affection were most disarming to Meredith's suspicions.
+
+"But--suppose I object to his liking you to such a remarkable extent?"
+he said with admirable self-control.
+
+"But why should you? Aren't you glad?"
+
+"Devil a bit! I am wondering whether or not I should consider it an
+impertinence, the way he places his leisure at your disposal."
+
+"But you yourself say I am the Bara Memsahib of the Station. Isn't it
+expected of the men to show me plenty of respect and heaps of attention?
+You wouldn't like to see me left out in the cold?"
+
+"So long as they remember the 'respect'----"
+
+"Ah, now you're talking!" she said severely. "Have I ever done anything
+to make you doubt my right to the respect of everyone here?"
+
+Meredith kissed away the frown, considerably lighter of heart than he
+had been for some time. No man looking into the sweet pure eyes could
+fail to respect her! A fellow would indeed be a rascal if he tried to
+lead such a perfect lamb astray!
+
+So the drives continued even after the lessons were no longer necessary,
+Joyce often at the wheel with Captain Dalton beside her keeping strict
+watch over their safety and that of the car which he particularly
+valued, while listening idly to her prattle. The curve of her cheek and
+sweep of her eyelashes delighted his artistic love of beauty, so that
+though he had plumbed the shallow depths of her mind at the start, he
+was still entertained by such superficialities as artlessness and
+loveliness.
+
+"When are you going to show me the ruins?" she asked once, when in full
+view of the tall minarets and crumbling dome of the ancient palace. "No
+one seems to have sufficient interest in them to show them to me."
+
+"There is nothing much to see beyond jungle and brick-work," he said,
+bored at the bare idea of plodding over the ground he had already
+visited, which was interesting only to globe-trotters and lovers of
+antiquities.
+
+"I am crazy to see some of the old enamel still to be found on the
+bricks if you look for it. They say it is a lost art. Are there any
+snakes and leopards?"
+
+"Possibly snakes, but no leopards. They were gotten rid of long ago, I
+am told."
+
+Joyce shuddered. "The thought of snakes gives me the creeps. Isn't it
+possible to see the place and yet avoid snakes?" she asked longingly.
+She looked so pretty that he relented.
+
+"If we are careful the snakes won't trouble us. I'll take you there some
+day when I have a long afternoon to spare."
+
+At this Joyce was delighted and gave him her sweetest smiles. "If it
+were not for you, I don't know how I should exist in Muktiarbad!" she
+cooed.
+
+"Your husband would not like to hear you say that!" he remarked studying
+her curiously.
+
+"He has to be away so much that I might have died of _ennui_ if you
+hadn't taken pity on me!" she pouted.
+
+Dalton was not ready with pretty speeches; it involved too much effort
+to make up insincerities, but he acknowledged that the drives had given
+him a great deal of pleasure. It was so difficult to rouse him to
+enthusiasm, and he was so complacently cynical, that Joyce took a
+delight in probing his silences and getting at his thoughts.
+
+"Don't you ever really enjoy yourself?" she roguishly asked, her head on
+one side and arch mischief in her eyes.
+
+"I've just said so, haven't I?"
+
+"But you don't mean it. I wish I could understand you and all there is
+behind that grudging smile--what you think of people--me, for instance."
+
+"I think if I were an artist I should like to paint a picture of
+you--you are so amazingly good to look at," he returned daringly.
+
+Joyce coloured. She had asked for frankness and could not quarrel with
+him for having answered her bluntly. On the whole she was rather
+pleased, than otherwise, that he should admire her, for where was the
+use of being pretty if one's friends did not show that they appreciated
+the fact. So she beamed on him wholly unconscious of flirting and
+rallied him still further on his reserve.
+
+"I don't want to be your model, but your friend. You treat me too much
+as a child and never give me any confidence. Today, after all these
+months, what do I know of you?"
+
+"You know at least that I am very much at your service. Isn't that so?"
+
+"You are very kind--and all that, but friends talk openly to each other.
+I know nothing of you, and I _do_ know everything you could say would be
+so interesting," she sighed. "For instance, why are you never really
+happy?"
+
+"I have forgotten the way," he said coolly. "Perhaps I have learned too
+much of life and have lost interest in it. You don't laugh when you
+can't see the joke, do you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor do I. I see no joke in life worth enjoying, so I have forgotten
+what pleasure is."
+
+"Can't you tell me all about it?" She pleaded.
+
+"It's an ugly story and not for your ears. But it played the devil with
+me for good and all," said he grimly.
+
+"I am so sorry," she cried sincerely shocked and grieved. "I thought you
+must have had a bad time to look and act as you do. Poor you!" and one
+small hand rested for a moment on his. It was immediately captured and
+held close.
+
+"Why should you care?" he asked, his expression curiously hardening.
+
+"Because I like you so much."
+
+"Only _like_?" he asked with a short, unpleasant laugh.
+
+The necessity to avoid a goat tethered by the roadside prevented her
+from replying; Joyce recovered her hand for the steering-wheel and they
+discussed the narrow escape of the goat. To Joyce it was very
+flattering, this unbending to her alone of all in the Station, and the
+growth and development of their friendship. Some day she would learn
+what had "played the devil" with him for good and all. On the whole he
+was really quite a dear.
+
+Meredith chafed during his week-ends at the Bara Koti when it became
+apparent how much his wife depended on the doctor for companionship; and
+now that Honor was supposed to have taken a dislike to the latter and to
+avoid encounters with him on their doorstep, there was little help for
+it. The only advantage to himself to be derived from the entertainment
+Joyce found in the doctor's society, was her healthier condition of mind
+and no further insistence on a passage home for herself and the child in
+the spring. He had a firm faith in her virtue and goodness, and applied
+himself to his winter programme with feverish haste that he might be at
+liberty to return to her the sooner and personally take over the care of
+her before her innocent partiality for the Civil Surgeon became common
+talk. That it was innocent he would have staked his life.
+
+Honor Bright was less sanguine, though intensely loyal. The increasing
+intimacy between Joyce and the doctor weighed heavily on her; and it
+made her rage inwardly to hear her friend discussed openly at the Club
+by a clique that usually looked on at the tennis. While serving her
+smart over-hand strokes, scraps of conversation would float to her,
+demoralising her play and rousing in her a fierce inclination to speak
+her mind.
+
+"Where is Mrs. Meredith this evening?" a voice was heard to ask on one
+occasion.
+
+"Joy-riding as usual with Captain Dalton," from Mrs. Fox venomously. "It
+will be interesting to watch the result when Mr. Meredith awakes to
+what's going on."
+
+"What's going on?"
+
+"The doctor is a 'dark horse.' You don't suppose he would waste so much
+of his valuable time if he did not hope to get some entertainment out of
+Mrs. Meredith? She is such a coquette." This from Mrs. Fox, maliciously.
+
+"She's a simple little thing," said the first speaker charitably. "I
+shouldn't imagine there was any harm in her."
+
+"'Still waters run deep,'" quoted Mrs. Fox.
+
+"There is another instructive proverb I could quote," cried Honor
+striking savagely at a ball.
+
+"And what is that?" from Mrs. Fox.
+
+"About 'glass houses and stones.'"
+
+"If that is meant for me, thanks, awfully! But so many panes have
+already been broken, that I am most indifferent to stones," Mrs. Fox
+returned languidly as she smiled on the company, who laughed in
+embarrassment.
+
+"So it would appear," murmured Mrs. Ironsides to a friend.
+
+"Hateful creature!" Honor snapped in Tommy's ear as he handed her a
+ball.
+
+Jack, playing on the other side with Mr. Ironsides for his partner, had
+deteriorated so much of late that Tommy and Honor, who had both a
+genuine regard for him, were much exercised in mind.
+
+He had lost his frank look and easy good-humour; was rarely to be seen
+at the Club without Mrs. Fox, whom he usually drove down in a side car
+attached to his motor cycle, a recent purchase,--and was no longer the
+same man. A constraint had arisen between him and his chum who poured
+out his fears to Honor in the hope of receiving advice and comfort, but
+he had succeeded only in alarming her.
+
+"Can't anything be done to save him, Tommy?"
+
+"I can't think of anything, unless Meredith gets him transferred at
+once."
+
+"But who's to suggest that?"
+
+"His wife, I should think; otherwise some day there might be an unholy
+row. Fox is no fool. I dare say he is biding his time. He was fond of
+Bobby Smart and got him out of this while there was time, but he may
+prefer to sacrifice Jack."
+
+"How terrible!" Honor was sincerely afraid for Jack. He was too young to
+be mixed up in such a bad business, and Mrs. Fox was clever enough to
+play him like a fish till he was landed.
+
+Honor walked home at dusk escorted as far as her door by Tommy. It was
+her intention to call on Joyce after dinner with a proposition
+concerning the transfer of Jack from Muktiarbad. It seemed the only
+thing left to do. Incidentally, she would repeat her warnings to her
+friend concerning herself, for which she expected no thanks. Still, it
+had galled her badly listening to the coarse remarks of Station people
+at the Club. She would speak, however disagreeable the task.
+
+At nine o'clock when she reached the Bara Koti she discovered that Joyce
+was not in. Usually, she returned from her drive at dusk, but as she had
+not done so up to that late hour, the Collector's servants had come to
+the conclusion that she was dining at a neighbour's in the
+happy-go-lucky way that sahibs took "pot-luck" at one another's houses
+without reference to their domestics.
+
+It was odd in Mrs. Meredith's case, for never before had she failed to
+return to her baby that she might tuck him into his little cot herself
+and see that all was right. The ayah was not a little perturbed, but did
+not voice her feelings until speaking to Honor, fearing that they were
+foolish and unfounded. What did the Miss-sahib think?
+
+Honor did not know what to say. The more she thought of it the less
+likely did it seem that Joyce would dine out without coming home to
+change into dinner things and kiss her precious infant good-night. She
+decided to return home at once and ask what her parents thought about
+it.
+
+This she did without loss of time, and Mr. and Mrs. Bright took a grave
+view of circumstance.
+
+"The car has either broken down somewhere, or they have met with an
+accident," said Mr. Bright.
+
+Mrs. Bright maintained a stiff reserve.
+
+The thought of an accident caused Honor's knees to give way beneath her
+and she collapsed into a chair. "How shall we know? Supposing they don't
+return--?" The bare idea was intolerable.
+
+"I have never liked these constant motorings in her husband's absence.
+Mrs. Meredith is very foolish to court gossip in the way she is doing.
+Presently there will be a scandal," said Mrs. Bright shortly.
+
+"Joyce is not a flirt, Mother."
+
+"She goes far enough to earn the reputation of one, however innocent she
+may be."
+
+Honor knew it was the truth and was silent with an indefinable dread.
+Was Joyce altogether safe with Captain Dalton?--Should he fall in love
+and grow intensely attracted by her beauty and childlike charm, was he
+the sort to consider morality and the law? Was he strictly an honourable
+man? None knew him; none trusted him; not even Ray Meredith who was
+afraid to betray his jealousy and incur his wife's resentment; or why
+had he said: "Take care of my wife--she is such a kid?"
+
+"What had best be done?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"We had better beat up the Station and see what has happened," said Mr.
+Bright, rising to put his suggestion into effect. "She might be stupid
+enough to be dining with the doctor at his bungalow."
+
+"Oh, never!" said Honor indignantly. "She is not so foolish as all
+that!" A hot flush surged over her face at the idea. Joyce dining with
+the doctor at his bungalow, _alone_! It was too preposterous, yet--was
+it? She was "such a kid," and might be foolish enough to dare any folly
+so long as she felt sure of herself and the purity of her own
+intentions.
+
+But the pain at Honor's heart was out of all proportion to her concern
+at Joyce Meredith's indiscretion.
+
+She tortured herself imagining the possible scene in Dalton's
+dining-room--Joyce at dinner, _tête-à-tête_ with Captain Dalton!--on
+familiar terms with the man who rarely condescended to be agreeable to
+others! It was a picture inconceivably hurtful.
+
+"You had better lose no time, Dad. If you find her--anywhere--tell her
+that her servants are alarmed--the ayah particularly. I shall see her in
+the morning," she said, resolutely shutting out the vision conjured up
+by imagination.
+
+If Joyce were not dining somewhere, there must have been an accident, in
+which case they would have to send out search parties.
+
+She watched her father leave in the dogcart and wondered what the upshot
+would be, her mind restless with forebodings.
+
+It was fully an hour later that Mr. Bright returned home to report that
+Captain Dalton and Mrs. Meredith were nowhere to be found. Dalton's
+servants were waiting to serve him with dinner, and were growing anxious
+as his habits were usually automatic and punctual. He so far considered
+them that they were always informed of his plans. If he intended to dine
+out they were given liberty to spend the evening with their friends in
+the bazaar. As it was clear that something unusual had happened, Mr.
+Bright had called round on Tommy and a search was already in progress.
+Jack had taken the Sombari road on his motor cycle and Tommy had taken
+the main road in an opposite direction. It was more than possible that
+the car had broken down somewhere, in which case the stranded ones would
+probably find a bullock-cart to bring them ingloriously home.
+
+Honor hung about on the verandah for news till midnight, and was almost
+speechless with alarm when both boys appeared, one after the other to
+report the failure of their quest. The car was nowhere to be seen.
+
+To add to the difficulty, clouds which had gathered in the evening had
+discharged smart showers of rain at intervals, as is familiar to Bengal
+about Christmas time, and not a trace of wheel-marks could be discovered
+on the road.
+
+By morning the excitement had spread all over the Station. Inquiries
+poured in on the Brights. The subject of Mrs. Meredith's disappearance
+with the doctor was discussed at every _chota hazri_ table with and
+without sympathy, and even in the bazaar it was passed along from one to
+another. The Collector's memsahib had gone off with the doctor, leaving
+her little child to the tender mercies of an ayah! Alack! even to the
+homes of the mighty came shame and dishonour through a woman! And all
+through the European custom of giving women so much liberty! On the
+whole, the "black man" knew best how to protect his honour and his home!
+
+Meanwhile, a mounted messenger had gone at great speed to inform the
+Collector, who arrived by midday looking dazed and ill from the shock.
+It was pitiful to see how helpless he had become in the face of such an
+appalling tragedy as the complete disappearance of his wife. Telegrams
+to various stations on the line had brought no information; mounted
+policemen had returned without having discovered a clue. The car had
+vanished with its occupants, though all who knew Joyce intimately, knew
+that she would cheerfully have given her life rather than have abandoned
+her child.
+
+"One can scarcely believe that she has eloped," Mrs. Bright said to
+Honor. "She is so wrapped up in the child."
+
+"Someone would have seen the car," said her husband. "It is an
+unaccountable thing."
+
+Joyce eloped!--it was unthinkable.
+
+Honor, who from anxiety, had not slept all night, mounted her bicycle
+and rode out into the fresh and brilliant sunlight on a forlorn hope. An
+idea had come to her as an inspiration which, though unlikely, was not
+an impossibility. In the search for the missing ones, every road in the
+District was being scoured without success. Since the rain had
+obliterated all tracks there had been nothing to guide any one in the
+quest, and nothing had been gleaned from villagers. No one had seen the
+familiar two-seater after it had passed the boundaries of the Mission,
+which was a circumstance as mysterious as it was unaccountable, for it
+must have gone somewhere.
+
+Why not off the road? Not a soul had conceived it likely that Captain
+Dalton would have risked his fine machine over the bumpy side-tracks
+that formed short-cuts in various directions, notably one to the ruins
+which Joyce had often expressed a wish to see. They were not difficult
+of access by motor-car, although the road to them was almost covered by
+weeds and undergrowth. Supposing that the doctor had yielded to
+persuasion and taken Joyce to see the old Mogul Palace, and supposing
+that they had subsequently met with an accident, their plight might be
+truly pitiable. Very few natives found it necessary to travel by the
+jungle path so long disused, for the Government having constructed
+metalled highways in all directions, travellers had ceased to travel
+uncomfortably even if the old path was a short-cut between villages.
+Occasionally woodmen in search of timber prowled around the ancient pile
+and jackals gathered in packs to howl their grievances to the moon;
+otherwise, a stray tourist on a visit to the Station or a winter picnic
+party were the only visitors to the gaping halls and crumbling arches.
+
+Just where the unused and overgrown track left the Sombari Road, Honor
+stepped off her bicycle and searched the ground again for a clue without
+success. None was to be found in the slush and puddles of the uneven
+way.
+
+Nothing daunted, she led her bicycle over the ruts towards the jungle in
+which the palace lay buried, its dome and minarets visible through the
+tangled tree-tops. It was not easy going on foot, much less could it
+have been for a motor-car; moreover, Honor was not at all sure she liked
+venturing on her visit of exploration alone, but all who were capable of
+continuing the search were already occupied in its prosecution in
+different parts of the District, and there was no one she could have
+asked to keep her company.
+
+It was when Honor came to shadowed glades where the undergrowth almost
+hid the track and obstructed her progress, that she found the first
+clue--snapped twigs and branches bent backward. These suggested the
+passage of a cumbrous body on wheels, for sodden leaves were pressed
+into the wet earth and creepers which had barred the way had been torn
+and flung on the path.
+
+If it had been Captain Dalton's car, why had it not returned? Honor's
+heart grew sick with fear.
+
+She pressed on. Presently, she came upon the car itself, beneath
+overhanging boughs and a dense entanglement of bamboos. It had been
+saturated by the rain, the hood lay back, and an empty luncheon basket
+lay open on the seat.
+
+Evidently, they had left the car with the full intention of returning to
+it immediately, and were prevented by some unforeseen calamity. Honor
+quivered with alarm and misgiving. Where were they if not in the
+palace--killed, or injured and unable to help themselves?
+
+Her mind flew to wild animals.
+
+Though it had been a long accepted legend that tigers and leopards had
+been driven out of the neighbourhood, and had not been seen for years
+within a radius of twenty to thirty miles, it was still possible that a
+stray leopard or tiger had lately found a refuge in the neglected
+precincts of the ruins.
+
+Honor was unarmed and terribly afraid. The fate that had overtaken her
+friends might easily be hers a few steps further. Prudence and
+self-preservation dictated immediate flight and a call for a
+search-party. At the same time, having come so far it seemed her duty to
+continue till she was convinced that she could do no more. There was the
+possibility that Captain Dalton had met with an accident and Joyce,
+unable to leave him, was in dire need of help. Honor felt she would
+cease to respect herself forever if she deserted her friends at the
+moment of their greatest need.
+
+She hesitated no further, but stumbled forward over the uneven ground,
+desperately anxious and frightened, yet nerved to face any danger.
+
+Another bend of the track brought the palace into view--a dark
+conglomerate pile of crumbling masonry which looked frowningly down upon
+her, its walls weather-beaten and scarred by time, and with rank
+vegetation sprouting from every crack. A pipal tree flourished aloft
+above its dome, its roots buried in the concrete and clinging to the
+walls; while festoons of wild convolvulus hung in profusion from the
+lower branches.
+
+Moisture still dripped from the leaves, and the earth was sodden
+underfoot. Lofty arches yawned in the sunlight and a silence as of the
+grave reigned, broken only by an occasional caw from an inquisitive
+crow, or the intermittent chattering of apes.
+
+Again Honor came upon signs of forcible penetration--wild creepers torn
+aside to make a path, and jungle hacked out of the way; no easy task.
+Her friends had evidently been determined not to accept defeat in their
+effort to reach the interior of the ruin.
+
+It was a year since Honor had visited the spot and it seemed to her that
+the shape of the building had changed. One wing had partially collapsed;
+whether recently, or some months ago, she could not tell, but it did not
+look quite the same. Here and there, boulders of freshly fallen masonry
+strewed the path. There was no doubt that the edifice was slowly falling
+to pieces.
+
+Raising her hands to her lips, she gave a loud, Australian "_coo-ee!_"
+and listened while its echo called back to her....
+
+Was it an echo?
+
+Honor held her breath to listen, and heard it again--a man's voice
+calling--"Hulloa!--_coo-ee!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE INDISCRETION
+
+
+Joyce had started out on her motor ride with the doctor as happy as a
+child on a holiday. Her baby was well and there was no cause for
+anxiety; in fact, all the world seemed smiling and kind. At last she was
+learning that a short absence from home made no difference to an infant
+in the care of so capable a nurse as her Madrassi ayah, trained in the
+way of infants by the remarkable "Barnes-Memsahib."
+
+All things considered, there seemed no earthly reason why she should not
+be happy with the light-heartedness of youth helped by a kind friend to
+pass the time agreeably while she remained in India. In the spring----
+
+But she would not look ahead. Why borrow trouble? When the hot, March
+winds began to blow, Ray himself would recognise the necessity of
+sending the little one home. No father could be so selfish as to allow
+his own son and heir to fade away under his own eyes, and neglect the
+only chance of saving his little life. As to the hills!--the innumerable
+infantile diseases incurred in the hills owing to the dampness of the
+climate made life a constant terror. No! It would have to be Home in
+March. Passages were usually booked long beforehand but people often
+dropped out at the last, and a passage for a "lady and infant" could
+easily be found at the eleventh hour.
+
+Meanwhile, this was December, and she was capable of enjoying herself
+amazingly in circumstances that were innocent and harmless.
+
+With a friend like Captain Dalton at her service, so to speak, and Honor
+to love her almost as a sister would, she was very lucky and could
+afford to be as happy as the season would permit.
+
+Station gossip whispered that Dalton would not have spared so much of
+his precious time unless he were receiving some return by way of
+compensation; which was a logical deduction in estimating a masculine
+nature not governed by religious scruples; but with this Joyce was
+hardly concerned, having little comprehension of all that gossips
+implied. She was delighted to requite so much self-sacrifice on the
+doctor's part with all the geniality she could command.
+
+As a matter of fact, Captain Dalton was finding a cynical amusement in
+the study of this--to him--new type of feminine creature: a married
+woman with the mind of a child, unawakened as yet to the deeper
+emotions, in whom the instincts of sex were still asleep. He was quite
+sure that, like most pretty women, she was vain and easily led, and, if
+it were not himself, it would be some other fellow who would undertake
+her awakening, since her husband was trustingly content to leave her
+mental development to chance and nature.
+
+Having passed the stage of desperate infatuation for mere physical
+beauty, he could play at his leisure with the idea of encompassing her
+ruin, as he sat beside her in his car, watching the dimples come and go.
+Life had done him a bad turn at the beginning of his career, and he was
+envious of men who had escaped suffering such as he had known. Out of
+sheer devilry he would like to pull Meredith's house about his ears and
+teach him that no woman of extraordinary physical attractions was a safe
+asset as a wife. Sooner or later, vanity would be her undoing and she
+would join the ranks of the fast and free. His experience was fairly
+wide and his faith, _nil_. Already Joyce Meredith coquetted
+delightfully. In a little while she would be doing it dangerously; by
+and by, audaciously, and so on, till she developed into the accomplished
+flirt, the sport of men in the East. He had watched the evolution till
+he had arrived at the theory that, with time and opportunity, the
+generality of women could be brought to capitulate.
+
+This afternoon they had set out with the intention of visiting the
+ruins, taking with them a rug and a tea basket for a _tête-à-tête_
+picnic. At first Dalton had thought of leaving the car on the high road
+and walking the rest of the way, but on second thoughts he decided to
+risk the tires and springs over the bumpy ground, forcing a passage
+through the obstacles in the way. Remembering the nature of the jungle,
+he came prepared with the necessary implements for hacking a passage
+through, so that he was enabled to take the car much farther than he had
+at first thought possible. After they had partaken of refreshment under
+the drooping boughs of a great banyan tree, with a screen of bamboos on
+the west sheltering them from the afternoon sun, they proceeded on foot
+to the ruins, he carrying the rug in case she should need to rest.
+
+"How fairy-like and lovely it all is!" cried Joyce clinging to his arm
+and picking her way among the dead leaves. The speckled sunlight dancing
+through the leaves, the spreading branches overhead, the graceful
+foliage of the tropical vegetation, the beautiful birds, made the spot
+peculiarly fascinating. "It gives one such a sense of isolation," she
+added.
+
+"We are completely isolated," he returned. "Hardly a soul comes this
+way. Some months ago when I wandered down here, a native who was
+chopping wood said the place was haunted, for which reason the people
+give it a wide berth."
+
+"Haunted!" exclaimed Joyce fearfully, as she crept closer to his side.
+
+"The natives are terribly superstitious and easily scared. The devil is
+said to be in possession of the palace, and ill-luck or disaster to
+overtake any who enter it. Are you nervous?"
+
+"Not if you are not. You see, I have such immense faith in you," she
+said with charming flattery.
+
+"Then we'll brave the fellow together." He hacked at the creepers and
+tore them aside, and having cleared a path, drew her towards the gloomy
+walls visible through gaps in the foliage. It was a friendly little hand
+that nestled confidingly in his. "These wild convolvuli grow with such
+amazing rapidity, that in a month of rainy weather the whole path is
+blocked. If you were put to sleep in the ruin by a wave of the devil's
+wand, the creepers would make a wall and shut you in, like the princess
+in the fairy tale. How would you like to sleep here for a hundred years
+walled in by creepers as high as the tree-tops?"
+
+"And be awakened by a splendid prince?" she laughed, entering into the
+spirit of his raillery.
+
+"I can picture him tearing his way through with the instinct to kiss
+you, so as to learn the true meaning of Life! You don't need enchantment
+to turn you into the Sleeping Beauty; you are that now. It would be
+interesting to see what would happen were the Prince to arrive."
+
+"He arrived when I met Ray," she said colouring richly.
+
+"You think he did, but that was in your dreams. You are not awake yet,
+so your experience has yet to come." He avoided her eyes while he spoke
+and left her puzzled to follow his thought.
+
+"I cannot understand you. Why should you say I am asleep?"
+
+"Because it is written in your eyes."
+
+"Then I am a somnambulist?" she laughed.
+
+"Yes. A dangerous one," and they laughed together.
+
+"Who is going to wake me?" she coquetted with a pretty drooping of her
+lashes.
+
+Dalton stole a look at her pouting lips, thinking he would defer the
+reply to her question for a while. She put him in mind of a child
+consciously playing with fire, yet expecting to escape unscorched. Of
+course, she would have to learn her mistake. She knew perfectly that
+nine out of ten men would be on fire with passion for her under such
+intimate circumstances, and reveal the fact without loss of time; she
+was not quite so sound asleep as not to be aware of her own beauty and
+its spell, yet she dared to experiment on men and rouse their emotions.
+Let her, then, take the consequences!
+
+Soon, Joyce found herself in front of the ruined palace, standing on
+higher ground, its dome and minarets visible for miles in a setting of
+dense foliage and drooping palms. It had been built in the sixteenth
+century for heathen worship, and subsequently converted by a Mohammedan
+grandee into a residence for his own accommodation and that of his
+harem. To Joyce it looked an irregular mass of ruined masonry, roofless
+in parts and overgrown with jungle. The portion which had been reserved
+to the women formed a separate wing which at one time had been enclosed
+by a high wall, but which was now reduced to mounds of fallen brick-work
+and shattered concrete. "The place looks almost as though it had
+suffered bombardment," she said, "how desolate and weird!"
+
+"I could tell you a romance connected with that wing which savours of
+the _Arabian Nights_," said Dalton. "Want to hear it?"
+
+"How do you know so much more about it than any one else?" she asked,
+accompanying him gingerly over the fallen masonry to gain a better view
+of the harem. All around them the undergrowth was dense and matted;
+date-palms reared themselves from thickets and mingled their drooping
+branches with tamarind trees, the prickly _babul_, and the wild
+_jamun_[16].
+
+[Footnote 16: Indian blackberry.]
+
+"I make it my business to know all about every place I live in," he
+returned.
+
+"Tell me the romance," she commanded.
+
+Dalton spread the rug on a grassy mound, and when they had seated
+themselves, he began his tale in true Oriental fashion, with a charm of
+style that captured her fancy.
+
+"Once upon a time, when the land belonged to those who could hold it by
+the sword, a rich Nawab built himself a costly residence out of a
+heathen temple. Behold the residence!"--with a wave of his hand. "And
+with him dwelt his retinue and his sycophants, his child-wife, and the
+women who contributed to her needs and his pleasures.
+
+"Alas, for masculine confidence! In a moment of weakness, this great
+prince took into his service a young warrior of Rajputana as the chief
+of his bodyguard--a Hindu by religion and of exclusive caste--because of
+his great strength and the beauty of his youth and person. This one,
+tradition tells, conceived a burning passion for the favourite wife of
+his master, having seen her face by chance, unveiled, at the bars that
+protected her window;--a girl of extreme loveliness, and as slender as a
+wand, whom custom prevented from disclosing her features to the eyes of
+men who were not her near relatives. She had therefore been closely
+guarded within the harem walls in company with other women of her lord's
+establishment, and left to find entertainment for herself in the
+priceless jewels that adorned her person.
+
+"Every day the Rajput, by name Ramjitsu Singh, would pass and repass
+below the high wall that enclosed the women's quarters, hoping again to
+see, by favour of the gods, this beauteous vision whose wondrous charms
+were the talk of the bazaars; their fame having been spread by her
+female attendants. Small was she, they said, with eyes like a gazelle's,
+and lips of the redness of ripe berries. Her hands and her feet were the
+hands and feet of a babe, so slender were they, and soft; and the hair
+of her head could have robed her.
+
+"One day, the Rajput's patience was rewarded by a sight of the beautiful
+face which made his senses swim as in a sea of delight. She stood again,
+unveiled, at the bars of her window, and gazed down at him with great
+sadness and yearning. Like a bird in its cage she looked upon the free
+world with longing, and sighed. The foolish one!--The faithless one!"
+
+"How can you call her foolish and faithless?" Joyce interrupted
+indignantly.
+
+"That is how the Indian story-teller speaks of her."
+
+"It was only natural. Think of her youth and the conditions to which she
+was obliged to conform!"
+
+"Well, see what happened. Are you interested?"
+
+"I am thrilled. Go on!"
+
+"Thereafter, the Rajput neither ate nor slept till he had devised a plan
+for carrying her away; for what are laws to lovers? or bolts and bars?
+Neither caste nor creed can hold a man back whose soul is on fire for a
+woman." He paused to allow his words to take effect.
+
+"How very romantic!" laughed Joyce, unmoved. "It is like a poem, as
+unreal as it is picturesque!"
+
+"Don't you believe a man's soul can be aflame with love and desire for a
+woman?" he asked, picking up a stone idly and flinging it after a
+disturbing crow.
+
+"Books tell one so, but how am I to know?"
+
+"It must have been proved to you times without number!--but I said you
+were asleep!" he remarked with his inscrutable smile. "Know, then, that
+men have cheerfully risked hell for a woman's favours. They have broken
+every law for the transcendent bliss of lovers' kisses!--Anyhow, that's
+not the story.
+
+"To proceed: Poor old Ramjitsu was ready to dare or die for his Love, as
+many another man has been since the world began, and will continue to be
+while the world lasts. Every night, when darkness covered the land, and
+the people within and without the palace slept, Ramjitsu Singh would
+climb the wall by means of a stout bamboo, and clinging to the sill,
+would wait for the gods to grant him the opportunity to plead his love.
+
+"At last, one night, attracted by the silvery radiance of the moon, she
+came to the grating to gaze without, and hearing a quivering sigh, she
+turned and beheld her gallant lover. He looked like a god himself in the
+bright moonlight, and the words of his mouth, uttered with breathless
+passion, held her spellbound. With her flower-face pressed to the bars
+she received his caresses."
+
+"Oh, poor little thing!" cried Joyce, her breath hurried with sympathy.
+"Did she love him, too?"
+
+"She must have, in that moment, for nature at such times speaks loudly
+to youth. Listening to his impassioned vows, she, who was of a different
+religion, as apart from his as the East is from the West, was willing to
+place her destiny in his hands. Human nature, you will see, is stronger
+than caste or creed, and tradition is brought to naught by romance and
+passion.
+
+"One night, when all seemingly slept, Ramjitsu, who had from time to
+time cautiously loosened the iron bars in their sockets, removed them
+altogether and received in his arms the form he coveted. Conceive that
+thrilling moment of ecstasy! Suddenly, however, a lightning stroke from
+a sword descended upon the faithless one from within, and she was slain
+in her lover's arms. The weight of her falling body, thus violently
+flung forward, unbalanced the Rajput whose foothold at the best was
+precarious, and together they were hurled to the paved court below,
+Ramjitsu breaking his neck in the fall.
+
+"So ended the love story of the Palace--a tragedy which has remained an
+everlasting tribute to love, and serves as an example to the Indians of
+a just vengeance on the unfaithful. The spies of the Nawab had betrayed
+the young wife and her lover, and the husband had punished them both
+with death."
+
+"Just vengeance!" repeated Joyce scornfully. "A brutal murder, I call
+it."
+
+"The Mohammedans speak of it with pride."
+
+Joyce brushed away the tears and laughed hysterically. "It is a horribly
+tragic tale and I wish you had not told me of it, for the memory of it
+will haunt me."
+
+"Why do you mind?"
+
+"I can't help feeling for that poor little prisoner who wanted to be
+loved and was killed! They had probably married her off as a little
+child to the Nawab whom she afterwards learned to hate."
+
+"You wish she had escaped with the Rajput? That would have violated
+every law of their religion and tradition." He watched her keenly.
+
+She looked distressed. "Why are laws so hard and fast? These poor women!
+Can they never choose for themselves who they will marry?"
+
+"Never. Among Eastern races marriages are always arranged. So you don't
+condemn the Rajput for wanting to steal her?"
+
+"Oh, no. How could he help it?"
+
+"Or her for wanting to run away with him?"
+
+"Not for _wanting_ to run away. But laws have to be kept, I suppose, or
+no homes would be safe. Individuals have to be sacrificed to
+communities," she said thoughtfully. "Show me where it all happened."
+
+He rose, and taking her by the hand, helped her to her feet, after which
+they passed together through a gap in the wall which led to a room on
+the ground floor from where a winding, brick stairway took them to the
+apartments above. Each step had to be carefully negotiated because of
+the mortar crumbling under foot, and the loosened bricks that threatened
+an accident. Presently, they were in a narrow corridor into which slits
+or loop-holes admitted the daylight. An arch at the far end from which
+the door had long since vanished, introduced them to a series of
+chambers, one leading into another. The walls were black with cobwebs
+and the dust of ages, while the concrete flooring was strewn with the
+_débris_ of fallen plaster. Heavy cracks in the roof let in shafts of
+the fading daylight, and roots of weeds and pipal trees had penetrated
+and hung below. On the whole it was anything but a desirable spot in
+which to linger, but Joyce's desire to view the interior of the romantic
+chamber had to be satisfied.
+
+"This is supposed to be the room, and that the window. You can see the
+holes in which the iron bars must at one time have been embedded. The
+story goes on to tell of great calamities befalling the fortunes of the
+Nawab; of battles fought in the neighbourhood between Hindus and
+Mohammedans, and the immediate withdrawal of the Moslems to another part
+of Bengal. Now let us get out. I am not at all sure the place is safe."
+
+"Let me first take a souvenir!" she pleaded. An enamelled brick above
+the arch had attracted her eye. Its design and colouring were still
+fresh and clear despite the ages that had passed since it was fashioned.
+"Look at it!" she coaxed. "Isn't it wonderful? You would think it had
+come straight out of a jeweller's shop. How did they learn such work in
+those far-off days?"
+
+"Italian workmen were known to have been imported by wealthy princes for
+the decoration of their temples and homes."
+
+"Can't I have it?"
+
+"Quite out of reach," he answered, stretching an arm upward.
+
+"But I might try to punch it out with your knife, if you put me on your
+shoulder."
+
+Dalton was sure that no effort of hers would dislodge the brick;
+moreover, he was doubtful of the wisdom of the experiment, considering
+its position in the arch; but the blue eyes lifted to his were
+undeniably bewitching, and the suggested method of the operation, too
+much of a temptation to be resisted. He would let her try till she
+admitted failure: the impulse to grant her the moon if she demanded it
+was strong at the moment, so he gave her his knife and without much
+effort hoisted her to his shoulder and allowed her to dig at will into
+the arch. Her delicate fingers would soon tire of forcing the brick from
+its solid bed. He, therefore, held her securely and closed his eyes not
+to be blinded by the fine dust that showered over them both.
+
+"Look out!" he warned her once, when the sound of falling mortar was
+heavier than he had anticipated. "Don't bring the place about our ears."
+
+"I don't want to be buried alive!" she replied. "It isn't as difficult
+as I imagined. See, it is already loosening."
+
+But he could not look up out of regard for his sight. For a moment he
+had no actual concern with the work she was engaged upon, having allowed
+himself to suffer distraction. With his arms about her, his face at her
+waist, he was assailed with the temptation to bring matters between them
+to a crisis. He was done with philandering and desired to end her folly
+and his patience. What was easier than to draw her down to his breast
+that he might cover her tempting lips with kisses? Though he was not in
+love with Joyce after the manner of Ramjitsu, her mouth was alluringly
+sweet, and her possible response to his passion would reward his daring.
+There was the novelty, too, of acting the Prince Charming to her rôle of
+Sleeping Beauty; for her woman's nature was asleep and waiting only to
+be startled into comprehension. All the afternoon he had played with the
+idea till his desire for possession had mastered prudence. What right
+had she to imagine him a bloodless being, as passionless as a stone? He
+was a man, and a very human one at that. He would prove that to her
+without delay. What a fool he had been to have wasted so much time! He
+would kiss her till he infected her with his passion; which would not be
+difficult if she were like those of her sex who traded on a husband's
+trust and confidence!
+
+The glamour of the moment intoxicated his senses: contact with her
+person, the perfume of her, her complete helplessness in that retired
+spot, assisted to turn him temporarily insane.
+
+Just as desire was about to master reason and self-restraint, a shriek
+of terror from Joyce paralysed his nerves and suspended thought.
+
+The arch, already heavily cracked and depending solely for stability
+upon structural pressure, being further weakened by the dislodgment of
+that particular brick, showed signs of collapsing.
+
+On looking upward, Dalton saw their danger and had time only to spring
+backward to a far corner of the room before the arch subsided, bringing
+with it a portion of the roof. He stood stock still with Joyce clinging
+to his neck, watching the building crashing about him. The shock and
+vibration of the fall had brought about the collapse of precarious parts
+of the ruined edifice, till, roar followed roar, and the air was thick
+with dust.
+
+Dalton momentarily expected the shaking floor to give way beneath their
+feet, or the roof to descend upon them and bury them alive. It was
+something to remember all his life: his impotence to help himself or his
+companion in the midst of the calamity, while believing himself face to
+face with the horror of a slow death by entombment.
+
+After a while, when all was still and the dust began to settle, the
+spectacle disclosed to view beggared description.
+
+Tons of material lay between them and the stairs up which they had come;
+the window was buried behind a dense mass of fallen bricks and mortar; a
+great hole torn in the roof showed the sky overcast with clouds.
+Possibly there would shortly be rain to add to their misfortune.
+
+How was it possible to extricate themselves from their terrible
+predicament? Dalton cast his eyes about him towards an inner chamber,
+only to see that the roof there had also collapsed barricading the only
+other outlet.
+
+In the midst of his anxieties he had to soothe the girl's fears. Joyce
+was shivering with terror and nearly speechless.
+
+"Pull yourself together," he said shortly. "It is a devilish
+catastrophe, but we must face it. Just as well we are not killed!" He
+endeavoured to unclasp her clinging arms, but she only clung the closer.
+
+"Oh, I am so frightened!--don't leave me!" she whimpered.
+
+"I am not going to leave you," he said reassuringly, "but I must take a
+good look around." Releasing the rug from beneath a weight of _débris_,
+he induced her to sit down while he made a careful survey of the
+conditions of their prison, for that it undoubtedly was. They were as
+completely shut out from the outer world and as helpless as prisoners in
+a dungeon. Both rooms were isolated from the rest of the building; both
+were partially roofless and without means of exit.
+
+Gad!--what a commotion there would be in the Station when it was
+discovered that they had not returned! Dalton wished with all his heart
+that he had left his car on the high road and not brought it into the
+wood. Who would think of looking for it there?
+
+He was partly comforted by the thought of the wheel-marks left in the
+dust, but this source of hope was cut off when the rain began to descend
+later in the night.
+
+In the meantime he had to make the best of the situation and not allow
+Mrs. Meredith to fret.
+
+"You have to thank a special Providence interested in your fate that you
+are not buried alive," he told her cheerfully.
+
+"And so have you," she said solemnly.
+
+"Providence doesn't usually bother much about me; relations have long
+been strained. Possibly I have been preserved for your sake," he
+laughed.
+
+"How can you talk in that irreverent way!" she said reproachfully.
+
+"Sorry, if it offends you."
+
+But Joyce fell to weeping. Was it possible that they would ever be
+found?--they would die of starvation--and what about her baby?
+
+Dalton had much ado to allay all her fears. When it was discovered that
+they were missing, did she suppose that a stone would be left unturned
+to trace them? She was to cheer up and show how brave she could be.
+
+"I am not like Honor Bright," she sobbed. "I cannot face such a horrible
+prospect as a night spent in this ghastly place all among snakes and
+creeping things!"
+
+The mention of Honor seemed to silence the doctor completely. For some
+time he was moody and depressed; Joyce was allowed to weep into her
+hands till exhausted.
+
+Only when it was getting dismally dark did he arouse himself from his
+abstraction and take up again the task of cheering her.
+
+"Can't we dig ourselves out?" Joyce asked before the darkness descended
+wholly upon them.
+
+"Without implements of any sort?" Even the knife was lost in the
+confusion, and in any case it would have been utterly useless.
+
+"Do you think they are sure to find us?"
+
+"I am confident of it--in the morning. It will be too late and dark for
+them to think of looking here tonight, but in the morning someone is
+sure to find the car and discover our whereabouts."
+
+"How hungry we shall be!" she sighed, and Dalton laughed.
+
+"How thirsty we shall be, is more to the point!--Poor child!" taking her
+hand in his and recalling how near he had been to madness. He was not
+too far from it even now with her hand resting confidingly in his, and
+the consciousness of their unique position.
+
+"Anyhow, there is the sky and fresh air, and at least we are not quite
+alone. I have you!" she said with dangerous flattery.
+
+"Yes. You have me," he returned eagerly. "And I--have--_you_!"
+
+"What about snakes?" she asked, casting her eyes about her fearfully.
+
+"They are more upset than we. At any rate, I don't believe we'll be
+troubled by snakes tonight. You will have to forget we are lost, so to
+speak, and talk till you are tired, and then try to sleep."
+
+"Sleep--here?"
+
+"On the rug."
+
+"I couldn't. It is so uncomfortable!"
+
+In the growing darkness, he was again mastered by the evil thoughts
+which had possessed him in the moments preceding the catastrophe. Their
+isolation produced a host of ungoverned impulses. As the evening
+advanced his manner changed, growing suggestive of possession; his
+manner became more tender.
+
+"You will always remember tonight!--there will never be another like it
+in your life," he whispered, leaning towards her and stealing her hand.
+"You have been horribly frightened, haven't you?"
+
+"I am more hopeful now, thinking of the morning," she returned, her soft
+breath on his cheek. "It is only the snakes I fear!"
+
+Dalton drew her into his arms. "I shan't let you think of snakes, you
+pretty little thing! At last I have you close. You have tantalised me
+with your loveliness every day, till Fate has given you to me!" his lips
+found hers and pressed them roughly. "Wake up, sleeping Princess! see,
+this night is ours. Let me love you as I want to. Let me teach you how
+to love!"
+
+Joyce seemed paralysed in his arms. She lay as still as death under his
+kisses as though mesmerised and dreaming. Emboldened by her silence
+Dalton continued to caress her with increasing ardour, till Joyce,
+coming suddenly to her senses, was seized with panic and horror.
+
+"Who are you?" she cried in a frenzy of fear, struggling to escape. It
+seemed she was entrapped by some human monster in the doctor's likeness,
+against whom she was powerless to struggle.
+
+"Why do you ask? You know me well--don't be foolish! Won't you let me
+love you?"
+
+"Love me?--like this?--Do you forget I am married?" she gasped, still
+struggling to escape. "Let me go. I hate you for daring to touch me--to
+kiss me. I hate you! How dare you do it!" Joyce had never known such
+terrifying moments, even worse than when the building seemed falling
+about her ears. The horrors of the night were multiplying a
+thousandfold, now that the doctor had failed her and gone mad.
+
+Dalton made several efforts to pacify her, thinking he had only to deal
+with a phase of childishness, but found her unmistakably determined to
+break away from him.
+
+"Stop it, and listen to me," he said angrily. "You want it all your own
+way, but it is my turn now. Why did you lead me on and tempt me, if you
+meant to back out in the end? I could have kissed you twenty times, but
+refrained for reasons you would not understand. Now when those reasons
+are finally swept aside and I am ready to be your lover, you pretend to
+be surprised."
+
+"Surprised! I am horrified! I thought so well of you--I believed you
+would respect me, not treat me as you might--Mrs. Fox for instance! Let
+me go, you coward and bully!--I have trusted you and treated you as a
+brother--for this?--you unspeakable cad!"
+
+Dalton released her instantly, and she burst into tears, crying as
+though her heart would break. "Honor warned me, but I would not listen!"
+he heard her say amid her sobs.
+
+"What did Honor warn you about?" he asked sternly.
+
+"She said," Joyce sobbed, "to go 'easy with my favours'--that you were
+'a man--like most----'"
+
+"Did Honor say that? and why?"
+
+"Because--she thought I was being foolish to--to become
+so--friendly--with you--when I am a married woman. She was right! I have
+been a fool!" A fresh outburst of weeping.
+
+"Did she say that because of her contempt for me, or because you are a
+wife?" he pressed.
+
+"I--don't know. All I know is that she was right and I should have
+listened to her warning; now I shall never, never respect myself again."
+
+"I see no reason why you shouldn't," said Dalton, a sense of humour
+overcoming his wrath. "You've done nothing but tell me in polite
+language to go to the devil."
+
+"You kissed me!"
+
+"What of it? Many women in your position are kissed, and they are in no
+wise cast down," he laughed sardonically.
+
+"I feel degraded--I feel unfit to kiss my own, dear little baby again!"
+
+"You should have thought of all that when you were so anxious to charm
+me," he returned cruelly.
+
+"You are a beast, and the most hateful man I know!" She made an attempt
+in the gloom to crawl away to some distance from him and his rug, but he
+ordered her to stay where she was, adding,
+
+"I shan't trouble you again. You have nothing to fear from me."
+
+"I don't want to share the same rug!--I wish I was a mile away!"
+
+"The rug has done you no harm. If you prefer it, I'll shift off it. The
+best thing you can do is to go to sleep."
+
+"I couldn't with this sin on my conscience."
+
+"What sin?" he asked repressing his impatience with difficulty.
+
+"This sin against my husband."
+
+"You have committed none. If my kissing you was a sin, mine is the
+conscience to be troubled; but it was slain quite a long time ago," he
+added with a short laugh.
+
+"I am not joking," she said angrily. "How do you suppose I can face my
+husband knowing that I have behaved so as to make another man kiss me?"
+What a child she seemed!
+
+There was no doubting her distress, and Dalton exhausted every argument
+in his attempt to understand her attitude of mind. "What do you want me
+to do?" he asked finally. "If an apology is of any use, I apologise
+humbly for behaving as I did. I grant you, I am a perfect specimen of a
+cad. If it will do you any good, tell your husband all about it when you
+get back, and send him round to give me a horse-whipping. I promise I
+shall not injure a hair of his head."
+
+"He is much more likely to shoot you."
+
+"Even so. He is perfectly welcome to. I am not in love with my life.
+Only let him do it by stealth so that they don't hang him afterwards."
+
+Joyce cried again hopelessly, till Dalton felt himself a sort of
+criminal.
+
+"Please don't! I cannot tell you how sorry I am to have upset you so. I
+had no idea you would take it like this. There are so many women
+who----"
+
+"Like Mrs. Fox?" she interrupted scornfully.
+
+"Perhaps. I don't know much of Mrs. Fox. She doesn't appeal to me."
+
+"You couldn't offer me a worse insult than to think that I might be like
+her!"
+
+"I am sorry. Forgive me, will you?"
+
+"I cannot forgive myself for my blindness and folly!"
+
+Joyce spoke as though she were shivering, and Dalton was stricken with
+concern. "You are cold?" he asked anxiously.
+
+Her teeth chattered. In December the nights in Bengal are often bitter,
+and Joyce had left her driving cloak in the car. Dalton immediately
+divested himself of his coat and made her wear it. His manner having
+returned to the professional, she was no longer afraid of him, so obeyed
+meekly.
+
+"Now the rug," said he. And she was wrapped to her ears in the rug,
+after which he left her to herself for the night. Both listened to the
+patter of the rain as it fell on the _débris_ around them, and,
+eventually overcome with fatigue, Joyce dropped off to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE AFTERMATH
+
+
+In the early morning, Joyce realised that she was both hungry and
+thirsty. Her lips were parched, her throat dry, nothing having passed
+them since early tea the previous afternoon, and she was at the lowest
+ebb of despondency and depression. Her surroundings helped to increase
+her misery, for the ground was a mixture of puddle and slush, and there
+seemed no chance of help anywhere. She seemed to have fallen into a deep
+crater, and but for a projection of roof that still held firm owing to a
+network of pipal roots, she would have been as drenched as the bricks
+and mortar with which she was surrounded.
+
+To add to her alarm, she was all alone. Captain Dalton was nowhere to be
+seen.
+
+Though he had behaved horribly the evening before, he had not troubled
+her since; the tramp of his feet as he paced up and down the
+circumscribed space that was left to them of the chamber, being the only
+evidence she had till she dropped off to sleep that she was not without
+company. But with the daylight he was gone, and feeling almost
+panic-stricken with ghostly fears and loneliness, she called aloud to
+him.
+
+"Captain Dalton!"
+
+"I'm here," his voice cheerily announced as he emerged from the inner
+room which had suffered an equal amount of damage. "See what the gods
+have sent you!" and he handed her a pipal-leaf cup, full of water to
+drink.
+
+It was eagerly seized and gratefully drunk. "Where did you get it from?"
+
+"That other room is full of branches torn from the roof when it fell
+in," he returned. "I discovered them by the light of a match and amused
+myself making cups out of the leaves by the light of a few more. They
+don't hold much, but I managed to set a good few to catch the rain drops
+as they fell, and that's better than nothing."
+
+"Have you had any?" she asked politely.
+
+"I was waiting for you, but I'll take a drink now." He retired and did
+not return till she called him again.
+
+"I wish you would take your coat. You must be so chilled," she ventured.
+"The rug will do for me."
+
+"Are you quite sure?" he asked and Joyce noticed that his hands were
+blue with cold. After putting on his coat he was about to retire again
+when she stopped him wistfully. "Please stay--I feel so frightened
+alone."
+
+"I thought you preferred not to have me around," he said dropping down
+beside her.
+
+For answer she wept into her arms as they rested on her knees.
+
+"I was beastly, last night, wasn't I--poor little kid," he said in
+gentler tones than she had ever heard from him. "Can't you have it in
+your heart to forgive me?--just wipe it out as though it had never
+happened?"
+
+"I can forgive you, but--I--could never wipe it out. I feel so degraded.
+It is like having an ugly stain on a page you had always wanted to keep
+clean."
+
+Dalton studied her as something entirely new to his experience. "I have
+never in my life met anyone like you. It has been an eye-opener to a man
+like me. I didn't understand you all this time. I am just beginning to,
+now. Tell me frankly your idea."
+
+"It is nothing extraordinary," she said drying her eyes. "It is only
+that I did not believe a gentleman could treat a decent married girl as
+you did me. I wanted to be like brother and sister, and I thought you
+understood. Anything else never entered my head as possible to
+self-respecting people."
+
+"And I have spoilt all your pretty illusions!--let down my sex too,
+rather badly! What don't I deserve! It would relieve my feelings if you
+slanged me for all you are worth. Believe me, you have done no wrong. It
+is only that I see things crookedly, and am just what you called me, an
+'unspeakable cad.' I should have respected your helplessness. Truly, I
+deserve to be shot."
+
+"I _have_ been very silly, I don't care what you say. But I never can
+remember I am grown up!" she said pathetically. "Honor told me that
+people would talk, but I did not believe they had any cause. Now I
+realise what they are thinking! and it breaks my heart. They will
+believe I am like Mrs. Fox. She does things that look bad, and people
+despise her. Now they will despise me."
+
+"Never! they have only to look at you and hear you speak, to see what
+you are."
+
+"Honor said it was not enough to be good but to avoid doing the things
+that make people think we are not. Now they are thinking perhaps that I
+flirt with you and let you kiss me!" Her face was suffused with crimson
+shame. Nothing was so horrible to contemplate as the fact that he had
+kissed her! She was stripped of self-respect forever.
+
+Dalton might have been tempted to smile at her self-accusing attitude
+had it not been for her perfect sincerity. He felt overcome with
+contrition and longed to atone.
+
+"You make me infinitely ashamed," he said humbly. "Perhaps if you knew
+what went towards making me such a brute-beast, you would feel just a
+little sorry for me and understand--even bring yourself to like me a
+little bit as you say you once did. I have never had a sister. It might
+have made a difference if I had." After a pause--"Some years ago there
+were two persons in whom I believed as--I believe--in God. One was a
+woman and the other, my dearest pal. He and I were like brothers. I
+would have trusted him with my life. I did more. I trusted him with my
+honour." A pause. "And he whom I trusted and loved, robbed me of all
+that made life dear to me, and of what I valued more than life. And the
+woman I loved and believed pure and true, conspired with him to betray
+my honour! I was their dupe. A blind confiding fool!"
+
+"Oh!" was wrung sympathetically from Joyce.
+
+"When I found out all I went mad, I think. I have been pretty mad--and
+bad--ever since; but at the time, if I could have laid hands on both I
+might have ended my career on the gallows. But Fate intervened. He was
+killed in a railway accident shortly afterwards, and a year later, she
+came whining to me for forgiveness."
+
+"Did you forgive her?"
+
+Dalton's eyes glowed with cruelty and an undying contempt. "Forgive her?
+Not if she had been dying! There are things impossible to forgive. She
+had killed my soul, destroyed my faith in human nature--which others,
+since, have not helped to restore!--turned me into a very devil, and
+without an incentive to live. Do you think I could forgive her? If I
+hated her then, I loathe the very memory of her now."
+
+"Yet you tried your best to make me one of the same sort?" Joyce asked
+wonderingly.
+
+"I did not believe, till you proved it to me, that women are of any
+other sort," he replied.
+
+"You forget Honor Bright?"
+
+"I never forget Honor Bright," he replied unexpectedly. "I have looked
+upon her as the exception that proves the rule."
+
+"Your mother?" Joyce interposed gently.
+
+"My father divorced her," he said harshly. "So you see I have had rather
+a bad education!"
+
+"I am very sorry for you."
+
+"You are?--that's good. Then there is hope for me."
+
+"I am sorry that you should have such a contempt for women, owing to
+your unfortunate experience."
+
+"I owe you an eternal debt of gratitude for teaching me what an
+egotistical jackass I have been."
+
+"Tell me," she asked, suddenly waking up to their dust-laden condition,
+"am I covered with smuts and grime?"
+
+Dalton surveyed her quizzically. "You are covered from head to foot,
+like a miller, with fine white dust."
+
+"So are you!" and they laughed together for the first time since the
+calamity.
+
+"Let's wash, there's a pool in the next room. Quite a respectable amount
+of clean water is collected about the floor."
+
+He showed her the pool and left her to make her toilet while he explored
+their prison for some possibility of escape. Putting his hands to his
+mouth he sent forth stentorian cries for help with no result. Without a
+pick-axe to work with, he saw no chance of cutting a way through the
+tons of material that lay around them.
+
+It was midday, when Joyce was feeling weak with hunger, and Dalton
+fighting a strong tendency to pessimism, that he heard Honor's
+"_Coo-ee!_" and replied.
+
+"Thank God!--at last here's someone to the rescue!" he exclaimed, and
+Joyce burst into tears.
+
+When Honor was able to locate the spot from which the answering voice
+proceeded, she contrived with difficulty to get near enough to the
+opening to hear what had happened. It was good to know, however terrible
+had been the experience of the pair, that both were unhurt, and that
+Joyce was bearing up wonderfully.
+
+"I shall run back and get help at once, cheer up!" she called out.
+
+"We don't, either of us, feel cheerful, I can assure you. It has been
+ghastly here all night," the doctor shouted back.
+
+"But it is great to have found you! I am so thankful," and she sped to
+her bicycle and travelled at top speed to the Mission. Mr. Meek could
+provide the labour at a moment's notice for the work of digging out the
+imprisoned couple, and to him she went direct.
+
+Immediately the Settlement hummed with activities; coolies swarmed to
+the spot with pickaxes and spades, crowbars and ropes, and as news flies
+from village to village with almost the rapidity of "wireless," hundreds
+of natives gathered at the scene to view operations, the women with
+infants astride one hip, and naked children swarming around. They camped
+on the ground chewing _pan_ and parched rice, and chattered incessantly
+of the mysterious workings of Providence, the folly of humanity, and the
+decrees of Fate.
+
+The bare-footed, semi-nude rescuers, climbed over the face of the ruins
+with complete disregard of life and limb, and with wary tread and light
+touch, began the work of removing the _débris_.
+
+In due course, the rescue was effected, and Joyce was assisted to climb
+out of the wrecked chamber to safety. Honor half-supported her to the
+car which Captain Dalton drove in silence to the Bara Koti. His eyes
+avoided Honor's and in manner he was quiet and constrained.
+
+"So you never got the souvenir after all!" she said to Joyce when she
+had heard a disjointed account of the catastrophe.
+
+"I should have hated to look at it again, if I had," was the hysterical
+reply. "I shan't want to pass this road again, or get a glimpse of that
+terrible place as long as I live. I hate India more than ever, and Ray
+must send me home at once. Otherwise, I shall live in dread of some
+other calamity befalling either Baby or me. Oh, Honor, persuade him to
+let me go!"
+
+By the time she was put to bed she was suffering from nervous
+prostration. Meredith, who had returned from his fruitless search,
+looked like a man walking in his sleep. His wife had clung to his neck
+in passionate relief, but she had avoided his lips as she had never done
+before, and a sword seemed to have entered his heart.
+
+"Oh, I am so glad to be back!" she kept repeating, with her babe pressed
+to her bosom.
+
+"Memsahib habbing one great fright!" commiserated the ayah.
+
+Silent and stunned, Meredith hovered about the room. He had uttered no
+word of reproach to his wife for her imprudence,--she had suffered
+enough, mentally and physically; but resentment was fierce within him
+towards the doctor. The impulse to walk round and horse-whip him for
+having had the impudence to lead his foolish, but adored girl-wife into
+such a scrape, was well-nigh unconquerable, and he refrained only for
+fear that scandalous tongues would give the unhappy event a sinister
+character.
+
+"Kiss me, Sweet," he once whispered, leaning over her in passionate
+anxiety. He wanted to look deep into her eyes; not to see them fall away
+from his with a shrinking expression foreign to them.
+
+Joyce offered her cheek.
+
+"Your lips," he commanded.
+
+But Joyce fell to weeping broken-heartedly. Meredith kissed her cheek
+with a pain at his heart, and turned away.
+
+"Won't you tell me everything?" he asked another time, studying her
+intently. Normally, he imagined she would have babbled childishly of all
+her experiences, and have been insatiable in her demands for petting.
+Why did she seem crushed and silent as to details? Honor had said the
+shock would account for her shaken and hysterical state; but it did not
+explain her strange aloofness.
+
+"You know it all," Joyce returned listlessly, the tears springing to her
+eyes at his first question as to the experience she had undergone.
+
+"I know the barest outline--and that from Honor Bright. You wanted a
+particular stone for a souvenir, and in digging it out, the arch
+collapsed, which brought down a large bit of the roof and a lot more
+besides. What happened after that? How did you manage to spend the
+night? It must have been horrible!"
+
+"Some day I may be able to talk about it, but not now," she cried with
+quivering lips. "It is cruel to question me now."
+
+Meredith leaned back in despair. "I hope Dalton was properly careful of
+you?" he asked, devoured with jealousy.
+
+"He gave me his coat and his rug, and made cups out of pipal leaves to
+catch the raindrops as they fell. We were so thirsty," she said
+monotonously.
+
+"Rather a brainy idea!"
+
+"Please don't recall all that to me. I don't want to think of it!" she
+cried; and that was all Meredith could learn of the events of that
+night.
+
+The following day it was discovered that the doctor was suffering from a
+feverish chill and was confined to bed. By nightfall, it was reported by
+Jack who had been to visit him, that he was in a high fever, and that
+the Railway doctor had been called in by the Civil Hospital Assistant
+for a consultation.
+
+The next day it was known that Captain Dalton was seriously ill with
+pneumonia; a _locum_ arrived from headquarters, nurses were telegraphed
+for, and for some days his life hung in the balance.
+
+Joyce, who still kept her bed with shaken nerves, incapable of
+interesting herself in her usual pursuits, was startled out of her
+lethargy at the news. "If he dies, it will be my fault," she cried. "Oh,
+Honor! I was so cold that he gave me his coat as well as the rug, and
+did without them himself till morning. He must have taken a chill, for
+he looked so bad in the dawn."
+
+"He did what any other decent man would have done in his place."
+
+"It was rather surprising of him, considering how fiercely we
+quarrelled!" and feeling the need of confession, she poured out the
+whole story of her shame into her friend's ears. "Even now I grow hot
+with humiliation when I think of it! I cannot understand why he did it,
+for it was not as if he had fallen in love! Only because he thought I
+was a--a--flirt, like others he had known."
+
+Honor's face was very white as she listened, silent and stricken.
+
+"I just had to tell you, dear, or the load of it on my mind would have
+killed me. I feel as if I were guilty of a crime against Ray; and, poor
+darling, he does not understand what is wrong!"
+
+"Why don't you tell him and get it over? He loves you enough to make the
+telling easy. And if you love him enough, why, it can only end happily,"
+said Honor with an effort.
+
+"There would be a tragedy!--I dare not. Ray would kill him for having
+dared to insult me like that! You have no idea of what I have been
+through! Captain Dalton said I was asleep and needed awakening! I have
+awakened in right earnest and know that I have been a wicked fool. How I
+long to be loved and forgiven! Oh, Honor! when Ray looks at me so
+anxiously and lovingly, I just want to be allowed to cry my heart out in
+his arms and confess everything; but I simply cannot, with this dread of
+consequences. Nor can I make up to him with this wretched thing on my
+conscience! Why didn't I listen to you!"
+
+"There is not much use in crying over spilt milk, is there? The best
+thing you can do is to bury it and be everything to your husband that he
+wishes. You must try to atone. If you love him----"
+
+"I do! There is no other man in the world so much to me. I did not
+realise how much I cared till Captain Dalton made me, by his outrageous
+behaviour! I am not fit for Ray's love after knowing how I have lowered
+myself!"
+
+"You will not mend matters by creating a misunderstanding between
+yourself and your husband. What is he to think if you continue to shrink
+from his caresses?"
+
+"He will think I don't care at all, and that is so untrue!"
+
+"Can't you see that, with your own hand, you are building up a barrier
+between you which will be difficult to pull down at will?"
+
+"When I am able to tell him all about it, he will understand. At present
+I feel shamed and degraded. I feel myself a cheat! I, whom he believes a
+good and virtuous wife, have actually been kissed by a man who thought I
+was the sort to permit an intrigue! Don't you see, that if I behaved as
+though nothing wrong had happened, I would be putting myself on a par
+with Judas?"
+
+Having wrought herself up to the point of hysteria, she was not to be
+reasoned with.
+
+"How I wish I had never set foot in that dreadful place! It seems, after
+all, that the devil is really in possession of it, and that disaster
+overtakes people who enter there."
+
+"Disaster invariably overtakes people who give the devil his chance,"
+said Honor unable to resist a smile.
+
+"I dare say you are right. I have been very foolish, for I had no idea
+of the sort of man I was growing so intimate with. But he was truly
+sorry, and tried afterwards in a hundred ways to show how he regretted
+his behaviour. Indeed, I think, on the whole, he received quite a good
+moral lesson for thinking most women are without any conscience," and
+Joyce proceeded to relate the sequel of her story, which involved that
+of the doctor's past.
+
+"It is a most painful history," said Honor gravely.
+
+"And he has never known home-life; his mother was a wicked woman, and
+was divorced!"
+
+"How pitiful!"
+
+"It quite accounts,--doesn't it?--for his badness?"
+
+"I don't think he is at all bad," Honor said unexpectedly. "He's been
+badly hit and wants to hit back; that's about what it is. To him women
+are all alike"--
+
+"Not you!--he said you were, to his mind, the 'exception that proves the
+rule.'" Joyce interrupted.
+
+Honor coloured as she continued,--"And he has very little respect for
+the sex. He requires to meet with some good, wholesome examples to set
+him right, poor fellow!"
+
+"He thinks the world of you, Honey!"
+
+"Does he?" with an embarrassed laugh. "Then he takes a queer way of
+showing it."
+
+"That was your fault. You turned him down over Elsie Meek's case, and he
+was too proud to plead for himself. But I have watched him, Honey, and
+there isn't a thing you say or do he misses, when you and he are in the
+same room."
+
+"Your imagination!" Honor said uncomfortably. "You forget he has just
+been trying to make love to you!"
+
+"True. But he has never been _in love_ with me. It was sheer devilment.
+Even I could tell that. Love is such a different thing. Ray loves me.
+There is no mistaking it, for it is in his eyes all the time, and proved
+in a thousand ways."
+
+"Did Captain Dalton say much more about that girl who jilted him?" Honor
+asked with embarrassment. Joyce had failed to grasp the full
+significance of Dalton's unhappy experience, and Honor had accordingly
+derived a wrong impression.
+
+"Only that he loathes her now. That she killed his soul!--which is
+absurd, seeing that the soul is immortal."
+
+"It can therefore be resurrected."
+
+How, and in which way, Honor had not the slightest idea, but her heart
+instead of recoiling from the sinner after all she had heard, warmed
+with sympathy towards him. She could not help a feeling of pity and
+tolerance for the unfortunate victim of deception who through
+disillusionment and wounded pride, had gone astray.
+
+When Honor returned home, it was to hear that her mother had gone over
+to the doctor's bungalow to nurse the patient till professional nurses
+should arrive; and had left word that her daughter should follow her.
+
+"We have to do our 'duty to our neighbour' no matter how much we may
+disapprove of him and as no one in the Station is capable of tending the
+sick with patience and intelligence, I must do it with your help."
+
+So Honor superintended the making of beef-tea for the sick-room, fetched
+and carried, ran messages, and made herself generally useful, much to
+Tommy's disgust. It was hateful to him that a man so generally disliked
+as the Civil Surgeon, should be tenderly cared for by the women he had
+systematically slighted.
+
+"I don't see it at all," he grumbled to Honor when he caught her on the
+road on her way home for dinner. "Surely his servants could do what is
+necessary till the nurses arrive?"
+
+"The least little neglect might cost him his life, Tommy."
+
+"It wouldn't be your fault. For weeks the fellow has not gone near your
+people."
+
+"Would you have us punish him for that by letting him die of neglect?"
+
+"It is no business of mine, of course."
+
+Honor quite agreed with him, but softened her reproof with a demand for
+his help. "At any rate, it is everyone's duty to lend a helping hand in
+times of trouble. We want a message sent to the doctor-_babu_ at the
+government dispensary, and it is a mercy I have met you." She gave him a
+list of the things required by the local Railway doctor who was in
+charge of the case, and Tommy cycled away, obliged to content himself
+with the joy of serving her whenever and wherever possible.
+
+That evening, while Honor was left on guard at Dalton's bedside to see
+that he made no attempt in his delirium to rise, she experienced a
+sudden sinking of the heart in the thought that he might die.
+
+He was very ill.... Pneumonia was one of the most deadly diseases. As
+yet there was no means of knowing how it would go with him. With gnawing
+anxiety she watched his flushed face and closed eyes and the rapid rise
+and fall of his chest. How strong and well-built he was! and yet he lay
+as weak and helpless as a child.
+
+The thought that he might die was intolerable. It gave her a sense of
+wild protest, a desire to fight with all power of her mind and will
+against such a dire possibility. He must not die till he had recovered
+his faith in human nature, his belief in womanhood. If there were any
+truth in the New Philosophy he would not die if her determination could
+sustain him, and help him over the crisis.
+
+"Honey...?" the sick man muttered. His eyes had unclosed and were
+looking full at her.
+
+"Yes?" she replied, trembling from head to foot with startled surprise
+at hearing him speak her name.
+
+"Have they let you come at last?" he asked in weak tones.
+
+"They sent for me to help," she returned gently.
+
+"Was it because I wanted you so much? My soul has been crying out for
+you. There is only one face I see in my dreams, and it is yours. You
+will not leave me?" he asked breathlessly.
+
+"I will stay as long as they let me," she said kneeling at the bedside
+that she might not miss a syllable that fell from his lips.
+
+"How did you know that I loved you all the time?"
+
+"I did not know." Surely it was wrong for him to speak when he was so
+ill? yet she longed to hear more. Every word thrilled her through and
+through.
+
+"Ever since that day--you remember?--when you came to me for help in
+your danger and suspense; when I saw into that brave, staunch heart of
+yours, and, for the first time, knew a true woman!" His face was alight
+with emotion. It was transformed.
+
+"Oh, hush!--you must not talk."
+
+"Yes. I am horribly ill," he panted. "It is ghastly being tucked up like
+this, unable to get up. But it is worth while if you will stay with me."
+A pause while he frowned, chasing a thought. "What was I saying? My mind
+is so confused."
+
+"It does not matter, I understand."
+
+He caught her hand and pressed it to his burning lips, then laid the
+cool palm against his rough, unshaven cheek.
+
+"If I have longed for anything it is for this--to hold your hand--so--to
+feel that you'd care just a little bit whether I lived or died--nobody
+else does on this wide earth!"
+
+"I care a very great deal," she said brokenly. "So much, that I beg of
+you not to talk. It must hurt."
+
+"Every breath is pain. If I give a shout you must not mind. It is a
+relief sometimes. Pleurisy is devilish. They told you, I suppose, I have
+that as well? If I don't pull through----"
+
+"Stop! You shall not say that. You _will_ get well. I know it. I am sure
+of it," she said. "Try to rest and sleep."
+
+"I shall try, if you say you love me."
+
+"I _love_ you," Honor said with fervour. It did not matter to her that
+he might presently be rambling and forget all about her and his fevered
+dreams of her. It was the truth that she loved him, and she spoke from
+her heart.
+
+He did not seem to hear her, for, already his thoughts wandered. "I keep
+thinking and dreaming the wildest things and get horribly mixed," he
+said frowning and puzzled. "Was I buried for days and nights in the
+ruins--with someone? then how is it I am here?"
+
+"You were buried for one night with Mrs. Meredith, and you were both
+rescued in the morning."
+
+His eyes contracted suddenly. "A pretty little creature--dear little
+thing!--brainless, but beautiful. One could be almost fond of her if she
+did not bore one to tears!" He turned painfully on his side and Honor
+placed a pillow under his shoulders. "Ah, that's easier!--thanks,
+nurse," he said mechanically. "Tears?... What about tears? Ah, Mrs.
+Meredith's tears. She cried almost as much as the rain, poor kid! and we
+were nearly washed out--like 'Alice,'" and he laughed huskily, forgetful
+that he was again in possession of Honor's hand which he held in a vice.
+"I am a damned fool to have tried it on with her. Beastly low-down
+trick," he muttered almost inaudibly. "'You unspeakable cad!' she said,
+and, by God! I deserved it. I should have known that she was not the
+sort to play that rotten game. Ah, well! it is only another item on the
+debit side of the ledger!" His eyes closed and he drifted into
+unconsciousness. Honor's hand slipped from his hold and she rose to her
+knees, choked with grief and longing. Oh, for the right to nurse him
+tenderly! "Oh, God! give him to me!" she cried in frenzied prayer.
+
+Dalton did not recognise her again after that, and the next morning Mrs.
+Bright handed over the case to the nurses from Calcutta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+CORNERED
+
+
+When Joyce made her final plea to be sent home to her people without
+waiting for the spring, it met with little opposition. Meredith had come
+to the point of almost welcoming a break in the impossible deadlock at
+which his domestic life had arrived. His beloved one's nerves had broken
+down from one cause and another, and she was drifting into the habits of
+a confirmed invalid. If he did not let her go, he would, perhaps, have
+to stand aside and watch her increasing intimacy with the doctor whom he
+could not challenge without creating a disgusting scandal; which would
+make life in Bengal intolerable for himself as well as for her. So he
+agreed to her departure with the child in the hope that "absence would
+make her heart grow fonder," and that she would come back to him,
+restored, when the cold season returned and made life in India not only
+tolerable, but pleasant.
+
+Hurried arrangements were put through, a passage secured, and Joyce
+roused herself to bid her friends a formal farewell.
+
+At the Brights', only Honor was at home, her mother having driven to the
+bazaar for muslin to make new curtains. Christmas was approaching and a
+general "spring cleaning" was in full swing in order that everything
+should look fresh for the season.
+
+"It is the greatest day in the year, and even the natives expect us to
+honour it. Our festival, you know," Honor explained.
+
+"It always looks so odd to have to celebrate Christmas with a warm sun
+shining and all the trees in full leaf!" said Joyce. "That is why it
+never feels Christmas to me. I miss the home aspect,--frost and snow,
+and landscapes bleak and bare."
+
+"The advantage lies with us. We can calculate on the weather with
+confidence, and it is so much more comfortable to feel warm. And then
+everything looks so bright!"
+
+"I am glad you like it since you have to stay. I hate India more than
+ever."
+
+Honor looked earnestly at her, and wonderingly. "Isn't it rather a
+wrench to you to leave your husband?" Joyce had grown so apathetic and
+cold.
+
+For answer her friend broke down completely, and wept as though her
+heart would break. "We seem to be drifting apart. Oh, Honey, I love him
+so!"
+
+"Then why go?"
+
+"I must. I want to think things over and recover by myself. I am trying
+to forget all about that night in the ruins, and hoping for time to put
+things to rights. Perhaps I shall return quite soon. Perhaps, if the
+doctor is transferred, I shall find courage to write and tell Ray all
+about _it_. I am all nerves, sometimes I believe I am ill, for I can't
+sleep well and have all sorts of horrid dreams about cholera, and
+snakes, and Baby dying of convulsions! So, you see, a change is what I
+most need; and I am so homesick for Mother and Kitty! I cry at a word. I
+start at every sound, and if Baby should fall ill, it would be the last
+straw."
+
+"But what is to happen when you are away, if, while you are here you
+feel you are drifting apart?"
+
+"When I am away, he will forget my silly ways and remember only that I
+am his wife and how much he loves me. He _does_ love me, nothing can
+alter that; but lately I have held aloof from him for reasons I have
+explained to you, and he is hurt. You may not understand how desperately
+mean I feel, and how unfit to kiss him and receive his kisses after what
+has happened. For the life of me I could not keep it up without telling
+him all. And how could I, when Captain Dalton is convalescent and my
+husband will have to meet him when he is able to get about again?
+Already he is talking of going round to chat with him. You see, he does
+not know!"
+
+Honor was deeply perplexed. "Of course, you must do as you please, but
+in your place, I would tell him everything, and as he knows how dearly
+you love him, and only him, he will, I am certain, give up all desire
+for revenge. At a push, he might ask for a transfer."
+
+Joyce shuddered. "I'd rather leave things to time. Later on, I can tell
+him all about it, and, perhaps, by then, Captain Dalton will have been
+transferred. Don't you love me, Honey?"
+
+"Of course I love you."
+
+Joyce flung her arms round Honor's neck and kissed her warmly. "You were
+looking so cold and disapproving! Take care of Ray for me, will you? and
+write often to me about him. I shall miss him terribly," and she sobbed
+unrestrainedly.
+
+When Meredith saw her safely to Bombay, preparatory to her embarkation,
+he allowed himself to show something of the grief he felt at having to
+give up for an indefinite time what he most valued on earth. In the
+seclusion of their room at the hotel, he held her close in his arms and
+devoured her flower-like face with eyes of hungry passion.
+
+"So, not content with holding yourself aloof from me, you are leaving me
+to shift for myself, the best way I can!" he said grimly.
+
+Joyce's lips quivered piteously and she hid her face in his shirt-front.
+
+"Has it never occurred to you," he said, "that a man parted too long
+from his wife, might get used to doing without her altogether?"
+
+Two arms clung closer in protest. "But never you!" she replied with
+confidence.
+
+"Even I," he said cruelly. He wanted to hurt her since she had walked
+over him, metaphorically, with hobnailed boots. "India is a land of many
+temptations."
+
+"But you love me!"
+
+"God knows I do. But I am only a very ordinary human man whose wife
+prefers to live away from him in a distant land."
+
+"Ray, you are saying that only to be cruel!"
+
+"Because I am beginning to think you have no very real love for me."
+
+"I love you, and no one else!"
+
+"I have seen very little evidence of love, as I understand it. A great
+many things count with you above me. The child comes first! God knows
+that I have idolised you. Perhaps this is my punishment! but I
+worshipped you, and today you are deliberately straining the cord that
+binds us together. The strands will presently be so weak that they will
+snap altogether. Then all the splicing afterwards will never restore it
+to its original strength. It will be a patched-up thing--its perfection
+gone. Remember, a big breach between husband and wife may be mended--but
+never again is there restored what has been lost!" He lifted her chin
+and kissed her cold lips roughly. "When do you mean to return? Can't you
+suggest an idea of the time?"
+
+"Whenever you can get leave to fetch me," she answered with sobbing
+breath.
+
+"I swear to God I will not do so!" he broke out. "You may stay as long
+as you choose. I shall then understand how much I count with you. I
+refuse to drag back an unwilling wife."
+
+"Oh, Ray! Don't talk like that! Won't you believe that I love you?"
+
+"I would sell my soul to believe it ... to bank all my faith on it!"
+
+"It is true!"
+
+"Prove it now."
+
+"How can I?"
+
+"Let me cancel the passage, and come back with me."
+
+Her face fell. "I could not do that after all the arrangements have been
+made. Mother will be so disappointed--besides, people will think me
+mad!"
+
+Meredith released her and turned away, a fury of jealousy at his heart.
+"Ever since that night at the ruins you have become a changed being. I
+tried not to think so, but, by God! you have forced me to. One might
+almost imagine you are running away from Captain Dalton. Is there
+anything between you?" he asked coming back to face her, white and
+shaken.
+
+Joyce burst into tears. "I don't understand what you are accusing me
+of!" she sobbed, panic-stricken.
+
+"Are you in love with that man?"
+
+This was something tangible and Joyce was roused to an outburst of
+honest indignation. "No!--no! A thousand times, no! How dare you think
+so! How dare you imply I am lying? I have said I love you, but I shall
+hate you if you hurt me so!"
+
+Meredith's face lightened as he swung about the room. "It all comes back
+to the same thing in the end. It is good-bye, maybe, for years!"
+
+Early the next morning, he saw his wife on board with the child and
+ayah, and then returned to his duties at Muktiarbad, a lonely and
+heavy-hearted man.
+
+Captain Dalton recovered, was granted sick leave by the Government, and
+disappeared from the District for a sea trip to Ceylon.
+
+Tommy mentioned the fact to Honor having just learned it from him on the
+platform of the railway station where he was awaiting the Calcutta
+express, surrounded with baggage and with servants in attendance. He was
+looking like a ghost and was in the vilest of tempers; not even having
+the grace to shake hands on saying good-bye!
+
+Honor turned aside that the boy might not see the disappointment in her
+face. Her heart was wrung with pain. Not once had Captain Dalton made an
+effort to see her.
+
+Her father had smoked a cigar with the invalid one evening when he was
+allowed to sit up on a lounge in his own sitting-room, and had been
+asked to convey thanks and gratitude to Mrs. Bright for her many
+kindnesses to the patient in his illness; but there had been no
+reference to "Miss Bright"; nor did he give any sign that he remembered
+what had passed between them at his bedside, the one and only time that
+he had seemed to recognise her and had spoken unforgettable words.
+
+It was cruel; it was humiliating!
+
+Honor had been trying by degrees to teach herself to believe that he had
+spoken under the influence of delirium. Perhaps he had been thinking of
+someone else outside her knowledge? But she could not forget how sanely
+he had recalled the time he had treated her for snake-bite. His words
+were burned into her brain as with fire--"When you came to me for help
+in your danger and suspense; when I saw into that brave, staunch heart
+of yours, and, for the first time, knew a true woman!"
+
+There was no delirium in that!
+
+What did it all mean? If he really loved her, why did he not want her as
+she wanted him? Why did he treat her with such indifference and wound
+her to the heart?
+
+There was no answer to her questioning. Captain Dalton was, as always,
+unaccountable, and Honor lifted her head proudly, and determined to
+think no more of him. She gave herself up to the arrangements for a
+happy Christmas, and, for the next week, was the busiest person at
+Muktiarbad.
+
+Tommy, claiming assistance from his chum, Jack, was ready to draw up a
+programme for a gala week. There would have to be polo, tennis, and golf
+tournaments if the residents entered into the spirit of enjoyment and
+were sporting enough to fill the Station with guests.
+
+"Who do you suppose will care to come to a dead-and-alive hole like
+this?" Jack remarked, throwing cold water, to begin with, on his
+friend's enthusiasms. "It will be a waste of energy especially when they
+are having a race meeting at Hazrigunge!"
+
+"Even this dead-and-alive hole might be made entertaining if we put our
+shoulders to the wheel."
+
+"There are not enough of us. You might count the doctor out--he's away.
+Meredith is no good. His wife's left him for the present and he lives in
+the jungles with a gun. With half-a-dozen men, one girl, and a host of
+Mrs. Grundies, you are brave if you think you can manage to engineer a
+good time. Take my advice, old son, and leave people to spend their time
+as they please. After all, Christmas is a time for the kiddies; not old
+stagers like you and me."
+
+Jack's spirits were conspicuously below par, and there had been signs
+and symptoms of boredom, reminiscent of Bobby Smart whenever he had been
+seen in company with Mrs. Fox.
+
+"Can't you work up some little interest?" Tommy asked impatiently. "It's
+beastly selfish of you, to say the least of it."
+
+"I might spend Christmas in town."
+
+"I might have known that. I heard something last night about Mrs. Fox
+having an invitation to spend Christmas with friends in Calcutta," was
+the pointed rejoinder.
+
+"Pity you did not think of it before."
+
+"Chuck it, Jack!" said Tommy earnestly, putting a hand affectionately on
+his friend's shoulder.
+
+"I wish to God I could," was the gloomy reply. "It's so easy to get into
+trouble, but so devilishly difficult to get out of it again, decently."
+
+"I'd do it indecently, if it comes to that! You think it's 'playing the
+game' to keep on with an affair of that sort? It's a damned low-down
+sort of game, anyhow, with no rules to keep; so chuck it before worse
+happens."
+
+Jack lighted a cigarette deliberately and made no reply. His
+good-looking, young face was looking lean and thoughtful; he had
+suddenly changed from boyish youth to _blasé_ middle age; the elasticity
+of his nature was gone; his laugh was rarely heard, and he seemed to
+keep out of the way of his friends. Even Tommy had ceased to share his
+confidence. There was a rumour that the Collector had spoken to him like
+a father and was seriously thinking of having him transferred--a
+suggestion which had been made by his wife, prompted by Honor. But
+transfers were not effected in a twinkling, and Jack still remained at
+Mrs. Fox's beck and call, took her out in his side car, and was often
+missing of an evening when it was expected of him to turn up at a
+special gathering of his friends.
+
+In desperation Tommy confided to Honor that Christmas was going to be as
+dull as Good Friday, as there would be nothing doing. And Honor not to
+be beaten, collected subscriptions, sent out invitations, and threw
+herself heartily into the task of organizing a good time.
+
+In the end, Christmas week at Muktiarbad was a season of mild amusement
+and effortless good-fellowship. A few guests arrived to assist in making
+merry, and there was no discordant note to jar the harmony of the
+gatherings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jack arrived at the crisis of his life, on Christmas Eve, in Calcutta,
+when he felt that the invisible bonds threatening to enslave him were
+suddenly tightened, rendering his escape well-nigh impossible.
+
+He had taken a box at the theatre, from which he and Mrs. Fox watched
+the "Bandmann Troupe" in their latest success.
+
+"What a mercy we are not staying at the same hotel, Jack," said Mrs.
+Fox. "It did feel rotten at first, but as it turns out, it will be all
+for the best, old thing. I have extraordinary news for you."
+
+"You have?--out with it!" he said absently. She had so often surprises
+on him which generally ended in some new suggestion of intrigue, that he
+was both unmoved and incurious.
+
+"First tell me how fond you are of me. You haven't said much about it
+since we came to town."
+
+"We haven't been so very much alone, have we?"
+
+"No, worse luck! but there is no reason why you should not make up for
+it whenever we are together. You must have heaps of quite charming
+things to say? In fact, you do love me tremendously, Jack, don't you?"
+she coaxed.
+
+"I thought I had proved it sufficiently," he said colouring with
+annoyance while he tried to look amiable.
+
+"You are a darling--like your silly old name which I adore! What a
+topping world this is! You don't know how much you have altered
+everything for me. I feel such a kid, and everyone tells me I might be
+in my teens!" she said with a pitiable attempt to be kittenish.
+
+Jack turned away, sickened by her vain folly, and frowned involuntarily.
+What an outrageous ass he had been! However, some day he would break
+away from his chains; only, he must do it decently. Let her down gently,
+so to speak, as she was so damned dependent on his passion, which had
+long since died a natural death.
+
+Mrs. Fox snuggled her hand into his. "Say something nice, my Beauty
+Boy," she wheedled.
+
+Jack squirmed inwardly; nevertheless, to oblige her he admired her gown
+and called up the ghost of the smile which had once been his special
+charm.
+
+"How lovely it would be if you and I were husband and wife,
+Jack?--sitting here, together, in the eyes of all the world?"
+
+"Lovely," echoed Jack, dutifully.
+
+"You would never fail me, dearest, would you? Say, supposing I were, by
+some miracle, free?"
+
+Knowing that she was securely bound, Jack felt safe in assuring her that
+he would never dream of failing her. It was his belief that this, and
+other vows he had unthinkingly made, were impossible of fulfilment in
+their circumstances.
+
+"What a boy it is!--always so shy of letting himself go. Look at me. I
+want to see if your eyes are speaking the truth. There is something of
+importance I have to tell you relating to our two selves and the
+future."
+
+Jack obeyed, curious and not a little anxious because of the
+half-suppressed note of excitement she could not keep out of her voice.
+The shaded lights of the theatre were not too dim to show the fine lines
+at the corners of her mouth and the obvious effort to supply by art what
+nature had failed to perpetuate. But the egotism of a woman grown used
+to her power to charm, dies hard.
+
+Jack's eyes fell nervously before the questioning in hers.
+
+"Tell me, don't you believe we could be very happy together?"
+
+"Why should you doubt me?" he said evasively.
+
+"I don't doubt you, but I want the joy of hearing you say so. To me it
+is so wonderful,--what is about to happen,--that I am afraid I shall
+wake up and find it is all a dream!" she said fatuously, gazing with
+adoration at Jack's fine physique and boyish, handsome face. "You have
+often feared possibilities, and said you would stand by me if anything
+went wrong between Barry and myself."
+
+Jack remembered having often said much that had made him hotly
+uncomfortable to recall afterwards.
+
+"Didn't you, Jack, dear?"
+
+"Of course," he said desperately. "What else do you suppose, unless I am
+a howling cad?"
+
+"I know you are not, that is why I simply adore you. You are so true, so
+sincere! My beau ideal of manhood!----"
+
+"Well, it is like this. Barry has come to the conclusion that it isn't
+fair to either of us to keep dragging at our chains when we have long
+ceased to care for each other, so he wrote, yesterday, to tell me that
+he would put no obstacle in my way if I wished to divorce him. There is
+someone he is keen on and whom he will marry in due course. I can do the
+same. He has heard about you--just rumour--but as a woman is always the
+one to suffer most in a suit for divorce he has most generously
+suggested that the initiative should come from me. Rather decent of him,
+what?"
+
+"Tremendously decent," said Jack his heart becoming like lead in his
+breast. For a moment the lights of the theatre swam; he felt deadly sick
+and cold, and failed to take in the sense of what she continued to say.
+In the midst of his mental upheaval the lights mercifully went down and
+the curtain up, so that much of his emotion passed unnoticed.
+
+"Why Jack!--think of it, we shall be able to marry after it is all
+finished!--only a few months to wait!"
+
+"Yes," said he with dry lips.
+
+"Try to look as if you are glad!" she teased. "You know you are crazy
+with delight. It is what we were longing for. Be a little responsive,
+old dear," she said, giving his hand a squeeze.
+
+Jack returned the pressure, feeling like a trapped creature with no hope
+of escape. Marriage with Mrs. Barrington Fox had never at any time
+entered into his calculations. He was too young, to begin with, and
+certainly did not wish to be tied down to the woman who had played upon
+his untried passions.
+
+Waves of self-disgust and dread seemed to overwhelm him.
+
+He sat on for the next few minutes seeing nothing, hearing nothing,
+saying nothing, while he anathematised himself mentally as every kind of
+a fool, Barrington Fox as a contemptible blackguard, and the woman
+beside him as something unspeakable. He could not deny his own
+culpability; but he had felt all along that a nature like his was as wax
+in such unscrupulous and experienced hands.
+
+He had been weak--yes, damnably weak! that was about the sum and total
+of it. And he would have to spend the rest of his life in paying for it!
+
+What would the mater say? He thought of her first; the proud and
+handsome dame who had placed all her hopes on her eldest son--who
+thought no one good enough to be his wife.
+
+His pater?--and the girls?
+
+He had never associated them in his thoughts with Mrs. Fox, nor dreamed
+of their meeting even as acquaintances. The contrast was too glaring.
+
+His career?
+
+Well!--the Government did not approve discreditable marriages; but, on
+the other hand, it did not actively interfere with a Service man's
+private affairs. A good officer might make his way in spite of an
+unfortunate marriage. There were worse instances in the "Indian Civil"
+than his. But he was certain, at any rate, he would be socially done
+for!
+
+Gradually he had come to realise that all the stories concerning Mrs.
+Fox must have been true, and that she had been tolerated by society
+purely on account of her husband--and he was now proved no better than
+she!
+
+Be that as it may, he saw no way out of his dilemma save by dishonouring
+his written and spoken word. One was as good as the other and he felt
+himself hopelessly snared. The lady would have to become his wife, and
+he would spend the rest of his life dominated by her personality,
+fettered by her jealous suspicions, and suffering in a thousand other
+ways, as men suffer, who rashly marry women several years older than
+themselves.
+
+Mrs. Fox laughed merrily at the comic situation in the performance to
+give Jack time to recover himself, but her eyes gleamed anxiously.
+
+She was sufficiently woman of the world and quick-witted enough to
+comprehend the shock to Jack and his consequent stupefaction. But he was
+young enough for his nature to be played upon, and she was determined
+not to lose her advantage. She banked all her hopes on his sense of
+honour, and continued to thank her stars that her luck was "set fair."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BREAKING BOUNDS
+
+
+Honor lived in dread of Captain Dalton's return to the Station.
+
+Did he remember anything of what had passed between them in the hour
+which she had spent at his bedside? Or had he completely forgotten the
+episode and her confession? She would have been glad to think he had
+forgotten, for she had brought herself to believe that he had been
+labouring under the influence of delusions. If it were true that he
+loved her, his manner would have been very different in the days
+preceding his illness. True, she had been aloof; but men in love are not
+usually balked by such trifles as had stood in his way.
+
+No. He had been dreaming.
+
+His fever-stricken brain had been wandering among unrealities, and her
+face had filled the imagination of the moment. Facts and fancies had
+intermingled, till they had misled him in his delirium into believing
+that it was she he loved.
+
+The truth was, she argued to herself, that he loved nobody. It was
+certain that a woman by her treachery and double dealing had killed his
+better nature, or drugged it; and his capacity for love and trust had
+gone. If it were not so, he would have loved Joyce who was beautiful and
+winning, and have respected her because of her ingenuous innocence. It
+was a thousand pities that such a strong character had been tricked and
+perverted!
+
+And now that there was no one to monopolise his leisure moments, it was
+to be hoped that he would, on his return, confine himself to his music
+and the treatise he was at work upon. It would be a relief, Honor felt,
+if he would only continue to keep out of her way; otherwise, life would
+be intolerable. It was the acme of humiliation to have discovered
+herself in love with a man who had no need of her whatever! and the
+sooner she could find something to do outside the District, either in a
+hospital or in connection with some charitable organisation, the better
+it would be for her peace of mind and self-respect.
+
+However, when she broached the subject of work away from home, her
+parents would hear nothing of it.
+
+"Our only child, and not to live with us!" Mrs. Bright exclaimed,
+horrified. "What is the use of having a daughter if we are to let her
+leave us--except to be married?"
+
+"I shall never marry. I have no vocation in that line, so should lead
+some sort of useful life."
+
+"And isn't your life useful? What should I do alone when your father is
+in camp? If either of us was ill, whom do you think we would look to,
+but you? Surely, Honey, you are not bored with your own home?"
+
+"Never, Mother dear! I am too happy with you and Dad. But most girls do
+something now-a-days. It is only that I feel it such a waste of energy
+to stay at home doing nothing but please myself."
+
+"You have your duty to us, and your 'duty to your neighbour'."
+
+"Which latter consists of meeting him collectively at the Club, helping
+to amuse him with tennis and golf, and listening to a lot of scandal!"
+
+"My dear! since when have you turned cynical? You are, I am sure, a
+great comfort to Mrs. Meek; and the families of our servants simply
+worship you."
+
+"For converting my cast-off garments to their use in winter. My old navy
+skirt has certainly made an excellent pair of pyjamas for Kareem's young
+hopeful, and the sweeper's youngster looks like nothing on earth in
+bloomers and my old golf jersey!"
+
+"The _saice_, too, is delighted with those jackets you turned out from
+my old red flannel petticoat. The twins are as snug in them as a pair of
+kittens," laughed Mrs. Bright.
+
+"I want to hear no more of that rot about your wanting work while I am
+above ground," said Mr. Bright, looking up from his newspaper and
+regarding his daughter severely. "It will be time enough to let you go
+when some fellow comes along and wants to carry you off; but to let you
+go and tinker at other people's jobs is not at all to my liking when you
+have a home and duties to perform with regard to it."
+
+And that was the end of all argument. Not having a combative nature, nor
+a taste for debate, Honor adjourned to the store cupboard and gave
+Kareem the stores for the day.
+
+"Please be obdurate in the matter of the _ghi_[17], Honey," was her
+mother's parting injunction. "He would swim in it if you allowed him.
+Two _chattaks_ for curry are ample. The dear rascal is not above saving
+the surplus, if he gets it, and selling it back to me."
+
+[Footnote 17: Butter converted into oil by boiling.]
+
+"Memsahib's orders" admitted of no palava, and Kareem who was faithful
+unto death, but not above commercial dishonesty, submitted to the
+mandate with the air of a martyr. "Whatever I am told, that will I do;
+but if the food is not to the sahib's liking, I have nothing to say."
+Having expressed his views on the matter of his restrictions he withdrew
+with his tray full of stores, a bearded, black-browed ruffian in
+appearance, clad in a jacket and loin-cloth, but of a character capable
+of the highest self-sacrifice and devotion.
+
+It was still early enough after her morning's duties were over, for a
+tramp along the Panipara Jhil for snipe, the sport Honor most enjoyed
+and at which she was gradually becoming proficient. She would be all
+alone, that bright January day, as Tommy, her faithful and devoted
+lover, was prevented by his duties from waiting on her.
+
+Jack, too, was at work down at the Courts,--not that he was likely to
+offer his escort in these days of his unhappy bondage to Mrs. Fox; but
+Honor's thoughts strayed persistently to him with anxious concern. He
+had returned from Calcutta after Christmas looking jaded and depressed.
+Tommy had been unable to make anything of him till, one day, his
+attention was caught by a paragraph in the _Statesman_ concerning an
+application for a dissolution of marriage from her husband, on the usual
+grounds, by Mrs. Barrington Fox.
+
+"Good God! a walkover for her!" he exclaimed in consternation. Being
+full of concern for Jack, he forthwith proceeded with the news to Miss
+Bright, and they lamented together in bitterness over the young man's
+impending ruin. "She has played her cards like a sharper, and I have no
+doubt that that old idiot, Jack, is done for," Tommy observed.
+
+"But why should he marry her?" Honor protested. "Two wrongs don't make a
+right."
+
+"He feels, I suppose, in honour bound to marry her."
+
+"In honour bound to punish himself by rewarding her dishonesty?"
+
+"He shared it."
+
+"Hers was the greater sin. She tempted him. Think of her age and his,
+her experience of life and his!--I don't see it!"
+
+"Men have a special code of honour, it seems."
+
+"Tommy, it is a case of kidnapping. Jack's only a foolish, weak boy,
+deserving of punishment, but it isn't fair that the punishment should be
+life-long!"
+
+"He is pretty sick of himself, I can vouch for that."
+
+Jack's undoing was a source of depression to Honor Bright, and the
+question of how to save him was with her continually.
+
+It was a cold day with a pleasant warmth in the sunshine as Honor swung
+along the roads on foot, her gun under her arm, and a bag of cartridges
+slung from her shoulder. She was dressed in a Norfolk jacket and short
+skirt of tweed, with top boots as a protection from snakes, and her free
+and graceful carriage was a beautiful thing to see. So thought the
+doctor as he watched her from behind a pillar in his bungalow verandah.
+
+He had returned by the last train the previous night a few days before
+he was expected, and, as yet, no one besides his servants and the
+_locum_ knew of it.
+
+When Honor had passed he began making hasty preparations to go out. His
+shot gun was taken down from a rack, examined, cleaned, and oiled
+afresh; cartridges were dropped into his pocket; thick boots suitable to
+muddy places were pulled on, accompanied by much impatience and a few
+swear words.
+
+Would he have the motor? Yes--no! The motor could be taken by a mechanic
+to a certain point by the Panipara Jhil and left there for his
+convenience.
+
+In the meantime, Honor tramped through the fields taking all the short
+cuts she knew, and was soon on the fringe of the grass in complete
+enjoyment of the wildness of the scene and its solitude. The slanting
+rays of the morning sun filtering through the trees, cast checkered
+lights upon the lilies and weeds that floated on the water. Little
+islands dotted the surface, covered with rushes and date palms, the wild
+plum, and the _babul_--all growing thickly together. The air was full of
+the odour of decaying vegetation and the noise of jungle fowl, teal, and
+duck. The latter could be seen fluttering their pinions among the lotus
+flowers, and bobbing about on the surface of the water, thoroughly at
+home in their native element; occasionally a flock would rise and settle
+again not far from the same spot, vigilant with the instinct of
+approaching danger. In the far distance, Panipara village could be seen,
+its dark, thatched roofs seeming to fringe the _jhil_ at its farther
+verge.
+
+Honor filled the breach of her light gun with a couple of No. 8
+cartridges, and warily skirted the brink. In places the pools were so
+shallow that a man might have waded knee deep from island to island; but
+the soft mud was treacherous, and flat-bottomed canoes were generally
+hired at Panipara by sportsmen who went duck-shooting. As Honor was
+after snipe, she kept to the banks and picked her way fearlessly along
+the tangled paths, her high boots a protection from thorns and snakes.
+
+Birds sang lustily in the trees; the throaty trill of the tufted bulbul
+sounding inexpressibly sweet,--the thyial, too, like a glorified canary,
+made music for her by the way.
+
+For nearly an hour Honor wandered over the marshy ground of both banks,
+often imagining she heard footsteps and rustlings among the long grass
+that screened the view. The sounds ceased when she paused to listen, so
+she concluded that her imagination had played her false. At length, just
+as she was beginning to despair of success, a couple of snipe rose like
+a flash from almost under her feet, and were gone before she could raise
+her gun to her shoulder. Immediately she was startled by the sound of a
+shot fired somewhere in her neighbourhood! She had no idea that any one
+else was out shooting that morning. She looked around. Beyond a thin
+veil of smoke hanging over the water, there was nothing to be seen.
+
+Who could it be, but a native _shikari_?--for there were a few in the
+District licensed to carry firearms, who supplied the residents of the
+Station with birds for their tables. Satisfied with her theory, she
+pressed on a little farther and was rewarded by another chance at a
+snipe. As the bird headed for a clump of bushes, she fired, and
+simultaneously with her shot there came an involuntary cry--a sharp
+exclamation of pain, and for a second she was rooted to the spot,
+forgetting everything but the fear that someone at hand had been hit.
+
+Dropping her gun in the grass, she ran forward in dismay, brushed aside
+the screen of weeds and jungle, and came face to face with Captain
+Dalton leaning against the trunk of a tree, holding his wrist.
+
+"Oh!--have I hurt you?" she cried in an intensity of alarm rather than
+of surprise at finding him there, when she believed him at least some
+hundreds of miles away.
+
+Dalton never looked at her, nor replied, but releasing his wrist,
+allowed the blood to drip to the ground from a trivial wound. A stray
+shot from the many in the cartridge had scratched the skin upon a vein,
+and the occasion was serving him well.
+
+But out of all proportion to the injury was his pallor and the emotion
+that swept his face and held him quivering and tongue-tied.
+
+"What can I do?" Honor cried in her distress. The sight of blood was
+enough to rend her tender heart; and to know that it had been shed by an
+act of hers, shook her to the foundations of her being.
+
+Dalton produced a handkerchief in silence and passing it to her, allowed
+her to bandage the wound as well as she could. He was concerned only
+with watching the beautiful, sunburnt fingers that moved tremblingly to
+aid him, or the sympathetic face that bent over the task.
+
+When the bandage was completed, their eyes met, and the same moment
+Honor was in his arms, clasped close to his breast while he murmured his
+adoration.
+
+"I love you!--my God! how I love you! and I want you so! Oh, my precious
+little girl!--my Honey--my love!"
+
+Honor asked no questions, but welcomed, with a sob of joy, the gift of
+love that flooded her heart to overflowing. She clung to his neck with
+loving abandonment and yielded her lips to his generously. With her
+great nature, she could do nothing by halves, so gave of her love with
+no grudging hand.
+
+"Since when have you loved me, my Sweet?" he asked in tones that were
+music to her ears.
+
+"From the moment you kissed my hand and called me 'brave'!"
+
+"And yet you plunged that dagger in my heart when you said in my
+hearing--'I have no interest in Captain Dalton'?"
+
+Honor recalled her conversation with Joyce and blushed. "It was not
+true!" she confessed.
+
+"I deserved it--and more!" he said humbly with suffering in his eyes.
+
+"And when did _you_ begin to--care?" she asked shyly.
+
+"From the moment I looked into your eyes at my bungalow, and saw
+heroism, truth, and purity."
+
+It was sweet hearing, though she was convinced that he exaggerated her
+qualities. "Why then did you hide it so long?"
+
+"I was fighting the biggest fight of my life."
+
+"And have you won?"
+
+"Won?" he laughed harshly. "No. I have lost, but it's worth it," kissing
+her defiantly. "Can you guess how much I love you? When I was ill I used
+to dream of you. I even thought you came to me and said you loved me!"
+
+"I did. I was beside you, but you were delirious with fever, and I was
+sure afterwards that what you said meant nothing."
+
+"You were there? I often wondered about it, but dared not ask for fear
+of disillusionment. The dream was so dear!"
+
+"And when you recovered, you never tried to see me!"
+
+"I was fighting my big fight which I have lost," he returned recklessly.
+
+"So I tried to teach myself to forget."
+
+"And you couldn't?"
+
+"Oh, no. It was too late!" she sighed happily.
+
+"Blessed fidelity! and now you confess that you love me. Say it!"
+
+"I love you!" A few minutes passed in silence while he demonstrated his
+transports of delight in true lover fashion.
+
+"When you were angry with me over Elsie Meek's case, I went mad and did
+a succession of hideous things. How can you love such a monster?"
+
+Honor drew his face closer and laid her cheek to his.
+
+"I hated everybody--I even tried to hate you, but it was impossible. I
+resented the happiness of other men. I tried my best to break up a man's
+home after partaking of his hospitality. Do you care to kiss me now?"
+
+Honor kissed him tenderly. "I watched it all with such suffering!"
+
+"You did? God forgive me! Did you know that it is not to my credit that
+Mrs. Meredith is an honest woman today?"
+
+"I know all about it."
+
+"She told you? I might have known it! Women like Joyce Meredith talk.
+But she is a good little woman. As for me!--I am unfit to kiss your
+boot. Even now, I am the greatest blackguard unhung,--the meanest
+coward, for I cannot bring myself to renounce my heart's desire!" He
+held her from him and looked into her face with haggard eyes. "Send me
+away! Say you will have nothing to do with me!--I shall then trouble you
+no more."
+
+With a happy laugh Honor flung herself on his breast. "Send you
+away?--now?" The thing was clearly impossible. And why should she?
+However wickedly he had behaved in the past it mattered nothing to her,
+for the present was hers and all the future. What a glorious prospect!
+
+"You haven't the foggiest idea what a scoundrel I am!"
+
+"Then I must have a special leaning towards scoundrels!" she replied,
+her face hidden on his shoulder.
+
+"God knows the biggest thing in my life is my love for you," he said
+brokenly. "My dream-girl! If I lose you, I lose everything. You will not
+fail me, Honey?" he asked solemnly. "If all the world should wish to
+part us, you will still hold to me?"
+
+"I could not change. Whatever happens, I shall always love you, even if
+all the world were against you."
+
+He was not satisfied. For many minutes he held her to his heart,
+covering her face with passionate, lingering kisses.
+
+"And all this while we are forgetting that your wrist is hurt!" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"Damn my wrist! Look at me. Your eyes cannot lie!"
+
+Honor lifted her eyes, clear and sweet to his, full of the love and
+loyalty she felt, and saw an unutterable sadness in the depths of his
+soul. He should have been rejoicing, yet he was like a man burdened with
+a great remorse.
+
+"Say, 'Brian, I am yours till death.'"
+
+Honor repeated the words gravely.
+
+He continued: "'I swear that, when you are ready to take me away, I will
+go with you, and none shall hold me back.' Say that."
+
+Honor said it faithfully. "I don't care if we have the quietest of
+weddings," she added, "so long as it is in a church."
+
+After a pregnant pause, he said tentatively, "Mr. Meek, I dare say,
+could tie the knot."
+
+"When may I tell Mother?"
+
+"Will she keep it to herself?"
+
+"She will tell Father, of course."
+
+"Can't we have our happiness all to ourselves for a little while?"
+
+Honor thought she could understand his deep sensitiveness of criticism
+and questions--he was so unlike all the other men she knew--and
+consented. Moreover, she loved him and wanted to please him. There was
+no wrong in keeping secret what concerned themselves so closely, till he
+was ready to make it public. Her own dear mother, from whom she had kept
+nothing in her life, would be the first to understand and appreciate her
+motive, as she was the most sympathetic woman in the world, and wanted
+nothing so much as her child's happiness.
+
+"I will do exactly as you wish, dear," she said, glad to offer an early
+proof of her great affection.
+
+Dalton kissed her rapturously, in unceasing wonderment at her
+condescension in loving one so utterly unworthy. He seemed unable to
+grasp the truth, and kept asking her repeatedly for assurances.
+
+The heat of the sun's rays now penetrating their shadowed retreat and
+striking down upon her bared head, awakened Honor to a sense of time and
+the realisation that it was midday.
+
+"When shall I hold you in my arms again?" he asked before finally
+releasing her.
+
+"The question is, where?--if it is to be kept a secret between us,
+only?" she asked wistfully, compunction already pulling at her
+conscience. Secrecy savoured of intrigue, and all things underhand were
+abominable to her.
+
+"I am so glad my bungalow is so near to yours--only the two gardens and
+a hedge between! I might almost signal to you to meet me somewhere?" he
+said hesitatingly as though expecting a rebuke.
+
+"No, Brian. I'll have nothing to do with signalling," she said
+definitely. "We'll meet every day at the Club if you like, and leave the
+rest to chance."
+
+"I could not build my hopes on chance. It would drive me crazy, as I am
+not a patient man. Can't I see you alone--say in the lane--after
+dinner?"
+
+"No." She shook her head decidedly. "I couldn't do things by stealth! I
+cannot deceive--it's no use expecting it of me!"
+
+"I knew that; and it's that which I worship in you! But I am an exacting
+and selfish brute. Well!--I'll not complain, Sweetheart!" He released
+her, still with the gloom of a profound sadness in his eyes, and,
+together, they walked back to find his car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+SECRET JOYS
+
+
+Honor seemed to walk on air all day. The whole world had changed for her
+in a twinkling, and her heart sang for very joy at being alive. God had
+answered her appeal and had given her the love of this lonely man whose
+soul was sick and wanted tender nursing back to health. Henceforward it
+would be her privilege to restore to him his lost ideals and revive his
+faith in God and human nature. Her belief in the power of truth and love
+being securely established, she had no fears for a future spent with
+Brian Dalton, for all his failures and misdeeds.
+
+Her only regret was, having to keep her happiness to herself for the
+present, when she longed to share it with her mother: and to atone for
+her enforced reserve, she tried to be more than ever attentive and
+considerate to her while she looked forward to the time, not far
+distant, when she would obtain her forgiveness and blessing.
+
+Captain Dalton's professional duties kept him engaged till dusk, when,
+much to the surprise of the members, he reappeared at the Club. He was
+impatient to meet Honor again and to exact from her lips renewed
+assurances of her unchanged feelings and good faith, for he was restless
+and unable to accept the astounding truth, being suspicious of his good
+fortune and distrustful of circumstances.
+
+On the whole, the meeting was unsatisfactory on account of the lack of
+opportunity for a _tête-à-tête_. Constant interruptions owing to Honor's
+popularity, had the effect of driving him into his accustomed aloofness
+of manner tinged with aggressiveness towards offending persons. Tommy's
+persistent claims on Honor's comradeship were particularly aggravating,
+and not to be borne.
+
+"I shall wring his neck if he butts in again," Dalton muttered
+viciously.
+
+"We have known each other since we were children," Honor put in as a
+softener.
+
+"I can't stick it here for another minute," he said with a suppressed
+curse. "Let's get out of this!"
+
+To Honor, it was joy to be with him even in the midst of a company of
+others. Her satisfaction lay in the knowledge that she was beloved and
+his whispered endearments gave her bliss. His voice at her ear was the
+sweetest music she had ever heard when it said, "Honey!" or
+"Sweetheart!" and asked her to repeat that she loved him. "You know I
+do," she once answered. Thereupon their eyes met for a brief moment and
+her senses swooned under the intensity of his gaze. In that fraction of
+time he had, by suggestion, kissed her with such passion and longing--as
+at the _jhil_--that her breath fluttered in a sob, her eyes were
+blinded. He was teaching her to want him even as he wanted her till she
+was thrilled at the strength of their love. It was glorious that they
+were both young, with so many years of their lives before them in which
+to grow nearer to each other. "And they twain shall be one flesh,"
+seemed the most blessed psychological miracle that her virgin mind could
+conceive.
+
+"Where shall we go?" she answered indulging his demand to take her away
+from the Club.
+
+"We can go for a spin in my car."
+
+"It is so dark!"
+
+"Do you mind?" His voice sounded hurt, and Honor, who was sensitive to
+its inflection, immediately yielded. She feared venomous tongues, but,
+the most deadly of them all being absent--Mrs. Fox having taken up her
+abode in Calcutta while her case was pending--she was reassured.
+
+"Mother dear, I am going for a little run in Captain Dalton's car, if
+you don't mind," she called softly to Mrs. Bright who was busy
+organising a bridge party in the Ladies' Room.
+
+Mrs. Bright looked surprised. Doubtful thoughts flashed through her
+mind,--fear of gossip, reluctance to stand in the way of innocent
+pleasure, and wonder that the doctor should have shown a sudden
+inclination towards sociability. Seeing a critical expression lurking in
+Mrs. Ironsides' eye her dignity was immediately in arms.
+
+"Certainly, darling, but don't be late. Mind you wrap up properly," she
+returned cordially. Mrs. Ironsides would have to appreciate the fact
+that Honor had her mother's fullest trust and confidence. However,
+throughout the ensuing rubber she could not avoid mentally speculating
+on the possibility of the most eligible bachelor in the District
+beginning to consider her child from a matrimonial point of view.
+
+Miss Bright passed out into the darkness with Captain Dalton, her eyes
+shining with a new beauty, and Tommy watched her, filled with dismay.
+What was the meaning of it? Honor with the doctor, of all men! The
+doctor paying Honor marked attentions, and she accepting them with sweet
+graciousness! He forgot to pull at his cigar which went out while he
+stared into the night with eyes that saw only the look in the girl's
+eyes as she walked beside Dalton towards his car.
+
+The motor drive was repeated occasionally, and it became an ordinary
+event for Honor to shoot duck on the Panipara Jhil in his company. "It
+is better than tramping the _jhil_ alone," Mrs. Bright said, when the
+subject was mentioned in her presence. "I have always felt anxious while
+she has been absent on her snipe-shooting expeditions alone, but am so
+much easier in mind now that the doctor has taken charge of her. He is
+such an unerring shot, I am told; and she is learning to be so careful
+under his guidance."
+
+It was the least of the lessons Honor learned from the doctor. He taught
+her the delights of a perfect companionship founded on mutual love; a
+man's reverence for the woman he respects: a complete knowledge of her
+own heart; its power of devotion, its great depths, and stores of
+feeling.
+
+Sometimes Ray Meredith joined them in his fleeting visits to the
+Station--a lonely and pathetic being, in need of companionship, and
+grateful for friendly attentions. His wife wrote regularly, he said, and
+she and the child were well. Otherwise, he spoke little of his absent
+family. Sometimes Tommy would meet them on the _jhil_ and share their
+picnic luncheon. Jack was never accorded an invitation. On these
+occasions, the lovers would play at being ordinary friends but with poor
+success. Honor would avoid meeting the doctor's eyes, while the doctor's
+eyes were unable to stray long from contemplation of her engaging face
+which had never looked so lovable and full of charm.
+
+With a quickened intuition, Tommy realised that his own sun had set, and
+he went about his business, a very subdued being; one who had lost all
+interest in his occupations and who was finding very little in life
+worth living for.
+
+When Honor was alone with Dalton, they would discuss the future, and
+plan their Elysium together. He was engaged in making arrangements for
+taking up a practice in Melbourne, where a colleague, formerly his
+senior, had retired and was eager for his young brains in partnership.
+When everything was settled, her parents were to be told, after which
+they would be quietly married at the Mission, and leave for Australia.
+"You will not mind such a hole-and-corner sort of wedding?" he asked
+anxiously.
+
+"What does it matter, so long as we are married?" she replied. "I have
+always hated a big, ostentatious wedding."
+
+"I should loathe it!" he said strongly. "And what about Australia?"
+
+"Anywhere with you--even if it is to the South Pole!"
+
+Dalton kissed her to express his delight in her thoroughness. "How glad
+I shall be when I have you all to myself!--I shall spend every day of my
+life in proving to you how much I value your love, and you shall give
+this poor devil a chance to take up his life again. Honey!--sometimes I
+am sleepless with fears. It seems to me too good to be true. I am
+overcome with dread lest I should never carry it through! Something will
+be sure to happen to stop it. If so, I am done for! It will be the end
+of me!" He looked as if haunted with forebodings of evil.
+
+Honor enfolded him in her embrace. Her tender arms clung about his neck
+and she kissed him tenderly in her desire to bring him comfort. "Why
+should anything happen to interfere? God knows how much we care, and He
+will be merciful." She fancied he alluded to sudden death.
+
+"Ah! yes. Your God to whom you pray for safety every night of your life,
+may see fit to save you from such as I. I'm not good enough to take you,
+Honey; that's straight."
+
+"You shall not say that," she protested laying her soft palm across his
+mouth. "Who is good in this world? Not I, by any means! So we are a pair
+in need of protection, and are both determined to begin a new life
+together in gratitude for the Divine Countenance."
+
+Dalton suppressed a sound that was almost a sob while he defiantly
+blinked away a tear. "Sweet little Puritan!--" He covered her hand with
+kisses. "But it will be a terrible day for me when that martinet of a
+conscience sits in judgment on my sins. It makes me wish with all my
+heart that I may be dead before then! I'd risk damnation to----"
+
+"Oh, hush!----"
+
+"To have you mine, anyway. Does that shock you? It's the truth," and
+Honor was pained and greatly puzzled.
+
+But he was not often in such a strange frame of mind. There were times
+when he was a different man, almost boyish in his merriment, and full of
+a determined optimism. He would build castles in the air for them both
+to live in, and make her laugh just for the sake of admiring her
+beautiful teeth.
+
+It was early in March when Honor, having lost much of her reserve,
+discussed Jack's affair with Dalton and deplored his inevitable ruin.
+"Tommy says he'll be done for in every way if he marries her, but he
+will do so in spite of everything."
+
+"More fool he."
+
+"He's been very weak and very wicked," sighed Honor; "but _she_ began
+it. We watched it start, and Jack walk, as it were, blindfold into a
+trap. It seems terrible that she should escape and he receive all the
+punishment!"
+
+"Generally, it is the other way about!"
+
+"Jack's punishment will be life-long. He will never be a happy man.
+Already, he is almost ill for thinking of it. His people are so proud
+and would never receive Mrs. Fox. Can't anything be done? You don't
+think he is obliged to marry her?"
+
+"Not Mrs. Fox. Circumstances alter cases. She had her eyes wide open and
+played her cards for this. It would serve a woman like that jolly well
+right if young Darling gave her the slip. Tell Tommy to prevail on him
+to see me. What he wants is a medical certificate and leave home for six
+months. I'm very much mistaken if that doesn't change the complexion of
+things considerably."
+
+"But he has no real illness!"
+
+"I dare say I'll find him really ill when I overhaul him. He looks on
+the verge of a break-down. I have never seen a lad go off as he has done
+the past few months."
+
+"That is because, at heart, Jack is not really a bad fellow. It is just
+that he is deplorably weak; and remorse for having yielded to
+temptation, is tormenting his soul. In proper hands he would shape quite
+well."
+
+Dalton was as good as his word, for, when Jack visited him for a medical
+opinion on his run-down health, he was ready with the certificate which
+was to obtain six months' leave for him in Europe.
+
+And while the young man waited on tenterhooks for sanction to leave
+India, and the routine of station-life continued as usual, the doctor
+awoke to the fact of his own increasing unpopularity with the natives of
+Panipara. Joyce Meredith had once tried to warn him, at which he had
+been considerably amused. After that, the arrival on the scene of a
+surveyor and the taking in hand of preliminary measures, showed that the
+Government were seriously considering the drainage scheme; hence
+personal hostilities against the author of it became active, and the
+gravity of his position was forced upon him.
+
+The villagers scowled whenever he passed and repassed in his journeys
+about the District, and offered him open insolence in lonely places;
+while, on one occasion, a large mob had gathered to waylay the car, but
+had melted away at sight of Honor beside him. They had recognised the
+daughter of the senior police official, and were afraid,--or had caught
+sight of shot guns in the car; whereupon, discretion had prevailed.
+
+Recognising symptoms as dangerous, Dalton refrained from taking Honor
+motoring with him, and had given up their joint expeditions to the
+_jhil_, at which Mrs. Bright was well pleased. Captain Dalton had,
+apparently, not proposed to Honor, and it was high time that he ceased
+making her conspicuous by his attentions. She had expected something to
+come of them but, so far, the only result was gossip and chaff on the
+part of ladies when they met at the Club, which was excessively
+annoying.
+
+Didn't Honor see that matters were going a bit too far? Was it prudent
+for a young girl to get herself talked about--especially with a young
+man who had already caused plenty of gossip in the Station? Honor
+allowed that she had, perhaps, been a little unwise not to have
+considered the opinion of the neighbours, but her dear mother need not
+make herself anxious, as she and Captain Dalton understood each other
+perfectly.
+
+That being the case, Mrs. Bright was consoled; for what is an
+"understanding" between a man and a maid, if not an unofficial
+engagement? Like most mothers, Mrs. Bright was anxious, at heart, to see
+her daughter happily settled in life; and the doctor, though not a
+wealthy man or popular, was, at least, a rising one in his profession,
+and considered a good match.
+
+Honor, however, paid little attention to gossip and chaff, her mind
+being filled with anxiety and growing alarm for her lover's safety. She
+had quickly divined the increasing antagonism of the Panipara villagers
+towards him; and knowing his recklessness lived in continual dread.
+
+"I shall not know a moment's peace while this sort of thing goes on,"
+she fretted. "Can't you get a transfer till we are married?"
+
+"And leave my little love?" It was unthinkable.
+
+"It would make no difference in our feelings for each other."
+
+"I couldn't do it, apart from the fact that it would look like running
+away. You little know what it means to me to see you every day."
+
+Latterly he had spent most of his evenings at the Blights', who took
+compassion on his loneliness and were complaisant of his obvious
+attachment to Honor. Mrs. Bright, in her tactful way, gave him many
+opportunities of having Honor to himself in the drawing-room while she
+betook herself to her husband's own particular sanctum to indulge in
+confidential chat. "It is plain to see that he worships our Honey, and
+it is best they should meet here, since meet they must, in her own
+home," she would explain. "I dare say we shall be hearing something one
+of these days."
+
+"He improves on acquaintance, and certainly has a devilish fine voice. I
+could listen to him all night," said her husband, nevertheless, obeying
+the hint and remaining a voluntary exile in his study.
+
+Considering that his opportunities for snatching whatever of happiness
+he could out of his life in the present lay in Muktiarbad, it was not
+likely that Dalton was inclined to seek a transfer and thus run away
+from bodily danger;--not even when a parcel containing a bomb was placed
+on his writing-table, which, owing to some technical defect, failed to
+go off when it was opened. The incident gave Tommy and his subordinates
+some work to do, trying to trace the culprit who had placed it there,
+but the matter was treated with unconcern by the doctor himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE DELUGE
+
+
+One day, at the close of April, when the thermometer was unusually high,
+Ray Meredith fell a victim to a stroke of the sun, and had to be carried
+in from camp like a dead man. His friends were thrown into
+consternation, telegrams were flashed to headquarters, and even the
+bazaar discussed his danger with bated breath. Captain Dalton, always at
+his best in critical moments, rose all at once to great heights in the
+estimation of the District. It was told of him how he was not only
+physician but nurse to the Collector, and no woman could have been more
+deft or capable in the sick-room than he was. But no one knew that a
+sense of obligation to his conscience as well as to the sick man was
+driving him hard, so that, for the time being, all personal
+considerations were swept aside,--even his cherished plans which were
+nearing completion,--in order that he might save a useful life to which
+he owed some reparation.
+
+Mrs. Bright was filled with admiration, and Honor with adoration. Both
+held themselves in readiness to be of use as necessity might demand, and
+were full of concern for Joyce so far away. Yet no cable was sent to
+tell her of her husband's state.
+
+"From a rational point of view, it would be folly," said Mrs. Bright.
+"If he should die, we can send a cable to prepare her, and follow it up
+with another soon afterwards. Should he recover, we will have given her
+a nasty fright for nothing. By the time mail day comes round, we shall
+have something definite to say, and a letter will do quite well." To
+this Honor was obliged to agree, but it seemed terrible to her loving
+heart that a wife should be in ignorance of her husband's peril, and
+thus be deprived of importuning the Almighty with prayers for his
+recovery. So much of good in life depended on prayer, that she felt it
+necessary to pray on behalf of Joyce for the life of the husband so
+precious to her. According to her convictions, God works through the
+agency of his creatures, and as no stone was being left unturned by the
+doctor whose whole heart was in his profession, Ray Meredith stood a
+good chance if God were merciful to the reckless man who had scorned the
+deadly rays of an Indian sun.
+
+"I am so thankful he has you to take care of him," she once said during
+a private interlude, when Dalton held her in his arms under the great
+trees of the avenue and kissed her good-night. "Poor, poor Joyce! She
+would break her heart if she were to lose him--and she away! She would
+never forgive herself for going."
+
+"If, in spite of all our efforts, he should not recover, you may take it
+that he is fated to die of this stroke. One can't kick against Fate."
+
+"There is no such thing as Fate! If you do your best, God helping, he
+will recover, I am sure of it. I am praying so hard for his wife's sake.
+If we keep in touch with God and do our best unremittingly, it is all
+that is wanted of us."
+
+"If any one's prayers ever reach heaven, I am sure yours do!... Do you
+ever pray for me?"
+
+"Always!"
+
+"What for, specially?"
+
+Honor hesitated for a moment, then murmured, "That we may never be
+parted in life, and that I may succeed in making you happy."
+
+Dalton kissed her reverently. "Any more than that? Do you never say,
+'Make him a good boy'? I need that more than anything. It is what
+mothers teach their kiddies to say, but it's forgotten when they grow
+up."
+
+"I'll say that, too, if you wish it."
+
+"Say it every night of your life; and also that my sins may be forgiven
+me. They are many!"
+
+The evening the nurse arrived from Calcutta to take charge of the case,
+Meredith was improving in spite of the insupportable heat. _Punkhas_
+waved unceasingly in the bungalows, and quantities of ice were consumed.
+People moved about without energy, mopping their faces and yearning for
+the relief of a nor'wester, while a "brain-fever" bird cried its
+melancholy cadences with aggravating monotony, from a tree in the
+Collector's garden, where every leaf and twig had a thick coating of
+dust. A grey pall in the north-west tantalised with its suggestion of a
+possible thunderstorm, which, if it burst, would instantly cool the
+overcharged atmosphere; and anxious eyes glanced at it with longing.
+
+Honor drove to the railway station in the Daimler to fetch the expected
+nurse, and was in time to meet the express as it steamed in with its
+long train of coaches, in which every window gaped, revealing in the
+third-class compartments the spectacle of semi-nude humanity packed like
+sheep in pens, perspiring, and anxious for the moment of release.
+
+When the crowd on the platform had thinned, she saw a lady in a nurse's
+cloak and bonnet, waiting by her trunks, the belabelled condition of
+which advertised the fact that the owner was a much travelled person.
+
+She was strikingly handsome in a bold and arresting way, with dark eyes
+capable of expressing much, and full, red lips parted upon slightly
+prominent teeth. She looked as if she could be extremely fascinating,
+but there was something about her that did not inspire Honor with
+confidence,--though she freely admired her grace and aplomb,--and she
+thought she looked more like an actress than a nurse. Surely the stage
+would have better suited one of her type! She wondered.
+
+"I have been sent to fetch you. My name is Honor Bright."
+
+"Oh, how d'you do! How kind you are! You see, I have 'some' luggage,"
+was the reply.
+
+"It will all fit on the car," and signing to a couple of coolie porters,
+Honor gave them directions and led the way through the booking office to
+the entrance porch. After they had taken their seats and the car had
+started, the nurse learned all about the case, in which she showed only
+a passing interest. "A married man, did you say?" she asked carelessly.
+
+Honor had not said so, but answered in the affirmative.
+
+"Wife at home?"
+
+"In England; yes."
+
+"And what's your doctor like? I always like to know for one has so much
+to do with the doctor, and it's just as well to understand something
+about him beforehand," she said, with ill-concealed eagerness.
+
+"I should not describe Captain Dalton better than to say he is very
+direct and never wastes words," said Honor, smiling at her first
+impressions of Brian Dalton. Her secret knowledge of him thrilled her
+happily.
+
+"And what of his looks? Is he as handsome as"--she bit her lips,
+stumbled in her sentence, and concluded, "as his pictures? I have seen
+his portrait in a photo group of surgeons at the Presidency General
+Hospital, in Calcutta."
+
+"I have never thought about his being handsome," said Honor. "He has a
+strong face, and an expressive one--on occasions."
+
+"I am told he is a hard man. How does he impress you?"
+
+"I dare say he could be as hard as flint; but I have not experienced
+that side of his nature."
+
+"It's a funny little place, this," said the nurse who had not troubled
+to give Honor her name. "I rather fancy it. I suppose you manage to have
+quite good times since everyone must know everyone else quite
+intimately. Like a large family!"
+
+"I am quite fond of it, for I have many good friends."
+
+"I could imagine putting up with it for a change; but to live here year
+in and year out, so far away from town and the bustle of life, would
+bore me stiff. However, _chacun à son gôut_!"
+
+At the house, the nurse was shown her room and left to unpack and
+arrange her things, and change into nursing attire. Tea was served to
+her in the morning-room though it was nearing the dinner hour, and Honor
+remained to entertain her till the doctor returned from another case;
+Mrs. Bright having temporary charge of the patient.
+
+Soon afterwards, Captain Dalton arrived and Honor saw him step briskly
+into the room. She retired to a distant corner, herself, leaving him to
+confer with the nurse and acquaint her with the nature of the case,
+utterly unprepared for the scene that followed.
+
+For a moment, she was paralysed at the sight of the doctor's ghastly
+pallor and startled eyes as they lighted upon the stranger's face.
+
+"You?" he breathed through stiffened lips.
+
+"Yes, Brian. I was given the chance as Nurse Grey was ill. I had to see
+you again!" her voice was fiercely agitated. "Won't you hear me?"
+
+"Good God! Don't you understand that you are nothing to me?--less than
+nothing!" His eyes blazed.
+
+"Yet you never divorced me! That gave me hope. Have you no forgiveness?
+No pity?"
+
+A stony silence.
+
+"Oh, you are hard!--_hard_! It is not fair to punish any one forever for
+one mistake----"
+
+"Mistake, do you call it?"
+
+"Sin, if you will have it. Are _you_ sinless? After all, we are but
+human, and we forgive as we hope to be forgiven." She made a movement as
+if to fall at his feet, and Honor rushed blindly from the room. Her one
+instinct was to get away somewhere and hide--hide from the knowledge so
+ruthlessly thrust upon her. It was too horrible to contemplate. She
+shuddered from head to foot, and shivered as with ague. Out into the
+open she ran, among the dust-laden crotons and azaleas, and the florid
+shrubberies of the Indian garden, now bathed in soft moonlight. Scarcely
+heeding her footsteps, she stumbled to a bench beneath a laburnum. If it
+harboured reptiles, she was indifferent. Let her be bitten and die! She
+was crushed and bowed to the earth with a burden of grief too great to
+endure,--too hopeless to think upon.
+
+What was it that he had offered her? Had he meant to insult her?
+
+Never! He loved her too well. He would have killed himself rather than
+have treated her lightly.
+
+What was it then?
+
+Her mind refused to act. It acknowledged only one thought, and that was,
+severance--immediate, final--from the being she loved most on earth.
+That was inevitable.
+
+Brian Dalton was married. He had been married all the time. Joyce had
+misunderstood; or he had lied to her.
+
+No. She would not allow to herself that he had lied. His was not a petty
+nature given to lying, or to the faults of the weak and timid. He was a
+daring and defiant sinner, "risking damnation," as he had once said, for
+the desire of his heart. She could now understand his bitterness, his
+recurring moods of sadness and almost of remorse; for he was plotting
+all the while against the honour of the girl he respected as well as
+loved.
+
+Consecutive thought was impossible; she was bewildered and numbed by the
+suddenness of the blow. Through it all she moaned as though in physical
+pain, "Brian!--oh, Brian!" Not for a minute did she doubt that he loved
+her. He had given abundant evidence of his sincerity; but unable to get
+her by fair means, he had determined to try foul. He had fought the
+fight of his life, and had failed.
+
+"Yes--I had to see you again," the nurse had said. And then,--"You never
+divorced me!"
+
+The words, "never divorced me," kept repeating in her brain. The nurse
+had spoken, forgetful of Honor's presence or imagining that she had left
+the room. He, too, had seemingly forgotten her presence or failed to
+notice that she was still in the room.
+
+She was handsome, this woman who had been--_was_--his wife! Honor
+recalled the flashing eyes, the sensuous mouth, and quailed. Having once
+loved her, might he not be won to love her again? She was his. He had no
+right to think of another.
+
+No other had any right to think of him!
+
+Honor writhed in misery.
+
+"Are you sinless?" his wife had asked him.
+
+From his own showing, he was a most deliberate sinner, ready to
+sacrifice an innocent soul for his own gratification. Only a miracle had
+stopped him.
+
+Words he had spoken returned to her mind--
+
+"Your God to whom you pray every night of your life will see fit to save
+you from such as I!"
+
+The pathos of his dread, the wistful appeal in his voice, had touched
+her deeply. She could hear it still, and her heart went out to him in
+sympathy. Her poor, unhappy darling! But,--had God really interfered to
+save her from the pit he was digging for her feet?
+
+If he were free, she would have no wish to be saved from him, sinner
+though he were. She would take him gladly, and, God helping, slay the
+demon in him forever.
+
+But he was not free. The task was not for her.
+
+The Church would not marry them if it were known that he was not free.
+
+It did not enter into her consciousness that she could go to him in
+spite of God or the law. Defiance of laws, human and divine, was
+impossible to Honor who had been reared to respect both from her cradle.
+
+Therefore, all was at an end; and yet, she had no anger in her heart
+towards Brian Dalton; only love and pity, and grief for the parting
+which was inevitable--a blasting, desolating grief.
+
+Presently, footsteps sounded on the gravel. Someone was wandering in the
+garden in search of her. It was a man's tread. It was Dalton's; she
+recognised the impatience, the determination in it, inseparable from the
+man. Yet she made no sign. She dared not, though she wanted him with all
+her heart. Sobs threatened to strangle her and were fiercely suppressed.
+What right had she to his love now that she knew all? What use had she
+for his explanations and apologies? She was choked, dry-eyed,
+frightened.
+
+She was afraid of herself, for, at the first sound of his footsteps, the
+beating of her heart had deafened her. She wanted him as much as he
+wanted her, and she trembled, feeling powerless to deny her love its
+human expression. It was compelling. What could be the end of it?
+
+She bowed her face upon her quivering arms whispering, "God help
+me!--God help me," yet straining her ears to catch every sound without.
+And she made no resistance when Dalton at last found her, and, seating
+himself at her side, drew her tenderly to his breast.
+
+It was long before either spoke. Honor felt it was for the last time. He
+feared it might be for the last time.
+
+"You know?" he asked in a voice hoarse and strange.
+
+"Yes," she whispered trembling as she clung to him.
+
+"Yet you do not spurn me?"
+
+"How could I, when I love you so!"
+
+"Such a scoundrel as Brian Dalton?"
+
+"I only know how much I love you!"
+
+An inarticulate sound resembling a stifled sob came from him. After a
+while----
+
+"What are you going to do with me, Sweet?"
+
+What answer could she give him but one? "What I must!" Yet she clung all
+the closer.
+
+"Though you love me?"
+
+"I shall love you till I die. But we have to--we must--part!"
+
+His arms about her were like bands of iron. He was scarcely aware of the
+force with which he crushed her to him.
+
+"It cannot be done," he said almost to himself.
+
+"Why did you not divorce her?" Honor asked resentfully.
+
+"To punish her. Ah!--my God!--Punishments come home to roost. Some day I
+will tell you the whole sordid story. There is no time now--I have to go
+back to Meredith."
+
+"We must say good-bye here," she returned with a desperate attempt to be
+calm.
+
+"Never 'good-bye'!" Yet he had no hope. Honor's conscience had
+decided--the conscience he had once feared would sit in judgment on his
+sin against herself; and yet it had uttered no word of reproach.
+
+For a full minute he held her away from himself, trying by the light of
+the moon to see the look in her eyes. He wanted to plead with her to fly
+with him to another land where none should know their history; but his
+words died in his throat as he gazed upon her white and stricken face.
+"Honey, be merciful to me in your thoughts!" he cried, instead, kissing
+her forehead, her eyes, and denying himself her lips.
+
+"Just let me go right away. Give me courage--help me!"
+
+"And what of me?"
+
+"I leave you the gift of my heart. I can never take it back."
+
+"Do you forgive me?"
+
+"Love always forgives."
+
+"God bless you! I think I must have been insane. I would have earned
+your hatred in time. How shall I face life without you?"
+
+Honor gave him her lips sadly. "In our different ways--we shall face it.
+Just at first it will be very hard, but not impossible if we have
+courage to do what is right. To stay on here after this, is more than I
+can bear; so I must go away--just for a bit, to learn how to be brave.
+When I come back--if you are still here, we might both bear it better."
+
+"My poor Honey! What a beast I have been! As for me--you will find me
+here right enough. I shall not go to Australia _now_!--but I shall never
+bear it better."
+
+They parted a little later in heavy sorrow. Honor left him bowed and
+broken on the garden bench, and stumbled home unseeingly.
+
+Afterwards, she learned in one of Dalton's letters--for he would not be
+denied that medium of communion with her--the full story of his past
+humiliation.
+
+He had married a nurse at Guy's when he had been a medical student, and
+she had left him six months later for his best friend. She had been
+proved as faithless as she was handsome, with a baleful influence over
+men. Not long afterwards, the man she had led astray was killed in a
+railway accident, and since then, she had, on various occasions, tried,
+without success, to persuade Dalton to take her back. Apparently, she
+had not resigned hope with the years, for she had followed him to India,
+believing that time was her greatest ally, since it dims the memory of
+wrongs.
+
+When he had discovered her presence in Calcutta, and learned that she
+had joined a nursing home in a fashionable quarter, he had applied for a
+transfer to quiet Muktiarbad, giving as his reason, his need of rest
+from his too strenuous labours in the capital. His desire was to gain
+time and to keep out of the way of any possibility of coming into
+professional contact with his wife.
+
+At Muktiarbad he was able to forget his troubles, and, to his relief,
+seemed to have been forgotten by the Government and left to enjoy his
+peace undisturbed. However, through her connection with a nurses'
+association, his wife had accidentally learned of Nurse Grey's summons
+to Muktiarbad and had cleverly contrived to work things so as to go
+herself, instead.
+
+"If I had only done the right thing in the beginning, and severed the
+tie, legally, things might have been very different today," was the
+burden of his cry. Instead, in the recklessness of despair, he had cut
+the ground from under his own feet, and by his desire for revenge,
+destroyed any possibility of future happiness for himself. Passion for
+the woman was dead. Her beauty revolted him; her character he loathed
+and despised. "It is amazing to me," he wrote in deep contrition and
+humility, "that such an egotistical, conscienceless blackguard as I,
+should have been given the inestimable boon of your wonderful love!--to
+be allowed to retain in my keeping such a pure and faithful heart! It is
+my most treasured possession. My feeling for Honor Bright is my
+religion. To the memory of her, Brian Dalton, one-time scoundrel, kneels
+in worship."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Mrs. Bright returned home from Meredith's bedside and found Honor
+nerveless and prostrated with white cheeks and dark rings round her
+eyes, she was convinced that it was high time her daughter was sent to
+the hills.
+
+"I told you so in March when the weather grew unbearable; and now, you,
+too, have got a touch of the sun!" But Honor's cheek was cool and
+symptoms of sun or heat stroke were lacking. "How do you feel?" the
+anxious lady questioned. Being in ignorance of the nurse's identity and
+having no clue to Honor's state, she was worried and at a loss.
+
+"I am only feeling rather exhausted, Mother darling," said Honor
+wearily. Since she had not taken her mother into her confidence while
+she was happy, she felt she had no right to burden her with her sorrow.
+
+"Shall I ask Captain Dalton to come and see you?"
+
+"Not on any account!" Honor hastened to say.
+
+"I know it is rather embarrassing when a doctor is an intimate
+friend--and an unmarried man! Still, considering--" Mrs. Bright was
+thinking of the "understanding" and wondering when it was going to
+become something definite. However, Honor was not the girl to hector or
+question on matters that concerned herself alone. The question of her
+indisposition was more pressing than any. "Have you a headache?" she
+asked anxiously.
+
+Honor could truthfully say that her head ached. "When I have slept, it
+will, I dare say, wear off."
+
+"I hope so, for I should not like to think that you are going to be
+ill."
+
+"I am not ill; but, perhaps, dear, if you can spare me, I had better get
+away tomorrow before the heat becomes worse. May is always such an
+appalling month in the plains."
+
+"I shall speak to your father immediately about it," Mrs. Bright said,
+relieved to find something she could do to avert a break-down of her
+daughter's usually excellent health. "The Mackenzies at Mussoorie will
+be delighted to have you for a month or two as a paying guest. We have
+only to wire. And if they have no room, they can secure one for you near
+by."
+
+"That will be all right," said Honor listlessly. "I'll start tomorrow
+night, if possible."
+
+"It shall be possible. Such a sudden collapse!" commented Mrs. Bright.
+"I do hope you will feel more fit in the morning."
+
+"I'll be quite fit, never fear," said Honor. "Tonight I am only a bit
+'off colour,' as Tommy says," and she tried to smile.
+
+"I'll send a message down to the _dhobi_ to get your wash ready by noon
+tomorrow. At these times one realises how infinitely more convenient is
+a _dhobi_ than an English Laundry Company," and Mrs. Bright bustled away
+that she might lose no time in letting the washerman know what was
+expected of him. Though the laundry had been taken away that very
+morning, she had not the slightest doubt that the task would be
+completed to perfection before noon, for she knew the laundryman of
+India to be as remarkable in his line as the Indian cook is in his.
+
+The following evening, Honor left Muktiarbad station, with the faithful
+Tommy to see her off in the train; and her mother was there to give her
+a last hug and sundry forgotten injunctions at the eleventh hour. "Mind
+you telegraph on your arrival--and don't forget to wear a woollen vest
+next to your skin. It is so necessary to ward off colds. Give Alice
+Mackenzie my love and say that I shall try to come up in the rains.
+Good-bye, darling, and take care of yourself! If you want more money,
+don't fail to let me know. Have you got your umbrella? Thank goodness! I
+thought it was forgotten. Write soon; I hope you'll pick up and look
+better when I see you next."
+
+The train moved off and Mrs. Bright remarked to Tommy that she was quite
+alarmed to see such a sudden change in her beloved child. Really, she
+should have insisted upon her going away, the latest, a month ago.
+
+"What is the matter? I, too, have been aghast at the change. Honey looks
+positively ill," said Tommy.
+
+"Nothing is the matter but the heat, it seems. I wonder why Captain
+Dalton never came to see her off. I told him, when I was at the Bara
+Koti this morning, that she was leaving by the 7:20. And they are such
+good friends. I feel quite hurt."
+
+"He is out somewhere in the District this evening. I saw him take the
+main road in his car a little while ago, and travelling at break-neck
+speed," said Tommy.
+
+"Someone else taken ill somewhere, I suppose."
+
+"Very likely."
+
+"Still, I think he might have made a point of saying 'good-bye.'"
+
+Tommy wondered, but said nothing. He had long made up his mind, as had
+others in the Station, that Captain Dalton and Honor Bright were
+engaged. He had also heard of lovers' quarrels and was ready, by the
+look on Honor's face, to believe that a very serious misunderstanding
+had taken place. Her abstraction, her ghastly pallor and haunted eyes
+had given him positive suffering and a feeling of blind sympathy, which
+had only found vent in loading the compartment with newspapers and
+magazines snatched from Wheeler's bookstall.
+
+To Honor's surprise, Captain Dalton appeared at a wayside station, and
+leant his arms on the open window. The sight of him, his set face and
+brooding eyes, made her heart stand still, while a sudden faintness
+seized her. Behind him the Station hawkers were shouting their wares,
+native travellers were bustling to and fro, and the air was alive with
+sound, so that in the midst of all that confusion they were absolutely
+alone.
+
+"I am glad you have no one in with you," he said quietly. "I so wanted a
+few words with you."
+
+"How is Mr. Meredith?" Honor asked, trying to speak naturally.
+
+He took both her hands and held them close, deaf to the question.
+Meredith was out of danger and the nurse had become interested in her
+charge. What were they and all else to the lovers so parted!
+
+"Have you nothing to say to me?"
+
+"I have said all that there is to say," she replied tremulously.
+
+"I am going to write to you, and you must write to me. Do you understand
+that this is imperative?"
+
+"Is it?" she asked with beating heart. Oh, that they might at least hug
+to themselves that innocent joy!
+
+"If I do not write to you or hear from you, I shall be doing something
+desperate. I cannot be responsible for myself. It will be the only thing
+to keep me sane. You cannot dream how I am being punished. Don't add to
+my punishment if you have any pity." His anguished eyes and quivering
+lips were convincing. "You will have no fault to find with my letters,"
+he added while she hesitated.
+
+Honor promised.
+
+A bell clanged noisily and the engine whistled.
+
+"Oh, Honey!--how can you leave me like this?" he whispered holding her
+eyes with his.
+
+Honor moved impulsively towards him and their lips met in a passionate
+and lingering kiss. The strength to resist his unspoken appeal was
+melted by that silent demand. After all, they were parting!
+
+"Good-bye," she said, the tears falling.
+
+He stepped back as the train began to move, his gaze riveted on her
+face, and jaws set with stern self-repression.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE "IDEAL"
+
+
+While Raymond Meredith convalesced at Darjeeling in the care of Nurse
+Dalton--the identity of whose name with that of the doctor being
+generally understood at Muktiarbad to be a mere freak of
+coincidence--his family in Surrey waxed strong and healthy in the
+glorious summer weather. Baby Douglas, who lived out of doors, had
+cheeks like a damask rose, while his mother gained gracious curves which
+added to her already radiant beauty. Even her pretty little sister who
+had recently put up her hair, was eclipsed. But only in point of looks.
+
+Kitty was not one to be overlooked in any company, by any means. What
+she lacked in regularity of feature, she made up for in charm of
+expression, a delightful speaking voice, and a ready tongue. Bright eyes
+given to laughter, the gleam of white teeth, curving red lips mobile and
+piquant, a dimpled cheek, laughter creases at the corners of the
+full-lidded, soft eyes, that had a roguish trick of quizzing--eyes that
+had borrowed their hue from the summer sky, with lashes like her
+sister's, and an indefinable little nose, made up a whole which was
+positively unfair to the rest of her sex, judging from the fact that
+every other girl was superfluous when Kitty was on the scene. And she
+was not blind to her own success, yet she was merciful out of the
+tenderness of her naturally good heart that never inflicted suffering
+wantonly; and if it happened that, owing to her irresistible
+fascination, she was the means of causing pain, to her credit be it
+said, that she was clever at healing the wounds she unwittingly
+inflicted, which saved unhappy consequences to unfortunate victims, and
+bound them to her as friends for life.
+
+"I am so afraid of your becoming a flirt," Joyce once said
+reproachfully, after one of these instances was explained and apologised
+for. "You should think twice before you let yourself become too
+friendly. It will prevent any foolish mistakes in the end. Of course I
+speak from bitter experience."
+
+Kitty, who was aware of that experience, sighed repentently. "Why didn't
+Providence make me a boy? I love them all so much."
+
+"You would then, with your thoughtlessness, have broken some poor girl's
+heart. Half a dozen, perhaps."
+
+"It is very difficult to know what to do," said Kitty with the roguish
+twinkle reasserting itself in her eyes.
+
+"You have to nip all silly sentimentality in the bud. The real thing is
+never silly," said Joyce out of her superior wisdom.
+
+"That's the difficulty. I never notice the bud till it is a full-blown
+passion-flower! I think I should become a nun."
+
+Joyce hugged her by way of appreciation, unable to resist the dimple
+which fascinated even a sister.
+
+There is nothing so winning as an imperishable sense of humour.
+Vivaciousness, and an infectious gaiety which radiates like the sun and
+dispels the shadows of depression in a moment--these were Kitty's chief
+assets. She had danced through childhood like a sunbeam. She had been
+the merriest of flappers and was now a sorceress to beguile with her
+arts in innocent and unconscious charm. Kitty's laughter, accompanied by
+that irresistible dimple, was the most captivating thing. Tender smiles
+greeted the sight of her from aged lips, and masculine youth felt drawn
+as by a magnet.
+
+So it came to pass, that Jack Darling who was spending six months
+medical leave in England, fell a victim to Kitty's charm shortly before
+Mrs. Fox's decree nisi against her husband became absolute.
+
+It was at the Victoria Underground station, near the booking-office,
+that they met. Believing that the wide hat and muslin gown could belong
+to none other than Mrs. Meredith who he knew was "at home," he pushed
+through the crowd and presented himself.
+
+"Such a pleasure, Mrs. Meredith!" It is always such a pleasure to meet
+friends in London with whom one has been intimate in a distant land.
+Especially is it true of friends from India.
+
+But two remarkably beautiful eyes turned full upon him in blank
+amazement and a hint of a twinkle in their cerulean depths. They said
+plainly, "You've made a mistake, bold Sir, but how delightful that you
+should know my sister!"
+
+Before she could speak, Jack was apologising profusely, hat in hand, and
+blushing to the roots of his shining, well-brushed hair.
+
+Restored to health after a yachting cruise off the coast of Scotland,
+Jack was a splendid specimen of manhood to look upon, though still
+inwardly depressed with the sense of the Inevitable awaiting him in the
+East. ("Such a lamb!" was Kitty's description, which was her highest
+praise.)
+
+"I am so sorry--I--I do beg your pardon, but I would have sworn--in fact
+any one would be ready to swear----"
+
+"That I am my sister?" she laughed, showing the engaging string of
+pearls and the irrepressible dimple. "Thank you so much. I always
+appreciate a compliment when it is sincere, for I am a great admirer of
+Mrs. Meredith."
+
+"Then--then you are Miss Wynthrop--_Kitty_?" he said, blushing still
+more furiously. "I beg your pardon," he added apologising for his
+boldness in using her Christian name. "We used to talk so much about you
+at Muktiarbad. But you are even more--at least I was thinking of your
+photograph," he concluded lamely.
+
+He had thought it a charming photograph of a girl, and now the original
+in natural colouring, youth, and perfect health had thrown his mind into
+chaos. Fragments of forgotten verses he had composed to his "Ideal,"
+before the baneful influence of Mrs. Fox had drugged his senses and
+threatened the ruin of his career, now returned to haunt his memory and
+justify their extravagance.
+
+At last she was before him in the flesh, not secretly reposing on a
+piece of pasteboard at the bottom of a dispatch-box left behind in
+India!
+
+"Yes, I am Kitty," she answered with animation. "But you? I am sure I
+know you? My sister has a photograph of a Station group--ah, you are
+'Jack'! I can't remember the other name."
+
+"Darling!" he prompted eagerly with a suspicion of fervour. To hear her
+pronounce his name was to listen to the most adorable music.
+
+"Of course! Fancy my forgetting! And your chum in the police is Tommy
+Deare? How perfectly priceless! I know you both intimately. You live in
+a little three-roomed bungalow near the Courts, all among weeds and
+snakes, and never go to church unless you are caught and taken!"
+
+"You've got it exactly!" he returned delighted. Was there ever such a
+girl before? _Why is a dimple in the left cheek like--nothing on earth?_
+he wondered ecstatically. _Because it is so absolutely divine!_ he
+concluded, mentally, to his own intense satisfaction at the inspiration.
+
+"Now what a pity I am not my sister!" she said mischievously. "What a
+great deal you must have in common."
+
+"I shall call on your sister if I may. At present--I am quite content,"
+he returned wishing his appointment at a fashionable club in Mayfair at
+Jericho. For a dime he would let it slide and follow her to the ends of
+London.
+
+"I am sure my sister will be delighted," said Kitty cordially. Then
+followed an exchange of addresses, Jack's being the name of a well-known
+club. "Mother always welcomes Joyce's friends from India. They come for
+a week-end and usually stay a week. The name India is a passport to our
+house."
+
+"Of course I led up to it," the minx said to Joyce on describing the
+meeting. "I couldn't dream of letting him vanish and be lost to us, when
+he is the most delightful boy I have ever met."
+
+"A very naughty boy, I am afraid, though I have a soft corner for him,"
+said Mrs. Meredith, who considered the recital of Jack's misdeeds unfit
+for Kitty's ears.
+
+"It is the naughty ones that are generally so nice," Kitty said with a
+sigh. "They are so human and attractive."
+
+"Because they are naughty?" Joyce was shocked to hear such radical
+sentiments from little Kitty.
+
+"It always strikes me that if they are capable of great naughtiness,
+they are equally capable of much good. It is the force that I admire. It
+only wants proper direction." (Which remark proved that Kitty's mind was
+capable of sympathetic understanding.)
+
+Jack and Kitty enjoyed their chance meeting so much that they missed
+their respective trains repeatedly. Hers on the "West bound" platform,
+and his on the "East," might have rumbled in and out of the station
+beneath them, _ad infinitum_, had not Kitty recollected that she was due
+to have tea with an aunt at Richmond, who was impervious to diplomacy
+and dimples and with whom no excuses concerning Fate and an Affinity at
+the Victoria Underground, would avail, if the kettle were over-boiled
+and the tea delayed. So Kitty reluctantly bade him adieu.
+
+"You are surely not going all that long way alone?" asked Jack, whose
+young sisters travelled the length and breadth of London unescorted.
+
+"Do you think it unsafe?" asked the minx, seeing through his idea and
+encouraging the development of possibilities.
+
+"One hears so much about girls mysteriously disappearing from London,
+you know," he murmured. "I couldn't bear to hear of such a thing
+happening to you, so I'll come as far as Richmond station, if I may?"
+
+"That will be charming of you! Are you sure it will not be taking you
+much out of your way?"
+
+"Not at all," Jack returned with gallantry, breaking his engagement
+without compunction. Thereupon, he bought their tickets, and sitting
+beside her on the crimson velvet seats of a Richmond "Non-stop," plunged
+recklessly into love at first sight. The moral obligation oppressing his
+mind was swept away for the time being. How was it possible for it to be
+otherwise, when he had come into the presence of his "Ideal" in the
+flesh?
+
+And Kitty, complete mistress of the situation, did not let him guess by
+word or look that she had been equally impressed. It was thrilling to
+think that this godlike person had a photograph of herself tucked away
+somewhere among his goods and chattels. Naughty Joyce had confessed the
+fact to her long ago, and she was beginning to feel that she now had him
+in the hollow of her hand. She had no hesitation in improving the
+acquaintance begun in such an unorthodox fashion; a friend of her
+sister's was, naturally, a friend of hers. Such being the case, she
+could afford to expand genially and to fan the flame her portrait had
+kindled, experiencing for the first time in her life an answering glow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jack returned to London, deep in day-dreams and oblivious of his
+surroundings. Kitty's face and Kitty's voice were with him all the way;
+and he groaned in spirit at the thought of his madness and folly in the
+past.
+
+It was inconceivable that he could have been such a fool; that he should
+have allowed himself to forget the high standards of life he had
+cherished, for a low intrigue! The idea of being tied for life to Mrs.
+Fox had been distasteful all along; but now it was intolerable! After
+the vision of Kitty Wynthrop, it was impossible, any longer, to
+contemplate marriage with a woman of Mrs. Fox's type! Whatever she might
+think of him, he would not do it. He would infinitely rather put an end
+to his life!
+
+Of course, he was dishonourable. That went without saying. He had failed
+ignominiously from the outset to behave as an upright and honourable
+man. Self-analysis laid his pride in the dust and made him writhe in
+self-condemnation.
+
+If Kitty only knew, she would despise him as he deserved! She was so
+pure, so perfectly wonderful! What a wife she would make! and so on, and
+so forth. Jack endured agonies of remorse for a week, during which time
+he was lost to the world; and then, with a temperamental rebound he
+called at Wynthrop Manor with the humble determination of laying himself
+at Kitty's feet that she might walk over him as she willed. Big,
+ingenuous men, like Jack Darling, are happiest when doormats to the
+women they love.
+
+Joyce Meredith was delighted to see him. His presence in England argued
+that he had shaken himself free of the toils of that scheming flirt,
+Mrs. Fox, and she was ready to help him to recover his forgotten ideals.
+She had never really believed Jack as guilty as he was reputed to be,
+and, like nine out of ten women, put all the blame on the woman. Anyhow,
+she was sure that gossip and scandal had exaggerated everything, which
+was the most charitable way to look at the affair. As a Christian woman,
+it was her duty to think kindly of the erring, and sit in judgment on no
+one. She, therefore, welcomed Jack with great amiability and earned his
+everlasting gratitude by putting no obstacles in the way of his
+courtship of Kitty.
+
+About this time, she received a letter from Honor telling her of
+Meredith being down with sunstroke, and was rudely awakened to the fact
+that she had been taking too much for granted where India and her
+husband's health were concerned.
+
+Though Honor wrote that he was out of danger and slowly
+recovering,--that a nurse was expected that very day,--the little wife
+was beside herself with anxiety and alarm, and wanted to take the first
+steamer sailing for Bombay that she might be with him, to leave him no
+more.
+
+"I should never have come away!" she cried inconsolably.
+
+"I could never understand how you brought yourself to do so," said Kitty
+ruthlessly.
+
+"I have been a selfish wretch, thinking only of myself, and of my
+anxieties for Baby!"
+
+"Well, you've got Baby, any way."
+
+"But if I should lose Ray, what is Baby to me!"
+
+Kitty, who had not the heart to add to her beloved sister's agony, did
+her best to comfort her. "He was out of danger when Miss Bright
+wrote--let me see--that was about three weeks ago, or nearly, and, as
+you have had no cable since, it follows that he is all right by now."
+
+"But I ought to go straight to him!"
+
+"And they might be sending him straight home to you!"
+
+It was not at all an unlikely possibility, so Joyce cabled to her
+husband to inquire his plans.
+
+The answer came from Darjeeling that, in view of the great heat in the
+Red Sea at that season of the year, he was recuperating in the hills.
+
+She was then persuaded by relatives and friends to possess her soul in
+patience and adhere to her original plan of returning to India in the
+autumn,--the best time for arriving in the East. By then she would be
+able to decide whether to take her baby out to India, or leave him
+behind in the care of the grandparents and a capable nurse.
+
+A slight indisposition to the infant owing to the disturbances of
+teething, decided her to remain, and to pour out her heart to her
+husband in a letter telling him of her longing to be with him during his
+convalescence.
+
+Somehow the written words did not adequately convey her depth of
+feeling, and Joyce was dissatisfied, especially with the passage which
+referred to the baby's indisposition:
+
+"If Baby were not teething and in uncertain health, I would leave
+immediately for India,--but I am advised to hold on till the autumn when
+I can better decide whether I should leave him behind, or not. I am, of
+course, comforted to know that you are getting better, and, perhaps, it
+will be as well on account of the heat in the Red Sea and of the
+unhealthiness of the rains if I do exercise a little patience and wait.
+However, dearest, cable if you are not quite well by the time this
+reaches you, and I shall take my passage at once."
+
+"It sounds rather as if I am placing the baby before him," she said to
+Kitty.
+
+"And haven't you done so all along?"
+
+Joyce looked perplexed. "If I have, it is only because it seemed to me
+the wee darling needed me more than Ray did."
+
+"I wonder!" said Kitty out of a new perception of life and the needs of
+love. "After all, there are many to look after Baby if you must leave
+him in England. If I were in your place, and if there was nobody to take
+charge of him, I'd keep him out there, somehow. There must be good
+places in the hills, you have such a choice of stations,--and even
+babies have to take their chance, same as their daddies! It must be
+terribly lonely for a man when his wife, whom he adores as Ray adores
+you, leaves him and comes away home for the sake of the child!
+Personally, I couldn't do it."
+
+Kitty's candid views carried conviction and aroused reflection.
+Gradually Joyce became aware of a great longing to be again with her
+splendid husband and feel anew his love and devotion.
+
+As no answering cable arrived from Darjeeling requesting her presence in
+India, and as the weekly letters mentioned that he was convalescing
+satisfactorily, Joyce was beginning to nurse a creeping fear that her
+husband had, perhaps, learned to do very well without her. But pride
+sealed her lips and her letters to him contained no reference to any
+such thought. His, to her, since his illness, had become erratic and
+brief. He would begin by expressing a great distaste for the pen, allude
+to a feeling of incurable lassitude, curse an elusive memory, and, after
+giving her news of little consequence to themselves, would conclude in
+the manner that had become a formula of late:--"Your affectionate
+husband, Ray."
+
+However, Joyce was determined not to borrow trouble. When they came
+together again it would surely be all right. Sunstroke was a paralysing
+illness and recovery from its effects was slow, she was assured; so, for
+a while, she must expect his mind to feel lethargic. With the
+restoration of perfect health his old tenderness would return, for true
+love could never die!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To Jack, the summer months were paradise, for the beautiful environs of
+Wynthrop Manor gave him many opportunities for uninterrupted
+companionship with Kitty. They walked, fished, golfed, and played tennis
+together. He was in love in the wild tempestuous way of youth, and
+ready, if need be, to die for the object of his adoration.
+
+But Kitty was not too easy to win. The more attracted she felt, the more
+elusive she became. She would surround herself constantly with girl
+friends, that Jack might have no doubts concerning his choice; clever
+girls, and pretty girls were invited there for tennis and tea during
+Jack's lengthy visit to the Manor, till he was nearly distracted with
+impatience. Yet he hesitated to speak from an overwhelming sense of his
+utter unworthiness.
+
+Could he dare to ask her to be his wife, and allow her to believe him
+all that a young girl's fancy might paint him? Would she consent to
+marry him if she were aware of the peculiar situation in which he stood
+with regard to Mrs. Fox whose letters still arrived at his chambers, and
+to whom he still wrote, only to keep her from following him to England?
+
+She had threatened to do so at all costs, if he neglected to keep in
+touch with her, and the fear of bringing about such an undesirable
+climax had obliged him to temporise.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in August, when the Great War broke out, and all England was in
+the turmoil of mobilisation, and the manhood of the nation was flocking
+to join the Colours, Jack complied with the demands of his conscience
+and called at the India Office for permission to resign his service that
+he might join the Army. But the Secretary of State flatly refused his
+application and he was told, instead, to hold himself in readiness for
+an immediate recall to his duties in the East. No civil officer of the
+Indian Government was eligible for a commission in His Majesty's Forces
+except with the sanction of that Government alone. Thereupon, Jack,
+deeply depressed in spirit at his impending exile, joined Joyce and
+Kitty at Eastbourne whither they had gone for a change.
+
+For the time being, civil life and economic conditions were
+disorganised. All England was in a turmoil of preparation for the
+Titanic struggle on the fields of France. People were becoming alive to
+the fact that even a democracy has its obligations to the State which
+guarantees it freedom; for freedom can only depend upon victory over
+autocracy and militarism. Private property was commandeered for the
+needs of the Army; public buildings became hospitals; motor cars and
+horses were requisitioned and carried off. Self-sacrifice became the
+order of the day. For weeks, no dependence could be placed upon railway
+time-tables, and all personal and individual concerns were forgotten in
+the overwhelming needs of the hour. A peace-loving people, averse to
+war, aware of all the horrors it entailed, yet rose to the supreme
+occasion, mindful of the great traditions of their forefathers, and
+stood ready for any sacrifice in the cause of honour, freedom, and the
+Right.
+
+When Jack was asked to describe the state of London, he felt that it
+wanted more than words to paint its state in those historic days. The
+people having spent their feelings in a great outburst of loyalty and
+patriotism, were beginning dimly to realise the gigantic task to which
+the nation was pledged,--a nation, which, but for its Navy, was totally
+unprepared for war, and yet ready to withstand a formidable European
+Power that had secretly and thoroughly organised and planned for over
+forty years to strike a blow for world-domination. Right was in conflict
+with Might, and the end no man could then see; yet London was confident;
+but London was also very grave.
+
+About this time, Joyce, to her great dismay, received a cable from her
+husband forbidding her to travel on the high seas till security thereon,
+for passengers, was assured. She had not realised till she received the
+message, how much she had been depending for happiness on the prospect
+of their reunion in the autumn. If the war was to stand in the way of
+her return to India, it might then be years before she should see her
+husband again--which would be unthinkable!
+
+In the presence of Kitty's romance she was learning to comprehend the
+extent of her own loss,--her deplorable lack of appreciation in the
+past;--and she recognised that she had only herself to blame. Ray had
+loved her greatly; how greatly, she was only now beginning to
+understand, and her very soul hungered for that love with a nostalgia
+that was making her ill. If, by her folly, she had sacrificed that
+devotion--if he had ceased to love her altogether, and had met another
+more responsive and appreciative than she had been, she would not want
+to live; for even her beloved babe would no longer suffice to fill her
+life.
+
+Memory recalled for her torment, certain words of his at parting. He had
+been wounded at her determination to leave him so soon after their
+marriage, and being ignorant of the true cause of her nervous
+break-down, he had expressed little sympathy, and had accused her of
+failure of affection for him. "Remember, a big breach between husband
+and wife may be mended, but never again is there restored what has been
+lost!" he had said. Also: "You are straining the cord that binds us
+together; the strands will presently be so weak that they will snap
+altogether. Then all the splicing afterwards will never restore it to
+its original strength. It will be a patched-up thing; its perfection
+gone!"
+
+Had she done this terrible thing by her own shortsightedness and folly?
+
+Little did he guess at the time of their parting that she was suffering
+tortures of self-contempt and nervous dread of his scorn, were he to
+know all that was on her mind!
+
+And now, after this lapse of months, she was longing to make full
+confession and atonement. With her in his arms and their love fully
+restored, he would surely forgive her her foolishness and the silence
+which he had mistaken for lack of affection.
+
+But, the war!
+
+She would not be able to go to him now, and he would continue to believe
+that she had failed him! Her affectionate letters had not convinced him,
+for actions speak louder than words. Gradually an icy atmosphere of
+indifference had breathed forth at her from his letters, and she had
+been filled with secret uneasiness and fears. He was indeed learning to
+do without her.
+
+Possibly the cord that had bound them together had snapped!
+
+Upon this, came a letter one day, from Honor Bright.
+
+Honor had been spending the hot months at Mussoorie in the Himalayas,
+which the Brights had always preferred to Darjeeling; and, after the
+monsoons had broken, her mother had joined her there till the middle of
+July, when they had returned together to Muktiarbad. For months Joyce
+and Honor had corresponded, fitfully, so that it was no surprise to the
+former when the Indian mail brought her a letter in her friend's
+hand-writing, the contents of which were acutely disturbing. Joyce read
+and re-read the letter, filled with alarm and foreboding.
+
+What was Honor hinting at? and had she any grounds for hinting at all?
+
+Honor was evidently perturbed about something in connection with Ray, or
+why this strange appeal to his wife to let nothing come in the way of
+her returning to her place beside her husband, no matter what the
+difficulties? "'It is not good,' we are told, 'for a man to live alone,'
+and please remember that there is no such thing as infallibility in
+human nature. Sometimes temptations are so strong that one needs to be
+superhuman to withstand them. Why expect too much of Life?" stared up at
+Joyce from the page.
+
+"I would not write as I am doing, believe me, dear Joyce," the letter
+concluded, "if I were not so fond of you both that I feel your married
+happiness a personal concern. It is the biggest thing in the world;
+don't therefore, I implore you, gamble with it. If you will only look
+ahead and think a bit of the future without the love of your
+husband,--the grey years deprived of his tender devotion,--you will
+realise how lonely will be your life! Dearest, hold on to the blessed
+gift while it is yours and do not let it pass out of your possession. I
+have watched it happen before! 'That what we have we prize not to the
+worth whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, why, then we rack
+the value, then we find the virtue that possession did not show us
+whiles it was ours.' This is so true also of love which, so often, is
+not appreciated while it is ours! And love can starve and die for want
+of sustenance, which is propinquity and a proper response. You see, I
+have kept my eyes open and am a silent student of human nature! I have
+come across a few devils in society; but in my experience, 'The female
+of the species is more deadly than the male,' and I believe the Lord's
+prayer is directed chiefly against her. She goes out of her way to dig
+pitfalls for the unwary and the best have been known to succumb. That is
+why a wife's place should be beside her husband throughout life, as the
+whole fabric of their happiness depends upon their unity. Separations
+make for misunderstandings and division; so, whatever happens, come out.
+Men and babies want looking after, and to my mind, Man is the greater
+baby of the two, for he wants more than a nurse to care for his bodily
+wants. He needs a wife with a combination of virtues, the chief among
+them being _tolerance_. My mother's life has demonstrated this to me
+with beautiful clearness, hence my understanding.
+
+"You might be anxious at having to travel alone at such a time, but in
+your place I would take any risk to be with my husband, if I loved him
+deeply. That is the crux of the matter. Later on, conditions may become
+still more difficult. Cable when you are leaving, and _don't hesitate_."
+
+The appeal was very sincere, and thrilled Joyce with apprehensions. To
+be urged to travel at the risk of capture by German raiders at large on
+the high seas, that she might rejoin her husband without loss of time,
+argued that something was seriously wrong. Honor was her true friend and
+would not counsel such a step without reference to that husband, unless
+something was decidedly wrong. Whom was she to obey? Her husband, who
+had cabled to her to stay where she was? or Honor, who was urging her to
+go out at once?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While Joyce pondered over her dilemma, the fate of two people dear to
+her was being decided elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE REAL THING
+
+
+Jack had come to the conclusion that it was impossible to part from
+Kitty Wynthrop with his love unconfessed. It was unthinkable that he
+should go out to India, loving Kitty as he did, and marry--Mrs. Fox!
+Bah! he consigned the latter, remorselessly, to perdition.
+
+Whatever befell, he would speak to Kitty that very night--dear little
+girl!--he had wasted too much time already over his confounded doubts
+and fears, and had little enough time to spare. If she favoured
+him--why, he would be the luckiest, as well as the happiest of men! Some
+day, when he was absolutely sure of her and her love, he would confess
+his misconduct in the past, lest she should hear of it from others--she
+might; there was no knowing, with all those meddlesome cats about!--and
+perhaps he would obtain her forgiveness, after which he would be
+faithful unto her as long as they both should live. How fellows
+could--damn!
+
+Jack was shaving at the time and had gashed his chin in his agitation.
+
+He was confident, while he soothed the spot with an antiseptic, that
+such a darling little girl as she, would never hold up against him
+anything he had done in pre-Kitty days. It would be unjust and
+unreasonable. Why, hang it all! who was there that was human who hadn't
+some little--or big--scrape to his discredit in his bachelor days?
+Unfortunately, fellows were not gifted with second sight to know how
+they would feel when they came to be properly in love with the only girl
+in the world for them! The sickening sense of self-disgust----
+
+Another accident with the razor, and Jack paid more attention for a time
+to the matter in hand.
+
+When he was putting the finishing touches to his tie, his fingers
+betrayed by their unsteadiness, his agitated frame of mind.
+
+The worst of it was the blessed uncertainty of the whole affair. A
+fellow could never be sure of a girl like Kitty, or at any time take her
+feelings for granted. The least little bit of a liberty, and--hands off!
+Yet she was adorable and, often, sweetly encouraging. Certain little
+concessions had been treasured in mind and dreamed of at night, such as
+a dainty wrist held out to him for glove-buttons to be fastened; his
+blundering fingers allowed to assist her with her theatre wrap; their
+shoulders touching at a picture palace--a fact of which she had been
+unconscious, but which had thrilled him to the foundations of his being.
+They were hopeful signs; but the indifference with which she could drop
+him for a whole day, so as to keep some idiotic engagement with giggling
+flappers, was enough to send any lover crazy!
+
+Jack hurried downstairs in time to hang about the hotel passage, waiting
+for Kitty to arrive by the lift with her sister so that he could
+accompany them to the dining-hall.
+
+On this occasion Kitty was alone, Joyce having confessed to a headache,
+and they dined at their little table _tête-à-tête_.
+
+"I can't think what is troubling her," the little sister remarked, "for
+she is fearfully worried, I know."
+
+"Something, perhaps, in that letter you took to her a little while ago?"
+suggested Jack.
+
+"It was from a friend of hers at Muktiarbad."
+
+"Honor Bright?"
+
+"Yes--a strange idea to name a girl 'Honor'!"
+
+"Her surname must have suggested it."
+
+"Perhaps I should call it a happy idea. But supposing her character did
+not bear out the selection?"
+
+"In her case, I should say it suits her admirably. She's a topping good
+sort."
+
+"Is she pretty?"
+
+"My chum used to think so, but not I. She's good to look at, anyway, and
+there's something straight and clean about her that does a fellow good.
+She has fine eyes and nice teeth which go far towards beauty."
+
+"I wonder what she could have written about, to upset my sister so
+completely?"
+
+They wondered together, and grew more confidential over their mutual
+interest in the subject. Jack enjoyed every minute of the meal, trying
+to imagine he was dining with his wife,--an idea full of charm.
+
+After dinner was over and Kitty had satisfied herself that Joyce was no
+worse, they strolled in the hotel gardens, at the corner of which was a
+summer-house. Jack who was trembling from head to foot with impatience
+and longing, drew her suddenly within where the shadows were darkening,
+and blurted out his tale of consuming passion. "Can't you see it without
+the need of words? I am mad for love of you! If you don't want me, in
+mercy say so, and I shall go out there and drown myself."
+
+He would have said a great deal more, only there was no need, for Kitty
+confessed that she wanted him more than anything on earth, and was only
+waiting for the initiative to come from him.
+
+Her frank response enraptured Jack, and he caught her to his breast
+inarticulate with joy, while she, free of artificial coyness,
+surrendered herself to his embrace and gave him her sweet lips again and
+again.
+
+Jack felt that he would have liked to have kicked himself all round
+Eastbourne for imagining that he had ever before known what it was to
+love! This was the real thing, and the bliss of it was unspeakable.
+
+"And why didn't you give me the least bit of inkling that you had a soft
+corner in your heart for a blighter like me?" he asked when it was
+possible to indulge in connected conversation.
+
+"Why did you take so long to know your own mind?"
+
+"My mind was made up the instant I found out that you were not Mrs.
+Meredith the afternoon I met you in front of the booking-office at
+Victoria. You surely have not forgotten our very first meeting? I could
+tell you in detail what you wore!"
+
+Of course she had not, though she feigned to seem retrospective.
+
+"I believe you were wearing a shot brown tie," she ventured, perfectly
+aware that she was correct.
+
+"You remember that?" (An interlude of ecstasy.) "I went all the way to
+Richmond just to be able to look at you for a bit longer. I have been in
+love with you for quite a year!"
+
+Doubt being cast upon his veracity, he explained his possession of her
+photograph, which fact she had long been aware of.
+
+"I used to write poems about your eyes and your lips which I thought the
+most alluring in the world. Did I dream I should ever see and kiss them
+in reality?"
+
+Silence again for a further interval of rapture.
+
+"Now you will know how I have been feeling about going out to India! How
+is it possible for me to leave you behind? Can't we be married in a
+week?"
+
+"We could," said Kitty, "but you forget there are others who will have
+something to say to that."
+
+"Your parents?"
+
+"Undoubtedly. One daughter in India is enough for Mother. I am not at
+all sure she will consent." It was very mischievous of her to distress
+him for the sake of delighting in the proofs of his abject slavery to
+herself, but Kitty was nothing if not human, and realising the
+completeness of her own surrender, was pleased to get back a little of
+her own.
+
+His woe-begone look was almost melodramatic. "If they refuse their
+consent, what will you do?"
+
+"I suppose I shall have to obey. I'm not of age, you know," said Kitty
+knowing full well that she was bound to have her own way, her parents
+having long ago resigned themselves to her strength of character and
+determination.
+
+"Then I'll desert and enlist under another name that I might be killed
+by a German bullet," he said gloomily.
+
+"But you mightn't be killed. You might just be smashed up instead,
+invalided out without a limb, or, worse still, be made unrecognisable!"
+
+Horrible prospect! Jack's military ardour cooled visibly. "Anyhow, it
+would be their fault."
+
+"And I should chase after you and beg of you to marry me, all the
+same,--limbless and unrecognisable as you may be!"
+
+"You would? You said just now you would have to obey."
+
+"Of course I would obey, but only for a time. Do you think I shall ever
+give you up, even if the skies were to fall?"
+
+That finished it. Jack was in heaven again, and the time passed with
+amazing rapidity.
+
+Meanwhile, Joyce had been to see Baby Douglas asleep in his crib and was
+weighing the pros and cons of her problem with agonised uncertainty. He
+was now as healthy as any normal infant of his age, and was in the care
+of an experienced and trustworthy nurse. At Wynthrop Manor he would be
+in the lap of luxury, wanting for nothing, and his grandparents would be
+sure to bring him up in the way he should go, till she and Ray came home
+together on his next furlough ... (after the War!--whenever that might
+be!). But all her baby's pretty ways and unfolding intelligence would be
+for others to enjoy! She, his devoted mother, would be thousands of
+miles away!
+
+The thought brought forth a flood of tears, and expressions of sympathy
+from the nurse. "If it makes you feel so badly, I wouldn't go if I were
+you."
+
+"It breaks my heart!"
+
+"There now, don't take on so. Give up the idea. You will feel easier in
+mind to leave him when he is a bit older."
+
+"It will be just as bad--perhaps worse!" cried Joyce, thinking of the
+possibility of a loveless reunion with Ray, if she stayed away too long!
+In that case she would have no compensation for her act of
+self-sacrifice.
+
+"Then take him with you, I have no objection to the voyage, or serving
+in India which I have often wished to see."
+
+"Oh, no. Baby is best here, for his own sake. In India I have all sorts
+of anxieties. I would have to go alone."
+
+"But there are many ladies who stay in Europe for the sake of their
+children, leaving their husbands in India. In my last place, my
+mistress, whose husband was a Forest officer living in lonely places
+among the blacks, spent most of her time with her people in England as
+she could not abide the natives, and the climate upset her nerves. Only,
+occasionally, she visited him in the East, and sometimes he came home."
+
+"What a life!" sighed Joyce. "I know it is done, but it isn't
+right"--she was thinking of Honor's letter. "Both go different ways, and
+what love and happiness is there for them?"
+
+"But that is always so when ladies have husbands in India!"
+
+"It need not be so. It makes me wonder why men marry when they know the
+risk they run of broken domestic ties, and the burdens they have to
+bear! It isn't worth while, if a man is to become only the means of
+providing money for the comforts of his family, and keeping very little,
+or none for himself--poor dear!"
+
+Decidedly, Joyce Meredith's views had undergone a change.
+
+The questions pressing on her mind were--Where was she most needed? and
+where, most, lay her heart's desire?
+
+In her case, duty and desire were no longer in conflict. Clearly, her
+place was beside her husband as long as she was capable of enduring the
+climate, and her heart was sick with longing for him.
+
+"I shall be going out almost immediately--as soon as it can possibly be
+arranged," she said coming to a sudden decision. "Pack the trunks early
+in the morning, and we shall return home in the afternoon to fix this
+up. It will be a great comfort to me, nurse, to know that you will stay
+with Baby."
+
+"I'll stay as long as you want me, ma'am, and you need have no fears,"
+said the woman who was sincerely attached to her charge, and who was
+aware that her devotion received ample recognition.
+
+On her way to her own room, Joyce met two embarrassed and happy people
+waiting to waylay her with their news.
+
+"Take us into your room for a little while, do, there's a darling, we've
+so much to tell you!"
+
+Joyce was hustled into her own room by her little sister with Jack's big
+form looming in the rear, and the wonderful tale was told and her
+congratulations solicited.
+
+"Of course I saw it coming," said Joyce kissing them both. "You were
+like ostriches with your heads in the sand----"
+
+"In the clouds, rather. I have been seeing a little bit of heaven, Mrs.
+Meredith," said Jack.
+
+"Now please come back to earth, and tell me your plans, for I have
+decided to join my husband as soon as it is possible to get a passage."
+
+"You?--with Baby?" from Kitty.
+
+"No. Baby must stay behind."
+
+"Then that was what gave you a headache? You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself to have a headache at the prospect of going back to Ray!" Kitty
+teased.
+
+"Say, 'at the prospect of leaving Baby.'"
+
+"Can't you take him?" said Jack. "There are crowds of youngsters of his
+age getting rosy and fat in the hills all the summer."
+
+"I shouldn't feel safe about him. He'll be best with Grannie."
+
+"Bravo!" cried Kitty. "Jack's got to go very soon, so we can all three
+go together." Jack's face showed intense appreciation.
+
+"You don't mean to say you are thinking of marrying at once?"
+
+"Why not?" from him.
+
+"Of course not," said Kitty ruthlessly. "But as it is not good for you
+to travel alone in these exciting times, you _must_ take me with
+you--engaged to Jack--and to be married when we have time to look
+around. Has anyone any objections?"
+
+"You darling!" gasped Jack.
+
+"Well, let's see what Mother has to say about it," said Joyce. "Meantime
+I shall pack a few things before getting to bed."
+
+"Then you won't be so heartless as to turn us out. Come Jack, and let us
+talk it over"; and Jack, nothing loath, drew her on his knee in the one
+big chair by the window, and for some little time Joyce had ceased to
+exist for them. Neither seemed to mind the fact of her presence; it was
+sympathetic and that was quite enough, so they felt at liberty to
+continue to enjoy their mutual delight in the knowledge that they had
+become engaged.
+
+Joyce suffered a pang of jealous longing for her own dear lover-husband,
+when she saw the look on Jack's face while he held Kitty to his breast
+and kissed her yielding lips. And Kitty, with her arms wound about her
+boy's neck and her face uplifted to his!--It was her hour, and Joyce
+knew that her own was yet to come. She had indeed been the Sleeping
+Beauty who had slept too long under the kisses of her Prince. She had
+never really understood her own heart, or realised love till now. Could
+there ever be a moment more wonderful on this old earth, than that in
+which two lips met in mutual passion?--two souls fused in divine
+ecstasy?
+
+"Blessed darlings!" she murmured to herself, turning aside not to
+intrude on their sacred joy yet conscious of the fervour of the clinging
+kisses, the incoherent whispers, the bounding hearts! It was all as God
+had meant it to be when he created Man and gave him Woman for his mate.
+
+"My place is indeed with my husband," she muttered to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A DESPERATE RESORT
+
+
+In the early days of the Great War, a voyage to India had no terrors for
+the travelled. Before the Hun had proved himself a savage in warfare,
+indifferent to all international laws and the dictates of humanity, the
+only anxieties and drawbacks suffered on the way, were those in relation
+to the risk of encountering mines, or the delays caused by the changing
+of routes. The nerves of the public had not been harrowed by tales of
+atrocities on the high seas, and the nation confidingly believed that
+the glorious traditions of naval warfare were respected even by Germany.
