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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf 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..0de8c25 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69777 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69777) diff --git a/old/69777-0.txt b/old/69777-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e061b5f..0000000 --- a/old/69777-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9828 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The rat-trap, by Dolf Wyllarde - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The rat-trap - -Author: Dolf Wyllarde - -Release Date: January 13, 2023 [eBook #69777] - -Language: English - -Produced by: MFR, Krista Zaleski and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAT-TRAP *** - - - - - - - THE - RAT-TRAP - - _By_ - DOLF WYLLARDE - - New York: - JOHN LANE COMPANY - 1914 - - - - - _Copyright 1904_ - BY JOHN LANE - - - - - _TO - THE GENERAL PUBLIC_ - - - _The only critic - whose opinion is finally - worth having_ - - - - -CHARACTERS - - - EVELYN GREGORY, Administrator and Colonial Secretary of Key - Island - - ALFRED HALTON, commissioned to enquire into the causes of - recent riots when the island was under the administration of - the British African Island Company - - The Hon. ARTHUR WHITE, Attorney-General of Key Island - - Major BUTE CHURTON (the Wessex Regiment), Officer commanding H. - M. Troops in Key Island - - GIFFORD AMBROISE, Town Warden of Port Albert - - JOHN BURTON, Town Warden of China Town - - MELTON HANNEY, British Consul at Port Cecil, East Africa - - Captain ALARIC LEWIN (28th Lancers), Private Secretary and A. - D. C. to the Administrator of Key Island - - Captain BRISTOW NUGENT (Wessex Regiment) - - Lieutenant HAMILTON GURNEY (Wessex Regiment) - - Captain WRAY GILDEROY (Royal Garrison Artillery at Key Island) - - Second Lieutenant EDWARD RENNIE (Royal Garrison Artillery at - Key Island) - - Lieutenant GEORGE CLAYTON (Army Service Corps) - - The Rev. ARCHIE LYSLE (Chaplain to the Forces) - - Captain RITCHIE STERN, R.N., commanding H.M.S. _Greville_ - - The Hon. JAMES DENVER, Sugar Planter, Member of the Legislative - Council - - ABDALLAH, Captain Lewin’s Arab butler - - LEOLINE LEWIN, Captain Lewin’s wife - - DIANA CHURTON, Major Churton’s wife - - ALICE GILDEROY, Captain Gilderoy’s wife - - EVA CLAYTON, Lieutenant Clayton’s wife - - BLANCHE STERN, Captain Ritchie Stern’s wife - - Mrs. ARTHUR WHITE (wife of the Attorney-General) - - BEATRIX DENVER (James Denver’s daughter) - - - - -CHAPTER I - - “Beware of fire, of water, of savage dogs, and of the man who - talks under his breath.”--_English Proverb._ - - -The troop-ship was twenty-four hours before her time in arriving, -which put the authorities out, for they like to take their leisure -in Key Island and as the thermometer rarely stands below 88° in the -shade they have some reason for their objection to hurry. The bungalow -which Government had thoughtfully apportioned to the private secretary -and A.D.C. to the Administrator was not ready, and word came down to -the ship that he must please to spend the night at the hotel, whereat -Captain Alaric Lewin swore in fluent English (he could have done the -same in five different languages) and wanted to know why the several -dashes Government had parted him from his regiment and sent him to an -asterisk hole like Key Island, if they did not mean to provide him -with a blank shelter when he got there. It was all very well for his -predecessor, who had been a bachelor; but Captain Lewin was a married -man, and a six-months-old husband to boot. He objected to taking his -wife to dubious Colonial “hotels”--so-called. - -Out in the sunshine of the deck Mrs. Lewin was sitting among her -baggage (while she waited for her lord and master to have arranged -matters before taking her ashore), because she knew no better, the -atmospheric conditions and effects of Key Island being as yet a sealed -book to her. She was watching the men formed up and marched off the -gangway, and formed up again on the wharf, and finally departing in -a cloud of dust and sunshine to the barracks on the Maitso Hill. Now -and then an officer saluted her in passing, and she nodded back and -smiled, for the five days out from Cape Town had been worth an intimacy -of three weeks on shore. There was idle speculation in her gaze as -it rested on this small corner of the British Empire, in which her -present lot was cast; but in this present moment of coming close to it -Key Island was no more than a flat picture on her mind of an absurd -little white town tufted with palms, and completely overweighted by -that harbour and the wharves which the Government were converting into -a great coaling-station, the whole shut in by the exquisite hills, -loaded with timber and softly drawn against a sky of pure deep blue. -There is no bluer sky than that which hangs above Key Island, and -reflects itself in the Mozambique Channel all round it on a clear day, -but Mrs. Lewin saw no more than the outward semblance of the place. -It takes characters in a landscape to endue it with vitality either -to present sense or bitter memory. All she saw on this occasion was -the green slopes of Maitso and Mitsinjovy, forming each side of the -bay, and beyond them the principal feature of the harbour,--two great -conical rocks, rising sheer from the sea to the height of two thousand -feet, which the English call the Gates, but the native population, who -have caught strange words from Madagascar, name Teraka and Tsofotra, -Sunrise and Sunset. There is a half-mile of blue water between the -base of the right and left Gate, and between them the troop-ship had -but lately passed, giving Mrs. Lewin a profile view of their frowning -sides. It was practically impossible not to see the Gates, because they -were as giants in the landscape; but the significance of their name and -position, shutting in the little tropical island at which she had but -just arrived, was as yet an unknown tongue to her. She had not heard -them close softly behind her, and bar the way to the outer world, as -residents grow to fancy that they have after a while. - -“Port Victoria!” said Mrs. Lewin musingly, her thoughts reverting to -the tumbled houses and the windy palms. “I wonder if it will ever grow -up to its name? At present it might be called Little Vic.” - -Her thoughts were distracted by the white figure of her husband coming -along the deck, and distinct against the other units in khaki as a -white sheep amongst a flock of brown. He was immaculate, but cross, and -one end of his moustache was caught between his teeth, and his handsome -face looked darker than usual because he did not appear upon the edge -of a smile, which was his normal expression. - -“We must go to the hotel, Chum,” he said. “No help for it. Come out of -the sun. What made you sit there?” - -“I don’t feel it very hot. Don’t bother about me, Ally, I expect the -hotel will be bearable--you wouldn’t mind it for yourself.” The habit -of a lifetime, rather than the relationship of six months, had taught -Leoline Lewin to classify every shade on her husband’s face with -sub-conscious accuracy. She had no least intention of knowing Ally’s -mind for him, but she did it all the same. - -“There is no help for it, anyway,” Captain Lewin said. “I’ve got a -buggy--our luggage will come up behind us.” - -Mrs. Lewin followed him off the boat and across the dusty road to -the Customs House, and so through the farce of having their luggage -examined, to the ramshackle conveyance drawn by a broken-kneed pony, -which was bunched up forlornly in the shade of the Customs House. - -“Couldn’t we go up by tram, Ally?” she said, a little comically. “This -is so musty--and the trams look quite clean and airy!” - -“Oh, they are only intended for the niggers, going up and down from -the coaling, or for people connected with the wharves!” remarked -Captain Lewin with unusual irony. “Everything exists here simply to -be a convenience to the wharves and the coaling, you will find. Mere -human beings don’t count in the new Government scheme!” He helped her -into the buggy, and flung his own big dissatisfied self into the seat -beside her, which creaked beneath his weight, for Captain Lewin rode -twelve stone for his five feet eleven inches. The buggy rumbled along, -pitching like a ship, and gave Mrs. Lewin a glimpse of open stores and -motley groups of coloured people, an undrained street, and now and then -a large, hard building, obviously new and solid, and as out of keeping -with the older houses as the town with the harbour. The whole place -had an unfinished appearance, as of a production begun by one workman -and put down as hopeless, and then taken up by another who had not yet -matured his plan for improvement. - -The buggy came to a stop before one of the older houses, a long rough -bungalow with a wide stoep, and empty doorways like open mouths, in and -out of which a small white Chinaman passed now and then, monotonously -bent on business. These were the waiters and servants of the Hotel -Natale, who bore the badge of the place on their grass-cloth liveries, -and the caps on their heads, which, by the way, they only wore until it -should be time to shave themselves, according to the laws of Confucius. -They swarmed out of the place like the white ants on the wooden railing -to the stoep, spread themselves on the luggage in the hinder cart, and -carried Captain and Mrs. Lewin into the hotel in a whirlwind of their -own property. - -“Get us two rooms--and be quick about it!” Alaric said shortly. “I’m -very sorry, Chum--but at all events it’s a place to rest and clean up -in.” - -His wife had passed him and walked into the cool shadows beyond the -stoep with some interest and curiosity in her face. She was a tall -girl, and had an enquiring way of carrying her chin, but her interest -was really unfeigned, for beyond England her experiences had been -limited to the Continent, and there was nothing Continental in the -Hotel Natale. Before Mrs. Lewin stretched a long carpetless passage, -some seventeen feet high, and lighted by one large whitewashed window -at the further end. It was the only real window, with glass panes, in -Port Victoria, as she afterwards found, and its proprietor was proud -of it. All the rest consisted of frames filled with wooden blinds, or -shutters that would shift up and down, to let in the air or shut out -the light. The windows in Mrs. Lewin’s bedroom were on this plan, as -she found when the Chinese scurried before her and piled her boxes in -the middle of the huge bare room. There was neither light nor bell in -the hotel, but they brought her one candle, and Ally’s dressing-room -was next door, so she managed as best she might. By-and-by she -wandered in to him to see how he fared, and found his apartment the -counterpart of her own, as to furnishing--a narrow bed, with a dirty -mosquito curtain over it, a chest of drawers, without paint or key, -a basket-work chair, a washstand, and a looking-glass. Captain Lewin -in his shirt-sleeves appeared the most valuable thing in the room. -A good-looking man is never more good-looking than in that severely -simple costume, and despite the fact that he was red from wrestling -with his shirt case, and swearing at the hotel and all its resources -all over again, he seemed to his wife a goodly possession. - -“What _are_ you doing, Ally?” Mrs. Lewin said, coming to the rescue, -and taking the keys out of his hand with cool, soft fingers. “Here, you -helpless boy, I’ll valet you to-night. I suppose the Chinese are not -reliable?” - -“Don’t suppose they know the use of a stud, except to loot it. It’s -awfully good of you, Chum. Got it open, already? I’ll engage a man -before I’m many hours older. But look here, if you’ll unpack the things -I shall want, I’ll go and get you some tea!” - -She laughed at the wheedling tone, and accepted the bribe. Even at -five o’clock in the day it was hot, with the clinging, muscle-sapping -heat of the tropics, but Chum had the vitality and sting of an English -winter still in her veins, and did not suffer as yet. She did some -unpacking--her own as well as Ally’s--and drank the tea he ordered in -lieu of his own whiskey and soda; and then she dressed for dinner, -coming into his room again to have her blouse fastened, for it -hooked at the back. Ally was in a better temper; he manipulated the -complicated fastening wonderfully with his large hands, and stooped to -kiss his wife’s pretty neck. - -“You’re too good to be wasted on this damned hole--beg pardon, Chum!” -he said, “I wish I’d got you out to Malta, or some other decent -station.” - -“What does it matter, old boy? The blouse is just as pretty for you -to look at on Key Island, and you can’t hope for Malta at your age -without unprecedented luck. Let’s make the best of our step up--private -secretary and A.D.C. is something, anyway.” - -“I expect it will be too, with this man. I was told at Cape Town he was -a Tartar.” - -“Know anything of him?” - -“Nothing. He’s been somewhere on the Indian frontier, quelling -rebellions without much ceremony, and a good deal of unofficial -slaughter. The Government always sends him out when there’s trouble -to squash, and then censures him when he’s done it. He’s here now to -expiate his sins, his measures having been a little too drastic to be -winked at any longer.” - -“Oh!” said Chum thoughtfully, “he must be one of our few strong -men. And they are worth having behind you, Ally. Let us annex the -Administrator, you and I, and make him the good geni of our fortunes!” - -“It would be the first time that Gregory was any one’s good geni!” said -Ally dryly. “They say he works his men to death, and when he can get -no more out of ’em, he throws ’em aside like a spent cartridge-case. -Come on, Chum--that fiendish row on a gong means some sort of a meal, I -suppose.” - -“Is my hair all right?” said Mrs. Lewin carelessly, as she tucked her -hand into his arm. - -He looked down at her somewhat critically, for he set much store by -appearance, and nodded. From his point of view it was unfortunate -that Leoline was cast in too individual a mould to be turned out -quite like the well-groomed, clean young Englishwoman whom the Mother -Country breeds in serviceable batches as wives for sensible men. But -common-sense had done much for Mrs. Alaric Lewin, and had made her as -near her husband’s ideal as Nature would go. It was really only her -hair which gave Chum much anxiety now, for its splendid weight and -ripples did not lend themselves very well to the mode of the moment, -but she laboured with it earnestly, and by the aid of a hair-net gave -it something the sameness of other women’s. She had no desire to be -conspicuous. - -“It’s all right--but don’t wear it over your ears, whatever you do!” -Ally advised, as they went down the empty, echoing passage arm in arm. -“We can stand anything