+It had yet to learn what manner of people the Allies were fighting. The
+difficulties and dangers of a sea voyage only added to the thrill of
+expectancy, and the contingency of meeting with German raiders on the
+way, was like having a bit of Marryat's novels in real life; fear was an
+unknown quantity.
+
+As Kitty anticipated, she met with little opposition from her parents in
+the matter of her engagement, or of her voyage to India under her
+sister's chaperonage, with the prospect of a wedding at the end of it.
+Since she had always managed things her own way, there was little use
+wasting time in argument. Jack was a very fine fellow indeed, and Kitty
+might do worse than marry him. At all events, he was the man of her own
+choice.
+
+Accordingly, a trousseau was acquired regardless of cost, and, the
+moment Jack's orders arrived recalling him to duty--which was towards
+the end of August--trunks were packed, passages were booked, and the
+party crossed to France, _en route_ to Marseilles.
+
+Jack's feelings can be better imagined than described. In his wildest
+dreams he had not hoped for such luck as a speedy marriage with Kitty,
+and he was rendered, for a time, incapable of coherent thought. They
+boarded the mail boat at Marseilles and settled down as an engaged
+couple to enjoy the days at sea to the extent of their capacity.
+
+Beyond an occasional cruiser in the distance, or a destroyer there was
+nothing throughout the voyage to remind them of the war; and, from the
+point of view of belligerency, it was both uneventful and calm.
+
+As recognised lovers, Kitty and Jack had the choice of sheltered nooks
+and were left to themselves, undisturbed, except by camera fiends who
+snapped them at embarrassing moments and made themselves generally
+obnoxious.
+
+Being absorbed in his happiness, Jack had given no thought to Mrs. Fox
+who was awaiting him in Calcutta, till, one day, in the Arabian Sea, the
+imminent prospect of their meeting filled him with uneasiness and
+obliged him to consider his position seriously. As far as he knew, she
+was expecting to fall into his arms on his reappearance in India. She
+knew nothing of his new-found happiness and was very likely wondering at
+his reason for having missed so many mails. She would not follow him to
+England since she was aware that all leave was cancelled.
+
+So awkward was the situation, that Jack was greatly disturbed and sought
+the advice of a ship-board acquaintance who happened to be a young man
+of wide experience in the affairs of the heart.
+
+"I should tell my _fiancée_, in your place," said he. "Put it to her
+straight. The great thing is to get your story in before the other has a
+chance to cut the ground from under your feet. That is, if she is the
+sort to do it."
+
+"She's the sort right enough," said Jack miserably. "She would do it to
+spite me for breaking my word to her; but--damn it!--I'd rather be shot
+than become her husband, now that I am crazy after the sweetest girl in
+the world, and she is ready to marry me!"
+
+"Then have it over. It is better than someone telling her at a
+tea-party,--'Didn't he ever confess himself to you?--naughty boy'! and
+so on. Or the disappointed one butting in with--'Hands off! He is
+promised to me!' which is more than likely."
+
+So Jack decided to make his confession, prostrate at her feet,
+metaphorically.
+
+While the lovers were living in a world of their own, Joyce was learning
+many things, chiefly courage and patience. Her fellow-passengers courted
+her society; she was considered the loveliest of women; and all combined
+to spoil her with flattery and attentions. However, she was too much
+absorbed in her own thoughts, her manner was too cold and aloof to lend
+encouragement to flatterers who vied with each other in serving her and
+disputed among themselves for her favours. She took no real interest in
+what was going on, to realise the half of it; and her indifference
+rendered her the more alluring. But Joyce had had a life-long lesson at
+Muktiarbad, and not being by nature, a flirt, the result was that the
+childish coquetries of the past were abandoned for a dignity and reserve
+that would have satisfied the most jealous of husbands.
+
+She had not cabled to India. A desire to read her fate in her husband's
+eyes had fixed her determination to take him by surprise. She would then
+know at the first glance whether she were welcome or had ceased to reign
+supreme in his heart.
+
+Honor had advised her to cable. But this was entirely her own affair and
+she would go through with it. She had a right to expect her husband's
+love and loyalty; and this being the case, there could be no objection
+to her taking him unawares. Joy does not kill; and if she did not bring
+him happiness, it were as well for her not to be deceived. Such was her
+logic, which she kept to herself, being too proud to share her doubts
+with Kitty.
+
+One day, as she lay in a deck chair, apparently dozing with her book
+open on her lap, she overheard two women gossiping together behind the
+angle of the saloon. They were talking of friends in Darjeeling, and
+their voices had lulled her into a state of semi-consciousness, till the
+name "Meredith" made her alive to the fact that her husband was under
+discussion.
+
+"Not the planter, Tom Meredith, but the I. C. S. man."
+
+"Any relation of the pretty creature with us?"
+
+"I am sure I can't say. He is married, I am told, with a wife at home.
+'When the cat's away, the mice _will_ play,' you know! She is a widow,
+or passes for one, and neither cares a snap of the finger for the talk
+about them. All Darjeeling is scandalised, and that's saying a good
+deal! My friend writes that the woman nursed him while he was ill from
+sunstroke in some outlandish station in Bengal, and they became
+fearfully intimate. These nurses know a thing or two and can make
+themselves indispensable if they like. Men generally find them
+irresistible. However, it is rather rough on his wife at home, when you
+come to think of it."
+
+"What has the nurse to do with him, now that he has recovered?"
+
+"Ah, that's the point! She stays at the same hotel nominally looking
+after a delicate baby whose parents are in the plains; but the kid gets
+precious little of her attention. It is left to the ayah's tender
+mercies while the nurse goes about with Mr. Meredith. They are never
+seen apart, and she spends most of her time in his rooms. It puts me in
+mind of that divorce case you may remember two years ago at Simla,
+when"--and the conversation was diverted into other channels.
+
+Meanwhile, Joyce was hot and cold with conflicting emotions. Without
+question, it was her husband they had been discussing, for he was in the
+Indian Civil Service, and had been sent to Darjeeling to convalesce
+after the sunstroke, which had seized him in the District of Muktiarbad,
+the "outlandish station" referred to.
+
+By the light of this conversation Honor's letter was explained. She,
+too, had heard of the doings at Darjeeling, and in her anxiety had
+written that letter imploring her friend to return.
+
+Well--she was returning, but to what?
+
+Her husband was apparently content to be without her--which would
+account for the cable message he had sent her on the outbreak of war,
+forbidding her to travel.
+
+Joyce rose from her deck chair with a face as white as the foam on the
+crested waves, and stumbled to her cabin. "It is nothing," she explained
+to fellow-passengers who offered assistance thinking she was likely to
+collapse, "only a stupid attack of dizziness--I thought I was a better
+sailor, that's all," and she tried to smile.
+
+Kitty was sent to her in hot haste to see what she could do, and was
+told the same thing. "I'll be all right after a bit."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Perfectly," was the assured answer, for Joyce was already determined
+not to go down under the blow, but to fight to a finish. Ray--her
+husband--false to her? The shame of it--the humiliation, would be
+unbearable, if what she had heard were true! It was possible that gossip
+had exaggerated the state of things between him and that woman who had
+nursed him. Scandalmongers never did give any one the benefit of a
+doubt. For instance, scandal might have been busy with her own name and
+that of Captain Dalton, but she was innocent in act and thought. She
+would not judge hastily; but she would allow no woman to dare to come
+between herself and her husband. He was her own man. God had given him
+to her, and she was glad she had taken the journey at all costs to put
+matters right and send the depraved creature--who was trying to take her
+place--about her own business. But if Ray had been false to her--she
+knew he could not lie to her--she would....
+
+Joyce seemed to arrive against a blank wall in her mind as she faced
+such an unthinkable problem as Ray's unfaithfulness.
+
+Later in the evening when she returned to the deck having gained the
+mastery over her nerves, it was to find that an unhappy breach had come
+to pass between Kitty and Jack.
+
+Dancing was in full swing on the hurricane deck, a band was discoursing
+dreamy melodies, and Jack with his back to the sea was leaning against
+the taffrail and glowering at the ship's doctor who was dancing with
+Kitty.
+
+As the evening lengthened, it was evident that the latter was bent upon
+inflicting all manner of snubs and punishments on her distracted lover
+by the taffrail, which in a certain measure, recoiled upon herself.
+Finally, when "lights-out" obliged dancing to come abruptly to an end,
+Kitty retired to her cabin without so much as a good-night to Jack who
+looked as if he had come to the end of all things.
+
+"What is wrong?" Joyce asked her before turning into her berth. "Can I
+help?"
+
+"We've had a disagreement. That is all," said Kitty curtly, looking
+white and angry. "You have heard of lovers' quarrels, I suppose?"
+
+"There is no need to snap my head off," said Joyce. "I am only sorry to
+see it happen. Life is too short for misunderstandings."
+
+"I quite agree with you. But this is not a misunderstanding. I have been
+deliberately deceived."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"What's the use of discussing it?"
+
+"There is no use if you are determined not to be helped."
+
+"What can you do? What can any one do? This is a matter which is only
+between us. I am sorry I did not know all about it before, or I would
+not have become engaged."
+
+A light dawned on Joyce's mind. "Oh--I see. Jack's been telling you
+about his foolishness in the past!"
+
+"You call it foolishness?"
+
+"Wasn't it the height of folly to have been silly about a married woman?
+and one who isn't worth a thought?"
+
+"It was something worse than folly when it came to his being _engaged to
+marry_ her all this time--even when he proposed to me! How dared he do
+it? How had he the nerve to ask me to be his wife when he knew she was
+waiting to marry him on his return to India, having won her decree?"
+
+"I heard she had divorced her husband--the designing wretch! She is a
+perfectly horrid woman. Poor Jack! I don't wonder at his meaning to
+throw her over after knowing you!"
+
+"But to be engaged to two women at the same time!--it is wicked and
+humiliating! Why didn't you tell me of her?"
+
+"It is something to know that you have saved him from making the mistake
+of his life!"--ignoring the question.
+
+This was an inspiration on the part of Joyce, and Kitty was rendered
+dumb. Joyce immediately pursued her advantage.
+
+"To have been compelled to marry Mrs. Fox into whose snare he had
+fallen, would have been a dreadful thing for poor Jack, who, at the
+most, is only an overgrown schoolboy without much experience of the
+world. I did not tell you of it as I thought it was over and done with."
+
+"As a man of honour, he is bound to keep his word to her and marry her
+as he said he would,"--obstinately.
+
+"I would rather see him dead. There is no honour about Mrs. Fox or her
+methods. She deliberately set out to work this thing, and her punishment
+is in your hands. Jack loves you. You have no right to force him into
+marriage with a woman who will ruin his life for him."
+
+"I think he has behaved abominably."
+
+"If you are looking for perfection in the man you intend to marry, you
+had better make up your mind to live an old maid. Good-night!" and
+having delivered her parting shot, Joyce turned away, feeling no longer
+the same childish creature of a few months ago. She had awakened in
+right earnest.
+
+Needless to say, Jack spent the night in his clothes on deck. Sleep was
+impossible; and, in the hope that she would relent and creep on deck to
+find him and retract the hard things she had said, he haunted the
+companion till the stars paled and the day began to break.
+
+But Kitty, though very loving, had a temper that was not easily calmed.
+Jack had behaved abominably right through, and should not get things all
+his own way, she decided, and while relenting inwardly, she maintained
+towards him an attitude of cold disapproval. She had given him back the
+ring--which at that moment was burning a hole in his waistcoat
+pocket--and had had nothing more to say to him, though, when he was not
+conscious of the fact, her eyes often dwelt upon him with wistful
+yearning. He might deserve punishment, but there was no doubt about it,
+that he was the only man in the world for her! She loved everything
+about him, from his curly blond head to the soles of his manly feet. He
+was by far the best-looking boy on the ship, and the most simple-minded!
+Besides, what was unforgettable, he was a prince of lovers! Was she
+going to allow Mrs. Fox to take him?----
+
+Kitty flushed in hot indignation at the thought, but it was right and
+proper that he should suffer for his weakness and folly. Of course, she
+would have to forgive him or be miserable for the rest of her life,
+but--not yet.
+
+The punishment might have continued for days, if Jack's own precipitancy
+had not brought about almost a tragedy.
+
+In the morning he gravitated to his friend again, and in a burst of
+confidence, related the outcome of his having adopted the course that
+had been advised. His friend, wise in the ways of women, listened with
+his tongue in his cheek. Not being in love, himself, he could afford to
+see the humourous side of Jack's trouble. This time he suggested a ruse.
+
+"Excite her pity, my dear fellow. Do something to rouse her heart. It is
+only suffering from shock and will come to the scratch when it is
+stirred by pity. The best thing to do is to get seriously ill. Too much
+grief--mental strain--has brought on a heart attack. Lie down to it and
+kick up a devil of a fuss. I'll tip the doctor a wink and we'll do it in
+style. What do you say to that? When she hears you are on the verge of
+heart failure, all through her, she'll fall on your neck and wipe out
+the past."
+
+"Go to blazes!--I'm not going to do any play-acting and drag the whole
+ship into the secret, only to lose any possible chance I might have had
+if ever it leaked out."
+
+"Then we'll have to think of something else."
+
+"I think I'll just drop overboard, and end everything," said Jack
+melodramatically. "That will show her how I have felt over her treatment
+of me!"
+
+"But you'll not be there to enjoy it. Happy thought. Can you swim?"
+
+"Like a fish."
+
+"Good! You can go overboard if she remains relentless, and the thought
+that she has driven you to commit suicide, will bring her to you weeping
+and repentant the minute you are restored to consciousness."
+
+"What the devil do you mean?"
+
+"Why just an accident, done on purpose. To all it will appear an
+accident. To _her_,--attempted suicide. To you and me, simply bluff.
+I'll be the first to see you go, and a life-buoy will go after you in a
+trice. Only let's know when you contemplate bringing it off, so that I
+can be stationed near one. There'll be no time lost. 'Man overboard!'
+and the engines will be stopped, reversed, a boat lowered, and there you
+are! You'll be fished out apparently drowned--or nearly--and with hot
+water bottles and brandy you'll be well enough to see Miss Kitty in your
+cabin in half an hour."
+
+"What price, sharks?" asked Jack, to whom the adventure strongly
+appealed,--as an adventure, if nothing else. He could imagine the
+commotion on the ship, and Kitty, white with anxiety and self-reproach,
+hanging over the rails as she watched his chances of recovery from the
+briny deep.
+
+"Fellows have been known to fall overboard in the Arabian Sea, and one
+never hears of sharks. You'll have to risk it. Take a sailor's knife;
+then, if you are attacked you can put up a fight till you are picked
+up."
+
+All day Kitty avoided Jack and surrounded herself with the callow youth
+of the vessel. She appeared in high spirits, played deck quoits, and did
+not give him a minute's chance to get a word with her, till the idea in
+his mind, of attempted suicide, took root and developed after serious
+and profound thinking. Something would have to be done. He could not
+exist another day apart from Kitty, severed from her heart, and
+condemned to wear his out in agonies of despair and remorse.
+
+The following morning, after breakfast, Kitty's attitude being
+unchanged, Jack hung upon the taffrail, and, surveying the clear,
+emerald-green waves as they heaved past the sides of the ship,
+telegraphed with his eyes to his resourceful friend.
+
+The sea was choppy and glittered like jewels in the sunlight. Sea-gulls
+skimmed the surface and circled in the wake of the steamer, which was
+travelling fast, the speed of the engines causing a gentle vibration of
+the decks, while the ratlins trembled in the breeze.
+
+It would require some nerve to plunge into the waves, fully clothed; but
+he was in light, deck shoes which could be kicked off; and his coat
+could easily be sacrificed in the water. It was an old suit!
+
+Sharks?--
+
+They had seen none since entering these waters. Besides, he was ready to
+take his chance, or to fight, if it came to the push.
+
+Above all, his act must be made to appear an accident. Kitty, alone,
+should think as she pleased, being in a position to supply a possible
+motive; and, doubtless, her feelings would be heart-rending.
+
+Jack nerved himself to bring this just punishment upon her obduracy and
+took up his position on the taffrail with his back to the sea.
+
+His first act was to note whether Kitty, who was promenading the deck
+with a subaltern--called to active service--had any idea of his peril.
+She had always discouraged his sitting on the taffrail, saying that it
+"got on her nerves."
+
+Kitty glanced towards him, and with an air of indifference continued
+promenading.
+
+Jack's already sore heart was lacerated. Could there be any sharks
+about?
+
+His friend and ally was to be seen idly lounging in the neighbourhood of
+a life-buoy suspended against the rails, further aft.
+
+Just as he was about to let go, someone lounging up, remarked on his
+unhealthy pallor. "Feeling the motion of the vessel?" he asked Jack, who
+did not know what it was to feel sea-sick.
+
+"Not in the least," said Jack wishing him to the devil.
+
+"It must be the smell of kippers. Frankly, I can't stand them. The stink
+hangs about all morning, till one feels one is breathing as well as
+eating kippers."
+
+"They have an unholy smell," Jack agreed, wondering when the fellow
+would move on, or whether his inopportune presence was to be taken as a
+warning not to put his mad intention into effect. He was superstitious
+enough to believe in omens.
+
+"I rather like _bumlas_, do you?" was the next remark.
+
+"I don't know--oh, yes, I think they are topping."
+
+"Sort of jelly-substance, and when fried crisp, the last word!"
+
+"Oh, damn!" said Jack aching for him to go.
+
+"What's that?" the man asked, protruding an ear forward. "The wind makes
+a devil of a noise in these ropes----"
+
+Someone called him off for quoits, and Jack started to tune up his
+nerves again for the plunge.
+
+Children ran between him and the line of chairs he faced. He could see
+Joyce Meredith listening idly while the ship's doctor talked to her. At
+that moment the subaltern took Kitty's hand in his to examine a ring she
+was wearing,--an heirloom, with a story,--and this gave the final
+stimulus to Jack's sporting resolve. He was seen suddenly to lose his
+balance, throw out his arms, and disappear over the side.
+
+On the instant there was wild confusion. Chairs were flung back,
+children shrieked, women fell fainting on the deck. Someone had shouted,
+"Man overboard!" which was taken up vociferously in every key by, at
+least, a hundred throats, and in less than a minute the engines were
+silent, the vessel moving only with its headway. Then, with a blast of
+steam, they were reversed. Meanwhile, the after part of the hurricane
+deck, and the poop of the second saloon, were packed with eager souls
+scanning the surface of the water in the hope of catching sight of their
+unfortunate fellow-passenger.
+
+Again the vessel stopped, and a boat was lowered.
+
+"Wonderful presence of mind," the doctor said to Joyce as she, too,
+anxiously strained her eyes to look for the reappearance of Jack's form
+in the water, which had been seen, and then lost sight of. "Did you hear
+how a fellow kept his head when he saw young Darling go over, sending a
+life-buoy the same moment after him? Splendid, I call that!"
+
+Joyce was deeply impressed. "He has probably saved Jack's life! Good
+man! does any one know where my sister is?"
+
+Kitty was nowhere to be seen. Joyce presently found her in the saloon
+crouching on a sofa with her hands over her ears.
+
+"He is drowned, I know he is drowned, and I shall never see him any
+more! I have killed him just as surely as if I sent him over with my own
+hands!--oh, let me die!" She was beside herself, and her suffering would
+not only have more than healed Jack's injured feelings, but have made
+him sue for pardon.
+
+Joyce took her in her arms and they clung together, fearful of what they
+should presently hear. The shrieks of the women and children were
+mingled with the voices of the men shouting instructions from the deck
+to the officer in the boat. Nothing definite could be gleaned from the
+excited ejaculations of the onlookers.
+
+"What made me do it!--why did I let myself behave so!" Kitty cried
+shivering from the force of her emotions. "I shall never be able to ask
+his forgiveness for my hardness, and yet in my heart I was melted
+towards him and longing to tell him so,--only waiting till the evening
+when we could be more alone. Oh, I am terribly punished for daring to
+punish my poor Jack!"
+
+"We are not to give up hope, dearest, but are to will with might and
+main that he be saved. It all helps. Honor Bright says it is
+scientifically possible to impose will-power on the forces of nature. It
+is a way God works for us and with us."
+
+"It is useless to tell me all that when I cannot even think!" wailed
+Kitty.
+
+"But there is a great deal in heaven and earth that is not 'dreamt of in
+our philosophy,'" Joyce repeated.
+
+"Oh, my poor Jack!--Go, Joyce, and ask what is happening, now! I cannot
+bear this stillness." For a sudden hush seemed to have fallen on the
+company on deck.
+
+At that moment, a distant cheer came from over the water. It was taken
+up by those watching from the ship and loud "Hurrahs!" sounded again and
+again.
+
+"Oh, thank God!--he must be safe!" cried Joyce.
+
+Kitty seemed to crumple up as she burst into a passion of tears.
+
+Neither she nor Joyce had any idea that the rescue of Jack Darling was a
+touch and go. He had gone overboard confident of being able to keep
+afloat till he was picked up, and willing to accept his fate if it
+worked out otherwise. Having, in his despair, become temporarily insane,
+he was hardly accountable for his actions till his immersion in the
+waves brought him rudely to his senses. After coming to the surface, he
+looked about for the steamer, and was astounded to see it already so far
+away that it seemed to him impossible for a boat's crew to descry him in
+that heaving expanse of ocean. To add to his dismay, the vessel seemed
+to steam on as though determined to leave him to his fate.
+
+The prospect was horrible!
+
+In a flash, he saw himself swimming till exhausted and a prey to sharks.
+Life became all at once very dear. Whether with, or without Kitty, it
+would be better to live, than to die this slow and lonely death! He had
+been nothing but a damned idiot to have allowed himself to be dragged
+into such a dangerous piece of melodrama, and all for nothing! With a
+little patience and perseverance he might have gained his end without
+all this miserable fuss! No abuse was strong enough for his folly.
+
+At that moment he espied the life-buoy, which he was fearing he would
+never find, and eagerly scrambled into it. Ah, that was better! Though
+he could swim like a fish, there was no doubt about it that he was
+grateful for support in the restless waters. Sometimes he was on the top
+of a wave where he was able to see the far distant ship; then, with a
+smart buffeting, he would find himself at the bottom of a trough with,
+what looked like green mountains of water threatening to engulf him.
+
+It was an immense relief to his mind when it became apparent that the
+vessel was steaming back on her course, and the sight of the boat being
+lowered gave him new life and confidence.
+
+But before it could reach him, symptoms of cramp in one leg had set
+in--possibly, because of late he had entirely neglected his exercises.
+The first twinge scared him mightily. If it should increase, he would be
+doubled up in the water and, in spite of the buoy, go down like a stone.
+The prospect racked him with suspense. The cramp again seized him with
+demoniacal violence and a red-hot band seemed to tighten round about his
+limb....
+
+Was it cramp, or the jaws of a shark?
+
+Petrifying thought!
+
+If ever he had been punished in his life for folly, he was being
+punished now!
+
+He glanced wildly over his shoulder, then at the advancing boat. He
+tried to call aloud, but his voice was choked with spray. The pain
+intensified. It seemed to rise into his thigh and the leg felt wrenched
+from its socket. Surely this was the end? A shark----?
+
+Jack remembered no more. He had fainted with the pain of severe cramp
+combined with the shock of terror. He had never been wanting in courage,
+but physical agony, and the notion of falling a prey to sharks before he
+had time to show fight, had caused him to swoon.
+
+And it was at that moment that the boat reached him, and eager hands
+snatched him into safety.
+
+Before the boat reached the ship he had recovered, and after a stiff
+dose of brandy, was able to take an interest in his rescue.
+
+"I could have sworn a shark had got me," he explained. "The pain was so
+excruciating."
+
+"In the water, cramp is the very devil!" said the third officer.
+
+It was a shamed and chastened young man who disappeared into his cabin,
+amid hearty congratulations, to change into dry garments. In the face of
+so much honest relief and thankfulness, he felt a very worm for his
+deceit and trickery. It had been a mean game--a dirty trick he had
+played everybody, and Kitty in particular; which might easily have cost
+him his life. Truly, he had come to the conclusion that he was not fit
+to aspire to any nice girl. Kitty was properly fastidious, and she was
+not to be blamed for having recoiled from his unsavoury story, though it
+had been the barest outline of his misdemeanours that he had given her.
+All the same, it was hardly a yarn for the ears of even modern eighteen!
+
+She being his promised wife, he had felt it due to her to reveal his
+past--(lest others should do so!)--and he had no right to rebel against
+her verdict, however blasting to his life and happiness--and so on, and
+so forth.
+
+In downright self-disgust he kept his cabin, pleading the effects of
+cramp and exhaustion, and emerged only when it was dark, to drop into a
+deck chair behind a windlass, and brood upon his sins, staring out upon
+the moonlit sea.
+
+Here Kitty came to him with healing, and here we take our leave of them
+for the present, feeling perfectly sure that Jack was not likely to
+damage his chances of reconciliation by any further confessions,--not
+even concerning his latest and maddest adventure. Confession may be good
+for the soul, but Jack had learned that there are circumstances when it
+is better to be silent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+TEMPORISINGS
+
+
+While Jack counted the days to the arrival of the ship at Bombay, and
+Joyce lived in anticipation of the reunion with her husband; while Honor
+watched for the coming of Joyce and an end to an impossible situation in
+Darjeeling; while Dalton played at friendship with the girl he adored,
+since to desire more was like asking for the moon; and while Tommy was
+breaking his heart with disappointment, and tormenting the Government of
+Bengal for permission to join the Indian Army reserve, instead of
+continuing to serve that Government by safe-guarding his District, it
+seemed almost inconceivable that thousands of miles away, the destinies
+of nations were in the melting pot, and the map of Europe in process of
+re-making.
+
+Immense armies were in training; miracles of organisation were taking
+place within the British Empire. Always the greatest Naval Power, she
+was rapidly becoming, also, a great Military Power.
+
+The grand old army of "Contemptibles" was covering itself with
+imperishable glory; Indian and Colonial troops were mobilising for the
+assistance of the Motherland. In all parts of the world the clarion cry
+was sounded--"To arms!"
+
+The War was the absorbing topic in all the cities of the world.
+
+But at little Muktiarbad and similar rural districts, the placid
+monotony of daily life was barely stirred.
+
+There was "a war on," of course, they said in the bazaars. India was
+involved--that, also, was a matter of course. The fighting sons of India
+could not be left out of such a fateful occasion as a war which called
+for loyalty and support. But it was an impersonal matter to native
+Muktiarbad. Doubtless, one of these wise dispensations of the Almighty,
+that helped to thin out the too rapidly increasing population of the
+world! It had no bearing on the lives and fortunes of the cultivator and
+the shop-keeper, save, that, in the case of the latter, it enabled him
+to put up his prices. But since the sun rose and set exactly as usual,
+and the flowers bloomed, and the seasons remained unchanged, and the
+daily life of the District continued undisturbed, where was the need to
+worry?
+
+True, there was occasionally talk in the bazaar of battles lost and won;
+but talk was the life of the bazaar. Whatever happened, or did not
+happen, the bazaar always knew about it and spread rumours that none
+heeded, for rumours are always unreliable. What did they amount to,
+anyway? Nothing came of them, so far as the countryside was concerned.
+
+Now and again, it was said, that So-and-So, generally a stout Pathan,
+who had seen active service on the frontier, had packed his bundle and
+was off on his own initiative to offer his strong right arm for the
+cause of the _Sarcar_ who was his father and his mother. His ancestors
+had fought and bled--or died; won medals and gained pensions; he, too,
+would gain medals and a pension, or lose his life if God so willed it.
+"_Kismet ke bat!_"[18] Where was he going? God knew! Some day, if it was
+so willed, he would return to tell.
+
+[Footnote 18: With Fate lay the decision.]
+
+Like as not, he would never return. When youth went a-travelling, the
+attractions of the great world seldom released him from their thrall.
+
+At the court-house, the Magistrate and Collector, officiating for
+Meredith who was still on leave at Darjeeling, tried cases and settled
+disputes, while the court-yard in front was covered with squatting
+humanity, chewing _pân_ and awaiting their individual turns to be called
+up before the _Hakim_ to tell--anything but the truth!
+
+At the Club, the sahibs and memsahibs played tennis and bridge and
+enjoyed their cold drinks as usual, just as though there were no
+sanguinary battles raging afar, such as the world had never known in all
+its history.
+
+Once, during the month of August, a strange _babu_ had appeared in the
+bazaar, and, perching himself upon a cask, had talked sedition for about
+an hour to apathetic ears. Muktiarbad, being mainly Mohammedan, did not
+like gentlemen of the Brahmin persuasion; so he had departed much
+disheartened. Shortly after, another agitator--a Mohammedan this
+time--had endeavoured to incite the peace-loving population to revolt by
+preaching religious antagonism towards Christians.
+
+But Muktiarbad was not to be roused. "Live and let live" was the
+prevailing sentiment among its people. Besides, what was the use of
+rebelling, since it would be futile against such a mighty race as the
+British, who were also good rulers, taking no advantage to themselves
+from their might, and giving each man according to his due? The needs of
+the village folk were mainly personal, and so long as these were
+supplied, what cared they if the rulers of the land were Christians.
+They never interfered with the Moslem religion; why should Moslems
+interfere with theirs? And so this man also departed discouraged.
+
+At Panipara, interest centred chiefly on the fact that the Government
+had decided that the _jhil_ should be drained. The Great War was a
+secondary matter. Wells were already in process of construction and, at
+the end of the rains, before the water of the wide morass could be
+poisoned with germs, usually bred in the drought of winter and spring,
+the drainage was to be taken in hand and the health of the District
+safeguarded forever. All this interference and annoyance had sprung from
+the doctor Sahib, who was thereby the most unpopular sahib that had ever
+been put in charge of the sanitation of a District. He was cursed by the
+ignorant in the Muktiarbad bazaar and at Panipara village itself, but so
+far his person had been respected, as it was known by some occult means
+that he secretly carried firearms wherever he went.
+
+In July, Honor had returned with her mother from Mussoorie in the
+Himalayas, physically and mentally stronger for her prolonged absence.
+
+Captain Dalton and she had corresponded as friends, all expressions of
+personal feeling being rigorously excluded from the closely written
+pages. Both had bravely "played the game," the faithfulness and
+regularity of the letters, alone testifying to their unchanged devotion.
+
+When they met again, Honor having braced herself to the ordeal, had
+sustained it courageously, no one guessing how much it had cost her to
+smile and shake hands with the doctor as naturally as she had done, the
+moment before, with Tommy; for the meeting had taken place,
+unexpectedly, at the Club.
+
+Captain Dalton retired to his bungalow shortly afterwards, and the
+tension had lifted. He had gone, Honor knew, instinctively, because he
+could not bear to stand by, listening indifferently to the general
+conversation when his heart was filled with longing to speak to her
+alone. She had experienced the same inward impatience, but had learned a
+greater self-control.
+
+By and by, their meetings became frequent; but the self-imposed
+restraint, mutually practised, had a wearing effect on the nerves of
+both.
+
+And all the while, gossip in connection with Ray Meredith filtered
+through from various sources, and caused no little comment among his
+friends.
+
+At last a letter to Mrs. Bright from Mrs. Ironsides, who was spending a
+month at the Sanitorium, placed it beyond doubt that Ray Meredith was
+very securely in the toils of his former nurse who was in the same
+hotel, in charge of a child suffering from jaundice.
+
+"She has been in Darjeeling, with one pretext and another, I am told,
+ever since Mr. Meredith recovered," the lady wrote, "and people are
+beginning to look askance at her for the flagrant manner in which she
+flaunts her ascendancy over him. It is a thousand pities his wife is not
+with him, for he is at the woman's heels morning, noon, and night.
+Rumour says their rooms adjoin! I should feel inclined to blame him
+soundly were it not for the fact that he looks very delicate since his
+illness, and that people recovering from sunstroke are not altogether
+themselves. Possibly he is merely drifting for want of someone
+sufficiently interested in him to save him! Whatever it is, this Mrs.
+Dalton must be an abandoned creature, for she is indifferent to the fact
+that she is creating a disgusting scandal. When you think of how devoted
+that man was to his pretty little wife, you feel inclined, to believe
+anything of men! But, as I say, he cannot be himself. Let us hope it is
+only due to the sunstroke, and that his wife will come out soon and look
+after him."
+
+Honor took this news to heart and wrote the appeal to Joyce of which the
+reader is already aware: she also gradually brought her mind to the
+point of speaking frankly to Captain Dalton on the subject.
+
+Since her return from the hills, two weeks before, she had not met him
+alone, so that when she asked him, in a little note to see her at the
+Club next morning on a matter of some anxiety, he was naturally full of
+wonderment as he drove to keep the appointment.
+
+The marker, alone, was in possession of the Club and in his office, when
+Dalton arrived, so that the meeting was undisturbed.
+
+"You are surprised that I should have sent for you?" Honor said, as she
+stepped off her bicycle, having greeted him with a friendly nod. Had she
+given him her hand he would have noticed that it was trembling.
+
+"Pleased, as well as surprised," said he, feasting his soul on the
+wholesome, girlish face with its frank, trustworthy eyes. "Has anything
+happened?" He was longing to hear that her request was prompted only by
+her great desire to have speech with him alone; but even as the thought
+crossed his mind, he knew that Honor would never have made an
+assignation with him for any personal reason. Not with those truthful
+eyes!
+
+"A great deal seems to be happening," she said as they walked into the
+building side by side, and found themselves seats in the verandah.
+Dalton had hoped she would have led him to one of the public rooms
+where, at least, they would have been safe from the curious eyes of
+passing natives; but that she did not, was consistent with her
+character, for she was as open as the day.
+
+Seated beside him, she told him of Mrs. Ironside's letter and of her
+own, unhappy fears for Joyce, and her future relations with her husband.
+
+"She should not have gone home so soon after her marriage," said Dalton.
+"I guessed how it would be when the nurse took on the job, for Meredith
+is a very charming fellow, and she is a woman without a conscience."
+
+"Brian, we must stop it!" It had been "Brian" and "Honey" in the
+letters.
+
+"Not even an angel from heaven could, if Meredith is infatuated. I tell
+you, she is a clever fiend."
+
+"It rests with you!" said Honor appealingly.
+
+"With me?" surprised.
+
+"Joyce and her husband love each other. I will not believe that he has
+ceased to care. Doesn't sunstroke somewhat dull memory?"
+
+"For a time, yes,--possibly. Sometimes altogether. Meredith, however, is
+all right, or will be when he regains his normal vigour."
+
+"I take it that he is not his normal self, and that when he is, he will
+be ashamed of the part he is now playing. Joyce's happiness is at stake.
+She is a simple little thing and very fond of him. Their happiness must
+be saved--even at a sacrifice."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Oh, Brian!--you will have to take your wife back!"
+
+Dalton stared dumbly at her. That Honor should ask him to take back the
+woman who had wrecked his life and whom he despised as the commonest
+prostitute in the land!----
+
+"_You_ ask me that?" he breathed.
+
+Honor bent her head. She could not but realise that the step she
+proposed was a terrible outrage.
+
+"Why, Honey!" His voice was choked. "Have you any idea of what you are
+asking me to do?"
+
+"It will be a great sacrifice--which--which I shall--share--" words
+failed her and she looked away with a pathetic trembling of her lip.
+
+"_You_ would wish it?" in wounded tones.
+
+"I would hate the thought of it!--yet, something must be done. She might
+find it more profitable to return to you and leave Mr. Meredith in
+peace."
+
+A painful silence.
+
+"Honey, if she lived with me I should surely murder her! Do you know how
+I detest the woman? Do you imagine I could take her back as a wife? I
+would rather be shot."
+
+Honor buried her face in her hands. In her heart of hearts she was
+singing a pæan of thanksgiving that he was still hers--only hers, though
+divided from her by an impassable gulf!
+
+"You could bear to see me reconciled to her?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Honey," he cried desperately. "I would do anything in the world for
+you!"
+
+"But you cannot sacrifice yourself for a good woman's happiness?" she
+questioned, hardly knowing what she said.
+
+"Why should I for Mrs. Meredith?"
+
+"Because you once owed her a debt--she was very good to you after----"
+
+"My God!--yes!"
+
+"This will kill her. She will hear--there are so many who will be ready
+to give her chapter and verse of the scandal against her husband. But if
+this--nurse--were with you, it would, perhaps, all blow over."
+
+"Is it really your wish that I should do this thing? Remember, she is
+hateful to me--and she can never, in any sense, be my wife again!"
+
+"I am--glad!" she could not help exclaiming. "Then the sacrifice will
+not be so terrible, after all!"
+
+"Perhaps not," he answered, his eyes full on hers with a passion of
+longing. "Will you let me think it over?"
+
+"Decide quickly!" she begged him.
+
+"There is nothing I would not do for you," he repeated.
+
+Honor rose with her gracious smile of gratitude and trust, and they
+parted without touching hands. When she returned home, the reaction from
+the strain of their meeting prostrated her for hours. Her parents feared
+that the climate of Muktiarbad was, at last, telling on her healthy
+constitution as it had told on Ray Meredith's.
+
+"Perhaps we shall have to send you home!" her mother sighed anxiously.
+
+"Not a bit of it!" Honor asserted. "The cold weather will put me to
+rights very soon."
+
+"Perhaps you have something on your mind, darling?"
+
+"I have. I am worrying badly for Joyce Meredith."
+
+"Joyce will get nothing more than she deserves. Why should you suffer?
+It is nobody's business to meddle between husband and wife."
+
+"Somebody is already meddling, so it may need counter-meddling to put it
+right."
+
+"I shouldn't bother my head. We have enough to do without trying to act
+Providence in the case of fools."
+
+"We are not trying to act Providence, but Providence needs to use us. It
+seems we are just so many pawns in the great Game."
+
+"It has often puzzled me what Captain Dalton has been after," said Mrs.
+Bright, eyeing her daughter rather narrowly. Fear had preyed
+considerably on her mind, that the doctor had been playing fast and
+loose with her child, to her sorrow. "You and he have been fast friends.
+Once you told me there was an 'understanding'; but nothing seems to have
+come of it, though you have corresponded very regularly."
+
+"I showed you some of his letters, darling," Honor temporised, faithful
+to her intention of bearing her own burdens alone, if possible.
+
+"Nice, manly letters they were, and most interesting of his work and
+things in general. But I am none the wiser."
+
+"What did you understand of our friendship?"
+
+"That there was an 'understanding,'" her mother repeated.
+
+"I do dislike that word in the sense you are applying it!" said Honor
+with a forced laugh. "We are not going to get married, anyway, for
+Captain Dalton is a married man."
+
+"Honey!" Mrs. Bright was dumbfounded. "Since when have you known this?"
+
+"For quite a long time; since early summer, in fact. You have met his
+wife--Mrs. Dalton, the nurse. Everyone here fancied her name was a
+coincidence. She worked to come here that she might see her husband and
+get him to take her back." Having said so much, Honor went on to explain
+further the cause of the breach between husband and wife and the
+irrevocable nature of it. "I am telling you this, dear, as you have a
+right to know the truth, being my mother. It is, however, a personal
+confidence, which no one else need share," Honor concluded.
+
+"Why did you not mention it to me before?" Mrs. Bright asked while a
+light dawned on her mind.
+
+"Because I have been very sorry for him, and, somehow, I felt I ought to
+respect his confidence. But it will, inevitably, be known in time, and
+then you will be able to say you were not uninformed."
+
+"Honor, are you in love with Captain Dalton?" Mrs. Bright asked
+pointedly.
+
+Honor winced. "Yes, Mother. And he loves me."
+
+Mrs. Bright looked faint. "_You_, my child, in love with a married man!"
+This was, indeed, a blow! It accounted, fully, for Honor's
+discouragement of eligible suitors in Mussoorie, which had greatly vexed
+her mother at the time. "This is dreadful!"
+
+"Not at all, except for the fact that it is naturally a grief to me,--to
+us both; for, as you see, we can never marry."
+
+Mrs. Bright was entirely astray. When other girls were convicted of
+being in love with married men, it had always sounded so immoral! But no
+one could think of Honor as such. She was plainly an upright and
+honourable girl.
+
+"Yet you encouraged his writing, and answered his letters! You meet, to
+all appearances, as if nothing is wrong. What am I to make of it?"
+
+"That we are very much to be pitied. Writing and meeting openly are all
+that are left to us."
+
+"He should have gone away--severed his connection with Muktiarbad. Not
+have stayed to fan the flame!"
+
+"Life is too short for needless sacrifices, Mother darling. Having made
+the greatest, we refuse to suffer more than we need. Sometimes, if you
+are starving for food, a bare crust will keep you alive. We are
+subsisting on bare crusts and are grateful."
+
+"I consider Captain Dalton has not behaved at all well. He knew his
+position and went out of his way to make you care!"
+
+"Ah, no!--it just happened!" said Honor, her eyes suddenly flooded with
+tears.
+
+Mrs. Bright looked at her daughter's white and sorrowful face, and away
+again. She could not bear to see the suffering there. All the traditions
+of her life caused her to stand aghast at the idea of dalliance with a
+sin so subtle and alluring as this. It should be the root-and-branch
+method. Nothing else would suffice to save her child! Yet her own eyes
+overflowed in sympathy.
+
+"Oh, my poor little Honey!" She held out her arms and Honor took refuge
+in them to weep unrestrainedly. "We are trying to be so good!" she
+cried.
+
+After kissing her daughter tenderly, Mrs. Bright said: "You cannot
+temporise with forbidden fruit, Honey. Eve did, you know. You are but
+human, therefore fallible, however good you are trying to be. The time
+will come when the heart, torn with longing, becomes too weak to resist.
+Specious arguments are insidious and irresistible, and you will go down.
+_Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!_ That is why
+we pray, _Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil_. Our
+Lord understood human nature better than we ever shall, that is why
+there is only one thing to do, and that is, to fly from temptation. We
+pray to be 'delivered,' but praying alone doesn't suffice if we are to
+be honest with ourselves and God. There is nothing that will save us,
+but _doing right_."
+
+"We are doing nothing wrong!" Honor pleaded.
+
+"The wrong lies in the lack of moral courage to deal drastically with
+the wound. If poison remains, it is bound to fester. Captain Dalton
+should go away."
+
+"We were obliged to let ourselves down gently. It has been so
+miserable!" Down went Honor's head on her mother's shoulder, and the
+tears fell fast.
+
+Tears also fell on her dark head. Mrs. Bright's heart was wrung with
+pity. She had said enough for the present, so now devoted herself to
+soothing her beloved child's sorrow with her never-failing sympathy.
+Honor was a good girl, and to be trusted entirely to look her trouble
+squarely in the face and conquer it; and the mother's heart was lifted
+in prayer that she might be enabled to aid and strengthen her child.
+
+It was very shortly after this that war broke out, and there was so much
+to think of and talk about in the Station, that private affairs were
+temporarily set aside. The newspapers were read eagerly in detail;
+correspondence with dear ones over the seas was quickened with new
+interest; and everyone, even in such a little place as Muktiarbad, found
+plenty to do to help in the common cause. War-work parties were
+organised, at which the ladies engaged in knitting woollen comforts for
+the troops, and in making up parcels to be dispatched to the front and
+to prisoners in Germany; and every member had some bit of war news to
+discuss with the others at the Club as they rested from their games
+under the waving _punkha_.
+
+"It will drive me silly," Tommy had said from the first, "if I have to
+loaf about in a place like this when all my pals and school
+contemporaries have volunteered, or are in the thick of it, doing their
+bit."
+
+"You are doing your bit, just as any one who is killing Germans," said
+Mrs. Ironsides who had returned from Darjeeling. "What is to become of
+us all, if all medically fit civil officers are sent to fight? Why, we
+should be murdered in our beds, if it were not for the Police!"
+
+Tommy thought he would cheerfully risk Mrs. Ironsides being murdered in
+her bed, if the Government would only allow him to serve "for the
+duration"; and he continued to send in applications for leave to join
+up, with a persistency worthy of the Great Cause, in the hopes that
+constant dripping would wear away the stony indifference with which they
+were treated.
+
+One evening, towards the end of September, Captain Dalton sought Honor
+at the Club. He had news for her, the gravity of which shadowed his
+deep-set eyes and heightened the grim setting of his jaw.
+
+In a room full of people engrossed in one another, he gravitated to her,
+as usual, but surprised her by asking her to grant him a few words in
+private. "Come out with me to the tennis courts," he commanded with a
+definiteness she felt powerless to slight.
+
+It was dark on the tennis courts with only a young moon shining;
+nevertheless, Honor accompanied him forth, realising the fatefulness of
+the coming interview. When they had reached the shadow of the Duranta
+hedge that separated the courts from the building, and were seated on a
+bench, he told her in a few words that he had decided to comply with her
+wishes in the matter of his wife. It had taken him two months to bring
+himself to the point of making the sacrifice, but at last it was made.
+
+"Of course I am doing it to please you. You have set your heart on
+helping Joyce Meredith, and as this is the only way, it shall be done
+though it takes a mighty effort in the doing. I am writing to tell her
+that she may return to my protection openly, as my wife; but, needless
+to say, my wife only in name. If it will give her a chance to right
+herself in the eyes of the world and help her to live as an honest
+woman, she is welcome to make the fullest use of my offer. It certainly
+might keep her from tampering further with Meredith's loyalty to his
+wife. But I question whether it is not too late!"
+
+"It is never too late!" said Honor, feeling numb and paralysed.
+
+"That will be up to Mrs. Meredith. She is an unsophisticated little
+thing, and, I dare say, Meredith will keep his mouth shut."
+
+It was plain to judge that he was again full of envy of other men's
+chances of happiness, for his tones reminded Honor of the man he was
+when they first met. It was too dark to see his face.
+
+"If she accepts your offer will she come here?" Honor asked shrinkingly.
+
+"She will have to if she comes at once. But I expect soon to be put on
+active service. My application to serve with the Army is receiving
+consideration, and it is possible I shall have to go to France or Egypt
+as there may be trouble with Turkey. In that case she will choose her
+residence. Another medical officer will occupy my bungalow."
+
+So it had come at last!
+
+Honor had been fearing that the war would, in its relentlessness, claim
+him also. It was said in the papers that there was a scandalous shortage
+of surgeons for a war of such magnitude.
+
+Suddenly she was seized with shivering. "You will go and we shall never
+meet again!" fell from her lips independent of her will.
+
+Dalton took her with determination in his arms and kissed her
+passionately on the lips. "My own love!" he moaned over her. "My
+precious one!"
+
+This was what her mother had meant when she had spoken of her becoming,
+in time, too weak to resist. For the moment her will was as weak as
+water; she could only cling to him and yield to their mutual craving for
+demonstrations of love. It was wrong, of course,--but, even so, it was
+heaven so long as they could banish memory and think only of the joy of
+enfolding arms, the meeting of loving lips!
+
+"I shall be going away and we might never meet again!" he echoed her
+words in passionate despair. "Pity me a little, when we meet, and let us
+be happy! Promise!"
+
+"I dare not promise," she cried, quivering with emotion in his arms. "I
+love you, but help me to do right!"
+
+For some time neither spoke while Dalton seemed struggling with the
+might of his desire. They rested on the iron bench wrapped in each
+other's arms, speechless for many moments till the peacefulness and
+silence of the night brought them sanity and calm. Then, kissing her
+once more with the tenderness of renunciation, he put her aside and rose
+to his feet.
+
+"I wonder you care for such a worthless hound as myself!" he said at
+length. "I have no self-control. Go in, darling, I am going home to
+scourge myself for attempting to lead you against the dictates of your
+conscience. Forgive me, Honey, I was mad!"
+
+Honor left him, shaken in every nerve, her self-confidence shattered.
+"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall!" But it
+rejoiced her that Brian Dalton had fought his battle with himself alone,
+and had conquered. How much his appreciation of her high sense of honour
+had contributed to his victory, she would never know.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SUSPENSE
+
+
+The next morning Honor received a telegram from Joyce to meet her at the
+Grand Hotel in Calcutta without delay, and she was only too glad for a
+respite of even a few days from the pain of schooling herself to avoid
+the man she loved. Her parents having no objection, she caught the
+express at midday, and was in Calcutta the same night, her mind
+lightened of one of its burdens. At least the little wife had acted upon
+advice and was going to her husband without waste of time, after which
+all would surely be well for them both.
+
+Joyce was prepared for her coming, and they talked to a late hour, she,
+betraying her trouble by her anxious questioning, which Honor skilfully
+parried.
+
+"You must not put too much faith in gossip," said Honor after learning
+of the conversation which had been overheard on the ship. "Have you
+wired?"
+
+Joyce confessed her intention to take her husband by surprise. "Only,
+now that it has come to the point, I am as nervous as I can be."
+
+"You had better wire. It will bring your husband down half-way to meet
+you and give him some happy hours of anticipation."
+
+"You are not sincere when you say that," said Joyce unexpectedly, "or
+why did you tell me to stop at nothing to come out?"
+
+Joyce was no longer the same, ingenuous little girl Honor had parted
+from at Muktiarbad eight months ago. Her manner had acquired assurance,
+her carriage a becoming dignity, and there was about her an air of
+thoughtfulness and reserve, new to her.
+
+"I said it was not good for man to live alone, nor is it."
+
+"And you knew there was someone trying to supplant me in his
+affections?"
+
+"I knew he was exposed to the influence of a woman without a
+conscience." Honor then told her precisely who Nurse Dalton was, and how
+her flagrant pursuit of Ray Meredith had aroused the anxious concern of
+his friends. Not another word would she add as fuel to the fire of
+Joyce's jealous imagination.
+
+"Well, I shall be able to find out all about this for myself when I am
+there!" sighed Joyce when she had heard the woman's history.
+
+Honor prayed inwardly that Mrs. Dalton would have received Captain
+Dalton's offer before then, and have lost no time in arranging to come
+away. She could not prevail on Joyce to telegraph to her husband of her
+arrival in India, or that he was to expect her in Darjeeling as soon as
+the railway service could take her there. As it was no part of a
+friend's duty to interfere in the affairs of husband and wife, she
+desisted from further persuasion, content to leave the issue to a Higher
+Power.
+
+They passed on to other topics, and Honor was intensely pleased to learn
+from Joyce of Jack's happy fate as Kitty's accepted lover; and, further,
+that the two were married by special licence soon after landing at
+Bombay.
+
+"They are so happy! Last night they left for the new station to which he
+is appointed, as mentioned in the _Gazette_ yesterday. During the few
+hours they were in town they tried to keep out of the way of Mrs.
+Fox--perhaps you know Jack had allowed her to believe he would marry
+her?"
+
+Honor believed she had heard the rumour.
+
+"However, as ill-luck would have it, he and Kitty ran into her, so to
+speak, in the foyer of this hotel! I was there, and, believe me, I was
+never so uncomfortable in my life! Kitty was looking charming, and so
+smart. Happiness agrees with her, for I have never seen her look better
+in my life. We were waiting for a taxi, when who should come in but Mrs.
+Fox with some friends! Mistaking Kitty for me,--people say we are very
+much alike,--she held out her hand and said in her affected way--you
+remember?--'Oh, how d'you do, Mrs. Meredith. I had no idea you had come
+out again!' Then, seeing her mistake, she apologised, for I was
+following Kitty to the door.
+
+"'It's my sister,' said I, feeling dreadfully embarrassed at having to
+make the introduction. 'Mrs. Darling, Mrs. Fox,' I said, and just at
+that moment Jack came in and straight up to us, with no eyes for any one
+but his wife. 'Come, dear, I have managed to get a taxi for the
+luggage,' and then his eyes fell on Mrs. Fox. Really, poor Jack! he
+turned quite pale. But Kitty who knew all about that affair and had
+forgiven it, smiled graciously at Mrs. Fox who was paralysed with shock,
+and said--'I am so sorry we haven't a moment. My husband and I are tied
+to time and have to catch a train. Good-bye,'--with a bow,--'so pleased
+to have met you!'
+
+"Jack also bowed, speechless, as he hurried after Kitty. We all three
+fairly ran, though we had plenty of time for their train; but if looks
+could have killed, I am sure Jack would have died on the spot."
+
+To Honor's credit be it known that she suffered a twinge of pity for
+Mrs. Fox; a passing twinge, such as one might feel for people when they
+come to grief by their own act.
+
+"I wonder what Mrs. Fox will do, now," Honor remarked after expressing
+her hearty congratulations for the happy pair. Jack did not deserve such
+happiness, but if every sinner had his deserts, there would be too many
+miserable people in the world today.
+
+"Mrs. Gupp who shares my table at meals, knows Mrs. Fox pretty well and
+has very little to say in her favour. She was maliciously amused over
+the affair, and is of opinion that Mrs. Fox will have to go home at
+once. The story is already common property."
+
+Honor thought Joyce lovelier than ever with her air of dignified
+reserve. She had grown self-reliant and there was a tinge of hauteur in
+her manner which seemed to add to her stature and give a regal carriage
+to her beautiful head.
+
+"So you are travelling all alone to Darjeeling?" Honor asked wistfully,
+wondering what was going to be the upshot of that journey.
+
+"It is nothing at all. I have hardly the patience to wait for trains.
+There is so much at stake. If I could only be sure that Ray loves me as
+he used to do, I would be crazy for joy! I should never leave him
+again--not for anything in the world!" and she hid her face in Honor's
+neck while the tears flowed.
+
+"Not even if you come across snakes and are obliged to put up with
+mosquitoes and the heat?" quizzed Honor.
+
+"I'll face anything but the loss of my husband's love. What a fool I
+have been! a blind, childish fool! Why, that affair with Captain Dalton
+which I exaggerated and worried over, might have been made all right in
+good time. I ought to have listened to you, and set myself to make Ray
+so happy that he would have had nothing to forgive! After all, it wasn't
+as if I was wilfully to blame?"
+
+"I told you that before you went home."
+
+"And it came to me only when I began to fear that I was losing his love!
+That was a contingency I never believed possible. He was always so mad
+about me, spoiling me in every way and treating me as a little queen!
+Oh, Honor what a mess I have made of things!"
+
+"Don't do anything in the heat of passion, dear," Honor advised
+thoughtfully. "Remember he has had sunstroke. A man is hardly himself
+for months after such an illness--sometimes for years. It affects people
+differently. Some are irritable, some have clouded memories; for the
+brain is the seat of the trouble."
+
+"Are you trying to prepare me to find Ray insane?" Joyce asked with
+frightened eyes.
+
+"Not at all. He is as sane as you or I, but his impulses are not so much
+under control, and his judgment is likely to err since that shock to his
+brain."
+
+"Then he is not to be held accountable for anything he has done of
+late?" indignantly.
+
+"You might take all I have said into consideration if you are required
+to forgive anything he has been weak or foolish enough to have done
+since his illness."
+
+Joyce laughed bitterly. "I wonder what you would feel inclined to do in
+my place?"
+
+"Do you really wish to know?"
+
+"I do," said Joyce as a challenge, while drying her eyes.
+
+"The chief thing to be considered, is the future. That must be saved at
+all costs. A mistake in the present, committed in haste, might affect
+your future life; and not only yours, but your baby's as well. You are
+about to deal with baby's daddy as well as your husband, and the whole
+of your world is looking on. You might take a prejudiced view of things
+that have occurred. You might, in your anger and humiliation, feel
+unforgiving towards him, and so, break up your home. I question whether
+anything ought to weigh against your love for your husband, if in your
+heart you love him and he loves you."
+
+"Loving me, could he be disloyal?"
+
+Honor hesitated. "It is possible he has been suffering from a clouded
+mind. Things have not been correctly focussed, as it were. And while in
+that condition, if he was tempted to drift into actual wrong-doing, I
+should imagine that self-loathing and remorse would afterwards be a
+worse punishment for him than you could possibly conceive of. This is
+presuming he has done anything to be ashamed of. In that case, I could
+not be harsh. Love always forgives--even to 'seventy times seven.'"
+
+"Honey, you are an idealist! I wonder how many women could exercise so
+much forbearance! Think of the anger, the humiliation, the resentment!
+It is an outrage to one's faith and trust!"
+
+"If you had remained within reach of him so that when he was ill you
+could have gone to him at once, there would have been nothing to
+forgive. But for a frivolous reason you put the seas between you and
+threw his love back into his face. You are also very much to blame,"
+said Honor boldly.
+
+Joyce covered her face with her hands and wept silently.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Honor saw her into her train at Sealdah Station the following day, and
+after an afternoon spent in shopping for her mother, returned to
+Muktiarbad.
+
+Joyce spent an uncomfortable night in the train on account of the muggy
+heat which was barely rendered tolerable by electric fans in the
+compartment, and was glad when the time came to transfer herself and her
+baggage into the toy railway of the Himalayas, which rattled briskly up
+the slopes by tortuous tracks into higher altitudes and cooler climes.
+
+A party of ladies known to each other occupied the same compartment and
+chattered of all they did in Darjeeling last year, and all they meant to
+do. Joyce paid little heed while silently watching the changing views as
+the train wound its way along the mountain sides. The infinite grandeur
+of Nature on which humanity had set its stamp, thrilled her with
+wonderment and delight. All personal troubles were forgotten for a while
+as the glorious scenery unfolded to her vision.
+
+Surely her eyes must have been holden when she saw it a year ago!
+
+Heavy mists sweeping the mountain sides frequently obliterated a picture
+of purple distances and rugged heights. Anon, there was a blaze of
+sunlight revealing wooded spurs with zinc-roofed cottages and grey
+villages nestling on their slopes. Green valleys lay at the foot of
+frowning precipices, and round many a bend and curve were glimpses of
+tea gardens with the bushes laid out in serried rows; and cumbrous,
+zinc-roofed tea factories looking strangely incongruous in their wild
+and glorious setting.
+
+With a rush of sound, a waterfall would be seen, as a curve was rounded,
+tumbling over rocks and rushing under a bridge on its way to join some
+mighty river in the plains. The plains were often visible, stretching
+like a grey sea to the horizon, their surface marked by the silver
+tracery of streams. Now and then, Joyce could catch a glimpse of the
+Everlasting Snows, with Kinchin-junga, Nursing, and Pundeem, a mighty
+group glittering in the sunlight in stately magnificence, their peaks
+inaccessible to man. Beside the road, a stout parapet of boulders
+covered by ferns and lichen, stood, in places, between the passengers
+and certain death, a thousand feet below; while up the steep banks rose
+forests of _sal_ and fir, climbing towards the sky.
+
+Wherever there were homesteads perched among the rocks, children of the
+mountains would run forth like sure-footed goats to view the passing
+train, their round and ruddy cheeks besmeared with dirt and chapped with
+cold; their flat faces, high cheek bones, and slanting eyes, revealing
+their Lepcha strain.
+
+And all the while the temperature continued to fall; and the atmosphere
+grew moist and cold and exhilarating in its freshness.
+
+A block in the line occasioned by a local landslip--a frequent
+occurrence on the hill-railway--detained the train till the afternoon,
+at Kurseong, where the passengers left their carriages for luncheon at
+the hotel.
+
+At Sonada, further on, two ladies entered the compartment and audibly
+discussed certain doings at Darjeeling where they appeared to be
+residing. When Joyce heard her husband's name, she set herself to
+listen, determined not to miss a word.
+
+"I suppose she will be there," said one. "Wherever Mr. Meredith goes he
+manages to get an invitation for her,--and people don't much like it,
+but there's his position, you know!"
+
+"I know. They are seldom seen apart. A handsome woman in her way, but
+utterly regardless! Her dress, for instance, at the Shrubbery Ball was
+indeed up to date--just a band under the armpits for a bodice. I never
+saw any one off the stage so disgustingly naked!"
+
+"He looks to me rather 'fed up.' And the way she takes charge of him in
+public requires nerve! he simply falls into line just as if he can't
+help himself. Got into the habit, so to speak!"
+
+"What are you going to wear tonight?" and the conversation drifted to
+the Planters' Ball at the Club. The Governor and his wife were expected
+to be present with their suite, and the house-party from the Shrubbery.
+
+"It is a wonder to me," said the first speaker, "that Mrs. Dalton is
+received at Government House." Joyce again held her breath.
+
+"Oh, but her position makes that all right. Her husband is an I.M.S.
+man, a rising surgeon, somewhere in the plains. They don't get on, but
+that's nobody's business; and in Darjeeling one has to shut one's eyes.
+If you begin to point the finger of scorn, you'll be kept fairly busy"
+(with a mischievous laugh). "And after all, if her husband doesn't mind,
+it's nobody's business. All the same, she's been cut by a good few, and
+if he doesn't look out, he'll end in the divorce court--or she will!"
+
+They laughed as at a great joke, and, others listening, smiled in
+sympathy, while Joyce turned her burning face away.
+
+It seemed that there was no getting away from the story of her husband's
+shame. But for her having left him, this would never have been!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the train drew up at the platform of the station in Darjeeling, she
+pulled herself together and stepped bravely out of her compartment, head
+erect, and manner perfectly composed. The need to have herself well in
+hand, gave her strength of mind for the occasion, so that none of her
+old friends--were she to come unexpectedly upon any--should think her
+crushed and miserable; a poor, humiliated wife! No! the world should see
+a laughing face.
+
+As the roads of the Station were very familiar to her, she climbed the
+path leading to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, at which her husband was
+staying. It rose by easy stages to a higher level and passed by
+red-brick villas built on the English plan, with pent roofs and homely
+chimney-pots. In parts the road was clear, in others, heavily shaded by
+tall firs, through the branches of which could be seen the Snowy Range
+bathed in the soft afterglow of a lurid sunset. Preceding her was a
+Lepcha boy from Sikkim, carrying her trunk mountaineer fashion on his
+back, strapped to his forehead; and it was a mystery how he lifted
+himself as well as his burden up the short cuts, without pausing to draw
+breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE MEETING
+
+
+While Joyce climbed the road preceded by her Lepcha coolie, a scene of
+dramatic possibilities was taking place in a room of the hotel to which
+she was bound.
+
+It was Mr. Meredith's sitting-room, comfortably furnished; a fire was
+burning cheerfully in the grate, and the actors were himself and Mrs.
+Dalton, who had called upon him in a crisis of her affairs.
+
+She was eager and excited, bold, and yet somewhat baffled.
+
+He was nervous and uncomfortable, while fidgeting with a letter in his
+fingers.
+
+"He has made a rather sporting offer, don't you think?" she asked with
+biting sarcasm, her eyes studying his face.
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Surely!--that's for you to say."
+
+"Me?" (irritably).
+
+"Of course. You know that he and I parted long ago over incompatibility
+of temper, and that his offer is made only to save his precious honour.
+He has heard rumours! There is no love in it; instead, it is carefully
+ruled out. I may return to his protection whenever I like; but as his
+wife _only in name_."
+
+"It will be better than this knock-about sort of life you have led, with
+an allowance wholly inadequate to your needs" (conciliatingly).
+
+"But is there nothing else in life for a young woman of my years and
+temperament? What about you and me?" (tenderly).
+
+Meredith reddened as he said resolutely, "That page will have to be
+turned down for good, in the fullest sense of the word."
+
+It was a page of which he was heartily ashamed. The shame was
+inevitable, the affair having been, from the first, a comedy of degrees
+in which his heart had never been involved; begun while he was a
+helpless invalid dependent upon this woman for nursing and
+companionship. That she had started the flirtation, and had taken
+advantage of his loneliness and temporary weakness to bring him almost
+to the verge of a deep dishonour, were memories he would have given much
+to forget. Mrs. Dalton was a type of woman he had always held in
+contempt; but he had failed to identify her as such, till his normal
+health had reasserted itself. Latterly he had allowed himself to drift
+with the tide while looking for a means of escape from his intolerable
+position.
+
+"Do you mean that?" she asked with whitening lips.
+
+"I think it is the only thing to do," he replied.
+
+"If you say that for my sake, then I might just as well be frank. You
+know I love you, Ray Meredith, and I believe you love me, only you have
+never quite let yourself go, for some hidden reason--possibly your
+career? It can't be consideration for that bloodless and callous
+creature, your wife? I refuse to believe that you have any feeling for a
+woman who has placed her child before her husband and is content to live
+apart from him when she knows that men are but human after all! Your
+career is safe. A man's private life is his own affair. If we throw in
+our lot together, we can after the divorce marry and live happily ever
+after, as the good little story books tell us in the nursery." She
+laughed tenderly. "My husband will gladly have done with me, for I can
+tell who it is he wants. I paid a stolen visit to his bungalow at
+Muktiarbad and snapshots of her live all about him in his den. Can I
+tolerate the position I shall occupy in his house, knowing all the while
+it has been flung at me like a bone to a dog? If he could marry her
+tomorrow he would; only she isn't the sort, I am told, who would take
+him unless I am dead! Now, this is frankness indeed!"
+
+Meredith was silent.
+
+"Can't you speak?"
+
+"I have spoken."
+
+"And is that all?" she cried passionately, creeping nearer, her dark
+eyes compelling his surrender. "Don't you know that all Darjeeling is
+talking of us? That, for your sake, people are treating me abominably
+while they smile kindly on you? I am only a woman, therefore may be
+crushed. My God!--and you would turn me down, like a 'page' for 'good'!"
+
+"Perhaps I should not put it like that," he said nervously as he trifled
+with Captain Dalton's letter to his wife, and allowed it to fall to the
+floor. His cigarette case suggested comfort and was drawn forth as a
+diversion.
+
+"Put it as you like, it is rather a knock-out blow for me!"
+
+"Say, rather, that it is a mercy things have not gone too far, and that
+you can accept your husband's 'sporting' offer with a clear--a
+clear"--_conscience_ was scarcely a suitable word. He was certain she
+had smothered it long ago.
+
+"Oh, damn my husband! I want nothing to do with him since knowing you!
+Ray, old dear, have you ceased to love me?--I don't believe it!" She
+flung her arms about his neck and laid her cheek to his. In her tones
+was beguilement, in her eyes the lure of an evil thing. Her back was
+turned to the door so that she did not see that it had opened suddenly
+to admit someone. Both had been too preoccupied to hear the gentle
+knock.
+
+Meredith looked up and saw his wife enter,--his little Joyce, whom he
+imagined was in England. For a moment he was petrified--the next instant
+he shook himself free of Mrs. Dalton's embrace, and stood apart,
+convicted and ashamed.
+
+Joyce stood stock still as if paralysed, and could only murmur
+conventionally, "I am sorry," purely a mechanical expression of apology
+such as she would have made to a stranger. "No one answered my knock, so
+I came in."
+
+The very air was electrical. Meredith could only utter his wife's name
+in blank amazement. What could he say under such damning circumstances?
+Mrs. Dalton laughed hysterically.
+
+Collecting her scattered wits, Joyce explained, reaching a hand out to a
+cabinet for support: "I came out with the mails. There was a hint of
+_this_, only I dared not let myself believe it. It seemed impossible
+from my knowledge of you. But it appears I was wrong," her lip curled.
+Turning to Mrs. Dalton she said coldly, "Perhaps you will be good enough
+to leave us together?"
+
+Standing there erect in her pride and beauty, dressed exquisitely, yet
+simply, she was a revelation to the woman who had sought to rob her and
+was now brazen enough to carry off the situation with effrontery.
+
+"It was pretty smart of you to act the spy, stealing on us without
+warning! However, we are not afraid. Do your worst!"
+
+"I am waiting for you to leave the room," said Joyce with immovable
+calm. Her queenlike dignity was something new to her husband, and it
+commanded Mrs. Dalton's unwilling respect and obedience.
+
+Meredith walked swiftly to the door and held it open for the lady to
+pass out, his features rigid, his eyes bent on the carpet at his feet,
+nor did he raise them when she brushed past him and lightly touched his
+hand as it held the door-knob.
+
+"Why didn't you cable?--or wire from Calcutta?" he asked through white
+lips.
+
+Joyce looked in scornful silence at him and then said with a perceptible
+shrug, "I am glad I did neither."
+
+"Things look pretty bad against me, I admit," he said bitterly. "Is it
+any use for me to ask you not to judge me too hastily? The situation you
+surprised was not of my creating."
+
+Joyce laughed suddenly, a strained and mirthless laugh as she mentally
+recalled the words, "The woman gave me, and I did eat."
+
+"Judge you hastily? Such a situation requires no explanation. It is
+plainly a confession of guilt, or it could not have been."
+
+"By that do you mean you will take action?"
+
+"Action?--do you mean, divorce you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Perhaps you would like to marry Mrs. Dalton if her husband gives her
+up!" she said bitterly, hardly recognising the tones of her own voice.
+
+"Good God!--never!" he shuddered involuntarily.
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"You would not believe me if I told you."
+
+"I am beginning to understand more of men than I did when we parted. It
+seems, you could make love to this lady without being in love with her?
+You even humiliated me in the eyes of the world, merely for the sake of
+a vulgar intrigue?"
+
+She astonished Meredith with every word she spoke. His little Joyce had
+suddenly become a woman, a thousand times more wonderful than he had
+ever known her.
+
+"I am innocent of anything but an ordinary flirtation, of which I am
+heartily ashamed, believe it or not," he returned pacing the floor
+restlessly, his face pallid, his eyes miserable. "What are you going to
+do?" coming to a stop before her. It was as well that he should know the
+worst she contemplated.
+
+"I don't know ... but I cannot advertise my shame to the world!" she
+said icily as she turned to leave the room.
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"There is my trunk. I shall need to engage a room."
+
+"Sit down by the fire, and I will see to everything for you."
+
+Joyce sank nervelessly into a chair and saw him leave the room, only to
+re-enter shortly afterwards with the news that the hotel, being full,
+she would have to occupy his own bedroom while he made shift with the
+dressing-room attached.
+
+Joyce scarcely heeded him. So long as he was not to share her room,
+nothing mattered. "And what about the Planters' Ball tonight?" she asked
+to his profound surprise. "Are you going?"
+
+"I was, but not now. How can you ask?" What on earth was she after?
+
+"Why not? I would rather you kept your engagement--and--took me."
+
+Meredith stared, wide-eyed. "You?" For the moment he thought her mind
+deranged. How could she contemplate taking part in a frivolous social
+function in the midst of their tragedy? Their lives were sundered; their
+happiness blasted; and she was thinking of the Planters' Ball!
+
+Joyce was thinking of the women who were expecting to enjoy the
+spectacle of Ray Meredith's flirtation with Mrs. Dalton; and no doubt
+there were a great many others also prepared to amuse themselves at his
+expense, and her eyes hardened. A jealous determination to punish the
+woman who had spoiled the happy relations between husband and wife,
+possessed her, so that the idea of slighting her publicly at this grand
+ball was a temptation. That her husband would slight Mrs. Dalton, she
+had no doubt. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes. Honor Bright
+had said that, were he guilty of wrong-doing, self-loathing and remorse
+would punish him more heavily than she could conceive of! He was already
+ashamed, and would yet repent in the dust at his wife's feet. When that
+came to pass, she might see fit to relent--not now. Now her whole soul
+was in revolt. Her heart felt like stone in her breast. What would
+another woman have done in her place? She had no experience. Honor had
+advised her against precipitancy. She would act with infinite
+deliberation, surpassing anything Honor would have counselled. Honor had
+talked of love! For the moment she had lost her faith in love, and knew
+no feeling so strong as revenge. She would go to the ball, and Ray
+should have no eyes for any other woman but his wife. It had been so in
+the past, and it would be so again, or she would hate to live. People
+had always said that she was pretty, and she had been glad for his sake.
+She was more than glad now; for it put the strongest weapon for
+punishment into her hand.
+
+Meanwhile, her husband was amazed that she should think of the ball,
+and, doubtless, feared she was mad!
+
+"I am not insane, if that is what is on your mind. But I have to think
+of the future," she said coldly. The future was another point that Honor
+said, would have to be considered. "We shall go to this dance together
+to keep up appearances. For the same reason, we shall, if you have no
+objection, dance a great deal together. For Baby's sake the world must
+think that we are rejoiced to come together again after so many months
+apart, and it might help to make people forget the ugly things they have
+been saying. Do you mind?"
+
+"Not at all. You shall do as you please, in this, as in everything
+else."
+
+"I have no doubt Mrs. Dalton will find someone in the hotel to escort
+her?"
+
+"She can take care of herself."
+
+"Very well then," looking at her watch, "perhaps I had better dress, for
+it is rather near the dinner hour."
+
+"And is that all you have to say to me?" he asked with quivering lips.
+
+"What would you have me say?"
+
+"Anything would be better than this coldness--this avoidance of all that
+is most vital to us both. Even if you raved and stormed, I could stand
+it better, for I might have a chance to explain. Things are not as bad
+as you think."
+
+"They are bad enough for me!" she returned calmly, her lovely profile
+and the lowered sweep of her eyelashes, her straight carriage and the
+gentle curve of her bosom, outlined against the dark hangings of the
+window.
+
+"Will you listen to me for a bit?"
+
+"I would rather not."
+
+"Then you condemn me outright?"
+
+"You have condemned yourself."
+
+"You cannot have forgotten my love for you?" he cried desperately.
+
+She turned and lifted grave, blue eyes to his face in mute condemnation.
+
+"You do not understand--I have been ill--I don't seem to have been
+myself for a long time, I--I--it seemed to me that you did not care a
+farthing what became of me. You left it to me to cable if I wanted you
+when you should have known that I was yearning for nothing so much as a
+sight of your face. It was pointed out to me that any woman with a spark
+of true love for her own man, would have let nothing stand in the way of
+her joining him the moment she heard of his illness. Did you?" He
+laughed harshly. "No! It was the old story, 'Baby,' and always, 'Baby!'
+God!--you never cared."
+
+"I cared so much, that I never wanted to amuse myself with another man
+though I had plenty of opportunities." Yet, his passionate denunciation
+had gone home.
+
+"Joyce, am I to have no chance?"
+
+With a gesture of disgust, she dismissed the subject peremptorily, and
+passed out of the sitting-room, trembling with emotion from head to
+foot.
+
+In the adjoining apartment, which was his bedroom, she struggled with
+the straps of her fibre trunk till they were taken out of her hands and
+the leathers unbuckled, by her husband who had followed her in. Joyce
+watched him with a pain at her heart as he bent over his task. A lump
+came into her throat too big to swallow. She felt choked with a rising
+hysteria which only a great effort of will controlled. He looked so
+handsome, so like the lover-husband she had known, that it was all she
+could do not to fling herself into his arms and say "Let us forget
+everything and remember only our love!" Her natural place was in his
+arms now that she had come out all that distance to be with him;
+instead, they had not even exchanged the most formal of greetings! He
+had been false to her--a crime no woman feels disposed to forgive.
+
+"I had to come in here as this is the only way to my dressing-room,"
+Meredith explained as he rose to his feet.
+
+Joyce thanked him coldly and watched him pass through the heavy curtains
+which separated the two rooms and was the only apology for a door. When
+he was gone, she writhed in anguish. Oh, if she could have crushed her
+pride and called out to him to come back!
+
+It was not so easy, however, and she hardened her heart for the task
+that lay before her.
+
+While dressing, her trembling fingers almost refusing their work, she
+wondered how Mrs. Dalton would behave when they met again? If she would
+have the audacity to speak to Ray? A woman of her sort would be equal to
+any impertinence. Why had she not returned to her husband, who, Honor
+had said, was willing to take her back? At all events, Joyce was
+infinitely glad she was on the spot to curtail the woman's opportunities
+for further mischief. It was worth the risk of the journey.
+
+When she slipped on her evening gown, a rich, black _crêpe de chine_,
+she was seized with consternation when she remembered that it fastened
+at the back. Under no circumstance would it meet without assistance. A
+maid, or an ayah?--Both were equally impossible to procure at a moment's
+notice.
+
+She made several futile efforts, then looked about her in dismay! What
+was to be done? Flushed, and in despair, she cast a glance at the
+curtains behind which lay her only hope. Her husband had often
+officiated with the hooks and eyes, and was otherwise expert as a maid.
+The only alternative was to forego the ball and her great reprisal; and
+this was unthinkable now that all her hopes were centred on revenge. Had
+Joyce belonged to a lower order of society, she would probably have
+gratified her wrath by making a scene and scratching out the woman's
+eyes, or tearing out her hair in handfuls. As it was, the picture of
+Mrs. Dalton seated as a wall-flower, openly despised and neglected by
+the man she had tried to seduce from his allegiance, appealed powerfully
+to her imagination.
+
+Timidly she called, "Can you help me, please?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Ray!" her voice was still more diffident, but her call met with
+immediate response. Ray who had not yet begun to change for dinner, was
+with her in an instant.
+
+"I cannot dress without help. Will you please?" she asked frigidly.
+
+Meredith took infinite pains, his face, as reflected in the mirror,
+looking haggard and pale. He had never seen his wife in black, which was
+an excellent foil to her fair beauty, and the sight of her rendered him
+tongue-tied. He had nothing to say even when she dismissed him with a
+"Thanks, I'll manage very well, now."
+
+When Joyce entered the winter-garden,--the principal lounge of the
+hotel, with glazed roof and walls, its interior full of flowering
+orchids, palms, and tropical plants of varied beauty, she saw Mrs.
+Dalton already there, resplendent in crimson satin and jewellery,
+cultivating the acquaintance of new-comers to Darjeeling who had arrived
+by the train that day. It was a daring gown for colour and cut, and
+Joyce was put in mind of the description she had overheard in the train,
+of the lady's ball-room attire. Mrs. Dalton evidently set a high value
+on the generous curves of her handsome shoulders, for she displayed them
+with liberality.
+
+Ray entering soon afterwards, performed a few introductions with a
+self-control that was remarkable, considering his shaken nerves, after
+which they passed into the glare of the dining-hall to the table at
+which he had always dined in company with men.
+
+Joyce excelled him in her power to sustain the rôle she had marked out
+for them both. Her manner was winning and delightful, and, but for
+Meredith's inner knowledge, it might have misled his hopes disastrously.
+
+"Yes," she once said with subtle meaning as she smiled at an ardent
+admirer who had been captivated at first sight, "I would not cable or
+wire, for I wanted to give my dear husband the surprise of his life. You
+can imagine his feelings! It is a mercy that joy seldom kills, or he
+might have died on the spot. And I am so glad I came, though I had to
+leave my wee baby with his grannie. But things might have become too
+difficult later, owing to the war; and I could not be parted from Ray
+indefinitely; could I, dear?" to her husband.
+
+Ray smiled unsteadily.
+
+"India is such a delightful country. Nothing will induce me to leave it
+in a hurry again. Do you know Muktiarbad? No? It's a little paradise
+though officials will call it a Penal Settlement!"
+
+"Lucky dog, your husband!" said an admirer fatuously. "And so plucky of
+you to go to the ball tonight, after your long and fatiguing journey. I
+hope I may have a dance?"
+
+"Certainly. You surely did not think I would deprive my husband of this
+pleasure when he is, I am sure, one of the best dancers in Darjeeling? I
+should never have been forgiven by his friends!"
+
+"May I have the first 'Boston'?"
+
+"That is for my husband to decide," she said archly with the familiar
+play of the eyelashes and dimple peeping in and out of her cheek. "He
+has first choice of the dances on my programme."
+
+"We'll see about the programme when we are there," said Meredith
+quietly. His position was more than he could support.
+
+"I mean to enjoy myself thoroughly tonight!" sighed Joyce.
+
+Meredith stole a glance at his wife and noted the feverish light of
+excitement in her eyes, under which blue shadows of fatigue lay, and the
+nervous movement of her fingers as they crumbled her bread into morsels.
+He could see that she, too, was suffering from nerves.
+
+"Damn the ball!" he cursed inwardly. He had no interest in it; no wish
+to be there.
+
+"Are you sure you are not too tired?" he asked her, longing for a
+loophole for escape.
+
+"Not in the least," she replied, over-doing her part by touching his
+hand lightly with her fingers. It was a graceful mark of confidence and
+affection which won the indulgence of all the men at that table; but to
+Meredith it was deliberate cruelty. Her touch was an electric shock, and
+his heart stood still for a moment while the room swam before his eyes.
+He made no reply, but having finished dinner, rose abruptly, without
+waiting for the initiative to come from her. Across the room was the
+woman who had often hung upon his breast with her cheap caresses and
+offers of love which he had been too weak to spurn altogether. Already
+the sight of her flaunting charms nauseated him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A 'rickshaw carried Joyce to the Club while her husband accompanied her
+on foot. When he tried to engage her in conversation, he had to learn
+that her bright speeches were only for others. When they were alone, she
+was dumb. It was clear that he had sinned in her eyes past all hope of
+forgiveness.
+
+At the ball, Meredith went through his part as in a dream. He smiled to
+order, made many introductions, and danced with his wife, and no other.
+Obedient to her example, he made idle conversation while they danced
+together, though his heart was on fire with longing; and when he was not
+dancing with her, he could but watch her from the doorways, remembering
+the existence of friends only when they accosted him; appearing
+hopelessly absent and inconsequent the while.
+
+It seemed to him that his life was broken and ended.
+
+"You're a dark horse, you blighter," he was chaffed. "Keeping it up your
+sleeve all this time that your wife was on her way out!"
+
+"Introduce me, old son," said the _aide-de-camp_ to the Governor. "Mrs.
+Meredith dances divinely."
+
+"Let me congratulate you, Meredith," said the Governor, in his
+friendliest manner. "Your wife is the most charming little woman I have
+met for some time. I have quite lost my heart to her!" He patted Ray's
+shoulder to impress the fact on "this foolish fellow" who had scarcely
+"played the game" in his lovely little lady's absence. "It was a damned
+shame!"
+
+Joyce was unquestionably the "belle of the ball"; there were no two
+opinions about that. Few remembered that she had been at Darjeeling the
+previous season, since she had kept to her hotel as a semi-invalid with
+a very young child; so that she had the additional advantage of being
+fresh. India loves new sensations and is grateful to those who supply
+them, gratis.
+
+Men surrounded her and paid her marked attentions, fought with each
+other, good-naturedly, for portions of dances, and served her as a
+princess at the suppers. Yet, in spite of her bewildering success, she
+never forgot the object that had taken her there, and was more than
+repaid. Her manner to her husband was faultless, and it kept him
+regardful of her slightest wish. Her mission was to charm all, her
+husband in particular, so that Mrs. Dalton's humiliation should be
+complete; and before midnight, victory was achieved. Mrs. Dalton ordered
+her 'rickshaw at the stroke of twelve, and retired from the ball, her
+almost empty programme in pieces on the floor. She had been overlooked
+by men, cut by women, and obliged to look on, with a raging heart, at
+Mrs. Meredith's triumph. Ray Meredith, with the rudeness of utter
+contempt, had left her absolutely alone. The cruelty of his behaviour
+had been insupportable. When, on one occasion, she had seized the chance
+of a word with him, he was deaf to her exhortations, and she was shaken
+off with a contemptuous disregard for her feelings.
+
+When she left the building, it was to suffer the tortures of a woman
+scorned. She was learning to swallow that bitterest of all pills, the
+knowledge that she was utterly despised by the man for whom she had been
+willing to lower her womanhood in the dust.
+
+She had come to the realisation of the fact that the woman who lowers
+herself in the eyes of men, will inevitably find herself shamed and
+scorned.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When she arrived at the hotel, she brooded far into the night over her
+bedroom fire, reviewing bitterly her moral decline from the day of her
+first great mistake. Feeling unable to face the people who had known her
+in the Station, she departed the next morning for Muktiarbad, leaving
+her infantile charge and its ayah to the tender mercies of the
+Sanitarium.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE FAIR
+
+
+The _méla_[19] week was a great event at Muktiarbad, for the Europeans
+as well as the natives of the District, as it gave the officials a
+holiday, brought people together, and encouraged healthy competition in
+arts, crafts, and various industries of the country. Prizes were offered
+for the best exhibits, and local shopkeepers took advantage of the
+opportunity to advance their own interests by placing on the market,
+articles of use and ornament from all parts of India. Eager crowds,
+garbed in all the hues of the rainbow created a kaleidoscope of colour
+as they jostled one another among the booths, bent on bargaining or on
+sight-seeing. Merry-go-rounds, puppet shows, monkey-dances, juggling,
+and cocoanut shies, entertained adults as well as children, while the
+noise and confusion of tongues was Bedlam.
+
+[Footnote 19: Fair.]
+
+The fair was usually held at the crossroads where a large irregular
+patch of green afforded ample space for the pens, stalls, booths, and
+side-shows that contributed towards the joys of the occasion; and to it
+came people from miles around, and even from distant parts of the
+District.
+
+Just when this annual _fête_ was at its height, Mrs. Dalton arrived at
+Muktiarbad to take up her abode under her husband's roof, thus providing
+enough of a sensation among his neighbours to last beyond the regulation
+nine days for wonderment.
+
+That the Civil Surgeon should prove a married man was not so outrageous
+as his having neglected to admit, while she was among them, that Nurse
+Dalton was his wife, instead of misleading them tacitly into thinking
+that the name was a coincidence. It was unpardonable! And now, to add
+insult to injury, after she had made herself conspicuous in Darjeeling
+by flirting openly with her late patient, the Station of Muktiarbad was
+expected to forget and forgive, and take the black sheep to its bosom.
+Unheard of audacity!
+
+How far Ray Meredith was to blame for the gossip concerning himself and
+the lady, was immaterial, since his wife was reported happy and
+content,--besides, he was a man, and women are notoriously hard upon
+women; as was proved when the ladies of the Station were ready to throw
+stones at the erring one the instant it was known that the doctor took
+every chance to keep out of his wife's way, and was seldom found at
+home. Why the two had come together again when there was no love lost
+between them, was a mystery to all and a challenge to their sense of
+propriety.
+
+When Mrs. Dalton, as in duty bound, called on everybody, she was
+received without cordiality by her sex, who met immediately afterwards
+to consult what response to her overtures was demanded by common
+civility. Some proposed the snub direct, by ignoring her altogether;
+others were for dropping cards into her "Not-at-home box" at the gate
+when it was ascertained that it was up; while Mrs. Bright decided to
+return her call and let civilities end there.
+
+Tommy listened with indifference to the female cackle at the Club till
+Honor's name was introduced, and then he could no longer hold his peace.
+"What about Honor Bright?" someone had asked meaningly.
+
+"What about her?" said Tommy, his eyes following the girl's lithe
+movements on the tennis court.
+
+"It was popularly supposed that she was engaged to Captain Dalton, and
+yet she knew all along that he was a married man!"
+
+"Has any one in this company got anything to say that is detrimental to
+Miss Bright?" he asked with eyes flashing.
+
+Thus challenged, the speaker collapsed into silence.
+
+"Honor is one of the very best," said Mrs. Ironsides vehemently. "Let
+there be no mistake about that!" This was the last word on the subject,
+and Tommy retired victoriously, cursing feminine tongues that would
+never mind their own business. His relief when he discovered that
+Captain Dalton was no longer in competition with himself for Honor's
+hand, was great, till he realised, later that his own chances were
+_nil_.
+
+The Government of Bengal having at last yielded to his importunities to
+be allowed to join the Indian Army Reserve, he was waiting, like Dalton,
+for orders, brimful of martial ardour while he packed and sorted his
+kit. Jack's belongings were to be sent on to him; while his own,
+salvaged from the wreck of patriotic-dinner parties at which his
+bachelor friends had drunk to the confusion of the enemy till they were
+themselves confused, were to be sold to his successor and to friends in
+the District. Mr. Ironsides had bespoken his gun, a local Rajah his
+ponies; and his dogs were to be distributed among friends. There
+remained personal treasures, chief among them being a gold napkin
+ring,--a christening present twenty-two years ago,--which was to be
+given to Honor as a keepsake. Should he fall in battle, it would serve
+to remind her tenderly of his unfaltering love. Thoughts of wooing and
+marriage were out of place and of secondary importance beside the needs
+of the Great War, into which he was going heart and soul.
+
+Poor old Jack! Tommy could pity him despite the fact that he was married
+to the girl of his heart. How it was possible for any fellow to "sit
+tight in his job" while all his pals were in the thick of the fight, was
+inconceivable. But Jack put the blame on the Government and settled down
+to enjoy his Elysium. It was clear that Mrs. Darling was going to have
+it all her own way in the future to Jack's supreme delight. According to
+her, "There was a place for every man, and every man should be kept in
+it." It was, further, a husband's duty to "obey his wife." As for the
+war!--he must remember that "They also serve who stand and wait,"--or,
+as she put it--"administer justice in the land in which it has pleased
+the Almighty to place them." The "Almighty," in this case, being the
+Government of India.
+
+These sentiments quoted in a humorous letter from the young magistrate,
+brought forth an appreciative reply and a wedding present which made a
+gap in Tommy's small savings, for he was infinitely relieved at his
+friend's escape from the clutches of a certain lady. It was a
+satisfaction to know that at last Jack would be in agreement with
+Solomon on the subject of a wife.
+
+Honor Bright first met Mrs. Dalton at the _mêla_, not having been at
+home when that lady had called. She was making a tour of the exhibits
+with friends from Hazrigunge when she was joined by the Meeks who were
+charitably piloting the lonely new-comer about the grounds. Mr. Meek,
+glad of an amiable listener, was discoursing on the merits of his
+live-stock which had won prizes, and was pointing them out in their
+pens. Husband and wife, in their isolation at the Mission, heard little
+or nothing of Station gossip, and to them Mrs. Dalton appeared very
+superior to her unfriendly husband whom they had never liked. Small
+wonder that his wife had been unable to agree with such a domineering
+nature!
+
+Honor thought her greatly altered and believed she could divine the
+cause. Since happiness has its source from within, it was not surprising
+that Mrs. Dalton had failed to find it in the life she had led. Her eyes
+had a wistful appeal; her manner was deprecating. The old confidence and
+daring were gone, never to return. Something had happened to bring
+disillusionment, and the lesson had sunk deeper.
+
+"I saw so little of you when I was last here," she said to Honor after
+shaking hands. "You went directly to the hills, you remember? I do hope
+we shall be friends?"
+
+"You are very kind," said Honor with embarrassment, as she had no
+inclination for friendship with Brian Dalton's wife.
+
+"We have so many tastes in common, I believe, and might do things
+together. In a quiet station like this, it is the only way to kill
+time."
+
+"I am very busy now-a-days," said Honor whose time was always too well
+occupied to admit of practising such an accomplishment. "There are
+ambulance classes at the Railway Institute; the work-society for
+knitting comforts for the soldiers and sailors; the bazaar at Hazrigunge
+for the Belgian Relief Fund, and other duties, so that I have quite a
+lot to do."
+
+"I wish that I, too, might help!"
+
+"The secretary would be glad, I am sure. She is Mrs. Ironsides. I should
+advise you to apply to her." With a smile and bow, Honor passed on,
+followed by Mrs. Dalton's gloomy gaze.
+
+"Honor Bright is a very dear friend of mine," said Mrs. Meek, kindly.
+"Don't you think she is a very refreshing specimen of girlhood? My
+husband thinks she is very good-looking, but I say she is good to look
+at. A distinction without a difference, you will say? but not so; the
+difference lies in expression, which makes the matter of features
+immaterial. Honor has such a frank and truthful face, and a nature of
+the very kindest."
+
+"I am just wondering why it is she is not married?"
+
+"She will marry the right man when he comes along. So far I have not
+seen one good enough."
+
+"It is rather wonderful how everyone loves her! Most people have enemies
+and detractors, but Miss Bright seems a universal favourite."
+
+"It is not really surprising. She is universally respected and beloved.
+Even the natives look up to her."
+
+"'Respected!'" echoed Mrs. Dalton to herself bitterly. The lack of
+self-respect had always been the rock on which her life had been
+shipwrecked. She had failed to mark it on her chart, and was now a
+derelict. A jealous pang went through her and she remarked with a tinge
+of spite, "In fact, Miss Bright is so good that, like the Pharisee of
+old, she thanks God she is not as other women are!"
+
+"You do her injustice. I know no one more charitable," said Mrs. Meek
+warmly.
+
+"I apologise," said Mrs. Dalton with a sudden revulsion of feeling.
+"Believe me, I have reason to know that, for she tried to do me a good
+turn, I don't know why,--considering the circumstances,--but I must find
+an opportunity for thanking her." Yet Mrs. Meek saw only discontent and
+unhappiness in her companion's face, and wondered.
+
+Meanwhile, Honor passed beyond their range of vision and was making
+household purchases for her mother: _jharunsé_[20] made at Cawnpur, lace
+at the Mission, a pair of garden shears, and trifles that appealed to
+her as useful for the Hazrigunge bazaar.
+
+[Footnote 20: Dish-cloths.]
+
+While selecting a rush basket for flowers at a stall for the sale of
+wicker-work made by low-caste Hindus at Panipara, she overheard a
+conversation in the vernacular between one of the workers and an
+outsider of evil appearance. Their words were often unintelligible being
+drowned in the noises prevailing around her, but the drift of their talk
+held Honor rigid and attentive, with every faculty alert, and fear at
+her heart. Feeling secure in the midst of so much distraction, they
+spoke unreservedly.
+
+"These reeds of Panipara are unsurpassed," said the outsider viciously.
+"Where will you get others for your trade, now that the _jhil_, is being
+drained? Look you, it is the work of Dalton Sahib, this butcher of human
+flesh!"
+
+"Alack! my trade is ruined. I shall have to move on and seek a living
+elsewhere, or die of want!"
+
+"Thus you are turned from the village of your forefathers where you have
+worked,--and they before you,--at basket-plaiting and mat-making. What
+does he deserve for his wanton act?"
+
+"May he die, and jackals eat his flesh!"
+
+"That is a just saying, my brother! Even I have suffered--" for a few
+minutes Honor heard nothing but the loud laughter of some Bengali
+students who were passing. "My only child it was," the voice proceeded
+agitatedly; "he was rendered unconscious, and while lying helpless on a
+table at the hospital, and I his father crying in the yard below, this
+ruthless one cut open his bowels and removed a part of the intestines!
+Can anyone live without that which is necessary to life. In agony my son
+died, calling aloud to his mother and father,--and we, powerless to save
+him! _Ai Khodar!_ Listening my liver dried up and my heart hardened as a
+stone, while I took vows on his dead body to find a way to punish this
+murderer. No matter how long I have to wait, I shall--" again his words
+were lost.
+
+"But brother, this is idle talk! will you risk----?"
+
+"Care must be taken to find one suited to the job; he must have
+experience and courage, and"--he glanced suspiciously at Honor and
+dropped his voice, fearing that she might be one of those Memsahibs, who
+understood Bengali. So many did not.
+
+"There is one man at Panipara--of daring inconceivable. Three months he
+served in gaol for--he fears neither the law nor----"
+
+"Ss-s-h! I will see him. Tell me where--?" Their heads drew closer as
+their voices were lowered to continue their plotting.
+
+Honor could hear no more. She had drawn too near and their suspicions
+were aroused, so that whatever else they had to say was lost in
+mumbling.
+
+Her heart hammered and her pulses throbbed with fear. What were these
+men thinking of doing in their revenge? Was the doctor's life in actual
+danger?
+
+Her friends, at another stall where brasses and wood-carving were
+displayed, were signalling for her to join them. She looked around for
+help, but not a policeman was in sight. Even then, she could have done
+nothing, for the evil-looking Indian had slipped away and was lost in
+the crowds. She had no positive evidence to offer that would satisfy the
+law. The basket-weaver, looking innocent and bland, sat on his haunches
+shouting out to the public to inspect his goods.
+
+Honor, therefore, controlled her excitement, and decided to warn Captain
+Dalton again on his return to the Station, and consult her father on the
+subject. With an anxious heart, she joined her friends who were looking
+on at a monkey dance.
+
+"_Bibi Johorun_," the female monkey, dressed in skirt and shawl, and cap
+on her head adorned with a red feather, hopped to the measure of the
+little drum the man rattled rhythmically with a turn of his wrist; while
+her husband, the male, in coat and brass buttons, sat on a toy stool
+awaiting his turn to be called up for the War. Presently the pair would
+embrace in farewell, he would shoulder his mimic gun to the delight of
+the spectators, and proceed to march to battle to the time of the drum.
+Honor knew the routine perfectly. Meanwhile his expression of sleepy
+indifference under the rakish khaki cap as he blinked and chewed the
+nuts offered by the public, was human in its comprehension. When the
+crowd grew pressing, Honor left with her party, hearing for some
+distance the man's monotonous sing-song voice urging Johorun to dance
+for her reward, failing which there would be a certainty of
+chastisement.
+
+    _"Natcho-jee, Johorun, natcho-jee!
+    Paisa milé ga.
+    Paisa, na courie, thuphur milé, ga!"_
+
+That evening, at the Club, Mrs. Dalton drew Honor apart from the rest of
+the company and they paced the grass together while it grew dusk. She
+was evidently much agitated, and after making some clumsy attempts to
+lead up to the subject, she suddenly broke out with the question.
+
+"Tell me why you told my husband to take me back?"
+
+As Honor was not ready with her reply, she continued,
+
+"He told me in his specially cruel fashion, that I owed the concession
+to you, for I had charged him with being in love with you."
+
+Honor drew back shocked at her bad taste. "That is hardly the thing for
+you, his wife, to tell me!"
+
+"I don't say it from any evil motive!--oh, I wish you to believe that I
+am past all that--I have no longer any use for malice, and hatred--even
+jealousy! I only want to understand you. I am a woman, too; if I cared
+about a man who loved me as he loves you, I should want to kill the
+woman who stood in my way! There is something eternally primitive about
+love in its relation to the sexes!"
+
+"There is love--and _love_. Perhaps you don't know--apart from
+everything--that Joyce Meredith is my dear friend? She has a right to be
+happy in her married life."
+
+"I see. So you sacrificed yourself and ordered him to come to the
+rescue! He would do anything in the world for you."
+
+"He and I can never be anything to each other," said Honor firmly.
+
+"I am beginning to feel truly sorry for my husband. Perhaps you don't
+believe it? But, since he despises me so absolutely, it seems a shame
+that he should be tied to me for life! He should have given me my
+liberty long ago. You know why we parted?"
+
+"Yes, I know."
+
+"He might then have married you----"
+
+"Please do not speak to me in this way or I must refuse to walk with
+you," said Honor indignantly.
+
+"Oh, no, don't!--please don't go before you hear what I have to say!"
+Mrs. Dalton cried earnestly. "I have no tact, and always say the wrong
+thing. The fact is, I am a most miserable woman, feeling every day the
+consequences of my first mistake. If you knew what a bankrupt I am in
+love and all that goes towards making life worth living, you would have
+the heart to feel a little pity for me!"
+
+"I do pity you," said Honor, relenting.
+
+"If he would only forgive me! But he is so hard. He spurns my every
+effort to humble myself. He has no faith in me. I killed it! But if he
+would only give me a chance, I would be a better woman, I swear it! A
+kind word and look--oh, what wouldn't I do to atone! Miss Bright, you
+can help me!"
+
+"I?"
+
+"Yes. You! Natures like yours are great." Mrs. Dalton's voice broke with
+a sob and she wrung her hands in genuine emotion. "You may not credit me
+with sincerity, but I am not wholly bad. Brian is my husband--whenever I
+look at him I realise all that I have lost forever--unless, a miracle
+happens and he forgives me! If he could do that, I would be his slave. I
+would be at his feet! What a life is mine! The emptiness of it!--the
+futility of it! Who cares for women like myself? Women at a loose end
+who have spoilt their lives, and are trying to patch up some kind of
+forbidden happiness for themselves? It is just a form of gambling; wild
+excitement while it lasts. But it never lasts long! Think what I feel
+tonight! Here am I, a married woman among so many--with a fine
+husband,--he is that!--hard and cold, yet such a _man_!--and I might
+have been so happy. I might have had children!" Mrs. Dalton broke down
+into violent sobbing and Honor guided her to a bench that she might weep
+unrestrainedly and so find relief.
+
+It was a strange position for herself, who a moment ago was filled with
+repulsion, to find that she could fold the unhappy woman in her arms and
+attempt to console her with words.
+
+"I quite understand. Believe me, I _do_ understand. It has been like
+losing the substance for the shadow."
+
+"Just that. Oh, why couldn't I have looked ahead and seen this day! But
+I was mad and blind. Women must be insane when they commit these
+irrevocable acts! It is only men who can retrieve such mistakes--women,
+_never_!"
+
+"It is unfair to us," said Honor for her sex.
+
+"It is damned unfair!" said Mrs. Dalton fiercely. "Why can't he forgive
+me and let me have another chance? God forgives; why not man?"
+
+"Perhaps he might--some day."
+
+"Do you say that? Oh, Miss Bright!--now I know why everyone loves you."
+She seized Honor's hand and kissed it passionately. "Will you plead for
+me? This is what I want of you. Will you do it? He would listen to you
+if he listened to no one else in the world. I am truly heart-broken, and
+done with folly and conscious wrong-doing. Jesus Christ said, 'Thy sins
+are forgiven thee, go and sin no more.'"
+
+"I will do my best for you," said Honor quietly.
+
+"God bless you--oh, God bless you and reward you! Brian is away for a
+few days. I will let you know when he returns, and you can come to the
+bungalow. Will you promise?"
+
+"I promise," said Honor bravely. "But he is giving his services to the
+war. He will be leaving shortly for the front?"
+
+"I know it. And I shall follow him wherever he goes, like a dog, just to
+be near and serve him. It is the least I can do. They want nurses at the
+front."
+
+They talked for a while longer and when they parted at the gate of the
+Club, it was understood that Honor would accept an invitation to tea at
+the Daltons' bungalow as soon as the doctor was back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+A DIFFICULT TASK
+
+
+The sun had long set and a grey dusk had fallen when Dalton, weary and
+despondent, returned to the Station after a dull round of inspection
+during which he had occupied comfortless _dâk_ bungalows. Lights were
+appearing in many windows and were to be seen streaming from the
+reception rooms of the Club, where guests for the gala week were being
+entertained. As he passed, he could hear the click of the billiard balls
+and the sound of merry laughter. Somewhere in those lighted rooms was
+Honor Bright, perhaps, shedding the sunshine of her presence on her
+friends! His eyes strained wistfully to catch a glimpse of the beloved
+form, but in vain, for the Duranta hedge effectually obscured the view.
+
+Three days had passed since he had fled incontinently from the
+impossible conditions of his home, only to find himself compelled, when
+no further excuses for his absence were to be found, to return to it
+bitterly disgusted with life and feverishly impatient to escape
+altogether from an intolerable presence. One hope alone remained to him,
+and that was, that the Government would accept his offer for service at
+the front.
+
+Although in his relations towards his wife he was almost a stranger, he
+had paid her the compliment of letting her know the date and hour of his
+return; not from any impulse towards friendliness, but from an
+instinctive pride of race, which made it impossible for him to slight a
+white woman in the eyes of the natives. However far apart their lives
+were sundered, his servants, at least, would have to respect her as the
+Memsahib and the mistress of his house; any other position for her--a
+British lady in India--was unthinkable.
+
+And Mrs. Dalton was under no delusion respecting his object. The formal
+note had no special meaning for her.
+
+There was a light in the drawing-room, Dalton noticed, as he drove up to
+the steps; and as he descended from his car, a servant, salaaming,
+informed him that the Memsahib was entertaining a lady visitor.
+Receiving no encouragement to become communicative, he said no more, but
+hurriedly assisted other domestics to minister to his master's comforts.
+The Sahib had no interest in the Memsahib's doings, it was plain to all;
+and it was greatly to be deplored that he should have saddled himself
+with her presence in his bungalow where he had so long enjoyed freedom
+and solitude.
+
+In his private apartments, all was ready for Dalton's reception;
+refreshments were produced like magic; the lowered lights raised; and he
+was able to rest and recover at his leisure from the fatigues of the
+day. Seated at his desk in his comfortable study, he smoked and read the
+letters that had accumulated in his absence while his mind
+subconsciously dwelt on thoughts of Honor.
+
+Where was she? What was she doing? How was she enduring their miserable
+separation? Was it preying upon her as on him?
+
+Would he ever have the chance to hold her in his arms again and read the
+truth in her dear eyes? Or must he go to his grave with this ache of
+unfulfilled longing forever denied to him?
+
+The thought was insupportable. Every fibre of his being craved for her
+with a desire so intense and compelling, that he was incapable of
+concentrating his mind on any subject.
+
+While brooding in the deepest melancholy, a sound at his verandah door
+arrested his attention. It was distinctly the _frou-frou_ of a woman's
+skirts. Could it be possible that his wife was seeking to force an
+interview with him?
+
+There came a light knock on the shutters of the open door which was
+screened with a cretonne curtain.
+
+"Come in," he said impatiently, resenting the disturbance, and the
+curtain was raised to admit the diffident intruder.
+
+It was Honor, looking very white, yet as always, brave and sweet.
+
+"Honey!" he started to his feet deeply moved. The harshness vanished
+from his face which was now alight with wonderment and love. Dressed in
+a muslin frock and straw hat, she looked simple and fresh, and yet
+carried the air and distinction which had always marked her in any
+company. But though she smiled into his eyes there was something in her
+expression that forbade him to hope for any crumbs of comfort from her
+visit.
+
+"Good evening," she said trying to speak in ordinary tones while the
+wild beating of her heart made her momentarily faint. "I came, as I
+wanted so much to tell you something."
+
+He gave her his seat and leaned against the table looking down at her.
+"I think I know why you have come. Not on your own account,--that would
+be impossible to you,--but it is on some dear, quixotic errand for
+another. You have come straight from--Mrs. Dalton." He could not bring
+himself to say, "my wife."
+
+Honor bent her head, looking distressed. Her mission was becoming more
+difficult than she had anticipated.
+
+"Honey," he said reproachfully, "don't you think I have done enough?"
+
+"There is a little more you could do," she returned, lifting pleading
+eyes to his face.
+
+"For her? Do you think she deserves the half of the consideration she
+has received? Other women who have sinned against the law and every code
+of honour have been regarded as outcasts from society. Honest women bar
+their doors to such as she. I cannot bear to see you with her!--a girl
+like you cannot understand--I cannot explain"--he broke off with a
+gesture of impatience and helplessness.
+
+"I understand quite well," said Honor lifting her head courageously. "I
+feel that life is terribly unjust. There are men who are even worse than
+she, and yet their sins are covered, and society allows them to marry
+pure, honest girls! Is that right or just?"
+
+It was Dalton's turn to lower his gaze.
+
+Honor continued speaking. She did not allow her maidenly reserve to
+stand in the way of her frank denouncement of the injustice of human and
+social laws. Very quietly and logically she stated the case while Dalton
+with arms folded on his breast, listened, ashamed for himself and his
+sex. Before she had finished, he came and knelt beside her chair, and,
+gripping the arms of it with shaking hands, humbled himself to the dust.
+
+"We are all a cursed lot of Pharisees!" he cried. "Don't turn away from
+me with disgust! Pity me and love me still though I am unfit to kiss the
+hem of your skirt." Nevertheless, he bent and pressed his lips to the
+border of her gown.
+
+"Ah, don't!" she cried, the tears flooding her eyes. "You and I cannot
+think of love any more! It must be friendship or nothing. Today I have
+realised as I never did before, that there are higher duties for some of
+us, to which we must give the first place, even at the sacrifice of
+love."
+
+"Honey, you don't know what you are saying!" he cried passionately.
+"Dearest, you cannot forbid me to love you! It is an unalterable fact. I
+cannot change it, even at your bidding."
+
+"I know--it is quite true of love, for it is a sacred thing and belongs
+to the heart. But it can be locked away--put out of sight--_buried_,"
+she returned, her voice breaking. "The higher duty is--the _saving of a
+soul_. Dare we withhold our forgiveness from a repentant sinner? Your
+wife is truly a very miserable woman. She is on her knees to you. Can
+you afford to refuse her?--or will you rather say, 'Go and sin no more'?
+Which of us is without sin? If you repulse her now, it might lead to her
+ruin, body and soul?"
+
+"You are asking more of me than I can do. I can never again look upon
+her as a wife. Feeling as I do, it would be a violation of the best
+instincts of my nature."
+
+"I am not asking that of you."
+
+"What, then, is it I must do? for you know that I would give all I
+possess to please you."
+
+Honor's tears fell fast, unheeded. "_Only be kind to her._ Let her feel
+that she has something to live for. At present she has nothing."
+
+"I tell you, she is false. She has played upon your sympathies and led
+you to believe in her."
+
+"I believe in her only because it is impossible to doubt her
+wretchedness, or her repentance."
+
+"She lied to you!"
+
+"She told me the truth concerning herself. She did not spare herself.
+Hers is, indeed, a 'broken and a contrite heart' which even God does not
+despise," said Honor reverently.
+
+"You wish me to be kind to her?--Tell me how, when we live under the
+same roof and I can never regard her as my wife?"
+
+His eyes gazed upon the girl's face with wistful yearning. She was his
+soul's mate,--she of the pure eyes and tender mouth! He could be kind to
+_her_ all the days of his life. He could love and cherish _her_, in
+sickness and in health. Would to God she could belong to him!
+
+But she was talking of his duty to another whom he despised!
+
+Honor pleaded long with all her gentle tact, that he would try to
+practice tolerance and kindness. The future would take care of itself.
+
+"Kindness from you is all she craves, and a chance to prove her
+sincerity."
+
+"In what way can I be kind?" he repeated.
+
+"By being thoughtful of her needs, considerate, and forbearing. Speak
+gently, and do not grudge her your smiles when there is need to show
+appreciation."
+
+"And if I bring myself to do all these things, do you believe she will
+be content? Oh, Honey!--what a burden you are laying on my shoulders! Do
+you know that I find it difficult to be even decently polite to her?
+That is why I keep out of her way. And what is my reward to be?"
+
+"If we do our duty day by day, it is enough. We should not look for
+reward, yet, I am confident we shall receive it, never fear! It works
+out right in the end."
+
+"When I am dead?"--bitterly. "There is only one thing I want. Given
+that, I would ask nothing more of life!"
+
+He rose and stood aside to set her free, for Honor indicated that her
+visit was at an end.
+
+"Good-bye, and God bless you, Brian," she said with trembling lips,
+giving him both her hands.
+
+Dalton made no reply, but stooping, kissed them tenderly; for the moment
+he was incapable of speech. Then going to the door he held the curtain
+aside to allow her to pass out.
+
+Honor found her way home, shaken with emotion. She had won her point,
+but Mrs. Dalton would have to discover for herself the result of the
+interview which she had contrived to bring about; and if it helped her
+to begin afresh, the pain it had cost would not have been in vain.
+
+So deeply engrossed had she been in the purpose of her visit, that she
+had forgotten to repeat to Captain Dalton the conversation she had
+overheard at the _méla_. Her father had scoffed at it, and Tommy had
+treated it with indifference, explaining that all pioneers of progress
+in India had to put up with opposition, threats, and bluff. The natives
+of Bengal were too cowardly to risk their necks--didn't she remember her
+Macaulay? After all, there was really nothing tangible to worry about.
+
+Nevertheless, the matter so preyed upon her mind, that she wrote a note
+after dinner to Mrs. Dalton, telling her all about it, and asking her to
+persuade her husband to be always on his guard against sudden surprises,
+as she believed men were plotting against his life. It would give the
+poor woman an opportunity to begin friendly relations with her husband,
+and possibly help to bring about a better understanding between them.
+
+The note was entrusted to an orderly, who dropped it in the pocket of
+his tunic and postponed the delivery of it to a more convenient season,
+his friends from the bazaar having gathered at the door of his
+_basha_[21], behind the bungalow, for a smoke, and to gossip about their
+exploits at the _méla_.
+
+[Footnote 21: Dwelling.]
+
+It was not till they had gone, that he was recalled to a sense of duty
+with regard to the note, and the hour was then late. However, it was as
+much as his place was worth for him to leave the delivery of it till the
+morning; so, making his way across to the Civil Surgeon's bungalow, he
+aroused Mrs. Dalton's ayah, who, in her turn, roused her mistress, and
+handed her the communication from Honor.
+
+Thus does Fate control the destinies of individuals; for, had the
+orderly done his duty earlier, there might have been a very different
+ending to this story.
+
+Meanwhile, a letter by the last post from Joyce in Darjeeling, engaged
+Honor till close upon midnight. It had given her much to think about,
+and called for a reply of congratulations, as it was written at a time
+of intense joy and thanksgiving over the restoration of happy relations
+with her husband:
+
+Joyce had written at great length, beginning her letter with a
+description of her journey and the miserable thoughts that had occupied
+her all the way. After giving a brief outline of the circumstances
+connected with her arrival at her husband's rooms, she continued:
+
+"You can imagine the shock it was to find her there and so very much at
+home! I could have killed her! But I did nothing melodramatic, believe
+me. I was too stunned. Instead, I boiled with the desire for a reprisal.
+Since I could not fight her like a savage, being, of course, a highly
+civilised person, I fought her with the only weapons at my command. I
+went to the Planters' Ball, tired though I was, and made an amazing hit.
+Did you ever imagine that I was an actress, born? If you had seen me
+dance and smile while my heart was breaking, you would have had to
+revise all previous impressions of little Me.
+
+"Ray looked completely dazed at first, and could hardly believe his
+eyes. I obliged him to keep up appearances, so that we danced a great
+deal together, and he had my sweetest smiles, though he knew all the
+while that my heart was turned to stone. I was an angel to him before
+others, but alone with him I was adamant. And Mrs. Dalton had the lesson
+of her life. I saw to it that Ray dropped her entirely, and as people
+are like sheep, there was no one brave enough to have anything to do
+with her. Her humiliation was complete. Before half the night was over,
+she left, looking mad with everybody. Even those who had been in the
+habit of speaking to her, gave her a wide berth, so you can imagine how
+comforted I felt!--though I am inclined, now, to be a weeny bit sorry
+for her. It must have been an appalling experience, and only a woman can
+appreciate what it must have felt like. However, it will do her good to
+realise how much it is all worth in the end! It seems like becoming all
+of a sudden bankrupt of friends and love, and of all that makes life so
+dear and good. I am surprised that Captain Dalton has cared to take her
+back, but I suppose it is to save her from worse. If that is so, he
+can't be so bad after all!
+
+"I am rather ashamed of the part I played at the ball, for I took a
+wicked pleasure in Ray's misery. He looked so white and ill all the
+time, and whenever we danced I could see how he was just aching to kiss
+me as he used to do. His eyes gave him away all the time! But he never
+dared, even when we sat out in sheltered nooks, for I was a cruel devil,
+and 'rubbed it in' every time I got the chance. But, darling, consider
+how sore I felt--and how angry!
+
+"So I flirted mildly all the evening just to show that two could play
+the same game! Of course, in cold blood, I simply hated myself for
+behaving so despicably. I did not know I had it in me, but one never
+knows oneself till things happen to rouse one thoroughly. In the end I
+had a splitting headache and felt on the verge of hysteria. It was all I
+could do not to break down while Ray was unhooking my frock at the back.
+It was the only ball-gown in my trunk, the other not having arrived--the
+sort of thing that leaves one at the mercy of some charitable person.
+That was Ray! Though we were quarrelling desperately, he hooked and
+unhooked me without a word of protest, and oh, the misery of his dear,
+handsome face in the mirror! I could have hugged it to my breast and
+cried upon the squiggly little curls that never lie flat. Oh, I do love
+him so! But I was too proud to relent so soon, and tried to keep up my
+rage, which all the while was cooling fast.
+
+"When Ray left me, after the little business of the hooks and eyes, he
+retired to his dressing-room, where I supposed he had caused a bed to be
+made up for himself on the floor. The hotel was so packed, there was no
+help for it. Well, how was it possible for me to sleep when I thought of
+his lying on the draughty floor, and myself in possession of his
+comfortable bed? I tossed and turned and wondered about him, seeing all
+the while his unhappy face in the mirror. I remembered about your saying
+how a man punishes himself by remorse far more than others can punish
+him, and I knew that my poor boy was suffering terribly. That made me
+think of tragedies with razors and things, till I could not lie down
+another minute, but had to get out of bed to peep and see that he was
+safe. Very softly I tip-toed to the curtain which hangs between the
+rooms, and put my eyes to the edge.
+
+"Do you know, Honey darling, the poor fellow had no bed at all! His
+servant had not been given any order, and my dear, precious husband was
+sitting in the cold, before a dead fire, looking the picture of
+desolation and grief. It made me cry like anything to see his head bowed
+upon his arms, his whole attitude so dejected! and by the heaving of his
+shoulders, I knew he was crying. Think of it!--crying because of what he
+had done! and for my cruelty and unforgivingness! It is dreadful to see
+a strong man all broken up and humiliated for the sake of his wife. Oh,
+Honey! I could bear it no longer, and fairly ran to him.
+
+"Of course you can imagine the rest. It is too sacred to relate, and I
+thrill all over at the memory of it. How we clung together--mingling our
+tears! Oh, what a blessed thing is love!
+
+"There is no more to tell, except that we are enjoying a second
+honeymoon, far more wonderful than the first. And you may be quite,
+quite sure that I shall never leave my beloved husband again, unless I
+am forced. He and I shall go home every three years to Baby who is well
+cared for by his grannie. Of course I miss him dreadfully!--but then,
+there's Ray!--a big baby in his way, and one can't cut one's self in
+two, can one? so, all things considered, I feel I must just hold on out
+here for his sake till we can go home together. It is wonderful how
+different India now seems to me! I verily believe I hated it before,
+because I was blind or asleep. Love makes Paradise of any place!
+
+"I have told Ray all about that time in the ruins, and we both agree
+that I was a little silly to let my dread of his view of it keep me
+silent. My folly nearly spoiled both our lives. I should have trusted my
+husband more. Anyhow, I am wiser now."
+
+Honor sat long over this very human document, moved to laughter and
+tears. So Joyce had pardoned her sinner and had come into her reward!
+Another sinner, far more culpable would also find happiness through
+forgiveness, and her husband come into his reward, some day! It was
+Life, with its eternal give and take, and its exchange which was seldom
+just. Yet, in proportion to the kindness and generosity with which Brian
+Dalton treated his contrite wife, would be her gratitude and devotion;
+and time would bring healing and forgetfulness of wrongs.
+
+But some there were who gave always, expecting nothing in return, and
+they, too, won happiness with the years--virtue being its own reward!
+
+For the first time Honor was conscious of a great bitterness of spirit
+as she sought oblivion in sleep.
+
+She had just turned down the wick of her bedroom lamp--for it was
+customary in those parts to sleep with a light burning low all night in
+a bedchamber because of the lurking danger from snakes--when she heard a
+sudden sound in the distance that rooted her to the spot. The next
+instant her mother who had been awakened by it, called out from the
+adjoining room:
+
+"Honor, are you awake?"
+
+"Yes. Did you hear that, Mother?"
+
+"I was just wondering what it was. It sounded like a pistol shot."
+
+"I thought so, too. Listen!--there are voices."
+
+Mr. Bright, who was also disturbed, suggested in sleepy tones that his
+wife and daughter should go to sleep and leave other people to mind
+their own business. It was not part of his duty to look for trouble. It
+came fast enough to him in the ordinary channels. If any one had been
+killed, they would hear of it in due course.
+
+"How cold-blooded!" said Mrs. Bright.
+
+"We have quite enough of crime by day, my dear, without looking for it
+with a lantern at night."
+
+But the distant voices increased in agitation, and grew confused.
+
+Drawing the window curtain aside, Honor looked out into the night and
+saw unmistakable signs of alarm at Dalton's bungalow. Lights hurried to
+and fro and conflicting orders were shouted by one servant to another.
+In fact, it was very evident that something had gone seriously wrong.
+
+"I wonder what could have happened?" said Mrs. Bright looking over her
+daughter's shoulder. "See, there is someone coming to tell us about it."
+
+A single light was moving swiftly towards the hedge that divided the two
+gardens. Honor felt her heart paralysing as she watched the progress of
+the lantern; a hand seemed tightening upon her throat and her limbs grew
+palsied with fear. What was it they were coming so quickly to say?
+
+An evil, dark face had risen before her imagination, and she heard again
+the voice speaking to the basket-maker at the _méla_, vowing to take the
+life of the surgeon who had been the cause of his only son's death. "Oh,
+God!--oh, God!" burst from her lips.
+
+"Honey! Honey! What is it you fear?" Mrs. Bright cried, gripping her by
+the shoulders.
+
+But Honor broke away from her mother and, with shaking fingers, flung on
+her out-door clothes.
+
+"Surely you are not going out?"
+
+"Can't you understand, Mother?" she cried in strained, unnatural tones.
+"They have killed him! I know they have killed him!"
+
+"Sahib! Sahib!" called voices loudly on the verandah.
+
+The coolies pulling at the _punkha_ joined in a chorus of "Sahib,
+Sahib!"
+
+"We are sent to call the _Bara Sahib_. Haste and wake him. A great
+calamity hath befallen."
+
+"A murder has been committed, wake the Sahib!"
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Mr. Bright springing from his bed. "What are they
+saying? A murder? Where?"
+
+"At Captain Dalton's bungalow. The doctor has been murdered!--how
+terrible! Honor always said people were plotting against his life," said
+Mrs. Bright, horror-stricken.
+
+"Good God!" said Mr. Bright again as he pulled on his boots. "Tell them
+I will be with them in a minute. Send someone to call Tommy Deare,
+quickly."
+
+In the meantime, Honor was speeding across the grass on her way to the
+scene of the tragedy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE ATONEMENT
+
+
+When Honor's letter of warning was received by Mrs. Dalton, she was
+greatly disturbed in mind at the apparent gravity of its purport.
+
+On being awakened, she had carried the letter to the table, raised the
+light, and read all that Honor had to say, after which she felt
+undecided how to act. The lateness of the hour made it certain that her
+husband was sound asleep after his fatiguing day, and to rouse him for
+the purpose of passing on a caution which he had previously disregarded,
+would be, she thought, both inconsiderate and tactless. Besides, no good
+could be gained by disturbing him, as no action could possibly be taken
+at the moment, even presuming that he were disposed to move in the
+matter. It seemed, therefore, wisest to allow the letter to stand over
+till the morning. Attempts had been made on his life, but Mrs. Dalton
+had understood that the enmity and ill feeling in the District had
+practically died down. Yet, here it was shown to be smouldering
+dangerously and an imminent menace to her husband, sleeping or waking.
+
+Though she was not passionately fond of him, and was unlikely ever to
+be,--having grown weary of strenuous emotions and the disappointments of
+life,--she valued the legal tie that bound them together as her sheet
+anchor in a life of vicissitudes. The unwonted ease she enjoyed in
+Dalton's home made it a haven of rest after her many storms. Under the
+shelter of his protection, she looked forward to regaining, at least,
+her good name and standing, if not the place she had rightly forfeited
+in his esteem. She had a glimmer of hope that the future held some
+promise through Honor's intervention on her behalf.
+
+Honor had done an inconceivable thing. In Mrs. Dalton's view it was
+incomprehensible. Her reverence for the Divine Law had caused her to
+renounce the man she loved, and to plead with him for the woman who had
+lost all moral claim to his regard or consideration. She was wonderful!
+and Mrs. Dalton was filled with admiration and respect.
+
+At dinner that evening she had gleaned the first-fruits of Honor's
+sacrifice, for he had been less taciturn, and had even responded to his
+wife's efforts to engage him in ordinary conversation. Instead of
+sitting in silence throughout the meal, or exchanging banal remarks
+about the food or the weather, they had discussed the war and all that
+India was going to do to prove her loyalty to the Crown. He had spoken
+of the advance in science and surgery, bound to result from the lessons
+of the war; and had told her of his wishes and intentions regarding
+herself should he be suddenly called upon to start for Europe. The
+generosity and consideration shown in his arrangement for her, had
+touched her deeply, and she had been only too willing to express her
+concurrence. It was the first time she had known the sensation of a
+genuine and impersonal interest in an intellectual man's conversation;
+and she was happier than she had been for many a day. She lay down
+again, but sleep would not come to her eyes, and her thoughts were busy
+with the subject of Honor's letter. She reasoned with herself to no
+purpose, for the stillness of the night bred new fears and intensified
+the lurking danger.
+
+What should she do? waken her husband?--or wait till the morning?
+
+Would it not be best to watch over him silently while he slept? It might
+move him to gratitude when he should learn of the sacrifice of her
+night's rest!
+
+The weather was warm and muggy in spite of the _punkha_ waving in the
+room, pulled by the uncertain hand of a coolie half-asleep in the
+verandah. There was another waving in like manner, she knew, in her
+husband's room at the extreme end of the bungalow; and in both
+apartments were windows thrown wide open to the night air--as was
+customary in the plains--with short curtains of lawn to screen the
+interior from public view. Outside, the shrill chirping of crickets
+vibrated in the air, and the occasional croak of a bull-frog from a pond
+in the garden, could be heard. Otherwise, the silence of the night was
+oppressive and ominous.
+
+Open windows not far from the ground offered an easy opportunity for
+entrance into the house of evil characters bent on mischief, and even
+the drowsy _punkha_ coolie in the verandah would be none the wiser.
+
+The thought was disquieting and banished sleep from her eyes.
+
+Impelled almost against her inclinations by an inward force too urgent
+to resist, Mrs. Dalton slipped on her kimona, and with her feet in
+slippers, went forth to satisfy herself, personally, that all was well
+with her husband. He did not desire her interest; he had no wish that
+she should sacrifice her rest, nevertheless, a sense of undefined
+apprehension made it impossible for her return to her bed and sleep.
+
+On her way to his bedchamber through the rooms that intervened, she
+could hear the squeak of the ungreased _punkha_ wheel as the rope passed
+to and fro over it. It was proof positive that he was asleep, or he
+could not have tolerated the noise for a moment. Suddenly, however, it
+ceased, and Mrs. Dalton, comprehending the reason of its stoppage,
+smiled to herself, appreciating the frailty of the _punkha wallah_.
+
+Arriving on the spot with the intention of stirring up the slumbering
+coolie, she was surprised to find that he had deserted his post after
+the manner of new hands unaccustomed to the task. This one, she
+remembered, had been engaged that very day. The rope hung idly against
+the wall under the wheel, and Mrs. Dalton was in momentary expectation
+of a curse from within as the mosquitoes settled on the sleeper.
+
+The culprit being nowhere in sight, she applied her eye to the edge of
+the curtain and looked towards the bed. Her husband lay, as she
+expected, fast asleep, tired out thoroughly, and unconscious of
+externals. Suddenly, as she peered at him, she became aware of a dark
+form moving between her vision and the sleeper.
+
+Paralysed with fear and incapable of uttering a sound, she saw the
+figure of an Indian clothed only in a narrow loin-cloth, creeping
+stealthily towards the bed.
+
+Who was he? and what was he trying to do?
+
+Mrs. Dalton was rooted to the spot and dumb with terror.
+
+Something gleamed in his hand--a steel blade had caught the reflection
+of the lowered flame of a lamp hanging on the wall. The man's purpose
+was plain, for thieves do not usually carry knives. He was there to
+commit murder. Oh, God!
+
+What was she to do?--She was powerless to move. Fear made her a coward,
+a helpless, nerveless creature. Like one in a horrible dream, her tongue
+refused to utter a warning, or her constricted throat to produce a
+sound.
+
+And there was not a moment to lose as the figure was stealthily nearing
+the sleeper. Thoughts flashed through her brain with lightning rapidity.
+If the man were not stopped, somehow, and at any cost, in another moment
+she would see Honor's fears justified and Brian killed while asleep in
+his bed. How was it possible for her to witness such a deed and not
+raise a finger to save him?
+
+But she was defenceless!
+
+The man raised his right arm, and the sight of the knife fully exposed,
+gave the impetus needed to galvanise Mrs. Dalton's nerves into sudden
+and fierce activity. Without a thought for her own danger, she sprang
+into the room and flung herself upon the Indian, clasping him round the
+waist and holding him back as in a vice.
+
+"Brian!" she shrieked in strangled tones, finding her voice at last.
+"Brian! Help! Murder!"
+
+A fierce struggle ensued. The native tried to free himself in vain; her
+arms tightened about him as he flung himself from side to side, and did
+not loose their hold even when he struck at her with his knife over his
+shoulder, once, twice, thrice, burying the blade deep every time.
+
+Only one idea obsessed Mrs. Dalton, and that was to hold on till the
+assassin could be secured. He should not escape to remain a menace to
+her husband's life!
+
+Her cries aroused Dalton from his profound sleep. He had long been in
+the habit of placing a loaded revolver under his pillow at night for
+self-protection from possible attempts on his life, and instantly
+realising the situation, leaped out of bed, and fired point blank at the
+Indian's head as the knife descended once more on his poor doomed wife.
+
+As the man dropped dead, Mrs. Dalton fell into her husband's arms, an
+unforgettable sight.
+
+Dalton carried her to his bed and laid her in it, a dying woman, while
+the terror-stricken servants crowded into the room. He gave them his
+orders and they sped in various directions--one to inform the police,
+another to rouse Mr. Bright. Someone took the car for the assistant
+surgeon, while others brought in more lamps and fetched and carried all
+that was necessary for the work of First Aid.
+
+With her life ebbing fast, Mrs. Dalton made a pitiful attempt to explain
+the reason of her presence on her husband's side of the house, afraid
+that he would misunderstand her motive; and he was filled with sorrow
+and self-reproach. "I came to see that you were safe--I only wanted to
+watch over you, for I had been warned that you were in danger. Miss
+Bright wrote--her letter is on my table, read it."
+
+"I understand," he said with the utmost gentleness, "and I cannot find
+words to tell you how I honour your wonderful courage and sacrifice."
+
+"It was the only thing to do. I could not call out--I had no voice! I
+was so dreadfully afraid!"
+
+"Afraid for me!--and not for yourself!"
+
+"I had no time to think of that."
+
+"It was heroism! You did a thing which, in battle, would have won you
+the Victoria Cross!"
+
+"Thank God I was able!" she panted.
+
+"I do not deserve it. Will you forgive me?" he asked brokenly.
+
+"It is I who have to ask that!"
+
+"The past is all wiped out today, so far as I am concerned. God bless
+you!"
+
+"Ah, thank you for that!--May God forgive me for the mistakes and the
+folly--the wrong-doing! It is too late now to retrieve them! Ah, those
+words, 'too late'!--on how many graves?... the words, 'too late'!...
+Yet--Honor would say it is never too late while there is breath in which
+to call on--the name of the Lord."
+
+"God is very merciful to all sinners who repent," said Dalton. "I, too,
+am a sinner. I have been a Pharisee and hypocrite all my life; may I,
+too, be forgiven!"
+
+"Perhaps this will be taken into the account--my atonement," she sighed
+feebly.
+
+"You have done what few women in your place would have had the courage
+to do. I shall remember it all the days of my life with gratitude and
+remorse."
+
+For a while they were silent as he did all he could to ease her
+suffering.
+
+"This is death!" she whispered, searching for his face with glazing
+eyes. "Tell Honor--I wish her the happiness she deserves.... You will
+love her as you could never have loved me. It is for the best...!"
+
+Dalton stooped low and kissed her on the forehead and as he straightened
+himself he saw that she was dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Honor arrived in the verandah and heard the story of the tragedy,
+her heart bounded with a very human relief at the thought that a most
+precious life had been spared. For a moment she had room for no other
+thought in her mind. "Thank God, Brian is safe!" she cried to her soul.
+
+Afterwards she could afford to dwell on the miracle of Mrs. Dalton's
+sacrifice. Who would have thought her capable of such an act of heroism?
+Truly, one never knows how much of good there is in human nature,
+howsoever perverted! Poor Mrs. Dalton! She had, indeed, atoned. She had
+given her all--her very life for the man she had wronged, and whose
+pride she had lowered in the dust. It was a magnificent act, the memory
+of which would wipe out every wrong she had done, and silence every
+tongue that spoke ill of her.
+
+"Is she still living?" Honor asked one of the servants, fearfully.
+
+"She died but a moment ago," said the _bearer_, "for the Sahib has
+retired into another room and all is silent."
+
+Elsewhere, too, all was still. In the presence of death, voices were
+hushed, as the servants hung about waiting for the coming of those who
+had been called.
+
+"It is a terrible sight," Honor heard one say to another; "the body of
+that _punkha_ coolie lying just where he fell. Some _domes_[22] must be
+fetched to remove him."
+
+[Footnote 22: Low-caste Hindus.]
+
+"The Sahib says, let no one lay a hand on him till the police arrive;
+such is the custom when an inquiry has to beheld."
+
+Seeing that her presence was unnecessary, Honor passed out into the
+darkness and ran swiftly home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was discovered later, at the inquest, that the discharge of a
+_punkha_ coolie had given Dalton's watchful enemies the opportunity they
+had been seeking to carry out their plan of revenge; and that the man
+who had been engaged to fill the vacant post was a marked character,
+living in the village of Panipara, who was well known to the police.
+Doubtless he had been heavily bribed for the perpetration of the
+intended crime which had so strangely miscarried. The instigators
+pointed to their own complicity by disappearing from the District, and
+the vain search for them occupied Mr. Bright and his staff for many
+months. As well might one look for a needle in a stack of hay, as expect
+to find fugitive criminals among the numerous villages of Bengal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Captain Dalton left for Europe soon after his wife's funeral, his
+services having been placed at the disposal of the War Office, and Honor
+treasured in her memory his brief words spoken in farewell as he held
+her hands in his. "We have both a great deal to do while the War lasts.
+Will you follow me, and let us work together?" In the moment of parting,
+it was not possible to keep out of his eyes all his lips could not say,
+and Honor promised.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE
+
+ALL'S WELL
+
+
+It was something more than four years later, when the Armistice was
+signed amid world-wide rejoicings of the Allied Nations, that a young
+soldier, bronzed and upright, rang the bell of a beautiful flat in
+Brighton, over-looking the sea. Above his breast pocket, on the left,
+were two ribbons, the D.S.O. and the M.C., the sight of which had won
+him glances of approval and soft looks of admiration, all the way along.
+Those bits of ribbon told wordlessly of self-sacrifice and devotion to
+duty; valour and endurance;--they suggested to the subconscious mind,
+danger, bodily discomfort, and endurance to the limit of human
+suffering, so that this brisk little freckled officer of very ordinary
+looks, was marked for all time, by those who knew, as one of the many
+special heroes of the most terrible war the world has ever known.
+
+He was shown into the drawing-room, and, in a moment, a gracious lady
+swept in with welcome in her eyes and both hands extended.
+
+"Oh, Tommy!--how good it is to see you safe!"
+
+"And to see you looking so fit, Honey--dear old girl!"
+
+"I was beginning to feel quite anxious, as you had not written for a
+month!"
+
+"There was so much doing. Besides, I was reserving it all for our
+meeting."
+
+They had much to talk about; he, of his vicissitudes in Mesopotamia, and
+she, of her husband and his work in the war-hospital in Brighton to
+which he was attached. Last of all, Tommy asked to see his god-son to
+whom he had yet to be introduced.
+
+"He is such a perfect darling!" said Honor beaming upon her visitor
+happily; "the very image of Brian." Pressing a bell, she gave her orders
+which were promptly obeyed by a nurse who entered with the baby, a lusty
+boy with grey-green eyes, and lips firmly locked in a cupid's bow.
+
+"Hullo!" said Tommy, "shake hands with 'Uncle'!"
+
+"Say, 'How do'?" said Honor, kissing the velvet cheek.
+
+"'Ow do!" said Baby staring at the pretty coloured ribbons on the khaki
+tunic.
+
+"This is the age at which I like them best," said Tommy admiringly.
+"He's 'some' kid! Do you remember trying to interest me in the Meredith
+infant when it was a glorified dummy in long clothes?"
+
+"Yes, and you wasted your energies trying to fix its attention when it
+did not know you from a mango tree!" They laughed heartily at the
+recollection.
+
+"Where are the Merediths, by the way?"
+
+"They are stationed at Darjeeling, which suits the baby very
+well--perhaps you don't know that there is another baby?"
+
+"I believe Jack wrote something of the sort, some little time back."
+
+"A baby girl this time, and getting on splendidly."
+
+"Where is the first?--still with the grandparents?"
+
+"Yes. I saw him not long ago--such a beautiful boy and so independent!
+The old people are so proud of him. Do you know that Jack and Kitty are
+at home?"
+
+"No! When did they come? I did not know that women were allowed
+passages?"
+
+"They managed to 'wangle' it, somehow. Jack had malaria and was ordered
+home by the doctors. It was a most exciting voyage, from all accounts,
+for their boat was chased by a submarine in the Bay of Biscay and
+escaped two torpedoes by a miracle."
+
+"Horrible!"
+
+"Kitty says she would not have missed the experience for anything; but
+Jack declares the anxiety has taken ten years off his life."
+
+"Dear old Jack! Where are they? I shall look them up."
+
+"Staying with his people. They are in love with Kitty and can't make
+enough of her."
+
+"And what are your plans now that the war is over?"
+
+"Brian expects to return to India, in which case, we go with him."
+
+"You'll take the baby?"
+
+"Most assuredly! Master Tommy is not going to be left behind by his
+Mummy--not on any account!"
+
+"But the climate? I thought it does not agree with babies?"
+
+"It agrees quite well; at least for the first few years. I am not so
+sure about it later on, but, 'sufficient unto the day is the evil
+thereof.' We'll begin to think about sending him home when he turns
+seven. You see, we have the hills, and life is too short for unnecessary
+partings."
+
+"I am with you there! How are Mr. and Mrs. Bright?"
+
+"As usual, thank you. Father retires after the New Year, and they will
+live in Edinburgh. And what of your plans, Tommy?"
+
+"I dare say I shall be back in the Police again, before long."
+
+"And have you not found any one yet as a life-partner, to make India
+worth while?" she asked kindly.
+
+Tommy smiled. "I am in no hurry, being difficult to please. I shall have
+to find the lady whose price, according to old Solomon, is 'far above
+rubies,' or remain in single blessedness all my days."
+
+"You'll find her right enough if you _know where_ to look, and _how_!"
+said Honor laughing. "Her natural element is the country home."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
+
+    The Reproof of Chance
+
+    The Blind Alley
+
+    The Daughter-in-Law
+
+    Baba and the Black Sheep
+
+    Sinners All
+
+    Mistress of Herself
+
+
+
+
+_A Selection from the Catalogue of_
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+
+Blue Aloes
+
+By Cynthia Stockley
+
+Author of "Poppy," "The Claw," "Wild Honey," etc.
+
+No writer can so unfailingly summons and materialize the spirit of the
+weird, mysterious South Africa as can Cynthia Stockley. She is a favored
+medium through whom the great Dark Continent its tales unfolds.
+
+A strange story is this, of a Karoo farm,--a hedge of Blue Aloes, a
+cactus of fantastic beauty, which shelters a myriad of creeping
+things,--a whisper and a summons in the dead of the night,--an odor of
+death and the old.
+
+There are three other stories in the book, stories throbbing with the
+sudden, intense passion and the mystic atmosphere of the Veldt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unconquered
+
+By Maud Diver
+
+Author of "Captain Desmond, V.C.," "Desmond's Daughter," "The Great
+Amulet," etc.
+
+In this book, Maud Diver proves that she needs no Indian background
+against which to work a powerful and emotional drama. This novel is
+called by the author, "an episode of 1914," and is the story of a
+vigorous out-of-doors man who, severely wounded, is brought home in the
+early days of the war, and of the girl who is repelled by the physical
+imperfections of her one-time handsome and sturdy lover. The other sort
+of girl is also in this tale, the slacker and the pacifist. It is a
+strong story, admirably told by a master novelist.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Desmond's Daughter
+
+By
+
+Maud Diver
+
+     "_Desmond's Daughter_ is an Anglo-Indian novel of much more than
+     ordinary importance. As a study of a complex character it has
+     remarkable power.... Mrs. Diver understands the English officer
+     thoroughly and does not spare his weaknesses; but that she
+     appreciates his good points is shown in her true and vivid story of
+     the Tirah Campaign. It is this which gives the book the right to be
+     regarded as an historical novel of first importance; and there is
+     no more striking illustration of our methods of governing and
+     holding our Indian Empire than this stimulating and convincing
+     story."--_Aberdeen Free Press._
+
+     "The present War is not mentioned in these pages; yet the spirit of
+     England at war is in them, the spirit of those clean-cut young
+     Englishmen, who know so well how to die.... There is more than
+     entertainment in Mrs. Diver's books; more than serious interest,
+     though they have much of both. In them speaks England's faith in
+     her sons and daughters; in the qualities which have made her race
+     great and powerful and fit to endure." _New York Tribune._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GREATHEART
+
+By Ethel M. Dell
+
+There were two of them--as unlike as two men could be. Sir Eustace, big,
+domineering, haughty, used to sweeping all before him with the power of
+his personality.
+
+The other was Stumpy, small, insignificant, quiet, with a little limp.
+
+They clashed over the greatest question that may come to men--the love
+of a girl.
+
+She took Sir Eustace just because she could not help herself--and was
+swept ahead on the tide of his passion.
+
+And then, when she needed help most--on the day before the
+wedding--Stumpy saved her--and the quiet flame of his eyes was more than
+the brute power of his brother.
+
+How did it all come out? Did she choose wisely? Is Greatheart more to be
+desired than great riches? The answer is the most vivid and charming
+story that Ethel M. Dell has written in a long time.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANKED FIRES***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 31399-8.txt or 31399-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/3/9/31399
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/31399-8.zip b/31399-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc2db23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31399-8.zip
diff --git a/31399-h.zip b/31399-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5358268
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31399-h.zip
diff --git a/31399-h/31399-h.htm b/31399-h/31399-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b64ab1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31399-h/31399-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,14113 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Banked Fires, by E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .75em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .75em;
+}
+
+hr {
+    width: 33%;
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+table {
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+}
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    text-align: right;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+.linenum {
+    position: absolute;
+    top: auto;
+    left: 4%;
+} /* poetry number */
+
+.blockquot {
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+.sidenote {
+    width: 20%;
+    padding-bottom: .5em;
+    padding-top: .5em;
+    padding-left: .5em;
+    padding-right: .5em;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    color: black;
+    background: #eeeeee;
+    border: dashed 1px;
+}
+
+.bb       {border-bottom: solid 2px;}
+
+.bl       {border-left: solid 2px;}
+
+.bt       {border-top: solid 2px;}
+
+.br       {border-right: solid 2px;}
+
+.bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+.center   {text-align: center;}
+
+.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
+
+.caption  {font-weight: bold;}
+
+/* Images */
+.figcenter   {
+    margin: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figleft {
+    float: left;
+    clear: left;
+    margin-left: 0;
+    margin-bottom: 1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 1em;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figright {
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    margin-bottom:
+    1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 0;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+/* Poetry */
+.poem {
+    margin-left:10%;
+    margin-right:10%;
+    text-align: left;
+}
+
+.poem br {display: none;}
+
+.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+
+.poem span.i0 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 0em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i2 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 2em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.poem span.i4 {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 4em;
+    padding-left: 3em;
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+    .poem span.i5     {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
+    hr.full { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    pre      {font-size: 85%;}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Banked Fires, by E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Banked Fires</p>
+<p>Author: E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi</p>
+<p>Release Date: February 25, 2010  [eBook #31399]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANKED FIRES***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Mary Meehan,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>BANKED FIRES</h1>
+
+<h2>BY E. W. SAVI</h2>
+
+<h3>AUTHOR OF "THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW," "SINNERS ALL," ETC.</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><i>"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
+rubies."</i>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> xxxi., 10.</p></blockquote>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h4>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br />
+NEW YORK AND LONDON<br />
+The Knickerbocker Press<br />
+1919</h4>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1919<br />
+BY<br />
+E. W. SAVI</h4>
+
+<h4>The Knickerbocker Press, New York</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>To<br />
+MY SISTER, A. B. B.<br />
+IN LOVING APPRECIATION OF HER INTEREST<br />
+AND HELP</h4>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Lonely Encampment</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Mainly Retrospective</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Civil Surgeon</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.&mdash;<span class="smcap">A Point of View</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.&mdash;<span class="smcap">What Can't be Cured</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Leading Lady</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">An Anxious Experience</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Dinner-Party</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.&mdash;<span class="smcap">A Moment of Relaxation</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Mission</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.&mdash;<span class="smcap">A Sunday Observance</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Infatuation</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Vanished</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Indiscretion</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Aftermath</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Cornered</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Breaking Bounds</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Secret Joys</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Deluge</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The "Ideal"</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Real Thing</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">A Desperate Resort</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Temporisings</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Suspense</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Meeting</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Fair</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">A Difficult Task</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Atonement</span></a><br />
+<a href="#EPILOGUE"><span class="smcap">Epilogue: All's Well</span></a><br /><br />
+<a href="#OTHER_BOOKS_TO_READ">OTHER BOOKS TO READ</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BANKED FIRES</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LONELY ENCAMPMENT</h3>
+
+
+<p>An autumn evening in Bengal was rapidly drawing to a close, with a brief
+afterglow from a vanished sun to soften the rich hues of the tropical
+foliage, and garb it fittingly for approaching night. The grass beside
+the Government tents showed grey in the gathering dusk, while a blue
+haze of smoke, creeping upward, gently veiled the sheltering trees. But
+for the modulated chatter of servants, the stillness was eerie. The
+flat, low-lying fields, having yielded their corn to the harvester, were
+barren and without sign of life, for the cultivators had departed to
+their homesteads, and the roving cattle were housed.</p>
+
+<p>Far in the misty distance were the huts of the peasantry grouped
+together, with their granaries, haystacks, and pens; their date-palms,
+and the inevitable tank illustrating the typical Bengal
+village&mdash;picturesque and insanitary; too far for noxious smells to annoy
+the senses, or the intermittent beating of the nocturnal "tom-tom" to
+affect the nerves of the Magistrate and Collector during the writing of
+his judgments and reports.</p>
+
+<p>The spot for the encampment had been well chosen by the blue-turbaned
+<i>chaukidar</i>&mdash;the sturdy watchman of the village&mdash;who was experienced in
+the ways of touring officials; for even such a little matter as a site
+for pitching the tents of the <i>hakim</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> had its influence for good or
+ill; and what might not be the effect of a good influence on the temper
+of a lawgiver?</p>
+
+<p>This one, especially, instilled the fear of God and of the British, into
+his servants and underlings in spite of his sportsmanship and
+generosity, for he had a great understanding of native character and,
+like a wizard, could, in the twinkling of an eye, dissect the mind and
+betray the soul of a false witness! None could look him in the face and
+persist in falsehood. He was a just man, and courageous; and when roused
+to wrath, both fierce and fluent. But the diplomatic domestic and
+cautious coolie, alike, respect justice and fearlessness, determination,
+and a high hand.</p>
+
+<p>Servants, engaged in culinary duties before open fire-places, gossiped
+in lowered tones of standing grievances: It was like the exactness of
+the Great to require a five-course dinner, served with due attention to
+refinement and etiquette in untoward circumstances, such as an
+improvised cooking-range of clay and bricks, a hurried collection of
+twigs, some charcoal, and every convenience conspicuous by its absence!
+And what a village to rely upon!&mdash;no shops; only a weekly market with
+nothing suitable to the wants of white men fastidious and difficult to
+please.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, the day that sahibs condescend to study the convenience of their
+Indian domestics, the prestige of the British Raj will be at an end.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho! <i>Khansaman-jee</i>!" cried an agitated voice in Hindustani. "With a
+little clemency, look quickly in the rubbish heap for the pepper pot.
+The <i>masalchi</i>,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> out of the perversity of his youthfulness, has lost
+that and every other ingredient for the flavouring of the soup; and now,
+what can I do? Of a truth, this night will the Sahib give me much abuse
+for that which is no fault of mine. I shall twist the idle one's ear the
+moment he returns with firewood from the jungle, just to stimulate his
+mind and teach him carefulness."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>khansaman</i><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> uncoiled his legs and rose from the ground where he
+had been peeling potatoes at his leisure with a table knife, and
+proceeded to do as he was bid. He was of an obliging nature and could be
+relied upon to perform odd jobs not strictly his duty, so long as they
+did not establish a precedent.</p>
+
+<p>After some diligent searching among loose charcoal, dried twigs, kitchen
+rags, utensils, and vegetable parings, a rusty tin box was discovered
+and handed to the cook. Old Abdul grunted approval of his own
+intelligence, and after liberally sprinkling the soup with pepper from
+between a dirty finger and thumb, he wiped both, casually, in the folds
+of his loin-cloth.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether, the task of preparing dinner in camp was no mean effort. The
+business of the moment was to produce a clear soup with its artistic
+garniture of sliced carrots and turnips; to be followed by tank fish
+captured that afternoon from the property of a local Hindu landowner
+and, in the serving, robbed of its earthly flavour by a miracle of
+savoury dressing. Considering the lapses of the mate-boy's memory, this
+was a marvel of achievement. Next, the <i>entrée</i> of devilled goat (called
+by courtesy, mutton) was also a difficulty; nevertheless with a lavish
+addition of mango chutney, it was on its way to completion. The "chicken
+roast" was a tolerable certainty in a deep vessel where it baked in its
+own juices, stuffed with onions, cloves, and rice. But the
+pudding&mdash;alas! black despair, invisible owing to natural pigment, was in
+possession of Abdul's soul. What to do, he grumbled, but to serve, in
+fear and trembling, that abomination of sahibs, a "custul-bile" (boiled
+custard), since every possible ingredient for a respectable pudding had
+been left behind at the last Rest Bungalow! What the master would say,
+might well be imagined, for these were not the easy-going days of his
+bachelorhood, when such makeshifts, varied with "custul-bake," could be
+imposed upon him with the regularity of the calendar; for, after a
+successful day's <i>shikar</i>, with a tiger spread at full length on the
+grass before the tent for the benefit of an admiring semicircle of
+enthusiastic villagers, the quality of a meal used to be a secondary
+consideration.</p>
+
+<p>Well&mdash;what use to repine? Even a cook must sometimes be excused, since
+he was not God to create something out of nothing. Peradventure, the
+timely indisposition of the babe within the tent would offer
+distraction. In the interludes of stirring the pots and declaiming
+against fate and the misdemeanours of the <i>masalchi</i>, the cook soothed
+his ruffled spirits with a pull at his beloved <i>hukha</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, the Sahib was married, worse luck! and lived, above all, to please
+his Memsahib who, to him, was the sun, moon, and stars; the light of the
+world. And she?&mdash;of a sort wholly unsuited to the conditions of his
+life; a flower plucked to wither in a furnace-blast. The rough soil of
+the country was no place for a delicate plant; and such was also
+apparent in the case of her infant. Since its arrival from the hills
+where it was born, it daily faded as though a blight had descended upon
+its vitality; and now it was stricken with a fever.</p>
+
+<p>Devil take sahibs for their folly! This one had been content enough as a
+bachelor, hunting and shooting in his spare time, and consorting with
+his kind where games were played to pass the time away; what-for did he
+allow himself to be shackled thus during his visit to <i>Belait</i>? It
+passed understanding; for there were many <i>Miss Babas</i> in the country,
+already acclimatised, from among whom he might have selected a suitable
+wife; one who could at least have made herself intelligible to his
+servants in their own language, instead of this one who created endless
+confusion by non-comprehension. But no! he had been unable to stand the
+allurements of her person. The rounded outlines of her slender form and
+the bloom on her flawless cheek had enslaved him, depriving him of the
+power to resist. Truly she was good to look upon, as every masculine eye
+betrayed by its open homage.</p>
+
+<p>In all the annals of the District, never had there been a more
+picturesque creature than this girl-wife, with her hair like ripe corn
+and eyes like full-blown flowers of heavenly blue. Even the servants in
+gazing on their wonder forgot to heed the orders she delivered through
+the ayah, whose linguistic powers commanded the respect of the entire
+establishment.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the little lady from <i>Belait</i> was a favourite theme of
+conversation when domestics congregated in the region of the kitchen to
+gossip and smoke, and criticism was condescending and tolerant because
+of her good looks, which made their inevitable appeal. But opinion was
+agreed that no longer was Meredith Sahib the same man. Henceforth, if
+they would keep their situations, they must satisfy his lady. Her little
+hand would point the way he must in future tread.</p>
+
+<p>And he, the respected Magistrate and Collector, representative of the
+Government in the District&mdash;a sahib whose word had authority over
+thousands on the land, and before whom all delinquents trembled!</p>
+
+<p>Such was the influence of beauty!</p>
+
+<p>According to the words of a local poet who sang his verses in the
+Muktiarbad bazaar to an accompaniment of tom-tomming:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>A beautiful wife is as wine in the head to her husband; as wax is in the palm of her hand.</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>His wisdom cometh to naught in his dwelling; his will is bartered for the things in her gift.</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Beguiled is he by the words of her mouth, and he taketh only the way that will please her.</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Bereft is he of his power to govern, yet happy is he in the bonds of enslavement.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And these did he compose out of the rumours current in the market-place
+respecting Meredith Sahib and the Memsahib he had taken to wife. <i>Yah,
+Khodah!</i> the white race were amazingly simple!</p>
+
+<p>The sound of an infant's distressed wail broke the calm of the
+descending gloom. Voices within the tent conferred together in agitated
+whispers. There was a call for hot water, and in a moment the Madrassi
+ayah rushed forth for the steaming kettle which was boiling for scullery
+needs, and carried it off without a question. The waterman, clad only in
+a loin-cloth, hurried round to the bath tent, and a diminutive, tin
+bath-tub was extracted. Apparently the child was to be immersed.</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened?" called the Sahib's body servant, the <i>bearer</i>, who
+was the major-domo of the camp. But the waterman, fully appreciative of
+his temporary importance, refused to reply as he disappeared from view.</p>
+
+<p>"Ice&mdash;ice!" the lady cried dashing through the bamboo chick and almost
+tearing it from its fastenings. "Give me ice quickly." She looked
+haggard and distracted. Dark circles ringed her eyes; her sleeves rolled
+above the elbows revealed rounded arms from which water dripped; her
+skirt was splashed; her blouse and hair were in disarray.</p>
+
+<p>"There is none, <i>huzur</i>," said the <i>bearer</i> in Hindustani. "Hourly is it
+expected from Muktiarbad, but as yet it is not in sight."</p>
+
+<p>"What is he saying?" she cried vaguely in her distress, refusing to
+believe that there was none, which the corroborating action of a hand
+had implied.</p>
+
+<p>"No ice got it, Memsahib," volunteered the <i>khansaman</i> in his best
+English, learned from a teacher in the Station bazaar. "All
+finish&mdash;melting fast&mdash;making saw-dust one porridge."</p>
+
+<p>"No ice?&mdash;my God! My child will die if I cannot have ice." She
+disappeared within the tent, wringing her hands, leaving the servants to
+hold council together on what was the best course to pursue.</p>
+
+<p>"Without doubt the little one is in a fit," ventured the cook. "Such is
+sometimes the case when the teeth press their way through the gums."</p>
+
+<p>"What folly," sneered the <i>khansaman</i>, "when the infant is barely three
+months old!"</p>
+
+<p>"Without doubt it is a fit," the cook repeated, "else why the hot bath?
+Such is the treatment the doctor-<i>babu</i> ordered for the son of Amir
+Khan, my relative in Benares when, from fever, his eyes fixed and his
+limbs grew rigid."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou speakest true words," said the waterman approaching the group in
+visible excitement. "To see the limbs twisting and the eyes strained
+upward turns my stomach. Assuredly it will die&mdash;and the master
+away!&mdash;<i>ai ma!</i>&mdash;what a calamity!"</p>
+
+<p>"It will die, and we shall all be blamed because there was no ice,"
+sighed the <i>bearer</i> feeling the weight of his responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>"God send that he be even now returning," prayed the <i>khansaman</i>
+devoutly. "The sun has long set, and any moment he may be here, for who
+can shoot a leopard in the dark?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell Hosain to drive the <i>hawa-ghari</i><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> quickly to the Station for the
+doctor and the ice. If he meet not the ice cart on the road, let him
+borrow all they will lend him at the houses of the sahibs," said the
+cook. "<i>Jhut!</i>&mdash;lose no time. In these illnesses the life of a child is
+as the flicker of a candle. A breath, and it is out; and once dead, who
+can restore it to life again?"</p>
+
+<p>Servants ran to do his bidding while he returned to his pots and pans,
+anxious lest the roast should burn at the bottom of the pan, and the
+soup boil over.</p>
+
+<p>"For what dost thou concern thyself?" jeered an old watchman who stood a
+spectator of the scene. "All that thou cookest will be given to the
+sweeper's family. Who will eat of thy cooking tonight when the child is
+like to die?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the sweeper and his family, <i>bhai</i>,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> but we of the kitchen shall
+have a feast, have no fears." "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good,"
+was the essence of the cook's philosophy, and since there was no
+swine-flesh in the menu, there was no reason why Mohammedans should not
+enjoy the repast he was cooking for the Sahib's table. It was a
+dispensation of Providence that had not made him at birth a Hindu like
+the watchman, who took pride in the exclusiveness of his caste, yet
+feasted on the sly, on things forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the tent the lady and the ayah together ministered to the small
+sufferer lying in the warm bath. The sympathetic servant supported the
+light body which had relaxed its rigidity, while the mother bathed the
+brows and head with cold water.</p>
+
+<p>"He is better, ayah, don't you think?" asked Mrs. Meredith, dependent on
+the woman's superior knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Plenty better, Ma'am. Heaven is merciful."</p>
+
+<p>"Or do you think he is dying? Don't lie to me."</p>
+
+<p>"He not dying, oh, no! See that black round his mouth?&mdash;now fast going.
+This is what they call <i>bahose</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God if it's only that. Children recover from fainting fits, don't
+they? Oh, ayah, I could not bear to lose my baby!" she cried in choked
+accents.</p>
+
+<p>"Say not like that. Got is goot and the baba will live. Now take out of
+the water, dry, and keep head cool," said the woman whose experience in
+the management of infants had gained her her present post at some
+considerable advantage to herself.</p>
+
+<p>They placed the limp form, when dried, on the cool sheets in its crib
+and hung upon its every breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Barnes-<i>mem</i> saying, when bad with fever, lap plenty hot place, bed
+goot," the ayah remarked; "Barnes-<i>mem</i>," a former mistress, being a
+standard reference in nursery difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>"Had she many children?"</p>
+
+<p>"Children? My lort! Every year a child. She was plenty blest. One child
+for every finger, and a grand-child older than her last. Master, he
+shake his head and say, 'Damn-damn,' but Barnes-<i>mem</i>, she say, 'Let
+come; the Lort will provide.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Were they all brought up in India?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Calcutta they were born and grew up; no Darjeeling <i>pahar</i>;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> no
+Munsuri <i>pahar</i>! All living; all plenty strong."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet most children cannot thrive out here&mdash;English, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"English Memsahib making much fuss, like there is no Got Almighty.
+Everywhere there is sickness, also in <i>pahar</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meredith shivered at the cold consolation. After a short interval
+spent in anxious suspense, a clatter of hoofs announced the return of
+the Sahib. Raymond Meredith galloped into the camp and flinging his
+reins to a <i>saice</i>, leaped to the ground. A messenger had met him on the
+road with the disturbing news of his infant's bad turn. In another
+moment he was beside his wife, eagerly sympathetic and anxious to
+comfort her.</p>
+
+<p>At any other time she would have received him affectionately upon his
+return from a long day's outing, and he marked the change, excusing it
+on the plea of anxiety and distraction.</p>
+
+<p>"This is very sudden, darling," he said in lowered tones, placing his
+arms tenderly about her. "How did it happen?"</p>
+
+<p>His wife explained emotionally. "Baby was feverish when you left. You
+remember, perhaps, that I was worried and did not like being left
+alone?" she concluded resentfully, her eyes refusing to meet his.</p>
+
+<p>"He seemed a bit out of sorts, but nothing to alarm one," her husband
+allowed in self-defence. "You know, sweetheart, you are often needlessly
+anxious." He would have kissed her to soften the reproach, but she
+turned her face aside. "Anyhow, I had to go, you know that? The leopard
+had done enough damage in the village and was a danger to human life. An
+infant had been carried off from the doorway of its dwelling the moment
+its mother's back was turned. I simply had to hunt and shoot the beast,
+or let the people think I funked it. I managed to bag it in the end, but
+the fellow gave us a devil of a time," he continued, warming to his
+subject. "Had it not been for the pluck of the <i>chaukidar</i>, I might
+never have returned at all&mdash;" He waited for some evidence of concern.
+"He's a fine sportsman," he went on, though disappointed at her lack of
+interest. "With only a stout stick in his hand, he&mdash;" his voice trailed
+away as he became convinced that he was talking to an inattentive mind.
+"Don't worry, I'll send post-haste for Dalton. He'll be here before
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything might happen before morning," she cried brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't be so pessimistic."</p>
+
+<p>"The car was sent for the doctor when Baby was in convulsions," she said
+coldly. "It was terrible not having you here to advise. I have been
+desperate, and you&mdash;" a sob&mdash;"you were enjoying yourself in the
+jungles." She had not an atom of sympathy for the sport.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely you are not blaming me?" he cried deprecatingly, afraid that he
+had injured himself for ever in her sight.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a question of blame; you have failed me, that is all."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a cruel thing to say, dearest!" he cried kissing her
+unresponsive lips at last, in the hopes of melting her hardness. "It is
+only that you are in a mood to be unjust, that you say so. You know I am
+happiest with you."</p>
+
+<p>"This is a cruel country which I shall hate to the end of my days," she
+returned miserably. "It is trying at every turn to rob me of my little
+baby."</p>
+
+<p>Meredith winced almost as though he had been struck. It was not the
+first time that she had expressed disgust for her life in India, which
+gave them their living, and every time her words gained in feeling.
+Early in the summer he had sent her to the hills because of an episode
+with a snake that had unnerved her and imperilled her condition as an
+expectant mother. He had not forgotten that her first arrival at the
+Station had synchronised with an outbreak of cholera, so virulent, that
+half the community of Europeans among whom she was to live were
+demoralised. It was a crying shame that Life should be so perverse. He
+yearned for her to settle down and take kindly to Station ways and
+doings, but fate eternally intervened. Muktiarbad was a merry little
+station, full of friendly souls eager to accept the youthful bride as a
+social leader for her husband's sake, he being the most popular of men.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith was aware of his own popularity and enjoyed it as a
+healthy-minded individual usually does when success has crowned his
+efforts to govern a large District with sympathy and tact. But already
+the young wife and mother was pining for "home," and was declaring that
+the India he loved was a "cruel country," which she would hate to the
+end of her days. How should he be able to pin her down to his side in a
+land she detested and feared? She was too young and uninformed to
+appreciate his position in the Government and her possibilities as a
+<i>Bara Memsahib</i>; and too delicately nurtured to endure the rough and
+tumble of life far from towns and cities, where money could not buy
+immunity from inconvenience and climatic ills.</p>
+
+<p>He had expected, as many another husband of a very young wife, to mould
+her ideas to fit his own; instead, his peace of mind was being steadily
+whittled away.</p>
+
+<p>"There is not even any ice to be had in this God-forsaken spot!" his
+wife's voice was saying helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Damnation!" he swore under his breath, enraged that the servants should
+have supplied him at the cost of the child; for he recalled the very
+acceptable iced beer he had drunk in the jungles after a dangerous
+exploit that had exhausted his energies and reduced him to a perspiring
+rag of humanity, even though it was autumn.</p>
+
+<p>The urgent need to find a scapegoat to suffer for this miserable muddle
+sent him outside with a stride and malignant intentions at heart. Never
+again while he toured with his family would he drink iced stimulants,
+however damnably hot it was in the sun.</p>
+
+<p>"What can I say?" whined the <i>bearer</i> in indignant sympathy, cleverly
+averting the storm he saw ready to descend on the head of the guilty.
+"Such unusual heat for this time of the year, and that swine, the
+carter, who is now many miles distant, left the ice-box on the sunny
+side of the tent! Without sense is he, and possessed of a mind equal
+only to that of a sheep. So much shade to be had, yet of a perversity
+must he commit this brainless act! What can I do? Had this pair of hands
+not been incessantly occupied in performing urgent tasks for the comfort
+of the Memsahib, I might have cast eyes on the packing-case earlier, and
+myself have removed it to safety. But alas! how much can one poor
+servant do among so many who are idle and indifferent? So there it lay
+out of sight and the water running freely through the joins till there
+was one tank, and my bedding beside it, floating! Tonight I am without
+bedding, but what of that? With the child ill, will any one care to
+sleep?" He cast a triumphant eye around on a semicircle of admiring
+fellow-servants who were envying him his resourcefulness and powers of
+invention.</p>
+
+<p>"Who sent ice with me into the jungles?" Meredith asked fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"Who, indeed, Image-of-God? Such an act of folly while the tender babe
+lay sick is not to be forgiven. Peradventure, it was the mate-boy of the
+cook who is of an imbecility past understanding, owing to his extreme
+youth. Not even the intellect of a cow has he. <i>Urre bap!</i> Did he not
+leave at the Rest Bungalow&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent, you talk too much," said Meredith. "Go and chastise him for
+his interference. If I strike him I shall break every bone in his body.
+Never again let ice be sent anywhere with me if it is likely to run
+short at the camp, remember that," he said, impressing the fact on the
+<i>bearer</i>, as he knew full well that, in the native mind, very little
+importance is attached to a woman's needs in comparison with her
+lord's,&mdash;the superiority of the masculine sex being unchallenged. When
+ice travelled by rail some hundreds of miles three times a week to
+Muktiarbad, it invariably fell short when the servants were careless or
+assisted to make it vanish. Every silent witness of the colloquy knew
+that the Sahib's <i>bearer</i> considered an iced whisky-and-soda his
+perquisite at the close of a strenuous day, and would continue to have
+it as long as ice came from Calcutta for the alleviation of sufferers
+from the climate.</p>
+
+<p>"Buck up, darling," said Meredith comfortingly, "you'll have the doctor
+here in no time. Dalton is a clever fellow and prompt. They say he will
+make a name for himself some day, he's such an able physician and
+surgeon. What he doesn't understand concerning the ills that flesh is
+heir to is not worth knowing, so we are jolly lucky to have him in such
+a potty little station as ours. What got him sent here is a mystery;
+usually we get fossils of the Uncovenanted service at Muktiarbad,
+whereas Dalton is&mdash;" "Sorry," interrupting himself as his wife put her
+hands to her head. "You've a headache, sweetheart, and it's not to be
+wondered at."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there nothing you can suggest for Baby in the meantime?" she
+questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't like to experiment, knowing nothing of kids&mdash;infants, I
+mean," he replied with irritating cheerfulness. "Had it been a horse or
+a dog"&mdash;he discreetly ceased and made tender love to her instead, for
+his darling girl was sobbing piteously. "Don't worry," he advised with
+masculine lack of understanding of maternal feelings, "babies are
+marvellous creatures; like sponges, my dear. Squeeze them dry and they
+swell out again. See how the youngsters swarm in the bazaars and
+villages. Nothing seems to kill them," he asserted ignorantly. "They get
+over almost any illness without a hundredth part of the care you lavish
+on our little scallywag. Keep his head cool and you'll see, he'll be as
+right as rain in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Cool without ice!" she said witheringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Cold water on the head with a dash of vinegar in it will do to carry
+along with till the ice comes."</p>
+
+<p>Somehow he was less concerned with the child's case than his wife's. Her
+distress, the added reason for her abhorrence of India, cut him to the
+heart and made him a coward of consequences. It was the child, that
+insignificant atom of indefinite humanity, that had intruded itself
+between them and was daily usurping his place in his wife's thoughts. At
+first he had been fool enough to imagine that it was going to be the
+link that would bind them closer together, instead of which it was the
+wedge that was surely driving them asunder. For its sake she was ready
+to put the seas and continents between them, and treat him as if he were
+of secondary importance in her life&mdash;the being who had to provide the
+wherewithal on which the human idol might be suitably reared. His own
+personal need of her was viewed as masculine self-indulgence and lack of
+spirituality.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you half realise what a wonderful thing has happened,"
+she had once said in the midst of her baby-worship. "Here is a miracle
+straight from God. A man-child who, if properly cared for, will become a
+useful citizen of the Empire; and he is my VERY OWN&mdash;yours, too," she
+condescended to add with her exquisite smile.</p>
+
+<p>"But where do I come in? I, who am already a useful citizen of the
+Empire?" he had delicately insinuated. "With due regard to nature and
+the multiplication table&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She had considered him coarse and had refused to smile. The matter of a
+family was entirely in God's hands and not to be treated with levity. He
+could have added a rider to that, but refrained; she was only a little
+girl of nineteen lacking the logical sense in the usual, adorable,
+feminine way. He was not hankering considerably after a family in the
+plural sense when in imagination he could see an intensification of the
+present situation which was forcing him into the background of domestic
+life. The baby, waking and sleeping, and all its multifarious concerns
+occupied its mother's time to the exclusion of all else, and it was no
+wonder that the father was feeling injured and a trifle lonely.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, in her childish way, she was fond of him, while unconsciously
+learning from him that, after all, men were truly long-suffering and
+unselfish creatures, patient, and forgiving.</p>
+
+<p>So he possessed his soul in patience, never tired of recalling the
+supreme episode of their married life, when, after the birth of their
+son, she had embraced him with a new affection, spontaneous and sincere.
+She had been so utterly ill that for a day and a night her life had hung
+in the balance, while he, like a maniac, had paced the footpath in mist
+and rain, praying as he had never prayed before for her restoration. It
+was in Darjeeling where he had gone hurriedly on receipt of a telegram,
+and never should he forget the anxieties of that journey. He had been
+ready to register any vow under the sun that he might ensure her
+recovery; and when he had crept with broken nerve and sobbing breath to
+her bedside, she had clung to his neck with blessed demonstrativeness
+kissing him of her own accord on the lips. Generally, he had kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>"You love me still, my precious?" he had asked fearfully. Mark the
+"still," for by her agony he was ready to believe he had forfeited the
+right to her love.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you my baby's Daddy?" she had replied happily with shining eyes
+and quivering mouth. "Of course I shall love you better now than ever."</p>
+
+<p>She loved him only through the child! However, Meredith did not quarrel
+with the process, so long as the fact was full of promise. It had always
+been a calm and unemotional affection, not in the least of the quality
+he craved, but his love and patience were equal to the demand made upon
+them, his mind having realised the unawakened condition of hers. "All
+things come to those who know how to wait," and he was learning
+patience, for his life was wrapped up in the person of his girl-wife.
+She was so infinitely lovable even when least comprehending his man's
+nature and holding herself aloof. Again, her charm was indescribable
+when, with adorable grace, she offered compensation, sorry for her
+uncomprehending selfishness; and he eternally rejoiced that, by the law
+of marriage, she was irrevocably his till death should them part, a
+bondage which he endeavoured to make her Eden, as it was his.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>MAINLY RETROSPECTIVE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Dinner that evening was neglected as neither could eat.</p>
+
+<p>Tired and hungry though Meredith had been, his appetite for food
+vanished under the lash of his wife's resentment. She once said: "If my
+baby is taken from me, I shall cut this country forever. I shall hate it
+with an undying hatred. Nothing will induce me to live in it again and
+risk a repetition of tonight. It is not fit for Europeans&mdash;and yet, the
+tragedy of it is, we can only know it by experience!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is to say, if you had foreseen this, you would never have married
+me?" he put in sulkily.</p>
+
+<p>Silence gave consent.</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't you give up, and find something to do at home?" she asked
+unreasonably.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what you are talking about," he returned shortly. Give
+up the "Indian Civil" and his splendid prospects, liberal future
+pension, and the life of sport men loved? For what? A desk in a city
+office; most likely a mercantile job on a third of the pay, and a life
+to which he was as much suited as a square peg to a round hole. All
+this, that the babe might be spared the illnesses that mortal flesh, in
+infancy, is prone to, particularly in the East. It was utter nonsense!
+For the first five years there would be need for special care and
+intervals spent in a hill climate. In due time would come the change to
+England and English environment necessary for the proper physical and
+mental training of his child. This was the course usually followed by
+English families in India of any social standing, and one which involved
+submission on the part of the husband to short periods of separation
+from the wife in the interests of the absent children. Thousands of
+married couples faced these conditions; why not they?</p>
+
+<p>He felt rebellious.</p>
+
+<p>What was the matter with his luck that it threatened not to work? He had
+no fortune on which to retire, only a modest return from savings
+judiciously invested, while his wife would have nothing more than a
+trifle till the death of her parents; and they were still young. To give
+up the Service would, under the circumstances, be madness and folly.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, he loved the East. The climate had no grudge against his
+English constitution, and had been kind to him. He enjoyed the freedom
+of the life, India's great spaces; and the lurking risks made existence
+a great and continued adventure. In England it would be monotonous and
+flat. Though he loved the Motherland and was proud of her traditions, he
+was of the stuff that made empires, and his tact and understanding of
+the natives under his rule, made him an officer of exceptional ability
+and service to the Executive Government. Then there was big game
+shooting which he enjoyed, and all the happy freedom from narrow
+conventions. Give up, indeed!</p>
+
+<p>Time enough to think of retiring when past middle age with shaken nerves
+and a growing appreciation of golf. Not while he could ride a
+buck-jumper, handle a hog spear or a polo stick, and shoot straight. The
+thrill of tracking a wild beast to its lair was something to live for,
+and the hazards of his life made up its charm.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest of all hazards, had he realised it, had been his marriage
+with Joyce Wynthrop of Eagleton, Surrey.</p>
+
+<p>She had put up her hair to attend the hunt ball the year he was home on
+furlough and staying with his widowed sister, Lady Chayne, a neighbour
+of the Wynthrops, and it was love at first sight, with him. He had been
+forced to attend the ball against his will, only to meet his fate, it
+would seem.</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter, he had been obsessed with one ambition, and that was to win
+Joyce for his wife, in spite of the fact that he was fifteen years her
+senior and held an appointment in the East.</p>
+
+<p>Touched by his devotion and influenced by the opinion of others, she had
+yielded, feeling that Destiny was calling to her to fulfill her
+obligations to Life. Marriage with a good man of irreproachable
+antecedents, and children to rear in godliness and wisdom, was the
+religion of her upbringing. It had been impressed upon her as the
+natural vocation of woman so that the race might continue. She had
+played with dolls as the proper playthings of her childhood, and was
+prepared to exchange them for the children God should send her in some
+mysterious way to which marriage was the true gateway. Raymond Meredith,
+good-looking, kind, eligible, and full of love for herself was obviously
+the "Mr. Right" of schoolgirl tradition; the man to whom it would be
+correct to give herself in the bonds of holy matrimony, even as her
+mother had long ago given herself to her father&mdash;an example of
+unemotional attachment and tranquil orthodoxy.</p>
+
+<p>At first it had been wofully embarrassing to be made love to; and she
+wondered if her mother had been kissed so often and called all those
+silly love-names by her father before they were married?</p>
+
+<p>She also resisted the strange effect on herself of those ardent kisses,
+and was afraid to encourage feelings she had never before experienced,
+believing them immodest to indulge, and something she had to subdue with
+a determined effort. She would die sooner than confess to them. Passion
+might be all right for men with whom every initiative of life lay, but
+unbecoming for women to acknowledge, even to themselves. In fact, Joyce
+Wynthrop was a product of Early Victorian views on the subject of a
+girl's training, and an anachronism in modern times. She had been reared
+in rigid ignorance of life, her reading having been heavily restricted,
+her associates selected, so that when the time came to hand her over to
+a husband, he should find her beautifully unconscious and unique.</p>
+
+<p>To Meredith, her shy submission to his caresses, and her passionless
+response were the surest guarantee of her virginal past, and he was in
+no hurry to awaken the sleeping beauty to a deeper knowledge of herself.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce eventually decided for her peace of mind, that love-making
+belonged mainly to the period of Engagement, when everything was so new.
+Once having attained the object of his desire&mdash;that is, the possession
+of a wife&mdash;her lover would settle down to normal life, and no longer
+regard her eyelashes with wondering admiration, or exact kisses because
+her mouth was shaped like Cupid's bow. Men were so disturbing, if they
+were all like Ray Meredith!&mdash;delightfully disturbing,&mdash;only they must
+not know it, or peace and tranquillity would be impossible! After
+marriage there would be other things to think about, such as having a
+home, and, if the Lord willed it, a baby all their own, presented to
+them in some extraordinary and mysterious fashion.</p>
+
+<p>She had always adored babies and could rarely pass one in a perambulator
+without wanting to kiss it and know all its little history. To have a
+baby of her very own was a prospect so full of allurement, that she
+offered no coy objections when Meredith wanted the marriage fixed at the
+earliest possible date. Indeed, her calm was the despair of her girl
+friends who envied her openly. Wasn't she "terribly" in love with him?
+Wasn't she just "thrilled to death" with excitement at the prospect of
+having a husband and going all the way out to India?</p>
+
+<p>Joyce did not believe there was such a thing as being "terribly in
+love," which was a phrase invented by cheap novelists, whose literature
+she had never been allowed to read. She admitted she was growing very
+fond of her Mr. Meredith, and preferred him to any other man. Not that
+her experience of men was great&mdash;nevertheless, he was a "perfect dear."</p>
+
+<p>Her sister Kitty of the schoolroom, a young woman of rather decided
+opinions, reproached her severely for lack of enthusiasm over her very
+presentable lover. In her eyes, Ray Meredith was the ideal of a Cinema
+hero, with his clean-shaven, ascetic face, his muscular build, and
+adorable smile. "You should be flattered, my dear, that he condescended
+to choose you out of the millions of girls in the world," she remarked
+sagely. "You may be pretty, but hosts of girls are that. One has to be
+clever, and ... are <i>you</i>?... Why, you spelt vaccination with one 'c,'
+and vicinity with two only yesterday, and but for me, reading over your
+shoulder, you would have been disgraced for ever. I am not sure that he
+would not have broken it off! Then you know nothing whatever of
+politics&mdash;or football. Men are crazy about both, so you really are
+rather stupid, darling, or cold-hearted. Surely you must feel all
+squiggly down your back whenever Ray hugs and kisses you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd be thrilled to my boots. Why, I feel like that every time they kiss
+in the film&mdash;really I feel an intruder, and as if I shouldn't look."</p>
+
+<p>"Silly penny stories untrue to life!" Joyce said as an echo of her
+father's scorn, but blushing, nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you don't appreciate your lover, tell him to wait for me. I'll
+put up my hair year after next and take him like a shot."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I appreciate him, or I should not be going to marry him,"
+said Joyce with the dignity of eighteen. "But it's folly to make so much
+fuss about marriage, seeing that it's the most ordinary thing in life,
+like being born, or dying."</p>
+
+<p>"The most incomprehensible thing in life, I should imagine," retorted
+Kitty, wide-eyed with curiosity. "Especially when you come to think of
+going away for good&mdash;or bad, maybe!&mdash;with a strange man you know next to
+nothing of; and all at a blow, having to share the same apartments with
+him. Merciful Providence! I am sure the Queen never did!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's supposed to be the correct thing," said Joyce rather scared.
+"Mother says, 'husbands and wives are one,' and 'to the pure, all things
+are pure'&mdash;whatever that has to do with it&mdash;so it would be illogical in
+the face of that to object to such a trifle as sharing a room. 'One has
+to tune one's mind to accept whatever comes, and to follow in the
+footsteps of one's parents,'" she quoted.</p>
+
+<p>"How I wish you were not going right away with him, immediately," sighed
+Kitty enviously. "You might so easily have told me all about it. Nobody
+tells one anything worth knowing, just as though there was anything to
+be ashamed about!"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce made no response for the good reason that her mind was wrestling
+with disquietude. However, in spite of so much that was mysterious, even
+alarming, she decided, as a prospective bride, to assume the dignity and
+reserve she had noticed in others and smile patronisingly on inquisitive
+sixteen.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards she was married, and she accompanied her "strange
+man" on their journey to the Unknown, much as a confiding child trusts
+itself to the guardianship of a loving nurse; prepared to accept as a
+duty whatever path he might require her to tread.</p>
+
+<p>In matters pertaining to sex, Meredith found her little more than a
+child; the result of her narrow upbringing by which she had been reared
+in ignorance of the primal facts of life and all that was common
+knowledge to the flapper of the day. But to his fastidious nature her
+unsophisticated innocence was the most captivating of any of the
+qualities he had met with in girls, and it became his most earnest
+desire to preserve it undefiled. The sweet simplicity of her mind he
+regarded as even more precious than her beauty. Having spent a decade in
+acquiring a disgust for a certain type of woman, he was inclined to
+over-estimate his surprising good fortune, and was content in the hope
+that time was on his side. Like a flower unfolding to the sun, the
+treasures of her womanhood would be all his one day, drawn forth by the
+warmth of his steady devotion.</p>
+
+<p>The obstacles in his way, however, seemed to increase as circumstances
+combined to fret and tantalise his hopes.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The night wore on&mdash;the Eastern night of cloudless moonlight with the
+scents of the earth rising from harvested fields to mingle with the
+pungency of smouldering fires. Somewhere an owl persistently hooted.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce recalled the superstition that the owl was a bird of ill omen and
+should not be allowed to perch in the neighbourhood of a sick room.
+Immediately she was seized with foreboding and her husband was
+dispatched to scare away the prophet of evil. On his return she was
+trembling and hysterical.</p>
+
+<p>"You must let me give you something, darling," he pleaded. "You'll
+collapse for want of food, and how then can you look after Baby?" It was
+inspiration which suggested the child's need of her, for she patiently
+submitted and drank a glass of milk. She changed her gown for a silken
+kimono, and sought rest among the pillows of her bed which adjoined the
+crib. Then, in subdued tones, she reproached her husband for never
+having studied the simple diseases of childhood,&mdash;so necessary in their
+case, when for months together they were expected to live in camp, far
+from the Station, and the reach of medical aid.</p>
+
+<p>"It is criminal," she cried. "If it had been a dog you would have known
+what to do. But your own child!" words failed her.</p>
+
+<p>"The next time we come out we shall bring 'Good-eve.' I believe it gives
+everything you want to know and a lot besides."</p>
+
+<p>"There'll never be a 'next time,'" she moaned. "Please God, when my pet
+is better he shall never again be taken so far from the doctor. This is
+the end of all camping for him."</p>
+
+<p>"So I am to be deserted?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a man and able to look after yourself. Baby needs me far more
+than you do."</p>
+
+<p>Meredith refrained from any argument, feeling the futility of words in
+her distraught condition. In the darkened tent he brooded over his
+difficulties while his eyes strayed with jealous yearning to the slim
+form in the gaudy kimono. Instead of isolation in a canvas chair, he
+might so easily have shared her pillows while comforting her lovingly in
+his arms! but for the time being he was out of favour and unloved!</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before sunrise, Captain Dalton motored in.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CIVIL SURGEON</h3>
+
+
+<p>From the moment of the doctor's arrival the tension of watching was
+eased; the very sight of his wide shoulders in the doorway of the tent
+brought instantaneous relief to Joyce whose faith, as far as her child
+was concerned, was material rather than spiritual. Though she had felt
+an instinctive shrinking from the man's society on the few occasions on
+which they had met, her whole heart went out to welcome him with earnest
+supplication. He possessed the knowledge, under God, to save her child;
+therefore, surely, was he Superman&mdash;a being apart, to be reverenced
+above his fellows.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton of the Indian Medical Service, and Civil Surgeon of
+Muktiarbad, was an unfriendly being of peculiar personality, whom no one
+could comprehend. Ordinarily, he was repellent to intimacies; a reserved
+autocrat, and content to be unpopular. Though elected a member of the
+Club, he had little use for its privileges. Having fulfilled his duty to
+his neighbours by calling on them shortly after his arrival in the
+Station that summer, he had retired into professional and private life,
+and was as difficult to cultivate as the Pope of Rome. He rarely
+accepted invitations, and issued none. Men who called upon him received
+a rigid hospitality, nothing more, so that they soon ceased to visit him
+at all, at which he was relieved.</p>
+
+<p>That he was a gifted musician became generally known when classical
+strains from a grand piano were wafted through the Duranta hedge which
+encompassed his grounds, riveting passers-by to the roadway at some
+sacrifice to personal dignity, that they might listen and admire.
+Sometimes he was heard to sing to his own accompaniment in a voice of
+extraordinary richness and sympathy. The evening breeze would carry the
+tones of his fine baritone voice farther than the Duranta hedge; and
+though bungalows were widely separated by private grounds of many acres,
+with paddocks and lanes between, his neighbours would hang out of their
+windows to catch every note, and afterwards at the common meeting ground
+of the Club, discourse on the advantage of their proximity to the
+singer.</p>
+
+<p>All persuasions to repeat his performances in public met with obstinate
+discouragement, till, reluctantly, the Station left him alone. Injured
+feelings were nourished, and opinions concerning his conduct and manners
+grew harsh and unrelenting the instant his back was turned. To his face
+there was no failure of cordiality, for it is not politic in a small
+station to quarrel with one's doctor.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the polo-ground, on the occasion of a slight accident which
+might have been more serious, that Joyce first met Captain Dalton,&mdash;a
+bare fortnight ago. His appointment had taken place while she had been
+at the hills, and at the introduction she had resented the impudent
+scrutiny of his eyes, not realising the fact that she had been an
+arresting picture with the hue of mountain roses in her cheeks, and eyes
+like English forget-me-nots; in beauty and colouring a rarity in that
+rural district of Bengal.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the doctor wondered at the unusual combination of prettiness and
+simplicity, for, in his experience, good looks without vanity were
+something unique. Possibly he was sceptical, for a smile of satire
+lurked at the back of his inscrutable eyes. At any rate, he had found
+her an interesting study, and the jade-green orbs, reckoned his finest
+feature, seemed to assess her from top to toe, critically and coolly.
+Though he made no effort to engage her in conversation, he had lingered
+in her vicinity, listening to her childish prattle; and, contrary to
+expectations, long after the need of his services was past, he had
+loitered on the polo-ground till the Merediths had driven away in their
+car.</p>
+
+<p>On looking back, Joyce had felt a sense of resentment at his quiet
+contempt of the ladies present. His cynical study of herself without any
+attempt to cultivate her society annoyed her self-esteem.</p>
+
+<p>"He's positively rude!" was her indignant verdict, later. "I wonder
+people put up with him. And he has perfectly hateful eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"The ladies think them very handsome eyes," Meredith had insinuated.</p>
+
+<p>"They are very uncomfortable; like a thought-reader's. Anyhow, I shall
+not allow him to stare at me another time."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a saying that 'a cat may look at the queen,'" he had remarked
+mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a blessing, however, that one may choose one's friends!" she had
+finally stated; and her husband allowed the subject to drop, not
+displeased at her repugnance to the doctor whom he marked dangerous to
+feminine susceptibility and an unknown quantity.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton had called the following Sunday at noon, and was received
+by both husband and wife for the conventional few minutes. Being the
+official holiday, it was recognised as the correct day for men to pay
+formal visits, and by an unwritten law, at the warmest hour in the
+twenty-four.</p>
+
+<p>Another time they had driven past each other in a lane, when Dalton
+gravely raised his hat in acknowledgment of her bow. Lastly, he had sat
+beside her at a Hindu dramatic performance held in the grounds of a
+local landowner, in celebration of a religious festival, and he had
+barely noticed her existence, being engaged with his host on the other
+side.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, he had not made a favourable impression on Joyce Meredith.
+But what did it matter, now? He had come out to their camp, many miles
+away from the Station, post-haste to save her child, and for that she
+was thankful. All memory of the doctor's bad manners was forgotten when
+she saw him enter the tent with her husband, a strong virile being, from
+his keen eyes and locked lips to his brisk tread;&mdash;God's own agent to
+cure her babe; a blessed healer of the sick, to whom the mysteries of
+the human frame were revealed; who could fight even death!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Doctor," she cried piteously, the tears like great dewdrops on her
+lashes: "Baby has been so bad&mdash;I thought, once, I had lost him!"</p>
+
+<p>Without formal greetings, Dalton passed to the cot, and stooping over
+it, began his examination of the case.</p>
+
+<p>Appreciating the reproof conveyed by his silence, the little mother sat
+still while the examination proceeded, answering in tremulous tones the
+crisp, short questions hurled at her from time to time.</p>
+
+<p>By and by, when a certain drug had been administered and there was
+nothing to be done but wait for its effects to be apparent, he abruptly
+turned his attention to herself. Had she eaten anything? What had she
+fed on for the past twenty-four hours? He covered her wrist with his
+hand, studied her highly nervous face for a full minute, and then
+ordered her away to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Take her out of this, Meredith, if you wish to avoid having two
+invalids on your hands. Is there another bed anywhere?"</p>
+
+<p>Meredith's own occupied the dressing-tent, since he was obliged to give
+up sharing his wife's on account of the baby's claim to the services of
+an ayah.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Doctor, I am not ill!" Joyce protested feebly, realising however
+now, that it was mentioned, that a collapse was imminent.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll do as we think best," he said shortly, "or I had better get
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is to look after Baby?" she asked faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am here for that," he said more gently.</p>
+
+<p>After some futile objections, Joyce departed feeling unable to hold out
+a minute longer.</p>
+
+<p>"How are you feeling?" her husband's anxious voice was asking. "You are
+as white as a lily, darling."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be all right when Baby is," she answered wearily.</p>
+
+<p>In a little while Joyce was put to bed with a sleeping draught and
+tucked in comfortably, her husband as skilful in his ministrations as
+any nurse. "Won't you kiss me before I go? Love me a little bit," he
+pleaded wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Go away Ray," she cried irritably. "Don't worry."</p>
+
+<p>"You've made me so miserable!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's nothing to what you made me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I made you!"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you were absent all day when Baby was so ill. It has nearly killed
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest, don't blame me unjustly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let it drop. I am not wishing to discuss it; I am too tired."</p>
+
+<p>So was he, but he had no thought of himself while yearning over her, his
+lovely girl, more beloved in her stubborn antagonism than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Remembering the doctor's injunctions that she must sleep, he reluctantly
+retired to pace the grass in the dawn, a dishevelled figure in his
+shirt-sleeves with hands plunged into the pockets of his trousers. The
+cool air soothed his nerves and brought him a sense of drowsiness which
+he indulged in a long cane chair under the eaves of the dressing-tent.
+The camp was very still after the disturbances of the night, and the sun
+rose above the flat horizon like a ball of living gold, its searching
+rays awakening the sleeping servants in their <i>shuldaris</i> by their glare
+and warmth.</p>
+
+<p>But Ray Meredith was worn out and slept heavily, oblivious, for the
+moment, of his anxieties and his surroundings, for, after all, he
+cultivated a broad perspective and a wide tolerance for his little
+girl's humours, since she was only "a kid in years and ideas."</p>
+
+<p>With the sun mounting rapidly into the heavens came sounds of life from
+the distant village. Far away, cow-bells tinkled musically as the cattle
+moved lazily to pasture lands; dogs barked and children's voices, shrill
+and joyous, echoed over the fields.</p>
+
+<p>Domestic servants at the camp were to be seen rolling up their bedding
+of sacking, preparatory to beginning the common round, the daily task.
+Not far from the temporary kitchen, the mate-boy squabbled with the
+village milkman over the supply of milk with its sediment of chalk,
+which he declared had all but killed the master's child. Let him
+remember that there was a doctor sahib on the spot, and what availed his
+protestations?</p>
+
+<p>"A raw infant, too, with a new stomach. Assuredly will the police drag
+thee into court."</p>
+
+<p>"Who said there was chalk!" almost wept the indignant <i>guala</i>
+gesticulating wildly in self-defence. "As God is my witness not a grain
+was in the milk. Have I no fear? Straight from the udder was it milked
+into the brass <i>lota</i> and brought to the camp. Ask of all the village if
+I am not an honest man paying just tribute where it is asked, and giving
+full measure and pure, to one and all. Would I jeopardise my freedom for
+malpractices? What evil accusation art thou, <i>badmash</i>, hurling at me?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see who's a <i>badmash</i>!" the youth returned loftily. "Wait till
+the doctor Sahib gives evidence. Presently the Judge Sahib will say, 'O
+Amir, faithful one, speak concerning the sediment in the milk which thou
+didst show to the doctor Sahib, that the pestilential <i>guala</i> may
+receive just punishment for his wrong-doing.' But I have a tender heart
+for the repentant and may consent to destroy the evidence, even refrain
+from showing it to the Sahib, if it is made worth my while. Allot for my
+own portion one seer of milk, and two for the servants, free of charge,
+and, peradventure, my memory concerning the chalk will fail when the
+moment of inquiry arrives."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didst not thou tell that it was perquisite thou wast wanting, for I
+would have given to thee without argument," sighed the <i>guala</i>, in
+visible relief. "I am a poor man, and honest, though the ways of my
+country-men are crooked, and I give in to thy demand that I might be
+spared false accusation and much humiliation. Take, brother, thy illegal
+<i>dusturi</i>;<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> how can such as I hope to escape <i>loot</i>, when from the
+<i>chaukidar</i> to the sweeper all are robbing those who provide the
+<i>hakim's</i> needs? Only from the <i>hakim</i> himself is there straight
+dealing!&mdash;<i>ai Khodar</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Within the large tent the silence that reigned boded well for the child
+who was sleeping peacefully.</p>
+
+<p>Its improved condition was the latest bulletin issued by the ayah who
+had snatched a moment to enjoy a cheap cigarette in the open.</p>
+
+<p>"What a night!" she said in Hindustani, which she spoke almost as
+fluently as Tamil. "With both Sahib and Memsahib awake and watching, who
+could sleep? I had not the conscience to close my eyes. Nor has a morsel
+passed these lips, for, with the precious one at death's door, food
+turns to ashes in the mouth."</p>
+
+<p>"Thou art indeed a faithful one, Ayah-jee," said the <i>peon</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my religion, for I am a Christian and have no caste to hold me
+back from any service that is required of me, <i>Baba-jee</i>. The child is
+my first thought, and to guard its life, my first care."</p>
+
+<p>"For which thou art paid handsomely, is it not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"That, of course! and money is a great convenience, <i>Baba-jee</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was still sleeping from the effects of the draught, when Meredith
+and the doctor breakfasted together. On no account was she to be
+disturbed. It seemed the doctor took a malicious delight in depriving
+the husband of the pleasure of carrying his wife the good news
+concerning the child; and he saw him depart to preside at his court
+under the trees, without a shade of sympathy for his visible distress.</p>
+
+<p>"Your wife will be all right," he said confidently, "so don't worry, but
+go ahead with your work. I am capable of looking after both mother and
+child."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt of it," Meredith grumbled, "but you'll send for me,
+won't you, if anything's wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most assuredly," was the reply. And the Magistrate took his seat at the
+camp table under a leafy mango tree, and was soon immersed in his duties
+to the State. Natives of all castes and creeds thronged the grass beyond
+the precincts of the court, and a hoarse murmur of voices soon filled
+the air, above which was constantly heard that of the crier naming a
+witness, or calling up a case.</p>
+
+<p>When the ayah brought Captain Dalton the news that her mistress was
+showing signs of waking, he poured out and took her a cup of tea,
+himself, and asked how she felt. "Not very bright, I can see," he
+remarked, placing his fingers on her pulse.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I slept long?" she asked drowsily.</p>
+
+<p>"Five hours."</p>
+
+<p>"But Baby?" she cried out in alarm, sitting up in bed, giddy and
+confused.</p>
+
+<p>"Baby's all right. Temperature normal, and sleeping like a cherub," he
+returned pressing her back on her pillows.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Doctor, is that true?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may think me a liar, if you like, but it isn't polite to call me
+one to my face," he said with a crooked, grudging smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how am I to thank you!" tears suffused her eyes as she seized his
+hand and carried it impulsively to her lips. "You have no idea of the
+relief you have brought me!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton had; and by the answering gleam in his eye, showed he was
+rewarded for the whim which had prompted him to be the bearer of the
+good tidings. It amused him to play with this pretty child-wife, and
+sound the depths of her nature&mdash;if there were any!</p>
+
+<p>"What is your age?" he asked abruptly, with a doctor's licence to
+question a patient as he chose.</p>
+
+<p>"I was nineteen in summer."</p>
+
+<p>"You have no business with a baby when you are one yourself! Now for
+your tea," and he held the cup while she leant on her elbow to drink its
+contents, a shower of honey-gold hair falling about her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Is your head very bad?" he asked when she had finished.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know that it ached?" she questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"I have ways of finding out. Your pulse and your flush, for example."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am ill?" she asked in alarm. If she were to be ill, who would
+take care of the child?</p>
+
+<p>"A little ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Fever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Feverish."</p>
+
+<p>"But I may get up, in spite of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. Nor would you be of any use if you did."</p>
+
+<p>"But I must take care of Baby!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am doing that, already."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to take care of me, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you are good and do all I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be so good, for I want to get well. How long will it last?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fever? Who can say? However, I dare say it will be only a trifling
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my husband?" she asked, wondering if Ray knew, and why he had
+not rushed to see her. She was so accustomed to being fussed over, that
+she missed the excitement. No doubt he was nursing injured feelings
+since her ill-treatment of him last night....</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, and you will hear the voices of the multitude before the Court.
+Mr. Meredith is trying cases and sentencing malefactors to various
+degrees of punishment," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you call him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure he won't charge me with Contempt of Court?" he teased.</p>
+
+<p>"If I am going to be ill, I must have him come at once. But first
+promise me something," she cried, clinging to his hand with feverish
+excitement; "I cannot bear to stay in camp after yesterday's experience.
+Tell him that I must go back to Muktiarbad so as to have Baby near you.
+He might be ill again, and what should I do then!"</p>
+
+<p>"He might, certainly. Yes, I'll tell your husband, but not today. Today
+you will want to be taken care of, and we mustn't pile on the agony."</p>
+
+<p>"On whom? It would be such a relief to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to your husband. I wouldn't mind betting he'd have a fit of the
+blues and be ill himself as a result."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! Ray never gets ill. He is so strong. That is why he can't
+understand us. Oh, Doctor, I cannot live in India!" she wailed.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you very homesick?" he asked with the same grudging smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate India! It will kill Baby&mdash;won't you explain that to my husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no reason why it should kill Baby."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you tell?&mdash;everything is against him here!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton decided to humour her because of the deepening flush and starry
+eyes. The nervous fingers twined about his were hot with fever. "That's
+all right. Be happy, you'll go home in the spring if it depends on me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you, you are such a dear!"</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton smiled less grudgingly. She was so perfectly ingenuous.
+In his critical eyes was a look of dalliance with a new problem. They
+were eyes that must often have studied human problems and not always to
+good purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose the kid is your first consideration?" he asked, amused.</p>
+
+<p>"He's so helpless!"</p>
+
+<p>"I see," he remarked oracularly. Before he left the tent he gave her a
+tablet from a phial which he carried in his vest-pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," she ventured in the hurried accents of feverishness, "I
+did not like you a bit when I first met you."</p>
+
+<p>"And now?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are so different from what I had imagined."</p>
+
+<p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You seemed an animated iceberg&mdash;forbidding and&mdash;yes, almost
+disagreeable. You make most people afraid of you."</p>
+
+<p>"It matters very little to me what people think of me," he returned
+indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you ever care for friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no use for friends&mdash;besides, who are one's friends? I have
+ceased to believe in friendship," he sneered.</p>
+
+<p>She studied his face gravely. "I don't like to hear you speak like that.
+We would be your friends if you would let us."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton checked a laugh of genuine amusement, the first sound of mirth
+she had heard from his lips, and it was not pleasant hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," he said tolerantly, "but it wouldn't work. I
+wouldn't suggest the experiment, if I may advise you."</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall not, if you are nasty," she pouted.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton laughed again disagreeably and went out.</p>
+
+<p>He was truly a conundrum, she decided, and difficult to know. Yet how
+kind he had been to her and careful of her child! for that she would
+always be grateful. But for him, anything might have happened! Strange
+fellow!&mdash;why was he so antagonistic to people when his profession made
+him a ministering angel to humanity? Joyce felt her head aching so
+violently at this stage that she abandoned the puzzle of Captain
+Dalton's nature and indulged in ecstasies over the thought of her baby's
+recovery. It made her so happy that, when her husband entered with the
+doctor, she flung her arms about his neck and apologised for her
+exhibition of bad temper. "I was horrible to you, Ray. Do forgive me,"
+sounded very sweet in her husband's ears. What the doctor thought was of
+no importance to her.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith mumbled transports of joy on her lips and was beside himself
+with anxiety that she should be feverish. He plied her with questions in
+his solicitude, and stood by in sulky jealousy while the doctor made his
+professional examination of her lungs and heart.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce said "ninety-nine" many times obediently, and was like a child in
+her unconsciousness of self. One all-absorbing thought occupied her
+mind, and that was her baby's well-being.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't Captain Dalton an angel?" she cried when the examination was over
+and her lungs pronounced in perfect order. "I shall love him for ever
+after his kindness to us; only, he won't let me. He has no use, he says,
+for friends!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton smiled grimly as he put away his stethoscope. "Have you ever
+heard of the qualities that go to make a good doctor?" he asked coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"An unerring judgment, nerves of steel, and a heart of stone."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you managed to acquire all three?" she asked playfully.</p>
+
+<p>"The petrifaction of the last-named is quite an old story," he remarked,
+as he passed out of the tent.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not talk so much, sweetheart, with a rising temperature,"
+Meredith cautioned, fussing over her, while, outside, the trial of a
+notorious criminal was suspended till the Magistrate should think fit to
+return. "How did Dalton find out that you had fever?" he questioned
+suspiciously. "Did you send for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. He brought me news of Baby and gave me my tea. Isn't he queer?
+Not half so bad as people make him out to be. Oh!&mdash;and I was so
+overjoyed and excited that I kissed his hand. I wonder what he thought
+of my foolishness?" and she laughed at the joke; but her husband seemed
+to have lost his sense of humour, for he retired from the bedside to
+pace the drugget in distinct annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"Damned officious of him," he grumbled. "You were not his patient."</p>
+
+<p>"I am <i>now</i>, so it's all right."</p>
+
+<p>"You shouldn't have forgotten your dignity."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, but that's the way with me. I never remember that I have
+any!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a married woman and no longer a child," he continued
+reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall always be a silly fool, I'm afraid," she sighed. "However, he's
+only the doctor, and a doctor is something between an angel and an
+automaton."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil he is!" Meredith growled, kicking a hassock to the other end
+of the tent.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, you big goose," she said wearily, stretching her limbs;
+"kiss me this instant, and go back to the malefactors. I want to sleep
+off this attack and get well quickly."</p>
+
+<p>Meredith could not bear to see her looking ill and wanted no second
+bidding to demonstrate his love for her. After kissing her most
+tenderly, he tucked her in comfortably, and, much against his
+inclination, left her to the doctor's ministrations.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>A POINT OF VIEW</h3>
+
+
+<p>Dalton filled the ice-bag he had brought with him and settled down to
+nursing with the skill of a woman; and no hands could have been gentler.
+Occasionally the worried husband would pay the tent a flying visit and
+return to listen to a pleader's lengthy oration with all the attention
+he could muster under the troublous circumstances. Visions of his wife's
+flushed face lying still on the pillow with closed eyes would haunt him
+with agonising fidelity to detail&mdash;especially in relation to the
+attentive doctor hovering near, adjusting the bag or removing it to be
+refilled, and administering the necessary doses of medicine. He took
+special notice of Dalton in his new character of nurse, and had no fault
+to find with his manner. He was as silent as the Sphinx and as
+professional as a nursing sister, and though Meredith thought it
+objectionable that his wife should always have to be treated in illness
+by a male physician&mdash;there being no lady doctor within hundreds of
+miles&mdash;he was obliged to take comfort in the fact that his beloved could
+not be in better hands.</p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere, the ayah crooned lullabies to the baby who no longer needed
+strict watching. She fed it from the bottle and wondered,
+philosophically, who would be the next to be taken ill; for experience
+told her that it was a mild form of epidemic chill, familiar to all at
+the changing of the seasons.</p>
+
+<p>Meals went forward with clock-like regularity, whether the sahibs were
+inclined for sustenance or not. The camp table in the dining-tent was
+laid with silver and crockery; a tight bunch of green leaves adorned a
+centre vase, and a gong rang at the appointed hour, while the dishes
+remained warm in the portable "hot case" where an open charcoal fire
+burned redly.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't the fever rather persistent?" Meredith asked at dinner while
+toying with his food.</p>
+
+<p>"It's early to judge," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unquestionably a touch of the 'flu.'"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't enteric?" the anxious husband asked fearfully. "I have a holy
+horror of enteric."</p>
+
+<p>"You make your mind easy, it is not going to be anything of the sort. I
+am afraid, however, you will have to give up all idea of Mrs. Meredith's
+camping for the present," he added definitely. "She and the child don't
+take kindly to canvas, and at this time of year we must avoid exposure
+to malarial conditions."</p>
+
+<p>"The District is particularly free from malaria," said Meredith.</p>
+
+<p>"Bengal is full of it; the many bogs and pools of stagnant water around
+are responsible for the anopheles mosquito."</p>
+
+<p>"It's dashed inconvenient when I must put in a deuced lot of camping in
+the cold weather."</p>
+
+<p>"Do most of it after Christmas," Dalton suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be just the same&mdash;they won't be able to stand it."</p>
+
+<p>"Frankly, I don't think they will. Perhaps, both might be more
+acclimatised later on," was the diplomatic reply.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith passed another night on the cane chair which he placed
+alongside of his wife's bed, and was conscious during periods of rest
+that the doctor never slept at all. He was in and out of the tent at all
+hours of the night looking after his patient with untiring zeal. An easy
+chair in the dining-tent had served as his couch, and the English
+newspapers entertained him during the long hours of the night.</p>
+
+<p>Yet at the end of the vigil, Meredith knew Captain Dalton no better than
+before. He was still the silent, repellent being, with eyes of a
+thought-reader and a baffling smile which might have meant contempt or
+tolerance; he was altogether incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p>By morning, Joyce was free of fever with a temporarily lowered vitality,
+and showing no ill effects. All day she convalesced happily, enjoying
+the petting she received from the men; Captain Dalton's methods being
+unobtrusive, but effective; Meredith's, on the other hand, being
+tactlessly affectionate and blundering.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a darling, Ray," she laughed, after a specially clumsy service,
+"but you were never born with a faculty for nursing, like Captain
+Dalton's. He is so capable; he never spills my mixture down my neck
+before I can drink it; nor does he pour out over-doses, and empty the
+surplus on the drugget!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Comparisons are odorous,'" he returned, looking hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"The tent is, if you like. It smells like a chemist's shop! Your proper
+place and function are in the court, and sentencing criminals to
+punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"You want to get rid of me so that you may have the doctor all to
+yourself! I wonder what you find in him at all. He fairly chokes one
+off."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you he was either an automaton or an angel; I find he is both,
+only he would like us to think him a bad angel."</p>
+
+<p>"A man knows himself best. So you want to desert me tomorrow?" he cried
+reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old thing!&mdash;you wouldn't have me stay if you knew that I should be
+miserable?" she coaxed, drawing down his face to be kissed.</p>
+
+<p>"Miserable with the husband who adores you?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you love me so much, you should be unselfish and think more of
+Baby."</p>
+
+<p>"Must Baby always count above his Daddy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally he must be considered more, while he is so young and
+delicate."</p>
+
+<p>"Where then do I come in?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't be jealous of your own child!" she cried reproachfully.
+"Think of his helplessness, his need of me!&mdash;Of course you need me,
+too," she said putting her palm over his mouth to stifle his eloquence
+on the subject of a husband's rights, "but then, there's a difference.
+You can manage without me, while he must not. A babe is a sacred trust
+to its mother."</p>
+
+<p>"And when he grows older and is impressionable, there will be a mother's
+<i>moral duty towards his soul</i> to separate us. You and he at home, and I
+out here, alone! I know the jargon, having watched such comedies for
+years. Now it has come home to me. One hears that a child is a blessing
+from God.... I believe it is a blessing very much in disguise, for I see
+only the disguise at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Why look so far ahead?" laughed Joyce, determined to mend his humour.
+"By the time he is old enough to become a 'moral' responsibility, you
+will probably be only too glad to get rid of me. I am such a worry as a
+wife."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder!" he ejaculated ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce reminded him of the many week-ends he could spend at the bungalow,
+when they would contrive to have very happy times. "I shan't be so
+anxious with a doctor on the spot, so to speak; and shall be ever so
+much more of a wife," she promised, looking adorable in the ribbons and
+laces of her snowy night-dress, backed with befrilled pillows.</p>
+
+<p>The prospect had compensations, he felt, but he found it hard to explain
+without incurring the imputation of selfishness, that, parted day after
+day from the light of her presence, deprived of the sight of her
+loveliness and the natural expression of his passion for her, he would
+assuredly ache unceasingly and pine himself sick. She would not
+understand, since she had little comprehension of the ways of mankind,
+so he could only sigh and capitulate.</p>
+
+<p>"At least there will be many honeymoons!" he allowed, trying to hide his
+disappointment in satire.</p>
+
+<p>"What a man you are!" she laughed. "Won't you ever get used to being
+married?"</p>
+
+<p>Meredith returned to his files and the clamouring multitude under the
+trees, for the remainder of the afternoon, with the noxious odours of
+bare-bodied humanity, besmeared with mustard oil, assaulting his
+nostrils. Meanwhile Joyce cultivated the doctor with innocent feelers of
+friendship while he administered afternoon tea.</p>
+
+<p>"I do think you are such a clever nurse," she said flatteringly, while
+he fed her on bread and butter. "You are like two persons in one&mdash;both
+doctor and nurse!"</p>
+
+<p>"Necessity is a good teacher," he returned shortly. "I have never nursed
+any one myself; others have generally taken my orders."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have imagined that you had done this all your life."</p>
+
+<p>Viewed in broad daylight at close quarters, when her brain was cleared
+of feverish delusions, he was not at all a handsome man. Too
+blunt-featured and heavy in the jaws; too square in the frame and thick
+of neck; but his eyes, with their power of reserve, were always a
+splendid mystery; deep-set and provoking, yet suggestive of nothing so
+much as banked fires, glowing and suppressed. Frequently they dwelt on
+her with the same satirical amusement of the polo-field, and she would
+waste much of her thoughts in wondering why. It was the look of a
+sceptic who had no intention of expressing his unbelief, and Joyce was
+irritated and annoyed. But she had no fault to find with his attentions,
+and was invariably won to gratitude for services rendered.</p>
+
+<p>She was very pretty&mdash;exceptionally so&mdash;and very simple; but, as pretty
+women were never simple, Dalton found entertainment in the study of her
+particular pose, as it seemed to him. If it were not a pose, then her
+husband was a short-sighted fool and he had no patience with him. The
+time was past for childish innocence and folly. Coquetry was very
+captivating, but to play with fire was dangerous, and if he mistook not,
+she would some day arrive at an understanding of human nature when it
+was too late to save her self-respect. Her beauty appealed to his
+artistic sense, but he had no admiration for shallow natures; hence his
+amused contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"You remind me of nothing so much as an oyster," she laughed, picking up
+a dainty piece of bread and butter and putting it in her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are living so much in your shell. Why do you do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, if it pleases me?" he asked pouring out two cups of tea.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of all you lose!"</p>
+
+<p>"I generally manage to take what I want," he replied with an insolent
+smile. "I rarely suffer from loss."</p>
+
+<p>"You lose love," said she wisely.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about it?" he questioned, fixing her with his
+penetrating eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I love my husband&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;And your baby, even more. Of course your experience is immense!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are sarcastic," she said reproachfully. "I love my husband and my
+baby in quite different ways. You have no wife or baby, so you cannot
+understand. Men like you go through life without knowing any of its real
+joys."</p>
+
+<p>"That is according to your point of view," he retorted. "In any case,
+marriage is a great gamble and it's best to avoid risks."</p>
+
+<p>"There's a girl you and I know..." Joyce put in reminiscently, seeing in
+mind a pleasing vision, "and the man who gets her will be the luckiest
+fellow in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"He certainly will."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know whom I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean Miss Bright of Muktiarbad."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce opened wide her blue eyes which were the colour of forget-me-nots,
+and stared. "Are you a thought-reader?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was easy reading, for there is only one girl we mutually know who
+fits your description entirely, and she is Miss Honor Bright. She has
+been reared to live up to her name."</p>
+
+<p>"And you found that out though you hardly ever speak to her?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather wonderful, isn't it?" he asked with his crooked smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;why&mdash;?" There were limits to curiosity, but her expressive eyes
+spoke the rest of her question direct to his.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't I cultivate Miss Bright? The answer is simple. I am not
+seeking a wife, and I have no interest in friendships."</p>
+
+<p>"How rude!" she cried reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton laughed disagreeably and offered her more tea which she accepted,
+not knowing whether he was not after all the most churlish being she had
+ever met.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could understand you, Doctor, but I never shall," she sighed
+hopelessly, as she endeavoured to make herself comfortable among the
+tumbled bed-clothes. "I give you up as a difficult riddle."</p>
+
+<p>"You want your bed re-made," he returned changing the subject. "Shall I
+do it for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You?&mdash;I can't fancy your bed-making!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show you that I can do that as well as most other things. But
+you'll have to move out."</p>
+
+<p>The cane lounge had been put out of the way and was not within easy
+walking distance for a shaky invalid; nevertheless Joyce was determined
+to try. While he transferred the cushions, she rolled herself in a shawl
+and made a brave effort to walk across, only to be overcome by
+giddiness.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton was in time to save her from falling and she was carried clinging
+in her panic to the column of his neck. "You shouldn't have attempted
+it," he scolded.</p>
+
+<p>"But I liked the way you swung me off my feet!" she said contentedly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not one of my duties to wait hand and foot on my patients, I
+would have you understand," he said grimly with a lurking twinkle in his
+eye, wondering, the while, whether the giddiness was another pose. "It
+seems you like being fussed over," he remarked before laying her down
+among the cushions.</p>
+
+<p>"I love it!" she cooed ingenuously. "It's the only reason I don't mind
+being sick, to have Ray fuss and carry me about."</p>
+
+<p>He put her down immediately with the familiar expression of indulgent
+satire in his eyes. "You'll probably get plenty of fussing from
+everyone; but, in the case of the boys, remember to be merciful."</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are some young fools who might, if encouraged, lose their heads,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But there'd be no excuse, for I never flirt."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, you flirt like an artist."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce thought it was horrid of him to say so, and wondered if she should
+snub him for his impertinence; only she did not quite know how. He had
+been so kind&mdash;perhaps he was only teasing? However she was reduced to
+offended silence while he made her bed with skill and expedition. He was
+not anxious that her husband arrive and find him so employed, and was
+glad to restore Mrs. Meredith to her nest of pillows without
+interruptions from without. Her utter lack of concern, either way, was
+illuminating, so that he had to revise his estimate of her once again,
+while his smile lost its satire.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure you are comfy?" he asked before leaving her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, thank you," she answered stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"Haughtiness does not become you, dear lady. What have I done?" he asked
+coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"You said I was a flirt!" she pouted.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take it back," he returned smiling broadly, thinking that she
+certainly flirted delightfully. But shallow natures always flirted just
+so.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never been accused of that&mdash;in my life."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be such a libel!" he conceded.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she said graciously as she shot him a forgiving glance both
+radiant and alluring. "Do you know, I like you tremendously, though I
+began by thinking you hateful."</p>
+
+<p>"First impressions are often correct," he returned grimly, and retired.</p>
+
+<p>By and by, when she was alone with her husband and childishly about to
+recount the events of the afternoon with fidelity as to detail, she was
+diverted by his grave distress at the coming parting. It was cruel to
+inflict grief, and she wished he would be more reasonable.</p>
+
+<p>"Old thing!" she said affectionately, rubbing her soft cheek against his
+rough one; "think how much I, too, shall miss you! It won't be only on
+your side!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you really miss me?" he asked infatuatedly.</p>
+
+<p>"All the time. I love having you about, and if I am lonely at nights, I
+have only to creep into your bed in the next room to be comforted. What
+ever shall I do when that bed lies empty?"</p>
+
+<p>It was heavenly to Meredith to hear this intimate revelation from her
+lips, always so shy of expressing her need of him. It was a great
+advance in the right direction, and his skies cleared as by magic. If
+absence truly made the heart grow fonder, he would have no cause of
+complaint against this short parting. It was the greater one in the
+spring, the shadow of which was already darkening his horizon, that he
+dared not contemplate.</p>
+
+<p>However, there was plenty of time yet, and no earthly good was to be
+gained by crossing bridges in anticipation.</p>
+
+<p>The following day saw an exodus from the camp. Meredith took his wife
+and child to Muktiarbad station, and saw them comfortably established in
+the Collector's bungalow, known as the Bara Koti,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> then returned to
+his duties in the rural parts of his District, resolved to support his
+deprivations with cheerful resignation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT CAN'T BE CURED</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ray Meredith tried for the first few days to submit to his loss with
+fortitude, but the loneliness of the camp, after the experience of a
+sweet wife's companionship, was insupportable. There were no Europeans
+for miles around and there remained only the diversions of an occasional
+<i>shikar</i>. The tour of the previous autumn and winter months on which he
+had been accompanied by his girlish bride, had spoilt him for bachelor
+life; for though Joyce had disliked the inconveniences of camping, she
+had suffered them meekly, seeing that to have objected would have been
+both selfish and unkind. But the coming of the child had roused in her
+active opposition to all that might be harmful to its most precious
+health, and her husband was gradually discovering that he would
+inevitably have to accept the back seat.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in his official career, the routine of his work
+wearied him with its monotony and staleness. Having his meals in
+solitary state affected his appetite and digestion, for he took to
+bolting his food just to get rid of the automaton behind his chair who,
+no doubt, mentally criticised his every act, and treasured up the memory
+of his idiosyncrasies to comment upon them, later, in the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>During the day the business of hearing petitions, trying cases, and
+delivering judgments, occupied his mind and brought distraction, but in
+the evenings he could settle to nothing. Even his beloved pipe failed to
+bring him consolation.</p>
+
+<p>When darkness closed in with dense shadows where the moonlight failed to
+penetrate, and the peace of a world at rest was upon the countryside,
+when even the birds had ceased to chirp and flutter in their nests, the
+air would feel charged with expectancy. A footfall without would cause
+Meredith to lift his head from his papers or book, wondering if there
+was a message for him&mdash;Joyce taken ill&mdash;or the baby? The silence bred
+nerves, till a chorus of jackals howling in an adjacent paddy field
+would break the spell and come as a welcome relief.</p>
+
+<p>Often, the words of a book he tried to read conveyed no meaning to his
+mind till he had re-read a paragraph several times. Or the official
+report he had set himself to write was disturbed by mental visions of
+Station doings in which his young wife was perhaps taking part without
+his support and protection.</p>
+
+<p>She was so young and unsophisticated! It was perhaps his own fault that
+she was so, but he loved her all the more on account of it, and would
+not have had her otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>An instinctive distrust of Captain Dalton would not be stifled, and he
+disliked the thought of his innocent young wife being exposed to the
+subtle flattery of such unusual attentions as he had paid her in
+camp,&mdash;strictly professional, no doubt, but disagreeably intimate from a
+husband's point of view. Confound him!</p>
+
+<p>A young man of arresting appearance and strange personality, whose
+private life was unknown and whose conduct towards his neighbours was
+aloof and repellent, was best kept at a distance and treated with the
+formality which accorded with his profession, otherwise he would become
+a disturbing element. Already Joyce seemed to consider herself under
+obligations to him, and in her enthusiastic gratitude was prone to
+overstep the limits of dignified propriety which he wished her to
+observe. Would to heaven that the Government had sent them a married man
+as Civil Surgeon of Muktiarbad! Bachelors of mysterious habits and
+manners were totally out of place in a station so well supplied with
+womenkind.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith was thankful that there were so many women in the Station and
+all likely to be lavish with their attentions to his wife. She would
+seldom be left to her own devices or the society of the doctor, in whose
+care she was unreservedly placed. And Joyce was popular with the ladies
+despite the fact that she was too young to play her dignified rôle of
+leading lady with success. She played it with a charm all her own, and
+drew towards her the members of her own sex as well as those of the
+masculine. She was unique, he assured himself. He could trust her
+blindfold, even among wolves in sheep's clothing; for essentially she
+was a mother, and had every incentive to keep pure. Love of children and
+a respect for religion were sure safeguards against the wiles of the
+tempter; he could therefore make his mind easy, feeling that his wife
+possessed both.</p>
+
+<p>But jealousy is a weed of hardy growth, and once having taken root is
+difficult to destroy. There were memories to haunt him and give him many
+a sleepless night: Joyce seizing and kissing Dalton's hand in her frenzy
+of relief when he told her the good news concerning the child; her
+milk-white shoulder and bosom exposed for the stethoscope.... She might
+look upon Dalton as an "angel" or an "automaton," but no man, unless
+superhuman, is a stoic where a lovely woman is concerned.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, it was a miserable week for Meredith in his solitude,
+despite the distractions of his office and constant journeys over the
+plain.</p>
+
+<p>His next encampment was a large Mohammedan village on the outskirts of a
+silk factory,&mdash;an important industry owned and worked by a prosperous
+Anglo-Indian.</p>
+
+<p>In duty bound, the Magistrate and Collector called on the ladies of the
+house, sending in the usual piece of pasteboard with his name printed
+thereon, and caught a fleeting glimpse of the wife in a dressing-gown
+and slippers scuttling to cover from the out-offices in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>After keeping him waiting for sometime in a musty drawing-room where
+cobwebs lurked in corners and everything looked the worse for time, she
+appeared in fearful and wonderful array,&mdash;layers of powder concealing
+the dusky tint of her complexion, innumerable jewels tinkling on her
+person, and hands badly manicured, but richly be-ringed.</p>
+
+<p>During his brief visit she talked volubly in "chee-chee," vigorously
+assisted by gesticulations, and her laughter was ear-splitting and
+vulgar in its enforced hilarity; so that Meredith, whose nerves felt
+badly jangled, rose to beat a hasty retreat, courteously resisting all
+the hospitable efforts of the hostess to keep him as a guest.</p>
+
+<p>At the Subdivision of Panchpokhur, he was introduced to the Deputy
+Magistrate's wife and twin baby boys who were splendid specimens of
+infantile vigour; and his praise and admiration were the passport to
+their mother's instant regard. She was a devoted wife and mother, placid
+and easy-going, and carried the air of one equal to any emergency.</p>
+
+<p>"I am amazed that they should look so strong," Meredith said as he
+watched the children racing over the grass in pursuit of straying
+poultry.</p>
+
+<p>"They seldom ail," said their mother, who, though country born, was
+perfectly English in her speech and manners. "I nursed them both,
+unaided," she said proudly, feeling disposed to venture this confidence
+to a man who was married and a father.</p>
+
+<p>"That, I suppose, makes a heap of difference," he remarked diffidently.
+"My wife was too ill after the birth of the kid, so it was put on the
+bottle from the start."</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity!" and the lady forthwith entered upon an instructive
+dissertation on the particular artificial foods that could be
+recommended.</p>
+
+<p>"Will this always make him delicate, do you think?" Meredith asked
+anxiously, not so much for the sake of the babe, as from the fear of all
+it would mean to himself in regard to his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not, but it is a bad handicap."</p>
+
+<p>Meredith sighed as he explained the reason of his touring alone.
+"Captain Dalton thinks the child should be within reach of medical aid
+after its go of fever. My wife, too, was a bit knocked over and cannot
+rough it this winter, I'm afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"The new Civil Surgeon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Came direct from Calcutta after the rains set in."</p>
+
+<p>"He is said to be very clever, but the natives don't seem to like him at
+all, as he is supposed to be rather fond of the knife."</p>
+
+<p>"A good surgeon, I am told. The natives are great cowards of surgery,
+and risk gangrene before they will consent to an operation."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so. He has his hands full, I should think," said the lady.
+"Elsie Meek, the daughter of a dear friend of mine, is dangerously ill
+at the Mission not far from Muktiarbad. I suppose you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>Meredith had heard a rumour to that effect, and wondered how Captain
+Dalton had managed to spare so much of his valuable time to the camp.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Meek is a Methodist who came out some years ago and married a
+school friend of my mother's. Their daughter was educated in England and
+joined them a few months ago. I am told she is a talented girl and
+totally unsuited to her life here," said his hostess. "Have you seen
+much of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very little, indeed, for her people don't belong to the Club and Miss
+Elsie has only been to see the Brights who are rather friendly with her
+parents. She came out in the summer."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor thing! Enteric is such a terrible disease, and she is very bad I
+hear."</p>
+
+<p>"She could not be in more skilful hands," said Meredith.</p>
+
+<p>Before he left the Subdivision, he had many illuminating talks with the
+wife of the Deputy on the subject of infants and how to rear them in
+Bengal.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," said he, "when my kid begins to teeth, the doctors will
+advise sending him and the mother home?" It was the probability he most
+dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>"I see no necessity for that," was the assured reply. "Doctors take too
+much responsibility upon themselves, when they so readily part husbands
+and wives. It has often been the cause of greater trouble than is to be
+feared from the climate. It should be remembered that teething is not a
+disease, but a natural process, which might be influenced by the
+digestion in any part of the globe. Poor India gets all the blame!&mdash;even
+when an ayah is careless with the feeding bottles. Why! those iniquitous
+ones with a long rubber tube, used in my mother's day, were called
+'Herods' for the number of children they killed. With proper attention,
+and the hills for a change when necessary, there is no reason why babies
+out here should not do perfectly well till they are seven. It is the
+growing and impressionable stage, and I'll allow that the moral example
+of human nature in the East is not of the best. I say it, who have been
+brought up entirely out here."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a tremendous credit to your upbringing," put in Meredith.</p>
+
+<p>"My people were very particular and I was never allowed an ayah to teach
+me self-indulgence, nor to associate with the servants' children on the
+estate; for what native children do not know of evil isn't worth
+knowing."</p>
+
+<p>The Subdivisional Officer's bungalow was a type usually to be found in
+rural Districts, built of bricks and mortar, whitewashed, and roofed
+with the thatching grass that grows on low-lying lands by the Ganges.
+Earlier in Raymond Meredith's career, Panchpokhur had been one of his
+own appointments, and every corner of the dwelling and its grounds was
+familiar to him: the tall goldmohur trees beside the gate, the range of
+out-offices and stabling, the high, flowering hedge of hibiscus, the
+primitive well by the palm tree, with its screeching pulley. Gazing from
+the verandah he could almost imagine himself a bachelor again in the
+first flush of an opening career, keen and interested. The low verandah
+was the same on which he was wont to sleep on hot summer nights, and
+breakfast upon, at sunrise, in his pyjamas. The deep, thatched roof was
+as cool and as picturesque as of yore, having been renewed many times in
+the seven or eight years that were gone. The difference in his
+surroundings lay in the greater cleanliness&mdash;which usually distinguished
+the abode of a married man from that of a careless bachelor&mdash;and also in
+the supplementary furniture which threw his old camp articles into the
+shade. He was able to recognise the more durable of his past possessions
+in various parts of the house where they appealed to him as old friends.
+In those days how little had sufficed him!</p>
+
+<p>All was now changed, for his life was dominated with the one idea of
+making his home attractive and suitable for the treasure it held.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>After Panchpokhur, he moved on with his tents and the paraphernalia of
+camp life to parts thickly populated by Indians of all castes and
+creeds, and was received with pomp and ceremony befitting the
+representative of the Ruling Power. Addresses were read to him before a
+vast concourse of humanity; and members of the Local Municipal Board
+vied with one another in paying him the respect due to his official
+position.</p>
+
+<p>In the intervals of duty, he tramped jungle places for game, alone or in
+company with gentlemen from the neighbourhood; and, at the week-end,
+prepared to spend Sunday with his wife at Muktiarbad.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LEADING LADY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Joyce at the Bara Koti, partially regained her confidence in
+life, and tried to make the best of her surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>The house stood imposingly in extensive grounds which had been
+artistically laid out by successive officials, in lawns, flower-bed,
+ornamental shrubberies, and a kitchen garden, all of which were
+maintained by four <i>malis</i> and a regiment of coolies. A dense hedge of
+cactus separated the grounds from the roadway, with graceful bamboo
+clumps at intervals for shade; and a rustic gate led to the carriage
+drive, an avenue bordered by goldmohur trees.</p>
+
+<p>The building, which was one-storeyed, was of solid masonry, the floor
+being well raised upon arches. Wide pillared verandahs ran on every
+side, and the roof was of concrete supported by iron joists. The rooms
+were lofty and spacious, with high doors and many windows, furnished
+with glass shutters and Venetian blinds; and were designed to fulfil the
+requirements of married officials of important position in the
+Government, who were expected to maintain a dignified state and
+entertain in a style to correspond. In a word, it was Government House
+on a minor scale, with a lordly status to keep up in the Station and
+District.</p>
+
+<p>For his wife's sake, Meredith had endeavoured to make his home as
+attractive as possible so as to save inevitable comparisons between her
+present and past circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>However, there were drawbacks which even he could not avoid: the lack of
+the most ordinary conveniences of daily life, such as electric lights
+and fans, water pipes, telephones, and English shops; and of them all,
+it was to be feared that the last might yet prove the most to be
+deplored.</p>
+
+<p>The bathrooms, which were numerous, had no hot and cold water laid on;
+nor were there any but kerosene lamps to give light; and in lieu of
+electric fans, <i>punkhas</i> with gathered frills were worked by means of a
+rope through a hole in the wall. Kurta, Moja, Juti, and Paji, were the
+four Hindu coolies employed in summer to keep the frill perpetually
+waving in whichever room it pleased the sahibs to sit; and the patient
+creatures sat cross-legged on the verandah floor, nodding over the rope
+till galvanised into activity by a shout from within.</p>
+
+<p>For baths, kettles of boiling water were fetched from the kitchen, fifty
+yards or so distant, and cans of cold water from a tank beyond the
+vegetable garden, by a semi-nude servant whose duty it was to do this
+and nothing else. It took Joyce many months to realise which of the
+numerous servants in her pay could be required to perform a particular
+task, so complicated were the differentiations created by caste.</p>
+
+<p>Muktiarbad was very much behind the times as to modern comforts and
+conveniences, but was entirely up-to-date in the fashions which the
+weekly journals depicted for the advantage of the gentler sex, and which
+the latest arrivals from "home" expressed. Moreover, Calcutta was only a
+few hundred miles away&mdash;a trifle in India&mdash;and contained first-rate
+shops and dressmakers. A week-end visit to the Metropolis for a round of
+shopping was a common habit of the ladies of Muktiarbad, with its handy
+train service; and if it added considerably to the cost of living, what
+would you, when the bazaar sold only Manchester goods in bales, and
+<i>saris</i> for feminine apparel?</p>
+
+<p>Old Khodar Bux, who was available for eight annas per day, was a
+treasure to bachelor servants, as the only tailor to be had in the
+District.</p>
+
+<p>In all other matters, the Station was content, for officials were birds
+of passage, and what had sufficed the residents for years, was good
+enough for today. Private enterprise was sluggish, and the cost of
+transporting plant and material for the installation of electricity,
+prohibitive; so the sahibs continued to use kerosene oil; were fanned by
+coolies, and were dependent on wells and tanks for their water supply,
+leaving it to the larger towns and great centres to revel in all the
+luxuries of modern times.</p>
+
+<p>The possession of a large Daimler by the Collector, and of a two-seater
+Rolls-Royce by the doctor, filled the other English residents with envy;
+but they were anathema to the natives of the bazaars and villages. Rich
+Indians followed suit with cars of various sorts, but, generally, the
+machines were looked upon by the ignorant as ruthless inventions of the
+devil, and to be feared accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce lived an idle life at Muktiarbad, served hand and foot by a host
+of servants, and treated as a little queen by her neighbours. She did
+not even try to "keep house" after the approved method in the East, a
+bunch of keys jingling in her pocket, and everything that was of value
+locked safely away; a cook to stand behind her chair, once a day, to
+render the bazaar accounts; visits of inspection to the kitchen, an
+eagle eye kept on the dusting and sweeping, and the laundry-man's weekly
+wash duly checked; for Meredith's head <i>bearer</i>, who had assumed
+responsibilities in his master's bachelor days and was too valuable to
+be deprived of his office, continued to keep accounts and run the
+establishment on oiled wheels. Joyce held him in secret awe and respect.</p>
+
+<p>Her ayah instructed her in Indian ways and customs, and caste
+susceptibilities; and it was no little tax to remember how not to
+offend. The <i>bearer</i> was not to be asked to carry trays of food, or the
+<i>khansaman</i> to trim the lamps; the <i>masalchi</i> had no responsibility with
+regard to the boots, or the sweeper with scullery concerns; and so on,
+and so forth. It was all very bewildering and made her nervous. She
+cared too little for India to take much trouble to improve her knowledge
+of the country or of the people, and was content to remain as an
+honoured guest in her own house, with her precious babe to worship and
+cherish with jealous devotion.</p>
+
+<p>On her return from camp, visitors dropped in to see her, foremost among
+them, Mrs. Barrington Fox, the wife of a railway official of some
+importance in the District; a lady young enough to have retained a
+belief in her power to charm. She had been very handsome at her <i>début</i>,
+ten years ago, but the ravages of the climate had not spared her
+complexion which was delicately assisted by art to retain its bloom. She
+had the air of being languidly bored with the monotony of her life, and
+seemed disposed to patronise the "leading lady" who never led, save when
+the laws of precedence obliged her to occupy the seat of honour at
+dinner parties in the Station. It was a temptation to Mrs. Fox to advise
+her in the way she should go, and she tactfully managed to hint at it.
+"India is naturally strange to you, yet you do wonderfully!&mdash;I am sure
+you are very clever," she would begin, and then make some suggestion
+which Joyce was very glad to follow. For instance&mdash;"I hear the Padre
+from headquarters wishes to hold service here next Sunday. He ought
+really to put up with you, but the Brights have had him lately and
+unless you write and invite him he is likely to go straight to them.
+What do you think?" she asked lighting a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce had been in the hills on the few occasions when the Reverend John
+Pugh had visited Muktiarbad from Hazrigunge and conducted Divine service
+in the reading-room of the Club.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I should?" she asked, anxious to do the correct thing.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking that the Brights take too much upon themselves. Mrs.
+Bright is only the wife of the Superintendent of Police after all, and
+your husband is the Collector."</p>
+
+<p>"But Mrs. Bright is a perfect dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Still she should not encroach on your rights. The District Chaplain
+usually stays with the Collector unless he has special friends in the
+Station with whom he divides his time. But do just as you like. I
+thought perhaps he would think you did not want him."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to have him very much," Joyce said eagerly. "My husband
+will be here and it will be quite a pleasure to us both." So Joyce
+promised to write her letter of invitation.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, she was never at her ease with Mrs. Fox, who had rarely a
+good word for her neighbours and voiced strangely radical sentiments
+concerning Life and its obligations. They were often startling,
+particularly as she made no secret of the fact that she and her husband
+never "got on." Between puffs of cigarette smoke she would scoff at the
+laws of marriage and speak with much leniency of divorce. Her sympathies
+were invariably with offenders, and Joyce thought her rather too fond of
+the society of men. Meredith feared and disliked her. The fear was on
+his wife's account, lest she should be contaminated. "I have no use for
+a woman of her type," he would say. "She has made a mess of her own life
+and is a poisonous influence to young women."</p>
+
+<p>"But it seems she has a perfect brute of a husband, who leaves her to
+herself while he runs up and down the line amusing himself with other
+women."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a lie," said Meredith sternly. "Fox is not a bad sort. Men rather
+like him, and he is a jolly good Traffic Superintendent. The Railway
+staff think a lot of him. I should not be surprised if he is fed up with
+her selfishness and the way she carries on with his assistants. No
+decent man tolerates that sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"If you talked to her for an hour, you'd think she was the injured
+party," said Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'd rather you never talked to her."</p>
+
+<p>But that was ridiculous in a small station where everyone met everyone
+else every day, Joyce explained.</p>
+
+<p>So when Mrs. Barrington Fox called, full of gossip and friendliness, she
+was received politely. After the matter of the Padre was settled, she
+demanded to see the child and a quarter of an hour was spent in
+baby-worship.</p>
+
+<p>"He's certainly not looking so well as when you brought him from
+Darjeeling. Weaker, I should say, poor little chappie! I don't believe
+the place agrees with him&mdash;or with you, for that matter. You look a good
+deal paler. How do you feel?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite all right now, only a bit shaken," Joyce said doubtfully.
+Possibly she was not conscious how bad she actually was? Mrs. Fox was
+not comforting.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't run down, you know. The surest safeguard against epidemics
+and illnesses peculiar to this miserable climate is never to allow
+yourself to run below par."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is one to do? One doesn't deliberately do it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but you should eat heaps of nourishing things. Drink plenty of
+milk, for instance. But never fail to boil it, and never leave it
+exposed to the air. Milk is the most dangerous thing you can take, on
+account of its susceptibility to germs of every kind; especially enteric
+and cholera. It simply asks for germs!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if you keep it covered, it goes bad!" cried Joyce alarmed since it
+formed the sole diet of her beloved infant.</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't be a bad plan to keep it in the refrigerator in bottles. I
+did that all the winter, last year, when I was on milk diet."</p>
+
+<p>"It will turn me grey to keep in mind the many things I must not do out
+here!" sighed Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fox condoled with her out of fellow-feeling and congratulated her
+for having given up camping. "If it doesn't suit you or the kid, I don't
+see why you should be obliged to do it. Men have to learn not to be
+selfish."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce fired up. "Ray is anything but selfish. Sometimes I think it is I
+who am selfish; but if it were only myself, I would never say a word. We
+have to do our duty by the child."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly so. I quite see the point of view. Here you have the doctor at
+hand. I am told he nursed you like a mother."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce wondered how Mrs. Fox had come to hear of it as, since her return
+to the Station, she had seen no callers. "How <i>ever</i> did you know?" she
+asked ingenuously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, one hears things!" Mrs. Fox blew smoke through her nostrils and
+smiled knowingly. "And how do you like him on closer acquaintance?"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce thought he improved on acquaintance. Mrs. Fox annoyed her by that
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"He is an enigma to most, but if I know his type, he is not a little
+dangerous. He can be exceedingly rude. I passed him on my way here and
+common politeness should have made him pull up for a word or two. But he
+rushed by in a cloud of dust with two fingers just touching the brim of
+his hat!&mdash;considering I was on foot, you can imagine my feelings. I have
+never been treated so by a man in my life&mdash;unless it is by my own
+husband; but then, there's no love lost," Mrs. Fox remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps Captain Dalton was in a hurry," Joyce suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't excuse him. He can be very nice when he likes. Yesterday there
+was Honor Bright hanging over her fence to talk to him, and though it
+was his busiest time, he was there quite a long while,&mdash;you know their
+gardens join. I saw them through Mrs. Bray's field-glasses. The Brays'
+verandah, as you know, looks on the Brights' grounds from beyond a
+paddock."</p>
+
+<p>"He thinks a lot of Honor," said Joyce remembering their conversation in
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>"Any one can see she is making up to him. But Mrs. Bright had better
+take care. No one knows anything of Captain Dalton's affairs. He might
+be married for all one knows. Honor Bright may be very popular in the
+District, but she'll get herself talked about and end all her chances of
+marrying well. Naturally it is the ambition of her parents to see her
+well settled, but she's far too unconventional. Did you hear of her
+escapade while you were in camp?"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce had not heard, but was eager to know all about it. She knew Honor
+was careless of conventions out of a contempt for small minds and a love
+of independence. All who knew her allowed that she was as "straight as
+you make 'em," and admired her open nature and clear eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't she write and tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"We seldom write to each other."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were bosom friends!&mdash;well, she was out alone looking for
+early snipe&mdash;someone had seen one in the fields beyond the bazaar&mdash;and
+while out, she was supposed to have been bitten by a snake&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;Why do you say 'supposed'?" Joyce interrupted ready to spring to arms
+for her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll say she was bitten, if you like; only, people bitten by snakes
+generally die, and she didn't. She tied a ligature and was limping home
+when she met Captain Dalton in his car on his way to a dispensary
+somewhere in the District. He took her up and home to his house where
+she stayed half the day alone with him. Her mother was week-ending in
+Calcutta, and Honor was in charge of her father's comforts and the home;
+but her father happened to have run out to Panipara for a rioting case
+which he and the police were bothered with; so Miss Honor stayed with
+the doctor till she thought fit to come home."</p>
+
+<p>"Bitten by a snake!" gasped Joyce in consternation. "Poor Honor!&mdash;how
+terrified she must have been!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's best known to herself and him. Since then, you'll observe that
+there is a sort of understanding between them."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"They seem to be on far better terms than he is with any one else in the
+Station, and Honor is falling in love with him. I am anything but blind
+to the symptoms!" and Mrs. Fox struck a match and lighted another
+cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose they grew friendly over the treatment of her wound," said
+Joyce beginning to understand how it was that the doctor had learned to
+appreciate Honor Bright. Yet he was "not seeking to marry her."</p>
+
+<p>"I must get Honor to tell me all about it when I see her. Perhaps she
+does not know I am back?"</p>
+
+<p>"She knows right enough, for, as I have said, the doctor was with her
+yesterday, talking across the garden fence."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fox smoked her second and third cigarette, drank tea with Joyce,
+and, when every topic of interest was exhausted, wended her way
+homeward, deploring the fact that her husband was too selfish to give
+her a motor-car. "He doesn't care for one, so I have to do without; and
+with only one riding-horse and that one lame, I am obliged to tramp the
+dusty lanes on foot."</p>
+
+<p>"I am also without a conveyance while my husband is in camp," said
+Joyce, "but it does not matter as I like walking."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't. My frocks are not suited to pedestrian exercise and cost too
+much&mdash;" which suggested the idea to Joyce that Mrs. Fox's expensive
+clothes accounted for her husband's economy in other directions. She
+watched her swaying languidly down the drive, a tall and graceful
+figure, stylishly dressed and pretty in a faded way, in spite of the
+delicate pink of her oval cheek and the brightness of her thin lips.
+What a pity it was that she had never a good word for any one, and made
+herself so ridiculous with the men, thought Joyce; it lowered her in
+their estimation and laid her open to impudence. Though she was
+attractive to many, she never succeeded in holding the attention of her
+admirers very long; which was humiliating to say the least of it. Joyce
+looked upon her as an example of a true flirt, and feared her
+accordingly&mdash;not on her husband's account, for Ray gave her a wide
+berth&mdash;but as a criminal at large. Women had whispered tales which she
+found impossible to credit; the world was so censorious! But on the
+theory that there was never any smoke without fire, she decided that
+Mrs. Fox was unscrupulous, and deplored the fact that the Station was
+obliged to put up with her. Apparently, so long as a husband
+countenanced his wife, no one else had any right to object to whatever
+she might do! It was a strange world!</p>
+
+<p>The trend of her thoughts reminded her of the doctor's estimate of
+herself, which he had subsequently withdrawn. But then, he could only
+have been teasing, for Joyce knew herself, and flirting was very far
+from her intentions at any time, or under any circumstance. For
+instance, she was very sure she would never allow any man but her
+husband to kiss her!&mdash;the bare idea was appalling!</p>
+
+<p>After the tennis hour at the Club, Honor Bright cycled up to the steps
+of the Bara Koti, and ran in to embrace Mrs. Meredith and welcome her
+home. "I am sorry not to have been able to come earlier, there was so
+much to do, and a tennis match in the afternoons," she said in her full,
+deep voice which Joyce thought so musical. Yet she never sang. God had
+given her a larynx, but the wicked fairies had robbed her of ear, so,
+though she loved music passionately, she could never produce a tune. "I
+must be fit only for 'treasons, stratagems, and spoils,'" she was once
+heard to say, "for it seems I was not born musical."</p>
+
+<p>However, it was pointed out to her that she was not just to herself; she
+had plenty of "music in her soul" to satisfy even Shakespeare; it was
+only her inability to use the divine instrument in her throat. "You put
+me in mind of 'Trilby.' Perhaps you will sing if you are hypnotised!"
+Joyce had told her.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Dalton mentioned that you and Baby had both been ill. However I
+am glad to see <i>you</i> so well. How is Squawk?"</p>
+
+<p>"How can you call him such a horrid name!" said Joyce reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>Honor laughed heartily. "Tommy is responsible; you must scold him."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall, indeed. He's a bad boy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all!&mdash;he's a Deare!" at which they both laughed, for Mr.
+Bright's assistant, like the Assistant Magistrate, had a name of
+infinite possibilities. A comic fate had thrown him and Jack Darling
+together in the same Station, and they were provocative of fun in more
+senses than the coincidence of their names afforded.</p>
+
+<p>The guest was carried off to see the son-and-heir in his crib and admire
+his indefinite features that were prophetic of beauty, and his limbs
+that were a miracle of elasticity.</p>
+
+<p>By and by, they settled down to talk and Honor was told of the Padre's
+approaching visit. "Mrs. Fox thinks we should ask him to put up with us
+this time, or he might be offended," she explained. "Will your mother
+mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mind? she'll be only too glad, for in private life the old man is a
+terrible bore! he tells the same joke over and over again, and Mother
+says she is determined not to laugh the next time. There ought to be
+some way of choking off stale jokes, don't you think, without offending
+the poor dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him one of his own. I am sure it will make such an impression that
+he'll never forget it."</p>
+
+<p>"He's so polite, that he'll laugh heartily as though he'd never heard it
+in his life!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a hopeless person! However, I shall be glad to save your mother
+from nervous prostration," said Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Fox always gets news in advance of everyone else," said Honor. "I
+wonder how she does it?"</p>
+
+<p>"She says she hears a lot&mdash;Ray says, servants carry news about the
+District as fast as telegrams."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate to think that she takes the liberty of dropping in upon you
+whenever she likes. She's not a safe person, so I hope you are careful
+of what you tell her."</p>
+
+<p>"Generally, it is she who does the telling, and I the listening."</p>
+
+<p>"It won't do you any good, what she has to say!"</p>
+
+<p>"It won't do me harm. I heard from her today, that you had been bitten
+by a snake while I was in camp. How too terrible!&mdash;oh, Honey, how
+frightened you must have been!" In emotional moments, Joyce called her
+friend by her family pet-name.</p>
+
+<p>"I was dreadfully frightened&mdash;afterwards," said Honor, shuddering
+violently.</p>
+
+<p>"And you never told me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I could not write about it," said the girl with a sudden gravity that
+ennobled her face. "I don't like talking about it; it was a bad shock."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me this once, and we shan't speak of it again," Joyce pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>She thought Honor's a beautiful face, though it had no actual claim to
+beauty apart from the brown eyes that were so frank and steadfast, and
+her regular teeth. The eyes were arresting in their depth of shade and
+power of expression, with dark lashes of unusual thickness; but for the
+rest, her complexion was tanned by reckless exposure to the sun, her
+nose had a saucy tendency, and her mouth, though shapely, was not by any
+means a rosebud; indeed, she had a wide smile which was readily excused
+for the charm of it, and because of her splendid teeth. Soulless men
+admired Honor for her eyes, her teeth, and her figure which was truly
+classical; others, for her honesty and directness, and the womanly
+sympathy which never failed. Tommy Deare was among the latter, and he
+had known her for the greater part of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Asked to talk of the episode of the snake, Honor's expression changed
+and she was strongly moved.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ANXIOUS EXPERIENCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Have you ever wondered what it must feel like to have sentence of death
+passed on you?" said Honor Bright thoughtfully leaning her chin on her
+hand, her elbow on a low table before her.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be too awful for description," murmured Joyce, large-eyed and
+sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall always understand and feel for any one under sentence of death
+either by the Courts of Justice or from disease. When I felt the sharp
+prick on my ankle and looking down saw the snake glide into the
+undergrowth I believed it was all up with me. I had seen two or three
+natives who came up to the house for treatment die before my eyes. A
+<i>saice</i> bitten in the stables by a cobra died in twenty minutes. A
+<i>mali</i> cutting grass was struck on the hand and died in three quarters
+of an hour. A <i>punkha</i> coolie on the verandah lost his life within an
+hour after being bitten by a karait.</p>
+
+<p>"I could not tell the character of the snake that had bitten me, but it
+was large and long, and many cobras are dark and lengthy creatures. My
+father shot one with No. 8, in the roots of a banyan tree this very
+year, and it measured over four feet."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Honey, dear, why ever were you walking in jungly places?" Joyce
+cried, wrought up to the verge of hysteria.</p>
+
+<p>"I was out after snipe. You know how I enjoy shooting, and I generally
+go alone, for I am not clever enough yet with my gun to be trusted to
+shoot in company with others. One is so afraid of accidents!</p>
+
+<p>"I had been walking along the 'aisles' of the paddy fields till I came
+to a swampy bit and found I'd have to walk through it if I had any hope
+of starting a bird. Just as I was stepping off the 'aisle,' a snake
+passed over my foot, and biting me on the ankle vanished in the swamp.
+It must have been some sort of a water-snake, but I did not know. All I
+knew was that I had been bitten by a snake that might be poisonous. It
+could easily have been an adder, or a karait&mdash;even a cobra&mdash;though I had
+not a minute in which to observe a hood or any distinctive marks. I
+immediately collected my faculties to think what was the best thing to
+do. I knew I had no time to lose. Mother was away in town shopping for
+the cold-weather needs, Dad was out for the day on a riot case. I did
+not even know if I should find Captain Dalton at home.</p>
+
+<p>"On the instant, I tied a ligature as tight as I could under the knee,
+and then started to run back to the Station as fast as my breath would
+allow. As I reached the main road I heard the sound of a motor, and, to
+my intense relief and thankfulness, it was the doctor on his way
+somewhere&mdash;I never asked where&mdash;my case was as desperate as any, and I
+put up my hand. He saw the 'S.O.S.' message in my face, which he
+afterwards said was the hue of chalk, and when he found out what was
+wrong, he just bundled me in and drove home like a streak of lightning.
+I wonder we did not kill someone or something in the bazaar. I shall
+remember to my dying day the way the people fell to right and left
+thinking, no doubt, the doctor was mad.</p>
+
+<p>"When we arrived at his bungalow he sprang out, ordering me to find my
+way to his consulting room while he went straight to his medicine chest
+for the remedies he keeps for cases of snake-bite. By that time my leg
+was feeling as heavy as lead&mdash;whether from the ligature or the poison, I
+do not know&mdash;but I could hardly put my foot to the ground. Still, I
+hobbled in and sat down to wait. It seemed ages, but was in reality only
+a minute or two, when he came and knelt down before me to deal with the
+wound. There was very little to be seen, just the punctures and a livid
+disk round them. Up till then we had scarcely spoken a word, or I have
+no memory of words having passed between us, but I can see his face, all
+set and stern, his mouth compressed, his eyes like living coals in his
+head intent on his work of rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly felt all he did; I was so deeply excited inwardly. Outwardly I
+was as calm as a stoic. I felt whatever happened I would have to keep my
+head to the last. I fully expected to feel desperately ill, and almost
+imagined the sensation beginning to creep over me, of numbness and
+chill. I had watched the symptoms in others, and could almost trace them
+arriving in me. Oh, Joyce, I wouldn't go through that time again if you
+gave me a fortune!&mdash;yet, I don't know&mdash;for one thing, I shall always be
+glad."</p>
+
+<p>"And that?" asked Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing&mdash;just an idea," she said hastily. "Captain Dalton cut deep
+into the flesh of my ankle and cauterised the wound; after that he
+injected something above my heart. I believe he was not satisfied with
+my pulse, for he brought me a stiff brandy-peg to drink. My hands were
+stone cold; he chafed them in his. In the meantime my leg swelled and
+looked all colours. It was most alarming yet he would not let me think
+of it. He, who is usually so silent, talked all the time of a thousand
+things that had nothing to do with snakes and their deadliness. He even
+made a joke or two. Once he wanted to know if I wanted any one&mdash;a lady
+to sit by me and cheer me up. But when I couldn't have Mother, and you
+were away, I wanted no one else, and told him so. I think he was rather
+surprised that I wasn't hysterical or troublesome; that I bore all that
+cutting about without uttering a sound. Every now and then he felt my
+pulse, and as time passed his face took on a wonderful look. You would
+hardly have believed he was the same man. The hardness was all melted
+and broken up, his eyes were so kind&mdash;he talked so pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"After some time I asked if he thought I was well enough to go home, but
+he preferred to keep me longer. He thought I would have to be watched
+for a bit and looked after. Later he explained that he was afraid of
+shock. I had been through such an anxious time. He carried me to his
+drawing-room, and while I rested on the sofa he diverted me with music.
+He played the most exquisite music, and sang me ever so many songs.
+Really, Joyce, nobody knows Captain Dalton. He has most extraordinary
+depths in his nature of which I have had only a fleeting glimpse."</p>
+
+<p>"Why is he so antagonistic to people as a rule?" Joyce wondered aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"He has had some great disappointment in his life. Someone has smashed
+up all his ideals and beliefs, or he would never be so suspicious and
+unfriendly. He is that; for who knows him a bit better today than five
+months ago when he first came among us?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> do, certainly, Honey!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not even I. I have been favoured with only a glimpse of his inner self.
+There are stores of wonderful goodness all hidden away underneath the
+nastiness and ill-humour he shows to the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do go on and tell me the rest," urged Joyce, excitedly. "What a fearful
+experience!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was. I thought of Mother and her grief were I to die,&mdash;of my
+father's desolation. They are both so wrapped up in me, having no other
+child, you know. I pictured myself lying dead and covered with
+flowers&mdash;you have no idea how involuntary was all this thinking!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you never cried or lost your head?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had not the slightest leaning that way. All I wanted was to die
+'decently and in order,'" Honor returned, smiling reminiscently. "I did
+not want to make a scene and upset Captain Dalton's nerves. Once, while
+feeling faint and sick, I gave him messages. I wanted him to tell Mother
+that I did not mind dying, a bit. That was not strictly true, for I love
+life as much as any one else, but I thought it would comfort her. I sent
+her my love and said that if I had to die, I was sure it was best for
+me, because everything happens for the best. 'Do you really believe
+that?' he asked. 'I am not quite sure I do,' said I, 'but I must think
+of everything that will cheer Mother and help her to be reconciled if I
+have to go.'"</p>
+
+<p>"How long were you obliged to be in suspense?"</p>
+
+<p>"Time passed so fast that I had been there four hours before he judged
+it was safe to bring me home. He drove me in his car and carried me to
+my bed where the ayah took over charge. He then went about his other
+duties. He was so kind and wonderful to me...." The colour rushed into
+Honor's face at a memory that would not be suppressed. "Just before he
+left, he came and stood beside me, looking so queer...."</p>
+
+<p>"How?" Joyce asked curiously. The only expression familiar to her on the
+doctor's face was quizzical amusement.</p>
+
+<p>"He has rather wonderful eyes," Honor said reminiscently, "and they
+seemed suddenly soft and misty. 'You are quite a heroine, Miss Honor,'
+he said. 'I shall think of you often when I am alone in my diggings, as
+the bravest girl I know;' and without any warning he took my hand and
+kissed it, ever so reverently, almost as though it were the hand of a
+queen, and was gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't he come again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Many times to see how the wound was doing. The swelling had to be
+fomented&mdash;he had shown me how&mdash;the ayah was quite a brick about learning
+the way. Father was there too, and Mother had returned. Poor Mother wept
+enough for two, and Father drank a stiff whisky-and-soda to steady his
+nerves. Altogether it was a ghastly experience. I wonder what particular
+kind of snake it was!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was evidently poisonous, and the bite would have killed you if the
+doctor had not found you in time," said Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt of it." Honor became suddenly aware of the lateness of
+the hour and rose to go. "I shall have to dress for dinner, and there's
+only a quarter of an hour to do it in!&mdash;Dear me, how I have talked!"</p>
+
+<p>"One minute&mdash;this happened only the other day, and yet you had
+associated with the doctor for five months before you were properly on
+speaking terms?" said Joyce, detaining her.</p>
+
+<p>"We used to see each other in the distance occasionally. He never came
+to the Club and showed no inclination for feminine society, so we never
+spoke more than to say 'Good-evening' once in the way!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet he said quite a nice thing about you to me in camp."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he?&mdash;What did he say?" Honor asked, flushing.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce related the conversation faithfully, even to the doctor's
+concluding remark&mdash;"I am not seeking a wife, and have no interest in
+friendships."</p>
+
+<p>Honor winced as under a lash, and straightened herself.</p>
+
+<p>"You should not have pressed the point, Joyce. However, what does it
+matter? I am glad he thinks well of me, and that's all there is to it.
+He and I are of the same mind. I, too, am not seeking a husband, for I
+am very happy as I am. Good-bye, dear, I was commissioned with a message
+for you, but I have talked so much that it has been nearly forgotten.
+Mother wants you to dine tomorrow; just a few friends and Captain
+Dalton; and he has actually accepted the invitation."</p>
+
+<p>"It is never safe to ask me to dinner," said Joyce doubtfully. "I hate
+leaving Baby all alone at night."</p>
+
+<p>"He has a good ayah."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. She is absolutely trustworthy; but should he ail ever so
+slightly I shall stay at home. I could not go out and leave him the
+least bit out of sorts."</p>
+
+<p>"We shouldn't wish it. However, he might be quite all right, and then
+you'll come&mdash;bye-bye!" she waved her hand from the steps, mounted her
+bicycle, and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>So the dinner-party at the Brights' was a settled engagement and Joyce
+prepared to keep it. She had never been anywhere without her husband,
+and felt nervous and shy for the lack of his support. Moreover, her mind
+was haunted by nameless fears for the child who was to be left behind to
+the tender mercies of native servants. A thousand possibilities of evil
+presented themselves to her mind and robbed the outing of prospective
+enjoyment; consequently the next night when it came to the point of
+starting, she was full of regrets for her weakness in having consented
+to go. "Ayah," she said in a fit of childish confidence, "I care for
+nothing on earth so much as my darling baby, how can I leave him for an
+hour or two not knowing what is happening to him in the meantime?"</p>
+
+<p>"My Lort! what-for be frightened? Baba plenty well, sleeping sound. What
+can be?" the woman cried irritably. Could she not be trusted?</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could possibly happen in so short a time. How did other mothers
+fulfil their social engagements? Surely they did not all worry
+themselves and others to death over nothing? Joyce therefore resolved to
+become more normal in her habits, and proceeded to dress.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly, however, had she put foot in the hired victoria, when the ayah
+appeared, suggesting another look at the child. He had been coughing in
+his sleep, and considering the mother's anxieties she feared the
+responsibility of keeping the fact to herself.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce immediately sprang from the carriage and hurried to the bedroom
+where the child lay sleeping in its cot. "You are sure he coughed?" she
+asked listening in vain for a repetition of the sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Would I say it for nothing?" the Madrasi asked testily.</p>
+
+<p>"What would it mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"A little cold he has caught, or indigestion."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I cannot go out with any peace of mind," Joyce cried definitely.
+"What if he should have croup?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why say such words? Give little honey, and cough go."</p>
+
+<p>But Joyce was not satisfied. What was a dinner-party to her if her
+precious one was sickening for croup or any other fatal malady? Most
+infant maladies were fatal unless taken in time, and if she were away
+and he be taken ill, how would he fare? She decided that the Brights
+would have to do without her, and forgive the disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Forthwith she unwrapped, and settled down to spend a quiet evening
+alone, with an ear strained to hear any return of the cough, and quite
+determined to send for the doctor should it recur.</p>
+
+<p>However, having upset his mother's nerves and thrown a dinner-party out
+of order, the infant slept soundly till morning.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DINNER-PARTY</h3>
+
+
+<p>At Muktiarbad, the usual form of evening entertainment was a
+dinner-party with music and bridge to follow; and Mrs. Bright, wife of
+the Superintendent of Police, was specially noted for her hospitality in
+this respect. The brief intervals spent at home by her husband between
+his rounds of inspection or inquiry in his District were always
+celebrated by herself and her daughter as festal occasions; and their
+friends were gathered together at short notice to eat, not the "fatted
+calf," as that would have offended the religious susceptibilities of the
+Hindus who held the animal sacred, but one of the fattened geese kept
+available for such occasions.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies did not always accompany Mr. Bright on his journeys about the
+District, as they were usually hurried and undertaken with scant
+preparation. Very little of the flesh-pots of Bengal sufficed to satisfy
+Muktiarbad's Chief of Police, who had been thoroughly broken in to the
+rough-and-tumble of official life in the <i>mafasil</i>. The presence of his
+family in camp was a hindrance to Mr. Bright, and he was better pleased
+to return, after his strenuous duties, to the peace of domesticity at
+his bungalow in the Station. Moreover, there was little of interest in
+the monotony of camping in lonely places for a young girl to whom her
+mother wished to give every opportunity of settling in life, whatever
+might be her own ideas respecting a vocation. Muktiarbad, though a rural
+backwater of Bengal, and pronounced by the gay-minded, a penal
+settlement, had matrimonial possibilities not to be despised by anxious
+parents with daughters to be happily disposed of.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, it was a highly social if small community who made the
+most of their opportunities for enjoyment, accepting the limitations of
+the place to which it had pleased Providence and the Ruling Power to
+appoint them, with the usual healthy philosophy which has made India so
+rich in memories.</p>
+
+<p>It mattered little if they had to endure the discomforts of the climate
+and various inconveniences besides; others were in a worse case. Nor did
+it matter if they never reached the goal for which they strove&mdash;it was
+Kismet!</p>
+
+<p>Fatalism is a habit of mind peculiar to the people of the East, where
+the unexpected might happen at any time without warning; and it is not
+unusual for Europeans to slip half-consciously into the same mental
+attitude.</p>
+
+<p>It is consequently not surprising that, in spite of many lurking
+dangers, life in the rural districts is careless and free. Risks of
+cholera, sunstroke, and snake-bite, are taken boldly without a thought
+of possibilities. India has need of resourceful minds and nerves of
+steel; and no use for the faltering and irresolute.</p>
+
+<p>Even Mrs. Bright took chances for her family and friends when her cook
+at the eleventh hour sent to Robinath Mukerjea's store in the bazaar for
+tins of salmon (the fish procured from a local tank being deemed
+inevitably earthy in flavour); for Mukerjea bought his provisions at
+sales of old stock from the Army and Navy Stores, vowing they were fresh
+consignments from <i>Belait</i>; but no one was deceived when patronising his
+shop in spite of risks of ptomaine. However, a dinner cooked by Kareem
+Majid was an achievement more worthy of a Goanese than a Mohammedan, and
+none who dined at the Brights' was ever the worse.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," Mrs. Bright had been heard to observe in earlier days, "were
+it not for Honor and the necessity to cultivate the acquaintance of
+one's own child, I should never leave India. How I miss that treasure,
+Kareem! He has been with us since we were married, and there never was a
+more useful servant. Whether in camp or in my own bungalow, it is just
+the same; he rises to every emergency and cooks like a French <i>chef</i>. At
+a pinch he'll valet my husband. He has even in an emergency fastened the
+hooks of my blouse at the back; and when Honor was a child, played with
+her when she had the measles and kept her from crying herself into a
+fit. When other servants ran away from the cholera, he stayed and did
+everything but sweep the floors! And when any one is sick, I have never
+known the equal of his 'chicken jugs'! He is so self-reliant, too. I
+have only to say, 'Kareem, six guests for dinner tonight. Don't ask for
+orders&mdash;do just as you please, only don't mention the subject of food as
+you value your life!' And he will <i>salaam</i> and say, '<i>Jo hukum</i>,' after
+which I have no responsibility whatever; dinner up to time, everything
+cooked to perfection, and when you think of what an Indian cook-house
+is, really, you are overcome with admiration. Can you fancy an English
+cook consenting to turn out dinners under like conditions? You get
+notice in a day! And who thinks of sparing Indian servants? As many
+courses as you like, with a wash-up like a small mountain, which the
+<i>masalchi</i> disposes of behind the pantry door on a yard or two of bamboo
+matting, with an earthen <i>gumla</i>, a kettle of boiling water, and an
+unthinkable swab! An English maid would have hysterics."</p>
+
+<p>To make existence possible to the residents of Muktiarbad, there was the
+great, straggling bazaar on the outskirts of the Station ready to supply
+the necessaries of life. An enlightened confidence in the rule of the
+sahibs and in their honour and justice was a tradition with the local
+population whose trust in the <i>Sarcar</i> was unbounded; for sedition had
+not yet poisoned the minds of the peace-loving, contented agriculturists
+and shopkeepers who were as conservative as they were simple. It was
+only in outlying villages that occasional trouble brewed when ignorant
+and superstitious minds were played upon by malcontents.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes' grace was allowed to Mrs. Meredith&mdash;no more&mdash;and Mr. Bright
+offered his arm to Mrs. Barrington Fox and led the way to the
+dining-room. Mr. Barrington Fox was seldom to be persuaded into
+accepting Station hospitalities; and usually made the time-worn excuse,
+as on the present occasion, of inspection duty on the line. The Station,
+however, understood it to mean that he had ceased to find pleasure in
+his wife's company and was determined not to be victimised.</p>
+
+<p>The dining-room at the Brights' was a large apartment, whitewashed like
+a hospital ward, but redeemed by hunting pictures on the walls, graceful
+drapery, and good furniture. A <i>punkha</i> with a mat frill hung motionless
+overhead, as weather conditions were sufficiently altered to dispense
+with an artificial breeze; and the dining table beneath it presented an
+inviting aspect with its glittering mass of silver, glass, and flowers.
+A draught-screen concealed the door of ingress from the pantry where the
+business of serving was carried on by the <i>khansaman</i> assisted by a
+group of white-robed domestics. Agitated whispers from behind the screen
+were infallible indications of mistakes retrieved in the nick of time;
+otherwise, the occasional blow of the ice hammer, or the rolling of the
+ice machine on the outer door-mat were the only sounds audible from the
+dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bright, full of confidence in her staff and indifferent to mistakes
+which were not inexcusable, showed a complete detachment from the
+details of serving while she entertained her guests.</p>
+
+<p>A little reshuffling of the order of precedence, when Mrs. Meredith's
+non-appearance was assured, had disposed of Tommy Deare to his entire
+satisfaction. Left to shift for himself he moved to the other side of
+Honor Bright whom Jack Darling had piloted in. He was a plain,
+freckle-faced boy of twenty-two with plenty to say for himself, and a
+most engaging smile. In height he was on a level with Honor who was
+considered tall; yet, to his disgust, he was referred to as a "little
+man." But since it was recognised that "valuable goods are packed in
+small parcels," he assured his friends of his inestimable worth, and was
+comforted.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Meredith is too absurd about that kid of hers," Mrs. Fox was heard
+to remark in the first hush that fell with the arrival of the soup.
+"Isn't it the baby who is ill tonight?" to Captain Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had known, I should have mentioned it," said the doctor above his
+soup plate. The rudeness of the reply was characteristic of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I understood from Mrs. Meredith that she and her offspring are in your
+charge. How neglectful of you to know nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready to attend to them when called in," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have not been wanted!" she laughed spitefully. "It must be
+very mortifying never to be wanted except when you are of use!"</p>
+
+<p>"A doctor is the one man whom you are only too glad to see the last of,"
+said Dalton coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"All the same, I shouldn't be a bit surprised if it's the baby who is
+ill, and you are sent for before dinner is over. Mrs. Meredith said it
+would be the only reason that would stop her coming," put in Mrs.
+Bright, anxious to soothe.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, indeed!" cried Mrs. Fox. "For now we've got you we mean to
+make you sing. Don't imagine we'll let you off."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor bowed a stiff acknowledgment, which meant nothing, and
+entered into conversation with the Executive Engineer on the subject of
+a morass which he had condemned in his Sanitary Report, and recommended
+to be drained.</p>
+
+<p>"The villagers won't stand it," said Mr. Ironsides. "They draw their
+drinking water from that <i>jhil</i>, and providing them with wells instead
+will not console them for its loss. Incidentally, they use it also for
+laundry purposes and bathing," he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. So the sooner it is done away with the better for their health
+and the health of the District. Malaria and cholera have their source at
+Panipara."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you are not trying to deprive us of our duck-shooting, Doctor,"
+said Mr. Bright in alarm. "We depend upon Panipara Jhil for game in the
+winters, and there is little sport besides, in this God-forsaken place."</p>
+
+<p>"It will have to go if you want immunity from sickness," said Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"If <i>they</i> don't mind it, I don't know why <i>we</i> should. It rages chiefly
+in Panipara village itself, and is nothing to us."</p>
+
+<p>"It comes on here afterwards with the flies," said Tommy.</p>
+
+<p>"A few natives, more or less, wiped off the face of the earth hereabouts
+would be a benefit to Muktiarbad," drawled young Smart of the Railway
+from his seat on Mrs. Fox's right, which, by an unwritten law was always
+accorded to him at Station dinners.</p>
+
+<p>"How very unfeeling!" cried two or three ladies in unison.</p>
+
+<p>A vigorous argument arose to which Honor listened, deeply interested.
+Panipara Jhil lay a few miles outside the Station, with the village of
+the same name lying on its banks. It occupied an area of a square mile
+or two of marsh land, was overrun with water-weeds and lotus plants, and
+dotted about with islands full of jungle growth and date-palms&mdash;a
+picturesque but unhealthy spot, dear to lovers of sport.</p>
+
+<p>"The natives haven't the foggiest idea of hygiene," said the doctor
+finally. "But they cannot be argued with. They will continue their
+filthy habits though twenty to thirty per cent. of them get wiped out by
+cholera annually. Drain the <i>jhil</i> and give them wells, and there'll be
+little or no sickness afterwards. Incidentally, several hundred <i>bighas</i>
+of ground will be reclaimed for agricultural purposes, which will be a
+benefit to the owner."</p>
+
+<p>"The Government will take its own time to consider the proposition, and
+a few years hence, when it has exhausted all the red tape available, it
+will be put through," said Honor. "In the meantime, the cholera, like
+the poor, will be 'with us always!'"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't be at all surprised," said the doctor meeting her eyes in
+swift appreciation of her verdict.</p>
+
+<p>He said no more to her, for others intervened and the conversation
+changed.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton looked a trifle more cynical and dissatisfied than usual,
+Honor thought. His strong jaw and irregular features hid his thoughts,
+but not their reflection which showed a mental unrest. He was clearly
+not a happy man, and was plainly a discordant element in light-hearted
+company. "A real wet blanket," Tommy whispered in her ear. "If one makes
+a joke he either doesn't hear it, or thinks it not worth laughing at.
+Something has turned him sour, so he hates to see people happy."</p>
+
+<p>But Honor was not in agreement with him. "I grant he is an embittered
+man&mdash;he looks it; but he is quite willing that you should enjoy yourself
+so long as you don't force your high spirits on him. If one's mind is
+not in accord with blithesomeness, one surely might be excused from
+taking part in it."</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe you like the blighter?" Tommy cried reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I have every reason to," she answered stoutly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because he cured you of snake-bite? Doctors get a pull over us poor
+laymen when it comes to matters of life and death. They do their duty,
+and you are grateful for all time," at which Honor laughed heartily, for
+Tommy was looking personally injured.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Mrs. Meredith!" he continued. "She talks of him with tears in
+her eyes as though he were a saint&mdash;Old Nick, more likely!&mdash;He has been
+endowed with every virtue when he has none, simply because he put the
+Squawk to rights." Tommy had seen Joyce that afternoon and went on to
+describe his visit. "She was looking topping, so was the kid; which
+makes it all the more mysterious, her not turning up. But, my word, she
+is pretty! One might be excused for any indiscretion when she makes eyes
+at one!"</p>
+
+<p>However, to his disappointment, Honor showed no symptoms of jealousy.
+"I'll wager she neglected you for her baby!" She said. "Mrs. Meredith
+has no interest in young men."</p>
+
+<p>"She had plenty in me. We grew quite intimate&mdash;talked of the weather and
+<i>anopheles</i> mosquitoes, and improved the occasion by rubbing <i>eau de
+Cologne</i> on the bites."</p>
+
+<p>"How very thrilling! and she forgot all about you the moment you had
+left!"</p>
+
+<p>"Everyone forgets all about Tommy the moment he has left," put in Jack,
+thinking it about time to remind them of his presence.</p>
+
+<p>He was a handsome young athlete of twenty-five, with the reputation of
+having played in the Rugby International. He owned a complexion
+inconveniently given to blushing. He and Tommy chummed together in a
+three-roomed bungalow near the Police Court and were generally known as
+inseparables. Both played polo and tennis with skill and kept the
+Station entertained by their high spirits and resourcefulness.</p>
+
+<p>Honor's attention was diverted by an animated discussion among her
+elders respecting the duties of a wife and mother in the East.</p>
+
+<p>"A mother is perfectly justified in taking her child home if it cannot
+stand the climate," Mrs. Fox was saying.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose the question to be decided is, whom a woman cares most for,
+child or husband&mdash;whether she will live away from her husband for the
+sake of the child, or from the child for the sake of the husband,
+presuming that the climate is not suitable to children," said a guest.</p>
+
+<p>A strident voice was heard to remark that women had no business to marry
+men whose careers were in the East, if they meant to live away from them
+most of the time. "It's a tragedy for which doctors are mainly
+responsible," with a sniff and a challenging glance at Captain Dalton.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you doctors!" laughed Mrs. Bright, shaking her finger at him. "See
+what mischief you are accountable for!&mdash;ruined lives, broken homes!"</p>
+
+<p>"In many cases, it is a charity to part husbands and wives," said the
+doctor grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hear, hear!" from Mrs. Fox, at which Mrs. Ironsides was shocked.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope Mrs. Meredith will not go home so soon," she said. "It will be a
+pity, when she and her husband have been so lately married. Somebody
+should influence her to remain and give the hills a trial. They seem to
+suit children very well."</p>
+
+<p>"If she goes home it will be nothing short of a calamity," said Honor
+quietly, thinking of Ray Meredith's devotion and his wife's
+unsophisticated and undeveloped mind. "It would never do unless she
+means to return immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"A child of tender years needs its mother," said a lady whose heart
+yearned for her little one in England. "No stranger will give it the
+same sympathy or care."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a difficult problem to which there is no solution," said Mrs.
+Bright.</p>
+
+<p>"I always feel, when I see a wife living for years at home while her
+husband remains out here, that there is no love lost between them. The
+children serve as an excellent excuse for the separation," said Honor,
+colouring at her own audacity in voicing an opinion so pronounced. "No
+reason on earth should be strong enough to part those who care deeply
+for each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Hear, hear!" murmured Tommy under his breath, while Mrs. Fox laughed
+disagreeably. "An excellent sentiment coming from you, Miss Bright, who
+have no experience. Long may you subscribe to it."</p>
+
+<p>Honor blushed still deeper. "I have my ideals," she returned.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust they will never be shattered!" the lady sneered.</p>
+
+<p>Again Dalton's eyes met Honor's with strange intentness. Feeling out of
+her depth she had looked involuntarily to him for the subtle sympathy,
+instinct told her was in his attitude to her, and she had received it
+abundantly in the slow smile which softened his expression to one of
+absolute kindness. It created a glow at her heart, to linger with her
+for the rest of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Whenever I used to run home on short 'leave of absence' to see if Honor
+had not altogether forgotten me," said Mrs. Bright, smiling
+reminiscently, "and dared to hint at an extension, my husband would
+squander all his T.A. in cablegrams threatening to divorce me on the
+spot in favour of some mythical person if I did not return by the next
+mail. Wasn't that so, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gross exaggeration, my love. I could never get you to take a
+respectable holiday, for just as I was beginning to enjoy my liberty as
+a grass-widower, you would bob up serenely with 'No, you don't' on every
+line of your rosy face. It was worth anything, however, to see those
+English roses back again."</p>
+
+<p>("The reason why Honor is such a nice girl," a lady once told Captain
+Dalton, "is because she has such a charming example of love in her home.
+Love is in her bones; her parents are so perfectly united that it is
+impossible for Honor to be anything but a good wife. Parents are
+immensely responsible for their children's psychology.")</p>
+
+<p>"I have never ceased to thank Providence that I have no children!" said
+the wife of a railway official, with a sigh of contentment, "so the
+tragedy of separation has never affected me. I can honestly say that I
+have never left my husband for more than a day since we married, fifteen
+years ago!" and she reared her thin neck out of her evening gown and
+looked about her for congratulations.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, how sick of her he must be!" whispered Tommy under his breath, to
+the delight of Jack and Honor. "Life would be stale and unprofitable if
+I could not repeat the honeymoon every autumn when my wife returned from
+the hills. So thrilling to fall in love with one's own wife every year!"</p>
+
+<p>"Which proves that you will make a very bad husband," said Honor
+severely. "Out of sight out of mind."</p>
+
+<p>"He won't talk so glibly of sending his wife to the hills when he has
+discovered that she has been carrying on with Snooks of the Convalescent
+Depôt while he has been stewing in the plains," said Jack with a <i>blasé</i>
+air.</p>
+
+<p>"Since when have you turned cynic, Mr. Darling?" Honor asked,
+astonished. "It doesn't become you in the least!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack had an enlightening holiday in Darjeeling last month when he had
+ten days during the <i>Pujas</i>," Tommy explained with reprisals in his eye.
+"It accounts for his attitude of mind. Having strict principles and a
+faint heart, no one had any use for him up there but Mrs. Meredith and
+the Y. M. C. A.&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't listen to him, Miss Bright," Jack interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;So in sheer desperation he turned nurse to Squawk and ran errands for
+its mother, wondering the while how it was that some men had all the
+luck!"</p>
+
+<p>"Draw it mild, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>"And now he sits up half the night composing odes to her eyebrows and
+boring me stiff with his sighs."</p>
+
+<p>"Liar!" laughed Jack. "I couldn't write poetry to save my life."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't prevent him from trying. Then there's her photograph&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't hers, I told you!" Jack protested. "Tommy, you're a villain."</p>
+
+<p>"It's jolly like her, what I saw of it when it fell out from under your
+pillow."</p>
+
+<p>By this time Jack was crimson. He relapsed into sulky silence and
+devoted himself to his plate with appetite. Honor Bright wanted no
+better evidence of the fact that he was heart-whole, though she
+continued to wonder whose was the photograph he was treasuring so
+sentimentally.</p>
+
+<p>Dinner progressed through its many courses towards dessert, when toasts
+were drunk to "Absent Ones," and "Sweethearts and Wives,"&mdash;the usual
+conclusion to dinners at the Brights'; then, with a loud scraping of
+chairs, the ladies rose and filed out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>Later, when the gentlemen appeared having finished their smokes, it was
+discovered that Captain Dalton had retired. He had excused himself to
+his host on the plea of a late visit to his patient at Sombari, three
+miles out, and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear!" sighed Mrs. Bright. "How very disappointing! Evidently he
+had no intention of singing tonight, and I hear he has such a divine
+voice!"</p>
+
+<p>"But we don't begrudge that poor girl his attention when she is so ill,"
+put in Mrs. Ironsides.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, no. I wonder how she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty bad, from all accounts," said Mr. Bright.</p>
+
+<p>"Her poor mother must be distracted. The only real happiness she has in
+life is the companionship of this only child. Mr. Meek is so
+narrow-minded and autocratic in domestic life. He must be sorry now that
+he deprived the child of so many opportunities of innocent amusement."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," said a guest. "He will congratulate himself that he kept
+her unspotted from the world. Muktiarbad is his idea of unadulterated
+godlessness. We are such a bad example to his converts, you know, with
+our tennis on Sundays!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little Elsie! I hope she will recover," said Mrs. Bright.</p>
+
+<p>Honor felt a distinct sense of depression when she heard that Captain
+Dalton had gone quietly away without even a hint to herself that he had
+had no intention of staying. It was clear that he had no interest in
+remaining; his excuse she disregarded, for he could have visited Sombari
+earlier in the evening when he knew that he was engaged to dine out. She
+believed he liked her ... but he was "not seeking to marry her," as he
+had said to Joyce in camp, so it was her duty to rise above the folly of
+thinking too much of a man who would never be anything more to her than
+a mere acquaintance. With a determined effort to stifle feelings of
+wounded pride and disappointment, she ordered Tommy to the piano to
+beguile the company with ragtime ditties at which he was past-master,
+and while he played and others sang, notably Bobby Smart, who was not to
+be chained to the side of Mrs. Fox, the latter was left to cultivate the
+acquaintance of the shy Apollo, Jack Darling, whom the Brights and Tommy
+had hitherto absorbed.</p>
+
+<p>Jack met her ravishing smile with a blush of self-consciousness, fearing
+all eyes upon himself as he accepted the seat beside her on a
+chesterfield. He was so obviously new to the art of intrigue, so
+conspicuously ingenuous, that he had the charm of novelty for her. She
+believed that Mrs. Bright was manoeuvring to get him for a son-in-law
+and was chafing at Honor's lack of worldly wisdom in dividing her
+favours equally between him and Tommy whose prospects in life were less
+brilliant. The situation was one entirely after her own heart, to make
+or mar with impish deliberation. In spite of his comparatively inferior
+social standing and unattractive appearance, Tommy was popular with the
+girls for his ready wit. He dared to be unconscious of his disadvantages
+and stormed his way into the front rank of drawing-room favourites; but
+he was too unimpressionable and discerning to suit Mrs. Fox's taste, so
+she left him alone to see what she could make of Jack whose
+guilelessness was a strong appeal to women of her type. His development
+under her guidance seemed the only excitement life had to offer her in
+this rural backwater, and she was not one to miss her opportunities.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd dearly love to act sponsor to a boy like you in the beginning of
+his career, Jack," she cried with a tender inflection of the voice. "By
+the way, I'm going to call you 'Jack'&mdash;may I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if you care to," he returned awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you are priceless! What an opportunity you missed for a pretty
+speech!" and she laid her hand caressingly on his for a moment to
+emphasise her delight in him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? what should I have said?" he asked, laughing boyishly, and wincing
+under her touch. The suggestion of intimacy in her manner somewhat
+embarrassed him.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to see you a few years hence when your education is
+complete," she returned, evading his question teasingly. "But you
+mustn't marry, or you will be utterly spoilt."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no immediate prospect of that!" he said laughing and giving
+away the fact that he was heart-whole. "But won't you take up the job
+tonight and begin instructing me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorely tempted to," she replied, smiling affectionately on him.
+"You must really learn your possibilities. They are limitless. After
+that, everything will come naturally,&mdash;assurance, the wit to grasp
+opportunities, and a bold initiative, without which a man is no good."</p>
+
+<p>"No good?&mdash;for what?" he pressed ingenuously.</p>
+
+<p>"To pass the time with, of course, O most adorable infant!" she laughed
+silently, returning his look with an expression of half-veiled
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>In stations where officials came and went with meteoric suddenness owing
+to the reshuffling of the governmental pack of human cards, friendships
+were as sudden as they were transient. Jack Darling having arrived at
+Muktiarbad while Mrs. Fox was at a hill station, their acquaintance was
+only in its initial stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at Mrs. Fox," whispered Mrs. Ironsides to Mrs. Bright. "She is
+doing her best to spoil that nice boy with her flattery! You can tell
+that she is pouring conceit into him by the bucketful. Shameless
+creature! I wonder her husband doesn't send her home."</p>
+
+<p>"She prefers India," Mrs. Bright showed a restless eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Smart will be only too glad if Mr. Darling relieves him of his
+attendance on Mrs. Fox. Did you notice how he yawned at table while she
+was talking to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He lives in her pocket, all the same, and is always at her beck and
+call."</p>
+
+<p>"Was my dear. I have noticed a great change latterly, and I hear he is
+going to be transferred. Mr. Fox knows his people at home and is
+arranging it."</p>
+
+<p>"And he knows his wife better," said Mrs. Bright with satire. It seemed
+at Muktiarbad everybody knew everybody else's affairs.</p>
+
+<p>She allowed a brief interval to pass and then, using her privilege as
+hostess, captured Jack on the pretext of sending him to the piano, with
+Honor to select his song from a pile of music in a canterbury. By the
+time the ballad was finished and a chorus was in full swing, Mrs. Fox
+had been carried away by Mr. Bright to make a fourth at auction in
+another room.</p>
+
+<p>Jack watched her go somewhat regretfully, wondering the while,
+shamefacedly, if he would be able to have another talk with her that
+night, and consigning all scandalmongers to perdition, who had dared to
+make free with her name. He refused to believe ill of so charming a
+lady, and was not surprised that Bobby Smart had found her company
+attractive&mdash;why not? When a brute of a husband spent all his time down
+the line instead of trying to make life pleasant for his wife, it was no
+wonder she was obliged to find entertainment for herself in the society
+of other men! Hers was a poor sort of life, anyway.</p>
+
+<p>When the party broke up, Mrs. Fox elected to walk home as a tribute to
+the glorious moonlight, and Jack was commandeered to act as her escort.
+It was a good opportunity for the lady to show that renegade, Master
+Bobby Smart, that he was not indispensable. His yawn at dinner deserved
+a reprisal.</p>
+
+<p>Bobby Smart, however, was not slow to profit by his release from escort
+duty, and wasted no time in pleasing himself. "I'll drop you home,
+Deare," he said cheerfully, "and we'll have a whisky-and-soda at your
+bungalow before you turn in."</p>
+
+<p>"I should wait till I'm asked," said Tommy lighting a cigarette and
+dropping the match in a flower-pot on the verandah.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you were pining to have me round for a <i>buk</i>."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>"You can come in if you promise to go home by midnight," Tommy
+condescended. "I'll not be kept up later."</p>
+
+<p>"On the stroke. That's a jolly good whisky you have. I was going to send
+to Kellner's for the same brand today, but forgot."</p>
+
+<p>Tommy climbed into Smart's trap and consented to be driven home. His
+hospitality and Jack's was proverbial at Muktiarbad.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>A MOMENT OF RELAXATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>On leaving the Brights' dinner-party, Captain Dalton made his way to his
+car and sped out upon the moonlit road. An appreciable hesitation at the
+gate ended in his taking a course in an opposite direction to that in
+which lay Sombari and his patient.</p>
+
+<p>A misty peacefulness of smoke and quietude brooded over the Station.
+Darkened bungalows looked like sightless monsters dead to the world, and
+the silent lanes were alive alone with fireflies scintillating like
+myriad stars in a firmament of leaves. At Muktiarbad, there was little
+else for the English residents to do after the Club had closed its door
+at nine, but eat, drink, and sleep. Theatres never patronised <i>mafasil</i>
+stations, and cinemas had not yet found their way so far into rural
+Bengal. In the bazaar also, which was strictly the native quarter of the
+town, the night was silent save for intermittent tom-tomming on the
+favourite <i>dholuk</i>,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> or, here and there, the murmur of gossiping in
+doorways. Behind mat walls men gambled or slept, and by the pale light
+of the moon could be seen the smoke of burning cow-dung&mdash;kindled for the
+destruction of mosquitoes&mdash;curling upward from the clusters of thatched
+huts, and filling the air with opalescent mist.</p>
+
+<p>But Captain Dalton had no business in the bazaar.</p>
+
+<p>If Honor Bright could have seen him then, she would have been surprised
+at the look of indecision on his usually determined face. Freed from the
+restraint of curious eyes watching for revelations of himself, the man's
+face wore a more human expression; his peculiar half-smile of
+toleration, or contempt, relaxing the lines of his stern mouth.</p>
+
+<p>For a couple of furlongs he drove fast, then slowed down to a noiseless
+glide as he ran past the tall cactus fence bordering the Collector's
+domain. At the end of the fence where it turned at right angles dividing
+the "compound" from a paddock, the engines were reversed in the narrow
+lane, till the car came back to the rustic gate beyond the culvert.</p>
+
+<p>It lay hospitably open in the usual way of gates in the Station, and
+gave access to the grounds. There was only a momentary pause while
+Dalton seemed to make sure of his intention, and the next instant he was
+moving slowly up the drive between the handsome goldmohur trees of the
+avenue. In the dark shadow of one of these, he shut off his engines and
+stepped to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>All about him, the garden was bathed in silver light, each shrub and
+arbour steeped in tranquil loveliness, while footpaths gleamed white
+amidst stretches of dusky lawns; the whole presenting a scene of
+veritable enchantment under the soft radiance of the moon; a gentle
+breeze, the while, rustling among the leaves.</p>
+
+<p>In front of him lay the wide, squat bungalow with its flat roof
+ornamented by a castellated balustrade of masonry, and supported by tall
+pillars. The verandah was in darkness but for a hurricane hand lantern
+on the top step.</p>
+
+<p>He was not sure that he had the right to intrude at that late hour even
+with the pretext of a semi-official inquiry ... but lights in the
+drawing-room and the tones of the piano, rich and sweet, ended his
+indecision. The staff of servants being reduced by their master's
+requirements in camp, there was no one at hand to announce his arrival.
+Even the peon, supposed to keep watch against the intrusion of toads and
+snakes, had betaken himself to the servants' quarters behind the
+bungalow, for his last smoke before shutting up the house for the night.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was playing Liszt's <i>Liebestraum</i> with diligence, but no feeling.
+Her execution was good, but her soul being yet unawakened, she played
+without understanding, and Dalton's musical sense suffered tortures as
+he listened for a few moments; then, abruptly parting the curtains, he
+ruthlessly interrupted the performance by his entrance, conscious on the
+instant of the alluring picture she made,&mdash;or, rather, would make, to
+senses that were impressionable. Having outlived that stage, he could
+only survey at his leisure the curve of her youthful cheek and the small
+bow of her mouth that seemed to demand kisses; watch the lights dance in
+the gold of her hair, and amuse himself with the play of her eyelashes.
+She was dressed in rich simplicity, the only colour about her, apart
+from the shell-pink of her face and the natural crimson of her lips, was
+a deep, red rose in her bosom. He inhaled its perfume as she ran to him
+and seized his hand in impetuous welcome, while he could not but
+appreciate the exceptional opportunity afforded him of improving their
+acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know that I was longing to send for you but lacking in
+courage?" she asked, holding his hand in both hers with extreme
+cordiality, born of her gratitude for his late services. Her manner was
+that of a child towards a respected senior, and was not without a
+certain charm.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not come to dinner," he replied with his grudging smile, "so I
+had to call and see why. You are such a grave responsibility to me in
+your husband's absence."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it weigh very heavily on you?" she asked coquettishly.</p>
+
+<p>"As you see, it dragged me here at this late hour!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor you!" she sympathised; then instantly pulled a long face and
+explained her alarms deprecatingly while she drew him&mdash;still holding his
+hand&mdash;to her bedroom that he might see the child for himself and judge
+of his condition.</p>
+
+<p>It was her habit to have the baby's crib by her bed, and the ayah close
+at hand in case of disturbed nights, while Meredith was compelled to
+retire to a separate suite, adjoining hers. "Such a young infant needs
+his mother, you selfish old Daddy, and must not be deprived." Arguments
+respecting the advantages of employing an English nurse and establishing
+a nursery had been swept aside as arbitrary and unfeeling. As if she
+could ever consent to a hireling occupying her place with her beloved
+child! Others might do as they pleased and lose their place in their
+little ones' affections, but not she! Fathers should consider their
+offspring before themselves. When Meredith had looked unconvinced and
+injured, she had tried to soften the blow by cajoleries, in the use of
+which she was past-mistress. Silly goose! as if the same roof did not
+cover them both! and didn't she belong to him and no one else in the
+world?&mdash;"Was he going to be a cross boy, then, and make his little
+girl's life miserable with big, ugly frowns?..."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor gave the child a brief examination as he and Joyce leant over
+the crib, shoulder to shoulder. She seemed so unconscious of the close
+contact and of its effect on the average masculine nature that he
+mentally decided she was either a simpleton or a practised flirt, given
+to playing with fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall sleep so much better tonight now that I know there is nothing
+seriously wrong with my precious darling!" she said, returning beside
+him to the drawing-room and tantalising him with brief glances from her
+shy, sweet eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You worry quite unnecessarily, take it from me," he returned. "Don't
+put him in a glass case, and he will do all right. You should go out
+more."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall, when Ray comes back. He has the car."</p>
+
+<p>"Play tennis every afternoon at the Club."</p>
+
+<p>"I daren't! I play so badly," she pouted.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come driving with me," he said on an impulse which he regretted
+the moment after, for it would deprive him of the scant leisure he
+usually devoted to a treatise he was writing. It was not his habit to
+sacrifice himself to strangers and people in whom he was not greatly
+interested. However, the study of the little spoiled beauty might prove
+entertaining since she was not as transparent as he had imagined. The
+mystery of her undeveloped nature, her childish outlook on life, her
+ingenuousness and coquetry, were all somewhat unusual and appealing. He
+could not quite gauge her feeling for her husband who worshipped the
+ground she trod on. She probably took him for granted as she took the
+solar system, and was not above practising her arts innocently on others
+to relieve the monotony of her days. Like most pretty women, he judged
+her fully aware of her prettiness, and not bound by too rigid a sense of
+propriety. It might amuse him to test how far she would permit herself
+to go&mdash;or the men who admired her physical beauty; and as he had no
+friendship for her husband, he was not troubled by too many qualms on
+Meredith's account. With a big score to settle against Life, he
+considered himself at liberty to choose the nature of his compensation,
+and so be even with Fate.</p>
+
+<p>"I should dearly love to drive with you," Joyce said engagingly,
+thinking of his perfect little car and the triumph it would be to tame
+this unsociable and reserved person in the eyes of all the Station. What
+a score for her little self!</p>
+
+<p>Being essentially of a friendly disposition, she saw no reason why he
+should not become her particular friend. Not as if she were a creature
+like Mrs. Fox, or other women who flirted&mdash;perish the thought! There
+could therefore be no possible wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever driven your car?" he asked indulgently.</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>"Nervous?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so, only no one ever showed me how."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I teach you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you? What a dear you are!" she cried with eyes sparkling and
+dimples in full play as she seized the lapels of his coat and made him
+swear not to back out. "It will be great! What a surprise for Ray&mdash;you
+won't mention it? I can fancy myself hopping into the chauffeur's seat,
+and whoof! gliding away before his eyes. I shall dream of it all night."</p>
+
+<p>"And of me?" he asked looking at his watch and recalling his intention
+to visit Sombari before midnight.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. That goes without saying if it is about your car!" twirling
+lightly on her toe with the grace of a born dancer.</p>
+
+<p>"I find it difficult to believe you are married," he said with a crooked
+smile. "Your husband should call you 'Joy.'"</p>
+
+<p>"He invents all sorts of pet names far sweeter."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow, I shall think of you as 'Joy,'" he amended, taking up his cap
+from the piano.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't fancy you thinking of any one so frivolous as myself," she
+laughed. "But you are not going, surely? We haven't even begun to talk!"</p>
+
+<p>The open piano and her frank disappointment drew him to dally with
+temptation, and he seated himself on the music stool, uninvited, to run
+his fingers over the keys. "You were playing the <i>Liebestraum</i>. Will you
+let me play it to you?" he coolly suggested, anxious to give her a
+lesson as to how it should be interpreted; and without waiting for her
+consent, began to play.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce drew up full of interest and pleasure to listen and watch,
+instantly aware that he was no self-advertised musician. As she had no
+conceit in regard to her one and only accomplishment, she was ready and
+willing to learn from him.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton played with the technique and sympathy of a great artist. Though
+the opening movement was soft and low, every note fell like drops of
+liquid sweetness, clear and true&mdash;the melody thrilling her with its
+tender appeal. Insensibly it grew stronger and louder, the pace
+quickened, till the crash of chords and the rippling rush of sound
+caused her to hold her breath in an ecstasy lest she should be robbed of
+a single delight. Now and then, she glanced at his face and she knew
+that, for the moment, she had ceased to exist for him. His strange,
+jade-green eyes with their flecked irids had widened as though with
+inspiration. He saw visions as he played, gazing intently into space;
+Joyce wondered what he saw, sure that it was beautiful, and passionately
+sad. Gradually, the passion and dignity of the music having reached its
+climax, it grew weary and spent. The glorious melody sighed its own
+requiem and softly died away on a single note.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment neither spoke, till Joyce gave a hysterical sob that broke
+the spell. "It is too wonderful&mdash;the way you play!" she cried
+breathlessly. "It makes my flesh creep and my heart stand still. I know
+now why you chose to play the <i>Liebestraum</i>!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled back at her like the culprit he was.</p>
+
+<p>"I had dared to attempt its murder!&mdash;believe me, I shall never play it
+again!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to show you how it might be played, but I do not dare to
+criticise."</p>
+
+<p>"You have done so, scathingly!&mdash;Oh! I feel so small."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am sorry I played it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am infinitely glad. You will have to teach me something more than
+motoring," she said wistfully, her blue eyes pleading. "You will have to
+tell me how I should play. I want to hear you all day long!"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled at her enthusiasm. "I shall be delighted to give you all the
+help I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Honor Bright said yesterday that you once sang to her&mdash;I am jealous!
+Won't you sing to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did she tell you of the occasion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and how good you were to her."</p>
+
+<p>"She is a heroine&mdash;<i>Honor Bright</i>," he repeated her name with curious
+tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>"She thinks you are a wonderful person, altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she?" he asked quickly, a shadow falling suddenly over his face at
+a thought which was evidently disturbing. "How am I wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. She said something about great depths in your nature. She
+believes you are tremendously good, inside, but that you will not show
+it because you have been hit very hard and feel like hitting back."</p>
+
+<p>He was silenced for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"What made her say that?" he asked while continuing to draw subdued
+harmonies from the instrument.</p>
+
+<p>"It was to explain your attitude towards people. You are so hard and
+cold. But what does all that matter? The main thing is, I want you to
+sing, and you must!" She laid her hands over his on the keys with pretty
+imperativeness, and put an end to the chords.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at the time," said he, drawing attention to the gilt clock on an
+occasional table. The phrase "hard and cold" echoed in his ears to mock
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly late!" she gasped, as she realised that the hands
+pointed to a quarter past eleven. "But I am so lonely and dull. Do sing
+to me!"</p>
+
+<p>A mischievous smile twisted his lips as he struck the opening bars of
+<i>The Dear Homeland</i>. "It's an old ballad and will probably bore you to
+tears," he said, before beginning to sing. Joyce had often heard it
+sung, but never with the feeling Captain Dalton threw into it for her
+benefit alone. It was a strong and direct appeal to nostalgia, and the
+quality of his voice, together with the words, dissolved her into tears
+of positive distress. When he had finished, she was weeping silently
+into her little hands,&mdash;unaffectedly and sincerely.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot bear it!" she sobbed childishly. "Why did you choose that when
+you knew how I am longing for home and the home faces!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am a brute, am I not?" he said repentantly, taking down her hands and
+drying her eyes with his handkerchief. "Was it a nasty fellow, then, to
+tease?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was," she laughed hysterically with downcast lids and sobbing
+breath, looking adorable with her saddened wet eyes and crimson flush.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, I'll make up for it and sing you something quite different." And
+he was as good as his word, singing passionate love-songs that swore
+eternal devotion to a mythical "Beloved," till a clock, striking twelve,
+brought him abruptly to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you always allow your visitors to stay so late?" he asked while
+saying good-night.</p>
+
+<p>"I never have visitors at night when I am alone," she returned,
+surprised. "Why do you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are too pretty and will have to be careful. Pretty women
+have enemies of both sexes."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that men will want to make love to you if you are too kind, and
+women will tear your reputation to shreds."</p>
+
+<p>He watched the flush deepen in her cheeks: she was uncertain how to take
+his remark, but decided he had not meant a liberty.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I shall always fear women more than men," she said finally,
+thinking of the slanderous tongues of her sex.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I forgiven for having made you cry?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Thank you so much for the songs. You sing like an angel."</p>
+
+<p>"A very bad one I'm afraid," he returned. "With your leave I shall take
+this rose as a pledge," he said drawing it from the brooch at her bosom
+and laying it against his lips. "Look, it is fading fast. Will you fix
+it in my coat?"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce unaffectedly complied. He was welcome to the rose as a reward for
+his beautiful music. "When you get home, put it in water, and it will
+fill your room with fragrance," she said patting it into position.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;And my mind of you?" he suggested tentatively, knowing full well that
+he would forget all about her and her rose the moment he was out of
+sight of her dwelling. Already he was wondering why he had allowed
+himself to waste so much of his valuable time in trifling and whether he
+would have dared the same liberty with the rose had it been resting on
+Honor Bright's bosom. With Honor, somehow, a man would have to plead for
+favours and value them for their rarity when obtained. No man in the
+Station took liberties with Honor Bright, and every man thoroughly
+respected her. Dalton shook his mind free of the thought of Honor
+Bright.</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't mind if the rose recalls me to you, so long as you promise to
+forget my <i>Liebestraum</i>!" said Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall remember only the tears I caused you to shed, and never be so
+cruel again." Dalton passed out into the verandah accompanied by his
+hostess who desired to speed the parting guest. "When does your husband
+return?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Tomorrow night. I am counting the hours," she replied. "Haven't you
+heard that 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't subscribe to that sentiment," he retorted with a disagreeable
+laugh as he walked towards the car.</p>
+
+<p>She certainly had the makings of a dangerous flirt, he decided, though,
+at present, she was only feeling her way. Time would develop her powers
+and then, God help the young idiots who would lose their heads! Most of
+all, God help her fool-husband&mdash;the besotted idealist! In a few years,
+Joyce Meredith would be no better than most lovely women in the
+East&mdash;notably such as flourished in the hill stations of India.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton was amused, and laughed aloud at his own weakness and folly. He
+had not wanted her rose&mdash;yet, at the moment, the propinquity of her
+beauty had magnetised him and given him the desire for a closer
+intimacy&mdash;possibly a kiss!&mdash;so he had put his lips to the rose! Feminine
+witchery had made utter fools of men through the ages! Given further
+chances of intimacy, a rose might not again suffice!</p>
+
+<p>By the time Dalton had reached the crossroads, indecision had again
+taken possession of him, and he hesitated at the wheel. He had left the
+Brights' party fully intending to run out to Sombari, but had been
+diverted; and now it was too late. They would not be expecting him after
+midnight. He yawned, thoroughly tired, as he had had a strenuous day,
+and decided to call at the Mission fairly early in the morning, instead.
+There was nothing he could do for the sufferer more than was being done
+by the trained nurse he had procured for the case.</p>
+
+<p>Satisfied in mind that bed was the best place for tired people, Dalton
+turned his car and drove it to his own bungalow next door to the
+Brights'.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MISSION</h3>
+
+
+<p>Life at a small station like Muktiarbad would have been a dull affair
+for any young girl not constituted like Honor Bright. Being endowed with
+plenty of common sense and sincerity of purpose, she found a great deal
+to occupy her in her restricted circle by throwing herself into the
+business of the moment, heart and soul. If it were an early morning
+ride, she enjoyed every yard of it, and all there was to see and do.
+Even the flat countryside with its endless fields of paddy and mustard
+were good to view because Muktiarbad was "home" to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Define the word 'home,'" she was once asked when very young. "Where
+Mother is," was her ready reply. "Where Love is," would be her later and
+more comprehensive amendment.</p>
+
+<p>When she played tennis she played to win, and her enthusiasm infected
+others, till the game was worth the energy, however great the heat. If
+house-duties were imposed on her, they were accomplished thoroughly and
+cheerfully. Honor striding across the back-yard to examine the horses in
+their stalls, the condition of their bedding, and to see them fed; or to
+inspect the chicken run; or visiting the kitchen to view pots and pans
+which were arranged at a particular hour, bottom up, in a row, to prove
+how perfectly aluminium could be made to shine, was a refreshing sight;
+and the grace of her gait, the freedom of her movements, and the
+brightness of her looks, brought sunshine to hearts on the darkest days.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of Mrs. Bright's confidence in her faithful Kareem Majid, she
+never neglected to supervise those details of housekeeping in India that
+make all the difference between sickness and health, economy and
+extravagance. "For, however wonderful the dear servants are, they do
+want watching," she would explain to inquiring friends. "You simply have
+to see what they are up to, or run terrible risks of microbes in the
+kitchen, horses falling ill, and eggs getting beautifully less. They are
+without the remotest idea of sanitation for man or beast, and revel in
+dirt if you let them, poor things! And honesty is not their strong
+point; they have to be checked on all accounts, or they will sell
+vegetables from your kitchen garden to your neighbours who have none; or
+sell you your own hens' eggs, and do heaps of other iniquitous things
+you could hardly dream of!" So Honor was carefully instructed in the
+ways of housekeeping from the moment of her return to the East, and was
+an able lieutenant to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, it is only right and proper, since, one of these days you will
+have a house of your own and ought to know how to run it, or I pity the
+unfortunate man you marry!" Mrs. Bright remarked when introducing her
+daughter to further mysteries in the art of housekeeping. "Which puts me
+in mind of Tommy Deare," she continued, eyeing Honor gravely. "What do
+you mean to do with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean to do anything with him," laughed the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"You know he is in love with you&mdash;any one can see that."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, because he won't let me forget it," Honor said ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you are often about with him, riding and playing tennis&mdash;is it fair
+to fan his hopes?"</p>
+
+<p>"He knows perfectly how I feel towards him. Short of putting him in
+Coventry I can do nothing less than I am doing."</p>
+
+<p>"But the worst of it is that he keeps others off!" Mrs. Bright
+exclaimed. "There's Jack Darling who lives with him&mdash;such a nice boy and
+a very excellent suitor from every point of view&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He is not a suitor, by any means," interrupted her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"He might have been if his friend were not over head and ears in love
+with you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have encouraged him. Jack does not appeal to me. He is
+very dear and charming, but not the sort of man I should lose my heart
+to. He is weak&mdash;and I love strength."</p>
+
+<p>"But, dear, surely you are not favouring Tommy?&mdash;he will never be
+anything great in our Service. You have the example of your own father
+who has come to the end of his prospects on an income that would have
+been hopelessly inadequate had there been boys to educate and start in
+life! That's what our Service is worth! While Jack&mdash;!" words failed her
+to express her estimation of the Indian Civil Service of which Jack was
+a promising member.</p>
+
+<p>"But dear Mother, I am not going to marry a Service!" laughed Honor.
+"When I fall in love with a Man it won't much matter what job he is in,
+or what prospects he has. And if he is in love with me, and wants me,
+why"&mdash;she left the obvious conclusion to her mother's imagination. "But
+rest assured, whoever he may be, he will never be Tommy!" she added by
+way of consolation.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after the dinner-party was typical of late October in the
+plains of Bengal, with its dewy freshness of atmosphere and a nip in the
+north wind that was an earnest of approaching winter&mdash;if the season of
+cold weather might be so termed, when fires were never a necessity, and
+frost was rare. It was, however, a time of pleasant drought when the
+state of the weather could be depended upon for weeks ahead, with blue
+skies, a kinder sun, and dead leaves carpeting the earth without
+denuding the trees of their wealth of foliage.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the Bara Koti a light haze was visible through the branches of
+the trees, lying like a thin veil on the distant horizon; and, overhead,
+light fleecy clouds drifted imperceptibly across the blue sky. It was
+the hour popularly believed to be the best in the twenty-four, which
+accounted for Mrs. Meredith's ayah wheeling the baby through the dusty
+lanes, in a magnificent perambulator, "to eat the air."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Hawa khané</i>," translated Honor Bright critically, as she drew rein and
+moved her pony aside to make way. She was riding, in company with Tommy
+Deare, to Sombari that she might learn the latest news of Elsie Meek, a
+girl of her own age and one for whom she had much sympathy. Elsie had
+been undergoing the training necessary to fit her for becoming a
+missionary, irrespective of her talents in other directions; and Honor
+had often thought of her with sympathy. But Mr. Meek had his own ideas
+respecting his daughter's career, and Mrs. Meek had long since ceased to
+voice her own. "<i>Hawa khané!</i>&mdash;how queerly the natives express
+themselves!" Her remark had followed the ayah's explanation of her
+appearance with the child. "Mother says it is a mistake for delicate
+children to be out before sunrise to 'eat the air.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Eat microbes, I should suggest," corrected Tommy. "A case of 'The Early
+Babe catches the Germ.'"</p>
+
+<p>"How smart of you!&mdash;how do you do it so early in the morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Inherent wit," said Tommy complacently. "You press a button and out
+comes an epigram, or something brilliant."</p>
+
+<p>"You've missed your vocation, it seems. I am sure you might have made a
+fortune as another George Robey!"</p>
+
+<p>While Tommy affected to collapse under the lash of her satire, she leapt
+from the saddle to imprint a kiss on the rose-leaf skin of the infant's
+cheek. "What a perfect doll it is&mdash;did any one see any thing half so
+adorable!"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me like all other babies," Tommy remarked indifferently.
+"When it isn't asleep it is bawling; when it isn't bawling it's asleep.
+I have yet to understand why a girl can never pass a pram without
+stopping to kiss the baby in it!" Nevertheless, he thought it a pleasing
+habit with which he was not inclined to quarrel, but for the delay it
+occasioned in the ride.</p>
+
+<p>"I would like you to tell Mrs. Meredith that the Squawk is like all
+other babies in the world and hear what she has to say!" Honor said
+indignantly. "This one is angelic!"</p>
+
+<p>Tommy dismounted with the air of a martyr and peered at the bundle
+containing a human atom almost smothered in silk and laces. "Hallo! its
+eyes are actually open! It is the first time I have seen the miracle.
+Peep-bo!" he squeaked, bobbing his head at the apparition and crooking a
+finger up and down a few inches from the infant's nose.</p>
+
+<p>"Tommy, you are a silly!" Honor exploded with laughter. "As if it can
+understand. You might be a tree for all it knows!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then all I can say is, I have no use for kids until they develop some
+intellect." He assisted her to remount and they continued their way to
+Sombari. Soon, the last of the bungalows was left behind and they were
+cantering side by side along the main road which divided paddy fields
+still containing stagnant rain water and the decaying stalks of the
+harvested corn. At intervals on the road pipal trees afforded shelter to
+travellers by the wayside. In the distance, across rough country
+overgrown with scrub and coarse, thatching grass, could be seen the
+minarets of an ancient ruin&mdash;Muktiarbad's one and only show-place for
+sightseers&mdash;too familiar to the inhabitants to excite even passing
+notice.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Honor soliloquised aloud&mdash;"I do so wish we could get
+Mrs. Meredith more reconciled to India," she sighed. "She has only one
+point of view at present, and that is a mother's. If she could only be
+made to see her husband's point of view and realise also her duties as a
+wife, she would be perfect, for Joyce Meredith is very lovable and good.
+I never knew any one so pretty and so free from personal vanity. But she
+is too sure of her husband. Too certain that he will go on worshipping
+her no matter what she does or how she treats him; and, after all, I
+suppose even love can die for want of sustenance. It seems to me she
+gives all she has to give to the baby, and her husband is left to pick
+up the crumbs that fall from her table!"</p>
+
+<p>"It will end as all such marriages end," said Tommy. "She is only half
+awake to life, and too pretty for every-day use. Meredith should awaken
+her by flirting with Mrs. Fox; otherwise someone else will do it by
+flirting with his wife. I wouldn't put it beyond the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>Honor stiffened visibly. "Why do you say that?" she asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he is given every opportunity. Last night, for instance, on our
+way home from your place, Smart and I saw his motor in the avenue of the
+Bara Koti. It was under the trees with a shaft of moonlight full on the
+steering wheel. If he had wanted to make it invisible, he ought to have
+reckoned on the hour and the moon. We thought he had gone to Sombari,
+but he was singing to Mrs. Meredith."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that true?" Honor asked in low tones of pained surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"We both pulled up outside the cactus hedge till the song was finished.
+He was singing <i>Temple Bells</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>So he had not gone to Sombari after all! It had only been an excuse for
+him to get away from the party. He was evidently not above lying,
+and&mdash;Joyce Meredith was so beautiful!</p>
+
+<p>And Joyce had been alone!</p>
+
+<p>Honor flushed hot and cold with sudden emotion which she could hardly
+understand because it was so new to her: passionate resentment towards
+Joyce Meredith for the impropriety of receiving a visit from Captain
+Dalton at that late hour. Her position as a married woman did not cover
+such indiscretion. How would Ray Meredith feel if he heard that his
+adored wife was entertaining the doctor at midnight, and alone? It
+sounded abominable, even if innocent in intention.</p>
+
+<p>It was not right! it was <i>not</i> right!...</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment, pride rose in arms to crush her resentment. What
+business was it of hers what Joyce Meredith did, or Captain Dalton,
+either? They were not answerable to her for their conduct&mdash;or
+misconduct....</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton might please himself as far as she was concerned. He was
+hardly a friend. Why should she be so deeply affected by his acts? Yet
+her heart was wrung with pain at the mere thought that he had spent the
+rest of the evening entertaining Joyce Meredith who was as beautiful and
+as foolish as a little child. Any man might be excused for losing his
+head when treated to her innocent familiarities.</p>
+
+<p>They were innocent. Of that she was sure, for Joyce coquetted with
+either sex impartially and unconsciously.</p>
+
+<p>All through her silent brooding Tommy talked incessantly. He had passed
+from the subject of the doctor and Joyce Meredith to Bobby Smart who had
+obtained a transfer to a distant station on the railway, and was
+rejoiced that he would soon see the last of Mrs. Fox with whom he was
+"fed up."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't admire him for talking about her, or you for listening," said
+Honor, paying scant attention to the subject of Bobby Smart.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't. I had to shut him up rather rudely; but Bobby is
+thick-skinned and, like some fellows one meets, a dangerous gossip, and
+the last man a woman should trust."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder much why women are so blind. They are fools to care for, or
+trust men," Honor said gloomily, and looking depressed.</p>
+
+<p>"You must never say things like that to me," Tommy blurted out,
+offended. "You must discriminate between those who are honest and those
+who are the other thing. You might trust me with your life&mdash;and
+more&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say all you men say that!"</p>
+
+<p>"And all don't mean it as I do. <i>I</i> am discriminating; consequently,
+there is only one girl in the world for me...." He choked unable to
+proceed, and looked the rest into her clear eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, Tommy!&mdash;this is why I hesitate to come out with you," she said,
+looking annoyed.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help caring for you," he answered defiantly. "It's an
+unalterable fact, and you may as well face it. I have cared ever since
+school-days. It has been my one hope that you too would care&mdash;in the
+same way."</p>
+
+<p>"And I have tried to show you in a hundred ways that it is of no use,"
+she said kindly. "Can't you be content to be&mdash;just pals?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. So long as you remain unmarried I shall keep on hoping."</p>
+
+<p>"And I cannot do more than tell you it is of no earthly use." She
+avoided looking at him again for the knowledge that his face betrayed
+the depth of his disappointment. "Perhaps it would be better if we gave
+up riding and tennis together, and you tried to take up some other
+interest?" she suggested.</p>
+
+<p>But Tommy laughed unboyishly with a cracked sound in his throat. "I
+won't say anything more about it, if it annoys you, Honey, but don't for
+God's sake give me the push. I'm coming to the Club just the same for
+tennis with you, and shall call to take you out riding when I may&mdash;like
+this. You need not worry about what I have said. I dare say I'll get
+along&mdash;somehow ... so long as you are not keen on someone else," he
+added. It seemed he would never be able to stand that!</p>
+
+<p>"I am not keen on&mdash;any one else," she said, lifting her head with a
+resolute air. "But I do want you to know that I am not the marrying
+sort. I love the idea of being an old maid and having crowds of
+friends&mdash;and perhaps a special pal&mdash;that's you, if you like, old boy,"
+she added graciously holding out her hand which he gripped with energy.
+"So that's all right, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>While he made the expected reply, which was naturally insincere,
+considering the state of his sore heart, both observed a cloud of dust
+moving rapidly towards them which quickly resolved itself into a rider
+galloping at full speed.</p>
+
+<p>When he was nearer his pace slackened from exhaustion, and Honor
+recognized one of the pastors of the Mission, an Eurasian, his face pale
+and stricken and dripping with sweat.</p>
+
+<p>A chill of foreboding struck at her heart as she asked for news of the
+sick girl, Elsie Meek.</p>
+
+<p>"She is dead," came the blunt reply. "I am now on my way to the doctor
+who should have seen her last night, but he never came." He rode on
+without waiting to hear Tommy exclaim, "Good God!" and Honor give an
+inarticulate cry of surprise and sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought she was going on all right," said Tommy gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"I had no idea she was so bad!" said Honor. Both had pulled up uncertain
+what to do. "Poor, poor Mrs. Meek!" said Honor, thinking of the lonely
+woman who struggled to live her life happily in surroundings which had
+failed to prove congenial, and whose one compensation was the
+companionship of her daughter,&mdash;the one being in the world she loved and
+lived for. She thought of the unsympathetic husband whose Christianity
+savoured of narrow prejudices and exacting codes, and she pitied the
+bereaved mother from the bottom of her heart. "I feel so guilty to think
+that we had the doctor to dinner last night when he might have spent
+that time at Sombari!" Honor cried regretfully.</p>
+
+<p>"That was for him to judge. At any rate, he need not have finished the
+evening at the Bara Koti singing love-songs to Mrs. Meredith."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little Elsie!" Honor sighed, ignoring the allusion to Joyce. She
+was guiltless of blame as she did not know. "Tommy, you had better
+return and tell Mother. I am going straight on. There is now more reason
+for my calling on Mrs. Meek."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a painful visit&mdash;can't you postpone it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather not. I feel someone should be with her. Mother will go
+later, I know; but I must go at once."</p>
+
+<p>Very reluctantly, Tommy turned his horse's head homeward, and lifting
+his <i>topi</i> in acknowledgment of her parting gesture, rode swiftly away
+leaving her to continue her road to the Mission.</p>
+
+<p>The settlement came into view beyond a straggling village which had
+given the Mission its name, and was composed of bungalows grouped about
+a wide "compound": chiefly schoolhouses of lath and plaster, with
+innumerable sheds and outhouses for dormitories and technical
+instruction. As Honor approached, she was conscious of a great stillness
+broken only by the sound of intermittent blows of a hammer. When she
+passed into the grounds through a gate in a neatly kept fence of split
+bamboos, she saw through the open window of a shed, a carpenter busily
+engaged on the grim task of preparing a coffin out of a deal
+packing-case. In India burial follows on the heels of death with almost
+indecent haste, and the sight of a rude coffin in the making, sent no
+thrill of horror through the young girl. It was something to be expected
+in a place where no professional assistance of that sort could be
+reckoned upon in circumstances as sudden as these. Instead, a great
+sadness came over her, and tears filled her eyes to overflowing, for it
+was not so very long ago that Elsie Meek, a young girl like herself had
+come out to India full of life and laughter, yearning to give her
+energies scope, and trying for the sake of her gentle mother, to appear
+contented with the meagre life afforded by her surroundings. Honor
+suffered a pang of regret that she had not spared more time from her own
+pleasures to help Elsie to a little happiness. She had so appreciated
+visits from the Brights, and had been so keenly interested in the doings
+of the Station people, with whom she was rarely allowed to associate.</p>
+
+<p>What a futile life! Poor little Elsie Meek!</p>
+
+<p>At the Mission bungalow where Honor dismounted, a group of missionaries
+were sombrely discussing in whispers the necessary details connected
+with the funeral. Mr. Meek sat apart, bowed with depression, his face
+lined and haggard with grief. This was the man's world&mdash;Sombari
+Settlement&mdash;the child of his creation; yet how hollow were his interests
+and ambitions today!</p>
+
+<p>Many years ago he had been financed by zealous Methodists and sent out
+to India to establish a mission in rural Bengal. After careful search he
+had chosen Sombari on the outskirts of Muktiarbad for the field of his
+labours. By degrees, his untiring efforts had prospered and Sombari was
+now a large community of pastors and converts, and he, himself, an
+Honorary Magistrate of second-class powers, in recognition of his
+influence among the people. Mr. Meek had a reputation for converting the
+heathen with a Bible in one hand and a cane in the other, and his
+methods were justified by the results seen in the confidence he inspired
+in his followers. He was a strong man, popularly credited with being
+just, if unmerciful, and was respected by the natives for miles around
+as hard men are, in the East; and they rarely appealed against his
+judgments.</p>
+
+<p>The same spirit had ruled Mr. Meek's domestic life and had reduced his
+wife and daughter to the position of appendages of the Mission. It was
+nothing to him that they professed no vocation for the life; the
+discipline was wholesome for unregenerate human nature which is prone to
+crave for what is worldly and unprofitable. He was responsible for the
+souls in his care; and he conceived it his duty to protect them
+according to <i>his</i> lights&mdash;not <i>theirs</i>. Having safeguarded them from
+the snares and temptations of Station life which represented the World,
+the Flesh, and the Devil, he was filled with righteous satisfaction
+concerning their safety hereafter, and ceased to trouble himself with
+their yearnings in the present.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meek, who had once been a governess in a private family, was of a
+mild, easy-going nature, incapable of resisting tyranny. Since her
+marriage, her naturally submissive mind had become an echo of her
+husband's, although she was not always in agreement with his opinions;
+yet it was the line of least resistance, and "anything for a peaceful
+life" was her motto. Her greatest comfort had come with the birth of her
+daughter, who, later, was reared by her maternal relatives in England.
+They had means, while the Meeks had barely enough for their own needs,
+so Elsie had received a good education of which her relatives had borne
+the cost, and at the finish, came out to her home at Sombari under the
+protection of missionary friends travelling to India.</p>
+
+<p>Though Mrs. Meek had not seen her daughter for the best years of her
+childhood, her love for her had become the absorbing passion of her
+life. For years she had carried about a heart aching with longing for
+this treasure of her own flesh and blood, so that their reunion altered
+her whole life. So long as she had her child's companionship and
+affection, she was blessed among women; even the little world of Sombari
+was glorified.</p>
+
+<p>But, alas! on that morning of Honor Bright's visit, death had robbed
+Mrs. Meek of all that life held for her. Honor understood how completely
+she was bereft, and her own heart overflowed with sympathy. Her one ewe
+lamb had been taken, and in her grief, the foundations of the mother's
+faith were shaken.</p>
+
+<p>She turned her face to the wall and cried out against her Maker. "From
+him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath!" was the
+burden of her sorrowful cry.</p>
+
+<p>"What had I to make life worth the living! My child was all in all to
+me, and she has been snatched from me! Of what use is religion since
+even my prayers could not avail? It is comfortless. God is cruel. He
+tramples on our hearts. He has no pity." Such were the outbursts of the
+poor, stricken heart.</p>
+
+<p>She was the picture of abandonment in the comfortless room, ascetic in
+its lack of dainty feminine accessories. The floor was covered with
+coarse bamboo matting such as the Brights used in their pantry and
+bathrooms. Cretonne <i>pardars</i><a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> hung in the doorways; the furniture
+was rough and country-made; the bed-linen and coverings were from the
+mills of Cawnpur. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," had
+been Mr. Meek's justification for confining his expenditure to the
+barest necessaries of life. But, on the other hand, he indulged himself
+in his hobby for raising prize cattle for the local <i>Mélas</i><a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>. Prize
+cattle had their use and did not come under the head of extravagance as
+did furnishing according to taste and fancy; so Mrs. Meek and her
+daughter had to suffer the lack of the refinements of life to the
+mortification of their spirits and the discomfort of their bodies, in
+order that their souls might be purged of the vanities and lusts of the
+flesh.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not fight against the decrees of the Almighty," said the nurse
+reproachfully, as Honor knelt beside the bed and embraced the unhappy
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk all that clap-trap to one in torment," said the girl
+contemptuously. "People are too ready to put all the blame on God when
+they are bereaved."</p>
+
+<p>If a thunderbolt had fallen in the room it could not have had a more
+startling effect than this outburst of Honor's. The nurse recoiled in
+horror thinking she was in the presence of a free-thinker who is first
+cousin to an atheist, and Mrs. Meek choked back her sobs to stare
+wide-eyed at her visitor who had dared to voice such heresy under a
+missionary's roof.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it God's will when one is afflicted? That is what we are taught,"
+said the nurse indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"We are taught a lot of stuff which is not true," said Honor firmly. "It
+isn't sense to impute to a loving God acts of wanton cruelty, and we
+dishonour Him by so doing." She kissed Mrs. Meek's cheek and spoke
+tenderly to her of her sympathy and sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Miss Bright, are not life and death in God's hands?" the bereaved
+lady asked astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes&mdash;with our co-operation. God needs our help as we need His.
+I could never believe that our dear ones are taken from us by God's
+will. He could not will us unhappiness. We have got to suffer as the
+result of ignorance and neglect, and a thousand other reasons which are
+Cause and Effect. Where we fail God, we must suffer."</p>
+
+<p>"How did we fail God? We did all we could!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;we always shut the stable door after the steed is stolen. God did
+not give your child the germ of enteric which constitutionally she was
+unfitted to cope with. It happened through some misfortune that God had
+nothing to do with, and, simply, she hadn't enough fight in her. There
+are times when we cannot understand why some things should be,
+especially if we feel that by stretching out His arm God can save us;
+yet He does not do so," continued Honor. "I prefer to believe that God
+fights for the life of our dear one along with us, and we both fail, we
+and God, because of some lack on our side that has hindered." Honor was
+not accustomed to holding forth on the subject of her views and would
+have said no more, but Mrs. Meek was roused to a new interest and
+persisted in drawing from her all she felt regarding the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"If you put your foot on a cobra and you are bitten, and no immediate
+remedies are at hand, you will certainly die. If you prayed your hardest
+to be saved and did nothing, you would certainly be disappointed. God
+has given us the means of saving life&mdash;science and medicine are His way
+of helping us through doctors&mdash;even then we fail if the patient has no
+strength to battle with disease. That is how I feel," she added loyally.
+"We don't blame those we love&mdash;so don't blame God unjustly."</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor Dalton said Elsie's heart was weak," moaned Mrs. Meek. "Perhaps
+had he come last night he would have noticed the change in her and done
+something to have helped her to live! Oh! Miss Bright, I feel it is
+owing to the doctor's neglect that I have lost my child. Why didn't he
+come last night?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor's eyes fell before the anguish in hers. "He was at dinner with us,
+and left us early intending to come on here. I don't know why he changed
+his mind," she murmured, feeling again the rush of wild resentment
+against Joyce Meredith for her beauty and allurement.</p>
+
+<p>"How strangely you talk!" Mrs. Meek went on as Honor relapsed into
+silence. "I never heard any one speak or think like this."</p>
+
+<p>"I have always felt that nothing harsh or bad can come from God," said
+Honor gravely. "He does not treat us cruelly just to make us turn to
+Him. It would have the opposite effect, I should imagine, and He knows
+that as he knows us. It is presumptuous of me to say anything at all,
+but it seems to me, we are responsible for much of our own sorrows, or
+it is the way of life since the Fall. Humanity has foiled the designs of
+God from the time of Adam, and has had to bear the consequences. But,
+always, God's goodness and mercy triumph, and we are helped through the
+heaviest of tribulation till our sorrows are healed. Pity and Love are
+from God, never agony and bereavement!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet my husband says that the <i>cross is from God</i>, a 'burden imposed for
+the hardness of our hearts'!"</p>
+
+<p>"So that to punish you, God is supposed to have caused an innocent one
+all that suffering, and has snatched her from the simple joys of her
+life! Is that your husband's conception of a loving God? If I believed
+that, I would become a heathen, preferably."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't seem to fit in with such attributes as Mercy and Love!"
+cried Mrs. Meek, relapsing again into a flood of grief; for, after all,
+there was poor consolation for her in any theory since nothing could
+restore to her her beloved child.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," said Honor to the nurse who had led her to the adjoining room
+to take her last look at her dead friend, "wasn't her death rather
+sudden and unexpected?"</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor should have been here last night," said the nurse looking
+scared and uncomfortable. "She was so wild and restless and kept
+exciting herself in her delirium. Her heart was bad and nothing seemed
+to have effect. He should have been here, and not left her to me for so
+many hours, since early morning!"</p>
+
+<p>"When did the change set in?&mdash;could no one have gone for the doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a great misfortune that there was no one capable of relieving
+me," said the nurse looking distressed. "There was only the ayah, and
+she was supposed to be watching, yet allowed the patient to sit up in
+bed in her delirium when to lift an arm had been forbidden. All she
+could do was to cry aloud and remonstrate, which woke me and before I
+could do anything, the poor girl was&mdash;gone! Simply fell back dead. It
+was terrible! I fear I shall get into trouble, but the Meeks could not
+afford more than one nurse and Mrs. Meek and I were both worn out. I
+knew the ayah would blame me, as I blame her; but, humanly speaking, it
+would have happened in any case&mdash;even had her mother been in the room.
+It was truly most unfortunate. If the doctor had only been here he might
+have seen the necessity for a sedative or something!"</p>
+
+<p>It was the same cry: "If the doctor had only been here!" From all she
+could gather, Elsie had passed a restless night and had died of heart
+failure in the morning. An overtaxed heart had given out by the exertion
+of suddenly rising in bed.</p>
+
+<p>Honor doubted if Captain Dalton could have done anything by visiting his
+patient at night, yet his not having done so would always leave a
+reproach against him. She felt it and, yet, strangely enough, wanted to
+combat every argument that would have held him to blame.</p>
+
+<p>When she was leaving the bungalow she came face to face with Captain
+Dalton descending from his car; and so moved was she for the moment,
+that she would not trust herself to do more than bow stiffly as she
+passed, her face white in its repression, her eyes cold and distant. At
+sight of him her agony returned in force; her heart for a moment stood
+still. Why had he lied to them about visiting Sombari when it was Joyce
+Meredith he had meant to see? Joyce with her lovely face and winning,
+childish ways? Everyone must love Joyce because of her ingenuousness and
+extraordinary beauty. The doctor had nursed her in camp under intimate
+conditions ... and he had stolen a visit to her when duty had required
+him in an opposite direction.</p>
+
+<p>How was it possible to feel the same friendliness towards him with that
+wild resentment raging at her heart? So Honor ran out to her pony,
+sprang nimbly into the saddle, and rode rapidly away, feeling his
+searching eyes upon her till she was out of sight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>A SUNDAY OBSERVANCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Honor Bright rode straight to the Bara Koti to tell Joyce of Elsie
+Meek's death, not without a grim satisfaction in the thought that the
+news was certain to fill her friend with self-reproach; on other
+accounts her feelings defied analysis.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was writing home-letters for the mail in her morning-room when
+Honor was announced, and she was arrested, in her expressions of welcome
+by the look on her visitor's face, which was unusually pale and her
+great brown eyes, always so friendly and tender, cold and grave.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" she asked fearfully, as she searched her memory for any
+unconscious offence to her friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I have just come from Mrs. Meek who is prostrated with grief. Elsie is
+dead. She died at sunrise this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead?&mdash;Elsie Meek?... I did not know she was so bad!" Joyce looked
+shocked and distressed.</p>
+
+<p>"I left as Captain Dalton arrived&mdash;they are blaming him for not having
+gone there last night. He was expected, but"&mdash;she made a gesture of
+despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Honor!&mdash;was it because he was here? He came to see if we were
+ill&mdash;I had been nervous about Baby&mdash;and when I knew that it was nothing,
+I kept him for music till&mdash;till quite late. Is it my fault?" The lovely
+face looked stricken and blanched.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know&mdash;perhaps indirectly; but <i>he</i> knew. He should not have
+stayed."</p>
+
+<p>"I persuaded him because I was dull&mdash;but I never knew!&mdash;I never dreamed
+she was so bad! Oh, Honey!" and Joyce broke into a passion of tears. "I
+shall never be happy again. I shall always feel that I was responsible!"</p>
+
+<p>"He should never have stayed with you!&mdash;his duty was clear," said Honor
+sternly. "The responsibility rests entirely with him. But didn't you
+know that being alone and without your husband, you were inviting
+criticism by allowing him to stay&mdash;at that late hour? People in these
+<i>mafasil</i> stations are so censorious."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think it mattered," said Joyce without a shadow of resentment
+at such plain speaking. She stood with hands clasped, looking like a
+child in trouble, and Honor's heart began to melt. "He's only the
+doctor, you see, and he was so good to us in camp. Do you think I was
+wrong, Honey?" flinging her arms about Honor's neck and hiding her face
+in her bosom. Who could censure so much sweetness? So she was held in a
+close embrace and tenderly kissed.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no right to speak&mdash;forgive me," said Honor.</p>
+
+<p>"But you are privileged, because I love you," said Joyce. "Say what you
+please. I am so unhappy!&mdash;so miserable!"</p>
+
+<p>"We must be miserable only for harm consciously done. You could never do
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not bear that you should condemn me," Joyce went on, clinging
+to her for consolation. "It seemed such a simple thing&mdash;it <i>was</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course," Honor agreed against her judgment. "Only it would be
+hateful that you should be talked about by the people here&mdash;as Mrs. Fox
+is, for example."</p>
+
+<p>"I should loathe it!&mdash;for I am not like her. You don't think that for a
+moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never!&mdash;that is why I'll not have you misjudged," said Honor kissing
+her wet cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are people so horrid? I like Captain Dalton. He is so nice&mdash;so
+different from what people think him&mdash;agreeable! He took my rose, and I
+pinned it in his coat. He showed me how I should play the <i>Liebestraum</i>,
+and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He&mdash;took&mdash;your rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It was in my dress ... and was so sweet&mdash;and he said I should be
+called 'Joy.' He is going to show me how to drive his motor-car so that
+I may take Ray by surprise one day. I must go out more than I do, and
+not worry so much about Baby for he is here to look after him. Oh! he is
+very kind&mdash;surely he never meant to neglect Elsie Meek?"</p>
+
+<p>"He knows best about that&mdash;but, Joyce," Honor was strangely agitated and
+hid her telltale eyes in a cloud of Joyce's sunny hair, "you will never
+do anything that you cannot tell your husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean? I always tell Ray everything."</p>
+
+<p>"That is all. He will advise you what it is best not to do. It is no
+business of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'll always tell you, too," the little wife said affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>But Honor mentally decided it would be better for her not to hear
+anything more about Captain Dalton's visits. "I don't count&mdash;I am a mere
+outsider."</p>
+
+<p>"You do. You are such a great help to me. I wish I had half your manner
+and self-confidence."</p>
+
+<p>Their talk reverted to Elsie Meek, and Joyce learned something of the
+mother's grief. She was anxious to call immediately at the Mission to
+offer her condolences, and decided to attend the funeral which was to
+take place that afternoon. It was eventually settled that Mrs. Bright
+should call for her in the dogcart, and Honor would ride.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, when Ray Meredith motored in that afternoon, his wife was
+absent attending Elsie Meek's funeral, a simple ceremony at a tiny
+cemetery on the Mission property. The coffin, made of packing cases and
+covered with black calico, was carried by pastors, and the service was
+conducted by Mr. Meek himself, who scourged himself to perform the
+pathetic task as a penance to his soul.</p>
+
+<p>It was dusk when Joyce returned, a subdued little person in black with a
+bursting heart which was relieved by a flood of tears in her husband's
+arms. He was very pitiful of her in her wrought-up state, and he soothed
+her with tender caresses.</p>
+
+<p>It was very comforting to Joyce to be petted, and by degrees her
+weakened self-esteem was restored. Nothing was very far wrong with
+herself or her world while her husband loved her so, and Honor Bright
+remained her friend. Meredith would not allow his beloved to blame
+herself, though it was hardly the thing to entertain a visitor of the
+opposite sex so late at night when her husband was in camp; but the
+circumstances were exceptional; his little darling was nervous and
+lonely, and Dalton was a gentleman. Poof! he wouldn't for a moment allow
+that the doctor did not know his own business best; and very likely
+Elsie Meek's case had been hopeless from the start. With a weak heart,
+anything might happen in typhoid. Anyhow, he was not going to let his
+little girl worry herself sick and she was to cheer up on the instant
+and think no more about what did not concern herself. The main thing
+was, he had returned for the week-end, and wanted all her love and all
+her smiles to reward him for his long abstinence; and Joyce obediently
+kissed him and beamed upon him through her tears, wondering in her
+childish soul why husbands were so exacting in their love&mdash;their ardour
+so inexhaustible. Women were so very different&mdash;but men!</p>
+
+<p>"With a wife like you, what can you expect?" Meredith cried, when she
+had expressed her views with naïveté. Which was all very flattering and
+calculated to spoil her thoroughly, but Meredith was in a mood to spoil
+her thoroughly after their enforced separation.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>On Sunday morning, Honor followed up the notice which had been pinned on
+the board at the Club concerning evensong at the Railway Institute, by
+cycling round to various bungalows and exacting promises of attendance
+from her friends.</p>
+
+<p>Muktiarbad was behind hand in the matter of a church building, the
+proposal having been shelved by the authorities with the usual
+procrastination. The Roman Catholic missionary lived in ascetic
+simplicity in the Station, and took his meals in native fashion wherever
+he preached the Faith.</p>
+
+<p>There was no Episcopal clergyman nearer than the headquarters of the
+Division, eighty miles away; so it was only when his duties permitted
+it, that the District Chaplain paid a flying visit to Muktiarbad to
+minister to the spiritual welfare of his flock. Otherwise, it devolved
+on the Collector to officiate at Divine worship, as a paternal
+government enjoined this duty on the leading official in the stations
+not provided with resident clergy.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was that on most Sunday evenings Mr. Meredith read the Church
+Service in the general room of the Club to a congregation consisting
+mostly of ladies, while Jack Darling, usually flushed and breathless
+after tennis and a lightning change, went through the ordeal of reading
+the lessons.</p>
+
+<p>To make certain of a couple of unreliable members of the choir, Honor
+cycled last of all to a picturesque little bungalow near the Police
+Court, and dismounted at its tumble-down gate. From frequent removals
+for jumping competitions for raw ponies, it was considerably damaged and
+swung loosely on its hinges, swayed by every wind that blew.</p>
+
+<p>The bungalow was thatched, the eaves supported by square pillars; and
+the verandah was screened by bamboo trellis-work up which climbed the
+beautiful <i>Gloriosa superba</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Boars' heads, buffalo horns, and the antlers of deer, ornamented what
+could be seen of the walls inside, and the tiled flooring was scattered
+over with long-arm easy chairs and "peg-tables."</p>
+
+<p>A gravelled walk led to the steps, bordered on either side with
+straggling marigolds and dwarf sunflowers, dear to the hearts of
+<i>malis</i>, but evidently the worse for the depredations of the village
+goats. Date-palms drooped gracefully above a tank in the background, and
+a gorgeous hedge of acalypha hid the outhouses and kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Honor's appearance at the gate was the signal for a wild stampede from
+the verandah by Jack and Tom, who were enjoying a "Europe morning," to
+change into suitable garb; an orderly being dispatched meanwhile to
+crave the lady's indulgence. Rampur hounds and fox-terriers received her
+effusively on the road, and showed their appreciation of her presence by
+leaving marks of muddy paws on her drill skirt.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy was the first to appear neatly apparelled, and smoothing his wet
+hair with both hands. He was followed soon afterwards by Jack, looking
+like an overgrown schoolboy in flannels. They hung about the gate since
+she could not be induced to enter, and pulled rueful faces on receiving
+instructions as to their duty at six-thirty, sharp.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe there has been a riot at Panipara," put in Tommy with
+inspiration. "It is my duty as a police official to take instant notice
+of the fact and visit the spot for an inquiry."</p>
+
+<p>"It can wait till Monday morning&mdash;or, you can send your Inspector," said
+Honor.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a poisonous report to write"&mdash;began Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"No sulking!" said Honor with determination. "You have to set a good
+example, both of you."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind the service, a bit, and the hymns are fine," said Tommy,
+"but I distinctly object to sitting still and having illogical arguments
+when I cannot answer back hurled at my head."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't mind even that, for I needn't listen to them," said Jack;
+"but I do wish he would cut his sermons short. The last time he was at
+it for half an hour till I fell asleep and all but swallowed a fly."</p>
+
+<p>"You and Tommy are worse than heathens and want a Mission all to
+yourselves," said Honor with twitching lips. (When Honor's lips revealed
+a hidden sense of humour, the boys' spirits effervesced.) "There is
+hymn-practice at three this afternoon at the Institute," she informed
+them. "Shall we have <i>Abide with me</i>, for a change?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Abide with you,' certainly," said Tommy bubbling, while Jack put in a
+plea for one of the old favourites. "<i>Sun of my soul</i> is hard to beat,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack has a fixed belief that the world has missed a great tenor in
+him," remarked Tommy. "He was bawling so loudly in his bath yesterday
+morning, that I was on the point of fetching my gun thinking there was a
+jackal around,&mdash;fact!"</p>
+
+<p>"Liar! I was singing <i>O Star of Eve</i>, and you annoyed me by joining in.
+Execrable taste."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?&mdash;we shall count on both of you for the choir."</p>
+
+<p>"If any one will be so kind as to lend me a prayer-book," said Tommy
+reluctantly. "Jack used mine on a muggy night to keep the window open,
+and as it rained half the time, my property was reduced to pulp. The
+least he might do is to give me another."</p>
+
+<p>"You can share mine," said Honor magnanimously. "That's fixed."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, awfully. I love sharing a prayer-book with someone who knows
+the geography of it. The last time I went to church was at Hazrigunge
+when the Commissioner's Memsahib collared me as I was going to bridge.
+Miss Elworthy, the parson's sister,&mdash;elderly and still hopeful, handed
+me her book of Common Prayer; but I'm dashed if I could find the
+Collect! At any ordinary time I would have pounced upon it right enough,
+but knowing her eyes were upon me, I could do nothing but make a
+windmill of the pages with only the 'Solemnisation of Matrimony' staring
+up at my distracted vision, till I began to think Fate had designs.
+Really, it made me quite nervous, I assure you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to give you Sunday-school lessons," said Honor, laughing
+heartily. "You are a bad boy, Tommy."</p>
+
+<p>"I never attempt to find the places," said Jack. "It's the most
+difficult thing in the world when you are nervous and the parson is off
+at great speed, like a fox with the pack at his heels. My Church Service
+was a present from my old aunt when I was confirmed and is in diamond
+print, so that when I hold it upside down, no one is a bit the wiser."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" cried Honor.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. I always say 'Amen' at the right moment."</p>
+
+<p>"It is always a case of 'Ah, men!' at Muktiarbad, where church is
+concerned," saying which she sprang on her bicycle and fled with the
+sound of loud groans in her ears.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Choir practice was well attended, and the "Inseparables" were obediently
+on hand to swell the singing of the popular hymns and even attempt a few
+chants. At the finish, Mrs. Fox made room for Jack on the organ stool,
+and while he worked the pedals, she played a voluntary by Grieg to their
+own entertainment and the distraction of the company.</p>
+
+<p>"Fair joint production, if Jack would only remember he is not working a
+sewing-machine," said Tommy. "It puts me out of breath to listen."</p>
+
+<p>"The bellows sound like an asthmatic old man about to suffer spontaneous
+combustion," said Honor moving away from the vicinity of the American
+organ, vexed to see the transparent arts practised by Mrs. Fox to lead
+Jack captive.</p>
+
+<p>Divine service when conducted by the District Chaplain was held at the
+Railway Institute which was more centrally situated than the Club for
+the bulk of the European community at Muktiarbad, and the occasion was
+typical of the generality of such functions in the small, <i>mafasil</i>
+stations lacking a church building. Families of officials,&mdash;Government
+and Railway, non-officials, and subordinates, found seats for themselves
+in the neighbourhood of their respective acquaintance, and there was
+only a sprinkling of the masculine element, the majority being husbands
+whose demeanour, as they followed in the wake of their wives, was
+suggestive of derelict ships being towed into port.</p>
+
+<p>The choir were accommodated near the American organ at which Mrs. Fox
+presided with ostentatious skill. Jack's stealthy effort to elude
+observation in a distant corner was frustrated by Honor on her way in,
+who whispered her commands that he was to occupy the seat reserved for
+him as the sole tenor available.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy, on the other hand, put in attendance with laudable docility,
+claiming a place beside Honor; and all through the sermon occupied
+himself with the marriage service, till a gloved hand recovered
+possession of the prayer-book and a pair of brown eyes reproved him
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"You paid no attention whatever to the service," she afterwards remarked
+scathingly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is just what I did, right through," he returned meekly. "It's the
+only service that interests me."</p>
+
+<p>"It was irrelevant matter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Which made me miss the benefit I might have derived from the seed
+falling on prepared soil. Alas! see what you are responsible for!"</p>
+
+<p>"I? I take no responsibility for you. And was the soil really prepared
+this time?" she teased.</p>
+
+<p>"It was torn by the plough of eagerness and harrowed with anxiety lest I
+should be late and lose my place beside you," he returned feelingly.</p>
+
+<p>Outside on the gravelled path, Mrs. Bright was informed by Mrs.
+Ironsides that she had counted sixty women in "Church," and only sixteen
+men, twelve of whom were married. "Scandalous!&mdash;I call it. And this is a
+country, where, in the midst of life one is in death!"</p>
+
+<p>On their way home, Meredith and Joyce, with the parson in the car, came
+upon the doctor taking a "constitutional" in the moonlight and insisted
+on carrying him off to pot-luck.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy attached himself to the Brights and received a similar invitation,
+while Jack was annexed by Mrs. Fox whose husband was at home and "would
+be charmed."</p>
+
+<p>The invitation was given openly and Jack had no hesitation in accepting
+it, curious to know how the elusive Barrington Fox would appear on
+closer acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>They walked together across the railway lines and past unkempt hedges of
+Duranta in full bloom towards the group of residences reserved for
+officials of the Railway, each within its own garden and bounded by
+barbed wire as a protection against stray cattle.</p>
+
+<p>The Traffic Superintendent's house was built on a more generous scale
+than the others, though uniformly of red brick picked out with buff.
+Shallow arches supported the concrete roof, and the verandah in front
+was gay with ornamental pot-plants and palms of luxuriant growth. Many
+doors opened upon it, and through them could be seen a lamplit and
+graceful interior, veiled by misty lace curtains. The verandah itself
+was left for the moon to illuminate.</p>
+
+<p>Long residence in India and natural good taste had taught Mrs. Fox the
+art of furnishing with an eye to the needs of the climate, so that her
+rooms had the charm of restfulness, ease, and coolness. Most of her
+drawing-room chairs were of Singapur rush-work; the mat was of green
+grass, the <i>punkha</i> frills of art muslin. The walls were distempered in
+cool greys and neutral tints; while on all sides were palms, large and
+small, and china-grass in dainty flower-pots of coloured earthenware. A
+Japanese draught screen, embroidered in silk upon gauze and arranged
+carelessly, put a finish to the most picturesque drawing-room Jack had
+yet seen in Bengal.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Barrington Fox, however, was not at home. A telegram was found to
+have arrived, intimating that he had been detained at a wayside station.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a nuisance!" Mrs. Fox exclaimed, laying down the telegram which,
+as a matter of fact, she had received earlier in the day. "You'll have
+to put up with only me. Do you mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not for me to mind," he answered awkwardly. "If you think I might
+stay, I shall be delighted."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you shall. Who cares?&mdash;not my husband who has long ceased to mind
+what I do or how I am left to pass the time," she said bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"You must often be very lonely?" he ventured sympathetically. He had
+heard many rumours of Fox's neglect of his wife&mdash;of the temptations to
+which she was exposed and to which a woman placed as she was might be
+excused for yielding. Plenty of fellows paid court to her, and a good
+few had grown attached&mdash;yet, barring Smart who was a cad and a bounder,
+he was sure that none could cast a stone.</p>
+
+<p>"I am always desperately lonely," she sighed, as she sank into a
+chesterfield and motioned him to the seat beside her. "You little know
+how it preys upon me; how I welcome a sympathetic friend! but&mdash;why speak
+of it?" she passed him her cigarette case, and they began to smoke
+companionably. "So few understand me," said she in subdued tones. "So
+many misunderstand! I ask you, what is life worth to a young woman
+in my position?" her chest heaved, her eyes filled with self-pity.
+"And who can stifle nature and be happy?&mdash;the ache for human
+sympathy&mdash;tenderness&mdash;love...." she brushed the moisture from her eyes
+with a diminutive handkerchief, and smiled a wintry smile. "I refuse to
+talk only of myself!&mdash;let us talk of you, dear Jack. You are a dear and
+I have so longed to make a friend of you," she interrupted herself to
+say.</p>
+
+<p>Jack coloured furiously while filled with indignant pity for her. Poor
+girl!&mdash;after all, she was quite young!... He did not care how old she
+was; she was young enough to be pitied for the rotten time her selfish
+husband gave her.</p>
+
+<p>They spent a supremely innocent evening looking through albums of
+photographs and talking football and polo. The dinner was excellent, and
+Mrs. Fox, clever in the art of entertaining, modelled her conversation
+to suit his manly tastes, in the end breaking down all his natural
+shyness and placing him on terms of easy friendship. When Jack
+eventually rose to go he was flattered by her open reluctance to part
+with him; her pleasure in his society had been so frank and appealing.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never enjoyed an evening so much in my life, Jack," she said
+cooingly. "Why are you so different from other men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Am I?" he asked in some confusion as she retained his hand in hers.</p>
+
+<p>"In a thousand ways. I almost wish I had never met you, Jack!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" he asked, his breath suddenly short, his heart beating a rapid
+tattoo in his breast. For the life of him he could not say the easy
+pretty things that fell so naturally from other men's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;Oh! why, you must know&mdash;I shall always be making comparisons
+which are odious, and remember, I have to put up with only odiousness!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hate to think of it," he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>"It is sweet to think you mind."</p>
+
+<p>"It makes a fellow&mdash;mad to do something. It's damned hard and cruel for
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, dear boy. Come again, come often, will you?" she pleaded,
+leaning her head against the pillar behind her and looking languishingly
+up at him with the moonlight full on her face and throat, bathing her in
+a pale radiance.</p>
+
+<p>Jack's eyes swept the deserted verandah. He did not know that the
+servants were well drilled in the etiquette of keeping out of the way
+when the lady of the house entertained a male visitor. "Good-bye," he
+said indistinctly, moving a step nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," she returned almost inarticulately, her eyes melting to his
+own. "I shall weep my heart out when you are gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" he demanded unsteadily.</p>
+
+<p>"For the things that I have missed. I always dream of a man just like
+you&mdash;you are the man of my dreams come to me&mdash;too late!&mdash;and my heart
+has been starved so long!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," he said sharply. "I am not made of stone."</p>
+
+<p>Their faces were very near together, so near, that Jack had only to
+stoop to press her lips fiercely with his.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jack!&mdash;" she cried emotionally. "You mustn't make me love you&mdash;you
+darling!" yet she returned his kiss with equal fervour. "Oh, go&mdash;go
+quickly," she breathed. "You must not stay&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Dazed and bewildered, Jack took her at her word and went swiftly down
+the steps, nor did he halt when her voice called after him to stop and
+return. "Oh, Jack!&mdash;come back&mdash;come back, I cannot let you go!"</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, he went without a backward look, wondering within himself
+if all men found it so easy to tread the path of dishonour. Where it
+might lead him if he allowed his baser instincts headway, he could
+guess, and with a mighty effort he made up his mind to apply the brake
+there and then. Poor woman!&mdash;he could not blame her&mdash;it was he alone who
+had had no excuse&mdash;not a shadow of an excuse for the outrage. She, a
+disappointed wife was like a being temporising with suicide. Small blame
+to her if she took the plunge. It was for men of sound brain and clear
+judgment to save her&mdash;not supply the means of self-destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Did she wish him to believe that she already loved him?</p>
+
+<p>Then he must assist her quickly to recover from the delusion, for Jack
+well knew that there is a difference between love and the feeling that
+could simulate it to the destruction of honour and self-respect. Passion
+had swept him off his feet with sudden violence and he was shaken to the
+depths with fear of himself, for he had let himself go unpardonably and
+was ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>All the way to his bungalow he walked with bowed head, alternately
+thrilled with temptation, and abased at his moral collapse; the latter,
+because he cherished an ideal and was now convicted in his own
+estimation as unworthy.</p>
+
+<p>The ideal had been established in the <i>Puja</i><a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> holidays he had spent
+in Darjeeling playing with the "Squawk" and listening to its mother's
+innocent reminiscences of her home and her people in England. He had
+found a wonderful thing: a beautiful woman without vanity&mdash;a
+child-nature in a woman; an ideal wife; one who respected her husband
+and obeyed him while idolising their child. Wedded to such purity a
+husband's life was paradise, and Jack accounted him a lucky man. It was
+refreshing to bask in her presence and hear her describe her simple
+past, so transparently virtuous and inexperienced, into which a certain
+name was always intruding. "Kitty" the little sister was mentioned
+constantly. Always "Kitty!" She had said this or that, she had done so
+and so. She was a little wonder, full of charm, and so intensely human
+that the picture of her had haunted his imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she like you?" he had asked wondering if Nature could possibly have
+twice excelled herself.</p>
+
+<p>"We are considered rather alike, but she has twice the courage and
+initiative that I have, and her eyes are the deepest violet you have
+seen."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you a photo of her?" curiosity had impelled him to ask.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. A beauty, taken by Raaf's in Regent Street." She had fetched
+the photograph and Jack had fallen straightway in love with the
+sparkling face so full of charm and sunshine. The small features were
+not unlike Mrs. Meredith's, but where they lacked her beauty, they made
+up a thousandfold in attraction. It was a face to hold the attention, to
+follow to the ends of the earth. From Mrs. Meredith's description, Kitty
+was brimful of life and high spirits, affectionate and generous, but
+quite a "handful" to manage. "She always dared infinitely more than ever
+I did, and was always the first to get into scrapes! But so loyal and
+honourable!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should imagine every fellow for miles around must be head and ears in
+love with her!"</p>
+
+<p>"That, of course, but she is not a bit silly about boys, being
+practically a boy herself in disposition. Only lately she has begun to
+do up her hair and is to be presented next season when she will be
+considered 'out.'"</p>
+
+<p>"And be married straight away!"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," said Joyce proudly. "She is such a darling!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can believe it," said he.</p>
+
+<p>Jack had been so completely captivated by Kitty's photograph that Joyce
+had generously told him to keep it. She had other copies and thought it
+as well that he should cultivate an ideal for the elevation of his soul.
+"It is good for a man to look up to a really good girl with admiration
+and trust; it should make him determined to become worthy of the
+possession even of her picture."</p>
+
+<p>"It is something for a fellow to live up to," Jack had blushingly
+returned, full of delight in the gift. He mentally resolved to go in
+search of the original the very first time he obtained furlough and to
+be satisfied with no other. If the Fates would only keep her fancy-free
+for himself!</p>
+
+<p>He carried the picture home and Tommy was tormented with curiosity
+concerning the face which was so like Mrs. Meredith's and yet not hers.</p>
+
+<p>The memory of that afternoon at Darjeeling and of the photograph in his
+dispatch-box came to taunt Jack in the moonlight as he wended his way to
+the bungalow at the Police Lines, fresh as he was from the experience of
+a married woman's kisses given in response to his own.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy was at home and awake when he came in, and remarked bluntly
+concerning his extraordinary pallor.</p>
+
+<p>"How did it go off? Was Barrington Fox Esquire particularly cordial?"</p>
+
+<p>"He wasn't there," came gruffly from Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Not there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll repeat it if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be ratty. I was only expressing natural surprise. Possibly she
+knew he wouldn't be there when she asked you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are as uncharitable as everyone else."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am merely somewhat discerning."</p>
+
+<p>"It does you credit."</p>
+
+<p>"My son, hearken to the words of wisdom and the voice of the
+sage&mdash;'Whoso is partner with a thief, hateth his own soul&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go to blazes," said Jack pouring himself out a whisky-and-soda.</p>
+
+<p>"'A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I've been to Church&mdash;Drop it."</p>
+
+<p>"'Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
+friend,'" Tommy persisted with a twinkle in his eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, I'm much obliged but it isn't necessary. Have a cigarette."</p>
+
+<p>It was mentioned that the doctor dined at the Bara Koti that evening.</p>
+
+<p>When the news of an extra mouth to feed was conveyed to the cook in the
+kitchen, Abdul surveyed three snipe among potato chips with a problem of
+multiplication vexing his soul.</p>
+
+<p>"With the <i>padre-sahib</i> they are three, yet without warning they bring a
+fourth! Now what to do? <i>ai khodar</i>!&mdash;how to arrange?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why disturb thyself, brother?" said the <i>khansaman</i> sympathetically as
+he put extra plates on the rack of the hot-case in which an open fire in
+a cast-iron cooker burned fiercely. "Cut each bird in two and make toast
+for each portion, in this way there will be some left for thee and me.
+If the master say aught, ask if it is his almighty will that the
+<i>shikari</i> be sent out at a moment's notice in the moonlight to shoot
+another bird."</p>
+
+<p>The fine sarcasm of his advice created a general laugh of good-humour
+among the servants assembled to serve the dinner. "In my last place,"
+continued the Mohammedan butler, "my Sahib who had no wife would, out of
+sheer provocation, bring six or eight sahibs home to eat with him, and
+could we protest? <i>Yah, khodar!</i> that instant with two kicks would we
+have been dismissed, and he so ready with his boot! No! Quickly we put
+water in the soup; with much energy we opened a tin of salmon, cut up
+onions, fetched a cucumber from the vegetable garden for salad. Then in
+the fowl-house, what a cackling and screeching as the <i>masalchi</i> chased
+fowls and cut their throats! <i>Jhut!</i> they were cleaned and how long does
+it take to grill meat? In fifteen minutes from the order, the dinner was
+ready, pudding and all. When a store-room is well-stocked, it is like
+<i>jadu</i><a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> to make a dinner for one capable of feeding six and even
+eight!"</p>
+
+<p>All great talkers are unconscious egotists, as the Merediths found the
+Reverend John Pugh who enjoyed the sound of his own voice even when he
+was not in the pulpit, and retailed stock jokes and anecdotes to the
+company in general, forgetful of the fact that the same jokes and
+anecdotes had been recounted by him at every house on his visiting list.
+At dessert Joyce was glad to slip away to the drawing-room taking with
+her the doctor, who was permitted to smoke while he played to her on the
+piano.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce noticed that he was disinclined for conversation and was out of
+sorts and dull, as though inwardly disturbed and uninterested even at
+his music. He took an early opportunity to leave and was accompanied to
+the doorstep by Joyce, her husband being still pinned to the dining-room
+by the parson whose anecdotes were inexhaustible.</p>
+
+<p>"When next you see your friend, Miss Bright," said he, apropos of
+nothing, as he shook hands again, "tell her, will you?&mdash;that I know how
+to take a snub."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?&mdash;has Honor snubbed you?" she asked surprised.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled unpleasantly. "It was equal to a knock-down blow."</p>
+
+<p>"But that is so unlike Honor. How do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not complaining, for I dare say I deserve it, but I would like her
+to know that I shall not willingly put myself in the way of the same
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;" light had dawned on Joyce. "It must be because she thinks you
+failed Elsie Meek. She heard that you never went to Sombari on Friday
+night though you left the party for the purpose of seeing how she was
+doing. Honor came here straight from the Mission."</p>
+
+<p>"It was on the steps of the Mission bungalow that we met, and I was
+sentenced without a charge."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you very angry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I am," he returned proudly. "It is nothing of
+consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"But would it have made any difference had you gone?" she pressed. "I
+ask because I feel responsible for having kept you with me." Her voice
+quavered with emotion and her lovely eyes drooped.</p>
+
+<p>"It would have made no difference." Captain Dalton condescended to
+explain Elsie Meek's condition and the fatal consequence of the sudden
+exertion she had taken in her delirium and high fever. "She needed very
+close watching. Unfortunately that was not given."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was the nurse's fault?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was an accident. They could not afford a second nurse and Mrs. Meek
+was physically unfit to do her share."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall tell Honor."</p>
+
+<p>"Please do not do so. I prefer to let the matter stand. It will be quite
+for the best," and with that he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>However, Joyce took the first opportunity of repeating the conversation
+to her friend. "So you see, dear," she concluded as they talked together
+at the Club the following afternoon, "he was not at all to blame."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not, but it makes no difference. I am deeply disappointed in
+him. It was his duty to have gone, and a man who is capable of
+neglecting a duty for pleasure falls short of the standard I cherish,"
+returned Honor coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know you could be so hard!" said Joyce reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not hard. It is absolutely nothing to me and Captain Dalton cares
+very little what I think."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce wondered if that were so, for she remembered his abstraction; his
+mention of Honor had been a bolt from the blue.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand why he said 'it would be quite for the best,'"
+Joyce speculated.</p>
+
+<p>"It proves how little he cares one way or another!" Honor answered,
+wounded but proud. "And I have had a lesson never to mistake a goose for
+a swan again."</p>
+
+<p>"But he was good to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"And for that I immediately dressed him up in every virtue; I was just a
+fool&mdash;like any schoolgirl! Please don't let us talk of Captain Dalton
+any more. He does not interest me at all."</p>
+
+<p>She knew it was untrue to say that, but it was too late to recall her
+words as she turned and faced Captain Dalton, himself, who had come up
+from behind them and must have heard her concluding remarks. He was
+apparently searching for the Collector who had returned reluctantly to
+camp and, as Honor passed on with a bow, which he acknowledged
+distantly, he and Joyce moved away together.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would chase Honor and bring her to reason," said Joyce
+childishly.</p>
+
+<p>"I would much prefer to stay with you, if I may?" said he impressively.
+"Besides, why should I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," said Joyce with childish impulsiveness, "Honor Bright was
+very fond of you."</p>
+
+<p>In a flash, Dalton's eyes seemed to dilate and then contract. "What
+makes you think so?" he asked abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew it&mdash;I felt it. She could not hide it from me."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she ever say anything?" he asked with assumed indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in words&mdash;but when she spoke of you&mdash;oh, the light in her eyes, and
+the changing colour!&mdash;perhaps I should not tell you this?&mdash;but
+misunderstandings are wretched."</p>
+
+<p>Her blue eyes apologised so prettily that he smiled with peculiar
+radiance.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a very good friend," he said with amused indulgence.</p>
+
+<p>"Who wouldn't be that to a girl like Honor!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if I tell you I appreciate that, you must forgive me if I would
+rather not discuss Honor Bright any more. Are you very lonely now your
+husband has left?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be, after today!" she pouted in self-pity.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall call round for you tomorrow afternoon and take you for a
+spin?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall look forward to it. Will you teach me to drive?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"How delightful of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"The pleasure will be equally mine," he said quite charmingly for him;
+and after further pleasantries rather foreign to his habit, he left her
+and drove away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>INFATUATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>Filled with the determination to set aside foolish jealousies and
+cultivate a more generous trust in human nature, the Collector returned
+to his administrative duties in camp which were designed to bring him
+personally into contact with the villagers in his jurisdiction.</p>
+
+<p>His bachelor experience of social life in the East had, unfortunately,
+not helped to supply him with much confidence in his own sex. However,
+men were not all ravening wolves let loose upon society, and it was an
+undeniable fact that no man, however unprincipled, would dare to make
+love to a married woman without her encouragement, or attempt to seduce
+her from her lawful allegiance without her co-operation. And Joyce was
+incorruptible because of her love for her child.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there were times when Meredith's heart yearned wistfully for his
+beloved wife, and for the power of second sight that he might see how
+things were going in his absence; and since he was denied that faculty,
+it was not a little comfort to him to know that Honor Bright was in
+intimate companionship with Joyce. He liked to think of her influence
+exerted to assist the development of the childlike mind; for Honor
+Bright was "one of the best," and would some day make some lucky fellow
+a splendid wife; of that there was no doubt whatever. It seemed a
+mystery that she was still unmarried when she had been out in India for
+a year or more! and Meredith wondered what men were about. It did not
+strike him that Honor was not to be had for the asking.</p>
+
+<p>It was well, however, for the Collector's peace of mind and the work
+upon which he was engaged, that he did not know of the motor drives
+which were to provide a surprise for him one day.</p>
+
+<p>"People are beginning to talk about them," Honor ventured, with
+reference to their frequency, shy of being misunderstood and afraid of
+being considered interfering; but she had not forgotten Ray Meredith's
+parting words spoken with wistful meaning&mdash;"Take care of my wife, she is
+such a kid!"</p>
+
+<p>She had accepted the responsibility and it was weighing heavily upon
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Very impertinent of 'people,'" said Joyce in return.</p>
+
+<p>"You have to live among them, and in your position they want to look up
+to you as a sort of 'Cæsar's wife,'" said Honor smiling. "But it is, of
+course, a matter that lies between you and your husband entirely. If
+<i>he</i> doesn't object&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He knows nothing about my learning to drive, as it is to be a surprise.
+What concern is it of any one else?"</p>
+
+<p>"We generally stand or fall by what people think of us&mdash;don't we?