but that.” - -“But, Ally, it’s the fashion--which doesn’t matter; and a pretty -one--which does!” - -“Can’t help it. Men always hate it. When we see a woman with her hair -dressed so, we always say she hasn’t washed her ears this morning!” - -“Pigs!” said Chum, laughing. “It’s your own unclean minds. Ally, isn’t -the waiter the image of Ah Sin!” - -“Yes, says his name’s Chun Low, or some such variation--but it doesn’t -matter. Have some chicken, Chum--I’m afraid it’s not up to much.” - -“I never quarrel with my food,” said Chum contentedly, attacking the -tough fowl. - -The coffee-room at the Natale was like a parochial hall, or an arcade -at some exhibition, both on account of its size and its bareness. It -was an immense place, built out from the rest of the bungalow as if to -allow of more room, though evidently in no hope of custom, for there -were but five small tables in all its desert space. These were spread -with coarse cloths and such table cutlery as should suffice to take -away a diner’s appetite. Mrs. Lewin made a face at her dingy pewter, -and amused herself with looking round the walls for distraction. There -was nothing to be seen but some dilapidated fans and a square of -coloured muslin on a stick which bore some far-off resemblance to a -flag. Outside the three or four long doors the day was still lingering -among the creepers and shrubs on the stoep, for green things seemed to -flourish there in tubs, and three dirty basket-chairs converted the -place into a popular lounge. It was infinitely forlorn. Chum looked -away again, towards the waiter this time, and observed that he was -trying to attract Ally’s attention, which was just then riveted upon -the fowl’s iron joints. - -“Ally,” she said, “I think Ah Sin wants to tell you something--he’s -either going to have a fit, or it’s Anglo-Saxon attitudes!” - -Lewin turned round quickly, to find that the Chinese waiter had come -to his elbow, evidently with some more important news than the next -course of a bad dinner. The guests at his table were lunatics to the -mind of the Chinaman, who could not use his name of Chung Low, but must -needs call him by some one else’s. Furthermore they joked and laughed -like children, and made comments on their surroundings and on himself -which were nonsense, and which should not alter a line of his outward -imperturbability. - -“What is it?” said Lewin impatiently. - -“One piecey man he come see you!” said Chung Low without a crease of -expression in his yellow face. - -The corners of Chum’s mouth lifted deliciously. Ally dared not meet her -eyes across the table. - -“Which piece of him, Ah Sin?” she said, leaning her chin in her hands -and looking gravely at the Chinaman. - -“Chum!” said Ally warningly, under his breath. Indeed he was choked -with laughter. “Er--you can show him in, boy!” he added, with a rather -larger manner than usual to impress the Celestial, and Ally was never -very condensed. “I expect it’s one of the fellows from barracks come -down to see if he can do anything,” he added vaguely to his wife. -“People are generally so deuced friendly in a station like this that it -becomes a bore. Might have left us to our dinner, anyhow, such as it -is. Still we can’t say no--can we?” - -“Of course not. Besides, I want to see if he is whole!” said the -irrepressible Chum. “Here comes Ah Sin--bowing before a young man who -looks all teeth!” (Chum could see the advance along the stoep of the -hotel, to which Ally had his back.) “Now he is making Anglo-Saxon -attitudes before him. Oh, Ally, do get up and meet him first--I know -I’m going to laugh!... _Well!_” - -The last exclamation was due to the fact that Ally had risen at her -desire, but no sooner did he see his visitor than he made a stride -forward to meet him, and the visitor being equally impetuous the next -few seconds presented a confused babel of greeting to Mrs. Lewin’s -amazed eyes and ears. - -“Hulloa, _Bristles_!” - -“Why, it’s old Ally Sloper!” - -“What luck blew you here? You’re not with the regiment--the Wessex?” - -“Yes I am. Changed from the Rutlandshire after the African show. Not -seen you but once since Sandhurst, Ally--are you our new A. D. C. to -Gregory’s Powder?” - -“Yes, worse luck! This is a nice beginning--no quarters, and obliged to -bring my wife to this sort of shanty! Oh, Chum--this is an old pal who -was at Sandhurst with me. Captain Nugent--Mrs. Lewin.” - -One of Ally’s most salient characteristics was that he could use slang -and remain a gentleman. As she shook hands with his friend Mrs. Lewin -inwardly commented upon the fact that the same indulgence would convert -Captain Nugent into a coster. He stared at her with eyes which were -burnt by much foreign service, and seemed to approve of the survey. - -“I heard that a Captain Lewin was coming, but never thought it was -you,” he explained. “Fact is, I came down to see if you were too tired -to come to the Gunnery, to-night--there’s a scratch dance on, and, of -course, as we didn’t expect you till to-morrow, we couldn’t send you an -invitation.” - -“What’s the show?” said Ally lazily, as he lit a cigarette. “You -fellows?” - -“No, the town cricket team. We had a match this week, and they got -up this hop as a finish. It’s only a small thing, so you might waive -ceremony and come!” He looked at Mrs. Lewin’s promising young figure as -a man might a horse he means to back. - -“Are you too tired, Chum?” Ally said doubtfully. - -“I am never too tired to dance,” said Mrs. Lewin with refreshing -cordiality. “Wait till I get into something less dinnery. I was afraid -to before, because it wouldn’t get dark and let us have candles. There -is nothing so disreputable as dining by daylight--it makes one feel -_décolletée_ in the highest gown.” - -Both men laughed as she vanished through one of the endless doorways. -Then there was a silence of some seconds while the cigarette smoke rose -in meditative threads. The man who thinks while he smokes draws slowly, -but if he is actively employed he produces little woolly clouds. - -“You’re married too, aren’t you?” said Ally, looking across the table. - -“Yes; left the missus at home. She isn’t strong enough for this place.” -Captain Nugent’s burnt young eyes looked away from his friend as he -spoke. - -“Any family?” - -“One,” said Nugent, knocking the ash on to the bare boards of the floor -to the inconvenience of the ants who lived there. “It’s a tom!” he -added thoughtfully. - -Another pause. - -“D’you remember, we both vowed we’d marry widows rather than a raw -girl?” said Ally in reminiscence. “By Jove! How I wished I had.” - -“It’s cornery at first. My wife told me what struck her most was that I -came in to speak to her in my shirt-sleeves, and without thinking took -up one of her brushes and brushed my hair. She thought, ‘What cheek!’” - -“Well, there’s one thing that stumps me now,” said Ally. - -“I know what you’re going to say--she buttons her gowns from right to -left.” - -“You’ve seen it too? Why the devil do they? All our clothes go from -left to right. I believe it’s that that makes women always look at a -thing hind-side before--their very point of view grows topsy-turvy.” - -“Ally!” came Mrs. Lewin’s voice from the doorway. “Come and change your -coat--you can’t dance in a jacket. Captain Nugent, how are we to get -there?” - -Both men rose rather guiltily. “I am afraid you’ll have to ride, Mrs. -Lewin,” Nugent said. “Ponies, y’know. Every one does here. Can you turn -up your skirt? I’d get you a buggy, but there are only three in Port -Victoria, and they are all hired for to-night.” - -“Elementary, but exciting,” said Chum calmly. “Go and get me a pony, -that’s all, and I’ll show you.” - -She was as good as her word when the ponies came round; they were -rats of things, and the new lady’s saddle which Mrs. Lewin had brought -out looked astonishingly big on the animal assigned her. But she -tucked up her silk skirts as if to the manner born, and the procession -clattered off from the front of the hotel, audienced by half-a-dozen -Chinese, loafers of three dusky races--for Key Island has a mixed -population--and some lean hens. The darkness had come at last, but -out of the irregular wooden houses shone the electric light with the -bizarre effect it always produces in such elementary places. The ponies -shambled along at a miniature canter, and Leoline gripped the pommel -by habit with a dreamy remembrance that some time since she had set a -thoroughbred across the finest hunting country in England. Such things -seemed to belong to another life, with the smell of eucalyptus and -moonflowers coming into her nostrils on a warm, wet breeze, and the -glimpses of Port Victoria by electric flashes. They rocked down the -main street, and for an instant the quay was on their left before they -turned up-hill to their destination; again she saw the grouped ravenala -palms, the huge wharves, the bay, and the grim Gates at the harbour -mouth, black sentinels against the darkening sky. Then Captain Nugent -steered to the left, along a bad road where anything but a Key’land -pony would have stumbled, and suddenly they emerged into the most -wonderful avenue of cocoanut palms, with soft sand underfoot, and as if -by common consent the up-hill canter changed to a hard gallop. - -“Look out!” Nugent called, pulling in beside Mrs. Lewin. “This is -Mitsinjovy Straight, the only bit of flat land round about. They always -gallop here; mind!” - -It was difficult to talk going at that pace, the wind buffeting them -with such violence. Mrs. Lewin looked along the aisle of straight -stems, each with its crown-tuft far overhead, and said, “I like it!” -It seemed to her the most characteristic spot in all the island, from -first to last--that wonderful avenue of cocoanuts where the ponies were -so glad to gallop!--and she was half regretful when they pulled up -before an old sugar factory beyond the palms, a white, hoary-looking -building, evidently converted from the sugar industry to other uses -now-a-days. - -“This is the Gunnery,” Captain Nugent explained. “It’s the Gunners’ -mess until their quarters are finished. The men will take your pony, -Mrs. Lewin.” - -Chum found the dressing-room full of women, lingering to gossip with -the assurance of already filled programmes. Powder-puffs were going -vigorously, and the place was stuffy with wraps. She tossed her -cloak to an attendant, and rejoined her escort, who awaited her at -the ballroom door. Nothing of the old sugar works remained, only the -shell of the barn-like building served now as a shelter in which the -gentlemen of the Royal Artillery could dine. - -It was as Nugent had said, a scratch dance, and the Gunnery had not -even been decorated, but the floor was unexpectedly good, and the -Wessex had arranged a band of a sort on a rough staging. Below this -impromptu daïs stood several people at whom Mrs. Lewin looked at once, -with an instinct for those of mark. There was a tall man with thick -silver hair, and a stout woman in black, a jovial-looking parson, and -another man with his back to her, of whom she could not judge. Nugent’s -eyes followed hers. - -“Those are the Seats of the Mighty there,” he said. “The parson is -Archie Lysle, our chaplain (best fellow goin’!); the lady’s Mrs. White, -and the grey-haired Johnnie is her husband--he’s Attorney-General.” - -“Who’s the other man?” Ally asked. - -“Halton, the Commissioner. Gregory’s Powder half promised to turn up, -but he went off to the Tsara Valley yesterday morning, and I don’t -expect he is back. Halton is probably representing Government House.” - -“I can’t understand this place,” said Chum, knitting her brows. “When -the Government took over Key Island from the British African Island -Company----” - -“Limited!” Ally put in significantly. - -“Limited,--why did they send out an Administrator _and_ a Commissioner -to enquire into the riots? Surely the man who takes the responsibility -should be the one to find out what is wrong?” - -“Well, you see, Halton’s the drag on the wheel, and Gregory’s the -wheel itself. Gregory’s a man who is always sent into a tight place, -but unless they brigade him with a drag, he’d make it an absolute -monarchy--he’s a born slave ruler. So they put Halton in to enquire, -and Gregory to act on the enquiry. See?” - -“Oh!” Chum’s whole thought was concentrated into the word. “And does -that succeed?” - -“Don’t much know--and it don’t matter either in such a beastly little -corner as this. Can’t think why we bother about the place at all. Let -France have it.” - -“But we want it for a coaling-station, don’t we; and it’s the key of -the Mozambique Channel!” - -“You’re thinking of the name--but Key’land takes its name as much -from its shape as anything, or so they say. Besides, who cares about -the Mozambique Channel? I don’t know what Government is up to, of -course--don’t mind either, so long as I get out of this pretty quick. -We’ve been here six months, and we’re all dead nuts on getting away. -May I have some dances, Mrs. Lewin?” His tone had brightened. - -Chum looked at him curiously as he wrote his name on her programme, -and in her own mind contrasted him with Ally, and found him vastly -inferior. He could not even take an intelligent interest in his -surroundings, and she attributed it to a certain curious formation in -the back of his head. It was flattened on the top, but curved out from -the neck too much to Mrs. Lewin’s critical inspection. Ally, with a -superior skull, would of course be more intelligent; but she did not -realise that she intended him to be so by her own motive power. - -“Would you like to know Halton? He’s a very decent chap,” Bristow -Nugent said simply. “This is quite an unofficial affair, y’know. No -need for ceremony. I’ll bring him over.” - -He swung in and out of the thickening crowd towards the band, but the -dancing had begun, and Mrs. Lewin’s programme had filled with the men -she had known on the troop-ship, and others who followed in their wake. -The evening was half over before Captain Nugent fulfilled his promise -and brought the Commissioner up to her. - -He was a very quiet man in appearance, with that instinctive colouring -which in an Englishman is always called fair, but his eyes were a -dark-brown, rather opaque, and had a trick of half closing while he -talked. He looked about forty, and the lines of his clean-shaven face -appealed to Chum as suggesting humour. - -“I suppose you have not had time to report yourselves yet,” he said -quizzically; “and as a fact you are not due until to-morrow, so -to-night’s appearance must be regarded as a kind of provision of good -things.” - -“There is no one to report oneself to, is there? I hear that the -Administrator is not in Port Victoria.” - -“He is standing behind you--not a dozen yards away,” said Halton -quietly. “If you turn round as though suddenly struck by the -attractiveness of the band, you will be able to look at him at your -leisure.” - -Their eyes met, and they