+However much we would like to ignore the fact, it remains
+unquestionable. If we do things liable to misconstruction, we are likely
+to suffer in the eyes of the world&mdash;and you see it every day. You
+yourself disapproved of and condemned Mrs. Fox, whose ways none of us
+admire or can stand."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Honey!" reproachfully&mdash;"would you compare me with Mrs. Fox? Why she
+does scandalous things!"</p>
+
+<p>"God forbid that I should! but Mrs. Fox did not begin by doing
+scandalous things. When she grew used to doing unconventional things she
+became consciously scandalous. Everything happens by degrees&mdash;even
+deterioration."</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't think there is any harm in my going for drives with
+Captain Dalton, Honey? He is so different. He is not the kind of man who
+gets women talked about, I should imagine. Why, half the time, he is
+glum and absent-minded, and he treats me just like a child." Joyce never
+resented Honor's plain-speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no business of mine," said Honor, "except that you are my friend
+and I am jealous for your honourable standing here. I know nothing of
+Captain Dalton, but that he is a man like most others&mdash;and you might,
+some day, meet with a surprise."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of surprise?" laughed Joyce sceptically.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know&mdash;but you'll remember that I warned you. Meantime, go easy
+with your favours. You are rather generous, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Honor was thinking of Joyce's innocent demonstrativeness&mdash;inseparable
+from herself&mdash;which some men might not understand, and the doctor was
+but human after all. She had seen her toying with his watch-chain while
+arguing against following his advice for the good of her health; leading
+him by the hand to visit her baby in its crib; seizing the lapels of his
+coat in a moment of eager excitement. On each of these occasions Honor
+had been apart from them, an observer at a distance, engaged by others
+in conversation and desirous of appearing unconscious of the doctor's
+existence. Since the day she had shown silent disapproval of him on the
+steps of the Mission Bungalow, he had made no effort to bring about a
+better understanding and she was wounded to the quick, though she
+steeled herself to show utter indifference. Yet the sight of the doctor
+with Joyce in such intimate circumstances&mdash;latterly made more so by the
+frequent drives&mdash;had caused Honor's heart to twist with sudden anguish;
+for it was difficult to forget the day at his bungalow when he had
+fought for her life and called her the bravest girl he knew. A wordless
+sympathy had grown up between them since that day. His eyes had held for
+her a special message. Though he was "not seeking her for a wife" she
+felt that he had liked her more than a little, and she&mdash;&mdash;?</p>
+
+<p>Now they were less than strangers; and Joyce, beautiful and confiding,
+was innocently flattering him with her preference. Where would it end?</p>
+
+<p>While Honor watched the development of Joyce's friendship with Captain
+Dalton, she was also aware of a change in Jack. Tommy had drawn her
+attention to Mrs. Fox's efforts to enslave Jack, whose own demeanour was
+beginning to show that all was not right with him. A new
+self-consciousness was apparent in his manner towards her, and he made
+blundering efforts to avoid being left alone in her company. He was
+evidently afraid of her&mdash;afraid of himself, too&mdash;because of the evil
+impulses her insidious influence had aroused in him.</p>
+
+<p>The fact was, Jack had arrived at a just appreciation of the truism,
+"Opportunity makes the thief." His respect for Mrs. Fox had expired
+after the episode on her moonlight verandah, and though he had made
+excuses for her, he was conscious they had rung hollow. Yet, in spite of
+his strict upbringing and the knowledge of danger, he had come to the
+psychological point when Opportunity was certain to make him a thief,
+for the memory of those kisses burned fiercely. He was as one who, by
+steeping himself in the vice of intoxication, begets a craving for
+alcohol, and he felt that his powers of resistance were on the wane. His
+cherished "ideal" was forgotten, and her portrait reposed face downward
+among envelopes and papers in his dispatch-box, while he kept out of
+Mrs. Meredith's way and neglected Honor Bright.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack's not the same man," Tommy confided to Honor. "He eats little and
+talks less. That woman will bring him to grief. I'd cheerfully shoot
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with Jack?" Honor asked, surprised. "What does he
+admire in her? I have no patience with him."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that he admires her. It's an infatuation. She has cast a
+spell over him somehow, since the night he dined with her alone, and he
+can't resist it. She writes to him almost every day."</p>
+
+<p>"And he answers her notes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack is weak. I simply have no use for such weakness," said Honor
+contemptuously. "There is more hope for the villain who is deliberately
+bad than for the wobbly wretch who hasn't the strength to resist
+temptation. When the one repents, he is at least sincere; the other can
+never be depended upon to repent sincerely."</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard that before," grinned Tommy. "You would rather have Jack
+sin deliberately with his eyes open than fail in his efforts to keep
+straight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no patience for 'failures.' One could be angry with him for
+sinning deliberately, but hardly contemptuous. As it is, I have no
+opinion of Jack."</p>
+
+<p>Tommy made no complaint, for it was all to his own advantage. Though he
+was fond of Jack he had always regarded him as a dangerous rival, who so
+far had been merciful in not exerting his fascinations upon the only
+girl in their small circle at Muktiarbad. Since he was such a fool as to
+prefer dangling after a married woman, ten years his senior, his blood
+be on his own head.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, a few days later, Mrs. Fox discovered Jack Darling alone in
+the billiard-room knocking about the balls while waiting for someone to
+join him in a game. The rules of the Muktiarbad Club were lenient
+towards the ladies, who thus enjoyed privileges denied to them at larger
+stations. Mrs. Fox was therefore free to enter, and Jack was obliged to
+submit to his fate and comply with her request for a lesson in the
+science of "screws" and "potting." He had been priding himself on his
+wisdom and self-control in retiring from tennis and the society of the
+ladies, and had not reckoned on the perseverance of the one lady he
+wished to avoid.</p>
+
+<p>They played till others arrived; Jack was oddly moved by the sight of
+her slender hand, exquisitely feminine and appealing, as it poised the
+cue or lay on the green cloth of the table. Little intimacies were
+inevitable as he was further called upon to instruct her in the
+formation of a "bridge," or the handling of a cue; and he soon forgot
+his desire to escape, in the involuntary thrills her contact gave him.</p>
+
+<p>Eventually, she gracefully resigned in favour of a couple of members who
+looked their anxiety to play, and carried Jack off to escort her home.</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite sure you do not mind?" she asked softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I mind?" he fenced awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you have behaved lately as though you did not&mdash;not&mdash;like
+me...."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I?" he asked, flushing red in the darkness. "That isn't true."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought, perhaps, it was not true. That is why I was determined to
+have this opportunity for a talk."</p>
+
+<p>She did most of the talking while he barely listened, being conscious
+only of the thumping of his capitulating heart. But neither made any
+allusion to the tender episode on the verandah, from which Jack dated
+his undoing.</p>
+
+<p>In a quiet lane where the shadows lay deepest, he was asked to strike a
+match. Convicted of lack of courtesy, Jack hurriedly produced his
+cigarette case and offered it to her with confused apologies.</p>
+
+<p>"No thanks. Only a lighted match. I want to show you something," she
+said plaintively. And while he struck a light she rolled back her silk
+sleeve and displayed for his benefit a purple bruise on her shoulder
+where it curved down to the arm; an ugly, evil-looking thing staining
+the marble purity of the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>"How did that happen?" he asked greatly shocked and very sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!&mdash;is it possible? Is he such a cad as all that?" What else was
+Jack to think?</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I had better say no more about it, only I thought you had
+better know." Only the inference was possible, and Jack stood
+stock-still burning with indignant fury that a woman should be subjected
+to such brutality at the hands of a man. The match burned down to his
+finger-tips and fell to the ground leaving the two in the shadows of the
+silent road.</p>
+
+<p>"It makes me feel pretty mad&mdash;what can I do?" he asked helplessly as she
+drew the sleeve down.</p>
+
+<p>"You can do nothing&mdash;but give me a little tenderness and love," she said
+with a sob, letting him take her in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"You poor little woman!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is so lovely to feel that you care, Jack! Nothing matters so long as
+you care!" She clung to his neck inviting and returning his kisses.</p>
+
+<p>Further down the lane as they walked with his arm about her, they were
+startlingly rung out of the way by a cyclist who had come on them
+unawares. It was Tommy who had neglected to light his lamp, as the
+night, though dark, was clear and starry and municipal regulations were
+lax.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he recognised us?" Mrs. Fox asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Without a doubt," Jack spoke with annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"But it's only Tommy and you are his friend. He won't give us away." She
+had no idea of the shame and embarrassment that Jack suffered at the
+thought that he had given his chum ocular proof of his folly, for Tommy
+had confessed that he despised Mrs. Fox, and that he had encouraged
+Bobby Smart to break away from her clutches. That there was truth in the
+gossip concerning Mrs. Fox and young Smart he could no longer doubt, but
+this made very little difference to him. As matters stood, he was
+committed and could not go back. Nor did he wish to. At least Tommy was
+loyal and would not give him away to the Station. Thoughts of the
+Station brought thoughts of Mrs. Meredith and Honor Bright whose
+good-fellowship he valued. Honor stood for all that was best in
+womanhood, and to be worthy of her companionship a man had to be as
+straight as a die. Joyce Meredith was "not in the same boat," though
+she, too, was a "bit of 'All-right.'" Her sister&mdash;? what chance had he
+of ever meeting her sister?&mdash;Jack laughed as he shook off a tendency to
+morbid regret and bade Mrs. Fox a resolute farewell at her gate. He had
+plenty to do preparing a judgment he had to deliver in court the
+following day, and begged to be excused. Another day&mdash;perhaps&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fox fixed the day and parted from him tenderly, full of
+satisfaction at the success of her clever fiction. The accident which
+had occasioned the bruise had been of the commonest, but it had served
+her gallantly.</p>
+
+<p>Contrary to Jack's expectations, Tommy was not at all in the mood to
+rag, being silent for the greater part of dinner. However, when the
+genial influence of a whisky-and-soda had had time to work on his
+spirits, the young policeman apologised for not having carried a light
+on his bicycle. It was his way of introducing the subject which was
+haunting him with forebodings.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Jack. "But as one whose job is to enforce the
+law, I should imagine you would be more particular."</p>
+
+<p>"If that's all the law-breaking I do, I shan't come to grief, my son. It
+is very different in your case. 'Can a man take coals to his bosom and
+not be burned?'"</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil are you driving at?"</p>
+
+<p>"I get a tidy lot of wisdom out of old Solomon and I commend you to take
+up the dissertation from where I left off. You'll find a good deal to
+set you thinking."</p>
+
+<p>"Where am I to find it?" Jack asked with determined good-humour.</p>
+
+<p>"Proverbs&mdash;sixth, twenty-eighth; read from there, onward."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks. I'll see what he has to say concerning such stupendous truths."</p>
+
+<p>"I commend you also to try him for advice on seeking a wife," said
+Tommy. "It will help you to form a judgment. Listen:</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
+rubies</i>'&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Blessed old cynic!" interjected Jack, adding, he had heard that before.</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her</i>'&mdash;mark the word,
+'trust'.... '<i>She will do him good, not evil all the days of her life.</i>'
+I can't remember it all, there is such a lot. He goes on to say, '<i>Her
+husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the
+land.... Strength and honour are her clothing and she shall rejoice in
+time to come</i>&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Personally, I should prefer something more decent as a garment,"
+murmured Jack, while Tommy searched his brains.</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of
+kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not
+the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her
+husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously,
+but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain: but
+a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the
+fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.</i>'"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it enough?"</p>
+
+<p>"And you mean to say you expect to find such a paragon of perfection in
+modern times?" Jack asked, pouring out some more whisky.</p>
+
+<p>"Till I do, I shan't marry," said Tommy.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's luck to you!" said Jack raising his glass to his lips,
+unconvinced. "I'm afraid you'll live to be an old bachelor."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I shall, though I have found her already," murmured Tommy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>VANISHED</h3>
+
+
+<p>Honor Bright paid several visits to the Mission after Elsie Meek's
+death, hoping to be of use in cheering the bereaved mother. After the
+funeral most of the ladies had called to sympathise, Joyce among them,
+tearful and tender; but having nothing in common with Methodists who
+held aloof from Station society, her visit of condolence ended the
+intercourse, so that, but for Honor, Mrs. Meek would have been much
+alone. The girl would cycle down for an hour or so and chat with, or
+read to the grief-stricken woman while she worked garments for the
+converted heathen, thus affording her the priceless boon of sympathetic
+companionship.</p>
+
+<p>During these visits it became apparent to her how much the Padre had
+changed. He was hardly the same man. All his dictatorial ways were gone,
+his self-sufficiency vanished; he was, instead, bowed down with
+depression, he looked older than his years, and spoke with a new and
+strange humility.</p>
+
+<p>Very shyly, as though unaccustomed to the rôle, he was becoming the
+attentive husband with an anxious eye for his wife's comfort, and
+seeking to show her by unobtrusive services that he understood and
+shared her grief and was suffering the pangs of remorse. It was not easy
+for Mr. Meek to confess that he now realised he had been a hard husband
+and father, but his manner was tantamount to such a confession, and Mrs.
+Meek was deeply touched. The passionate love and devotion of nineteen
+years ago had long settled into a natural affection for the father of
+her child, and now when she was stricken to the earth with sorrow, the
+void in her heart craved to be filled, and she could feel he was
+striving to fill it.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know how pathetic it seems to me," she confided in Honor,
+"his self-conviction and efforts to atone. He must have been fond of our
+child, deep down, though unable to show it, not being of a demonstrative
+nature. I think he feels he was narrow and bigoted not to have allowed
+her a few innocent pleasures such as girls enjoy among young people in a
+Station,&mdash;and it is too late now!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing I can imagine so painful as unavailing remorse," said
+Honor.</p>
+
+<p>"It makes me sorry for him and though I have found it hard to forgive
+him, I have uttered no word of reproach. He is so altered. Although a
+good man and truly religious, he was yet growing unconsciously selfish
+and domineering&mdash;all that has now been swept away, and he is ready for
+any self-sacrifice&mdash;even to allowing me to visit my family in Scotland."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you go?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meek's work dropped in her lap while she gave herself up to
+thought. "No," she said at length. "I have lost touch with my people.
+Though they love me dearly, and I them, I don't feel as if I could leave
+my husband alone now that he is so broken and sad. We share the same
+bereavement, and need each other now more than ever before. Besides, he
+hardly realises how dependent he is upon me. I have done so much for him
+all these years that he will be utterly stranded without me. It would be
+cruel."</p>
+
+<p>Honor smiled at her affectionately, thinking it was very sweet&mdash;this
+spirit of love and forgiveness springing to life after years of habitual
+submission. A truly feminine quality, upon which the masculine nature
+has never failed to draw, and which would continue as long as women
+remained womanly for the salvation of men.</p>
+
+<p>While at Sombari, Honor heard news of Captain Dalton's doings in the
+District. His fame as a surgeon had spread far and wide with various
+results on the ignorant and enlightened. In the case of the former, he
+inspired more fear than respect, and Mr. Meek could tell of mischievous
+rumours afloat which he had done his best to dispel so far as his
+influence went. One of the tales in circulation was that Captain Dalton
+was an agent of the Government sent to cripple the youths of the
+District and otherwise render them helpless in the event of a
+revolution.</p>
+
+<p>"And when is such an event likely to happen?" the Padre had asked.</p>
+
+<p>Who can tell?&mdash;Weren't there mutterings and discontent in big
+towns?&mdash;All who travelled and went to the cities came back with news of
+great things to come if all that the people demanded was not granted by
+the <i>Sarcar</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"What are the people demanding?" Mr. Meek persisted in knowing.</p>
+
+<p>That was best known to the highly educated. What did the poor
+agriculturist know of what was good for the country? He was like sheep
+led to the pasture by those in authority. But when the <i>Sarcar</i> sent
+among the sheep a butcher with no stomach for the suffering of the
+helpless ones, it was time to protest and to see to it that he was
+recalled or driven away. Some were for even more lawless methods of
+ridding the countryside of this monster who disembowelled the sick and
+suffering, severed limbs, and robbed people of their rights.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Meek's inquiries elicited that the doctor had performed certain
+surgical operations in some cases of accidental injury, which the
+neglect of sanitary precautions had rendered necessary. An operation for
+appendicitis had resulted in death through bad nursing and failure to
+carry out instructions. The women of a zemindar's household had fed his
+son on solids too soon after the removal of his appendix, which act of
+ignorance and disobedience had produced inflammation, agony, and death.
+The doctor was regarded as his murderer, and evil looks followed him
+whenever he passed that way.</p>
+
+<p>"What butchery!" one had afterwards exclaimed at a council of five
+called to discuss the enormity of the doctor's conduct and his growing
+record of outrages upon humanity. "To extract a portion of the
+intestines was madness and murder, for who can exist without intestines
+as God made them?&mdash;and his effrontery to put the blame upon the women
+who in the tenderness of their hearts had fed the youth on <i>dhal</i> and
+rice for the restoration of his strength&mdash;<i>ai Khodar</i>! What harm was
+there ever in plain <i>dhal</i> and rice? It was but an excuse, and now there
+is Gunesh Prosad without a son to inherit his estate, and all because of
+this man who is sent among us to cut up human bodies while they are yet
+alive!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a great danger to us. Someone must teach this <i>Sarcari</i> butcher
+of human flesh a lesson, or where might it not end?" another had
+remarked in complete sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"But," put in a third cautiously, fearful of making himself unpopular by
+repeating the tale with which he was fit to burst, "didst hear of that
+legend concerning the coolie of Panipara <i>busti</i> who went forth as a
+beater for the hunt, the time the Collector Sahib and others took long
+spears and killed wild boars? He was gored, and lay on the grass
+disembowelled, and as one dead. Quickly on hearing of the accident came
+the doctor Sahib in his <i>hawa-ghari</i>, himself at the wheel, and leaping
+out he knelt on the grass, and in a twinkling with strange gloves, and
+water in a <i>gumla</i><a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>, he washed the coolie's intestines and restored
+them where they belonged, after which with a needle, even as a <i>darzi</i>
+sews garments, he stitched up the wound! Those watching turned sick of
+stomach, but not so the doctor Sahib. Even the Collector Sahib turned
+his back and called for a glass of spirits. <i>Ai&mdash;Ma!</i>&mdash;how he did it
+was a miracle, but the man is at the hospital in the Station,
+recovering, and these are true words; on the head of my eldest born I
+swear I have repeated it just as it was told to me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a fable; believe it not. More likely he is dead and his body
+already cremated."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so. I was told I could see him, if I willed, with mine own eyes.
+Many have journeyed to the Station so that they might with their own
+eyes behold him. The doctor Sahib may be unfeeling, even bloodthirsty,
+but he is devil-possessed with cunning to work magic."</p>
+
+<p>"Even so, he is a danger and should be removed. Who knows what excuse he
+might take to use the knife on thee and me and the little ones of our
+households? <i>Tobah!</i> he is a wolf, not a man. And this one the <i>Sarcar</i>
+has sent among us to mutilate, kill, and rob us of our comforts and
+rights. Soon, he will take away the <i>jhil</i> from Panipara <i>busti</i> so that
+the people will be put to the labour of dragging water out of deep
+wells, and for the washing of their garments, they will have to walk
+many <i>kos</i> to the river!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Meek had learned a great deal more from his converts of the sayings
+of the villagers and their feeling against Captain Dalton, all of which
+Mrs. Meek recounted to Honor in order that she might put the doctor on
+his guard. The latter, however, gave her no opportunity to speak to him,
+so she left it to Joyce to tell him of his growing unpopularity.</p>
+
+<p>This Joyce did on one of their outings in the Rolls-Royce and only
+succeeded in bringing a smile of amusement to the doctor's lips. He had
+no apprehensions whatever for his safety and the subject, therefore, was
+speedily forgotten. Joyce learned how to drive, and one afternoon in
+December had the supreme satisfaction of motoring out to camp and back
+again in the doctor's car. Her pleasure in his surprise was so childlike
+and exuberant that Meredith had not the heart to show his disapproval of
+the means by which she had attained this end, and smothered his own
+feelings that they should not damp her spirits.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very charming indeed of him to spare so much of his time to
+you," he said with reference to the doctor's tutelage. "But why should
+he take all that trouble, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because he likes me, of course," she replied ingenuously. "People don't
+usually do things for those for whom they care nothing," she said
+perching on his knee and lighting his cigarette for him. Her engaging
+impulses of affection were most disarming to Meredith's suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;suppose I object to his liking you to such a remarkable extent?"
+he said with admirable self-control.</p>
+
+<p>"But why should you? Aren't you glad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Devil a bit! I am wondering whether or not I should consider it an
+impertinence, the way he places his leisure at your disposal."</p>
+
+<p>"But you yourself say I am the Bara Memsahib of the Station. Isn't it
+expected of the men to show me plenty of respect and heaps of attention?
+You wouldn't like to see me left out in the cold?"</p>
+
+<p>"So long as they remember the 'respect'&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, now you're talking!" she said severely. "Have I ever done anything
+to make you doubt my right to the respect of everyone here?"</p>
+
+<p>Meredith kissed away the frown, considerably lighter of heart than he
+had been for some time. No man looking into the sweet pure eyes could
+fail to respect her! A fellow would indeed be a rascal if he tried to
+lead such a perfect lamb astray!</p>
+
+<p>So the drives continued even after the lessons were no longer necessary,
+Joyce often at the wheel with Captain Dalton beside her keeping strict
+watch over their safety and that of the car which he particularly
+valued, while listening idly to her prattle. The curve of her cheek and
+sweep of her eyelashes delighted his artistic love of beauty, so that
+though he had plumbed the shallow depths of her mind at the start, he
+was still entertained by such superficialities as artlessness and
+loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>"When are you going to show me the ruins?" she asked once, when in full
+view of the tall minarets and crumbling dome of the ancient palace. "No
+one seems to have sufficient interest in them to show them to me."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing much to see beyond jungle and brick-work," he said,
+bored at the bare idea of plodding over the ground he had already
+visited, which was interesting only to globe-trotters and lovers of
+antiquities.</p>
+
+<p>"I am crazy to see some of the old enamel still to be found on the
+bricks if you look for it. They say it is a lost art. Are there any
+snakes and leopards?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly snakes, but no leopards. They were gotten rid of long ago, I
+am told."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce shuddered. "The thought of snakes gives me the creeps. Isn't it
+possible to see the place and yet avoid snakes?" she asked longingly.
+She looked so pretty that he relented.</p>
+
+<p>"If we are careful the snakes won't trouble us. I'll take you there some
+day when I have a long afternoon to spare."</p>
+
+<p>At this Joyce was delighted and gave him her sweetest smiles. "If it
+were not for you, I don't know how I should exist in Muktiarbad!" she
+cooed.</p>
+
+<p>"Your husband would not like to hear you say that!" he remarked studying
+her curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"He has to be away so much that I might have died of <i>ennui</i> if you
+hadn't taken pity on me!" she pouted.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton was not ready with pretty speeches; it involved too much effort
+to make up insincerities, but he acknowledged that the drives had given
+him a great deal of pleasure. It was so difficult to rouse him to
+enthusiasm, and he was so complacently cynical, that Joyce took a
+delight in probing his silences and getting at his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you ever really enjoy yourself?" she roguishly asked, her head on
+one side and arch mischief in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just said so, haven't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't mean it. I wish I could understand you and all there is
+behind that grudging smile&mdash;what you think of people&mdash;me, for instance."</p>
+
+<p>"I think if I were an artist I should like to paint a picture of
+you&mdash;you are so amazingly good to look at," he returned daringly.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce coloured. She had asked for frankness and could not quarrel with
+him for having answered her bluntly. On the whole she was rather
+pleased, than otherwise, that he should admire her, for where was the
+use of being pretty if one's friends did not show that they appreciated
+the fact. So she beamed on him wholly unconscious of flirting and
+rallied him still further on his reserve.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to be your model, but your friend. You treat me too much
+as a child and never give me any confidence. Today, after all these
+months, what do I know of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know at least that I am very much at your service. Isn't that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind&mdash;and all that, but friends talk openly to each other.
+I know nothing of you, and I <i>do</i> know everything you could say would be
+so interesting," she sighed. "For instance, why are you never really
+happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have forgotten the way," he said coolly. "Perhaps I have learned too
+much of life and have lost interest in it. You don't laugh when you
+can't see the joke, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor do I. I see no joke in life worth enjoying, so I have forgotten
+what pleasure is."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you tell me all about it?" She pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an ugly story and not for your ears. But it played the devil with
+me for good and all," said he grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry," she cried sincerely shocked and grieved. "I thought you
+must have had a bad time to look and act as you do. Poor you!" and one
+small hand rested for a moment on his. It was immediately captured and
+held close.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you care?" he asked, his expression curiously hardening.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I like you so much."</p>
+
+<p>"Only <i>like</i>?" he asked with a short, unpleasant laugh.</p>
+
+<p>The necessity to avoid a goat tethered by the roadside prevented her
+from replying; Joyce recovered her hand for the steering-wheel and they
+discussed the narrow escape of the goat. To Joyce it was very
+flattering, this unbending to her alone of all in the Station, and the
+growth and development of their friendship. Some day she would learn
+what had "played the devil" with him for good and all. On the whole he
+was really quite a dear.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith chafed during his week-ends at the Bara Koti when it became
+apparent how much his wife depended on the doctor for companionship; and
+now that Honor was supposed to have taken a dislike to the latter and to
+avoid encounters with him on their doorstep, there was little help for
+it. The only advantage to himself to be derived from the entertainment
+Joyce found in the doctor's society, was her healthier condition of mind
+and no further insistence on a passage home for herself and the child in
+the spring. He had a firm faith in her virtue and goodness, and applied
+himself to his winter programme with feverish haste that he might be at
+liberty to return to her the sooner and personally take over the care of
+her before her innocent partiality for the Civil Surgeon became common
+talk. That it was innocent he would have staked his life.</p>
+
+<p>Honor Bright was less sanguine, though intensely loyal. The increasing
+intimacy between Joyce and the doctor weighed heavily on her; and it
+made her rage inwardly to hear her friend discussed openly at the Club
+by a clique that usually looked on at the tennis. While serving her
+smart over-hand strokes, scraps of conversation would float to her,
+demoralising her play and rousing in her a fierce inclination to speak
+her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Mrs. Meredith this evening?" a voice was heard to ask on one
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"Joy-riding as usual with Captain Dalton," from Mrs. Fox venomously. "It
+will be interesting to watch the result when Mr. Meredith awakes to
+what's going on."</p>
+
+<p>"What's going on?"</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor is a 'dark horse.' You don't suppose he would waste so much
+of his valuable time if he did not hope to get some entertainment out of
+Mrs. Meredith? She is such a coquette." This from Mrs. Fox, maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a simple little thing," said the first speaker charitably. "I
+shouldn't imagine there was any harm in her."</p>
+
+<p>"'Still waters run deep,'" quoted Mrs. Fox.</p>
+
+<p>"There is another instructive proverb I could quote," cried Honor
+striking savagely at a ball.</p>
+
+<p>"And what is that?" from Mrs. Fox.</p>
+
+<p>"About 'glass houses and stones.'"</p>
+
+<p>"If that is meant for me, thanks, awfully! But so many panes have
+already been broken, that I am most indifferent to stones," Mrs. Fox
+returned languidly as she smiled on the company, who laughed in
+embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"So it would appear," murmured Mrs. Ironsides to a friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Hateful creature!" Honor snapped in Tommy's ear as he handed her a
+ball.</p>
+
+<p>Jack, playing on the other side with Mr. Ironsides for his partner, had
+deteriorated so much of late that Tommy and Honor, who had both a
+genuine regard for him, were much exercised in mind.</p>
+
+<p>He had lost his frank look and easy good-humour; was rarely to be seen
+at the Club without Mrs. Fox, whom he usually drove down in a side car
+attached to his motor cycle, a recent purchase,&mdash;and was no longer the
+same man. A constraint had arisen between him and his chum who poured
+out his fears to Honor in the hope of receiving advice and comfort, but
+he had succeeded only in alarming her.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't anything be done to save him, Tommy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't think of anything, unless Meredith gets him transferred at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>"But who's to suggest that?"</p>
+
+<p>"His wife, I should think; otherwise some day there might be an unholy
+row. Fox is no fool. I dare say he is biding his time. He was fond of
+Bobby Smart and got him out of this while there was time, but he may
+prefer to sacrifice Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"How terrible!" Honor was sincerely afraid for Jack. He was too young to
+be mixed up in such a bad business, and Mrs. Fox was clever enough to
+play him like a fish till he was landed.</p>
+
+<p>Honor walked home at dusk escorted as far as her door by Tommy. It was
+her intention to call on Joyce after dinner with a proposition
+concerning the transfer of Jack from Muktiarbad. It seemed the only
+thing left to do. Incidentally, she would repeat her warnings to her
+friend concerning herself, for which she expected no thanks. Still, it
+had galled her badly listening to the coarse remarks of Station people
+at the Club. She would speak, however disagreeable the task.</p>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock when she reached the Bara Koti she discovered that Joyce
+was not in. Usually, she returned from her drive at dusk, but as she had
+not done so up to that late hour, the Collector's servants had come to
+the conclusion that she was dining at a neighbour's in the
+happy-go-lucky way that sahibs took "pot-luck" at one another's houses
+without reference to their domestics.</p>
+
+<p>It was odd in Mrs. Meredith's case, for never before had she failed to
+return to her baby that she might tuck him into his little cot herself
+and see that all was right. The ayah was not a little perturbed, but did
+not voice her feelings until speaking to Honor, fearing that they were
+foolish and unfounded. What did the Miss-sahib think?</p>
+
+<p>Honor did not know what to say. The more she thought of it the less
+likely did it seem that Joyce would dine out without coming home to
+change into dinner things and kiss her precious infant good-night. She
+decided to return home at once and ask what her parents thought about
+it.</p>
+
+<p>This she did without loss of time, and Mr. and Mrs. Bright took a grave
+view of circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>"The car has either broken down somewhere, or they have met with an
+accident," said Mr. Bright.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bright maintained a stiff reserve.</p>
+
+<p>The thought of an accident caused Honor's knees to give way beneath her
+and she collapsed into a chair. "How shall we know? Supposing they don't
+return&mdash;?" The bare idea was intolerable.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never liked these constant motorings in her husband's absence.
+Mrs. Meredith is very foolish to court gossip in the way she is doing.
+Presently there will be a scandal," said Mrs. Bright shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"Joyce is not a flirt, Mother."</p>
+
+<p>"She goes far enough to earn the reputation of one, however innocent she
+may be."</p>
+
+<p>Honor knew it was the truth and was silent with an indefinable dread.
+Was Joyce altogether safe with Captain Dalton?&mdash;Should he fall in love
+and grow intensely attracted by her beauty and childlike charm, was he
+the sort to consider morality and the law? Was he strictly an honourable
+man? None knew him; none trusted him; not even Ray Meredith who was
+afraid to betray his jealousy and incur his wife's resentment; or why
+had he said: "Take care of my wife&mdash;she is such a kid?"</p>
+
+<p>"What had best be done?" she asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"We had better beat up the Station and see what has happened," said Mr.
+Bright, rising to put his suggestion into effect. "She might be stupid
+enough to be dining with the doctor at his bungalow."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never!" said Honor indignantly. "She is not so foolish as all
+that!" A hot flush surged over her face at the idea. Joyce dining with
+the doctor at his bungalow, <i>alone</i>! It was too preposterous, yet&mdash;was
+it? She was "such a kid," and might be foolish enough to dare any folly
+so long as she felt sure of herself and the purity of her own
+intentions.</p>
+
+<p>But the pain at Honor's heart was out of all proportion to her concern
+at Joyce Meredith's indiscretion.</p>
+
+<p>She tortured herself imagining the possible scene in Dalton's
+dining-room&mdash;Joyce at dinner, <i>tête-à-tête</i> with Captain Dalton!&mdash;on
+familiar terms with the man who rarely condescended to be agreeable to
+others! It was a picture inconceivably hurtful.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better lose no time, Dad. If you find her&mdash;anywhere&mdash;tell her
+that her servants are alarmed&mdash;the ayah particularly. I shall see her in
+the morning," she said, resolutely shutting out the vision conjured up
+by imagination.</p>
+
+<p>If Joyce were not dining somewhere, there must have been an accident, in
+which case they would have to send out search parties.</p>
+
+<p>She watched her father leave in the dogcart and wondered what the upshot
+would be, her mind restless with forebodings.</p>
+
+<p>It was fully an hour later that Mr. Bright returned home to report that
+Captain Dalton and Mrs. Meredith were nowhere to be found. Dalton's
+servants were waiting to serve him with dinner, and were growing anxious
+as his habits were usually automatic and punctual. He so far considered
+them that they were always informed of his plans. If he intended to dine
+out they were given liberty to spend the evening with their friends in
+the bazaar. As it was clear that something unusual had happened, Mr.
+Bright had called round on Tommy and a search was already in progress.
+Jack had taken the Sombari road on his motor cycle and Tommy had taken
+the main road in an opposite direction. It was more than possible that
+the car had broken down somewhere, in which case the stranded ones would
+probably find a bullock-cart to bring them ingloriously home.</p>
+
+<p>Honor hung about on the verandah for news till midnight, and was almost
+speechless with alarm when both boys appeared, one after the other to
+report the failure of their quest. The car was nowhere to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>To add to the difficulty, clouds which had gathered in the evening had
+discharged smart showers of rain at intervals, as is familiar to Bengal
+about Christmas time, and not a trace of wheel-marks could be discovered
+on the road.</p>
+
+<p>By morning the excitement had spread all over the Station. Inquiries
+poured in on the Brights. The subject of Mrs. Meredith's disappearance
+with the doctor was discussed at every <i>chota hazri</i> table with and
+without sympathy, and even in the bazaar it was passed along from one to
+another. The Collector's memsahib had gone off with the doctor, leaving
+her little child to the tender mercies of an ayah! Alack! even to the
+homes of the mighty came shame and dishonour through a woman! And all
+through the European custom of giving women so much liberty! On the
+whole, the "black man" knew best how to protect his honour and his home!</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, a mounted messenger had gone at great speed to inform the
+Collector, who arrived by midday looking dazed and ill from the shock.
+It was pitiful to see how helpless he had become in the face of such an
+appalling tragedy as the complete disappearance of his wife. Telegrams
+to various stations on the line had brought no information; mounted
+policemen had returned without having discovered a clue. The car had
+vanished with its occupants, though all who knew Joyce intimately, knew
+that she would cheerfully have given her life rather than have abandoned
+her child.</p>
+
+<p>"One can scarcely believe that she has eloped," Mrs. Bright said to
+Honor. "She is so wrapped up in the child."</p>
+
+<p>"Someone would have seen the car," said her husband. "It is an
+unaccountable thing."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce eloped!&mdash;it was unthinkable.</p>
+
+<p>Honor, who from anxiety, had not slept all night, mounted her bicycle
+and rode out into the fresh and brilliant sunlight on a forlorn hope. An
+idea had come to her as an inspiration which, though unlikely, was not
+an impossibility. In the search for the missing ones, every road in the
+District was being scoured without success. Since the rain had
+obliterated all tracks there had been nothing to guide any one in the
+quest, and nothing had been gleaned from villagers. No one had seen the
+familiar two-seater after it had passed the boundaries of the Mission,
+which was a circumstance as mysterious as it was unaccountable, for it
+must have gone somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Why not off the road? Not a soul had conceived it likely that Captain
+Dalton would have risked his fine machine over the bumpy side-tracks
+that formed short-cuts in various directions, notably one to the ruins
+which Joyce had often expressed a wish to see. They were not difficult
+of access by motor-car, although the road to them was almost covered by
+weeds and undergrowth. Supposing that the doctor had yielded to
+persuasion and taken Joyce to see the old Mogul Palace, and supposing
+that they had subsequently met with an accident, their plight might be
+truly pitiable. Very few natives found it necessary to travel by the
+jungle path so long disused, for the Government having constructed
+metalled highways in all directions, travellers had ceased to travel
+uncomfortably even if the old path was a short-cut between villages.
+Occasionally woodmen in search of timber prowled around the ancient pile
+and jackals gathered in packs to howl their grievances to the moon;
+otherwise, a stray tourist on a visit to the Station or a winter picnic
+party were the only visitors to the gaping halls and crumbling arches.</p>
+
+<p>Just where the unused and overgrown track left the Sombari Road, Honor
+stepped off her bicycle and searched the ground again for a clue without
+success. None was to be found in the slush and puddles of the uneven
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing daunted, she led her bicycle over the ruts towards the jungle in
+which the palace lay buried, its dome and minarets visible through the
+tangled tree-tops. It was not easy going on foot, much less could it
+have been for a motor-car; moreover, Honor was not at all sure she liked
+venturing on her visit of exploration alone, but all who were capable of
+continuing the search were already occupied in its prosecution in
+different parts of the District, and there was no one she could have
+asked to keep her company.</p>
+
+<p>It was when Honor came to shadowed glades where the undergrowth almost
+hid the track and obstructed her progress, that she found the first
+clue&mdash;snapped twigs and branches bent backward. These suggested the
+passage of a cumbrous body on wheels, for sodden leaves were pressed
+into the wet earth and creepers which had barred the way had been torn
+and flung on the path.</p>
+
+<p>If it had been Captain Dalton's car, why had it not returned? Honor's
+heart grew sick with fear.</p>
+
+<p>She pressed on. Presently, she came upon the car itself, beneath
+overhanging boughs and a dense entanglement of bamboos. It had been
+saturated by the rain, the hood lay back, and an empty luncheon basket
+lay open on the seat.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently, they had left the car with the full intention of returning to
+it immediately, and were prevented by some unforeseen calamity. Honor
+quivered with alarm and misgiving. Where were they if not in the
+palace&mdash;killed, or injured and unable to help themselves?</p>
+
+<p>Her mind flew to wild animals.</p>
+
+<p>Though it had been a long accepted legend that tigers and leopards had
+been driven out of the neighbourhood, and had not been seen for years
+within a radius of twenty to thirty miles, it was still possible that a
+stray leopard or tiger had lately found a refuge in the neglected
+precincts of the ruins.</p>
+
+<p>Honor was unarmed and terribly afraid. The fate that had overtaken her
+friends might easily be hers a few steps further. Prudence and
+self-preservation dictated immediate flight and a call for a
+search-party. At the same time, having come so far it seemed her duty to
+continue till she was convinced that she could do no more. There was the
+possibility that Captain Dalton had met with an accident and Joyce,
+unable to leave him, was in dire need of help. Honor felt she would
+cease to respect herself forever if she deserted her friends at the
+moment of their greatest need.</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated no further, but stumbled forward over the uneven ground,
+desperately anxious and frightened, yet nerved to face any danger.</p>
+
+<p>Another bend of the track brought the palace into view&mdash;a dark
+conglomerate pile of crumbling masonry which looked frowningly down upon
+her, its walls weather-beaten and scarred by time, and with rank
+vegetation sprouting from every crack. A pipal tree flourished aloft
+above its dome, its roots buried in the concrete and clinging to the
+walls; while festoons of wild convolvulus hung in profusion from the
+lower branches.</p>
+
+<p>Moisture still dripped from the leaves, and the earth was sodden
+underfoot. Lofty arches yawned in the sunlight and a silence as of the
+grave reigned, broken only by an occasional caw from an inquisitive
+crow, or the intermittent chattering of apes.</p>
+
+<p>Again Honor came upon signs of forcible penetration&mdash;wild creepers torn
+aside to make a path, and jungle hacked out of the way; no easy task.
+Her friends had evidently been determined not to accept defeat in their
+effort to reach the interior of the ruin.</p>
+
+<p>It was a year since Honor had visited the spot and it seemed to her that
+the shape of the building had changed. One wing had partially collapsed;
+whether recently, or some months ago, she could not tell, but it did not
+look quite the same. Here and there, boulders of freshly fallen masonry
+strewed the path. There was no doubt that the edifice was slowly falling
+to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Raising her hands to her lips, she gave a loud, Australian "<i>coo-ee!</i>"
+and listened while its echo called back to her....</p>
+
+<p>Was it an echo?</p>
+
+<p>Honor held her breath to listen, and heard it again&mdash;a man's voice
+calling&mdash;"Hulloa!&mdash;<i>coo-ee!</i>"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE INDISCRETION</h3>
+
+
+<p>Joyce had started out on her motor ride with the doctor as happy as a
+child on a holiday. Her baby was well and there was no cause for
+anxiety; in fact, all the world seemed smiling and kind. At last she was
+learning that a short absence from home made no difference to an infant
+in the care of so capable a nurse as her Madrassi ayah, trained in the
+way of infants by the remarkable "Barnes-Memsahib."</p>
+
+<p>All things considered, there seemed no earthly reason why she should not
+be happy with the light-heartedness of youth helped by a kind friend to
+pass the time agreeably while she remained in India. In the spring&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But she would not look ahead. Why borrow trouble? When the hot, March
+winds began to blow, Ray himself would recognise the necessity of
+sending the little one home. No father could be so selfish as to allow
+his own son and heir to fade away under his own eyes, and neglect the
+only chance of saving his little life. As to the hills!&mdash;the innumerable
+infantile diseases incurred in the hills owing to the dampness of the
+climate made life a constant terror. No! It would have to be Home in
+March. Passages were usually booked long beforehand but people often
+dropped out at the last, and a passage for a "lady and infant" could
+easily be found at the eleventh hour.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, this was December, and she was capable of enjoying herself
+amazingly in circumstances that were innocent and harmless.</p>
+
+<p>With a friend like Captain Dalton at her service, so to speak, and Honor
+to love her almost as a sister would, she was very lucky and could
+afford to be as happy as the season would permit.</p>
+
+<p>Station gossip whispered that Dalton would not have spared so much of
+his precious time unless he were receiving some return by way of
+compensation; which was a logical deduction in estimating a masculine
+nature not governed by religious scruples; but with this Joyce was
+hardly concerned, having little comprehension of all that gossips
+implied. She was delighted to requite so much self-sacrifice on the
+doctor's part with all the geniality she could command.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Captain Dalton was finding a cynical amusement in
+the study of this&mdash;to him&mdash;new type of feminine creature: a married
+woman with the mind of a child, unawakened as yet to the deeper
+emotions, in whom the instincts of sex were still asleep. He was quite
+sure that, like most pretty women, she was vain and easily led, and, if
+it were not himself, it would be some other fellow who would undertake
+her awakening, since her husband was trustingly content to leave her
+mental development to chance and nature.</p>
+
+<p>Having passed the stage of desperate infatuation for mere physical
+beauty, he could play at his leisure with the idea of encompassing her
+ruin, as he sat beside her in his car, watching the dimples come and go.
+Life had done him a bad turn at the beginning of his career, and he was
+envious of men who had escaped suffering such as he had known. Out of
+sheer devilry he would like to pull Meredith's house about his ears and
+teach him that no woman of extraordinary physical attractions was a safe
+asset as a wife. Sooner or later, vanity would be her undoing and she
+would join the ranks of the fast and free. His experience was fairly
+wide and his faith, <i>nil</i>. Already Joyce Meredith coquetted
+delightfully. In a little while she would be doing it dangerously; by
+and by, audaciously, and so on, till she developed into the accomplished
+flirt, the sport of men in the East. He had watched the evolution till
+he had arrived at the theory that, with time and opportunity, the
+generality of women could be brought to capitulate.</p>
+
+<p>This afternoon they had set out with the intention of visiting the
+ruins, taking with them a rug and a tea basket for a <i>tête-à-tête</i>
+picnic. At first Dalton had thought of leaving the car on the high road
+and walking the rest of the way, but on second thoughts he decided to
+risk the tires and springs over the bumpy ground, forcing a passage
+through the obstacles in the way. Remembering the nature of the jungle,
+he came prepared with the necessary implements for hacking a passage
+through, so that he was enabled to take the car much farther than he had
+at first thought possible. After they had partaken of refreshment under
+the drooping boughs of a great banyan tree, with a screen of bamboos on
+the west sheltering them from the afternoon sun, they proceeded on foot
+to the ruins, he carrying the rug in case she should need to rest.</p>
+
+<p>"How fairy-like and lovely it all is!" cried Joyce clinging to his arm
+and picking her way among the dead leaves. The speckled sunlight dancing
+through the leaves, the spreading branches overhead, the graceful
+foliage of the tropical vegetation, the beautiful birds, made the spot
+peculiarly fascinating. "It gives one such a sense of isolation," she
+added.</p>
+
+<p>"We are completely isolated," he returned. "Hardly a soul comes this
+way. Some months ago when I wandered down here, a native who was
+chopping wood said the place was haunted, for which reason the people
+give it a wide berth."</p>
+
+<p>"Haunted!" exclaimed Joyce fearfully, as she crept closer to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"The natives are terribly superstitious and easily scared. The devil is
+said to be in possession of the palace, and ill-luck or disaster to
+overtake any who enter it. Are you nervous?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if you are not. You see, I have such immense faith in you," she
+said with charming flattery.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll brave the fellow together." He hacked at the creepers and
+tore them aside, and having cleared a path, drew her towards the gloomy
+walls visible through gaps in the foliage. It was a friendly little hand
+that nestled confidingly in his. "These wild convolvuli grow with such
+amazing rapidity, that in a month of rainy weather the whole path is
+blocked. If you were put to sleep in the ruin by a wave of the devil's
+wand, the creepers would make a wall and shut you in, like the princess
+in the fairy tale. How would you like to sleep here for a hundred years
+walled in by creepers as high as the tree-tops?"</p>
+
+<p>"And be awakened by a splendid prince?" she laughed, entering into the
+spirit of his raillery.</p>
+
+<p>"I can picture him tearing his way through with the instinct to kiss
+you, so as to learn the true meaning of Life! You don't need enchantment
+to turn you into the Sleeping Beauty; you are that now. It would be
+interesting to see what would happen were the Prince to arrive."</p>
+
+<p>"He arrived when I met Ray," she said colouring richly.</p>
+
+<p>"You think he did, but that was in your dreams. You are not awake yet,
+so your experience has yet to come." He avoided her eyes while he spoke
+and left her puzzled to follow his thought.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot understand you. Why should you say I am asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is written in your eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am a somnambulist?" she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. A dangerous one," and they laughed together.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is going to wake me?" she coquetted with a pretty drooping of her
+lashes.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton stole a look at her pouting lips, thinking he would defer the
+reply to her question for a while. She put him in mind of a child
+consciously playing with fire, yet expecting to escape unscorched. Of
+course, she would have to learn her mistake. She knew perfectly that
+nine out of ten men would be on fire with passion for her under such
+intimate circumstances, and reveal the fact without loss of time; she
+was not quite so sound asleep as not to be aware of her own beauty and
+its spell, yet she dared to experiment on men and rouse their emotions.
+Let her, then, take the consequences!</p>
+
+<p>Soon, Joyce found herself in front of the ruined palace, standing on
+higher ground, its dome and minarets visible for miles in a setting of
+dense foliage and drooping palms. It had been built in the sixteenth
+century for heathen worship, and subsequently converted by a Mohammedan
+grandee into a residence for his own accommodation and that of his
+harem. To Joyce it looked an irregular mass of ruined masonry, roofless
+in parts and overgrown with jungle. The portion which had been reserved
+to the women formed a separate wing which at one time had been enclosed
+by a high wall, but which was now reduced to mounds of fallen brick-work
+and shattered concrete. "The place looks almost as though it had
+suffered bombardment," she said, "how desolate and weird!"</p>
+
+<p>"I could tell you a romance connected with that wing which savours of
+the <i>Arabian Nights</i>," said Dalton. "Want to hear it?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know so much more about it than any one else?" she asked,
+accompanying him gingerly over the fallen masonry to gain a better view
+of the harem. All around them the undergrowth was dense and matted;
+date-palms reared themselves from thickets and mingled their drooping
+branches with tamarind trees, the prickly <i>babul</i>, and the wild
+<i>jamun</i><a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"I make it my business to know all about every place I live in," he
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me the romance," she commanded.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton spread the rug on a grassy mound, and when they had seated
+themselves, he began his tale in true Oriental fashion, with a charm of
+style that captured her fancy.</p>
+
+<p>"Once upon a time, when the land belonged to those who could hold it by
+the sword, a rich Nawab built himself a costly residence out of a
+heathen temple. Behold the residence!"&mdash;with a wave of his hand. "And
+with him dwelt his retinue and his sycophants, his child-wife, and the
+women who contributed to her needs and his pleasures.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, for masculine confidence! In a moment of weakness, this great
+prince took into his service a young warrior of Rajputana as the chief
+of his bodyguard&mdash;a Hindu by religion and of exclusive caste&mdash;because of
+his great strength and the beauty of his youth and person. This one,
+tradition tells, conceived a burning passion for the favourite wife of
+his master, having seen her face by chance, unveiled, at the bars that
+protected her window;&mdash;a girl of extreme loveliness, and as slender as a
+wand, whom custom prevented from disclosing her features to the eyes of
+men who were not her near relatives. She had therefore been closely
+guarded within the harem walls in company with other women of her lord's
+establishment, and left to find entertainment for herself in the
+priceless jewels that adorned her person.</p>
+
+<p>"Every day the Rajput, by name Ramjitsu Singh, would pass and repass
+below the high wall that enclosed the women's quarters, hoping again to
+see, by favour of the gods, this beauteous vision whose wondrous charms
+were the talk of the bazaars; their fame having been spread by her
+female attendants. Small was she, they said, with eyes like a gazelle's,
+and lips of the redness of ripe berries. Her hands and her feet were the
+hands and feet of a babe, so slender were they, and soft; and the hair
+of her head could have robed her.</p>
+
+<p>"One day, the Rajput's patience was rewarded by a sight of the beautiful
+face which made his senses swim as in a sea of delight. She stood again,
+unveiled, at the bars of her window, and gazed down at him with great
+sadness and yearning. Like a bird in its cage she looked upon the free
+world with longing, and sighed. The foolish one!&mdash;The faithless one!"</p>
+
+<p>"How can you call her foolish and faithless?" Joyce interrupted
+indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is how the Indian story-teller speaks of her."</p>
+
+<p>"It was only natural. Think of her youth and the conditions to which she
+was obliged to conform!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, see what happened. Are you interested?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am thrilled. Go on!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thereafter, the Rajput neither ate nor slept till he had devised a plan
+for carrying her away; for what are laws to lovers? or bolts and bars?
+Neither caste nor creed can hold a man back whose soul is on fire for a
+woman." He paused to allow his words to take effect.</p>
+
+<p>"How very romantic!" laughed Joyce, unmoved. "It is like a poem, as
+unreal as it is picturesque!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you believe a man's soul can be aflame with love and desire for a
+woman?" he asked, picking up a stone idly and flinging it after a
+disturbing crow.</p>
+
+<p>"Books tell one so, but how am I to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been proved to you times without number!&mdash;but I said you
+were asleep!" he remarked with his inscrutable smile. "Know, then, that
+men have cheerfully risked hell for a woman's favours. They have broken
+every law for the transcendent bliss of lovers' kisses!&mdash;Anyhow, that's
+not the story.</p>
+
+<p>"To proceed: Poor old Ramjitsu was ready to dare or die for his Love, as
+many another man has been since the world began, and will continue to be
+while the world lasts. Every night, when darkness covered the land, and
+the people within and without the palace slept, Ramjitsu Singh would
+climb the wall by means of a stout bamboo, and clinging to the sill,
+would wait for the gods to grant him the opportunity to plead his love.</p>
+
+<p>"At last, one night, attracted by the silvery radiance of the moon, she
+came to the grating to gaze without, and hearing a quivering sigh, she
+turned and beheld her gallant lover. He looked like a god himself in the
+bright moonlight, and the words of his mouth, uttered with breathless
+passion, held her spellbound. With her flower-face pressed to the bars
+she received his caresses."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, poor little thing!" cried Joyce, her breath hurried with sympathy.
+"Did she love him, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"She must have, in that moment, for nature at such times speaks loudly
+to youth. Listening to his impassioned vows, she, who was of a different
+religion, as apart from his as the East is from the West, was willing to
+place her destiny in his hands. Human nature, you will see, is stronger
+than caste or creed, and tradition is brought to naught by romance and
+passion.</p>
+
+<p>"One night, when all seemingly slept, Ramjitsu, who had from time to
+time cautiously loosened the iron bars in their sockets, removed them
+altogether and received in his arms the form he coveted. Conceive that
+thrilling moment of ecstasy! Suddenly, however, a lightning stroke from
+a sword descended upon the faithless one from within, and she was slain
+in her lover's arms. The weight of her falling body, thus violently
+flung forward, unbalanced the Rajput whose foothold at the best was
+precarious, and together they were hurled to the paved court below,
+Ramjitsu breaking his neck in the fall.</p>
+
+<p>"So ended the love story of the Palace&mdash;a tragedy which has remained an
+everlasting tribute to love, and serves as an example to the Indians of
+a just vengeance on the unfaithful. The spies of the Nawab had betrayed
+the young wife and her lover, and the husband had punished them both
+with death."</p>
+
+<p>"Just vengeance!" repeated Joyce scornfully. "A brutal murder, I call
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"The Mohammedans speak of it with pride."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce brushed away the tears and laughed hysterically. "It is a horribly
+tragic tale and I wish you had not told me of it, for the memory of it
+will haunt me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help feeling for that poor little prisoner who wanted to be
+loved and was killed! They had probably married her off as a little
+child to the Nawab whom she afterwards learned to hate."</p>
+
+<p>"You wish she had escaped with the Rajput? That would have violated
+every law of their religion and tradition." He watched her keenly.</p>
+
+<p>She looked distressed. "Why are laws so hard and fast? These poor women!
+Can they never choose for themselves who they will marry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never. Among Eastern races marriages are always arranged. So you don't
+condemn the Rajput for wanting to steal her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. How could he help it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or her for wanting to run away with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for <i>wanting</i> to run away. But laws have to be kept, I suppose, or
+no homes would be safe. Individuals have to be sacrificed to
+communities," she said thoughtfully. "Show me where it all happened."</p>
+
+<p>He rose, and taking her by the hand, helped her to her feet, after which
+they passed together through a gap in the wall which led to a room on
+the ground floor from where a winding, brick stairway took them to the
+apartments above. Each step had to be carefully negotiated because of
+the mortar crumbling under foot, and the loosened bricks that threatened
+an accident. Presently, they were in a narrow corridor into which slits
+or loop-holes admitted the daylight. An arch at the far end from which
+the door had long since vanished, introduced them to a series of
+chambers, one leading into another. The walls were black with cobwebs
+and the dust of ages, while the concrete flooring was strewn with the
+<i>débris</i> of fallen plaster. Heavy cracks in the roof let in shafts of
+the fading daylight, and roots of weeds and pipal trees had penetrated
+and hung below. On the whole it was anything but a desirable spot in
+which to linger, but Joyce's desire to view the interior of the romantic
+chamber had to be satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"This is supposed to be the room, and that the window. You can see the
+holes in which the iron bars must at one time have been embedded. The
+story goes on to tell of great calamities befalling the fortunes of the
+Nawab; of battles fought in the neighbourhood between Hindus and
+Mohammedans, and the immediate withdrawal of the Moslems to another part
+of Bengal. Now let us get out. I am not at all sure the place is safe."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me first take a souvenir!" she pleaded. An enamelled brick above
+the arch had attracted her eye. Its design and colouring were still
+fresh and clear despite the ages that had passed since it was fashioned.
+"Look at it!" she coaxed. "Isn't it wonderful? You would think it had
+come straight out of a jeweller's shop. How did they learn such work in
+those far-off days?"</p>
+
+<p>"Italian workmen were known to have been imported by wealthy princes for
+the decoration of their temples and homes."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't I have it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite out of reach," he answered, stretching an arm upward.</p>
+
+<p>"But I might try to punch it out with your knife, if you put me on your
+shoulder."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton was sure that no effort of hers would dislodge the brick;
+moreover, he was doubtful of the wisdom of the experiment, considering
+its position in the arch; but the blue eyes lifted to his were
+undeniably bewitching, and the suggested method of the operation, too
+much of a temptation to be resisted. He would let her try till she
+admitted failure: the impulse to grant her the moon if she demanded it
+was strong at the moment, so he gave her his knife and without much
+effort hoisted her to his shoulder and allowed her to dig at will into
+the arch. Her delicate fingers would soon tire of forcing the brick from
+its solid bed. He, therefore, held her securely and closed his eyes not
+to be blinded by the fine dust that showered over them both.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out!" he warned her once, when the sound of falling mortar was
+heavier than he had anticipated. "Don't bring the place about our ears."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to be buried alive!" she replied. "It isn't as difficult
+as I imagined. See, it is already loosening."</p>
+
+<p>But he could not look up out of regard for his sight. For a moment he
+had no actual concern with the work she was engaged upon, having allowed
+himself to suffer distraction. With his arms about her, his face at her
+waist, he was assailed with the temptation to bring matters between them
+to a crisis. He was done with philandering and desired to end her folly
+and his patience. What was easier than to draw her down to his breast
+that he might cover her tempting lips with kisses? Though he was not in
+love with Joyce after the manner of Ramjitsu, her mouth was alluringly
+sweet, and her possible response to his passion would reward his daring.
+There was the novelty, too, of acting the Prince Charming to her rôle of
+Sleeping Beauty; for her woman's nature was asleep and waiting only to
+be startled into comprehension. All the afternoon he had played with the
+idea till his desire for possession had mastered prudence. What right
+had she to imagine him a bloodless being, as passionless as a stone? He
+was a man, and a very human one at that. He would prove that to her
+without delay. What a fool he had been to have wasted so much time! He
+would kiss her till he infected her with his passion; which would not be
+difficult if she were like those of her sex who traded on a husband's
+trust and confidence!</p>
+
+<p>The glamour of the moment intoxicated his senses: contact with her
+person, the perfume of her, her complete helplessness in that retired
+spot, assisted to turn him temporarily insane.</p>
+
+<p>Just as desire was about to master reason and self-restraint, a shriek
+of terror from Joyce paralysed his nerves and suspended thought.</p>
+
+<p>The arch, already heavily cracked and depending solely for stability
+upon structural pressure, being further weakened by the dislodgment of
+that particular brick, showed signs of collapsing.</p>
+
+<p>On looking upward, Dalton saw their danger and had time only to spring
+backward to a far corner of the room before the arch subsided, bringing
+with it a portion of the roof. He stood stock still with Joyce clinging
+to his neck, watching the building crashing about him. The shock and
+vibration of the fall had brought about the collapse of precarious parts
+of the ruined edifice, till, roar followed roar, and the air was thick
+with dust.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton momentarily expected the shaking floor to give way beneath their
+feet, or the roof to descend upon them and bury them alive. It was
+something to remember all his life: his impotence to help himself or his
+companion in the midst of the calamity, while believing himself face to
+face with the horror of a slow death by entombment.</p>
+
+<p>After a while, when all was still and the dust began to settle, the
+spectacle disclosed to view beggared description.</p>
+
+<p>Tons of material lay between them and the stairs up which they had come;
+the window was buried behind a dense mass of fallen bricks and mortar; a
+great hole torn in the roof showed the sky overcast with clouds.
+Possibly there would shortly be rain to add to their misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>How was it possible to extricate themselves from their terrible
+predicament? Dalton cast his eyes about him towards an inner chamber,
+only to see that the roof there had also collapsed barricading the only
+other outlet.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of his anxieties he had to soothe the girl's fears. Joyce
+was shivering with terror and nearly speechless.</p>
+
+<p>"Pull yourself together," he said shortly. "It is a devilish
+catastrophe, but we must face it. Just as well we are not killed!" He
+endeavoured to unclasp her clinging arms, but she only clung the closer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am so frightened!&mdash;don't leave me!" she whimpered.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going to leave you," he said reassuringly, "but I must take a
+good look around." Releasing the rug from beneath a weight of <i>débris</i>,
+he induced her to sit down while he made a careful survey of the
+conditions of their prison, for that it undoubtedly was. They were as
+completely shut out from the outer world and as helpless as prisoners in
+a dungeon. Both rooms were isolated from the rest of the building; both
+were partially roofless and without means of exit.</p>
+
+<p>Gad!&mdash;what a commotion there would be in the Station when it was
+discovered that they had not returned! Dalton wished with all his heart
+that he had left his car on the high road and not brought it into the
+wood. Who would think of looking for it there?</p>
+
+<p>He was partly comforted by the thought of the wheel-marks left in the
+dust, but this source of hope was cut off when the rain began to descend
+later in the night.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime he had to make the best of the situation and not allow
+Mrs. Meredith to fret.</p>
+
+<p>"You have to thank a special Providence interested in your fate that you
+are not buried alive," he told her cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"And so have you," she said solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"Providence doesn't usually bother much about me; relations have long
+been strained. Possibly I have been preserved for your sake," he
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"How can you talk in that irreverent way!" she said reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry, if it offends you."</p>
+
+<p>But Joyce fell to weeping. Was it possible that they would ever be
+found?&mdash;they would die of starvation&mdash;and what about her baby?</p>
+
+<p>Dalton had much ado to allay all her fears. When it was discovered that
+they were missing, did she suppose that a stone would be left unturned
+to trace them? She was to cheer up and show how brave she could be.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not like Honor Bright," she sobbed. "I cannot face such a horrible
+prospect as a night spent in this ghastly place all among snakes and
+creeping things!"</p>
+
+<p>The mention of Honor seemed to silence the doctor completely. For some
+time he was moody and depressed; Joyce was allowed to weep into her
+hands till exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>Only when it was getting dismally dark did he arouse himself from his
+abstraction and take up again the task of cheering her.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't we dig ourselves out?" Joyce asked before the darkness descended
+wholly upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"Without implements of any sort?" Even the knife was lost in the
+confusion, and in any case it would have been utterly useless.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think they are sure to find us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am confident of it&mdash;in the morning. It will be too late and dark for
+them to think of looking here tonight, but in the morning someone is
+sure to find the car and discover our whereabouts."</p>
+
+<p>"How hungry we shall be!" she sighed, and Dalton laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"How thirsty we shall be, is more to the point!&mdash;Poor child!" taking her
+hand in his and recalling how near he had been to madness. He was not
+too far from it even now with her hand resting confidingly in his, and
+the consciousness of their unique position.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow, there is the sky and fresh air, and at least we are not quite
+alone. I have you!" she said with dangerous flattery.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You have me," he returned eagerly. "And I&mdash;have&mdash;<i>you</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"What about snakes?" she asked, casting her eyes about her fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>"They are more upset than we. At any rate, I don't believe we'll be
+troubled by snakes tonight. You will have to forget we are lost, so to
+speak, and talk till you are tired, and then try to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep&mdash;here?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the rug."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't. It is so uncomfortable!"</p>
+
+<p>In the growing darkness, he was again mastered by the evil thoughts
+which had possessed him in the moments preceding the catastrophe. Their
+isolation produced a host of ungoverned impulses. As the evening
+advanced his manner changed, growing suggestive of possession; his
+manner became more tender.</p>
+
+<p>"You will always remember tonight!&mdash;there will never be another like it
+in your life," he whispered, leaning towards her and stealing her hand.
+"You have been horribly frightened, haven't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am more hopeful now, thinking of the morning," she returned, her soft
+breath on his cheek. "It is only the snakes I fear!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton drew her into his arms. "I shan't let you think of snakes, you
+pretty little thing! At last I have you close. You have tantalised me
+with your loveliness every day, till Fate has given you to me!" his lips
+found hers and pressed them roughly. "Wake up, sleeping Princess! see,
+this night is ours. Let me love you as I want to. Let me teach you how
+to love!"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce seemed paralysed in his arms. She lay as still as death under his
+kisses as though mesmerised and dreaming. Emboldened by her silence
+Dalton continued to caress her with increasing ardour, till Joyce,
+coming suddenly to her senses, was seized with panic and horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" she cried in a frenzy of fear, struggling to escape. It
+seemed she was entrapped by some human monster in the doctor's likeness,
+against whom she was powerless to struggle.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ask? You know me well&mdash;don't be foolish! Won't you let me
+love you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Love me?&mdash;like this?&mdash;Do you forget I am married?" she gasped, still
+struggling to escape. "Let me go. I hate you for daring to touch me&mdash;to
+kiss me. I hate you! How dare you do it!" Joyce had never known such
+terrifying moments, even worse than when the building seemed falling
+about her ears. The horrors of the night were multiplying a
+thousandfold, now that the doctor had failed her and gone mad.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton made several efforts to pacify her, thinking he had only to deal
+with a phase of childishness, but found her unmistakably determined to
+break away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop it, and listen to me," he said angrily. "You want it all your own
+way, but it is my turn now. Why did you lead me on and tempt me, if you
+meant to back out in the end? I could have kissed you twenty times, but
+refrained for reasons you would not understand. Now when those reasons
+are finally swept aside and I am ready to be your lover, you pretend to
+be surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"Surprised! I am horrified! I thought so well of you&mdash;I believed you
+would respect me, not treat me as you might&mdash;Mrs. Fox for instance! Let
+me go, you coward and bully!&mdash;I have trusted you and treated you as a
+brother&mdash;for this?&mdash;you unspeakable cad!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton released her instantly, and she burst into tears, crying as
+though her heart would break. "Honor warned me, but I would not listen!"
+he heard her say amid her sobs.</p>
+
+<p>"What did Honor warn you about?" he asked sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"She said," Joyce sobbed, "to go 'easy with my favours'&mdash;that you were
+'a man&mdash;like most&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Did Honor say that? and why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;she thought I was being foolish to&mdash;to become
+so&mdash;friendly&mdash;with you&mdash;when I am a married woman. She was right! I have
+been a fool!" A fresh outburst of weeping.</p>
+
+<p>"Did she say that because of her contempt for me, or because you are a
+wife?" he pressed.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;don't know. All I know is that she was right and I should have
+listened to her warning; now I shall never, never respect myself again."</p>
+
+<p>"I see no reason why you shouldn't," said Dalton, a sense of humour
+overcoming his wrath. "You've done nothing but tell me in polite
+language to go to the devil."</p>
+
+<p>"You kissed me!"</p>
+
+<p>"What of it? Many women in your position are kissed, and they are in no
+wise cast down," he laughed sardonically.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel degraded&mdash;I feel unfit to kiss my own, dear little baby again!"</p>
+
+<p>"You should have thought of all that when you were so anxious to charm
+me," he returned cruelly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a beast, and the most hateful man I know!" She made an attempt
+in the gloom to crawl away to some distance from him and his rug, but he
+ordered her to stay where she was, adding,</p>
+
+<p>"I shan't trouble you again. You have nothing to fear from me."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to share the same rug!&mdash;I wish I was a mile away!"</p>
+
+<p>"The rug has done you no harm. If you prefer it, I'll shift off it. The
+best thing you can do is to go to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't with this sin on my conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"What sin?" he asked repressing his impatience with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>"This sin against my husband."</p>
+
+<p>"You have committed none. If my kissing you was a sin, mine is the
+conscience to be troubled; but it was slain quite a long time ago," he
+added with a short laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not joking," she said angrily. "How do you suppose I can face my
+husband knowing that I have behaved so as to make another man kiss me?"
+What a child she seemed!</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubting her distress, and Dalton exhausted every argument
+in his attempt to understand her attitude of mind. "What do you want me
+to do?" he asked finally. "If an apology is of any use, I apologise
+humbly for behaving as I did. I grant you, I am a perfect specimen of a
+cad. If it will do you any good, tell your husband all about it when you
+get back, and send him round to give me a horse-whipping. I promise I
+shall not injure a hair of his head."</p>
+
+<p>"He is much more likely to shoot you."</p>
+
+<p>"Even so. He is perfectly welcome to. I am not in love with my life.
+Only let him do it by stealth so that they don't hang him afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce cried again hopelessly, till Dalton felt himself a sort of
+criminal.</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't! I cannot tell you how sorry I am to have upset you so. I
+had no idea you would take it like this. There are so many women
+who&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like Mrs. Fox?" she interrupted scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. I don't know much of Mrs. Fox. She doesn't appeal to me."</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't offer me a worse insult than to think that I might be like
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry. Forgive me, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot forgive myself for my blindness and folly!"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce spoke as though she were shivering, and Dalton was stricken with
+concern. "You are cold?" he asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Her teeth chattered. In December the nights in Bengal are often bitter,
+and Joyce had left her driving cloak in the car. Dalton immediately
+divested himself of his coat and made her wear it. His manner having
+returned to the professional, she was no longer afraid of him, so obeyed
+meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now the rug," said he. And she was wrapped to her ears in the rug,
+after which he left her to herself for the night. Both listened to the
+patter of the rain as it fell on the <i>débris</i> around them, and,
+eventually overcome with fatigue, Joyce dropped off to sleep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AFTERMATH</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the early morning, Joyce realised that she was both hungry and
+thirsty. Her lips were parched, her throat dry, nothing having passed
+them since early tea the previous afternoon, and she was at the lowest
+ebb of despondency and depression. Her surroundings helped to increase
+her misery, for the ground was a mixture of puddle and slush, and there
+seemed no chance of help anywhere. She seemed to have fallen into a deep
+crater, and but for a projection of roof that still held firm owing to a
+network of pipal roots, she would have been as drenched as the bricks
+and mortar with which she was surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>To add to her alarm, she was all alone. Captain Dalton was nowhere to be
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Though he had behaved horribly the evening before, he had not troubled
+her since; the tramp of his feet as he paced up and down the
+circumscribed space that was left to them of the chamber, being the only
+evidence she had till she dropped off to sleep that she was not without
+company. But with the daylight he was gone, and feeling almost
+panic-stricken with ghostly fears and loneliness, she called aloud to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Dalton!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm here," his voice cheerily announced as he emerged from the inner
+room which had suffered an equal amount of damage. "See what the gods
+have sent you!" and he handed her a pipal-leaf cup, full of water to
+drink.</p>
+
+<p>It was eagerly seized and gratefully drunk. "Where did you get it from?"</p>
+
+<p>"That other room is full of branches torn from the roof when it fell
+in," he returned. "I discovered them by the light of a match and amused
+myself making cups out of the leaves by the light of a few more. They
+don't hold much, but I managed to set a good few to catch the rain drops
+as they fell, and that's better than nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you had any?" she asked politely.</p>
+
+<p>"I was waiting for you, but I'll take a drink now." He retired and did
+not return till she called him again.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would take your coat. You must be so chilled," she ventured.
+"The rug will do for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite sure?" he asked and Joyce noticed that his hands were
+blue with cold. After putting on his coat he was about to retire again
+when she stopped him wistfully. "Please stay&mdash;I feel so frightened
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you preferred not to have me around," he said dropping down
+beside her.</p>
+
+<p>For answer she wept into her arms as they rested on her knees.</p>
+
+<p>"I was beastly, last night, wasn't I&mdash;poor little kid," he said in
+gentler tones than she had ever heard from him. "Can't you have it in
+your heart to forgive me?&mdash;just wipe it out as though it had never
+happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can forgive you, but&mdash;I&mdash;could never wipe it out. I feel so degraded.
+It is like having an ugly stain on a page you had always wanted to keep
+clean."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton studied her as something entirely new to his experience. "I have
+never in my life met anyone like you. It has been an eye-opener to a man
+like me. I didn't understand you all this time. I am just beginning to,
+now. Tell me frankly your idea."</p>
+
+<p>"It is nothing extraordinary," she said drying her eyes. "It is only
+that I did not believe a gentleman could treat a decent married girl as
+you did me. I wanted to be like brother and sister, and I thought you
+understood. Anything else never entered my head as possible to
+self-respecting people."</p>
+
+<p>"And I have spoilt all your pretty illusions!&mdash;let down my sex too,
+rather badly! What don't I deserve! It would relieve my feelings if you
+slanged me for all you are worth. Believe me, you have done no wrong. It
+is only that I see things crookedly, and am just what you called me, an
+'unspeakable cad.' I should have respected your helplessness. Truly, I
+deserve to be shot."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>have</i> been very silly, I don't care what you say. But I never can
+remember I am grown up!" she said pathetically. "Honor told me that
+people would talk, but I did not believe they had any cause. Now I
+realise what they are thinking! and it breaks my heart. They will
+believe I am like Mrs. Fox. She does things that look bad, and people
+despise her. Now they will despise me."</p>
+
+<p>"Never! they have only to look at you and hear you speak, to see what
+you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Honor said it was not enough to be good but to avoid doing the things
+that make people think we are not. Now they are thinking perhaps that I
+flirt with you and let you kiss me!" Her face was suffused with crimson
+shame. Nothing was so horrible to contemplate as the fact that he had
+kissed her! She was stripped of self-respect forever.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton might have been tempted to smile at her self-accusing attitude
+had it not been for her perfect sincerity. He felt overcome with
+contrition and longed to atone.</p>
+
+<p>"You make me infinitely ashamed," he said humbly. "Perhaps if you knew
+what went towards making me such a brute-beast, you would feel just a
+little sorry for me and understand&mdash;even bring yourself to like me a
+little bit as you say you once did. I have never had a sister. It might
+have made a difference if I had." After a pause&mdash;"Some years ago there
+were two persons in whom I believed as&mdash;I believe&mdash;in God. One was a
+woman and the other, my dearest pal. He and I were like brothers. I
+would have trusted him with my life. I did more. I trusted him with my
+honour." A pause. "And he whom I trusted and loved, robbed me of all
+that made life dear to me, and of what I valued more than life. And the
+woman I loved and believed pure and true, conspired with him to betray
+my honour! I was their dupe. A blind confiding fool!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" was wrung sympathetically from Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>"When I found out all I went mad, I think. I have been pretty mad&mdash;and
+bad&mdash;ever since; but at the time, if I could have laid hands on both I
+might have ended my career on the gallows. But Fate intervened. He was
+killed in a railway accident shortly afterwards, and a year later, she
+came whining to me for forgiveness."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you forgive her?"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton's eyes glowed with cruelty and an undying contempt. "Forgive her?
+Not if she had been dying! There are things impossible to forgive. She
+had killed my soul, destroyed my faith in human nature&mdash;which others,
+since, have not helped to restore!&mdash;turned me into a very devil, and
+without an incentive to live. Do you think I could forgive her? If I
+hated her then, I loathe the very memory of her now."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you tried your best to make me one of the same sort?" Joyce asked
+wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not believe, till you proved it to me, that women are of any
+other sort," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget Honor Bright?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never forget Honor Bright," he replied unexpectedly. "I have looked
+upon her as the exception that proves the rule."</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother?" Joyce interposed gently.</p>
+
+<p>"My father divorced her," he said harshly. "So you see I have had rather
+a bad education!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry for you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are?&mdash;that's good. Then there is hope for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry that you should have such a contempt for women, owing to
+your unfortunate experience."</p>
+
+<p>"I owe you an eternal debt of gratitude for teaching me what an
+egotistical jackass I have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," she asked, suddenly waking up to their dust-laden condition,
+"am I covered with smuts and grime?"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton surveyed her quizzically. "You are covered from head to foot,
+like a miller, with fine white dust."</p>
+
+<p>"So are you!" and they laughed together for the first time since the
+calamity.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's wash, there's a pool in the next room. Quite a respectable amount
+of clean water is collected about the floor."</p>
+
+<p>He showed her the pool and left her to make her toilet while he explored
+their prison for some possibility of escape. Putting his hands to his
+mouth he sent forth stentorian cries for help with no result. Without a
+pick-axe to work with, he saw no chance of cutting a way through the
+tons of material that lay around them.</p>
+
+<p>It was midday, when Joyce was feeling weak with hunger, and Dalton
+fighting a strong tendency to pessimism, that he heard Honor's
+"<i>Coo-ee!</i>" and replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!&mdash;at last here's someone to the rescue!" he exclaimed, and
+Joyce burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>When Honor was able to locate the spot from which the answering voice
+proceeded, she contrived with difficulty to get near enough to the
+opening to hear what had happened. It was good to know, however terrible
+had been the experience of the pair, that both were unhurt, and that
+Joyce was bearing up wonderfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall run back and get help at once, cheer up!" she called out.</p>
+
+<p>"We don't, either of us, feel cheerful, I can assure you. It has been
+ghastly here all night," the doctor shouted back.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is great to have found you! I am so thankful," and she sped to
+her bicycle and travelled at top speed to the Mission. Mr. Meek could
+provide the labour at a moment's notice for the work of digging out the
+imprisoned couple, and to him she went direct.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the Settlement hummed with activities; coolies swarmed to
+the spot with pickaxes and spades, crowbars and ropes, and as news flies
+from village to village with almost the rapidity of "wireless," hundreds
+of natives gathered at the scene to view operations, the women with
+infants astride one hip, and naked children swarming around. They camped
+on the ground chewing <i>pan</i> and parched rice, and chattered incessantly
+of the mysterious workings of Providence, the folly of humanity, and the
+decrees of Fate.</p>
+
+<p>The bare-footed, semi-nude rescuers, climbed over the face of the ruins
+with complete disregard of life and limb, and with wary tread and light
+touch, began the work of removing the <i>débris</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In due course, the rescue was effected, and Joyce was assisted to climb
+out of the wrecked chamber to safety. Honor half-supported her to the
+car which Captain Dalton drove in silence to the Bara Koti. His eyes
+avoided Honor's and in manner he was quiet and constrained.</p>
+
+<p>"So you never got the souvenir after all!" she said to Joyce when she
+had heard a disjointed account of the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have hated to look at it again, if I had," was the hysterical
+reply. "I shan't want to pass this road again, or get a glimpse of that
+terrible place as long as I live. I hate India more than ever, and Ray
+must send me home at once. Otherwise, I shall live in dread of some
+other calamity befalling either Baby or me. Oh, Honor, persuade him to
+let me go!"</p>
+
+<p>By the time she was put to bed she was suffering from nervous
+prostration. Meredith, who had returned from his fruitless search,
+looked like a man walking in his sleep. His wife had clung to his neck
+in passionate relief, but she had avoided his lips as she had never done
+before, and a sword seemed to have entered his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am so glad to be back!" she kept repeating, with her babe pressed
+to her bosom.</p>
+
+<p>"Memsahib habbing one great fright!" commiserated the ayah.</p>
+
+<p>Silent and stunned, Meredith hovered about the room. He had uttered no
+word of reproach to his wife for her imprudence,&mdash;she had suffered
+enough, mentally and physically; but resentment was fierce within him
+towards the doctor. The impulse to walk round and horse-whip him for
+having had the impudence to lead his foolish, but adored girl-wife into
+such a scrape, was well-nigh unconquerable, and he refrained only for
+fear that scandalous tongues would give the unhappy event a sinister
+character.</p>
+
+<p>"Kiss me, Sweet," he once whispered, leaning over her in passionate
+anxiety. He wanted to look deep into her eyes; not to see them fall away
+from his with a shrinking expression foreign to them.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce offered her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Your lips," he commanded.</p>
+
+<p>But Joyce fell to weeping broken-heartedly. Meredith kissed her cheek
+with a pain at his heart, and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you tell me everything?" he asked another time, studying her
+intently. Normally, he imagined she would have babbled childishly of all
+her experiences, and have been insatiable in her demands for petting.
+Why did she seem crushed and silent as to details? Honor had said the
+shock would account for her shaken and hysterical state; but it did not
+explain her strange aloofness.</p>
+
+<p>"You know it all," Joyce returned listlessly, the tears springing to her
+eyes at his first question as to the experience she had undergone.</p>
+
+<p>"I know the barest outline&mdash;and that from Honor Bright. You wanted a
+particular stone for a souvenir, and in digging it out, the arch
+collapsed, which brought down a large bit of the roof and a lot more
+besides. What happened after that? How did you manage to spend the
+night? It must have been horrible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Some day I may be able to talk about it, but not now," she cried with
+quivering lips. "It is cruel to question me now."</p>
+
+<p>Meredith leaned back in despair. "I hope Dalton was properly careful of
+you?" he asked, devoured with jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>"He gave me his coat and his rug, and made cups out of pipal leaves to
+catch the raindrops as they fell. We were so thirsty," she said
+monotonously.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather a brainy idea!"</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't recall all that to me. I don't want to think of it!" she
+cried; and that was all Meredith could learn of the events of that
+night.</p>
+
+<p>The following day it was discovered that the doctor was suffering from a
+feverish chill and was confined to bed. By nightfall, it was reported by
+Jack who had been to visit him, that he was in a high fever, and that
+the Railway doctor had been called in by the Civil Hospital Assistant
+for a consultation.</p>
+
+<p>The next day it was known that Captain Dalton was seriously ill with
+pneumonia; a <i>locum</i> arrived from headquarters, nurses were telegraphed
+for, and for some days his life hung in the balance.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce, who still kept her bed with shaken nerves, incapable of
+interesting herself in her usual pursuits, was startled out of her
+lethargy at the news. "If he dies, it will be my fault," she cried. "Oh,
+Honor! I was so cold that he gave me his coat as well as the rug, and
+did without them himself till morning. He must have taken a chill, for
+he looked so bad in the dawn."</p>
+
+<p>"He did what any other decent man would have done in his place."</p>
+
+<p>"It was rather surprising of him, considering how fiercely we
+quarrelled!" and feeling the need of confession, she poured out the
+whole story of her shame into her friend's ears. "Even now I grow hot
+with humiliation when I think of it! I cannot understand why he did it,
+for it was not as if he had fallen in love! Only because he thought I
+was a&mdash;a&mdash;flirt, like others he had known."</p>
+
+<p>Honor's face was very white as she listened, silent and stricken.</p>
+
+<p>"I just had to tell you, dear, or the load of it on my mind would have
+killed me. I feel as if I were guilty of a crime against Ray; and, poor
+darling, he does not understand what is wrong!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you tell him and get it over? He loves you enough to make the
+telling easy. And if you love him enough, why, it can only end happily,"
+said Honor with an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"There would be a tragedy!&mdash;I dare not. Ray would kill him for having
+dared to insult me like that! You have no idea of what I have been
+through! Captain Dalton said I was asleep and needed awakening! I have
+awakened in right earnest and know that I have been a wicked fool. How I
+long to be loved and forgiven! Oh, Honor! when Ray looks at me so
+anxiously and lovingly, I just want to be allowed to cry my heart out in
+his arms and confess everything; but I simply cannot, with this dread of
+consequences. Nor can I make up to him with this wretched thing on my
+conscience! Why didn't I listen to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is not much use in crying over spilt milk, is there? The best
+thing you can do is to bury it and be everything to your husband that he
+wishes. You must try to atone. If you love him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I do! There is no other man in the world so much to me. I did not
+realise how much I cared till Captain Dalton made me, by his outrageous
+behaviour! I am not fit for Ray's love after knowing how I have lowered
+myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will not mend matters by creating a misunderstanding between
+yourself and your husband. What is he to think if you continue to shrink
+from his caresses?"</p>
+
+<p>"He will think I don't care at all, and that is so untrue!"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you see that, with your own hand, you are building up a barrier
+between you which will be difficult to pull down at will?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I am able to tell him all about it, he will understand. At present
+I feel shamed and degraded. I feel myself a cheat! I, whom he believes a
+good and virtuous wife, have actually been kissed by a man who thought I
+was the sort to permit an intrigue! Don't you see, that if I behaved as
+though nothing wrong had happened, I would be putting myself on a par
+with Judas?"</p>
+
+<p>Having wrought herself up to the point of hysteria, she was not to be
+reasoned with.</p>
+
+<p>"How I wish I had never set foot in that dreadful place! It seems, after
+all, that the devil is really in possession of it, and that disaster
+overtakes people who enter there."</p>
+
+<p>"Disaster invariably overtakes people who give the devil his chance,"
+said Honor unable to resist a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say you are right. I have been very foolish, for I had no idea
+of the sort of man I was growing so intimate with. But he was truly
+sorry, and tried afterwards in a hundred ways to show how he regretted
+his behaviour. Indeed, I think, on the whole, he received quite a good
+moral lesson for thinking most women are without any conscience," and
+Joyce proceeded to relate the sequel of her story, which involved that
+of the doctor's past.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a most painful history," said Honor gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"And he has never known home-life; his mother was a wicked woman, and
+was divorced!"</p>
+
+<p>"How pitiful!"</p>
+
+<p>"It quite accounts,&mdash;doesn't it?&mdash;for his badness?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he is at all bad," Honor said unexpectedly. "He's been
+badly hit and wants to hit back; that's about what it is. To him women
+are all alike"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Not you!&mdash;he said you were, to his mind, the 'exception that proves the
+rule.'" Joyce interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>Honor coloured as she continued,&mdash;"And he has very little respect for
+the sex. He requires to meet with some good, wholesome examples to set
+him right, poor fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>"He thinks the world of you, Honey!"</p>
+
+<p>"Does he?" with an embarrassed laugh. "Then he takes a queer way of
+showing it."</p>
+
+<p>"That was your fault. You turned him down over Elsie Meek's case, and he
+was too proud to plead for himself. But I have watched him, Honey, and
+there isn't a thing you say or do he misses, when you and he are in the
+same room."</p>
+
+<p>"Your imagination!" Honor said uncomfortably. "You forget he has just
+been trying to make love to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"True. But he has never been <i>in love</i> with me. It was sheer devilment.
+Even I could tell that. Love is such a different thing. Ray loves me.
+There is no mistaking it, for it is in his eyes all the time, and proved
+in a thousand ways."</p>
+
+<p>"Did Captain Dalton say much more about that girl who jilted him?" Honor
+asked with embarrassment. Joyce had failed to grasp the full
+significance of Dalton's unhappy experience, and Honor had accordingly
+derived a wrong impression.</p>
+
+<p>"Only that he loathes her now. That she killed his soul!&mdash;which is
+absurd, seeing that the soul is immortal."</p>
+
+<p>"It can therefore be resurrected."</p>
+
+<p>How, and in which way, Honor had not the slightest idea, but her heart
+instead of recoiling from the sinner after all she had heard, warmed
+with sympathy towards him. She could not help a feeling of pity and
+tolerance for the unfortunate victim of deception who through
+disillusionment and wounded pride, had gone astray.</p>
+
+<p>When Honor returned home, it was to hear that her mother had gone over
+to the doctor's bungalow to nurse the patient till professional nurses
+should arrive; and had left word that her daughter should follow her.</p>
+
+<p>"We have to do our 'duty to our neighbour' no matter how much we may
+disapprove of him and as no one in the Station is capable of tending the
+sick with patience and intelligence, I must do it with your help."</p>
+
+<p>So Honor superintended the making of beef-tea for the sick-room, fetched
+and carried, ran messages, and made herself generally useful, much to
+Tommy's disgust. It was hateful to him that a man so generally disliked
+as the Civil Surgeon, should be tenderly cared for by the women he had
+systematically slighted.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see it at all," he grumbled to Honor when he caught her on the
+road on her way home for dinner. "Surely his servants could do what is
+necessary till the nurses arrive?"</p>
+
+<p>"The least little neglect might cost him his life, Tommy."</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't be your fault. For weeks the fellow has not gone near your
+people."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you have us punish him for that by letting him die of neglect?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is no business of mine, of course."</p>
+
+<p>Honor quite agreed with him, but softened her reproof with a demand for
+his help. "At any rate, it is everyone's duty to lend a helping hand in
+times of trouble. We want a message sent to the doctor-<i>babu</i> at the
+government dispensary, and it is a mercy I have met you." She gave him a
+list of the things required by the local Railway doctor who was in
+charge of the case, and Tommy cycled away, obliged to content himself
+with the joy of serving her whenever and wherever possible.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, while Honor was left on guard at Dalton's bedside to see
+that he made no attempt in his delirium to rise, she experienced a
+sudden sinking of the heart in the thought that he might die.</p>
+
+<p>He was very ill.... Pneumonia was one of the most deadly diseases. As
+yet there was no means of knowing how it would go with him. With gnawing
+anxiety she watched his flushed face and closed eyes and the rapid rise
+and fall of his chest. How strong and well-built he was! and yet he lay
+as weak and helpless as a child.</p>
+
+<p>The thought that he might die was intolerable. It gave her a sense of
+wild protest, a desire to fight with all power of her mind and will
+against such a dire possibility. He must not die till he had recovered
+his faith in human nature, his belief in womanhood. If there were any
+truth in the New Philosophy he would not die if her determination could
+sustain him, and help him over the crisis.</p>
+
+<p>"Honey...?" the sick man muttered. His eyes had unclosed and were
+looking full at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" she replied, trembling from head to foot with startled surprise
+at hearing him speak her name.</p>
+
+<p>"Have they let you come at last?" he asked in weak tones.</p>
+
+<p>"They sent for me to help," she returned gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it because I wanted you so much? My soul has been crying out for
+you. There is only one face I see in my dreams, and it is yours. You
+will not leave me?" he asked breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"I will stay as long as they let me," she said kneeling at the bedside
+that she might not miss a syllable that fell from his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know that I loved you all the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know." Surely it was wrong for him to speak when he was so
+ill? yet she longed to hear more. Every word thrilled her through and
+through.</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since that day&mdash;you remember?&mdash;when you came to me for help in
+your danger and suspense; when I saw into that brave, staunch heart of
+yours, and, for the first time, knew a true woman!" His face was alight
+with emotion. It was transformed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hush!&mdash;you must not talk."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I am horribly ill," he panted. "It is ghastly being tucked up like
+this, unable to get up. But it is worth while if you will stay with me."
+A pause while he frowned, chasing a thought. "What was I saying? My mind
+is so confused."</p>
+
+<p>"It does not matter, I understand."</p>
+
+<p>He caught her hand and pressed it to his burning lips, then laid the
+cool palm against his rough, unshaven cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"If I have longed for anything it is for this&mdash;to hold your hand&mdash;so&mdash;to
+feel that you'd care just a little bit whether I lived or died&mdash;nobody
+else does on this wide earth!"</p>
+
+<p>"I care a very great deal," she said brokenly. "So much, that I beg of
+you not to talk. It must hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"Every breath is pain. If I give a shout you must not mind. It is a
+relief sometimes. Pleurisy is devilish. They told you, I suppose, I have
+that as well? If I don't pull through&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! You shall not say that. You <i>will</i> get well. I know it. I am sure
+of it," she said. "Try to rest and sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall try, if you say you love me."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>love</i> you," Honor said with fervour. It did not matter to her that
+he might presently be rambling and forget all about her and his fevered
+dreams of her. It was the truth that she loved him, and she spoke from
+her heart.</p>
+
+<p>He did not seem to hear her, for, already his thoughts wandered. "I keep
+thinking and dreaming the wildest things and get horribly mixed," he
+said frowning and puzzled. "Was I buried for days and nights in the
+ruins&mdash;with someone? then how is it I am here?"</p>
+
+<p>"You were buried for one night with Mrs. Meredith, and you were both
+rescued in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>His eyes contracted suddenly. "A pretty little creature&mdash;dear little
+thing!&mdash;brainless, but beautiful. One could be almost fond of her if she
+did not bore one to tears!" He turned painfully on his side and Honor
+placed a pillow under his shoulders. "Ah, that's easier!&mdash;thanks,
+nurse," he said mechanically. "Tears?... What about tears? Ah, Mrs.
+Meredith's tears. She cried almost as much as the rain, poor kid! and we
+were nearly washed out&mdash;like 'Alice,'" and he laughed huskily, forgetful
+that he was again in possession of Honor's hand which he held in a vice.
+"I am a damned fool to have tried it on with her. Beastly low-down
+trick," he muttered almost inaudibly. "'You unspeakable cad!' she said,
+and, by God! I deserved it. I should have known that she was not the
+sort to play that rotten game. Ah, well! it is only another item on the
+debit side of the ledger!" His eyes closed and he drifted into
+unconsciousness. Honor's hand slipped from his hold and she rose to her
+knees, choked with grief and longing. Oh, for the right to nurse him
+tenderly! "Oh, God! give him to me!" she cried in frenzied prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton did not recognise her again after that, and the next morning Mrs.
+Bright handed over the case to the nurses from Calcutta.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>CORNERED</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Joyce made her final plea to be sent home to her people without
+waiting for the spring, it met with little opposition. Meredith had come
+to the point of almost welcoming a break in the impossible deadlock at
+which his domestic life had arrived. His beloved one's nerves had broken
+down from one cause and another, and she was drifting into the habits of
+a confirmed invalid. If he did not let her go, he would, perhaps, have
+to stand aside and watch her increasing intimacy with the doctor whom he
+could not challenge without creating a disgusting scandal; which would
+make life in Bengal intolerable for himself as well as for her. So he
+agreed to her departure with the child in the hope that "absence would
+make her heart grow fonder," and that she would come back to him,
+restored, when the cold season returned and made life in India not only
+tolerable, but pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>Hurried arrangements were put through, a passage secured, and Joyce
+roused herself to bid her friends a formal farewell.</p>
+
+<p>At the Brights', only Honor was at home, her mother having driven to the
+bazaar for muslin to make new curtains. Christmas was approaching and a
+general "spring cleaning" was in full swing in order that everything
+should look fresh for the season.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the greatest day in the year, and even the natives expect us to
+honour it. Our festival, you know," Honor explained.</p>
+
+<p>"It always looks so odd to have to celebrate Christmas with a warm sun
+shining and all the trees in full leaf!" said Joyce. "That is why it
+never feels Christmas to me. I miss the home aspect,&mdash;frost and snow,
+and landscapes bleak and bare."</p>
+
+<p>"The advantage lies with us. We can calculate on the weather with
+confidence, and it is so much more comfortable to feel warm. And then
+everything looks so bright!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you like it since you have to stay. I hate India more than
+ever."</p>
+
+<p>Honor looked earnestly at her, and wonderingly. "Isn't it rather a
+wrench to you to leave your husband?" Joyce had grown so apathetic and
+cold.</p>
+
+<p>For answer her friend broke down completely, and wept as though her
+heart would break. "We seem to be drifting apart. Oh, Honey, I love him
+so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then why go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must. I want to think things over and recover by myself. I am trying
+to forget all about that night in the ruins, and hoping for time to put
+things to rights. Perhaps I shall return quite soon. Perhaps, if the
+doctor is transferred, I shall find courage to write and tell Ray all
+about <i>it</i>. I am all nerves, sometimes I believe I am ill, for I can't
+sleep well and have all sorts of horrid dreams about cholera, and
+snakes, and Baby dying of convulsions! So, you see, a change is what I
+most need; and I am so homesick for Mother and Kitty! I cry at a word. I
+start at every sound, and if Baby should fall ill, it would be the last
+straw."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is to happen when you are away, if, while you are here you
+feel you are drifting apart?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I am away, he will forget my silly ways and remember only that I
+am his wife and how much he loves me. He <i>does</i> love me, nothing can
+alter that; but lately I have held aloof from him for reasons I have
+explained to you, and he is hurt. You may not understand how desperately
+mean I feel, and how unfit to kiss him and receive his kisses after what
+has happened. For the life of me I could not keep it up without telling
+him all. And how could I, when Captain Dalton is convalescent and my
+husband will have to meet him when he is able to get about again?
+Already he is talking of going round to chat with him. You see, he does
+not know!"</p>
+
+<p>Honor was deeply perplexed. "Of course, you must do as you please, but
+in your place, I would tell him everything, and as he knows how dearly
+you love him, and only him, he will, I am certain, give up all desire
+for revenge. At a push, he might ask for a transfer."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce shuddered. "I'd rather leave things to time. Later on, I can tell
+him all about it, and, perhaps, by then, Captain Dalton will have been
+transferred. Don't you love me, Honey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I love you."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce flung her arms round Honor's neck and kissed her warmly. "You were
+looking so cold and disapproving! Take care of Ray for me, will you? and
+write often to me about him. I shall miss him terribly," and she sobbed
+unrestrainedly.</p>
+
+<p>When Meredith saw her safely to Bombay, preparatory to her embarkation,
+he allowed himself to show something of the grief he felt at having to
+give up for an indefinite time what he most valued on earth. In the
+seclusion of their room at the hotel, he held her close in his arms and
+devoured her flower-like face with eyes of hungry passion.</p>
+
+<p>"So, not content with holding yourself aloof from me, you are leaving me
+to shift for myself, the best way I can!" he said grimly.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce's lips quivered piteously and she hid her face in his shirt-front.</p>
+
+<p>"Has it never occurred to you," he said, "that a man parted too long
+from his wife, might get used to doing without her altogether?"</p>
+
+<p>Two arms clung closer in protest. "But never you!" she replied with
+confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Even I," he said cruelly. He wanted to hurt her since she had walked
+over him, metaphorically, with hobnailed boots. "India is a land of many
+temptations."</p>
+
+<p>"But you love me!"</p>
+
+<p>"God knows I do. But I am only a very ordinary human man whose wife
+prefers to live away from him in a distant land."</p>
+
+<p>"Ray, you are saying that only to be cruel!"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am beginning to think you have no very real love for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I love you, and no one else!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen very little evidence of love, as I understand it. A great
+many things count with you above me. The child comes first! God knows
+that I have idolised you. Perhaps this is my punishment! but I
+worshipped you, and today you are deliberately straining the cord that
+binds us together. The strands will presently be so weak that they will
+snap altogether. Then all the splicing afterwards will never restore it
+to its original strength. It will be a patched-up thing&mdash;its perfection
+gone. Remember, a big breach between husband and wife may be mended&mdash;but
+never again is there restored what has been lost!" He lifted her chin
+and kissed her cold lips roughly. "When do you mean to return? Can't you
+suggest an idea of the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whenever you can get leave to fetch me," she answered with sobbing
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I swear to God I will not do so!" he broke out. "You may stay as long
+as you choose. I shall then understand how much I count with you. I
+refuse to drag back an unwilling wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ray! Don't talk like that! Won't you believe that I love you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would sell my soul to believe it ... to bank all my faith on it!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true!"</p>
+
+<p>"Prove it now."</p>
+
+<p>"How can I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me cancel the passage, and come back with me."</p>
+
+<p>Her face fell. "I could not do that after all the arrangements have been
+made. Mother will be so disappointed&mdash;besides, people will think me
+mad!"</p>
+
+<p>Meredith released her and turned away, a fury of jealousy at his heart.
+"Ever since that night at the ruins you have become a changed being. I
+tried not to think so, but, by God! you have forced me to. One might
+almost imagine you are running away from Captain Dalton. Is there
+anything between you?" he asked coming back to face her, white and
+shaken.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce burst into tears. "I don't understand what you are accusing me
+of!" she sobbed, panic-stricken.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you in love with that man?"</p>
+
+<p>This was something tangible and Joyce was roused to an outburst of
+honest indignation. "No!&mdash;no! A thousand times, no! How dare you think
+so! How dare you imply I am lying? I have said I love you, but I shall
+hate you if you hurt me so!"</p>
+
+<p>Meredith's face lightened as he swung about the room. "It all comes back
+to the same thing in the end. It is good-bye, maybe, for years!"</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning, he saw his wife on board with the child and
+ayah, and then returned to his duties at Muktiarbad, a lonely and
+heavy-hearted man.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton recovered, was granted sick leave by the Government, and
+disappeared from the District for a sea trip to Ceylon.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy mentioned the fact to Honor having just learned it from him on the
+platform of the railway station where he was awaiting the Calcutta
+express, surrounded with baggage and with servants in attendance. He was
+looking like a ghost and was in the vilest of tempers; not even having
+the grace to shake hands on saying good-bye!</p>
+
+<p>Honor turned aside that the boy might not see the disappointment in her
+face. Her heart was wrung with pain. Not once had Captain Dalton made an
+effort to see her.</p>
+
+<p>Her father had smoked a cigar with the invalid one evening when he was
+allowed to sit up on a lounge in his own sitting-room, and had been
+asked to convey thanks and gratitude to Mrs. Bright for her many
+kindnesses to the patient in his illness; but there had been no
+reference to "Miss Bright"; nor did he give any sign that he remembered
+what had passed between them at his bedside, the one and only time that
+he had seemed to recognise her and had spoken unforgettable words.</p>
+
+<p>It was cruel; it was humiliating!</p>
+
+<p>Honor had been trying by degrees to teach herself to believe that he had
+spoken under the influence of delirium. Perhaps he had been thinking of
+someone else outside her knowledge? But she could not forget how sanely
+he had recalled the time he had treated her for snake-bite. His words
+were burned into her brain as with fire&mdash;"When you came to me for help
+in your danger and suspense; when I saw into that brave, staunch heart
+of yours, and, for the first time, knew a true woman!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no delirium in that!</p>
+
+<p>What did it all mean? If he really loved her, why did he not want her as
+she wanted him? Why did he treat her with such indifference and wound
+her to the heart?</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer to her questioning. Captain Dalton was, as always,
+unaccountable, and Honor lifted her head proudly, and determined to
+think no more of him. She gave herself up to the arrangements for a
+happy Christmas, and, for the next week, was the busiest person at
+Muktiarbad.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy, claiming assistance from his chum, Jack, was ready to draw up a
+programme for a gala week. There would have to be polo, tennis, and golf
+tournaments if the residents entered into the spirit of enjoyment and
+were sporting enough to fill the Station with guests.</p>
+
+<p>"Who do you suppose will care to come to a dead-and-alive hole like
+this?" Jack remarked, throwing cold water, to begin with, on his
+friend's enthusiasms. "It will be a waste of energy especially when they
+are having a race meeting at Hazrigunge!"</p>
+
+<p>"Even this dead-and-alive hole might be made entertaining if we put our
+shoulders to the wheel."</p>
+
+<p>"There are not enough of us. You might count the doctor out&mdash;he's away.
+Meredith is no good. His wife's left him for the present and he lives in
+the jungles with a gun. With half-a-dozen men, one girl, and a host of
+Mrs. Grundies, you are brave if you think you can manage to engineer a
+good time. Take my advice, old son, and leave people to spend their time
+as they please. After all, Christmas is a time for the kiddies; not old
+stagers like you and me."</p>
+
+<p>Jack's spirits were conspicuously below par, and there had been signs
+and symptoms of boredom, reminiscent of Bobby Smart whenever he had been
+seen in company with Mrs. Fox.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you work up some little interest?" Tommy asked impatiently. "It's
+beastly selfish of you, to say the least of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I might spend Christmas in town."</p>
+
+<p>"I might have known that. I heard something last night about Mrs. Fox
+having an invitation to spend Christmas with friends in Calcutta," was
+the pointed rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>"Pity you did not think of it before."</p>
+
+<p>"Chuck it, Jack!" said Tommy earnestly, putting a hand affectionately on
+his friend's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to God I could," was the gloomy reply. "It's so easy to get into
+trouble, but so devilishly difficult to get out of it again, decently."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd do it indecently, if it comes to that! You think it's 'playing the
+game' to keep on with an affair of that sort? It's a damned low-down
+sort of game, anyhow, with no rules to keep; so chuck it before worse
+happens."</p>
+
+<p>Jack lighted a cigarette deliberately and made no reply. His
+good-looking, young face was looking lean and thoughtful; he had
+suddenly changed from boyish youth to <i>blasé</i> middle age; the elasticity
+of his nature was gone; his laugh was rarely heard, and he seemed to
+keep out of the way of his friends. Even Tommy had ceased to share his
+confidence. There was a rumour that the Collector had spoken to him like
+a father and was seriously thinking of having him transferred&mdash;a
+suggestion which had been made by his wife, prompted by Honor. But
+transfers were not effected in a twinkling, and Jack still remained at
+Mrs. Fox's beck and call, took her out in his side car, and was often
+missing of an evening when it was expected of him to turn up at a
+special gathering of his friends.</p>
+
+<p>In desperation Tommy confided to Honor that Christmas was going to be as
+dull as Good Friday, as there would be nothing doing. And Honor not to
+be beaten, collected subscriptions, sent out invitations, and threw
+herself heartily into the task of organizing a good time.</p>
+
+<p>In the end, Christmas week at Muktiarbad was a season of mild amusement
+and effortless good-fellowship. A few guests arrived to assist in making
+merry, and there was no discordant note to jar the harmony of the
+gatherings.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Jack arrived at the crisis of his life, on Christmas Eve, in Calcutta,
+when he felt that the invisible bonds threatening to enslave him were
+suddenly tightened, rendering his escape well-nigh impossible.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken a box at the theatre, from which he and Mrs. Fox watched
+the "Bandmann Troupe" in their latest success.</p>
+
+<p>"What a mercy we are not staying at the same hotel, Jack," said Mrs.
+Fox. "It did feel rotten at first, but as it turns out, it will be all
+for the best, old thing. I have extraordinary news for you."</p>
+
+<p>"You have?&mdash;out with it!" he said absently. She had so often surprises
+on him which generally ended in some new suggestion of intrigue, that he
+was both unmoved and incurious.</p>
+
+<p>"First tell me how fond you are of me. You haven't said much about it
+since we came to town."</p>
+
+<p>"We haven't been so very much alone, have we?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, worse luck! but there is no reason why you should not make up for
+it whenever we are together. You must have heaps of quite charming
+things to say? In fact, you do love me tremendously, Jack, don't you?"
+she coaxed.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I had proved it sufficiently," he said colouring with
+annoyance while he tried to look amiable.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a darling&mdash;like your silly old name which I adore! What a
+topping world this is! You don't know how much you have altered
+everything for me. I feel such a kid, and everyone tells me I might be
+in my teens!" she said with a pitiable attempt to be kittenish.</p>
+
+<p>Jack turned away, sickened by her vain folly, and frowned involuntarily.
+What an outrageous ass he had been! However, some day he would break
+away from his chains; only, he must do it decently. Let her down gently,
+so to speak, as she was so damned dependent on his passion, which had
+long since died a natural death.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fox snuggled her hand into his. "Say something nice, my Beauty
+Boy," she wheedled.</p>
+
+<p>Jack squirmed inwardly; nevertheless, to oblige her he admired her gown
+and called up the ghost of the smile which had once been his special
+charm.</p>
+
+<p>"How lovely it would be if you and I were husband and wife,
+Jack?&mdash;sitting here, together, in the eyes of all the world?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lovely," echoed Jack, dutifully.</p>
+
+<p>"You would never fail me, dearest, would you? Say, supposing I were, by
+some miracle, free?"</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that she was securely bound, Jack felt safe in assuring her that
+he would never dream of failing her. It was his belief that this, and
+other vows he had unthinkingly made, were impossible of fulfilment in
+their circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"What a boy it is!&mdash;always so shy of letting himself go. Look at me. I
+want to see if your eyes are speaking the truth. There is something of
+importance I have to tell you relating to our two selves and the
+future."</p>
+
+<p>Jack obeyed, curious and not a little anxious because of the
+half-suppressed note of excitement she could not keep out of her voice.
+The shaded lights of the theatre were not too dim to show the fine lines
+at the corners of her mouth and the obvious effort to supply by art what
+nature had failed to perpetuate. But the egotism of a woman grown used
+to her power to charm, dies hard.</p>
+
+<p>Jack's eyes fell nervously before the questioning in hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, don't you believe we could be very happy together?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you doubt me?" he said evasively.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't doubt you, but I want the joy of hearing you say so. To me it
+is so wonderful,&mdash;what is about to happen,&mdash;that I am afraid I shall
+wake up and find it is all a dream!" she said fatuously, gazing with
+adoration at Jack's fine physique and boyish, handsome face. "You have
+often feared possibilities, and said you would stand by me if anything
+went wrong between Barry and myself."</p>
+
+<p>Jack remembered having often said much that had made him hotly
+uncomfortable to recall afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you, Jack, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he said desperately. "What else do you suppose, unless I am
+a howling cad?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you are not, that is why I simply adore you. You are so true, so
+sincere! My beau ideal of manhood!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is like this. Barry has come to the conclusion that it isn't
+fair to either of us to keep dragging at our chains when we have long
+ceased to care for each other, so he wrote, yesterday, to tell me that
+he would put no obstacle in my way if I wished to divorce him. There is
+someone he is keen on and whom he will marry in due course. I can do the
+same. He has heard about you&mdash;just rumour&mdash;but as a woman is always the
+one to suffer most in a suit for divorce he has most generously
+suggested that the initiative should come from me. Rather decent of him,
+what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tremendously decent," said Jack his heart becoming like lead in his
+breast. For a moment the lights of the theatre swam; he felt deadly sick
+and cold, and failed to take in the sense of what she continued to say.
+In the midst of his mental upheaval the lights mercifully went down and
+the curtain up, so that much of his emotion passed unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>"Why Jack!&mdash;think of it, we shall be able to marry after it is all
+finished!&mdash;only a few months to wait!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he with dry lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Try to look as if you are glad!" she teased. "You know you are crazy
+with delight. It is what we were longing for. Be a little responsive,
+old dear," she said, giving his hand a squeeze.</p>
+
+<p>Jack returned the pressure, feeling like a trapped creature with no hope
+of escape. Marriage with Mrs. Barrington Fox had never at any time
+entered into his calculations. He was too young, to begin with, and
+certainly did not wish to be tied down to the woman who had played upon
+his untried passions.</p>
+
+<p>Waves of self-disgust and dread seemed to overwhelm him.</p>
+
+<p>He sat on for the next few minutes seeing nothing, hearing nothing,
+saying nothing, while he anathematised himself mentally as every kind of
+a fool, Barrington Fox as a contemptible blackguard, and the woman
+beside him as something unspeakable. He could not deny his own
+culpability; but he had felt all along that a nature like his was as wax
+in such unscrupulous and experienced hands.</p>
+
+<p>He had been weak&mdash;yes, damnably weak! that was about the sum and total
+of it. And he would have to spend the rest of his life in paying for it!</p>
+
+<p>What would the mater say? He thought of her first; the proud and
+handsome dame who had placed all her hopes on her eldest son&mdash;who
+thought no one good enough to be his wife.</p>
+
+<p>His pater?&mdash;and the girls?</p>
+
+<p>He had never associated them in his thoughts with Mrs. Fox, nor dreamed
+of their meeting even as acquaintances. The contrast was too glaring.</p>
+
+<p>His career?</p>
+
+<p>Well!&mdash;the Government did not approve discreditable marriages; but, on
+the other hand, it did not actively interfere with a Service man's
+private affairs. A good officer might make his way in spite of an
+unfortunate marriage. There were worse instances in the "Indian Civil"
+than his. But he was certain, at any rate, he would be socially done
+for!</p>
+
+<p>Gradually he had come to realise that all the stories concerning Mrs.
+Fox must have been true, and that she had been tolerated by society
+purely on account of her husband&mdash;and he was now proved no better than
+she!</p>
+
+<p>Be that as it may, he saw no way out of his dilemma save by dishonouring
+his written and spoken word. One was as good as the other and he felt
+himself hopelessly snared. The lady would have to become his wife, and
+he would spend the rest of his life dominated by her personality,
+fettered by her jealous suspicions, and suffering in a thousand other
+ways, as men suffer, who rashly marry women several years older than
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Fox laughed merrily at the comic situation in the performance to
+give Jack time to recover himself, but her eyes gleamed anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>She was sufficiently woman of the world and quick-witted enough to
+comprehend the shock to Jack and his consequent stupefaction. But he was
+young enough for his nature to be played upon, and she was determined
+not to lose her advantage. She banked all her hopes on his sense of
+honour, and continued to thank her stars that her luck was "set fair."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>BREAKING BOUNDS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Honor lived in dread of Captain Dalton's return to the Station.</p>
+
+<p>Did he remember anything of what had passed between them in the hour
+which she had spent at his bedside? Or had he completely forgotten the
+episode and her confession? She would have been glad to think he had
+forgotten, for she had brought herself to believe that he had been
+labouring under the influence of delusions. If it were true that he
+loved her, his manner would have been very different in the days
+preceding his illness. True, she had been aloof; but men in love are not
+usually balked by such trifles as had stood in his way.</p>
+
+<p>No. He had been dreaming.</p>
+
+<p>His fever-stricken brain had been wandering among unrealities, and her
+face had filled the imagination of the moment. Facts and fancies had
+intermingled, till they had misled him in his delirium into believing
+that it was she he loved.</p>
+
+<p>The truth was, she argued to herself, that he loved nobody. It was
+certain that a woman by her treachery and double dealing had killed his
+better nature, or drugged it; and his capacity for love and trust had
+gone. If it were not so, he would have loved Joyce who was beautiful and
+winning, and have respected her because of her ingenuous innocence. It
+was a thousand pities that such a strong character had been tricked and
+perverted!</p>
+
+<p>And now that there was no one to monopolise his leisure moments, it was
+to be hoped that he would, on his return, confine himself to his music
+and the treatise he was at work upon. It would be a relief, Honor felt,
+if he would only continue to keep out of her way; otherwise, life would
+be intolerable. It was the acme of humiliation to have discovered
+herself in love with a man who had no need of her whatever! and the
+sooner she could find something to do outside the District, either in a
+hospital or in connection with some charitable organisation, the better
+it would be for her peace of mind and self-respect.</p>
+
+<p>However, when she broached the subject of work away from home, her
+parents would hear nothing of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Our only child, and not to live with us!" Mrs. Bright exclaimed,
+horrified. "What is the use of having a daughter if we are to let her
+leave us&mdash;except to be married?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never marry. I have no vocation in that line, so should lead
+some sort of useful life."</p>
+
+<p>"And isn't your life useful? What should I do alone when your father is
+in camp? If either of us was ill, whom do you think we would look to,
+but you? Surely, Honey, you are not bored with your own home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never, Mother dear! I am too happy with you and Dad. But most girls do
+something now-a-days. It is only that I feel it such a waste of energy
+to stay at home doing nothing but please myself."</p>
+
+<p>"You have your duty to us, and your 'duty to your neighbour'."</p>
+
+<p>"Which latter consists of meeting him collectively at the Club, helping
+to amuse him with tennis and golf, and listening to a lot of scandal!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear! since when have you turned cynical? You are, I am sure, a
+great comfort to Mrs. Meek; and the families of our servants simply
+worship you."</p>
+
+<p>"For converting my cast-off garments to their use in winter. My old navy
+skirt has certainly made an excellent pair of pyjamas for Kareem's young
+hopeful, and the sweeper's youngster looks like nothing on earth in
+bloomers and my old golf jersey!"</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>saice</i>, too, is delighted with those jackets you turned out from
+my old red flannel petticoat. The twins are as snug in them as a pair of
+kittens," laughed Mrs. Bright.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to hear no more of that rot about your wanting work while I am
+above ground," said Mr. Bright, looking up from his newspaper and
+regarding his daughter severely. "It will be time enough to let you go
+when some fellow comes along and wants to carry you off; but to let you
+go and tinker at other people's jobs is not at all to my liking when you
+have a home and duties to perform with regard to it."</p>
+
+<p>And that was the end of all argument. Not having a combative nature, nor
+a taste for debate, Honor adjourned to the store cupboard and gave
+Kareem the stores for the day.</p>
+
+<p>"Please be obdurate in the matter of the <i>ghi</i><a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>, Honey," was her
+mother's parting injunction. "He would swim in it if you allowed him.
+Two <i>chattaks</i> for curry are ample. The dear rascal is not above saving
+the surplus, if he gets it, and selling it back to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Memsahib's orders" admitted of no palava, and Kareem who was faithful
+unto death, but not above commercial dishonesty, submitted to the
+mandate with the air of a martyr. "Whatever I am told, that will I do;
+but if the food is not to the sahib's liking, I have nothing to say."
+Having expressed his views on the matter of his restrictions he withdrew
+with his tray full of stores, a bearded, black-browed ruffian in
+appearance, clad in a jacket and loin-cloth, but of a character capable
+of the highest self-sacrifice and devotion.</p>
+
+<p>It was still early enough after her morning's duties were over, for a
+tramp along the Panipara Jhil for snipe, the sport Honor most enjoyed
+and at which she was gradually becoming proficient. She would be all
+alone, that bright January day, as Tommy, her faithful and devoted
+lover, was prevented by his duties from waiting on her.</p>
+
+<p>Jack, too, was at work down at the Courts,&mdash;not that he was likely to
+offer his escort in these days of his unhappy bondage to Mrs. Fox; but
+Honor's thoughts strayed persistently to him with anxious concern. He
+had returned from Calcutta after Christmas looking jaded and depressed.
+Tommy had been unable to make anything of him till, one day, his
+attention was caught by a paragraph in the <i>Statesman</i> concerning an
+application for a dissolution of marriage from her husband, on the usual
+grounds, by Mrs. Barrington Fox.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God! a walkover for her!" he exclaimed in consternation. Being
+full of concern for Jack, he forthwith proceeded with the news to Miss
+Bright, and they lamented together in bitterness over the young man's
+impending ruin. "She has played her cards like a sharper, and I have no
+doubt that that old idiot, Jack, is done for," Tommy observed.</p>
+
+<p>"But why should he marry her?" Honor protested. "Two wrongs don't make a
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"He feels, I suppose, in honour bound to marry her."</p>
+
+<p>"In honour bound to punish himself by rewarding her dishonesty?"</p>
+
+<p>"He shared it."</p>
+
+<p>"Hers was the greater sin. She tempted him. Think of her age and his,
+her experience of life and his!&mdash;I don't see it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Men have a special code of honour, it seems."</p>
+
+<p>"Tommy, it is a case of kidnapping. Jack's only a foolish, weak boy,
+deserving of punishment, but it isn't fair that the punishment should be
+life-long!"</p>
+
+<p>"He is pretty sick of himself, I can vouch for that."</p>
+
+<p>Jack's undoing was a source of depression to Honor Bright, and the
+question of how to save him was with her continually.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cold day with a pleasant warmth in the sunshine as Honor swung
+along the roads on foot, her gun under her arm, and a bag of cartridges
+slung from her shoulder. She was dressed in a Norfolk jacket and short
+skirt of tweed, with top boots as a protection from snakes, and her free
+and graceful carriage was a beautiful thing to see. So thought the
+doctor as he watched her from behind a pillar in his bungalow verandah.</p>
+
+<p>He had returned by the last train the previous night a few days before
+he was expected, and, as yet, no one besides his servants and the
+<i>locum</i> knew of it.</p>
+
+<p>When Honor had passed he began making hasty preparations to go out. His
+shot gun was taken down from a rack, examined, cleaned, and oiled
+afresh; cartridges were dropped into his pocket; thick boots suitable to
+muddy places were pulled on, accompanied by much impatience and a few
+swear words.</p>
+
+<p>Would he have the motor? Yes&mdash;no! The motor could be taken by a mechanic
+to a certain point by the Panipara Jhil and left there for his
+convenience.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Honor tramped through the fields taking all the short
+cuts she knew, and was soon on the fringe of the grass in complete
+enjoyment of the wildness of the scene and its solitude. The slanting
+rays of the morning sun filtering through the trees, cast checkered
+lights upon the lilies and weeds that floated on the water. Little
+islands dotted the surface, covered with rushes and date palms, the wild
+plum, and the <i>babul</i>&mdash;all growing thickly together. The air was full of
+the odour of decaying vegetation and the noise of jungle fowl, teal, and
+duck. The latter could be seen fluttering their pinions among the lotus
+flowers, and bobbing about on the surface of the water, thoroughly at
+home in their native element; occasionally a flock would rise and settle
+again not far from the same spot, vigilant with the instinct of
+approaching danger. In the far distance, Panipara village could be seen,
+its dark, thatched roofs seeming to fringe the <i>jhil</i> at its farther
+verge.</p>
+
+<p>Honor filled the breach of her light gun with a couple of No. 8
+cartridges, and warily skirted the brink. In places the pools were so
+shallow that a man might have waded knee deep from island to island; but
+the soft mud was treacherous, and flat-bottomed canoes were generally
+hired at Panipara by sportsmen who went duck-shooting. As Honor was
+after snipe, she kept to the banks and picked her way fearlessly along
+the tangled paths, her high boots a protection from thorns and snakes.</p>
+
+<p>Birds sang lustily in the trees; the throaty trill of the tufted bulbul
+sounding inexpressibly sweet,&mdash;the thyial, too, like a glorified canary,
+made music for her by the way.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly an hour Honor wandered over the marshy ground of both banks,
+often imagining she heard footsteps and rustlings among the long grass
+that screened the view. The sounds ceased when she paused to listen, so
+she concluded that her imagination had played her false. At length, just
+as she was beginning to despair of success, a couple of snipe rose like
+a flash from almost under her feet, and were gone before she could raise
+her gun to her shoulder. Immediately she was startled by the sound of a
+shot fired somewhere in her neighbourhood! She had no idea that any one
+else was out shooting that morning. She looked around. Beyond a thin
+veil of smoke hanging over the water, there was nothing to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>Who could it be, but a native <i>shikari</i>?&mdash;for there were a few in the
+District licensed to carry firearms, who supplied the residents of the
+Station with birds for their tables. Satisfied with her theory, she
+pressed on a little farther and was rewarded by another chance at a
+snipe. As the bird headed for a clump of bushes, she fired, and
+simultaneously with her shot there came an involuntary cry&mdash;a sharp
+exclamation of pain, and for a second she was rooted to the spot,
+forgetting everything but the fear that someone at hand had been hit.</p>
+
+<p>Dropping her gun in the grass, she ran forward in dismay, brushed aside
+the screen of weeds and jungle, and came face to face with Captain
+Dalton leaning against the trunk of a tree, holding his wrist.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!&mdash;have I hurt you?" she cried in an intensity of alarm rather than
+of surprise at finding him there, when she believed him at least some
+hundreds of miles away.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton never looked at her, nor replied, but releasing his wrist,
+allowed the blood to drip to the ground from a trivial wound. A stray
+shot from the many in the cartridge had scratched the skin upon a vein,
+and the occasion was serving him well.</p>
+
+<p>But out of all proportion to the injury was his pallor and the emotion
+that swept his face and held him quivering and tongue-tied.</p>
+
+<p>"What can I do?" Honor cried in her distress. The sight of blood was
+enough to rend her tender heart; and to know that it had been shed by an
+act of hers, shook her to the foundations of her being.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton produced a handkerchief in silence and passing it to her, allowed
+her to bandage the wound as well as she could. He was concerned only
+with watching the beautiful, sunburnt fingers that moved tremblingly to
+aid him, or the sympathetic face that bent over the task.</p>
+
+<p>When the bandage was completed, their eyes met, and the same moment
+Honor was in his arms, clasped close to his breast while he murmured his
+adoration.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you!&mdash;my God! how I love you! and I want you so! Oh, my precious
+little girl!&mdash;my Honey&mdash;my love!"</p>
+
+<p>Honor asked no questions, but welcomed, with a sob of joy, the gift of
+love that flooded her heart to overflowing. She clung to his neck with
+loving abandonment and yielded her lips to his generously. With her
+great nature, she could do nothing by halves, so gave of her love with
+no grudging hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Since when have you loved me, my Sweet?" he asked in tones that were
+music to her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"From the moment you kissed my hand and called me 'brave'!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you plunged that dagger in my heart when you said in my
+hearing&mdash;'I have no interest in Captain Dalton'?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor recalled her conversation with Joyce and blushed. "It was not
+true!" she confessed.</p>
+
+<p>"I deserved it&mdash;and more!" he said humbly with suffering in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"And when did <i>you</i> begin to&mdash;care?" she asked shyly.</p>
+
+<p>"From the moment I looked into your eyes at my bungalow, and saw
+heroism, truth, and purity."</p>
+
+<p>It was sweet hearing, though she was convinced that he exaggerated her
+qualities. "Why then did you hide it so long?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was fighting the biggest fight of my life."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you won?"</p>
+
+<p>"Won?" he laughed harshly. "No. I have lost, but it's worth it," kissing
+her defiantly. "Can you guess how much I love you? When I was ill I used
+to dream of you. I even thought you came to me and said you loved me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did. I was beside you, but you were delirious with fever, and I was
+sure afterwards that what you said meant nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"You were there? I often wondered about it, but dared not ask for fear
+of disillusionment. The dream was so dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"And when you recovered, you never tried to see me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I was fighting my big fight which I have lost," he returned recklessly.</p>
+
+<p>"So I tried to teach myself to forget."</p>
+
+<p>"And you couldn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. It was too late!" she sighed happily.</p>
+
+<p>"Blessed fidelity! and now you confess that you love me. Say it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I love you!" A few minutes passed in silence while he demonstrated his
+transports of delight in true lover fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"When you were angry with me over Elsie Meek's case, I went mad and did
+a succession of hideous things. How can you love such a monster?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor drew his face closer and laid her cheek to his.</p>
+
+<p>"I hated everybody&mdash;I even tried to hate you, but it was impossible. I
+resented the happiness of other men. I tried my best to break up a man's
+home after partaking of his hospitality. Do you care to kiss me now?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor kissed him tenderly. "I watched it all with such suffering!"</p>
+
+<p>"You did? God forgive me! Did you know that it is not to my credit that
+Mrs. Meredith is an honest woman today?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"She told you? I might have known it! Women like Joyce Meredith talk.
+But she is a good little woman. As for me!&mdash;I am unfit to kiss your
+boot. Even now, I am the greatest blackguard unhung,&mdash;the meanest
+coward, for I cannot bring myself to renounce my heart's desire!" He
+held her from him and looked into her face with haggard eyes. "Send me
+away! Say you will have nothing to do with me!&mdash;I shall then trouble you
+no more."</p>
+
+<p>With a happy laugh Honor flung herself on his breast. "Send you
+away?&mdash;now?" The thing was clearly impossible. And why should she?
+However wickedly he had behaved in the past it mattered nothing to her,
+for the present was hers and all the future. What a glorious prospect!</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't the foggiest idea what a scoundrel I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must have a special leaning towards scoundrels!" she replied,
+her face hidden on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"God knows the biggest thing in my life is my love for you," he said
+brokenly. "My dream-girl! If I lose you, I lose everything. You will not
+fail me, Honey?" he asked solemnly. "If all the world should wish to
+part us, you will still hold to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I could not change. Whatever happens, I shall always love you, even if
+all the world were against you."</p>
+
+<p>He was not satisfied. For many minutes he held her to his heart,
+covering her face with passionate, lingering kisses.</p>
+
+<p>"And all this while we are forgetting that your wrist is hurt!" she
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Damn my wrist! Look at me. Your eyes cannot lie!"</p>
+
+<p>Honor lifted her eyes, clear and sweet to his, full of the love and
+loyalty she felt, and saw an unutterable sadness in the depths of his
+soul. He should have been rejoicing, yet he was like a man burdened with
+a great remorse.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, 'Brian, I am yours till death.'"</p>
+
+<p>Honor repeated the words gravely.</p>
+
+<p>He continued: "'I swear that, when you are ready to take me away, I will
+go with you, and none shall hold me back.' Say that."</p>
+
+<p>Honor said it faithfully. "I don't care if we have the quietest of
+weddings," she added, "so long as it is in a church."</p>
+
+<p>After a pregnant pause, he said tentatively, "Mr. Meek, I dare say,
+could tie the knot."</p>
+
+<p>"When may I tell Mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will she keep it to herself?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will tell Father, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't we have our happiness all to ourselves for a little while?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor thought she could understand his deep sensitiveness of criticism
+and questions&mdash;he was so unlike all the other men she knew&mdash;and
+consented. Moreover, she loved him and wanted to please him. There was
+no wrong in keeping secret what concerned themselves so closely, till he
+was ready to make it public. Her own dear mother, from whom she had kept
+nothing in her life, would be the first to understand and appreciate her
+motive, as she was the most sympathetic woman in the world, and wanted
+nothing so much as her child's happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"I will do exactly as you wish, dear," she said, glad to offer an early
+proof of her great affection.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton kissed her rapturously, in unceasing wonderment at her
+condescension in loving one so utterly unworthy. He seemed unable to
+grasp the truth, and kept asking her repeatedly for assurances.</p>
+
+<p>The heat of the sun's rays now penetrating their shadowed retreat and
+striking down upon her bared head, awakened Honor to a sense of time and
+the realisation that it was midday.</p>
+
+<p>"When shall I hold you in my arms again?" he asked before finally
+releasing her.</p>
+
+<p>"The question is, where?&mdash;if it is to be kept a secret between us,
+only?" she asked wistfully, compunction already pulling at her
+conscience. Secrecy savoured of intrigue, and all things underhand were
+abominable to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad my bungalow is so near to yours&mdash;only the two gardens and
+a hedge between! I might almost signal to you to meet me somewhere?" he
+said hesitatingly as though expecting a rebuke.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Brian. I'll have nothing to do with signalling," she said
+definitely. "We'll meet every day at the Club if you like, and leave the
+rest to chance."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not build my hopes on chance. It would drive me crazy, as I am
+not a patient man. Can't I see you alone&mdash;say in the lane&mdash;after
+dinner?"</p>
+
+<p>"No." She shook her head decidedly. "I couldn't do things by stealth! I
+cannot deceive&mdash;it's no use expecting it of me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I knew that; and it's that which I worship in you! But I am an exacting
+and selfish brute. Well!&mdash;I'll not complain, Sweetheart!" He released
+her, still with the gloom of a profound sadness in his eyes, and,
+together, they walked back to find his car.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>SECRET JOYS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Honor seemed to walk on air all day. The whole world had changed for her
+in a twinkling, and her heart sang for very joy at being alive. God had
+answered her appeal and had given her the love of this lonely man whose
+soul was sick and wanted tender nursing back to health. Henceforward it
+would be her privilege to restore to him his lost ideals and revive his
+faith in God and human nature. Her belief in the power of truth and love
+being securely established, she had no fears for a future spent with
+Brian Dalton, for all his failures and misdeeds.</p>
+
+<p>Her only regret was, having to keep her happiness to herself for the
+present, when she longed to share it with her mother: and to atone for
+her enforced reserve, she tried to be more than ever attentive and
+considerate to her while she looked forward to the time, not far
+distant, when she would obtain her forgiveness and blessing.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton's professional duties kept him engaged till dusk, when,
+much to the surprise of the members, he reappeared at the Club. He was
+impatient to meet Honor again and to exact from her lips renewed
+assurances of her unchanged feelings and good faith, for he was restless
+and unable to accept the astounding truth, being suspicious of his good
+fortune and distrustful of circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, the meeting was unsatisfactory on account of the lack of
+opportunity for a <i>tête-à-tête</i>. Constant interruptions owing to Honor's
+popularity, had the effect of driving him into his accustomed aloofness
+of manner tinged with aggressiveness towards offending persons. Tommy's
+persistent claims on Honor's comradeship were particularly aggravating,
+and not to be borne.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall wring his neck if he butts in again," Dalton muttered
+viciously.</p>
+
+<p>"We have known each other since we were children," Honor put in as a
+softener.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't stick it here for another minute," he said with a suppressed
+curse. "Let's get out of this!"</p>
+
+<p>To Honor, it was joy to be with him even in the midst of a company of
+others. Her satisfaction lay in the knowledge that she was beloved and
+his whispered endearments gave her bliss. His voice at her ear was the
+sweetest music she had ever heard when it said, "Honey!" or
+"Sweetheart!" and asked her to repeat that she loved him. "You know I
+do," she once answered. Thereupon their eyes met for a brief moment and
+her senses swooned under the intensity of his gaze. In that fraction of
+time he had, by suggestion, kissed her with such passion and longing&mdash;as
+at the <i>jhil</i>&mdash;that her breath fluttered in a sob, her eyes were
+blinded. He was teaching her to want him even as he wanted her till she
+was thrilled at the strength of their love. It was glorious that they
+were both young, with so many years of their lives before them in which
+to grow nearer to each other. "And they twain shall be one flesh,"
+seemed the most blessed psychological miracle that her virgin mind could
+conceive.</p>
+
+<p>"Where shall we go?" she answered indulging his demand to take her away
+from the Club.</p>
+
+<p>"We can go for a spin in my car."</p>
+
+<p>"It is so dark!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mind?" His voice sounded hurt, and Honor, who was sensitive to
+its inflection, immediately yielded. She feared venomous tongues, but,
+the most deadly of them all being absent&mdash;Mrs. Fox having taken up her
+abode in Calcutta while her case was pending&mdash;she was reassured.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother dear, I am going for a little run in Captain Dalton's car, if
+you don't mind," she called softly to Mrs. Bright who was busy
+organising a bridge party in the Ladies' Room.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bright looked surprised. Doubtful thoughts flashed through her
+mind,&mdash;fear of gossip, reluctance to stand in the way of innocent
+pleasure, and wonder that the doctor should have shown a sudden
+inclination towards sociability. Seeing a critical expression lurking in
+Mrs. Ironsides' eye her dignity was immediately in arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, darling, but don't be late. Mind you wrap up properly," she
+returned cordially. Mrs. Ironsides would have to appreciate the fact
+that Honor had her mother's fullest trust and confidence. However,
+throughout the ensuing rubber she could not avoid mentally speculating
+on the possibility of the most eligible bachelor in the District
+beginning to consider her child from a matrimonial point of view.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bright passed out into the darkness with Captain Dalton, her eyes
+shining with a new beauty, and Tommy watched her, filled with dismay.
+What was the meaning of it? Honor with the doctor, of all men! The
+doctor paying Honor marked attentions, and she accepting them with sweet
+graciousness! He forgot to pull at his cigar which went out while he
+stared into the night with eyes that saw only the look in the girl's
+eyes as she walked beside Dalton towards his car.</p>
+
+<p>The motor drive was repeated occasionally, and it became an ordinary
+event for Honor to shoot duck on the Panipara Jhil in his company. "It
+is better than tramping the <i>jhil</i> alone," Mrs. Bright said, when the
+subject was mentioned in her presence. "I have always felt anxious while
+she has been absent on her snipe-shooting expeditions alone, but am so
+much easier in mind now that the doctor has taken charge of her. He is
+such an unerring shot, I am told; and she is learning to be so careful
+under his guidance."</p>
+
+<p>It was the least of the lessons Honor learned from the doctor. He taught
+her the delights of a perfect companionship founded on mutual love; a
+man's reverence for the woman he respects: a complete knowledge of her
+own heart; its power of devotion, its great depths, and stores of
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes Ray Meredith joined them in his fleeting visits to the
+Station&mdash;a lonely and pathetic being, in need of companionship, and
+grateful for friendly attentions. His wife wrote regularly, he said, and
+she and the child were well. Otherwise, he spoke little of his absent
+family. Sometimes Tommy would meet them on the <i>jhil</i> and share their
+picnic luncheon. Jack was never accorded an invitation. On these
+occasions, the lovers would play at being ordinary friends but with poor
+success. Honor would avoid meeting the doctor's eyes, while the doctor's
+eyes were unable to stray long from contemplation of her engaging face
+which had never looked so lovable and full of charm.</p>
+
+<p>With a quickened intuition, Tommy realised that his own sun had set, and
+he went about his business, a very subdued being; one who had lost all
+interest in his occupations and who was finding very little in life
+worth living for.</p>
+
+<p>When Honor was alone with Dalton, they would discuss the future, and
+plan their Elysium together. He was engaged in making arrangements for
+taking up a practice in Melbourne, where a colleague, formerly his
+senior, had retired and was eager for his young brains in partnership.
+When everything was settled, her parents were to be told, after which
+they would be quietly married at the Mission, and leave for Australia.
+"You will not mind such a hole-and-corner sort of wedding?" he asked
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter, so long as we are married?" she replied. "I have
+always hated a big, ostentatious wedding."</p>
+
+<p>"I should loathe it!" he said strongly. "And what about Australia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anywhere with you&mdash;even if it is to the South Pole!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton kissed her to express his delight in her thoroughness. "How glad
+I shall be when I have you all to myself!&mdash;I shall spend every day of my
+life in proving to you how much I value your love, and you shall give
+this poor devil a chance to take up his life again. Honey!&mdash;sometimes I
+am sleepless with fears. It seems to me too good to be true. I am
+overcome with dread lest I should never carry it through! Something will
+be sure to happen to stop it. If so, I am done for! It will be the end
+of me!" He looked as if haunted with forebodings of evil.</p>
+
+<p>Honor enfolded him in her embrace. Her tender arms clung about his neck
+and she kissed him tenderly in her desire to bring him comfort. "Why
+should anything happen to interfere? God knows how much we care, and He
+will be merciful." She fancied he alluded to sudden death.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! yes. Your God to whom you pray for safety every night of your life,
+may see fit to save you from such as I. I'm not good enough to take you,
+Honey; that's straight."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not say that," she protested laying her soft palm across his
+mouth. "Who is good in this world? Not I, by any means! So we are a pair
+in need of protection, and are both determined to begin a new life
+together in gratitude for the Divine Countenance."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton suppressed a sound that was almost a sob while he defiantly
+blinked away a tear. "Sweet little Puritan!&mdash;" He covered her hand with
+kisses. "But it will be a terrible day for me when that martinet of a
+conscience sits in judgment on my sins. It makes me wish with all my
+heart that I may be dead before then! I'd risk damnation to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hush!&mdash;--"</p>
+
+<p>"To have you mine, anyway. Does that shock you? It's the truth," and
+Honor was pained and greatly puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not often in such a strange frame of mind. There were times
+when he was a different man, almost boyish in his merriment, and full of
+a determined optimism. He would build castles in the air for them both
+to live in, and make her laugh just for the sake of admiring her
+beautiful teeth.</p>
+
+<p>It was early in March when Honor, having lost much of her reserve,
+discussed Jack's affair with Dalton and deplored his inevitable ruin.
+"Tommy says he'll be done for in every way if he marries her, but he
+will do so in spite of everything."</p>
+
+<p>"More fool he."</p>
+
+<p>"He's been very weak and very wicked," sighed Honor; "but <i>she</i> began
+it. We watched it start, and Jack walk, as it were, blindfold into a
+trap. It seems terrible that she should escape and he receive all the
+punishment!"</p>
+
+<p>"Generally, it is the other way about!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack's punishment will be life-long. He will never be a happy man.
+Already, he is almost ill for thinking of it. His people are so proud
+and would never receive Mrs. Fox. Can't anything be done? You don't
+think he is obliged to marry her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not Mrs. Fox. Circumstances alter cases. She had her eyes wide open and
+played her cards for this. It would serve a woman like that jolly well
+right if young Darling gave her the slip. Tell Tommy to prevail on him
+to see me. What he wants is a medical certificate and leave home for six
+months. I'm very much mistaken if that doesn't change the complexion of
+things considerably."</p>
+
+<p>"But he has no real illness!"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say I'll find him really ill when I overhaul him. He looks on
+the verge of a break-down. I have never seen a lad go off as he has done
+the past few months."</p>
+
+<p>"That is because, at heart, Jack is not really a bad fellow. It is just
+that he is deplorably weak; and remorse for having yielded to
+temptation, is tormenting his soul. In proper hands he would shape quite
+well."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton was as good as his word, for, when Jack visited him for a medical
+opinion on his run-down health, he was ready with the certificate which
+was to obtain six months' leave for him in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>And while the young man waited on tenterhooks for sanction to leave
+India, and the routine of station-life continued as usual, the doctor
+awoke to the fact of his own increasing unpopularity with the natives of
+Panipara. Joyce Meredith had once tried to warn him, at which he had
+been considerably amused. After that, the arrival on the scene of a
+surveyor and the taking in hand of preliminary measures, showed that the
+Government were seriously considering the drainage scheme; hence
+personal hostilities against the author of it became active, and the
+gravity of his position was forced upon him.</p>
+
+<p>The villagers scowled whenever he passed and repassed in his journeys
+about the District, and offered him open insolence in lonely places;
+while, on one occasion, a large mob had gathered to waylay the car, but
+had melted away at sight of Honor beside him. They had recognised the
+daughter of the senior police official, and were afraid,&mdash;or had caught
+sight of shot guns in the car; whereupon, discretion had prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Recognising symptoms as dangerous, Dalton refrained from taking Honor
+motoring with him, and had given up their joint expeditions to the
+<i>jhil</i>, at which Mrs. Bright was well pleased. Captain Dalton had,
+apparently, not proposed to Honor, and it was high time that he ceased
+making her conspicuous by his attentions. She had expected something to
+come of them but, so far, the only result was gossip and chaff on the
+part of ladies when they met at the Club, which was excessively
+annoying.</p>
+
+<p>Didn't Honor see that matters were going a bit too far? Was it prudent
+for a young girl to get herself talked about&mdash;especially with a young
+man who had already caused plenty of gossip in the Station? Honor
+allowed that she had, perhaps, been a little unwise not to have
+considered the opinion of the neighbours, but her dear mother need not
+make herself anxious, as she and Captain Dalton understood each other
+perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>That being the case, Mrs. Bright was consoled; for what is an
+"understanding" between a man and a maid, if not an unofficial
+engagement? Like most mothers, Mrs. Bright was anxious, at heart, to see
+her daughter happily settled in life; and the doctor, though not a
+wealthy man or popular, was, at least, a rising one in his profession,
+and considered a good match.</p>
+
+<p>Honor, however, paid little attention to gossip and chaff, her mind
+being filled with anxiety and growing alarm for her lover's safety. She
+had quickly divined the increasing antagonism of the Panipara villagers
+towards him; and knowing his recklessness lived in continual dread.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not know a moment's peace while this sort of thing goes on,"
+she fretted. "Can't you get a transfer till we are married?"</p>
+
+<p>"And leave my little love?" It was unthinkable.</p>
+
+<p>"It would make no difference in our feelings for each other."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't do it, apart from the fact that it would look like running
+away. You little know what it means to me to see you every day."</p>
+
+<p>Latterly he had spent most of his evenings at the Blights', who took
+compassion on his loneliness and were complaisant of his obvious
+attachment to Honor. Mrs. Bright, in her tactful way, gave him many
+opportunities of having Honor to himself in the drawing-room while she
+betook herself to her husband's own particular sanctum to indulge in
+confidential chat. "It is plain to see that he worships our Honey, and
+it is best they should meet here, since meet they must, in her own
+home," she would explain. "I dare say we shall be hearing something one
+of these days."</p>
+
+<p>"He improves on acquaintance, and certainly has a devilish fine voice. I
+could listen to him all night," said her husband, nevertheless, obeying
+the hint and remaining a voluntary exile in his study.</p>
+
+<p>Considering that his opportunities for snatching whatever of happiness
+he could out of his life in the present lay in Muktiarbad, it was not
+likely that Dalton was inclined to seek a transfer and thus run away
+from bodily danger;&mdash;not even when a parcel containing a bomb was placed
+on his writing-table, which, owing to some technical defect, failed to
+go off when it was opened. The incident gave Tommy and his subordinates
+some work to do, trying to trace the culprit who had placed it there,
+but the matter was treated with unconcern by the doctor himself.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DELUGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>One day, at the close of April, when the thermometer was unusually high,
+Ray Meredith fell a victim to a stroke of the sun, and had to be carried
+in from camp like a dead man. His friends were thrown into
+consternation, telegrams were flashed to headquarters, and even the
+bazaar discussed his danger with bated breath. Captain Dalton, always at
+his best in critical moments, rose all at once to great heights in the
+estimation of the District. It was told of him how he was not only
+physician but nurse to the Collector, and no woman could have been more
+deft or capable in the sick-room than he was. But no one knew that a
+sense of obligation to his conscience as well as to the sick man was
+driving him hard, so that, for the time being, all personal
+considerations were swept aside,&mdash;even his cherished plans which were
+nearing completion,&mdash;in order that he might save a useful life to which
+he owed some reparation.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bright was filled with admiration, and Honor with adoration. Both
+held themselves in readiness to be of use as necessity might demand, and
+were full of concern for Joyce so far away. Yet no cable was sent to
+tell her of her husband's state.</p>
+
+<p>"From a rational point of view, it would be folly," said Mrs. Bright.
+"If he should die, we can send a cable to prepare her, and follow it up
+with another soon afterwards. Should he recover, we will have given her
+a nasty fright for nothing. By the time mail day comes round, we shall
+have something definite to say, and a letter will do quite well." To
+this Honor was obliged to agree, but it seemed terrible to her loving
+heart that a wife should be in ignorance of her husband's peril, and
+thus be deprived of importuning the Almighty with prayers for his
+recovery. So much of good in life depended on prayer, that she felt it
+necessary to pray on behalf of Joyce for the life of the husband so
+precious to her. According to her convictions, God works through the
+agency of his creatures, and as no stone was being left unturned by the
+doctor whose whole heart was in his profession, Ray Meredith stood a
+good chance if God were merciful to the reckless man who had scorned the
+deadly rays of an Indian sun.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so thankful he has you to take care of him," she once said during
+a private interlude, when Dalton held her in his arms under the great
+trees of the avenue and kissed her good-night. "Poor, poor Joyce! She
+would break her heart if she were to lose him&mdash;and she away! She would
+never forgive herself for going."</p>
+
+<p>"If, in spite of all our efforts, he should not recover, you may take it
+that he is fated to die of this stroke. One can't kick against Fate."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no such thing as Fate! If you do your best, God helping, he
+will recover, I am sure of it. I am praying so hard for his wife's sake.
+If we keep in touch with God and do our best unremittingly, it is all
+that is wanted of us."</p>
+
+<p>"If any one's prayers ever reach heaven, I am sure yours do!... Do you
+ever pray for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Always!"</p>
+
+<p>"What for, specially?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor hesitated for a moment, then murmured, "That we may never be
+parted in life, and that I may succeed in making you happy."</p>
+
+<p>Dalton kissed her reverently. "Any more than that? Do you never say,
+'Make him a good boy'? I need that more than anything. It is what
+mothers teach their kiddies to say, but it's forgotten when they grow
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll say that, too, if you wish it."</p>
+
+<p>"Say it every night of your life; and also that my sins may be forgiven
+me. They are many!"</p>
+
+<p>The evening the nurse arrived from Calcutta to take charge of the case,
+Meredith was improving in spite of the insupportable heat. <i>Punkhas</i>
+waved unceasingly in the bungalows, and quantities of ice were consumed.
+People moved about without energy, mopping their faces and yearning for
+the relief of a nor'wester, while a "brain-fever" bird cried its
+melancholy cadences with aggravating monotony, from a tree in the
+Collector's garden, where every leaf and twig had a thick coating of
+dust. A grey pall in the north-west tantalised with its suggestion of a
+possible thunderstorm, which, if it burst, would instantly cool the
+overcharged atmosphere; and anxious eyes glanced at it with longing.</p>
+
+<p>Honor drove to the railway station in the Daimler to fetch the expected
+nurse, and was in time to meet the express as it steamed in with its
+long train of coaches, in which every window gaped, revealing in the
+third-class compartments the spectacle of semi-nude humanity packed like
+sheep in pens, perspiring, and anxious for the moment of release.</p>
+
+<p>When the crowd on the platform had thinned, she saw a lady in a nurse's
+cloak and bonnet, waiting by her trunks, the belabelled condition of
+which advertised the fact that the owner was a much travelled person.</p>
+
+<p>She was strikingly handsome in a bold and arresting way, with dark eyes
+capable of expressing much, and full, red lips parted upon slightly
+prominent teeth. She looked as if she could be extremely fascinating,
+but there was something about her that did not inspire Honor with
+confidence,&mdash;though she freely admired her grace and aplomb,&mdash;and she
+thought she looked more like an actress than a nurse. Surely the stage
+would have better suited one of her type! She wondered.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been sent to fetch you. My name is Honor Bright."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how d'you do! How kind you are! You see, I have 'some' luggage,"
+was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"It will all fit on the car," and signing to a couple of coolie porters,
+Honor gave them directions and led the way through the booking office to
+the entrance porch. After they had taken their seats and the car had
+started, the nurse learned all about the case, in which she showed only
+a passing interest. "A married man, did you say?" she asked carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>Honor had not said so, but answered in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>"Wife at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"In England; yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And what's your doctor like? I always like to know for one has so much
+to do with the doctor, and it's just as well to understand something
+about him beforehand," she said, with ill-concealed eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not describe Captain Dalton better than to say he is very
+direct and never wastes words," said Honor, smiling at her first
+impressions of Brian Dalton. Her secret knowledge of him thrilled her
+happily.</p>
+
+<p>"And what of his looks? Is he as handsome as"&mdash;she bit her lips,
+stumbled in her sentence, and concluded, "as his pictures? I have seen
+his portrait in a photo group of surgeons at the Presidency General
+Hospital, in Calcutta."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never thought about his being handsome," said Honor. "He has a
+strong face, and an expressive one&mdash;on occasions."</p>
+
+<p>"I am told he is a hard man. How does he impress you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say he could be as hard as flint; but I have not experienced
+that side of his nature."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a funny little place, this," said the nurse who had not troubled
+to give Honor her name. "I rather fancy it. I suppose you manage to have
+quite good times since everyone must know everyone else quite
+intimately. Like a large family!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite fond of it, for I have many good friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I could imagine putting up with it for a change; but to live here year
+in and year out, so far away from town and the bustle of life, would
+bore me stiff. However, <i>chacun à son gôut</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>At the house, the nurse was shown her room and left to unpack and
+arrange her things, and change into nursing attire. Tea was served to
+her in the morning-room though it was nearing the dinner hour, and Honor
+remained to entertain her till the doctor returned from another case;
+Mrs. Bright having temporary charge of the patient.</p>
+
+<p>Soon afterwards, Captain Dalton arrived and Honor saw him step briskly
+into the room. She retired to a distant corner, herself, leaving him to
+confer with the nurse and acquaint her with the nature of the case,
+utterly unprepared for the scene that followed.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment, she was paralysed at the sight of the doctor's ghastly
+pallor and startled eyes as they lighted upon the stranger's face.</p>
+
+<p>"You?" he breathed through stiffened lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Brian. I was given the chance as Nurse Grey was ill. I had to see
+you again!" her voice was fiercely agitated. "Won't you hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God! Don't you understand that you are nothing to me?&mdash;less than
+nothing!" His eyes blazed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you never divorced me! That gave me hope. Have you no forgiveness?
+No pity?"</p>
+
+<p>A stony silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you are hard!&mdash;<i>hard</i>! It is not fair to punish any one forever for
+one mistake&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mistake, do you call it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sin, if you will have it. Are <i>you</i> sinless? After all, we are but
+human, and we forgive as we hope to be forgiven." She made a movement as
+if to fall at his feet, and Honor rushed blindly from the room. Her one
+instinct was to get away somewhere and hide&mdash;hide from the knowledge so
+ruthlessly thrust upon her. It was too horrible to contemplate. She
+shuddered from head to foot, and shivered as with ague. Out into the
+open she ran, among the dust-laden crotons and azaleas, and the florid
+shrubberies of the Indian garden, now bathed in soft moonlight. Scarcely
+heeding her footsteps, she stumbled to a bench beneath a laburnum. If it
+harboured reptiles, she was indifferent. Let her be bitten and die! She
+was crushed and bowed to the earth with a burden of grief too great to
+endure,&mdash;too hopeless to think upon.</p>
+
+<p>What was it that he had offered her? Had he meant to insult her?</p>
+
+<p>Never! He loved her too well. He would have killed himself rather than
+have treated her lightly.</p>
+
+<p>What was it then?</p>
+
+<p>Her mind refused to act. It acknowledged only one thought, and that was,
+severance&mdash;immediate, final&mdash;from the being she loved most on earth.
+That was inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>Brian Dalton was married. He had been married all the time. Joyce had
+misunderstood; or he had lied to her.</p>
+
+<p>No. She would not allow to herself that he had lied. His was not a petty
+nature given to lying, or to the faults of the weak and timid. He was a
+daring and defiant sinner, "risking damnation," as he had once said, for
+the desire of his heart. She could now understand his bitterness, his
+recurring moods of sadness and almost of remorse; for he was plotting
+all the while against the honour of the girl he respected as well as
+loved.</p>
+
+<p>Consecutive thought was impossible; she was bewildered and numbed by the
+suddenness of the blow. Through it all she moaned as though in physical
+pain, "Brian!&mdash;oh, Brian!" Not for a minute did she doubt that he loved
+her. He had given abundant evidence of his sincerity; but unable to get
+her by fair means, he had determined to try foul. He had fought the
+fight of his life, and had failed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I had to see you again," the nurse had said. And then,&mdash;"You never
+divorced me!"</p>
+
+<p>The words, "never divorced me," kept repeating in her brain. The nurse
+had spoken, forgetful of Honor's presence or imagining that she had left
+the room. He, too, had seemingly forgotten her presence or failed to
+notice that she was still in the room.</p>
+
+<p>She was handsome, this woman who had been&mdash;<i>was</i>&mdash;his wife! Honor
+recalled the flashing eyes, the sensuous mouth, and quailed. Having once
+loved her, might he not be won to love her again? She was his. He had no
+right to think of another.</p>
+
+<p>No other had any right to think of him!</p>
+
+<p>Honor writhed in misery.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sinless?" his wife had asked him.</p>
+
+<p>From his own showing, he was a most deliberate sinner, ready to
+sacrifice an innocent soul for his own gratification. Only a miracle had
+stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>Words he had spoken returned to her mind&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your God to whom you pray every night of your life will see fit to save
+you from such as I!"</p>
+
+<p>The pathos of his dread, the wistful appeal in his voice, had touched
+her deeply. She could hear it still, and her heart went out to him in
+sympathy. Her poor, unhappy darling! But,&mdash;had God really interfered to
+save her from the pit he was digging for her feet?</p>
+
+<p>If he were free, she would have no wish to be saved from him, sinner
+though he were. She would take him gladly, and, God helping, slay the
+demon in him forever.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not free. The task was not for her.</p>
+
+<p>The Church would not marry them if it were known that he was not free.</p>
+
+<p>It did not enter into her consciousness that she could go to him in
+spite of God or the law. Defiance of laws, human and divine, was
+impossible to Honor who had been reared to respect both from her cradle.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, all was at an end; and yet, she had no anger in her heart
+towards Brian Dalton; only love and pity, and grief for the parting
+which was inevitable&mdash;a blasting, desolating grief.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, footsteps sounded on the gravel. Someone was wandering in the
+garden in search of her. It was a man's tread. It was Dalton's; she
+recognised the impatience, the determination in it, inseparable from the
+man. Yet she made no sign. She dared not, though she wanted him with all
+her heart. Sobs threatened to strangle her and were fiercely suppressed.
+What right had she to his love now that she knew all? What use had she
+for his explanations and apologies? She was choked, dry-eyed,
+frightened.</p>
+
+<p>She was afraid of herself, for, at the first sound of his footsteps, the
+beating of her heart had deafened her. She wanted him as much as he
+wanted her, and she trembled, feeling powerless to deny her love its
+human expression. It was compelling. What could be the end of it?</p>
+
+<p>She bowed her face upon her quivering arms whispering, "God help
+me!&mdash;God help me," yet straining her ears to catch every sound without.
+And she made no resistance when Dalton at last found her, and, seating
+himself at her side, drew her tenderly to his breast.</p>
+
+<p>It was long before either spoke. Honor felt it was for the last time. He
+feared it might be for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>"You know?" he asked in a voice hoarse and strange.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she whispered trembling as she clung to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you do not spurn me?"</p>
+
+<p>"How could I, when I love you so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Such a scoundrel as Brian Dalton?"</p>
+
+<p>"I only know how much I love you!"</p>
+
+<p>An inarticulate sound resembling a stifled sob came from him. After a
+while&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do with me, Sweet?"</p>
+
+<p>What answer could she give him but one? "What I must!" Yet she clung all
+the closer.</p>
+
+<p>"Though you love me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall love you till I die. But we have to&mdash;we must&mdash;part!"</p>
+
+<p>His arms about her were like bands of iron. He was scarcely aware of the
+force with which he crushed her to him.</p>
+
+<p>"It cannot be done," he said almost to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not divorce her?" Honor asked resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>"To punish her. Ah!&mdash;my God!&mdash;Punishments come home to roost. Some day I
+will tell you the whole sordid story. There is no time now&mdash;I have to go
+back to Meredith."</p>
+
+<p>"We must say good-bye here," she returned with a desperate attempt to be
+calm.</p>
+
+<p>"Never 'good-bye'!" Yet he had no hope. Honor's conscience had
+decided&mdash;the conscience he had once feared would sit in judgment on his
+sin against herself; and yet it had uttered no word of reproach.</p>
+
+<p>For a full minute he held her away from himself, trying by the light of
+the moon to see the look in her eyes. He wanted to plead with her to fly
+with him to another land where none should know their history; but his
+words died in his throat as he gazed upon her white and stricken face.
+"Honey, be merciful to me in your thoughts!" he cried, instead, kissing
+her forehead, her eyes, and denying himself her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Just let me go right away. Give me courage&mdash;help me!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I leave you the gift of my heart. I can never take it back."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you forgive me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Love always forgives."</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you! I think I must have been insane. I would have earned
+your hatred in time. How shall I face life without you?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor gave him her lips sadly. "In our different ways&mdash;we shall face it.
+Just at first it will be very hard, but not impossible if we have
+courage to do what is right. To stay on here after this, is more than I
+can bear; so I must go away&mdash;just for a bit, to learn how to be brave.
+When I come back&mdash;if you are still here, we might both bear it better."</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Honey! What a beast I have been! As for me&mdash;you will find me
+here right enough. I shall not go to Australia <i>now</i>!&mdash;but I shall never
+bear it better."</p>
+
+<p>They parted a little later in heavy sorrow. Honor left him bowed and
+broken on the garden bench, and stumbled home unseeingly.</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards, she learned in one of Dalton's letters&mdash;for he would not be
+denied that medium of communion with her&mdash;the full story of his past
+humiliation.</p>
+
+<p>He had married a nurse at Guy's when he had been a medical student, and
+she had left him six months later for his best friend. She had been
+proved as faithless as she was handsome, with a baleful influence over
+men. Not long afterwards, the man she had led astray was killed in a
+railway accident, and since then, she had, on various occasions, tried,
+without success, to persuade Dalton to take her back. Apparently, she
+had not resigned hope with the years, for she had followed him to India,
+believing that time was her greatest ally, since it dims the memory of
+wrongs.</p>
+
+<p>When he had discovered her presence in Calcutta, and learned that she
+had joined a nursing home in a fashionable quarter, he had applied for a
+transfer to quiet Muktiarbad, giving as his reason, his need of rest
+from his too strenuous labours in the capital. His desire was to gain
+time and to keep out of the way of any possibility of coming into
+professional contact with his wife.</p>
+
+<p>At Muktiarbad he was able to forget his troubles, and, to his relief,
+seemed to have been forgotten by the Government and left to enjoy his
+peace undisturbed. However, through her connection with a nurses'
+association, his wife had accidentally learned of Nurse Grey's summons
+to Muktiarbad and had cleverly contrived to work things so as to go
+herself, instead.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had only done the right thing in the beginning, and severed the
+tie, legally, things might have been very different today," was the
+burden of his cry. Instead, in the recklessness of despair, he had cut
+the ground from under his own feet, and by his desire for revenge,
+destroyed any possibility of future happiness for himself. Passion for
+the woman was dead. Her beauty revolted him; her character he loathed
+and despised. "It is amazing to me," he wrote in deep contrition and
+humility, "that such an egotistical, conscienceless blackguard as I,
+should have been given the inestimable boon of your wonderful love!&mdash;to
+be allowed to retain in my keeping such a pure and faithful heart! It is
+my most treasured possession. My feeling for Honor Bright is my
+religion. To the memory of her, Brian Dalton, one-time scoundrel, kneels
+in worship."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When Mrs. Bright returned home from Meredith's bedside and found Honor
+nerveless and prostrated with white cheeks and dark rings round her
+eyes, she was convinced that it was high time her daughter was sent to
+the hills.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you so in March when the weather grew unbearable; and now, you,
+too, have got a touch of the sun!" But Honor's cheek was cool and
+symptoms of sun or heat stroke were lacking. "How do you feel?" the
+anxious lady questioned. Being in ignorance of the nurse's identity and
+having no clue to Honor's state, she was worried and at a loss.</p>
+
+<p>"I am only feeling rather exhausted, Mother darling," said Honor
+wearily. Since she had not taken her mother into her confidence while
+she was happy, she felt she had no right to burden her with her sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I ask Captain Dalton to come and see you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not on any account!" Honor hastened to say.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it is rather embarrassing when a doctor is an intimate
+friend&mdash;and an unmarried man! Still, considering&mdash;" Mrs. Bright was
+thinking of the "understanding" and wondering when it was going to
+become something definite. However, Honor was not the girl to hector or
+question on matters that concerned herself alone. The question of her
+indisposition was more pressing than any. "Have you a headache?" she
+asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Honor could truthfully say that her head ached. "When I have slept, it
+will, I dare say, wear off."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, for I should not like to think that you are going to be
+ill."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not ill; but, perhaps, dear, if you can spare me, I had better get
+away tomorrow before the heat becomes worse. May is always such an
+appalling month in the plains."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall speak to your father immediately about it," Mrs. Bright said,
+relieved to find something she could do to avert a break-down of her
+daughter's usually excellent health. "The Mackenzies at Mussoorie will
+be delighted to have you for a month or two as a paying guest. We have
+only to wire. And if they have no room, they can secure one for you near
+by."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be all right," said Honor listlessly. "I'll start tomorrow
+night, if possible."</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be possible. Such a sudden collapse!" commented Mrs. Bright.
+"I do hope you will feel more fit in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be quite fit, never fear," said Honor. "Tonight I am only a bit
+'off colour,' as Tommy says," and she tried to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll send a message down to the <i>dhobi</i> to get your wash ready by noon
+tomorrow. At these times one realises how infinitely more convenient is
+a <i>dhobi</i> than an English Laundry Company," and Mrs. Bright bustled away
+that she might lose no time in letting the washerman know what was
+expected of him. Though the laundry had been taken away that very
+morning, she had not the slightest doubt that the task would be
+completed to perfection before noon, for she knew the laundryman of
+India to be as remarkable in his line as the Indian cook is in his.</p>
+
+<p>The following evening, Honor left Muktiarbad station, with the faithful
+Tommy to see her off in the train; and her mother was there to give her
+a last hug and sundry forgotten injunctions at the eleventh hour. "Mind
+you telegraph on your arrival&mdash;and don't forget to wear a woollen vest
+next to your skin. It is so necessary to ward off colds. Give Alice
+Mackenzie my love and say that I shall try to come up in the rains.
+Good-bye, darling, and take care of yourself! If you want more money,
+don't fail to let me know. Have you got your umbrella? Thank goodness! I
+thought it was forgotten. Write soon; I hope you'll pick up and look
+better when I see you next."</p>
+
+<p>The train moved off and Mrs. Bright remarked to Tommy that she was quite
+alarmed to see such a sudden change in her beloved child. Really, she
+should have insisted upon her going away, the latest, a month ago.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter? I, too, have been aghast at the change. Honey looks
+positively ill," said Tommy.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing is the matter but the heat, it seems. I wonder why Captain
+Dalton never came to see her off. I told him, when I was at the Bara
+Koti this morning, that she was leaving by the 7:20. And they are such
+good friends. I feel quite hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"He is out somewhere in the District this evening. I saw him take the
+main road in his car a little while ago, and travelling at break-neck
+speed," said Tommy.</p>
+
+<p>"Someone else taken ill somewhere, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I think he might have made a point of saying 'good-bye.'"</p>
+
+<p>Tommy wondered, but said nothing. He had long made up his mind, as had
+others in the Station, that Captain Dalton and Honor Bright were
+engaged. He had also heard of lovers' quarrels and was ready, by the
+look on Honor's face, to believe that a very serious misunderstanding
+had taken place. Her abstraction, her ghastly pallor and haunted eyes
+had given him positive suffering and a feeling of blind sympathy, which
+had only found vent in loading the compartment with newspapers and
+magazines snatched from Wheeler's bookstall.</p>
+
+<p>To Honor's surprise, Captain Dalton appeared at a wayside station, and
+leant his arms on the open window. The sight of him, his set face and
+brooding eyes, made her heart stand still, while a sudden faintness
+seized her. Behind him the Station hawkers were shouting their wares,
+native travellers were bustling to and fro, and the air was alive with
+sound, so that in the midst of all that confusion they were absolutely
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have no one in with you," he said quietly. "I so wanted a
+few words with you."</p>
+
+<p>"How is Mr. Meredith?" Honor asked, trying to speak naturally.</p>
+
+<p>He took both her hands and held them close, deaf to the question.
+Meredith was out of danger and the nurse had become interested in her
+charge. What were they and all else to the lovers so parted!</p>
+
+<p>"Have you nothing to say to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have said all that there is to say," she replied tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to write to you, and you must write to me. Do you understand
+that this is imperative?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it?" she asked with beating heart. Oh, that they might at least hug
+to themselves that innocent joy!</p>
+
+<p>"If I do not write to you or hear from you, I shall be doing something
+desperate. I cannot be responsible for myself. It will be the only thing
+to keep me sane. You cannot dream how I am being punished. Don't add to
+my punishment if you have any pity." His anguished eyes and quivering
+lips were convincing. "You will have no fault to find with my letters,"
+he added while she hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>Honor promised.</p>
+
+<p>A bell clanged noisily and the engine whistled.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Honey!&mdash;how can you leave me like this?" he whispered holding her
+eyes with his.</p>
+
+<p>Honor moved impulsively towards him and their lips met in a passionate
+and lingering kiss. The strength to resist his unspoken appeal was
+melted by that silent demand. After all, they were parting!</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," she said, the tears falling.</p>
+
+<p>He stepped back as the train began to move, his gaze riveted on her
+face, and jaws set with stern self-repression.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE "IDEAL"</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Raymond Meredith convalesced at Darjeeling in the care of Nurse
+Dalton&mdash;the identity of whose name with that of the doctor being
+generally understood at Muktiarbad to be a mere freak of
+coincidence&mdash;his family in Surrey waxed strong and healthy in the
+glorious summer weather. Baby Douglas, who lived out of doors, had
+cheeks like a damask rose, while his mother gained gracious curves which
+added to her already radiant beauty. Even her pretty little sister who
+had recently put up her hair, was eclipsed. But only in point of looks.</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was not one to be overlooked in any company, by any means. What
+she lacked in regularity of feature, she made up for in charm of
+expression, a delightful speaking voice, and a ready tongue. Bright eyes
+given to laughter, the gleam of white teeth, curving red lips mobile and
+piquant, a dimpled cheek, laughter creases at the corners of the
+full-lidded, soft eyes, that had a roguish trick of quizzing&mdash;eyes that
+had borrowed their hue from the summer sky, with lashes like her
+sister's, and an indefinable little nose, made up a whole which was
+positively unfair to the rest of her sex, judging from the fact that
+every other girl was superfluous when Kitty was on the scene. And she
+was not blind to her own success, yet she was merciful out of the
+tenderness of her naturally good heart that never inflicted suffering
+wantonly; and if it happened that, owing to her irresistible
+fascination, she was the means of causing pain, to her credit be it
+said, that she was clever at healing the wounds she unwittingly
+inflicted, which saved unhappy consequences to unfortunate victims, and
+bound them to her as friends for life.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so afraid of your becoming a flirt," Joyce once said
+reproachfully, after one of these instances was explained and apologised
+for. "You should think twice before you let yourself become too
+friendly. It will prevent any foolish mistakes in the end. Of course I
+speak from bitter experience."</p>
+
+<p>Kitty, who was aware of that experience, sighed repentently. "Why didn't
+Providence make me a boy? I love them all so much."</p>
+
+<p>"You would then, with your thoughtlessness, have broken some poor girl's
+heart. Half a dozen, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very difficult to know what to do," said Kitty with the roguish
+twinkle reasserting itself in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"You have to nip all silly sentimentality in the bud. The real thing is
+never silly," said Joyce out of her superior wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the difficulty. I never notice the bud till it is a full-blown
+passion-flower! I think I should become a nun."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce hugged her by way of appreciation, unable to resist the dimple
+which fascinated even a sister.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing so winning as an imperishable sense of humour.
+Vivaciousness, and an infectious gaiety which radiates like the sun and
+dispels the shadows of depression in a moment&mdash;these were Kitty's chief
+assets. She had danced through childhood like a sunbeam. She had been
+the merriest of flappers and was now a sorceress to beguile with her
+arts in innocent and unconscious charm. Kitty's laughter, accompanied by
+that irresistible dimple, was the most captivating thing. Tender smiles
+greeted the sight of her from aged lips, and masculine youth felt drawn
+as by a magnet.</p>
+
+<p>So it came to pass, that Jack Darling who was spending six months
+medical leave in England, fell a victim to Kitty's charm shortly before
+Mrs. Fox's decree nisi against her husband became absolute.</p>
+
+<p>It was at the Victoria Underground station, near the booking-office,
+that they met. Believing that the wide hat and muslin gown could belong
+to none other than Mrs. Meredith who he knew was "at home," he pushed
+through the crowd and presented himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a pleasure, Mrs. Meredith!" It is always such a pleasure to meet
+friends in London with whom one has been intimate in a distant land.
+Especially is it true of friends from India.</p>
+
+<p>But two remarkably beautiful eyes turned full upon him in blank
+amazement and a hint of a twinkle in their cerulean depths. They said
+plainly, "You've made a mistake, bold Sir, but how delightful that you
+should know my sister!"</p>
+
+<p>Before she could speak, Jack was apologising profusely, hat in hand, and
+blushing to the roots of his shining, well-brushed hair.</p>
+
+<p>Restored to health after a yachting cruise off the coast of Scotland,
+Jack was a splendid specimen of manhood to look upon, though still
+inwardly depressed with the sense of the Inevitable awaiting him in the
+East. ("Such a lamb!" was Kitty's description, which was her highest
+praise.)</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry&mdash;I&mdash;I do beg your pardon, but I would have sworn&mdash;in fact
+any one would be ready to swear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That I am my sister?" she laughed, showing the engaging string of
+pearls and the irrepressible dimple. "Thank you so much. I always
+appreciate a compliment when it is sincere, for I am a great admirer of
+Mrs. Meredith."</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;then you are Miss Wynthrop&mdash;<i>Kitty</i>?" he said, blushing still
+more furiously. "I beg your pardon," he added apologising for his
+boldness in using her Christian name. "We used to talk so much about you
+at Muktiarbad. But you are even more&mdash;at least I was thinking of your
+photograph," he concluded lamely.</p>
+
+<p>He had thought it a charming photograph of a girl, and now the original
+in natural colouring, youth, and perfect health had thrown his mind into
+chaos. Fragments of forgotten verses he had composed to his "Ideal,"
+before the baneful influence of Mrs. Fox had drugged his senses and
+threatened the ruin of his career, now returned to haunt his memory and
+justify their extravagance.</p>
+
+<p>At last she was before him in the flesh, not secretly reposing on a
+piece of pasteboard at the bottom of a dispatch-box left behind in
+India!</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am Kitty," she answered with animation. "But you? I am sure I
+know you? My sister has a photograph of a Station group&mdash;ah, you are
+'Jack'! I can't remember the other name."</p>
+
+<p>"Darling!" he prompted eagerly with a suspicion of fervour. To hear her
+pronounce his name was to listen to the most adorable music.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! Fancy my forgetting! And your chum in the police is Tommy
+Deare? How perfectly priceless! I know you both intimately. You live in
+a little three-roomed bungalow near the Courts, all among weeds and
+snakes, and never go to church unless you are caught and taken!"</p>
+
+<p>"You've got it exactly!" he returned delighted. Was there ever such a
+girl before? <i>Why is a dimple in the left cheek like&mdash;nothing on earth?</i>
+he wondered ecstatically. <i>Because it is so absolutely divine!</i> he
+concluded, mentally, to his own intense satisfaction at the inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what a pity I am not my sister!" she said mischievously. "What a
+great deal you must have in common."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall call on your sister if I may. At present&mdash;I am quite content,"
+he returned wishing his appointment at a fashionable club in Mayfair at
+Jericho. For a dime he would let it slide and follow her to the ends of
+London.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure my sister will be delighted," said Kitty cordially. Then
+followed an exchange of addresses, Jack's being the name of a well-known
+club. "Mother always welcomes Joyce's friends from India. They come for
+a week-end and usually stay a week. The name India is a passport to our
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I led up to it," the minx said to Joyce on describing the
+meeting. "I couldn't dream of letting him vanish and be lost to us, when
+he is the most delightful boy I have ever met."</p>
+
+<p>"A very naughty boy, I am afraid, though I have a soft corner for him,"
+said Mrs. Meredith, who considered the recital of Jack's misdeeds unfit
+for Kitty's ears.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the naughty ones that are generally so nice," Kitty said with a
+sigh. "They are so human and attractive."</p>
+
+<p>"Because they are naughty?" Joyce was shocked to hear such radical
+sentiments from little Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>"It always strikes me that if they are capable of great naughtiness,
+they are equally capable of much good. It is the force that I admire. It
+only wants proper direction." (Which remark proved that Kitty's mind was
+capable of sympathetic understanding.)</p>
+
+<p>Jack and Kitty enjoyed their chance meeting so much that they missed
+their respective trains repeatedly. Hers on the "West bound" platform,
+and his on the "East," might have rumbled in and out of the station
+beneath them, <i>ad infinitum</i>, had not Kitty recollected that she was due
+to have tea with an aunt at Richmond, who was impervious to diplomacy
+and dimples and with whom no excuses concerning Fate and an Affinity at
+the Victoria Underground, would avail, if the kettle were over-boiled
+and the tea delayed. So Kitty reluctantly bade him adieu.</p>
+
+<p>"You are surely not going all that long way alone?" asked Jack, whose
+young sisters travelled the length and breadth of London unescorted.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it unsafe?" asked the minx, seeing through his idea and
+encouraging the development of possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>"One hears so much about girls mysteriously disappearing from London,
+you know," he murmured. "I couldn't bear to hear of such a thing
+happening to you, so I'll come as far as Richmond station, if I may?"</p>
+
+<p>"That will be charming of you! Are you sure it will not be taking you
+much out of your way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," Jack returned with gallantry, breaking his engagement
+without compunction. Thereupon, he bought their tickets, and sitting
+beside her on the crimson velvet seats of a Richmond "Non-stop," plunged
+recklessly into love at first sight. The moral obligation oppressing his
+mind was swept away for the time being. How was it possible for it to be
+otherwise, when he had come into the presence of his "Ideal" in the
+flesh?</p>
+
+<p>And Kitty, complete mistress of the situation, did not let him guess by
+word or look that she had been equally impressed. It was thrilling to
+think that this godlike person had a photograph of herself tucked away
+somewhere among his goods and chattels. Naughty Joyce had confessed the
+fact to her long ago, and she was beginning to feel that she now had him
+in the hollow of her hand. She had no hesitation in improving the
+acquaintance begun in such an unorthodox fashion; a friend of her
+sister's was, naturally, a friend of hers. Such being the case, she
+could afford to expand genially and to fan the flame her portrait had
+kindled, experiencing for the first time in her life an answering glow.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Jack returned to London, deep in day-dreams and oblivious of his
+surroundings. Kitty's face and Kitty's voice were with him all the way;
+and he groaned in spirit at the thought of his madness and folly in the
+past.</p>
+
+<p>It was inconceivable that he could have been such a fool; that he should
+have allowed himself to forget the high standards of life he had
+cherished, for a low intrigue! The idea of being tied for life to Mrs.
+Fox had been distasteful all along; but now it was intolerable! After
+the vision of Kitty Wynthrop, it was impossible, any longer, to
+contemplate marriage with a woman of Mrs. Fox's type! Whatever she might
+think of him, he would not do it. He would infinitely rather put an end
+to his life!</p>
+
+<p>Of course, he was dishonourable. That went without saying. He had failed
+ignominiously from the outset to behave as an upright and honourable
+man. Self-analysis laid his pride in the dust and made him writhe in
+self-condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>If Kitty only knew, she would despise him as he deserved! She was so
+pure, so perfectly wonderful! What a wife she would make! and so on, and
+so forth. Jack endured agonies of remorse for a week, during which time
+he was lost to the world; and then, with a temperamental rebound he
+called at Wynthrop Manor with the humble determination of laying himself
+at Kitty's feet that she might walk over him as she willed. Big,
+ingenuous men, like Jack Darling, are happiest when doormats to the
+women they love.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce Meredith was delighted to see him. His presence in England argued
+that he had shaken himself free of the toils of that scheming flirt,
+Mrs. Fox, and she was ready to help him to recover his forgotten ideals.
+She had never really believed Jack as guilty as he was reputed to be,
+and, like nine out of ten women, put all the blame on the woman. Anyhow,
+she was sure that gossip and scandal had exaggerated everything, which
+was the most charitable way to look at the affair. As a Christian woman,
+it was her duty to think kindly of the erring, and sit in judgment on no
+one. She, therefore, welcomed Jack with great amiability and earned his
+everlasting gratitude by putting no obstacles in the way of his
+courtship of Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>About this time, she received a letter from Honor telling her of
+Meredith being down with sunstroke, and was rudely awakened to the fact
+that she had been taking too much for granted where India and her
+husband's health were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Though Honor wrote that he was out of danger and slowly
+recovering,&mdash;that a nurse was expected that very day,&mdash;the little wife
+was beside herself with anxiety and alarm, and wanted to take the first
+steamer sailing for Bombay that she might be with him, to leave him no
+more.</p>
+
+<p>"I should never have come away!" she cried inconsolably.</p>
+
+<p>"I could never understand how you brought yourself to do so," said Kitty
+ruthlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been a selfish wretch, thinking only of myself, and of my
+anxieties for Baby!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've got Baby, any way."</p>
+
+<p>"But if I should lose Ray, what is Baby to me!"</p>
+
+<p>Kitty, who had not the heart to add to her beloved sister's agony, did
+her best to comfort her. "He was out of danger when Miss Bright
+wrote&mdash;let me see&mdash;that was about three weeks ago, or nearly, and, as
+you have had no cable since, it follows that he is all right by now."</p>
+
+<p>"But I ought to go straight to him!"</p>
+
+<p>"And they might be sending him straight home to you!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not at all an unlikely possibility, so Joyce cabled to her
+husband to inquire his plans.</p>
+
+<p>The answer came from Darjeeling that, in view of the great heat in the
+Red Sea at that season of the year, he was recuperating in the hills.</p>
+
+<p>She was then persuaded by relatives and friends to possess her soul in
+patience and adhere to her original plan of returning to India in the
+autumn,&mdash;the best time for arriving in the East. By then she would be
+able to decide whether to take her baby out to India, or leave him
+behind in the care of the grandparents and a capable nurse.</p>
+
+<p>A slight indisposition to the infant owing to the disturbances of
+teething, decided her to remain, and to pour out her heart to her
+husband in a letter telling him of her longing to be with him during his
+convalescence.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow the written words did not adequately convey her depth of
+feeling, and Joyce was dissatisfied, especially with the passage which
+referred to the baby's indisposition:</p>
+
+<p>"If Baby were not teething and in uncertain health, I would leave
+immediately for India,&mdash;but I am advised to hold on till the autumn when
+I can better decide whether I should leave him behind, or not. I am, of
+course, comforted to know that you are getting better, and, perhaps, it
+will be as well on account of the heat in the Red Sea and of the
+unhealthiness of the rains if I do exercise a little patience and wait.
+However, dearest, cable if you are not quite well by the time this
+reaches you, and I shall take my passage at once."</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds rather as if I am placing the baby before him," she said to
+Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>"And haven't you done so all along?"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce looked perplexed. "If I have, it is only because it seemed to me
+the wee darling needed me more than Ray did."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder!" said Kitty out of a new perception of life and the needs of
+love. "After all, there are many to look after Baby if you must leave
+him in England. If I were in your place, and if there was nobody to take
+charge of him, I'd keep him out there, somehow. There must be good
+places in the hills, you have such a choice of stations,&mdash;and even
+babies have to take their chance, same as their daddies! It must be
+terribly lonely for a man when his wife, whom he adores as Ray adores
+you, leaves him and comes away home for the sake of the child!
+Personally, I couldn't do it."</p>
+
+<p>Kitty's candid views carried conviction and aroused reflection.