both laughed, while Mrs. Lewin did as -suggested. There was no mistaking the Administrator, because he -happened to be the only man near, and was walking towards them with -Mrs. White, the Attorney-General’s wife. Evelyn Gregory was peculiar -rather than attractive, but more emphatic than either. He was -considerably taller than most men present, and was of that spare build -which made his dress suit look as if it hung over a clothes-horse. - -“He seems as if he were only on a bowing acquaintance with his clothes, -and was afraid of taking liberties with them!” was Mrs. Lewin’s comment -to herself. “Evening dress appears more inappropriate to him than to -any man I ever saw. Not that he is awkward either--but he looks too -tremendous for it!” - -The Administrator was still advancing, and revealed a long -hatchet-shaped face, with an unusual overhanging width at the temples. -His hair was reddish and cropped closely, and his features were cast in -a rather savage mould, the mouth hidden by a huge moustache. His eyes -were his most distinguishing feature, being nearly lidless and seeming -to fill the whole socket, the effect being that of extreme far sight -and almost cruel keenness. Mrs. Lewin was the more struck by their -expression in contrast to the Commissioner’s, but she could not see -their colour, for he was looking straight before him, and speaking in -what she at first thought was an intentional undertone to Mrs. White. - -“I don’t think you know Mrs. Lewin?” said that lady, who had been -talking to Chum earlier in the evening, and now paused near her. “Mr. -Gregory!” - -As Chum bowed she was conscious that the Administrator looked at her, -classified her in his own mind, and dropped the very thought of her. -He lingered for a minute, expressing his regret that they should have -been forced to go to the hotel, but he hoped their bungalow would be -at their disposal to-morrow, and Mrs. Lewin discovered that it was -his custom to speak in a rapid undertone like a forceful whisper. The -curiously concentrated effect of this was uncanny. His words came below -his breath, but not one of them was lost. When he had passed on, she -turned to Mr. Halton with relief, to find him regarding her in his turn. - -“I cannot think how you do it!” he said promptly. - -“Do what?” said Chum, as they ensconced themselves on two chairs in a -corner, as if by tacit consent. She made a furtive snatch at her mental -attitude as she spoke, for, to tell the truth, she had been making use -of that good gift of nature, her eyes. Even in this brief few minutes -she had found Mr. Halton responsive. - -“You come here,” said the Commissioner thoughtfully, “in a perfectly -fresh and smiling gown. Yet you arrived this afternoon, and must have -untrunked it, as you could not have worn it for landing.” He glanced at -her so daintily as to be free of offence; the pretty white shoulders -were innocent of sleeve, and the shoulder-strap was generous, and -hardly marred them. “I usually know the packed look of a new arrival, -but you have upset my calculations.” - -“I am sitting on the creases,” said Mrs. Lewin amicably. “They are all -in my tail! By the way, Mr. Halton, are all the servants here Chinamen?” - -“No; only at the hotel, and one or two houses which believe in them. -They are not very good servants, though they compare favourably with -most of the ruffians who inhabit Key Island. The fact is that no -good Chinaman leaves China--the best will hardly go out of their own -districts.” - -“What am I to do for servants, then?” - -“I should advise your having Arabs. You begin to think that this is a -tower of Babel, I see; but the fact is, we get Arabs from the Comoros, -as well as Chinese labour, like the Mauritius, and unless you can pick -and choose, they are easier to manage. You can have a choice of evils, -of course. There is the African negro, who is deceitful and desperately -wicked, Creole and half-caste (but they won’t work), and even some -Malagasy. Would you like a brace of Arabs to begin with?” - -“Thank you,” laughed Chum. “I suppose we shall begin housekeeping -to-morrow, and I tremble when I think of my husband’s sufferings during -my novitiate.” - -“Turn him over to the club if he dares to grumble; that will sober -him. I will send you Abdallah and Hafez, if I may. You will find them -two very average idiots. Make Hafez your cook and Abdallah your butler, -and they will find you the rest of your household.” - -“You are much better than a registry office! But I feel I’m taking -liberties with the Government.” - -“We are terribly unofficial in Key’land!” said the Commissioner, -with a little grimace. “But a week here will tell you more of the -place than any secrets I could give away. The fact is that the Home -Authorities are spring cleaning, and we are living on the stairs and -in the passages meanwhile, after the manner of householders in such -circumstances.” - -Mrs. Lewin had absorbed a fair amount of information even when she -returned to the hotel that night with her husband. It was their custom -to become confidential after a tour among strangers, and to exchange -experiences; but they took different standpoints. - -“I saw you talking to a red-haired woman,” said Chum. “What was she -like?” - -“Oh, rather nice. She knows the Tavistocks--Indian people, you know. -I was at the Pindi with them.” Ally’s interest in people was usually -founded on mutual acquaintances. - -“I thought she looked Army, herself. Who is she?” - -“A Mrs. Churton. Her husband is senior Major of the Wessex and O.C.T. -here. She is rather a smart woman, I thought.” This was Ally’s praise. - -“But does she put all her goods in the shop windows, so to speak? -There are people like that.” - -“Well, her hair was all right, wasn’t it? And she knows every one here.” - -“Ah!” said Chum thoughtfully, letting down the masses of her own -irreclaimable hair, which objected to being smart either in colour or -fashion. “Then I hope she will come to call soon.” - -“How did you get on? And what did you think of Bristles?” - -“I don’t think of Bristles. But on the whole I didn’t do badly. I was -offered ten ponies to ride, three men are coming to call on me with -their wives (not only sending their wives to call--it’s a broader -compliment), and the Commissioner is selecting all the rogues and -vagabonds in the island for my servants!” - -“The Commissioner! I thought it was the Administrator you were going to -annex.” - -“I am feeling round at present. If I see that he is the right man to -advance our fortunes, Ally, nothing can save him!” - -“I am afraid you had better keep to Halton. I heard all round that -Gregory’s Powder is a stiff dose. Lysle--that chaplain fellow--tells me -that every woman out here has had a shot at him, and never made more -than a fleeting impression.” - -“If he sets up as a woman-hater, he is a foregone conclusion,” said -Chum scornfully. “He seemed on excellent terms with that stout woman, -Mrs. White, though.” - -“He is on excellent terms with them all, and with no one in particular. -He is absorbed in his work wherever it is, they say, and the worst of -it is he’s a slave driver. I’m going to have a lovely time of it!” - -He looked so really rueful and impressed that Chum opened her charming -eyes with a little laugh. - -“Why, Ally,” she said, “you are all making a little tin god of -him,--and I can’t think why!” - -“He is the Administrator of Key Island, and a hard nut to crack. -Perhaps that is why.” - -“My dear fellow, he is--only a man!” - - - - -CHAPTER II - - “A woman and a cherry are painted to their own harm.”--_English - Proverb._ - - -To understand the overwhelming military flavour in the society of Key -Island, it must be remembered that Port Victoria is girdled with the -garrison, and that the garrison is stationary, whereas the cruisers -only put in to coal, and at the best stay three weeks on one excuse -or another. The naval flavour, therefore, is general, but indistinct; -whereas one cannot get away from the smell of khaki, go where one -will. On the right, as one enters the harbour, is Teraka, the Gate of -Sunrise, and behind this, though unconnected with it, rises Maitso -Hill with its solid quarters for troops; on the left Tsofotra, or -the Sunset Gate, is flanked in the same way by the lower slopes of -Mitsinjovy. When the Lewins arrived in Key Island Maitso was occupied -by the Wessex, and the Gunners were in hurricane huts at Mitsinjovy, -pending the completion of their barracks, which were to accommodate yet -more batteries as soon as finished; add to this the usual percentage -of A.S.C., R.A.M.C., and A.P.D., and the result is that from nine -to twelve, when the men go out of uniform, Port Victoria is nothing -but a parade ground, and every man at afternoon tennis looks as if -he missed a stripe down his trousers. There are civilians, of course -(Leoline Lewin counted three that she knew after a residence of as -many weeks), but they are not enough to leaven the lump, and so the -social world remains Official and Military, and the aristocracy of the -place are always those who are most ferociously Army. Mrs. Lewin had -two great advantages, when she was introduced to the station, over -most of the young married women who fought a mental battle for their -rights before they established themselves in the uppermost seats of -the synagogue--Captain Lewin belonged to a very much smarter regiment -than either the Wessex or the Artillery then at Port Victoria; and also, -he was not attached to the garrison. Therefore Chum started with an -insured position that could not be torn from her, and yet rivalled no -other lady’s. Incidentally, she was also much better looking than any -other woman in the island, and she knew how to put on her clothes, -which is a gift quite apart from possessing the garments themselves, -or even the taste to choose them. When they had talked her over at the -club, from the ripples of her pretty hair to her openwork stockings -and American shoes, the married men did a shrewd thing, and waited for -their wives to mention her first, while the unmarried went to call -without waiting for Sunday--which is a great compliment, because by the -law of Port Victoria Sunday is the day set aside for visiting, it not -being etiquette to play polo or dance. - -The Alaric Lewins took their married life as a huge joke, a point of -view which speedily communicated itself to Key Island, who proceeded to -laugh with them over the situation. They had been brought up together, -Mrs. Lewin’s father having been Alaric’s guardian, and an admiration of -Ally had been amongst the rudiments of Chum’s education. At intervals -Alaric had disappeared out of her life to Harrow, and Sandhurst, and -India, always to reappear a good deal handsomer and better mannered and -more travelled. His view of life was necessarily larger than her own -by forced experience; but the girl, left at home, knew more deeply by -theory than the man by practice. At twenty-six a woman who thinks is in -a very dangerous position if she has had no actual experience to reduce -her ideas of life to the level of reality. But Leoline looked innocent -enough of anything out of the common, when seen against the background -of her home. Captain Lewin was much influenced by surroundings; he saw -a solid position in the county, irreproachable frocks, popularity with -men and women alike, and a coveted possession by others of his kind, -while the unimportant item of a girl’s individuality, which was the -centrepiece of all this, he took for granted. Leoline, the victim of -her own theories, found the relations between them hardly altered after -the clergyman of the parish, who had hitherto behaved like a gentleman, -said very rude things to her from the altar rails, for which he had -scriptural authority. She congratulated herself that she was still -Ally’s “Chum,” and made their interests one with a touch of comradeship -in the wifehood. Her knowledge of the man she had married consisted -in the fact that he was nearly six feet in height and well built, -that he had a well-shaped dark head, and a handsome face, that he had -always had good manners and appearance, and that they were excellent -companions. Marriage, to Chum, meant a certain amount of mutual -toleration and avoidance of friction, whereby she called it a success. -It seemed to her that she and Ally had done the same thing from their -nursery days; they must certainly have learned all of each other that -there was to learn by now. But in an indefinite future she believed -that he was to do great things, because she could not imagine herself -the wife of a man who was a failure. - -A week in Key Island revealed the inner workings of its life, as Halton -had said it would, but the Lewins still knew different sides of it. -Alaric’s duties tied him to Government House as he had predicted, but -he escaped to play tennis and to ride and bathe after the manner of -his kind. There was an heroic effort at a polo ground too, but things -being on an eternal slant in the island, the game had to be played on a -gentle slope. Gentlemen of the home clubs, who swear at a daisy tuft, -think of the pathos of this, and see how exiled brothers can follow the -sport abroad! Leoline, by the grace of Hafez and Abdallah, was free -early in the day, but squandered her liberty in reducing her house to -order. She did not care to ride out to tennis much before the hour when -her husband could arrive there also, and it even sometimes happened -that she would for preference go for a gallop through the cocoanuts -up and down Mitsinjovy Straight, so that he had got home and changed, -and was at their mutual destination before her. This happened one day -about a week after their arrival; Mrs. Lewin had ordered her pony for -four o’clock, but the day clouded over, and the sky over Maitso was so -threatening that she gave up her gallop and half hesitated about going -to the further garrison. As, however, tennis was on at Mrs. Churton’s -this afternoon, and as Ally liked Mrs. Churton, she decided to ride -up to Maitso, anyhow, and cantered soberly away, past the gates of -Government House, and, leaving Port Victoria to the right, began to -climb the hill. - -It was a steep climb, and the pony sobered at once to a walk. No -Key’land pony can trot--either he walks or he canters, and even that -he does in a manner peculiarly his own, using three of his legs to -the distinct saving of the fourth. As Liscarton dug his toes into the -dust and hitched his lean quarters upwards, Mrs. Lewin turned in the -saddle and looked down at the view, which was gaining an indefinite -fascination for her--the town, the harbour, and the gates. The two -cone-shaped rocks had a threatening appearance to-day, with the low -loose clouds nearly touching their crests, and there was a sullen -light upon everything. Even the sun-soaked green of the hills cuddled -round Port Victoria were draped with passing veils of rain that were -being blown over them and down towards the town. It was not as yet wet -at Maitso, though it had been threatening all day, and the Lewins’ -bungalow, being on a level with Government House, had also escaped with -an angry shower. - -“Shall we have a storm, boy?” said Chum, as she rode into the Churtons’ -yard and delivered her pony to a loafing servant. The groom nodded, -and murmured an assent in Arabic or Malagasy--she had not yet learned -to know which--but with so obvious a disbelief in the weather that she -hastened her steps into the house in consequence. He was right, for the -first large drops splashed on to the roof of the stoep, even as the -butler bowed her into the drawing-room through one of its many doors; -and the clouds darkened the day so that the carefully shaded room was -really dusky after the outside world. - -Mrs. Churton happened to be crossing the room, and greeted Mrs. Lewin -on the way. She was of a type that wears the regimental badge as a -waist-buckle, and seems proud of a weather-beaten skin as proof that -she has followed the drum through many climates. Chum glanced at the -hair that Ally had said was “All right,” and saw that Diana Churton had -tightened a coiffeur in the _Queen_ into a form entirely unbecoming -to her face. Her instinct could not approve, but her judgment meekly -followed Ally’s. - -There were many people crowded into the little room who would have -spread themselves out comfortably upon the tennis courts, but thus -condensed seemed to Chum too complicated to be greeted in detail. So -she remained where she had drifted, near an open window, and watched -the storm. It had begun to rain, as it always does there, with -half-a-dozen great drops, like the first tears of a breaking grief, -and then as if a window opened in heaven and an angry God threatened -to drown the earth a second time. For some minutes it was impossible -to hear anything but the shouting of the rain as it drove past; but -after a few minutes it softened to a steady hissing whisper, and the -conversation in the room behind her caught Mrs. Lewin’s idle attention. -She wondered what was absorbing the party, and turned to hear. Mrs. -Churton had had a large volume in her hands when she spoke to her -latest guest, which she promptly deposited upon Ally’s knee--Chum had -recognised his flat shoulders and oval dark head, though his back was -towards her--and a minute later she gained the key to the mystery. - -“My husband always takes about two hundred pounds worth with him for -exchange,” Mrs. Churton was saying. “There’s the variation, Captain -Lewin--see the difference between DIE I and II?” - -“Oh, I’ve got this,” Ally’s voice chimed in. “DIE II has a clean -engraved cut under the eye, hasn’t it? But you’ve beaten me in shades.” - -“I can get ten pounds for that one penny on five shilling dull rose -Barbadoes of mine!” broke in another voice. - -“You’re a specialist, aren’t you, Mr. Lysle?” - -“Yes, I only take the Portuguese colonies. A collector really has no -time for more than one corner of the world, if he does it seriously.” - -Mrs. Churton laughed rather loudly. “I’m not serious enough to confine -myself to one country. I take anything that comes in my way--the more -valuable the better. Bute says he wouldn’t trust me with his own common -duplicates.” - -“Stamps!” said Chum blankly, under her breath. It was so long since -she had helped to arrange those little coloured squares of paper in a -fancy album with Ally, that she had not realised that the usual boy’s -hobby had grown up into Philately--a fearsome disease that ravages both -Services all the world over. Not being a “collector” herself, she stood -by in amazed amusement while the jargon of the cult rang across the -room, until she became aware that Mr. Halton had appeared at her side, -without her having known him to be in the room. - -“Disgusting weather, isn’t it?” he said, as they shook hands. “For -those who want to play tennis. I am afraid the crops want water so -badly that, as a government official, I must rejoice, however.” - -“Is rain wanted?” said Mrs. Lewin, with interest. “What for? The cane? -I wish you would talk about Key Island a little, Mr. Halton!” - -“Why?” - -“Because it interests me. I have been trying to pump my husband for -information all the week, but he is an unsatisfactory person, and won’t -explain things to me. When one understands a thing oneself, it is -difficult to realise the ignorance of other people.” - -The Commissioner looked at her beneath his drooping eyelids, and there -was some speculation in his glance. - -“Perhaps he is like most Key’landers, and feels no interest in -the island himself?” he remarked drily. “Most of the victims whom -Government has chained here for three years think of nothing those -three years but getting away!” - -“Yes, I know they do; but it seems rather silly, don’t you think? Why -should people always live in the future, or the past, when it is really -the present that matters? As I am in Key Island, I have a deep interest -in Key Island--I belong to her, and every move of the Government makes -me long to know their plans still more!” - -“You should talk to the Administrator,” said Halton, laughing. “He -is the only man likely to encourage you. I must confess I have some -sympathy with the people who hate this place, though I can’t share -Gregory’s enthusiasms.” - -“Ah, but you are only a passing compliment from the Colonial Office, -are you not? and we cannot expect to keep you! Major Churton told me -yesterday that they would hardly spare you from more important places -much longer. But why do you hate Key’land?” - -Halton looked out of the window at the clearing sky. The rain had -ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and overhead was the pure deep blue -that Mrs. Lewin was beginning to associate with the place. - -“It’s a rat-trap!” said the Commissioner, glancing up into the hollow -heavens. “One of the rat-traps that connect all the British Empire. And -already the rats are beginning to run round and round and find no way -of escape.” - -But the words held no present meaning for Chum’s ears. She was -listening half-idly to the scraps of conversation in the room behind -her. - -“I have got the Provincial issue for St. Thomas when they surcharged -the two cents on three cent stamps until the mail could get in with -more of the current issue!” - -“By Jove! that’s ten shillings in the catalogue at least.” - -“Yes, old man, but it isn’t in the market, as there’s no price quoted -for it!” - -Then Ally laughed, and Chum smiled in sympathy. Ally’s sense of humour -was easily tickled, and his laugh was infectious. Mrs. Churton’s -metallic voice rang above the babel. - -“Well, anyhow he had Zanzibar complete, and they say it’s worth a -thousand!” - -“No, he hadn’t--he couldn’t get the one rupee unused slate, small -second, after all.” - -“The only things to go for now-a-days are new issues--all the old ones -are too rare.” - -“What’s that Turk’s Island twopence halfpenny on penny dull red, that -Mrs. Ritchie Stern had from Captain Tullock?” - -“Oh, a beauty! I offered her an old Pacific Steam Navigation stamp for -it, but she wouldn’t exchange.” - -“Nonsense! It’ll be as common as Black English in a little while.” - -“Isn’t that a lovely set--those Venezuelans! And do you notice that the -over-print is different in just one out of the whole sheet? I wrote to -the paper about it, and they took no notice. I’m positive there’s a -variation.” - -Five heads were eagerly bent over a square half inch of printed paper, -while a chorus of indistinguishable argument arose that made Mrs. Lewin -laugh out loud. - -“I never yet met any one closely connected with the Navy or Army -who did not possess a collection of stamps worth at least a thousand -pounds!” remarked Halton drily, following her glance. - -“And did they ever realise the thousand pounds?” - -“Oh no, not personally. You heard their ingenuous remarks about -catalogues and market prices! But then they never want to -sell--personally. They know some one, however, who did so. It is -generally Browne who had the _Taradiddle_ on the El Dorado Station, -unless it is Smyth of the 1,000!” - -“I know so many men in that regiment!” said Chum sweetly, “and they are -all such nice fellows, too! The Duke of Humbug’s Own, isn’t it?” - -“Yes; and the regimental motto is, ‘When you tell a lie, tell a good -one!’--the badge, a chimera seen in a mirage!” - -They had no time to laugh, because Mrs. Churton’s voice was heard -across the room, earnestly expostulating with Ally. - -“The colours on the red Brazilian unpaid letter-stamp won’t stand -steaming. You had better try wet blotting-paper.” - -“Oh, come outside!” said Halton impatiently, pushing open the -shuttered window-frame, and holding out his hand to help his companion -over the step. Mrs. Lewin followed him down the stoep and into a -narrow path lightly flanked by logwood. Three ravenala palms stood -sentinel outside the quarters of the O.C.T., their split fans looking -like raised hands to her imagination. The ravenala is the “Traveller’s -Tree,” and is tapped for water by enterprising tourists; but it is too -common in Key’land to excite the inhabitants, who look upon it as any -other palm. To Mrs. Lewin it had become somehow symbolic of the place, -and she liked its solemn hands outspread above her head, and regretted -that there did not happen to be a single specimen at the bungalow. -Besides the ravenalas and the logwood, the Churtons’ quarters were -singularly treeless, but they owned one of the three tennis courts -in Port Victoria. Maitso and Mitsinjovy are not remarkable for flat -spaces of ground, and the Churtons were esteemed fortunate. All the -houses on Maitso Hill had been apportioned to married officers when -the troops were first quartered there, and as the paths zigzagged up -and down the steep incline, each sharp curve would reveal a small -bungalow, until the long line of actual barracks crowned the crest. -From a distance it looked as if one house were hung above another, tier -on tier in the green, but a nearer acquaintance proved the garrison -more rugged than picturesque. At Mitsinjovy the officers’ quarters, -being new and specially built for them, were of a more regular type, -and proportionately hideous; but Maitso had been a favourite residence -to the old planters, and when given over to the Wessex, they counted -themselves luckier than the Gunners. Halton and Mrs. Lewin sauntered as -far as the tennis courts, and there paused, looking down on the best -view of Port Victoria and the bay that Key Island affords, while they -talked in desultory fashion. - -“So you are interested in Key’land!” said the Commissioner -meditatively. “Have you seen anything of the island yet?” - -“Nothing but Port Victoria--and the docks!” said Mrs. Lewin, with a -laughing glance at the forests of masts far off in the bay. - -“I am glad you give the Government hobby its chance--but you should -have said the Docks, the Harbour, the Coaling Wharves, and--Port -Victoria! That is the correct order. We are merely here on sufferance, -as Government House bears witness! Would you like me to take you out to -China Town, I wonder?” - -“I am sure I should--if I knew anything about it. Where is China Town?” - -“It is on the other side of that hill,”--he pointed up the valley to an -undiscovered inland. “It is the headquarters of the Chinese here, and -we suspect at the root of the mischief. They have got some place where -they brew this abominable form of hashish which sends the ordinary -native mad, and makes him get up riots and kill white people--you see? -But as yet we have not absolutely spotted John Chinaman brewing in any -large quantities, and we cannot condemn on isolated instances. You are -really interested, Mrs. Lewin!” - -Chum laughed a little, conscious that her wide eyes were alight with -the absorption of the moment, and Mr. Halton laughed too. It was one of -his chief attractions to her that he never paid her a compliment, or -made a personal remark; and yet his quiet admiration was as patent to -her as the noisy homage of duller men. - -“I am extremely interested! Is that your theory as to the cause of the -rioting?” - -“The real cause, certainly. The oppression and low wage that was -offered as an excuse is nothing to a logical mind dealing with -these people. There are the innocent hemp-crops, and there are the -wily yellow man and the fools of blacks. But as yet we have not the -connecting link. They complained of _corvée_ (forced labour), it is -always the plea--but we complain of ganja with much more reason!” - -“And do these people profess to cultivate hemp for export?” - -“A Chinaman, dear lady, will profess anything--save the truth. It is -all _pidgeon_ to use his own universal expression. But if you will get -up very early to-morrow--say be in the saddle by seven--I will take a -day off and expound the ethics of China Town to you, with spectacular -views as illustrations. Will you come?” - -“With pleasure. But can’t you tell me--Ah! what a pity!” - -The compliment contained in the genuine exclamation was perfect because -impromptu. It was caused by the arrival on the scene of Captain Nugent, -Mrs. Churton, and Ally, no longer talking of stamps but of tennis. - -“Is it too wet to play, d’you think?” Diana Churton said to the -Commissioner and Mrs. Lewin long before she reached them. “That’s -the worst of grass--I wish we had gravel courts like that stuck-up -Mrs. Bertie used to tell us they had in the Cape. D’you remember her, -Brissy? My husband used to call her pea-hen!” - -“Was she stuck-up? I thought she made herself rather -friendly,”--Captain Nugent’s voice was equally strident to Mrs. Lewin’s -ears. “She was telling some story about the _State_ theatricals very -first time I met her, and Jordan coming on the stage dead drunk! Rather -good tale she made of it too.” - -Chum began to see that she would have to like Brissy in spite of -herself, if it were to be done at all. A sudden impatience of the -chatter round her seized her with the tantalising glimpse of more -exciting things to hear of from Halton. Five seconds later she -changed her mental attitude, and condemned herself for her own lack -of adaptability. It was one of her theories that the immediate thing -was the one to grasp and develop as best might be, which mental -schooling resulted in her becoming involved in a game of cat’s-cradle -with Captain Nugent, who was playing with a piece of string which had -been tied round the stamps album. Brissy had no conception of mental -flirtations undermining even a discussion on hemp-growing round China -Town; but he knew that if he got “fish-in-the-pond” his large hands -would very likely touch Mrs. Lewin’s in the manipulation of the string. -Ally had gone to find their ponies for the return home, and by the time -he reappeared the Commissioner had also extricated himself after his -quiet fashion and started