+Gradually Joyce became aware of a great longing to be again with her
+splendid husband and feel anew his love and devotion.</p>
+
+<p>As no answering cable arrived from Darjeeling requesting her presence in
+India, and as the weekly letters mentioned that he was convalescing
+satisfactorily, Joyce was beginning to nurse a creeping fear that her
+husband had, perhaps, learned to do very well without her. But pride
+sealed her lips and her letters to him contained no reference to any
+such thought. His, to her, since his illness, had become erratic and
+brief. He would begin by expressing a great distaste for the pen, allude
+to a feeling of incurable lassitude, curse an elusive memory, and, after
+giving her news of little consequence to themselves, would conclude in
+the manner that had become a formula of late:&mdash;"Your affectionate
+husband, Ray."</p>
+
+<p>However, Joyce was determined not to borrow trouble. When they came
+together again it would surely be all right. Sunstroke was a paralysing
+illness and recovery from its effects was slow, she was assured; so, for
+a while, she must expect his mind to feel lethargic. With the
+restoration of perfect health his old tenderness would return, for true
+love could never die!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>To Jack, the summer months were paradise, for the beautiful environs of
+Wynthrop Manor gave him many opportunities for uninterrupted
+companionship with Kitty. They walked, fished, golfed, and played tennis
+together. He was in love in the wild tempestuous way of youth, and
+ready, if need be, to die for the object of his adoration.</p>
+
+<p>But Kitty was not too easy to win. The more attracted she felt, the more
+elusive she became. She would surround herself constantly with girl
+friends, that Jack might have no doubts concerning his choice; clever
+girls, and pretty girls were invited there for tennis and tea during
+Jack's lengthy visit to the Manor, till he was nearly distracted with
+impatience. Yet he hesitated to speak from an overwhelming sense of his
+utter unworthiness.</p>
+
+<p>Could he dare to ask her to be his wife, and allow her to believe him
+all that a young girl's fancy might paint him? Would she consent to
+marry him if she were aware of the peculiar situation in which he stood
+with regard to Mrs. Fox whose letters still arrived at his chambers, and
+to whom he still wrote, only to keep her from following him to England?</p>
+
+<p>She had threatened to do so at all costs, if he neglected to keep in
+touch with her, and the fear of bringing about such an undesirable
+climax had obliged him to temporise.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Early in August, when the Great War broke out, and all England was in
+the turmoil of mobilisation, and the manhood of the nation was flocking
+to join the Colours, Jack complied with the demands of his conscience
+and called at the India Office for permission to resign his service that
+he might join the Army. But the Secretary of State flatly refused his
+application and he was told, instead, to hold himself in readiness for
+an immediate recall to his duties in the East. No civil officer of the
+Indian Government was eligible for a commission in His Majesty's Forces
+except with the sanction of that Government alone. Thereupon, Jack,
+deeply depressed in spirit at his impending exile, joined Joyce and
+Kitty at Eastbourne whither they had gone for a change.</p>
+
+<p>For the time being, civil life and economic conditions were
+disorganised. All England was in a turmoil of preparation for the
+Titanic struggle on the fields of France. People were becoming alive to
+the fact that even a democracy has its obligations to the State which
+guarantees it freedom; for freedom can only depend upon victory over
+autocracy and militarism. Private property was commandeered for the
+needs of the Army; public buildings became hospitals; motor cars and
+horses were requisitioned and carried off. Self-sacrifice became the
+order of the day. For weeks, no dependence could be placed upon railway
+time-tables, and all personal and individual concerns were forgotten in
+the overwhelming needs of the hour. A peace-loving people, averse to
+war, aware of all the horrors it entailed, yet rose to the supreme
+occasion, mindful of the great traditions of their forefathers, and
+stood ready for any sacrifice in the cause of honour, freedom, and the
+Right.</p>
+
+<p>When Jack was asked to describe the state of London, he felt that it
+wanted more than words to paint its state in those historic days. The
+people having spent their feelings in a great outburst of loyalty and
+patriotism, were beginning dimly to realise the gigantic task to which
+the nation was pledged,&mdash;a nation, which, but for its Navy, was totally
+unprepared for war, and yet ready to withstand a formidable European
+Power that had secretly and thoroughly organised and planned for over
+forty years to strike a blow for world-domination. Right was in conflict
+with Might, and the end no man could then see; yet London was confident;
+but London was also very grave.</p>
+
+<p>About this time, Joyce, to her great dismay, received a cable from her
+husband forbidding her to travel on the high seas till security thereon,
+for passengers, was assured. She had not realised till she received the
+message, how much she had been depending for happiness on the prospect
+of their reunion in the autumn. If the war was to stand in the way of
+her return to India, it might then be years before she should see her
+husband again&mdash;which would be unthinkable!</p>
+
+<p>In the presence of Kitty's romance she was learning to comprehend the
+extent of her own loss,&mdash;her deplorable lack of appreciation in the
+past;&mdash;and she recognised that she had only herself to blame. Ray had
+loved her greatly; how greatly, she was only now beginning to
+understand, and her very soul hungered for that love with a nostalgia
+that was making her ill. If, by her folly, she had sacrificed that
+devotion&mdash;if he had ceased to love her altogether, and had met another
+more responsive and appreciative than she had been, she would not want
+to live; for even her beloved babe would no longer suffice to fill her
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Memory recalled for her torment, certain words of his at parting. He had
+been wounded at her determination to leave him so soon after their
+marriage, and being ignorant of the true cause of her nervous
+break-down, he had expressed little sympathy, and had accused her of
+failure of affection for him. "Remember, a big breach between husband
+and wife may be mended, but never again is there restored what has been
+lost!" he had said. Also: "You are straining the cord that binds us
+together; the strands will presently be so weak that they will snap
+altogether. Then all the splicing afterwards will never restore it to
+its original strength. It will be a patched-up thing; its perfection
+gone!"</p>
+
+<p>Had she done this terrible thing by her own shortsightedness and folly?</p>
+
+<p>Little did he guess at the time of their parting that she was suffering
+tortures of self-contempt and nervous dread of his scorn, were he to
+know all that was on her mind!</p>
+
+<p>And now, after this lapse of months, she was longing to make full
+confession and atonement. With her in his arms and their love fully
+restored, he would surely forgive her her foolishness and the silence
+which he had mistaken for lack of affection.</p>
+
+<p>But, the war!</p>
+
+<p>She would not be able to go to him now, and he would continue to believe
+that she had failed him! Her affectionate letters had not convinced him,
+for actions speak louder than words. Gradually an icy atmosphere of
+indifference had breathed forth at her from his letters, and she had
+been filled with secret uneasiness and fears. He was indeed learning to
+do without her.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly the cord that had bound them together had snapped!</p>
+
+<p>Upon this, came a letter one day, from Honor Bright.</p>
+
+<p>Honor had been spending the hot months at Mussoorie in the Himalayas,
+which the Brights had always preferred to Darjeeling; and, after the
+monsoons had broken, her mother had joined her there till the middle of
+July, when they had returned together to Muktiarbad. For months Joyce
+and Honor had corresponded, fitfully, so that it was no surprise to the
+former when the Indian mail brought her a letter in her friend's
+hand-writing, the contents of which were acutely disturbing. Joyce read
+and re-read the letter, filled with alarm and foreboding.</p>
+
+<p>What was Honor hinting at? and had she any grounds for hinting at all?</p>
+
+<p>Honor was evidently perturbed about something in connection with Ray, or
+why this strange appeal to his wife to let nothing come in the way of
+her returning to her place beside her husband, no matter what the
+difficulties? "'It is not good,' we are told, 'for a man to live alone,'
+and please remember that there is no such thing as infallibility in
+human nature. Sometimes temptations are so strong that one needs to be
+superhuman to withstand them. Why expect too much of Life?" stared up at
+Joyce from the page.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not write as I am doing, believe me, dear Joyce," the letter
+concluded, "if I were not so fond of you both that I feel your married
+happiness a personal concern. It is the biggest thing in the world;
+don't therefore, I implore you, gamble with it. If you will only look
+ahead and think a bit of the future without the love of your
+husband,&mdash;the grey years deprived of his tender devotion,&mdash;you will
+realise how lonely will be your life! Dearest, hold on to the blessed
+gift while it is yours and do not let it pass out of your possession. I
+have watched it happen before! 'That what we have we prize not to the
+worth whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, why, then we rack
+the value, then we find the virtue that possession did not show us
+whiles it was ours.' This is so true also of love which, so often, is
+not appreciated while it is ours! And love can starve and die for want
+of sustenance, which is propinquity and a proper response. You see, I
+have kept my eyes open and am a silent student of human nature! I have
+come across a few devils in society; but in my experience, 'The female
+of the species is more deadly than the male,' and I believe the Lord's
+prayer is directed chiefly against her. She goes out of her way to dig
+pitfalls for the unwary and the best have been known to succumb. That is
+why a wife's place should be beside her husband throughout life, as the
+whole fabric of their happiness depends upon their unity. Separations
+make for misunderstandings and division; so, whatever happens, come out.
+Men and babies want looking after, and to my mind, Man is the greater
+baby of the two, for he wants more than a nurse to care for his bodily
+wants. He needs a wife with a combination of virtues, the chief among
+them being <i>tolerance</i>. My mother's life has demonstrated this to me
+with beautiful clearness, hence my understanding.</p>
+
+<p>"You might be anxious at having to travel alone at such a time, but in
+your place I would take any risk to be with my husband, if I loved him
+deeply. That is the crux of the matter. Later on, conditions may become
+still more difficult. Cable when you are leaving, and <i>don't hesitate</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The appeal was very sincere, and thrilled Joyce with apprehensions. To
+be urged to travel at the risk of capture by German raiders at large on
+the high seas, that she might rejoin her husband without loss of time,
+argued that something was seriously wrong. Honor was her true friend and
+would not counsel such a step without reference to that husband, unless
+something was decidedly wrong. Whom was she to obey? Her husband, who
+had cabled to her to stay where she was? or Honor, who was urging her to
+go out at once?</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>While Joyce pondered over her dilemma, the fate of two people dear to
+her was being decided elsewhere.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE REAL THING</h3>
+
+
+<p>Jack had come to the conclusion that it was impossible to part from
+Kitty Wynthrop with his love unconfessed. It was unthinkable that he
+should go out to India, loving Kitty as he did, and marry&mdash;Mrs. Fox!
+Bah! he consigned the latter, remorselessly, to perdition.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever befell, he would speak to Kitty that very night&mdash;dear little
+girl!&mdash;he had wasted too much time already over his confounded doubts
+and fears, and had little enough time to spare. If she favoured
+him&mdash;why, he would be the luckiest, as well as the happiest of men! Some
+day, when he was absolutely sure of her and her love, he would confess
+his misconduct in the past, lest she should hear of it from others&mdash;she
+might; there was no knowing, with all those meddlesome cats about!&mdash;and
+perhaps he would obtain her forgiveness, after which he would be
+faithful unto her as long as they both should live. How fellows
+could&mdash;damn!</p>
+
+<p>Jack was shaving at the time and had gashed his chin in his agitation.</p>
+
+<p>He was confident, while he soothed the spot with an antiseptic, that
+such a darling little girl as she, would never hold up against him
+anything he had done in pre-Kitty days. It would be unjust and
+unreasonable. Why, hang it all! who was there that was human who hadn't
+some little&mdash;or big&mdash;scrape to his discredit in his bachelor days?
+Unfortunately, fellows were not gifted with second sight to know how
+they would feel when they came to be properly in love with the only girl
+in the world for them! The sickening sense of self-disgust&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Another accident with the razor, and Jack paid more attention for a time
+to the matter in hand.</p>
+
+<p>When he was putting the finishing touches to his tie, his fingers
+betrayed by their unsteadiness, his agitated frame of mind.</p>
+
+<p>The worst of it was the blessed uncertainty of the whole affair. A
+fellow could never be sure of a girl like Kitty, or at any time take her
+feelings for granted. The least little bit of a liberty, and&mdash;hands off!
+Yet she was adorable and, often, sweetly encouraging. Certain little
+concessions had been treasured in mind and dreamed of at night, such as
+a dainty wrist held out to him for glove-buttons to be fastened; his
+blundering fingers allowed to assist her with her theatre wrap; their
+shoulders touching at a picture palace&mdash;a fact of which she had been
+unconscious, but which had thrilled him to the foundations of his being.
+They were hopeful signs; but the indifference with which she could drop
+him for a whole day, so as to keep some idiotic engagement with giggling
+flappers, was enough to send any lover crazy!</p>
+
+<p>Jack hurried downstairs in time to hang about the hotel passage, waiting
+for Kitty to arrive by the lift with her sister so that he could
+accompany them to the dining-hall.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion Kitty was alone, Joyce having confessed to a headache,
+and they dined at their little table <i>tête-à-tête</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't think what is troubling her," the little sister remarked, "for
+she is fearfully worried, I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Something, perhaps, in that letter you took to her a little while ago?"
+suggested Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"It was from a friend of hers at Muktiarbad."</p>
+
+<p>"Honor Bright?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;a strange idea to name a girl 'Honor'!"</p>
+
+<p>"Her surname must have suggested it."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I should call it a happy idea. But supposing her character did
+not bear out the selection?"</p>
+
+<p>"In her case, I should say it suits her admirably. She's a topping good
+sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>"My chum used to think so, but not I. She's good to look at, anyway, and
+there's something straight and clean about her that does a fellow good.
+She has fine eyes and nice teeth which go far towards beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what she could have written about, to upset my sister so
+completely?"</p>
+
+<p>They wondered together, and grew more confidential over their mutual
+interest in the subject. Jack enjoyed every minute of the meal, trying
+to imagine he was dining with his wife,&mdash;an idea full of charm.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner was over and Kitty had satisfied herself that Joyce was no
+worse, they strolled in the hotel gardens, at the corner of which was a
+summer-house. Jack who was trembling from head to foot with impatience
+and longing, drew her suddenly within where the shadows were darkening,
+and blurted out his tale of consuming passion. "Can't you see it without
+the need of words? I am mad for love of you! If you don't want me, in
+mercy say so, and I shall go out there and drown myself."</p>
+
+<p>He would have said a great deal more, only there was no need, for Kitty
+confessed that she wanted him more than anything on earth, and was only
+waiting for the initiative to come from him.</p>
+
+<p>Her frank response enraptured Jack, and he caught her to his breast
+inarticulate with joy, while she, free of artificial coyness,
+surrendered herself to his embrace and gave him her sweet lips again and
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Jack felt that he would have liked to have kicked himself all round
+Eastbourne for imagining that he had ever before known what it was to
+love! This was the real thing, and the bliss of it was unspeakable.</p>
+
+<p>"And why didn't you give me the least bit of inkling that you had a soft
+corner in your heart for a blighter like me?" he asked when it was
+possible to indulge in connected conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you take so long to know your own mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mind was made up the instant I found out that you were not Mrs.
+Meredith the afternoon I met you in front of the booking-office at
+Victoria. You surely have not forgotten our very first meeting? I could
+tell you in detail what you wore!"</p>
+
+<p>Of course she had not, though she feigned to seem retrospective.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you were wearing a shot brown tie," she ventured, perfectly
+aware that she was correct.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember that?" (An interlude of ecstasy.) "I went all the way to
+Richmond just to be able to look at you for a bit longer. I have been in
+love with you for quite a year!"</p>
+
+<p>Doubt being cast upon his veracity, he explained his possession of her
+photograph, which fact she had long been aware of.</p>
+
+<p>"I used to write poems about your eyes and your lips which I thought the
+most alluring in the world. Did I dream I should ever see and kiss them
+in reality?"</p>
+
+<p>Silence again for a further interval of rapture.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you will know how I have been feeling about going out to India! How
+is it possible for me to leave you behind? Can't we be married in a
+week?"</p>
+
+<p>"We could," said Kitty, "but you forget there are others who will have
+something to say to that."</p>
+
+<p>"Your parents?"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly. One daughter in India is enough for Mother. I am not at
+all sure she will consent." It was very mischievous of her to distress
+him for the sake of delighting in the proofs of his abject slavery to
+herself, but Kitty was nothing if not human, and realising the
+completeness of her own surrender, was pleased to get back a little of
+her own.</p>
+
+<p>His woe-begone look was almost melodramatic. "If they refuse their
+consent, what will you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I shall have to obey. I'm not of age, you know," said Kitty
+knowing full well that she was bound to have her own way, her parents
+having long ago resigned themselves to her strength of character and
+determination.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll desert and enlist under another name that I might be killed
+by a German bullet," he said gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>"But you mightn't be killed. You might just be smashed up instead,
+invalided out without a limb, or, worse still, be made unrecognisable!"</p>
+
+<p>Horrible prospect! Jack's military ardour cooled visibly. "Anyhow, it
+would be their fault."</p>
+
+<p>"And I should chase after you and beg of you to marry me, all the
+same,&mdash;limbless and unrecognisable as you may be!"</p>
+
+<p>"You would? You said just now you would have to obey."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I would obey, but only for a time. Do you think I shall ever
+give you up, even if the skies were to fall?"</p>
+
+<p>That finished it. Jack was in heaven again, and the time passed with
+amazing rapidity.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Joyce had been to see Baby Douglas asleep in his crib and was
+weighing the pros and cons of her problem with agonised uncertainty. He
+was now as healthy as any normal infant of his age, and was in the care
+of an experienced and trustworthy nurse. At Wynthrop Manor he would be
+in the lap of luxury, wanting for nothing, and his grandparents would be
+sure to bring him up in the way he should go, till she and Ray came home
+together on his next furlough ... (after the War!&mdash;whenever that might
+be!). But all her baby's pretty ways and unfolding intelligence would be
+for others to enjoy! She, his devoted mother, would be thousands of
+miles away!</p>
+
+<p>The thought brought forth a flood of tears, and expressions of sympathy
+from the nurse. "If it makes you feel so badly, I wouldn't go if I were
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"It breaks my heart!"</p>
+
+<p>"There now, don't take on so. Give up the idea. You will feel easier in
+mind to leave him when he is a bit older."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be just as bad&mdash;perhaps worse!" cried Joyce, thinking of the
+possibility of a loveless reunion with Ray, if she stayed away too long!
+In that case she would have no compensation for her act of
+self-sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>"Then take him with you, I have no objection to the voyage, or serving
+in India which I have often wished to see."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. Baby is best here, for his own sake. In India I have all sorts
+of anxieties. I would have to go alone."</p>
+
+<p>"But there are many ladies who stay in Europe for the sake of their
+children, leaving their husbands in India. In my last place, my
+mistress, whose husband was a Forest officer living in lonely places
+among the blacks, spent most of her time with her people in England as
+she could not abide the natives, and the climate upset her nerves. Only,
+occasionally, she visited him in the East, and sometimes he came home."</p>
+
+<p>"What a life!" sighed Joyce. "I know it is done, but it isn't
+right"&mdash;she was thinking of Honor's letter. "Both go different ways, and
+what love and happiness is there for them?"</p>
+
+<p>"But that is always so when ladies have husbands in India!"</p>
+
+<p>"It need not be so. It makes me wonder why men marry when they know the
+risk they run of broken domestic ties, and the burdens they have to
+bear! It isn't worth while, if a man is to become only the means of
+providing money for the comforts of his family, and keeping very little,
+or none for himself&mdash;poor dear!"</p>
+
+<p>Decidedly, Joyce Meredith's views had undergone a change.</p>
+
+<p>The questions pressing on her mind were&mdash;Where was she most needed? and
+where, most, lay her heart's desire?</p>
+
+<p>In her case, duty and desire were no longer in conflict. Clearly, her
+place was beside her husband as long as she was capable of enduring the
+climate, and her heart was sick with longing for him.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be going out almost immediately&mdash;as soon as it can possibly be
+arranged," she said coming to a sudden decision. "Pack the trunks early
+in the morning, and we shall return home in the afternoon to fix this
+up. It will be a great comfort to me, nurse, to know that you will stay
+with Baby."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll stay as long as you want me, ma'am, and you need have no fears,"
+said the woman who was sincerely attached to her charge, and who was
+aware that her devotion received ample recognition.</p>
+
+<p>On her way to her own room, Joyce met two embarrassed and happy people
+waiting to waylay her with their news.</p>
+
+<p>"Take us into your room for a little while, do, there's a darling, we've
+so much to tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was hustled into her own room by her little sister with Jack's big
+form looming in the rear, and the wonderful tale was told and her
+congratulations solicited.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I saw it coming," said Joyce kissing them both. "You were
+like ostriches with your heads in the sand&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"In the clouds, rather. I have been seeing a little bit of heaven, Mrs.
+Meredith," said Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Now please come back to earth, and tell me your plans, for I have
+decided to join my husband as soon as it is possible to get a passage."</p>
+
+<p>"You?&mdash;with Baby?" from Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Baby must stay behind."</p>
+
+<p>"Then that was what gave you a headache? You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself to have a headache at the prospect of going back to Ray!" Kitty
+teased.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, 'at the prospect of leaving Baby.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you take him?" said Jack. "There are crowds of youngsters of his
+age getting rosy and fat in the hills all the summer."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't feel safe about him. He'll be best with Grannie."</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo!" cried Kitty. "Jack's got to go very soon, so we can all three
+go together." Jack's face showed intense appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean to say you are thinking of marrying at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," said Kitty ruthlessly. "But as it is not good for you
+to travel alone in these exciting times, you <i>must</i> take me with
+you&mdash;engaged to Jack&mdash;and to be married when we have time to look
+around. Has anyone any objections?"</p>
+
+<p>"You darling!" gasped Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let's see what Mother has to say about it," said Joyce. "Meantime
+I shall pack a few things before getting to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you won't be so heartless as to turn us out. Come Jack, and let us
+talk it over"; and Jack, nothing loath, drew her on his knee in the one
+big chair by the window, and for some little time Joyce had ceased to
+exist for them. Neither seemed to mind the fact of her presence; it was
+sympathetic and that was quite enough, so they felt at liberty to
+continue to enjoy their mutual delight in the knowledge that they had
+become engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce suffered a pang of jealous longing for her own dear lover-husband,
+when she saw the look on Jack's face while he held Kitty to his breast
+and kissed her yielding lips. And Kitty, with her arms wound about her
+boy's neck and her face uplifted to his!&mdash;It was her hour, and Joyce
+knew that her own was yet to come. She had indeed been the Sleeping
+Beauty who had slept too long under the kisses of her Prince. She had
+never really understood her own heart, or realised love till now. Could
+there ever be a moment more wonderful on this old earth, than that in
+which two lips met in mutual passion?&mdash;two souls fused in divine
+ecstasy?</p>
+
+<p>"Blessed darlings!" she murmured to herself, turning aside not to
+intrude on their sacred joy yet conscious of the fervour of the clinging
+kisses, the incoherent whispers, the bounding hearts! It was all as God
+had meant it to be when he created Man and gave him Woman for his mate.</p>
+
+<p>"My place is indeed with my husband," she muttered to herself.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>A DESPERATE RESORT</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the early days of the Great War, a voyage to India had no terrors for
+the travelled. Before the Hun had proved himself a savage in warfare,
+indifferent to all international laws and the dictates of humanity, the
+only anxieties and drawbacks suffered on the way, were those in relation
+to the risk of encountering mines, or the delays caused by the changing
+of routes. The nerves of the public had not been harrowed by tales of
+atrocities on the high seas, and the nation confidingly believed that
+the glorious traditions of naval warfare were respected even by Germany.
+It had yet to learn what manner of people the Allies were fighting. The
+difficulties and dangers of a sea voyage only added to the thrill of
+expectancy, and the contingency of meeting with German raiders on the
+way, was like having a bit of Marryat's novels in real life; fear was an
+unknown quantity.</p>
+
+<p>As Kitty anticipated, she met with little opposition from her parents in
+the matter of her engagement, or of her voyage to India under her
+sister's chaperonage, with the prospect of a wedding at the end of it.
+Since she had always managed things her own way, there was little use
+wasting time in argument. Jack was a very fine fellow indeed, and Kitty
+might do worse than marry him. At all events, he was the man of her own
+choice.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, a trousseau was acquired regardless of cost, and, the
+moment Jack's orders arrived recalling him to duty&mdash;which was towards
+the end of August&mdash;trunks were packed, passages were booked, and the
+party crossed to France, <i>en route</i> to Marseilles.</p>
+
+<p>Jack's feelings can be better imagined than described. In his wildest
+dreams he had not hoped for such luck as a speedy marriage with Kitty,
+and he was rendered, for a time, incapable of coherent thought. They
+boarded the mail boat at Marseilles and settled down as an engaged
+couple to enjoy the days at sea to the extent of their capacity.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond an occasional cruiser in the distance, or a destroyer there was
+nothing throughout the voyage to remind them of the war; and, from the
+point of view of belligerency, it was both uneventful and calm.</p>
+
+<p>As recognised lovers, Kitty and Jack had the choice of sheltered nooks
+and were left to themselves, undisturbed, except by camera fiends who
+snapped them at embarrassing moments and made themselves generally
+obnoxious.</p>
+
+<p>Being absorbed in his happiness, Jack had given no thought to Mrs. Fox
+who was awaiting him in Calcutta, till, one day, in the Arabian Sea, the
+imminent prospect of their meeting filled him with uneasiness and
+obliged him to consider his position seriously. As far as he knew, she
+was expecting to fall into his arms on his reappearance in India. She
+knew nothing of his new-found happiness and was very likely wondering at
+his reason for having missed so many mails. She would not follow him to
+England since she was aware that all leave was cancelled.</p>
+
+<p>So awkward was the situation, that Jack was greatly disturbed and sought
+the advice of a ship-board acquaintance who happened to be a young man
+of wide experience in the affairs of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I should tell my <i>fiancée</i>, in your place," said he. "Put it to her
+straight. The great thing is to get your story in before the other has a
+chance to cut the ground from under your feet. That is, if she is the
+sort to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"She's the sort right enough," said Jack miserably. "She would do it to
+spite me for breaking my word to her; but&mdash;damn it!&mdash;I'd rather be shot
+than become her husband, now that I am crazy after the sweetest girl in
+the world, and she is ready to marry me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then have it over. It is better than someone telling her at a
+tea-party,&mdash;'Didn't he ever confess himself to you?&mdash;naughty boy'! and
+so on. Or the disappointed one butting in with&mdash;'Hands off! He is
+promised to me!' which is more than likely."</p>
+
+<p>So Jack decided to make his confession, prostrate at her feet,
+metaphorically.</p>
+
+<p>While the lovers were living in a world of their own, Joyce was learning
+many things, chiefly courage and patience. Her fellow-passengers courted
+her society; she was considered the loveliest of women; and all combined
+to spoil her with flattery and attentions. However, she was too much
+absorbed in her own thoughts, her manner was too cold and aloof to lend
+encouragement to flatterers who vied with each other in serving her and
+disputed among themselves for her favours. She took no real interest in
+what was going on, to realise the half of it; and her indifference
+rendered her the more alluring. But Joyce had had a life-long lesson at
+Muktiarbad, and not being by nature, a flirt, the result was that the
+childish coquetries of the past were abandoned for a dignity and reserve
+that would have satisfied the most jealous of husbands.</p>
+
+<p>She had not cabled to India. A desire to read her fate in her husband's
+eyes had fixed her determination to take him by surprise. She would then
+know at the first glance whether she were welcome or had ceased to reign
+supreme in his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Honor had advised her to cable. But this was entirely her own affair and
+she would go through with it. She had a right to expect her husband's
+love and loyalty; and this being the case, there could be no objection
+to her taking him unawares. Joy does not kill; and if she did not bring
+him happiness, it were as well for her not to be deceived. Such was her
+logic, which she kept to herself, being too proud to share her doubts
+with Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>One day, as she lay in a deck chair, apparently dozing with her book
+open on her lap, she overheard two women gossiping together behind the
+angle of the saloon. They were talking of friends in Darjeeling, and
+their voices had lulled her into a state of semi-consciousness, till the
+name "Meredith" made her alive to the fact that her husband was under
+discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"Not the planter, Tom Meredith, but the I. C. S. man."</p>
+
+<p>"Any relation of the pretty creature with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I can't say. He is married, I am told, with a wife at home.
+'When the cat's away, the mice <i>will</i> play,' you know! She is a widow,
+or passes for one, and neither cares a snap of the finger for the talk
+about them. All Darjeeling is scandalised, and that's saying a good
+deal! My friend writes that the woman nursed him while he was ill from
+sunstroke in some outlandish station in Bengal, and they became
+fearfully intimate. These nurses know a thing or two and can make
+themselves indispensable if they like. Men generally find them
+irresistible. However, it is rather rough on his wife at home, when you
+come to think of it."</p>
+
+<p>"What has the nurse to do with him, now that he has recovered?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's the point! She stays at the same hotel nominally looking
+after a delicate baby whose parents are in the plains; but the kid gets
+precious little of her attention. It is left to the ayah's tender
+mercies while the nurse goes about with Mr. Meredith. They are never
+seen apart, and she spends most of her time in his rooms. It puts me in
+mind of that divorce case you may remember two years ago at Simla,
+when"&mdash;and the conversation was diverted into other channels.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Joyce was hot and cold with conflicting emotions. Without
+question, it was her husband they had been discussing, for he was in the
+Indian Civil Service, and had been sent to Darjeeling to convalesce
+after the sunstroke, which had seized him in the District of Muktiarbad,
+the "outlandish station" referred to.</p>
+
+<p>By the light of this conversation Honor's letter was explained. She,
+too, had heard of the doings at Darjeeling, and in her anxiety had
+written that letter imploring her friend to return.</p>
+
+<p>Well&mdash;she was returning, but to what?</p>
+
+<p>Her husband was apparently content to be without her&mdash;which would
+account for the cable message he had sent her on the outbreak of war,
+forbidding her to travel.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce rose from her deck chair with a face as white as the foam on the
+crested waves, and stumbled to her cabin. "It is nothing," she explained
+to fellow-passengers who offered assistance thinking she was likely to
+collapse, "only a stupid attack of dizziness&mdash;I thought I was a better
+sailor, that's all," and she tried to smile.</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was sent to her in hot haste to see what she could do, and was
+told the same thing. "I'll be all right after a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," was the assured answer, for Joyce was already determined
+not to go down under the blow, but to fight to a finish. Ray&mdash;her
+husband&mdash;false to her? The shame of it&mdash;the humiliation, would be
+unbearable, if what she had heard were true! It was possible that gossip
+had exaggerated the state of things between him and that woman who had
+nursed him. Scandalmongers never did give any one the benefit of a
+doubt. For instance, scandal might have been busy with her own name and
+that of Captain Dalton, but she was innocent in act and thought. She
+would not judge hastily; but she would allow no woman to dare to come
+between herself and her husband. He was her own man. God had given him
+to her, and she was glad she had taken the journey at all costs to put
+matters right and send the depraved creature&mdash;who was trying to take her
+place&mdash;about her own business. But if Ray had been false to her&mdash;she
+knew he could not lie to her&mdash;she would....</p>
+
+<p>Joyce seemed to arrive against a blank wall in her mind as she faced
+such an unthinkable problem as Ray's unfaithfulness.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the evening when she returned to the deck having gained the
+mastery over her nerves, it was to find that an unhappy breach had come
+to pass between Kitty and Jack.</p>
+
+<p>Dancing was in full swing on the hurricane deck, a band was discoursing
+dreamy melodies, and Jack with his back to the sea was leaning against
+the taffrail and glowering at the ship's doctor who was dancing with
+Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>As the evening lengthened, it was evident that the latter was bent upon
+inflicting all manner of snubs and punishments on her distracted lover
+by the taffrail, which in a certain measure, recoiled upon herself.
+Finally, when "lights-out" obliged dancing to come abruptly to an end,
+Kitty retired to her cabin without so much as a good-night to Jack who
+looked as if he had come to the end of all things.</p>
+
+<p>"What is wrong?" Joyce asked her before turning into her berth. "Can I
+help?"</p>
+
+<p>"We've had a disagreement. That is all," said Kitty curtly, looking
+white and angry. "You have heard of lovers' quarrels, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no need to snap my head off," said Joyce. "I am only sorry to
+see it happen. Life is too short for misunderstandings."</p>
+
+<p>"I quite agree with you. But this is not a misunderstanding. I have been
+deliberately deceived."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the use of discussing it?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no use if you are determined not to be helped."</p>
+
+<p>"What can you do? What can any one do? This is a matter which is only
+between us. I am sorry I did not know all about it before, or I would
+not have become engaged."</p>
+
+<p>A light dawned on Joyce's mind. "Oh&mdash;I see. Jack's been telling you
+about his foolishness in the past!"</p>
+
+<p>"You call it foolishness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it the height of folly to have been silly about a married woman?
+and one who isn't worth a thought?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was something worse than folly when it came to his being <i>engaged to
+marry</i> her all this time&mdash;even when he proposed to me! How dared he do
+it? How had he the nerve to ask me to be his wife when he knew she was
+waiting to marry him on his return to India, having won her decree?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard she had divorced her husband&mdash;the designing wretch! She is a
+perfectly horrid woman. Poor Jack! I don't wonder at his meaning to
+throw her over after knowing you!"</p>
+
+<p>"But to be engaged to two women at the same time!&mdash;it is wicked and
+humiliating! Why didn't you tell me of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is something to know that you have saved him from making the mistake
+of his life!"&mdash;ignoring the question.</p>
+
+<p>This was an inspiration on the part of Joyce, and Kitty was rendered
+dumb. Joyce immediately pursued her advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"To have been compelled to marry Mrs. Fox into whose snare he had
+fallen, would have been a dreadful thing for poor Jack, who, at the
+most, is only an overgrown schoolboy without much experience of the
+world. I did not tell you of it as I thought it was over and done with."</p>
+
+<p>"As a man of honour, he is bound to keep his word to her and marry her
+as he said he would,"&mdash;obstinately.</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather see him dead. There is no honour about Mrs. Fox or her
+methods. She deliberately set out to work this thing, and her punishment
+is in your hands. Jack loves you. You have no right to force him into
+marriage with a woman who will ruin his life for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he has behaved abominably."</p>
+
+<p>"If you are looking for perfection in the man you intend to marry, you
+had better make up your mind to live an old maid. Good-night!" and
+having delivered her parting shot, Joyce turned away, feeling no longer
+the same childish creature of a few months ago. She had awakened in
+right earnest.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, Jack spent the night in his clothes on deck. Sleep was
+impossible; and, in the hope that she would relent and creep on deck to
+find him and retract the hard things she had said, he haunted the
+companion till the stars paled and the day began to break.</p>
+
+<p>But Kitty, though very loving, had a temper that was not easily calmed.
+Jack had behaved abominably right through, and should not get things all
+his own way, she decided, and while relenting inwardly, she maintained
+towards him an attitude of cold disapproval. She had given him back the
+ring&mdash;which at that moment was burning a hole in his waistcoat
+pocket&mdash;and had had nothing more to say to him, though, when he was not
+conscious of the fact, her eyes often dwelt upon him with wistful
+yearning. He might deserve punishment, but there was no doubt about it,
+that he was the only man in the world for her! She loved everything
+about him, from his curly blond head to the soles of his manly feet. He
+was by far the best-looking boy on the ship, and the most simple-minded!
+Besides, what was unforgettable, he was a prince of lovers! Was she
+going to allow Mrs. Fox to take him?&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty flushed in hot indignation at the thought, but it was right and
+proper that he should suffer for his weakness and folly. Of course, she
+would have to forgive him or be miserable for the rest of her life,
+but&mdash;not yet.</p>
+
+<p>The punishment might have continued for days, if Jack's own precipitancy
+had not brought about almost a tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning he gravitated to his friend again, and in a burst of
+confidence, related the outcome of his having adopted the course that
+had been advised. His friend, wise in the ways of women, listened with
+his tongue in his cheek. Not being in love, himself, he could afford to
+see the humourous side of Jack's trouble. This time he suggested a ruse.</p>
+
+<p>"Excite her pity, my dear fellow. Do something to rouse her heart. It is
+only suffering from shock and will come to the scratch when it is
+stirred by pity. The best thing to do is to get seriously ill. Too much
+grief&mdash;mental strain&mdash;has brought on a heart attack. Lie down to it and
+kick up a devil of a fuss. I'll tip the doctor a wink and we'll do it in
+style. What do you say to that? When she hears you are on the verge of
+heart failure, all through her, she'll fall on your neck and wipe out
+the past."</p>
+
+<p>"Go to blazes!&mdash;I'm not going to do any play-acting and drag the whole
+ship into the secret, only to lose any possible chance I might have had
+if ever it leaked out."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll have to think of something else."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll just drop overboard, and end everything," said Jack
+melodramatically. "That will show her how I have felt over her treatment
+of me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you'll not be there to enjoy it. Happy thought. Can you swim?"</p>
+
+<p>"Like a fish."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! You can go overboard if she remains relentless, and the thought
+that she has driven you to commit suicide, will bring her to you weeping
+and repentant the minute you are restored to consciousness."</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why just an accident, done on purpose. To all it will appear an
+accident. To <i>her</i>,&mdash;attempted suicide. To you and me, simply bluff.
+I'll be the first to see you go, and a life-buoy will go after you in a
+trice. Only let's know when you contemplate bringing it off, so that I
+can be stationed near one. There'll be no time lost. 'Man overboard!'
+and the engines will be stopped, reversed, a boat lowered, and there you
+are! You'll be fished out apparently drowned&mdash;or nearly&mdash;and with hot
+water bottles and brandy you'll be well enough to see Miss Kitty in your
+cabin in half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"What price, sharks?" asked Jack, to whom the adventure strongly
+appealed,&mdash;as an adventure, if nothing else. He could imagine the
+commotion on the ship, and Kitty, white with anxiety and self-reproach,
+hanging over the rails as she watched his chances of recovery from the
+briny deep.</p>
+
+<p>"Fellows have been known to fall overboard in the Arabian Sea, and one
+never hears of sharks. You'll have to risk it. Take a sailor's knife;
+then, if you are attacked you can put up a fight till you are picked
+up."</p>
+
+<p>All day Kitty avoided Jack and surrounded herself with the callow youth
+of the vessel. She appeared in high spirits, played deck quoits, and did
+not give him a minute's chance to get a word with her, till the idea in
+his mind, of attempted suicide, took root and developed after serious
+and profound thinking. Something would have to be done. He could not
+exist another day apart from Kitty, severed from her heart, and
+condemned to wear his out in agonies of despair and remorse.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, after breakfast, Kitty's attitude being
+unchanged, Jack hung upon the taffrail, and, surveying the clear,
+emerald-green waves as they heaved past the sides of the ship,
+telegraphed with his eyes to his resourceful friend.</p>
+
+<p>The sea was choppy and glittered like jewels in the sunlight. Sea-gulls
+skimmed the surface and circled in the wake of the steamer, which was
+travelling fast, the speed of the engines causing a gentle vibration of
+the decks, while the ratlins trembled in the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>It would require some nerve to plunge into the waves, fully clothed; but
+he was in light, deck shoes which could be kicked off; and his coat
+could easily be sacrificed in the water. It was an old suit!</p>
+
+<p>Sharks?&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>They had seen none since entering these waters. Besides, he was ready to
+take his chance, or to fight, if it came to the push.</p>
+
+<p>Above all, his act must be made to appear an accident. Kitty, alone,
+should think as she pleased, being in a position to supply a possible
+motive; and, doubtless, her feelings would be heart-rending.</p>
+
+<p>Jack nerved himself to bring this just punishment upon her obduracy and
+took up his position on the taffrail with his back to the sea.</p>
+
+<p>His first act was to note whether Kitty, who was promenading the deck
+with a subaltern&mdash;called to active service&mdash;had any idea of his peril.
+She had always discouraged his sitting on the taffrail, saying that it
+"got on her nerves."</p>
+
+<p>Kitty glanced towards him, and with an air of indifference continued
+promenading.</p>
+
+<p>Jack's already sore heart was lacerated. Could there be any sharks
+about?</p>
+
+<p>His friend and ally was to be seen idly lounging in the neighbourhood of
+a life-buoy suspended against the rails, further aft.</p>
+
+<p>Just as he was about to let go, someone lounging up, remarked on his
+unhealthy pallor. "Feeling the motion of the vessel?" he asked Jack, who
+did not know what it was to feel sea-sick.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," said Jack wishing him to the devil.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be the smell of kippers. Frankly, I can't stand them. The stink
+hangs about all morning, till one feels one is breathing as well as
+eating kippers."</p>
+
+<p>"They have an unholy smell," Jack agreed, wondering when the fellow
+would move on, or whether his inopportune presence was to be taken as a
+warning not to put his mad intention into effect. He was superstitious
+enough to believe in omens.</p>
+
+<p>"I rather like <i>bumlas</i>, do you?" was the next remark.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know&mdash;oh, yes, I think they are topping."</p>
+
+<p>"Sort of jelly-substance, and when fried crisp, the last word!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, damn!" said Jack aching for him to go.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" the man asked, protruding an ear forward. "The wind makes
+a devil of a noise in these ropes&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Someone called him off for quoits, and Jack started to tune up his
+nerves again for the plunge.</p>
+
+<p>Children ran between him and the line of chairs he faced. He could see
+Joyce Meredith listening idly while the ship's doctor talked to her. At
+that moment the subaltern took Kitty's hand in his to examine a ring she
+was wearing,&mdash;an heirloom, with a story,&mdash;and this gave the final
+stimulus to Jack's sporting resolve. He was seen suddenly to lose his
+balance, throw out his arms, and disappear over the side.</p>
+
+<p>On the instant there was wild confusion. Chairs were flung back,
+children shrieked, women fell fainting on the deck. Someone had shouted,
+"Man overboard!" which was taken up vociferously in every key by, at
+least, a hundred throats, and in less than a minute the engines were
+silent, the vessel moving only with its headway. Then, with a blast of
+steam, they were reversed. Meanwhile, the after part of the hurricane
+deck, and the poop of the second saloon, were packed with eager souls
+scanning the surface of the water in the hope of catching sight of their
+unfortunate fellow-passenger.</p>
+
+<p>Again the vessel stopped, and a boat was lowered.</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderful presence of mind," the doctor said to Joyce as she, too,
+anxiously strained her eyes to look for the reappearance of Jack's form
+in the water, which had been seen, and then lost sight of. "Did you hear
+how a fellow kept his head when he saw young Darling go over, sending a
+life-buoy the same moment after him? Splendid, I call that!"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was deeply impressed. "He has probably saved Jack's life! Good
+man! does any one know where my sister is?"</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was nowhere to be seen. Joyce presently found her in the saloon
+crouching on a sofa with her hands over her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"He is drowned, I know he is drowned, and I shall never see him any
+more! I have killed him just as surely as if I sent him over with my own
+hands!&mdash;oh, let me die!" She was beside herself, and her suffering would
+not only have more than healed Jack's injured feelings, but have made
+him sue for pardon.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce took her in her arms and they clung together, fearful of what they
+should presently hear. The shrieks of the women and children were
+mingled with the voices of the men shouting instructions from the deck
+to the officer in the boat. Nothing definite could be gleaned from the
+excited ejaculations of the onlookers.</p>
+
+<p>"What made me do it!&mdash;why did I let myself behave so!" Kitty cried
+shivering from the force of her emotions. "I shall never be able to ask
+his forgiveness for my hardness, and yet in my heart I was melted
+towards him and longing to tell him so,&mdash;only waiting till the evening
+when we could be more alone. Oh, I am terribly punished for daring to
+punish my poor Jack!"</p>
+
+<p>"We are not to give up hope, dearest, but are to will with might and
+main that he be saved. It all helps. Honor Bright says it is
+scientifically possible to impose will-power on the forces of nature. It
+is a way God works for us and with us."</p>
+
+<p>"It is useless to tell me all that when I cannot even think!" wailed
+Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>"But there is a great deal in heaven and earth that is not 'dreamt of in
+our philosophy,'" Joyce repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my poor Jack!&mdash;Go, Joyce, and ask what is happening, now! I cannot
+bear this stillness." For a sudden hush seemed to have fallen on the
+company on deck.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, a distant cheer came from over the water. It was taken
+up by those watching from the ship and loud "Hurrahs!" sounded again and
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank God!&mdash;he must be safe!" cried Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>Kitty seemed to crumple up as she burst into a passion of tears.</p>
+
+<p>Neither she nor Joyce had any idea that the rescue of Jack Darling was a
+touch and go. He had gone overboard confident of being able to keep
+afloat till he was picked up, and willing to accept his fate if it
+worked out otherwise. Having, in his despair, become temporarily insane,
+he was hardly accountable for his actions till his immersion in the
+waves brought him rudely to his senses. After coming to the surface, he
+looked about for the steamer, and was astounded to see it already so far
+away that it seemed to him impossible for a boat's crew to descry him in
+that heaving expanse of ocean. To add to his dismay, the vessel seemed
+to steam on as though determined to leave him to his fate.</p>
+
+<p>The prospect was horrible!</p>
+
+<p>In a flash, he saw himself swimming till exhausted and a prey to sharks.
+Life became all at once very dear. Whether with, or without Kitty, it
+would be better to live, than to die this slow and lonely death! He had
+been nothing but a damned idiot to have allowed himself to be dragged
+into such a dangerous piece of melodrama, and all for nothing! With a
+little patience and perseverance he might have gained his end without
+all this miserable fuss! No abuse was strong enough for his folly.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment he espied the life-buoy, which he was fearing he would
+never find, and eagerly scrambled into it. Ah, that was better! Though
+he could swim like a fish, there was no doubt about it that he was
+grateful for support in the restless waters. Sometimes he was on the top
+of a wave where he was able to see the far distant ship; then, with a
+smart buffeting, he would find himself at the bottom of a trough with,
+what looked like green mountains of water threatening to engulf him.</p>
+
+<p>It was an immense relief to his mind when it became apparent that the
+vessel was steaming back on her course, and the sight of the boat being
+lowered gave him new life and confidence.</p>
+
+<p>But before it could reach him, symptoms of cramp in one leg had set
+in&mdash;possibly, because of late he had entirely neglected his exercises.
+The first twinge scared him mightily. If it should increase, he would be
+doubled up in the water and, in spite of the buoy, go down like a stone.
+The prospect racked him with suspense. The cramp again seized him with
+demoniacal violence and a red-hot band seemed to tighten round about his
+limb....</p>
+
+<p>Was it cramp, or the jaws of a shark?</p>
+
+<p>Petrifying thought!</p>
+
+<p>If ever he had been punished in his life for folly, he was being
+punished now!</p>
+
+<p>He glanced wildly over his shoulder, then at the advancing boat. He
+tried to call aloud, but his voice was choked with spray. The pain
+intensified. It seemed to rise into his thigh and the leg felt wrenched
+from its socket. Surely this was the end? A shark&mdash;&mdash;?</p>
+
+<p>Jack remembered no more. He had fainted with the pain of severe cramp
+combined with the shock of terror. He had never been wanting in courage,
+but physical agony, and the notion of falling a prey to sharks before he
+had time to show fight, had caused him to swoon.</p>
+
+<p>And it was at that moment that the boat reached him, and eager hands
+snatched him into safety.</p>
+
+<p>Before the boat reached the ship he had recovered, and after a stiff
+dose of brandy, was able to take an interest in his rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"I could have sworn a shark had got me," he explained. "The pain was so
+excruciating."</p>
+
+<p>"In the water, cramp is the very devil!" said the third officer.</p>
+
+<p>It was a shamed and chastened young man who disappeared into his cabin,
+amid hearty congratulations, to change into dry garments. In the face of
+so much honest relief and thankfulness, he felt a very worm for his
+deceit and trickery. It had been a mean game&mdash;a dirty trick he had
+played everybody, and Kitty in particular; which might easily have cost
+him his life. Truly, he had come to the conclusion that he was not fit
+to aspire to any nice girl. Kitty was properly fastidious, and she was
+not to be blamed for having recoiled from his unsavoury story, though it
+had been the barest outline of his misdemeanours that he had given her.
+All the same, it was hardly a yarn for the ears of even modern eighteen!</p>
+
+<p>She being his promised wife, he had felt it due to her to reveal his
+past&mdash;(lest others should do so!)&mdash;and he had no right to rebel against
+her verdict, however blasting to his life and happiness&mdash;and so on, and
+so forth.</p>
+
+<p>In downright self-disgust he kept his cabin, pleading the effects of
+cramp and exhaustion, and emerged only when it was dark, to drop into a
+deck chair behind a windlass, and brood upon his sins, staring out upon
+the moonlit sea.</p>
+
+<p>Here Kitty came to him with healing, and here we take our leave of them
+for the present, feeling perfectly sure that Jack was not likely to
+damage his chances of reconciliation by any further confessions,&mdash;not
+even concerning his latest and maddest adventure. Confession may be good
+for the soul, but Jack had learned that there are circumstances when it
+is better to be silent.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>TEMPORISINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Jack counted the days to the arrival of the ship at Bombay, and
+Joyce lived in anticipation of the reunion with her husband; while Honor
+watched for the coming of Joyce and an end to an impossible situation in
+Darjeeling; while Dalton played at friendship with the girl he adored,
+since to desire more was like asking for the moon; and while Tommy was
+breaking his heart with disappointment, and tormenting the Government of
+Bengal for permission to join the Indian Army reserve, instead of
+continuing to serve that Government by safe-guarding his District, it
+seemed almost inconceivable that thousands of miles away, the destinies
+of nations were in the melting pot, and the map of Europe in process of
+re-making.</p>
+
+<p>Immense armies were in training; miracles of organisation were taking
+place within the British Empire. Always the greatest Naval Power, she
+was rapidly becoming, also, a great Military Power.</p>
+
+<p>The grand old army of "Contemptibles" was covering itself with
+imperishable glory; Indian and Colonial troops were mobilising for the
+assistance of the Motherland. In all parts of the world the clarion cry
+was sounded&mdash;"To arms!"</p>
+
+<p>The War was the absorbing topic in all the cities of the world.</p>
+
+<p>But at little Muktiarbad and similar rural districts, the placid
+monotony of daily life was barely stirred.</p>
+
+<p>There was "a war on," of course, they said in the bazaars. India was
+involved&mdash;that, also, was a matter of course. The fighting sons of India
+could not be left out of such a fateful occasion as a war which called
+for loyalty and support. But it was an impersonal matter to native
+Muktiarbad. Doubtless, one of these wise dispensations of the Almighty,
+that helped to thin out the too rapidly increasing population of the
+world! It had no bearing on the lives and fortunes of the cultivator and
+the shop-keeper, save, that, in the case of the latter, it enabled him
+to put up his prices. But since the sun rose and set exactly as usual,
+and the flowers bloomed, and the seasons remained unchanged, and the
+daily life of the District continued undisturbed, where was the need to
+worry?</p>
+
+<p>True, there was occasionally talk in the bazaar of battles lost and won;
+but talk was the life of the bazaar. Whatever happened, or did not
+happen, the bazaar always knew about it and spread rumours that none
+heeded, for rumours are always unreliable. What did they amount to,
+anyway? Nothing came of them, so far as the countryside was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Now and again, it was said, that So-and-So, generally a stout Pathan,
+who had seen active service on the frontier, had packed his bundle and
+was off on his own initiative to offer his strong right arm for the
+cause of the <i>Sarcar</i> who was his father and his mother. His ancestors
+had fought and bled&mdash;or died; won medals and gained pensions; he, too,
+would gain medals and a pension, or lose his life if God so willed it.
+"<i>Kismet ke bat!</i>"<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Where was he going? God knew! Some day, if it was
+so willed, he would return to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Like as not, he would never return. When youth went a-travelling, the
+attractions of the great world seldom released him from their thrall.</p>
+
+<p>At the court-house, the Magistrate and Collector, officiating for
+Meredith who was still on leave at Darjeeling, tried cases and settled
+disputes, while the court-yard in front was covered with squatting
+humanity, chewing <i>pân</i> and awaiting their individual turns to be called
+up before the <i>Hakim</i> to tell&mdash;anything but the truth!</p>
+
+<p>At the Club, the sahibs and memsahibs played tennis and bridge and
+enjoyed their cold drinks as usual, just as though there were no
+sanguinary battles raging afar, such as the world had never known in all
+its history.</p>
+
+<p>Once, during the month of August, a strange <i>babu</i> had appeared in the
+bazaar, and, perching himself upon a cask, had talked sedition for about
+an hour to apathetic ears. Muktiarbad, being mainly Mohammedan, did not
+like gentlemen of the Brahmin persuasion; so he had departed much
+disheartened. Shortly after, another agitator&mdash;a Mohammedan this
+time&mdash;had endeavoured to incite the peace-loving population to revolt by
+preaching religious antagonism towards Christians.</p>
+
+<p>But Muktiarbad was not to be roused. "Live and let live" was the
+prevailing sentiment among its people. Besides, what was the use of
+rebelling, since it would be futile against such a mighty race as the
+British, who were also good rulers, taking no advantage to themselves
+from their might, and giving each man according to his due? The needs of
+the village folk were mainly personal, and so long as these were
+supplied, what cared they if the rulers of the land were Christians.
+They never interfered with the Moslem religion; why should Moslems
+interfere with theirs? And so this man also departed discouraged.</p>
+
+<p>At Panipara, interest centred chiefly on the fact that the Government
+had decided that the <i>jhil</i> should be drained. The Great War was a
+secondary matter. Wells were already in process of construction and, at
+the end of the rains, before the water of the wide morass could be
+poisoned with germs, usually bred in the drought of winter and spring,
+the drainage was to be taken in hand and the health of the District
+safeguarded forever. All this interference and annoyance had sprung from
+the doctor Sahib, who was thereby the most unpopular sahib that had ever
+been put in charge of the sanitation of a District. He was cursed by the
+ignorant in the Muktiarbad bazaar and at Panipara village itself, but so
+far his person had been respected, as it was known by some occult means
+that he secretly carried firearms wherever he went.</p>
+
+<p>In July, Honor had returned with her mother from Mussoorie in the
+Himalayas, physically and mentally stronger for her prolonged absence.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton and she had corresponded as friends, all expressions of
+personal feeling being rigorously excluded from the closely written
+pages. Both had bravely "played the game," the faithfulness and
+regularity of the letters, alone testifying to their unchanged devotion.</p>
+
+<p>When they met again, Honor having braced herself to the ordeal, had
+sustained it courageously, no one guessing how much it had cost her to
+smile and shake hands with the doctor as naturally as she had done, the
+moment before, with Tommy; for the meeting had taken place,
+unexpectedly, at the Club.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dalton retired to his bungalow shortly afterwards, and the
+tension had lifted. He had gone, Honor knew, instinctively, because he
+could not bear to stand by, listening indifferently to the general
+conversation when his heart was filled with longing to speak to her
+alone. She had experienced the same inward impatience, but had learned a
+greater self-control.</p>
+
+<p>By and by, their meetings became frequent; but the self-imposed
+restraint, mutually practised, had a wearing effect on the nerves of
+both.</p>
+
+<p>And all the while, gossip in connection with Ray Meredith filtered
+through from various sources, and caused no little comment among his
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>At last a letter to Mrs. Bright from Mrs. Ironsides, who was spending a
+month at the Sanitorium, placed it beyond doubt that Ray Meredith was
+very securely in the toils of his former nurse who was in the same
+hotel, in charge of a child suffering from jaundice.</p>
+
+<p>"She has been in Darjeeling, with one pretext and another, I am told,
+ever since Mr. Meredith recovered," the lady wrote, "and people are
+beginning to look askance at her for the flagrant manner in which she
+flaunts her ascendancy over him. It is a thousand pities his wife is not
+with him, for he is at the woman's heels morning, noon, and night.
+Rumour says their rooms adjoin! I should feel inclined to blame him
+soundly were it not for the fact that he looks very delicate since his
+illness, and that people recovering from sunstroke are not altogether
+themselves. Possibly he is merely drifting for want of someone
+sufficiently interested in him to save him! Whatever it is, this Mrs.
+Dalton must be an abandoned creature, for she is indifferent to the fact
+that she is creating a disgusting scandal. When you think of how devoted
+that man was to his pretty little wife, you feel inclined, to believe
+anything of men! But, as I say, he cannot be himself. Let us hope it is
+only due to the sunstroke, and that his wife will come out soon and look
+after him."</p>
+
+<p>Honor took this news to heart and wrote the appeal to Joyce of which the
+reader is already aware: she also gradually brought her mind to the
+point of speaking frankly to Captain Dalton on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Since her return from the hills, two weeks before, she had not met him
+alone, so that when she asked him, in a little note to see her at the
+Club next morning on a matter of some anxiety, he was naturally full of
+wonderment as he drove to keep the appointment.</p>
+
+<p>The marker, alone, was in possession of the Club and in his office, when
+Dalton arrived, so that the meeting was undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are surprised that I should have sent for you?" Honor said, as she
+stepped off her bicycle, having greeted him with a friendly nod. Had she
+given him her hand he would have noticed that it was trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Pleased, as well as surprised," said he, feasting his soul on the
+wholesome, girlish face with its frank, trustworthy eyes. "Has anything
+happened?" He was longing to hear that her request was prompted only by
+her great desire to have speech with him alone; but even as the thought
+crossed his mind, he knew that Honor would never have made an
+assignation with him for any personal reason. Not with those truthful
+eyes!</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal seems to be happening," she said as they walked into the
+building side by side, and found themselves seats in the verandah.
+Dalton had hoped she would have led him to one of the public rooms
+where, at least, they would have been safe from the curious eyes of
+passing natives; but that she did not, was consistent with her
+character, for she was as open as the day.</p>
+
+<p>Seated beside him, she told him of Mrs. Ironside's letter and of her
+own, unhappy fears for Joyce, and her future relations with her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"She should not have gone home so soon after her marriage," said Dalton.
+"I guessed how it would be when the nurse took on the job, for Meredith
+is a very charming fellow, and she is a woman without a conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"Brian, we must stop it!" It had been "Brian" and "Honey" in the
+letters.</p>
+
+<p>"Not even an angel from heaven could, if Meredith is infatuated. I tell
+you, she is a clever fiend."</p>
+
+<p>"It rests with you!" said Honor appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>"With me?" surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"Joyce and her husband love each other. I will not believe that he has
+ceased to care. Doesn't sunstroke somewhat dull memory?"</p>
+
+<p>"For a time, yes,&mdash;possibly. Sometimes altogether. Meredith, however, is
+all right, or will be when he regains his normal vigour."</p>
+
+<p>"I take it that he is not his normal self, and that when he is, he will
+be ashamed of the part he is now playing. Joyce's happiness is at stake.
+She is a simple little thing and very fond of him. Their happiness must
+be saved&mdash;even at a sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Brian!&mdash;you will have to take your wife back!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton stared dumbly at her. That Honor should ask him to take back the
+woman who had wrecked his life and whom he despised as the commonest
+prostitute in the land!&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> ask me that?" he breathed.</p>
+
+<p>Honor bent her head. She could not but realise that the step she
+proposed was a terrible outrage.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Honey!" His voice was choked. "Have you any idea of what you are
+asking me to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a great sacrifice&mdash;which&mdash;which I shall&mdash;share&mdash;" words
+failed her and she looked away with a pathetic trembling of her lip.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> would wish it?" in wounded tones.</p>
+
+<p>"I would hate the thought of it!&mdash;yet, something must be done. She might
+find it more profitable to return to you and leave Mr. Meredith in
+peace."</p>
+
+<p>A painful silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Honey, if she lived with me I should surely murder her! Do you know how
+I detest the woman? Do you imagine I could take her back as a wife? I
+would rather be shot."</p>
+
+<p>Honor buried her face in her hands. In her heart of hearts she was
+singing a pæan of thanksgiving that he was still hers&mdash;only hers, though
+divided from her by an impassable gulf!</p>
+
+<p>"You could bear to see me reconciled to her?"</p>
+
+<p>No answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Honey," he cried desperately. "I would do anything in the world for
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you cannot sacrifice yourself for a good woman's happiness?" she
+questioned, hardly knowing what she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I for Mrs. Meredith?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you once owed her a debt&mdash;she was very good to you after&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My God!&mdash;yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"This will kill her. She will hear&mdash;there are so many who will be ready
+to give her chapter and verse of the scandal against her husband. But if
+this&mdash;nurse&mdash;were with you, it would, perhaps, all blow over."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it really your wish that I should do this thing? Remember, she is
+hateful to me&mdash;and she can never, in any sense, be my wife again!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am&mdash;glad!" she could not help exclaiming. "Then the sacrifice will
+not be so terrible, after all!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not," he answered, his eyes full on hers with a passion of
+longing. "Will you let me think it over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Decide quickly!" she begged him.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing I would not do for you," he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>Honor rose with her gracious smile of gratitude and trust, and they
+parted without touching hands. When she returned home, the reaction from
+the strain of their meeting prostrated her for hours. Her parents feared
+that the climate of Muktiarbad was, at last, telling on her healthy
+constitution as it had told on Ray Meredith's.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps we shall have to send you home!" her mother sighed anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit of it!" Honor asserted. "The cold weather will put me to
+rights very soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you have something on your mind, darling?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have. I am worrying badly for Joyce Meredith."</p>
+
+<p>"Joyce will get nothing more than she deserves. Why should you suffer?
+It is nobody's business to meddle between husband and wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody is already meddling, so it may need counter-meddling to put it
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't bother my head. We have enough to do without trying to act
+Providence in the case of fools."</p>
+
+<p>"We are not trying to act Providence, but Providence needs to use us. It
+seems we are just so many pawns in the great Game."</p>
+
+<p>"It has often puzzled me what Captain Dalton has been after," said Mrs.
+Bright, eyeing her daughter rather narrowly. Fear had preyed
+considerably on her mind, that the doctor had been playing fast and
+loose with her child, to her sorrow. "You and he have been fast friends.
+Once you told me there was an 'understanding'; but nothing seems to have
+come of it, though you have corresponded very regularly."</p>
+
+<p>"I showed you some of his letters, darling," Honor temporised, faithful
+to her intention of bearing her own burdens alone, if possible.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice, manly letters they were, and most interesting of his work and
+things in general. But I am none the wiser."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you understand of our friendship?"</p>
+
+<p>"That there was an 'understanding,'" her mother repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"I do dislike that word in the sense you are applying it!" said Honor
+with a forced laugh. "We are not going to get married, anyway, for
+Captain Dalton is a married man."</p>
+
+<p>"Honey!" Mrs. Bright was dumbfounded. "Since when have you known this?"</p>
+
+<p>"For quite a long time; since early summer, in fact. You have met his
+wife&mdash;Mrs. Dalton, the nurse. Everyone here fancied her name was a
+coincidence. She worked to come here that she might see her husband and
+get him to take her back." Having said so much, Honor went on to explain
+further the cause of the breach between husband and wife and the
+irrevocable nature of it. "I am telling you this, dear, as you have a
+right to know the truth, being my mother. It is, however, a personal
+confidence, which no one else need share," Honor concluded.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not mention it to me before?" Mrs. Bright asked while a
+light dawned on her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have been very sorry for him, and, somehow, I felt I ought to
+respect his confidence. But it will, inevitably, be known in time, and
+then you will be able to say you were not uninformed."</p>
+
+<p>"Honor, are you in love with Captain Dalton?" Mrs. Bright asked
+pointedly.</p>
+
+<p>Honor winced. "Yes, Mother. And he loves me."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bright looked faint. "<i>You</i>, my child, in love with a married man!"
+This was, indeed, a blow! It accounted, fully, for Honor's
+discouragement of eligible suitors in Mussoorie, which had greatly vexed
+her mother at the time. "This is dreadful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, except for the fact that it is naturally a grief to me,&mdash;to
+us both; for, as you see, we can never marry."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bright was entirely astray. When other girls were convicted of
+being in love with married men, it had always sounded so immoral! But no
+one could think of Honor as such. She was plainly an upright and
+honourable girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you encouraged his writing, and answered his letters! You meet, to
+all appearances, as if nothing is wrong. What am I to make of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That we are very much to be pitied. Writing and meeting openly are all
+that are left to us."</p>
+
+<p>"He should have gone away&mdash;severed his connection with Muktiarbad. Not
+have stayed to fan the flame!"</p>
+
+<p>"Life is too short for needless sacrifices, Mother darling. Having made
+the greatest, we refuse to suffer more than we need. Sometimes, if you
+are starving for food, a bare crust will keep you alive. We are
+subsisting on bare crusts and are grateful."</p>
+
+<p>"I consider Captain Dalton has not behaved at all well. He knew his
+position and went out of his way to make you care!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no!&mdash;it just happened!" said Honor, her eyes suddenly flooded with
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bright looked at her daughter's white and sorrowful face, and away
+again. She could not bear to see the suffering there. All the traditions
+of her life caused her to stand aghast at the idea of dalliance with a
+sin so subtle and alluring as this. It should be the root-and-branch
+method. Nothing else would suffice to save her child! Yet her own eyes
+overflowed in sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my poor little Honey!" She held out her arms and Honor took refuge
+in them to weep unrestrainedly. "We are trying to be so good!" she
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>After kissing her daughter tenderly, Mrs. Bright said: "You cannot
+temporise with forbidden fruit, Honey. Eve did, you know. You are but
+human, therefore fallible, however good you are trying to be. The time
+will come when the heart, torn with longing, becomes too weak to resist.
+Specious arguments are insidious and irresistible, and you will go down.
+<i>Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!</i> That is why
+we pray, <i>Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil</i>. Our
+Lord understood human nature better than we ever shall, that is why
+there is only one thing to do, and that is, to fly from temptation. We
+pray to be 'delivered,' but praying alone doesn't suffice if we are to
+be honest with ourselves and God. There is nothing that will save us,
+but <i>doing right</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"We are doing nothing wrong!" Honor pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>"The wrong lies in the lack of moral courage to deal drastically with
+the wound. If poison remains, it is bound to fester. Captain Dalton
+should go away."</p>
+
+<p>"We were obliged to let ourselves down gently. It has been so
+miserable!" Down went Honor's head on her mother's shoulder, and the
+tears fell fast.</p>
+
+<p>Tears also fell on her dark head. Mrs. Bright's heart was wrung with
+pity. She had said enough for the present, so now devoted herself to
+soothing her beloved child's sorrow with her never-failing sympathy.
+Honor was a good girl, and to be trusted entirely to look her trouble
+squarely in the face and conquer it; and the mother's heart was lifted
+in prayer that she might be enabled to aid and strengthen her child.</p>
+
+<p>It was very shortly after this that war broke out, and there was so much
+to think of and talk about in the Station, that private affairs were
+temporarily set aside. The newspapers were read eagerly in detail;
+correspondence with dear ones over the seas was quickened with new
+interest; and everyone, even in such a little place as Muktiarbad, found
+plenty to do to help in the common cause. War-work parties were
+organised, at which the ladies engaged in knitting woollen comforts for
+the troops, and in making up parcels to be dispatched to the front and
+to prisoners in Germany; and every member had some bit of war news to
+discuss with the others at the Club as they rested from their games
+under the waving <i>punkha</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"It will drive me silly," Tommy had said from the first, "if I have to
+loaf about in a place like this when all my pals and school
+contemporaries have volunteered, or are in the thick of it, doing their
+bit."</p>
+
+<p>"You are doing your bit, just as any one who is killing Germans," said
+Mrs. Ironsides who had returned from Darjeeling. "What is to become of
+us all, if all medically fit civil officers are sent to fight? Why, we
+should be murdered in our beds, if it were not for the Police!"</p>
+
+<p>Tommy thought he would cheerfully risk Mrs. Ironsides being murdered in
+her bed, if the Government would only allow him to serve "for the
+duration"; and he continued to send in applications for leave to join
+up, with a persistency worthy of the Great Cause, in the hopes that
+constant dripping would wear away the stony indifference with which they
+were treated.</p>
+
+<p>One evening, towards the end of September, Captain Dalton sought Honor
+at the Club. He had news for her, the gravity of which shadowed his
+deep-set eyes and heightened the grim setting of his jaw.</p>
+
+<p>In a room full of people engrossed in one another, he gravitated to her,
+as usual, but surprised her by asking her to grant him a few words in
+private. "Come out with me to the tennis courts," he commanded with a
+definiteness she felt powerless to slight.</p>
+
+<p>It was dark on the tennis courts with only a young moon shining;
+nevertheless, Honor accompanied him forth, realising the fatefulness of
+the coming interview. When they had reached the shadow of the Duranta
+hedge that separated the courts from the building, and were seated on a
+bench, he told her in a few words that he had decided to comply with her
+wishes in the matter of his wife. It had taken him two months to bring
+himself to the point of making the sacrifice, but at last it was made.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I am doing it to please you. You have set your heart on
+helping Joyce Meredith, and as this is the only way, it shall be done
+though it takes a mighty effort in the doing. I am writing to tell her
+that she may return to my protection openly, as my wife; but, needless
+to say, my wife only in name. If it will give her a chance to right
+herself in the eyes of the world and help her to live as an honest
+woman, she is welcome to make the fullest use of my offer. It certainly
+might keep her from tampering further with Meredith's loyalty to his
+wife. But I question whether it is not too late!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is never too late!" said Honor, feeling numb and paralysed.</p>
+
+<p>"That will be up to Mrs. Meredith. She is an unsophisticated little
+thing, and, I dare say, Meredith will keep his mouth shut."</p>
+
+<p>It was plain to judge that he was again full of envy of other men's
+chances of happiness, for his tones reminded Honor of the man he was
+when they first met. It was too dark to see his face.</p>
+
+<p>"If she accepts your offer will she come here?" Honor asked shrinkingly.</p>
+
+<p>"She will have to if she comes at once. But I expect soon to be put on
+active service. My application to serve with the Army is receiving
+consideration, and it is possible I shall have to go to France or Egypt
+as there may be trouble with Turkey. In that case she will choose her
+residence. Another medical officer will occupy my bungalow."</p>
+
+<p>So it had come at last!</p>
+
+<p>Honor had been fearing that the war would, in its relentlessness, claim
+him also. It was said in the papers that there was a scandalous shortage
+of surgeons for a war of such magnitude.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she was seized with shivering. "You will go and we shall never
+meet again!" fell from her lips independent of her will.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton took her with determination in his arms and kissed her
+passionately on the lips. "My own love!" he moaned over her. "My
+precious one!"</p>
+
+<p>This was what her mother had meant when she had spoken of her becoming,
+in time, too weak to resist. For the moment her will was as weak as
+water; she could only cling to him and yield to their mutual craving for
+demonstrations of love. It was wrong, of course,&mdash;but, even so, it was
+heaven so long as they could banish memory and think only of the joy of
+enfolding arms, the meeting of loving lips!</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be going away and we might never meet again!" he echoed her
+words in passionate despair. "Pity me a little, when we meet, and let us
+be happy! Promise!"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare not promise," she cried, quivering with emotion in his arms. "I
+love you, but help me to do right!"</p>
+
+<p>For some time neither spoke while Dalton seemed struggling with the
+might of his desire. They rested on the iron bench wrapped in each
+other's arms, speechless for many moments till the peacefulness and
+silence of the night brought them sanity and calm. Then, kissing her
+once more with the tenderness of renunciation, he put her aside and rose
+to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder you care for such a worthless hound as myself!" he said at
+length. "I have no self-control. Go in, darling, I am going home to
+scourge myself for attempting to lead you against the dictates of your
+conscience. Forgive me, Honey, I was mad!"</p>
+
+<p>Honor left him, shaken in every nerve, her self-confidence shattered.
+"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall!" But it
+rejoiced her that Brian Dalton had fought his battle with himself alone,
+and had conquered. How much his appreciation of her high sense of honour
+had contributed to his victory, she would never know.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>SUSPENSE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The next morning Honor received a telegram from Joyce to meet her at the
+Grand Hotel in Calcutta without delay, and she was only too glad for a
+respite of even a few days from the pain of schooling herself to avoid
+the man she loved. Her parents having no objection, she caught the
+express at midday, and was in Calcutta the same night, her mind
+lightened of one of its burdens. At least the little wife had acted upon
+advice and was going to her husband without waste of time, after which
+all would surely be well for them both.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was prepared for her coming, and they talked to a late hour, she,
+betraying her trouble by her anxious questioning, which Honor skilfully
+parried.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not put too much faith in gossip," said Honor after learning
+of the conversation which had been overheard on the ship. "Have you
+wired?"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce confessed her intention to take her husband by surprise. "Only,
+now that it has come to the point, I am as nervous as I can be."</p>
+
+<p>"You had better wire. It will bring your husband down half-way to meet
+you and give him some happy hours of anticipation."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not sincere when you say that," said Joyce unexpectedly, "or
+why did you tell me to stop at nothing to come out?"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was no longer the same, ingenuous little girl Honor had parted
+from at Muktiarbad eight months ago. Her manner had acquired assurance,
+her carriage a becoming dignity, and there was about her an air of
+thoughtfulness and reserve, new to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I said it was not good for man to live alone, nor is it."</p>
+
+<p>"And you knew there was someone trying to supplant me in his
+affections?"</p>
+
+<p>"I knew he was exposed to the influence of a woman without a
+conscience." Honor then told her precisely who Nurse Dalton was, and how
+her flagrant pursuit of Ray Meredith had aroused the anxious concern of
+his friends. Not another word would she add as fuel to the fire of
+Joyce's jealous imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I shall be able to find out all about this for myself when I am
+there!" sighed Joyce when she had heard the woman's history.</p>
+
+<p>Honor prayed inwardly that Mrs. Dalton would have received Captain
+Dalton's offer before then, and have lost no time in arranging to come
+away. She could not prevail on Joyce to telegraph to her husband of her
+arrival in India, or that he was to expect her in Darjeeling as soon as
+the railway service could take her there. As it was no part of a
+friend's duty to interfere in the affairs of husband and wife, she
+desisted from further persuasion, content to leave the issue to a Higher
+Power.</p>
+
+<p>They passed on to other topics, and Honor was intensely pleased to learn
+from Joyce of Jack's happy fate as Kitty's accepted lover; and, further,
+that the two were married by special licence soon after landing at
+Bombay.</p>
+
+<p>"They are so happy! Last night they left for the new station to which he
+is appointed, as mentioned in the <i>Gazette</i> yesterday. During the few
+hours they were in town they tried to keep out of the way of Mrs.
+Fox&mdash;perhaps you know Jack had allowed her to believe he would marry
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor believed she had heard the rumour.</p>
+
+<p>"However, as ill-luck would have it, he and Kitty ran into her, so to
+speak, in the foyer of this hotel! I was there, and, believe me, I was
+never so uncomfortable in my life! Kitty was looking charming, and so
+smart. Happiness agrees with her, for I have never seen her look better
+in my life. We were waiting for a taxi, when who should come in but Mrs.
+Fox with some friends! Mistaking Kitty for me,&mdash;people say we are very
+much alike,&mdash;she held out her hand and said in her affected way&mdash;you
+remember?&mdash;'Oh, how d'you do, Mrs. Meredith. I had no idea you had come
+out again!' Then, seeing her mistake, she apologised, for I was
+following Kitty to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"'It's my sister,' said I, feeling dreadfully embarrassed at having to
+make the introduction. 'Mrs. Darling, Mrs. Fox,' I said, and just at
+that moment Jack came in and straight up to us, with no eyes for any one
+but his wife. 'Come, dear, I have managed to get a taxi for the
+luggage,' and then his eyes fell on Mrs. Fox. Really, poor Jack! he
+turned quite pale. But Kitty who knew all about that affair and had
+forgiven it, smiled graciously at Mrs. Fox who was paralysed with shock,
+and said&mdash;'I am so sorry we haven't a moment. My husband and I are tied
+to time and have to catch a train. Good-bye,'&mdash;with a bow,&mdash;'so pleased
+to have met you!'</p>
+
+<p>"Jack also bowed, speechless, as he hurried after Kitty. We all three
+fairly ran, though we had plenty of time for their train; but if looks
+could have killed, I am sure Jack would have died on the spot."</p>
+
+<p>To Honor's credit be it known that she suffered a twinge of pity for
+Mrs. Fox; a passing twinge, such as one might feel for people when they
+come to grief by their own act.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what Mrs. Fox will do, now," Honor remarked after expressing
+her hearty congratulations for the happy pair. Jack did not deserve such
+happiness, but if every sinner had his deserts, there would be too many
+miserable people in the world today.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Gupp who shares my table at meals, knows Mrs. Fox pretty well and
+has very little to say in her favour. She was maliciously amused over
+the affair, and is of opinion that Mrs. Fox will have to go home at
+once. The story is already common property."</p>
+
+<p>Honor thought Joyce lovelier than ever with her air of dignified
+reserve. She had grown self-reliant and there was a tinge of hauteur in
+her manner which seemed to add to her stature and give a regal carriage
+to her beautiful head.</p>
+
+<p>"So you are travelling all alone to Darjeeling?" Honor asked wistfully,
+wondering what was going to be the upshot of that journey.</p>
+
+<p>"It is nothing at all. I have hardly the patience to wait for trains.
+There is so much at stake. If I could only be sure that Ray loves me as
+he used to do, I would be crazy for joy! I should never leave him
+again&mdash;not for anything in the world!" and she hid her face in Honor's
+neck while the tears flowed.</p>
+
+<p>"Not even if you come across snakes and are obliged to put up with
+mosquitoes and the heat?" quizzed Honor.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll face anything but the loss of my husband's love. What a fool I
+have been! a blind, childish fool! Why, that affair with Captain Dalton
+which I exaggerated and worried over, might have been made all right in
+good time. I ought to have listened to you, and set myself to make Ray
+so happy that he would have had nothing to forgive! After all, it wasn't
+as if I was wilfully to blame?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told you that before you went home."</p>
+
+<p>"And it came to me only when I began to fear that I was losing his love!
+That was a contingency I never believed possible. He was always so mad
+about me, spoiling me in every way and treating me as a little queen!
+Oh, Honor what a mess I have made of things!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't do anything in the heat of passion, dear," Honor advised
+thoughtfully. "Remember he has had sunstroke. A man is hardly himself
+for months after such an illness&mdash;sometimes for years. It affects people
+differently. Some are irritable, some have clouded memories; for the
+brain is the seat of the trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you trying to prepare me to find Ray insane?" Joyce asked with
+frightened eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. He is as sane as you or I, but his impulses are not so much
+under control, and his judgment is likely to err since that shock to his
+brain."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he is not to be held accountable for anything he has done of
+late?" indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You might take all I have said into consideration if you are required
+to forgive anything he has been weak or foolish enough to have done
+since his illness."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce laughed bitterly. "I wonder what you would feel inclined to do in
+my place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really wish to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said Joyce as a challenge, while drying her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"The chief thing to be considered, is the future. That must be saved at
+all costs. A mistake in the present, committed in haste, might affect
+your future life; and not only yours, but your baby's as well. You are
+about to deal with baby's daddy as well as your husband, and the whole
+of your world is looking on. You might take a prejudiced view of things
+that have occurred. You might, in your anger and humiliation, feel
+unforgiving towards him, and so, break up your home. I question whether
+anything ought to weigh against your love for your husband, if in your
+heart you love him and he loves you."</p>
+
+<p>"Loving me, could he be disloyal?"</p>
+
+<p>Honor hesitated. "It is possible he has been suffering from a clouded
+mind. Things have not been correctly focussed, as it were. And while in
+that condition, if he was tempted to drift into actual wrong-doing, I
+should imagine that self-loathing and remorse would afterwards be a
+worse punishment for him than you could possibly conceive of. This is
+presuming he has done anything to be ashamed of. In that case, I could
+not be harsh. Love always forgives&mdash;even to 'seventy times seven.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Honey, you are an idealist! I wonder how many women could exercise so
+much forbearance! Think of the anger, the humiliation, the resentment!
+It is an outrage to one's faith and trust!"</p>
+
+<p>"If you had remained within reach of him so that when he was ill you
+could have gone to him at once, there would have been nothing to
+forgive. But for a frivolous reason you put the seas between you and
+threw his love back into his face. You are also very much to blame,"
+said Honor boldly.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce covered her face with her hands and wept silently.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Honor saw her into her train at Sealdah Station the following day, and
+after an afternoon spent in shopping for her mother, returned to
+Muktiarbad.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce spent an uncomfortable night in the train on account of the muggy
+heat which was barely rendered tolerable by electric fans in the
+compartment, and was glad when the time came to transfer herself and her
+baggage into the toy railway of the Himalayas, which rattled briskly up
+the slopes by tortuous tracks into higher altitudes and cooler climes.</p>
+
+<p>A party of ladies known to each other occupied the same compartment and
+chattered of all they did in Darjeeling last year, and all they meant to
+do. Joyce paid little heed while silently watching the changing views as
+the train wound its way along the mountain sides. The infinite grandeur
+of Nature on which humanity had set its stamp, thrilled her with
+wonderment and delight. All personal troubles were forgotten for a while
+as the glorious scenery unfolded to her vision.</p>
+
+<p>Surely her eyes must have been holden when she saw it a year ago!</p>
+
+<p>Heavy mists sweeping the mountain sides frequently obliterated a picture
+of purple distances and rugged heights. Anon, there was a blaze of
+sunlight revealing wooded spurs with zinc-roofed cottages and grey
+villages nestling on their slopes. Green valleys lay at the foot of
+frowning precipices, and round many a bend and curve were glimpses of
+tea gardens with the bushes laid out in serried rows; and cumbrous,
+zinc-roofed tea factories looking strangely incongruous in their wild
+and glorious setting.</p>
+
+<p>With a rush of sound, a waterfall would be seen, as a curve was rounded,
+tumbling over rocks and rushing under a bridge on its way to join some
+mighty river in the plains. The plains were often visible, stretching
+like a grey sea to the horizon, their surface marked by the silver
+tracery of streams. Now and then, Joyce could catch a glimpse of the
+Everlasting Snows, with Kinchin-junga, Nursing, and Pundeem, a mighty
+group glittering in the sunlight in stately magnificence, their peaks
+inaccessible to man. Beside the road, a stout parapet of boulders
+covered by ferns and lichen, stood, in places, between the passengers
+and certain death, a thousand feet below; while up the steep banks rose
+forests of <i>sal</i> and fir, climbing towards the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever there were homesteads perched among the rocks, children of the
+mountains would run forth like sure-footed goats to view the passing
+train, their round and ruddy cheeks besmeared with dirt and chapped with
+cold; their flat faces, high cheek bones, and slanting eyes, revealing
+their Lepcha strain.</p>
+
+<p>And all the while the temperature continued to fall; and the atmosphere
+grew moist and cold and exhilarating in its freshness.</p>
+
+<p>A block in the line occasioned by a local landslip&mdash;a frequent
+occurrence on the hill-railway&mdash;detained the train till the afternoon,
+at Kurseong, where the passengers left their carriages for luncheon at
+the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>At Sonada, further on, two ladies entered the compartment and audibly
+discussed certain doings at Darjeeling where they appeared to be
+residing. When Joyce heard her husband's name, she set herself to
+listen, determined not to miss a word.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she will be there," said one. "Wherever Mr. Meredith goes he
+manages to get an invitation for her,&mdash;and people don't much like it,
+but there's his position, you know!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know. They are seldom seen apart. A handsome woman in her way, but
+utterly regardless! Her dress, for instance, at the Shrubbery Ball was
+indeed up to date&mdash;just a band under the armpits for a bodice. I never
+saw any one off the stage so disgustingly naked!"</p>
+
+<p>"He looks to me rather 'fed up.' And the way she takes charge of him in
+public requires nerve! he simply falls into line just as if he can't
+help himself. Got into the habit, so to speak!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to wear tonight?" and the conversation drifted to
+the Planters' Ball at the Club. The Governor and his wife were expected
+to be present with their suite, and the house-party from the Shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a wonder to me," said the first speaker, "that Mrs. Dalton is
+received at Government House." Joyce again held her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but her position makes that all right. Her husband is an I.M.S.
+man, a rising surgeon, somewhere in the plains. They don't get on, but
+that's nobody's business; and in Darjeeling one has to shut one's eyes.
+If you begin to point the finger of scorn, you'll be kept fairly busy"
+(with a mischievous laugh). "And after all, if her husband doesn't mind,
+it's nobody's business. All the same, she's been cut by a good few, and
+if he doesn't look out, he'll end in the divorce court&mdash;or she will!"</p>
+
+<p>They laughed as at a great joke, and, others listening, smiled in
+sympathy, while Joyce turned her burning face away.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that there was no getting away from the story of her husband's
+shame. But for her having left him, this would never have been!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When the train drew up at the platform of the station in Darjeeling, she
+pulled herself together and stepped bravely out of her compartment, head
+erect, and manner perfectly composed. The need to have herself well in
+hand, gave her strength of mind for the occasion, so that none of her
+old friends&mdash;were she to come unexpectedly upon any&mdash;should think her
+crushed and miserable; a poor, humiliated wife! No! the world should see
+a laughing face.</p>
+
+<p>As the roads of the Station were very familiar to her, she climbed the
+path leading to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, at which her husband was
+staying. It rose by easy stages to a higher level and passed by
+red-brick villas built on the English plan, with pent roofs and homely
+chimney-pots. In parts the road was clear, in others, heavily shaded by
+tall firs, through the branches of which could be seen the Snowy Range
+bathed in the soft afterglow of a lurid sunset. Preceding her was a
+Lepcha boy from Sikkim, carrying her trunk mountaineer fashion on his
+back, strapped to his forehead; and it was a mystery how he lifted
+himself as well as his burden up the short cuts, without pausing to draw
+breath.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEETING</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Joyce climbed the road preceded by her Lepcha coolie, a scene of
+dramatic possibilities was taking place in a room of the hotel to which
+she was bound.</p>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Meredith's sitting-room, comfortably furnished; a fire was
+burning cheerfully in the grate, and the actors were himself and Mrs.
+Dalton, who had called upon him in a crisis of her affairs.</p>
+
+<p>She was eager and excited, bold, and yet somewhat baffled.</p>
+
+<p>He was nervous and uncomfortable, while fidgeting with a letter in his
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"He has made a rather sporting offer, don't you think?" she asked with
+biting sarcasm, her eyes studying his face.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely!&mdash;that's for you to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Me?" (irritably).</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. You know that he and I parted long ago over incompatibility
+of temper, and that his offer is made only to save his precious honour.
+He has heard rumours! There is no love in it; instead, it is carefully
+ruled out. I may return to his protection whenever I like; but as his
+wife <i>only in name</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be better than this knock-about sort of life you have led, with
+an allowance wholly inadequate to your needs" (conciliatingly).</p>
+
+<p>"But is there nothing else in life for a young woman of my years and
+temperament? What about you and me?" (tenderly).</p>
+
+<p>Meredith reddened as he said resolutely, "That page will have to be
+turned down for good, in the fullest sense of the word."</p>
+
+<p>It was a page of which he was heartily ashamed. The shame was
+inevitable, the affair having been, from the first, a comedy of degrees
+in which his heart had never been involved; begun while he was a
+helpless invalid dependent upon this woman for nursing and
+companionship. That she had started the flirtation, and had taken
+advantage of his loneliness and temporary weakness to bring him almost
+to the verge of a deep dishonour, were memories he would have given much
+to forget. Mrs. Dalton was a type of woman he had always held in
+contempt; but he had failed to identify her as such, till his normal
+health had reasserted itself. Latterly he had allowed himself to drift
+with the tide while looking for a means of escape from his intolerable
+position.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that?" she asked with whitening lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is the only thing to do," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"If you say that for my sake, then I might just as well be frank. You
+know I love you, Ray Meredith, and I believe you love me, only you have
+never quite let yourself go, for some hidden reason&mdash;possibly your
+career? It can't be consideration for that bloodless and callous
+creature, your wife? I refuse to believe that you have any feeling for a
+woman who has placed her child before her husband and is content to live
+apart from him when she knows that men are but human after all! Your
+career is safe. A man's private life is his own affair. If we throw in
+our lot together, we can after the divorce marry and live happily ever
+after, as the good little story books tell us in the nursery." She
+laughed tenderly. "My husband will gladly have done with me, for I can
+tell who it is he wants. I paid a stolen visit to his bungalow at
+Muktiarbad and snapshots of her live all about him in his den. Can I
+tolerate the position I shall occupy in his house, knowing all the while
+it has been flung at me like a bone to a dog? If he could marry her
+tomorrow he would; only she isn't the sort, I am told, who would take
+him unless I am dead! Now, this is frankness indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>Meredith was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you speak?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have spoken."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all?" she cried passionately, creeping nearer, her dark
+eyes compelling his surrender. "Don't you know that all Darjeeling is
+talking of us? That, for your sake, people are treating me abominably
+while they smile kindly on you? I am only a woman, therefore may be
+crushed. My God!&mdash;and you would turn me down, like a 'page' for 'good'!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I should not put it like that," he said nervously as he trifled
+with Captain Dalton's letter to his wife, and allowed it to fall to the
+floor. His cigarette case suggested comfort and was drawn forth as a
+diversion.</p>
+
+<p>"Put it as you like, it is rather a knock-out blow for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Say, rather, that it is a mercy things have not gone too far, and that
+you can accept your husband's 'sporting' offer with a clear&mdash;a
+clear"&mdash;<i>conscience</i> was scarcely a suitable word. He was certain she
+had smothered it long ago.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, damn my husband! I want nothing to do with him since knowing you!
+Ray, old dear, have you ceased to love me?&mdash;I don't believe it!" She
+flung her arms about his neck and laid her cheek to his. In her tones
+was beguilement, in her eyes the lure of an evil thing. Her back was
+turned to the door so that she did not see that it had opened suddenly
+to admit someone. Both had been too preoccupied to hear the gentle
+knock.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith looked up and saw his wife enter,&mdash;his little Joyce, whom he
+imagined was in England. For a moment he was petrified&mdash;the next instant
+he shook himself free of Mrs. Dalton's embrace, and stood apart,
+convicted and ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce stood stock still as if paralysed, and could only murmur
+conventionally, "I am sorry," purely a mechanical expression of apology
+such as she would have made to a stranger. "No one answered my knock, so
+I came in."</p>
+
+<p>The very air was electrical. Meredith could only utter his wife's name
+in blank amazement. What could he say under such damning circumstances?
+Mrs. Dalton laughed hysterically.</p>
+
+<p>Collecting her scattered wits, Joyce explained, reaching a hand out to a
+cabinet for support: "I came out with the mails. There was a hint of
+<i>this</i>, only I dared not let myself believe it. It seemed impossible
+from my knowledge of you. But it appears I was wrong," her lip curled.
+Turning to Mrs. Dalton she said coldly, "Perhaps you will be good enough
+to leave us together?"</p>
+
+<p>Standing there erect in her pride and beauty, dressed exquisitely, yet
+simply, she was a revelation to the woman who had sought to rob her and
+was now brazen enough to carry off the situation with effrontery.</p>
+
+<p>"It was pretty smart of you to act the spy, stealing on us without
+warning! However, we are not afraid. Do your worst!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am waiting for you to leave the room," said Joyce with immovable
+calm. Her queenlike dignity was something new to her husband, and it
+commanded Mrs. Dalton's unwilling respect and obedience.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith walked swiftly to the door and held it open for the lady to
+pass out, his features rigid, his eyes bent on the carpet at his feet,
+nor did he raise them when she brushed past him and lightly touched his
+hand as it held the door-knob.</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you cable?&mdash;or wire from Calcutta?" he asked through white
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce looked in scornful silence at him and then said with a perceptible
+shrug, "I am glad I did neither."</p>
+
+<p>"Things look pretty bad against me, I admit," he said bitterly. "Is it
+any use for me to ask you not to judge me too hastily? The situation you
+surprised was not of my creating."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce laughed suddenly, a strained and mirthless laugh as she mentally
+recalled the words, "The woman gave me, and I did eat."</p>
+
+<p>"Judge you hastily? Such a situation requires no explanation. It is
+plainly a confession of guilt, or it could not have been."</p>
+
+<p>"By that do you mean you will take action?"</p>
+
+<p>"Action?&mdash;do you mean, divorce you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you would like to marry Mrs. Dalton if her husband gives her
+up!" she said bitterly, hardly recognising the tones of her own voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!&mdash;never!" he shuddered involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you."</p>
+
+<p>"You would not believe me if I told you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am beginning to understand more of men than I did when we parted. It
+seems, you could make love to this lady without being in love with her?
+You even humiliated me in the eyes of the world, merely for the sake of
+a vulgar intrigue?"</p>
+
+<p>She astonished Meredith with every word she spoke. His little Joyce had
+suddenly become a woman, a thousand times more wonderful than he had
+ever known her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am innocent of anything but an ordinary flirtation, of which I am
+heartily ashamed, believe it or not," he returned pacing the floor
+restlessly, his face pallid, his eyes miserable. "What are you going to
+do?" coming to a stop before her. It was as well that he should know the
+worst she contemplated.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know ... but I cannot advertise my shame to the world!" she
+said icily as she turned to leave the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is my trunk. I shall need to engage a room."</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down by the fire, and I will see to everything for you."</p>
+
+<p>Joyce sank nervelessly into a chair and saw him leave the room, only to
+re-enter shortly afterwards with the news that the hotel, being full,
+she would have to occupy his own bedroom while he made shift with the
+dressing-room attached.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce scarcely heeded him. So long as he was not to share her room,
+nothing mattered. "And what about the Planters' Ball tonight?" she asked
+to his profound surprise. "Are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was, but not now. How can you ask?" What on earth was she after?</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? I would rather you kept your engagement&mdash;and&mdash;took me."</p>
+
+<p>Meredith stared, wide-eyed. "You?" For the moment he thought her mind
+deranged. How could she contemplate taking part in a frivolous social
+function in the midst of their tragedy? Their lives were sundered; their
+happiness blasted; and she was thinking of the Planters' Ball!</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was thinking of the women who were expecting to enjoy the
+spectacle of Ray Meredith's flirtation with Mrs. Dalton; and no doubt
+there were a great many others also prepared to amuse themselves at his
+expense, and her eyes hardened. A jealous determination to punish the
+woman who had spoiled the happy relations between husband and wife,
+possessed her, so that the idea of slighting her publicly at this grand
+ball was a temptation. That her husband would slight Mrs. Dalton, she
+had no doubt. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes. Honor Bright
+had said that, were he guilty of wrong-doing, self-loathing and remorse
+would punish him more heavily than she could conceive of! He was already
+ashamed, and would yet repent in the dust at his wife's feet. When that
+came to pass, she might see fit to relent&mdash;not now. Now her whole soul
+was in revolt. Her heart felt like stone in her breast. What would
+another woman have done in her place? She had no experience. Honor had
+advised her against precipitancy. She would act with infinite
+deliberation, surpassing anything Honor would have counselled. Honor had
+talked of love! For the moment she had lost her faith in love, and knew
+no feeling so strong as revenge. She would go to the ball, and Ray
+should have no eyes for any other woman but his wife. It had been so in
+the past, and it would be so again, or she would hate to live. People
+had always said that she was pretty, and she had been glad for his sake.
+She was more than glad now; for it put the strongest weapon for
+punishment into her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, her husband was amazed that she should think of the ball,
+and, doubtless, feared she was mad!</p>
+
+<p>"I am not insane, if that is what is on your mind. But I have to think
+of the future," she said coldly. The future was another point that Honor
+said, would have to be considered. "We shall go to this dance together
+to keep up appearances. For the same reason, we shall, if you have no
+objection, dance a great deal together. For Baby's sake the world must
+think that we are rejoiced to come together again after so many months
+apart, and it might help to make people forget the ugly things they have
+been saying. Do you mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. You shall do as you please, in this, as in everything
+else."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt Mrs. Dalton will find someone in the hotel to escort
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She can take care of herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well then," looking at her watch, "perhaps I had better dress, for
+it is rather near the dinner hour."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all you have to say to me?" he asked with quivering lips.</p>
+
+<p>"What would you have me say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anything would be better than this coldness&mdash;this avoidance of all that
+is most vital to us both. Even if you raved and stormed, I could stand
+it better, for I might have a chance to explain. Things are not as bad
+as you think."</p>
+
+<p>"They are bad enough for me!" she returned calmly, her lovely profile
+and the lowered sweep of her eyelashes, her straight carriage and the
+gentle curve of her bosom, outlined against the dark hangings of the
+window.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you listen to me for a bit?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather not."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you condemn me outright?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have condemned yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot have forgotten my love for you?" he cried desperately.</p>
+
+<p>She turned and lifted grave, blue eyes to his face in mute condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not understand&mdash;I have been ill&mdash;I don't seem to have been
+myself for a long time, I&mdash;I&mdash;it seemed to me that you did not care a
+farthing what became of me. You left it to me to cable if I wanted you
+when you should have known that I was yearning for nothing so much as a
+sight of your face. It was pointed out to me that any woman with a spark
+of true love for her own man, would have let nothing stand in the way of
+her joining him the moment she heard of his illness. Did you?" He
+laughed harshly. "No! It was the old story, 'Baby,' and always, 'Baby!'
+God!&mdash;you never cared."</p>
+
+<p>"I cared so much, that I never wanted to amuse myself with another man
+though I had plenty of opportunities." Yet, his passionate denunciation
+had gone home.</p>
+
+<p>"Joyce, am I to have no chance?"</p>
+
+<p>With a gesture of disgust, she dismissed the subject peremptorily, and
+passed out of the sitting-room, trembling with emotion from head to
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>In the adjoining apartment, which was his bedroom, she struggled with
+the straps of her fibre trunk till they were taken out of her hands and
+the leathers unbuckled, by her husband who had followed her in. Joyce
+watched him with a pain at her heart as he bent over his task. A lump
+came into her throat too big to swallow. She felt choked with a rising
+hysteria which only a great effort of will controlled. He looked so
+handsome, so like the lover-husband she had known, that it was all she
+could do not to fling herself into his arms and say "Let us forget
+everything and remember only our love!" Her natural place was in his
+arms now that she had come out all that distance to be with him;
+instead, they had not even exchanged the most formal of greetings! He
+had been false to her&mdash;a crime no woman feels disposed to forgive.</p>
+
+<p>"I had to come in here as this is the only way to my dressing-room,"
+Meredith explained as he rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce thanked him coldly and watched him pass through the heavy curtains
+which separated the two rooms and was the only apology for a door. When
+he was gone, she writhed in anguish. Oh, if she could have crushed her
+pride and called out to him to come back!</p>
+
+<p>It was not so easy, however, and she hardened her heart for the task
+that lay before her.</p>
+
+<p>While dressing, her trembling fingers almost refusing their work, she
+wondered how Mrs. Dalton would behave when they met again? If she would
+have the audacity to speak to Ray? A woman of her sort would be equal to
+any impertinence. Why had she not returned to her husband, who, Honor
+had said, was willing to take her back? At all events, Joyce was
+infinitely glad she was on the spot to curtail the woman's opportunities
+for further mischief. It was worth the risk of the journey.</p>
+
+<p>When she slipped on her evening gown, a rich, black <i>crêpe de chine</i>,
+she was seized with consternation when she remembered that it fastened
+at the back. Under no circumstance would it meet without assistance. A
+maid, or an ayah?&mdash;Both were equally impossible to procure at a moment's
+notice.</p>
+
+<p>She made several futile efforts, then looked about her in dismay! What
+was to be done? Flushed, and in despair, she cast a glance at the
+curtains behind which lay her only hope. Her husband had often
+officiated with the hooks and eyes, and was otherwise expert as a maid.
+The only alternative was to forego the ball and her great reprisal; and
+this was unthinkable now that all her hopes were centred on revenge. Had
+Joyce belonged to a lower order of society, she would probably have
+gratified her wrath by making a scene and scratching out the woman's
+eyes, or tearing out her hair in handfuls. As it was, the picture of
+Mrs. Dalton seated as a wall-flower, openly despised and neglected by
+the man she had tried to seduce from his allegiance, appealed powerfully
+to her imagination.</p>
+
+<p>Timidly she called, "Can you help me, please?"</p>
+
+<p>There was no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Ray!" her voice was still more diffident, but her call met with
+immediate response. Ray who had not yet begun to change for dinner, was
+with her in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot dress without help. Will you please?" she asked frigidly.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith took infinite pains, his face, as reflected in the mirror,
+looking haggard and pale. He had never seen his wife in black, which was
+an excellent foil to her fair beauty, and the sight of her rendered him
+tongue-tied. He had nothing to say even when she dismissed him with a
+"Thanks, I'll manage very well, now."</p>
+
+<p>When Joyce entered the winter-garden,&mdash;the principal lounge of the
+hotel, with glazed roof and walls, its interior full of flowering
+orchids, palms, and tropical plants of varied beauty, she saw Mrs.
+Dalton already there, resplendent in crimson satin and jewellery,
+cultivating the acquaintance of new-comers to Darjeeling who had arrived
+by the train that day. It was a daring gown for colour and cut, and
+Joyce was put in mind of the description she had overheard in the train,
+of the lady's ball-room attire. Mrs. Dalton evidently set a high value
+on the generous curves of her handsome shoulders, for she displayed them
+with liberality.</p>
+
+<p>Ray entering soon afterwards, performed a few introductions with a
+self-control that was remarkable, considering his shaken nerves, after
+which they passed into the glare of the dining-hall to the table at
+which he had always dined in company with men.</p>
+
+<p>Joyce excelled him in her power to sustain the rôle she had marked out
+for them both. Her manner was winning and delightful, and, but for
+Meredith's inner knowledge, it might have misled his hopes disastrously.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she once said with subtle meaning as she smiled at an ardent
+admirer who had been captivated at first sight, "I would not cable or
+wire, for I wanted to give my dear husband the surprise of his life. You
+can imagine his feelings! It is a mercy that joy seldom kills, or he
+might have died on the spot. And I am so glad I came, though I had to
+leave my wee baby with his grannie. But things might have become too
+difficult later, owing to the war; and I could not be parted from Ray
+indefinitely; could I, dear?" to her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Ray smiled unsteadily.</p>
+
+<p>"India is such a delightful country. Nothing will induce me to leave it
+in a hurry again. Do you know Muktiarbad? No? It's a little paradise
+though officials will call it a Penal Settlement!"</p>
+
+<p>"Lucky dog, your husband!" said an admirer fatuously. "And so plucky of
+you to go to the ball tonight, after your long and fatiguing journey. I
+hope I may have a dance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. You surely did not think I would deprive my husband of this
+pleasure when he is, I am sure, one of the best dancers in Darjeeling? I
+should never have been forgiven by his friends!"</p>
+
+<p>"May I have the first 'Boston'?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is for my husband to decide," she said archly with the familiar
+play of the eyelashes and dimple peeping in and out of her cheek. "He
+has first choice of the dances on my programme."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see about the programme when we are there," said Meredith
+quietly. His position was more than he could support.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean to enjoy myself thoroughly tonight!" sighed Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>Meredith stole a glance at his wife and noted the feverish light of
+excitement in her eyes, under which blue shadows of fatigue lay, and the
+nervous movement of her fingers as they crumbled her bread into morsels.
+He could see that she, too, was suffering from nerves.</p>
+
+<p>"Damn the ball!" he cursed inwardly. He had no interest in it; no wish
+to be there.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure you are not too tired?" he asked her, longing for a
+loophole for escape.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," she replied, over-doing her part by touching his
+hand lightly with her fingers. It was a graceful mark of confidence and
+affection which won the indulgence of all the men at that table; but to
+Meredith it was deliberate cruelty. Her touch was an electric shock, and
+his heart stood still for a moment while the room swam before his eyes.
+He made no reply, but having finished dinner, rose abruptly, without
+waiting for the initiative to come from her. Across the room was the
+woman who had often hung upon his breast with her cheap caresses and
+offers of love which he had been too weak to spurn altogether. Already
+the sight of her flaunting charms nauseated him.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>A 'rickshaw carried Joyce to the Club while her husband accompanied her
+on foot. When he tried to engage her in conversation, he had to learn
+that her bright speeches were only for others. When they were alone, she
+was dumb. It was clear that he had sinned in her eyes past all hope of
+forgiveness.</p>
+
+<p>At the ball, Meredith went through his part as in a dream. He smiled to
+order, made many introductions, and danced with his wife, and no other.
+Obedient to her example, he made idle conversation while they danced
+together, though his heart was on fire with longing; and when he was not
+dancing with her, he could but watch her from the doorways, remembering
+the existence of friends only when they accosted him; appearing
+hopelessly absent and inconsequent the while.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to him that his life was broken and ended.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a dark horse, you blighter," he was chaffed. "Keeping it up your
+sleeve all this time that your wife was on her way out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Introduce me, old son," said the <i>aide-de-camp</i> to the Governor. "Mrs.
+Meredith dances divinely."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me congratulate you, Meredith," said the Governor, in his
+friendliest manner. "Your wife is the most charming little woman I have
+met for some time. I have quite lost my heart to her!" He patted Ray's
+shoulder to impress the fact on "this foolish fellow" who had scarcely
+"played the game" in his lovely little lady's absence. "It was a damned
+shame!"</p>
+
+<p>Joyce was unquestionably the "belle of the ball"; there were no two
+opinions about that. Few remembered that she had been at Darjeeling the
+previous season, since she had kept to her hotel as a semi-invalid with
+a very young child; so that she had the additional advantage of being
+fresh. India loves new sensations and is grateful to those who supply
+them, gratis.</p>
+
+<p>Men surrounded her and paid her marked attentions, fought with each
+other, good-naturedly, for portions of dances, and served her as a
+princess at the suppers. Yet, in spite of her bewildering success, she
+never forgot the object that had taken her there, and was more than
+repaid. Her manner to her husband was faultless, and it kept him
+regardful of her slightest wish. Her mission was to charm all, her
+husband in particular, so that Mrs. Dalton's humiliation should be
+complete; and before midnight, victory was achieved. Mrs. Dalton ordered
+her 'rickshaw at the stroke of twelve, and retired from the ball, her
+almost empty programme in pieces on the floor. She had been overlooked
+by men, cut by women, and obliged to look on, with a raging heart, at
+Mrs. Meredith's triumph. Ray Meredith, with the rudeness of utter
+contempt, had left her absolutely alone. The cruelty of his behaviour
+had been insupportable. When, on one occasion, she had seized the chance
+of a word with him, he was deaf to her exhortations, and she was shaken
+off with a contemptuous disregard for her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>When she left the building, it was to suffer the tortures of a woman
+scorned. She was learning to swallow that bitterest of all pills, the
+knowledge that she was utterly despised by the man for whom she had been
+willing to lower her womanhood in the dust.</p>
+
+<p>She had come to the realisation of the fact that the woman who lowers
+herself in the eyes of men, will inevitably find herself shamed and
+scorned.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When she arrived at the hotel, she brooded far into the night over her
+bedroom fire, reviewing bitterly her moral decline from the day of her
+first great mistake. Feeling unable to face the people who had known her
+in the Station, she departed the next morning for Muktiarbad, leaving
+her infantile charge and its ayah to the tender mercies of the
+Sanitarium.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FAIR</h3>
+
+
+<p>The <i>méla</i><a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> week was a great event at Muktiarbad, for the Europeans
+as well as the natives of the District, as it gave the officials a
+holiday, brought people together, and encouraged healthy competition in
+arts, crafts, and various industries of the country. Prizes were offered
+for the best exhibits, and local shopkeepers took advantage of the
+opportunity to advance their own interests by placing on the market,
+articles of use and ornament from all parts of India. Eager crowds,
+garbed in all the hues of the rainbow created a kaleidoscope of colour
+as they jostled one another among the booths, bent on bargaining or on
+sight-seeing. Merry-go-rounds, puppet shows, monkey-dances, juggling,
+and cocoanut shies, entertained adults as well as children, while the
+noise and confusion of tongues was Bedlam.</p>
+
+<p>The fair was usually held at the crossroads where a large irregular
+patch of green afforded ample space for the pens, stalls, booths, and
+side-shows that contributed towards the joys of the occasion; and to it
+came people from miles around, and even from distant parts of the
+District.</p>
+
+<p>Just when this annual <i>fête</i> was at its height, Mrs. Dalton arrived at
+Muktiarbad to take up her abode under her husband's roof, thus providing
+enough of a sensation among his neighbours to last beyond the regulation
+nine days for wonderment.</p>
+
+<p>That the Civil Surgeon should prove a married man was not so outrageous
+as his having neglected to admit, while she was among them, that Nurse
+Dalton was his wife, instead of misleading them tacitly into thinking
+that the name was a coincidence. It was unpardonable! And now, to add
+insult to injury, after she had made herself conspicuous in Darjeeling
+by flirting openly with her late patient, the Station of Muktiarbad was
+expected to forget and forgive, and take the black sheep to its bosom.
+Unheard of audacity!</p>
+
+<p>How far Ray Meredith was to blame for the gossip concerning himself and
+the lady, was immaterial, since his wife was reported happy and
+content,&mdash;besides, he was a man, and women are notoriously hard upon
+women; as was proved when the ladies of the Station were ready to throw
+stones at the erring one the instant it was known that the doctor took
+every chance to keep out of his wife's way, and was seldom found at
+home. Why the two had come together again when there was no love lost
+between them, was a mystery to all and a challenge to their sense of
+propriety.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Dalton, as in duty bound, called on everybody, she was
+received without cordiality by her sex, who met immediately afterwards
+to consult what response to her overtures was demanded by common
+civility. Some proposed the snub direct, by ignoring her altogether;
+others were for dropping cards into her "Not-at-home box" at the gate
+when it was ascertained that it was up; while Mrs. Bright decided to
+return her call and let civilities end there.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy listened with indifference to the female cackle at the Club till
+Honor's name was introduced, and then he could no longer hold his peace.
+"What about Honor Bright?" someone had asked meaningly.</p>
+
+<p>"What about her?" said Tommy, his eyes following the girl's lithe
+movements on the tennis court.</p>
+
+<p>"It was popularly supposed that she was engaged to Captain Dalton, and
+yet she knew all along that he was a married man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Has any one in this company got anything to say that is detrimental to
+Miss Bright?" he asked with eyes flashing.</p>
+
+<p>Thus challenged, the speaker collapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Honor is one of the very best," said Mrs. Ironsides vehemently. "Let
+there be no mistake about that!" This was the last word on the subject,
+and Tommy retired victoriously, cursing feminine tongues that would
+never mind their own business. His relief when he discovered that
+Captain Dalton was no longer in competition with himself for Honor's
+hand, was great, till he realised, later that his own chances were
+<i>nil</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Government of Bengal having at last yielded to his importunities to
+be allowed to join the Indian Army Reserve, he was waiting, like Dalton,
+for orders, brimful of martial ardour while he packed and sorted his
+kit. Jack's belongings were to be sent on to him; while his own,
+salvaged from the wreck of patriotic-dinner parties at which his
+bachelor friends had drunk to the confusion of the enemy till they were
+themselves confused, were to be sold to his successor and to friends in
+the District. Mr. Ironsides had bespoken his gun, a local Rajah his
+ponies; and his dogs were to be distributed among friends. There
+remained personal treasures, chief among them being a gold napkin
+ring,&mdash;a christening present twenty-two years ago,&mdash;which was to be
+given to Honor as a keepsake. Should he fall in battle, it would serve
+to remind her tenderly of his unfaltering love. Thoughts of wooing and
+marriage were out of place and of secondary importance beside the needs
+of the Great War, into which he was going heart and soul.</p>
+
+<p>Poor old Jack! Tommy could pity him despite the fact that he was married
+to the girl of his heart. How it was possible for any fellow to "sit
+tight in his job" while all his pals were in the thick of the fight, was
+inconceivable. But Jack put the blame on the Government and settled down
+to enjoy his Elysium. It was clear that Mrs. Darling was going to have
+it all her own way in the future to Jack's supreme delight. According to
+her, "There was a place for every man, and every man should be kept in
+it." It was, further, a husband's duty to "obey his wife." As for the
+war!&mdash;he must remember that "They also serve who stand and wait,"&mdash;or,
+as she put it&mdash;"administer justice in the land in which it has pleased
+the Almighty to place them." The "Almighty," in this case, being the
+Government of India.</p>
+
+<p>These sentiments quoted in a humorous letter from the young magistrate,
+brought forth an appreciative reply and a wedding present which made a
+gap in Tommy's small savings, for he was infinitely relieved at his
+friend's escape from the clutches of a certain lady. It was a
+satisfaction to know that at last Jack would be in agreement with
+Solomon on the subject of a wife.</p>
+
+<p>Honor Bright first met Mrs. Dalton at the <i>mêla</i>, not having been at
+home when that lady had called. She was making a tour of the exhibits
+with friends from Hazrigunge when she was joined by the Meeks who were
+charitably piloting the lonely new-comer about the grounds. Mr. Meek,
+glad of an amiable listener, was discoursing on the merits of his
+live-stock which had won prizes, and was pointing them out in their
+pens. Husband and wife, in their isolation at the Mission, heard little
+or nothing of Station gossip, and to them Mrs. Dalton appeared very
+superior to her unfriendly husband whom they had never liked. Small
+wonder that his wife had been unable to agree with such a domineering
+nature!</p>
+
+<p>Honor thought her greatly altered and believed she could divine the
+cause. Since happiness has its source from within, it was not surprising
+that Mrs. Dalton had failed to find it in the life she had led. Her eyes
+had a wistful appeal; her manner was deprecating. The old confidence and
+daring were gone, never to return. Something had happened to bring
+disillusionment, and the lesson had sunk deeper.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw so little of you when I was last here," she said to Honor after
+shaking hands. "You went directly to the hills, you remember? I do hope
+we shall be friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind," said Honor with embarrassment, as she had no
+inclination for friendship with Brian Dalton's wife.</p>
+
+<p>"We have so many tastes in common, I believe, and might do things
+together. In a quiet station like this, it is the only way to kill
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very busy now-a-days," said Honor whose time was always too well
+occupied to admit of practising such an accomplishment. "There are
+ambulance classes at the Railway Institute; the work-society for
+knitting comforts for the soldiers and sailors; the bazaar at Hazrigunge
+for the Belgian Relief Fund, and other duties, so that I have quite a
+lot to do."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish that I, too, might help!"</p>
+
+<p>"The secretary would be glad, I am sure. She is Mrs. Ironsides. I should
+advise you to apply to her." With a smile and bow, Honor passed on,
+followed by Mrs. Dalton's gloomy gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Honor Bright is a very dear friend of mine," said Mrs. Meek, kindly.
+"Don't you think she is a very refreshing specimen of girlhood? My
+husband thinks she is very good-looking, but I say she is good to look
+at. A distinction without a difference, you will say? but not so; the
+difference lies in expression, which makes the matter of features
+immaterial. Honor has such a frank and truthful face, and a nature of
+the very kindest."</p>
+
+<p>"I am just wondering why it is she is not married?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will marry the right man when he comes along. So far I have not
+seen one good enough."</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather wonderful how everyone loves her! Most people have enemies
+and detractors, but Miss Bright seems a universal favourite."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not really surprising. She is universally respected and beloved.
+Even the natives look up to her."</p>
+
+<p>"'Respected!'" echoed Mrs. Dalton to herself bitterly. The lack of
+self-respect had always been the rock on which her life had been
+shipwrecked. She had failed to mark it on her chart, and was now a
+derelict. A jealous pang went through her and she remarked with a tinge
+of spite, "In fact, Miss Bright is so good that, like the Pharisee of
+old, she thanks God she is not as other women are!"</p>
+
+<p>"You do her injustice. I know no one more charitable," said Mrs. Meek
+warmly.</p>
+
+<p>"I apologise," said Mrs. Dalton with a sudden revulsion of feeling.
+"Believe me, I have reason to know that, for she tried to do me a good
+turn, I don't know why,&mdash;considering the circumstances,&mdash;but I must find
+an opportunity for thanking her." Yet Mrs. Meek saw only discontent and
+unhappiness in her companion's face, and wondered.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Honor passed beyond their range of vision and was making
+household purchases for her mother: <i>jharunsé</i><a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> made at Cawnpur, lace
+at the Mission, a pair of garden shears, and trifles that appealed to
+her as useful for the Hazrigunge bazaar.</p>
+
+<p>While selecting a rush basket for flowers at a stall for the sale of
+wicker-work made by low-caste Hindus at Panipara, she overheard a
+conversation in the vernacular between one of the workers and an
+outsider of evil appearance. Their words were often unintelligible being
+drowned in the noises prevailing around her, but the drift of their talk
+held Honor rigid and attentive, with every faculty alert, and fear at
+her heart. Feeling secure in the midst of so much distraction, they
+spoke unreservedly.</p>
+
+<p>"These reeds of Panipara are unsurpassed," said the outsider viciously.
+"Where will you get others for your trade, now that the <i>jhil</i>, is being
+drained? Look you, it is the work of Dalton Sahib, this butcher of human
+flesh!"</p>
+
+<p>"Alack! my trade is ruined. I shall have to move on and seek a living
+elsewhere, or die of want!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thus you are turned from the village of your forefathers where you have
+worked,&mdash;and they before you,&mdash;at basket-plaiting and mat-making. What
+does he deserve for his wanton act?"</p>
+
+<p>"May he die, and jackals eat his flesh!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a just saying, my brother! Even I have suffered&mdash;" for a few
+minutes Honor heard nothing but the loud laughter of some Bengali
+students who were passing. "My only child it was," the voice proceeded
+agitatedly; "he was rendered unconscious, and while lying helpless on a
+table at the hospital, and I his father crying in the yard below, this
+ruthless one cut open his bowels and removed a part of the intestines!
+Can anyone live without that which is necessary to life. In agony my son
+died, calling aloud to his mother and father,&mdash;and we, powerless to save
+him! <i>Ai Khodar!</i> Listening my liver dried up and my heart hardened as a
+stone, while I took vows on his dead body to find a way to punish this
+murderer. No matter how long I have to wait, I shall&mdash;" again his words
+were lost.</p>
+
+<p>"But brother, this is idle talk! will you risk&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Care must be taken to find one suited to the job; he must have
+experience and courage, and"&mdash;he glanced suspiciously at Honor and
+dropped his voice, fearing that she might be one of those Memsahibs, who
+understood Bengali. So many did not.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one man at Panipara&mdash;of daring inconceivable. Three months he
+served in gaol for&mdash;he fears neither the law nor&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ss-s-h! I will see him. Tell me where&mdash;?" Their heads drew closer as
+their voices were lowered to continue their plotting.</p>
+
+<p>Honor could hear no more. She had drawn too near and their suspicions
+were aroused, so that whatever else they had to say was lost in
+mumbling.</p>
+
+<p>Her heart hammered and her pulses throbbed with fear. What were these
+men thinking of doing in their revenge? Was the doctor's life in actual
+danger?</p>
+
+<p>Her friends, at another stall where brasses and wood-carving were
+displayed, were signalling for her to join them. She looked around for
+help, but not a policeman was in sight. Even then, she could have done
+nothing, for the evil-looking Indian had slipped away and was lost in
+the crowds. She had no positive evidence to offer that would satisfy the
+law. The basket-weaver, looking innocent and bland, sat on his haunches
+shouting out to the public to inspect his goods.</p>
+
+<p>Honor, therefore, controlled her excitement, and decided to warn Captain
+Dalton again on his return to the Station, and consult her father on the
+subject. With an anxious heart, she joined her friends who were looking
+on at a monkey dance.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Bibi Johorun</i>," the female monkey, dressed in skirt and shawl, and cap
+on her head adorned with a red feather, hopped to the measure of the
+little drum the man rattled rhythmically with a turn of his wrist; while
+her husband, the male, in coat and brass buttons, sat on a toy stool
+awaiting his turn to be called up for the War. Presently the pair would
+embrace in farewell, he would shoulder his mimic gun to the delight of
+the spectators, and proceed to march to battle to the time of the drum.
+Honor knew the routine perfectly. Meanwhile his expression of sleepy
+indifference under the rakish khaki cap as he blinked and chewed the
+nuts offered by the public, was human in its comprehension. When the
+crowd grew pressing, Honor left with her party, hearing for some
+distance the man's monotonous sing-song voice urging Johorun to dance
+for her reward, failing which there would be a certainty of
+chastisement.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>"Natcho-jee, Johorun, natcho-jee!</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Paisa milé ga.</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Paisa, na courie, thuphur milé, ga!"</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>That evening, at the Club, Mrs. Dalton drew Honor apart from the rest of
+the company and they paced the grass together while it grew dusk. She
+was evidently much agitated, and after making some clumsy attempts to
+lead up to the subject, she suddenly broke out with the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me why you told my husband to take me back?"</p>
+
+<p>As Honor was not ready with her reply, she continued,</p>
+
+<p>"He told me in his specially cruel fashion, that I owed the concession
+to you, for I had charged him with being in love with you."</p>
+
+<p>Honor drew back shocked at her bad taste. "That is hardly the thing for
+you, his wife, to tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say it from any evil motive!&mdash;oh, I wish you to believe that I
+am past all that&mdash;I have no longer any use for malice, and hatred&mdash;even
+jealousy! I only want to understand you. I am a woman, too; if I cared
+about a man who loved me as he loves you, I should want to kill the
+woman who stood in my way! There is something eternally primitive about
+love in its relation to the sexes!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is love&mdash;and <i>love</i>. Perhaps you don't know&mdash;apart from
+everything&mdash;that Joyce Meredith is my dear friend? She has a right to be
+happy in her married life."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. So you sacrificed yourself and ordered him to come to the
+rescue! He would do anything in the world for you."</p>
+
+<p>"He and I can never be anything to each other," said Honor firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am beginning to feel truly sorry for my husband. Perhaps you don't
+believe it? But, since he despises me so absolutely, it seems a shame
+that he should be tied to me for life! He should have given me my
+liberty long ago. You know why we parted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know."</p>
+
+<p>"He might then have married you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please do not speak to me in this way or I must refuse to walk with
+you," said Honor indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, don't!&mdash;please don't go before you hear what I have to say!"
+Mrs. Dalton cried earnestly. "I have no tact, and always say the wrong
+thing. The fact is, I am a most miserable woman, feeling every day the
+consequences of my first mistake. If you knew what a bankrupt I am in
+love and all that goes towards making life worth living, you would have
+the heart to feel a little pity for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do pity you," said Honor, relenting.</p>
+
+<p>"If he would only forgive me! But he is so hard. He spurns my every
+effort to humble myself. He has no faith in me. I killed it! But if he
+would only give me a chance, I would be a better woman, I swear it! A
+kind word and look&mdash;oh, what wouldn't I do to atone! Miss Bright, you
+can help me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You! Natures like yours are great." Mrs. Dalton's voice broke with
+a sob and she wrung her hands in genuine emotion. "You may not credit me
+with sincerity, but I am not wholly bad. Brian is my husband&mdash;whenever I
+look at him I realise all that I have lost forever&mdash;unless, a miracle
+happens and he forgives me! If he could do that, I would be his slave. I
+would be at his feet! What a life is mine! The emptiness of it!&mdash;the
+futility of it! Who cares for women like myself? Women at a loose end
+who have spoilt their lives, and are trying to patch up some kind of
+forbidden happiness for themselves? It is just a form of gambling; wild
+excitement while it lasts. But it never lasts long! Think what I feel
+tonight! Here am I, a married woman among so many&mdash;with a fine
+husband,&mdash;he is that!&mdash;hard and cold, yet such a <i>man</i>!&mdash;and I might
+have been so happy. I might have had children!" Mrs. Dalton broke down
+into violent sobbing and Honor guided her to a bench that she might weep
+unrestrainedly and so find relief.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange position for herself, who a moment ago was filled with
+repulsion, to find that she could fold the unhappy woman in her arms and
+attempt to console her with words.</p>
+
+<p>"I quite understand. Believe me, I <i>do</i> understand. It has been like
+losing the substance for the shadow."</p>
+
+<p>"Just that. Oh, why couldn't I have looked ahead and seen this day! But
+I was mad and blind. Women must be insane when they commit these
+irrevocable acts! It is only men who can retrieve such mistakes&mdash;women,
+<i>never</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is unfair to us," said Honor for her sex.</p>
+
+<p>"It is damned unfair!" said Mrs. Dalton fiercely. "Why can't he forgive
+me and let me have another chance? God forgives; why not man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he might&mdash;some day."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you say that? Oh, Miss Bright!&mdash;now I know why everyone loves you."
+She seized Honor's hand and kissed it passionately. "Will you plead for
+me? This is what I want of you. Will you do it? He would listen to you
+if he listened to no one else in the world. I am truly heart-broken, and
+done with folly and conscious wrong-doing. Jesus Christ said, 'Thy sins
+are forgiven thee, go and sin no more.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I will do my best for you," said Honor quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you&mdash;oh, God bless you and reward you! Brian is away for a
+few days. I will let you know when he returns, and you can come to the
+bungalow. Will you promise?"</p>
+
+<p>"I promise," said Honor bravely. "But he is giving his services to the
+war. He will be leaving shortly for the front?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know it. And I shall follow him wherever he goes, like a dog, just to
+be near and serve him. It is the least I can do. They want nurses at the
+front."</p>
+
+<p>They talked for a while longer and when they parted at the gate of the
+Club, it was understood that Honor would accept an invitation to tea at
+the Daltons' bungalow as soon as the doctor was back.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>A DIFFICULT TASK</h3>
+
+
+<p>The sun had long set and a grey dusk had fallen when Dalton, weary and
+despondent, returned to the Station after a dull round of inspection
+during which he had occupied comfortless <i>dâk</i> bungalows. Lights were
+appearing in many windows and were to be seen streaming from the
+reception rooms of the Club, where guests for the gala week were being
+entertained. As he passed, he could hear the click of the billiard balls
+and the sound of merry laughter. Somewhere in those lighted rooms was
+Honor Bright, perhaps, shedding the sunshine of her presence on her
+friends! His eyes strained wistfully to catch a glimpse of the beloved
+form, but in vain, for the Duranta hedge effectually obscured the view.</p>
+
+<p>Three days had passed since he had fled incontinently from the
+impossible conditions of his home, only to find himself compelled, when
+no further excuses for his absence were to be found, to return to it
+bitterly disgusted with life and feverishly impatient to escape
+altogether from an intolerable presence. One hope alone remained to him,
+and that was, that the Government would accept his offer for service at
+the front.</p>
+
+<p>Although in his relations towards his wife he was almost a stranger, he
+had paid her the compliment of letting her know the date and hour of his
+return; not from any impulse towards friendliness, but from an
+instinctive pride of race, which made it impossible for him to slight a
+white woman in the eyes of the natives. However far apart their lives
+were sundered, his servants, at least, would have to respect her as the
+Memsahib and the mistress of his house; any other position for her&mdash;a
+British lady in India&mdash;was unthinkable.</p>
+
+<p>And Mrs. Dalton was under no delusion respecting his object. The formal
+note had no special meaning for her.</p>
+
+<p>There was a light in the drawing-room, Dalton noticed, as he drove up to
+the steps; and as he descended from his car, a servant, salaaming,
+informed him that the Memsahib was entertaining a lady visitor.
+Receiving no encouragement to become communicative, he said no more, but
+hurriedly assisted other domestics to minister to his master's comforts.
+The Sahib had no interest in the Memsahib's doings, it was plain to all;
+and it was greatly to be deplored that he should have saddled himself
+with her presence in his bungalow where he had so long enjoyed freedom
+and solitude.</p>
+
+<p>In his private apartments, all was ready for Dalton's reception;
+refreshments were produced like magic; the lowered lights raised; and he
+was able to rest and recover at his leisure from the fatigues of the
+day. Seated at his desk in his comfortable study, he smoked and read the
+letters that had accumulated in his absence while his mind
+subconsciously dwelt on thoughts of Honor.</p>
+
+<p>Where was she? What was she doing? How was she enduring their miserable
+separation? Was it preying upon her as on him?</p>
+
+<p>Would he ever have the chance to hold her in his arms again and read the
+truth in her dear eyes? Or must he go to his grave with this ache of
+unfulfilled longing forever denied to him?</p>
+
+<p>The thought was insupportable. Every fibre of his being craved for her
+with a desire so intense and compelling, that he was incapable of
+concentrating his mind on any subject.</p>
+
+<p>While brooding in the deepest melancholy, a sound at his verandah door
+arrested his attention. It was distinctly the <i>frou-frou</i> of a woman's
+skirts. Could it be possible that his wife was seeking to force an
+interview with him?</p>
+
+<p>There came a light knock on the shutters of the open door which was
+screened with a cretonne curtain.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," he said impatiently, resenting the disturbance, and the
+curtain was raised to admit the diffident intruder.</p>
+
+<p>It was Honor, looking very white, yet as always, brave and sweet.</p>
+
+<p>"Honey!" he started to his feet deeply moved. The harshness vanished
+from his face which was now alight with wonderment and love. Dressed in
+a muslin frock and straw hat, she looked simple and fresh, and yet
+carried the air and distinction which had always marked her in any
+company. But though she smiled into his eyes there was something in her
+expression that forbade him to hope for any crumbs of comfort from her
+visit.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening," she said trying to speak in ordinary tones while the
+wild beating of her heart made her momentarily faint. "I came, as I
+wanted so much to tell you something."</p>
+
+<p>He gave her his seat and leaned against the table looking down at her.
+"I think I know why you have come. Not on your own account,&mdash;that would
+be impossible to you,&mdash;but it is on some dear, quixotic errand for
+another. You have come straight from&mdash;Mrs. Dalton." He could not bring
+himself to say, "my wife."</p>
+
+<p>Honor bent her head, looking distressed. Her mission was becoming more
+difficult than she had anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>"Honey," he said reproachfully, "don't you think I have done enough?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a little more you could do," she returned, lifting pleading
+eyes to his face.</p>
+
+<p>"For her? Do you think she deserves the half of the consideration she
+has received? Other women who have sinned against the law and every code
+of honour have been regarded as outcasts from society. Honest women bar
+their doors to such as she. I cannot bear to see you with her!&mdash;a girl
+like you cannot understand&mdash;I cannot explain"&mdash;he broke off with a
+gesture of impatience and helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand quite well," said Honor lifting her head courageously. "I
+feel that life is terribly unjust. There are men who are even worse than
+she, and yet their sins are covered, and society allows them to marry
+pure, honest girls! Is that right or just?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Dalton's turn to lower his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>Honor continued speaking. She did not allow her maidenly reserve to
+stand in the way of her frank denouncement of the injustice of human and
+social laws. Very quietly and logically she stated the case while Dalton
+with arms folded on his breast, listened, ashamed for himself and his
+sex. Before she had finished, he came and knelt beside her chair, and,
+gripping the arms of it with shaking hands, humbled himself to the dust.</p>
+
+<p>"We are all a cursed lot of Pharisees!" he cried. "Don't turn away from
+me with disgust! Pity me and love me still though I am unfit to kiss the
+hem of your skirt." Nevertheless, he bent and pressed his lips to the
+border of her gown.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, don't!" she cried, the tears flooding her eyes. "You and I cannot
+think of love any more! It must be friendship or nothing. Today I have
+realised as I never did before, that there are higher duties for some of
+us, to which we must give the first place, even at the sacrifice of
+love."</p>
+
+<p>"Honey, you don't know what you are saying!" he cried passionately.
+"Dearest, you cannot forbid me to love you! It is an unalterable fact. I
+cannot change it, even at your bidding."</p>
+
+<p>"I know&mdash;it is quite true of love, for it is a sacred thing and belongs
+to the heart. But it can be locked away&mdash;put out of sight&mdash;<i>buried</i>,"
+she returned, her voice breaking. "The higher duty is&mdash;the <i>saving of a
+soul</i>. Dare we withhold our forgiveness from a repentant sinner? Your
+wife is truly a very miserable woman. She is on her knees to you. Can
+you afford to refuse her?&mdash;or will you rather say, 'Go and sin no more'?
+Which of us is without sin? If you repulse her now, it might lead to her
+ruin, body and soul?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are asking more of me than I can do. I can never again look upon
+her as a wife. Feeling as I do, it would be a violation of the best
+instincts of my nature."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not asking that of you."</p>
+
+<p>"What, then, is it I must do? for you know that I would give all I
+possess to please you."</p>
+
+<p>Honor's tears fell fast, unheeded. "<i>Only be kind to her.</i> Let her feel
+that she has something to live for. At present she has nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, she is false. She has played upon your sympathies and led
+you to believe in her."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in her only because it is impossible to doubt her
+wretchedness, or her repentance."</p>
+
+<p>"She lied to you!"</p>
+
+<p>"She told me the truth concerning herself. She did not spare herself.
+Hers is, indeed, a 'broken and a contrite heart' which even God does not
+despise," said Honor reverently.</p>
+
+<p>"You wish me to be kind to her?&mdash;Tell me how, when we live under the
+same roof and I can never regard her as my wife?"</p>
+
+<p>His eyes gazed upon the girl's face with wistful yearning. She was his
+soul's mate,&mdash;she of the pure eyes and tender mouth! He could be kind to
+<i>her</i> all the days of his life. He could love and cherish <i>her</i>, in
+sickness and in health. Would to God she could belong to him!</p>
+
+<p>But she was talking of his duty to another whom he despised!</p>
+
+<p>Honor pleaded long with all her gentle tact, that he would try to
+practice tolerance and kindness. The future would take care of itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Kindness from you is all she craves, and a chance to prove her
+sincerity."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way can I be kind?" he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"By being thoughtful of her needs, considerate, and forbearing. Speak
+gently, and do not grudge her your smiles when there is need to show
+appreciation."</p>
+
+<p>"And if I bring myself to do all these things, do you believe she will
+be content? Oh, Honey!&mdash;what a burden you are laying on my shoulders! Do
+you know that I find it difficult to be even decently polite to her?
+That is why I keep out of her way. And what is my reward to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"If we do our duty day by day, it is enough. We should not look for
+reward, yet, I am confident we shall receive it, never fear! It works
+out right in the end."</p>
+
+<p>"When I am dead?"&mdash;bitterly. "There is only one thing I want. Given
+that, I would ask nothing more of life!"</p>
+
+<p>He rose and stood aside to set her free, for Honor indicated that her
+visit was at an end.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, and God bless you, Brian," she said with trembling lips,
+giving him both her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton made no reply, but stooping, kissed them tenderly; for the moment
+he was incapable of speech. Then going to the door he held the curtain
+aside to allow her to pass out.</p>
+
+<p>Honor found her way home, shaken with emotion. She had won her point,
+but Mrs. Dalton would have to discover for herself the result of the
+interview which she had contrived to bring about; and if it helped her
+to begin afresh, the pain it had cost would not have been in vain.</p>
+
+<p>So deeply engrossed had she been in the purpose of her visit, that she
+had forgotten to repeat to Captain Dalton the conversation she had
+overheard at the <i>méla</i>. Her father had scoffed at it, and Tommy had
+treated it with indifference, explaining that all pioneers of progress
+in India had to put up with opposition, threats, and bluff. The natives
+of Bengal were too cowardly to risk their necks&mdash;didn't she remember her
+Macaulay? After all, there was really nothing tangible to worry about.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the matter so preyed upon her mind, that she wrote a note
+after dinner to Mrs. Dalton, telling her all about it, and asking her to
+persuade her husband to be always on his guard against sudden surprises,
+as she believed men were plotting against his life. It would give the
+poor woman an opportunity to begin friendly relations with her husband,
+and possibly help to bring about a better understanding between them.</p>
+
+<p>The note was entrusted to an orderly, who dropped it in the pocket of
+his tunic and postponed the delivery of it to a more convenient season,
+his friends from the bazaar having gathered at the door of his
+<i>basha</i><a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>, behind the bungalow, for a smoke, and to gossip about their
+exploits at the <i>méla</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till they had gone, that he was recalled to a sense of duty
+with regard to the note, and the hour was then late. However, it was as
+much as his place was worth for him to leave the delivery of it till the
+morning; so, making his way across to the Civil Surgeon's bungalow, he
+aroused Mrs. Dalton's ayah, who, in her turn, roused her mistress, and
+handed her the communication from Honor.</p>
+
+<p>Thus does Fate control the destinies of individuals; for, had the
+orderly done his duty earlier, there might have been a very different
+ending to this story.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, a letter by the last post from Joyce in Darjeeling, engaged
+Honor till close upon midnight. It had given her much to think about,
+and called for a reply of congratulations, as it was written at a time
+of intense joy and thanksgiving over the restoration of happy relations
+with her husband:</p>
+
+<p>Joyce had written at great length, beginning her letter with a
+description of her journey and the miserable thoughts that had occupied
+her all the way. After giving a brief outline of the circumstances
+connected with her arrival at her husband's rooms, she continued:</p>
+
+<p>"You can imagine the shock it was to find her there and so very much at
+home! I could have killed her! But I did nothing melodramatic, believe
+me. I was too stunned. Instead, I boiled with the desire for a reprisal.
+Since I could not fight her like a savage, being, of course, a highly
+civilised person, I fought her with the only weapons at my command. I
+went to the Planters' Ball, tired though I was, and made an amazing hit.
+Did you ever imagine that I was an actress, born? If you had seen me
+dance and smile while my heart was breaking, you would have had to
+revise all previous impressions of little Me.</p>
+
+<p>"Ray looked completely dazed at first, and could hardly believe his
+eyes. I obliged him to keep up appearances, so that we danced a great
+deal together, and he had my sweetest smiles, though he knew all the
+while that my heart was turned to stone. I was an angel to him before
+others, but alone with him I was adamant. And Mrs. Dalton had the lesson
+of her life. I saw to it that Ray dropped her entirely, and as people
+are like sheep, there was no one brave enough to have anything to do
+with her. Her humiliation was complete. Before half the night was over,
+she left, looking mad with everybody. Even those who had been in the
+habit of speaking to her, gave her a wide berth, so you can imagine how
+comforted I felt!&mdash;though I am inclined, now, to be a weeny bit sorry
+for her. It must have been an appalling experience, and only a woman can
+appreciate what it must have felt like. However, it will do her good to
+realise how much it is all worth in the end! It seems like becoming all
+of a sudden bankrupt of friends and love, and of all that makes life so
+dear and good. I am surprised that Captain Dalton has cared to take her
+back, but I suppose it is to save her from worse. If that is so, he
+can't be so bad after all!</p>
+
+<p>"I am rather ashamed of the part I played at the ball, for I took a
+wicked pleasure in Ray's misery. He looked so white and ill all the
+time, and whenever we danced I could see how he was just aching to kiss
+me as he used to do. His eyes gave him away all the time! But he never
+dared, even when we sat out in sheltered nooks, for I was a cruel devil,
+and 'rubbed it in' every time I got the chance. But, darling, consider
+how sore I felt&mdash;and how angry!</p>
+
+<p>"So I flirted mildly all the evening just to show that two could play
+the same game! Of course, in cold blood, I simply hated myself for
+behaving so despicably. I did not know I had it in me, but one never
+knows oneself till things happen to rouse one thoroughly. In the end I
+had a splitting headache and felt on the verge of hysteria. It was all I
+could do not to break down while Ray was unhooking my frock at the back.
+It was the only ball-gown in my trunk, the other not having arrived&mdash;the
+sort of thing that leaves one at the mercy of some charitable person.
+That was Ray! Though we were quarrelling desperately, he hooked and
+unhooked me without a word of protest, and oh, the misery of his dear,
+handsome face in the mirror! I could have hugged it to my breast and
+cried upon the squiggly little curls that never lie flat. Oh, I do love
+him so! But I was too proud to relent so soon, and tried to keep up my
+rage, which all the while was cooling fast.</p>
+
+<p>"When Ray left me, after the little business of the hooks and eyes, he
+retired to his dressing-room, where I supposed he had caused a bed to be
+made up for himself on the floor. The hotel was so packed, there was no
+help for it. Well, how was it possible for me to sleep when I thought of
+his lying on the draughty floor, and myself in possession of his
+comfortable bed? I tossed and turned and wondered about him, seeing all
+the while his unhappy face in the mirror. I remembered about your saying
+how a man punishes himself by remorse far more than others can punish
+him, and I knew that my poor boy was suffering terribly. That made me
+think of tragedies with razors and things, till I could not lie down
+another minute, but had to get out of bed to peep and see that he was
+safe. Very softly I tip-toed to the curtain which hangs between the
+rooms, and put my eyes to the edge.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Honey darling, the poor fellow had no bed at all! His
+servant had not been given any order, and my dear, precious husband was
+sitting in the cold, before a dead fire, looking the picture of
+desolation and grief. It made me cry like anything to see his head bowed
+upon his arms, his whole attitude so dejected! and by the heaving of his
+shoulders, I knew he was crying. Think of it!&mdash;crying because of what he
+had done! and for my cruelty and unforgivingness! It is dreadful to see
+a strong man all broken up and humiliated for the sake of his wife. Oh,
+Honey! I could bear it no longer, and fairly ran to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you can imagine the rest. It is too sacred to relate, and I
+thrill all over at the memory of it. How we clung together&mdash;mingling our
+tears! Oh, what a blessed thing is love!</p>
+
+<p>"There is no more to tell, except that we are enjoying a second
+honeymoon, far more wonderful than the first. And you may be quite,
+quite sure that I shall never leave my beloved husband again, unless I
+am forced. He and I shall go home every three years to Baby who is well
+cared for by his grannie. Of course I miss him dreadfully!&mdash;but then,
+there's Ray!&mdash;a big baby in his way, and one can't cut one's self in
+two, can one? so, all things considered, I feel I must just hold on out
+here for his sake till we can go home together. It is wonderful how
+different India now seems to me! I verily believe I hated it before,
+because I was blind or asleep. Love makes Paradise of any place!</p>
+
+<p>"I have told Ray all about that time in the ruins, and we both agree
+that I was a little silly to let my dread of his view of it keep me
+silent. My folly nearly spoiled both our lives. I should have trusted my
+husband more. Anyhow, I am wiser now."</p>
+
+<p>Honor sat long over this very human document, moved to laughter and
+tears. So Joyce had pardoned her sinner and had come into her reward!
+Another sinner, far more culpable would also find happiness through
+forgiveness, and her husband come into his reward, some day! It was
+Life, with its eternal give and take, and its exchange which was seldom
+just. Yet, in proportion to the kindness and generosity with which Brian
+Dalton treated his contrite wife, would be her gratitude and devotion;
+and time would bring healing and forgetfulness of wrongs.</p>
+
+<p>But some there were who gave always, expecting nothing in return, and
+they, too, won happiness with the years&mdash;virtue being its own reward!</p>
+
+<p>For the first time Honor was conscious of a great bitterness of spirit
+as she sought oblivion in sleep.</p>
+
+<p>She had just turned down the wick of her bedroom lamp&mdash;for it was
+customary in those parts to sleep with a light burning low all night in
+a bedchamber because of the lurking danger from snakes&mdash;when she heard a
+sudden sound in the distance that rooted her to the spot. The next
+instant her mother who had been awakened by it, called out from the
+adjoining room:</p>
+
+<p>"Honor, are you awake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Did you hear that, Mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was just wondering what it was. It sounded like a pistol shot."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so, too. Listen!&mdash;there are voices."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bright, who was also disturbed, suggested in sleepy tones that his
+wife and daughter should go to sleep and leave other people to mind
+their own business. It was not part of his duty to look for trouble. It
+came fast enough to him in the ordinary channels. If any one had been
+killed, they would hear of it in due course.</p>
+
+<p>"How cold-blooded!" said Mrs. Bright.</p>
+
+<p>"We have quite enough of crime by day, my dear, without looking for it
+with a lantern at night."</p>
+
+<p>But the distant voices increased in agitation, and grew confused.</p>
+
+<p>Drawing the window curtain aside, Honor looked out into the night and
+saw unmistakable signs of alarm at Dalton's bungalow. Lights hurried to
+and fro and conflicting orders were shouted by one servant to another.
+In fact, it was very evident that something had gone seriously wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what could have happened?" said Mrs. Bright looking over her
+daughter's shoulder. "See, there is someone coming to tell us about it."</p>
+
+<p>A single light was moving swiftly towards the hedge that divided the two
+gardens. Honor felt her heart paralysing as she watched the progress of
+the lantern; a hand seemed tightening upon her throat and her limbs grew
+palsied with fear. What was it they were coming so quickly to say?</p>
+
+<p>An evil, dark face had risen before her imagination, and she heard again
+the voice speaking to the basket-maker at the <i>méla</i>, vowing to take the
+life of the surgeon who had been the cause of his only son's death. "Oh,
+God!&mdash;oh, God!" burst from her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Honey! Honey! What is it you fear?" Mrs. Bright cried, gripping her by
+the shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>But Honor broke away from her mother and, with shaking fingers, flung on
+her out-door clothes.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely you are not going out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you understand, Mother?" she cried in strained, unnatural tones.
+"They have killed him! I know they have killed him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sahib! Sahib!" called voices loudly on the verandah.</p>
+
+<p>The coolies pulling at the <i>punkha</i> joined in a chorus of "Sahib,
+Sahib!"</p>
+
+<p>"We are sent to call the <i>Bara Sahib</i>. Haste and wake him. A great
+calamity hath befallen."</p>
+
+<p>"A murder has been committed, wake the Sahib!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" exclaimed Mr. Bright springing from his bed. "What are they
+saying? A murder? Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"At Captain Dalton's bungalow. The doctor has been murdered!&mdash;how
+terrible! Honor always said people were plotting against his life," said
+Mrs. Bright, horror-stricken.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" said Mr. Bright again as he pulled on his boots. "Tell them
+I will be with them in a minute. Send someone to call Tommy Deare,
+quickly."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Honor was speeding across the grass on her way to the
+scene of the tragedy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ATONEMENT</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Honor's letter of warning was received by Mrs. Dalton, she was
+greatly disturbed in mind at the apparent gravity of its purport.</p>
+
+<p>On being awakened, she had carried the letter to the table, raised the
+light, and read all that Honor had to say, after which she felt
+undecided how to act. The lateness of the hour made it certain that her
+husband was sound asleep after his fatiguing day, and to rouse him for
+the purpose of passing on a caution which he had previously disregarded,
+would be, she thought, both inconsiderate and tactless. Besides, no good
+could be gained by disturbing him, as no action could possibly be taken
+at the moment, even presuming that he were disposed to move in the
+matter. It seemed, therefore, wisest to allow the letter to stand over
+till the morning. Attempts had been made on his life, but Mrs. Dalton
+had understood that the enmity and ill feeling in the District had
+practically died down. Yet, here it was shown to be smouldering
+dangerously and an imminent menace to her husband, sleeping or waking.</p>
+
+<p>Though she was not passionately fond of him, and was unlikely ever to
+be,&mdash;having grown weary of strenuous emotions and the disappointments of
+life,&mdash;she valued the legal tie that bound them together as her sheet
+anchor in a life of vicissitudes. The unwonted ease she enjoyed in
+Dalton's home made it a haven of rest after her many storms. Under the
+shelter of his protection, she looked forward to regaining, at least,
+her good name and standing, if not the place she had rightly forfeited
+in his esteem. She had a glimmer of hope that the future held some
+promise through Honor's intervention on her behalf.</p>
+
+<p>Honor had done an inconceivable thing. In Mrs. Dalton's view it was
+incomprehensible. Her reverence for the Divine Law had caused her to
+renounce the man she loved, and to plead with him for the woman who had
+lost all moral claim to his regard or consideration. She was wonderful!
+and Mrs. Dalton was filled with admiration and respect.</p>
+
+<p>At dinner that evening she had gleaned the first-fruits of Honor's
+sacrifice, for he had been less taciturn, and had even responded to his
+wife's efforts to engage him in ordinary conversation. Instead of
+sitting in silence throughout the meal, or exchanging banal remarks
+about the food or the weather, they had discussed the war and all that
+India was going to do to prove her loyalty to the Crown. He had spoken
+of the advance in science and surgery, bound to result from the lessons
+of the war; and had told her of his wishes and intentions regarding
+herself should he be suddenly called upon to start for Europe. The
+generosity and consideration shown in his arrangement for her, had
+touched her deeply, and she had been only too willing to express her
+concurrence. It was the first time she had known the sensation of a
+genuine and impersonal interest in an intellectual man's conversation;
+and she was happier than she had been for many a day. She lay down
+again, but sleep would not come to her eyes, and her thoughts were busy
+with the subject of Honor's letter. She reasoned with herself to no
+purpose, for the stillness of the night bred new fears and intensified
+the lurking danger.</p>
+
+<p>What should she do? waken her husband?&mdash;or wait till the morning?</p>
+
+<p>Would it not be best to watch over him silently while he slept? It might
+move him to gratitude when he should learn of the sacrifice of her
+night's rest!</p>
+
+<p>The weather was warm and muggy in spite of the <i>punkha</i> waving in the
+room, pulled by the uncertain hand of a coolie half-asleep in the
+verandah. There was another waving in like manner, she knew, in her
+husband's room at the extreme end of the bungalow; and in both
+apartments were windows thrown wide open to the night air&mdash;as was
+customary in the plains&mdash;with short curtains of lawn to screen the
+interior from public view. Outside, the shrill chirping of crickets
+vibrated in the air, and the occasional croak of a bull-frog from a pond
+in the garden, could be heard. Otherwise, the silence of the night was
+oppressive and ominous.</p>
+
+<p>Open windows not far from the ground offered an easy opportunity for
+entrance into the house of evil characters bent on mischief, and even
+the drowsy <i>punkha</i> coolie in the verandah would be none the wiser.</p>
+
+<p>The thought was disquieting and banished sleep from her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Impelled almost against her inclinations by an inward force too urgent
+to resist, Mrs. Dalton slipped on her kimona, and with her feet in
+slippers, went forth to satisfy herself, personally, that all was well
+with her husband. He did not desire her interest; he had no wish that
+she should sacrifice her rest, nevertheless, a sense of undefined
+apprehension made it impossible for her return to her bed and sleep.</p>
+
+<p>On her way to his bedchamber through the rooms that intervened, she
+could hear the squeak of the ungreased <i>punkha</i> wheel as the rope passed
+to and fro over it. It was proof positive that he was asleep, or he
+could not have tolerated the noise for a moment. Suddenly, however, it
+ceased, and Mrs. Dalton, comprehending the reason of its stoppage,
+smiled to herself, appreciating the frailty of the <i>punkha wallah</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving on the spot with the intention of stirring up the slumbering
+coolie, she was surprised to find that he had deserted his post after
+the manner of new hands unaccustomed to the task. This one, she
+remembered, had been engaged that very day. The rope hung idly against
+the wall under the wheel, and Mrs. Dalton was in momentary expectation
+of a curse from within as the mosquitoes settled on the sleeper.</p>
+
+<p>The culprit being nowhere in sight, she applied her eye to the edge of
+the curtain and looked towards the bed. Her husband lay, as she
+expected, fast asleep, tired out thoroughly, and unconscious of
+externals. Suddenly, as she peered at him, she became aware of a dark
+form moving between her vision and the sleeper.</p>
+
+<p>Paralysed with fear and incapable of uttering a sound, she saw the
+figure of an Indian clothed only in a narrow loin-cloth, creeping
+stealthily towards the bed.</p>
+
+<p>Who was he? and what was he trying to do?</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dalton was rooted to the spot and dumb with terror.</p>
+
+<p>Something gleamed in his hand&mdash;a steel blade had caught the reflection
+of the lowered flame of a lamp hanging on the wall. The man's purpose
+was plain, for thieves do not usually carry knives. He was there to
+commit murder. Oh, God!</p>
+
+<p>What was she to do?&mdash;She was powerless to move. Fear made her a coward,
+a helpless, nerveless creature. Like one in a horrible dream, her tongue
+refused to utter a warning, or her constricted throat to produce a
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>And there was not a moment to lose as the figure was stealthily nearing
+the sleeper. Thoughts flashed through her brain with lightning rapidity.
+If the man were not stopped, somehow, and at any cost, in another moment
+she would see Honor's fears justified and Brian killed while asleep in
+his bed. How was it possible for her to witness such a deed and not
+raise a finger to save him?</p>
+
+<p>But she was defenceless!</p>
+
+<p>The man raised his right arm, and the sight of the knife fully exposed,
+gave the impetus needed to galvanise Mrs. Dalton's nerves into sudden
+and fierce activity. Without a thought for her own danger, she sprang
+into the room and flung herself upon the Indian, clasping him round the
+waist and holding him back as in a vice.</p>
+
+<p>"Brian!" she shrieked in strangled tones, finding her voice at last.
+"Brian! Help! Murder!"</p>
+
+<p>A fierce struggle ensued. The native tried to free himself in vain; her
+arms tightened about him as he flung himself from side to side, and did
+not loose their hold even when he struck at her with his knife over his
+shoulder, once, twice, thrice, burying the blade deep every time.</p>
+
+<p>Only one idea obsessed Mrs. Dalton, and that was to hold on till the
+assassin could be secured. He should not escape to remain a menace to
+her husband's life!</p>
+
+<p>Her cries aroused Dalton from his profound sleep. He had long been in
+the habit of placing a loaded revolver under his pillow at night for
+self-protection from possible attempts on his life, and instantly
+realising the situation, leaped out of bed, and fired point blank at the
+Indian's head as the knife descended once more on his poor doomed wife.</p>
+
+<p>As the man dropped dead, Mrs. Dalton fell into her husband's arms, an
+unforgettable sight.</p>
+
+<p>Dalton carried her to his bed and laid her in it, a dying woman, while
+the terror-stricken servants crowded into the room. He gave them his
+orders and they sped in various directions&mdash;one to inform the police,
+another to rouse Mr. Bright. Someone took the car for the assistant
+surgeon, while others brought in more lamps and fetched and carried all
+that was necessary for the work of First Aid.</p>
+
+<p>With her life ebbing fast, Mrs. Dalton made a pitiful attempt to explain
+the reason of her presence on her husband's side of the house, afraid
+that he would misunderstand her motive; and he was filled with sorrow
+and self-reproach. "I came to see that you were safe&mdash;I only wanted to
+watch over you, for I had been warned that you were in danger. Miss
+Bright wrote&mdash;her letter is on my table, read it."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," he said with the utmost gentleness, "and I cannot find
+words to tell you how I honour your wonderful courage and sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>"It was the only thing to do. I could not call out&mdash;I had no voice! I
+was so dreadfully afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid for me!&mdash;and not for yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"I had no time to think of that."</p>
+
+<p>"It was heroism! You did a thing which, in battle, would have won you
+the Victoria Cross!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God I was able!" she panted.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not deserve it. Will you forgive me?" he asked brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is I who have to ask that!"</p>
+
+<p>"The past is all wiped out today, so far as I am concerned. God bless
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, thank you for that!&mdash;May God forgive me for the mistakes and the
+folly&mdash;the wrong-doing! It is too late now to retrieve them! Ah, those
+words, 'too late'!&mdash;on how many graves?... the words, 'too late'!...
+Yet&mdash;Honor would say it is never too late while there is breath in which
+to call on&mdash;the name of the Lord."</p>
+
+<p>"God is very merciful to all sinners who repent," said Dalton. "I, too,
+am a sinner. I have been a Pharisee and hypocrite all my life; may I,
+too, be forgiven!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps this will be taken into the account&mdash;my atonement," she sighed
+feebly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have done what few women in your place would have had the courage
+to do. I shall remember it all the days of my life with gratitude and
+remorse."</p>
+
+<p>For a while they were silent as he did all he could to ease her
+suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"This is death!" she whispered, searching for his face with glazing
+eyes. "Tell Honor&mdash;I wish her the happiness she deserves.... You will
+love her as you could never have loved me. It is for the best...!"</p>
+
+<p>Dalton stooped low and kissed her on the forehead and as he straightened
+himself he saw that she was dead.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When Honor arrived in the verandah and heard the story of the tragedy,
+her heart bounded with a very human relief at the thought that a most
+precious life had been spared. For a moment she had room for no other
+thought in her mind. "Thank God, Brian is safe!" she cried to her soul.</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards she could afford to dwell on the miracle of Mrs. Dalton's
+sacrifice. Who would have thought her capable of such an act of heroism?
+Truly, one never knows how much of good there is in human nature,
+howsoever perverted! Poor Mrs. Dalton! She had, indeed, atoned. She had
+given her all&mdash;her very life for the man she had wronged, and whose
+pride she had lowered in the dust. It was a magnificent act, the memory
+of which would wipe out every wrong she had done, and silence every
+tongue that spoke ill of her.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she still living?" Honor asked one of the servants, fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>"She died but a moment ago," said the <i>bearer</i>, "for the Sahib has
+retired into another room and all is silent."</p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere, too, all was still. In the presence of death, voices were
+hushed, as the servants hung about waiting for the coming of those who
+had been called.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a terrible sight," Honor heard one say to another; "the body of
+that <i>punkha</i> coolie lying just where he fell. Some <i>domes</i><a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> must be
+fetched to remove him."</p>
+
+<p>"The Sahib says, let no one lay a hand on him till the police arrive;
+such is the custom when an inquiry has to beheld."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that her presence was unnecessary, Honor passed out into the
+darkness and ran swiftly home.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It was discovered later, at the inquest, that the discharge of a
+<i>punkha</i> coolie had given Dalton's watchful enemies the opportunity they
+had been seeking to carry out their plan of revenge; and that the man
+who had been engaged to fill the vacant post was a marked character,
+living in the village of Panipara, who was well known to the police.
+Doubtless he had been heavily bribed for the perpetration of the
+intended crime which had so strangely miscarried. The instigators
+pointed to their own complicity by disappearing from the District, and
+the vain search for them occupied Mr. Bright and his staff for many
+months. As well might one look for a needle in a stack of hay, as expect
+to find fugitive criminals among the numerous villages of Bengal.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Captain Dalton left for Europe soon after his wife's funeral, his
+services having been placed at the disposal of the War Office, and Honor
+treasured in her memory his brief words spoken in farewell as he held
+her hands in his. "We have both a great deal to do while the War lasts.
+Will you follow me, and let us work together?" In the moment of parting,
+it was not possible to keep out of his eyes all his lips could not say,
+and Honor promised.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE</h2>
+
+<h3>ALL'S WELL</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was something more than four years later, when the Armistice was
+signed amid world-wide rejoicings of the Allied Nations, that a young
+soldier, bronzed and upright, rang the bell of a beautiful flat in
+Brighton, over-looking the sea. Above his breast pocket, on the left,
+were two ribbons, the D.S.O. and the M.C., the sight of which had won
+him glances of approval and soft looks of admiration, all the way along.
+Those bits of ribbon told wordlessly of self-sacrifice and devotion to
+duty; valour and endurance;&mdash;they suggested to the subconscious mind,
+danger, bodily discomfort, and endurance to the limit of human
+suffering, so that this brisk little freckled officer of very ordinary
+looks, was marked for all time, by those who knew, as one of the many
+special heroes of the most terrible war the world has ever known.</p>
+
+<p>He was shown into the drawing-room, and, in a moment, a gracious lady
+swept in with welcome in her eyes and both hands extended.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Tommy!&mdash;how good it is to see you safe!"</p>
+
+<p>"And to see you looking so fit, Honey&mdash;dear old girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"I was beginning to feel quite anxious, as you had not written for a
+month!"</p>
+
+<p>"There was so much doing. Besides, I was reserving it all for our
+meeting."</p>
+
+<p>They had much to talk about; he, of his vicissitudes in Mesopotamia, and
+she, of her husband and his work in the war-hospital in Brighton to
+which he was attached. Last of all, Tommy asked to see his god-son to
+whom he had yet to be introduced.</p>
+
+<p>"He is such a perfect darling!" said Honor beaming upon her visitor
+happily; "the very image of Brian." Pressing a bell, she gave her orders
+which were promptly obeyed by a nurse who entered with the baby, a lusty
+boy with grey-green eyes, and lips firmly locked in a cupid's bow.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo!" said Tommy, "shake hands with 'Uncle'!"</p>
+
+<p>"Say, 'How do'?" said Honor, kissing the velvet cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ow do!" said Baby staring at the pretty coloured ribbons on the khaki
+tunic.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the age at which I like them best," said Tommy admiringly.
+"He's 'some' kid! Do you remember trying to interest me in the Meredith
+infant when it was a glorified dummy in long clothes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and you wasted your energies trying to fix its attention when it
+did not know you from a mango tree!" They laughed heartily at the
+recollection.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the Merediths, by the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are stationed at Darjeeling, which suits the baby very
+well&mdash;perhaps you don't know that there is another baby?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe Jack wrote something of the sort, some little time back."</p>
+
+<p>"A baby girl this time, and getting on splendidly."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the first?&mdash;still with the grandparents?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I saw him not long ago&mdash;such a beautiful boy and so independent!
+The old people are so proud of him. Do you know that Jack and Kitty are
+at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! When did they come? I did not know that women were allowed
+passages?"</p>
+
+<p>"They managed to 'wangle' it, somehow. Jack had malaria and was ordered
+home by the doctors. It was a most exciting voyage, from all accounts,
+for their boat was chased by a submarine in the Bay of Biscay and
+escaped two torpedoes by a miracle."</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible!"</p>
+
+<p>"Kitty says she would not have missed the experience for anything; but
+Jack declares the anxiety has taken ten years off his life."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old Jack! Where are they? I shall look them up."</p>
+
+<p>"Staying with his people. They are in love with Kitty and can't make
+enough of her."</p>
+
+<p>"And what are your plans now that the war is over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Brian expects to return to India, in which case, we go with him."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll take the baby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most assuredly! Master Tommy is not going to be left behind by his
+Mummy&mdash;not on any account!"</p>
+
+<p>"But the climate? I thought it does not agree with babies?"</p>
+
+<p>"It agrees quite well; at least for the first few years. I am not so
+sure about it later on, but, 'sufficient unto the day is the evil
+thereof.' We'll begin to think about sending him home when he turns
+seven. You see, we have the hills, and life is too short for unnecessary
+partings."</p>
+
+<p>"I am with you there! How are Mr. and Mrs. Bright?"</p>
+
+<p>"As usual, thank you. Father retires after the New Year, and they will
+live in Edinburgh. And what of your plans, Tommy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say I shall be back in the Police again, before long."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you not found any one yet as a life-partner, to make India
+worth while?" she asked kindly.</p>
+
+<p>Tommy smiled. "I am in no hurry, being difficult to please. I shall have
+to find the lady whose price, according to old Solomon, is 'far above
+rubies,' or remain in single blessedness all my days."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find her right enough if you <i>know where</i> to look, and <i>how</i>!"
+said Honor laughing. "Her natural element is the country home."</p>
+
+<h4>THE END.</h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Magistrate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Scullion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Butler.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Motor-car.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Brother.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Mountains.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Commission.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Big House.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Chat.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Indian drum.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Curtains.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Fairs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Hindu festival.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Magic.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Earthen receptacle.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Indian blackberry.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Butter converted into oil by boiling.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> With Fate lay the decision.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Fair.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Dish-cloths.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Dwelling.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Low-caste Hindus.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="OTHER_BOOKS_TO_READ" id="OTHER_BOOKS_TO_READ"></a>OTHER BOOKS TO READ</h2>
+
+
+<h3><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Reproof of Chance<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Blind Alley<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Daughter-in-Law<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Baba and the Black Sheep<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sinners All<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Mistress of Herself<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3><i>A Selection from the Catalogue of</i></h3>
+
+<h3>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</h3>
+
+
+<h4>Blue Aloes</h4>
+
+<h4>By Cynthia Stockley</h4>
+
+<h4>Author of "Poppy," "The Claw," "Wild Honey," etc.</h4>
+
+<p>No writer can so unfailingly summons and materialize the spirit of the
+weird, mysterious South Africa as can Cynthia Stockley. She is a favored
+medium through whom the great Dark Continent its tales unfolds.</p>
+
+<p>A strange story is this, of a Karoo farm,&mdash;a hedge of Blue Aloes, a
+cactus of fantastic beauty, which shelters a myriad of creeping
+things,&mdash;a whisper and a summons in the dead of the night,&mdash;an odor of
+death and the old.</p>
+
+<p>There are three other stories in the book, stories throbbing with the
+sudden, intense passion and the mystic atmosphere of the Veldt.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h4>Unconquered</h4>
+
+<h4>By Maud Diver</h4>
+
+<h4>Author of "Captain Desmond, V.C.," "Desmond's Daughter," "The Great
+Amulet," etc.</h4>
+
+<p>In this book, Maud Diver proves that she needs no Indian background
+against which to work a powerful and emotional drama. This novel is
+called by the author, "an episode of 1914," and is the story of a
+vigorous out-of-doors man who, severely wounded, is brought home in the
+early days of the war, and of the girl who is repelled by the physical
+imperfections of her one-time handsome and sturdy lover. The other sort
+of girl is also in this tale, the slacker and the pacifist. It is a
+strong story, admirably told by a master novelist.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h4>Desmond's Daughter</h4>
+
+<h4>By Maud Diver</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<i>Desmond's Daughter</i> is an Anglo-Indian novel of much more than
+ordinary importance. As a study of a complex character it has
+remarkable power.... Mrs. Diver understands the English officer
+thoroughly and does not spare his weaknesses; but that she
+appreciates his good points is shown in her true and vivid story of
+the Tirah Campaign. It is this which gives the book the right to be
+regarded as an historical novel of first importance; and there is
+no more striking illustration of our methods of governing and
+holding our Indian Empire than this stimulating and convincing
+story."&mdash;<i>Aberdeen Free Press.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The present War is not mentioned in these pages; yet the spirit of
+England at war is in them, the spirit of those clean-cut young
+Englishmen, who know so well how to die.... There is more than
+entertainment in Mrs. Diver's books; more than serious interest,
+though they have much of both. In them speaks England's faith in
+her sons and daughters; in the qualities which have made her race
+great and powerful and fit to endure." <i>New York Tribune.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h4>GREATHEART</h4>
+
+<h4>By Ethel M. Dell</h4>
+
+<p>There were two of them&mdash;as unlike as two men could be. Sir Eustace, big,
+domineering, haughty, used to sweeping all before him with the power of
+his personality.</p>
+
+<p>The other was Stumpy, small, insignificant, quiet, with a little limp.</p>
+
+<p>They clashed over the greatest question that may come to men&mdash;the love
+of a girl.</p>
+
+<p>She took Sir Eustace just because she could not help herself&mdash;and was
+swept ahead on the tide of his passion.</p>
+
+<p>And then, when she needed help most&mdash;on the day before the
+wedding&mdash;Stumpy saved her&mdash;and the quiet flame of his eyes was more than
+the brute power of his brother.</p>
+
+<p>How did it all come out? Did she choose wisely? Is Greatheart more to be
+desired than great riches? The answer is the most vivid and charming
+story that Ethel M. Dell has written in a long time.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANKED FIRES***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 31399-h.txt or 31399-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/3/9/31399">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/9/31399</a></p>
+<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/31399.txt b/31399.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b9b4d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31399.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13934 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Banked Fires, by E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Banked Fires
+
+
+Author: E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2010  [eBook #31399]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANKED FIRES***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Mary Meehan, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+BANKED FIRES
+
+by
+
+E. W. SAVI
+
+Author of "The Daughter-in-Law," "Sinners All," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     _"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
+     rubies."_--Proverbs xxxi., 10.
+
+
+
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+New York and London
+The Knickerbocker Press
+1919
+
+Copyright, 1919
+by
+E. W. Savi
+
+The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+                  To
+          MY SISTER, A. B. B.
+IN LOVING APPRECIATION OF HER INTEREST
+              AND HELP
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I.--The Lonely Encampment
+
+      II.--Mainly Retrospective
+
+     III.--The Civil Surgeon
+
+      IV.--A Point of View
+
+       V.--What Can't be Cured
+
+      VI.--The Leading Lady
+
+     VII.--An Anxious Experience
+
+    VIII.--The Dinner-Party
+
+      IX.--A Moment of Relaxation
+
+       X.--The Mission
+
+      XI.--A Sunday Observance
+
+     XII.--Infatuation
+
+    XIII.--Vanished
+
+     XIV.--The Indiscretion
+
+      XV.--The Aftermath
+
+      XVI.--Cornered
+
+     XVII.--Breaking Bounds
+
+    XVIII.--Secret Joys
+
+      XIX.--The Deluge
+
+       XX.--The "Ideal"
+
+      XXI.--The Real Thing
+
+     XXII.--A Desperate Resort
+
+    XXIII.--Temporisings
+
+     XXIV.--Suspense
+
+      XXV.--The Meeting
+
+     XXVI.--The Fair
+
+    XXVII.--A Difficult Task
+
+   XXVIII.--The Atonement
+
+   Epilogue: All's Well
+
+
+
+
+BANKED FIRES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE LONELY ENCAMPMENT
+
+
+An autumn evening in Bengal was rapidly drawing to a close, with a brief
+afterglow from a vanished sun to soften the rich hues of the tropical
+foliage, and garb it fittingly for approaching night. The grass beside
+the Government tents showed grey in the gathering dusk, while a blue
+haze of smoke, creeping upward, gently veiled the sheltering trees. But
+for the modulated chatter of servants, the stillness was eerie. The
+flat, low-lying fields, having yielded their corn to the harvester, were
+barren and without sign of life, for the cultivators had departed to
+their homesteads, and the roving cattle were housed.
+
+Far in the misty distance were the huts of the peasantry grouped
+together, with their granaries, haystacks, and pens; their date-palms,
+and the inevitable tank illustrating the typical Bengal
+village--picturesque and insanitary; too far for noxious smells to annoy
+the senses, or the intermittent beating of the nocturnal "tom-tom" to
+affect the nerves of the Magistrate and Collector during the writing of
+his judgments and reports.
+
+The spot for the encampment had been well chosen by the blue-turbaned
+_chaukidar_--the sturdy watchman of the village--who was experienced in
+the ways of touring officials; for even such a little matter as a site
+for pitching the tents of the _hakim_,[1] had its influence for good or
+ill; and what might not be the effect of a good influence on the temper
+of a lawgiver?
+
+[Footnote 1: Magistrate.]
+
+This one, especially, instilled the fear of God and of the British, into
+his servants and underlings in spite of his sportsmanship and
+generosity, for he had a great understanding of native character and,
+like a wizard, could, in the twinkling of an eye, dissect the mind and
+betray the soul of a false witness! None could look him in the face and
+persist in falsehood. He was a just man, and courageous; and when roused
+to wrath, both fierce and fluent. But the diplomatic domestic and
+cautious coolie, alike, respect justice and fearlessness, determination,
+and a high hand.
+
+Servants, engaged in culinary duties before open fire-places, gossiped
+in lowered tones of standing grievances: It was like the exactness of
+the Great to require a five-course dinner, served with due attention to
+refinement and etiquette in untoward circumstances, such as an
+improvised cooking-range of clay and bricks, a hurried collection of
+twigs, some charcoal, and every convenience conspicuous by its absence!
+And what a village to rely upon!--no shops; only a weekly market with
+nothing suitable to the wants of white men fastidious and difficult to
+please.
+
+Yet, the day that sahibs condescend to study the convenience of their
+Indian domestics, the prestige of the British Raj will be at an end.
+
+"Ho! _Khansaman-jee_!" cried an agitated voice in Hindustani. "With a
+little clemency, look quickly in the rubbish heap for the pepper pot.
+The _masalchi_,[2] out of the perversity of his youthfulness, has lost
+that and every other ingredient for the flavouring of the soup; and now,
+what can I do? Of a truth, this night will the Sahib give me much abuse
+for that which is no fault of mine. I shall twist the idle one's ear the
+moment he returns with firewood from the jungle, just to stimulate his
+mind and teach him carefulness."
+
+[Footnote 2: Scullion.]
+
+The _khansaman_[3] uncoiled his legs and rose from the ground where he
+had been peeling potatoes at his leisure with a table knife, and
+proceeded to do as he was bid. He was of an obliging nature and could be
+relied upon to perform odd jobs not strictly his duty, so long as they
+did not establish a precedent.
+
+[Footnote 3: Butler.]
+
+After some diligent searching among loose charcoal, dried twigs, kitchen
+rags, utensils, and vegetable parings, a rusty tin box was discovered
+and handed to the cook. Old Abdul grunted approval of his own
+intelligence, and after liberally sprinkling the soup with pepper from
+between a dirty finger and thumb, he wiped both, casually, in the folds
+of his loin-cloth.
+
+Altogether, the task of preparing dinner in camp was no mean effort. The
+business of the moment was to produce a clear soup with its artistic
+garniture of sliced carrots and turnips; to be followed by tank fish
+captured that afternoon from the property of a local Hindu landowner
+and, in the serving, robbed of its earthly flavour by a miracle of
+savoury dressing. Considering the lapses of the mate-boy's memory, this
+was a marvel of achievement. Next, the _entree_ of devilled goat (called
+by courtesy, mutton) was also a difficulty; nevertheless with a lavish
+addition of mango chutney, it was on its way to completion. The "chicken
+roast" was a tolerable certainty in a deep vessel where it baked in its
+own juices, stuffed with onions, cloves, and rice. But the
+pudding--alas! black despair, invisible owing to natural pigment, was in
+possession of Abdul's soul. What to do, he grumbled, but to serve, in
+fear and trembling, that abomination of sahibs, a "custul-bile" (boiled
+custard), since every possible ingredient for a respectable pudding had
+been left behind at the last Rest Bungalow! What the master would say,
+might well be imagined, for these were not the easy-going days of his
+bachelorhood, when such makeshifts, varied with "custul-bake," could be
+imposed upon him with the regularity of the calendar; for, after a
+successful day's _shikar_, with a tiger spread at full length on the
+grass before the tent for the benefit of an admiring semicircle of
+enthusiastic villagers, the quality of a meal used to be a secondary
+consideration.
+
+Well--what use to repine? Even a cook must sometimes be excused, since
+he was not God to create something out of nothing. Peradventure, the
+timely indisposition of the babe within the tent would offer
+distraction. In the interludes of stirring the pots and declaiming
+against fate and the misdemeanours of the _masalchi_, the cook soothed
+his ruffled spirits with a pull at his beloved _hukha_.
+
+Yes, the Sahib was married, worse luck! and lived, above all, to please
+his Memsahib who, to him, was the sun, moon, and stars; the light of the
+world. And she?--of a sort wholly unsuited to the conditions of his
+life; a flower plucked to wither in a furnace-blast. The rough soil of
+the country was no place for a delicate plant; and such was also
+apparent in the case of her infant. Since its arrival from the hills
+where it was born, it daily faded as though a blight had descended upon
+its vitality; and now it was stricken with a fever.
+
+Devil take sahibs for their folly! This one had been content enough as a
+bachelor, hunting and shooting in his spare time, and consorting with
+his kind where games were played to pass the time away; what-for did he
+allow himself to be shackled thus during his visit to _Belait_? It
+passed understanding; for there were many _Miss Babas_ in the country,
+already acclimatised, from among whom he might have selected a suitable
+wife; one who could at least have made herself intelligible to his
+servants in their own language, instead of this one who created endless
+confusion by non-comprehension. But no! he had been unable to stand the
+allurements of her person. The rounded outlines of her slender form and
+the bloom on her flawless cheek had enslaved him, depriving him of the
+power to resist. Truly she was good to look upon, as every masculine eye
+betrayed by its open homage.
+
+In all the annals of the District, never had there been a more
+picturesque creature than this girl-wife, with her hair like ripe corn
+and eyes like full-blown flowers of heavenly blue. Even the servants in
+gazing on their wonder forgot to heed the orders she delivered through
+the ayah, whose linguistic powers commanded the respect of the entire
+establishment.
+
+The subject of the little lady from _Belait_ was a favourite theme of
+conversation when domestics congregated in the region of the kitchen to
+gossip and smoke, and criticism was condescending and tolerant because
+of her good looks, which made their inevitable appeal. But opinion was
+agreed that no longer was Meredith Sahib the same man. Henceforth, if
+they would keep their situations, they must satisfy his lady. Her little
+hand would point the way he must in future tread.
+
+And he, the respected Magistrate and Collector, representative of the
+Government in the District--a sahib whose word had authority over
+thousands on the land, and before whom all delinquents trembled!
+
+Such was the influence of beauty!
+
+According to the words of a local poet who sang his verses in the
+Muktiarbad bazaar to an accompaniment of tom-tomming:
+
+    _A beautiful wife is as wine in the head to her husband; as wax is
+         in the palm of her hand.
+    His wisdom cometh to naught in his dwelling; his will is bartered
+         for the things in her gift.
+    Beguiled is he by the words of her mouth, and he taketh only the way
+         that will please her.
+    Bereft is he of his power to govern, yet happy is he in the bonds of
+         enslavement._
+
+And these did he compose out of the rumours current in the market-place
+respecting Meredith Sahib and the Memsahib he had taken to wife. _Yah,
+Khodah!_ the white race were amazingly simple!
+
+The sound of an infant's distressed wail broke the calm of the
+descending gloom. Voices within the tent conferred together in agitated
+whispers. There was a call for hot water, and in a moment the Madrassi
+ayah rushed forth for the steaming kettle which was boiling for scullery
+needs, and carried it off without a question. The waterman, clad only in
+a loin-cloth, hurried round to the bath tent, and a diminutive, tin
+bath-tub was extracted. Apparently the child was to be immersed.
+
+"What has happened?" called the Sahib's body servant, the _bearer_, who
+was the major-domo of the camp. But the waterman, fully appreciative of
+his temporary importance, refused to reply as he disappeared from view.
+
+"Ice--ice!" the lady cried dashing through the bamboo chick and almost
+tearing it from its fastenings. "Give me ice quickly." She looked
+haggard and distracted. Dark circles ringed her eyes; her sleeves rolled
+above the elbows revealed rounded arms from which water dripped; her
+skirt was splashed; her blouse and hair were in disarray.
+
+"There is none, _huzur_," said the _bearer_ in Hindustani. "Hourly is it
+expected from Muktiarbad, but as yet it is not in sight."
+
+"What is he saying?" she cried vaguely in her distress, refusing to
+believe that there was none, which the corroborating action of a hand
+had implied.
+
+"No ice got it, Memsahib," volunteered the _khansaman_ in his best
+English, learned from a teacher in the Station bazaar. "All
+finish--melting fast--making saw-dust one porridge."
+
+"No ice?--my God! My child will die if I cannot have ice." She
+disappeared within the tent, wringing her hands, leaving the servants to
+hold council together on what was the best course to pursue.
+
+"Without doubt the little one is in a fit," ventured the cook. "Such is
+sometimes the case when the teeth press their way through the gums."
+
+"What folly," sneered the _khansaman_, "when the infant is barely three
+months old!"
+
+"Without doubt it is a fit," the cook repeated, "else why the hot bath?
+Such is the treatment the doctor-_babu_ ordered for the son of Amir
+Khan, my relative in Benares when, from fever, his eyes fixed and his
+limbs grew rigid."
+
+"Thou speakest true words," said the waterman approaching the group in
+visible excitement. "To see the limbs twisting and the eyes strained
+upward turns my stomach. Assuredly it will die--and the master
+away!--_ai ma!_--what a calamity!"
+
+"It will die, and we shall all be blamed because there was no ice,"
+sighed the _bearer_ feeling the weight of his responsibility.
+
+"God send that he be even now returning," prayed the _khansaman_
+devoutly. "The sun has long set, and any moment he may be here, for who
+can shoot a leopard in the dark?"
+
+"Tell Hosain to drive the _hawa-ghari_[4] quickly to the Station for the
+doctor and the ice. If he meet not the ice cart on the road, let him
+borrow all they will lend him at the houses of the sahibs," said the
+cook. "_Jhut!_--lose no time. In these illnesses the life of a child is
+as the flicker of a candle. A breath, and it is out; and once dead, who
+can restore it to life again?"
+
+[Footnote 4: Motor-car.]
+
+Servants ran to do his bidding while he returned to his pots and pans,
+anxious lest the roast should burn at the bottom of the pan, and the
+soup boil over.
+
+"For what dost thou concern thyself?" jeered an old watchman who stood a
+spectator of the scene. "All that thou cookest will be given to the
+sweeper's family. Who will eat of thy cooking tonight when the child is
+like to die?"
+
+"Not the sweeper and his family, _bhai_,[5] but we of the kitchen shall
+have a feast, have no fears." "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good,"
+was the essence of the cook's philosophy, and since there was no
+swine-flesh in the menu, there was no reason why Mohammedans should not
+enjoy the repast he was cooking for the Sahib's table. It was a
+dispensation of Providence that had not made him at birth a Hindu like
+the watchman, who took pride in the exclusiveness of his caste, yet
+feasted on the sly, on things forbidden.
+
+[Footnote 5: Brother.]
+
+Inside the tent the lady and the ayah together ministered to the small
+sufferer lying in the warm bath. The sympathetic servant supported the
+light body which had relaxed its rigidity, while the mother bathed the
+brows and head with cold water.
+
+"He is better, ayah, don't you think?" asked Mrs. Meredith, dependent on
+the woman's superior knowledge.
+
+"Plenty better, Ma'am. Heaven is merciful."
+
+"Or do you think he is dying? Don't lie to me."
+
+"He not dying, oh, no! See that black round his mouth?--now fast going.
+This is what they call _bahose_."
+
+"Thank God if it's only that. Children recover from fainting fits, don't
+they? Oh, ayah, I could not bear to lose my baby!" she cried in choked
+accents.
+
+"Say not like that. Got is goot and the baba will live. Now take out of
+the water, dry, and keep head cool," said the woman whose experience in
+the management of infants had gained her her present post at some
+considerable advantage to herself.
+
+They placed the limp form, when dried, on the cool sheets in its crib
+and hung upon its every breath.
+
+"Barnes-_mem_ saying, when bad with fever, lap plenty hot place, bed
+goot," the ayah remarked; "Barnes-_mem_," a former mistress, being a
+standard reference in nursery difficulties.
+
+"Had she many children?"
+
+"Children? My lort! Every year a child. She was plenty blest. One child
+for every finger, and a grand-child older than her last. Master, he
+shake his head and say, 'Damn-damn,' but Barnes-_mem_, she say, 'Let
+come; the Lort will provide.'"
+
+"Were they all brought up in India?"
+
+"In Calcutta they were born and grew up; no Darjeeling _pahar_;[6] no
+Munsuri _pahar_! All living; all plenty strong."
+
+[Footnote 6: Mountains.]
+
+"Yet most children cannot thrive out here--English, I mean."
+
+"English Memsahib making much fuss, like there is no Got Almighty.
+Everywhere there is sickness, also in _pahar_."
+
+Mrs. Meredith shivered at the cold consolation. After a short interval
+spent in anxious suspense, a clatter of hoofs announced the return of
+the Sahib. Raymond Meredith galloped into the camp and flinging his
+reins to a _saice_, leaped to the ground. A messenger had met him on the
+road with the disturbing news of his infant's bad turn. In another
+moment he was beside his wife, eagerly sympathetic and anxious to
+comfort her.
+
+At any other time she would have received him affectionately upon his
+return from a long day's outing, and he marked the change, excusing it
+on the plea of anxiety and distraction.
+
+"This is very sudden, darling," he said in lowered tones, placing his
+arms tenderly about her. "How did it happen?"
+
+His wife explained emotionally. "Baby was feverish when you left. You
+remember, perhaps, that I was worried and did not like being left
+alone?" she concluded resentfully, her eyes refusing to meet his.
+
+"He seemed a bit out of sorts, but nothing to alarm one," her husband
+allowed in self-defence. "You know, sweetheart, you are often needlessly
+anxious." He would have kissed her to soften the reproach, but she
+turned her face aside. "Anyhow, I had to go, you know that? The leopard
+had done enough damage in the village and was a danger to human life. An
+infant had been carried off from the doorway of its dwelling the moment
+its mother's back was turned. I simply had to hunt and shoot the beast,
+or let the people think I funked it. I managed to bag it in the end, but
+the fellow gave us a devil of a time," he continued, warming to his
+subject. "Had it not been for the pluck of the _chaukidar_, I might
+never have returned at all--" He waited for some evidence of concern.
+"He's a fine sportsman," he went on, though disappointed at her lack of
+interest. "With only a stout stick in his hand, he--" his voice trailed
+away as he became convinced that he was talking to an inattentive mind.
+"Don't worry, I'll send post-haste for Dalton. He'll be here before
+morning."
+
+"Anything might happen before morning," she cried brokenly.
+
+"You mustn't be so pessimistic."
+
+"The car was sent for the doctor when Baby was in convulsions," she said
+coldly. "It was terrible not having you here to advise. I have been
+desperate, and you--" a sob--"you were enjoying yourself in the
+jungles." She had not an atom of sympathy for the sport.
+
+"Surely you are not blaming me?" he cried deprecatingly, afraid that he
+had injured himself for ever in her sight.
+
+"It is not a question of blame; you have failed me, that is all."
+
+"That's a cruel thing to say, dearest!" he cried kissing her
+unresponsive lips at last, in the hopes of melting her hardness. "It is
+only that you are in a mood to be unjust, that you say so. You know I am
+happiest with you."
+
+"This is a cruel country which I shall hate to the end of my days," she
+returned miserably. "It is trying at every turn to rob me of my little
+baby."
+
+Meredith winced almost as though he had been struck. It was not the
+first time that she had expressed disgust for her life in India, which
+gave them their living, and every time her words gained in feeling.
+Early in the summer he had sent her to the hills because of an episode
+with a snake that had unnerved her and imperilled her condition as an
+expectant mother. He had not forgotten that her first arrival at the
+Station had synchronised with an outbreak of cholera, so virulent, that
+half the community of Europeans among whom she was to live were
+demoralised. It was a crying shame that Life should be so perverse. He
+yearned for her to settle down and take kindly to Station ways and
+doings, but fate eternally intervened. Muktiarbad was a merry little
+station, full of friendly souls eager to accept the youthful bride as a
+social leader for her husband's sake, he being the most popular of men.
+
+Meredith was aware of his own popularity and enjoyed it as a
+healthy-minded individual usually does when success has crowned his
+efforts to govern a large District with sympathy and tact. But already
+the young wife and mother was pining for "home," and was declaring that
+the India he loved was a "cruel country," which she would hate to the
+end of her days. How should he be able to pin her down to his side in a
+land she detested and feared? She was too young and uninformed to
+appreciate his position in the Government and her possibilities as a
+_Bara Memsahib_; and too delicately nurtured to endure the rough and
+tumble of life far from towns and cities, where money could not buy
+immunity from inconvenience and climatic ills.
+
+He had expected, as many another husband of a very young wife, to mould
+her ideas to fit his own; instead, his peace of mind was being steadily
+whittled away.
+
+"There is not even any ice to be had in this God-forsaken spot!" his
+wife's voice was saying helplessly.
+
+"Damnation!" he swore under his breath, enraged that the servants should
+have supplied him at the cost of the child; for he recalled the very
+acceptable iced beer he had drunk in the jungles after a dangerous
+exploit that had exhausted his energies and reduced him to a perspiring
+rag of humanity, even though it was autumn.
+
+The urgent need to find a scapegoat to suffer for this miserable muddle
+sent him outside with a stride and malignant intentions at heart. Never
+again while he toured with his family would he drink iced stimulants,
+however damnably hot it was in the sun.
+
+"What can I say?" whined the _bearer_ in indignant sympathy, cleverly
+averting the storm he saw ready to descend on the head of the guilty.
+"Such unusual heat for this time of the year, and that swine, the
+carter, who is now many miles distant, left the ice-box on the sunny
+side of the tent! Without sense is he, and possessed of a mind equal
+only to that of a sheep. So much shade to be had, yet of a perversity
+must he commit this brainless act! What can I do? Had this pair of hands
+not been incessantly occupied in performing urgent tasks for the comfort
+of the Memsahib, I might have cast eyes on the packing-case earlier, and
+myself have removed it to safety. But alas! how much can one poor
+servant do among so many who are idle and indifferent? So there it lay
+out of sight and the water running freely through the joins till there
+was one tank, and my bedding beside it, floating! Tonight I am without
+bedding, but what of that? With the child ill, will any one care to
+sleep?" He cast a triumphant eye around on a semicircle of admiring
+fellow-servants who were envying him his resourcefulness and powers of
+invention.
+
+"Who sent ice with me into the jungles?" Meredith asked fiercely.
+
+"Who, indeed, Image-of-God? Such an act of folly while the tender babe
+lay sick is not to be forgiven. Peradventure, it was the mate-boy of the
+cook who is of an imbecility past understanding, owing to his extreme
+youth. Not even the intellect of a cow has he. _Urre bap!_ Did he not
+leave at the Rest Bungalow----"
+
+"Be silent, you talk too much," said Meredith. "Go and chastise him for
+his interference. If I strike him I shall break every bone in his body.
+Never again let ice be sent anywhere with me if it is likely to run
+short at the camp, remember that," he said, impressing the fact on the
+_bearer_, as he knew full well that, in the native mind, very little
+importance is attached to a woman's needs in comparison with her
+lord's,--the superiority of the masculine sex being unchallenged. When
+ice travelled by rail some hundreds of miles three times a week to
+Muktiarbad, it invariably fell short when the servants were careless or
+assisted to make it vanish. Every silent witness of the colloquy knew
+that the Sahib's _bearer_ considered an iced whisky-and-soda his
+perquisite at the close of a strenuous day, and would continue to have
+it as long as ice came from Calcutta for the alleviation of sufferers
+from the climate.
+
+"Buck up, darling," said Meredith comfortingly, "you'll have the doctor
+here in no time. Dalton is a clever fellow and prompt. They say he will
+make a name for himself some day, he's such an able physician and
+surgeon. What he doesn't understand concerning the ills that flesh is
+heir to is not worth knowing, so we are jolly lucky to have him in such
+a potty little station as ours. What got him sent here is a mystery;
+usually we get fossils of the Uncovenanted service at Muktiarbad,
+whereas Dalton is--" "Sorry," interrupting himself as his wife put her
+hands to her head. "You've a headache, sweetheart, and it's not to be
+wondered at."
+
+"Is there nothing you can suggest for Baby in the meantime?" she
+questioned.
+
+"I shouldn't like to experiment, knowing nothing of kids--infants, I
+mean," he replied with irritating cheerfulness. "Had it been a horse or
+a dog"--he discreetly ceased and made tender love to her instead, for
+his darling girl was sobbing piteously. "Don't worry," he advised with
+masculine lack of understanding of maternal feelings, "babies are
+marvellous creatures; like sponges, my dear. Squeeze them dry and they
+swell out again. See how the youngsters swarm in the bazaars and
+villages. Nothing seems to kill them," he asserted ignorantly. "They get
+over almost any illness without a hundredth part of the care you lavish
+on our little scallywag. Keep his head cool and you'll see, he'll be as
+right as rain in the morning."
+
+"Cool without ice!" she said witheringly.
+
+"Cold water on the head with a dash of vinegar in it will do to carry
+along with till the ice comes."
+
+Somehow he was less concerned with the child's case than his wife's. Her
+distress, the added reason for her abhorrence of India, cut him to the
+heart and made him a coward of consequences. It was the child, that
+insignificant atom of indefinite humanity, that had intruded itself
+between them and was daily usurping his place in his wife's thoughts. At
+first he had been fool enough to imagine that it was going to be the
+link that would bind them closer together, instead of which it was the
+wedge that was surely driving them asunder. For its sake she was ready
+to put the seas and continents between them, and treat him as if he were
+of secondary importance in her life--the being who had to provide the
+wherewithal on which the human idol might be suitably reared. His own
+personal need of her was viewed as masculine self-indulgence and lack of
+spirituality.
+
+"I don't think you half realise what a wonderful thing has happened,"
+she had once said in the midst of her baby-worship. "Here is a miracle
+straight from God. A man-child who, if properly cared for, will become a
+useful citizen of the Empire; and he is my VERY OWN--yours, too," she
+condescended to add with her exquisite smile.
+
+"But where do I come in? I, who am already a useful citizen of the
+Empire?" he had delicately insinuated. "With due regard to nature and
+the multiplication table----"
+
+She had considered him coarse and had refused to smile. The matter of a
+family was entirely in God's hands and not to be treated with levity. He
+could have added a rider to that, but refrained; she was only a little
+girl of nineteen lacking the logical sense in the usual, adorable,
+feminine way. He was not hankering considerably after a family in the
+plural sense when in imagination he could see an intensification of the
+present situation which was forcing him into the background of domestic
+life. The baby, waking and sleeping, and all its multifarious concerns
+occupied its mother's time to the exclusion of all else, and it was no
+wonder that the father was feeling injured and a trifle lonely.
+
+Yet, in her childish way, she was fond of him, while unconsciously
+learning from him that, after all, men were truly long-suffering and
+unselfish creatures, patient, and forgiving.
+
+So he possessed his soul in patience, never tired of recalling the
+supreme episode of their married life, when, after the birth of their
+son, she had embraced him with a new affection, spontaneous and sincere.
+She had been so utterly ill that for a day and a night her life had hung
+in the balance, while he, like a maniac, had paced the footpath in mist
+and rain, praying as he had never prayed before for her restoration. It
+was in Darjeeling where he had gone hurriedly on receipt of a telegram,
+and never should he forget the anxieties of that journey. He had been
+ready to register any vow under the sun that he might ensure her
+recovery; and when he had crept with broken nerve and sobbing breath to
+her bedside, she had clung to his neck with blessed demonstrativeness
+kissing him of her own accord on the lips. Generally, he had kissed her.
+
+"You love me still, my precious?" he had asked fearfully. Mark the
+"still," for by her agony he was ready to believe he had forfeited the
+right to her love.
+
+"Aren't you my baby's Daddy?" she had replied happily with shining eyes
+and quivering mouth. "Of course I shall love you better now than ever."
+
+She loved him only through the child! However, Meredith did not quarrel
+with the process, so long as the fact was full of promise. It had always
+been a calm and unemotional affection, not in the least of the quality
+he craved, but his love and patience were equal to the demand made upon
+them, his mind having realised the unawakened condition of hers. "All
+things come to those who know how to wait," and he was learning
+patience, for his life was wrapped up in the person of his girl-wife.
+She was so infinitely lovable even when least comprehending his man's
+nature and holding herself aloof. Again, her charm was indescribable
+when, with adorable grace, she offered compensation, sorry for her
+uncomprehending selfishness; and he eternally rejoiced that, by the law
+of marriage, she was irrevocably his till death should them part, a
+bondage which he endeavoured to make her Eden, as it was his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MAINLY RETROSPECTIVE
+
+
+Dinner that evening was neglected as neither could eat.
+
+Tired and hungry though Meredith had been, his appetite for food
+vanished under the lash of his wife's resentment. She once said: "If my
+baby is taken from me, I shall cut this country forever. I shall hate it
+with an undying hatred. Nothing will induce me to live in it again and
+risk a repetition of tonight. It is not fit for Europeans--and yet, the
+tragedy of it is, we can only know it by experience!"
+
+"That is to say, if you had foreseen this, you would never have married
+me?" he put in sulkily.
+
+Silence gave consent.
+
+"Why shouldn't you give up, and find something to do at home?" she asked
+unreasonably.
+
+"You don't know what you are talking about," he returned shortly. Give
+up the "Indian Civil" and his splendid prospects, liberal future
+pension, and the life of sport men loved? For what? A desk in a city
+office; most likely a mercantile job on a third of the pay, and a life
+to which he was as much suited as a square peg to a round hole. All
+this, that the babe might be spared the illnesses that mortal flesh, in
+infancy, is prone to, particularly in the East. It was utter nonsense!
+For the first five years there would be need for special care and
+intervals spent in a hill climate. In due time would come the change to
+England and English environment necessary for the proper physical and
+mental training of his child. This was the course usually followed by
+English families in India of any social standing, and one which involved
+submission on the part of the husband to short periods of separation
+from the wife in the interests of the absent children. Thousands of
+married couples faced these conditions; why not they?
+
+He felt rebellious.
+
+What was the matter with his luck that it threatened not to work? He had
+no fortune on which to retire, only a modest return from savings
+judiciously invested, while his wife would have nothing more than a
+trifle till the death of her parents; and they were still young. To give
+up the Service would, under the circumstances, be madness and folly.
+
+Moreover, he loved the East. The climate had no grudge against his
+English constitution, and had been kind to him. He enjoyed the freedom
+of the life, India's great spaces; and the lurking risks made existence
+a great and continued adventure. In England it would be monotonous and
+flat. Though he loved the Motherland and was proud of her traditions, he
+was of the stuff that made empires, and his tact and understanding of
+the natives under his rule, made him an officer of exceptional ability
+and service to the Executive Government. Then there was big game
+shooting which he enjoyed, and all the happy freedom from narrow
+conventions. Give up, indeed!
+
+Time enough to think of retiring when past middle age with shaken nerves
+and a growing appreciation of golf. Not while he could ride a
+buck-jumper, handle a hog spear or a polo stick, and shoot straight. The
+thrill of tracking a wild beast to its lair was something to live for,
+and the hazards of his life made up its charm.
+
+The greatest of all hazards, had he realised it, had been his marriage
+with Joyce Wynthrop of Eagleton, Surrey.
+
+She had put up her hair to attend the hunt ball the year he was home on
+furlough and staying with his widowed sister, Lady Chayne, a neighbour
+of the Wynthrops, and it was love at first sight, with him. He had been
+forced to attend the ball against his will, only to meet his fate, it
+would seem.
+
+Thereafter, he had been obsessed with one ambition, and that was to win
+Joyce for his wife, in spite of the fact that he was fifteen years her
+senior and held an appointment in the East.
+
+Touched by his devotion and influenced by the opinion of others, she had
+yielded, feeling that Destiny was calling to her to fulfill her
+obligations to Life. Marriage with a good man of irreproachable
+antecedents, and children to rear in godliness and wisdom, was the
+religion of her upbringing. It had been impressed upon her as the
+natural vocation of woman so that the race might continue. She had
+played with dolls as the proper playthings of her childhood, and was
+prepared to exchange them for the children God should send her in some
+mysterious way to which marriage was the true gateway. Raymond Meredith,
+good-looking, kind, eligible, and full of love for herself was obviously
+the "Mr. Right" of schoolgirl tradition; the man to whom it would be
+correct to give herself in the bonds of holy matrimony, even as her
+mother had long ago given herself to her father--an example of
+unemotional attachment and tranquil orthodoxy.
+
+At first it had been wofully embarrassing to be made love to; and she
+wondered if her mother had been kissed so often and called all those
+silly love-names by her father before they were married?
+
+She also resisted the strange effect on herself of those ardent kisses,
+and was afraid to encourage feelings she had never before experienced,
+believing them immodest to indulge, and something she had to subdue with
+a determined effort. She would die sooner than confess to them. Passion
+might be all right for men with whom every initiative of life lay, but
+unbecoming for women to acknowledge, even to themselves. In fact, Joyce
+Wynthrop was a product of Early Victorian views on the subject of a
+girl's training, and an anachronism in modern times. She had been reared
+in rigid ignorance of life, her reading having been heavily restricted,
+her associates selected, so that when the time came to hand her over to
+a husband, he should find her beautifully unconscious and unique.
+
+To Meredith, her shy submission to his caresses, and her passionless
+response were the surest guarantee of her virginal past, and he was in
+no hurry to awaken the sleeping beauty to a deeper knowledge of herself.
+
+Joyce eventually decided for her peace of mind, that love-making
+belonged mainly to the period of Engagement, when everything was so new.
+Once having attained the object of his desire--that is, the possession
+of a wife--her lover would settle down to normal life, and no longer
+regard her eyelashes with wondering admiration, or exact kisses because
+her mouth was shaped like Cupid's bow. Men were so disturbing, if they
+were all like Ray Meredith!--delightfully disturbing,--only they must
+not know it, or peace and tranquillity would be impossible! After
+marriage there would be other things to think about, such as having a
+home, and, if the Lord willed it, a baby all their own, presented to
+them in some extraordinary and mysterious fashion.
+
+She had always adored babies and could rarely pass one in a perambulator
+without wanting to kiss it and know all its little history. To have a
+baby of her very own was a prospect so full of allurement, that she
+offered no coy objections when Meredith wanted the marriage fixed at the
+earliest possible date. Indeed, her calm was the despair of her girl
+friends who envied her openly. Wasn't she "terribly" in love with him?
+Wasn't she just "thrilled to death" with excitement at the prospect of
+having a husband and going all the way out to India?
+
+Joyce did not believe there was such a thing as being "terribly in
+love," which was a phrase invented by cheap novelists, whose literature
+she had never been allowed to read. She admitted she was growing very
+fond of her Mr. Meredith, and preferred him to any other man. Not that
+her experience of men was great--nevertheless, he was a "perfect dear."
+
+Her sister Kitty of the schoolroom, a young woman of rather decided
+opinions, reproached her severely for lack of enthusiasm over her very
+presentable lover. In her eyes, Ray Meredith was the ideal of a Cinema
+hero, with his clean-shaven, ascetic face, his muscular build, and
+adorable smile. "You should be flattered, my dear, that he condescended
+to choose you out of the millions of girls in the world," she remarked
+sagely. "You may be pretty, but hosts of girls are that. One has to be
+clever, and ... are _you_?... Why, you spelt vaccination with one 'c,'
+and vicinity with two only yesterday, and but for me, reading over your
+shoulder, you would have been disgraced for ever. I am not sure that he
+would not have broken it off! Then you know nothing whatever of
+politics--or football. Men are crazy about both, so you really are
+rather stupid, darling, or cold-hearted. Surely you must feel all
+squiggly down your back whenever Ray hugs and kisses you?"
+
+"What do you know about it?"
+
+"I'd be thrilled to my boots. Why, I feel like that every time they kiss
+in the film--really I feel an intruder, and as if I shouldn't look."
+
+"Silly penny stories untrue to life!" Joyce said as an echo of her
+father's scorn, but blushing, nevertheless.
+
+"Well, if you don't appreciate your lover, tell him to wait for me. I'll
+put up my hair year after next and take him like a shot."
+
+"Of course I appreciate him, or I should not be going to marry him,"
+said Joyce with the dignity of eighteen. "But it's folly to make so much
+fuss about marriage, seeing that it's the most ordinary thing in life,
+like being born, or dying."
+
+"The most incomprehensible thing in life, I should imagine," retorted
+Kitty, wide-eyed with curiosity. "Especially when you come to think of
+going away for good--or bad, maybe!--with a strange man you know next to
+nothing of; and all at a blow, having to share the same apartments with
+him. Merciful Providence! I am sure the Queen never did!"
+
+"It's supposed to be the correct thing," said Joyce rather scared.
+"Mother says, 'husbands and wives are one,' and 'to the pure, all things
+are pure'--whatever that has to do with it--so it would be illogical in
+the face of that to object to such a trifle as sharing a room. 'One has
+to tune one's mind to accept whatever comes, and to follow in the
+footsteps of one's parents,'" she quoted.
+
+"How I wish you were not going right away with him, immediately," sighed
+Kitty enviously. "You might so easily have told me all about it. Nobody
+tells one anything worth knowing, just as though there was anything to
+be ashamed about!"
+
+Joyce made no response for the good reason that her mind was wrestling
+with disquietude. However, in spite of so much that was mysterious, even
+alarming, she decided, as a prospective bride, to assume the dignity and
+reserve she had noticed in others and smile patronisingly on inquisitive
+sixteen.
+
+Shortly afterwards she was married, and she accompanied her "strange
+man" on their journey to the Unknown, much as a confiding child trusts
+itself to the guardianship of a loving nurse; prepared to accept as a
+duty whatever path he might require her to tread.
+
+In matters pertaining to sex, Meredith found her little more than a
+child; the result of her narrow upbringing by which she had been reared
+in ignorance of the primal facts of life and all that was common
+knowledge to the flapper of the day. But to his fastidious nature her
+unsophisticated innocence was the most captivating of any of the
+qualities he had met with in girls, and it became his most earnest
+desire to preserve it undefiled. The sweet simplicity of her mind he
+regarded as even more precious than her beauty. Having spent a decade in
+acquiring a disgust for a certain type of woman, he was inclined to
+over-estimate his surprising good fortune, and was content in the hope
+that time was on his side. Like a flower unfolding to the sun, the
+treasures of her womanhood would be all his one day, drawn forth by the
+warmth of his steady devotion.
+
+The obstacles in his way, however, seemed to increase as circumstances
+combined to fret and tantalise his hopes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The night wore on--the Eastern night of cloudless moonlight with the
+scents of the earth rising from harvested fields to mingle with the
+pungency of smouldering fires. Somewhere an owl persistently hooted.
+
+Joyce recalled the superstition that the owl was a bird of ill omen and
+should not be allowed to perch in the neighbourhood of a sick room.
+Immediately she was seized with foreboding and her husband was
+dispatched to scare away the prophet of evil. On his return she was
+trembling and hysterical.
+
+"You must let me give you something, darling," he pleaded. "You'll
+collapse for want of food, and how then can you look after Baby?" It was
+inspiration which suggested the child's need of her, for she patiently
+submitted and drank a glass of milk. She changed her gown for a silken
+kimono, and sought rest among the pillows of her bed which adjoined the
+crib. Then, in subdued tones, she reproached her husband for never
+having studied the simple diseases of childhood,--so necessary in their
+case, when for months together they were expected to live in camp, far
+from the Station, and the reach of medical aid.
+
+"It is criminal," she cried. "If it had been a dog you would have known
+what to do. But your own child!" words failed her.
+
+"The next time we come out we shall bring 'Good-eve.' I believe it gives
+everything you want to know and a lot besides."
+
+"There'll never be a 'next time,'" she moaned. "Please God, when my pet
+is better he shall never again be taken so far from the doctor. This is
+the end of all camping for him."
+
+"So I am to be deserted?"
+
+"You are a man and able to look after yourself. Baby needs me far more
+than you do."
+
+Meredith refrained from any argument, feeling the futility of words in
+her distraught condition. In the darkened tent he brooded over his
+difficulties while his eyes strayed with jealous yearning to the slim
+form in the gaudy kimono. Instead of isolation in a canvas chair, he
+might so easily have shared her pillows while comforting her lovingly in
+his arms! but for the time being he was out of favour and unloved!
+
+Shortly before sunrise, Captain Dalton motored in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE CIVIL SURGEON
+
+
+From the moment of the doctor's arrival the tension of watching was
+eased; the very sight of his wide shoulders in the doorway of the tent
+brought instantaneous relief to Joyce whose faith, as far as her child
+was concerned, was material rather than spiritual. Though she had felt
+an instinctive shrinking from the man's society on the few occasions on
+which they had met, her whole heart went out to welcome him with earnest
+supplication. He possessed the knowledge, under God, to save her child;
+therefore, surely, was he Superman--a being apart, to be reverenced
+above his fellows.
+
+Captain Dalton of the Indian Medical Service, and Civil Surgeon of
+Muktiarbad, was an unfriendly being of peculiar personality, whom no one
+could comprehend. Ordinarily, he was repellent to intimacies; a reserved
+autocrat, and content to be unpopular. Though elected a member of the
+Club, he had little use for its privileges. Having fulfilled his duty to
+his neighbours by calling on them shortly after his arrival in the
+Station that summer, he had retired into professional and private life,
+and was as difficult to cultivate as the Pope of Rome. He rarely
+accepted invitations, and issued none. Men who called upon him received
+a rigid hospitality, nothing more, so that they soon ceased to visit him
+at all, at which he was relieved.
+
+That he was a gifted musician became generally known when classical
+strains from a grand piano were wafted through the Duranta hedge which
+encompassed his grounds, riveting passers-by to the roadway at some
+sacrifice to personal dignity, that they might listen and admire.
+Sometimes he was heard to sing to his own accompaniment in a voice of
+extraordinary richness and sympathy. The evening breeze would carry the
+tones of his fine baritone voice farther than the Duranta hedge; and
+though bungalows were widely separated by private grounds of many acres,
+with paddocks and lanes between, his neighbours would hang out of their
+windows to catch every note, and afterwards at the common meeting ground
+of the Club, discourse on the advantage of their proximity to the
+singer.
+
+All persuasions to repeat his performances in public met with obstinate
+discouragement, till, reluctantly, the Station left him alone. Injured
+feelings were nourished, and opinions concerning his conduct and manners
+grew harsh and unrelenting the instant his back was turned. To his face
+there was no failure of cordiality, for it is not politic in a small
+station to quarrel with one's doctor.
+
+It was on the polo-ground, on the occasion of a slight accident which
+might have been more serious, that Joyce first met Captain Dalton,--a
+bare fortnight ago. His appointment had taken place while she had been
+at the hills, and at the introduction she had resented the impudent
+scrutiny of his eyes, not realising the fact that she had been an
+arresting picture with the hue of mountain roses in her cheeks, and eyes
+like English forget-me-nots; in beauty and colouring a rarity in that
+rural district of Bengal.
+
+Perhaps the doctor wondered at the unusual combination of prettiness and
+simplicity, for, in his experience, good looks without vanity were
+something unique. Possibly he was sceptical, for a smile of satire
+lurked at the back of his inscrutable eyes. At any rate, he had found
+her an interesting study, and the jade-green orbs, reckoned his finest
+feature, seemed to assess her from top to toe, critically and coolly.
+Though he made no effort to engage her in conversation, he had lingered
+in her vicinity, listening to her childish prattle; and, contrary to
+expectations, long after the need of his services was past, he had
+loitered on the polo-ground till the Merediths had driven away in their
+car.
+
+On looking back, Joyce had felt a sense of resentment at his quiet
+contempt of the ladies present. His cynical study of herself without any
+attempt to cultivate her society annoyed her self-esteem.
+
+"He's positively rude!" was her indignant verdict, later. "I wonder
+people put up with him. And he has perfectly hateful eyes."
+
+"The ladies think them very handsome eyes," Meredith had insinuated.
+
+"They are very uncomfortable; like a thought-reader's. Anyhow, I shall
+not allow him to stare at me another time."
+
+"There's a saying that 'a cat may look at the queen,'" he had remarked
+mischievously.
+
+"It's a blessing, however, that one may choose one's friends!" she had
+finally stated; and her husband allowed the subject to drop, not
+displeased at her repugnance to the doctor whom he marked dangerous to
+feminine susceptibility and an unknown quantity.
+
+Captain Dalton had called the following Sunday at noon, and was received
+by both husband and wife for the conventional few minutes. Being the
+official holiday, it was recognised as the correct day for men to pay
+formal visits, and by an unwritten law, at the warmest hour in the
+twenty-four.
+
+Another time they had driven past each other in a lane, when Dalton
+gravely raised his hat in acknowledgment of her bow. Lastly, he had sat
+beside her at a Hindu dramatic performance held in the grounds of a
+local landowner, in celebration of a religious festival, and he had
+barely noticed her existence, being engaged with his host on the other
+side.
+
+On the whole, he had not made a favourable impression on Joyce Meredith.
+But what did it matter, now? He had come out to their camp, many miles
+away from the Station, post-haste to save her child, and for that she
+was thankful. All memory of the doctor's bad manners was forgotten when
+she saw him enter the tent with her husband, a strong virile being, from
+his keen eyes and locked lips to his brisk tread;--God's own agent to
+cure her babe; a blessed healer of the sick, to whom the mysteries of
+the human frame were revealed; who could fight even death!
+
+"Oh, Doctor," she cried piteously, the tears like great dewdrops on her
+lashes: "Baby has been so bad--I thought, once, I had lost him!"
+
+Without formal greetings, Dalton passed to the cot, and stooping over
+it, began his examination of the case.
+
+Appreciating the reproof conveyed by his silence, the little mother sat
+still while the examination proceeded, answering in tremulous tones the
+crisp, short questions hurled at her from time to time.
+
+By and by, when a certain drug had been administered and there was
+nothing to be done but wait for its effects to be apparent, he abruptly
+turned his attention to herself. Had she eaten anything? What had she
+fed on for the past twenty-four hours? He covered her wrist with his
+hand, studied her highly nervous face for a full minute, and then
+ordered her away to bed.
+
+"Take her out of this, Meredith, if you wish to avoid having two
+invalids on your hands. Is there another bed anywhere?"
+
+Meredith's own occupied the dressing-tent, since he was obliged to give
+up sharing his wife's on account of the baby's claim to the services of
+an ayah.
+
+"But, Doctor, I am not ill!" Joyce protested feebly, realising however
+now, that it was mentioned, that a collapse was imminent.
+
+"You'll do as we think best," he said shortly, "or I had better get
+out."
+
+"Who is to look after Baby?" she asked faintly.
+
+"I am here for that," he said more gently.
+
+After some futile objections, Joyce departed feeling unable to hold out
+a minute longer.
+
+"How are you feeling?" her husband's anxious voice was asking. "You are
+as white as a lily, darling."
+
+"I'll be all right when Baby is," she answered wearily.
+
+In a little while Joyce was put to bed with a sleeping draught and
+tucked in comfortably, her husband as skilful in his ministrations as
+any nurse. "Won't you kiss me before I go? Love me a little bit," he
+pleaded wistfully.
+
+"Go away Ray," she cried irritably. "Don't worry."
+
+"You've made me so miserable!"
+
+"It's nothing to what you made me!"
+
+"I made you!"
+
+"You--you were absent all day when Baby was so ill. It has nearly killed
+me."
+
+"Dearest, don't blame me unjustly."
+
+"Then let it drop. I am not wishing to discuss it; I am too tired."
+
+So was he, but he had no thought of himself while yearning over her, his
+lovely girl, more beloved in her stubborn antagonism than ever.
+
+Remembering the doctor's injunctions that she must sleep, he reluctantly
+retired to pace the grass in the dawn, a dishevelled figure in his
+shirt-sleeves with hands plunged into the pockets of his trousers. The
+cool air soothed his nerves and brought him a sense of drowsiness which
+he indulged in a long cane chair under the eaves of the dressing-tent.
+The camp was very still after the disturbances of the night, and the sun
+rose above the flat horizon like a ball of living gold, its searching
+rays awakening the sleeping servants in their _shuldaris_ by their glare
+and warmth.
+
+But Ray Meredith was worn out and slept heavily, oblivious, for the
+moment, of his anxieties and his surroundings, for, after all, he
+cultivated a broad perspective and a wide tolerance for his little
+girl's humours, since she was only "a kid in years and ideas."
+
+With the sun mounting rapidly into the heavens came sounds of life from
+the distant village. Far away, cow-bells tinkled musically as the cattle
+moved lazily to pasture lands; dogs barked and children's voices, shrill
+and joyous, echoed over the fields.
+
+Domestic servants at the camp were to be seen rolling up their bedding
+of sacking, preparatory to beginning the common round, the daily task.
+Not far from the temporary kitchen, the mate-boy squabbled with the
+village milkman over the supply of milk with its sediment of chalk,
+which he declared had all but killed the master's child. Let him
+remember that there was a doctor sahib on the spot, and what availed his
+protestations?
+
+"A raw infant, too, with a new stomach. Assuredly will the police drag
+thee into court."
+
+"Who said there was chalk!" almost wept the indignant _guala_
+gesticulating wildly in self-defence. "As God is my witness not a grain
+was in the milk. Have I no fear? Straight from the udder was it milked
+into the brass _lota_ and brought to the camp. Ask of all the village if
+I am not an honest man paying just tribute where it is asked, and giving
+full measure and pure, to one and all. Would I jeopardise my freedom for
+malpractices? What evil accusation art thou, _badmash_, hurling at me?"
+
+"We'll see who's a _badmash_!" the youth returned loftily. "Wait till
+the doctor Sahib gives evidence. Presently the Judge Sahib will say, 'O
+Amir, faithful one, speak concerning the sediment in the milk which thou
+didst show to the doctor Sahib, that the pestilential _guala_ may
+receive just punishment for his wrong-doing.' But I have a tender heart
+for the repentant and may consent to destroy the evidence, even refrain
+from showing it to the Sahib, if it is made worth my while. Allot for my
+own portion one seer of milk, and two for the servants, free of charge,
+and, peradventure, my memory concerning the chalk will fail when the
+moment of inquiry arrives."
+
+"Why didst not thou tell that it was perquisite thou wast wanting, for I
+would have given to thee without argument," sighed the _guala_, in
+visible relief. "I am a poor man, and honest, though the ways of my
+country-men are crooked, and I give in to thy demand that I might be
+spared false accusation and much humiliation. Take, brother, thy illegal
+_dusturi_;[7] how can such as I hope to escape _loot_, when from the
+_chaukidar_ to the sweeper all are robbing those who provide the
+_hakim's_ needs? Only from the _hakim_ himself is there straight
+dealing!--_ai Khodar_!"
+
+[Footnote 7: Commission.]
+
+Within the large tent the silence that reigned boded well for the child
+who was sleeping peacefully.
+
+Its improved condition was the latest bulletin issued by the ayah who
+had snatched a moment to enjoy a cheap cigarette in the open.
+
+"What a night!" she said in Hindustani, which she spoke almost as
+fluently as Tamil. "With both Sahib and Memsahib awake and watching, who
+could sleep? I had not the conscience to close my eyes. Nor has a morsel
+passed these lips, for, with the precious one at death's door, food
+turns to ashes in the mouth."
+
+"Thou art indeed a faithful one, Ayah-jee," said the _peon_.
+
+"It is my religion, for I am a Christian and have no caste to hold me
+back from any service that is required of me, _Baba-jee_. The child is
+my first thought, and to guard its life, my first care."
+
+"For which thou art paid handsomely, is it not so?"
+
+"That, of course! and money is a great convenience, _Baba-jee_."
+
+Joyce was still sleeping from the effects of the draught, when Meredith
+and the doctor breakfasted together. On no account was she to be
+disturbed. It seemed the doctor took a malicious delight in depriving
+the husband of the pleasure of carrying his wife the good news
+concerning the child; and he saw him depart to preside at his court
+under the trees, without a shade of sympathy for his visible distress.
+
+"Your wife will be all right," he said confidently, "so don't worry, but
+go ahead with your work. I am capable of looking after both mother and
+child."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," Meredith grumbled, "but you'll send for me,
+won't you, if anything's wrong?"
+
+"Most assuredly," was the reply. And the Magistrate took his seat at the
+camp table under a leafy mango tree, and was soon immersed in his duties
+to the State. Natives of all castes and creeds thronged the grass beyond
+the precincts of the court, and a hoarse murmur of voices soon filled
+the air, above which was constantly heard that of the crier naming a
+witness, or calling up a case.
+
+When the ayah brought Captain Dalton the news that her mistress was
+showing signs of waking, he poured out and took her a cup of tea,
+himself, and asked how she felt. "Not very bright, I can see," he
+remarked, placing his fingers on her pulse.
+
+"Have I slept long?" she asked drowsily.
+
+"Five hours."
+
+"But Baby?" she cried out in alarm, sitting up in bed, giddy and
+confused.
+
+"Baby's all right. Temperature normal, and sleeping like a cherub," he
+returned pressing her back on her pillows.
+
+"Oh, Doctor, is that true?"
+
+"You may think me a liar, if you like, but it isn't polite to call me
+one to my face," he said with a crooked, grudging smile.
+
+"Oh, how am I to thank you!" tears suffused her eyes as she seized his
+hand and carried it impulsively to her lips. "You have no idea of the
+relief you have brought me!"
+
+Dalton had; and by the answering gleam in his eye, showed he was
+rewarded for the whim which had prompted him to be the bearer of the
+good tidings. It amused him to play with this pretty child-wife, and
+sound the depths of her nature--if there were any!
+
+"What is your age?" he asked abruptly, with a doctor's licence to
+question a patient as he chose.
+
+"I was nineteen in summer."
+
+"You have no business with a baby when you are one yourself! Now for
+your tea," and he held the cup while she leant on her elbow to drink its
+contents, a shower of honey-gold hair falling about her face.
+
+"Is your head very bad?" he asked when she had finished.
+
+"How did you know that it ached?" she questioned.
+
+"I have ways of finding out. Your pulse and your flush, for example."
+
+"Then I am ill?" she asked in alarm. If she were to be ill, who would
+take care of the child?
+
+"A little ill."
+
+"Fever?"
+
+"Feverish."
+
+"But I may get up, in spite of it?"
+
+"Certainly not. Nor would you be of any use if you did."
+
+"But I must take care of Baby!"
+
+"I am doing that, already."
+
+"You are going to take care of me, too?"
+
+"Yes, if you are good and do all I tell you."
+
+"I'll be so good, for I want to get well. How long will it last?"
+
+"The fever? Who can say? However, I dare say it will be only a trifling
+thing."
+
+"Where is my husband?" she asked, wondering if Ray knew, and why he had
+not rushed to see her. She was so accustomed to being fussed over, that
+she missed the excitement. No doubt he was nursing injured feelings
+since her ill-treatment of him last night....
+
+"Listen, and you will hear the voices of the multitude before the Court.
+Mr. Meredith is trying cases and sentencing malefactors to various
+degrees of punishment," said the doctor.
+
+"Won't you call him?"
+
+"Are you sure he won't charge me with Contempt of Court?" he teased.
+
+"If I am going to be ill, I must have him come at once. But first
+promise me something," she cried, clinging to his hand with feverish
+excitement; "I cannot bear to stay in camp after yesterday's experience.
+Tell him that I must go back to Muktiarbad so as to have Baby near you.
+He might be ill again, and what should I do then!"
+
+"He might, certainly. Yes, I'll tell your husband, but not today. Today
+you will want to be taken care of, and we mustn't pile on the agony."
+
+"On whom? It would be such a relief to me!"
+
+"Not to your husband. I wouldn't mind betting he'd have a fit of the
+blues and be ill himself as a result."
+
+"Oh, no! Ray never gets ill. He is so strong. That is why he can't
+understand us. Oh, Doctor, I cannot live in India!" she wailed.
+
+"Are you very homesick?" he asked with the same grudging smile.
+
+"I hate India! It will kill Baby--won't you explain that to my husband?"
+
+"There is no reason why it should kill Baby."
+
+"How can you tell?--everything is against him here!"
+
+Dalton decided to humour her because of the deepening flush and starry
+eyes. The nervous fingers twined about his were hot with fever. "That's
+all right. Be happy, you'll go home in the spring if it depends on me."
+
+"Oh, thank you, you are such a dear!"
+
+Captain Dalton smiled less grudgingly. She was so perfectly ingenuous.
+In his critical eyes was a look of dalliance with a new problem. They
+were eyes that must often have studied human problems and not always to
+good purpose.
+
+"I suppose the kid is your first consideration?" he asked, amused.
+
+"He's so helpless!"
+
+"I see," he remarked oracularly. Before he left the tent he gave her a
+tablet from a phial which he carried in his vest-pocket.
+
+"Do you know," she ventured in the hurried accents of feverishness, "I
+did not like you a bit when I first met you."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"You are so different from what I had imagined."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"You seemed an animated iceberg--forbidding and--yes, almost
+disagreeable. You make most people afraid of you."
+
+"It matters very little to me what people think of me," he returned
+indifferently.
+
+"Don't you ever care for friends?"
+
+"I have no use for friends--besides, who are one's friends? I have
+ceased to believe in friendship," he sneered.
+
+She studied his face gravely. "I don't like to hear you speak like that.
+We would be your friends if you would let us."
+
+Dalton checked a laugh of genuine amusement, the first sound of mirth
+she had heard from his lips, and it was not pleasant hearing.
+
+"You are very good," he said tolerantly, "but it wouldn't work. I
+wouldn't suggest the experiment, if I may advise you."
+
+"I certainly shall not, if you are nasty," she pouted.
+
+Dalton laughed again disagreeably and went out.
+
+He was truly a conundrum, she decided, and difficult to know. Yet how
+kind he had been to her and careful of her child! for that she would
+always be grateful. But for him, anything might have happened! Strange
+fellow!--why was he so antagonistic to people when his profession made
+him a ministering angel to humanity? Joyce felt her head aching so
+violently at this stage that she abandoned the puzzle of Captain
+Dalton's nature and indulged in ecstasies over the thought of her baby's
+recovery. It made her so happy that, when her husband entered with the
+doctor, she flung her arms about his neck and apologised for her
+exhibition of bad temper. "I was horrible to you, Ray. Do forgive me,"
+sounded very sweet in her husband's ears. What the doctor thought was of
+no importance to her.
+
+Meredith mumbled transports of joy on her lips and was beside himself
+with anxiety that she should be feverish. He plied her with questions in
+his solicitude, and stood by in sulky jealousy while the doctor made his
+professional examination of her lungs and heart.
+
+Joyce said "ninety-nine" many times obediently, and was like a child in
+her unconsciousness of self. One all-absorbing thought occupied her
+mind, and that was her baby's well-being.
+
+"Isn't Captain Dalton an angel?" she cried when the examination was over
+and her lungs pronounced in perfect order. "I shall love him for ever
+after his kindness to us; only, he won't let me. He has no use, he says,
+for friends!"
+
+Dalton smiled grimly as he put away his stethoscope. "Have you ever
+heard of the qualities that go to make a good doctor?" he asked coolly.
+
+"Tell me," she demanded.
+
+"An unerring judgment, nerves of steel, and a heart of stone."
+
+"And have you managed to acquire all three?" she asked playfully.
+
+"The petrifaction of the last-named is quite an old story," he remarked,
+as he passed out of the tent.
+
+"You must not talk so much, sweetheart, with a rising temperature,"
+Meredith cautioned, fussing over her, while, outside, the trial of a
+notorious criminal was suspended till the Magistrate should think fit to
+return. "How did Dalton find out that you had fever?" he questioned
+suspiciously. "Did you send for him?"
+
+"Oh, no. He brought me news of Baby and gave me my tea. Isn't he queer?
+Not half so bad as people make him out to be. Oh!--and I was so
+overjoyed and excited that I kissed his hand. I wonder what he thought
+of my foolishness?" and she laughed at the joke; but her husband seemed
+to have lost his sense of humour, for he retired from the bedside to
+pace the drugget in distinct annoyance.
+
+"Damned officious of him," he grumbled. "You were not his patient."
+
+"I am _now_, so it's all right."
+
+"You shouldn't have forgotten your dignity."
+
+"I know it, but that's the way with me. I never remember that I have
+any!"
+
+"You are a married woman and no longer a child," he continued
+reproachfully.
+
+"I shall always be a silly fool, I'm afraid," she sighed. "However, he's
+only the doctor, and a doctor is something between an angel and an
+automaton."
+
+"The devil he is!" Meredith growled, kicking a hassock to the other end
+of the tent.
+
+"Come here, you big goose," she said wearily, stretching her limbs;
+"kiss me this instant, and go back to the malefactors. I want to sleep
+off this attack and get well quickly."
+
+Meredith could not bear to see her looking ill and wanted no second
+bidding to demonstrate his love for her. After kissing her most
+tenderly, he tucked her in comfortably, and, much against his
+inclination, left her to the doctor's ministrations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A POINT OF VIEW
+
+
+Dalton filled the ice-bag he had brought with him and settled down to
+nursing with the skill of a woman; and no hands could have been gentler.
+Occasionally the worried husband would pay the tent a flying visit and
+return to listen to a pleader's lengthy oration with all the attention
+he could muster under the troublous circumstances. Visions of his wife's
+flushed face lying still on the pillow with closed eyes would haunt him
+with agonising fidelity to detail--especially in relation to the
+attentive doctor hovering near, adjusting the bag or removing it to be
+refilled, and administering the necessary doses of medicine. He took
+special notice of Dalton in his new character of nurse, and had no fault
+to find with his manner. He was as silent as the Sphinx and as
+professional as a nursing sister, and though Meredith thought it
+objectionable that his wife should always have to be treated in illness
+by a male physician--there being no lady doctor within hundreds of
+miles--he was obliged to take comfort in the fact that his beloved could
+not be in better hands.
+
+Elsewhere, the ayah crooned lullabies to the baby who no longer needed
+strict watching. She fed it from the bottle and wondered,
+philosophically, who would be the next to be taken ill; for experience
+told her that it was a mild form of epidemic chill, familiar to all at
+the changing of the seasons.
+
+Meals went forward with clock-like regularity, whether the sahibs were
+inclined for sustenance or not. The camp table in the dining-tent was
+laid with silver and crockery; a tight bunch of green leaves adorned a
+centre vase, and a gong rang at the appointed hour, while the dishes
+remained warm in the portable "hot case" where an open charcoal fire
+burned redly.
+
+"Isn't the fever rather persistent?" Meredith asked at dinner while
+toying with his food.
+
+"It's early to judge," said the doctor.
+
+"What do you think of it?"
+
+"Unquestionably a touch of the 'flu.'"
+
+"It isn't enteric?" the anxious husband asked fearfully. "I have a holy
+horror of enteric."
+
+"You make your mind easy, it is not going to be anything of the sort. I
+am afraid, however, you will have to give up all idea of Mrs. Meredith's
+camping for the present," he added definitely. "She and the child don't
+take kindly to canvas, and at this time of year we must avoid exposure
+to malarial conditions."
+
+"The District is particularly free from malaria," said Meredith.
+
+"Bengal is full of it; the many bogs and pools of stagnant water around
+are responsible for the anopheles mosquito."
+
+"It's dashed inconvenient when I must put in a deuced lot of camping in
+the cold weather."
+
+"Do most of it after Christmas," Dalton suggested.
+
+"It will be just the same--they won't be able to stand it."
+
+"Frankly, I don't think they will. Perhaps, both might be more
+acclimatised later on," was the diplomatic reply.
+
+Meredith passed another night on the cane chair which he placed
+alongside of his wife's bed, and was conscious during periods of rest
+that the doctor never slept at all. He was in and out of the tent at all
+hours of the night looking after his patient with untiring zeal. An easy
+chair in the dining-tent had served as his couch, and the English
+newspapers entertained him during the long hours of the night.
+
+Yet at the end of the vigil, Meredith knew Captain Dalton no better than
+before. He was still the silent, repellent being, with eyes of a
+thought-reader and a baffling smile which might have meant contempt or
+tolerance; he was altogether incomprehensible.
+
+By morning, Joyce was free of fever with a temporarily lowered vitality,
+and showing no ill effects. All day she convalesced happily, enjoying
+the petting she received from the men; Captain Dalton's methods being
+unobtrusive, but effective; Meredith's, on the other hand, being
+tactlessly affectionate and blundering.
+
+"You are a darling, Ray," she laughed, after a specially clumsy service,
+"but you were never born with a faculty for nursing, like Captain
+Dalton's. He is so capable; he never spills my mixture down my neck
+before I can drink it; nor does he pour out over-doses, and empty the
+surplus on the drugget!"
+
+"'Comparisons are odorous,'" he returned, looking hurt.
+
+"The tent is, if you like. It smells like a chemist's shop! Your proper
+place and function are in the court, and sentencing criminals to
+punishment."
+
+"You want to get rid of me so that you may have the doctor all to
+yourself! I wonder what you find in him at all. He fairly chokes one
+off."
+
+"I told you he was either an automaton or an angel; I find he is both,
+only he would like us to think him a bad angel."
+
+"A man knows himself best. So you want to desert me tomorrow?" he cried
+reproachfully.
+
+"Dear old thing!--you wouldn't have me stay if you knew that I should be
+miserable?" she coaxed, drawing down his face to be kissed.
+
+"Miserable with the husband who adores you?"
+
+"If you love me so much, you should be unselfish and think more of
+Baby."
+
+"Must Baby always count above his Daddy?"
+
+"Naturally he must be considered more, while he is so young and
+delicate."
+
+"Where then do I come in?"
+
+"You mustn't be jealous of your own child!" she cried reproachfully.
+"Think of his helplessness, his need of me!--Of course you need me,
+too," she said putting her palm over his mouth to stifle his eloquence
+on the subject of a husband's rights, "but then, there's a difference.
+You can manage without me, while he must not. A babe is a sacred trust
+to its mother."
+
+"And when he grows older and is impressionable, there will be a mother's
+_moral duty towards his soul_ to separate us. You and he at home, and I
+out here, alone! I know the jargon, having watched such comedies for
+years. Now it has come home to me. One hears that a child is a blessing
+from God.... I believe it is a blessing very much in disguise, for I see
+only the disguise at present."
+
+"Why look so far ahead?" laughed Joyce, determined to mend his humour.
+"By the time he is old enough to become a 'moral' responsibility, you
+will probably be only too glad to get rid of me. I am such a worry as a
+wife."
+
+"I wonder!" he ejaculated ruefully.
+
+Joyce reminded him of the many week-ends he could spend at the bungalow,
+when they would contrive to have very happy times. "I shan't be so
+anxious with a doctor on the spot, so to speak; and shall be ever so
+much more of a wife," she promised, looking adorable in the ribbons and
+laces of her snowy night-dress, backed with befrilled pillows.
+
+The prospect had compensations, he felt, but he found it hard to explain
+without incurring the imputation of selfishness, that, parted day after
+day from the light of her presence, deprived of the sight of her
+loveliness and the natural expression of his passion for her, he would
+assuredly ache unceasingly and pine himself sick. She would not
+understand, since she had little comprehension of the ways of mankind,
+so he could only sigh and capitulate.
+
+"At least there will be many honeymoons!" he allowed, trying to hide his
+disappointment in satire.
+
+"What a man you are!" she laughed. "Won't you ever get used to being
+married?"
+
+Meredith returned to his files and the clamouring multitude under the
+trees, for the remainder of the afternoon, with the noxious odours of
+bare-bodied humanity, besmeared with mustard oil, assaulting his
+nostrils. Meanwhile Joyce cultivated the doctor with innocent feelers of
+friendship while he administered afternoon tea.
+
+"I do think you are such a clever nurse," she said flatteringly, while
+he fed her on bread and butter. "You are like two persons in one--both
+doctor and nurse!"
+
+"Necessity is a good teacher," he returned shortly. "I have never nursed
+any one myself; others have generally taken my orders."
+
+"I should have imagined that you had done this all your life."
+
+Viewed in broad daylight at close quarters, when her brain was cleared
+of feverish delusions, he was not at all a handsome man. Too
+blunt-featured and heavy in the jaws; too square in the frame and thick
+of neck; but his eyes, with their power of reserve, were always a
+splendid mystery; deep-set and provoking, yet suggestive of nothing so
+much as banked fires, glowing and suppressed. Frequently they dwelt on
+her with the same satirical amusement of the polo-field, and she would
+waste much of her thoughts in wondering why. It was the look of a
+sceptic who had no intention of expressing his unbelief, and Joyce was
+irritated and annoyed. But she had no fault to find with his attentions,
+and was invariably won to gratitude for services rendered.
+
+She was very pretty--exceptionally so--and very simple; but, as pretty
+women were never simple, Dalton found entertainment in the study of her
+particular pose, as it seemed to him. If it were not a pose, then her
+husband was a short-sighted fool and he had no patience with him. The
+time was past for childish innocence and folly. Coquetry was very
+captivating, but to play with fire was dangerous, and if he mistook not,
+she would some day arrive at an understanding of human nature when it
+was too late to save her self-respect. Her beauty appealed to his
+artistic sense, but he had no admiration for shallow natures; hence his
+amused contempt.
+
+"You remind me of nothing so much as an oyster," she laughed, picking up
+a dainty piece of bread and butter and putting it in her mouth.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"You are living so much in your shell. Why do you do it?"
+
+"Why not, if it pleases me?" he asked pouring out two cups of tea.
+
+"Think of all you lose!"
+
+"I generally manage to take what I want," he replied with an insolent
+smile. "I rarely suffer from loss."
+
+"You lose love," said she wisely.
+
+"What do you know about it?" he questioned, fixing her with his
+penetrating eyes.
+
+"I love my husband----"
+
+"--And your baby, even more. Of course your experience is immense!"
+
+"You are sarcastic," she said reproachfully. "I love my husband and my
+baby in quite different ways. You have no wife or baby, so you cannot
+understand. Men like you go through life without knowing any of its real
+joys."
+
+"That is according to your point of view," he retorted. "In any case,
+marriage is a great gamble and it's best to avoid risks."
+
+"There's a girl you and I know..." Joyce put in reminiscently, seeing in
+mind a pleasing vision, "and the man who gets her will be the luckiest
+fellow in the world."
+
+"He certainly will."
+
+"How do you know whom I mean?"
+
+"You mean Miss Bright of Muktiarbad."
+
+Joyce opened wide her blue eyes which were the colour of forget-me-nots,
+and stared. "Are you a thought-reader?"
+
+"It was easy reading, for there is only one girl we mutually know who
+fits your description entirely, and she is Miss Honor Bright. She has
+been reared to live up to her name."
+
+"And you found that out though you hardly ever speak to her?"
+
+"It is rather wonderful, isn't it?" he asked with his crooked smile.
+
+"Then--why--?" There were limits to curiosity, but her expressive eyes
+spoke the rest of her question direct to his.
+
+"Why don't I cultivate Miss Bright? The answer is simple. I am not
+seeking a wife, and I have no interest in friendships."
+
+"How rude!" she cried reproachfully.
+
+Dalton laughed disagreeably and offered her more tea which she accepted,
+not knowing whether he was not after all the most churlish being she had
+ever met.
+
+"I wish I could understand you, Doctor, but I never shall," she sighed
+hopelessly, as she endeavoured to make herself comfortable among the
+tumbled bed-clothes. "I give you up as a difficult riddle."
+
+"You want your bed re-made," he returned changing the subject. "Shall I
+do it for you?"
+
+"You?--I can't fancy your bed-making!"
+
+"I'll show you that I can do that as well as most other things. But
+you'll have to move out."
+
+The cane lounge had been put out of the way and was not within easy
+walking distance for a shaky invalid; nevertheless Joyce was determined
+to try. While he transferred the cushions, she rolled herself in a shawl
+and made a brave effort to walk across, only to be overcome by
+giddiness.
+
+Dalton was in time to save her from falling and she was carried clinging
+in her panic to the column of his neck. "You shouldn't have attempted
+it," he scolded.
+
+"But I liked the way you swung me off my feet!" she said contentedly.
+
+"It is not one of my duties to wait hand and foot on my patients, I
+would have you understand," he said grimly with a lurking twinkle in his
+eye, wondering, the while, whether the giddiness was another pose. "It
+seems you like being fussed over," he remarked before laying her down
+among the cushions.
+
+"I love it!" she cooed ingenuously. "It's the only reason I don't mind
+being sick, to have Ray fuss and carry me about."
+
+He put her down immediately with the familiar expression of indulgent
+satire in his eyes. "You'll probably get plenty of fussing from
+everyone; but, in the case of the boys, remember to be merciful."
+
+"What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"There are some young fools who might, if encouraged, lose their heads,
+you know."
+
+"But there'd be no excuse, for I never flirt."
+
+"Pardon me, you flirt like an artist."
+
+Joyce thought it was horrid of him to say so, and wondered if she should
+snub him for his impertinence; only she did not quite know how. He had
+been so kind--perhaps he was only teasing? However she was reduced to
+offended silence while he made her bed with skill and expedition. He was
+not anxious that her husband arrive and find him so employed, and was
+glad to restore Mrs. Meredith to her nest of pillows without
+interruptions from without. Her utter lack of concern, either way, was
+illuminating, so that he had to revise his estimate of her once again,
+while his smile lost its satire.
+
+"Sure you are comfy?" he asked before leaving her.
+
+"Yes, thank you," she answered stiffly.
+
+"Haughtiness does not become you, dear lady. What have I done?" he asked
+coolly.
+
+"You said I was a flirt!" she pouted.
+
+"I'll take it back," he returned smiling broadly, thinking that she
+certainly flirted delightfully. But shallow natures always flirted just
+so.
+
+"I have never been accused of that--in my life."
+
+"It would be such a libel!" he conceded.
+
+"Thank you," she said graciously as she shot him a forgiving glance both
+radiant and alluring. "Do you know, I like you tremendously, though I
+began by thinking you hateful."
+
+"First impressions are often correct," he returned grimly, and retired.
+
+By and by, when she was alone with her husband and childishly about to
+recount the events of the afternoon with fidelity as to detail, she was
+diverted by his grave distress at the coming parting. It was cruel to
+inflict grief, and she wished he would be more reasonable.
+
+"Old thing!" she said affectionately, rubbing her soft cheek against his
+rough one; "think how much I, too, shall miss you! It won't be only on
+your side!"
+
+"Will you really miss me?" he asked infatuatedly.
+
+"All the time. I love having you about, and if I am lonely at nights, I
+have only to creep into your bed in the next room to be comforted. What
+ever shall I do when that bed lies empty?"
+
+It was heavenly to Meredith to hear this intimate revelation from her
+lips, always so shy of expressing her need of him. It was a great
+advance in the right direction, and his skies cleared as by magic. If
+absence truly made the heart grow fonder, he would have no cause of
+complaint against this short parting. It was the greater one in the
+spring, the shadow of which was already darkening his horizon, that he
+dared not contemplate.
+
+However, there was plenty of time yet, and no earthly good was to be
+gained by crossing bridges in anticipation.
+
+The following day saw an exodus from the camp. Meredith took his wife
+and child to Muktiarbad station, and saw them comfortably established in
+the Collector's bungalow, known as the Bara Koti,[8] then returned to
+his duties in the rural parts of his District, resolved to support his
+deprivations with cheerful resignation.
+
+[Footnote 8: Big House.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHAT CAN'T BE CURED
+
+
+Ray Meredith tried for the first few days to submit to his loss with
+fortitude, but the loneliness of the camp, after the experience of a
+sweet wife's companionship, was insupportable. There were no Europeans
+for miles around and there remained only the diversions of an occasional
+_shikar_. The tour of the previous autumn and winter months on which he
+had been accompanied by his girlish bride, had spoilt him for bachelor
+life; for though Joyce had disliked the inconveniences of camping, she
+had suffered them meekly, seeing that to have objected would have been
+both selfish and unkind. But the coming of the child had roused in her
+active opposition to all that might be harmful to its most precious
+health, and her husband was gradually discovering that he would
+inevitably have to accept the back seat.
+
+For the first time in his official career, the routine of his work
+wearied him with its monotony and staleness. Having his meals in
+solitary state affected his appetite and digestion, for he took to
+bolting his food just to get rid of the automaton behind his chair who,
+no doubt, mentally criticised his every act, and treasured up the memory
+of his idiosyncrasies to comment upon them, later, in the kitchen.
+
+During the day the business of hearing petitions, trying cases, and
+delivering judgments, occupied his mind and brought distraction, but in
+the evenings he could settle to nothing. Even his beloved pipe failed to
+bring him consolation.
+
+When darkness closed in with dense shadows where the moonlight failed to
+penetrate, and the peace of a world at rest was upon the countryside,
+when even the birds had ceased to chirp and flutter in their nests, the
+air would feel charged with expectancy. A footfall without would cause
+Meredith to lift his head from his papers or book, wondering if there
+was a message for him--Joyce taken ill--or the baby? The silence bred
+nerves, till a chorus of jackals howling in an adjacent paddy field
+would break the spell and come as a welcome relief.
+
+Often, the words of a book he tried to read conveyed no meaning to his
+mind till he had re-read a paragraph several times. Or the official
+report he had set himself to write was disturbed by mental visions of
+Station doings in which his young wife was perhaps taking part without
+his support and protection.
+
+She was so young and unsophisticated! It was perhaps his own fault that
+she was so, but he loved her all the more on account of it, and would
+not have had her otherwise.
+
+An instinctive distrust of Captain Dalton would not be stifled, and he
+disliked the thought of his innocent young wife being exposed to the
+subtle flattery of such unusual attentions as he had paid her in
+camp,--strictly professional, no doubt, but disagreeably intimate from a
+husband's point of view. Confound him!
+
+A young man of arresting appearance and strange personality, whose
+private life was unknown and whose conduct towards his neighbours was
+aloof and repellent, was best kept at a distance and treated with the
+formality which accorded with his profession, otherwise he would become
+a disturbing element. Already Joyce seemed to consider herself under
+obligations to him, and in her enthusiastic gratitude was prone to
+overstep the limits of dignified propriety which he wished her to
+observe. Would to heaven that the Government had sent them a married man
+as Civil Surgeon of Muktiarbad! Bachelors of mysterious habits and
+manners were totally out of place in a station so well supplied with
+womenkind.
+
+Meredith was thankful that there were so many women in the Station and
+all likely to be lavish with their attentions to his wife. She would
+seldom be left to her own devices or the society of the doctor, in whose
+care she was unreservedly placed. And Joyce was popular with the ladies
+despite the fact that she was too young to play her dignified role of
+leading lady with success. She played it with a charm all her own, and
+drew towards her the members of her own sex as well as those of the
+masculine. She was unique, he assured himself. He could trust her
+blindfold, even among wolves in sheep's clothing; for essentially she
+was a mother, and had every incentive to keep pure. Love of children and
+a respect for religion were sure safeguards against the wiles of the
+tempter; he could therefore make his mind easy, feeling that his wife
+possessed both.
+
+But jealousy is a weed of hardy growth, and once having taken root is
+difficult to destroy. There were memories to haunt him and give him many
+a sleepless night: Joyce seizing and kissing Dalton's hand in her frenzy
+of relief when he told her the good news concerning the child; her
+milk-white shoulder and bosom exposed for the stethoscope.... She might
+look upon Dalton as an "angel" or an "automaton," but no man, unless
+superhuman, is a stoic where a lovely woman is concerned.
+
+On the whole, it was a miserable week for Meredith in his solitude,
+despite the distractions of his office and constant journeys over the
+plain.
+
+His next encampment was a large Mohammedan village on the outskirts of a
+silk factory,--an important industry owned and worked by a prosperous
+Anglo-Indian.
+
+In duty bound, the Magistrate and Collector called on the ladies of the
+house, sending in the usual piece of pasteboard with his name printed
+thereon, and caught a fleeting glimpse of the wife in a dressing-gown
+and slippers scuttling to cover from the out-offices in the rear.
+
+After keeping him waiting for sometime in a musty drawing-room where
+cobwebs lurked in corners and everything looked the worse for time, she
+appeared in fearful and wonderful array,--layers of powder concealing
+the dusky tint of her complexion, innumerable jewels tinkling on her
+person, and hands badly manicured, but richly be-ringed.
+
+During his brief visit she talked volubly in "chee-chee," vigorously
+assisted by gesticulations, and her laughter was ear-splitting and
+vulgar in its enforced hilarity; so that Meredith, whose nerves felt
+badly jangled, rose to beat a hasty retreat, courteously resisting all
+the hospitable efforts of the hostess to keep him as a guest.
+
+At the Subdivision of Panchpokhur, he was introduced to the Deputy
+Magistrate's wife and twin baby boys who were splendid specimens of
+infantile vigour; and his praise and admiration were the passport to
+their mother's instant regard. She was a devoted wife and mother, placid
+and easy-going, and carried the air of one equal to any emergency.
+
+"I am amazed that they should look so strong," Meredith said as he
+watched the children racing over the grass in pursuit of straying
+poultry.
+
+"They seldom ail," said their mother, who, though country born, was
+perfectly English in her speech and manners. "I nursed them both,
+unaided," she said proudly, feeling disposed to venture this confidence
+to a man who was married and a father.
+
+"That, I suppose, makes a heap of difference," he remarked diffidently.
+"My wife was too ill after the birth of the kid, so it was put on the
+bottle from the start."
+
+"What a pity!" and the lady forthwith entered upon an instructive
+dissertation on the particular artificial foods that could be
+recommended.
+
+"Will this always make him delicate, do you think?" Meredith asked
+anxiously, not so much for the sake of the babe, as from the fear of all
+it would mean to himself in regard to his wife.
+
+"Perhaps not, but it is a bad handicap."
+
+Meredith sighed as he explained the reason of his touring alone.
+"Captain Dalton thinks the child should be within reach of medical aid
+after its go of fever. My wife, too, was a bit knocked over and cannot
+rough it this winter, I'm afraid."
+
+"The new Civil Surgeon?"
+
+"Yes. Came direct from Calcutta after the rains set in."
+
+"He is said to be very clever, but the natives don't seem to like him at
+all, as he is supposed to be rather fond of the knife."
+
+"A good surgeon, I am told. The natives are great cowards of surgery,
+and risk gangrene before they will consent to an operation."
+
+"That is so. He has his hands full, I should think," said the lady.
+"Elsie Meek, the daughter of a dear friend of mine, is dangerously ill
+at the Mission not far from Muktiarbad. I suppose you know that?"
+
+Meredith had heard a rumour to that effect, and wondered how Captain
+Dalton had managed to spare so much of his valuable time to the camp.
+
+"Mr. Meek is a Methodist who came out some years ago and married a
+school friend of my mother's. Their daughter was educated in England and
+joined them a few months ago. I am told she is a talented girl and
+totally unsuited to her life here," said his hostess. "Have you seen
+much of her?"
+
+"Very little, indeed, for her people don't belong to the Club and Miss
+Elsie has only been to see the Brights who are rather friendly with her
+parents. She came out in the summer."
+
+"Poor thing! Enteric is such a terrible disease, and she is very bad I
+hear."
+
+"She could not be in more skilful hands," said Meredith.
+
+Before he left the Subdivision, he had many illuminating talks with the
+wife of the Deputy on the subject of infants and how to rear them in
+Bengal.
+
+"I suppose," said he, "when my kid begins to teeth, the doctors will
+advise sending him and the mother home?" It was the probability he most
+dreaded.
+
+"I see no necessity for that," was the assured reply. "Doctors take too
+much responsibility upon themselves, when they so readily part husbands
+and wives. It has often been the cause of greater trouble than is to be
+feared from the climate. It should be remembered that teething is not a
+disease, but a natural process, which might be influenced by the
+digestion in any part of the globe. Poor India gets all the blame!--even
+when an ayah is careless with the feeding bottles. Why! those iniquitous
+ones with a long rubber tube, used in my mother's day, were called
+'Herods' for the number of children they killed. With proper attention,
+and the hills for a change when necessary, there is no reason why babies
+out here should not do perfectly well till they are seven. It is the
+growing and impressionable stage, and I'll allow that the moral example
+of human nature in the East is not of the best. I say it, who have been
+brought up entirely out here."
+
+"You are a tremendous credit to your upbringing," put in Meredith.
+
+"My people were very particular and I was never allowed an ayah to teach
+me self-indulgence, nor to associate with the servants' children on the
+estate; for what native children do not know of evil isn't worth
+knowing."
+
+The Subdivisional Officer's bungalow was a type usually to be found in
+rural Districts, built of bricks and mortar, whitewashed, and roofed
+with the thatching grass that grows on low-lying lands by the Ganges.
+Earlier in Raymond Meredith's career, Panchpokhur had been one of his
+own appointments, and every corner of the dwelling and its grounds was
+familiar to him: the tall goldmohur trees beside the gate, the range of
+out-offices and stabling, the high, flowering hedge of hibiscus, the
+primitive well by the palm tree, with its screeching pulley. Gazing from
+the verandah he could almost imagine himself a bachelor again in the
+first flush of an opening career, keen and interested. The low verandah
+was the same on which he was wont to sleep on hot summer nights, and
+breakfast upon, at sunrise, in his pyjamas. The deep, thatched roof was
+as cool and as picturesque as of yore, having been renewed many times in
+the seven or eight years that were gone. The difference in his
+surroundings lay in the greater cleanliness--which usually distinguished
+the abode of a married man from that of a careless bachelor--and also in
+the supplementary furniture which threw his old camp articles into the
+shade. He was able to recognise the more durable of his past possessions
+in various parts of the house where they appealed to him as old friends.
+In those days how little had sufficed him!
+
+All was now changed, for his life was dominated with the one idea of
+making his home attractive and suitable for the treasure it held.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After Panchpokhur, he moved on with his tents and the paraphernalia of
+camp life to parts thickly populated by Indians of all castes and
+creeds, and was received with pomp and ceremony befitting the
+representative of the Ruling Power. Addresses were read to him before a
+vast concourse of humanity; and members of the Local Municipal Board
+vied with one another in paying him the respect due to his official
+position.
+
+In the intervals of duty, he tramped jungle places for game, alone or in
+company with gentlemen from the neighbourhood; and, at the week-end,
+prepared to spend Sunday with his wife at Muktiarbad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LEADING LADY
+
+
+Meanwhile, Joyce at the Bara Koti, partially regained her confidence in
+life, and tried to make the best of her surroundings.
+
+The house stood imposingly in extensive grounds which had been
+artistically laid out by successive officials, in lawns, flower-bed,
+ornamental shrubberies, and a kitchen garden, all of which were
+maintained by four _malis_ and a regiment of coolies. A dense hedge of
+cactus separated the grounds from the roadway, with graceful bamboo
+clumps at intervals for shade; and a rustic gate led to the carriage
+drive, an avenue bordered by goldmohur trees.
+
+The building, which was one-storeyed, was of solid masonry, the floor
+being well raised upon arches. Wide pillared verandahs ran on every
+side, and the roof was of concrete supported by iron joists. The rooms
+were lofty and spacious, with high doors and many windows, furnished
+with glass shutters and Venetian blinds; and were designed to fulfil the
+requirements of married officials of important position in the
+Government, who were expected to maintain a dignified state and
+entertain in a style to correspond. In a word, it was Government House
+on a minor scale, with a lordly status to keep up in the Station and
+District.
+
+For his wife's sake, Meredith had endeavoured to make his home as
+attractive as possible so as to save inevitable comparisons between her
+present and past circumstances.
+
+However, there were drawbacks which even he could not avoid: the lack of
+the most ordinary conveniences of daily life, such as electric lights
+and fans, water pipes, telephones, and English shops; and of them all,
+it was to be feared that the last might yet prove the most to be
+deplored.
+
+The bathrooms, which were numerous, had no hot and cold water laid on;
+nor were there any but kerosene lamps to give light; and in lieu of
+electric fans, _punkhas_ with gathered frills were worked by means of a
+rope through a hole in the wall. Kurta, Moja, Juti, and Paji, were the
+four Hindu coolies employed in summer to keep the frill perpetually
+waving in whichever room it pleased the sahibs to sit; and the patient
+creatures sat cross-legged on the verandah floor, nodding over the rope
+till galvanised into activity by a shout from within.
+
+For baths, kettles of boiling water were fetched from the kitchen, fifty
+yards or so distant, and cans of cold water from a tank beyond the
+vegetable garden, by a semi-nude servant whose duty it was to do this
+and nothing else. It took Joyce many months to realise which of the
+numerous servants in her pay could be required to perform a particular
+task, so complicated were the differentiations created by caste.
+
+Muktiarbad was very much behind the times as to modern comforts and
+conveniences, but was entirely up-to-date in the fashions which the
+weekly journals depicted for the advantage of the gentler sex, and which
+the latest arrivals from "home" expressed. Moreover, Calcutta was only a
+few hundred miles away--a trifle in India--and contained first-rate
+shops and dressmakers. A week-end visit to the Metropolis for a round of
+shopping was a common habit of the ladies of Muktiarbad, with its handy
+train service; and if it added considerably to the cost of living, what
+would you, when the bazaar sold only Manchester goods in bales, and
+_saris_ for feminine apparel?
+
+Old Khodar Bux, who was available for eight annas per day, was a
+treasure to bachelor servants, as the only tailor to be had in the
+District.
+
+In all other matters, the Station was content, for officials were birds
+of passage, and what had sufficed the residents for years, was good
+enough for today. Private enterprise was sluggish, and the cost of
+transporting plant and material for the installation of electricity,
+prohibitive; so the sahibs continued to use kerosene oil; were fanned by
+coolies, and were dependent on wells and tanks for their water supply,
+leaving it to the larger towns and great centres to revel in all the
+luxuries of modern times.
+
+The possession of a large Daimler by the Collector, and of a two-seater
+Rolls-Royce by the doctor, filled the other English residents with envy;
+but they were anathema to the natives of the bazaars and villages. Rich
+Indians followed suit with cars of various sorts, but, generally, the
+machines were looked upon by the ignorant as ruthless inventions of the
+devil, and to be feared accordingly.
+
+Joyce lived an idle life at Muktiarbad, served hand and foot by a host
+of servants, and treated as a little queen by her neighbours. She did
+not even try to "keep house" after the approved method in the East, a
+bunch of keys jingling in her pocket, and everything that was of value
+locked safely away; a cook to stand behind her chair, once a day, to
+render the bazaar accounts; visits of inspection to the kitchen, an
+eagle eye kept on the dusting and sweeping, and the laundry-man's weekly
+wash duly checked; for Meredith's head _bearer_, who had assumed
+responsibilities in his master's bachelor days and was too valuable to
+be deprived of his office, continued to keep accounts and run the
+establishment on oiled wheels. Joyce held him in secret awe and respect.
+
+Her ayah instructed her in Indian ways and customs, and caste
+susceptibilities; and it was no little tax to remember how not to
+offend. The _bearer_ was not to be asked to carry trays of food, or the
+_khansaman_ to trim the lamps; the _masalchi_ had no responsibility with
+regard to the boots, or the sweeper with scullery concerns; and so on,
+and so forth. It was all very bewildering and made her nervous. She
+cared too little for India to take much trouble to improve her knowledge
+of the country or of the people, and was content to remain as an
+honoured guest in her own house, with her precious babe to worship and
+cherish with jealous devotion.
+
+On her return from camp, visitors dropped in to see her, foremost among
+them, Mrs. Barrington Fox, the wife of a railway official of some
+importance in the District; a lady young enough to have retained a
+belief in her power to charm. She had been very handsome at her _debut_,
+ten years ago, but the ravages of the climate had not spared her
+complexion which was delicately assisted by art to retain its bloom. She
+had the air of being languidly bored with the monotony of her life, and
+seemed disposed to patronise the "leading lady" who never led, save when
+the laws of precedence obliged her to occupy the seat of honour at
+dinner parties in the Station. It was a temptation to Mrs. Fox to advise
+her in the way she should go, and she tactfully managed to hint at it.
+"India is naturally strange to you, yet you do wonderfully!--I am sure
+you are very clever," she would begin, and then make some suggestion
+which Joyce was very glad to follow. For instance--"I hear the Padre
+from headquarters wishes to hold service here next Sunday. He ought
+really to put up with you, but the Brights have had him lately and
+unless you write and invite him he is likely to go straight to them.
+What do you think?" she asked lighting a cigarette.
+
+Joyce had been in the hills on the few occasions when the Reverend John
+Pugh had visited Muktiarbad from Hazrigunge and conducted Divine service
+in the reading-room of the Club.
+
+"Do you think I should?" she asked, anxious to do the correct thing.
+
+"I was thinking that the Brights take too much upon themselves. Mrs.
+Bright is only the wife of the Superintendent of Police after all, and
+your husband is the Collector."
+
+"But Mrs. Bright is a perfect dear."
+
+"Still she should not encroach on your rights. The District Chaplain
+usually stays with the Collector unless he has special friends in the
+Station with whom he divides his time. But do just as you like. I
+thought perhaps he would think you did not want him."
+
+"I should like to have him very much," Joyce said eagerly. "My husband
+will be here and it will be quite a pleasure to us both." So Joyce
+promised to write her letter of invitation.
+
+On the whole, she was never at her ease with Mrs. Fox, who had rarely a
+good word for her neighbours and voiced strangely radical sentiments
+concerning Life and its obligations. They were often startling,
+particularly as she made no secret of the fact that she and her husband
+never "got on." Between puffs of cigarette smoke she would scoff at the
+laws of marriage and speak with much leniency of divorce. Her sympathies
+were invariably with offenders, and Joyce thought her rather too fond of
+the society of men. Meredith feared and disliked her. The fear was on
+his wife's account, lest she should be contaminated. "I have no use for
+a woman of her type," he would say. "She has made a mess of her own life
+and is a poisonous influence to young women."
+
+"But it seems she has a perfect brute of a husband, who leaves her to
+herself while he runs up and down the line amusing himself with other
+women."
+
+"It's a lie," said Meredith sternly. "Fox is not a bad sort. Men rather
+like him, and he is a jolly good Traffic Superintendent. The Railway
+staff think a lot of him. I should not be surprised if he is fed up with
+her selfishness and the way she carries on with his assistants. No
+decent man tolerates that sort of thing."
+
+"If you talked to her for an hour, you'd think she was the injured
+party," said Joyce.
+
+"Then I'd rather you never talked to her."
+
+But that was ridiculous in a small station where everyone met everyone
+else every day, Joyce explained.
+
+So when Mrs. Barrington Fox called, full of gossip and friendliness, she
+was received politely. After the matter of the Padre was settled, she
+demanded to see the child and a quarter of an hour was spent in
+baby-worship.
+
+"He's certainly not looking so well as when you brought him from
+Darjeeling. Weaker, I should say, poor little chappie! I don't believe
+the place agrees with him--or with you, for that matter. You look a good
+deal paler. How do you feel?"
+
+"I am quite all right now, only a bit shaken," Joyce said doubtfully.
+Possibly she was not conscious how bad she actually was? Mrs. Fox was
+not comforting.
+
+"You mustn't run down, you know. The surest safeguard against epidemics
+and illnesses peculiar to this miserable climate is never to allow
+yourself to run below par."
+
+"But what is one to do? One doesn't deliberately do it."
+
+"No, but you should eat heaps of nourishing things. Drink plenty of
+milk, for instance. But never fail to boil it, and never leave it
+exposed to the air. Milk is the most dangerous thing you can take, on
+account of its susceptibility to germs of every kind; especially enteric
+and cholera. It simply asks for germs!"
+
+"And if you keep it covered, it goes bad!" cried Joyce alarmed since it
+formed the sole diet of her beloved infant.
+
+"It wouldn't be a bad plan to keep it in the refrigerator in bottles. I
+did that all the winter, last year, when I was on milk diet."
+
+"It will turn me grey to keep in mind the many things I must not do out
+here!" sighed Joyce.
+
+Mrs. Fox condoled with her out of fellow-feeling and congratulated her
+for having given up camping. "If it doesn't suit you or the kid, I don't
+see why you should be obliged to do it. Men have to learn not to be
+selfish."
+
+Joyce fired up. "Ray is anything but selfish. Sometimes I think it is I
+who am selfish; but if it were only myself, I would never say a word. We
+have to do our duty by the child."
+
+"Exactly so. I quite see the point of view. Here you have the doctor at
+hand. I am told he nursed you like a mother."
+
+Joyce wondered how Mrs. Fox had come to hear of it as, since her return
+to the Station, she had seen no callers. "How _ever_ did you know?" she
+asked ingenuously.
+
+"Oh, one hears things!" Mrs. Fox blew smoke through her nostrils and
+smiled knowingly. "And how do you like him on closer acquaintance?"
+
+Joyce thought he improved on acquaintance. Mrs. Fox annoyed her by that
+smile.
+
+"He is an enigma to most, but if I know his type, he is not a little
+dangerous. He can be exceedingly rude. I passed him on my way here and
+common politeness should have made him pull up for a word or two. But he
+rushed by in a cloud of dust with two fingers just touching the brim of
+his hat!--considering I was on foot, you can imagine my feelings. I have
+never been treated so by a man in my life--unless it is by my own
+husband; but then, there's no love lost," Mrs. Fox remarked.
+
+"Perhaps Captain Dalton was in a hurry," Joyce suggested.
+
+"Don't excuse him. He can be very nice when he likes. Yesterday there
+was Honor Bright hanging over her fence to talk to him, and though it
+was his busiest time, he was there quite a long while,--you know their
+gardens join. I saw them through Mrs. Bray's field-glasses. The Brays'
+verandah, as you know, looks on the Brights' grounds from beyond a
+paddock."
+
+"He thinks a lot of Honor," said Joyce remembering their conversation in
+camp.
+
+"Any one can see she is making up to him. But Mrs. Bright had better
+take care. No one knows anything of Captain Dalton's affairs. He might
+be married for all one knows. Honor Bright may be very popular in the
+District, but she'll get herself talked about and end all her chances of
+marrying well. Naturally it is the ambition of her parents to see her
+well settled, but she's far too unconventional. Did you hear of her
+escapade while you were in camp?"
+
+Joyce had not heard, but was eager to know all about it. She knew Honor
+was careless of conventions out of a contempt for small minds and a love
+of independence. All who knew her allowed that she was as "straight as
+you make 'em," and admired her open nature and clear eye.
+
+"Didn't she write and tell you?"
+
+"We seldom write to each other."
+
+"I thought you were bosom friends!--well, she was out alone looking for
+early snipe--someone had seen one in the fields beyond the bazaar--and
+while out, she was supposed to have been bitten by a snake----"
+
+"--Why do you say 'supposed'?" Joyce interrupted ready to spring to arms
+for her friend.
+
+"We'll say she was bitten, if you like; only, people bitten by snakes
+generally die, and she didn't. She tied a ligature and was limping home
+when she met Captain Dalton in his car on his way to a dispensary
+somewhere in the District. He took her up and home to his house where
+she stayed half the day alone with him. Her mother was week-ending in
+Calcutta, and Honor was in charge of her father's comforts and the home;
+but her father happened to have run out to Panipara for a rioting case
+which he and the police were bothered with; so Miss Honor stayed with
+the doctor till she thought fit to come home."
+
+"Bitten by a snake!" gasped Joyce in consternation. "Poor Honor!--how
+terrified she must have been!"
+
+"That's best known to herself and him. Since then, you'll observe that
+there is a sort of understanding between them."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"They seem to be on far better terms than he is with any one else in the
+Station, and Honor is falling in love with him. I am anything but blind
+to the symptoms!" and Mrs. Fox struck a match and lighted another
+cigarette.
+
+"I suppose they grew friendly over the treatment of her wound," said
+Joyce beginning to understand how it was that the doctor had learned to
+appreciate Honor Bright. Yet he was "not seeking to marry her."
+
+"I must get Honor to tell me all about it when I see her. Perhaps she
+does not know I am back?"
+
+"She knows right enough, for, as I have said, the doctor was with her
+yesterday, talking across the garden fence."
+
+Mrs. Fox smoked her second and third cigarette, drank tea with Joyce,
+and, when every topic of interest was exhausted, wended her way
+homeward, deploring the fact that her husband was too selfish to give
+her a motor-car. "He doesn't care for one, so I have to do without; and
+with only one riding-horse and that one lame, I am obliged to tramp the
+dusty lanes on foot."
+
+"I am also without a conveyance while my husband is in camp," said
+Joyce, "but it does not matter as I like walking."
+
+"I don't. My frocks are not suited to pedestrian exercise and cost too
+much--" which suggested the idea to Joyce that Mrs. Fox's expensive
+clothes accounted for her husband's economy in other directions. She
+watched her swaying languidly down the drive, a tall and graceful
+figure, stylishly dressed and pretty in a faded way, in spite of the
+delicate pink of her oval cheek and the brightness of her thin lips.
+What a pity it was that she had never a good word for any one, and made
+herself so ridiculous with the men, thought Joyce; it lowered her in
+their estimation and laid her open to impudence. Though she was
+attractive to many, she never succeeded in holding the attention of her
+admirers very long; which was humiliating to say the least of it. Joyce
+looked upon her as an example of a true flirt, and feared her
+accordingly--not on her husband's account, for Ray gave her a wide
+berth--but as a criminal at large. Women had whispered tales which she
+found impossible to credit; the world was so censorious! But on the
+theory that there was never any smoke without fire, she decided that
+Mrs. Fox was unscrupulous, and deplored the fact that the Station was
+obliged to put up with her. Apparently, so long as a husband
+countenanced his wife, no one else had any right to object to whatever
+she might do! It was a strange world!
+
+The trend of her thoughts reminded her of the doctor's estimate of
+herself, which he had subsequently withdrawn. But then, he could only
+have been teasing, for Joyce knew herself, and flirting was very far
+from her intentions at any time, or under any circumstance. For
+instance, she was very sure she would never allow any man but her
+husband to kiss her!--the bare idea was appalling!
+
+After the tennis hour at the Club, Honor Bright cycled up to the steps
+of the Bara Koti, and ran in to embrace Mrs. Meredith and welcome her
+home. "I am sorry not to have been able to come earlier, there was so
+much to do, and a tennis match in the afternoons," she said in her full,
+deep voice which Joyce thought so musical. Yet she never sang. God had
+given her a larynx, but the wicked fairies had robbed her of ear, so,
+though she loved music passionately, she could never produce a tune. "I
+must be fit only for 'treasons, stratagems, and spoils,'" she was once
+heard to say, "for it seems I was not born musical."
+
+However, it was pointed out to her that she was not just to herself; she
+had plenty of "music in her soul" to satisfy even Shakespeare; it was
+only her inability to use the divine instrument in her throat. "You put
+me in mind of 'Trilby.' Perhaps you will sing if you are hypnotised!"
+Joyce had told her.
+
+"Captain Dalton mentioned that you and Baby had both been ill. However I
+am glad to see _you_ so well. How is Squawk?"
+
+"How can you call him such a horrid name!" said Joyce reproachfully.
+
+Honor laughed heartily. "Tommy is responsible; you must scold him."
+
+"I shall, indeed. He's a bad boy!"
+
+"Not at all!--he's a Deare!" at which they both laughed, for Mr.
+Bright's assistant, like the Assistant Magistrate, had a name of
+infinite possibilities. A comic fate had thrown him and Jack Darling
+together in the same Station, and they were provocative of fun in more
+senses than the coincidence of their names afforded.
+
+The guest was carried off to see the son-and-heir in his crib and admire
+his indefinite features that were prophetic of beauty, and his limbs
+that were a miracle of elasticity.
+
+By and by, they settled down to talk and Honor was told of the Padre's
+approaching visit. "Mrs. Fox thinks we should ask him to put up with us
+this time, or he might be offended," she explained. "Will your mother
+mind?"
+
+"Mind? she'll be only too glad, for in private life the old man is a
+terrible bore! he tells the same joke over and over again, and Mother
+says she is determined not to laugh the next time. There ought to be
+some way of choking off stale jokes, don't you think, without offending
+the poor dear?"
+
+"Tell him one of his own. I am sure it will make such an impression that
+he'll never forget it."
+
+"He's so polite, that he'll laugh heartily as though he'd never heard it
+in his life!"
+
+"What a hopeless person! However, I shall be glad to save your mother
+from nervous prostration," said Joyce.
+
+"Mrs. Fox always gets news in advance of everyone else," said Honor. "I
+wonder how she does it?"
+
+"She says she hears a lot--Ray says, servants carry news about the
+District as fast as telegrams."
+
+"I hate to think that she takes the liberty of dropping in upon you
+whenever she likes. She's not a safe person, so I hope you are careful
+of what you tell her."
+
+"Generally, it is she who does the telling, and I the listening."
+
+"It won't do you any good, what she has to say!"
+
+"It won't do me harm. I heard from her today, that you had been bitten
+by a snake while I was in camp. How too terrible!--oh, Honey, how
+frightened you must have been!" In emotional moments, Joyce called her
+friend by her family pet-name.
+
+"I was dreadfully frightened--afterwards," said Honor, shuddering
+violently.
+
+"And you never told me!"
+
+"I could not write about it," said the girl with a sudden gravity that
+ennobled her face. "I don't like talking about it; it was a bad shock."
+
+"Tell me this once, and we shan't speak of it again," Joyce pleaded.
+
+She thought Honor's a beautiful face, though it had no actual claim to
+beauty apart from the brown eyes that were so frank and steadfast, and
+her regular teeth. The eyes were arresting in their depth of shade and
+power of expression, with dark lashes of unusual thickness; but for the
+rest, her complexion was tanned by reckless exposure to the sun, her
+nose had a saucy tendency, and her mouth, though shapely, was not by any
+means a rosebud; indeed, she had a wide smile which was readily excused
+for the charm of it, and because of her splendid teeth. Soulless men
+admired Honor for her eyes, her teeth, and her figure which was truly
+classical; others, for her honesty and directness, and the womanly
+sympathy which never failed. Tommy Deare was among the latter, and he
+had known her for the greater part of his life.
+
+Asked to talk of the episode of the snake, Honor's expression changed
+and she was strongly moved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AN ANXIOUS EXPERIENCE
+
+
+"Have you ever wondered what it must feel like to have sentence of death
+passed on you?" said Honor Bright thoughtfully leaning her chin on her
+hand, her elbow on a low table before her.
+
+"It must be too awful for description," murmured Joyce, large-eyed and
+sympathetic.
+
+"I shall always understand and feel for any one under sentence of death
+either by the Courts of Justice or from disease. When I felt the sharp
+prick on my ankle and looking down saw the snake glide into the
+undergrowth I believed it was all up with me. I had seen two or three
+natives who came up to the house for treatment die before my eyes. A
+_saice_ bitten in the stables by a cobra died in twenty minutes. A
+_mali_ cutting grass was struck on the hand and died in three quarters
+of an hour. A _punkha_ coolie on the verandah lost his life within an
+hour after being bitten by a karait.
+
+"I could not tell the character of the snake that had bitten me, but it
+was large and long, and many cobras are dark and lengthy creatures. My
+father shot one with No. 8, in the roots of a banyan tree this very
+year, and it measured over four feet."
+
+"But, Honey, dear, why ever were you walking in jungly places?" Joyce
+cried, wrought up to the verge of hysteria.
+
+"I was out after snipe. You know how I enjoy shooting, and I generally
+go alone, for I am not clever enough yet with my gun to be trusted to
+shoot in company with others. One is so afraid of accidents!
+
+"I had been walking along the 'aisles' of the paddy fields till I came
+to a swampy bit and found I'd have to walk through it if I had any hope
+of starting a bird. Just as I was stepping off the 'aisle,' a snake
+passed over my foot, and biting me on the ankle vanished in the swamp.
+It must have been some sort of a water-snake, but I did not know. All I
+knew was that I had been bitten by a snake that might be poisonous. It
+could easily have been an adder, or a karait--even a cobra--though I had
+not a minute in which to observe a hood or any distinctive marks. I
+immediately collected my faculties to think what was the best thing to
+do. I knew I had no time to lose. Mother was away in town shopping for
+the cold-weather needs, Dad was out for the day on a riot case. I did
+not even know if I should find Captain Dalton at home.
+
+"On the instant, I tied a ligature as tight as I could under the knee,
+and then started to run back to the Station as fast as my breath would
+allow. As I reached the main road I heard the sound of a motor, and, to
+my intense relief and thankfulness, it was the doctor on his way
+somewhere--I never asked where--my case was as desperate as any, and I
+put up my hand. He saw the 'S.O.S.' message in my face, which he
+afterwards said was the hue of chalk, and when he found out what was
+wrong, he just bundled me in and drove home like a streak of lightning.
+I wonder we did not kill someone or something in the bazaar. I shall
+remember to my dying day the way the people fell to right and left
+thinking, no doubt, the doctor was mad.
+
+"When we arrived at his bungalow he sprang out, ordering me to find my
+way to his consulting room while he went straight to his medicine chest
+for the remedies he keeps for cases of snake-bite. By that time my leg
+was feeling as heavy as lead--whether from the ligature or the poison, I
+do not know--but I could hardly put my foot to the ground. Still, I
+hobbled in and sat down to wait. It seemed ages, but was in reality only
+a minute or two, when he came and knelt down before me to deal with the
+wound. There was very little to be seen, just the punctures and a livid
+disk round them. Up till then we had scarcely spoken a word, or I have
+no memory of words having passed between us, but I can see his face, all
+set and stern, his mouth compressed, his eyes like living coals in his
+head intent on his work of rescue.
+
+"I hardly felt all he did; I was so deeply excited inwardly. Outwardly I
+was as calm as a stoic. I felt whatever happened I would have to keep my
+head to the last. I fully expected to feel desperately ill, and almost
+imagined the sensation beginning to creep over me, of numbness and
+chill. I had watched the symptoms in others, and could almost trace them
+arriving in me. Oh, Joyce, I wouldn't go through that time again if you
+gave me a fortune!--yet, I don't know--for one thing, I shall always be
+glad."
+
+"And that?" asked Joyce.
+
+"Oh, nothing--just an idea," she said hastily. "Captain Dalton cut deep
+into the flesh of my ankle and cauterised the wound; after that he
+injected something above my heart. I believe he was not satisfied with
+my pulse, for he brought me a stiff brandy-peg to drink. My hands were
+stone cold; he chafed them in his. In the meantime my leg swelled and
+looked all colours. It was most alarming yet he would not let me think
+of it. He, who is usually so silent, talked all the time of a thousand
+things that had nothing to do with snakes and their deadliness. He even
+made a joke or two. Once he wanted to know if I wanted any one--a lady
+to sit by me and cheer me up. But when I couldn't have Mother, and you
+were away, I wanted no one else, and told him so. I think he was rather
+surprised that I wasn't hysterical or troublesome; that I bore all that
+cutting about without uttering a sound. Every now and then he felt my
+pulse, and as time passed his face took on a wonderful look. You would
+hardly have believed he was the same man. The hardness was all melted
+and broken up, his eyes were so kind--he talked so pleasantly.
+
+"After some time I asked if he thought I was well enough to go home, but
+he preferred to keep me longer. He thought I would have to be watched
+for a bit and looked after. Later he explained that he was afraid of
+shock. I had been through such an anxious time. He carried me to his
+drawing-room, and while I rested on the sofa he diverted me with music.
+He played the most exquisite music, and sang me ever so many songs.
+Really, Joyce, nobody knows Captain Dalton. He has most extraordinary
+depths in his nature of which I have had only a fleeting glimpse."
+
+"Why is he so antagonistic to people as a rule?" Joyce wondered aloud.
+
+"He has had some great disappointment in his life. Someone has smashed
+up all his ideals and beliefs, or he would never be so suspicious and
+unfriendly. He is that; for who knows him a bit better today than five
+months ago when he first came among us?"
+
+"_You_ do, certainly, Honey!"
+
+"Not even I. I have been favoured with only a glimpse of his inner self.
+There are stores of wonderful goodness all hidden away underneath the
+nastiness and ill-humour he shows to the world!"
+
+"Do go on and tell me the rest," urged Joyce, excitedly. "What a fearful
+experience!"
+
+"It was. I thought of Mother and her grief were I to die,--of my
+father's desolation. They are both so wrapped up in me, having no other
+child, you know. I pictured myself lying dead and covered with
+flowers--you have no idea how involuntary was all this thinking!"
+
+"And you never cried or lost your head?"
+
+"I had not the slightest leaning that way. All I wanted was to die
+'decently and in order,'" Honor returned, smiling reminiscently. "I did
+not want to make a scene and upset Captain Dalton's nerves. Once, while
+feeling faint and sick, I gave him messages. I wanted him to tell Mother
+that I did not mind dying, a bit. That was not strictly true, for I love
+life as much as any one else, but I thought it would comfort her. I sent
+her my love and said that if I had to die, I was sure it was best for
+me, because everything happens for the best. 'Do you really believe
+that?' he asked. 'I am not quite sure I do,' said I, 'but I must think
+of everything that will cheer Mother and help her to be reconciled if I
+have to go.'"
+
+"How long were you obliged to be in suspense?"
+
+"Time passed so fast that I had been there four hours before he judged
+it was safe to bring me home. He drove me in his car and carried me to
+my bed where the ayah took over charge. He then went about his other
+duties. He was so kind and wonderful to me...." The colour rushed into
+Honor's face at a memory that would not be suppressed. "Just before he
+left, he came and stood beside me, looking so queer...."
+
+"How?" Joyce asked curiously. The only expression familiar to her on the
+doctor's face was quizzical amusement.
+
+"He has rather wonderful eyes," Honor said reminiscently, "and they
+seemed suddenly soft and misty. 'You are quite a heroine, Miss Honor,'
+he said. 'I shall think of you often when I am alone in my diggings, as
+the bravest girl I know;' and without any warning he took my hand and
+kissed it, ever so reverently, almost as though it were the hand of a
+queen, and was gone."
+
+"Didn't he come again?"
+
+"Many times to see how the wound was doing. The swelling had to be
+fomented--he had shown me how--the ayah was quite a brick about learning
+the way. Father was there too, and Mother had returned. Poor Mother wept
+enough for two, and Father drank a stiff whisky-and-soda to steady his
+nerves. Altogether it was a ghastly experience. I wonder what particular
+kind of snake it was!"
+
+"It was evidently poisonous, and the bite would have killed you if the
+doctor had not found you in time," said Joyce.
+
+"I have no doubt of it." Honor became suddenly aware of the lateness of
+the hour and rose to go. "I shall have to dress for dinner, and there's
+only a quarter of an hour to do it in!--Dear me, how I have talked!"
+
+"One minute--this happened only the other day, and yet you had
+associated with the doctor for five months before you were properly on
+speaking terms?" said Joyce, detaining her.
+
+"We used to see each other in the distance occasionally. He never came
+to the Club and showed no inclination for feminine society, so we never
+spoke more than to say 'Good-evening' once in the way!"
+
+"Yet he said quite a nice thing about you to me in camp."
+
+"Did he?--What did he say?" Honor asked, flushing.
+
+Joyce related the conversation faithfully, even to the doctor's
+concluding remark--"I am not seeking a wife, and have no interest in
+friendships."
+
+Honor winced as under a lash, and straightened herself.
+
+"You should not have pressed the point, Joyce. However, what does it
+matter? I am glad he thinks well of me, and that's all there is to it.
+He and I are of the same mind. I, too, am not seeking a husband, for I
+am very happy as I am. Good-bye, dear, I was commissioned with a message
+for you, but I have talked so much that it has been nearly forgotten.
+Mother wants you to dine tomorrow; just a few friends and Captain
+Dalton; and he has actually accepted the invitation."
+
+"It is never safe to ask me to dinner," said Joyce doubtfully. "I hate
+leaving Baby all alone at night."
+
+"He has a good ayah."
+
+"Oh, yes. She is absolutely trustworthy; but should he ail ever so
+slightly I shall stay at home. I could not go out and leave him the
+least bit out of sorts."
+
+"We shouldn't wish it. However, he might be quite all right, and then
+you'll come--bye-bye!" she waved her hand from the steps, mounted her
+bicycle, and was gone.
+
+So the dinner-party at the Brights' was a settled engagement and Joyce
+prepared to keep it. She had never been anywhere without her husband,
+and felt nervous and shy for the lack of his support. Moreover, her mind
+was haunted by nameless fears for the child who was to be left behind to
+the tender mercies of native servants. A thousand possibilities of evil
+presented themselves to her mind and robbed the outing of prospective
+enjoyment; consequently the next night when it came to the point of
+starting, she was full of regrets for her weakness in having consented
+to go. "Ayah," she said in a fit of childish confidence, "I care for
+nothing on earth so much as my darling baby, how can I leave him for an
+hour or two not knowing what is happening to him in the meantime?"
+
+"My Lort! what-for be frightened? Baba plenty well, sleeping sound. What
+can be?" the woman cried irritably. Could she not be trusted?
+
+Nothing could possibly happen in so short a time. How did other mothers
+fulfil their social engagements? Surely they did not all worry
+themselves and others to death over nothing? Joyce therefore resolved to
+become more normal in her habits, and proceeded to dress.
+
+Hardly, however, had she put foot in the hired victoria, when the ayah
+appeared, suggesting another look at the child. He had been coughing in
+his sleep, and considering the mother's anxieties she feared the
+responsibility of keeping the fact to herself.
+
+Joyce immediately sprang from the carriage and hurried to the bedroom
+where the child lay sleeping in its cot. "You are sure he coughed?" she
+asked listening in vain for a repetition of the sound.
+
+"Would I say it for nothing?" the Madrasi asked testily.
+
+"What would it mean?"
+
+"A little cold he has caught, or indigestion."
+
+"Then I cannot go out with any peace of mind," Joyce cried definitely.
+"What if he should have croup?"
+
+"Why say such words? Give little honey, and cough go."
+
+But Joyce was not satisfied. What was a dinner-party to her if her
+precious one was sickening for croup or any other fatal malady? Most
+infant maladies were fatal unless taken in time, and if she were away
+and he be taken ill, how would he fare? She decided that the Brights
+would have to do without her, and forgive the disappointment.
+
+Forthwith she unwrapped, and settled down to spend a quiet evening
+alone, with an ear strained to hear any return of the cough, and quite
+determined to send for the doctor should it recur.
+
+However, having upset his mother's nerves and thrown a dinner-party out
+of order, the infant slept soundly till morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE DINNER-PARTY
+
+
+At Muktiarbad, the usual form of evening entertainment was a
+dinner-party with music and bridge to follow; and Mrs. Bright, wife of
+the Superintendent of Police, was specially noted for her hospitality in
+this respect. The brief intervals spent at home by her husband between
+his rounds of inspection or inquiry in his District were always
+celebrated by herself and her daughter as festal occasions; and their
+friends were gathered together at short notice to eat, not the "fatted
+calf," as that would have offended the religious susceptibilities of the
+Hindus who held the animal sacred, but one of the fattened geese kept
+available for such occasions.
+
+The ladies did not always accompany Mr. Bright on his journeys about the
+District, as they were usually hurried and undertaken with scant
+preparation. Very little of the flesh-pots of Bengal sufficed to satisfy
+Muktiarbad's Chief of Police, who had been thoroughly broken in to the
+rough-and-tumble of official life in the _mafasil_. The presence of his
+family in camp was a hindrance to Mr. Bright, and he was better pleased
+to return, after his strenuous duties, to the peace of domesticity at
+his bungalow in the Station. Moreover, there was little of interest in
+the monotony of camping in lonely places for a young girl to whom her
+mother wished to give every opportunity of settling in life, whatever
+might be her own ideas respecting a vocation. Muktiarbad, though a rural
+backwater of Bengal, and pronounced by the gay-minded, a penal
+settlement, had matrimonial possibilities not to be despised by anxious
+parents with daughters to be happily disposed of.
+
+On the whole, it was a highly social if small community who made the
+most of their opportunities for enjoyment, accepting the limitations of
+the place to which it had pleased Providence and the Ruling Power to
+appoint them, with the usual healthy philosophy which has made India so
+rich in memories.
+
+It mattered little if they had to endure the discomforts of the climate
+and various inconveniences besides; others were in a worse case. Nor did
+it matter if they never reached the goal for which they strove--it was
+Kismet!
+
+Fatalism is a habit of mind peculiar to the people of the East, where
+the unexpected might happen at any time without warning; and it is not
+unusual for Europeans to slip half-consciously into the same mental
+attitude.
+
+It is consequently not surprising that, in spite of many lurking
+dangers, life in the rural districts is careless and free. Risks of
+cholera, sunstroke, and snake-bite, are taken boldly without a thought
+of possibilities. India has need of resourceful minds and nerves of
+steel; and no use for the faltering and irresolute.
+
+Even Mrs. Bright took chances for her family and friends when her cook
+at the eleventh hour sent to Robinath Mukerjea's store in the bazaar for
+tins of salmon (the fish procured from a local tank being deemed
+inevitably earthy in flavour); for Mukerjea bought his provisions at
+sales of old stock from the Army and Navy Stores, vowing they were fresh
+consignments from _Belait_; but no one was deceived when patronising his
+shop in spite of risks of ptomaine. However, a dinner cooked by Kareem
+Majid was an achievement more worthy of a Goanese than a Mohammedan, and
+none who dined at the Brights' was ever the worse.
+
+"My dear," Mrs. Bright had been heard to observe in earlier days, "were
+it not for Honor and the necessity to cultivate the acquaintance of
+one's own child, I should never leave India. How I miss that treasure,
+Kareem! He has been with us since we were married, and there never was a
+more useful servant. Whether in camp or in my own bungalow, it is just
+the same; he rises to every emergency and cooks like a French _chef_. At
+a pinch he'll valet my husband. He has even in an emergency fastened the
+hooks of my blouse at the back; and when Honor was a child, played with
+her when she had the measles and kept her from crying herself into a
+fit. When other servants ran away from the cholera, he stayed and did
+everything but sweep the floors! And when any one is sick, I have never
+known the equal of his 'chicken jugs'! He is so self-reliant, too. I
+have only to say, 'Kareem, six guests for dinner tonight. Don't ask for
+orders--do just as you please, only don't mention the subject of food as
+you value your life!' And he will _salaam_ and say, '_Jo hukum_,' after
+which I have no responsibility whatever; dinner up to time, everything
+cooked to perfection, and when you think of what an Indian cook-house
+is, really, you are overcome with admiration. Can you fancy an English
+cook consenting to turn out dinners under like conditions? You get
+notice in a day! And who thinks of sparing Indian servants? As many
+courses as you like, with a wash-up like a small mountain, which the
+_masalchi_ disposes of behind the pantry door on a yard or two of bamboo
+matting, with an earthen _gumla_, a kettle of boiling water, and an
+unthinkable swab! An English maid would have hysterics."
+
+To make existence possible to the residents of Muktiarbad, there was the
+great, straggling bazaar on the outskirts of the Station ready to supply
+the necessaries of life. An enlightened confidence in the rule of the
+sahibs and in their honour and justice was a tradition with the local
+population whose trust in the _Sarcar_ was unbounded; for sedition had
+not yet poisoned the minds of the peace-loving, contented agriculturists
+and shopkeepers who were as conservative as they were simple. It was
+only in outlying villages that occasional trouble brewed when ignorant
+and superstitious minds were played upon by malcontents.
+
+Ten minutes' grace was allowed to Mrs. Meredith--no more--and Mr. Bright
+offered his arm to Mrs. Barrington Fox and led the way to the
+dining-room. Mr. Barrington Fox was seldom to be persuaded into
+accepting Station hospitalities; and usually made the time-worn excuse,
+as on the present occasion, of inspection duty on the line. The Station,
+however, understood it to mean that he had ceased to find pleasure in
+his wife's company and was determined not to be victimised.
+
+The dining-room at the Brights' was a large apartment, whitewashed like
+a hospital ward, but redeemed by hunting pictures on the walls, graceful
+drapery, and good furniture. A _punkha_ with a mat frill hung motionless
+overhead, as weather conditions were sufficiently altered to dispense
+with an artificial breeze; and the dining table beneath it presented an
+inviting aspect with its glittering mass of silver, glass, and flowers.
+A draught-screen concealed the door of ingress from the pantry where the
+business of serving was carried on by the _khansaman_ assisted by a
+group of white-robed domestics. Agitated whispers from behind the screen
+were infallible indications of mistakes retrieved in the nick of time;
+otherwise, the occasional blow of the ice hammer, or the rolling of the
+ice machine on the outer door-mat were the only sounds audible from the
+dining-room.
+
+Mrs. Bright, full of confidence in her staff and indifferent to mistakes
+which were not inexcusable, showed a complete detachment from the
+details of serving while she entertained her guests.
+
+A little reshuffling of the order of precedence, when Mrs. Meredith's
+non-appearance was assured, had disposed of Tommy Deare to his entire
+satisfaction. Left to shift for himself he moved to the other side of
+Honor Bright whom Jack Darling had piloted in. He was a plain,
+freckle-faced boy of twenty-two with plenty to say for himself, and a
+most engaging smile. In height he was on a level with Honor who was
+considered tall; yet, to his disgust, he was referred to as a "little
+man." But since it was recognised that "valuable goods are packed in
+small parcels," he assured his friends of his inestimable worth, and was
+comforted.
+
+"Mrs. Meredith is too absurd about that kid of hers," Mrs. Fox was heard
+to remark in the first hush that fell with the arrival of the soup.
+"Isn't it the baby who is ill tonight?" to Captain Dalton.
+
+"If I had known, I should have mentioned it," said the doctor above his
+soup plate. The rudeness of the reply was characteristic of him.
+
+"I understood from Mrs. Meredith that she and her offspring are in your
+charge. How neglectful of you to know nothing!"
+
+"I am ready to attend to them when called in," he replied.
+
+"Then you have not been wanted!" she laughed spitefully. "It must be
+very mortifying never to be wanted except when you are of use!"
+
+"A doctor is the one man whom you are only too glad to see the last of,"
+said Dalton coldly.
+
+"All the same, I shouldn't be a bit surprised if it's the baby who is
+ill, and you are sent for before dinner is over. Mrs. Meredith said it
+would be the only reason that would stop her coming," put in Mrs.
+Bright, anxious to soothe.
+
+"I hope not, indeed!" cried Mrs. Fox. "For now we've got you we mean to
+make you sing. Don't imagine we'll let you off."
+
+The doctor bowed a stiff acknowledgment, which meant nothing, and
+entered into conversation with the Executive Engineer on the subject of
+a morass which he had condemned in his Sanitary Report, and recommended
+to be drained.
+
+"The villagers won't stand it," said Mr. Ironsides. "They draw their
+drinking water from that _jhil_, and providing them with wells instead
+will not console them for its loss. Incidentally, they use it also for
+laundry purposes and bathing," he laughed.
+
+"Exactly. So the sooner it is done away with the better for their health
+and the health of the District. Malaria and cholera have their source at
+Panipara."
+
+"I hope you are not trying to deprive us of our duck-shooting, Doctor,"
+said Mr. Bright in alarm. "We depend upon Panipara Jhil for game in the
+winters, and there is little sport besides, in this God-forsaken place."
+
+"It will have to go if you want immunity from sickness," said Dalton.
+
+"If _they_ don't mind it, I don't know why _we_ should. It rages chiefly
+in Panipara village itself, and is nothing to us."
+
+"It comes on here afterwards with the flies," said Tommy.
+
+"A few natives, more or less, wiped off the face of the earth hereabouts
+would be a benefit to Muktiarbad," drawled young Smart of the Railway
+from his seat on Mrs. Fox's right, which, by an unwritten law was always
+accorded to him at Station dinners.
+
+"How very unfeeling!" cried two or three ladies in unison.
+
+A vigorous argument arose to which Honor listened, deeply interested.
+Panipara Jhil lay a few miles outside the Station, with the village of
+the same name lying on its banks. It occupied an area of a square mile
+or two of marsh land, was overrun with water-weeds and lotus plants, and
+dotted about with islands full of jungle growth and date-palms--a
+picturesque but unhealthy spot, dear to lovers of sport.
+
+"The natives haven't the foggiest idea of hygiene," said the doctor
+finally. "But they cannot be argued with. They will continue their
+filthy habits though twenty to thirty per cent. of them get wiped out by
+cholera annually. Drain the _jhil_ and give them wells, and there'll be
+little or no sickness afterwards. Incidentally, several hundred _bighas_
+of ground will be reclaimed for agricultural purposes, which will be a
+benefit to the owner."
+
+"The Government will take its own time to consider the proposition, and
+a few years hence, when it has exhausted all the red tape available, it
+will be put through," said Honor. "In the meantime, the cholera, like
+the poor, will be 'with us always!'"
+
+"I shouldn't be at all surprised," said the doctor meeting her eyes in
+swift appreciation of her verdict.
+
+He said no more to her, for others intervened and the conversation
+changed.
+
+Captain Dalton looked a trifle more cynical and dissatisfied than usual,
+Honor thought. His strong jaw and irregular features hid his thoughts,
+but not their reflection which showed a mental unrest. He was clearly
+not a happy man, and was plainly a discordant element in light-hearted
+company. "A real wet blanket," Tommy whispered in her ear. "If one makes
+a joke he either doesn't hear it, or thinks it not worth laughing at.
+Something has turned him sour, so he hates to see people happy."
+
+But Honor was not in agreement with him. "I grant he is an embittered
+man--he looks it; but he is quite willing that you should enjoy yourself
+so long as you don't force your high spirits on him. If one's mind is
+not in accord with blithesomeness, one surely might be excused from
+taking part in it."
+
+"I do believe you like the blighter?" Tommy cried reproachfully.
+
+"I have every reason to," she answered stoutly.
+
+"Because he cured you of snake-bite? Doctors get a pull over us poor
+laymen when it comes to matters of life and death. They do their duty,
+and you are grateful for all time," at which Honor laughed heartily, for
+Tommy was looking personally injured.
+
+"There's Mrs. Meredith!" he continued. "She talks of him with tears in
+her eyes as though he were a saint--Old Nick, more likely!--He has been
+endowed with every virtue when he has none, simply because he put the
+Squawk to rights." Tommy had seen Joyce that afternoon and went on to
+describe his visit. "She was looking topping, so was the kid; which
+makes it all the more mysterious, her not turning up. But, my word, she
+is pretty! One might be excused for any indiscretion when she makes eyes
+at one!"
+
+However, to his disappointment, Honor showed no symptoms of jealousy.
+"I'll wager she neglected you for her baby!" She said. "Mrs. Meredith
+has no interest in young men."
+
+"She had plenty in me. We grew quite intimate--talked of the weather and
+_anopheles_ mosquitoes, and improved the occasion by rubbing _eau de
+Cologne_ on the bites."
+
+"How very thrilling! and she forgot all about you the moment you had
+left!"
+
+"Everyone forgets all about Tommy the moment he has left," put in Jack,
+thinking it about time to remind them of his presence.
+
+He was a handsome young athlete of twenty-five, with the reputation of
+having played in the Rugby International. He owned a complexion
+inconveniently given to blushing. He and Tommy chummed together in a
+three-roomed bungalow near the Police Court and were generally known as
+inseparables. Both played polo and tennis with skill and kept the
+Station entertained by their high spirits and resourcefulness.
+
+Honor's attention was diverted by an animated discussion among her
+elders respecting the duties of a wife and mother in the East.
+
+"A mother is perfectly justified in taking her child home if it cannot
+stand the climate," Mrs. Fox was saying.
+
+"I suppose the question to be decided is, whom a woman cares most for,
+child or husband--whether she will live away from her husband for the
+sake of the child, or from the child for the sake of the husband,
+presuming that the climate is not suitable to children," said a guest.
+
+A strident voice was heard to remark that women had no business to marry
+men whose careers were in the East, if they meant to live away from them
+most of the time. "It's a tragedy for which doctors are mainly
+responsible," with a sniff and a challenging glance at Captain Dalton.
+
+"Oh, you doctors!" laughed Mrs. Bright, shaking her finger at him. "See
+what mischief you are accountable for!--ruined lives, broken homes!"
+
+"In many cases, it is a charity to part husbands and wives," said the
+doctor grimly.
+
+"Hear, hear!" from Mrs. Fox, at which Mrs. Ironsides was shocked.
+
+"I hope Mrs. Meredith will not go home so soon," she said. "It will be a
+pity, when she and her husband have been so lately married. Somebody
+should influence her to remain and give the hills a trial. They seem to
+suit children very well."
+
+"If she goes home it will be nothing short of a calamity," said Honor
+quietly, thinking of Ray Meredith's devotion and his wife's
+unsophisticated and undeveloped mind. "It would never do unless she
+means to return immediately."
+
+"A child of tender years needs its mother," said a lady whose heart
+yearned for her little one in England. "No stranger will give it the
+same sympathy or care."
+
+"It is a difficult problem to which there is no solution," said Mrs.
+Bright.
+
+"I always feel, when I see a wife living for years at home while her
+husband remains out here, that there is no love lost between them. The
+children serve as an excellent excuse for the separation," said Honor,
+colouring at her own audacity in voicing an opinion so pronounced. "No
+reason on earth should be strong enough to part those who care deeply
+for each other."
+
+"Hear, hear!" murmured Tommy under his breath, while Mrs. Fox laughed
+disagreeably. "An excellent sentiment coming from you, Miss Bright, who
+have no experience. Long may you subscribe to it."
+
+Honor blushed still deeper. "I have my ideals," she returned.
+
+"I trust they will never be shattered!" the lady sneered.
+
+Again Dalton's eyes met Honor's with strange intentness. Feeling out of
+her depth she had looked involuntarily to him for the subtle sympathy,
+instinct told her was in his attitude to her, and she had received it
+abundantly in the slow smile which softened his expression to one of
+absolute kindness. It created a glow at her heart, to linger with her
+for the rest of the evening.
+
+"Whenever I used to run home on short 'leave of absence' to see if Honor
+had not altogether forgotten me," said Mrs. Bright, smiling
+reminiscently, "and dared to hint at an extension, my husband would
+squander all his T.A. in cablegrams threatening to divorce me on the
+spot in favour of some mythical person if I did not return by the next
+mail. Wasn't that so, dear?"
+
+"Gross exaggeration, my love. I could never get you to take a
+respectable holiday, for just as I was beginning to enjoy my liberty as
+a grass-widower, you would bob up serenely with 'No, you don't' on every
+line of your rosy face. It was worth anything, however, to see those
+English roses back again."
+
+("The reason why Honor is such a nice girl," a lady once told Captain
+Dalton, "is because she has such a charming example of love in her home.
+Love is in her bones; her parents are so perfectly united that it is
+impossible for Honor to be anything but a good wife. Parents are
+immensely responsible for their children's psychology.")
+
+"I have never ceased to thank Providence that I have no children!" said
+the wife of a railway official, with a sigh of contentment, "so the
+tragedy of separation has never affected me. I can honestly say that I
+have never left my husband for more than a day since we married, fifteen
+years ago!" and she reared her thin neck out of her evening gown and
+looked about her for congratulations.
+
+"Lord, how sick of her he must be!" whispered Tommy under his breath, to
+the delight of Jack and Honor. "Life would be stale and unprofitable if
+I could not repeat the honeymoon every autumn when my wife returned from
+the hills. So thrilling to fall in love with one's own wife every year!"
+
+"Which proves that you will make a very bad husband," said Honor
+severely. "Out of sight out of mind."
+
+"He won't talk so glibly of sending his wife to the hills when he has
+discovered that she has been carrying on with Snooks of the Convalescent
+Depot while he has been stewing in the plains," said Jack with a _blase_
+air.
+
+"Since when have you turned cynic, Mr. Darling?" Honor asked,
+astonished. "It doesn't become you in the least!"
+
+"Jack had an enlightening holiday in Darjeeling last month when he had
+ten days during the _Pujas_," Tommy explained with reprisals in his eye.
+"It accounts for his attitude of mind. Having strict principles and a
+faint heart, no one had any use for him up there but Mrs. Meredith and
+the Y. M. C. A.----"
+
+"Don't listen to him, Miss Bright," Jack interrupted.
+
+"--So in sheer desperation he turned nurse to Squawk and ran errands for
+its mother, wondering the while how it was that some men had all the
+luck!"
+
+"Draw it mild, I say!"
+
+"And now he sits up half the night composing odes to her eyebrows and
+boring me stiff with his sighs."
+
+"Liar!" laughed Jack. "I couldn't write poetry to save my life."
+
+"It doesn't prevent him from trying. Then there's her photograph----"
+
+"It isn't hers, I told you!" Jack protested. "Tommy, you're a villain."
+
+"It's jolly like her, what I saw of it when it fell out from under your
+pillow."
+
+By this time Jack was crimson. He relapsed into sulky silence and
+devoted himself to his plate with appetite. Honor Bright wanted no
+better evidence of the fact that he was heart-whole, though she
+continued to wonder whose was the photograph he was treasuring so
+sentimentally.
+
+Dinner progressed through its many courses towards dessert, when toasts
+were drunk to "Absent Ones," and "Sweethearts and Wives,"--the usual
+conclusion to dinners at the Brights'; then, with a loud scraping of
+chairs, the ladies rose and filed out of the room.
+
+Later, when the gentlemen appeared having finished their smokes, it was
+discovered that Captain Dalton had retired. He had excused himself to
+his host on the plea of a late visit to his patient at Sombari, three
+miles out, and was gone.
+
+"Dear, dear!" sighed Mrs. Bright. "How very disappointing! Evidently he
+had no intention of singing tonight, and I hear he has such a divine
+voice!"
+
+"But we don't begrudge that poor girl his attention when she is so ill,"
+put in Mrs. Ironsides.
+
+"Indeed, no. I wonder how she is."
+
+"Pretty bad, from all accounts," said Mr. Bright.
+
+"Her poor mother must be distracted. The only real happiness she has in
+life is the companionship of this only child. Mr. Meek is so
+narrow-minded and autocratic in domestic life. He must be sorry now that
+he deprived the child of so many opportunities of innocent amusement."
+
+"Not at all," said a guest. "He will congratulate himself that he kept
+her unspotted from the world. Muktiarbad is his idea of unadulterated
+godlessness. We are such a bad example to his converts, you know, with
+our tennis on Sundays!"
+
+"Poor little Elsie! I hope she will recover," said Mrs. Bright.
+
+Honor felt a distinct sense of depression when she heard that Captain
+Dalton had gone quietly away without even a hint to herself that he had
+had no intention of staying. It was clear that he had no interest in
+remaining; his excuse she disregarded, for he could have visited Sombari
+earlier in the evening when he knew that he was engaged to dine out. She
+believed he liked her ... but he was "not seeking to marry her," as he
+had said to Joyce in camp, so it was her duty to rise above the folly of
+thinking too much of a man who would never be anything more to her than
+a mere acquaintance. With a determined effort to stifle feelings of
+wounded pride and disappointment, she ordered Tommy to the piano to
+beguile the company with ragtime ditties at which he was past-master,
+and while he played and others sang, notably Bobby Smart, who was not to
+be chained to the side of Mrs. Fox, the latter was left to cultivate the
+acquaintance of the shy Apollo, Jack Darling, whom the Brights and Tommy
+had hitherto absorbed.
+
+Jack met her ravishing smile with a blush of self-consciousness, fearing
+all eyes upon himself as he accepted the seat beside her on a
+chesterfield. He was so obviously new to the art of intrigue, so
+conspicuously ingenuous, that he had the charm of novelty for her. She
+believed that Mrs. Bright was manoeuvring to get him for a son-in-law
+and was chafing at Honor's lack of worldly wisdom in dividing her
+favours equally between him and Tommy whose prospects in life were less
+brilliant. The situation was one entirely after her own heart, to make
+or mar with impish deliberation. In spite of his comparatively inferior
+social standing and unattractive appearance, Tommy was popular with the
+girls for his ready wit. He dared to be unconscious of his disadvantages
+and stormed his way into the front rank of drawing-room favourites; but
+he was too unimpressionable and discerning to suit Mrs. Fox's taste, so
+she left him alone to see what she could make of Jack whose
+guilelessness was a strong appeal to women of her type. His development
+under her guidance seemed the only excitement life had to offer her in
+this rural backwater, and she was not one to miss her opportunities.
+
+"I'd dearly love to act sponsor to a boy like you in the beginning of
+his career, Jack," she cried with a tender inflection of the voice. "By
+the way, I'm going to call you 'Jack'--may I?"
+
+"Certainly, if you care to," he returned awkwardly.
+
+"Oh, you are priceless! What an opportunity you missed for a pretty
+speech!" and she laid her hand caressingly on his for a moment to
+emphasise her delight in him.
+
+"Why? what should I have said?" he asked, laughing boyishly, and wincing
+under her touch. The suggestion of intimacy in her manner somewhat
+embarrassed him.
+
+"I should like to see you a few years hence when your education is
+complete," she returned, evading his question teasingly. "But you
+mustn't marry, or you will be utterly spoilt."
+
+"There is no immediate prospect of that!" he said laughing and giving
+away the fact that he was heart-whole. "But won't you take up the job
+tonight and begin instructing me?"
+
+"I am sorely tempted to," she replied, smiling affectionately on him.
+"You must really learn your possibilities. They are limitless. After
+that, everything will come naturally,--assurance, the wit to grasp
+opportunities, and a bold initiative, without which a man is no good."
+
+"No good?--for what?" he pressed ingenuously.
+
+"To pass the time with, of course, O most adorable infant!" she laughed
+silently, returning his look with an expression of half-veiled
+admiration.
+
+In stations where officials came and went with meteoric suddenness owing
+to the reshuffling of the governmental pack of human cards, friendships
+were as sudden as they were transient. Jack Darling having arrived at
+Muktiarbad while Mrs. Fox was at a hill station, their acquaintance was
+only in its initial stage.
+
+"Look at Mrs. Fox," whispered Mrs. Ironsides to Mrs. Bright. "She is
+doing her best to spoil that nice boy with her flattery! You can tell
+that she is pouring conceit into him by the bucketful. Shameless
+creature! I wonder her husband doesn't send her home."
+
+"She prefers India," Mrs. Bright showed a restless eye.
+
+"Mr. Smart will be only too glad if Mr. Darling relieves him of his
+attendance on Mrs. Fox. Did you notice how he yawned at table while she
+was talking to him?"
+
+"He lives in her pocket, all the same, and is always at her beck and
+call."
+
+"Was my dear. I have noticed a great change latterly, and I hear he is
+going to be transferred. Mr. Fox knows his people at home and is
+arranging it."
+
+"And he knows his wife better," said Mrs. Bright with satire. It seemed
+at Muktiarbad everybody knew everybody else's affairs.
+
+She allowed a brief interval to pass and then, using her privilege as
+hostess, captured Jack on the pretext of sending him to the piano, with
+Honor to select his song from a pile of music in a canterbury. By the
+time the ballad was finished and a chorus was in full swing, Mrs. Fox
+had been carried away by Mr. Bright to make a fourth at auction in
+another room.
+
+Jack watched her go somewhat regretfully, wondering the while,
+shamefacedly, if he would be able to have another talk with her that
+night, and consigning all scandalmongers to perdition, who had dared to
+make free with her name. He refused to believe ill of so charming a
+lady, and was not surprised that Bobby Smart had found her company
+attractive--why not? When a brute of a husband spent all his time down
+the line instead of trying to make life pleasant for his wife, it was no
+wonder she was obliged to find entertainment for herself in the society
+of other men! Hers was a poor sort of life, anyway.
+
+When the party broke up, Mrs. Fox elected to walk home as a tribute to
+the glorious moonlight, and Jack was commandeered to act as her escort.
+It was a good opportunity for the lady to show that renegade, Master
+Bobby Smart, that he was not indispensable. His yawn at dinner deserved
+a reprisal.
+
+Bobby Smart, however, was not slow to profit by his release from escort
+duty, and wasted no time in pleasing himself. "I'll drop you home,
+Deare," he said cheerfully, "and we'll have a whisky-and-soda at your
+bungalow before you turn in."
+
+"I should wait till I'm asked," said Tommy lighting a cigarette and
+dropping the match in a flower-pot on the verandah.
+
+"I knew you were pining to have me round for a _buk_."[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: Chat.]
+
+"You can come in if you promise to go home by midnight," Tommy
+condescended. "I'll not be kept up later."
+
+"On the stroke. That's a jolly good whisky you have. I was going to send
+to Kellner's for the same brand today, but forgot."
+
+Tommy climbed into Smart's trap and consented to be driven home. His
+hospitality and Jack's was proverbial at Muktiarbad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A MOMENT OF RELAXATION
+
+
+On leaving the Brights' dinner-party, Captain Dalton made his way to his
+car and sped out upon the moonlit road. An appreciable hesitation at the
+gate ended in his taking a course in an opposite direction to that in
+which lay Sombari and his patient.
+
+A misty peacefulness of smoke and quietude brooded over the Station.
+Darkened bungalows looked like sightless monsters dead to the world, and
+the silent lanes were alive alone with fireflies scintillating like
+myriad stars in a firmament of leaves. At Muktiarbad, there was little
+else for the English residents to do after the Club had closed its door
+at nine, but eat, drink, and sleep. Theatres never patronised _mafasil_
+stations, and cinemas had not yet found their way so far into rural
+Bengal. In the bazaar also, which was strictly the native quarter of the
+town, the night was silent save for intermittent tom-tomming on the
+favourite _dholuk_,[10] or, here and there, the murmur of gossiping in
+doorways. Behind mat walls men gambled or slept, and by the pale light
+of the moon could be seen the smoke of burning cow-dung--kindled for the
+destruction of mosquitoes--curling upward from the clusters of thatched
+huts, and filling the air with opalescent mist.
+
+[Footnote 10: Indian drum.]
+
+But Captain Dalton had no business in the bazaar.
+
+If Honor Bright could have seen him then, she would have been surprised
+at the look of indecision on his usually determined face. Freed from the
+restraint of curious eyes watching for revelations of himself, the man's
+face wore a more human expression; his peculiar half-smile of
+toleration, or contempt, relaxing the lines of his stern mouth.
+
+For a couple of furlongs he drove fast, then slowed down to a noiseless
+glide as he ran past the tall cactus fence bordering the Collector's
+domain. At the end of the fence where it turned at right angles dividing
+the "compound" from a paddock, the engines were reversed in the narrow
+lane, till the car came back to the rustic gate beyond the culvert.
+
+It lay hospitably open in the usual way of gates in the Station, and
+gave access to the grounds. There was only a momentary pause while
+Dalton seemed to make sure of his intention, and the next instant he was
+moving slowly up the drive between the handsome goldmohur trees of the
+avenue. In the dark shadow of one of these, he shut off his engines and
+stepped to the ground.
+
+All about him, the garden was bathed in silver light, each shrub and
+arbour steeped in tranquil loveliness, while footpaths gleamed white
+amidst stretches of dusky lawns; the whole presenting a scene of
+veritable enchantment under the soft radiance of the moon; a gentle
+breeze, the while, rustling among the leaves.
+
+In front of him lay the wide, squat bungalow with its flat roof
+ornamented by a castellated balustrade of masonry, and supported by tall
+pillars. The verandah was in darkness but for a hurricane hand lantern
+on the top step.
+
+He was not sure that he had the right to intrude at that late hour even
+with the pretext of a semi-official inquiry ... but lights in the
+drawing-room and the tones of the piano, rich and sweet, ended his
+indecision. The staff of servants being reduced by their master's
+requirements in camp, there was no one at hand to announce his arrival.
+Even the peon, supposed to keep watch against the intrusion of toads and
+snakes, had betaken himself to the servants' quarters behind the
+bungalow, for his last smoke before shutting up the house for the night.
+
+Joyce was playing Liszt's _Liebestraum_ with diligence, but no feeling.
+Her execution was good, but her soul being yet unawakened, she played
+without understanding, and Dalton's musical sense suffered tortures as
+he listened for a few moments; then, abruptly parting the curtains, he
+ruthlessly interrupted the performance by his entrance, conscious on the
+instant of the alluring picture she made,--or, rather, would make, to
+senses that were impressionable. Having outlived that stage, he could
+only survey at his leisure the curve of her youthful cheek and the small
+bow of her mouth that seemed to demand kisses; watch the lights dance in
+the gold of her hair, and amuse himself with the play of her eyelashes.
+She was dressed in rich simplicity, the only colour about her, apart
+from the shell-pink of her face and the natural crimson of her lips, was
+a deep, red rose in her bosom. He inhaled its perfume as she ran to him
+and seized his hand in impetuous welcome, while he could not but
+appreciate the exceptional opportunity afforded him of improving their
+acquaintance.
+
+"How did you know that I was longing to send for you but lacking in
+courage?" she asked, holding his hand in both hers with extreme
+cordiality, born of her gratitude for his late services. Her manner was
+that of a child towards a respected senior, and was not without a
+certain charm.
+
+"You did not come to dinner," he replied with his grudging smile, "so I
+had to call and see why. You are such a grave responsibility to me in
+your husband's absence."
+
+"Does it weigh very heavily on you?" she asked coquettishly.
+
+"As you see, it dragged me here at this late hour!"
+
+"Poor you!" she sympathised; then instantly pulled a long face and
+explained her alarms deprecatingly while she drew him--still holding his
+hand--to her bedroom that he might see the child for himself and judge
+of his condition.
+
+It was her habit to have the baby's crib by her bed, and the ayah close
+at hand in case of disturbed nights, while Meredith was compelled to
+retire to a separate suite, adjoining hers. "Such a young infant needs
+his mother, you selfish old Daddy, and must not be deprived." Arguments
+respecting the advantages of employing an English nurse and establishing
+a nursery had been swept aside as arbitrary and unfeeling. As if she
+could ever consent to a hireling occupying her place with her beloved
+child! Others might do as they pleased and lose their place in their
+little ones' affections, but not she! Fathers should consider their
+offspring before themselves. When Meredith had looked unconvinced and
+injured, she had tried to soften the blow by cajoleries, in the use of
+which she was past-mistress. Silly goose! as if the same roof did not
+cover them both! and didn't she belong to him and no one else in the
+world?--"Was he going to be a cross boy, then, and make his little
+girl's life miserable with big, ugly frowns?..."
+
+The doctor gave the child a brief examination as he and Joyce leant over
+the crib, shoulder to shoulder. She seemed so unconscious of the close
+contact and of its effect on the average masculine nature that he
+mentally decided she was either a simpleton or a practised flirt, given
+to playing with fire.
+
+"I shall sleep so much better tonight now that I know there is nothing
+seriously wrong with my precious darling!" she said, returning beside
+him to the drawing-room and tantalising him with brief glances from her
+shy, sweet eyes.
+
+"You worry quite unnecessarily, take it from me," he returned. "Don't
+put him in a glass case, and he will do all right. You should go out
+more."
+
+"I shall, when Ray comes back. He has the car."
+
+"Play tennis every afternoon at the Club."
+
+"I daren't! I play so badly," she pouted.
+
+"Then come driving with me," he said on an impulse which he regretted
+the moment after, for it would deprive him of the scant leisure he
+usually devoted to a treatise he was writing. It was not his habit to
+sacrifice himself to strangers and people in whom he was not greatly
+interested. However, the study of the little spoiled beauty might prove
+entertaining since she was not as transparent as he had imagined. The
+mystery of her undeveloped nature, her childish outlook on life, her
+ingenuousness and coquetry, were all somewhat unusual and appealing. He
+could not quite gauge her feeling for her husband who worshipped the
+ground she trod on. She probably took him for granted as she took the
+solar system, and was not above practising her arts innocently on others
+to relieve the monotony of her days. Like most pretty women, he judged
+her fully aware of her prettiness, and not bound by too rigid a sense of
+propriety. It might amuse him to test how far she would permit herself
+to go--or the men who admired her physical beauty; and as he had no
+friendship for her husband, he was not troubled by too many qualms on
+Meredith's account. With a big score to settle against Life, he
+considered himself at liberty to choose the nature of his compensation,
+and so be even with Fate.
+
+"I should dearly love to drive with you," Joyce said engagingly,
+thinking of his perfect little car and the triumph it would be to tame
+this unsociable and reserved person in the eyes of all the Station. What
+a score for her little self!
+
+Being essentially of a friendly disposition, she saw no reason why he
+should not become her particular friend. Not as if she were a creature
+like Mrs. Fox, or other women who flirted--perish the thought! There
+could therefore be no possible wrong.
+
+"Have you ever driven your car?" he asked indulgently.
+
+"Never."
+
+"Nervous?"
+
+"I don't think so, only no one ever showed me how."
+
+"Shall I teach you?"
+
+"Will you? What a dear you are!" she cried with eyes sparkling and
+dimples in full play as she seized the lapels of his coat and made him
+swear not to back out. "It will be great! What a surprise for Ray--you
+won't mention it? I can fancy myself hopping into the chauffeur's seat,
+and whoof! gliding away before his eyes. I shall dream of it all night."
+
+"And of me?" he asked looking at his watch and recalling his intention
+to visit Sombari before midnight.
+
+"Of course. That goes without saying if it is about your car!" twirling
+lightly on her toe with the grace of a born dancer.
+
+"I find it difficult to believe you are married," he said with a crooked
+smile. "Your husband should call you 'Joy.'"
+
+"He invents all sorts of pet names far sweeter."
+
+"Anyhow, I shall think of you as 'Joy,'" he amended, taking up his cap
+from the piano.
+
+"I can't fancy you thinking of any one so frivolous as myself," she
+laughed. "But you are not going, surely? We haven't even begun to talk!"
+
+The open piano and her frank disappointment drew him to dally with
+temptation, and he seated himself on the music stool, uninvited, to run
+his fingers over the keys. "You were playing the _Liebestraum_. Will you
+let me play it to you?" he coolly suggested, anxious to give her a
+lesson as to how it should be interpreted; and without waiting for her
+consent, began to play.
+
+Joyce drew up full of interest and pleasure to listen and watch,
+instantly aware that he was no self-advertised musician. As she had no
+conceit in regard to her one and only accomplishment, she was ready and
+willing to learn from him.
+
+Dalton played with the technique and sympathy of a great artist. Though
+the opening movement was soft and low, every note fell like drops of
+liquid sweetness, clear and true--the melody thrilling her with its
+tender appeal. Insensibly it grew stronger and louder, the pace
+quickened, till the crash of chords and the rippling rush of sound
+caused her to hold her breath in an ecstasy lest she should be robbed of
+a single delight. Now and then, she glanced at his face and she knew
+that, for the moment, she had ceased to exist for him. His strange,
+jade-green eyes with their flecked irids had widened as though with
+inspiration. He saw visions as he played, gazing intently into space;
+Joyce wondered what he saw, sure that it was beautiful, and passionately
+sad. Gradually, the passion and dignity of the music having reached its
+climax, it grew weary and spent. The glorious melody sighed its own
+requiem and softly died away on a single note.
+
+For a moment neither spoke, till Joyce gave a hysterical sob that broke
+the spell. "It is too wonderful--the way you play!" she cried
+breathlessly. "It makes my flesh creep and my heart stand still. I know
+now why you chose to play the _Liebestraum_!----"
+
+He smiled back at her like the culprit he was.
+
+"I had dared to attempt its murder!--believe me, I shall never play it
+again!"
+
+"I wanted to show you how it might be played, but I do not dare to
+criticise."
+
+"You have done so, scathingly!--Oh! I feel so small."
+
+"Then I am sorry I played it."
+
+"I am infinitely glad. You will have to teach me something more than
+motoring," she said wistfully, her blue eyes pleading. "You will have to
+tell me how I should play. I want to hear you all day long!"
+
+He smiled at her enthusiasm. "I shall be delighted to give you all the
+help I can."
+
+"Honor Bright said yesterday that you once sang to her--I am jealous!
+Won't you sing to me?"
+
+"Did she tell you of the occasion?"
+
+"Yes, and how good you were to her."
+
+"She is a heroine--_Honor Bright_," he repeated her name with curious
+tenderness.
+
+"She thinks you are a wonderful person, altogether."
+
+"Does she?" he asked quickly, a shadow falling suddenly over his face at
+a thought which was evidently disturbing. "How am I wonderful?"
+
+"I don't know. She said something about great depths in your nature. She
+believes you are tremendously good, inside, but that you will not show
+it because you have been hit very hard and feel like hitting back."
+
+He was silenced for a moment.
+
+"What made her say that?" he asked while continuing to draw subdued
+harmonies from the instrument.
+
+"It was to explain your attitude towards people. You are so hard and
+cold. But what does all that matter? The main thing is, I want you to
+sing, and you must!" She laid her hands over his on the keys with pretty
+imperativeness, and put an end to the chords.
+
+"Look at the time," said he, drawing attention to the gilt clock on an
+occasional table. The phrase "hard and cold" echoed in his ears to mock
+him.
+
+"It is certainly late!" she gasped, as she realised that the hands
+pointed to a quarter past eleven. "But I am so lonely and dull. Do sing
+to me!"
+
+A mischievous smile twisted his lips as he struck the opening bars of
+_The Dear Homeland_. "It's an old ballad and will probably bore you to
+tears," he said, before beginning to sing. Joyce had often heard it
+sung, but never with the feeling Captain Dalton threw into it for her
+benefit alone. It was a strong and direct appeal to nostalgia, and the
+quality of his voice, together with the words, dissolved her into tears
+of positive distress. When he had finished, she was weeping silently
+into her little hands,--unaffectedly and sincerely.
+
+"I cannot bear it!" she sobbed childishly. "Why did you choose that when
+you knew how I am longing for home and the home faces!"
+
+"I am a brute, am I not?" he said repentantly, taking down her hands and
+drying her eyes with his handkerchief. "Was it a nasty fellow, then, to
+tease?"
+
+"It was," she laughed hysterically with downcast lids and sobbing
+breath, looking adorable with her saddened wet eyes and crimson flush.
+
+"Come, I'll make up for it and sing you something quite different." And
+he was as good as his word, singing passionate love-songs that swore
+eternal devotion to a mythical "Beloved," till a clock, striking twelve,
+brought him abruptly to his feet.
+
+"Do you always allow your visitors to stay so late?" he asked while
+saying good-night.
+
+"I never have visitors at night when I am alone," she returned,
+surprised. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because you are too pretty and will have to be careful. Pretty women
+have enemies of both sexes."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that men will want to make love to you if you are too kind, and
+women will tear your reputation to shreds."
+
+He watched the flush deepen in her cheeks: she was uncertain how to take
+his remark, but decided he had not meant a liberty.
+
+"I think I shall always fear women more than men," she said finally,
+thinking of the slanderous tongues of her sex.
+
+"Am I forgiven for having made you cry?" he asked.
+
+"Of course. Thank you so much for the songs. You sing like an angel."
+
+"A very bad one I'm afraid," he returned. "With your leave I shall take
+this rose as a pledge," he said drawing it from the brooch at her bosom
+and laying it against his lips. "Look, it is fading fast. Will you fix
+it in my coat?"
+
+Joyce unaffectedly complied. He was welcome to the rose as a reward for
+his beautiful music. "When you get home, put it in water, and it will
+fill your room with fragrance," she said patting it into position.
+
+"--And my mind of you?" he suggested tentatively, knowing full well that
+he would forget all about her and her rose the moment he was out of
+sight of her dwelling. Already he was wondering why he had allowed
+himself to waste so much of his valuable time in trifling and whether he
+would have dared the same liberty with the rose had it been resting on
+Honor Bright's bosom. With Honor, somehow, a man would have to plead for
+favours and value them for their rarity when obtained. No man in the
+Station took liberties with Honor Bright, and every man thoroughly
+respected her. Dalton shook his mind free of the thought of Honor
+Bright.
+
+"I shan't mind if the rose recalls me to you, so long as you promise to
+forget my _Liebestraum_!" said Joyce.
+
+"I shall remember only the tears I caused you to shed, and never be so
+cruel again." Dalton passed out into the verandah accompanied by his
+hostess who desired to speed the parting guest. "When does your husband
+return?" he asked.
+
+"Tomorrow night. I am counting the hours," she replied. "Haven't you
+heard that 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder'?"
+
+"I don't subscribe to that sentiment," he retorted with a disagreeable
+laugh as he walked towards the car.
+
+She certainly had the makings of a dangerous flirt, he decided, though,
+at present, she was only feeling her way. Time would develop her powers
+and then, God help the young idiots who would lose their heads! Most of
+all, God help her fool-husband--the besotted idealist! In a few years,
+Joyce Meredith would be no better than most lovely women in the
+East--notably such as flourished in the hill stations of India.
+
+Dalton was amused, and laughed aloud at his own weakness and folly. He
+had not wanted her rose--yet, at the moment, the propinquity of her
+beauty had magnetised him and given him the desire for a closer
+intimacy--possibly a kiss!--so he had put his lips to the rose! Feminine
+witchery had made utter fools of men through the ages! Given further
+chances of intimacy, a rose might not again suffice!
+
+By the time Dalton had reached the crossroads, indecision had again
+taken possession of him, and he hesitated at the wheel. He had left the
+Brights' party fully intending to run out to Sombari, but had been
+diverted; and now it was too late. They would not be expecting him after
+midnight. He yawned, thoroughly tired, as he had had a strenuous day,
+and decided to call at the Mission fairly early in the morning, instead.
+There was nothing he could do for the sufferer more than was being done
+by the trained nurse he had procured for the case.
+
+Satisfied in mind that bed was the best place for tired people, Dalton
+turned his car and drove it to his own bungalow next door to the
+Brights'.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE MISSION
+
+
+Life at a small station like Muktiarbad would have been a dull affair
+for any young girl not constituted like Honor Bright. Being endowed with
+plenty of common sense and sincerity of purpose, she found a great deal
+to occupy her in her restricted circle by throwing herself into the
+business of the moment, heart and soul. If it were an early morning
+ride, she enjoyed every yard of it, and all there was to see and do.
+Even the flat countryside with its endless fields of paddy and mustard
+were good to view because Muktiarbad was "home" to her.
+
+"Define the word 'home,'" she was once asked when very young. "Where
+Mother is," was her ready reply. "Where Love is," would be her later and
+more comprehensive amendment.
+
+When she played tennis she played to win, and her enthusiasm infected
+others, till the game was worth the energy, however great the heat. If
+house-duties were imposed on her, they were accomplished thoroughly and
+cheerfully. Honor striding across the back-yard to examine the horses in
+their stalls, the condition of their bedding, and to see them fed; or to
+inspect the chicken run; or visiting the kitchen to view pots and pans
+which were arranged at a particular hour, bottom up, in a row, to prove
+how perfectly aluminium could be made to shine, was a refreshing sight;
+and the grace of her gait, the freedom of her movements, and the
+brightness of her looks, brought sunshine to hearts on the darkest days.
+
+In spite of Mrs. Bright's confidence in her faithful Kareem Majid, she
+never neglected to supervise those details of housekeeping in India that
+make all the difference between sickness and health, economy and
+extravagance. "For, however wonderful the dear servants are, they do
+want watching," she would explain to inquiring friends. "You simply have
+to see what they are up to, or run terrible risks of microbes in the
+kitchen, horses falling ill, and eggs getting beautifully less. They are
+without the remotest idea of sanitation for man or beast, and revel in
+dirt if you let them, poor things! And honesty is not their strong
+point; they have to be checked on all accounts, or they will sell
+vegetables from your kitchen garden to your neighbours who have none; or
+sell you your own hens' eggs, and do heaps of other iniquitous things
+you could hardly dream of!" So Honor was carefully instructed in the
+ways of housekeeping from the moment of her return to the East, and was
+an able lieutenant to her mother.
+
+"Besides, it is only right and proper, since, one of these days you will
+have a house of your own and ought to know how to run it, or I pity the
+unfortunate man you marry!" Mrs. Bright remarked when introducing her
+daughter to further mysteries in the art of housekeeping. "Which puts me
+in mind of Tommy Deare," she continued, eyeing Honor gravely. "What do
+you mean to do with him?"
+
+"I don't mean to do anything with him," laughed the girl.
+
+"You know he is in love with you--any one can see that."
+
+"I know, because he won't let me forget it," Honor said ruefully.
+
+"Yet you are often about with him, riding and playing tennis--is it fair
+to fan his hopes?"
+
+"He knows perfectly how I feel towards him. Short of putting him in
+Coventry I can do nothing less than I am doing."
+
+"But the worst of it is that he keeps others off!" Mrs. Bright
+exclaimed. "There's Jack Darling who lives with him--such a nice boy and
+a very excellent suitor from every point of view----"
+
+"He is not a suitor, by any means," interrupted her daughter.
+
+"He might have been if his friend were not over head and ears in love
+with you!"
+
+"I should not have encouraged him. Jack does not appeal to me. He is
+very dear and charming, but not the sort of man I should lose my heart
+to. He is weak--and I love strength."
+
+"But, dear, surely you are not favouring Tommy?--he will never be
+anything great in our Service. You have the example of your own father
+who has come to the end of his prospects on an income that would have
+been hopelessly inadequate had there been boys to educate and start in
+life! That's what our Service is worth! While Jack--!" words failed her
+to express her estimation of the Indian Civil Service of which Jack was
+a promising member.
+
+"But dear Mother, I am not going to marry a Service!" laughed Honor.
+"When I fall in love with a Man it won't much matter what job he is in,
+or what prospects he has. And if he is in love with me, and wants me,
+why"--she left the obvious conclusion to her mother's imagination. "But
+rest assured, whoever he may be, he will never be Tommy!" she added by
+way of consolation.
+
+The morning after the dinner-party was typical of late October in the
+plains of Bengal, with its dewy freshness of atmosphere and a nip in the
+north wind that was an earnest of approaching winter--if the season of
+cold weather might be so termed, when fires were never a necessity, and
+frost was rare. It was, however, a time of pleasant drought when the
+state of the weather could be depended upon for weeks ahead, with blue
+skies, a kinder sun, and dead leaves carpeting the earth without
+denuding the trees of their wealth of foliage.
+
+Outside the Bara Koti a light haze was visible through the branches of
+the trees, lying like a thin veil on the distant horizon; and, overhead,
+light fleecy clouds drifted imperceptibly across the blue sky. It was
+the hour popularly believed to be the best in the twenty-four, which
+accounted for Mrs. Meredith's ayah wheeling the baby through the dusty
+lanes, in a magnificent perambulator, "to eat the air."
+
+"_Hawa khane_," translated Honor Bright critically, as she drew rein and
+moved her pony aside to make way. She was riding, in company with Tommy
+Deare, to Sombari that she might learn the latest news of Elsie Meek, a
+girl of her own age and one for whom she had much sympathy. Elsie had
+been undergoing the training necessary to fit her for becoming a
+missionary, irrespective of her talents in other directions; and Honor
+had often thought of her with sympathy. But Mr. Meek had his own ideas
+respecting his daughter's career, and Mrs. Meek had long since ceased to
+voice her own. "_Hawa khane!_--how queerly the natives express
+themselves!" Her remark had followed the ayah's explanation of her
+appearance with the child. "Mother says it is a mistake for delicate
+children to be out before sunrise to 'eat the air.'"
+
+"Eat microbes, I should suggest," corrected Tommy. "A case of 'The Early
+Babe catches the Germ.'"
+
+"How smart of you!--how do you do it so early in the morning?"
+
+"Inherent wit," said Tommy complacently. "You press a button and out
+comes an epigram, or something brilliant."
+
+"You've missed your vocation, it seems. I am sure you might have made a
+fortune as another George Robey!"
+
+While Tommy affected to collapse under the lash of her satire, she leapt
+from the saddle to imprint a kiss on the rose-leaf skin of the infant's
+cheek. "What a perfect doll it is--did any one see any thing half so
+adorable!"
+
+"It seems to me like all other babies," Tommy remarked indifferently.
+"When it isn't asleep it is bawling; when it isn't bawling it's asleep.
+I have yet to understand why a girl can never pass a pram without
+stopping to kiss the baby in it!" Nevertheless, he thought it a pleasing
+habit with which he was not inclined to quarrel, but for the delay it
+occasioned in the ride.
+
+"I would like you to tell Mrs. Meredith that the Squawk is like all
+other babies in the world and hear what she has to say!" Honor said
+indignantly. "This one is angelic!"
+
+Tommy dismounted with the air of a martyr and peered at the bundle
+containing a human atom almost smothered in silk and laces. "Hallo! its
+eyes are actually open! It is the first time I have seen the miracle.
+Peep-bo!" he squeaked, bobbing his head at the apparition and crooking a
+finger up and down a few inches from the infant's nose.
+
+"Tommy, you are a silly!" Honor exploded with laughter. "As if it can
+understand. You might be a tree for all it knows!"
+
+"Then all I can say is, I have no use for kids until they develop some
+intellect." He assisted her to remount and they continued their way to
+Sombari. Soon, the last of the bungalows was left behind and they were
+cantering side by side along the main road which divided paddy fields
+still containing stagnant rain water and the decaying stalks of the
+harvested corn. At intervals on the road pipal trees afforded shelter to
+travellers by the wayside. In the distance, across rough country
+overgrown with scrub and coarse, thatching grass, could be seen the
+minarets of an ancient ruin--Muktiarbad's one and only show-place for
+sightseers--too familiar to the inhabitants to excite even passing
+notice.
+
+In the meantime Honor soliloquised aloud--"I do so wish we could get
+Mrs. Meredith more reconciled to India," she sighed. "She has only one
+point of view at present, and that is a mother's. If she could only be
+made to see her husband's point of view and realise also her duties as a
+wife, she would be perfect, for Joyce Meredith is very lovable and good.
+I never knew any one so pretty and so free from personal vanity. But she
+is too sure of her husband. Too certain that he will go on worshipping
+her no matter what she does or how she treats him; and, after all, I
+suppose even love can die for want of sustenance. It seems to me she
+gives all she has to give to the baby, and her husband is left to pick
+up the crumbs that fall from her table!"
+
+"It will end as all such marriages end," said Tommy. "She is only half
+awake to life, and too pretty for every-day use. Meredith should awaken
+her by flirting with Mrs. Fox; otherwise someone else will do it by
+flirting with his wife. I wouldn't put it beyond the doctor."
+
+Honor stiffened visibly. "Why do you say that?" she asked coldly.
+
+"Well, he is given every opportunity. Last night, for instance, on our
+way home from your place, Smart and I saw his motor in the avenue of the
+Bara Koti. It was under the trees with a shaft of moonlight full on the
+steering wheel. If he had wanted to make it invisible, he ought to have
+reckoned on the hour and the moon. We thought he had gone to Sombari,
+but he was singing to Mrs. Meredith."
+
+"Is that true?" Honor asked in low tones of pained surprise.
+
+"We both pulled up outside the cactus hedge till the song was finished.
+He was singing _Temple Bells_!"
+
+So he had not gone to Sombari after all! It had only been an excuse for
+him to get away from the party. He was evidently not above lying,
+and--Joyce Meredith was so beautiful!
+
+And Joyce had been alone!
+
+Honor flushed hot and cold with sudden emotion which she could hardly
+understand because it was so new to her: passionate resentment towards
+Joyce Meredith for the impropriety of receiving a visit from Captain
+Dalton at that late hour. Her position as a married woman did not cover
+such indiscretion. How would Ray Meredith feel if he heard that his
+adored wife was entertaining the doctor at midnight, and alone? It
+sounded abominable, even if innocent in intention.
+
+It was not right! it was _not_ right!...
+
+At the same moment, pride rose in arms to crush her resentment. What
+business was it of hers what Joyce Meredith did, or Captain Dalton,
+either? They were not answerable to her for their conduct--or
+misconduct....
+
+Captain Dalton might please himself as far as she was concerned. He was
+hardly a friend. Why should she be so deeply affected by his acts? Yet
+her heart was wrung with pain at the mere thought that he had spent the
+rest of the evening entertaining Joyce Meredith who was as beautiful and
+as foolish as a little child. Any man might be excused for losing his
+head when treated to her innocent familiarities.
+
+They were innocent. Of that she was sure, for Joyce coquetted with
+either sex impartially and unconsciously.
+
+All through her silent brooding Tommy talked incessantly. He had passed
+from the subject of the doctor and Joyce Meredith to Bobby Smart who had
+obtained a transfer to a distant station on the railway, and was
+rejoiced that he would soon see the last of Mrs. Fox with whom he was
+"fed up."
+
+"I don't admire him for talking about her, or you for listening," said
+Honor, paying scant attention to the subject of Bobby Smart.
+
+"I didn't. I had to shut him up rather rudely; but Bobby is
+thick-skinned and, like some fellows one meets, a dangerous gossip, and
+the last man a woman should trust."
+
+"I wonder much why women are so blind. They are fools to care for, or
+trust men," Honor said gloomily, and looking depressed.
+
+"You must never say things like that to me," Tommy blurted out,
+offended. "You must discriminate between those who are honest and those
+who are the other thing. You might trust me with your life--and
+more----"
+
+"I dare say all you men say that!"
+
+"And all don't mean it as I do. _I_ am discriminating; consequently,
+there is only one girl in the world for me...." He choked unable to
+proceed, and looked the rest into her clear eyes.
+
+"Don't, Tommy!--this is why I hesitate to come out with you," she said,
+looking annoyed.
+
+"I can't help caring for you," he answered defiantly. "It's an
+unalterable fact, and you may as well face it. I have cared ever since
+school-days. It has been my one hope that you too would care--in the
+same way."
+
+"And I have tried to show you in a hundred ways that it is of no use,"
+she said kindly. "Can't you be content to be--just pals?"
+
+"No. So long as you remain unmarried I shall keep on hoping."
+
+"And I cannot do more than tell you it is of no earthly use." She
+avoided looking at him again for the knowledge that his face betrayed
+the depth of his disappointment. "Perhaps it would be better if we gave
+up riding and tennis together, and you tried to take up some other
+interest?" she suggested.
+
+But Tommy laughed unboyishly with a cracked sound in his throat. "I
+won't say anything more about it, if it annoys you, Honey, but don't for
+God's sake give me the push. I'm coming to the Club just the same for
+tennis with you, and shall call to take you out riding when I may--like
+this. You need not worry about what I have said. I dare say I'll get
+along--somehow ... so long as you are not keen on someone else," he
+added. It seemed he would never be able to stand that!
+
+"I am not keen on--any one else," she said, lifting her head with a
+resolute air. "But I do want you to know that I am not the marrying
+sort. I love the idea of being an old maid and having crowds of
+friends--and perhaps a special pal--that's you, if you like, old boy,"
+she added graciously holding out her hand which he gripped with energy.
+"So that's all right, eh?"
+
+While he made the expected reply, which was naturally insincere,
+considering the state of his sore heart, both observed a cloud of dust
+moving rapidly towards them which quickly resolved itself into a rider
+galloping at full speed.
+
+When he was nearer his pace slackened from exhaustion, and Honor
+recognized one of the pastors of the Mission, an Eurasian, his face pale
+and stricken and dripping with sweat.
+
+A chill of foreboding struck at her heart as she asked for news of the
+sick girl, Elsie Meek.
+
+"She is dead," came the blunt reply. "I am now on my way to the doctor
+who should have seen her last night, but he never came." He rode on
+without waiting to hear Tommy exclaim, "Good God!" and Honor give an
+inarticulate cry of surprise and sorrow.
+
+"I thought she was going on all right," said Tommy gravely.
+
+"I had no idea she was so bad!" said Honor. Both had pulled up uncertain
+what to do. "Poor, poor Mrs. Meek!" said Honor, thinking of the lonely
+woman who struggled to live her life happily in surroundings which had
+failed to prove congenial, and whose one compensation was the
+companionship of her daughter,--the one being in the world she loved and
+lived for. She thought of the unsympathetic husband whose Christianity
+savoured of narrow prejudices and exacting codes, and she pitied the
+bereaved mother from the bottom of her heart. "I feel so guilty to think
+that we had the doctor to dinner last night when he might have spent
+that time at Sombari!" Honor cried regretfully.
+
+"That was for him to judge. At any rate, he need not have finished the
+evening at the Bara Koti singing love-songs to Mrs. Meredith."
+
+"Poor little Elsie!" Honor sighed, ignoring the allusion to Joyce. She
+was guiltless of blame as she did not know. "Tommy, you had better
+return and tell Mother. I am going straight on. There is now more reason
+for my calling on Mrs. Meek."
+
+"It will be a painful visit--can't you postpone it?"
+
+"I would rather not. I feel someone should be with her. Mother will go
+later, I know; but I must go at once."
+
+Very reluctantly, Tommy turned his horse's head homeward, and lifting
+his _topi_ in acknowledgment of her parting gesture, rode swiftly away
+leaving her to continue her road to the Mission.
+
+The settlement came into view beyond a straggling village which had
+given the Mission its name, and was composed of bungalows grouped about
+a wide "compound": chiefly schoolhouses of lath and plaster, with
+innumerable sheds and outhouses for dormitories and technical
+instruction. As Honor approached, she was conscious of a great stillness
+broken only by the sound of intermittent blows of a hammer. When she
+passed into the grounds through a gate in a neatly kept fence of split
+bamboos, she saw through the open window of a shed, a carpenter busily
+engaged on the grim task of preparing a coffin out of a deal
+packing-case. In India burial follows on the heels of death with almost
+indecent haste, and the sight of a rude coffin in the making, sent no
+thrill of horror through the young girl. It was something to be expected
+in a place where no professional assistance of that sort could be
+reckoned upon in circumstances as sudden as these. Instead, a great
+sadness came over her, and tears filled her eyes to overflowing, for it
+was not so very long ago that Elsie Meek, a young girl like herself had
+come out to India full of life and laughter, yearning to give her
+energies scope, and trying for the sake of her gentle mother, to appear
+contented with the meagre life afforded by her surroundings. Honor
+suffered a pang of regret that she had not spared more time from her own
+pleasures to help Elsie to a little happiness. She had so appreciated
+visits from the Brights, and had been so keenly interested in the doings
+of the Station people, with whom she was rarely allowed to associate.
+
+What a futile life! Poor little Elsie Meek!
+
+At the Mission bungalow where Honor dismounted, a group of missionaries
+were sombrely discussing in whispers the necessary details connected
+with the funeral. Mr. Meek sat apart, bowed with depression, his face
+lined and haggard with grief. This was the man's world--Sombari
+Settlement--the child of his creation; yet how hollow were his interests
+and ambitions today!
+
+Many years ago he had been financed by zealous Methodists and sent out
+to India to establish a mission in rural Bengal. After careful search he
+had chosen Sombari on the outskirts of Muktiarbad for the field of his
+labours. By degrees, his untiring efforts had prospered and Sombari was
+now a large community of pastors and converts, and he, himself, an
+Honorary Magistrate of second-class powers, in recognition of his
+influence among the people. Mr. Meek had a reputation for converting the
+heathen with a Bible in one hand and a cane in the other, and his
+methods were justified by the results seen in the confidence he inspired
+in his followers. He was a strong man, popularly credited with being
+just, if unmerciful, and was respected by the natives for miles around
+as hard men are, in the East; and they rarely appealed against his
+judgments.
+
+The same spirit had ruled Mr. Meek's domestic life and had reduced his
+wife and daughter to the position of appendages of the Mission. It was
+nothing to him that they professed no vocation for the life; the
+discipline was wholesome for unregenerate human nature which is prone to
+crave for what is worldly and unprofitable. He was responsible for the
+souls in his care; and he conceived it his duty to protect them
+according to _his_ lights--not _theirs_. Having safeguarded them from
+the snares and temptations of Station life which represented the World,
+the Flesh, and the Devil, he was filled with righteous satisfaction
+concerning their safety hereafter, and ceased to trouble himself with
+their yearnings in the present.
+
+Mrs. Meek, who had once been a governess in a private family, was of a
+mild, easy-going nature, incapable of resisting tyranny. Since her
+marriage, her naturally submissive mind had become an echo of her
+husband's, although she was not always in agreement with his opinions;
+yet it was the line of least resistance, and "anything for a peaceful
+life" was her motto. Her greatest comfort had come with the birth of her
+daughter, who, later, was reared by her maternal relatives in England.
+They had means, while the Meeks had barely enough for their own needs,
+so Elsie had received a good education of which her relatives had borne
+the cost, and at the finish, came out to her home at Sombari under the
+protection of missionary friends travelling to India.
+
+Though Mrs. Meek had not seen her daughter for the best years of her
+childhood, her love for her had become the absorbing passion of her
+life. For years she had carried about a heart aching with longing for
+this treasure of her own flesh and blood, so that their reunion altered
+her whole life. So long as she had her child's companionship and
+affection, she was blessed among women; even the little world of Sombari
+was glorified.
+
+But, alas! on that morning of Honor Bright's visit, death had robbed
+Mrs. Meek of all that life held for her. Honor understood how completely
+she was bereft, and her own heart overflowed with sympathy. Her one ewe
+lamb had been taken, and in her grief, the foundations of the mother's
+faith were shaken.
+
+She turned her face to the wall and cried out against her Maker. "From
+him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath!" was the
+burden of her sorrowful cry.
+
+"What had I to make life worth the living! My child was all in all to
+me, and she has been snatched from me! Of what use is religion since
+even my prayers could not avail? It is comfortless. God is cruel. He
+tramples on our hearts. He has no pity." Such were the outbursts of the
+poor, stricken heart.
+
+She was the picture of abandonment in the comfortless room, ascetic in
+its lack of dainty feminine accessories. The floor was covered with
+coarse bamboo matting such as the Brights used in their pantry and
+bathrooms. Cretonne _pardars_[11] hung in the doorways; the furniture
+was rough and country-made; the bed-linen and coverings were from the
+mills of Cawnpur. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," had
+been Mr. Meek's justification for confining his expenditure to the
+barest necessaries of life. But, on the other hand, he indulged himself
+in his hobby for raising prize cattle for the local _Melas_[12]. Prize
+cattle had their use and did not come under the head of extravagance as
+did furnishing according to taste and fancy; so Mrs. Meek and her
+daughter had to suffer the lack of the refinements of life to the
+mortification of their spirits and the discomfort of their bodies, in
+order that their souls might be purged of the vanities and lusts of the
+flesh.
+
+[Footnote 11: Curtains.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Fairs.]
+
+"You must not fight against the decrees of the Almighty," said the nurse
+reproachfully, as Honor knelt beside the bed and embraced the unhappy
+mother.
+
+"Don't talk all that clap-trap to one in torment," said the girl
+contemptuously. "People are too ready to put all the blame on God when
+they are bereaved."
+
+If a thunderbolt had fallen in the room it could not have had a more
+startling effect than this outburst of Honor's. The nurse recoiled in
+horror thinking she was in the presence of a free-thinker who is first
+cousin to an atheist, and Mrs. Meek choked back her sobs to stare
+wide-eyed at her visitor who had dared to voice such heresy under a
+missionary's roof.
+
+"Isn't it God's will when one is afflicted? That is what we are taught,"
+said the nurse indignantly.
+
+"We are taught a lot of stuff which is not true," said Honor firmly. "It
+isn't sense to impute to a loving God acts of wanton cruelty, and we
+dishonour Him by so doing." She kissed Mrs. Meek's cheek and spoke
+tenderly to her of her sympathy and sorrow.
+
+"But, Miss Bright, are not life and death in God's hands?" the bereaved
+lady asked astonished.
+
+"Indeed, yes--with our co-operation. God needs our help as we need His.
+I could never believe that our dear ones are taken from us by God's
+will. He could not will us unhappiness. We have got to suffer as the
+result of ignorance and neglect, and a thousand other reasons which are
+Cause and Effect. Where we fail God, we must suffer."
+
+"How did we fail God? We did all we could!"
+
+"Yes--we always shut the stable door after the steed is stolen. God did
+not give your child the germ of enteric which constitutionally she was
+unfitted to cope with. It happened through some misfortune that God had
+nothing to do with, and, simply, she hadn't enough fight in her. There
+are times when we cannot understand why some things should be,
+especially if we feel that by stretching out His arm God can save us;
+yet He does not do so," continued Honor. "I prefer to believe that God
+fights for the life of our dear one along with us, and we both fail, we
+and God, because of some lack on our side that has hindered." Honor was
+not accustomed to holding forth on the subject of her views and would
+have said no more, but Mrs. Meek was roused to a new interest and
+persisted in drawing from her all she felt regarding the matter.
+
+"If you put your foot on a cobra and you are bitten, and no immediate
+remedies are at hand, you will certainly die. If you prayed your hardest
+to be saved and did nothing, you would certainly be disappointed. God
+has given us the means of saving life--science and medicine are His way
+of helping us through doctors--even then we fail if the patient has no
+strength to battle with disease. That is how I feel," she added loyally.
+"We don't blame those we love--so don't blame God unjustly."
+
+"Doctor Dalton said Elsie's heart was weak," moaned Mrs. Meek. "Perhaps
+had he come last night he would have noticed the change in her and done
+something to have helped her to live! Oh! Miss Bright, I feel it is
+owing to the doctor's neglect that I have lost my child. Why didn't he
+come last night?"
+
+Honor's eyes fell before the anguish in hers. "He was at dinner with us,
+and left us early intending to come on here. I don't know why he changed
+his mind," she murmured, feeling again the rush of wild resentment
+against Joyce Meredith for her beauty and allurement.
+
+"How strangely you talk!" Mrs. Meek went on as Honor relapsed into
+silence. "I never heard any one speak or think like this."
+
+"I have always felt that nothing harsh or bad can come from God," said
+Honor gravely. "He does not treat us cruelly just to make us turn to
+Him. It would have the opposite effect, I should imagine, and He knows
+that as he knows us. It is presumptuous of me to say anything at all,
+but it seems to me, we are responsible for much of our own sorrows, or
+it is the way of life since the Fall. Humanity has foiled the designs of
+God from the time of Adam, and has had to bear the consequences. But,
+always, God's goodness and mercy triumph, and we are helped through the
+heaviest of tribulation till our sorrows are healed. Pity and Love are
+from God, never agony and bereavement!"
+
+"Yet my husband says that the _cross is from God_, a 'burden imposed for
+the hardness of our hearts'!"
+
+"So that to punish you, God is supposed to have caused an innocent one
+all that suffering, and has snatched her from the simple joys of her
+life! Is that your husband's conception of a loving God? If I believed
+that, I would become a heathen, preferably."
+
+"It doesn't seem to fit in with such attributes as Mercy and Love!"
+cried Mrs. Meek, relapsing again into a flood of grief; for, after all,
+there was poor consolation for her in any theory since nothing could
+restore to her her beloved child.
+
+"Tell me," said Honor to the nurse who had led her to the adjoining room
+to take her last look at her dead friend, "wasn't her death rather
+sudden and unexpected?"
+
+"The doctor should have been here last night," said the nurse looking
+scared and uncomfortable. "She was so wild and restless and kept
+exciting herself in her delirium. Her heart was bad and nothing seemed
+to have effect. He should have been here, and not left her to me for so
+many hours, since early morning!"
+
+"When did the change set in?--could no one have gone for the doctor?"
+
+"It is a great misfortune that there was no one capable of relieving
+me," said the nurse looking distressed. "There was only the ayah, and
+she was supposed to be watching, yet allowed the patient to sit up in
+bed in her delirium when to lift an arm had been forbidden. All she
+could do was to cry aloud and remonstrate, which woke me and before I
+could do anything, the poor girl was--gone! Simply fell back dead. It
+was terrible! I fear I shall get into trouble, but the Meeks could not
+afford more than one nurse and Mrs. Meek and I were both worn out. I
+knew the ayah would blame me, as I blame her; but, humanly speaking, it
+would have happened in any case--even had her mother been in the room.
+It was truly most unfortunate. If the doctor had only been here he might
+have seen the necessity for a sedative or something!"
+
+It was the same cry: "If the doctor had only been here!" From all she
+could gather, Elsie had passed a restless night and had died of heart
+failure in the morning. An overtaxed heart had given out by the exertion
+of suddenly rising in bed.
+
+Honor doubted if Captain Dalton could have done anything by visiting his
+patient at night, yet his not having done so would always leave a
+reproach against him. She felt it and, yet, strangely enough, wanted to
+combat every argument that would have held him to blame.
+
+When she was leaving the bungalow she came face to face with Captain
+Dalton descending from his car; and so moved was she for the moment,
+that she would not trust herself to do more than bow stiffly as she
+passed, her face white in its repression, her eyes cold and distant. At
+sight of him her agony returned in force; her heart for a moment stood
+still. Why had he lied to them about visiting Sombari when it was Joyce
+Meredith he had meant to see? Joyce with her lovely face and winning,
+childish ways? Everyone must love Joyce because of her ingenuousness and
+extraordinary beauty. The doctor had nursed her in camp under intimate
+conditions ... and he had stolen a visit to her when duty had required
+him in an opposite direction.
+
+How was it possible to feel the same friendliness towards him with that
+wild resentment raging at her heart? So Honor ran out to her pony,
+sprang nimbly into the saddle, and rode rapidly away, feeling his
+searching eyes upon her till she was out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
+
+
+Honor Bright rode straight to the Bara Koti to tell Joyce of Elsie
+Meek's death, not without a grim satisfaction in the thought that the
+news was certain to fill her friend with self-reproach; on other
+accounts her feelings defied analysis.
+
+Joyce was writing home-letters for the mail in her morning-room when
+Honor was announced, and she was arrested, in her expressions of welcome
+by the look on her visitor's face, which was unusually pale and her
+great brown eyes, always so friendly and tender, cold and grave.
+
+"What is it?" she asked fearfully, as she searched her memory for any
+unconscious offence to her friend.
+
+"I have just come from Mrs. Meek who is prostrated with grief. Elsie is
+dead. She died at sunrise this morning."
+
+"Dead?--Elsie Meek?... I did not know she was so bad!" Joyce looked
+shocked and distressed.
+
+"I left as Captain Dalton arrived--they are blaming him for not having
+gone there last night. He was expected, but"--she made a gesture of
+despair.
+
+"Oh, Honor!--was it because he was here? He came to see if we were
+ill--I had been nervous about Baby--and when I knew that it was nothing,
+I kept him for music till--till quite late. Is it my fault?" The lovely
+face looked stricken and blanched.
+
+"I don't know--perhaps indirectly; but _he_ knew. He should not have
+stayed."
+
+"I persuaded him because I was dull--but I never knew!--I never dreamed
+she was so bad! Oh, Honey!" and Joyce broke into a passion of tears. "I
+shall never be happy again. I shall always feel that I was responsible!"
+
+"He should never have stayed with you!--his duty was clear," said Honor
+sternly. "The responsibility rests entirely with him. But didn't you
+know that being alone and without your husband, you were inviting
+criticism by allowing him to stay--at that late hour? People in these
+_mafasil_ stations are so censorious."
+
+"I did not think it mattered," said Joyce without a shadow of resentment
+at such plain speaking. She stood with hands clasped, looking like a
+child in trouble, and Honor's heart began to melt. "He's only the
+doctor, you see, and he was so good to us in camp. Do you think I was
+wrong, Honey?" flinging her arms about Honor's neck and hiding her face
+in her bosom. Who could censure so much sweetness? So she was held in a
+close embrace and tenderly kissed.
+
+"I have no right to speak--forgive me," said Honor.
+
+"But you are privileged, because I love you," said Joyce. "Say what you
+please. I am so unhappy!--so miserable!"
+
+"We must be miserable only for harm consciously done. You could never do
+that."
+
+"I could not bear that you should condemn me," Joyce went on, clinging
+to her for consolation. "It seemed such a simple thing--it _was_."
+
+"Yes, of course," Honor agreed against her judgment. "Only it would be
+hateful that you should be talked about by the people here--as Mrs. Fox
+is, for example."
+
+"I should loathe it!--for I am not like her. You don't think that for a
+moment?"
+
+"Never!--that is why I'll not have you misjudged," said Honor kissing
+her wet cheek.
+
+"Why are people so horrid? I like Captain Dalton. He is so nice--so
+different from what people think him--agreeable! He took my rose, and I
+pinned it in his coat. He showed me how I should play the _Liebestraum_,
+and----"
+
+"He--took--your rose?"
+
+"Yes. It was in my dress ... and was so sweet--and he said I should be
+called 'Joy.' He is going to show me how to drive his motor-car so that
+I may take Ray by surprise one day. I must go out more than I do, and
+not worry so much about Baby for he is here to look after him. Oh! he is
+very kind--surely he never meant to neglect Elsie Meek?"
+
+"He knows best about that--but, Joyce," Honor was strangely agitated and
+hid her telltale eyes in a cloud of Joyce's sunny hair, "you will never
+do anything that you cannot tell your husband?"
+
+"How do you mean? I always tell Ray everything."
+
+"That is all. He will advise you what it is best not to do. It is no
+business of mine."
+
+"And I'll always tell you, too," the little wife said affectionately.
+
+But Honor mentally decided it would be better for her not to hear
+anything more about Captain Dalton's visits. "I don't count--I am a mere
+outsider."
+
+"You do. You are such a great help to me. I wish I had half your manner
+and self-confidence."
+
+Their talk reverted to Elsie Meek, and Joyce learned something of the
+mother's grief. She was anxious to call immediately at the Mission to
+offer her condolences, and decided to attend the funeral which was to
+take place that afternoon. It was eventually settled that Mrs. Bright
+should call for her in the dogcart, and Honor would ride.
+
+Consequently, when Ray Meredith motored in that afternoon, his wife was
+absent attending Elsie Meek's funeral, a simple ceremony at a tiny
+cemetery on the Mission property. The coffin, made of packing cases and
+covered with black calico, was carried by pastors, and the service was
+conducted by Mr. Meek himself, who scourged himself to perform the
+pathetic task as a penance to his soul.
+
+It was dusk when Joyce returned, a subdued little person in black with a
+bursting heart which was relieved by a flood of tears in her husband's
+arms. He was very pitiful of her in her wrought-up state, and he soothed
+her with tender caresses.
+
+It was very comforting to Joyce to be petted, and by degrees her
+weakened self-esteem was restored. Nothing was very far wrong with
+herself or her world while her husband loved her so, and Honor Bright
+remained her friend. Meredith would not allow his beloved to blame
+herself, though it was hardly the thing to entertain a visitor of the
+opposite sex so late at night when her husband was in camp; but the
+circumstances were exceptional; his little darling was nervous and
+lonely, and Dalton was a gentleman. Poof! he wouldn't for a moment allow
+that the doctor did not know his own business best; and very likely
+Elsie Meek's case had been hopeless from the start. With a weak heart,
+anything might happen in typhoid. Anyhow, he was not going to let his
+little girl worry herself sick and she was to cheer up on the instant
+and think no more about what did not concern herself. The main thing
+was, he had returned for the week-end, and wanted all her love and all
+her smiles to reward him for his long abstinence; and Joyce obediently
+kissed him and beamed upon him through her tears, wondering in her
+childish soul why husbands were so exacting in their love--their ardour
+so inexhaustible. Women were so very different--but men!
+
+"With a wife like you, what can you expect?" Meredith cried, when she
+had expressed her views with naivete. Which was all very flattering and
+calculated to spoil her thoroughly, but Meredith was in a mood to spoil
+her thoroughly after their enforced separation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On Sunday morning, Honor followed up the notice which had been pinned on
+the board at the Club concerning evensong at the Railway Institute, by
+cycling round to various bungalows and exacting promises of attendance
+from her friends.
+
+Muktiarbad was behind hand in the matter of a church building, the
+proposal having been shelved by the authorities with the usual
+procrastination. The Roman Catholic missionary lived in ascetic
+simplicity in the Station, and took his meals in native fashion wherever
+he preached the Faith.
+
+There was no Episcopal clergyman nearer than the headquarters of the
+Division, eighty miles away; so it was only when his duties permitted
+it, that the District Chaplain paid a flying visit to Muktiarbad to
+minister to the spiritual welfare of his flock. Otherwise, it devolved
+on the Collector to officiate at Divine worship, as a paternal
+government enjoined this duty on the leading official in the stations
+not provided with resident clergy.
+
+Thus it was that on most Sunday evenings Mr. Meredith read the Church
+Service in the general room of the Club to a congregation consisting
+mostly of ladies, while Jack Darling, usually flushed and breathless
+after tennis and a lightning change, went through the ordeal of reading
+the lessons.
+
+To make certain of a couple of unreliable members of the choir, Honor
+cycled last of all to a picturesque little bungalow near the Police
+Court, and dismounted at its tumble-down gate. From frequent removals
+for jumping competitions for raw ponies, it was considerably damaged and
+swung loosely on its hinges, swayed by every wind that blew.
+
+The bungalow was thatched, the eaves supported by square pillars; and
+the verandah was screened by bamboo trellis-work up which climbed the
+beautiful _Gloriosa superba_.
+
+Boars' heads, buffalo horns, and the antlers of deer, ornamented what
+could be seen of the walls inside, and the tiled flooring was scattered
+over with long-arm easy chairs and "peg-tables."
+
+A gravelled walk led to the steps, bordered on either side with
+straggling marigolds and dwarf sunflowers, dear to the hearts of
+_malis_, but evidently the worse for the depredations of the village
+goats. Date-palms drooped gracefully above a tank in the background, and
+a gorgeous hedge of acalypha hid the outhouses and kitchen.
+
+Honor's appearance at the gate was the signal for a wild stampede from
+the verandah by Jack and Tom, who were enjoying a "Europe morning," to
+change into suitable garb; an orderly being dispatched meanwhile to
+crave the lady's indulgence. Rampur hounds and fox-terriers received her
+effusively on the road, and showed their appreciation of her presence by
+leaving marks of muddy paws on her drill skirt.
+
+Tommy was the first to appear neatly apparelled, and smoothing his wet
+hair with both hands. He was followed soon afterwards by Jack, looking
+like an overgrown schoolboy in flannels. They hung about the gate since
+she could not be induced to enter, and pulled rueful faces on receiving
+instructions as to their duty at six-thirty, sharp.
+
+"I believe there has been a riot at Panipara," put in Tommy with
+inspiration. "It is my duty as a police official to take instant notice
+of the fact and visit the spot for an inquiry."
+
+"It can wait till Monday morning--or, you can send your Inspector," said
+Honor.
+
+"I have a poisonous report to write"--began Jack.
+
+"No sulking!" said Honor with determination. "You have to set a good
+example, both of you."
+
+"I don't mind the service, a bit, and the hymns are fine," said Tommy,
+"but I distinctly object to sitting still and having illogical arguments
+when I cannot answer back hurled at my head."
+
+"I shouldn't mind even that, for I needn't listen to them," said Jack;
+"but I do wish he would cut his sermons short. The last time he was at
+it for half an hour till I fell asleep and all but swallowed a fly."
+
+"You and Tommy are worse than heathens and want a Mission all to
+yourselves," said Honor with twitching lips. (When Honor's lips revealed
+a hidden sense of humour, the boys' spirits effervesced.) "There is
+hymn-practice at three this afternoon at the Institute," she informed
+them. "Shall we have _Abide with me_, for a change?"
+
+"'Abide with you,' certainly," said Tommy bubbling, while Jack put in a
+plea for one of the old favourites. "_Sun of my soul_ is hard to beat,"
+he said.
+
+"Jack has a fixed belief that the world has missed a great tenor in
+him," remarked Tommy. "He was bawling so loudly in his bath yesterday
+morning, that I was on the point of fetching my gun thinking there was a
+jackal around,--fact!"
+
+"Liar! I was singing _O Star of Eve_, and you annoyed me by joining in.
+Execrable taste."
+
+"Well?--we shall count on both of you for the choir."
+
+"If any one will be so kind as to lend me a prayer-book," said Tommy
+reluctantly. "Jack used mine on a muggy night to keep the window open,
+and as it rained half the time, my property was reduced to pulp. The
+least he might do is to give me another."
+
+"You can share mine," said Honor magnanimously. "That's fixed."
+
+"Thanks, awfully. I love sharing a prayer-book with someone who knows
+the geography of it. The last time I went to church was at Hazrigunge
+when the Commissioner's Memsahib collared me as I was going to bridge.
+Miss Elworthy, the parson's sister,--elderly and still hopeful, handed
+me her book of Common Prayer; but I'm dashed if I could find the
+Collect! At any ordinary time I would have pounced upon it right enough,
+but knowing her eyes were upon me, I could do nothing but make a
+windmill of the pages with only the 'Solemnisation of Matrimony' staring
+up at my distracted vision, till I began to think Fate had designs.
+Really, it made me quite nervous, I assure you!"
+
+"I shall have to give you Sunday-school lessons," said Honor, laughing
+heartily. "You are a bad boy, Tommy."
+
+"I never attempt to find the places," said Jack. "It's the most
+difficult thing in the world when you are nervous and the parson is off
+at great speed, like a fox with the pack at his heels. My Church Service
+was a present from my old aunt when I was confirmed and is in diamond
+print, so that when I hold it upside down, no one is a bit the wiser."
+
+"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" cried Honor.
+
+"Not at all. I always say 'Amen' at the right moment."
+
+"It is always a case of 'Ah, men!' at Muktiarbad, where church is
+concerned," saying which she sprang on her bicycle and fled with the
+sound of loud groans in her ears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Choir practice was well attended, and the "Inseparables" were obediently
+on hand to swell the singing of the popular hymns and even attempt a few
+chants. At the finish, Mrs. Fox made room for Jack on the organ stool,
+and while he worked the pedals, she played a voluntary by Grieg to their
+own entertainment and the distraction of the company.
+
+"Fair joint production, if Jack would only remember he is not working a
+sewing-machine," said Tommy. "It puts me out of breath to listen."
+
+"The bellows sound like an asthmatic old man about to suffer spontaneous
+combustion," said Honor moving away from the vicinity of the American
+organ, vexed to see the transparent arts practised by Mrs. Fox to lead
+Jack captive.
+
+Divine service when conducted by the District Chaplain was held at the
+Railway Institute which was more centrally situated than the Club for
+the bulk of the European community at Muktiarbad, and the occasion was
+typical of the generality of such functions in the small, _mafasil_
+stations lacking a church building. Families of officials,--Government
+and Railway, non-officials, and subordinates, found seats for themselves
+in the neighbourhood of their respective acquaintance, and there was
+only a sprinkling of the masculine element, the majority being husbands
+whose demeanour, as they followed in the wake of their wives, was
+suggestive of derelict ships being towed into port.
+
+The choir were accommodated near the American organ at which Mrs. Fox
+presided with ostentatious skill. Jack's stealthy effort to elude
+observation in a distant corner was frustrated by Honor on her way in,
+who whispered her commands that he was to occupy the seat reserved for
+him as the sole tenor available.