with them. - -“Then you will come for a ride to-morrow?” he said to Chum carelessly. -“I am going to show your wife China Town, Lewin--she displays such a -flattering interest, that Government cannot afford to allow it to die -for lack of cultivation. You were there yesterday, eh?” - -“I was!” said Ally significantly. “The most beastly hot ride I ever -had. You had better be careful what time of day you go, Chum.” - -“Mr. Halton says seven A. M.” - -“I wish the Administrator had said seven A. M.!” said Ally, laughing -good-humouredly. “Instead of that he said twelve--at a minute’s notice.” - -“He does not spare himself!” said Halton, with a shrug of his -shoulders. “And he sees no reason to spare other people. Our paths -divide here, I am sorry to say. Yours is the shorter cut, Mrs. Lewin.” - -“Good-bye till to-morrow, then.” - -She turned in her saddle, her face framed in by the Panama hat she -wore for riding, her eyes in the shadow, a new shade in which the -Commissioner had not yet surprised them. He reined his own pony’s head -round into the winding path that made a carriage-drive to Government -House, while the Lewins rode straight on. Their bungalow lay only a few -hundred yards further down the direct road, with a short cut through -their own plantation to Government House. It was by this private path -that Ally went to his work every morning and returned--the click of -the rough gate dividing the grounds being Chum’s signal for the first -luncheon bell; but visitors, or the residents of Government House -themselves, had a half-mile of winding path and tangled green before -they emerged opposite the long straight building where the Union Jack -flew above lines of blank window-frames and the straight pillars of the -stoep. There were two stories to Government House; it could accommodate -some thirty people independently of servants, and the Administrator and -Commissioner, alone in their glory, called it a useful barn. - -As Halton rode slowly along under the palms he was hardly thinking -of the ethics of China Town, being too busy in breaking the tenth -commandment. He was a man who had always hankered after the -unattainable, and been afraid to risk what he had for what he desired. -He had seen many pretty women, whom he thought of regretfully as -possible wives--after they had been married by other men. The old -process was beginning again in his mind, but the outcome of it was -merely a half-irritated remark to the Administrator across the -_tête-à-tête_ dinner-table. - -“What on earth made you send Lewin out to China Town in the heat of the -day? It’s enough to kill a man!” - -“There was no one else to send,” said Gregory simply, looking up in -momentary surprise from helping himself to fried banana. “I had a -message for Burton. _He’s_ a good man if you like.” - -“And not to be wasted. It wouldn’t matter if Lewin were used up, eh?” - -Gregory shrugged his shoulders. “What on earth did Government mean -by sending me a Mediterranean Station man?” he said in his repressed -tones. “Who am I to depend on when you go?” - -“He may wake up.” - -“He’ll play tennis.” - -“I have an idea his wife may push him through,” said the Commissioner -slowly, poking a hard-back beetle with his forefinger as he spoke. He -was looking at the insect as he spoke, and not at his _vis-à-vis_. -Gregory’s lidless eyes were fixed on him, however, in their usual -direct fashion. “She is by way of being an ambitious woman.” - -“Is she? I have no impression of her beyond the fact that she was -talking rather intelligently to Churton, on one occasion.” - -“When was that?” Halton raised his eyes and spoke more quickly, still -mechanically keeping the beetle struggling on his back. - -“Two days ago, at Mrs. White’s. I didn’t speak to Mrs. Lewin, but I -heard her talk.” He was unaware of the fact that Mrs. Lewin had been -conscious of him as an audience what time she quietly drained the -O.C.T. for information. - -“I think she has brains. She is more attracted by Key Island than its -meagre diversions.” - -“Pity the girl isn’t the boy, then!” said the Administrator cynically. -“This thing that sweats through a morning as my private secretary, and -then with a sigh of relief scrambles into his flannels, is cursed with -the curse of Reuben.” - -“Your pet aversion. I think you might be worse off, myself. Lewin is -at least a gentleman--and his duties include an A.D.C.’s, as well as a -secretary’s.” - -“Lewin has a pretty wife!” said Gregory bluntly. “That’s all about -it, Halton. I hope the lady will be so shrewd as to see which side her -husband’s bread is buttered, that’s all. I may get the report into some -form if she makes him work.” He rose in his usual irrelevant fashion, -pushing aside the last course offered him by the butler, and tossed -over some papers on a side table. “Ambroise had no news,” he remarked. - -“So you need hardly have slipped off to Port Albert!” retorted Halton. -“I’ve an engagement to-morrow morning, by the way--I shan’t be on hand -to save friction between you and Lewin.” - -The Administrator opened his lips as if to say something; but the -under-breathed words did not come. His hard eyes searched Halton’s -reticent face for a moment with intent, and in his mind he bore another -grudge against his Secretary for having a wife who could make a fool -of a Commissioner. Taff Halton was a clever man, too. They had worked -together in Central Africa. The devil take all women! - -“Mrs. Lewin,” drawled Halton, “was wearing a blouse, this afternoon, -of a peculiar shade of grey-lavender, which seemed like a reflection of -her eyes. It’s a pity you don’t study colour effects, Gregory. You lose -so much pleasure.” He knew just where to plant his sting, for if there -was one thing that Evelyn Gregory loathed it was dilettantism. Halton’s -sleepy eyes saw the curbed impatience in Gregory’s face, and he dropped -back in his chair so happy that other relaxation was forgotten; and the -hard-back beetle, no longer kept helplessly clawing the air, crawled -away, and immediately married a lady he discovered in the shade of a -dessert dish. All grades of life are elementary in Key Island. - - - - -CHAPTER III - - “No maker of images worships the gods; he knows what they are - made of!”--_Chinese Proverb._ - - -“I am not sure that I am not making a mistake!” said Chum to her -reflection, as she tied her tie in severe perfection, and pinned on -the Panama hat. “If I could only get hold of the real man himself, I am -sure I could do something. After all, Mr. Halton is only the shadow--he -will pass as shadows do, and his influence cannot really push Ally.” - -She took up her riding-whip slowly, and stood a minute in thought. It -was ten minutes to seven, and she could afford to arrange her ideas. -On the dressing-table stood the tray with her early coffee, but Ally -must breakfast alone this morning; she did not expect to get back -from China Town till then. The room was very large and very airy, for -furniture is superfluous in Key Island, and the lack of it increased -the sense of size. The bare boards were not even polished or stained, -and only two African goat-skins were thrown down as rugs to break its -monotony; there were basket-work chairs and a lounge from Madeira, and -a bed draped with a mosquito curtain with the usual bridal effect. -The window-frames were many, and were filled with shutters turned to -let in the air, but not the sun, and there was a door with the same -contrivance in its upper panels. Outside the windows ran the wide bare -stoep carefully clear of creepers, because vegetation means mosquitoes, -which need no encouragement. Chum fretted over the bareness, for her -hammock was slung there, and she would have liked to swing in a bower -of flame-colour and rose and greenery, which is to be had for the -asking in the island. But common-sense was triumphant over sentiment, -and the stoep was comparatively flyless. - -Common-sense was just then fighting for the upper hand in Mrs. Lewin’s -mental attitude, and her pause with the riding-whip idly tapping her -skirt was the result. It was easy, to say nothing of being pleasant, to -go on as she had begun, with the garrison quite ready to follow in her -train, and the Commissioner to lend it a certain distinction. But it -meant no future good for Ally, and Leoline Lewin had, without admitting -it, begun to see that if Ally went up the ladder somebody would have to -push him rung by rung. - -“Mr. Halton is so much more interesting!” said inclination. - -“The Administrator has the real power!” said reason. - -It was all the harder because in the one case she knew herself sure -of success, and in the other she saw probable failure--and Mrs. Lewin -disliked failure. Every woman in Key Island had made tentative efforts -to bind Mr. Gregory to her chariot wheels, and had quietly drawn back -without a hint of her defeat, after the manner of her sex. The only -difference to Mrs. Lewin’s case was that she really wished to interest -Mr. Gregory in her husband and not in herself; but she could not hope -that this would make her any more successful. - -“Besides, he must begin by liking me, and being interested in me, -though he doesn’t know it,” she said to herself candidly. “And at -present he simply does not know that I exist. Well, perhaps China Town -may prove useful--some day.” - -She went across the house to her husband’s dressing-room, where he had -slept in order that her early rising might not disturb him, and looked -in before starting. Alaric was lying with his arm thrown up above his -head, in a boyish fashion that made him seem very young in spite of -the manliness of the bronzed dark face, and the thick moustache on -his upper lip. Chum bent down and ruffled his hair rather fondly, and -he sighed in his sleep and turned over, but did not wake. There was -a shadow of vague yearning in her eyes as she turned away and went -out on to the stoep. Marriage had touched her lightly, but this was -one of the rare moments when she felt a craving after something more -satisfying--something that might even be welcome pain if it were only -less ephemeral. - -The morning air was brisk compared to the general laxity of Key Island. -Mrs. Lewin mounted the pony which the sais held for her, and rode away -through the listening day, with her senses equally alert. For it seemed -at this hour as if everything had ears, or a keener vitality that -looked for new experiences. Even Liscarton trod daintily, and sidled -through the gate into the highway, pretending that he saw bogies among -the ragged fans of the bananas. Where the path dipped down into Port -Victoria the hoofs of a second pony became audible, and a minute later -the Commissioner overtook her and drew up alongside. - -“You are before your time, Mrs. Lewin; I meant to pick you up at -your own gate,” he said gaily. He also seemed in unusual harmony with -Nature. “Isn’t it worth while to rise early and get the spring of -the morning into one’s system? I feel like that charming person in -Scripture who ‘walked delicately,’ though I am afraid he was hardly a -model to copy in his after-history.” - -“Agag, wasn’t it?” said Chum. “I always felt I should have liked to -follow his career a little further, but one never gets a chance. Do you -notice how very badly they tell a story in the Bible? They have no idea -of keeping back the end of the plot. ‘Now Ahab was fallen sick of the -sickness whereof he died,’ they say, and, of course, as you know what -is coming, it seems superfluous to read any further.” - -“In fact, you don’t care about Ahab unless he is going to live.” - -“I never did care for the pawns in the game who are sacrificed. It is -the big pieces who accomplish the struggle, whether they do ill or -well, who interest me. I feel that they have made something out of -life, instead of life making something out of them.” - -“And yet there can be no attainment without self-sacrifice,” said -Halton quietly. - -They were riding through the little town, sometimes in the shadow of -the unruly palms, which waved like banners over the low wooden houses, -sometimes in the new-born sunshine. There were a few natives about, -but no white people. At the hotel a single disconsolate Chinaman was -flapping a cloth on the stoep, and Mrs. Lewin looked up, remembering -her first night there, and laughed. Discomforts passed by her easily at -present. By-and-by the ponies began to ascend the further hill which -circles the back of the town by a zigzag path, and it seemed that the -little white houses and the blue bay fell gradually below them, until -they topped the ridge and drew rein a moment to breathe their mounts -before they began to descend on the other side of the hill called the -Pass. In Africa it would have been a “Nek,” for it really connected -Maitso and the lower heights of Mitsinjovy, but Key Island has not -caught so much of the Dutch influence. - -“Are you afraid to canter?” Halton said. “Your pony does not seem -blown.” - -“He is Captain Nugent’s pony, and you probably know his capacities -better than I. He danced when I set off, but the hill has sobered -him--however, we can soon see. Come up, Liscarton!” - -The game little chestnut stretched his neck to the loosened rein, and -broke into the rocking Key’land canter. There was a rough, tangled path -before them, and a gradual descent, but the ponies were used to it and -took it with a sober joy. As the second valley opened before them Mrs. -Lewin saw the draped hills and the patches of liquid yellow-green that -meant cane intermixed with the darker hemp, and as they rounded a curve -of the track they came suddenly in view of a tiny native settlement. - -The Commissioner drew rein. “I’m not going to take you absolutely into -it,” he said, “but that is China Town. It is suspected of yellow fever -just now, and a man has died--it is probably only biliousness though. -The doctors are always quarrelling about the two.” - -It looked the happiest and most innocent little spot on earth--far -more innocent than Port Victoria, with its ominous wharves and coaling -jetties for the sea traffic. There was even a little pagoda to one -building, and tiny blue-coated figures were moving about busily, -looking like a new kind of ant from the distance of the hillside. Most -of the huts were thatched with reed, and the whole village was little -more than a scattered group. - -“Do you see that larger house apart from the others?” said Halton, -pointing across the valley. “That is where Burton, the Town Warden, -lives. He is Gregory’s right-hand man out here, and watches the place -like a sleuth-hound.” - -“It seems impossible that anything could be hidden there!” Mrs. Lewin -exclaimed involuntarily. “Why, there is nowhere to hide it!” - -“Nevertheless they very successfully have hidden their source of -murder,” said Halton dryly. “That large barn-like arrangement is the -sugar factory, but you cannot very well distinguish it from here. -Unless they manage to conceal their evil brew there it must be done in -their own houses.” - -“And is it really so serious an evil?” - -“It caused the death of some eighty white people, indirectly. The -rioters were mad with drink--with this hashish--and they rose with -a suddenness no one could foresee, because it was unpremeditated on -their own part. Let a native get drunk on hashish and he goes out to -kill. There were no regular troops here in the time of the Company, -only a police force officered by men lent by the War Office, and these -gentlemen appear to have been mostly on leave, shooting in Madagascar.” - -“But how were the rioters armed?” - -“They broke into the houses and armed themselves. The favourite weapon -was a razor bound on to a stick, with which they jabbed upwards, but no -kind of knife was despised. The most appalling thing was when they made -a kind of torch out of the half-worked hemp soaked in oil and set their -victims alight--am I frightening you, Mrs. Lewin?” - -“No--but I have a very vivid imagination. I can see it all, and it -turns me rather sick. Did the Chinamen fight too?” - -“A few, though the worst offenders were the half-castes and the -Malagasy. The Arab is as great a coward as the pure native, so that -part of the population were comparatively harmless. There was a good -deal of carnage among the planters and residents before the police got -the upper hand, and the consequence was that Government had to step in -and take over the island to reduce it to order.” - -“Whence followed a Commissioner to make enquiries, and Mr. Gregory to -teach them a lesson. Did he teach them, by the way?” - -“I believe he did--a slight one,” said Halton briefly. “I arrived on -the scene a week or so later.” - -“I wonder the Government puts power into his hands, considering that -they always seem to have to censure him afterwards,” said Mrs. Lewin -musingly. - -“It is rather difficult to ignore a successful man,” said Halton, “even -the British Government find that. And he has been most uncomfortably -successful on several occasions, though his measures may have been -drastic.” - -“I see. You generally come out a week or so later, I suppose?” - -“It is the one boon I wring out of the Colonial Office; but I am -speaking confidentially, Mrs. Lewin. You happen to know these things -because you are here and in touch with them. At home they know little, -because Mr. Gregory has quite a prejudice against the Press.” - -“They might hinder him, but I doubt anything really stopping his -drastic measures, as you call them.” A memory of the Administrator’s -face rose before her like a revelation--the overhanging brows and -forehead, the savage, lidless eyes, the secretive mouth, that lurked -under the ragged moustache. Above all, the voice that spoke under his -breath seemed to her ominous. Here was a strong man, not afraid to -do lawless things and call them law by his own authority. Her blood -tingled a little with the thought. “How they must hate him!” she said. -“How weaker men must long to tie his hands and make him pay for proving -them his inferiors, in action at least!” - -“If we could tax success it would no doubt be a popular measure with -the majority--who have not succeeded.” - -There was a flash of appreciation in Mrs. Lewin’s eyes, but all she -said was, “The lighter green is the cane, I suppose?” in an irrelevant -tone. - -“Yes, but this is a small crop compared to a big sugar -estate--Denver’s, or the Tsara Valley crops, for instance. There is no -considerable hemp-growing in Key’land, and we wish there was none at -all. There it is at present, however.” - -He pointed with his whip, and her eyes followed and distinguished -the two plantations. The hemp was thinly sown, as it always is for -intoxicating purposes, whereas when honestly cultivated for fibre the -plants are crowded together. It was not yet in flower, for the sowing -was in October or November--the spring of the Key’land year, the Tsara -of Madagascar. The young plants stood stiffly, and were branched even -to the roots; from the distance where Mrs. Lewin and Halton had paused -it was just possible to distinguish how far apart the plants grew, -unlike the unbroken sweep of the sugar-cane. The crop was always sown -on higher ground too, generally on the gentle slope of the further -hills, for hemp does not love a low level. The dark green of its wide -leaves contrasted boldly with the lighter cane, and made a pleasant -patchwork of the valley. - -“They don’t pull the male flowers until January, and the female a month -later,” remarked Halton, looking across the wicked sexual hemp that -flowered twelve feet high in Hashish Valley, for it liked the rich -soil. “You know, of course, that it has two genders.” - -“And then?” - -“Then it is converted, ostensibly, into ropes, and food for small -birds, and other innocent and useful things, in that hemp mill down -there. Now, Mrs. Lewin, you are looking at the sugar factory.” - -“I am not, indeed; I can see the mill quite plainly. And I suppose the -Chinese really turn it into hashish?” - -“Well, I suppose it is stolen and secretly converted into bhang or -ganja first. I don’t exactly know what form it takes here, but I’ve -seen bhang, and its results, in India. So has Gregory!” he added -significantly. - -“I wonder they are not found out.” - -“It is so simple, you see. Bhang is only the dried leaves and stalks of -the hemp, and if you heat it with water and butter I assure you that -you get quite a surprising result! My own opinion is, though, that -they are yet more diabolical down there in China Town, and dissolve -the resin in rum; you can use any alcohol for the purpose, but the rum -being at hand they would naturally take it.” - -“And then they dance the _carrab_ dance. I remember the pictures -in the illustrated papers at the time of the rioting. Ally--I -mean Captain Lewin--says they were quite wrong, but I found them -sufficiently impressive. I should like to be that man down there, -nevertheless--Burton, did you say his name was?--who is working with -Mr. Gregory. I feel I want to have a hand in it too--to meddle, in -fact. It has its advantages, being a man, though I seldom see them.” - -“I thought that to be a pretty girl was the height of bliss,” said -Halton, with his gentlest insinuation. - -“So it is, until you meet with a prettier, perhaps,” said Chum. -There was a flash of mirth in her eyes, and the deeper drift of the -conversation passed away like the shadow of the clouds over the -sugar-cane. - -“I suppose we ought to turn back,” said Halton regretfully, as the -sun’s warmth began to increase to undoubted heat and glare. “If I bring -you home in the trying part of the day I shall expect to hear of it -from Captain Lewin.” - -Chum had loosened her rein, and Liscarton, with his lean head -stretched out, was cropping an early breakfast on the hillside. -Liscarton was always hungry--his sais calls it greedy--and the instant -his rein was relaxed, he would wrench it through his rider’s hands and -nose the ground for something to eat. Mrs. Lewin had already learned -that he had a will of his own that threatened to take the skin off her -fingers did she keep his head up when standing; and she loved him none -the less. She could forgive wrong-headedness, but she found it very -difficult to forgive docility when it meant laziness. She sat easily in -her saddle, her right hand resting on the pony’s flank, her body turned -that she might look down on China Town with those musing eyes that were -green and dusk and lavender-grey by turns. And Alfred Halton watched -her with fastidious appreciation, while by an irony of fate she thought -definitely of the Administrator and his plans, and the ominous strength -that was his attribute. A man to have as a friend--a power to reach to -high places--yes, decidedly an influence to have for you rather than -against you! - -“Have you noticed the names in Key Island?” said Halton, as they -gathered up the reins and rode their ponies slowly homeward over the -Pass. - -“No, not particularly, except that I heard Mrs. Churton say she should -go out to Vohitra if it grew much hotter. Where is Vohitra?” - -“Vohitra is our health-resort--it is a big bungalow up in the hills -at the northern part of the island, some two miles or so from Port -Albert. Vohitra is a badly-chosen name, for it simply means hill. The -place is shut up unless any one wants to go out there, but sometimes -the garrison ladies make up a house-party, and then I believe it is -pleasant, though there is nothing to do except shoot fish.” - -“How very unsportsmanlike!” - -“Well, you can’t catch them otherwise. No fly has ever been found that -they will take. Can you shoot?” - -“Yes--though I prefer a revolver to a gun. I object to a bruised -shoulder! What language is Vohitra?” - -“Malagasy. All the names on this side the island--the Madagascan -side--have a flavour of their giant neighbour, though she is some two -hundred and fifty miles off, except Port Victoria and Port Albert, -which are strictly loyal, you will note. Maitso means ‘green,’ and -Mitsinjovy ‘look out’ or ‘see’; but,” he added, laughing, “the Gunners’ -quarters have almost been renamed by White’s little boy, who calls -Mitsinjovy the ‘By-Jovey-Hill!’ and the name has stuck.” - -“How lovely! I do like the way children wrestle with names they don’t -understand, and turn them into the sense that lies nearest. You said -Vohitra was at Port Albert--I have not been there yet.” - -“Well, it is rather in the Tsara Valley. There is another lovely name -for you--Tsara, spring o’ the year! And the Volofatsy River that cuts -the valley in two, means the silver river. I wish, for the sake of -euphony, that Key Island had all Malagasy names; but on the west coast -you feel the influence of Africa, and get Sand Bay, and Africa Point, -and even the Little Zambesi.” - -“I like that--there seems some suggestion in it. But then I am rather -inclined to like Key Island.” - -“So I am amazed to observe. You will forgive my wondering if it will -last, or if you too will grow to look on it as a three years’ probation -to better things.” - -“And call it a rat-trap, as you did! I dare say I shall--and yet I -cannot imagine it. The place seems to me too recently dangerous to be -dull, and too possibly important in the near future to be ignored. And -then one can always hope for one of Mr. Gregory’s drastic measures, and -a little excitement!” - -“Do let me get home first!” said Halton plaintively. “You have never -seen him through one of his shindies, and you don’t know how fatiguing -it is. I hope the Government will recall me while I can plead peace -with honour, and give me an armchair in a quiet corner, from which to -contemplate Gregory burning the hemp-crops seven thousand comfortable -miles away.” - -For a minute Mrs. Lewin looked a little startled, but she did not -comment on the suggestion, which was lightly made. Even her ignorance -of the popular feeling and prejudices could not blind her to the -seriousness of such a step as the burning of the hemp-crops would be, -and she wondered if the man who gave orders under his breath would -have the nerve for such an incredible stroke. She also wondered why -Halton had put such an idea into her head under the guise of absurd -exaggeration, for she did not believe in his lack of motive. - -“I am really very much obliged to you!” she said frankly, as they shook -hands at her own gate. “You have appeased some of my curiosity, and -given me a delightful ride before the heat.” Her eyes met the sleepy -brown ones that watched her so covertly. “I can’t, of course, repay -you----” - -“Unless you will let me plan another like excursion?” - -“Will I not?” said Chum gaily. “Only try me! Good-bye, Mr. Halton--if -you see my husband you might tell him not to be late for luncheon. -There are granadillas and flying-fish, and he loves both!” - -As he rode away Halton thought of the shady dining-room in the -bungalow, the fruit-laden table, and the wife who thought of her -husband’s tastes and sat opposite to him in the cool sweetness of -her white gowns. No one thought of his tastes, without irritated -supervision, and he found Evelyn Gregory a poor alternative to the -tall girl whose effect haunted his mind. He did not see her exactly in -detail, as a woman whose inches looked more from her slight build, and -whose hair was a warm brown, and her eyes as changing as - - “The rare glooms on the far blue hills,” - -but he said inclusively that she was charming, and her atmosphere left -a blank in his consciousness when it was removed. - -“Note from garrison,” the Administrator said briefly, tossing -it across the luncheon-table as he sat down. “Mrs. Churton has a -function of sorts next week. Gymkana, or some such foolery, at the -polo-ground--she hopes we will refresh at her house.” - -“I can’t stand that woman!” said Halton, fretted by a comparison. “She -leaves a taste in my mouth like a cigarette that has gone out.” - -“It’s your liver. Who hasn’t a liver in this heat? My ideal, these -days, is a clean tongue and a desire for breakfast.” - -“Mrs. Churton is forty,” pursued Halton spitefully. “And she aims at -three-and-thirty. A woman of forty is only tolerable as a background -for her daughters!” - -The Administrator looked across the space of white cloth and -guavas--there were no granadillas!--with a grim line about the corners -of his hidden lips. - -“I hope you enjoyed your ride!” he said politely, with a suggestion of -unappreciated humour. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - “A man’s best fortune, or his worst, is a wife.”