+
+Tommy, on the other hand, put in attendance with laudable docility,
+claiming a place beside Honor; and all through the sermon occupied
+himself with the marriage service, till a gloved hand recovered
+possession of the prayer-book and a pair of brown eyes reproved him
+gravely.
+
+"You paid no attention whatever to the service," she afterwards remarked
+scathingly.
+
+"It is just what I did, right through," he returned meekly. "It's the
+only service that interests me."
+
+"It was irrelevant matter!"
+
+"Which made me miss the benefit I might have derived from the seed
+falling on prepared soil. Alas! see what you are responsible for!"
+
+"I? I take no responsibility for you. And was the soil really prepared
+this time?" she teased.
+
+"It was torn by the plough of eagerness and harrowed with anxiety lest I
+should be late and lose my place beside you," he returned feelingly.
+
+Outside on the gravelled path, Mrs. Bright was informed by Mrs.
+Ironsides that she had counted sixty women in "Church," and only sixteen
+men, twelve of whom were married. "Scandalous!--I call it. And this is a
+country, where, in the midst of life one is in death!"
+
+On their way home, Meredith and Joyce, with the parson in the car, came
+upon the doctor taking a "constitutional" in the moonlight and insisted
+on carrying him off to pot-luck.
+
+Tommy attached himself to the Brights and received a similar invitation,
+while Jack was annexed by Mrs. Fox whose husband was at home and "would
+be charmed."
+
+The invitation was given openly and Jack had no hesitation in accepting
+it, curious to know how the elusive Barrington Fox would appear on
+closer acquaintance.
+
+They walked together across the railway lines and past unkempt hedges of
+Duranta in full bloom towards the group of residences reserved for
+officials of the Railway, each within its own garden and bounded by
+barbed wire as a protection against stray cattle.
+
+The Traffic Superintendent's house was built on a more generous scale
+than the others, though uniformly of red brick picked out with buff.
+Shallow arches supported the concrete roof, and the verandah in front
+was gay with ornamental pot-plants and palms of luxuriant growth. Many
+doors opened upon it, and through them could be seen a lamplit and
+graceful interior, veiled by misty lace curtains. The verandah itself
+was left for the moon to illuminate.
+
+Long residence in India and natural good taste had taught Mrs. Fox the
+art of furnishing with an eye to the needs of the climate, so that her
+rooms had the charm of restfulness, ease, and coolness. Most of her
+drawing-room chairs were of Singapur rush-work; the mat was of green
+grass, the _punkha_ frills of art muslin. The walls were distempered in
+cool greys and neutral tints; while on all sides were palms, large and
+small, and china-grass in dainty flower-pots of coloured earthenware. A
+Japanese draught screen, embroidered in silk upon gauze and arranged
+carelessly, put a finish to the most picturesque drawing-room Jack had
+yet seen in Bengal.
+
+Mr. Barrington Fox, however, was not at home. A telegram was found to
+have arrived, intimating that he had been detained at a wayside station.
+
+"Such a nuisance!" Mrs. Fox exclaimed, laying down the telegram which,
+as a matter of fact, she had received earlier in the day. "You'll have
+to put up with only me. Do you mind?"
+
+"It is not for me to mind," he answered awkwardly. "If you think I might
+stay, I shall be delighted."
+
+"Then you shall. Who cares?--not my husband who has long ceased to mind
+what I do or how I am left to pass the time," she said bitterly.
+
+"You must often be very lonely?" he ventured sympathetically. He had
+heard many rumours of Fox's neglect of his wife--of the temptations to
+which she was exposed and to which a woman placed as she was might be
+excused for yielding. Plenty of fellows paid court to her, and a good
+few had grown attached--yet, barring Smart who was a cad and a bounder,
+he was sure that none could cast a stone.
+
+"I am always desperately lonely," she sighed, as she sank into a
+chesterfield and motioned him to the seat beside her. "You little know
+how it preys upon me; how I welcome a sympathetic friend! but--why speak
+of it?" she passed him her cigarette case, and they began to smoke
+companionably. "So few understand me," said she in subdued tones. "So
+many misunderstand! I ask you, what is life worth to a young woman
+in my position?" her chest heaved, her eyes filled with self-pity.
+"And who can stifle nature and be happy?--the ache for human
+sympathy--tenderness--love...." she brushed the moisture from her eyes
+with a diminutive handkerchief, and smiled a wintry smile. "I refuse to
+talk only of myself!--let us talk of you, dear Jack. You are a dear and
+I have so longed to make a friend of you," she interrupted herself to
+say.
+
+Jack coloured furiously while filled with indignant pity for her. Poor
+girl!--after all, she was quite young!... He did not care how old she
+was; she was young enough to be pitied for the rotten time her selfish
+husband gave her.
+
+They spent a supremely innocent evening looking through albums of
+photographs and talking football and polo. The dinner was excellent, and
+Mrs. Fox, clever in the art of entertaining, modelled her conversation
+to suit his manly tastes, in the end breaking down all his natural
+shyness and placing him on terms of easy friendship. When Jack
+eventually rose to go he was flattered by her open reluctance to part
+with him; her pleasure in his society had been so frank and appealing.
+
+"I have never enjoyed an evening so much in my life, Jack," she said
+cooingly. "Why are you so different from other men?"
+
+"Am I?" he asked in some confusion as she retained his hand in hers.
+
+"In a thousand ways. I almost wish I had never met you, Jack!"
+
+"Why?" he asked, his breath suddenly short, his heart beating a rapid
+tattoo in his breast. For the life of him he could not say the easy
+pretty things that fell so naturally from other men's lips.
+
+"Because--Oh! why, you must know--I shall always be making comparisons
+which are odious, and remember, I have to put up with only odiousness!"
+
+"I hate to think of it," he said huskily.
+
+"It is sweet to think you mind."
+
+"It makes a fellow--mad to do something. It's damned hard and cruel for
+you!"
+
+"Never mind, dear boy. Come again, come often, will you?" she pleaded,
+leaning her head against the pillar behind her and looking languishingly
+up at him with the moonlight full on her face and throat, bathing her in
+a pale radiance.
+
+Jack's eyes swept the deserted verandah. He did not know that the
+servants were well drilled in the etiquette of keeping out of the way
+when the lady of the house entertained a male visitor. "Good-bye," he
+said indistinctly, moving a step nearer.
+
+"Good-bye," she returned almost inarticulately, her eyes melting to his
+own. "I shall weep my heart out when you are gone."
+
+"Why?" he demanded unsteadily.
+
+"For the things that I have missed. I always dream of a man just like
+you--you are the man of my dreams come to me--too late!--and my heart
+has been starved so long!"
+
+"Don't," he said sharply. "I am not made of stone."
+
+Their faces were very near together, so near, that Jack had only to
+stoop to press her lips fiercely with his.
+
+"Oh, Jack!--" she cried emotionally. "You mustn't make me love you--you
+darling!" yet she returned his kiss with equal fervour. "Oh, go--go
+quickly," she breathed. "You must not stay----"
+
+Dazed and bewildered, Jack took her at her word and went swiftly down
+the steps, nor did he halt when her voice called after him to stop and
+return. "Oh, Jack!--come back--come back, I cannot let you go!"
+
+Nevertheless, he went without a backward look, wondering within himself
+if all men found it so easy to tread the path of dishonour. Where it
+might lead him if he allowed his baser instincts headway, he could
+guess, and with a mighty effort he made up his mind to apply the brake
+there and then. Poor woman!--he could not blame her--it was he alone who
+had had no excuse--not a shadow of an excuse for the outrage. She, a
+disappointed wife was like a being temporising with suicide. Small blame
+to her if she took the plunge. It was for men of sound brain and clear
+judgment to save her--not supply the means of self-destruction.
+
+Did she wish him to believe that she already loved him?
+
+Then he must assist her quickly to recover from the delusion, for Jack
+well knew that there is a difference between love and the feeling that
+could simulate it to the destruction of honour and self-respect. Passion
+had swept him off his feet with sudden violence and he was shaken to the
+depths with fear of himself, for he had let himself go unpardonably and
+was ashamed.
+
+All the way to his bungalow he walked with bowed head, alternately
+thrilled with temptation, and abased at his moral collapse; the latter,
+because he cherished an ideal and was now convicted in his own
+estimation as unworthy.
+
+The ideal had been established in the _Puja_[13] holidays he had spent
+in Darjeeling playing with the "Squawk" and listening to its mother's
+innocent reminiscences of her home and her people in England. He had
+found a wonderful thing: a beautiful woman without vanity--a
+child-nature in a woman; an ideal wife; one who respected her husband
+and obeyed him while idolising their child. Wedded to such purity a
+husband's life was paradise, and Jack accounted him a lucky man. It was
+refreshing to bask in her presence and hear her describe her simple
+past, so transparently virtuous and inexperienced, into which a certain
+name was always intruding. "Kitty" the little sister was mentioned
+constantly. Always "Kitty!" She had said this or that, she had done so
+and so. She was a little wonder, full of charm, and so intensely human
+that the picture of her had haunted his imagination.
+
+[Footnote 13: Hindu festival.]
+
+"Is she like you?" he had asked wondering if Nature could possibly have
+twice excelled herself.
+
+"We are considered rather alike, but she has twice the courage and
+initiative that I have, and her eyes are the deepest violet you have
+seen."
+
+"Haven't you a photo of her?" curiosity had impelled him to ask.
+
+"Oh, yes. A beauty, taken by Raaf's in Regent Street." She had fetched
+the photograph and Jack had fallen straightway in love with the
+sparkling face so full of charm and sunshine. The small features were
+not unlike Mrs. Meredith's, but where they lacked her beauty, they made
+up a thousandfold in attraction. It was a face to hold the attention, to
+follow to the ends of the earth. From Mrs. Meredith's description, Kitty
+was brimful of life and high spirits, affectionate and generous, but
+quite a "handful" to manage. "She always dared infinitely more than ever
+I did, and was always the first to get into scrapes! But so loyal and
+honourable!"
+
+"I should imagine every fellow for miles around must be head and ears in
+love with her!"
+
+"That, of course, but she is not a bit silly about boys, being
+practically a boy herself in disposition. Only lately she has begun to
+do up her hair and is to be presented next season when she will be
+considered 'out.'"
+
+"And be married straight away!"
+
+"I suppose so," said Joyce proudly. "She is such a darling!"
+
+"I can believe it," said he.
+
+Jack had been so completely captivated by Kitty's photograph that Joyce
+had generously told him to keep it. She had other copies and thought it
+as well that he should cultivate an ideal for the elevation of his soul.
+"It is good for a man to look up to a really good girl with admiration
+and trust; it should make him determined to become worthy of the
+possession even of her picture."
+
+"It is something for a fellow to live up to," Jack had blushingly
+returned, full of delight in the gift. He mentally resolved to go in
+search of the original the very first time he obtained furlough and to
+be satisfied with no other. If the Fates would only keep her fancy-free
+for himself!
+
+He carried the picture home and Tommy was tormented with curiosity
+concerning the face which was so like Mrs. Meredith's and yet not hers.
+
+The memory of that afternoon at Darjeeling and of the photograph in his
+dispatch-box came to taunt Jack in the moonlight as he wended his way to
+the bungalow at the Police Lines, fresh as he was from the experience of
+a married woman's kisses given in response to his own.
+
+Tommy was at home and awake when he came in, and remarked bluntly
+concerning his extraordinary pallor.
+
+"How did it go off? Was Barrington Fox Esquire particularly cordial?"
+
+"He wasn't there," came gruffly from Jack.
+
+"Not there?"
+
+"I'll repeat it if you like."
+
+"Don't be ratty. I was only expressing natural surprise. Possibly she
+knew he wouldn't be there when she asked you."
+
+"You are as uncharitable as everyone else."
+
+"No, I am merely somewhat discerning."
+
+"It does you credit."
+
+"My son, hearken to the words of wisdom and the voice of the
+sage--'Whoso is partner with a thief, hateth his own soul----'"
+
+"Oh, go to blazes," said Jack pouring himself out a whisky-and-soda.
+
+"'A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.'"
+
+"I've been to Church--Drop it."
+
+"'Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his
+friend,'" Tommy persisted with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Thanks, I'm much obliged but it isn't necessary. Have a cigarette."
+
+It was mentioned that the doctor dined at the Bara Koti that evening.
+
+When the news of an extra mouth to feed was conveyed to the cook in the
+kitchen, Abdul surveyed three snipe among potato chips with a problem of
+multiplication vexing his soul.
+
+"With the _padre-sahib_ they are three, yet without warning they bring a
+fourth! Now what to do? _ai khodar_!--how to arrange?"
+
+"Why disturb thyself, brother?" said the _khansaman_ sympathetically as
+he put extra plates on the rack of the hot-case in which an open fire in
+a cast-iron cooker burned fiercely. "Cut each bird in two and make toast
+for each portion, in this way there will be some left for thee and me.
+If the master say aught, ask if it is his almighty will that the
+_shikari_ be sent out at a moment's notice in the moonlight to shoot
+another bird."
+
+The fine sarcasm of his advice created a general laugh of good-humour
+among the servants assembled to serve the dinner. "In my last place,"
+continued the Mohammedan butler, "my Sahib who had no wife would, out of
+sheer provocation, bring six or eight sahibs home to eat with him, and
+could we protest? _Yah, khodar!_ that instant with two kicks would we
+have been dismissed, and he so ready with his boot! No! Quickly we put
+water in the soup; with much energy we opened a tin of salmon, cut up
+onions, fetched a cucumber from the vegetable garden for salad. Then in
+the fowl-house, what a cackling and screeching as the _masalchi_ chased
+fowls and cut their throats! _Jhut!_ they were cleaned and how long does
+it take to grill meat? In fifteen minutes from the order, the dinner was
+ready, pudding and all. When a store-room is well-stocked, it is like
+_jadu_[14] to make a dinner for one capable of feeding six and even
+eight!"
+
+[Footnote 14: Magic.]
+
+All great talkers are unconscious egotists, as the Merediths found the
+Reverend John Pugh who enjoyed the sound of his own voice even when he
+was not in the pulpit, and retailed stock jokes and anecdotes to the
+company in general, forgetful of the fact that the same jokes and
+anecdotes had been recounted by him at every house on his visiting list.
+At dessert Joyce was glad to slip away to the drawing-room taking with
+her the doctor, who was permitted to smoke while he played to her on the
+piano.
+
+Joyce noticed that he was disinclined for conversation and was out of
+sorts and dull, as though inwardly disturbed and uninterested even at
+his music. He took an early opportunity to leave and was accompanied to
+the doorstep by Joyce, her husband being still pinned to the dining-room
+by the parson whose anecdotes were inexhaustible.
+
+"When next you see your friend, Miss Bright," said he, apropos of
+nothing, as he shook hands again, "tell her, will you?--that I know how
+to take a snub."
+
+"Why?--has Honor snubbed you?" she asked surprised.
+
+He smiled unpleasantly. "It was equal to a knock-down blow."
+
+"But that is so unlike Honor. How do you mean?"
+
+"I am not complaining, for I dare say I deserve it, but I would like her
+to know that I shall not willingly put myself in the way of the same
+again."
+
+"Oh--" light had dawned on Joyce. "It must be because she thinks you
+failed Elsie Meek. She heard that you never went to Sombari on Friday
+night though you left the party for the purpose of seeing how she was
+doing. Honor came here straight from the Mission."
+
+"It was on the steps of the Mission bungalow that we met, and I was
+sentenced without a charge."
+
+"Are you very angry?"
+
+"I don't think I am," he returned proudly. "It is nothing of
+consequence."
+
+"But would it have made any difference had you gone?" she pressed. "I
+ask because I feel responsible for having kept you with me." Her voice
+quavered with emotion and her lovely eyes drooped.
+
+"It would have made no difference." Captain Dalton condescended to
+explain Elsie Meek's condition and the fatal consequence of the sudden
+exertion she had taken in her delirium and high fever. "She needed very
+close watching. Unfortunately that was not given."
+
+"Then it was the nurse's fault?"
+
+"It was an accident. They could not afford a second nurse and Mrs. Meek
+was physically unfit to do her share."
+
+"I shall tell Honor."
+
+"Please do not do so. I prefer to let the matter stand. It will be quite
+for the best," and with that he was gone.
+
+However, Joyce took the first opportunity of repeating the conversation
+to her friend. "So you see, dear," she concluded as they talked together
+at the Club the following afternoon, "he was not at all to blame."
+
+"Perhaps not, but it makes no difference. I am deeply disappointed in
+him. It was his duty to have gone, and a man who is capable of
+neglecting a duty for pleasure falls short of the standard I cherish,"
+returned Honor coldly.
+
+"I did not know you could be so hard!" said Joyce reproachfully.
+
+"I am not hard. It is absolutely nothing to me and Captain Dalton cares
+very little what I think."
+
+Joyce wondered if that were so, for she remembered his abstraction; his
+mention of Honor had been a bolt from the blue.
+
+"I do not understand why he said 'it would be quite for the best,'"
+Joyce speculated.
+
+"It proves how little he cares one way or another!" Honor answered,
+wounded but proud. "And I have had a lesson never to mistake a goose for
+a swan again."
+
+"But he was good to you!"
+
+"And for that I immediately dressed him up in every virtue; I was just a
+fool--like any schoolgirl! Please don't let us talk of Captain Dalton
+any more. He does not interest me at all."
+
+She knew it was untrue to say that, but it was too late to recall her
+words as she turned and faced Captain Dalton, himself, who had come up
+from behind them and must have heard her concluding remarks. He was
+apparently searching for the Collector who had returned reluctantly to
+camp and, as Honor passed on with a bow, which he acknowledged
+distantly, he and Joyce moved away together.
+
+"I wish you would chase Honor and bring her to reason," said Joyce
+childishly.
+
+"I would much prefer to stay with you, if I may?" said he impressively.
+"Besides, why should I?"
+
+"Because," said Joyce with childish impulsiveness, "Honor Bright was
+very fond of you."
+
+In a flash, Dalton's eyes seemed to dilate and then contract. "What
+makes you think so?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"I knew it--I felt it. She could not hide it from me."
+
+"Did she ever say anything?" he asked with assumed indifference.
+
+"Not in words--but when she spoke of you--oh, the light in her eyes, and
+the changing colour!--perhaps I should not tell you this?--but
+misunderstandings are wretched."
+
+Her blue eyes apologised so prettily that he smiled with peculiar
+radiance.
+
+"You are a very good friend," he said with amused indulgence.
+
+"Who wouldn't be that to a girl like Honor!"
+
+"And if I tell you I appreciate that, you must forgive me if I would
+rather not discuss Honor Bright any more. Are you very lonely now your
+husband has left?"
+
+"I shall be, after today!" she pouted in self-pity.
+
+"Then I shall call round for you tomorrow afternoon and take you for a
+spin?"
+
+"I shall look forward to it. Will you teach me to drive?"
+
+"With pleasure."
+
+"How delightful of you!"
+
+"The pleasure will be equally mine," he said quite charmingly for him;
+and after further pleasantries rather foreign to his habit, he left her
+and drove away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+INFATUATION
+
+
+Filled with the determination to set aside foolish jealousies and
+cultivate a more generous trust in human nature, the Collector returned
+to his administrative duties in camp which were designed to bring him
+personally into contact with the villagers in his jurisdiction.
+
+His bachelor experience of social life in the East had, unfortunately,
+not helped to supply him with much confidence in his own sex. However,
+men were not all ravening wolves let loose upon society, and it was an
+undeniable fact that no man, however unprincipled, would dare to make
+love to a married woman without her encouragement, or attempt to seduce
+her from her lawful allegiance without her co-operation. And Joyce was
+incorruptible because of her love for her child.
+
+Yet there were times when Meredith's heart yearned wistfully for his
+beloved wife, and for the power of second sight that he might see how
+things were going in his absence; and since he was denied that faculty,
+it was not a little comfort to him to know that Honor Bright was in
+intimate companionship with Joyce. He liked to think of her influence
+exerted to assist the development of the childlike mind; for Honor
+Bright was "one of the best," and would some day make some lucky fellow
+a splendid wife; of that there was no doubt whatever. It seemed a
+mystery that she was still unmarried when she had been out in India for
+a year or more! and Meredith wondered what men were about. It did not
+strike him that Honor was not to be had for the asking.
+
+It was well, however, for the Collector's peace of mind and the work
+upon which he was engaged, that he did not know of the motor drives
+which were to provide a surprise for him one day.
+
+"People are beginning to talk about them," Honor ventured, with
+reference to their frequency, shy of being misunderstood and afraid of
+being considered interfering; but she had not forgotten Ray Meredith's
+parting words spoken with wistful meaning--"Take care of my wife, she is
+such a kid!"
+
+She had accepted the responsibility and it was weighing heavily upon
+her.
+
+"Very impertinent of 'people,'" said Joyce in return.
+
+"You have to live among them, and in your position they want to look up
+to you as a sort of 'Caesar's wife,'" said Honor smiling. "But it is, of
+course, a matter that lies between you and your husband entirely. If
+_he_ doesn't object----"
+
+"He knows nothing about my learning to drive, as it is to be a surprise.
+What concern is it of any one else?"
+
+"We generally stand or fall by what people think of us--don't we?
+However much we would like to ignore the fact, it remains
+unquestionable. If we do things liable to misconstruction, we are likely
+to suffer in the eyes of the world--and you see it every day. You
+yourself disapproved of and condemned Mrs. Fox, whose ways none of us
+admire or can stand."
+
+"Oh, Honey!" reproachfully--"would you compare me with Mrs. Fox? Why she
+does scandalous things!"
+
+"God forbid that I should! but Mrs. Fox did not begin by doing
+scandalous things. When she grew used to doing unconventional things she
+became consciously scandalous. Everything happens by degrees--even
+deterioration."
+
+"But you don't think there is any harm in my going for drives with
+Captain Dalton, Honey? He is so different. He is not the kind of man who
+gets women talked about, I should imagine. Why, half the time, he is
+glum and absent-minded, and he treats me just like a child." Joyce never
+resented Honor's plain-speaking.
+
+"It is no business of mine," said Honor, "except that you are my friend
+and I am jealous for your honourable standing here. I know nothing of
+Captain Dalton, but that he is a man like most others--and you might,
+some day, meet with a surprise."
+
+"What sort of surprise?" laughed Joyce sceptically.
+
+"I don't know--but you'll remember that I warned you. Meantime, go easy
+with your favours. You are rather generous, you know."
+
+Honor was thinking of Joyce's innocent demonstrativeness--inseparable
+from herself--which some men might not understand, and the doctor was
+but human after all. She had seen her toying with his watch-chain while
+arguing against following his advice for the good of her health; leading
+him by the hand to visit her baby in its crib; seizing the lapels of his
+coat in a moment of eager excitement. On each of these occasions Honor
+had been apart from them, an observer at a distance, engaged by others
+in conversation and desirous of appearing unconscious of the doctor's
+existence. Since the day she had shown silent disapproval of him on the
+steps of the Mission Bungalow, he had made no effort to bring about a
+better understanding and she was wounded to the quick, though she
+steeled herself to show utter indifference. Yet the sight of the doctor
+with Joyce in such intimate circumstances--latterly made more so by the
+frequent drives--had caused Honor's heart to twist with sudden anguish;
+for it was difficult to forget the day at his bungalow when he had
+fought for her life and called her the bravest girl he knew. A wordless
+sympathy had grown up between them since that day. His eyes had held for
+her a special message. Though he was "not seeking her for a wife" she
+felt that he had liked her more than a little, and she----?
+
+Now they were less than strangers; and Joyce, beautiful and confiding,
+was innocently flattering him with her preference. Where would it end?
+
+While Honor watched the development of Joyce's friendship with Captain
+Dalton, she was also aware of a change in Jack. Tommy had drawn her
+attention to Mrs. Fox's efforts to enslave Jack, whose own demeanour was
+beginning to show that all was not right with him. A new
+self-consciousness was apparent in his manner towards her, and he made
+blundering efforts to avoid being left alone in her company. He was
+evidently afraid of her--afraid of himself, too--because of the evil
+impulses her insidious influence had aroused in him.
+
+The fact was, Jack had arrived at a just appreciation of the truism,
+"Opportunity makes the thief." His respect for Mrs. Fox had expired
+after the episode on her moonlight verandah, and though he had made
+excuses for her, he was conscious they had rung hollow. Yet, in spite of
+his strict upbringing and the knowledge of danger, he had come to the
+psychological point when Opportunity was certain to make him a thief,
+for the memory of those kisses burned fiercely. He was as one who, by
+steeping himself in the vice of intoxication, begets a craving for
+alcohol, and he felt that his powers of resistance were on the wane. His
+cherished "ideal" was forgotten, and her portrait reposed face downward
+among envelopes and papers in his dispatch-box, while he kept out of
+Mrs. Meredith's way and neglected Honor Bright.
+
+"Jack's not the same man," Tommy confided to Honor. "He eats little and
+talks less. That woman will bring him to grief. I'd cheerfully shoot
+her."
+
+"What's the matter with Jack?" Honor asked, surprised. "What does he
+admire in her? I have no patience with him."
+
+"I don't know that he admires her. It's an infatuation. She has cast a
+spell over him somehow, since the night he dined with her alone, and he
+can't resist it. She writes to him almost every day."
+
+"And he answers her notes?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Jack is weak. I simply have no use for such weakness," said Honor
+contemptuously. "There is more hope for the villain who is deliberately
+bad than for the wobbly wretch who hasn't the strength to resist
+temptation. When the one repents, he is at least sincere; the other can
+never be depended upon to repent sincerely."
+
+"I never heard that before," grinned Tommy. "You would rather have Jack
+sin deliberately with his eyes open than fail in his efforts to keep
+straight?"
+
+"I have no patience for 'failures.' One could be angry with him for
+sinning deliberately, but hardly contemptuous. As it is, I have no
+opinion of Jack."
+
+Tommy made no complaint, for it was all to his own advantage. Though he
+was fond of Jack he had always regarded him as a dangerous rival, who so
+far had been merciful in not exerting his fascinations upon the only
+girl in their small circle at Muktiarbad. Since he was such a fool as to
+prefer dangling after a married woman, ten years his senior, his blood
+be on his own head.
+
+One evening, a few days later, Mrs. Fox discovered Jack Darling alone in
+the billiard-room knocking about the balls while waiting for someone to
+join him in a game. The rules of the Muktiarbad Club were lenient
+towards the ladies, who thus enjoyed privileges denied to them at larger
+stations. Mrs. Fox was therefore free to enter, and Jack was obliged to
+submit to his fate and comply with her request for a lesson in the
+science of "screws" and "potting." He had been priding himself on his
+wisdom and self-control in retiring from tennis and the society of the
+ladies, and had not reckoned on the perseverance of the one lady he
+wished to avoid.
+
+They played till others arrived; Jack was oddly moved by the sight of
+her slender hand, exquisitely feminine and appealing, as it poised the
+cue or lay on the green cloth of the table. Little intimacies were
+inevitable as he was further called upon to instruct her in the
+formation of a "bridge," or the handling of a cue; and he soon forgot
+his desire to escape, in the involuntary thrills her contact gave him.
+
+Eventually, she gracefully resigned in favour of a couple of members who
+looked their anxiety to play, and carried Jack off to escort her home.
+
+"You are quite sure you do not mind?" she asked softly.
+
+"Why should I mind?" he fenced awkwardly.
+
+"Because you have behaved lately as though you did not--not--like
+me...."
+
+"Have I?" he asked, flushing red in the darkness. "That isn't true."
+
+"I thought, perhaps, it was not true. That is why I was determined to
+have this opportunity for a talk."
+
+She did most of the talking while he barely listened, being conscious
+only of the thumping of his capitulating heart. But neither made any
+allusion to the tender episode on the verandah, from which Jack dated
+his undoing.
+
+In a quiet lane where the shadows lay deepest, he was asked to strike a
+match. Convicted of lack of courtesy, Jack hurriedly produced his
+cigarette case and offered it to her with confused apologies.
+
+"No thanks. Only a lighted match. I want to show you something," she
+said plaintively. And while he struck a light she rolled back her silk
+sleeve and displayed for his benefit a purple bruise on her shoulder
+where it curved down to the arm; an ugly, evil-looking thing staining
+the marble purity of the flesh.
+
+"How did that happen?" he asked greatly shocked and very sympathetic.
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+"Good God!--is it possible? Is he such a cad as all that?" What else was
+Jack to think?
+
+"Perhaps I had better say no more about it, only I thought you had
+better know." Only the inference was possible, and Jack stood
+stock-still burning with indignant fury that a woman should be subjected
+to such brutality at the hands of a man. The match burned down to his
+finger-tips and fell to the ground leaving the two in the shadows of the
+silent road.
+
+"It makes me feel pretty mad--what can I do?" he asked helplessly as she
+drew the sleeve down.
+
+"You can do nothing--but give me a little tenderness and love," she said
+with a sob, letting him take her in his arms.
+
+"You poor little woman!"
+
+"It is so lovely to feel that you care, Jack! Nothing matters so long as
+you care!" She clung to his neck inviting and returning his kisses.
+
+Further down the lane as they walked with his arm about her, they were
+startlingly rung out of the way by a cyclist who had come on them
+unawares. It was Tommy who had neglected to light his lamp, as the
+night, though dark, was clear and starry and municipal regulations were
+lax.
+
+"Do you think he recognised us?" Mrs. Fox asked anxiously.
+
+"Without a doubt," Jack spoke with annoyance.
+
+"But it's only Tommy and you are his friend. He won't give us away." She
+had no idea of the shame and embarrassment that Jack suffered at the
+thought that he had given his chum ocular proof of his folly, for Tommy
+had confessed that he despised Mrs. Fox, and that he had encouraged
+Bobby Smart to break away from her clutches. That there was truth in the
+gossip concerning Mrs. Fox and young Smart he could no longer doubt, but
+this made very little difference to him. As matters stood, he was
+committed and could not go back. Nor did he wish to. At least Tommy was
+loyal and would not give him away to the Station. Thoughts of the
+Station brought thoughts of Mrs. Meredith and Honor Bright whose
+good-fellowship he valued. Honor stood for all that was best in
+womanhood, and to be worthy of her companionship a man had to be as
+straight as a die. Joyce Meredith was "not in the same boat," though
+she, too, was a "bit of 'All-right.'" Her sister--? what chance had he
+of ever meeting her sister?--Jack laughed as he shook off a tendency to
+morbid regret and bade Mrs. Fox a resolute farewell at her gate. He had
+plenty to do preparing a judgment he had to deliver in court the
+following day, and begged to be excused. Another day--perhaps----
+
+Mrs. Fox fixed the day and parted from him tenderly, full of
+satisfaction at the success of her clever fiction. The accident which
+had occasioned the bruise had been of the commonest, but it had served
+her gallantly.
+
+Contrary to Jack's expectations, Tommy was not at all in the mood to
+rag, being silent for the greater part of dinner. However, when the
+genial influence of a whisky-and-soda had had time to work on his
+spirits, the young policeman apologised for not having carried a light
+on his bicycle. It was his way of introducing the subject which was
+haunting him with forebodings.
+
+"That's all right," said Jack. "But as one whose job is to enforce the
+law, I should imagine you would be more particular."
+
+"If that's all the law-breaking I do, I shan't come to grief, my son. It
+is very different in your case. 'Can a man take coals to his bosom and
+not be burned?'"
+
+"What the devil are you driving at?"
+
+"I get a tidy lot of wisdom out of old Solomon and I commend you to take
+up the dissertation from where I left off. You'll find a good deal to
+set you thinking."
+
+"Where am I to find it?" Jack asked with determined good-humour.
+
+"Proverbs--sixth, twenty-eighth; read from there, onward."
+
+"Thanks. I'll see what he has to say concerning such stupendous truths."
+
+"I commend you also to try him for advice on seeking a wife," said
+Tommy. "It will help you to form a judgment. Listen:
+
+"'_Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above
+rubies_'----"
+
+"Blessed old cynic!" interjected Jack, adding, he had heard that before.
+
+"'_The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her_'--mark the word,
+'trust'.... '_She will do him good, not evil all the days of her life._'
+I can't remember it all, there is such a lot. He goes on to say, '_Her
+husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the
+land.... Strength and honour are her clothing and she shall rejoice in
+time to come_----'"
+
+"Personally, I should prefer something more decent as a garment,"
+murmured Jack, while Tommy searched his brains.
+
+"'_She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of
+kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not
+the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her
+husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously,
+but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain: but
+a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the
+fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates._'"
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Isn't it enough?"
+
+"And you mean to say you expect to find such a paragon of perfection in
+modern times?" Jack asked, pouring out some more whisky.
+
+"Till I do, I shan't marry," said Tommy.
+
+"Here's luck to you!" said Jack raising his glass to his lips,
+unconvinced. "I'm afraid you'll live to be an old bachelor."
+
+"I'm afraid I shall, though I have found her already," murmured Tommy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+VANISHED
+
+
+Honor Bright paid several visits to the Mission after Elsie Meek's
+death, hoping to be of use in cheering the bereaved mother. After the
+funeral most of the ladies had called to sympathise, Joyce among them,
+tearful and tender; but having nothing in common with Methodists who
+held aloof from Station society, her visit of condolence ended the
+intercourse, so that, but for Honor, Mrs. Meek would have been much
+alone. The girl would cycle down for an hour or so and chat with, or
+read to the grief-stricken woman while she worked garments for the
+converted heathen, thus affording her the priceless boon of sympathetic
+companionship.
+
+During these visits it became apparent to her how much the Padre had
+changed. He was hardly the same man. All his dictatorial ways were gone,
+his self-sufficiency vanished; he was, instead, bowed down with
+depression, he looked older than his years, and spoke with a new and
+strange humility.
+
+Very shyly, as though unaccustomed to the role, he was becoming the
+attentive husband with an anxious eye for his wife's comfort, and
+seeking to show her by unobtrusive services that he understood and
+shared her grief and was suffering the pangs of remorse. It was not easy
+for Mr. Meek to confess that he now realised he had been a hard husband
+and father, but his manner was tantamount to such a confession, and Mrs.
+Meek was deeply touched. The passionate love and devotion of nineteen
+years ago had long settled into a natural affection for the father of
+her child, and now when she was stricken to the earth with sorrow, the
+void in her heart craved to be filled, and she could feel he was
+striving to fill it.
+
+"You don't know how pathetic it seems to me," she confided in Honor,
+"his self-conviction and efforts to atone. He must have been fond of our
+child, deep down, though unable to show it, not being of a demonstrative
+nature. I think he feels he was narrow and bigoted not to have allowed
+her a few innocent pleasures such as girls enjoy among young people in a
+Station,--and it is too late now!"
+
+"There is nothing I can imagine so painful as unavailing remorse," said
+Honor.
+
+"It makes me sorry for him and though I have found it hard to forgive
+him, I have uttered no word of reproach. He is so altered. Although a
+good man and truly religious, he was yet growing unconsciously selfish
+and domineering--all that has now been swept away, and he is ready for
+any self-sacrifice--even to allowing me to visit my family in Scotland."
+
+"Will you go?"
+
+Mrs. Meek's work dropped in her lap while she gave herself up to
+thought. "No," she said at length. "I have lost touch with my people.
+Though they love me dearly, and I them, I don't feel as if I could leave
+my husband alone now that he is so broken and sad. We share the same
+bereavement, and need each other now more than ever before. Besides, he
+hardly realises how dependent he is upon me. I have done so much for him
+all these years that he will be utterly stranded without me. It would be
+cruel."
+
+Honor smiled at her affectionately, thinking it was very sweet--this
+spirit of love and forgiveness springing to life after years of habitual
+submission. A truly feminine quality, upon which the masculine nature
+has never failed to draw, and which would continue as long as women
+remained womanly for the salvation of men.
+
+While at Sombari, Honor heard news of Captain Dalton's doings in the
+District. His fame as a surgeon had spread far and wide with various
+results on the ignorant and enlightened. In the case of the former, he
+inspired more fear than respect, and Mr. Meek could tell of mischievous
+rumours afloat which he had done his best to dispel so far as his
+influence went. One of the tales in circulation was that Captain Dalton
+was an agent of the Government sent to cripple the youths of the
+District and otherwise render them helpless in the event of a
+revolution.
+
+"And when is such an event likely to happen?" the Padre had asked.
+
+Who can tell?--Weren't there mutterings and discontent in big
+towns?--All who travelled and went to the cities came back with news of
+great things to come if all that the people demanded was not granted by
+the _Sarcar_.
+
+"What are the people demanding?" Mr. Meek persisted in knowing.
+
+That was best known to the highly educated. What did the poor
+agriculturist know of what was good for the country? He was like sheep
+led to the pasture by those in authority. But when the _Sarcar_ sent
+among the sheep a butcher with no stomach for the suffering of the
+helpless ones, it was time to protest and to see to it that he was
+recalled or driven away. Some were for even more lawless methods of
+ridding the countryside of this monster who disembowelled the sick and
+suffering, severed limbs, and robbed people of their rights.
+
+Mr. Meek's inquiries elicited that the doctor had performed certain
+surgical operations in some cases of accidental injury, which the
+neglect of sanitary precautions had rendered necessary. An operation for
+appendicitis had resulted in death through bad nursing and failure to
+carry out instructions. The women of a zemindar's household had fed his
+son on solids too soon after the removal of his appendix, which act of
+ignorance and disobedience had produced inflammation, agony, and death.
+The doctor was regarded as his murderer, and evil looks followed him
+whenever he passed that way.
+
+"What butchery!" one had afterwards exclaimed at a council of five
+called to discuss the enormity of the doctor's conduct and his growing
+record of outrages upon humanity. "To extract a portion of the
+intestines was madness and murder, for who can exist without intestines
+as God made them?--and his effrontery to put the blame upon the women
+who in the tenderness of their hearts had fed the youth on _dhal_ and
+rice for the restoration of his strength--_ai Khodar_! What harm was
+there ever in plain _dhal_ and rice? It was but an excuse, and now there
+is Gunesh Prosad without a son to inherit his estate, and all because of
+this man who is sent among us to cut up human bodies while they are yet
+alive!"
+
+"It is a great danger to us. Someone must teach this _Sarcari_ butcher
+of human flesh a lesson, or where might it not end?" another had
+remarked in complete sympathy.
+
+"But," put in a third cautiously, fearful of making himself unpopular by
+repeating the tale with which he was fit to burst, "didst hear of that
+legend concerning the coolie of Panipara _busti_ who went forth as a
+beater for the hunt, the time the Collector Sahib and others took long
+spears and killed wild boars? He was gored, and lay on the grass
+disembowelled, and as one dead. Quickly on hearing of the accident came
+the doctor Sahib in his _hawa-ghari_, himself at the wheel, and leaping
+out he knelt on the grass, and in a twinkling with strange gloves, and
+water in a _gumla_[15], he washed the coolie's intestines and restored
+them where they belonged, after which with a needle, even as a _darzi_
+sews garments, he stitched up the wound! Those watching turned sick of
+stomach, but not so the doctor Sahib. Even the Collector Sahib turned
+his back and called for a glass of spirits. _Ai--Ma!_--how he did it
+was a miracle, but the man is at the hospital in the Station,
+recovering, and these are true words; on the head of my eldest born I
+swear I have repeated it just as it was told to me."
+
+[Footnote 15: Earthen receptacle.]
+
+"It is a fable; believe it not. More likely he is dead and his body
+already cremated."
+
+"Not so. I was told I could see him, if I willed, with mine own eyes.
+Many have journeyed to the Station so that they might with their own
+eyes behold him. The doctor Sahib may be unfeeling, even bloodthirsty,
+but he is devil-possessed with cunning to work magic."
+
+"Even so, he is a danger and should be removed. Who knows what excuse he
+might take to use the knife on thee and me and the little ones of our
+households? _Tobah!_ he is a wolf, not a man. And this one the _Sarcar_
+has sent among us to mutilate, kill, and rob us of our comforts and
+rights. Soon, he will take away the _jhil_ from Panipara _busti_ so that
+the people will be put to the labour of dragging water out of deep
+wells, and for the washing of their garments, they will have to walk
+many _kos_ to the river!"
+
+Mr. Meek had learned a great deal more from his converts of the sayings
+of the villagers and their feeling against Captain Dalton, all of which
+Mrs. Meek recounted to Honor in order that she might put the doctor on
+his guard. The latter, however, gave her no opportunity to speak to him,
+so she left it to Joyce to tell him of his growing unpopularity.
+
+This Joyce did on one of their outings in the Rolls-Royce and only
+succeeded in bringing a smile of amusement to the doctor's lips. He had
+no apprehensions whatever for his safety and the subject, therefore, was
+speedily forgotten. Joyce learned how to drive, and one afternoon in
+December had the supreme satisfaction of motoring out to camp and back
+again in the doctor's car. Her pleasure in his surprise was so childlike
+and exuberant that Meredith had not the heart to show his disapproval of
+the means by which she had attained this end, and smothered his own
+feelings that they should not damp her spirits.
+
+"It was very charming indeed of him to spare so much of his time to
+you," he said with reference to the doctor's tutelage. "But why should
+he take all that trouble, do you think?"
+
+"Because he likes me, of course," she replied ingenuously. "People don't
+usually do things for those for whom they care nothing," she said
+perching on his knee and lighting his cigarette for him. Her engaging
+impulses of affection were most disarming to Meredith's suspicions.
+
+"But--suppose I object to his liking you to such a remarkable extent?"
+he said with admirable self-control.
+
+"But why should you? Aren't you glad?"
+
+"Devil a bit! I am wondering whether or not I should consider it an
+impertinence, the way he places his leisure at your disposal."
+
+"But you yourself say I am the Bara Memsahib of the Station. Isn't it
+expected of the men to show me plenty of respect and heaps of attention?
+You wouldn't like to see me left out in the cold?"
+
+"So long as they remember the 'respect'----"
+
+"Ah, now you're talking!" she said severely. "Have I ever done anything
+to make you doubt my right to the respect of everyone here?"
+
+Meredith kissed away the frown, considerably lighter of heart than he
+had been for some time. No man looking into the sweet pure eyes could
+fail to respect her! A fellow would indeed be a rascal if he tried to
+lead such a perfect lamb astray!
+
+So the drives continued even after the lessons were no longer necessary,
+Joyce often at the wheel with Captain Dalton beside her keeping strict
+watch over their safety and that of the car which he particularly
+valued, while listening idly to her prattle. The curve of her cheek and
+sweep of her eyelashes delighted his artistic love of beauty, so that
+though he had plumbed the shallow depths of her mind at the start, he
+was still entertained by such superficialities as artlessness and
+loveliness.
+
+"When are you going to show me the ruins?" she asked once, when in full
+view of the tall minarets and crumbling dome of the ancient palace. "No
+one seems to have sufficient interest in them to show them to me."
+
+"There is nothing much to see beyond jungle and brick-work," he said,
+bored at the bare idea of plodding over the ground he had already
+visited, which was interesting only to globe-trotters and lovers of
+antiquities.
+
+"I am crazy to see some of the old enamel still to be found on the
+bricks if you look for it. They say it is a lost art. Are there any
+snakes and leopards?"
+
+"Possibly snakes, but no leopards. They were gotten rid of long ago, I
+am told."
+
+Joyce shuddered. "The thought of snakes gives me the creeps. Isn't it
+possible to see the place and yet avoid snakes?" she asked longingly.
+She looked so pretty that he relented.
+
+"If we are careful the snakes won't trouble us. I'll take you there some
+day when I have a long afternoon to spare."
+
+At this Joyce was delighted and gave him her sweetest smiles. "If it
+were not for you, I don't know how I should exist in Muktiarbad!" she
+cooed.
+
+"Your husband would not like to hear you say that!" he remarked studying
+her curiously.
+
+"He has to be away so much that I might have died of _ennui_ if you
+hadn't taken pity on me!" she pouted.
+
+Dalton was not ready with pretty speeches; it involved too much effort
+to make up insincerities, but he acknowledged that the drives had given
+him a great deal of pleasure. It was so difficult to rouse him to
+enthusiasm, and he was so complacently cynical, that Joyce took a
+delight in probing his silences and getting at his thoughts.
+
+"Don't you ever really enjoy yourself?" she roguishly asked, her head on
+one side and arch mischief in her eyes.
+
+"I've just said so, haven't I?"
+
+"But you don't mean it. I wish I could understand you and all there is
+behind that grudging smile--what you think of people--me, for instance."
+
+"I think if I were an artist I should like to paint a picture of
+you--you are so amazingly good to look at," he returned daringly.
+
+Joyce coloured. She had asked for frankness and could not quarrel with
+him for having answered her bluntly. On the whole she was rather
+pleased, than otherwise, that he should admire her, for where was the
+use of being pretty if one's friends did not show that they appreciated
+the fact. So she beamed on him wholly unconscious of flirting and
+rallied him still further on his reserve.
+
+"I don't want to be your model, but your friend. You treat me too much
+as a child and never give me any confidence. Today, after all these
+months, what do I know of you?"
+
+"You know at least that I am very much at your service. Isn't that so?"
+
+"You are very kind--and all that, but friends talk openly to each other.
+I know nothing of you, and I _do_ know everything you could say would be
+so interesting," she sighed. "For instance, why are you never really
+happy?"
+
+"I have forgotten the way," he said coolly. "Perhaps I have learned too
+much of life and have lost interest in it. You don't laugh when you
+can't see the joke, do you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor do I. I see no joke in life worth enjoying, so I have forgotten
+what pleasure is."
+
+"Can't you tell me all about it?" She pleaded.
+
+"It's an ugly story and not for your ears. But it played the devil with
+me for good and all," said he grimly.
+
+"I am so sorry," she cried sincerely shocked and grieved. "I thought you
+must have had a bad time to look and act as you do. Poor you!" and one
+small hand rested for a moment on his. It was immediately captured and
+held close.
+
+"Why should you care?" he asked, his expression curiously hardening.
+
+"Because I like you so much."
+
+"Only _like_?" he asked with a short, unpleasant laugh.
+
+The necessity to avoid a goat tethered by the roadside prevented her
+from replying; Joyce recovered her hand for the steering-wheel and they
+discussed the narrow escape of the goat. To Joyce it was very
+flattering, this unbending to her alone of all in the Station, and the
+growth and development of their friendship. Some day she would learn
+what had "played the devil" with him for good and all. On the whole he
+was really quite a dear.
+
+Meredith chafed during his week-ends at the Bara Koti when it became
+apparent how much his wife depended on the doctor for companionship; and
+now that Honor was supposed to have taken a dislike to the latter and to
+avoid encounters with him on their doorstep, there was little help for
+it. The only advantage to himself to be derived from the entertainment
+Joyce found in the doctor's society, was her healthier condition of mind
+and no further insistence on a passage home for herself and the child in
+the spring. He had a firm faith in her virtue and goodness, and applied
+himself to his winter programme with feverish haste that he might be at
+liberty to return to her the sooner and personally take over the care of
+her before her innocent partiality for the Civil Surgeon became common
+talk. That it was innocent he would have staked his life.
+
+Honor Bright was less sanguine, though intensely loyal. The increasing
+intimacy between Joyce and the doctor weighed heavily on her; and it
+made her rage inwardly to hear her friend discussed openly at the Club
+by a clique that usually looked on at the tennis. While serving her
+smart over-hand strokes, scraps of conversation would float to her,
+demoralising her play and rousing in her a fierce inclination to speak
+her mind.
+
+"Where is Mrs. Meredith this evening?" a voice was heard to ask on one
+occasion.
+
+"Joy-riding as usual with Captain Dalton," from Mrs. Fox venomously. "It
+will be interesting to watch the result when Mr. Meredith awakes to
+what's going on."
+
+"What's going on?"
+
+"The doctor is a 'dark horse.' You don't suppose he would waste so much
+of his valuable time if he did not hope to get some entertainment out of
+Mrs. Meredith? She is such a coquette." This from Mrs. Fox, maliciously.
+
+"She's a simple little thing," said the first speaker charitably. "I
+shouldn't imagine there was any harm in her."
+
+"'Still waters run deep,'" quoted Mrs. Fox.
+
+"There is another instructive proverb I could quote," cried Honor
+striking savagely at a ball.
+
+"And what is that?" from Mrs. Fox.
+
+"About 'glass houses and stones.'"
+
+"If that is meant for me, thanks, awfully! But so many panes have
+already been broken, that I am most indifferent to stones," Mrs. Fox
+returned languidly as she smiled on the company, who laughed in
+embarrassment.
+
+"So it would appear," murmured Mrs. Ironsides to a friend.
+
+"Hateful creature!" Honor snapped in Tommy's ear as he handed her a
+ball.
+
+Jack, playing on the other side with Mr. Ironsides for his partner, had
+deteriorated so much of late that Tommy and Honor, who had both a
+genuine regard for him, were much exercised in mind.
+
+He had lost his frank look and easy good-humour; was rarely to be seen
+at the Club without Mrs. Fox, whom he usually drove down in a side car
+attached to his motor cycle, a recent purchase,--and was no longer the
+same man. A constraint had arisen between him and his chum who poured
+out his fears to Honor in the hope of receiving advice and comfort, but
+he had succeeded only in alarming her.
+
+"Can't anything be done to save him, Tommy?"
+
+"I can't think of anything, unless Meredith gets him transferred at
+once."
+
+"But who's to suggest that?"
+
+"His wife, I should think; otherwise some day there might be an unholy
+row. Fox is no fool. I dare say he is biding his time. He was fond of
+Bobby Smart and got him out of this while there was time, but he may
+prefer to sacrifice Jack."
+
+"How terrible!" Honor was sincerely afraid for Jack. He was too young to
+be mixed up in such a bad business, and Mrs. Fox was clever enough to
+play him like a fish till he was landed.
+
+Honor walked home at dusk escorted as far as her door by Tommy. It was
+her intention to call on Joyce after dinner with a proposition
+concerning the transfer of Jack from Muktiarbad. It seemed the only
+thing left to do. Incidentally, she would repeat her warnings to her
+friend concerning herself, for which she expected no thanks. Still, it
+had galled her badly listening to the coarse remarks of Station people
+at the Club. She would speak, however disagreeable the task.
+
+At nine o'clock when she reached the Bara Koti she discovered that Joyce
+was not in. Usually, she returned from her drive at dusk, but as she had
+not done so up to that late hour, the Collector's servants had come to
+the conclusion that she was dining at a neighbour's in the
+happy-go-lucky way that sahibs took "pot-luck" at one another's houses
+without reference to their domestics.
+
+It was odd in Mrs. Meredith's case, for never before had she failed to
+return to her baby that she might tuck him into his little cot herself
+and see that all was right. The ayah was not a little perturbed, but did
+not voice her feelings until speaking to Honor, fearing that they were
+foolish and unfounded. What did the Miss-sahib think?
+
+Honor did not know what to say. The more she thought of it the less
+likely did it seem that Joyce would dine out without coming home to
+change into dinner things and kiss her precious infant good-night. She
+decided to return home at once and ask what her parents thought about
+it.
+
+This she did without loss of time, and Mr. and Mrs. Bright took a grave
+view of circumstance.
+
+"The car has either broken down somewhere, or they have met with an
+accident," said Mr. Bright.
+
+Mrs. Bright maintained a stiff reserve.
+
+The thought of an accident caused Honor's knees to give way beneath her
+and she collapsed into a chair. "How shall we know? Supposing they don't
+return--?" The bare idea was intolerable.
+
+"I have never liked these constant motorings in her husband's absence.
+Mrs. Meredith is very foolish to court gossip in the way she is doing.
+Presently there will be a scandal," said Mrs. Bright shortly.
+
+"Joyce is not a flirt, Mother."
+
+"She goes far enough to earn the reputation of one, however innocent she
+may be."
+
+Honor knew it was the truth and was silent with an indefinable dread.
+Was Joyce altogether safe with Captain Dalton?--Should he fall in love
+and grow intensely attracted by her beauty and childlike charm, was he
+the sort to consider morality and the law? Was he strictly an honourable
+man? None knew him; none trusted him; not even Ray Meredith who was
+afraid to betray his jealousy and incur his wife's resentment; or why
+had he said: "Take care of my wife--she is such a kid?"
+
+"What had best be done?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"We had better beat up the Station and see what has happened," said Mr.
+Bright, rising to put his suggestion into effect. "She might be stupid
+enough to be dining with the doctor at his bungalow."
+
+"Oh, never!" said Honor indignantly. "She is not so foolish as all
+that!" A hot flush surged over her face at the idea. Joyce dining with
+the doctor at his bungalow, _alone_! It was too preposterous, yet--was
+it? She was "such a kid," and might be foolish enough to dare any folly
+so long as she felt sure of herself and the purity of her own
+intentions.
+
+But the pain at Honor's heart was out of all proportion to her concern
+at Joyce Meredith's indiscretion.
+
+She tortured herself imagining the possible scene in Dalton's
+dining-room--Joyce at dinner, _tete-a-tete_ with Captain Dalton!--on
+familiar terms with the man who rarely condescended to be agreeable to
+others! It was a picture inconceivably hurtful.
+
+"You had better lose no time, Dad. If you find her--anywhere--tell her
+that her servants are alarmed--the ayah particularly. I shall see her in
+the morning," she said, resolutely shutting out the vision conjured up
+by imagination.
+
+If Joyce were not dining somewhere, there must have been an accident, in
+which case they would have to send out search parties.
+
+She watched her father leave in the dogcart and wondered what the upshot
+would be, her mind restless with forebodings.
+
+It was fully an hour later that Mr. Bright returned home to report that
+Captain Dalton and Mrs. Meredith were nowhere to be found. Dalton's
+servants were waiting to serve him with dinner, and were growing anxious
+as his habits were usually automatic and punctual. He so far considered
+them that they were always informed of his plans. If he intended to dine
+out they were given liberty to spend the evening with their friends in
+the bazaar. As it was clear that something unusual had happened, Mr.
+Bright had called round on Tommy and a search was already in progress.
+Jack had taken the Sombari road on his motor cycle and Tommy had taken
+the main road in an opposite direction. It was more than possible that
+the car had broken down somewhere, in which case the stranded ones would
+probably find a bullock-cart to bring them ingloriously home.
+
+Honor hung about on the verandah for news till midnight, and was almost
+speechless with alarm when both boys appeared, one after the other to
+report the failure of their quest. The car was nowhere to be seen.
+
+To add to the difficulty, clouds which had gathered in the evening had
+discharged smart showers of rain at intervals, as is familiar to Bengal
+about Christmas time, and not a trace of wheel-marks could be discovered
+on the road.
+
+By morning the excitement had spread all over the Station. Inquiries
+poured in on the Brights. The subject of Mrs. Meredith's disappearance
+with the doctor was discussed at every _chota hazri_ table with and
+without sympathy, and even in the bazaar it was passed along from one to
+another. The Collector's memsahib had gone off with the doctor, leaving
+her little child to the tender mercies of an ayah! Alack! even to the
+homes of the mighty came shame and dishonour through a woman! And all
+through the European custom of giving women so much liberty! On the
+whole, the "black man" knew best how to protect his honour and his home!
+
+Meanwhile, a mounted messenger had gone at great speed to inform the
+Collector, who arrived by midday looking dazed and ill from the shock.
+It was pitiful to see how helpless he had become in the face of such an
+appalling tragedy as the complete disappearance of his wife. Telegrams
+to various stations on the line had brought no information; mounted
+policemen had returned without having discovered a clue. The car had
+vanished with its occupants, though all who knew Joyce intimately, knew
+that she would cheerfully have given her life rather than have abandoned
+her child.
+
+"One can scarcely believe that she has eloped," Mrs. Bright said to
+Honor. "She is so wrapped up in the child."
+
+"Someone would have seen the car," said her husband. "It is an
+unaccountable thing."
+
+Joyce eloped!--it was unthinkable.
+
+Honor, who from anxiety, had not slept all night, mounted her bicycle
+and rode out into the fresh and brilliant sunlight on a forlorn hope. An
+idea had come to her as an inspiration which, though unlikely, was not
+an impossibility. In the search for the missing ones, every road in the
+District was being scoured without success. Since the rain had
+obliterated all tracks there had been nothing to guide any one in the
+quest, and nothing had been gleaned from villagers. No one had seen the
+familiar two-seater after it had passed the boundaries of the Mission,
+which was a circumstance as mysterious as it was unaccountable, for it
+must have gone somewhere.
+
+Why not off the road? Not a soul had conceived it likely that Captain
+Dalton would have risked his fine machine over the bumpy side-tracks
+that formed short-cuts in various directions, notably one to the ruins
+which Joyce had often expressed a wish to see. They were not difficult
+of access by motor-car, although the road to them was almost covered by
+weeds and undergrowth. Supposing that the doctor had yielded to
+persuasion and taken Joyce to see the old Mogul Palace, and supposing
+that they had subsequently met with an accident, their plight might be
+truly pitiable. Very few natives found it necessary to travel by the
+jungle path so long disused, for the Government having constructed
+metalled highways in all directions, travellers had ceased to travel
+uncomfortably even if the old path was a short-cut between villages.
+Occasionally woodmen in search of timber prowled around the ancient pile
+and jackals gathered in packs to howl their grievances to the moon;
+otherwise, a stray tourist on a visit to the Station or a winter picnic
+party were the only visitors to the gaping halls and crumbling arches.
+
+Just where the unused and overgrown track left the Sombari Road, Honor
+stepped off her bicycle and searched the ground again for a clue without
+success. None was to be found in the slush and puddles of the uneven
+way.
+
+Nothing daunted, she led her bicycle over the ruts towards the jungle in
+which the palace lay buried, its dome and minarets visible through the
+tangled tree-tops. It was not easy going on foot, much less could it
+have been for a motor-car; moreover, Honor was not at all sure she liked
+venturing on her visit of exploration alone, but all who were capable of
+continuing the search were already occupied in its prosecution in
+different parts of the District, and there was no one she could have
+asked to keep her company.
+
+It was when Honor came to shadowed glades where the undergrowth almost
+hid the track and obstructed her progress, that she found the first
+clue--snapped twigs and branches bent backward. These suggested the
+passage of a cumbrous body on wheels, for sodden leaves were pressed
+into the wet earth and creepers which had barred the way had been torn
+and flung on the path.
+
+If it had been Captain Dalton's car, why had it not returned? Honor's
+heart grew sick with fear.
+
+She pressed on. Presently, she came upon the car itself, beneath
+overhanging boughs and a dense entanglement of bamboos. It had been
+saturated by the rain, the hood lay back, and an empty luncheon basket
+lay open on the seat.
+
+Evidently, they had left the car with the full intention of returning to
+it immediately, and were prevented by some unforeseen calamity. Honor
+quivered with alarm and misgiving. Where were they if not in the
+palace--killed, or injured and unable to help themselves?
+
+Her mind flew to wild animals.
+
+Though it had been a long accepted legend that tigers and leopards had
+been driven out of the neighbourhood, and had not been seen for years
+within a radius of twenty to thirty miles, it was still possible that a
+stray leopard or tiger had lately found a refuge in the neglected
+precincts of the ruins.
+
+Honor was unarmed and terribly afraid. The fate that had overtaken her
+friends might easily be hers a few steps further. Prudence and
+self-preservation dictated immediate flight and a call for a
+search-party. At the same time, having come so far it seemed her duty to
+continue till she was convinced that she could do no more. There was the
+possibility that Captain Dalton had met with an accident and Joyce,
+unable to leave him, was in dire need of help. Honor felt she would
+cease to respect herself forever if she deserted her friends at the
+moment of their greatest need.
+
+She hesitated no further, but stumbled forward over the uneven ground,
+desperately anxious and frightened, yet nerved to face any danger.
+
+Another bend of the track brought the palace into view--a dark
+conglomerate pile of crumbling masonry which looked frowningly down upon
+her, its walls weather-beaten and scarred by time, and with rank
+vegetation sprouting from every crack. A pipal tree flourished aloft
+above its dome, its roots buried in the concrete and clinging to the
+walls; while festoons of wild convolvulus hung in profusion from the
+lower branches.
+
+Moisture still dripped from the leaves, and the earth was sodden
+underfoot. Lofty arches yawned in the sunlight and a silence as of the
+grave reigned, broken only by an occasional caw from an inquisitive
+crow, or the intermittent chattering of apes.
+
+Again Honor came upon signs of forcible penetration--wild creepers torn
+aside to make a path, and jungle hacked out of the way; no easy task.
+Her friends had evidently been determined not to accept defeat in their
+effort to reach the interior of the ruin.
+
+It was a year since Honor had visited the spot and it seemed to her that
+the shape of the building had changed. One wing had partially collapsed;
+whether recently, or some months ago, she could not tell, but it did not
+look quite the same. Here and there, boulders of freshly fallen masonry
+strewed the path. There was no doubt that the edifice was slowly falling
+to pieces.
+
+Raising her hands to her lips, she gave a loud, Australian "_coo-ee!_"
+and listened while its echo called back to her....
+
+Was it an echo?
+
+Honor held her breath to listen, and heard it again--a man's voice
+calling--"Hulloa!--_coo-ee!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE INDISCRETION
+
+
+Joyce had started out on her motor ride with the doctor as happy as a
+child on a holiday. Her baby was well and there was no cause for
+anxiety; in fact, all the world seemed smiling and kind. At last she was
+learning that a short absence from home made no difference to an infant
+in the care of so capable a nurse as her Madrassi ayah, trained in the
+way of infants by the remarkable "Barnes-Memsahib."
+
+All things considered, there seemed no earthly reason why she should not
+be happy with the light-heartedness of youth helped by a kind friend to
+pass the time agreeably while she remained in India. In the spring----
+
+But she would not look ahead. Why borrow trouble? When the hot, March
+winds began to blow, Ray himself would recognise the necessity of
+sending the little one home. No father could be so selfish as to allow
+his own son and heir to fade away under his own eyes, and neglect the
+only chance of saving his little life. As to the hills!--the innumerable
+infantile diseases incurred in the hills owing to the dampness of the
+climate made life a constant terror. No! It would have to be Home in
+March. Passages were usually booked long beforehand but people often
+dropped out at the last, and a passage for a "lady and infant" could
+easily be found at the eleventh hour.
+
+Meanwhile, this was December, and she was capable of enjoying herself
+amazingly in circumstances that were innocent and harmless.
+
+With a friend like Captain Dalton at her service, so to speak, and Honor
+to love her almost as a sister would, she was very lucky and could
+afford to be as happy as the season would permit.
+
+Station gossip whispered that Dalton would not have spared so much of
+his precious time unless he were receiving some return by way of
+compensation; which was a logical deduction in estimating a masculine
+nature not governed by religious scruples; but with this Joyce was
+hardly concerned, having little comprehension of all that gossips
+implied. She was delighted to requite so much self-sacrifice on the
+doctor's part with all the geniality she could command.
+
+As a matter of fact, Captain Dalton was finding a cynical amusement in
+the study of this--to him--new type of feminine creature: a married
+woman with the mind of a child, unawakened as yet to the deeper
+emotions, in whom the instincts of sex were still asleep. He was quite
+sure that, like most pretty women, she was vain and easily led, and, if
+it were not himself, it would be some other fellow who would undertake
+her awakening, since her husband was trustingly content to leave her
+mental development to chance and nature.
+
+Having passed the stage of desperate infatuation for mere physical
+beauty, he could play at his leisure with the idea of encompassing her
+ruin, as he sat beside her in his car, watching the dimples come and go.
+Life had done him a bad turn at the beginning of his career, and he was
+envious of men who had escaped suffering such as he had known. Out of
+sheer devilry he would like to pull Meredith's house about his ears and
+teach him that no woman of extraordinary physical attractions was a safe
+asset as a wife. Sooner or later, vanity would be her undoing and she
+would join the ranks of the fast and free. His experience was fairly
+wide and his faith, _nil_. Already Joyce Meredith coquetted
+delightfully. In a little while she would be doing it dangerously; by
+and by, audaciously, and so on, till she developed into the accomplished
+flirt, the sport of men in the East. He had watched the evolution till
+he had arrived at the theory that, with time and opportunity, the
+generality of women could be brought to capitulate.
+
+This afternoon they had set out with the intention of visiting the
+ruins, taking with them a rug and a tea basket for a _tete-a-tete_
+picnic. At first Dalton had thought of leaving the car on the high road
+and walking the rest of the way, but on second thoughts he decided to
+risk the tires and springs over the bumpy ground, forcing a passage
+through the obstacles in the way. Remembering the nature of the jungle,
+he came prepared with the necessary implements for hacking a passage
+through, so that he was enabled to take the car much farther than he had
+at first thought possible. After they had partaken of refreshment under
+the drooping boughs of a great banyan tree, with a screen of bamboos on
+the west sheltering them from the afternoon sun, they proceeded on foot
+to the ruins, he carrying the rug in case she should need to rest.
+
+"How fairy-like and lovely it all is!" cried Joyce clinging to his arm
+and picking her way among the dead leaves. The speckled sunlight dancing
+through the leaves, the spreading branches overhead, the graceful
+foliage of the tropical vegetation, the beautiful birds, made the spot
+peculiarly fascinating. "It gives one such a sense of isolation," she
+added.
+
+"We are completely isolated," he returned. "Hardly a soul comes this
+way. Some months ago when I wandered down here, a native who was
+chopping wood said the place was haunted, for which reason the people
+give it a wide berth."
+
+"Haunted!" exclaimed Joyce fearfully, as she crept closer to his side.
+
+"The natives are terribly superstitious and easily scared. The devil is
+said to be in possession of the palace, and ill-luck or disaster to
+overtake any who enter it. Are you nervous?"
+
+"Not if you are not. You see, I have such immense faith in you," she
+said with charming flattery.
+
+"Then we'll brave the fellow together." He hacked at the creepers and
+tore them aside, and having cleared a path, drew her towards the gloomy
+walls visible through gaps in the foliage. It was a friendly little hand
+that nestled confidingly in his. "These wild convolvuli grow with such
+amazing rapidity, that in a month of rainy weather the whole path is
+blocked. If you were put to sleep in the ruin by a wave of the devil's
+wand, the creepers would make a wall and shut you in, like the princess
+in the fairy tale. How would you like to sleep here for a hundred years
+walled in by creepers as high as the tree-tops?"
+
+"And be awakened by a splendid prince?" she laughed, entering into the
+spirit of his raillery.
+
+"I can picture him tearing his way through with the instinct to kiss
+you, so as to learn the true meaning of Life! You don't need enchantment
+to turn you into the Sleeping Beauty; you are that now. It would be
+interesting to see what would happen were the Prince to arrive."
+
+"He arrived when I met Ray," she said colouring richly.
+
+"You think he did, but that was in your dreams. You are not awake yet,
+so your experience has yet to come." He avoided her eyes while he spoke
+and left her puzzled to follow his thought.
+
+"I cannot understand you. Why should you say I am asleep?"
+
+"Because it is written in your eyes."
+
+"Then I am a somnambulist?" she laughed.
+
+"Yes. A dangerous one," and they laughed together.
+
+"Who is going to wake me?" she coquetted with a pretty drooping of her
+lashes.
+
+Dalton stole a look at her pouting lips, thinking he would defer the
+reply to her question for a while. She put him in mind of a child
+consciously playing with fire, yet expecting to escape unscorched. Of
+course, she would have to learn her mistake. She knew perfectly that
+nine out of ten men would be on fire with passion for her under such
+intimate circumstances, and reveal the fact without loss of time; she
+was not quite so sound asleep as not to be aware of her own beauty and
+its spell, yet she dared to experiment on men and rouse their emotions.
+Let her, then, take the consequences!
+
+Soon, Joyce found herself in front of the ruined palace, standing on
+higher ground, its dome and minarets visible for miles in a setting of
+dense foliage and drooping palms. It had been built in the sixteenth
+century for heathen worship, and subsequently converted by a Mohammedan
+grandee into a residence for his own accommodation and that of his
+harem. To Joyce it looked an irregular mass of ruined masonry, roofless
+in parts and overgrown with jungle. The portion which had been reserved
+to the women formed a separate wing which at one time had been enclosed
+by a high wall, but which was now reduced to mounds of fallen brick-work
+and shattered concrete. "The place looks almost as though it had
+suffered bombardment," she said, "how desolate and weird!"
+
+"I could tell you a romance connected with that wing which savours of
+the _Arabian Nights_," said Dalton. "Want to hear it?"
+
+"How do you know so much more about it than any one else?" she asked,
+accompanying him gingerly over the fallen masonry to gain a better view
+of the harem. All around them the undergrowth was dense and matted;
+date-palms reared themselves from thickets and mingled their drooping
+branches with tamarind trees, the prickly _babul_, and the wild
+_jamun_[16].
+
+[Footnote 16: Indian blackberry.]
+
+"I make it my business to know all about every place I live in," he
+returned.
+
+"Tell me the romance," she commanded.
+
+Dalton spread the rug on a grassy mound, and when they had seated
+themselves, he began his tale in true Oriental fashion, with a charm of
+style that captured her fancy.
+
+"Once upon a time, when the land belonged to those who could hold it by
+the sword, a rich Nawab built himself a costly residence out of a
+heathen temple. Behold the residence!"--with a wave of his hand. "And
+with him dwelt his retinue and his sycophants, his child-wife, and the
+women who contributed to her needs and his pleasures.
+
+"Alas, for masculine confidence! In a moment of weakness, this great
+prince took into his service a young warrior of Rajputana as the chief
+of his bodyguard--a Hindu by religion and of exclusive caste--because of
+his great strength and the beauty of his youth and person. This one,
+tradition tells, conceived a burning passion for the favourite wife of
+his master, having seen her face by chance, unveiled, at the bars that
+protected her window;--a girl of extreme loveliness, and as slender as a
+wand, whom custom prevented from disclosing her features to the eyes of
+men who were not her near relatives. She had therefore been closely
+guarded within the harem walls in company with other women of her lord's
+establishment, and left to find entertainment for herself in the
+priceless jewels that adorned her person.
+
+"Every day the Rajput, by name Ramjitsu Singh, would pass and repass
+below the high wall that enclosed the women's quarters, hoping again to
+see, by favour of the gods, this beauteous vision whose wondrous charms
+were the talk of the bazaars; their fame having been spread by her
+female attendants. Small was she, they said, with eyes like a gazelle's,
+and lips of the redness of ripe berries. Her hands and her feet were the
+hands and feet of a babe, so slender were they, and soft; and the hair
+of her head could have robed her.
+
+"One day, the Rajput's patience was rewarded by a sight of the beautiful
+face which made his senses swim as in a sea of delight. She stood again,
+unveiled, at the bars of her window, and gazed down at him with great
+sadness and yearning. Like a bird in its cage she looked upon the free
+world with longing, and sighed. The foolish one!--The faithless one!"
+
+"How can you call her foolish and faithless?" Joyce interrupted
+indignantly.
+
+"That is how the Indian story-teller speaks of her."
+
+"It was only natural. Think of her youth and the conditions to which she
+was obliged to conform!"
+
+"Well, see what happened. Are you interested?"
+
+"I am thrilled. Go on!"
+
+"Thereafter, the Rajput neither ate nor slept till he had devised a plan
+for carrying her away; for what are laws to lovers? or bolts and bars?
+Neither caste nor creed can hold a man back whose soul is on fire for a
+woman." He paused to allow his words to take effect.
+
+"How very romantic!" laughed Joyce, unmoved. "It is like a poem, as
+unreal as it is picturesque!"
+
+"Don't you believe a man's soul can be aflame with love and desire for a
+woman?" he asked, picking up a stone idly and flinging it after a
+disturbing crow.
+
+"Books tell one so, but how am I to know?"
+
+"It must have been proved to you times without number!--but I said you
+were asleep!" he remarked with his inscrutable smile. "Know, then, that
+men have cheerfully risked hell for a woman's favours. They have broken
+every law for the transcendent bliss of lovers' kisses!--Anyhow, that's
+not the story.
+
+"To proceed: Poor old Ramjitsu was ready to dare or die for his Love, as
+many another man has been since the world began, and will continue to be
+while the world lasts. Every night, when darkness covered the land, and
+the people within and without the palace slept, Ramjitsu Singh would
+climb the wall by means of a stout bamboo, and clinging to the sill,
+would wait for the gods to grant him the opportunity to plead his love.
+
+"At last, one night, attracted by the silvery radiance of the moon, she
+came to the grating to gaze without, and hearing a quivering sigh, she
+turned and beheld her gallant lover. He looked like a god himself in the
+bright moonlight, and the words of his mouth, uttered with breathless
+passion, held her spellbound. With her flower-face pressed to the bars
+she received his caresses."
+
+"Oh, poor little thing!" cried Joyce, her breath hurried with sympathy.
+"Did she love him, too?"
+
+"She must have, in that moment, for nature at such times speaks loudly
+to youth. Listening to his impassioned vows, she, who was of a different
+religion, as apart from his as the East is from the West, was willing to
+place her destiny in his hands. Human nature, you will see, is stronger
+than caste or creed, and tradition is brought to naught by romance and
+passion.
+
+"One night, when all seemingly slept, Ramjitsu, who had from time to
+time cautiously loosened the iron bars in their sockets, removed them
+altogether and received in his arms the form he coveted. Conceive that
+thrilling moment of ecstasy! Suddenly, however, a lightning stroke from
+a sword descended upon the faithless one from within, and she was slain
+in her lover's arms. The weight of her falling body, thus violently
+flung forward, unbalanced the Rajput whose foothold at the best was
+precarious, and together they were hurled to the paved court below,
+Ramjitsu breaking his neck in the fall.
+
+"So ended the love story of the Palace--a tragedy which has remained an
+everlasting tribute to love, and serves as an example to the Indians of
+a just vengeance on the unfaithful. The spies of the Nawab had betrayed
+the young wife and her lover, and the husband had punished them both
+with death."
+
+"Just vengeance!" repeated Joyce scornfully. "A brutal murder, I call
+it."
+
+"The Mohammedans speak of it with pride."
+
+Joyce brushed away the tears and laughed hysterically. "It is a horribly
+tragic tale and I wish you had not told me of it, for the memory of it
+will haunt me."
+
+"Why do you mind?"
+
+"I can't help feeling for that poor little prisoner who wanted to be
+loved and was killed! They had probably married her off as a little
+child to the Nawab whom she afterwards learned to hate."
+
+"You wish she had escaped with the Rajput? That would have violated
+every law of their religion and tradition." He watched her keenly.
+
+She looked distressed. "Why are laws so hard and fast? These poor women!
+Can they never choose for themselves who they will marry?"
+
+"Never. Among Eastern races marriages are always arranged. So you don't
+condemn the Rajput for wanting to steal her?"
+
+"Oh, no. How could he help it?"
+
+"Or her for wanting to run away with him?"
+
+"Not for _wanting_ to run away. But laws have to be kept, I suppose, or
+no homes would be safe. Individuals have to be sacrificed to
+communities," she said thoughtfully. "Show me where it all happened."
+
+He rose, and taking her by the hand, helped her to her feet, after which
+they passed together through a gap in the wall which led to a room on
+the ground floor from where a winding, brick stairway took them to the
+apartments above. Each step had to be carefully negotiated because of
+the mortar crumbling under foot, and the loosened bricks that threatened
+an accident. Presently, they were in a narrow corridor into which slits
+or loop-holes admitted the daylight. An arch at the far end from which
+the door had long since vanished, introduced them to a series of
+chambers, one leading into another. The walls were black with cobwebs
+and the dust of ages, while the concrete flooring was strewn with the
+_debris_ of fallen plaster. Heavy cracks in the roof let in shafts of
+the fading daylight, and roots of weeds and pipal trees had penetrated
+and hung below. On the whole it was anything but a desirable spot in
+which to linger, but Joyce's desire to view the interior of the romantic
+chamber had to be satisfied.
+
+"This is supposed to be the room, and that the window. You can see the
+holes in which the iron bars must at one time have been embedded. The
+story goes on to tell of great calamities befalling the fortunes of the
+Nawab; of battles fought in the neighbourhood between Hindus and
+Mohammedans, and the immediate withdrawal of the Moslems to another part
+of Bengal. Now let us get out. I am not at all sure the place is safe."
+
+"Let me first take a souvenir!" she pleaded. An enamelled brick above
+the arch had attracted her eye. Its design and colouring were still
+fresh and clear despite the ages that had passed since it was fashioned.
+"Look at it!" she coaxed. "Isn't it wonderful? You would think it had
+come straight out of a jeweller's shop. How did they learn such work in
+those far-off days?"
+
+"Italian workmen were known to have been imported by wealthy princes for
+the decoration of their temples and homes."
+
+"Can't I have it?"
+
+"Quite out of reach," he answered, stretching an arm upward.
+
+"But I might try to punch it out with your knife, if you put me on your
+shoulder."
+
+Dalton was sure that no effort of hers would dislodge the brick;
+moreover, he was doubtful of the wisdom of the experiment, considering
+its position in the arch; but the blue eyes lifted to his were
+undeniably bewitching, and the suggested method of the operation, too
+much of a temptation to be resisted. He would let her try till she
+admitted failure: the impulse to grant her the moon if she demanded it
+was strong at the moment, so he gave her his knife and without much
+effort hoisted her to his shoulder and allowed her to dig at will into
+the arch. Her delicate fingers would soon tire of forcing the brick from
+its solid bed. He, therefore, held her securely and closed his eyes not
+to be blinded by the fine dust that showered over them both.
+
+"Look out!" he warned her once, when the sound of falling mortar was
+heavier than he had anticipated. "Don't bring the place about our ears."
+
+"I don't want to be buried alive!" she replied. "It isn't as difficult
+as I imagined. See, it is already loosening."
+
+But he could not look up out of regard for his sight. For a moment he
+had no actual concern with the work she was engaged upon, having allowed
+himself to suffer distraction. With his arms about her, his face at her
+waist, he was assailed with the temptation to bring matters between them
+to a crisis. He was done with philandering and desired to end her folly
+and his patience. What was easier than to draw her down to his breast
+that he might cover her tempting lips with kisses? Though he was not in
+love with Joyce after the manner of Ramjitsu, her mouth was alluringly
+sweet, and her possible response to his passion would reward his daring.
+There was the novelty, too, of acting the Prince Charming to her role of
+Sleeping Beauty; for her woman's nature was asleep and waiting only to
+be startled into comprehension. All the afternoon he had played with the
+idea till his desire for possession had mastered prudence. What right
+had she to imagine him a bloodless being, as passionless as a stone? He
+was a man, and a very human one at that. He would prove that to her
+without delay. What a fool he had been to have wasted so much time! He
+would kiss her till he infected her with his passion; which would not be
+difficult if she were like those of her sex who traded on a husband's
+trust and confidence!
+
+The glamour of the moment intoxicated his senses: contact with her
+person, the perfume of her, her complete helplessness in that retired
+spot, assisted to turn him temporarily insane.
+
+Just as desire was about to master reason and self-restraint, a shriek
+of terror from Joyce paralysed his nerves and suspended thought.
+
+The arch, already heavily cracked and depending solely for stability
+upon structural pressure, being further weakened by the dislodgment of
+that particular brick, showed signs of collapsing.
+
+On looking upward, Dalton saw their danger and had time only to spring
+backward to a far corner of the room before the arch subsided, bringing
+with it a portion of the roof. He stood stock still with Joyce clinging
+to his neck, watching the building crashing about him. The shock and
+vibration of the fall had brought about the collapse of precarious parts
+of the ruined edifice, till, roar followed roar, and the air was thick
+with dust.
+
+Dalton momentarily expected the shaking floor to give way beneath their
+feet, or the roof to descend upon them and bury them alive. It was
+something to remember all his life: his impotence to help himself or his
+companion in the midst of the calamity, while believing himself face to
+face with the horror of a slow death by entombment.
+
+After a while, when all was still and the dust began to settle, the
+spectacle disclosed to view beggared description.
+
+Tons of material lay between them and the stairs up which they had come;
+the window was buried behind a dense mass of fallen bricks and mortar; a
+great hole torn in the roof showed the sky overcast with clouds.
+Possibly there would shortly be rain to add to their misfortune.
+
+How was it possible to extricate themselves from their terrible
+predicament? Dalton cast his eyes about him towards an inner chamber,
+only to see that the roof there had also collapsed barricading the only
+other outlet.
+
+In the midst of his anxieties he had to soothe the girl's fears. Joyce
+was shivering with terror and nearly speechless.
+
+"Pull yourself together," he said shortly. "It is a devilish
+catastrophe, but we must face it. Just as well we are not killed!" He
+endeavoured to unclasp her clinging arms, but she only clung the closer.
+
+"Oh, I am so frightened!--don't leave me!" she whimpered.
+
+"I am not going to leave you," he said reassuringly, "but I must take a
+good look around." Releasing the rug from beneath a weight of _debris_,
+he induced her to sit down while he made a careful survey of the
+conditions of their prison, for that it undoubtedly was. They were as
+completely shut out from the outer world and as helpless as prisoners in
+a dungeon. Both rooms were isolated from the rest of the building; both
+were partially roofless and without means of exit.
+
+Gad!--what a commotion there would be in the Station when it was
+discovered that they had not returned! Dalton wished with all his heart
+that he had left his car on the high road and not brought it into the
+wood. Who would think of looking for it there?
+
+He was partly comforted by the thought of the wheel-marks left in the
+dust, but this source of hope was cut off when the rain began to descend
+later in the night.
+
+In the meantime he had to make the best of the situation and not allow
+Mrs. Meredith to fret.
+
+"You have to thank a special Providence interested in your fate that you
+are not buried alive," he told her cheerfully.
+
+"And so have you," she said solemnly.
+
+"Providence doesn't usually bother much about me; relations have long
+been strained. Possibly I have been preserved for your sake," he
+laughed.
+
+"How can you talk in that irreverent way!" she said reproachfully.
+
+"Sorry, if it offends you."
+
+But Joyce fell to weeping. Was it possible that they would ever be
+found?--they would die of starvation--and what about her baby?
+
+Dalton had much ado to allay all her fears. When it was discovered that
+they were missing, did she suppose that a stone would be left unturned
+to trace them? She was to cheer up and show how brave she could be.
+
+"I am not like Honor Bright," she sobbed. "I cannot face such a horrible
+prospect as a night spent in this ghastly place all among snakes and
+creeping things!"
+
+The mention of Honor seemed to silence the doctor completely. For some
+time he was moody and depressed; Joyce was allowed to weep into her
+hands till exhausted.
+
+Only when it was getting dismally dark did he arouse himself from his
+abstraction and take up again the task of cheering her.
+
+"Can't we dig ourselves out?" Joyce asked before the darkness descended
+wholly upon them.
+
+"Without implements of any sort?" Even the knife was lost in the
+confusion, and in any case it would have been utterly useless.
+
+"Do you think they are sure to find us?"
+
+"I am confident of it--in the morning. It will be too late and dark for
+them to think of looking here tonight, but in the morning someone is
+sure to find the car and discover our whereabouts."
+
+"How hungry we shall be!" she sighed, and Dalton laughed.
+
+"How thirsty we shall be, is more to the point!--Poor child!" taking her
+hand in his and recalling how near he had been to madness. He was not
+too far from it even now with her hand resting confidingly in his, and
+the consciousness of their unique position.
+
+"Anyhow, there is the sky and fresh air, and at least we are not quite
+alone. I have you!" she said with dangerous flattery.
+
+"Yes. You have me," he returned eagerly. "And I--have--_you_!"
+
+"What about snakes?" she asked, casting her eyes about her fearfully.
+
+"They are more upset than we. At any rate, I don't believe we'll be
+troubled by snakes tonight. You will have to forget we are lost, so to
+speak, and talk till you are tired, and then try to sleep."
+
+"Sleep--here?"
+
+"On the rug."
+
+"I couldn't. It is so uncomfortable!"
+
+In the growing darkness, he was again mastered by the evil thoughts
+which had possessed him in the moments preceding the catastrophe. Their
+isolation produced a host of ungoverned impulses. As the evening
+advanced his manner changed, growing suggestive of possession; his
+manner became more tender.
+
+"You will always remember tonight!--there will never be another like it
+in your life," he whispered, leaning towards her and stealing her hand.
+"You have been horribly frightened, haven't you?"
+
+"I am more hopeful now, thinking of the morning," she returned, her soft
+breath on his cheek. "It is only the snakes I fear!"
+
+Dalton drew her into his arms. "I shan't let you think of snakes, you
+pretty little thing! At last I have you close. You have tantalised me
+with your loveliness every day, till Fate has given you to me!" his lips
+found hers and pressed them roughly. "Wake up, sleeping Princess! see,
+this night is ours. Let me love you as I want to. Let me teach you how
+to love!"
+
+Joyce seemed paralysed in his arms. She lay as still as death under his
+kisses as though mesmerised and dreaming. Emboldened by her silence
+Dalton continued to caress her with increasing ardour, till Joyce,
+coming suddenly to her senses, was seized with panic and horror.
+
+"Who are you?" she cried in a frenzy of fear, struggling to escape. It
+seemed she was entrapped by some human monster in the doctor's likeness,
+against whom she was powerless to struggle.
+
+"Why do you ask? You know me well--don't be foolish! Won't you let me
+love you?"
+
+"Love me?--like this?--Do you forget I am married?" she gasped, still
+struggling to escape. "Let me go. I hate you for daring to touch me--to
+kiss me. I hate you! How dare you do it!" Joyce had never known such
+terrifying moments, even worse than when the building seemed falling
+about her ears. The horrors of the night were multiplying a
+thousandfold, now that the doctor had failed her and gone mad.
+
+Dalton made several efforts to pacify her, thinking he had only to deal
+with a phase of childishness, but found her unmistakably determined to
+break away from him.
+
+"Stop it, and listen to me," he said angrily. "You want it all your own
+way, but it is my turn now. Why did you lead me on and tempt me, if you
+meant to back out in the end? I could have kissed you twenty times, but
+refrained for reasons you would not understand. Now when those reasons
+are finally swept aside and I am ready to be your lover, you pretend to
+be surprised."
+
+"Surprised! I am horrified! I thought so well of you--I believed you
+would respect me, not treat me as you might--Mrs. Fox for instance! Let
+me go, you coward and bully!--I have trusted you and treated you as a
+brother--for this?--you unspeakable cad!"
+
+Dalton released her instantly, and she burst into tears, crying as
+though her heart would break. "Honor warned me, but I would not listen!"
+he heard her say amid her sobs.
+
+"What did Honor warn you about?" he asked sternly.
+
+"She said," Joyce sobbed, "to go 'easy with my favours'--that you were
+'a man--like most----'"
+
+"Did Honor say that? and why?"
+
+"Because--she thought I was being foolish to--to become
+so--friendly--with you--when I am a married woman. She was right! I have
+been a fool!" A fresh outburst of weeping.
+
+"Did she say that because of her contempt for me, or because you are a
+wife?" he pressed.
+
+"I--don't know. All I know is that she was right and I should have
+listened to her warning; now I shall never, never respect myself again."
+
+"I see no reason why you shouldn't," said Dalton, a sense of humour
+overcoming his wrath. "You've done nothing but tell me in polite
+language to go to the devil."
+
+"You kissed me!"
+
+"What of it? Many women in your position are kissed, and they are in no
+wise cast down," he laughed sardonically.
+
+"I feel degraded--I feel unfit to kiss my own, dear little baby again!"
+
+"You should have thought of all that when you were so anxious to charm
+me," he returned cruelly.
+
+"You are a beast, and the most hateful man I know!" She made an attempt
+in the gloom to crawl away to some distance from him and his rug, but he
+ordered her to stay where she was, adding,
+
+"I shan't trouble you again. You have nothing to fear from me."
+
+"I don't want to share the same rug!--I wish I was a mile away!"
+
+"The rug has done you no harm. If you prefer it, I'll shift off it. The
+best thing you can do is to go to sleep."
+
+"I couldn't with this sin on my conscience."
+
+"What sin?" he asked repressing his impatience with difficulty.
+
+"This sin against my husband."
+
+"You have committed none. If my kissing you was a sin, mine is the
+conscience to be troubled; but it was slain quite a long time ago," he
+added with a short laugh.
+
+"I am not joking," she said angrily. "How do you suppose I can face my
+husband knowing that I have behaved so as to make another man kiss me?"
+What a child she seemed!
+
+There was no doubting her distress, and Dalton exhausted every argument
+in his attempt to understand her attitude of mind. "What do you want me
+to do?" he asked finally. "If an apology is of any use, I apologise
+humbly for behaving as I did. I grant you, I am a perfect specimen of a
+cad. If it will do you any good, tell your husband all about it when you
+get back, and send him round to give me a horse-whipping. I promise I
+shall not injure a hair of his head."
+
+"He is much more likely to shoot you."
+
+"Even so. He is perfectly welcome to. I am not in love with my life.
+Only let him do it by stealth so that they don't hang him afterwards."
+
+Joyce cried again hopelessly, till Dalton felt himself a sort of
+criminal.
+
+"Please don't! I cannot tell you how sorry I am to have upset you so. I
+had no idea you would take it like this. There are so many women
+who----"
+
+"Like Mrs. Fox?" she interrupted scornfully.
+
+"Perhaps. I don't know much of Mrs. Fox. She doesn't appeal to me."
+
+"You couldn't offer me a worse insult than to think that I might be like
+her!"
+
+"I am sorry. Forgive me, will you?"
+
+"I cannot forgive myself for my blindness and folly!"
+
+Joyce spoke as though she were shivering, and Dalton was stricken with
+concern. "You are cold?" he asked anxiously.
+
+Her teeth chattered. In December the nights in Bengal are often bitter,
+and Joyce had left her driving cloak in the car. Dalton immediately
+divested himself of his coat and made her wear it. His manner having
+returned to the professional, she was no longer afraid of him, so obeyed
+meekly.
+
+"Now the rug," said he. And she was wrapped to her ears in the rug,
+after which he left her to herself for the night. Both listened to the
+patter of the rain as it fell on the _debris_ around them, and,
+eventually overcome with fatigue, Joyce dropped off to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE AFTERMATH
+
+
+In the early morning, Joyce realised that she was both hungry and
+thirsty. Her lips were parched, her throat dry, nothing having passed
+them since early tea the previous afternoon, and she was at the lowest
+ebb of despondency and depression. Her surroundings helped to increase
+her misery, for the ground was a mixture of puddle and slush, and there
+seemed no chance of help anywhere. She seemed to have fallen into a deep
+crater, and but for a projection of roof that still held firm owing to a
+network of pipal roots, she would have been as drenched as the bricks
+and mortar with which she was surrounded.
+
+To add to her alarm, she was all alone. Captain Dalton was nowhere to be
+seen.
+
+Though he had behaved horribly the evening before, he had not troubled
+her since; the tramp of his feet as he paced up and down the
+circumscribed space that was left to them of the chamber, being the only
+evidence she had till she dropped off to sleep that she was not without
+company. But with the daylight he was gone, and feeling almost
+panic-stricken with ghostly fears and loneliness, she called aloud to
+him.
+
+"Captain Dalton!"
+
+"I'm here," his voice cheerily announced as he emerged from the inner
+room which had suffered an equal amount of damage. "See what the gods
+have sent you!" and he handed her a pipal-leaf cup, full of water to
+drink.
+
+It was eagerly seized and gratefully drunk. "Where did you get it from?"
+
+"That other room is full of branches torn from the roof when it fell
+in," he returned. "I discovered them by the light of a match and amused
+myself making cups out of the leaves by the light of a few more. They
+don't hold much, but I managed to set a good few to catch the rain drops
+as they fell, and that's better than nothing."
+
+"Have you had any?" she asked politely.
+
+"I was waiting for you, but I'll take a drink now." He retired and did
+not return till she called him again.
+
+"I wish you would take your coat. You must be so chilled," she ventured.
+"The rug will do for me."
+
+"Are you quite sure?" he asked and Joyce noticed that his hands were
+blue with cold. After putting on his coat he was about to retire again
+when she stopped him wistfully. "Please stay--I feel so frightened
+alone."
+
+"I thought you preferred not to have me around," he said dropping down
+beside her.
+
+For answer she wept into her arms as they rested on her knees.
+
+"I was beastly, last night, wasn't I--poor little kid," he said in
+gentler tones than she had ever heard from him. "Can't you have it in
+your heart to forgive me?--just wipe it out as though it had never
+happened?"
+
+"I can forgive you, but--I--could never wipe it out. I feel so degraded.
+It is like having an ugly stain on a page you had always wanted to keep
+clean."
+
+Dalton studied her as something entirely new to his experience. "I have
+never in my life met anyone like you. It has been an eye-opener to a man
+like me. I didn't understand you all this time. I am just beginning to,
+now. Tell me frankly your idea."
+
+"It is nothing extraordinary," she said drying her eyes. "It is only
+that I did not believe a gentleman could treat a decent married girl as
+you did me. I wanted to be like brother and sister, and I thought you
+understood. Anything else never entered my head as possible to
+self-respecting people."
+
+"And I have spoilt all your pretty illusions!--let down my sex too,
+rather badly! What don't I deserve! It would relieve my feelings if you
+slanged me for all you are worth. Believe me, you have done no wrong. It
+is only that I see things crookedly, and am just what you called me, an
+'unspeakable cad.' I should have respected your helplessness. Truly, I
+deserve to be shot."
+
+"I _have_ been very silly, I don't care what you say. But I never can
+remember I am grown up!" she said pathetically. "Honor told me that
+people would talk, but I did not believe they had any cause. Now I
+realise what they are thinking! and it breaks my heart. They will
+believe I am like Mrs. Fox. She does things that look bad, and people
+despise her. Now they will despise me."
+
+"Never! they have only to look at you and hear you speak, to see what
+you are."
+
+"Honor said it was not enough to be good but to avoid doing the things
+that make people think we are not. Now they are thinking perhaps that I
+flirt with you and let you kiss me!" Her face was suffused with crimson
+shame. Nothing was so horrible to contemplate as the fact that he had
+kissed her! She was stripped of self-respect forever.
+
+Dalton might have been tempted to smile at her self-accusing attitude
+had it not been for her perfect sincerity. He felt overcome with
+contrition and longed to atone.
+
+"You make me infinitely ashamed," he said humbly. "Perhaps if you knew
+what went towards making me such a brute-beast, you would feel just a
+little sorry for me and understand--even bring yourself to like me a
+little bit as you say you once did. I have never had a sister. It might
+have made a difference if I had." After a pause--"Some years ago there
+were two persons in whom I believed as--I believe--in God. One was a
+woman and the other, my dearest pal. He and I were like brothers. I
+would have trusted him with my life. I did more. I trusted him with my
+honour." A pause. "And he whom I trusted and loved, robbed me of all
+that made life dear to me, and of what I valued more than life. And the
+woman I loved and believed pure and true, conspired with him to betray
+my honour! I was their dupe. A blind confiding fool!"
+
+"Oh!" was wrung sympathetically from Joyce.
+
+"When I found out all I went mad, I think. I have been pretty mad--and
+bad--ever since; but at the time, if I could have laid hands on both I
+might have ended my career on the gallows. But Fate intervened. He was
+killed in a railway accident shortly afterwards, and a year later, she
+came whining to me for forgiveness."
+
+"Did you forgive her?"
+
+Dalton's eyes glowed with cruelty and an undying contempt. "Forgive her?
+Not if she had been dying! There are things impossible to forgive. She
+had killed my soul, destroyed my faith in human nature--which others,
+since, have not helped to restore!--turned me into a very devil, and
+without an incentive to live. Do you think I could forgive her? If I
+hated her then, I loathe the very memory of her now."
+
+"Yet you tried your best to make me one of the same sort?" Joyce asked
+wonderingly.
+
+"I did not believe, till you proved it to me, that women are of any
+other sort," he replied.
+
+"You forget Honor Bright?"
+
+"I never forget Honor Bright," he replied unexpectedly. "I have looked
+upon her as the exception that proves the rule."
+
+"Your mother?" Joyce interposed gently.
+
+"My father divorced her," he said harshly. "So you see I have had rather
+a bad education!"
+
+"I am very sorry for you."
+
+"You are?--that's good. Then there is hope for me."
+
+"I am sorry that you should have such a contempt for women, owing to
+your unfortunate experience."
+
+"I owe you an eternal debt of gratitude for teaching me what an
+egotistical jackass I have been."
+
+"Tell me," she asked, suddenly waking up to their dust-laden condition,
+"am I covered with smuts and grime?"
+
+Dalton surveyed her quizzically. "You are covered from head to foot,
+like a miller, with fine white dust."
+
+"So are you!" and they laughed together for the first time since the
+calamity.
+
+"Let's wash, there's a pool in the next room. Quite a respectable amount
+of clean water is collected about the floor."
+
+He showed her the pool and left her to make her toilet while he explored
+their prison for some possibility of escape. Putting his hands to his
+mouth he sent forth stentorian cries for help with no result. Without a
+pick-axe to work with, he saw no chance of cutting a way through the
+tons of material that lay around them.
+
+It was midday, when Joyce was feeling weak with hunger, and Dalton
+fighting a strong tendency to pessimism, that he heard Honor's
+"_Coo-ee!_" and replied.
+
+"Thank God!--at last here's someone to the rescue!" he exclaimed, and
+Joyce burst into tears.
+
+When Honor was able to locate the spot from which the answering voice
+proceeded, she contrived with difficulty to get near enough to the
+opening to hear what had happened. It was good to know, however terrible
+had been the experience of the pair, that both were unhurt, and that
+Joyce was bearing up wonderfully.
+
+"I shall run back and get help at once, cheer up!" she called out.
+
+"We don't, either of us, feel cheerful, I can assure you. It has been
+ghastly here all night," the doctor shouted back.
+
+"But it is great to have found you! I am so thankful," and she sped to
+her bicycle and travelled at top speed to the Mission. Mr. Meek could
+provide the labour at a moment's notice for the work of digging out the
+imprisoned couple, and to him she went direct.
+
+Immediately the Settlement hummed with activities; coolies swarmed to
+the spot with pickaxes and spades, crowbars and ropes, and as news flies
+from village to village with almost the rapidity of "wireless," hundreds
+of natives gathered at the scene to view operations, the women with
+infants astride one hip, and naked children swarming around. They camped
+on the ground chewing _pan_ and parched rice, and chattered incessantly
+of the mysterious workings of Providence, the folly of humanity, and the
+decrees of Fate.
+
+The bare-footed, semi-nude rescuers, climbed over the face of the ruins
+with complete disregard of life and limb, and with wary tread and light
+touch, began the work of removing the _debris_.
+
+In due course, the rescue was effected, and Joyce was assisted to climb
+out of the wrecked chamber to safety. Honor half-supported her to the
+car which Captain Dalton drove in silence to the Bara Koti. His eyes
+avoided Honor's and in manner he was quiet and constrained.
+
+"So you never got the souvenir after all!" she said to Joyce when she
+had heard a disjointed account of the catastrophe.
+
+"I should have hated to look at it again, if I had," was the hysterical
+reply. "I shan't want to pass this road again, or get a glimpse of that
+terrible place as long as I live. I hate India more than ever, and Ray
+must send me home at once. Otherwise, I shall live in dread of some
+other calamity befalling either Baby or me. Oh, Honor, persuade him to
+let me go!"
+
+By the time she was put to bed she was suffering from nervous
+prostration. Meredith, who had returned from his fruitless search,
+looked like a man walking in his sleep. His wife had clung to his neck
+in passionate relief, but she had avoided his lips as she had never done
+before, and a sword seemed to have entered his heart.
+
+"Oh, I am so glad to be back!" she kept repeating, with her babe pressed
+to her bosom.
+
+"Memsahib habbing one great fright!" commiserated the ayah.
+
+Silent and stunned, Meredith hovered about the room. He had uttered no
+word of reproach to his wife for her imprudence,--she had suffered
+enough, mentally and physically; but resentment was fierce within him
+towards the doctor. The impulse to walk round and horse-whip him for
+having had the impudence to lead his foolish, but adored girl-wife into
+such a scrape, was well-nigh unconquerable, and he refrained only for
+fear that scandalous tongues would give the unhappy event a sinister
+character.
+
+"Kiss me, Sweet," he once whispered, leaning over her in passionate
+anxiety. He wanted to look deep into her eyes; not to see them fall away
+from his with a shrinking expression foreign to them.
+
+Joyce offered her cheek.
+
+"Your lips," he commanded.
+
+But Joyce fell to weeping broken-heartedly. Meredith kissed her cheek
+with a pain at his heart, and turned away.
+
+"Won't you tell me everything?" he asked another time, studying her
+intently. Normally, he imagined she would have babbled childishly of all
+her experiences, and have been insatiable in her demands for petting.
+Why did she seem crushed and silent as to details? Honor had said the
+shock would account for her shaken and hysterical state; but it did not
+explain her strange aloofness.
+
+"You know it all," Joyce returned listlessly, the tears springing to her
+eyes at his first question as to the experience she had undergone.
+
+"I know the barest outline--and that from Honor Bright. You wanted a
+particular stone for a souvenir, and in digging it out, the arch
+collapsed, which brought down a large bit of the roof and a lot more
+besides. What happened after that? How did you manage to spend the
+night? It must have been horrible!"
+
+"Some day I may be able to talk about it, but not now," she cried with
+quivering lips. "It is cruel to question me now."
+
+Meredith leaned back in despair. "I hope Dalton was properly careful of
+you?" he asked, devoured with jealousy.
+
+"He gave me his coat and his rug, and made cups out of pipal leaves to
+catch the raindrops as they fell. We were so thirsty," she said
+monotonously.
+
+"Rather a brainy idea!"
+
+"Please don't recall all that to me. I don't want to think of it!" she
+cried; and that was all Meredith could learn of the events of that
+night.
+
+The following day it was discovered that the doctor was suffering from a
+feverish chill and was confined to bed. By nightfall, it was reported by
+Jack who had been to visit him, that he was in a high fever, and that
+the Railway doctor had been called in by the Civil Hospital Assistant
+for a consultation.
+
+The next day it was known that Captain Dalton was seriously ill with
+pneumonia; a _locum_ arrived from headquarters, nurses were telegraphed
+for, and for some days his life hung in the balance.
+
+Joyce, who still kept her bed with shaken nerves, incapable of
+interesting herself in her usual pursuits, was startled out of her
+lethargy at the news. "If he dies, it will be my fault," she cried. "Oh,
+Honor! I was so cold that he gave me his coat as well as the rug, and
+did without them himself till morning. He must have taken a chill, for
+he looked so bad in the dawn."
+
+"He did what any other decent man would have done in his place."
+
+"It was rather surprising of him, considering how fiercely we
+quarrelled!" and feeling the need of confession, she poured out the
+whole story of her shame into her friend's ears. "Even now I grow hot
+with humiliation when I think of it! I cannot understand why he did it,
+for it was not as if he had fallen in love! Only because he thought I
+was a--a--flirt, like others he had known."
+
+Honor's face was very white as she listened, silent and stricken.
+
+"I just had to tell you, dear, or the load of it on my mind would have
+killed me. I feel as if I were guilty of a crime against Ray; and, poor
+darling, he does not understand what is wrong!"
+
+"Why don't you tell him and get it over? He loves you enough to make the
+telling easy. And if you love him enough, why, it can only end happily,"
+said Honor with an effort.
+
+"There would be a tragedy!--I dare not. Ray would kill him for having
+dared to insult me like that! You have no idea of what I have been
+through! Captain Dalton said I was asleep and needed awakening! I have
+awakened in right earnest and know that I have been a wicked fool. How I
+long to be loved and forgiven! Oh, Honor! when Ray looks at me so
+anxiously and lovingly, I just want to be allowed to cry my heart out in
+his arms and confess everything; but I simply cannot, with this dread of
+consequences. Nor can I make up to him with this wretched thing on my
+conscience! Why didn't I listen to you!"
+
+"There is not much use in crying over spilt milk, is there? The best
+thing you can do is to bury it and be everything to your husband that he
+wishes. You must try to atone. If you love him----"
+
+"I do! There is no other man in the world so much to me. I did not
+realise how much I cared till Captain Dalton made me, by his outrageous
+behaviour! I am not fit for Ray's love after knowing how I have lowered
+myself!"
+
+"You will not mend matters by creating a misunderstanding between
+yourself and your husband. What is he to think if you continue to shrink
+from his caresses?"
+
+"He will think I don't care at all, and that is so untrue!"
+
+"Can't you see that, with your own hand, you are building up a barrier
+between you which will be difficult to pull down at will?"
+
+"When I am able to tell him all about it, he will understand. At present
+I feel shamed and degraded. I feel myself a cheat! I, whom he believes a
+good and virtuous wife, have actually been kissed by a man who thought I
+was the sort to permit an intrigue! Don't you see, that if I behaved as
+though nothing wrong had happened, I would be putting myself on a par
+with Judas?"
+
+Having wrought herself up to the point of hysteria, she was not to be
+reasoned with.
+
+"How I wish I had never set foot in that dreadful place! It seems, after
+all, that the devil is really in possession of it, and that disaster
+overtakes people who enter there."
+
+"Disaster invariably overtakes people who give the devil his chance,"
+said Honor unable to resist a smile.
+
+"I dare say you are right. I have been very foolish, for I had no idea
+of the sort of man I was growing so intimate with. But he was truly
+sorry, and tried afterwards in a hundred ways to show how he regretted
+his behaviour. Indeed, I think, on the whole, he received quite a good
+moral lesson for thinking most women are without any conscience," and
+Joyce proceeded to relate the sequel of her story, which involved that
+of the doctor's past.
+
+"It is a most painful history," said Honor gravely.
+
+"And he has never known home-life; his mother was a wicked woman, and
+was divorced!"
+
+"How pitiful!"
+
+"It quite accounts,--doesn't it?--for his badness?"
+
+"I don't think he is at all bad," Honor said unexpectedly. "He's been
+badly hit and wants to hit back; that's about what it is. To him women
+are all alike"--
+
+"Not you!--he said you were, to his mind, the 'exception that proves the
+rule.'" Joyce interrupted.
+
+Honor coloured as she continued,--"And he has very little respect for
+the sex. He requires to meet with some good, wholesome examples to set
+him right, poor fellow!"
+
+"He thinks the world of you, Honey!"
+
+"Does he?" with an embarrassed laugh. "Then he takes a queer way of
+showing it."
+
+"That was your fault. You turned him down over Elsie Meek's case, and he
+was too proud to plead for himself. But I have watched him, Honey, and
+there isn't a thing you say or do he misses, when you and he are in the
+same room."
+
+"Your imagination!" Honor said uncomfortably. "You forget he has just
+been trying to make love to you!"
+
+"True. But he has never been _in love_ with me. It was sheer devilment.
+Even I could tell that. Love is such a different thing. Ray loves me.
+There is no mistaking it, for it is in his eyes all the time, and proved
+in a thousand ways."
+
+"Did Captain Dalton say much more about that girl who jilted him?" Honor
+asked with embarrassment. Joyce had failed to grasp the full
+significance of Dalton's unhappy experience, and Honor had accordingly
+derived a wrong impression.
+
+"Only that he loathes her now. That she killed his soul!--which is
+absurd, seeing that the soul is immortal."
+
+"It can therefore be resurrected."
+
+How, and in which way, Honor had not the slightest idea, but her heart
+instead of recoiling from the sinner after all she had heard, warmed
+with sympathy towards him. She could not help a feeling of pity and
+tolerance for the unfortunate victim of deception who through
+disillusionment and wounded pride, had gone astray.
+
+When Honor returned home, it was to hear that her mother had gone over
+to the doctor's bungalow to nurse the patient till professional nurses
+should arrive; and had left word that her daughter should follow her.
+
+"We have to do our 'duty to our neighbour' no matter how much we may
+disapprove of him and as no one in the Station is capable of tending the
+sick with patience and intelligence, I must do it with your help."
+
+So Honor superintended the making of beef-tea for the sick-room, fetched
+and carried, ran messages, and made herself generally useful, much to
+Tommy's disgust. It was hateful to him that a man so generally disliked
+as the Civil Surgeon, should be tenderly cared for by the women he had
+systematically slighted.
+
+"I don't see it at all," he grumbled to Honor when he caught her on the
+road on her way home for dinner. "Surely his servants could do what is
+necessary till the nurses arrive?"
+
+"The least little neglect might cost him his life, Tommy."
+
+"It wouldn't be your fault. For weeks the fellow has not gone near your
+people."
+
+"Would you have us punish him for that by letting him die of neglect?"
+
+"It is no business of mine, of course."
+
+Honor quite agreed with him, but softened her reproof with a demand for
+his help. "At any rate, it is everyone's duty to lend a helping hand in
+times of trouble. We want a message sent to the doctor-_babu_ at the
+government dispensary, and it is a mercy I have met you." She gave him a
+list of the things required by the local Railway doctor who was in
+charge of the case, and Tommy cycled away, obliged to content himself
+with the joy of serving her whenever and wherever possible.
+
+That evening, while Honor was left on guard at Dalton's bedside to see
+that he made no attempt in his delirium to rise, she experienced a
+sudden sinking of the heart in the thought that he might die.
+
+He was very ill.... Pneumonia was one of the most deadly diseases. As
+yet there was no means of knowing how it would go with him. With gnawing
+anxiety she watched his flushed face and closed eyes and the rapid rise
+and fall of his chest. How strong and well-built he was! and yet he lay
+as weak and helpless as a child.
+
+The thought that he might die was intolerable. It gave her a sense of
+wild protest, a desire to fight with all power of her mind and will
+against such a dire possibility. He must not die till he had recovered
+his faith in human nature, his belief in womanhood. If there were any
+truth in the New Philosophy he would not die if her determination could
+sustain him, and help him over the crisis.
+
+"Honey...?" the sick man muttered. His eyes had unclosed and were
+looking full at her.
+
+"Yes?" she replied, trembling from head to foot with startled surprise
+at hearing him speak her name.
+
+"Have they let you come at last?" he asked in weak tones.
+
+"They sent for me to help," she returned gently.
+
+"Was it because I wanted you so much? My soul has been crying out for
+you. There is only one face I see in my dreams, and it is yours. You
+will not leave me?" he asked breathlessly.
+
+"I will stay as long as they let me," she said kneeling at the bedside
+that she might not miss a syllable that fell from his lips.
+
+"How did you know that I loved you all the time?"
+
+"I did not know." Surely it was wrong for him to speak when he was so
+ill? yet she longed to hear more. Every word thrilled her through and
+through.
+
+"Ever since that day--you remember?--when you came to me for help in
+your danger and suspense; when I saw into that brave, staunch heart of
+yours, and, for the first time, knew a true woman!" His face was alight
+with emotion. It was transformed.
+
+"Oh, hush!--you must not talk."
+
+"Yes. I am horribly ill," he panted. "It is ghastly being tucked up like
+this, unable to get up. But it is worth while if you will stay with me."
+A pause while he frowned, chasing a thought. "What was I saying? My mind
+is so confused."
+
+"It does not matter, I understand."
+
+He caught her hand and pressed it to his burning lips, then laid the
+cool palm against his rough, unshaven cheek.
+
+"If I have longed for anything it is for this--to hold your hand--so--to
+feel that you'd care just a little bit whether I lived or died--nobody
+else does on this wide earth!"
+
+"I care a very great deal," she said brokenly. "So much, that I beg of
+you not to talk. It must hurt."
+
+"Every breath is pain. If I give a shout you must not mind. It is a
+relief sometimes. Pleurisy is devilish. They told you, I suppose, I have
+that as well? If I don't pull through----"
+
+"Stop! You shall not say that. You _will_ get well. I know it. I am sure
+of it," she said. "Try to rest and sleep."
+
+"I shall try, if you say you love me."
+
+"I _love_ you," Honor said with fervour. It did not matter to her that
+he might presently be rambling and forget all about her and his fevered
+dreams of her. It was the truth that she loved him, and she spoke from
+her heart.
+
+He did not seem to hear her, for, already his thoughts wandered. "I keep
+thinking and dreaming the wildest things and get horribly mixed," he
+said frowning and puzzled. "Was I buried for days and nights in the
+ruins--with someone? then how is it I am here?"
+
+"You were buried for one night with Mrs. Meredith, and you were both
+rescued in the morning."
+
+His eyes contracted suddenly. "A pretty little creature--dear little
+thing!--brainless, but beautiful. One could be almost fond of her if she
+did not bore one to tears!" He turned painfully on his side and Honor
+placed a pillow under his shoulders. "Ah, that's easier!--thanks,
+nurse," he said mechanically. "Tears?... What about tears? Ah, Mrs.
+Meredith's tears. She cried almost as much as the rain, poor kid! and we
+were nearly washed out--like 'Alice,'" and he laughed huskily, forgetful
+that he was again in possession of Honor's hand which he held in a vice.
+"I am a damned fool to have tried it on with her. Beastly low-down
+trick," he muttered almost inaudibly. "'You unspeakable cad!' she said,
+and, by God! I deserved it. I should have known that she was not the
+sort to play that rotten game. Ah, well! it is only another item on the
+debit side of the ledger!" His eyes closed and he drifted into
+unconsciousness. Honor's hand slipped from his hold and she rose to her
+knees, choked with grief and longing. Oh, for the right to nurse him
+tenderly! "Oh, God! give him to me!" she cried in frenzied prayer.
+
+Dalton did not recognise her again after that, and the next morning Mrs.
+Bright handed over the case to the nurses from Calcutta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+CORNERED
+
+
+When Joyce made her final plea to be sent home to her people without
+waiting for the spring, it met with little opposition. Meredith had come
+to the point of almost welcoming a break in the impossible deadlock at
+which his domestic life had arrived. His beloved one's nerves had broken
+down from one cause and another, and she was drifting into the habits of
+a confirmed invalid. If he did not let her go, he would, perhaps, have
+to stand aside and watch her increasing intimacy with the doctor whom he
+could not challenge without creating a disgusting scandal; which would
+make life in Bengal intolerable for himself as well as for her. So he
+agreed to her departure with the child in the hope that "absence would
+make her heart grow fonder," and that she would come back to him,
+restored, when the cold season returned and made life in India not only
+tolerable, but pleasant.
+
+Hurried arrangements were put through, a passage secured, and Joyce
+roused herself to bid her friends a formal farewell.
+
+At the Brights', only Honor was at home, her mother having driven to the
+bazaar for muslin to make new curtains. Christmas was approaching and a
+general "spring cleaning" was in full swing in order that everything
+should look fresh for the season.
+
+"It is the greatest day in the year, and even the natives expect us to
+honour it. Our festival, you know," Honor explained.
+
+"It always looks so odd to have to celebrate Christmas with a warm sun
+shining and all the trees in full leaf!" said Joyce. "That is why it
+never feels Christmas to me. I miss the home aspect,--frost and snow,
+and landscapes bleak and bare."
+
+"The advantage lies with us. We can calculate on the weather with
+confidence, and it is so much more comfortable to feel warm. And then
+everything looks so bright!"
+
+"I am glad you like it since you have to stay. I hate India more than
+ever."
+
+Honor looked earnestly at her, and wonderingly. "Isn't it rather a
+wrench to you to leave your husband?" Joyce had grown so apathetic and
+cold.
+
+For answer her friend broke down completely, and wept as though her
+heart would break. "We seem to be drifting apart. Oh, Honey, I love him
+so!"
+
+"Then why go?"
+
+"I must. I want to think things over and recover by myself. I am trying
+to forget all about that night in the ruins, and hoping for time to put
+things to rights. Perhaps I shall return quite soon. Perhaps, if the
+doctor is transferred, I shall find courage to write and tell Ray all
+about _it_. I am all nerves, sometimes I believe I am ill, for I can't
+sleep well and have all sorts of horrid dreams about cholera, and
+snakes, and Baby dying of convulsions! So, you see, a change is what I
+most need; and I am so homesick for Mother and Kitty! I cry at a word. I
+start at every sound, and if Baby should fall ill, it would be the last
+straw."
+
+"But what is to happen when you are away, if, while you are here you
+feel you are drifting apart?"
+
+"When I am away, he will forget my silly ways and remember only that I
+am his wife and how much he loves me. He _does_ love me, nothing can
+alter that; but lately I have held aloof from him for reasons I have
+explained to you, and he is hurt. You may not understand how desperately
+mean I feel, and how unfit to kiss him and receive his kisses after what
+has happened. For the life of me I could not keep it up without telling
+him all. And how could I, when Captain Dalton is convalescent and my
+husband will have to meet him when he is able to get about again?
+Already he is talking of going round to chat with him. You see, he does
+not know!"
+
+Honor was deeply perplexed. "Of course, you must do as you please, but
+in your place, I would tell him everything, and as he knows how dearly
+you love him, and only him, he will, I am certain, give up all desire
+for revenge. At a push, he might ask for a transfer."
+
+Joyce shuddered. "I'd rather leave things to time. Later on, I can tell
+him all about it, and, perhaps, by then, Captain Dalton will have been
+transferred. Don't you love me, Honey?"
+
+"Of course I love you."
+
+Joyce flung her arms round Honor's neck and kissed her warmly. "You were
+looking so cold and disapproving! Take care of Ray for me, will you? and
+write often to me about him. I shall miss him terribly," and she sobbed
+unrestrainedly.
+
+When Meredith saw her safely to Bombay, preparatory to her embarkation,
+he allowed himself to show something of the grief he felt at having to
+give up for an indefinite time what he most valued on earth. In the
+seclusion of their room at the hotel, he held her close in his arms and
+devoured her flower-like face with eyes of hungry passion.
+
+"So, not content with holding yourself aloof from me, you are leaving me
+to shift for myself, the best way I can!" he said grimly.
+
+Joyce's lips quivered piteously and she hid her face in his shirt-front.
+
+"Has it never occurred to you," he said, "that a man parted too long
+from his wife, might get used to doing without her altogether?"
+
+Two arms clung closer in protest. "But never you!" she replied with
+confidence.
+
+"Even I," he said cruelly. He wanted to hurt her since she had walked
+over him, metaphorically, with hobnailed boots. "India is a land of many
+temptations."
+
+"But you love me!"
+
+"God knows I do. But I am only a very ordinary human man whose wife
+prefers to live away from him in a distant land."
+
+"Ray, you are saying that only to be cruel!"
+
+"Because I am beginning to think you have no very real love for me."
+
+"I love you, and no one else!"
+
+"I have seen very little evidence of love, as I understand it. A great
+many things count with you above me. The child comes first! God knows
+that I have idolised you. Perhaps this is my punishment! but I
+worshipped you, and today you are deliberately straining the cord that
+binds us together. The strands will presently be so weak that they will
+snap altogether. Then all the splicing afterwards will never restore it
+to its original strength. It will be a patched-up thing--its perfection
+gone. Remember, a big breach between husband and wife may be mended--but
+never again is there restored what has been lost!" He lifted her chin
+and kissed her cold lips roughly. "When do you mean to return? Can't you
+suggest an idea of the time?"
+
+"Whenever you can get leave to fetch me," she answered with sobbing
+breath.
+
+"I swear to God I will not do so!" he broke out. "You may stay as long
+as you choose. I shall then understand how much I count with you. I
+refuse to drag back an unwilling wife."
+
+"Oh, Ray! Don't talk like that! Won't you believe that I love you?"
+
+"I would sell my soul to believe it ... to bank all my faith on it!"
+
+"It is true!"
+
+"Prove it now."
+
+"How can I?"
+
+"Let me cancel the passage, and come back with me."
+
+Her face fell. "I could not do that after all the arrangements have been
+made. Mother will be so disappointed--besides, people will think me
+mad!"
+
+Meredith released her and turned away, a fury of jealousy at his heart.
+"Ever since that night at the ruins you have become a changed being. I
+tried not to think so, but, by God! you have forced me to. One might
+almost imagine you are running away from Captain Dalton. Is there
+anything between you?" he asked coming back to face her, white and
+shaken.
+
+Joyce burst into tears. "I don't understand what you are accusing me
+of!" she sobbed, panic-stricken.
+
+"Are you in love with that man?"
+
+This was something tangible and Joyce was roused to an outburst of
+honest indignation. "No!--no! A thousand times, no! How dare you think
+so! How dare you imply I am lying? I have said I love you, but I shall
+hate you if you hurt me so!"
+
+Meredith's face lightened as he swung about the room. "It all comes back
+to the same thing in the end. It is good-bye, maybe, for years!"
+
+Early the next morning, he saw his wife on board with the child and
+ayah, and then returned to his duties at Muktiarbad, a lonely and
+heavy-hearted man.
+
+Captain Dalton recovered, was granted sick leave by the Government, and
+disappeared from the District for a sea trip to Ceylon.
+
+Tommy mentioned the fact to Honor having just learned it from him on the
+platform of the railway station where he was awaiting the Calcutta
+express, surrounded with baggage and with servants in attendance. He was
+looking like a ghost and was in the vilest of tempers; not even having
+the grace to shake hands on saying good-bye!
+
+Honor turned aside that the boy might not see the disappointment in her
+face. Her heart was wrung with pain. Not once had Captain Dalton made an
+effort to see her.
+
+Her father had smoked a cigar with the invalid one evening when he was
+allowed to sit up on a lounge in his own sitting-room, and had been
+asked to convey thanks and gratitude to Mrs. Bright for her many
+kindnesses to the patient in his illness; but there had been no
+reference to "Miss Bright"; nor did he give any sign that he remembered
+what had passed between them at his bedside, the one and only time that
+he had seemed to recognise her and had spoken unforgettable words.
+
+It was cruel; it was humiliating!
+
+Honor had been trying by degrees to teach herself to believe that he had
+spoken under the influence of delirium. Perhaps he had been thinking of
+someone else outside her knowledge? But she could not forget how sanely
+he had recalled the time he had treated her for snake-bite. His words
+were burned into her brain as with fire--"When you came to me for help
+in your danger and suspense; when I saw into that brave, staunch heart
+of yours, and, for the first time, knew a true woman!"
+
+There was no delirium in that!
+
+What did it all mean? If he really loved her, why did he not want her as
+she wanted him? Why did he treat her with such indifference and wound
+her to the heart?
+
+There was no answer to her questioning. Captain Dalton was, as always,
+unaccountable, and Honor lifted her head proudly, and determined to
+think no more of him. She gave herself up to the arrangements for a
+happy Christmas, and, for the next week, was the busiest person at
+Muktiarbad.
+
+Tommy, claiming assistance from his chum, Jack, was ready to draw up a
+programme for a gala week. There would have to be polo, tennis, and golf
+tournaments if the residents entered into the spirit of enjoyment and
+were sporting enough to fill the Station with guests.
+
+"Who do you suppose will care to come to a dead-and-alive hole like
+this?" Jack remarked, throwing cold water, to begin with, on his
+friend's enthusiasms. "It will be a waste of energy especially when they
+are having a race meeting at Hazrigunge!"
+
+"Even this dead-and-alive hole might be made entertaining if we put our
+shoulders to the wheel."
+
+"There are not enough of us. You might count the doctor out--he's away.
+Meredith is no good. His wife's left him for the present and he lives in
+the jungles with a gun. With half-a-dozen men, one girl, and a host of
+Mrs. Grundies, you are brave if you think you can manage to engineer a
+good time. Take my advice, old son, and leave people to spend their time
+as they please. After all, Christmas is a time for the kiddies; not old
+stagers like you and me."
+
+Jack's spirits were conspicuously below par, and there had been signs
+and symptoms of boredom, reminiscent of Bobby Smart whenever he had been
+seen in company with Mrs. Fox.
+
+"Can't you work up some little interest?" Tommy asked impatiently. "It's
+beastly selfish of you, to say the least of it."
+
+"I might spend Christmas in town."
+
+"I might have known that. I heard something last night about Mrs. Fox
+having an invitation to spend Christmas with friends in Calcutta," was
+the pointed rejoinder.
+
+"Pity you did not think of it before."
+
+"Chuck it, Jack!" said Tommy earnestly, putting a hand affectionately on
+his friend's shoulder.
+
+"I wish to God I could," was the gloomy reply. "It's so easy to get into
+trouble, but so devilishly difficult to get out of it again, decently."
+
+"I'd do it indecently, if it comes to that! You think it's 'playing the
+game' to keep on with an affair of that sort? It's a damned low-down
+sort of game, anyhow, with no rules to keep; so chuck it before worse
+happens."
+
+Jack lighted a cigarette deliberately and made no reply. His
+good-looking, young face was looking lean and thoughtful; he had
+suddenly changed from boyish youth to _blase_ middle age; the elasticity
+of his nature was gone; his laugh was rarely heard, and he seemed to
+keep out of the way of his friends. Even Tommy had ceased to share his
+confidence. There was a rumour that the Collector had spoken to him like
+a father and was seriously thinking of having him transferred--a
+suggestion which had been made by his wife, prompted by Honor. But
+transfers were not effected in a twinkling, and Jack still remained at
+Mrs. Fox's beck and call, took her out in his side car, and was often
+missing of an evening when it was expected of him to turn up at a
+special gathering of his friends.
+
+In desperation Tommy confided to Honor that Christmas was going to be as
+dull as Good Friday, as there would be nothing doing. And Honor not to
+be beaten, collected subscriptions, sent out invitations, and threw
+herself heartily into the task of organizing a good time.
+
+In the end, Christmas week at Muktiarbad was a season of mild amusement
+and effortless good-fellowship. A few guests arrived to assist in making
+merry, and there was no discordant note to jar the harmony of the
+gatherings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jack arrived at the crisis of his life, on Christmas Eve, in Calcutta,
+when he felt that the invisible bonds threatening to enslave him were
+suddenly tightened, rendering his escape well-nigh impossible.
+
+He had taken a box at the theatre, from which he and Mrs. Fox watched
+the "Bandmann Troupe" in their latest success.
+
+"What a mercy we are not staying at the same hotel, Jack," said Mrs.
+Fox. "It did feel rotten at first, but as it turns out, it will be all
+for the best, old thing. I have extraordinary news for you."
+
+"You have?--out with it!" he said absently. She had so often surprises
+on him which generally ended in some new suggestion of intrigue, that he
+was both unmoved and incurious.
+
+"First tell me how fond you are of me. You haven't said much about it
+since we came to town."
+
+"We haven't been so very much alone, have we?"
+
+"No, worse luck! but there is no reason why you should not make up for
+it whenever we are together. You must have heaps of quite charming
+things to say? In fact, you do love me tremendously, Jack, don't you?"
+she coaxed.
+
+"I thought I had proved it sufficiently," he said colouring with
+annoyance while he tried to look amiable.
+
+"You are a darling--like your silly old name which I adore! What a
+topping world this is! You don't know how much you have altered
+everything for me. I feel such a kid, and everyone tells me I might be
+in my teens!" she said with a pitiable attempt to be kittenish.
+
+Jack turned away, sickened by her vain folly, and frowned involuntarily.
+What an outrageous ass he had been! However, some day he would break
+away from his chains; only, he must do it decently. Let her down gently,
+so to speak, as she was so damned dependent on his passion, which had
+long since died a natural death.
+
+Mrs. Fox snuggled her hand into his. "Say something nice, my Beauty
+Boy," she wheedled.
+
+Jack squirmed inwardly; nevertheless, to oblige her he admired her gown
+and called up the ghost of the smile which had once been his special
+charm.
+
+"How lovely it would be if you and I were husband and wife,
+Jack?--sitting here, together, in the eyes of all the world?"
+
+"Lovely," echoed Jack, dutifully.
+
+"You would never fail me, dearest, would you? Say, supposing I were, by
+some miracle, free?"
+
+Knowing that she was securely bound, Jack felt safe in assuring her that
+he would never dream of failing her. It was his belief that this, and
+other vows he had unthinkingly made, were impossible of fulfilment in
+their circumstances.
+
+"What a boy it is!--always so shy of letting himself go. Look at me. I
+want to see if your eyes are speaking the truth. There is something of
+importance I have to tell you relating to our two selves and the
+future."
+
+Jack obeyed, curious and not a little anxious because of the
+half-suppressed note of excitement she could not keep out of her voice.
+The shaded lights of the theatre were not too dim to show the fine lines
+at the corners of her mouth and the obvious effort to supply by art what
+nature had failed to perpetuate. But the egotism of a woman grown used
+to her power to charm, dies hard.
+
+Jack's eyes fell nervously before the questioning in hers.
+
+"Tell me, don't you believe we could be very happy together?"
+
+"Why should you doubt me?" he said evasively.
+
+"I don't doubt you, but I want the joy of hearing you say so. To me it
+is so wonderful,--what is about to happen,--that I am afraid I shall
+wake up and find it is all a dream!" she said fatuously, gazing with
+adoration at Jack's fine physique and boyish, handsome face. "You have
+often feared possibilities, and said you would stand by me if anything
+went wrong between Barry and myself."
+
+Jack remembered having often said much that had made him hotly
+uncomfortable to recall afterwards.
+
+"Didn't you, Jack, dear?"
+
+"Of course," he said desperately. "What else do you suppose, unless I am
+a howling cad?"
+
+"I know you are not, that is why I simply adore you. You are so true, so
+sincere! My beau ideal of manhood!----"
+
+"Well, it is like this. Barry has come to the conclusion that it isn't
+fair to either of us to keep dragging at our chains when we have long
+ceased to care for each other, so he wrote, yesterday, to tell me that
+he would put no obstacle in my way if I wished to divorce him. There is
+someone he is keen on and whom he will marry in due course. I can do the
+same. He has heard about you--just rumour--but as a woman is always the
+one to suffer most in a suit for divorce he has most generously
+suggested that the initiative should come from me. Rather decent of him,
+what?"
+
+"Tremendously decent," said Jack his heart becoming like lead in his
+breast. For a moment the lights of the theatre swam; he felt deadly sick
+and cold, and failed to take in the sense of what she continued to say.
+In the midst of his mental upheaval the lights mercifully went down and
+the curtain up, so that much of his emotion passed unnoticed.
+
+"Why Jack!--think of it, we shall be able to marry after it is all
+finished!--only a few months to wait!"
+
+"Yes," said he with dry lips.
+
+"Try to look as if you are glad!" she teased. "You know you are crazy
+with delight. It is what we were longing for. Be a little responsive,
+old dear," she said, giving his hand a squeeze.
+
+Jack returned the pressure, feeling like a trapped creature with no hope
+of escape. Marriage with Mrs. Barrington Fox had never at any time
+entered into his calculations. He was too young, to begin with, and
+certainly did not wish to be tied down to the woman who had played upon
+his untried passions.
+
+Waves of self-disgust and dread seemed to overwhelm him.
+
+He sat on for the next few minutes seeing nothing, hearing nothing,
+saying nothing, while he anathematised himself mentally as every kind of
+a fool, Barrington Fox as a contemptible blackguard, and the woman
+beside him as something unspeakable. He could not deny his own
+culpability; but he had felt all along that a nature like his was as wax
+in such unscrupulous and experienced hands.
+
+He had been weak--yes, damnably weak! that was about the sum and total
+of it. And he would have to spend the rest of his life in paying for it!
+
+What would the mater say? He thought of her first; the proud and
+handsome dame who had placed all her hopes on her eldest son--who
+thought no one good enough to be his wife.
+
+His pater?--and the girls?
+
+He had never associated them in his thoughts with Mrs. Fox, nor dreamed
+of their meeting even as acquaintances. The contrast was too glaring.
+
+His career?
+
+Well!--the Government did not approve discreditable marriages; but, on
+the other hand, it did not actively interfere with a Service man's
+private affairs. A good officer might make his way in spite of an
+unfortunate marriage. There were worse instances in the "Indian Civil"
+than his. But he was certain, at any rate, he would be socially done
+for!
+
+Gradually he had come to realise that all the stories concerning Mrs.
+Fox must have been true, and that she had been tolerated by society
+purely on account of her husband--and he was now proved no better than
+she!
+
+Be that as it may, he saw no way out of his dilemma save by dishonouring
+his written and spoken word. One was as good as the other and he felt
+himself hopelessly snared. The lady would have to become his wife, and
+he would spend the rest of his life dominated by her personality,
+fettered by her jealous suspicions, and suffering in a thousand other
+ways, as men suffer, who rashly marry women several years older than
+themselves.
+
+Mrs. Fox laughed merrily at the comic situation in the performance to
+give Jack time to recover himself, but her eyes gleamed anxiously.
+
+She was sufficiently woman of the world and quick-witted enough to
+comprehend the shock to Jack and his consequent stupefaction. But he was
+young enough for his nature to be played upon, and she was determined
+not to lose her advantage. She banked all her hopes on his sense of
+honour, and continued to thank her stars that her luck was "set fair."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BREAKING BOUNDS
+
+
+Honor lived in dread of Captain Dalton's return to the Station.
+
+Did he remember anything of what had passed between them in the hour
+which she had spent at his bedside? Or had he completely forgotten the
+episode and her confession? She would have been glad to think he had
+forgotten, for she had brought herself to believe that he had been
+labouring under the influence of delusions. If it were true that he
+loved her, his manner would have been very different in the days
+preceding his illness. True, she had been aloof; but men in love are not
+usually balked by such trifles as had stood in his way.
+
+No. He had been dreaming.
+
+His fever-stricken brain had been wandering among unrealities, and her
+face had filled the imagination of the moment. Facts and fancies had
+intermingled, till they had misled him in his delirium into believing
+that it was she he loved.
+
+The truth was, she argued to herself, that he loved nobody. It was
+certain that a woman by her treachery and double dealing had killed his
+better nature, or drugged it; and his capacity for love and trust had
+gone. If it were not so, he would have loved Joyce who was beautiful and
+winning, and have respected her because of her ingenuous innocence. It
+was a thousand pities that such a strong character had been tricked and
+perverted!
+
+And now that there was no one to monopolise his leisure moments, it was
+to be hoped that he would, on his return, confine himself to his music
+and the treatise he was at work upon. It would be a relief, Honor felt,
+if he would only continue to keep out of her way; otherwise, life would
+be intolerable. It was the acme of humiliation to have discovered
+herself in love with a man who had no need of her whatever! and the
+sooner she could find something to do outside the District, either in a
+hospital or in connection with some charitable organisation, the better
+it would be for her peace of mind and self-respect.
+
+However, when she broached the subject of work away from home, her
+parents would hear nothing of it.
+
+"Our only child, and not to live with us!" Mrs. Bright exclaimed,
+horrified. "What is the use of having a daughter if we are to let her
+leave us--except to be married?"
+
+"I shall never marry. I have no vocation in that line, so should lead
+some sort of useful life."
+
+"And isn't your life useful? What should I do alone when your father is
+in camp? If either of us was ill, whom do you think we would look to,
+but you? Surely, Honey, you are not bored with your own home?"
+
+"Never, Mother dear! I am too happy with you and Dad. But most girls do
+something now-a-days. It is only that I feel it such a waste of energy
+to stay at home doing nothing but please myself."
+
+"You have your duty to us, and your 'duty to your neighbour'."
+
+"Which latter consists of meeting him collectively at the Club, helping
+to amuse him with tennis and golf, and listening to a lot of scandal!"
+
+"My dear! since when have you turned cynical? You are, I am sure, a
+great comfort to Mrs. Meek; and the families of our servants simply
+worship you."
+
+"For converting my cast-off garments to their use in winter. My old navy
+skirt has certainly made an excellent pair of pyjamas for Kareem's young
+hopeful, and the sweeper's youngster looks like nothing on earth in
+bloomers and my old golf jersey!"
+
+"The _saice_, too, is delighted with those jackets you turned out from
+my old red flannel petticoat. The twins are as snug in them as a pair of
+kittens," laughed Mrs. Bright.
+
+"I want to hear no more of that rot about your wanting work while I am
+above ground," said Mr. Bright, looking up from his newspaper and
+regarding his daughter severely. "It will be time enough to let you go
+when some fellow comes along and wants to carry you off; but to let you
+go and tinker at other people's jobs is not at all to my liking when you
+have a home and duties to perform with regard to it."
+
+And that was the end of all argument. Not having a combative nature, nor
+a taste for debate, Honor adjourned to the store cupboard and gave
+Kareem the stores for the day.
+
+"Please be obdurate in the matter of the _ghi_[17], Honey," was her
+mother's parting injunction. "He would swim in it if you allowed him.
+Two _chattaks_ for curry are ample. The dear rascal is not above saving
+the surplus, if he gets it, and selling it back to me."
+
+[Footnote 17: Butter converted into oil by boiling.]
+
+"Memsahib's orders" admitted of no palava, and Kareem who was faithful
+unto death, but not above commercial dishonesty, submitted to the
+mandate with the air of a martyr. "Whatever I am told, that will I do;
+but if the food is not to the sahib's liking, I have nothing to say."
+Having expressed his views on the matter of his restrictions he withdrew
+with his tray full of stores, a bearded, black-browed ruffian in
+appearance, clad in a jacket and loin-cloth, but of a character capable
+of the highest self-sacrifice and devotion.
+
+It was still early enough after her morning's duties were over, for a
+tramp along the Panipara Jhil for snipe, the sport Honor most enjoyed
+and at which she was gradually becoming proficient. She would be all
+alone, that bright January day, as Tommy, her faithful and devoted
+lover, was prevented by his duties from waiting on her.
+
+Jack, too, was at work down at the Courts,--not that he was likely to
+offer his escort in these days of his unhappy bondage to Mrs. Fox; but
+Honor's thoughts strayed persistently to him with anxious concern. He
+had returned from Calcutta after Christmas looking jaded and depressed.
+Tommy had been unable to make anything of him till, one day, his
+attention was caught by a paragraph in the _Statesman_ concerning an
+application for a dissolution of marriage from her husband, on the usual
+grounds, by Mrs. Barrington Fox.
+
+"Good God! a walkover for her!" he exclaimed in consternation. Being
+full of concern for Jack, he forthwith proceeded with the news to Miss
+Bright, and they lamented together in bitterness over the young man's
+impending ruin. "She has played her cards like a sharper, and I have no
+doubt that that old idiot, Jack, is done for," Tommy observed.
+
+"But why should he marry her?" Honor protested. "Two wrongs don't make a
+right."
+
+"He feels, I suppose, in honour bound to marry her."
+
+"In honour bound to punish himself by rewarding her dishonesty?"
+
+"He shared it."
+
+"Hers was the greater sin. She tempted him. Think of her age and his,
+her experience of life and his!--I don't see it!"
+
+"Men have a special code of honour, it seems."
+
+"Tommy, it is a case of kidnapping. Jack's only a foolish, weak boy,
+deserving of punishment, but it isn't fair that the punishment should be
+life-long!"
+
+"He is pretty sick of himself, I can vouch for that."
+
+Jack's undoing was a source of depression to Honor Bright, and the
+question of how to save him was with her continually.
+
+It was a cold day with a pleasant warmth in the sunshine as Honor swung
+along the roads on foot, her gun under her arm, and a bag of cartridges
+slung from her shoulder. She was dressed in a Norfolk jacket and short
+skirt of tweed, with top boots as a protection from snakes, and her free
+and graceful carriage was a beautiful thing to see. So thought the
+doctor as he watched her from behind a pillar in his bungalow verandah.
+
+He had returned by the last train the previous night a few days before
+he was expected, and, as yet, no one besides his servants and the
+_locum_ knew of it.
+
+When Honor had passed he began making hasty preparations to go out. His
+shot gun was taken down from a rack, examined, cleaned, and oiled
+afresh; cartridges were dropped into his pocket; thick boots suitable to
+muddy places were pulled on, accompanied by much impatience and a few
+swear words.
+
+Would he have the motor? Yes--no! The motor could be taken by a mechanic
+to a certain point by the Panipara Jhil and left there for his
+convenience.
+
+In the meantime, Honor tramped through the fields taking all the short
+cuts she knew, and was soon on the fringe of the grass in complete
+enjoyment of the wildness of the scene and its solitude. The slanting
+rays of the morning sun filtering through the trees, cast checkered
+lights upon the lilies and weeds that floated on the water. Little
+islands dotted the surface, covered with rushes and date palms, the wild
+plum, and the _babul_--all growing thickly together. The air was full of
+the odour of decaying vegetation and the noise of jungle fowl, teal, and
+duck. The latter could be seen fluttering their pinions among the lotus
+flowers, and bobbing about on the surface of the water, thoroughly at
+home in their native element; occasionally a flock would rise and settle
+again not far from the same spot, vigilant with the instinct of
+approaching danger. In the far distance, Panipara village could be seen,
+its dark, thatched roofs seeming to fringe the _jhil_ at its farther
+verge.
+
+Honor filled the breach of her light gun with a couple of No. 8
+cartridges, and warily skirted the brink. In places the pools were so
+shallow that a man might have waded knee deep from island to island; but
+the soft mud was treacherous, and flat-bottomed canoes were generally
+hired at Panipara by sportsmen who went duck-shooting. As Honor was
+after snipe, she kept to the banks and picked her way fearlessly along
+the tangled paths, her high boots a protection from thorns and snakes.
+
+Birds sang lustily in the trees; the throaty trill of the tufted bulbul
+sounding inexpressibly sweet,--the thyial, too, like a glorified canary,
+made music for her by the way.
+
+For nearly an hour Honor wandered over the marshy ground of both banks,
+often imagining she heard footsteps and rustlings among the long grass
+that screened the view. The sounds ceased when she paused to listen, so
+she concluded that her imagination had played her false. At length, just
+as she was beginning to despair of success, a couple of snipe rose like
+a flash from almost under her feet, and were gone before she could raise
+her gun to her shoulder. Immediately she was startled by the sound of a
+shot fired somewhere in her neighbourhood! She had no idea that any one
+else was out shooting that morning. She looked around. Beyond a thin
+veil of smoke hanging over the water, there was nothing to be seen.
+
+Who could it be, but a native _shikari_?--for there were a few in the
+District licensed to carry firearms, who supplied the residents of the
+Station with birds for their tables. Satisfied with her theory, she
+pressed on a little farther and was rewarded by another chance at a
+snipe. As the bird headed for a clump of bushes, she fired, and
+simultaneously with her shot there came an involuntary cry--a sharp
+exclamation of pain, and for a second she was rooted to the spot,
+forgetting everything but the fear that someone at hand had been hit.
+
+Dropping her gun in the grass, she ran forward in dismay, brushed aside
+the screen of weeds and jungle, and came face to face with Captain
+Dalton leaning against the trunk of a tree, holding his wrist.
+
+"Oh!--have I hurt you?" she cried in an intensity of alarm rather than
+of surprise at finding him there, when she believed him at least some
+hundreds of miles away.
+
+Dalton never looked at her, nor replied, but releasing his wrist,
+allowed the blood to drip to the ground from a trivial wound. A stray
+shot from the many in the cartridge had scratched the skin upon a vein,
+and the occasion was serving him well.
+
+But out of all proportion to the injury was his pallor and the emotion
+that swept his face and held him quivering and tongue-tied.
+
+"What can I do?" Honor cried in her distress. The sight of blood was
+enough to rend her tender heart; and to know that it had been shed by an
+act of hers, shook her to the foundations of her being.
+
+Dalton produced a handkerchief in silence and passing it to her, allowed
+her to bandage the wound as well as she could. He was concerned only
+with watching the beautiful, sunburnt fingers that moved tremblingly to
+aid him, or the sympathetic face that bent over the task.
+
+When the bandage was completed, their eyes met, and the same moment
+Honor was in his arms, clasped close to his breast while he murmured his
+adoration.
+
+"I love you!--my God! how I love you! and I want you so! Oh, my precious
+little girl!--my Honey--my love!"
+
+Honor asked no questions, but welcomed, with a sob of joy, the gift of
+love that flooded her heart to overflowing. She clung to his neck with
+loving abandonment and yielded her lips to his generously. With her
+great nature, she could do nothing by halves, so gave of her love with
+no grudging hand.
+
+"Since when have you loved me, my Sweet?" he asked in tones that were
+music to her ears.
+
+"From the moment you kissed my hand and called me 'brave'!"
+
+"And yet you plunged that dagger in my heart when you said in my
+hearing--'I have no interest in Captain Dalton'?"
+
+Honor recalled her conversation with Joyce and blushed. "It was not
+true!" she confessed.
+
+"I deserved it--and more!" he said humbly with suffering in his eyes.
+
+"And when did _you_ begin to--care?" she asked shyly.
+
+"From the moment I looked into your eyes at my bungalow, and saw
+heroism, truth, and purity."
+
+It was sweet hearing, though she was convinced that he exaggerated her
+qualities. "Why then did you hide it so long?"
+
+"I was fighting the biggest fight of my life."
+
+"And have you won?"
+
+"Won?" he laughed harshly. "No. I have lost, but it's worth it," kissing
+her defiantly. "Can you guess how much I love you? When I was ill I used
+to dream of you. I even thought you came to me and said you loved me!"
+
+"I did. I was beside you, but you were delirious with fever, and I was
+sure afterwards that what you said meant nothing."
+
+"You were there? I often wondered about it, but dared not ask for fear
+of disillusionment. The dream was so dear!"
+
+"And when you recovered, you never tried to see me!"
+
+"I was fighting my big fight which I have lost," he returned recklessly.
+
+"So I tried to teach myself to forget."
+
+"And you couldn't?"
+
+"Oh, no. It was too late!" she sighed happily.
+
+"Blessed fidelity! and now you confess that you love me. Say it!"
+
+"I love you!" A few minutes passed in silence while he demonstrated his
+transports of delight in true lover fashion.
+
+"When you were angry with me over Elsie Meek's case, I went mad and did
+a succession of hideous things. How can you love such a monster?"
+
+Honor drew his face closer and laid her cheek to his.
+
+"I hated everybody--I even tried to hate you, but it was impossible. I
+resented the happiness of other men. I tried my best to break up a man's
+home after partaking of his hospitality. Do you care to kiss me now?"
+
+Honor kissed him tenderly. "I watched it all with such suffering!"
+
+"You did? God forgive me! Did you know that it is not to my credit that
+Mrs. Meredith is an honest woman today?"
+
+"I know all about it."
+
+"She told you? I might have known it! Women like Joyce Meredith talk.
+But she is a good little woman. As for me!--I am unfit to kiss your
+boot. Even now, I am the greatest blackguard unhung,--the meanest
+coward, for I cannot bring myself to renounce my heart's desire!" He
+held her from him and looked into her face with haggard eyes. "Send me
+away! Say you will have nothing to do with me!--I shall then trouble you
+no more."
+
+With a happy laugh Honor flung herself on his breast. "Send you
+away?--now?" The thing was clearly impossible. And why should she?
+However wickedly he had behaved in the past it mattered nothing to her,
+for the present was hers and all the future. What a glorious prospect!
+
+"You haven't the foggiest idea what a scoundrel I am!"
+
+"Then I must have a special leaning towards scoundrels!" she replied,
+her face hidden on his shoulder.
+
+"God knows the biggest thing in my life is my love for you," he said
+brokenly. "My dream-girl! If I lose you, I lose everything. You will not
+fail me, Honey?" he asked solemnly. "If all the world should wish to
+part us, you will still hold to me?"
+
+"I could not change. Whatever happens, I shall always love you, even if
+all the world were against you."
+
+He was not satisfied. For many minutes he held her to his heart,
+covering her face with passionate, lingering kisses.
+
+"And all this while we are forgetting that your wrist is hurt!" she
+exclaimed.
+
+"Damn my wrist! Look at me. Your eyes cannot lie!"
+
+Honor lifted her eyes, clear and sweet to his, full of the love and
+loyalty she felt, and saw an unutterable sadness in the depths of his
+soul. He should have been rejoicing, yet he was like a man burdened with
+a great remorse.
+
+"Say, 'Brian, I am yours till death.'"
+
+Honor repeated the words gravely.
+
+He continued: "'I swear that, when you are ready to take me away, I will
+go with you, and none shall hold me back.' Say that."
+
+Honor said it faithfully. "I don't care if we have the quietest of
+weddings," she added, "so long as it is in a church."
+
+After a pregnant pause, he said tentatively, "Mr. Meek, I dare say,
+could tie the knot."
+
+"When may I tell Mother?"
+
+"Will she keep it to herself?"
+
+"She will tell Father, of course."
+
+"Can't we have our happiness all to ourselves for a little while?"
+
+Honor thought she could understand his deep sensitiveness of criticism
+and questions--he was so unlike all the other men she knew--and
+consented. Moreover, she loved him and wanted to please him. There was
+no wrong in keeping secret what concerned themselves so closely, till he
+was ready to make it public. Her own dear mother, from whom she had kept
+nothing in her life, would be the first to understand and appreciate her
+motive, as she was the most sympathetic woman in the world, and wanted
+nothing so much as her child's happiness.
+
+"I will do exactly as you wish, dear," she said, glad to offer an early
+proof of her great affection.
+
+Dalton kissed her rapturously, in unceasing wonderment at her
+condescension in loving one so utterly unworthy. He seemed unable to
+grasp the truth, and kept asking her repeatedly for assurances.
+
+The heat of the sun's rays now penetrating their shadowed retreat and
+striking down upon her bared head, awakened Honor to a sense of time and
+the realisation that it was midday.
+
+"When shall I hold you in my arms again?" he asked before finally
+releasing her.
+
+"The question is, where?--if it is to be kept a secret between us,
+only?" she asked wistfully, compunction already pulling at her
+conscience. Secrecy savoured of intrigue, and all things underhand were
+abominable to her.
+
+"I am so glad my bungalow is so near to yours--only the two gardens and
+a hedge between! I might almost signal to you to meet me somewhere?" he
+said hesitatingly as though expecting a rebuke.
+
+"No, Brian. I'll have nothing to do with signalling," she said
+definitely. "We'll meet every day at the Club if you like, and leave the
+rest to chance."
+
+"I could not build my hopes on chance. It would drive me crazy, as I am
+not a patient man. Can't I see you alone--say in the lane--after
+dinner?"
+
+"No." She shook her head decidedly. "I couldn't do things by stealth! I
+cannot deceive--it's no use expecting it of me!"
+
+"I knew that; and it's that which I worship in you! But I am an exacting
+and selfish brute. Well!--I'll not complain, Sweetheart!" He released
+her, still with the gloom of a profound sadness in his eyes, and,
+together, they walked back to find his car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+SECRET JOYS
+
+
+Honor seemed to walk on air all day. The whole world had changed for her
+in a twinkling, and her heart sang for very joy at being alive. God had
+answered her appeal and had given her the love of this lonely man whose
+soul was sick and wanted tender nursing back to health. Henceforward it
+would be her privilege to restore to him his lost ideals and revive his
+faith in God and human nature. Her belief in the power of truth and love
+being securely established, she had no fears for a future spent with
+Brian Dalton, for all his failures and misdeeds.
+
+Her only regret was, having to keep her happiness to herself for the
+present, when she longed to share it with her mother: and to atone for
+her enforced reserve, she tried to be more than ever attentive and
+considerate to her while she looked forward to the time, not far
+distant, when she would obtain her forgiveness and blessing.
+
+Captain Dalton's professional duties kept him engaged till dusk, when,
+much to the surprise of the members, he reappeared at the Club. He was
+impatient to meet Honor again and to exact from her lips renewed
+assurances of her unchanged feelings and good faith, for he was restless
+and unable to accept the astounding truth, being suspicious of his good
+fortune and distrustful of circumstances.
+
+On the whole, the meeting was unsatisfactory on account of the lack of
+opportunity for a _tete-a-tete_. Constant interruptions owing to Honor's
+popularity, had the effect of driving him into his accustomed aloofness
+of manner tinged with aggressiveness towards offending persons. Tommy's
+persistent claims on Honor's comradeship were particularly aggravating,
+and not to be borne.
+
+"I shall wring his neck if he butts in again," Dalton muttered
+viciously.
+
+"We have known each other since we were children," Honor put in as a
+softener.
+
+"I can't stick it here for another minute," he said with a suppressed
+curse. "Let's get out of this!"
+
+To Honor, it was joy to be with him even in the midst of a company of
+others. Her satisfaction lay in the knowledge that she was beloved and
+his whispered endearments gave her bliss. His voice at her ear was the
+sweetest music she had ever heard when it said, "Honey!" or
+"Sweetheart!" and asked her to repeat that she loved him. "You know I
+do," she once answered. Thereupon their eyes met for a brief moment and
+her senses swooned under the intensity of his gaze. In that fraction of
+time he had, by suggestion, kissed her with such passion and longing--as
+at the _jhil_--that her breath fluttered in a sob, her eyes were
+blinded. He was teaching her to want him even as he wanted her till she
+was thrilled at the strength of their love. It was glorious that they
+were both young, with so many years of their lives before them in which
+to grow nearer to each other. "And they twain shall be one flesh,"
+seemed the most blessed psychological miracle that her virgin mind could
+conceive.
+
+"Where shall we go?" she answered indulging his demand to take her away
+from the Club.
+
+"We can go for a spin in my car."
+
+"It is so dark!"
+
+"Do you mind?" His voice sounded hurt, and Honor, who was sensitive to
+its inflection, immediately yielded. She feared venomous tongues, but,
+the most deadly of them all being absent--Mrs. Fox having taken up her
+abode in Calcutta while her case was pending--she was reassured.
+
+"Mother dear, I am going for a little run in Captain Dalton's car, if
+you don't mind," she called softly to Mrs. Bright who was busy
+organising a bridge party in the Ladies' Room.
+
+Mrs. Bright looked surprised. Doubtful thoughts flashed through her
+mind,--fear of gossip, reluctance to stand in the way of innocent
+pleasure, and wonder that the doctor should have shown a sudden
+inclination towards sociability. Seeing a critical expression lurking in
+Mrs. Ironsides' eye her dignity was immediately in arms.
+
+"Certainly, darling, but don't be late. Mind you wrap up properly," she
+returned cordially. Mrs. Ironsides would have to appreciate the fact
+that Honor had her mother's fullest trust and confidence. However,
+throughout the ensuing rubber she could not avoid mentally speculating
+on the possibility of the most eligible bachelor in the District
+beginning to consider her child from a matrimonial point of view.
+
+Miss Bright passed out into the darkness with Captain Dalton, her eyes
+shining with a new beauty, and Tommy watched her, filled with dismay.
+What was the meaning of it? Honor with the doctor, of all men! The
+doctor paying Honor marked attentions, and she accepting them with sweet
+graciousness! He forgot to pull at his cigar which went out while he
+stared into the night with eyes that saw only the look in the girl's
+eyes as she walked beside Dalton towards his car.
+
+The motor drive was repeated occasionally, and it became an ordinary
+event for Honor to shoot duck on the Panipara Jhil in his company. "It
+is better than tramping the _jhil_ alone," Mrs. Bright said, when the
+subject was mentioned in her presence. "I have always felt anxious while
+she has been absent on her snipe-shooting expeditions alone, but am so
+much easier in mind now that the doctor has taken charge of her. He is
+such an unerring shot, I am told; and she is learning to be so careful
+under his guidance."
+
+It was the least of the lessons Honor learned from the doctor. He taught
+her the delights of a perfect companionship founded on mutual love; a
+man's reverence for the woman he respects: a complete knowledge of her
+own heart; its power of devotion, its great depths, and stores of
+feeling.
+
+Sometimes Ray Meredith joined them in his fleeting visits to the
+Station--a lonely and pathetic being, in need of companionship, and
+grateful for friendly attentions. His wife wrote regularly, he said, and
+she and the child were well. Otherwise, he spoke little of his absent
+family. Sometimes Tommy would meet them on the _jhil_ and share their
+picnic luncheon. Jack was never accorded an invitation. On these
+occasions, the lovers would play at being ordinary friends but with poor
+success. Honor would avoid meeting the doctor's eyes, while the doctor's
+eyes were unable to stray long from contemplation of her engaging face
+which had never looked so lovable and full of charm.
+
+With a quickened intuition, Tommy realised that his own sun had set, and
+he went about his business, a very subdued being; one who had lost all
+interest in his occupations and who was finding very little in life
+worth living for.
+
+When Honor was alone with Dalton, they would discuss the future, and
+plan their Elysium together. He was engaged in making arrangements for
+taking up a practice in Melbourne, where a colleague, formerly his
+senior, had retired and was eager for his young brains in partnership.
+When everything was settled, her parents were to be told, after which
+they would be quietly married at the Mission, and leave for Australia.
+"You will not mind such a hole-and-corner sort of wedding?" he asked
+anxiously.
+
+"What does it matter, so long as we are married?" she replied. "I have
+always hated a big, ostentatious wedding."
+
+"I should loathe it!" he said strongly. "And what about Australia?"
+
+"Anywhere with you--even if it is to the South Pole!"
+
+Dalton kissed her to express his delight in her thoroughness. "How glad
+I shall be when I have you all to myself!--I shall spend every day of my
+life in proving to you how much I value your love, and you shall give
+this poor devil a chance to take up his life again. Honey!--sometimes I
+am sleepless with fears. It seems to me too good to be true. I am
+overcome with dread lest I should never carry it through! Something will
+be sure to happen to stop it. If so, I am done for! It will be the end
+of me!" He looked as if haunted with forebodings of evil.
+
+Honor enfolded him in her embrace. Her tender arms clung about his neck
+and she kissed him tenderly in her desire to bring him comfort. "Why
+should anything happen to interfere? God knows how much we care, and He
+will be merciful." She fancied he alluded to sudden death.
+
+"Ah! yes. Your God to whom you pray for safety every night of your life,
+may see fit to save you from such as I. I'm not good enough to take you,
+Honey; that's straight."
+
+"You shall not say that," she protested laying her soft palm across his
+mouth. "Who is good in this world? Not I, by any means! So we are a pair
+in need of protection, and are both determined to begin a new life
+together in gratitude for the Divine Countenance."
+
+Dalton suppressed a sound that was almost a sob while he defiantly
+blinked away a tear. "Sweet little Puritan!--" He covered her hand with
+kisses. "But it will be a terrible day for me when that martinet of a
+conscience sits in judgment on my sins. It makes me wish with all my
+heart that I may be dead before then! I'd risk damnation to----"
+
+"Oh, hush!----"
+
+"To have you mine, anyway. Does that shock you? It's the truth," and
+Honor was pained and greatly puzzled.
+
+But he was not often in such a strange frame of mind. There were times
+when he was a different man, almost boyish in his merriment, and full of
+a determined optimism. He would build castles in the air for them both
+to live in, and make her laugh just for the sake of admiring her
+beautiful teeth.
+
+It was early in March when Honor, having lost much of her reserve,
+discussed Jack's affair with Dalton and deplored his inevitable ruin.
+"Tommy says he'll be done for in every way if he marries her, but he
+will do so in spite of everything."
+
+"More fool he."
+
+"He's been very weak and very wicked," sighed Honor; "but _she_ began
+it. We watched it start, and Jack walk, as it were, blindfold into a
+trap. It seems terrible that she should escape and he receive all the
+punishment!"
+
+"Generally, it is the other way about!"
+
+"Jack's punishment will be life-long. He will never be a happy man.
+Already, he is almost ill for thinking of it. His people are so proud
+and would never receive Mrs. Fox. Can't anything be done? You don't
+think he is obliged to marry her?"
+
+"Not Mrs. Fox. Circumstances alter cases. She had her eyes wide open and
+played her cards for this. It would serve a woman like that jolly well
+right if young Darling gave her the slip. Tell Tommy to prevail on him
+to see me. What he wants is a medical certificate and leave home for six
+months. I'm very much mistaken if that doesn't change the complexion of
+things considerably."
+
+"But he has no real illness!"
+
+"I dare say I'll find him really ill when I overhaul him. He looks on
+the verge of a break-down. I have never seen a lad go off as he has done
+the past few months."
+
+"That is because, at heart, Jack is not really a bad fellow. It is just
+that he is deplorably weak; and remorse for having yielded to
+temptation, is tormenting his soul. In proper hands he would shape quite
+well."
+
+Dalton was as good as his word, for, when Jack visited him for a medical
+opinion on his run-down health, he was ready with the certificate which
+was to obtain six months' leave for him in Europe.
+
+And while the young man waited on tenterhooks for sanction to leave
+India, and the routine of station-life continued as usual, the doctor
+awoke to the fact of his own increasing unpopularity with the natives of
+Panipara. Joyce Meredith had once tried to warn him, at which he had
+been considerably amused. After that, the arrival on the scene of a
+surveyor and the taking in hand of preliminary measures, showed that the
+Government were seriously considering the drainage scheme; hence
+personal hostilities against the author of it became active, and the
+gravity of his position was forced upon him.
+
+The villagers scowled whenever he passed and repassed in his journeys
+about the District, and offered him open insolence in lonely places;
+while, on one occasion, a large mob had gathered to waylay the car, but
+had melted away at sight of Honor beside him. They had recognised the
+daughter of the senior police official, and were afraid,--or had caught
+sight of shot guns in the car; whereupon, discretion had prevailed.
+
+Recognising symptoms as dangerous, Dalton refrained from taking Honor
+motoring with him, and had given up their joint expeditions to the
+_jhil_, at which Mrs. Bright was well pleased. Captain Dalton had,
+apparently, not proposed to Honor, and it was high time that he ceased
+making her conspicuous by his attentions. She had expected something to
+come of them but, so far, the only result was gossip and chaff on the
+part of ladies when they met at the Club, which was excessively
+annoying.
+
+Didn't Honor see that matters were going a bit too far? Was it prudent
+for a young girl to get herself talked about--especially with a young
+man who had already caused plenty of gossip in the Station? Honor
+allowed that she had, perhaps, been a little unwise not to have
+considered the opinion of the neighbours, but her dear mother need not
+make herself anxious, as she and Captain Dalton understood each other
+perfectly.
+
+That being the case, Mrs. Bright was consoled; for what is an
+"understanding" between a man and a maid, if not an unofficial
+engagement? Like most mothers, Mrs. Bright was anxious, at heart, to see
+her daughter happily settled in life; and the doctor, though not a
+wealthy man or popular, was, at least, a rising one in his profession,
+and considered a good match.
+
+Honor, however, paid little attention to gossip and chaff, her mind
+being filled with anxiety and growing alarm for her lover's safety. She
+had quickly divined the increasing antagonism of the Panipara villagers
+towards him; and knowing his recklessness lived in continual dread.
+
+"I shall not know a moment's peace while this sort of thing goes on,"
+she fretted. "Can't you get a transfer till we are married?"
+
+"And leave my little love?" It was unthinkable.
+
+"It would make no difference in our feelings for each other."
+
+"I couldn't do it, apart from the fact that it would look like running
+away. You little know what it means to me to see you every day."
+
+Latterly he had spent most of his evenings at the Blights', who took
+compassion on his loneliness and were complaisant of his obvious
+attachment to Honor. Mrs. Bright, in her tactful way, gave him many
+opportunities of having Honor to himself in the drawing-room while she
+betook herself to her husband's own particular sanctum to indulge in
+confidential chat. "It is plain to see that he worships our Honey, and
+it is best they should meet here, since meet they must, in her own
+home," she would explain. "I dare say we shall be hearing something one
+of these days."
+
+"He improves on acquaintance, and certainly has a devilish fine voice. I
+could listen to him all night," said her husband, nevertheless, obeying
+the hint and remaining a voluntary exile in his study.
+
+Considering that his opportunities for snatching whatever of happiness
+he could out of his life in the present lay in Muktiarbad, it was not
+likely that Dalton was inclined to seek a transfer and thus run away
+from bodily danger;--not even when a parcel containing a bomb was placed
+on his writing-table, which, owing to some technical defect, failed to
+go off when it was opened. The incident gave Tommy and his subordinates
+some work to do, trying to trace the culprit who had placed it there,
+but the matter was treated with unconcern by the doctor himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE DELUGE
+
+
+One day, at the close of April, when the thermometer was unusually high,
+Ray Meredith fell a victim to a stroke of the sun, and had to be carried
+in from camp like a dead man. His friends were thrown into
+consternation, telegrams were flashed to headquarters, and even the
+bazaar discussed his danger with bated breath. Captain Dalton, always at
+his best in critical moments, rose all at once to great heights in the
+estimation of the District. It was told of him how he was not only
+physician but nurse to the Collector, and no woman could have been more
+deft or capable in the sick-room than he was. But no one knew that a
+sense of obligation to his conscience as well as to the sick man was
+driving him hard, so that, for the time being, all personal
+considerations were swept aside,--even his cherished plans which were
+nearing completion,--in order that he might save a useful life to which
+he owed some reparation.
+
+Mrs. Bright was filled with admiration, and Honor with adoration. Both
+held themselves in readiness to be of use as necessity might demand, and
+were full of concern for Joyce so far away. Yet no cable was sent to
+tell her of her husband's state.
+
+"From a rational point of view, it would be folly," said Mrs. Bright.
+"If he should die, we can send a cable to prepare her, and follow it up
+with another soon afterwards. Should he recover, we will have given her
+a nasty fright for nothing. By the time mail day comes round, we shall
+have something definite to say, and a letter will do quite well." To
+this Honor was obliged to agree, but it seemed terrible to her loving
+heart that a wife should be in ignorance of her husband's peril, and
+thus be deprived of importuning the Almighty with prayers for his
+recovery. So much of good in life depended on prayer, that she felt it
+necessary to pray on behalf of Joyce for the life of the husband so
+precious to her. According to her convictions, God works through the
+agency of his creatures, and as no stone was being left unturned by the
+doctor whose whole heart was in his profession, Ray Meredith stood a
+good chance if God were merciful to the reckless man who had scorned the
+deadly rays of an Indian sun.
+
+"I am so thankful he has you to take care of him," she once said during
+a private interlude, when Dalton held her in his arms under the great
+trees of the avenue and kissed her good-night. "Poor, poor Joyce! She
+would break her heart if she were to lose him--and she away! She would
+never forgive herself for going."
+
+"If, in spite of all our efforts, he should not recover, you may take it
+that he is fated to die of this stroke. One can't kick against Fate."
+
+"There is no such thing as Fate! If you do your best, God helping, he
+will recover, I am sure of it. I am praying so hard for his wife's sake.
+If we keep in touch with God and do our best unremittingly, it is all
+that is wanted of us."
+
+"If any one's prayers ever reach heaven, I am sure yours do!... Do you
+ever pray for me?"
+
+"Always!"
+
+"What for, specially?"
+
+Honor hesitated for a moment, then murmured, "That we may never be
+parted in life, and that I may succeed in making you happy."
+
+Dalton kissed her reverently. "Any more than that? Do you never say,
+'Make him a good boy'? I need that more than anything. It is what
+mothers teach their kiddies to say, but it's forgotten when they grow
+up."
+
+"I'll say that, too, if you wish it."
+
+"Say it every night of your life; and also that my sins may be forgiven
+me. They are many!"
+
+The evening the nurse arrived from Calcutta to take charge of the case,
+Meredith was improving in spite of the insupportable heat. _Punkhas_
+waved unceasingly in the bungalows, and quantities of ice were consumed.
+People moved about without energy, mopping their faces and yearning for
+the relief of a nor'wester, while a "brain-fever" bird cried its
+melancholy cadences with aggravating monotony, from a tree in the
+Collector's garden, where every leaf and twig had a thick coating of
+dust. A grey pall in the north-west tantalised with its suggestion of a
+possible thunderstorm, which, if it burst, would instantly cool the
+overcharged atmosphere; and anxious eyes glanced at it with longing.
+
+Honor drove to the railway station in the Daimler to fetch the expected
+nurse, and was in time to meet the express as it steamed in with its
+long train of coaches, in which every window gaped, revealing in the
+third-class compartments the spectacle of semi-nude humanity packed like
+sheep in pens, perspiring, and anxious for the moment of release.
+
+When the crowd on the platform had thinned, she saw a lady in a nurse's
+cloak and bonnet, waiting by her trunks, the belabelled condition of
+which advertised the fact that the owner was a much travelled person.
+
+She was strikingly handsome in a bold and arresting way, with dark eyes
+capable of expressing much, and full, red lips parted upon slightly
+prominent teeth. She looked as if she could be extremely fascinating,
+but there was something about her that did not inspire Honor with
+confidence,--though she freely admired her grace and aplomb,--and she
+thought she looked more like an actress than a nurse. Surely the stage
+would have better suited one of her type! She wondered.
+
+"I have been sent to fetch you. My name is Honor Bright."
+
+"Oh, how d'you do! How kind you are! You see, I have 'some' luggage,"
+was the reply.
+
+"It will all fit on the car," and signing to a couple of coolie porters,
+Honor gave them directions and led the way through the booking office to
+the entrance porch. After they had taken their seats and the car had
+started, the nurse learned all about the case, in which she showed only
+a passing interest. "A married man, did you say?" she asked carelessly.
+
+Honor had not said so, but answered in the affirmative.
+
+"Wife at home?"
+
+"In England; yes."
+
+"And what's your doctor like? I always like to know for one has so much
+to do with the doctor, and it's just as well to understand something
+about him beforehand," she said, with ill-concealed eagerness.
+
+"I should not describe Captain Dalton better than to say he is very
+direct and never wastes words," said Honor, smiling at her first
+impressions of Brian Dalton. Her secret knowledge of him thrilled her
+happily.
+
+"And what of his looks? Is he as handsome as"--she bit her lips,
+stumbled in her sentence, and concluded, "as his pictures? I have seen
+his portrait in a photo group of surgeons at the Presidency General
+Hospital, in Calcutta."
+
+"I have never thought about his being handsome," said Honor. "He has a
+strong face, and an expressive one--on occasions."
+
+"I am told he is a hard man. How does he impress you?"
+
+"I dare say he could be as hard as flint; but I have not experienced
+that side of his nature."
+
+"It's a funny little place, this," said the nurse who had not troubled
+to give Honor her name. "I rather fancy it. I suppose you manage to have
+quite good times since everyone must know everyone else quite
+intimately. Like a large family!"
+
+"I am quite fond of it, for I have many good friends."
+
+"I could imagine putting up with it for a change; but to live here year
+in and year out, so far away from town and the bustle of life, would
+bore me stiff. However, _chacun a son gout_!"
+
+At the house, the nurse was shown her room and left to unpack and
+arrange her things, and change into nursing attire. Tea was served to
+her in the morning-room though it was nearing the dinner hour, and Honor
+remained to entertain her till the doctor returned from another case;
+Mrs. Bright having temporary charge of the patient.
+
+Soon afterwards, Captain Dalton arrived and Honor saw him step briskly
+into the room. She retired to a distant corner, herself, leaving him to
+confer with the nurse and acquaint her with the nature of the case,
+utterly unprepared for the scene that followed.
+
+For a moment, she was paralysed at the sight of the doctor's ghastly
+pallor and startled eyes as they lighted upon the stranger's face.
+
+"You?" he breathed through stiffened lips.
+
+"Yes, Brian. I was given the chance as Nurse Grey was ill. I had to see
+you again!" her voice was fiercely agitated. "Won't you hear me?"
+
+"Good God! Don't you understand that you are nothing to me?--less than
+nothing!" His eyes blazed.
+
+"Yet you never divorced me! That gave me hope. Have you no forgiveness?
+No pity?"
+
+A stony silence.
+
+"Oh, you are hard!--_hard_! It is not fair to punish any one forever for
+one mistake----"
+
+"Mistake, do you call it?"
+
+"Sin, if you will have it. Are _you_ sinless? After all, we are but
+human, and we forgive as we hope to be forgiven." She made a movement as
+if to fall at his feet, and Honor rushed blindly from the room. Her one
+instinct was to get away somewhere and hide--hide from the knowledge so
+ruthlessly thrust upon her. It was too horrible to contemplate. She
+shuddered from head to foot, and shivered as with ague. Out into the
+open she ran, among the dust-laden crotons and azaleas, and the florid
+shrubberies of the Indian garden, now bathed in soft moonlight. Scarcely
+heeding her footsteps, she stumbled to a bench beneath a laburnum. If it
+harboured reptiles, she was indifferent. Let her be bitten and die! She
+was crushed and bowed to the earth with a burden of grief too great to
+endure,--too hopeless to think upon.
+
+What was it that he had offered her? Had he meant to insult her?
+
+Never! He loved her too well. He would have killed himself rather than
+have treated her lightly.
+
+What was it then?
+
+Her mind refused to act. It acknowledged only one thought, and that was,
+severance--immediate, final--from the being she loved most on earth.
+That was inevitable.
+
+Brian Dalton was married. He had been married all the time. Joyce had
+misunderstood; or he had lied to her.
+
+No. She would not allow to herself that he had lied. His was not a petty
+nature given to lying, or to the faults of the weak and timid. He was a
+daring and defiant sinner, "risking damnation," as he had once said, for
+the desire of his heart. She could now understand his bitterness, his
+recurring moods of sadness and almost of remorse; for he was plotting
+all the while against the honour of the girl he respected as well as
+loved.
+
+Consecutive thought was impossible; she was bewildered and numbed by the
+suddenness of the blow. Through it all she moaned as though in physical
+pain, "Brian!--oh, Brian!" Not for a minute did she doubt that he loved
+her. He had given abundant evidence of his sincerity; but unable to get
+her by fair means, he had determined to try foul. He had fought the
+fight of his life, and had failed.
+
+"Yes--I had to see you again," the nurse had said. And then,--"You never
+divorced me!"
+
+The words, "never divorced me," kept repeating in her brain. The nurse
+had spoken, forgetful of Honor's presence or imagining that she had left
+the room. He, too, had seemingly forgotten her presence or failed to
+notice that she was still in the room.
+
+She was handsome, this woman who had been--_was_--his wife! Honor
+recalled the flashing eyes, the sensuous mouth, and quailed. Having once
+loved her, might he not be won to love her again? She was his. He had no
+right to think of another.
+
+No other had any right to think of him!
+
+Honor writhed in misery.
+
+"Are you sinless?" his wife had asked him.
+
+From his own showing, he was a most deliberate sinner, ready to
+sacrifice an innocent soul for his own gratification. Only a miracle had
+stopped him.
+
+Words he had spoken returned to her mind--
+
+"Your God to whom you pray every night of your life will see fit to save
+you from such as I!"
+
+The pathos of his dread, the wistful appeal in his voice, had touched
+her deeply. She could hear it still, and her heart went out to him in
+sympathy. Her poor, unhappy darling! But,--had God really interfered to
+save her from the pit he was digging for her feet?
+
+If he were free, she would have no wish to be saved from him, sinner
+though he were. She would take him gladly, and, God helping, slay the
+demon in him forever.
+
+But he was not free. The task was not for her.
+
+The Church would not marry them if it were known that he was not free.
+
+It did not enter into her consciousness that she could go to him in
+spite of God or the law. Defiance of laws, human and divine, was
+impossible to Honor who had been reared to respect both from her cradle.
+
+Therefore, all was at an end; and yet, she had no anger in her heart
+towards Brian Dalton; only love and pity, and grief for the parting
+which was inevitable--a blasting, desolating grief.
+
+Presently, footsteps sounded on the gravel. Someone was wandering in the
+garden in search of her. It was a man's tread. It was Dalton's; she
+recognised the impatience, the determination in it, inseparable from the
+man. Yet she made no sign. She dared not, though she wanted him with all
+her heart. Sobs threatened to strangle her and were fiercely suppressed.
+What right had she to his love now that she knew all? What use had she
+for his explanations and apologies? She was choked, dry-eyed,
+frightened.
+
+She was afraid of herself, for, at the first sound of his footsteps, the
+beating of her heart had deafened her. She wanted him as much as he
+wanted her, and she trembled, feeling powerless to deny her love its
+human expression. It was compelling. What could be the end of it?
+
+She bowed her face upon her quivering arms whispering, "God help
+me!--God help me," yet straining her ears to catch every sound without.
+And she made no resistance when Dalton at last found her, and, seating
+himself at her side, drew her tenderly to his breast.
+
+It was long before either spoke. Honor felt it was for the last time. He
+feared it might be for the last time.
+
+"You know?" he asked in a voice hoarse and strange.
+
+"Yes," she whispered trembling as she clung to him.
+
+"Yet you do not spurn me?"
+
+"How could I, when I love you so!"
+
+"Such a scoundrel as Brian Dalton?"
+
+"I only know how much I love you!"
+
+An inarticulate sound resembling a stifled sob came from him. After a
+while----
+
+"What are you going to do with me, Sweet?"
+
+What answer could she give him but one? "What I must!" Yet she clung all
+the closer.
+
+"Though you love me?"
+
+"I shall love you till I die. But we have to--we must--part!"
+
+His arms about her were like bands of iron. He was scarcely aware of the
+force with which he crushed her to him.
+
+"It cannot be done," he said almost to himself.
+
+"Why did you not divorce her?" Honor asked resentfully.
+
+"To punish her. Ah!--my God!--Punishments come home to roost. Some day I
+will tell you the whole sordid story. There is no time now--I have to go
+back to Meredith."
+
+"We must say good-bye here," she returned with a desperate attempt to be
+calm.
+
+"Never 'good-bye'!" Yet he had no hope. Honor's conscience had
+decided--the conscience he had once feared would sit in judgment on his
+sin against herself; and yet it had uttered no word of reproach.
+
+For a full minute he held her away from himself, trying by the light of
+the moon to see the look in her eyes. He wanted to plead with her to fly
+with him to another land where none should know their history; but his
+words died in his throat as he gazed upon her white and stricken face.
+"Honey, be merciful to me in your thoughts!" he cried, instead, kissing
+her forehead, her eyes, and denying himself her lips.
+
+"Just let me go right away. Give me courage--help me!"
+
+"And what of me?"
+
+"I leave you the gift of my heart. I can never take it back."
+
+"Do you forgive me?"
+
+"Love always forgives."
+
+"God bless you! I think I must have been insane. I would have earned
+your hatred in time. How shall I face life without you?"
+
+Honor gave him her lips sadly. "In our different ways--we shall face it.
+Just at first it will be very hard, but not impossible if we have
+courage to do what is right. To stay on here after this, is more than I
+can bear; so I must go away--just for a bit, to learn how to be brave.
+When I come back--if you are still here, we might both bear it better."
+
+"My poor Honey! What a beast I have been! As for me--you will find me
+here right enough. I shall not go to Australia _now_!--but I shall never
+bear it better."
+
+They parted a little later in heavy sorrow. Honor left him bowed and
+broken on the garden bench, and stumbled home unseeingly.
+
+Afterwards, she learned in one of Dalton's letters--for he would not be
+denied that medium of communion with her--the full story of his past
+humiliation.
+
+He had married a nurse at Guy's when he had been a medical student, and
+she had left him six months later for his best friend. She had been
+proved as faithless as she was handsome, with a baleful influence over
+men. Not long afterwards, the man she had led astray was killed in a
+railway accident, and since then, she had, on various occasions, tried,
+without success, to persuade Dalton to take her back. Apparently, she
+had not resigned hope with the years, for she had followed him to India,
+believing that time was her greatest ally, since it dims the memory of
+wrongs.
+
+When he had discovered her presence in Calcutta, and learned that she
+had joined a nursing home in a fashionable quarter, he had applied for a
+transfer to quiet Muktiarbad, giving as his reason, his need of rest
+from his too strenuous labours in the capital. His desire was to gain
+time and to keep out of the way of any possibility of coming into
+professional contact with his wife.
+
+At Muktiarbad he was able to forget his troubles, and, to his relief,
+seemed to have been forgotten by the Government and left to enjoy his
+peace undisturbed. However, through her connection with a nurses'
+association, his wife had accidentally learned of Nurse Grey's summons
+to Muktiarbad and had cleverly contrived to work things so as to go
+herself, instead.
+
+"If I had only done the right thing in the beginning, and severed the
+tie, legally, things might have been very different today," was the
+burden of his cry. Instead, in the recklessness of despair, he had cut
+the ground from under his own feet, and by his desire for revenge,
+destroyed any possibility of future happiness for himself. Passion for
+the woman was dead. Her beauty revolted him; her character he loathed
+and despised. "It is amazing to me," he wrote in deep contrition and
+humility, "that such an egotistical, conscienceless blackguard as I,
+should have been given the inestimable boon of your wonderful love!--to
+be allowed to retain in my keeping such a pure and faithful heart! It is
+my most treasured possession. My feeling for Honor Bright is my
+religion. To the memory of her, Brian Dalton, one-time scoundrel, kneels
+in worship."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Mrs. Bright returned home from Meredith's bedside and found Honor
+nerveless and prostrated with white cheeks and dark rings round her
+eyes, she was convinced that it was high time her daughter was sent to
+the hills.
+
+"I told you so in March when the weather grew unbearable; and now, you,
+too, have got a touch of the sun!" But Honor's cheek was cool and
+symptoms of sun or heat stroke were lacking. "How do you feel?" the
+anxious lady questioned. Being in ignorance of the nurse's identity and
+having no clue to Honor's state, she was worried and at a loss.
+
+"I am only feeling rather exhausted, Mother darling," said Honor
+wearily. Since she had not taken her mother into her confidence while
+she was happy, she felt she had no right to burden her with her sorrow.
+
+"Shall I ask Captain Dalton to come and see you?"
+
+"Not on any account!" Honor hastened to say.
+
+"I know it is rather embarrassing when a doctor is an intimate
+friend--and an unmarried man! Still, considering--" Mrs. Bright was
+thinking of the "understanding" and wondering when it was going to
+become something definite. However, Honor was not the girl to hector or
+question on matters that concerned herself alone. The question of her
+indisposition was more pressing than any. "Have you a headache?" she
+asked anxiously.
+
+Honor could truthfully say that her head ached. "When I have slept, it
+will, I dare say, wear off."
+
+"I hope so, for I should not like to think that you are going to be
+ill."
+
+"I am not ill; but, perhaps, dear, if you can spare me, I had better get
+away tomorrow before the heat becomes worse. May is always such an
+appalling month in the plains."
+
+"I shall speak to your father immediately about it," Mrs. Bright said,
+relieved to find something she could do to avert a break-down of her
+daughter's usually excellent health. "The Mackenzies at Mussoorie will
+be delighted to have you for a month or two as a paying guest. We have
+only to wire. And if they have no room, they can secure one for you near
+by."
+
+"That will be all right," said Honor listlessly. "I'll start tomorrow
+night, if possible."
+
+"It shall be possible. Such a sudden collapse!" commented Mrs. Bright.
+"I do hope you will feel more fit in the morning."
+
+"I'll be quite fit, never fear," said Honor. "Tonight I am only a bit
+'off colour,' as Tommy says," and she tried to smile.
+
+"I'll send a message down to the _dhobi_ to get your wash ready by noon
+tomorrow. At these times one realises how infinitely more convenient is
+a _dhobi_ than an English Laundry Company," and Mrs. Bright bustled away
+that she might lose no time in letting the washerman know what was
+expected of him. Though the laundry had been taken away that very
+morning, she had not the slightest doubt that the task would be
+completed to perfection before noon, for she knew the laundryman of
+India to be as remarkable in his line as the Indian cook is in his.