--_English - Proverb._ - - -The telephone bell rang at eight in the morning, and if Ally were so -disagreeable as to grunt and turn over on the other side, Chum used -to get up and go to it herself. She was usually aggravated by the man -at Maitso Exchange demanding of her if she were there, and then no -further communication. He was the Hub of the Port Victorian Universe, -and had become autocratic through bitterness of spirit; therefore he -thought it just retribution to make sure beforehand that all the usual -communication points were in working order before he actually had to -connect them. - -All the gossip of Key Island goes through the telephone, which is -as inappropriate to Port Victoria as her electric light. It is the -alternative for a post too, for the Planters, living some three miles -out, have no other means of communication, and it is very much safer -to make your own business arrangements with a fellow at Maitso or -Mitsinjovy, or to order more soda-water from Van Buren’s Stores, than -trust to a letter, even if you are only a mile from the post-office. -When the Lewin Bungalow was connected, Chum usually found herself -besieged with friendly enquiries as to how she was, and how Ally Sloper -was, and a little conversation ensued that was as strictly unofficial -as all Key’land characteristics. She only resented it on Sunday, when -English habit still clung to her and made her feel injured for lack of -an extra half-hour in bed, but as Ally took more rousing than the time -spent at the telephone, it generally ended in Mrs. Lewin walking into -the dining-room bare-foot, yawning delightfully, and a wasted vision of -beauty in _déshabille_, since the personality at the other end of the -communication tube was only a voice. - -“Well, who are you?” she said sleepily. - -“...!” - -“Oh! well, Ally’s asleep still--I should say he was in rude health, -unless that suggests a liver!” - -“...?” - -“Am I ever anything else! And you saw me yesterday.” - -“...!” - -“Oh, the day before, was it? I’m sorry I forgot!” - -“...” - -“If you are sentimental through the telephone, I shall ring off!” - -“...” - -“No; really? We hadn’t heard because we couldn’t go to the Gilderoys.” - -“...” - -“Oh, they did, did they! People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. -Who lost their way back from the Rano Valley the other night, eh, -Captain Nugent?” - -“...?” - -“Oh, some one told me--I forget who.” - -“...!” - -“Isn’t it true? Well, you needn’t be so tragic over it!” - -“...?” - -“Yes, we shall come to church like good Christians. I’m going to ride -Liscarton. By the way, when do you want him back?” - -“...” - -“Don’t you think pretty speeches are rather wasted on a married woman?” - -“...” - -“Perhaps you are keeping your hand in!” - -“...” - -“I can’t listen to any more--I’m too sleepy. Good-bye!--Ring off, -please!” - -At breakfast she said, “Ally, we lost a joke by not going to the -Gilderoys. The Denver girl and Mr. Gurney went into the garden to -find a ping-pong ball, and wandered on to the next door stoep by -mistake (?), and didn’t turn up till midnight. Can’t you fancy Captain -Gilderoy’s state of mind when he had to go out and look for them with a -lantern?” - -“With Mrs. Gilderoy making her brisk little comments in the background! -She has a dangerous tongue, that woman. Won’t she give a fine version -of the tale all round Maitso! Who told you, Chum?” - -“Brissy--on the ’phone. He said a lot of pretty things to me too. -That’s what you get by leaving your wife to attend to the thing! I -couldn’t really hear,” she added candidly, “but I could gather that he -simpered, so I laughed too. It’s generally safe to laugh!” - -“I shall have to cane Brissy one of these days!” said Alaric, -stretching out a shapely hand for the guava jelly. He had beautiful -hands, and Chum noted them for the hundredth time as he did it. She -always thought that they would have better suited a doctor than a -soldier. “Are we going to church, Chum?” he said. - -“Yes, I promised the Churtons yesterday. They want us to lunch there. -We can ride up after service, can’t we?” - -“If you like. I suppose as it is Sunday there will be no Bridge--awful -bore, isn’t it?” - -“If you think Sunday will warn Major Churton off his Bridge, you don’t -realise the man. I like the Major, Ally.” - -“He’s a decent chap. His wife’s the better horse, I expect.” - -“I don’t think so. He looks like a man who would be any woman’s master. -If you notice, when he says No! even Di Churton can’t say Yes!” - -Ally laughed a little shortly, as if at some checked reminiscence. He -changed the subject too, rather briefly. - -“Doesn’t Brissy want his pony back?” - -“He said not. I wish you would buy Liscarton, Ally; I have grown to -like him.” - -It was part of her adaptability that she could really earnestly -desire the little Key’land pony, and enjoy his paces, after riding -thoroughbred hunters and hacks that made other riders in the county -envious. Leoline Lewin lived in her present, as she had said to Halton, -and the chestnut pony had become the simple object of her equestrian -ambition out in Key Island. - -“There are lots better ponies,” said Ally. - -“Never mind! I like Liscarton.” - -“I don’t think Brissy would sell.” - -“He’s very good-natured,” said Chum adroitly. She made no reference to -the probable influence of her own wishes upon Captain Nugent. - -“Well--I’ll see.” Ally rose and stretched himself, walking off to his -dressing-room with shoulders square, while Chum admired him as usual. -He came out later immaculate in white breeches and linen coat, and -seriously considered the problem as to whether he should wear a Panama -hat or a white helmet, until his wife decided in favour of the Panama. - -“I don’t like helmets out of uniform,” she said, looking over his -shoulder at his good looks reflected in a hanging glass, with kindly -pride. “And you are just as smart in the straw. Don’t titivate any -more, old fellow, or I shall think it is for Di Churton, and have to -make a dead set for the Major to balance things.” - -Ally laughed a little self-consciously. There was more in Chum’s speech -than she knew--more than had been said at present. When the male -animal is being flattered with attentions from the female, he may not -glance at her with half an eye; but he begins to plume himself. Alaric -glanced appreciatively at his wife’s figure as Liscarton carried her -to church by his side, and thought vaguely that she was a heap better -looking than any other woman out there, and that they made rather a -handsome couple. Then he thought that Chum reflected credit on his -own taste, and then he remembered with some very private satisfaction -that Di Churton had made a determined show of preference for him from -the first. He did not really admire Mrs. Churton, save that he could -recognize the swing of her own self-assertion in her position; he never -thought of comparing her with Leoline in a single detail. But Alaric -Lewin was as easily flattered as a child, and singularly manageable for -a really handsome man. - -The English church at Port Victoria stands a little above the town, -towards Maitso. It is singularly like an enormous caravan, with six -stumpy legs in place of wheels, and worshippers go up a flight of -wooden steps to reach its barn-like interior. Most buildings in Key -Island are raised above the ground for fear of snakes, but the church -and the native huts have wooden props rather than a solid foundation. -There being no church at Maitso, or as yet at Mitsinjovy, the men -were marched down to service by aggrieved and sweating subalterns, or -a senior officer, and given as much room as could be spared from the -civilians. Truth to tell, the military force had to take it in turns to -be religious, service being held in barracks, by the chaplain, for the -Wessex, when the Gunners came down to Port Victoria, and _vice versâ_. -On this particular Sunday Captain Nugent and Mr. Gurney were bucketing -their men into the pews when the Lewins rode up to the churchyard. -Their sais had preceded them and took the ponies, hitching them up -to the railings in the shade with native indifference, and dropping -lazily on the grass to slumber away service time. Chum walked up the -steps and into church in the wake of the soldiers, and sat down in her -seat, drawing her habit round her and feeling the whole thing horribly -unreal. Through the wide flung shutters she could see palm-trees waving -tuftily in a splash of blue sky, and a gorgeous hibiscus had thrust -a flame of blossom in at one aperture which was seldom closed. There -was nothing to prevent the flowers coming to church, or the wild green -things outside either, for the only glass in the place was the East -window--a horrid picture of the Ascension, so quaintly designed that -the figure of the Christ was cut off at the waist, the feet in red -slippers hanging down into the picture, the rest of the body out of -sight. Chum was always fascinated by that window, for she hated it, and -the astonished faces of the kneeling apostles made her want to laugh. -No wonder they looked as if they wondered where the rest of the centre -figure was gone to--and yet she had an educated horror of irreverence. -Service, with the thermometer at 90° in the shade, however, was not at -best a success. The soldiers fidgeted, and stared out of window at the -palms, and Brissy Nugent pulled fretfully at his black moustache to -keep himself awake. When the mumbling old rector concluded his sermon -and the final hymn was given out, every one rose with relief, and high -above the defective choir rose the voice of Hamilton Gurney, who was -senior sub. of the Wessex, but was more remarkable for a tenor voice of -unusual compass and power. - - “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, - Praise Him, all creatures here below,” - -droned the organ; but Gurney’s voice, rising into the hot -rafters of the church, seemed the only real religion of the whole -ceremony. - -“I wish I could have gone to sleep, as you did, Ally,” said Mrs. Lewin, -with frank regret, as they came out into the sunshine again. “I should -have felt that it had done me so much more good if I had.” - -“Great Scot! the difficulty is _not_ to go to sleep, when that old -boy is meandering round about the Chronicles! It would be as much as -Lysle’s head was worth if he preached more than ten minutes. But he’s a -jolly good sort.” - -“That’s that round-faced man who is regimental chaplain,” mused Chum. -“He always puts me in mind of a cherub out for a holiday.” - -The Churtons joined them in the church porch, Diana in a holland habit -and white helmet, as near to khaki as might be. She annexed Ally with -the boldness of a woman accustomed to stalk her game in the open, and -Mrs. Lewin turned to the Major to mount her, in no wise disturbed. -They sat on their ponies for a minute to allow the men to pass, before -turning to the bridle path that made a short cut to Maitso, and as -the Wessex swung past her, Chum looked along the road taken by the -moving helmets, and saw a solitary horseman stopped in like manner to -themselves. - -“Gregory’s Powder!” said Diana over her shoulder to those behind her. - -Besides the Churtons’ and the Lewins’ ponies, the road was blocked by -Captain and Mrs. Gilderoy, an open cart belonging to the Denver girl, -and several other people and their modes of conveyance. As he came -full into a group that he knew, the Administrator per force stopped -and touched his helmet to the party. He looked more at his ease in the -saddle than in correct cloth at some Key’land function, as Mrs. Lewin -had hitherto met him, though he rode with a loose-limbed carelessness -that contrasted with the firm seats and carriage of the army men. - -“How do you do, Mr. Gregory? Have you been to church in the open air?” -Di Churton called across the last of the retreating khaki figures. - -“I do not go to church, except officially,” said the Administrator, -without any softening of the assertion. “It is getting hot for ladies -to be in the saddle, isn’t it?” - -“Well, you should order the services earlier,” retorted Mrs. -Churton. “I suppose your authority might do something even in that -particular--officially! We are taking possession of your Secretary and -Mrs. Lewin, who are coming up to lunch with us.” - -Something crossed the Administrator’s face--a gleam of satiric memory -to which Chum had not the key. But as his eyes met hers, and he saluted -again, she tried to hold them with an impersonal effort that had become -habit to her. - -“Where is Mr. Halton this morning?” was what she happened to say with -a little smile, and she left her face, and her figure which was so at -ease with her pony, to do the rest. - -The gleam in Gregory’s eyes became a silent laugh. “I don’t know--I -thought he was going to church,” he said drily; and then he made a -passing remark to Miss Denver and Mrs. Gilderoy, and rode away as if he -had done his duty. - -“Tarred us all with the same brush--a sentence a-piece,” said Mrs. -Churton, with a loud laugh. “Come along, all of you; the sun is going -to be piping up the hill.” - -She reined in her pony for an instant to allow Captain Lewin to -come abreast with her, and they began to climb up through the hill -plantations of guava and palm and mango, the flickering of the light -and shade touching the white riders and the dark ponies as they passed. -Ally looked young this morning in his cool linen, and Diana Churton -approved of youth. She was more than usually appropriative in her -manner, having reached that stage when, like a good cricketer, she had -got “set,” and could trust to her attack. Behind them rode Captain and -Mrs. Gilderoy, who were also lunching at the quarters of the O.C.T., -and who had a devoted fashion of always riding with each other in -public. Captain Gilderoy was Garrison Adjutant, and Mrs. Lewin had -never met him at any social function, for he made his work an excuse to -evade the monotonous round he hated. His wife used to say that she had -worn out all excuses for his non-presence, and now told the truth--he -simply would not accompany her. Nevertheless, he knew the life of the -whole station, and commented upon it with a freedom and bitterness -which his hearers hardly realised on account of a very charming manner. -He could say ill-natured things in a deep sweet voice, that slipped -such poison into a hearer’s mind without any disagreeable taste at the -moment; but his rasping criticisms had made him the best-feared man in -the garrison. His wife added the grace of wit to her own backbiting, -and had a way of wrinkling up her face until her eyes were two dancing -slits, while she turned a harmless incident into a dangerously good -story. Together they had laughed away the reputations of half their -acquaintance, yet it was difficult to locate their mischief through the -light chatter that carried it. - -Captain Gilderoy had struck Mrs. Lewin at first sight as an ugly man, -but his voice was so free from malice, that when she heard him speak -she thought she liked him. It was an impression she never wholly lost, -only when he smiled he reminded her of a snarling dog, and it put her -as instinctively on her guard as the actual animal would have done. -His wife was one of the few garrison ladies who were on friendly terms -with Diana Churton, partly because they clashed in no particular, and -partly because it was Mrs. Gilderoy’s policy not to quarrel. She was -an unobtrusive little person to look at, with a quick manner, and a -trick of saying apt things that Diana vaguely realised was attractive -to men, and valued accordingly. She only priced women’s gifts by their -effect on the opposite sex, and though Mrs. Gilderoy had no flesh and -blood pretensions, she had an odd attractiveness that increased with -her acquaintance. Mrs. Lewin had felt this already, in the few times -they had met, and was honestly glad that she was also lunching at the -Churtons’. - -The rear of the party was the Officer in Command of the Troops and -Chum herself; but she rode with the bitterness of defeat upon her, so -that she was less conscious than usual of her companion. Major Churton, -for his part, was honestly admiring the beautiful curve of her figure -from shoulder to waist, and the lift at the corners of her lips. He -had found out already that Mrs. Lewin was easy to laugh with, and she -answered the rein of his fancy as perfectly as a horse with a good -mouth. - -The air grew perceptibly fresher as they rose, but the climb was -steep, and both horses and riders bore signs of the heat when they -pulled up before the Churtons’ quarters. Two or three servants appeared -with noiseless swiftness to take the ponies, but Major Churton himself -lifted Chum out of her saddle as easily as if she were a child. He was -a man who loved his own strength. The party went on to the stoep, and -the men promptly augmented their racing blood with stimulant, after -the fashion of Englishmen. There is a particular drink in Key Island -which is called Cého,[1] and which is taken before or after meals, as -the fancy prescribes. It is not therefore the cocktail of the West -Indies, nor is it the “Whiskey-up” of Africa, or the highball of -America, or the universally styled “Drink” of England, which ranges -from simple beer to the last frenzy of liqueur. Cého is compounded -of many ingredients, but the old seasoned rum of the island is its -foundation, and strange juices from tropic plants go to make it an -evil thing. It is always iced, and generally precedes a whiskey and -soda, which it demands by reason of a tickled throat; but some men, and -these are hardened Planters, can take three or four céhos running in -preference to longer liqueur, and do not die--at once. - -Ally and Captain Gilderoy took céhos, and Major Churton a whiskey and -soda, in which his wife followed suit. Mrs. Gilderoy declined and -was overruled, and Mrs. Lewin rose and poured out the last of the -soda-water for herself without adulteration. - -“Do you really like it alone?” said Mrs. Gilderoy, looking up at the -tall figure. “Take care, Chum! my husband will jog your elbow.