+
+The following evening, Honor left Muktiarbad station, with the faithful
+Tommy to see her off in the train; and her mother was there to give her
+a last hug and sundry forgotten injunctions at the eleventh hour. "Mind
+you telegraph on your arrival--and don't forget to wear a woollen vest
+next to your skin. It is so necessary to ward off colds. Give Alice
+Mackenzie my love and say that I shall try to come up in the rains.
+Good-bye, darling, and take care of yourself! If you want more money,
+don't fail to let me know. Have you got your umbrella? Thank goodness! I
+thought it was forgotten. Write soon; I hope you'll pick up and look
+better when I see you next."
+
+The train moved off and Mrs. Bright remarked to Tommy that she was quite
+alarmed to see such a sudden change in her beloved child. Really, she
+should have insisted upon her going away, the latest, a month ago.
+
+"What is the matter? I, too, have been aghast at the change. Honey looks
+positively ill," said Tommy.
+
+"Nothing is the matter but the heat, it seems. I wonder why Captain
+Dalton never came to see her off. I told him, when I was at the Bara
+Koti this morning, that she was leaving by the 7:20. And they are such
+good friends. I feel quite hurt."
+
+"He is out somewhere in the District this evening. I saw him take the
+main road in his car a little while ago, and travelling at break-neck
+speed," said Tommy.
+
+"Someone else taken ill somewhere, I suppose."
+
+"Very likely."
+
+"Still, I think he might have made a point of saying 'good-bye.'"
+
+Tommy wondered, but said nothing. He had long made up his mind, as had
+others in the Station, that Captain Dalton and Honor Bright were
+engaged. He had also heard of lovers' quarrels and was ready, by the
+look on Honor's face, to believe that a very serious misunderstanding
+had taken place. Her abstraction, her ghastly pallor and haunted eyes
+had given him positive suffering and a feeling of blind sympathy, which
+had only found vent in loading the compartment with newspapers and
+magazines snatched from Wheeler's bookstall.
+
+To Honor's surprise, Captain Dalton appeared at a wayside station, and
+leant his arms on the open window. The sight of him, his set face and
+brooding eyes, made her heart stand still, while a sudden faintness
+seized her. Behind him the Station hawkers were shouting their wares,
+native travellers were bustling to and fro, and the air was alive with
+sound, so that in the midst of all that confusion they were absolutely
+alone.
+
+"I am glad you have no one in with you," he said quietly. "I so wanted a
+few words with you."
+
+"How is Mr. Meredith?" Honor asked, trying to speak naturally.
+
+He took both her hands and held them close, deaf to the question.
+Meredith was out of danger and the nurse had become interested in her
+charge. What were they and all else to the lovers so parted!
+
+"Have you nothing to say to me?"
+
+"I have said all that there is to say," she replied tremulously.
+
+"I am going to write to you, and you must write to me. Do you understand
+that this is imperative?"
+
+"Is it?" she asked with beating heart. Oh, that they might at least hug
+to themselves that innocent joy!
+
+"If I do not write to you or hear from you, I shall be doing something
+desperate. I cannot be responsible for myself. It will be the only thing
+to keep me sane. You cannot dream how I am being punished. Don't add to
+my punishment if you have any pity." His anguished eyes and quivering
+lips were convincing. "You will have no fault to find with my letters,"
+he added while she hesitated.
+
+Honor promised.
+
+A bell clanged noisily and the engine whistled.
+
+"Oh, Honey!--how can you leave me like this?" he whispered holding her
+eyes with his.
+
+Honor moved impulsively towards him and their lips met in a passionate
+and lingering kiss. The strength to resist his unspoken appeal was
+melted by that silent demand. After all, they were parting!
+
+"Good-bye," she said, the tears falling.
+
+He stepped back as the train began to move, his gaze riveted on her
+face, and jaws set with stern self-repression.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE "IDEAL"
+
+
+While Raymond Meredith convalesced at Darjeeling in the care of Nurse
+Dalton--the identity of whose name with that of the doctor being
+generally understood at Muktiarbad to be a mere freak of
+coincidence--his family in Surrey waxed strong and healthy in the
+glorious summer weather. Baby Douglas, who lived out of doors, had
+cheeks like a damask rose, while his mother gained gracious curves which
+added to her already radiant beauty. Even her pretty little sister who
+had recently put up her hair, was eclipsed. But only in point of looks.
+
+Kitty was not one to be overlooked in any company, by any means. What
+she lacked in regularity of feature, she made up for in charm of
+expression, a delightful speaking voice, and a ready tongue. Bright eyes
+given to laughter, the gleam of white teeth, curving red lips mobile and
+piquant, a dimpled cheek, laughter creases at the corners of the
+full-lidded, soft eyes, that had a roguish trick of quizzing--eyes that
+had borrowed their hue from the summer sky, with lashes like her
+sister's, and an indefinable little nose, made up a whole which was
+positively unfair to the rest of her sex, judging from the fact that
+every other girl was superfluous when Kitty was on the scene. And she
+was not blind to her own success, yet she was merciful out of the
+tenderness of her naturally good heart that never inflicted suffering
+wantonly; and if it happened that, owing to her irresistible
+fascination, she was the means of causing pain, to her credit be it
+said, that she was clever at healing the wounds she unwittingly
+inflicted, which saved unhappy consequences to unfortunate victims, and
+bound them to her as friends for life.
+
+"I am so afraid of your becoming a flirt," Joyce once said
+reproachfully, after one of these instances was explained and apologised
+for. "You should think twice before you let yourself become too
+friendly. It will prevent any foolish mistakes in the end. Of course I
+speak from bitter experience."
+
+Kitty, who was aware of that experience, sighed repentently. "Why didn't
+Providence make me a boy? I love them all so much."
+
+"You would then, with your thoughtlessness, have broken some poor girl's
+heart. Half a dozen, perhaps."
+
+"It is very difficult to know what to do," said Kitty with the roguish
+twinkle reasserting itself in her eyes.
+
+"You have to nip all silly sentimentality in the bud. The real thing is
+never silly," said Joyce out of her superior wisdom.
+
+"That's the difficulty. I never notice the bud till it is a full-blown
+passion-flower! I think I should become a nun."
+
+Joyce hugged her by way of appreciation, unable to resist the dimple
+which fascinated even a sister.
+
+There is nothing so winning as an imperishable sense of humour.
+Vivaciousness, and an infectious gaiety which radiates like the sun and
+dispels the shadows of depression in a moment--these were Kitty's chief
+assets. She had danced through childhood like a sunbeam. She had been
+the merriest of flappers and was now a sorceress to beguile with her
+arts in innocent and unconscious charm. Kitty's laughter, accompanied by
+that irresistible dimple, was the most captivating thing. Tender smiles
+greeted the sight of her from aged lips, and masculine youth felt drawn
+as by a magnet.
+
+So it came to pass, that Jack Darling who was spending six months
+medical leave in England, fell a victim to Kitty's charm shortly before
+Mrs. Fox's decree nisi against her husband became absolute.
+
+It was at the Victoria Underground station, near the booking-office,
+that they met. Believing that the wide hat and muslin gown could belong
+to none other than Mrs. Meredith who he knew was "at home," he pushed
+through the crowd and presented himself.
+
+"Such a pleasure, Mrs. Meredith!" It is always such a pleasure to meet
+friends in London with whom one has been intimate in a distant land.
+Especially is it true of friends from India.
+
+But two remarkably beautiful eyes turned full upon him in blank
+amazement and a hint of a twinkle in their cerulean depths. They said
+plainly, "You've made a mistake, bold Sir, but how delightful that you
+should know my sister!"
+
+Before she could speak, Jack was apologising profusely, hat in hand, and
+blushing to the roots of his shining, well-brushed hair.
+
+Restored to health after a yachting cruise off the coast of Scotland,
+Jack was a splendid specimen of manhood to look upon, though still
+inwardly depressed with the sense of the Inevitable awaiting him in the
+East. ("Such a lamb!" was Kitty's description, which was her highest
+praise.)
+
+"I am so sorry--I--I do beg your pardon, but I would have sworn--in fact
+any one would be ready to swear----"
+
+"That I am my sister?" she laughed, showing the engaging string of
+pearls and the irrepressible dimple. "Thank you so much. I always
+appreciate a compliment when it is sincere, for I am a great admirer of
+Mrs. Meredith."
+
+"Then--then you are Miss Wynthrop--_Kitty_?" he said, blushing still
+more furiously. "I beg your pardon," he added apologising for his
+boldness in using her Christian name. "We used to talk so much about you
+at Muktiarbad. But you are even more--at least I was thinking of your
+photograph," he concluded lamely.
+
+He had thought it a charming photograph of a girl, and now the original
+in natural colouring, youth, and perfect health had thrown his mind into
+chaos. Fragments of forgotten verses he had composed to his "Ideal,"
+before the baneful influence of Mrs. Fox had drugged his senses and
+threatened the ruin of his career, now returned to haunt his memory and
+justify their extravagance.
+
+At last she was before him in the flesh, not secretly reposing on a
+piece of pasteboard at the bottom of a dispatch-box left behind in
+India!
+
+"Yes, I am Kitty," she answered with animation. "But you? I am sure I
+know you? My sister has a photograph of a Station group--ah, you are
+'Jack'! I can't remember the other name."
+
+"Darling!" he prompted eagerly with a suspicion of fervour. To hear her
+pronounce his name was to listen to the most adorable music.
+
+"Of course! Fancy my forgetting! And your chum in the police is Tommy
+Deare? How perfectly priceless! I know you both intimately. You live in
+a little three-roomed bungalow near the Courts, all among weeds and
+snakes, and never go to church unless you are caught and taken!"
+
+"You've got it exactly!" he returned delighted. Was there ever such a
+girl before? _Why is a dimple in the left cheek like--nothing on earth?_
+he wondered ecstatically. _Because it is so absolutely divine!_ he
+concluded, mentally, to his own intense satisfaction at the inspiration.
+
+"Now what a pity I am not my sister!" she said mischievously. "What a
+great deal you must have in common."
+
+"I shall call on your sister if I may. At present--I am quite content,"
+he returned wishing his appointment at a fashionable club in Mayfair at
+Jericho. For a dime he would let it slide and follow her to the ends of
+London.
+
+"I am sure my sister will be delighted," said Kitty cordially. Then
+followed an exchange of addresses, Jack's being the name of a well-known
+club. "Mother always welcomes Joyce's friends from India. They come for
+a week-end and usually stay a week. The name India is a passport to our
+house."
+
+"Of course I led up to it," the minx said to Joyce on describing the
+meeting. "I couldn't dream of letting him vanish and be lost to us, when
+he is the most delightful boy I have ever met."
+
+"A very naughty boy, I am afraid, though I have a soft corner for him,"
+said Mrs. Meredith, who considered the recital of Jack's misdeeds unfit
+for Kitty's ears.
+
+"It is the naughty ones that are generally so nice," Kitty said with a
+sigh. "They are so human and attractive."
+
+"Because they are naughty?" Joyce was shocked to hear such radical
+sentiments from little Kitty.
+
+"It always strikes me that if they are capable of great naughtiness,
+they are equally capable of much good. It is the force that I admire. It
+only wants proper direction." (Which remark proved that Kitty's mind was
+capable of sympathetic understanding.)
+
+Jack and Kitty enjoyed their chance meeting so much that they missed
+their respective trains repeatedly. Hers on the "West bound" platform,
+and his on the "East," might have rumbled in and out of the station
+beneath them, _ad infinitum_, had not Kitty recollected that she was due
+to have tea with an aunt at Richmond, who was impervious to diplomacy
+and dimples and with whom no excuses concerning Fate and an Affinity at
+the Victoria Underground, would avail, if the kettle were over-boiled
+and the tea delayed. So Kitty reluctantly bade him adieu.
+
+"You are surely not going all that long way alone?" asked Jack, whose
+young sisters travelled the length and breadth of London unescorted.
+
+"Do you think it unsafe?" asked the minx, seeing through his idea and
+encouraging the development of possibilities.
+
+"One hears so much about girls mysteriously disappearing from London,
+you know," he murmured. "I couldn't bear to hear of such a thing
+happening to you, so I'll come as far as Richmond station, if I may?"
+
+"That will be charming of you! Are you sure it will not be taking you
+much out of your way?"
+
+"Not at all," Jack returned with gallantry, breaking his engagement
+without compunction. Thereupon, he bought their tickets, and sitting
+beside her on the crimson velvet seats of a Richmond "Non-stop," plunged
+recklessly into love at first sight. The moral obligation oppressing his
+mind was swept away for the time being. How was it possible for it to be
+otherwise, when he had come into the presence of his "Ideal" in the
+flesh?
+
+And Kitty, complete mistress of the situation, did not let him guess by
+word or look that she had been equally impressed. It was thrilling to
+think that this godlike person had a photograph of herself tucked away
+somewhere among his goods and chattels. Naughty Joyce had confessed the
+fact to her long ago, and she was beginning to feel that she now had him
+in the hollow of her hand. She had no hesitation in improving the
+acquaintance begun in such an unorthodox fashion; a friend of her
+sister's was, naturally, a friend of hers. Such being the case, she
+could afford to expand genially and to fan the flame her portrait had
+kindled, experiencing for the first time in her life an answering glow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Jack returned to London, deep in day-dreams and oblivious of his
+surroundings. Kitty's face and Kitty's voice were with him all the way;
+and he groaned in spirit at the thought of his madness and folly in the
+past.
+
+It was inconceivable that he could have been such a fool; that he should
+have allowed himself to forget the high standards of life he had
+cherished, for a low intrigue! The idea of being tied for life to Mrs.
+Fox had been distasteful all along; but now it was intolerable! After
+the vision of Kitty Wynthrop, it was impossible, any longer, to
+contemplate marriage with a woman of Mrs. Fox's type! Whatever she might
+think of him, he would not do it. He would infinitely rather put an end
+to his life!
+
+Of course, he was dishonourable. That went without saying. He had failed
+ignominiously from the outset to behave as an upright and honourable
+man. Self-analysis laid his pride in the dust and made him writhe in
+self-condemnation.
+
+If Kitty only knew, she would despise him as he deserved! She was so
+pure, so perfectly wonderful! What a wife she would make! and so on, and
+so forth. Jack endured agonies of remorse for a week, during which time
+he was lost to the world; and then, with a temperamental rebound he
+called at Wynthrop Manor with the humble determination of laying himself
+at Kitty's feet that she might walk over him as she willed. Big,
+ingenuous men, like Jack Darling, are happiest when doormats to the
+women they love.
+
+Joyce Meredith was delighted to see him. His presence in England argued
+that he had shaken himself free of the toils of that scheming flirt,
+Mrs. Fox, and she was ready to help him to recover his forgotten ideals.
+She had never really believed Jack as guilty as he was reputed to be,
+and, like nine out of ten women, put all the blame on the woman. Anyhow,
+she was sure that gossip and scandal had exaggerated everything, which
+was the most charitable way to look at the affair. As a Christian woman,
+it was her duty to think kindly of the erring, and sit in judgment on no
+one. She, therefore, welcomed Jack with great amiability and earned his
+everlasting gratitude by putting no obstacles in the way of his
+courtship of Kitty.
+
+About this time, she received a letter from Honor telling her of
+Meredith being down with sunstroke, and was rudely awakened to the fact
+that she had been taking too much for granted where India and her
+husband's health were concerned.
+
+Though Honor wrote that he was out of danger and slowly
+recovering,--that a nurse was expected that very day,--the little wife
+was beside herself with anxiety and alarm, and wanted to take the first
+steamer sailing for Bombay that she might be with him, to leave him no
+more.
+
+"I should never have come away!" she cried inconsolably.
+
+"I could never understand how you brought yourself to do so," said Kitty
+ruthlessly.
+
+"I have been a selfish wretch, thinking only of myself, and of my
+anxieties for Baby!"
+
+"Well, you've got Baby, any way."
+
+"But if I should lose Ray, what is Baby to me!"
+
+Kitty, who had not the heart to add to her beloved sister's agony, did
+her best to comfort her. "He was out of danger when Miss Bright
+wrote--let me see--that was about three weeks ago, or nearly, and, as
+you have had no cable since, it follows that he is all right by now."
+
+"But I ought to go straight to him!"
+
+"And they might be sending him straight home to you!"
+
+It was not at all an unlikely possibility, so Joyce cabled to her
+husband to inquire his plans.
+
+The answer came from Darjeeling that, in view of the great heat in the
+Red Sea at that season of the year, he was recuperating in the hills.
+
+She was then persuaded by relatives and friends to possess her soul in
+patience and adhere to her original plan of returning to India in the
+autumn,--the best time for arriving in the East. By then she would be
+able to decide whether to take her baby out to India, or leave him
+behind in the care of the grandparents and a capable nurse.
+
+A slight indisposition to the infant owing to the disturbances of
+teething, decided her to remain, and to pour out her heart to her
+husband in a letter telling him of her longing to be with him during his
+convalescence.
+
+Somehow the written words did not adequately convey her depth of
+feeling, and Joyce was dissatisfied, especially with the passage which
+referred to the baby's indisposition:
+
+"If Baby were not teething and in uncertain health, I would leave
+immediately for India,--but I am advised to hold on till the autumn when
+I can better decide whether I should leave him behind, or not. I am, of
+course, comforted to know that you are getting better, and, perhaps, it
+will be as well on account of the heat in the Red Sea and of the
+unhealthiness of the rains if I do exercise a little patience and wait.
+However, dearest, cable if you are not quite well by the time this
+reaches you, and I shall take my passage at once."
+
+"It sounds rather as if I am placing the baby before him," she said to
+Kitty.
+
+"And haven't you done so all along?"
+
+Joyce looked perplexed. "If I have, it is only because it seemed to me
+the wee darling needed me more than Ray did."
+
+"I wonder!" said Kitty out of a new perception of life and the needs of
+love. "After all, there are many to look after Baby if you must leave
+him in England. If I were in your place, and if there was nobody to take
+charge of him, I'd keep him out there, somehow. There must be good
+places in the hills, you have such a choice of stations,--and even
+babies have to take their chance, same as their daddies! It must be
+terribly lonely for a man when his wife, whom he adores as Ray adores
+you, leaves him and comes away home for the sake of the child!
+Personally, I couldn't do it."
+
+Kitty's candid views carried conviction and aroused reflection.
+Gradually Joyce became aware of a great longing to be again with her
+splendid husband and feel anew his love and devotion.
+
+As no answering cable arrived from Darjeeling requesting her presence in
+India, and as the weekly letters mentioned that he was convalescing
+satisfactorily, Joyce was beginning to nurse a creeping fear that her
+husband had, perhaps, learned to do very well without her. But pride
+sealed her lips and her letters to him contained no reference to any
+such thought. His, to her, since his illness, had become erratic and
+brief. He would begin by expressing a great distaste for the pen, allude
+to a feeling of incurable lassitude, curse an elusive memory, and, after
+giving her news of little consequence to themselves, would conclude in
+the manner that had become a formula of late:--"Your affectionate
+husband, Ray."
+
+However, Joyce was determined not to borrow trouble. When they came
+together again it would surely be all right. Sunstroke was a paralysing
+illness and recovery from its effects was slow, she was assured; so, for
+a while, she must expect his mind to feel lethargic. With the
+restoration of perfect health his old tenderness would return, for true
+love could never die!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To Jack, the summer months were paradise, for the beautiful environs of
+Wynthrop Manor gave him many opportunities for uninterrupted
+companionship with Kitty. They walked, fished, golfed, and played tennis
+together. He was in love in the wild tempestuous way of youth, and
+ready, if need be, to die for the object of his adoration.
+
+But Kitty was not too easy to win. The more attracted she felt, the more
+elusive she became. She would surround herself constantly with girl
+friends, that Jack might have no doubts concerning his choice; clever
+girls, and pretty girls were invited there for tennis and tea during
+Jack's lengthy visit to the Manor, till he was nearly distracted with
+impatience. Yet he hesitated to speak from an overwhelming sense of his
+utter unworthiness.
+
+Could he dare to ask her to be his wife, and allow her to believe him
+all that a young girl's fancy might paint him? Would she consent to
+marry him if she were aware of the peculiar situation in which he stood
+with regard to Mrs. Fox whose letters still arrived at his chambers, and
+to whom he still wrote, only to keep her from following him to England?
+
+She had threatened to do so at all costs, if he neglected to keep in
+touch with her, and the fear of bringing about such an undesirable
+climax had obliged him to temporise.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early in August, when the Great War broke out, and all England was in
+the turmoil of mobilisation, and the manhood of the nation was flocking
+to join the Colours, Jack complied with the demands of his conscience
+and called at the India Office for permission to resign his service that
+he might join the Army. But the Secretary of State flatly refused his
+application and he was told, instead, to hold himself in readiness for
+an immediate recall to his duties in the East. No civil officer of the
+Indian Government was eligible for a commission in His Majesty's Forces
+except with the sanction of that Government alone. Thereupon, Jack,
+deeply depressed in spirit at his impending exile, joined Joyce and
+Kitty at Eastbourne whither they had gone for a change.
+
+For the time being, civil life and economic conditions were
+disorganised. All England was in a turmoil of preparation for the
+Titanic struggle on the fields of France. People were becoming alive to
+the fact that even a democracy has its obligations to the State which
+guarantees it freedom; for freedom can only depend upon victory over
+autocracy and militarism. Private property was commandeered for the
+needs of the Army; public buildings became hospitals; motor cars and
+horses were requisitioned and carried off. Self-sacrifice became the
+order of the day. For weeks, no dependence could be placed upon railway
+time-tables, and all personal and individual concerns were forgotten in
+the overwhelming needs of the hour. A peace-loving people, averse to
+war, aware of all the horrors it entailed, yet rose to the supreme
+occasion, mindful of the great traditions of their forefathers, and
+stood ready for any sacrifice in the cause of honour, freedom, and the
+Right.
+
+When Jack was asked to describe the state of London, he felt that it
+wanted more than words to paint its state in those historic days. The
+people having spent their feelings in a great outburst of loyalty and
+patriotism, were beginning dimly to realise the gigantic task to which
+the nation was pledged,--a nation, which, but for its Navy, was totally
+unprepared for war, and yet ready to withstand a formidable European
+Power that had secretly and thoroughly organised and planned for over
+forty years to strike a blow for world-domination. Right was in conflict
+with Might, and the end no man could then see; yet London was confident;
+but London was also very grave.
+
+About this time, Joyce, to her great dismay, received a cable from her
+husband forbidding her to travel on the high seas till security thereon,
+for passengers, was assured. She had not realised till she received the
+message, how much she had been depending for happiness on the prospect
+of their reunion in the autumn. If the war was to stand in the way of
+her return to India, it might then be years before she should see her
+husband again--which would be unthinkable!
+
+In the presence of Kitty's romance she was learning to comprehend the
+extent of her own loss,--her deplorable lack of appreciation in the
+past;--and she recognised that she had only herself to blame. Ray had
+loved her greatly; how greatly, she was only now beginning to
+understand, and her very soul hungered for that love with a nostalgia
+that was making her ill. If, by her folly, she had sacrificed that
+devotion--if he had ceased to love her altogether, and had met another
+more responsive and appreciative than she had been, she would not want
+to live; for even her beloved babe would no longer suffice to fill her
+life.
+
+Memory recalled for her torment, certain words of his at parting. He had
+been wounded at her determination to leave him so soon after their
+marriage, and being ignorant of the true cause of her nervous
+break-down, he had expressed little sympathy, and had accused her of
+failure of affection for him. "Remember, a big breach between husband
+and wife may be mended, but never again is there restored what has been
+lost!" he had said. Also: "You are straining the cord that binds us
+together; the strands will presently be so weak that they will snap
+altogether. Then all the splicing afterwards will never restore it to
+its original strength. It will be a patched-up thing; its perfection
+gone!"
+
+Had she done this terrible thing by her own shortsightedness and folly?
+
+Little did he guess at the time of their parting that she was suffering
+tortures of self-contempt and nervous dread of his scorn, were he to
+know all that was on her mind!
+
+And now, after this lapse of months, she was longing to make full
+confession and atonement. With her in his arms and their love fully
+restored, he would surely forgive her her foolishness and the silence
+which he had mistaken for lack of affection.
+
+But, the war!
+
+She would not be able to go to him now, and he would continue to believe
+that she had failed him! Her affectionate letters had not convinced him,
+for actions speak louder than words. Gradually an icy atmosphere of
+indifference had breathed forth at her from his letters, and she had
+been filled with secret uneasiness and fears. He was indeed learning to
+do without her.
+
+Possibly the cord that had bound them together had snapped!
+
+Upon this, came a letter one day, from Honor Bright.
+
+Honor had been spending the hot months at Mussoorie in the Himalayas,
+which the Brights had always preferred to Darjeeling; and, after the
+monsoons had broken, her mother had joined her there till the middle of
+July, when they had returned together to Muktiarbad. For months Joyce
+and Honor had corresponded, fitfully, so that it was no surprise to the
+former when the Indian mail brought her a letter in her friend's
+hand-writing, the contents of which were acutely disturbing. Joyce read
+and re-read the letter, filled with alarm and foreboding.
+
+What was Honor hinting at? and had she any grounds for hinting at all?
+
+Honor was evidently perturbed about something in connection with Ray, or
+why this strange appeal to his wife to let nothing come in the way of
+her returning to her place beside her husband, no matter what the
+difficulties? "'It is not good,' we are told, 'for a man to live alone,'
+and please remember that there is no such thing as infallibility in
+human nature. Sometimes temptations are so strong that one needs to be
+superhuman to withstand them. Why expect too much of Life?" stared up at
+Joyce from the page.
+
+"I would not write as I am doing, believe me, dear Joyce," the letter
+concluded, "if I were not so fond of you both that I feel your married
+happiness a personal concern. It is the biggest thing in the world;
+don't therefore, I implore you, gamble with it. If you will only look
+ahead and think a bit of the future without the love of your
+husband,--the grey years deprived of his tender devotion,--you will
+realise how lonely will be your life! Dearest, hold on to the blessed
+gift while it is yours and do not let it pass out of your possession. I
+have watched it happen before! 'That what we have we prize not to the
+worth whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, why, then we rack
+the value, then we find the virtue that possession did not show us
+whiles it was ours.' This is so true also of love which, so often, is
+not appreciated while it is ours! And love can starve and die for want
+of sustenance, which is propinquity and a proper response. You see, I
+have kept my eyes open and am a silent student of human nature! I have
+come across a few devils in society; but in my experience, 'The female
+of the species is more deadly than the male,' and I believe the Lord's
+prayer is directed chiefly against her. She goes out of her way to dig
+pitfalls for the unwary and the best have been known to succumb. That is
+why a wife's place should be beside her husband throughout life, as the
+whole fabric of their happiness depends upon their unity. Separations
+make for misunderstandings and division; so, whatever happens, come out.
+Men and babies want looking after, and to my mind, Man is the greater
+baby of the two, for he wants more than a nurse to care for his bodily
+wants. He needs a wife with a combination of virtues, the chief among
+them being _tolerance_. My mother's life has demonstrated this to me
+with beautiful clearness, hence my understanding.
+
+"You might be anxious at having to travel alone at such a time, but in
+your place I would take any risk to be with my husband, if I loved him
+deeply. That is the crux of the matter. Later on, conditions may become
+still more difficult. Cable when you are leaving, and _don't hesitate_."
+
+The appeal was very sincere, and thrilled Joyce with apprehensions. To
+be urged to travel at the risk of capture by German raiders at large on
+the high seas, that she might rejoin her husband without loss of time,
+argued that something was seriously wrong. Honor was her true friend and
+would not counsel such a step without reference to that husband, unless
+something was decidedly wrong. Whom was she to obey? Her husband, who
+had cabled to her to stay where she was? or Honor, who was urging her to
+go out at once?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While Joyce pondered over her dilemma, the fate of two people dear to
+her was being decided elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE REAL THING
+
+
+Jack had come to the conclusion that it was impossible to part from
+Kitty Wynthrop with his love unconfessed. It was unthinkable that he
+should go out to India, loving Kitty as he did, and marry--Mrs. Fox!
+Bah! he consigned the latter, remorselessly, to perdition.
+
+Whatever befell, he would speak to Kitty that very night--dear little
+girl!--he had wasted too much time already over his confounded doubts
+and fears, and had little enough time to spare. If she favoured
+him--why, he would be the luckiest, as well as the happiest of men! Some
+day, when he was absolutely sure of her and her love, he would confess
+his misconduct in the past, lest she should hear of it from others--she
+might; there was no knowing, with all those meddlesome cats about!--and
+perhaps he would obtain her forgiveness, after which he would be
+faithful unto her as long as they both should live. How fellows
+could--damn!
+
+Jack was shaving at the time and had gashed his chin in his agitation.
+
+He was confident, while he soothed the spot with an antiseptic, that
+such a darling little girl as she, would never hold up against him
+anything he had done in pre-Kitty days. It would be unjust and
+unreasonable. Why, hang it all! who was there that was human who hadn't
+some little--or big--scrape to his discredit in his bachelor days?
+Unfortunately, fellows were not gifted with second sight to know how
+they would feel when they came to be properly in love with the only girl
+in the world for them! The sickening sense of self-disgust----
+
+Another accident with the razor, and Jack paid more attention for a time
+to the matter in hand.
+
+When he was putting the finishing touches to his tie, his fingers
+betrayed by their unsteadiness, his agitated frame of mind.
+
+The worst of it was the blessed uncertainty of the whole affair. A
+fellow could never be sure of a girl like Kitty, or at any time take her
+feelings for granted. The least little bit of a liberty, and--hands off!
+Yet she was adorable and, often, sweetly encouraging. Certain little
+concessions had been treasured in mind and dreamed of at night, such as
+a dainty wrist held out to him for glove-buttons to be fastened; his
+blundering fingers allowed to assist her with her theatre wrap; their
+shoulders touching at a picture palace--a fact of which she had been
+unconscious, but which had thrilled him to the foundations of his being.
+They were hopeful signs; but the indifference with which she could drop
+him for a whole day, so as to keep some idiotic engagement with giggling
+flappers, was enough to send any lover crazy!
+
+Jack hurried downstairs in time to hang about the hotel passage, waiting
+for Kitty to arrive by the lift with her sister so that he could
+accompany them to the dining-hall.
+
+On this occasion Kitty was alone, Joyce having confessed to a headache,
+and they dined at their little table _tete-a-tete_.
+
+"I can't think what is troubling her," the little sister remarked, "for
+she is fearfully worried, I know."
+
+"Something, perhaps, in that letter you took to her a little while ago?"
+suggested Jack.
+
+"It was from a friend of hers at Muktiarbad."
+
+"Honor Bright?"
+
+"Yes--a strange idea to name a girl 'Honor'!"
+
+"Her surname must have suggested it."
+
+"Perhaps I should call it a happy idea. But supposing her character did
+not bear out the selection?"
+
+"In her case, I should say it suits her admirably. She's a topping good
+sort."
+
+"Is she pretty?"
+
+"My chum used to think so, but not I. She's good to look at, anyway, and
+there's something straight and clean about her that does a fellow good.
+She has fine eyes and nice teeth which go far towards beauty."
+
+"I wonder what she could have written about, to upset my sister so
+completely?"
+
+They wondered together, and grew more confidential over their mutual
+interest in the subject. Jack enjoyed every minute of the meal, trying
+to imagine he was dining with his wife,--an idea full of charm.
+
+After dinner was over and Kitty had satisfied herself that Joyce was no
+worse, they strolled in the hotel gardens, at the corner of which was a
+summer-house. Jack who was trembling from head to foot with impatience
+and longing, drew her suddenly within where the shadows were darkening,
+and blurted out his tale of consuming passion. "Can't you see it without
+the need of words? I am mad for love of you! If you don't want me, in
+mercy say so, and I shall go out there and drown myself."
+
+He would have said a great deal more, only there was no need, for Kitty
+confessed that she wanted him more than anything on earth, and was only
+waiting for the initiative to come from him.
+
+Her frank response enraptured Jack, and he caught her to his breast
+inarticulate with joy, while she, free of artificial coyness,
+surrendered herself to his embrace and gave him her sweet lips again and
+again.
+
+Jack felt that he would have liked to have kicked himself all round
+Eastbourne for imagining that he had ever before known what it was to
+love! This was the real thing, and the bliss of it was unspeakable.
+
+"And why didn't you give me the least bit of inkling that you had a soft
+corner in your heart for a blighter like me?" he asked when it was
+possible to indulge in connected conversation.
+
+"Why did you take so long to know your own mind?"
+
+"My mind was made up the instant I found out that you were not Mrs.
+Meredith the afternoon I met you in front of the booking-office at
+Victoria. You surely have not forgotten our very first meeting? I could
+tell you in detail what you wore!"
+
+Of course she had not, though she feigned to seem retrospective.
+
+"I believe you were wearing a shot brown tie," she ventured, perfectly
+aware that she was correct.
+
+"You remember that?" (An interlude of ecstasy.) "I went all the way to
+Richmond just to be able to look at you for a bit longer. I have been in
+love with you for quite a year!"
+
+Doubt being cast upon his veracity, he explained his possession of her
+photograph, which fact she had long been aware of.
+
+"I used to write poems about your eyes and your lips which I thought the
+most alluring in the world. Did I dream I should ever see and kiss them
+in reality?"
+
+Silence again for a further interval of rapture.
+
+"Now you will know how I have been feeling about going out to India! How
+is it possible for me to leave you behind? Can't we be married in a
+week?"
+
+"We could," said Kitty, "but you forget there are others who will have
+something to say to that."
+
+"Your parents?"
+
+"Undoubtedly. One daughter in India is enough for Mother. I am not at
+all sure she will consent." It was very mischievous of her to distress
+him for the sake of delighting in the proofs of his abject slavery to
+herself, but Kitty was nothing if not human, and realising the
+completeness of her own surrender, was pleased to get back a little of
+her own.
+
+His woe-begone look was almost melodramatic. "If they refuse their
+consent, what will you do?"
+
+"I suppose I shall have to obey. I'm not of age, you know," said Kitty
+knowing full well that she was bound to have her own way, her parents
+having long ago resigned themselves to her strength of character and
+determination.
+
+"Then I'll desert and enlist under another name that I might be killed
+by a German bullet," he said gloomily.
+
+"But you mightn't be killed. You might just be smashed up instead,
+invalided out without a limb, or, worse still, be made unrecognisable!"
+
+Horrible prospect! Jack's military ardour cooled visibly. "Anyhow, it
+would be their fault."
+
+"And I should chase after you and beg of you to marry me, all the
+same,--limbless and unrecognisable as you may be!"
+
+"You would? You said just now you would have to obey."
+
+"Of course I would obey, but only for a time. Do you think I shall ever
+give you up, even if the skies were to fall?"
+
+That finished it. Jack was in heaven again, and the time passed with
+amazing rapidity.
+
+Meanwhile, Joyce had been to see Baby Douglas asleep in his crib and was
+weighing the pros and cons of her problem with agonised uncertainty. He
+was now as healthy as any normal infant of his age, and was in the care
+of an experienced and trustworthy nurse. At Wynthrop Manor he would be
+in the lap of luxury, wanting for nothing, and his grandparents would be
+sure to bring him up in the way he should go, till she and Ray came home
+together on his next furlough ... (after the War!--whenever that might
+be!). But all her baby's pretty ways and unfolding intelligence would be
+for others to enjoy! She, his devoted mother, would be thousands of
+miles away!
+
+The thought brought forth a flood of tears, and expressions of sympathy
+from the nurse. "If it makes you feel so badly, I wouldn't go if I were
+you."
+
+"It breaks my heart!"
+
+"There now, don't take on so. Give up the idea. You will feel easier in
+mind to leave him when he is a bit older."
+
+"It will be just as bad--perhaps worse!" cried Joyce, thinking of the
+possibility of a loveless reunion with Ray, if she stayed away too long!
+In that case she would have no compensation for her act of
+self-sacrifice.
+
+"Then take him with you, I have no objection to the voyage, or serving
+in India which I have often wished to see."
+
+"Oh, no. Baby is best here, for his own sake. In India I have all sorts
+of anxieties. I would have to go alone."
+
+"But there are many ladies who stay in Europe for the sake of their
+children, leaving their husbands in India. In my last place, my
+mistress, whose husband was a Forest officer living in lonely places
+among the blacks, spent most of her time with her people in England as
+she could not abide the natives, and the climate upset her nerves. Only,
+occasionally, she visited him in the East, and sometimes he came home."
+
+"What a life!" sighed Joyce. "I know it is done, but it isn't
+right"--she was thinking of Honor's letter. "Both go different ways, and
+what love and happiness is there for them?"
+
+"But that is always so when ladies have husbands in India!"
+
+"It need not be so. It makes me wonder why men marry when they know the
+risk they run of broken domestic ties, and the burdens they have to
+bear! It isn't worth while, if a man is to become only the means of
+providing money for the comforts of his family, and keeping very little,
+or none for himself--poor dear!"
+
+Decidedly, Joyce Meredith's views had undergone a change.
+
+The questions pressing on her mind were--Where was she most needed? and
+where, most, lay her heart's desire?
+
+In her case, duty and desire were no longer in conflict. Clearly, her
+place was beside her husband as long as she was capable of enduring the
+climate, and her heart was sick with longing for him.
+
+"I shall be going out almost immediately--as soon as it can possibly be
+arranged," she said coming to a sudden decision. "Pack the trunks early
+in the morning, and we shall return home in the afternoon to fix this
+up. It will be a great comfort to me, nurse, to know that you will stay
+with Baby."
+
+"I'll stay as long as you want me, ma'am, and you need have no fears,"
+said the woman who was sincerely attached to her charge, and who was
+aware that her devotion received ample recognition.
+
+On her way to her own room, Joyce met two embarrassed and happy people
+waiting to waylay her with their news.
+
+"Take us into your room for a little while, do, there's a darling, we've
+so much to tell you!"
+
+Joyce was hustled into her own room by her little sister with Jack's big
+form looming in the rear, and the wonderful tale was told and her
+congratulations solicited.
+
+"Of course I saw it coming," said Joyce kissing them both. "You were
+like ostriches with your heads in the sand----"
+
+"In the clouds, rather. I have been seeing a little bit of heaven, Mrs.
+Meredith," said Jack.
+
+"Now please come back to earth, and tell me your plans, for I have
+decided to join my husband as soon as it is possible to get a passage."
+
+"You?--with Baby?" from Kitty.
+
+"No. Baby must stay behind."
+
+"Then that was what gave you a headache? You ought to be ashamed of
+yourself to have a headache at the prospect of going back to Ray!" Kitty
+teased.
+
+"Say, 'at the prospect of leaving Baby.'"
+
+"Can't you take him?" said Jack. "There are crowds of youngsters of his
+age getting rosy and fat in the hills all the summer."
+
+"I shouldn't feel safe about him. He'll be best with Grannie."
+
+"Bravo!" cried Kitty. "Jack's got to go very soon, so we can all three
+go together." Jack's face showed intense appreciation.
+
+"You don't mean to say you are thinking of marrying at once?"
+
+"Why not?" from him.
+
+"Of course not," said Kitty ruthlessly. "But as it is not good for you
+to travel alone in these exciting times, you _must_ take me with
+you--engaged to Jack--and to be married when we have time to look
+around. Has anyone any objections?"
+
+"You darling!" gasped Jack.
+
+"Well, let's see what Mother has to say about it," said Joyce. "Meantime
+I shall pack a few things before getting to bed."
+
+"Then you won't be so heartless as to turn us out. Come Jack, and let us
+talk it over"; and Jack, nothing loath, drew her on his knee in the one
+big chair by the window, and for some little time Joyce had ceased to
+exist for them. Neither seemed to mind the fact of her presence; it was
+sympathetic and that was quite enough, so they felt at liberty to
+continue to enjoy their mutual delight in the knowledge that they had
+become engaged.
+
+Joyce suffered a pang of jealous longing for her own dear lover-husband,
+when she saw the look on Jack's face while he held Kitty to his breast
+and kissed her yielding lips. And Kitty, with her arms wound about her
+boy's neck and her face uplifted to his!--It was her hour, and Joyce
+knew that her own was yet to come. She had indeed been the Sleeping
+Beauty who had slept too long under the kisses of her Prince. She had
+never really understood her own heart, or realised love till now. Could
+there ever be a moment more wonderful on this old earth, than that in
+which two lips met in mutual passion?--two souls fused in divine
+ecstasy?
+
+"Blessed darlings!" she murmured to herself, turning aside not to
+intrude on their sacred joy yet conscious of the fervour of the clinging
+kisses, the incoherent whispers, the bounding hearts! It was all as God
+had meant it to be when he created Man and gave him Woman for his mate.
+
+"My place is indeed with my husband," she muttered to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A DESPERATE RESORT
+
+
+In the early days of the Great War, a voyage to India had no terrors for
+the travelled. Before the Hun had proved himself a savage in warfare,
+indifferent to all international laws and the dictates of humanity, the
+only anxieties and drawbacks suffered on the way, were those in relation
+to the risk of encountering mines, or the delays caused by the changing
+of routes. The nerves of the public had not been harrowed by tales of
+atrocities on the high seas, and the nation confidingly believed that
+the glorious traditions of naval warfare were respected even by Germany.
+It had yet to learn what manner of people the Allies were fighting. The
+difficulties and dangers of a sea voyage only added to the thrill of
+expectancy, and the contingency of meeting with German raiders on the
+way, was like having a bit of Marryat's novels in real life; fear was an
+unknown quantity.
+
+As Kitty anticipated, she met with little opposition from her parents in
+the matter of her engagement, or of her voyage to India under her
+sister's chaperonage, with the prospect of a wedding at the end of it.
+Since she had always managed things her own way, there was little use
+wasting time in argument. Jack was a very fine fellow indeed, and Kitty
+might do worse than marry him. At all events, he was the man of her own
+choice.
+
+Accordingly, a trousseau was acquired regardless of cost, and, the
+moment Jack's orders arrived recalling him to duty--which was towards
+the end of August--trunks were packed, passages were booked, and the
+party crossed to France, _en route_ to Marseilles.
+
+Jack's feelings can be better imagined than described. In his wildest
+dreams he had not hoped for such luck as a speedy marriage with Kitty,
+and he was rendered, for a time, incapable of coherent thought. They
+boarded the mail boat at Marseilles and settled down as an engaged
+couple to enjoy the days at sea to the extent of their capacity.
+
+Beyond an occasional cruiser in the distance, or a destroyer there was
+nothing throughout the voyage to remind them of the war; and, from the
+point of view of belligerency, it was both uneventful and calm.
+
+As recognised lovers, Kitty and Jack had the choice of sheltered nooks
+and were left to themselves, undisturbed, except by camera fiends who
+snapped them at embarrassing moments and made themselves generally
+obnoxious.
+
+Being absorbed in his happiness, Jack had given no thought to Mrs. Fox
+who was awaiting him in Calcutta, till, one day, in the Arabian Sea, the
+imminent prospect of their meeting filled him with uneasiness and
+obliged him to consider his position seriously. As far as he knew, she
+was expecting to fall into his arms on his reappearance in India. She
+knew nothing of his new-found happiness and was very likely wondering at
+his reason for having missed so many mails. She would not follow him to
+England since she was aware that all leave was cancelled.
+
+So awkward was the situation, that Jack was greatly disturbed and sought
+the advice of a ship-board acquaintance who happened to be a young man
+of wide experience in the affairs of the heart.
+
+"I should tell my _fiancee_, in your place," said he. "Put it to her
+straight. The great thing is to get your story in before the other has a
+chance to cut the ground from under your feet. That is, if she is the
+sort to do it."
+
+"She's the sort right enough," said Jack miserably. "She would do it to
+spite me for breaking my word to her; but--damn it!--I'd rather be shot
+than become her husband, now that I am crazy after the sweetest girl in
+the world, and she is ready to marry me!"
+
+"Then have it over. It is better than someone telling her at a
+tea-party,--'Didn't he ever confess himself to you?--naughty boy'! and
+so on. Or the disappointed one butting in with--'Hands off! He is
+promised to me!' which is more than likely."
+
+So Jack decided to make his confession, prostrate at her feet,
+metaphorically.
+
+While the lovers were living in a world of their own, Joyce was learning
+many things, chiefly courage and patience. Her fellow-passengers courted
+her society; she was considered the loveliest of women; and all combined
+to spoil her with flattery and attentions. However, she was too much
+absorbed in her own thoughts, her manner was too cold and aloof to lend
+encouragement to flatterers who vied with each other in serving her and
+disputed among themselves for her favours. She took no real interest in
+what was going on, to realise the half of it; and her indifference
+rendered her the more alluring. But Joyce had had a life-long lesson at
+Muktiarbad, and not being by nature, a flirt, the result was that the
+childish coquetries of the past were abandoned for a dignity and reserve
+that would have satisfied the most jealous of husbands.
+
+She had not cabled to India. A desire to read her fate in her husband's
+eyes had fixed her determination to take him by surprise. She would then
+know at the first glance whether she were welcome or had ceased to reign
+supreme in his heart.
+
+Honor had advised her to cable. But this was entirely her own affair and
+she would go through with it. She had a right to expect her husband's
+love and loyalty; and this being the case, there could be no objection
+to her taking him unawares. Joy does not kill; and if she did not bring
+him happiness, it were as well for her not to be deceived. Such was her
+logic, which she kept to herself, being too proud to share her doubts
+with Kitty.
+
+One day, as she lay in a deck chair, apparently dozing with her book
+open on her lap, she overheard two women gossiping together behind the
+angle of the saloon. They were talking of friends in Darjeeling, and
+their voices had lulled her into a state of semi-consciousness, till the
+name "Meredith" made her alive to the fact that her husband was under
+discussion.
+
+"Not the planter, Tom Meredith, but the I. C. S. man."
+
+"Any relation of the pretty creature with us?"
+
+"I am sure I can't say. He is married, I am told, with a wife at home.
+'When the cat's away, the mice _will_ play,' you know! She is a widow,
+or passes for one, and neither cares a snap of the finger for the talk
+about them. All Darjeeling is scandalised, and that's saying a good
+deal! My friend writes that the woman nursed him while he was ill from
+sunstroke in some outlandish station in Bengal, and they became
+fearfully intimate. These nurses know a thing or two and can make
+themselves indispensable if they like. Men generally find them
+irresistible. However, it is rather rough on his wife at home, when you
+come to think of it."
+
+"What has the nurse to do with him, now that he has recovered?"
+
+"Ah, that's the point! She stays at the same hotel nominally looking
+after a delicate baby whose parents are in the plains; but the kid gets
+precious little of her attention. It is left to the ayah's tender
+mercies while the nurse goes about with Mr. Meredith. They are never
+seen apart, and she spends most of her time in his rooms. It puts me in
+mind of that divorce case you may remember two years ago at Simla,
+when"--and the conversation was diverted into other channels.
+
+Meanwhile, Joyce was hot and cold with conflicting emotions. Without
+question, it was her husband they had been discussing, for he was in the
+Indian Civil Service, and had been sent to Darjeeling to convalesce
+after the sunstroke, which had seized him in the District of Muktiarbad,
+the "outlandish station" referred to.
+
+By the light of this conversation Honor's letter was explained. She,
+too, had heard of the doings at Darjeeling, and in her anxiety had
+written that letter imploring her friend to return.
+
+Well--she was returning, but to what?
+
+Her husband was apparently content to be without her--which would
+account for the cable message he had sent her on the outbreak of war,
+forbidding her to travel.
+
+Joyce rose from her deck chair with a face as white as the foam on the
+crested waves, and stumbled to her cabin. "It is nothing," she explained
+to fellow-passengers who offered assistance thinking she was likely to
+collapse, "only a stupid attack of dizziness--I thought I was a better
+sailor, that's all," and she tried to smile.
+
+Kitty was sent to her in hot haste to see what she could do, and was
+told the same thing. "I'll be all right after a bit."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Perfectly," was the assured answer, for Joyce was already determined
+not to go down under the blow, but to fight to a finish. Ray--her
+husband--false to her? The shame of it--the humiliation, would be
+unbearable, if what she had heard were true! It was possible that gossip
+had exaggerated the state of things between him and that woman who had
+nursed him. Scandalmongers never did give any one the benefit of a
+doubt. For instance, scandal might have been busy with her own name and
+that of Captain Dalton, but she was innocent in act and thought. She
+would not judge hastily; but she would allow no woman to dare to come
+between herself and her husband. He was her own man. God had given him
+to her, and she was glad she had taken the journey at all costs to put
+matters right and send the depraved creature--who was trying to take her
+place--about her own business. But if Ray had been false to her--she
+knew he could not lie to her--she would....
+
+Joyce seemed to arrive against a blank wall in her mind as she faced
+such an unthinkable problem as Ray's unfaithfulness.
+
+Later in the evening when she returned to the deck having gained the
+mastery over her nerves, it was to find that an unhappy breach had come
+to pass between Kitty and Jack.
+
+Dancing was in full swing on the hurricane deck, a band was discoursing
+dreamy melodies, and Jack with his back to the sea was leaning against
+the taffrail and glowering at the ship's doctor who was dancing with
+Kitty.
+
+As the evening lengthened, it was evident that the latter was bent upon
+inflicting all manner of snubs and punishments on her distracted lover
+by the taffrail, which in a certain measure, recoiled upon herself.
+Finally, when "lights-out" obliged dancing to come abruptly to an end,
+Kitty retired to her cabin without so much as a good-night to Jack who
+looked as if he had come to the end of all things.
+
+"What is wrong?" Joyce asked her before turning into her berth. "Can I
+help?"
+
+"We've had a disagreement. That is all," said Kitty curtly, looking
+white and angry. "You have heard of lovers' quarrels, I suppose?"
+
+"There is no need to snap my head off," said Joyce. "I am only sorry to
+see it happen. Life is too short for misunderstandings."
+
+"I quite agree with you. But this is not a misunderstanding. I have been
+deliberately deceived."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"What's the use of discussing it?"
+
+"There is no use if you are determined not to be helped."
+
+"What can you do? What can any one do? This is a matter which is only
+between us. I am sorry I did not know all about it before, or I would
+not have become engaged."
+
+A light dawned on Joyce's mind. "Oh--I see. Jack's been telling you
+about his foolishness in the past!"
+
+"You call it foolishness?"
+
+"Wasn't it the height of folly to have been silly about a married woman?
+and one who isn't worth a thought?"
+
+"It was something worse than folly when it came to his being _engaged to
+marry_ her all this time--even when he proposed to me! How dared he do
+it? How had he the nerve to ask me to be his wife when he knew she was
+waiting to marry him on his return to India, having won her decree?"
+
+"I heard she had divorced her husband--the designing wretch! She is a
+perfectly horrid woman. Poor Jack! I don't wonder at his meaning to
+throw her over after knowing you!"
+
+"But to be engaged to two women at the same time!--it is wicked and
+humiliating! Why didn't you tell me of her?"
+
+"It is something to know that you have saved him from making the mistake
+of his life!"--ignoring the question.
+
+This was an inspiration on the part of Joyce, and Kitty was rendered
+dumb. Joyce immediately pursued her advantage.
+
+"To have been compelled to marry Mrs. Fox into whose snare he had
+fallen, would have been a dreadful thing for poor Jack, who, at the
+most, is only an overgrown schoolboy without much experience of the
+world. I did not tell you of it as I thought it was over and done with."
+
+"As a man of honour, he is bound to keep his word to her and marry her
+as he said he would,"--obstinately.
+
+"I would rather see him dead. There is no honour about Mrs. Fox or her
+methods. She deliberately set out to work this thing, and her punishment
+is in your hands. Jack loves you. You have no right to force him into
+marriage with a woman who will ruin his life for him."
+
+"I think he has behaved abominably."
+
+"If you are looking for perfection in the man you intend to marry, you
+had better make up your mind to live an old maid. Good-night!" and
+having delivered her parting shot, Joyce turned away, feeling no longer
+the same childish creature of a few months ago. She had awakened in
+right earnest.
+
+Needless to say, Jack spent the night in his clothes on deck. Sleep was
+impossible; and, in the hope that she would relent and creep on deck to
+find him and retract the hard things she had said, he haunted the
+companion till the stars paled and the day began to break.
+
+But Kitty, though very loving, had a temper that was not easily calmed.
+Jack had behaved abominably right through, and should not get things all
+his own way, she decided, and while relenting inwardly, she maintained
+towards him an attitude of cold disapproval. She had given him back the
+ring--which at that moment was burning a hole in his waistcoat
+pocket--and had had nothing more to say to him, though, when he was not
+conscious of the fact, her eyes often dwelt upon him with wistful
+yearning. He might deserve punishment, but there was no doubt about it,
+that he was the only man in the world for her! She loved everything
+about him, from his curly blond head to the soles of his manly feet. He
+was by far the best-looking boy on the ship, and the most simple-minded!
+Besides, what was unforgettable, he was a prince of lovers! Was she
+going to allow Mrs. Fox to take him?----
+
+Kitty flushed in hot indignation at the thought, but it was right and
+proper that he should suffer for his weakness and folly. Of course, she
+would have to forgive him or be miserable for the rest of her life,
+but--not yet.
+
+The punishment might have continued for days, if Jack's own precipitancy
+had not brought about almost a tragedy.
+
+In the morning he gravitated to his friend again, and in a burst of
+confidence, related the outcome of his having adopted the course that
+had been advised. His friend, wise in the ways of women, listened with
+his tongue in his cheek. Not being in love, himself, he could afford to
+see the humourous side of Jack's trouble. This time he suggested a ruse.
+
+"Excite her pity, my dear fellow. Do something to rouse her heart. It is
+only suffering from shock and will come to the scratch when it is
+stirred by pity. The best thing to do is to get seriously ill. Too much
+grief--mental strain--has brought on a heart attack. Lie down to it and
+kick up a devil of a fuss. I'll tip the doctor a wink and we'll do it in
+style. What do you say to that? When she hears you are on the verge of
+heart failure, all through her, she'll fall on your neck and wipe out
+the past."
+
+"Go to blazes!--I'm not going to do any play-acting and drag the whole
+ship into the secret, only to lose any possible chance I might have had
+if ever it leaked out."
+
+"Then we'll have to think of something else."
+
+"I think I'll just drop overboard, and end everything," said Jack
+melodramatically. "That will show her how I have felt over her treatment
+of me!"
+
+"But you'll not be there to enjoy it. Happy thought. Can you swim?"
+
+"Like a fish."
+
+"Good! You can go overboard if she remains relentless, and the thought
+that she has driven you to commit suicide, will bring her to you weeping
+and repentant the minute you are restored to consciousness."
+
+"What the devil do you mean?"
+
+"Why just an accident, done on purpose. To all it will appear an
+accident. To _her_,--attempted suicide. To you and me, simply bluff.
+I'll be the first to see you go, and a life-buoy will go after you in a
+trice. Only let's know when you contemplate bringing it off, so that I
+can be stationed near one. There'll be no time lost. 'Man overboard!'
+and the engines will be stopped, reversed, a boat lowered, and there you
+are! You'll be fished out apparently drowned--or nearly--and with hot
+water bottles and brandy you'll be well enough to see Miss Kitty in your
+cabin in half an hour."
+
+"What price, sharks?" asked Jack, to whom the adventure strongly
+appealed,--as an adventure, if nothing else. He could imagine the
+commotion on the ship, and Kitty, white with anxiety and self-reproach,
+hanging over the rails as she watched his chances of recovery from the
+briny deep.
+
+"Fellows have been known to fall overboard in the Arabian Sea, and one
+never hears of sharks. You'll have to risk it. Take a sailor's knife;
+then, if you are attacked you can put up a fight till you are picked
+up."
+
+All day Kitty avoided Jack and surrounded herself with the callow youth
+of the vessel. She appeared in high spirits, played deck quoits, and did
+not give him a minute's chance to get a word with her, till the idea in
+his mind, of attempted suicide, took root and developed after serious
+and profound thinking. Something would have to be done. He could not
+exist another day apart from Kitty, severed from her heart, and
+condemned to wear his out in agonies of despair and remorse.
+
+The following morning, after breakfast, Kitty's attitude being
+unchanged, Jack hung upon the taffrail, and, surveying the clear,
+emerald-green waves as they heaved past the sides of the ship,
+telegraphed with his eyes to his resourceful friend.
+
+The sea was choppy and glittered like jewels in the sunlight. Sea-gulls
+skimmed the surface and circled in the wake of the steamer, which was
+travelling fast, the speed of the engines causing a gentle vibration of
+the decks, while the ratlins trembled in the breeze.
+
+It would require some nerve to plunge into the waves, fully clothed; but
+he was in light, deck shoes which could be kicked off; and his coat
+could easily be sacrificed in the water. It was an old suit!
+
+Sharks?--
+
+They had seen none since entering these waters. Besides, he was ready to
+take his chance, or to fight, if it came to the push.
+
+Above all, his act must be made to appear an accident. Kitty, alone,
+should think as she pleased, being in a position to supply a possible
+motive; and, doubtless, her feelings would be heart-rending.
+
+Jack nerved himself to bring this just punishment upon her obduracy and
+took up his position on the taffrail with his back to the sea.
+
+His first act was to note whether Kitty, who was promenading the deck
+with a subaltern--called to active service--had any idea of his peril.
+She had always discouraged his sitting on the taffrail, saying that it
+"got on her nerves."
+
+Kitty glanced towards him, and with an air of indifference continued
+promenading.
+
+Jack's already sore heart was lacerated. Could there be any sharks
+about?
+
+His friend and ally was to be seen idly lounging in the neighbourhood of
+a life-buoy suspended against the rails, further aft.
+
+Just as he was about to let go, someone lounging up, remarked on his
+unhealthy pallor. "Feeling the motion of the vessel?" he asked Jack, who
+did not know what it was to feel sea-sick.
+
+"Not in the least," said Jack wishing him to the devil.
+
+"It must be the smell of kippers. Frankly, I can't stand them. The stink
+hangs about all morning, till one feels one is breathing as well as
+eating kippers."
+
+"They have an unholy smell," Jack agreed, wondering when the fellow
+would move on, or whether his inopportune presence was to be taken as a
+warning not to put his mad intention into effect. He was superstitious
+enough to believe in omens.
+
+"I rather like _bumlas_, do you?" was the next remark.
+
+"I don't know--oh, yes, I think they are topping."
+
+"Sort of jelly-substance, and when fried crisp, the last word!"
+
+"Oh, damn!" said Jack aching for him to go.
+
+"What's that?" the man asked, protruding an ear forward. "The wind makes
+a devil of a noise in these ropes----"
+
+Someone called him off for quoits, and Jack started to tune up his
+nerves again for the plunge.
+
+Children ran between him and the line of chairs he faced. He could see
+Joyce Meredith listening idly while the ship's doctor talked to her. At
+that moment the subaltern took Kitty's hand in his to examine a ring she
+was wearing,--an heirloom, with a story,--and this gave the final
+stimulus to Jack's sporting resolve. He was seen suddenly to lose his
+balance, throw out his arms, and disappear over the side.
+
+On the instant there was wild confusion. Chairs were flung back,
+children shrieked, women fell fainting on the deck. Someone had shouted,
+"Man overboard!" which was taken up vociferously in every key by, at
+least, a hundred throats, and in less than a minute the engines were
+silent, the vessel moving only with its headway. Then, with a blast of
+steam, they were reversed. Meanwhile, the after part of the hurricane
+deck, and the poop of the second saloon, were packed with eager souls
+scanning the surface of the water in the hope of catching sight of their
+unfortunate fellow-passenger.
+
+Again the vessel stopped, and a boat was lowered.
+
+"Wonderful presence of mind," the doctor said to Joyce as she, too,
+anxiously strained her eyes to look for the reappearance of Jack's form
+in the water, which had been seen, and then lost sight of. "Did you hear
+how a fellow kept his head when he saw young Darling go over, sending a
+life-buoy the same moment after him? Splendid, I call that!"
+
+Joyce was deeply impressed. "He has probably saved Jack's life! Good
+man! does any one know where my sister is?"
+
+Kitty was nowhere to be seen. Joyce presently found her in the saloon
+crouching on a sofa with her hands over her ears.
+
+"He is drowned, I know he is drowned, and I shall never see him any
+more! I have killed him just as surely as if I sent him over with my own
+hands!--oh, let me die!" She was beside herself, and her suffering would
+not only have more than healed Jack's injured feelings, but have made
+him sue for pardon.
+
+Joyce took her in her arms and they clung together, fearful of what they
+should presently hear. The shrieks of the women and children were
+mingled with the voices of the men shouting instructions from the deck
+to the officer in the boat. Nothing definite could be gleaned from the
+excited ejaculations of the onlookers.
+
+"What made me do it!--why did I let myself behave so!" Kitty cried
+shivering from the force of her emotions. "I shall never be able to ask
+his forgiveness for my hardness, and yet in my heart I was melted
+towards him and longing to tell him so,--only waiting till the evening
+when we could be more alone. Oh, I am terribly punished for daring to
+punish my poor Jack!"
+
+"We are not to give up hope, dearest, but are to will with might and
+main that he be saved. It all helps. Honor Bright says it is
+scientifically possible to impose will-power on the forces of nature. It
+is a way God works for us and with us."
+
+"It is useless to tell me all that when I cannot even think!" wailed
+Kitty.
+
+"But there is a great deal in heaven and earth that is not 'dreamt of in
+our philosophy,'" Joyce repeated.
+
+"Oh, my poor Jack!--Go, Joyce, and ask what is happening, now! I cannot
+bear this stillness." For a sudden hush seemed to have fallen on the
+company on deck.
+
+At that moment, a distant cheer came from over the water. It was taken
+up by those watching from the ship and loud "Hurrahs!" sounded again and
+again.
+
+"Oh, thank God!--he must be safe!" cried Joyce.
+
+Kitty seemed to crumple up as she burst into a passion of tears.
+
+Neither she nor Joyce had any idea that the rescue of Jack Darling was a
+touch and go. He had gone overboard confident of being able to keep
+afloat till he was picked up, and willing to accept his fate if it
+worked out otherwise. Having, in his despair, become temporarily insane,
+he was hardly accountable for his actions till his immersion in the
+waves brought him rudely to his senses. After coming to the surface, he
+looked about for the steamer, and was astounded to see it already so far
+away that it seemed to him impossible for a boat's crew to descry him in
+that heaving expanse of ocean. To add to his dismay, the vessel seemed
+to steam on as though determined to leave him to his fate.
+
+The prospect was horrible!
+
+In a flash, he saw himself swimming till exhausted and a prey to sharks.
+Life became all at once very dear. Whether with, or without Kitty, it
+would be better to live, than to die this slow and lonely death! He had
+been nothing but a damned idiot to have allowed himself to be dragged
+into such a dangerous piece of melodrama, and all for nothing! With a
+little patience and perseverance he might have gained his end without
+all this miserable fuss! No abuse was strong enough for his folly.
+
+At that moment he espied the life-buoy, which he was fearing he would
+never find, and eagerly scrambled into it. Ah, that was better! Though
+he could swim like a fish, there was no doubt about it that he was
+grateful for support in the restless waters. Sometimes he was on the top
+of a wave where he was able to see the far distant ship; then, with a
+smart buffeting, he would find himself at the bottom of a trough with,
+what looked like green mountains of water threatening to engulf him.
+
+It was an immense relief to his mind when it became apparent that the
+vessel was steaming back on her course, and the sight of the boat being
+lowered gave him new life and confidence.
+
+But before it could reach him, symptoms of cramp in one leg had set
+in--possibly, because of late he had entirely neglected his exercises.
+The first twinge scared him mightily. If it should increase, he would be
+doubled up in the water and, in spite of the buoy, go down like a stone.
+The prospect racked him with suspense. The cramp again seized him with
+demoniacal violence and a red-hot band seemed to tighten round about his
+limb....
+
+Was it cramp, or the jaws of a shark?
+
+Petrifying thought!
+
+If ever he had been punished in his life for folly, he was being
+punished now!
+
+He glanced wildly over his shoulder, then at the advancing boat. He
+tried to call aloud, but his voice was choked with spray. The pain
+intensified. It seemed to rise into his thigh and the leg felt wrenched
+from its socket. Surely this was the end? A shark----?
+
+Jack remembered no more. He had fainted with the pain of severe cramp
+combined with the shock of terror. He had never been wanting in courage,
+but physical agony, and the notion of falling a prey to sharks before he
+had time to show fight, had caused him to swoon.
+
+And it was at that moment that the boat reached him, and eager hands
+snatched him into safety.
+
+Before the boat reached the ship he had recovered, and after a stiff
+dose of brandy, was able to take an interest in his rescue.
+
+"I could have sworn a shark had got me," he explained. "The pain was so
+excruciating."
+
+"In the water, cramp is the very devil!" said the third officer.
+
+It was a shamed and chastened young man who disappeared into his cabin,
+amid hearty congratulations, to change into dry garments. In the face of
+so much honest relief and thankfulness, he felt a very worm for his
+deceit and trickery. It had been a mean game--a dirty trick he had
+played everybody, and Kitty in particular; which might easily have cost
+him his life. Truly, he had come to the conclusion that he was not fit
+to aspire to any nice girl. Kitty was properly fastidious, and she was
+not to be blamed for having recoiled from his unsavoury story, though it
+had been the barest outline of his misdemeanours that he had given her.
+All the same, it was hardly a yarn for the ears of even modern eighteen!
+
+She being his promised wife, he had felt it due to her to reveal his
+past--(lest others should do so!)--and he had no right to rebel against
+her verdict, however blasting to his life and happiness--and so on, and
+so forth.
+
+In downright self-disgust he kept his cabin, pleading the effects of
+cramp and exhaustion, and emerged only when it was dark, to drop into a
+deck chair behind a windlass, and brood upon his sins, staring out upon
+the moonlit sea.
+
+Here Kitty came to him with healing, and here we take our leave of them
+for the present, feeling perfectly sure that Jack was not likely to
+damage his chances of reconciliation by any further confessions,--not
+even concerning his latest and maddest adventure. Confession may be good
+for the soul, but Jack had learned that there are circumstances when it
+is better to be silent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+TEMPORISINGS
+
+
+While Jack counted the days to the arrival of the ship at Bombay, and
+Joyce lived in anticipation of the reunion with her husband; while Honor
+watched for the coming of Joyce and an end to an impossible situation in
+Darjeeling; while Dalton played at friendship with the girl he adored,
+since to desire more was like asking for the moon; and while Tommy was
+breaking his heart with disappointment, and tormenting the Government of
+Bengal for permission to join the Indian Army reserve, instead of
+continuing to serve that Government by safe-guarding his District, it
+seemed almost inconceivable that thousands of miles away, the destinies
+of nations were in the melting pot, and the map of Europe in process of
+re-making.
+
+Immense armies were in training; miracles of organisation were taking
+place within the British Empire. Always the greatest Naval Power, she
+was rapidly becoming, also, a great Military Power.
+
+The grand old army of "Contemptibles" was covering itself with
+imperishable glory; Indian and Colonial troops were mobilising for the
+assistance of the Motherland. In all parts of the world the clarion cry
+was sounded--"To arms!"
+
+The War was the absorbing topic in all the cities of the world.
+
+But at little Muktiarbad and similar rural districts, the placid
+monotony of daily life was barely stirred.
+
+There was "a war on," of course, they said in the bazaars. India was
+involved--that, also, was a matter of course. The fighting sons of India
+could not be left out of such a fateful occasion as a war which called
+for loyalty and support. But it was an impersonal matter to native
+Muktiarbad. Doubtless, one of these wise dispensations of the Almighty,
+that helped to thin out the too rapidly increasing population of the
+world! It had no bearing on the lives and fortunes of the cultivator and
+the shop-keeper, save, that, in the case of the latter, it enabled him
+to put up his prices. But since the sun rose and set exactly as usual,
+and the flowers bloomed, and the seasons remained unchanged, and the
+daily life of the District continued undisturbed, where was the need to
+worry?
+
+True, there was occasionally talk in the bazaar of battles lost and won;
+but talk was the life of the bazaar. Whatever happened, or did not
+happen, the bazaar always knew about it and spread rumours that none
+heeded, for rumours are always unreliable. What did they amount to,
+anyway? Nothing came of them, so far as the countryside was concerned.
+
+Now and again, it was said, that So-and-So, generally a stout Pathan,
+who had seen active service on the frontier, had packed his bundle and
+was off on his own initiative to offer his strong right arm for the
+cause of the _Sarcar_ who was his father and his mother. His ancestors
+had fought and bled--or died; won medals and gained pensions; he, too,
+would gain medals and a pension, or lose his life if God so willed it.
+"_Kismet ke bat!_"[18] Where was he going? God knew! Some day, if it was
+so willed, he would return to tell.
+
+[Footnote 18: With Fate lay the decision.]
+
+Like as not, he would never return. When youth went a-travelling, the
+attractions of the great world seldom released him from their thrall.
+
+At the court-house, the Magistrate and Collector, officiating for
+Meredith who was still on leave at Darjeeling, tried cases and settled
+disputes, while the court-yard in front was covered with squatting
+humanity, chewing _pan_ and awaiting their individual turns to be called
+up before the _Hakim_ to tell--anything but the truth!
+
+At the Club, the sahibs and memsahibs played tennis and bridge and
+enjoyed their cold drinks as usual, just as though there were no
+sanguinary battles raging afar, such as the world had never known in all
+its history.
+
+Once, during the month of August, a strange _babu_ had appeared in the
+bazaar, and, perching himself upon a cask, had talked sedition for about
+an hour to apathetic ears. Muktiarbad, being mainly Mohammedan, did not
+like gentlemen of the Brahmin persuasion; so he had departed much
+disheartened. Shortly after, another agitator--a Mohammedan this
+time--had endeavoured to incite the peace-loving population to revolt by
+preaching religious antagonism towards Christians.
+
+But Muktiarbad was not to be roused. "Live and let live" was the
+prevailing sentiment among its people. Besides, what was the use of
+rebelling, since it would be futile against such a mighty race as the
+British, who were also good rulers, taking no advantage to themselves
+from their might, and giving each man according to his due? The needs of
+the village folk were mainly personal, and so long as these were
+supplied, what cared they if the rulers of the land were Christians.
+They never interfered with the Moslem religion; why should Moslems
+interfere with theirs? And so this man also departed discouraged.
+
+At Panipara, interest centred chiefly on the fact that the Government
+had decided that the _jhil_ should be drained. The Great War was a
+secondary matter. Wells were already in process of construction and, at
+the end of the rains, before the water of the wide morass could be
+poisoned with germs, usually bred in the drought of winter and spring,
+the drainage was to be taken in hand and the health of the District
+safeguarded forever. All this interference and annoyance had sprung from
+the doctor Sahib, who was thereby the most unpopular sahib that had ever
+been put in charge of the sanitation of a District. He was cursed by the
+ignorant in the Muktiarbad bazaar and at Panipara village itself, but so
+far his person had been respected, as it was known by some occult means
+that he secretly carried firearms wherever he went.
+
+In July, Honor had returned with her mother from Mussoorie in the
+Himalayas, physically and mentally stronger for her prolonged absence.
+
+Captain Dalton and she had corresponded as friends, all expressions of
+personal feeling being rigorously excluded from the closely written
+pages. Both had bravely "played the game," the faithfulness and
+regularity of the letters, alone testifying to their unchanged devotion.
+
+When they met again, Honor having braced herself to the ordeal, had
+sustained it courageously, no one guessing how much it had cost her to
+smile and shake hands with the doctor as naturally as she had done, the
+moment before, with Tommy; for the meeting had taken place,
+unexpectedly, at the Club.
+
+Captain Dalton retired to his bungalow shortly afterwards, and the
+tension had lifted. He had gone, Honor knew, instinctively, because he
+could not bear to stand by, listening indifferently to the general
+conversation when his heart was filled with longing to speak to her
+alone. She had experienced the same inward impatience, but had learned a
+greater self-control.
+
+By and by, their meetings became frequent; but the self-imposed
+restraint, mutually practised, had a wearing effect on the nerves of
+both.
+
+And all the while, gossip in connection with Ray Meredith filtered
+through from various sources, and caused no little comment among his
+friends.
+
+At last a letter to Mrs. Bright from Mrs. Ironsides, who was spending a
+month at the Sanitorium, placed it beyond doubt that Ray Meredith was
+very securely in the toils of his former nurse who was in the same
+hotel, in charge of a child suffering from jaundice.
+
+"She has been in Darjeeling, with one pretext and another, I am told,
+ever since Mr. Meredith recovered," the lady wrote, "and people are
+beginning to look askance at her for the flagrant manner in which she
+flaunts her ascendancy over him. It is a thousand pities his wife is not
+with him, for he is at the woman's heels morning, noon, and night.
+Rumour says their rooms adjoin! I should feel inclined to blame him
+soundly were it not for the fact that he looks very delicate since his
+illness, and that people recovering from sunstroke are not altogether
+themselves. Possibly he is merely drifting for want of someone
+sufficiently interested in him to save him! Whatever it is, this Mrs.
+Dalton must be an abandoned creature, for she is indifferent to the fact
+that she is creating a disgusting scandal. When you think of how devoted
+that man was to his pretty little wife, you feel inclined, to believe
+anything of men! But, as I say, he cannot be himself. Let us hope it is
+only due to the sunstroke, and that his wife will come out soon and look
+after him."
+
+Honor took this news to heart and wrote the appeal to Joyce of which the
+reader is already aware: she also gradually brought her mind to the
+point of speaking frankly to Captain Dalton on the subject.
+
+Since her return from the hills, two weeks before, she had not met him
+alone, so that when she asked him, in a little note to see her at the
+Club next morning on a matter of some anxiety, he was naturally full of
+wonderment as he drove to keep the appointment.
+
+The marker, alone, was in possession of the Club and in his office, when
+Dalton arrived, so that the meeting was undisturbed.
+
+"You are surprised that I should have sent for you?" Honor said, as she
+stepped off her bicycle, having greeted him with a friendly nod. Had she
+given him her hand he would have noticed that it was trembling.
+
+"Pleased, as well as surprised," said he, feasting his soul on the
+wholesome, girlish face with its frank, trustworthy eyes. "Has anything
+happened?" He was longing to hear that her request was prompted only by
+her great desire to have speech with him alone; but even as the thought
+crossed his mind, he knew that Honor would never have made an
+assignation with him for any personal reason. Not with those truthful
+eyes!
+
+"A great deal seems to be happening," she said as they walked into the
+building side by side, and found themselves seats in the verandah.
+Dalton had hoped she would have led him to one of the public rooms
+where, at least, they would have been safe from the curious eyes of
+passing natives; but that she did not, was consistent with her
+character, for she was as open as the day.
+
+Seated beside him, she told him of Mrs. Ironside's letter and of her
+own, unhappy fears for Joyce, and her future relations with her husband.
+
+"She should not have gone home so soon after her marriage," said Dalton.
+"I guessed how it would be when the nurse took on the job, for Meredith
+is a very charming fellow, and she is a woman without a conscience."
+
+"Brian, we must stop it!" It had been "Brian" and "Honey" in the
+letters.
+
+"Not even an angel from heaven could, if Meredith is infatuated. I tell
+you, she is a clever fiend."
+
+"It rests with you!" said Honor appealingly.
+
+"With me?" surprised.
+
+"Joyce and her husband love each other. I will not believe that he has
+ceased to care. Doesn't sunstroke somewhat dull memory?"
+
+"For a time, yes,--possibly. Sometimes altogether. Meredith, however, is
+all right, or will be when he regains his normal vigour."
+
+"I take it that he is not his normal self, and that when he is, he will
+be ashamed of the part he is now playing. Joyce's happiness is at stake.
+She is a simple little thing and very fond of him. Their happiness must
+be saved--even at a sacrifice."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Oh, Brian!--you will have to take your wife back!"
+
+Dalton stared dumbly at her. That Honor should ask him to take back the
+woman who had wrecked his life and whom he despised as the commonest
+prostitute in the land!----
+
+"_You_ ask me that?" he breathed.
+
+Honor bent her head. She could not but realise that the step she
+proposed was a terrible outrage.
+
+"Why, Honey!" His voice was choked. "Have you any idea of what you are
+asking me to do?"
+
+"It will be a great sacrifice--which--which I shall--share--" words
+failed her and she looked away with a pathetic trembling of her lip.
+
+"_You_ would wish it?" in wounded tones.
+
+"I would hate the thought of it!--yet, something must be done. She might
+find it more profitable to return to you and leave Mr. Meredith in
+peace."
+
+A painful silence.
+
+"Honey, if she lived with me I should surely murder her! Do you know how
+I detest the woman? Do you imagine I could take her back as a wife? I
+would rather be shot."
+
+Honor buried her face in her hands. In her heart of hearts she was
+singing a paean of thanksgiving that he was still hers--only hers, though
+divided from her by an impassable gulf!
+
+"You could bear to see me reconciled to her?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Honey," he cried desperately. "I would do anything in the world for
+you!"
+
+"But you cannot sacrifice yourself for a good woman's happiness?" she
+questioned, hardly knowing what she said.
+
+"Why should I for Mrs. Meredith?"
+
+"Because you once owed her a debt--she was very good to you after----"
+
+"My God!--yes!"
+
+"This will kill her. She will hear--there are so many who will be ready
+to give her chapter and verse of the scandal against her husband. But if
+this--nurse--were with you, it would, perhaps, all blow over."
+
+"Is it really your wish that I should do this thing? Remember, she is
+hateful to me--and she can never, in any sense, be my wife again!"
+
+"I am--glad!" she could not help exclaiming. "Then the sacrifice will
+not be so terrible, after all!"
+
+"Perhaps not," he answered, his eyes full on hers with a passion of
+longing. "Will you let me think it over?"
+
+"Decide quickly!" she begged him.
+
+"There is nothing I would not do for you," he repeated.
+
+Honor rose with her gracious smile of gratitude and trust, and they
+parted without touching hands. When she returned home, the reaction from
+the strain of their meeting prostrated her for hours. Her parents feared
+that the climate of Muktiarbad was, at last, telling on her healthy
+constitution as it had told on Ray Meredith's.
+
+"Perhaps we shall have to send you home!" her mother sighed anxiously.
+
+"Not a bit of it!" Honor asserted. "The cold weather will put me to
+rights very soon."
+
+"Perhaps you have something on your mind, darling?"
+
+"I have. I am worrying badly for Joyce Meredith."
+
+"Joyce will get nothing more than she deserves. Why should you suffer?
+It is nobody's business to meddle between husband and wife."
+
+"Somebody is already meddling, so it may need counter-meddling to put it
+right."
+
+"I shouldn't bother my head. We have enough to do without trying to act
+Providence in the case of fools."
+
+"We are not trying to act Providence, but Providence needs to use us. It
+seems we are just so many pawns in the great Game."
+
+"It has often puzzled me what Captain Dalton has been after," said Mrs.
+Bright, eyeing her daughter rather narrowly. Fear had preyed
+considerably on her mind, that the doctor had been playing fast and
+loose with her child, to her sorrow. "You and he have been fast friends.
+Once you told me there was an 'understanding'; but nothing seems to have
+come of it, though you have corresponded very regularly."
+
+"I showed you some of his letters, darling," Honor temporised, faithful
+to her intention of bearing her own burdens alone, if possible.
+
+"Nice, manly letters they were, and most interesting of his work and
+things in general. But I am none the wiser."
+
+"What did you understand of our friendship?"
+
+"That there was an 'understanding,'" her mother repeated.
+
+"I do dislike that word in the sense you are applying it!" said Honor
+with a forced laugh. "We are not going to get married, anyway, for
+Captain Dalton is a married man."
+
+"Honey!" Mrs. Bright was dumbfounded. "Since when have you known this?"
+
+"For quite a long time; since early summer, in fact. You have met his
+wife--Mrs. Dalton, the nurse. Everyone here fancied her name was a
+coincidence. She worked to come here that she might see her husband and
+get him to take her back." Having said so much, Honor went on to explain
+further the cause of the breach between husband and wife and the
+irrevocable nature of it. "I am telling you this, dear, as you have a
+right to know the truth, being my mother. It is, however, a personal
+confidence, which no one else need share," Honor concluded.
+
+"Why did you not mention it to me before?" Mrs. Bright asked while a
+light dawned on her mind.
+
+"Because I have been very sorry for him, and, somehow, I felt I ought to
+respect his confidence. But it will, inevitably, be known in time, and
+then you will be able to say you were not uninformed."
+
+"Honor, are you in love with Captain Dalton?" Mrs. Bright asked
+pointedly.
+
+Honor winced. "Yes, Mother. And he loves me."
+
+Mrs. Bright looked faint. "_You_, my child, in love with a married man!"
+This was, indeed, a blow! It accounted, fully, for Honor's
+discouragement of eligible suitors in Mussoorie, which had greatly vexed
+her mother at the time. "This is dreadful!"
+
+"Not at all, except for the fact that it is naturally a grief to me,--to
+us both; for, as you see, we can never marry."
+
+Mrs. Bright was entirely astray. When other girls were convicted of
+being in love with married men, it had always sounded so immoral! But no
+one could think of Honor as such. She was plainly an upright and
+honourable girl.
+
+"Yet you encouraged his writing, and answered his letters! You meet, to
+all appearances, as if nothing is wrong. What am I to make of it?"
+
+"That we are very much to be pitied. Writing and meeting openly are all
+that are left to us."
+
+"He should have gone away--severed his connection with Muktiarbad. Not
+have stayed to fan the flame!"
+
+"Life is too short for needless sacrifices, Mother darling. Having made
+the greatest, we refuse to suffer more than we need. Sometimes, if you
+are starving for food, a bare crust will keep you alive. We are
+subsisting on bare crusts and are grateful."
+
+"I consider Captain Dalton has not behaved at all well. He knew his
+position and went out of his way to make you care!"
+
+"Ah, no!--it just happened!" said Honor, her eyes suddenly flooded with
+tears.
+
+Mrs. Bright looked at her daughter's white and sorrowful face, and away
+again. She could not bear to see the suffering there. All the traditions
+of her life caused her to stand aghast at the idea of dalliance with a
+sin so subtle and alluring as this. It should be the root-and-branch
+method. Nothing else would suffice to save her child! Yet her own eyes
+overflowed in sympathy.
+
+"Oh, my poor little Honey!" She held out her arms and Honor took refuge
+in them to weep unrestrainedly. "We are trying to be so good!" she
+cried.
+
+After kissing her daughter tenderly, Mrs. Bright said: "You cannot
+temporise with forbidden fruit, Honey. Eve did, you know. You are but
+human, therefore fallible, however good you are trying to be. The time
+will come when the heart, torn with longing, becomes too weak to resist.
+Specious arguments are insidious and irresistible, and you will go down.
+_Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!_ That is why
+we pray, _Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil_. Our
+Lord understood human nature better than we ever shall, that is why
+there is only one thing to do, and that is, to fly from temptation. We
+pray to be 'delivered,' but praying alone doesn't suffice if we are to
+be honest with ourselves and God. There is nothing that will save us,
+but _doing right_."
+
+"We are doing nothing wrong!" Honor pleaded.
+
+"The wrong lies in the lack of moral courage to deal drastically with
+the wound. If poison remains, it is bound to fester. Captain Dalton
+should go away."
+
+"We were obliged to let ourselves down gently. It has been so
+miserable!" Down went Honor's head on her mother's shoulder, and the
+tears fell fast.
+
+Tears also fell on her dark head. Mrs. Bright's heart was wrung with
+pity. She had said enough for the present, so now devoted herself to
+soothing her beloved child's sorrow with her never-failing sympathy.
+Honor was a good girl, and to be trusted entirely to look her trouble
+squarely in the face and conquer it; and the mother's heart was lifted
+in prayer that she might be enabled to aid and strengthen her child.
+
+It was very shortly after this that war broke out, and there was so much
+to think of and talk about in the Station, that private affairs were
+temporarily set aside. The newspapers were read eagerly in detail;
+correspondence with dear ones over the seas was quickened with new
+interest; and everyone, even in such a little place as Muktiarbad, found
+plenty to do to help in the common cause. War-work parties were
+organised, at which the ladies engaged in knitting woollen comforts for
+the troops, and in making up parcels to be dispatched to the front and
+to prisoners in Germany; and every member had some bit of war news to
+discuss with the others at the Club as they rested from their games
+under the waving _punkha_.
+
+"It will drive me silly," Tommy had said from the first, "if I have to
+loaf about in a place like this when all my pals and school
+contemporaries have volunteered, or are in the thick of it, doing their
+bit."
+
+"You are doing your bit, just as any one who is killing Germans," said
+Mrs. Ironsides who had returned from Darjeeling. "What is to become of
+us all, if all medically fit civil officers are sent to fight? Why, we
+should be murdered in our beds, if it were not for the Police!"
+
+Tommy thought he would cheerfully risk Mrs. Ironsides being murdered in
+her bed, if the Government would only allow him to serve "for the
+duration"; and he continued to send in applications for leave to join
+up, with a persistency worthy of the Great Cause, in the hopes that
+constant dripping would wear away the stony indifference with which they
+were treated.
+
+One evening, towards the end of September, Captain Dalton sought Honor
+at the Club. He had news for her, the gravity of which shadowed his
+deep-set eyes and heightened the grim setting of his jaw.
+
+In a room full of people engrossed in one another, he gravitated to her,
+as usual, but surprised her by asking her to grant him a few words in
+private. "Come out with me to the tennis courts," he commanded with a
+definiteness she felt powerless to slight.
+
+It was dark on the tennis courts with only a young moon shining;
+nevertheless, Honor accompanied him forth, realising the fatefulness of
+the coming interview. When they had reached the shadow of the Duranta
+hedge that separated the courts from the building, and were seated on a
+bench, he told her in a few words that he had decided to comply with her
+wishes in the matter of his wife. It had taken him two months to bring
+himself to the point of making the sacrifice, but at last it was made.
+
+"Of course I am doing it to please you. You have set your heart on
+helping Joyce Meredith, and as this is the only way, it shall be done
+though it takes a mighty effort in the doing. I am writing to tell her
+that she may return to my protection openly, as my wife; but, needless
+to say, my wife only in name. If it will give her a chance to right
+herself in the eyes of the world and help her to live as an honest
+woman, she is welcome to make the fullest use of my offer. It certainly
+might keep her from tampering further with Meredith's loyalty to his
+wife. But I question whether it is not too late!"
+
+"It is never too late!" said Honor, feeling numb and paralysed.
+
+"That will be up to Mrs. Meredith. She is an unsophisticated little
+thing, and, I dare say, Meredith will keep his mouth shut."
+
+It was plain to judge that he was again full of envy of other men's
+chances of happiness, for his tones reminded Honor of the man he was
+when they first met. It was too dark to see his face.
+
+"If she accepts your offer will she come here?" Honor asked shrinkingly.
+
+"She will have to if she comes at once. But I expect soon to be put on
+active service. My application to serve with the Army is receiving
+consideration, and it is possible I shall have to go to France or Egypt
+as there may be trouble with Turkey. In that case she will choose her
+residence. Another medical officer will occupy my bungalow."
+
+So it had come at last!
+
+Honor had been fearing that the war would, in its relentlessness, claim
+him also. It was said in the papers that there was a scandalous shortage
+of surgeons for a war of such magnitude.
+
+Suddenly she was seized with shivering. "You will go and we shall never
+meet again!" fell from her lips independent of her will.
+
+Dalton took her with determination in his arms and kissed her
+passionately on the lips. "My own love!" he moaned over her. "My
+precious one!"
+
+This was what her mother had meant when she had spoken of her becoming,
+in time, too weak to resist. For the moment her will was as weak as
+water; she could only cling to him and yield to their mutual craving for
+demonstrations of love. It was wrong, of course,--but, even so, it was
+heaven so long as they could banish memory and think only of the joy of
+enfolding arms, the meeting of loving lips!
+
+"I shall be going away and we might never meet again!" he echoed her
+words in passionate despair. "Pity me a little, when we meet, and let us
+be happy! Promise!"
+
+"I dare not promise," she cried, quivering with emotion in his arms. "I
+love you, but help me to do right!"
+
+For some time neither spoke while Dalton seemed struggling with the
+might of his desire. They rested on the iron bench wrapped in each
+other's arms, speechless for many moments till the peacefulness and
+silence of the night brought them sanity and calm. Then, kissing her
+once more with the tenderness of renunciation, he put her aside and rose
+to his feet.
+
+"I wonder you care for such a worthless hound as myself!" he said at
+length. "I have no self-control. Go in, darling, I am going home to
+scourge myself for attempting to lead you against the dictates of your
+conscience. Forgive me, Honey, I was mad!"
+
+Honor left him, shaken in every nerve, her self-confidence shattered.
+"Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall!" But it
+rejoiced her that Brian Dalton had fought his battle with himself alone,
+and had conquered. How much his appreciation of her high sense of honour
+had contributed to his victory, she would never know.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+SUSPENSE
+
+
+The next morning Honor received a telegram from Joyce to meet her at the
+Grand Hotel in Calcutta without delay, and she was only too glad for a
+respite of even a few days from the pain of schooling herself to avoid
+the man she loved. Her parents having no objection, she caught the
+express at midday, and was in Calcutta the same night, her mind
+lightened of one of its burdens. At least the little wife had acted upon
+advice and was going to her husband without waste of time, after which
+all would surely be well for them both.
+
+Joyce was prepared for her coming, and they talked to a late hour, she,
+betraying her trouble by her anxious questioning, which Honor skilfully
+parried.
+
+"You must not put too much faith in gossip," said Honor after learning
+of the conversation which had been overheard on the ship. "Have you
+wired?"
+
+Joyce confessed her intention to take her husband by surprise. "Only,
+now that it has come to the point, I am as nervous as I can be."
+
+"You had better wire. It will bring your husband down half-way to meet
+you and give him some happy hours of anticipation."
+
+"You are not sincere when you say that," said Joyce unexpectedly, "or
+why did you tell me to stop at nothing to come out?"
+
+Joyce was no longer the same, ingenuous little girl Honor had parted
+from at Muktiarbad eight months ago. Her manner had acquired assurance,
+her carriage a becoming dignity, and there was about her an air of
+thoughtfulness and reserve, new to her.
+
+"I said it was not good for man to live alone, nor is it."
+
+"And you knew there was someone trying to supplant me in his
+affections?"
+
+"I knew he was exposed to the influence of a woman without a
+conscience." Honor then told her precisely who Nurse Dalton was, and how
+her flagrant pursuit of Ray Meredith had aroused the anxious concern of
+his friends. Not another word would she add as fuel to the fire of
+Joyce's jealous imagination.
+
+"Well, I shall be able to find out all about this for myself when I am
+there!" sighed Joyce when she had heard the woman's history.
+
+Honor prayed inwardly that Mrs. Dalton would have received Captain
+Dalton's offer before then, and have lost no time in arranging to come
+away. She could not prevail on Joyce to telegraph to her husband of her
+arrival in India, or that he was to expect her in Darjeeling as soon as
+the railway service could take her there. As it was no part of a
+friend's duty to interfere in the affairs of husband and wife, she
+desisted from further persuasion, content to leave the issue to a Higher
+Power.
+
+They passed on to other topics, and Honor was intensely pleased to learn
+from Joyce of Jack's happy fate as Kitty's accepted lover; and, further,
+that the two were married by special licence soon after landing at
+Bombay.
+
+"They are so happy! Last night they left for the new station to which he
+is appointed, as mentioned in the _Gazette_ yesterday. During the few
+hours they were in town they tried to keep out of the way of Mrs.
+Fox--perhaps you know Jack had allowed her to believe he would marry
+her?"
+
+Honor believed she had heard the rumour.
+
+"However, as ill-luck would have it, he and Kitty ran into her, so to
+speak, in the foyer of this hotel! I was there, and, believe me, I was
+never so uncomfortable in my life! Kitty was looking charming, and so
+smart. Happiness agrees with her, for I have never seen her look better
+in my life. We were waiting for a taxi, when who should come in but Mrs.
+Fox with some friends! Mistaking Kitty for me,--people say we are very
+much alike,--she held out her hand and said in her affected way--you
+remember?--'Oh, how d'you do, Mrs. Meredith. I had no idea you had come
+out again!' Then, seeing her mistake, she apologised, for I was
+following Kitty to the door.
+
+"'It's my sister,' said I, feeling dreadfully embarrassed at having to
+make the introduction. 'Mrs. Darling, Mrs. Fox,' I said, and just at
+that moment Jack came in and straight up to us, with no eyes for any one
+but his wife. 'Come, dear, I have managed to get a taxi for the
+luggage,' and then his eyes fell on Mrs. Fox. Really, poor Jack! he
+turned quite pale. But Kitty who knew all about that affair and had
+forgiven it, smiled graciously at Mrs. Fox who was paralysed with shock,
+and said--'I am so sorry we haven't a moment. My husband and I are tied
+to time and have to catch a train. Good-bye,'--with a bow,--'so pleased
+to have met you!'
+
+"Jack also bowed, speechless, as he hurried after Kitty. We all three
+fairly ran, though we had plenty of time for their train; but if looks
+could have killed, I am sure Jack would have died on the spot."
+
+To Honor's credit be it known that she suffered a twinge of pity for
+Mrs. Fox; a passing twinge, such as one might feel for people when they
+come to grief by their own act.
+
+"I wonder what Mrs. Fox will do, now," Honor remarked after expressing
+her hearty congratulations for the happy pair. Jack did not deserve such
+happiness, but if every sinner had his deserts, there would be too many
+miserable people in the world today.
+
+"Mrs. Gupp who shares my table at meals, knows Mrs. Fox pretty well and
+has very little to say in her favour. She was maliciously amused over
+the affair, and is of opinion that Mrs. Fox will have to go home at
+once. The story is already common property."
+
+Honor thought Joyce lovelier than ever with her air of dignified
+reserve. She had grown self-reliant and there was a tinge of hauteur in
+her manner which seemed to add to her stature and give a regal carriage
+to her beautiful head.
+
+"So you are travelling all alone to Darjeeling?" Honor asked wistfully,
+wondering what was going to be the upshot of that journey.
+
+"It is nothing at all. I have hardly the patience to wait for trains.
+There is so much at stake. If I could only be sure that Ray loves me as
+he used to do, I would be crazy for joy! I should never leave him
+again--not for anything in the world!" and she hid her face in Honor's
+neck while the tears flowed.
+
+"Not even if you come across snakes and are obliged to put up with
+mosquitoes and the heat?" quizzed Honor.
+
+"I'll face anything but the loss of my husband's love. What a fool I
+have been! a blind, childish fool! Why, that affair with Captain Dalton
+which I exaggerated and worried over, might have been made all right in
+good time. I ought to have listened to you, and set myself to make Ray
+so happy that he would have had nothing to forgive! After all, it wasn't
+as if I was wilfully to blame?"
+
+"I told you that before you went home."
+
+"And it came to me only when I began to fear that I was losing his love!
+That was a contingency I never believed possible. He was always so mad
+about me, spoiling me in every way and treating me as a little queen!
+Oh, Honor what a mess I have made of things!"
+
+"Don't do anything in the heat of passion, dear," Honor advised
+thoughtfully. "Remember he has had sunstroke. A man is hardly himself
+for months after such an illness--sometimes for years. It affects people
+differently. Some are irritable, some have clouded memories; for the
+brain is the seat of the trouble."
+
+"Are you trying to prepare me to find Ray insane?" Joyce asked with
+frightened eyes.
+
+"Not at all. He is as sane as you or I, but his impulses are not so much
+under control, and his judgment is likely to err since that shock to his
+brain."
+
+"Then he is not to be held accountable for anything he has done of
+late?" indignantly.
+
+"You might take all I have said into consideration if you are required
+to forgive anything he has been weak or foolish enough to have done
+since his illness."
+
+Joyce laughed bitterly. "I wonder what you would feel inclined to do in
+my place?"
+
+"Do you really wish to know?"
+
+"I do," said Joyce as a challenge, while drying her eyes.
+
+"The chief thing to be considered, is the future. That must be saved at
+all costs. A mistake in the present, committed in haste, might affect
+your future life; and not only yours, but your baby's as well. You are
+about to deal with baby's daddy as well as your husband, and the whole
+of your world is looking on. You might take a prejudiced view of things
+that have occurred. You might, in your anger and humiliation, feel
+unforgiving towards him, and so, break up your home. I question whether
+anything ought to weigh against your love for your husband, if in your
+heart you love him and he loves you."
+
+"Loving me, could he be disloyal?"
+
+Honor hesitated. "It is possible he has been suffering from a clouded
+mind. Things have not been correctly focussed, as it were. And while in
+that condition, if he was tempted to drift into actual wrong-doing, I
+should imagine that self-loathing and remorse would afterwards be a
+worse punishment for him than you could possibly conceive of. This is
+presuming he has done anything to be ashamed of. In that case, I could
+not be harsh. Love always forgives--even to 'seventy times seven.'"
+
+"Honey, you are an idealist! I wonder how many women could exercise so
+much forbearance! Think of the anger, the humiliation, the resentment!
+It is an outrage to one's faith and trust!"
+
+"If you had remained within reach of him so that when he was ill you
+could have gone to him at once, there would have been nothing to
+forgive. But for a frivolous reason you put the seas between you and
+threw his love back into his face. You are also very much to blame,"
+said Honor boldly.
+
+Joyce covered her face with her hands and wept silently.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Honor saw her into her train at Sealdah Station the following day, and
+after an afternoon spent in shopping for her mother, returned to
+Muktiarbad.
+
+Joyce spent an uncomfortable night in the train on account of the muggy
+heat which was barely rendered tolerable by electric fans in the
+compartment, and was glad when the time came to transfer herself and her
+baggage into the toy railway of the Himalayas, which rattled briskly up
+the slopes by tortuous tracks into higher altitudes and cooler climes.
+
+A party of ladies known to each other occupied the same compartment and
+chattered of all they did in Darjeeling last year, and all they meant to
+do. Joyce paid little heed while silently watching the changing views as
+the train wound its way along the mountain sides. The infinite grandeur
+of Nature on which humanity had set its stamp, thrilled her with
+wonderment and delight. All personal troubles were forgotten for a while
+as the glorious scenery unfolded to her vision.
+
+Surely her eyes must have been holden when she saw it a year ago!
+
+Heavy mists sweeping the mountain sides frequently obliterated a picture
+of purple distances and rugged heights. Anon, there was a blaze of
+sunlight revealing wooded spurs with zinc-roofed cottages and grey
+villages nestling on their slopes. Green valleys lay at the foot of
+frowning precipices, and round many a bend and curve were glimpses of
+tea gardens with the bushes laid out in serried rows; and cumbrous,
+zinc-roofed tea factories looking strangely incongruous in their wild
+and glorious setting.
+
+With a rush of sound, a waterfall would be seen, as a curve was rounded,
+tumbling over rocks and rushing under a bridge on its way to join some
+mighty river in the plains. The plains were often visible, stretching
+like a grey sea to the horizon, their surface marked by the silver
+tracery of streams. Now and then, Joyce could catch a glimpse of the
+Everlasting Snows, with Kinchin-junga, Nursing, and Pundeem, a mighty
+group glittering in the sunlight in stately magnificence, their peaks
+inaccessible to man. Beside the road, a stout parapet of boulders
+covered by ferns and lichen, stood, in places, between the passengers
+and certain death, a thousand feet below; while up the steep banks rose
+forests of _sal_ and fir, climbing towards the sky.
+
+Wherever there were homesteads perched among the rocks, children of the
+mountains would run forth like sure-footed goats to view the passing
+train, their round and ruddy cheeks besmeared with dirt and chapped with
+cold; their flat faces, high cheek bones, and slanting eyes, revealing
+their Lepcha strain.
+
+And all the while the temperature continued to fall; and the atmosphere
+grew moist and cold and exhilarating in its freshness.
+
+A block in the line occasioned by a local landslip--a frequent
+occurrence on the hill-railway--detained the train till the afternoon,
+at Kurseong, where the passengers left their carriages for luncheon at
+the hotel.
+
+At Sonada, further on, two ladies entered the compartment and audibly
+discussed certain doings at Darjeeling where they appeared to be
+residing. When Joyce heard her husband's name, she set herself to
+listen, determined not to miss a word.
+
+"I suppose she will be there," said one. "Wherever Mr. Meredith goes he
+manages to get an invitation for her,--and people don't much like it,
+but there's his position, you know!"
+
+"I know. They are seldom seen apart. A handsome woman in her way, but
+utterly regardless! Her dress, for instance, at the Shrubbery Ball was
+indeed up to date--just a band under the armpits for a bodice. I never
+saw any one off the stage so disgustingly naked!"
+
+"He looks to me rather 'fed up.' And the way she takes charge of him in
+public requires nerve! he simply falls into line just as if he can't
+help himself. Got into the habit, so to speak!"
+
+"What are you going to wear tonight?" and the conversation drifted to
+the Planters' Ball at the Club. The Governor and his wife were expected
+to be present with their suite, and the house-party from the Shrubbery.
+
+"It is a wonder to me," said the first speaker, "that Mrs. Dalton is
+received at Government House." Joyce again held her breath.
+
+"Oh, but her position makes that all right. Her husband is an I.M.S.
+man, a rising surgeon, somewhere in the plains. They don't get on, but
+that's nobody's business; and in Darjeeling one has to shut one's eyes.
+If you begin to point the finger of scorn, you'll be kept fairly busy"
+(with a mischievous laugh). "And after all, if her husband doesn't mind,
+it's nobody's business. All the same, she's been cut by a good few, and
+if he doesn't look out, he'll end in the divorce court--or she will!"
+
+They laughed as at a great joke, and, others listening, smiled in
+sympathy, while Joyce turned her burning face away.
+
+It seemed that there was no getting away from the story of her husband's
+shame. But for her having left him, this would never have been!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the train drew up at the platform of the station in Darjeeling, she
+pulled herself together and stepped bravely out of her compartment, head
+erect, and manner perfectly composed. The need to have herself well in
+hand, gave her strength of mind for the occasion, so that none of her
+old friends--were she to come unexpectedly upon any--should think her
+crushed and miserable; a poor, humiliated wife! No! the world should see
+a laughing face.
+
+As the roads of the Station were very familiar to her, she climbed the
+path leading to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, at which her husband was
+staying. It rose by easy stages to a higher level and passed by
+red-brick villas built on the English plan, with pent roofs and homely
+chimney-pots. In parts the road was clear, in others, heavily shaded by
+tall firs, through the branches of which could be seen the Snowy Range
+bathed in the soft afterglow of a lurid sunset. Preceding her was a
+Lepcha boy from Sikkim, carrying her trunk mountaineer fashion on his
+back, strapped to his forehead; and it was a mystery how he lifted
+himself as well as his burden up the short cuts, without pausing to draw
+breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE MEETING
+
+
+While Joyce climbed the road preceded by her Lepcha coolie, a scene of
+dramatic possibilities was taking place in a room of the hotel to which
+she was bound.
+
+It was Mr. Meredith's sitting-room, comfortably furnished; a fire was
+burning cheerfully in the grate, and the actors were himself and Mrs.
+Dalton, who had called upon him in a crisis of her affairs.
+
+She was eager and excited, bold, and yet somewhat baffled.
+
+He was nervous and uncomfortable, while fidgeting with a letter in his
+fingers.
+
+"He has made a rather sporting offer, don't you think?" she asked with
+biting sarcasm, her eyes studying his face.
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Surely!--that's for you to say."
+
+"Me?" (irritably).
+
+"Of course. You know that he and I parted long ago over incompatibility
+of temper, and that his offer is made only to save his precious honour.
+He has heard rumours! There is no love in it; instead, it is carefully
+ruled out. I may return to his protection whenever I like; but as his
+wife _only in name_."
+
+"It will be better than this knock-about sort of life you have led, with
+an allowance wholly inadequate to your needs" (conciliatingly).
+
+"But is there nothing else in life for a young woman of my years and
+temperament? What about you and me?" (tenderly).
+
+Meredith reddened as he said resolutely, "That page will have to be
+turned down for good, in the fullest sense of the word."
+
+It was a page of which he was heartily ashamed. The shame was
+inevitable, the affair having been, from the first, a comedy of degrees
+in which his heart had never been involved; begun while he was a
+helpless invalid dependent upon this woman for nursing and
+companionship. That she had started the flirtation, and had taken
+advantage of his loneliness and temporary weakness to bring him almost
+to the verge of a deep dishonour, were memories he would have given much
+to forget. Mrs. Dalton was a type of woman he had always held in
+contempt; but he had failed to identify her as such, till his normal
+health had reasserted itself. Latterly he had allowed himself to drift
+with the tide while looking for a means of escape from his intolerable
+position.
+
+"Do you mean that?" she asked with whitening lips.
+
+"I think it is the only thing to do," he replied.
+
+"If you say that for my sake, then I might just as well be frank. You
+know I love you, Ray Meredith, and I believe you love me, only you have
+never quite let yourself go, for some hidden reason--possibly your
+career? It can't be consideration for that bloodless and callous
+creature, your wife? I refuse to believe that you have any feeling for a
+woman who has placed her child before her husband and is content to live
+apart from him when she knows that men are but human after all! Your
+career is safe. A man's private life is his own affair. If we throw in
+our lot together, we can after the divorce marry and live happily ever
+after, as the good little story books tell us in the nursery." She
+laughed tenderly. "My husband will gladly have done with me, for I can
+tell who it is he wants. I paid a stolen visit to his bungalow at
+Muktiarbad and snapshots of her live all about him in his den. Can I
+tolerate the position I shall occupy in his house, knowing all the while
+it has been flung at me like a bone to a dog? If he could marry her
+tomorrow he would; only she isn't the sort, I am told, who would take
+him unless I am dead! Now, this is frankness indeed!"
+
+Meredith was silent.
+
+"Can't you speak?"
+
+"I have spoken."
+
+"And is that all?" she cried passionately, creeping nearer, her dark
+eyes compelling his surrender. "Don't you know that all Darjeeling is
+talking of us? That, for your sake, people are treating me abominably
+while they smile kindly on you? I am only a woman, therefore may be
+crushed. My God!--and you would turn me down, like a 'page' for 'good'!"
+
+"Perhaps I should not put it like that," he said nervously as he trifled
+with Captain Dalton's letter to his wife, and allowed it to fall to the
+floor. His cigarette case suggested comfort and was drawn forth as a
+diversion.
+
+"Put it as you like, it is rather a knock-out blow for me!"
+
+"Say, rather, that it is a mercy things have not gone too far, and that
+you can accept your husband's 'sporting' offer with a clear--a
+clear"--_conscience_ was scarcely a suitable word. He was certain she
+had smothered it long ago.
+
+"Oh, damn my husband! I want nothing to do with him since knowing you!
+Ray, old dear, have you ceased to love me?--I don't believe it!" She
+flung her arms about his neck and laid her cheek to his. In her tones
+was beguilement, in her eyes the lure of an evil thing. Her back was
+turned to the door so that she did not see that it had opened suddenly
+to admit someone. Both had been too preoccupied to hear the gentle
+knock.
+
+Meredith looked up and saw his wife enter,--his little Joyce, whom he
+imagined was in England. For a moment he was petrified--the next instant
+he shook himself free of Mrs. Dalton's embrace, and stood apart,
+convicted and ashamed.
+
+Joyce stood stock still as if paralysed, and could only murmur
+conventionally, "I am sorry," purely a mechanical expression of apology
+such as she would have made to a stranger. "No one answered my knock, so
+I came in."
+
+The very air was electrical. Meredith could only utter his wife's name
+in blank amazement. What could he say under such damning circumstances?
+Mrs. Dalton laughed hysterically.
+
+Collecting her scattered wits, Joyce explained, reaching a hand out to a
+cabinet for support: "I came out with the mails. There was a hint of
+_this_, only I dared not let myself believe it. It seemed impossible
+from my knowledge of you. But it appears I was wrong," her lip curled.
+Turning to Mrs. Dalton she said coldly, "Perhaps you will be good enough
+to leave us together?"
+
+Standing there erect in her pride and beauty, dressed exquisitely, yet
+simply, she was a revelation to the woman who had sought to rob her and
+was now brazen enough to carry off the situation with effrontery.
+
+"It was pretty smart of you to act the spy, stealing on us without
+warning! However, we are not afraid. Do your worst!"
+
+"I am waiting for you to leave the room," said Joyce with immovable
+calm. Her queenlike dignity was something new to her husband, and it
+commanded Mrs. Dalton's unwilling respect and obedience.
+
+Meredith walked swiftly to the door and held it open for the lady to
+pass out, his features rigid, his eyes bent on the carpet at his feet,
+nor did he raise them when she brushed past him and lightly touched his
+hand as it held the door-knob.
+
+"Why didn't you cable?--or wire from Calcutta?" he asked through white
+lips.
+
+Joyce looked in scornful silence at him and then said with a perceptible
+shrug, "I am glad I did neither."
+
+"Things look pretty bad against me, I admit," he said bitterly. "Is it
+any use for me to ask you not to judge me too hastily? The situation you
+surprised was not of my creating."
+
+Joyce laughed suddenly, a strained and mirthless laugh as she mentally
+recalled the words, "The woman gave me, and I did eat."
+
+"Judge you hastily? Such a situation requires no explanation. It is
+plainly a confession of guilt, or it could not have been."
+
+"By that do you mean you will take action?"
+
+"Action?--do you mean, divorce you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Perhaps you would like to marry Mrs. Dalton if her husband gives her
+up!" she said bitterly, hardly recognising the tones of her own voice.
+
+"Good God!--never!" he shuddered involuntarily.
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"You would not believe me if I told you."
+
+"I am beginning to understand more of men than I did when we parted. It
+seems, you could make love to this lady without being in love with her?
+You even humiliated me in the eyes of the world, merely for the sake of
+a vulgar intrigue?"
+
+She astonished Meredith with every word she spoke. His little Joyce had
+suddenly become a woman, a thousand times more wonderful than he had
+ever known her.
+
+"I am innocent of anything but an ordinary flirtation, of which I am
+heartily ashamed, believe it or not," he returned pacing the floor
+restlessly, his face pallid, his eyes miserable. "What are you going to
+do?" coming to a stop before her. It was as well that he should know the
+worst she contemplated.
+
+"I don't know ... but I cannot advertise my shame to the world!" she
+said icily as she turned to leave the room.
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"There is my trunk. I shall need to engage a room."
+
+"Sit down by the fire, and I will see to everything for you."
+
+Joyce sank nervelessly into a chair and saw him leave the room, only to
+re-enter shortly afterwards with the news that the hotel, being full,
+she would have to occupy his own bedroom while he made shift with the
+dressing-room attached.
+
+Joyce scarcely heeded him. So long as he was not to share her room,
+nothing mattered. "And what about the Planters' Ball tonight?" she asked
+to his profound surprise. "Are you going?"
+
+"I was, but not now. How can you ask?" What on earth was she after?
+
+"Why not? I would rather you kept your engagement--and--took me."
+
+Meredith stared, wide-eyed. "You?" For the moment he thought her mind
+deranged. How could she contemplate taking part in a frivolous social
+function in the midst of their tragedy? Their lives were sundered; their
+happiness blasted; and she was thinking of the Planters' Ball!
+
+Joyce was thinking of the women who were expecting to enjoy the
+spectacle of Ray Meredith's flirtation with Mrs. Dalton; and no doubt
+there were a great many others also prepared to amuse themselves at his
+expense, and her eyes hardened. A jealous determination to punish the
+woman who had spoiled the happy relations between husband and wife,
+possessed her, so that the idea of slighting her publicly at this grand
+ball was a temptation. That her husband would slight Mrs. Dalton, she
+had no doubt. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes. Honor Bright
+had said that, were he guilty of wrong-doing, self-loathing and remorse
+would punish him more heavily than she could conceive of! He was already
+ashamed, and would yet repent in the dust at his wife's feet. When that
+came to pass, she might see fit to relent--not now. Now her whole soul
+was in revolt. Her heart felt like stone in her breast. What would
+another woman have done in her place? She had no experience. Honor had
+advised her against precipitancy. She would act with infinite
+deliberation, surpassing anything Honor would have counselled. Honor had
+talked of love! For the moment she had lost her faith in love, and knew
+no feeling so strong as revenge. She would go to the ball, and Ray
+should have no eyes for any other woman but his wife. It had been so in
+the past, and it would be so again, or she would hate to live. People
+had always said that she was pretty, and she had been glad for his sake.
+She was more than glad now; for it put the strongest weapon for
+punishment into her hand.
+
+Meanwhile, her husband was amazed that she should think of the ball,
+and, doubtless, feared she was mad!
+
+"I am not insane, if that is what is on your mind. But I have to think
+of the future," she said coldly. The future was another point that Honor
+said, would have to be considered. "We shall go to this dance together
+to keep up appearances. For the same reason, we shall, if you have no
+objection, dance a great deal together. For Baby's sake the world must
+think that we are rejoiced to come together again after so many months
+apart, and it might help to make people forget the ugly things they have
+been saying. Do you mind?"
+
+"Not at all. You shall do as you please, in this, as in everything
+else."
+
+"I have no doubt Mrs. Dalton will find someone in the hotel to escort
+her?"
+
+"She can take care of herself."
+
+"Very well then," looking at her watch, "perhaps I had better dress, for
+it is rather near the dinner hour."
+
+"And is that all you have to say to me?" he asked with quivering lips.
+
+"What would you have me say?"
+
+"Anything would be better than this coldness--this avoidance of all that
+is most vital to us both. Even if you raved and stormed, I could stand
+it better, for I might have a chance to explain. Things are not as bad
+as you think."
+
+"They are bad enough for me!" she returned calmly, her lovely profile
+and the lowered sweep of her eyelashes, her straight carriage and the
+gentle curve of her bosom, outlined against the dark hangings of the
+window.
+
+"Will you listen to me for a bit?"
+
+"I would rather not."
+
+"Then you condemn me outright?"
+
+"You have condemned yourself."
+
+"You cannot have forgotten my love for you?" he cried desperately.
+
+She turned and lifted grave, blue eyes to his face in mute condemnation.
+
+"You do not understand--I have been ill--I don't seem to have been
+myself for a long time, I--I--it seemed to me that you did not care a
+farthing what became of me. You left it to me to cable if I wanted you
+when you should have known that I was yearning for nothing so much as a
+sight of your face. It was pointed out to me that any woman with a spark
+of true love for her own man, would have let nothing stand in the way of
+her joining him the moment she heard of his illness. Did you?" He
+laughed harshly. "No! It was the old story, 'Baby,' and always, 'Baby!'
+God!--you never cared."
+
+"I cared so much, that I never wanted to amuse myself with another man
+though I had plenty of opportunities." Yet, his passionate denunciation
+had gone home.
+
+"Joyce, am I to have no chance?"
+
+With a gesture of disgust, she dismissed the subject peremptorily, and
+passed out of the sitting-room, trembling with emotion from head to
+foot.
+
+In the adjoining apartment, which was his bedroom, she struggled with
+the straps of her fibre trunk till they were taken out of her hands and
+the leathers unbuckled, by her husband who had followed her in. Joyce
+watched him with a pain at her heart as he bent over his task. A lump
+came into her throat too big to swallow. She felt choked with a rising
+hysteria which only a great effort of will controlled. He looked so
+handsome, so like the lover-husband she had known, that it was all she
+could do not to fling herself into his arms and say "Let us forget
+everything and remember only our love!" Her natural place was in his
+arms now that she had come out all that distance to be with him;
+instead, they had not even exchanged the most formal of greetings! He
+had been false to her--a crime no woman feels disposed to forgive.
+
+"I had to come in here as this is the only way to my dressing-room,"
+Meredith explained as he rose to his feet.
+
+Joyce thanked him coldly and watched him pass through the heavy curtains
+which separated the two rooms and was the only apology for a door. When
+he was gone, she writhed in anguish. Oh, if she could have crushed her
+pride and called out to him to come back!
+
+It was not so easy, however, and she hardened her heart for the task
+that lay before her.
+
+While dressing, her trembling fingers almost refusing their work, she
+wondered how Mrs. Dalton would behave when they met again? If she would
+have the audacity to speak to Ray? A woman of her sort would be equal to
+any impertinence. Why had she not returned to her husband, who, Honor
+had said, was willing to take her back? At all events, Joyce was
+infinitely glad she was on the spot to curtail the woman's opportunities
+for further mischief. It was worth the risk of the journey.
+
+When she slipped on her evening gown, a rich, black _crepe de chine_,
+she was seized with consternation when she remembered that it fastened
+at the back. Under no circumstance would it meet without assistance. A
+maid, or an ayah?--Both were equally impossible to procure at a moment's
+notice.
+
+She made several futile efforts, then looked about her in dismay! What
+was to be done? Flushed, and in despair, she cast a glance at the
+curtains behind which lay her only hope. Her husband had often
+officiated with the hooks and eyes, and was otherwise expert as a maid.
+The only alternative was to forego the ball and her great reprisal; and
+this was unthinkable now that all her hopes were centred on revenge. Had
+Joyce belonged to a lower order of society, she would probably have
+gratified her wrath by making a scene and scratching out the woman's
+eyes, or tearing out her hair in handfuls. As it was, the picture of
+Mrs. Dalton seated as a wall-flower, openly despised and neglected by
+the man she had tried to seduce from his allegiance, appealed powerfully
+to her imagination.
+
+Timidly she called, "Can you help me, please?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Ray!" her voice was still more diffident, but her call met with
+immediate response. Ray who had not yet begun to change for dinner, was
+with her in an instant.
+
+"I cannot dress without help. Will you please?" she asked frigidly.
+
+Meredith took infinite pains, his face, as reflected in the mirror,
+looking haggard and pale. He had never seen his wife in black, which was
+an excellent foil to her fair beauty, and the sight of her rendered him
+tongue-tied. He had nothing to say even when she dismissed him with a
+"Thanks, I'll manage very well, now."
+
+When Joyce entered the winter-garden,--the principal lounge of the
+hotel, with glazed roof and walls, its interior full of flowering
+orchids, palms, and tropical plants of varied beauty, she saw Mrs.
+Dalton already there, resplendent in crimson satin and jewellery,
+cultivating the acquaintance of new-comers to Darjeeling who had arrived
+by the train that day. It was a daring gown for colour and cut, and
+Joyce was put in mind of the description she had overheard in the train,
+of the lady's ball-room attire. Mrs. Dalton evidently set a high value
+on the generous curves of her handsome shoulders, for she displayed them
+with liberality.
+
+Ray entering soon afterwards, performed a few introductions with a
+self-control that was remarkable, considering his shaken nerves, after
+which they passed into the glare of the dining-hall to the table at
+which he had always dined in company with men.
+
+Joyce excelled him in her power to sustain the role she had marked out
+for them both. Her manner was winning and delightful, and, but for
+Meredith's inner knowledge, it might have misled his hopes disastrously.
+
+"Yes," she once said with subtle meaning as she smiled at an ardent
+admirer who had been captivated at first sight, "I would not cable or
+wire, for I wanted to give my dear husband the surprise of his life. You
+can imagine his feelings! It is a mercy that joy seldom kills, or he
+might have died on the spot. And I am so glad I came, though I had to
+leave my wee baby with his grannie. But things might have become too
+difficult later, owing to the war; and I could not be parted from Ray
+indefinitely; could I, dear?" to her husband.
+
+Ray smiled unsteadily.
+
+"India is such a delightful country. Nothing will induce me to leave it
+in a hurry again. Do you know Muktiarbad? No? It's a little paradise
+though officials will call it a Penal Settlement!"
+
+"Lucky dog, your husband!" said an admirer fatuously. "And so plucky of
+you to go to the ball tonight, after your long and fatiguing journey. I
+hope I may have a dance?"
+
+"Certainly. You surely did not think I would deprive my husband of this
+pleasure when he is, I am sure, one of the best dancers in Darjeeling? I
+should never have been forgiven by his friends!"
+
+"May I have the first 'Boston'?"
+
+"That is for my husband to decide," she said archly with the familiar
+play of the eyelashes and dimple peeping in and out of her cheek. "He
+has first choice of the dances on my programme."
+
+"We'll see about the programme when we are there," said Meredith
+quietly. His position was more than he could support.
+
+"I mean to enjoy myself thoroughly tonight!" sighed Joyce.
+
+Meredith stole a glance at his wife and noted the feverish light of
+excitement in her eyes, under which blue shadows of fatigue lay, and the
+nervous movement of her fingers as they crumbled her bread into morsels.
+He could see that she, too, was suffering from nerves.
+
+"Damn the ball!" he cursed inwardly. He had no interest in it; no wish
+to be there.
+
+"Are you sure you are not too tired?" he asked her, longing for a
+loophole for escape.
+
+"Not in the least," she replied, over-doing her part by touching his
+hand lightly with her fingers. It was a graceful mark of confidence and
+affection which won the indulgence of all the men at that table; but to
+Meredith it was deliberate cruelty. Her touch was an electric shock, and
+his heart stood still for a moment while the room swam before his eyes.
+He made no reply, but having finished dinner, rose abruptly, without
+waiting for the initiative to come from her. Across the room was the
+woman who had often hung upon his breast with her cheap caresses and
+offers of love which he had been too weak to spurn altogether. Already
+the sight of her flaunting charms nauseated him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A 'rickshaw carried Joyce to the Club while her husband accompanied her
+on foot. When he tried to engage her in conversation, he had to learn
+that her bright speeches were only for others. When they were alone, she
+was dumb. It was clear that he had sinned in her eyes past all hope of
+forgiveness.
+
+At the ball, Meredith went through his part as in a dream. He smiled to
+order, made many introductions, and danced with his wife, and no other.
+Obedient to her example, he made idle conversation while they danced
+together, though his heart was on fire with longing; and when he was not
+dancing with her, he could but watch her from the doorways, remembering
+the existence of friends only when they accosted him; appearing
+hopelessly absent and inconsequent the while.
+
+It seemed to him that his life was broken and ended.
+
+"You're a dark horse, you blighter," he was chaffed. "Keeping it up your
+sleeve all this time that your wife was on her way out!"
+
+"Introduce me, old son," said the _aide-de-camp_ to the Governor. "Mrs.
+Meredith dances divinely."
+
+"Let me congratulate you, Meredith," said the Governor, in his
+friendliest manner. "Your wife is the most charming little woman I have
+met for some time. I have quite lost my heart to her!" He patted Ray's
+shoulder to impress the fact on "this foolish fellow" who had scarcely
+"played the game" in his lovely little lady's absence. "It was a damned
+shame!"
+
+Joyce was unquestionably the "belle of the ball"; there were no two
+opinions about that. Few remembered that she had been at Darjeeling the
+previous season, since she had kept to her hotel as a semi-invalid with
+a very young child; so that she had the additional advantage of being
+fresh. India loves new sensations and is grateful to those who supply
+them, gratis.
+
+Men surrounded her and paid her marked attentions, fought with each
+other, good-naturedly, for portions of dances, and served her as a
+princess at the suppers. Yet, in spite of her bewildering success, she
+never forgot the object that had taken her there, and was more than
+repaid. Her manner to her husband was faultless, and it kept him
+regardful of her slightest wish. Her mission was to charm all, her
+husband in particular, so that Mrs. Dalton's humiliation should be
+complete; and before midnight, victory was achieved. Mrs. Dalton ordered
+her 'rickshaw at the stroke of twelve, and retired from the ball, her
+almost empty programme in pieces on the floor. She had been overlooked
+by men, cut by women, and obliged to look on, with a raging heart, at
+Mrs. Meredith's triumph. Ray Meredith, with the rudeness of utter
+contempt, had left her absolutely alone. The cruelty of his behaviour
+had been insupportable. When, on one occasion, she had seized the chance
+of a word with him, he was deaf to her exhortations, and she was shaken
+off with a contemptuous disregard for her feelings.
+
+When she left the building, it was to suffer the tortures of a woman
+scorned. She was learning to swallow that bitterest of all pills, the
+knowledge that she was utterly despised by the man for whom she had been
+willing to lower her womanhood in the dust.
+
+She had come to the realisation of the fact that the woman who lowers
+herself in the eyes of men, will inevitably find herself shamed and
+scorned.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When she arrived at the hotel, she brooded far into the night over her
+bedroom fire, reviewing bitterly her moral decline from the day of her
+first great mistake. Feeling unable to face the people who had known her
+in the Station, she departed the next morning for Muktiarbad, leaving
+her infantile charge and its ayah to the tender mercies of the
+Sanitarium.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE FAIR
+
+
+The _mela_[19] week was a great event at Muktiarbad, for the Europeans
+as well as the natives of the District, as it gave the officials a
+holiday, brought people together, and encouraged healthy competition in
+arts, crafts, and various industries of the country. Prizes were offered
+for the best exhibits, and local shopkeepers took advantage of the
+opportunity to advance their own interests by placing on the market,
+articles of use and ornament from all parts of India. Eager crowds,
+garbed in all the hues of the rainbow created a kaleidoscope of colour
+as they jostled one another among the booths, bent on bargaining or on
+sight-seeing. Merry-go-rounds, puppet shows, monkey-dances, juggling,
+and cocoanut shies, entertained adults as well as children, while the
+noise and confusion of tongues was Bedlam.
+
+[Footnote 19: Fair.]
+
+The fair was usually held at the crossroads where a large irregular
+patch of green afforded ample space for the pens, stalls, booths, and
+side-shows that contributed towards the joys of the occasion; and to it
+came people from miles around, and even from distant parts of the
+District.
+
+Just when this annual _fete_ was at its height, Mrs. Dalton arrived at
+Muktiarbad to take up her abode under her husband's roof, thus providing
+enough of a sensation among his neighbours to last beyond the regulation
+nine days for wonderment.
+
+That the Civil Surgeon should prove a married man was not so outrageous
+as his having neglected to admit, while she was among them, that Nurse
+Dalton was his wife, instead of misleading them tacitly into thinking
+that the name was a coincidence. It was unpardonable! And now, to add
+insult to injury, after she had made herself conspicuous in Darjeeling
+by flirting openly with her late patient, the Station of Muktiarbad was
+expected to forget and forgive, and take the black sheep to its bosom.
+Unheard of audacity!
+
+How far Ray Meredith was to blame for the gossip concerning himself and
+the lady, was immaterial, since his wife was reported happy and
+content,--besides, he was a man, and women are notoriously hard upon
+women; as was proved when the ladies of the Station were ready to throw
+stones at the erring one the instant it was known that the doctor took
+every chance to keep out of his wife's way, and was seldom found at
+home. Why the two had come together again when there was no love lost
+between them, was a mystery to all and a challenge to their sense of
+propriety.
+
+When Mrs. Dalton, as in duty bound, called on everybody, she was
+received without cordiality by her sex, who met immediately afterwards
+to consult what response to her overtures was demanded by common
+civility. Some proposed the snub direct, by ignoring her altogether;
+others were for dropping cards into her "Not-at-home box" at the gate
+when it was ascertained that it was up; while Mrs. Bright decided to
+return her call and let civilities end there.
+
+Tommy listened with indifference to the female cackle at the Club till
+Honor's name was introduced, and then he could no longer hold his peace.
+"What about Honor Bright?" someone had asked meaningly.
+
+"What about her?" said Tommy, his eyes following the girl's lithe
+movements on the tennis court.
+
+"It was popularly supposed that she was engaged to Captain Dalton, and
+yet she knew all along that he was a married man!"
+
+"Has any one in this company got anything to say that is detrimental to
+Miss Bright?" he asked with eyes flashing.
+
+Thus challenged, the speaker collapsed into silence.
+
+"Honor is one of the very best," said Mrs. Ironsides vehemently. "Let
+there be no mistake about that!" This was the last word on the subject,
+and Tommy retired victoriously, cursing feminine tongues that would
+never mind their own business. His relief when he discovered that
+Captain Dalton was no longer in competition with himself for Honor's
+hand, was great, till he realised, later that his own chances were
+_nil_.
+
+The Government of Bengal having at last yielded to his importunities to
+be allowed to join the Indian Army Reserve, he was waiting, like Dalton,
+for orders, brimful of martial ardour while he packed and sorted his
+kit. Jack's belongings were to be sent on to him; while his own,
+salvaged from the wreck of patriotic-dinner parties at which his
+bachelor friends had drunk to the confusion of the enemy till they were
+themselves confused, were to be sold to his successor and to friends in
+the District. Mr. Ironsides had bespoken his gun, a local Rajah his
+ponies; and his dogs were to be distributed among friends. There
+remained personal treasures, chief among them being a gold napkin
+ring,--a christening present twenty-two years ago,--which was to be
+given to Honor as a keepsake. Should he fall in battle, it would serve
+to remind her tenderly of his unfaltering love. Thoughts of wooing and
+marriage were out of place and of secondary importance beside the needs
+of the Great War, into which he was going heart and soul.
+
+Poor old Jack! Tommy could pity him despite the fact that he was married
+to the girl of his heart. How it was possible for any fellow to "sit
+tight in his job" while all his pals were in the thick of the fight, was
+inconceivable. But Jack put the blame on the Government and settled down
+to enjoy his Elysium. It was clear that Mrs. Darling was going to have
+it all her own way in the future to Jack's supreme delight. According to
+her, "There was a place for every man, and every man should be kept in
+it." It was, further, a husband's duty to "obey his wife." As for the
+war!--he must remember that "They also serve who stand and wait,"--or,
+as she put it--"administer justice in the land in which it has pleased
+the Almighty to place them." The "Almighty," in this case, being the
+Government of India.
+
+These sentiments quoted in a humorous letter from the young magistrate,
+brought forth an appreciative reply and a wedding present which made a
+gap in Tommy's small savings, for he was infinitely relieved at his
+friend's escape from the clutches of a certain lady. It was a
+satisfaction to know that at last Jack would be in agreement with
+Solomon on the subject of a wife.
+
+Honor Bright first met Mrs. Dalton at the _mela_, not having been at
+home when that lady had called. She was making a tour of the exhibits
+with friends from Hazrigunge when she was joined by the Meeks who were
+charitably piloting the lonely new-comer about the grounds. Mr. Meek,
+glad of an amiable listener, was discoursing on the merits of his
+live-stock which had won prizes, and was pointing them out in their
+pens. Husband and wife, in their isolation at the Mission, heard little
+or nothing of Station gossip, and to them Mrs. Dalton appeared very
+superior to her unfriendly husband whom they had never liked. Small
+wonder that his wife had been unable to agree with such a domineering
+nature!
+
+Honor thought her greatly altered and believed she could divine the
+cause. Since happiness has its source from within, it was not surprising
+that Mrs. Dalton had failed to find it in the life she had led. Her eyes
+had a wistful appeal; her manner was deprecating. The old confidence and
+daring were gone, never to return. Something had happened to bring
+disillusionment, and the lesson had sunk deeper.
+
+"I saw so little of you when I was last here," she said to Honor after
+shaking hands. "You went directly to the hills, you remember? I do hope
+we shall be friends?"
+
+"You are very kind," said Honor with embarrassment, as she had no
+inclination for friendship with Brian Dalton's wife.
+
+"We have so many tastes in common, I believe, and might do things
+together. In a quiet station like this, it is the only way to kill
+time."
+
+"I am very busy now-a-days," said Honor whose time was always too well
+occupied to admit of practising such an accomplishment. "There are
+ambulance classes at the Railway Institute; the work-society for
+knitting comforts for the soldiers and sailors; the bazaar at Hazrigunge
+for the Belgian Relief Fund, and other duties, so that I have quite a
+lot to do."
+
+"I wish that I, too, might help!"
+
+"The secretary would be glad, I am sure. She is Mrs. Ironsides. I should
+advise you to apply to her." With a smile and bow, Honor passed on,
+followed by Mrs. Dalton's gloomy gaze.
+
+"Honor Bright is a very dear friend of mine," said Mrs. Meek, kindly.
+"Don't you think she is a very refreshing specimen of girlhood? My
+husband thinks she is very good-looking, but I say she is good to look
+at. A distinction without a difference, you will say? but not so; the
+difference lies in expression, which makes the matter of features
+immaterial. Honor has such a frank and truthful face, and a nature of
+the very kindest."
+
+"I am just wondering why it is she is not married?"
+
+"She will marry the right man when he comes along. So far I have not
+seen one good enough."
+
+"It is rather wonderful how everyone loves her! Most people have enemies
+and detractors, but Miss Bright seems a universal favourite."
+
+"It is not really surprising. She is universally respected and beloved.
+Even the natives look up to her."
+
+"'Respected!'" echoed Mrs. Dalton to herself bitterly. The lack of
+self-respect had always been the rock on which her life had been
+shipwrecked. She had failed to mark it on her chart, and was now a
+derelict. A jealous pang went through her and she remarked with a tinge
+of spite, "In fact, Miss Bright is so good that, like the Pharisee of
+old, she thanks God she is not as other women are!"
+
+"You do her injustice. I know no one more charitable," said Mrs. Meek
+warmly.
+
+"I apologise," said Mrs. Dalton with a sudden revulsion of feeling.
+"Believe me, I have reason to know that, for she tried to do me a good
+turn, I don't know why,--considering the circumstances,--but I must find
+an opportunity for thanking her." Yet Mrs. Meek saw only discontent and
+unhappiness in her companion's face, and wondered.
+
+Meanwhile, Honor passed beyond their range of vision and was making
+household purchases for her mother: _jharunse_[20] made at Cawnpur, lace
+at the Mission, a pair of garden shears, and trifles that appealed to
+her as useful for the Hazrigunge bazaar.
+
+[Footnote 20: Dish-cloths.]
+
+While selecting a rush basket for flowers at a stall for the sale of
+wicker-work made by low-caste Hindus at Panipara, she overheard a
+conversation in the vernacular between one of the workers and an
+outsider of evil appearance. Their words were often unintelligible being
+drowned in the noises prevailing around her, but the drift of their talk
+held Honor rigid and attentive, with every faculty alert, and fear at
+her heart. Feeling secure in the midst of so much distraction, they
+spoke unreservedly.
+
+"These reeds of Panipara are unsurpassed," said the outsider viciously.
+"Where will you get others for your trade, now that the _jhil_, is being
+drained? Look you, it is the work of Dalton Sahib, this butcher of human
+flesh!"
+
+"Alack! my trade is ruined. I shall have to move on and seek a living
+elsewhere, or die of want!"
+
+"Thus you are turned from the village of your forefathers where you have
+worked,--and they before you,--at basket-plaiting and mat-making. What
+does he deserve for his wanton act?"
+
+"May he die, and jackals eat his flesh!"
+
+"That is a just saying, my brother! Even I have suffered--" for a few
+minutes Honor heard nothing but the loud laughter of some Bengali
+students who were passing. "My only child it was," the voice proceeded
+agitatedly; "he was rendered unconscious, and while lying helpless on a
+table at the hospital, and I his father crying in the yard below, this
+ruthless one cut open his bowels and removed a part of the intestines!
+Can anyone live without that which is necessary to life. In agony my son
+died, calling aloud to his mother and father,--and we, powerless to save
+him! _Ai Khodar!_ Listening my liver dried up and my heart hardened as a
+stone, while I took vows on his dead body to find a way to punish this
+murderer. No matter how long I have to wait, I shall--" again his words
+were lost.
+
+"But brother, this is idle talk! will you risk----?"
+
+"Care must be taken to find one suited to the job; he must have
+experience and courage, and"--he glanced suspiciously at Honor and
+dropped his voice, fearing that she might be one of those Memsahibs, who
+understood Bengali. So many did not.
+
+"There is one man at Panipara--of daring inconceivable. Three months he
+served in gaol for--he fears neither the law nor----"
+
+"Ss-s-h! I will see him. Tell me where--?" Their heads drew closer as
+their voices were lowered to continue their plotting.
+
+Honor could hear no more. She had drawn too near and their suspicions
+were aroused, so that whatever else they had to say was lost in
+mumbling.
+
+Her heart hammered and her pulses throbbed with fear. What were these
+men thinking of doing in their revenge? Was the doctor's life in actual
+danger?
+
+Her friends, at another stall where brasses and wood-carving were
+displayed, were signalling for her to join them. She looked around for
+help, but not a policeman was in sight. Even then, she could have done
+nothing, for the evil-looking Indian had slipped away and was lost in
+the crowds. She had no positive evidence to offer that would satisfy the
+law. The basket-weaver, looking innocent and bland, sat on his haunches
+shouting out to the public to inspect his goods.
+
+Honor, therefore, controlled her excitement, and decided to warn Captain
+Dalton again on his return to the Station, and consult her father on the
+subject. With an anxious heart, she joined her friends who were looking
+on at a monkey dance.
+
+"_Bibi Johorun_," the female monkey, dressed in skirt and shawl, and cap
+on her head adorned with a red feather, hopped to the measure of the
+little drum the man rattled rhythmically with a turn of his wrist; while
+her husband, the male, in coat and brass buttons, sat on a toy stool
+awaiting his turn to be called up for the War. Presently the pair would
+embrace in farewell, he would shoulder his mimic gun to the delight of
+the spectators, and proceed to march to battle to the time of the drum.
+Honor knew the routine perfectly. Meanwhile his expression of sleepy
+indifference under the rakish khaki cap as he blinked and chewed the
+nuts offered by the public, was human in its comprehension. When the
+crowd grew pressing, Honor left with her party, hearing for some
+distance the man's monotonous sing-song voice urging Johorun to dance
+for her reward, failing which there would be a certainty of
+chastisement.
+
+    _"Natcho-jee, Johorun, natcho-jee!
+    Paisa mile ga.
+    Paisa, na courie, thuphur mile, ga!"_
+
+That evening, at the Club, Mrs. Dalton drew Honor apart from the rest of
+the company and they paced the grass together while it grew dusk. She
+was evidently much agitated, and after making some clumsy attempts to
+lead up to the subject, she suddenly broke out with the question.
+
+"Tell me why you told my husband to take me back?"
+
+As Honor was not ready with her reply, she continued,
+
+"He told me in his specially cruel fashion, that I owed the concession
+to you, for I had charged him with being in love with you."
+
+Honor drew back shocked at her bad taste. "That is hardly the thing for
+you, his wife, to tell me!"
+
+"I don't say it from any evil motive!--oh, I wish you to believe that I
+am past all that--I have no longer any use for malice, and hatred--even
+jealousy! I only want to understand you. I am a woman, too; if I cared
+about a man who loved me as he loves you, I should want to kill the
+woman who stood in my way! There is something eternally primitive about
+love in its relation to the sexes!"
+
+"There is love--and _love_. Perhaps you don't know--apart from
+everything--that Joyce Meredith is my dear friend? She has a right to be
+happy in her married life."
+
+"I see. So you sacrificed yourself and ordered him to come to the
+rescue! He would do anything in the world for you."
+
+"He and I can never be anything to each other," said Honor firmly.
+
+"I am beginning to feel truly sorry for my husband. Perhaps you don't
+believe it? But, since he despises me so absolutely, it seems a shame
+that he should be tied to me for life! He should have given me my
+liberty long ago. You know why we parted?"
+
+"Yes, I know."
+
+"He might then have married you----"
+
+"Please do not speak to me in this way or I must refuse to walk with
+you," said Honor indignantly.
+
+"Oh, no, don't!--please don't go before you hear what I have to say!"
+Mrs. Dalton cried earnestly. "I have no tact, and always say the wrong
+thing. The fact is, I am a most miserable woman, feeling every day the
+consequences of my first mistake. If you knew what a bankrupt I am in
+love and all that goes towards making life worth living, you would have
+the heart to feel a little pity for me!"
+
+"I do pity you," said Honor, relenting.
+
+"If he would only forgive me! But he is so hard. He spurns my every
+effort to humble myself. He has no faith in me. I killed it! But if he
+would only give me a chance, I would be a better woman, I swear it! A
+kind word and look--oh, what wouldn't I do to atone! Miss Bright, you
+can help me!"
+
+"I?"
+
+"Yes. You! Natures like yours are great." Mrs. Dalton's voice broke with
+a sob and she wrung her hands in genuine emotion. "You may not credit me
+with sincerity, but I am not wholly bad. Brian is my husband--whenever I
+look at him I realise all that I have lost forever--unless, a miracle
+happens and he forgives me! If he could do that, I would be his slave. I
+would be at his feet! What a life is mine! The emptiness of it!--the
+futility of it! Who cares for women like myself? Women at a loose end
+who have spoilt their lives, and are trying to patch up some kind of
+forbidden happiness for themselves? It is just a form of gambling; wild
+excitement while it lasts. But it never lasts long! Think what I feel
+tonight! Here am I, a married woman among so many--with a fine
+husband,--he is that!--hard and cold, yet such a _man_!--and I might
+have been so happy. I might have had children!" Mrs. Dalton broke down
+into violent sobbing and Honor guided her to a bench that she might weep
+unrestrainedly and so find relief.
+
+It was a strange position for herself, who a moment ago was filled with
+repulsion, to find that she could fold the unhappy woman in her arms and
+attempt to console her with words.
+
+"I quite understand. Believe me, I _do_ understand. It has been like
+losing the substance for the shadow."
+
+"Just that. Oh, why couldn't I have looked ahead and seen this day! But
+I was mad and blind. Women must be insane when they commit these
+irrevocable acts! It is only men who can retrieve such mistakes--women,
+_never_!"
+
+"It is unfair to us," said Honor for her sex.
+
+"It is damned unfair!" said Mrs. Dalton fiercely. "Why can't he forgive
+me and let me have another chance? God forgives; why not man?"
+
+"Perhaps he might--some day."
+
+"Do you say that? Oh, Miss Bright!--now I know why everyone loves you."
+She seized Honor's hand and kissed it passionately. "Will you plead for
+me? This is what I want of you. Will you do it? He would listen to you
+if he listened to no one else in the world. I am truly heart-broken, and
+done with folly and conscious wrong-doing. Jesus Christ said, 'Thy sins
+are forgiven thee, go and sin no more.'"
+
+"I will do my best for you," said Honor quietly.
+
+"God bless you--oh, God bless you and reward you! Brian is away for a
+few days. I will let you know when he returns, and you can come to the
+bungalow. Will you promise?"
+
+"I promise," said Honor bravely. "But he is giving his services to the
+war. He will be leaving shortly for the front?"
+
+"I know it. And I shall follow him wherever he goes, like a dog, just to
+be near and serve him. It is the least I can do. They want nurses at the
+front."
+
+They talked for a while longer and when they parted at the gate of the
+Club, it was understood that Honor would accept an invitation to tea at
+the Daltons' bungalow as soon as the doctor was back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+A DIFFICULT TASK
+
+
+The sun had long set and a grey dusk had fallen when Dalton, weary and
+despondent, returned to the Station after a dull round of inspection
+during which he had occupied comfortless _dak_ bungalows. Lights were
+appearing in many windows and were to be seen streaming from the
+reception rooms of the Club, where guests for the gala week were being
+entertained. As he passed, he could hear the click of the billiard balls
+and the sound of merry laughter. Somewhere in those lighted rooms was
+Honor Bright, perhaps, shedding the sunshine of her presence on her
+friends! His eyes strained wistfully to catch a glimpse of the beloved
+form, but in vain, for the Duranta hedge effectually obscured the view.
+
+Three days had passed since he had fled incontinently from the
+impossible conditions of his home, only to find himself compelled, when
+no further excuses for his absence were to be found, to return to it
+bitterly disgusted with life and feverishly impatient to escape
+altogether from an intolerable presence. One hope alone remained to him,
+and that was, that the Government would accept his offer for service at
+the front.
+
+Although in his relations towards his wife he was almost a stranger, he
+had paid her the compliment of letting her know the date and hour of his
+return; not from any impulse towards friendliness, but from an
+instinctive pride of race, which made it impossible for him to slight a
+white woman in the eyes of the natives. However far apart their lives
+were sundered, his servants, at least, would have to respect her as the
+Memsahib and the mistress of his house; any other position for her--a
+British lady in India--was unthinkable.
+
+And Mrs. Dalton was under no delusion respecting his object. The formal
+note had no special meaning for her.
+
+There was a light in the drawing-room, Dalton noticed, as he drove up to
+the steps; and as he descended from his car, a servant, salaaming,
+informed him that the Memsahib was entertaining a lady visitor.
+Receiving no encouragement to become communicative, he said no more, but
+hurriedly assisted other domestics to minister to his master's comforts.
+The Sahib had no interest in the Memsahib's doings, it was plain to all;
+and it was greatly to be deplored that he should have saddled himself
+with her presence in his bungalow where he had so long enjoyed freedom
+and solitude.
+
+In his private apartments, all was ready for Dalton's reception;
+refreshments were produced like magic; the lowered lights raised; and he
+was able to rest and recover at his leisure from the fatigues of the
+day. Seated at his desk in his comfortable study, he smoked and read the
+letters that had accumulated in his absence while his mind
+subconsciously dwelt on thoughts of Honor.
+
+Where was she? What was she doing? How was she enduring their miserable
+separation? Was it preying upon her as on him?
+
+Would he ever have the chance to hold her in his arms again and read the
+truth in her dear eyes? Or must he go to his grave with this ache of
+unfulfilled longing forever denied to him?
+
+The thought was insupportable. Every fibre of his being craved for her
+with a desire so intense and compelling, that he was incapable of
+concentrating his mind on any subject.
+
+While brooding in the deepest melancholy, a sound at his verandah door
+arrested his attention. It was distinctly the _frou-frou_ of a woman's
+skirts. Could it be possible that his wife was seeking to force an
+interview with him?
+
+There came a light knock on the shutters of the open door which was
+screened with a cretonne curtain.
+
+"Come in," he said impatiently, resenting the disturbance, and the
+curtain was raised to admit the diffident intruder.
+
+It was Honor, looking very white, yet as always, brave and sweet.
+
+"Honey!" he started to his feet deeply moved. The harshness vanished
+from his face which was now alight with wonderment and love. Dressed in
+a muslin frock and straw hat, she looked simple and fresh, and yet
+carried the air and distinction which had always marked her in any
+company. But though she smiled into his eyes there was something in her
+expression that forbade him to hope for any crumbs of comfort from her
+visit.
+
+"Good evening," she said trying to speak in ordinary tones while the
+wild beating of her heart made her momentarily faint. "I came, as I
+wanted so much to tell you something."
+
+He gave her his seat and leaned against the table looking down at her.
+"I think I know why you have come. Not on your own account,--that would
+be impossible to you,--but it is on some dear, quixotic errand for
+another. You have come straight from--Mrs. Dalton." He could not bring
+himself to say, "my wife."
+
+Honor bent her head, looking distressed. Her mission was becoming more
+difficult than she had anticipated.
+
+"Honey," he said reproachfully, "don't you think I have done enough?"
+
+"There is a little more you could do," she returned, lifting pleading
+eyes to his face.
+
+"For her? Do you think she deserves the half of the consideration she
+has received? Other women who have sinned against the law and every code
+of honour have been regarded as outcasts from society. Honest women bar
+their doors to such as she. I cannot bear to see you with her!--a girl
+like you cannot understand--I cannot explain"--he broke off with a
+gesture of impatience and helplessness.
+
+"I understand quite well," said Honor lifting her head courageously. "I
+feel that life is terribly unjust. There are men who are even worse than
+she, and yet their sins are covered, and society allows them to marry
+pure, honest girls! Is that right or just?"
+
+It was Dalton's turn to lower his gaze.
+
+Honor continued speaking. She did not allow her maidenly reserve to
+stand in the way of her frank denouncement of the injustice of human and
+social laws. Very quietly and logically she stated the case while Dalton
+with arms folded on his breast, listened, ashamed for himself and his
+sex. Before she had finished, he came and knelt beside her chair, and,
+gripping the arms of it with shaking hands, humbled himself to the dust.
+
+"We are all a cursed lot of Pharisees!" he cried. "Don't turn away from
+me with disgust! Pity me and love me still though I am unfit to kiss the
+hem of your skirt." Nevertheless, he bent and pressed his lips to the
+border of her gown.
+
+"Ah, don't!" she cried, the tears flooding her eyes. "You and I cannot
+think of love any more! It must be friendship or nothing. Today I have
+realised as I never did before, that there are higher duties for some of
+us, to which we must give the first place, even at the sacrifice of
+love."
+
+"Honey, you don't know what you are saying!" he cried passionately.
+"Dearest, you cannot forbid me to love you! It is an unalterable fact. I
+cannot change it, even at your bidding."
+
+"I know--it is quite true of love, for it is a sacred thing and belongs
+to the heart. But it can be locked away--put out of sight--_buried_,"
+she returned, her voice breaking. "The higher duty is--the _saving of a
+soul_. Dare we withhold our forgiveness from a repentant sinner? Your
+wife is truly a very miserable woman. She is on her knees to you. Can
+you afford to refuse her?--or will you rather say, 'Go and sin no more'?
+Which of us is without sin? If you repulse her now, it might lead to her
+ruin, body and soul?"
+
+"You are asking more of me than I can do. I can never again look upon
+her as a wife. Feeling as I do, it would be a violation of the best
+instincts of my nature."
+
+"I am not asking that of you."
+
+"What, then, is it I must do? for you know that I would give all I
+possess to please you."
+
+Honor's tears fell fast, unheeded. "_Only be kind to her._ Let her feel
+that she has something to live for. At present she has nothing."
+
+"I tell you, she is false. She has played upon your sympathies and led
+you to believe in her."
+
+"I believe in her only because it is impossible to doubt her
+wretchedness, or her repentance."
+
+"She lied to you!"
+
+"She told me the truth concerning herself. She did not spare herself.
+Hers is, indeed, a 'broken and a contrite heart' which even God does not
+despise," said Honor reverently.
+
+"You wish me to be kind to her?--Tell me how, when we live under the
+same roof and I can never regard her as my wife?"
+
+His eyes gazed upon the girl's face with wistful yearning. She was his
+soul's mate,--she of the pure eyes and tender mouth! He could be kind to
+_her_ all the days of his life. He could love and cherish _her_, in
+sickness and in health. Would to God she could belong to him!
+
+But she was talking of his duty to another whom he despised!
+
+Honor pleaded long with all her gentle tact, that he would try to
+practice tolerance and kindness. The future would take care of itself.
+
+"Kindness from you is all she craves, and a chance to prove her
+sincerity."
+
+"In what way can I be kind?" he repeated.
+
+"By being thoughtful of her needs, considerate, and forbearing. Speak
+gently, and do not grudge her your smiles when there is need to show
+appreciation."
+
+"And if I bring myself to do all these things, do you believe she will
+be content? Oh, Honey!--what a burden you are laying on my shoulders! Do
+you know that I find it difficult to be even decently polite to her?
+That is why I keep out of her way. And what is my reward to be?"
+
+"If we do our duty day by day, it is enough. We should not look for
+reward, yet, I am confident we shall receive it, never fear! It works
+out right in the end."
+
+"When I am dead?"--bitterly. "There is only one thing I want. Given
+that, I would ask nothing more of life!"
+
+He rose and stood aside to set her free, for Honor indicated that her
+visit was at an end.
+
+"Good-bye, and God bless you, Brian," she said with trembling lips,
+giving him both her hands.
+
+Dalton made no reply, but stooping, kissed them tenderly; for the moment
+he was incapable of speech. Then going to the door he held the curtain
+aside to allow her to pass out.
+
+Honor found her way home, shaken with emotion. She had won her point,
+but Mrs. Dalton would have to discover for herself the result of the
+interview which she had contrived to bring about; and if it helped her
+to begin afresh, the pain it had cost would not have been in vain.
+
+So deeply engrossed had she been in the purpose of her visit, that she
+had forgotten to repeat to Captain Dalton the conversation she had
+overheard at the _mela_. Her father had scoffed at it, and Tommy had
+treated it with indifference, explaining that all pioneers of progress
+in India had to put up with opposition, threats, and bluff. The natives
+of Bengal were too cowardly to risk their necks--didn't she remember her
+Macaulay? After all, there was really nothing tangible to worry about.
+
+Nevertheless, the matter so preyed upon her mind, that she wrote a note
+after dinner to Mrs. Dalton, telling her all about it, and asking her to
+persuade her husband to be always on his guard against sudden surprises,
+as she believed men were plotting against his life. It would give the
+poor woman an opportunity to begin friendly relations with her husband,
+and possibly help to bring about a better understanding between them.
+
+The note was entrusted to an orderly, who dropped it in the pocket of
+his tunic and postponed the delivery of it to a more convenient season,
+his friends from the bazaar having gathered at the door of his
+_basha_[21], behind the bungalow, for a smoke, and to gossip about their
+exploits at the _mela_.
+
+[Footnote 21: Dwelling.]
+
+It was not till they had gone, that he was recalled to a sense of duty
+with regard to the note, and the hour was then late. However, it was as
+much as his place was worth for him to leave the delivery of it till the
+morning; so, making his way across to the Civil Surgeon's bungalow, he
+aroused Mrs. Dalton's ayah, who, in her turn, roused her mistress, and
+handed her the communication from Honor.
+
+Thus does Fate control the destinies of individuals; for, had the
+orderly done his duty earlier, there might have been a very different
+ending to this story.
+
+Meanwhile, a letter by the last post from Joyce in Darjeeling, engaged
+Honor till close upon midnight. It had given her much to think about,
+and called for a reply of congratulations, as it was written at a time
+of intense joy and thanksgiving over the restoration of happy relations
+with her husband:
+
+Joyce had written at great length, beginning her letter with a
+description of her journey and the miserable thoughts that had occupied
+her all the way. After giving a brief outline of the circumstances
+connected with her arrival at her husband's rooms, she continued:
+
+"You can imagine the shock it was to find her there and so very much at
+home! I could have killed her! But I did nothing melodramatic, believe
+me. I was too stunned. Instead, I boiled with the desire for a reprisal.
+Since I could not fight her like a savage, being, of course, a highly
+civilised person, I fought her with the only weapons at my command. I
+went to the Planters' Ball, tired though I was, and made an amazing hit.
+Did you ever imagine that I was an actress, born? If you had seen me
+dance and smile while my heart was breaking, you would have had to
+revise all previous impressions of little Me.
+
+"Ray looked completely dazed at first, and could hardly believe his
+eyes. I obliged him to keep up appearances, so that we danced a great
+deal together, and he had my sweetest smiles, though he knew all the
+while that my heart was turned to stone. I was an angel to him before
+others, but alone with him I was adamant. And Mrs. Dalton had the lesson
+of her life. I saw to it that Ray dropped her entirely, and as people
+are like sheep, there was no one brave enough to have anything to do
+with her. Her humiliation was complete. Before half the night was over,
+she left, looking mad with everybody. Even those who had been in the
+habit of speaking to her, gave her a wide berth, so you can imagine how
+comforted I felt!--though I am inclined, now, to be a weeny bit sorry
+for her. It must have been an appalling experience, and only a woman can
+appreciate what it must have felt like. However, it will do her good to
+realise how much it is all worth in the end! It seems like becoming all
+of a sudden bankrupt of friends and love, and of all that makes life so
+dear and good. I am surprised that Captain Dalton has cared to take her
+back, but I suppose it is to save her from worse. If that is so, he
+can't be so bad after all!
+
+"I am rather ashamed of the part I played at the ball, for I took a
+wicked pleasure in Ray's misery. He looked so white and ill all the
+time, and whenever we danced I could see how he was just aching to kiss
+me as he used to do. His eyes gave him away all the time! But he never
+dared, even when we sat out in sheltered nooks, for I was a cruel devil,
+and 'rubbed it in' every time I got the chance. But, darling, consider
+how sore I felt--and how angry!
+
+"So I flirted mildly all the evening just to show that two could play
+the same game! Of course, in cold blood, I simply hated myself for
+behaving so despicably. I did not know I had it in me, but one never
+knows oneself till things happen to rouse one thoroughly. In the end I
+had a splitting headache and felt on the verge of hysteria. It was all I
+could do not to break down while Ray was unhooking my frock at the back.
+It was the only ball-gown in my trunk, the other not having arrived--the
+sort of thing that leaves one at the mercy of some charitable person.
+That was Ray! Though we were quarrelling desperately, he hooked and
+unhooked me without a word of protest, and oh, the misery of his dear,
+handsome face in the mirror! I could have hugged it to my breast and
+cried upon the squiggly little curls that never lie flat. Oh, I do love
+him so! But I was too proud to relent so soon, and tried to keep up my
+rage, which all the while was cooling fast.
+
+"When Ray left me, after the little business of the hooks and eyes, he
+retired to his dressing-room, where I supposed he had caused a bed to be
+made up for himself on the floor. The hotel was so packed, there was no
+help for it. Well, how was it possible for me to sleep when I thought of
+his lying on the draughty floor, and myself in possession of his
+comfortable bed? I tossed and turned and wondered about him, seeing all
+the while his unhappy face in the mirror. I remembered about your saying
+how a man punishes himself by remorse far more than others can punish
+him, and I knew that my poor boy was suffering terribly. That made me
+think of tragedies with razors and things, till I could not lie down
+another minute, but had to get out of bed to peep and see that he was
+safe. Very softly I tip-toed to the curtain which hangs between the
+rooms, and put my eyes to the edge.
+
+"Do you know, Honey darling, the poor fellow had no bed at all! His
+servant had not been given any order, and my dear, precious husband was
+sitting in the cold, before a dead fire, looking the picture of
+desolation and grief. It made me cry like anything to see his head bowed
+upon his arms, his whole attitude so dejected! and by the heaving of his
+shoulders, I knew he was crying. Think of it!--crying because of what he
+had done! and for my cruelty and unforgivingness! It is dreadful to see
+a strong man all broken up and humiliated for the sake of his wife. Oh,
+Honey! I could bear it no longer, and fairly ran to him.
+
+"Of course you can imagine the rest. It is too sacred to relate, and I
+thrill all over at the memory of it. How we clung together--mingling our
+tears! Oh, what a blessed thing is love!
+
+"There is no more to tell, except that we are enjoying a second
+honeymoon, far more wonderful than the first. And you may be quite,
+quite sure that I shall never leave my beloved husband again, unless I
+am forced. He and I shall go home every three years to Baby who is well
+cared for by his grannie. Of course I miss him dreadfully!--but then,
+there's Ray!--a big baby in his way, and one can't cut one's self in
+two, can one? so, all things considered, I feel I must just hold on out
+here for his sake till we can go home together. It is wonderful how
+different India now seems to me! I verily believe I hated it before,
+because I was blind or asleep. Love makes Paradise of any place!
+
+"I have told Ray all about that time in the ruins, and we both agree
+that I was a little silly to let my dread of his view of it keep me
+silent. My folly nearly spoiled both our lives. I should have trusted my
+husband more. Anyhow, I am wiser now."
+
+Honor sat long over this very human document, moved to laughter and
+tears. So Joyce had pardoned her sinner and had come into her reward!
+Another sinner, far more culpable would also find happiness through
+forgiveness, and her husband come into his reward, some day! It was
+Life, with its eternal give and take, and its exchange which was seldom
+just. Yet, in proportion to the kindness and generosity with which Brian
+Dalton treated his contrite wife, would be her gratitude and devotion;
+and time would bring healing and forgetfulness of wrongs.
+
+But some there were who gave always, expecting nothing in return, and
+they, too, won happiness with the years--virtue being its own reward!
+
+For the first time Honor was conscious of a great bitterness of spirit
+as she sought oblivion in sleep.
+
+She had just turned down the wick of her bedroom lamp--for it was
+customary in those parts to sleep with a light burning low all night in
+a bedchamber because of the lurking danger from snakes--when she heard a
+sudden sound in the distance that rooted her to the spot. The next
+instant her mother who had been awakened by it, called out from the
+adjoining room:
+
+"Honor, are you awake?"
+
+"Yes. Did you hear that, Mother?"
+
+"I was just wondering what it was. It sounded like a pistol shot."
+
+"I thought so, too. Listen!--there are voices."
+
+Mr. Bright, who was also disturbed, suggested in sleepy tones that his
+wife and daughter should go to sleep and leave other people to mind
+their own business. It was not part of his duty to look for trouble. It
+came fast enough to him in the ordinary channels. If any one had been
+killed, they would hear of it in due course.
+
+"How cold-blooded!" said Mrs. Bright.
+
+"We have quite enough of crime by day, my dear, without looking for it
+with a lantern at night."
+
+But the distant voices increased in agitation, and grew confused.
+
+Drawing the window curtain aside, Honor looked out into the night and
+saw unmistakable signs of alarm at Dalton's bungalow. Lights hurried to
+and fro and conflicting orders were shouted by one servant to another.
+In fact, it was very evident that something had gone seriously wrong.
+
+"I wonder what could have happened?" said Mrs. Bright looking over her
+daughter's shoulder. "See, there is someone coming to tell us about it."
+
+A single light was moving swiftly towards the hedge that divided the two
+gardens. Honor felt her heart paralysing as she watched the progress of
+the lantern; a hand seemed tightening upon her throat and her limbs grew
+palsied with fear. What was it they were coming so quickly to say?
+
+An evil, dark face had risen before her imagination, and she heard again
+the voice speaking to the basket-maker at the _mela_, vowing to take the
+life of the surgeon who had been the cause of his only son's death. "Oh,
+God!--oh, God!" burst from her lips.
+
+"Honey! Honey! What is it you fear?" Mrs. Bright cried, gripping her by
+the shoulders.
+
+But Honor broke away from her mother and, with shaking fingers, flung on
+her out-door clothes.
+
+"Surely you are not going out?"
+
+"Can't you understand, Mother?" she cried in strained, unnatural tones.
+"They have killed him! I know they have killed him!"
+
+"Sahib! Sahib!" called voices loudly on the verandah.
+
+The coolies pulling at the _punkha_ joined in a chorus of "Sahib,
+Sahib!"
+
+"We are sent to call the _Bara Sahib_. Haste and wake him. A great
+calamity hath befallen."
+
+"A murder has been committed, wake the Sahib!"
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Mr. Bright springing from his bed. "What are they
+saying? A murder? Where?"
+
+"At Captain Dalton's bungalow. The doctor has been murdered!--how
+terrible! Honor always said people were plotting against his life," said
+Mrs. Bright, horror-stricken.
+
+"Good God!" said Mr. Bright again as he pulled on his boots. "Tell them
+I will be with them in a minute. Send someone to call Tommy Deare,
+quickly."
+
+In the meantime, Honor was speeding across the grass on her way to the
+scene of the tragedy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THE ATONEMENT
+
+
+When Honor's letter of warning was received by Mrs. Dalton, she was
+greatly disturbed in mind at the apparent gravity of its purport.
+
+On being awakened, she had carried the letter to the table, raised the
+light, and read all that Honor had to say, after which she felt
+undecided how to act. The lateness of the hour made it certain that her
+husband was sound asleep after his fatiguing day, and to rouse him for
+the purpose of passing on a caution which he had previously disregarded,
+would be, she thought, both inconsiderate and tactless. Besides, no good
+could be gained by disturbing him, as no action could possibly be taken
+at the moment, even presuming that he were disposed to move in the
+matter. It seemed, therefore, wisest to allow the letter to stand over
+till the morning. Attempts had been made on his life, but Mrs. Dalton
+had understood that the enmity and ill feeling in the District had
+practically died down. Yet, here it was shown to be smouldering
+dangerously and an imminent menace to her husband, sleeping or waking.
+
+Though she was not passionately fond of him, and was unlikely ever to
+be,--having grown weary of strenuous emotions and the disappointments of
+life,--she valued the legal tie that bound them together as her sheet
+anchor in a life of vicissitudes. The unwonted ease she enjoyed in
+Dalton's home made it a haven of rest after her many storms. Under the
+shelter of his protection, she looked forward to regaining, at least,
+her good name and standing, if not the place she had rightly forfeited
+in his esteem. She had a glimmer of hope that the future held some
+promise through Honor's intervention on her behalf.
+
+Honor had done an inconceivable thing. In Mrs. Dalton's view it was
+incomprehensible. Her reverence for the Divine Law had caused her to
+renounce the man she loved, and to plead with him for the woman who had
+lost all moral claim to his regard or consideration. She was wonderful!
+and Mrs. Dalton was filled with admiration and respect.
+
+At dinner that evening she had gleaned the first-fruits of Honor's
+sacrifice, for he had been less taciturn, and had even responded to his
+wife's efforts to engage him in ordinary conversation. Instead of
+sitting in silence throughout the meal, or exchanging banal remarks
+about the food or the weather, they had discussed the war and all that
+India was going to do to prove her loyalty to the Crown. He had spoken
+of the advance in science and surgery, bound to result from the lessons
+of the war; and had told her of his wishes and intentions regarding
+herself should he be suddenly called upon to start for Europe. The
+generosity and consideration shown in his arrangement for her, had
+touched her deeply, and she had been only too willing to express her
+concurrence. It was the first time she had known the sensation of a
+genuine and impersonal interest in an intellectual man's conversation;
+and she was happier than she had been for many a day. She lay down
+again, but sleep would not come to her eyes, and her thoughts were busy
+with the subject of Honor's letter. She reasoned with herself to no
+purpose, for the stillness of the night bred new fears and intensified
+the lurking danger.
+
+What should she do? waken her husband?--or wait till the morning?
+
+Would it not be best to watch over him silently while he slept? It might
+move him to gratitude when he should learn of the sacrifice of her
+night's rest!
+
+The weather was warm and muggy in spite of the _punkha_ waving in the
+room, pulled by the uncertain hand of a coolie half-asleep in the
+verandah. There was another waving in like manner, she knew, in her
+husband's room at the extreme end of the bungalow; and in both
+apartments were windows thrown wide open to the night air--as was
+customary in the plains--with short curtains of lawn to screen the
+interior from public view. Outside, the shrill chirping of crickets
+vibrated in the air, and the occasional croak of a bull-frog from a pond
+in the garden, could be heard. Otherwise, the silence of the night was
+oppressive and ominous.
+
+Open windows not far from the ground offered an easy opportunity for
+entrance into the house of evil characters bent on mischief, and even
+the drowsy _punkha_ coolie in the verandah would be none the wiser.
+
+The thought was disquieting and banished sleep from her eyes.
+
+Impelled almost against her inclinations by an inward force too urgent
+to resist, Mrs. Dalton slipped on her kimona, and with her feet in
+slippers, went forth to satisfy herself, personally, that all was well
+with her husband. He did not desire her interest; he had no wish that
+she should sacrifice her rest, nevertheless, a sense of undefined
+apprehension made it impossible for her return to her bed and sleep.
+
+On her way to his bedchamber through the rooms that intervened, she
+could hear the squeak of the ungreased _punkha_ wheel as the rope passed
+to and fro over it. It was proof positive that he was asleep, or he
+could not have tolerated the noise for a moment. Suddenly, however, it
+ceased, and Mrs. Dalton, comprehending the reason of its stoppage,
+smiled to herself, appreciating the frailty of the _punkha wallah_.
+
+Arriving on the spot with the intention of stirring up the slumbering
+coolie, she was surprised to find that he had deserted his post after
+the manner of new hands unaccustomed to the task. This one, she
+remembered, had been engaged that very day. The rope hung idly against
+the wall under the wheel, and Mrs. Dalton was in momentary expectation
+of a curse from within as the mosquitoes settled on the sleeper.
+
+The culprit being nowhere in sight, she applied her eye to the edge of
+the curtain and looked towards the bed. Her husband lay, as she
+expected, fast asleep, tired out thoroughly, and unconscious of
+externals. Suddenly, as she peered at him, she became aware of a dark
+form moving between her vision and the sleeper.
+
+Paralysed with fear and incapable of uttering a sound, she saw the
+figure of an Indian clothed only in a narrow loin-cloth, creeping
+stealthily towards the bed.
+
+Who was he? and what was he trying to do?
+
+Mrs. Dalton was rooted to the spot and dumb with terror.
+
+Something gleamed in his hand--a steel blade had caught the reflection
+of the lowered flame of a lamp hanging on the wall. The man's purpose
+was plain, for thieves do not usually carry knives. He was there to
+commit murder. Oh, God!
+
+What was she to do?--She was powerless to move. Fear made her a coward,
+a helpless, nerveless creature. Like one in a horrible dream, her tongue
+refused to utter a warning, or her constricted throat to produce a
+sound.
+
+And there was not a moment to lose as the figure was stealthily nearing
+the sleeper. Thoughts flashed through her brain with lightning rapidity.
+If the man were not stopped, somehow, and at any cost, in another moment
+she would see Honor's fears justified and Brian killed while asleep in
+his bed. How was it possible for her to witness such a deed and not
+raise a finger to save him?
+
+But she was defenceless!
+
+The man raised his right arm, and the sight of the knife fully exposed,
+gave the impetus needed to galvanise Mrs. Dalton's nerves into sudden
+and fierce activity. Without a thought for her own danger, she sprang
+into the room and flung herself upon the Indian, clasping him round the
+waist and holding him back as in a vice.
+
+"Brian!" she shrieked in strangled tones, finding her voice at last.
+"Brian! Help! Murder!"
+
+A fierce struggle ensued. The native tried to free himself in vain; her
+arms tightened about him as he flung himself from side to side, and did
+not loose their hold even when he struck at her with his knife over his
+shoulder, once, twice, thrice, burying the blade deep every time.
+
+Only one idea obsessed Mrs. Dalton, and that was to hold on till the
+assassin could be secured. He should not escape to remain a menace to
+her husband's life!
+
+Her cries aroused Dalton from his profound sleep. He had long been in
+the habit of placing a loaded revolver under his pillow at night for
+self-protection from possible attempts on his life, and instantly
+realising the situation, leaped out of bed, and fired point blank at the
+Indian's head as the knife descended once more on his poor doomed wife.
+
+As the man dropped dead, Mrs. Dalton fell into her husband's arms, an
+unforgettable sight.
+
+Dalton carried her to his bed and laid her in it, a dying woman, while
+the terror-stricken servants crowded into the room. He gave them his
+orders and they sped in various directions--one to inform the police,
+another to rouse Mr. Bright. Someone took the car for the assistant
+surgeon, while others brought in more lamps and fetched and carried all
+that was necessary for the work of First Aid.
+
+With her life ebbing fast, Mrs. Dalton made a pitiful attempt to explain
+the reason of her presence on her husband's side of the house, afraid
+that he would misunderstand her motive; and he was filled with sorrow
+and self-reproach. "I came to see that you were safe--I only wanted to
+watch over you, for I had been warned that you were in danger. Miss
+Bright wrote--her letter is on my table, read it."
+
+"I understand," he said with the utmost gentleness, "and I cannot find
+words to tell you how I honour your wonderful courage and sacrifice."
+
+"It was the only thing to do. I could not call out--I had no voice! I
+was so dreadfully afraid!"
+
+"Afraid for me!--and not for yourself!"
+
+"I had no time to think of that."
+
+"It was heroism! You did a thing which, in battle, would have won you
+the Victoria Cross!"
+
+"Thank God I was able!" she panted.
+
+"I do not deserve it. Will you forgive me?" he asked brokenly.
+
+"It is I who have to ask that!"
+
+"The past is all wiped out today, so far as I am concerned. God bless
+you!"
+
+"Ah, thank you for that!--May God forgive me for the mistakes and the
+folly--the wrong-doing! It is too late now to retrieve them! Ah, those
+words, 'too late'!--on how many graves?... the words, 'too late'!...
+Yet--Honor would say it is never too late while there is breath in which
+to call on--the name of the Lord."
+
+"God is very merciful to all sinners who repent," said Dalton. "I, too,
+am a sinner. I have been a Pharisee and hypocrite all my life; may I,
+too, be forgiven!"
+
+"Perhaps this will be taken into the account--my atonement," she sighed
+feebly.
+
+"You have done what few women in your place would have had the courage
+to do. I shall remember it all the days of my life with gratitude and
+remorse."
+
+For a while they were silent as he did all he could to ease her
+suffering.
+
+"This is death!" she whispered, searching for his face with glazing
+eyes. "Tell Honor--I wish her the happiness she deserves.... You will
+love her as you could never have loved me. It is for the best...!"
+
+Dalton stooped low and kissed her on the forehead and as he straightened
+himself he saw that she was dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Honor arrived in the verandah and heard the story of the tragedy,
+her heart bounded with a very human relief at the thought that a most
+precious life had been spared. For a moment she had room for no other
+thought in her mind. "Thank God, Brian is safe!" she cried to her soul.
+
+Afterwards she could afford to dwell on the miracle of Mrs. Dalton's
+sacrifice. Who would have thought her capable of such an act of heroism?
+Truly, one never knows how much of good there is in human nature,
+howsoever perverted! Poor Mrs. Dalton! She had, indeed, atoned. She had
+given her all--her very life for the man she had wronged, and whose
+pride she had lowered in the dust. It was a magnificent act, the memory
+of which would wipe out every wrong she had done, and silence every
+tongue that spoke ill of her.
+
+"Is she still living?" Honor asked one of the servants, fearfully.
+
+"She died but a moment ago," said the _bearer_, "for the Sahib has
+retired into another room and all is silent."
+
+Elsewhere, too, all was still. In the presence of death, voices were
+hushed, as the servants hung about waiting for the coming of those who
+had been called.
+
+"It is a terrible sight," Honor heard one say to another; "the body of
+that _punkha_ coolie lying just where he fell. Some _domes_[22] must be
+fetched to remove him."
+
+[Footnote 22: Low-caste Hindus.]
+
+"The Sahib says, let no one lay a hand on him till the police arrive;
+such is the custom when an inquiry has to beheld."
+
+Seeing that her presence was unnecessary, Honor passed out into the
+darkness and ran swiftly home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was discovered later, at the inquest, that the discharge of a
+_punkha_ coolie had given Dalton's watchful enemies the opportunity they
+had been seeking to carry out their plan of revenge; and that the man
+who had been engaged to fill the vacant post was a marked character,
+living in the village of Panipara, who was well known to the police.
+Doubtless he had been heavily bribed for the perpetration of the
+intended crime which had so strangely miscarried. The instigators
+pointed to their own complicity by disappearing from the District, and
+the vain search for them occupied Mr. Bright and his staff for many
+months. As well might one look for a needle in a stack of hay, as expect
+to find fugitive criminals among the numerous villages of Bengal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Captain Dalton left for Europe soon after his wife's funeral, his
+services having been placed at the disposal of the War Office, and Honor
+treasured in her memory his brief words spoken in farewell as he held
+her hands in his. "We have both a great deal to do while the War lasts.
+Will you follow me, and let us work together?" In the moment of parting,
+it was not possible to keep out of his eyes all his lips could not say,
+and Honor promised.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE
+
+ALL'S WELL
+
+
+It was something more than four years later, when the Armistice was
+signed amid world-wide rejoicings of the Allied Nations, that a young
+soldier, bronzed and upright, rang the bell of a beautiful flat in
+Brighton, over-looking the sea. Above his breast pocket, on the left,
+were two ribbons, the D.S.O. and the M.C., the sight of which had won
+him glances of approval and soft looks of admiration, all the way along.
+Those bits of ribbon told wordlessly of self-sacrifice and devotion to
+duty; valour and endurance;--they suggested to the subconscious mind,
+danger, bodily discomfort, and endurance to the limit of human
+suffering, so that this brisk little freckled officer of very ordinary
+looks, was marked for all time, by those who knew, as one of the many
+special heroes of the most terrible war the world has ever known.
+
+He was shown into the drawing-room, and, in a moment, a gracious lady
+swept in with welcome in her eyes and both hands extended.
+
+"Oh, Tommy!--how good it is to see you safe!"
+
+"And to see you looking so fit, Honey--dear old girl!"
+
+"I was beginning to feel quite anxious, as you had not written for a
+month!"
+
+"There was so much doing. Besides, I was reserving it all for our
+meeting."
+
+They had much to talk about; he, of his vicissitudes in Mesopotamia, and
+she, of her husband and his work in the war-hospital in Brighton to
+which he was attached. Last of all, Tommy asked to see his god-son to
+whom he had yet to be introduced.
+
+"He is such a perfect darling!" said Honor beaming upon her visitor
+happily; "the very image of Brian." Pressing a bell, she gave her orders
+which were promptly obeyed by a nurse who entered with the baby, a lusty
+boy with grey-green eyes, and lips firmly locked in a cupid's bow.
+
+"Hullo!" said Tommy, "shake hands with 'Uncle'!"
+
+"Say, 'How do'?" said Honor, kissing the velvet cheek.
+
+"'Ow do!" said Baby staring at the pretty coloured ribbons on the khaki
+tunic.
+
+"This is the age at which I like them best," said Tommy admiringly.
+"He's 'some' kid! Do you remember trying to interest me in the Meredith
+infant when it was a glorified dummy in long clothes?"
+
+"Yes, and you wasted your energies trying to fix its attention when it
+did not know you from a mango tree!" They laughed heartily at the
+recollection.
+
+"Where are the Merediths, by the way?"
+
+"They are stationed at Darjeeling, which suits the baby very
+well--perhaps you don't know that there is another baby?"
+
+"I believe Jack wrote something of the sort, some little time back."
+
+"A baby girl this time, and getting on splendidly."
+
+"Where is the first?--still with the grandparents?"
+
+"Yes. I saw him not long ago--such a beautiful boy and so independent!
+The old people are so proud of him. Do you know that Jack and Kitty are
+at home?"
+
+"No! When did they come? I did not know that women were allowed
+passages?"
+
+"They managed to 'wangle' it, somehow. Jack had malaria and was ordered
+home by the doctors. It was a most exciting voyage, from all accounts,
+for their boat was chased by a submarine in the Bay of Biscay and
+escaped two torpedoes by a miracle."
+
+"Horrible!"
+
+"Kitty says she would not have missed the experience for anything; but
+Jack declares the anxiety has taken ten years off his life."
+
+"Dear old Jack! Where are they? I shall look them up."
+
+"Staying with his people. They are in love with Kitty and can't make
+enough of her."
+
+"And what are your plans now that the war is over?"
+
+"Brian expects to return to India, in which case, we go with him."
+
+"You'll take the baby?"
+
+"Most assuredly! Master Tommy is not going to be left behind by his
+Mummy--not on any account!"
+
+"But the climate? I thought it does not agree with babies?"
+
+"It agrees quite well; at least for the first few years. I am not so
+sure about it later on, but, 'sufficient unto the day is the evil
+thereof.' We'll begin to think about sending him home when he turns
+seven. You see, we have the hills, and life is too short for unnecessary
+partings."
+
+"I am with you there! How are Mr. and Mrs. Bright?"
+
+"As usual, thank you. Father retires after the New Year, and they will
+live in Edinburgh. And what of your plans, Tommy?"
+
+"I dare say I shall be back in the Police again, before long."
+
+"And have you not found any one yet as a life-partner, to make India
+worth while?" she asked kindly.
+
+Tommy smiled. "I am in no hurry, being difficult to please. I shall have
+to find the lady whose price, according to old Solomon, is 'far above
+rubies,' or remain in single blessedness all my days."
+
+"You'll find her right enough if you _know where_ to look, and _how_!"
+said Honor laughing. "Her natural element is the country home."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
+
+    The Reproof of Chance
+
+    The Blind Alley
+
+    The Daughter-in-Law
+
+    Baba and the Black Sheep
+
+    Sinners All
+
+    Mistress of Herself
+
+
+
+
+_A Selection from the Catalogue of_
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+
+Blue Aloes
+
+By Cynthia Stockley
+
+Author of "Poppy," "The Claw," "Wild Honey," etc.
+
+No writer can so unfailingly summons and materialize the spirit of the
+weird, mysterious South Africa as can Cynthia Stockley. She is a favored
+medium through whom the great Dark Continent its tales unfolds.
+
+A strange story is this, of a Karoo farm,--a hedge of Blue Aloes, a
+cactus of fantastic beauty, which shelters a myriad of creeping
+things,--a whisper and a summons in the dead of the night,--an odor of
+death and the old.
+
+There are three other stories in the book, stories throbbing with the
+sudden, intense passion and the mystic atmosphere of the Veldt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unconquered
+
+By Maud Diver
+
+Author of "Captain Desmond, V.C.," "Desmond's Daughter," "The Great
+Amulet," etc.
+
+In this book, Maud Diver proves that she needs no Indian background
+against which to work a powerful and emotional drama. This novel is
+called by the author, "an episode of 1914," and is the story of a
+vigorous out-of-doors man who, severely wounded, is brought home in the
+early days of the war, and of the girl who is repelled by the physical
+imperfections of her one-time handsome and sturdy lover. The other sort
+of girl is also in this tale, the slacker and the pacifist. It is a
+strong story, admirably told by a master novelist.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Desmond's Daughter
+
+By
+
+Maud Diver
+
+     "_Desmond's Daughter_ is an Anglo-Indian novel of much more than
+     ordinary importance. As a study of a complex character it has
+     remarkable power.... Mrs. Diver understands the English officer
+     thoroughly and does not spare his weaknesses; but that she
+     appreciates his good points is shown in her true and vivid story of
+     the Tirah Campaign. It is this which gives the book the right to be
+     regarded as an historical novel of first importance; and there is
+     no more striking illustration of our methods of governing and
+     holding our Indian Empire than this stimulating and convincing
+     story."--_Aberdeen Free Press._
+
+     "The present War is not mentioned in these pages; yet the spirit of
+     England at war is in them, the spirit of those clean-cut young
+     Englishmen, who know so well how to die.... There is more than
+     entertainment in Mrs. Diver's books; more than serious interest,
+     though they have much of both. In them speaks England's faith in
+     her sons and daughters; in the qualities which have made her race
+     great and powerful and fit to endure." _New York Tribune._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GREATHEART
+
+By Ethel M. Dell
+
+There were two of them--as unlike as two men could be. Sir Eustace, big,
+domineering, haughty, used to sweeping all before him with the power of
+his personality.
+
+The other was Stumpy, small, insignificant, quiet, with a little limp.
+
+They clashed over the greatest question that may come to men--the love
+of a girl.
+
+She took Sir Eustace just because she could not help herself--and was
+swept ahead on the tide of his passion.
+
+And then, when she needed help most--on the day before the
+wedding--Stumpy saved her--and the quiet flame of his eyes was more than
+the brute power of his brother.
+
+How did it all come out? Did she choose wisely? Is Greatheart more to be
+desired than great riches? The answer is the most vivid and charming
+story that Ethel M. Dell has written in a long time.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BANKED FIRES***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 31399.txt or 31399.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/3/9/31399
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/31399.zip b/31399.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d42259
--- /dev/null
+++ b/31399.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e91e01a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #31399 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31399)