--Oh, I -am so sorry!” she broke off lightly. “But it comes so naturally to call -you that. It somehow suits you.” - -“Do, if you like,” said Mrs. Lewin good-humouredly. “I expect we shall -all fall into the Christian-name stage eventually, so why not at once? -I am sure you all call my husband Ally Sloper--it is so appropriate!” - -Every one glanced at Ally, tall and strong and triumphantly good to -look upon, and there was a general laugh. - -“Ah, but Chum isn’t your name, and I know Captain Lewin calls you so!” -said Mrs. Gilderoy, with faint suggestion in her tone. - -“Yes, from nursery days. Ally never has called me anything else but -Chum, because it amply defined the position. I don’t mind other people -using it a bit.” - -Mrs. Gilderoy half closed her eyes, and looked up with a glitter of -laughter in them. “When you talk like that it sounds as if you had -married your brother!” she said. - -But Mrs. Lewin’s smooth fair cheeks did not even flush. She was -chattering with Major Churton over a gymkana next week, and a pony -which she was to name. - -“I think I shall call it ‘Key’land Gloom’!” she said. “It expresses the -mind of all the officials here so well. I have hardly heard any one -speak well of the place since I arrived.” - -“Beastly hole!” said Di Churton loudly. “I wish they had sent Bute to -the West Coast, rather.” - -“But that is a fever station!” - -“Yes, and it’s better pay and better leave. I shouldn’t mind Sierra -Leone for a bit--a good many women have gone out.” - -“I expect that will be my next job!” said Churton carelessly, as he set -down his empty glass. “It’s Paradise to this, anyway!” - -“Oh, don’t talk of this! I hate Key Island, and everything in it. Have -a whiskey, Ally Sloper?” Di smiled at Mrs. Lewin to introduce the -nickname in public. Next time she would not take the trouble, while -further off still she would say Ally without reserve. - -“Better not, Ally!” said Chum, laughing. “I shall have to carry you -home if you begin so early.” - -“That’s the worst of cého!” said Captain Lewin apologetically, as -he filled another tumbler. “I say, Chum, what a sweet sight for the -Administrator if he met us tottering home arm in arm!” - -“Speak for yourself! I’ve had soda.” - -“Oh, the day is yet young!” said Major Churton. “You may yet catch him -up before tea, Mrs. Lewin!” - -The whiskey and soda was finished, and Ally’s throat asked for another -by the time that luncheon was on the table. It was a light meal, -lightly relished, in a room that had more doors and windows than walls, -and of which the heavy scented flowers and the strange fruits seemed -as inevitably a part as the iced drinks. Chum had put Mr. Gregory -on one side, and was talking to Major Churton consciously. He was a -man who had been far and done hard things in strange lands, and she -read the lines of it in his face, from the great square forehead to -the self-reliant chin. It was not by any means a Sir Galahad type of -face--Tristram or Lancelot’s failings were more likely branded there; -but it was a soldier’s face for all that, and, despite the grey on his -thick, clipped head, he looked what she had called him--a man who would -be any woman’s master. Strength attracted Mrs. Lewin in whatever form -she met with it; she ignored the talk at the other end of the table, -which had drifted inevitably to stamps, and gave her attention to her -host. - -“I am bent on mastering the intricacies of the sugar industry,” -she confided to him, while behind her shoulder she could hear Ally -comparing the many different shades of the Grenada and Barbadoes star -watermarked issues with Captain Gilderoy. “Is there a factory within my -reach?” - -“Denver’s is the best. You know Denver, don’t you? He was a great man -in the old Company’s day, and is still on the Legislator. He has the -largest plantation this side the Pass, and it joins your ground on one -side. You ought to go over his factory, if you are really interested in -native industries.” - -“I wonder why you all find that so hard to understand? Ever since I -arrived I have been met on all sides with weeping and lamentation, and -because I do not join in it I am counted a fraud. Key Island seems a -very possible centre of interest to me for the three years that one is -stationed here.” - -“Wait till you have done your three years!” said Bute Churton, as he -handed her a cigarette. “I have had twenty years’ foreign service, Mrs. -Lewin, and I never wish to see a palm-tree again once I get quit of -this. Give me solid English comfort!” - -“Most people’s idea of solid English comfort, and ‘Home, sweet home,’ -consists in early Victorian furniture and all the meals an hour later -on Sunday!” said Chum. “It gives me indigestion.” - -“Oh, but that is the ‘Home, sweet home’ of one’s relations and old -family friends--the sort of people that one only thinks about at -Christmas and on their birthdays, in fact.” - -“No!” said Chum, firmly; “I never remember people’s birthdays on -principle. Sooner or later it is bound to degenerate into rudeness.” - -“That reminds me that there is a birthday dinner party threatening us -next week, anyhow. Old Arthur White met me in the club and told me he -was sixty next Thursday. They have a feed on at the Harrac. Are you -going?” - -“Yes, I believe so. Mr. Halton tells me that Harrac is one of the few -houses where they know how to cook flying-fish, and you can trust to -the Bridge being sound.” - -“‘Bridge’ is not my game, though I play it,” said the Major, with -unconscious self-revelation. “I like ‘Poker’--one is on one’s own -there. I prefer to trust to myself.” - -Chum looked at his line of chin and forehead, and smiled. For a minute -she wondered what it would be like to have a husband who preferred -to trust to himself. Ally so infinitely preferred to leave the final -decision to her! It sounded rather restful, and she glanced round half -curiously at the man with whom she had linked her own fate--and power -of making up her mind--to find him seriously arguing with Captain -Gilderoy that the Saint Lucia twopence halfpenny crown C. C. would rise -in the market now that Queen’s heads were becoming scarce. It seemed he -could really concentrate his thoughts and energies on a hobby, anyway. -She caught the beautiful curve of his earnest face with simple artistic -pleasure, and then found Mrs. Churton waiting to make a move from the -table. - -“Have you finished your smoke, Chum?” she said carelessly as she rose. -“Come into my room and freshen up. The men are good for more whiskey -yet.” - -“I hope not!” said Chum, with a half-resigned, half-protesting glance -at Ally, which slid harmlessly over his bent head and was lost among -the shades of the Canadian two-cent map stamp. - -“Didn’t I hear you talking about Denvers?” said Mrs. Gilderoy, as -the three women entered Mrs. Churton’s room and drifted by mutual -attraction towards the looking-glass. “You heard how Trixie Denver -behaved at our house the other night?” - -“Yes. Brissy--Captain Nugent--told me this morning through the -telephone.” She thought of Ally’s prophecy, that Mrs. Gilderoy would -make a story out of the incident, and waited with a smile somewhere -hidden in her eyes. - -“Oh, my dear, we had an awful time! My good man took a lantern and went -to find them at last, for they had been out there simply hours! I told -him he had better be careful how he turned it on--it was one of those -electric things, you know. But he flashed it straight into the dark -corners, and discovered them, to the mutual embarrassment of all three!” - -“If some one doesn’t look after that girl she’ll come to grief!” said -Mrs. Churton scornfully. “Since she has taken up with the Clayton woman -she has been nothing but a camp follower.” - -“Who is Mrs. Clayton?” said Chum, with some curiosity, but more of a -desire to shift the talk from a girl’s name. She did not care for Miss -Denver, who offended her taste and vision alike; but Diana’s comments -were nearly as jarring. - -“They are A.S.C. people--they have quarters at Mitsinjovy. She’s the -woman who was at Mrs. White’s the other night in green. You could not -have missed seeing her!” - -“But I was not there. Does she dress so oddly?” - -“She has one garment that every one speculates over. I fancy it began -life as a nightgown, but she always wears it on unofficial evenings!” - -“Be charitable, and put it down to the heat! Ally would live in -pyjamas, if I would let him. What is Mrs. Clayton’s garment like? -Perhaps I might adapt my own nightdresses--with a sash!” - -“Well,” said Mrs. Gilderoy thoughtfully, “I don’t quite know how to -describe it--do you, Di? But if a bathing dress had a--a flirtation -with a kimono, Eva Clayton’s garment might be the result! I can’t see -how it would be obtained otherwise. It is certainly a hybrid!” - -Her eyes became mere slits of laughter, and Mrs. Lewin laughed too, -with soft, full enjoyment. - -“I shall look out for Mrs. Clayton,” said she. “She is out at By-Jovey, -is she? I love that name for the Gunners’ Hill!” - -“Yes, and Trixie Denver goes over there half her time, and she and -Mrs. Clayton sit on the steps of the Gunnery,--on the men’s knees, I -believe, as soon as it gets dark.” - -“I wonder they wait for that!” said Diana scornfully. “What did -Captain Gilderoy find Gurney doing with Trixie?” - -“They were on the Jacksons’ stoep--their quarters join ours, you know. -Wray says that Trixie was draped round Gurney’s neck, and he looked a -perfect fool. We were furious, of course, as the girl was dining at our -house, and in our care for the time, at least. Wray spoke to Gurney -pretty plainly, and told him that unless he meant to marry her, he had -better behave decently when she was with us.” - -“It is her fault, not Gurney’s,” asserted Diana, sacrificing the woman -to the man with the instinct of her class. For she was a “man’s woman,” -and would see no wrong in the sex. “What did he say?” - -“Oh, he wriggled out of it--said he couldn’t afford to marry. It is -rather a pity for the girl, don’t you think?” Her eyes glanced at Chum -in the looking-glass, where she was powdering her face. Mrs. Lewin -stood behind her, her taller stature enabling her to see over the -little woman’s head, while she watched a trifle satirically to see Mrs. -Gilderoy wet her finger with her lips and draw it across her lashes. - -“Wretchedly large puffs you have, Di!” she said calmly. “One’s eyes -always catch the powder and give it away.” - -“It’s not a thing I use at all,” Di Churton boasted, passing her -handkerchief over her burnt and oozing skin. “How are you getting on -with your housekeeping, Chum? I forgot to ask you.” - -“Very well, thanks to Abdallah. I must confess he does more towards it -than I.” - -“Oh, you’ve got Abdallah? I hate Arabs myself. We’ve Malagasy and -natives. Your servants sleep on the stoep, of course?” - -“I don’t know,” said Chum, laughing. “It’s their own fault if they do. -There are servants’ quarters.” - -“I bet you five to one they sleep on the stoep, and bring their women -there too!” - -“That goes without saying,” said Mrs. Gilderoy, relinquishing the -powder puff for a manicure case. Whatever were Diana Churton’s other -drawbacks her hands were always immaculate. “When we had Arabs I never -could go out after the house was shut up, or I fell over them on the -doorstep, and--and it embarrassed me!” - -“Brutes!” said Chum disgustedly. Her eyes grew stormy, and a beautiful -red colour came into her cheeks, that were usually rather pale. “I will -turn them out one and all, if that is the case.” - -“Don’t be such a fool!” said Mrs. Churton scornfully. “If they are good -servants, keep them. What on earth does it matter what they do? All the -coloured people are alike--only animals.” - -She did not see that her broad judgment might apply to white races -also, though later she went back to the stoep and her contemplation -of Alaric Lewin. There was a certain grave dark beauty in Ally’s face -which was deceptive, because at the moment he was merely rather sleepy; -but when the Lewins mounted their ponies again for the ride home in the -short twilight, Mrs. Churton strolled over to Ally and laid her hand on -the neck of his mount. - -“If you can come up some time with your duplicates I’ll make a fair -exchange with you, for some of those Sydney Views you have,” she said. -Stamps are an innocent and mutual hobby. Mrs. Lewin did not collect. - -“Thanks, awfully!” said Ally. The last whiskey that had been pressed -on him at parting made him feel that Di Churton was really a good sort -of pal to have, and he moved the reins.... Di’s hands were cool and -soft to touch. - -“Ally, I’m half-way home!” called Chum, laughing, as she steered -Liscarton down the steep road. - -The man gathered up his reins and rode after his wife, his hand -delicately conscious of a soft touch still. - -The woman turned back to the house, wondering if any one had seen. - -Nobody thought of the Arabs on the stoep--but even such courtship as -theirs must have a beginning. - - - - -CHAPTER V - - “Man is fire, and Woman is tow, - And the Devil comes and begins to blow!” - - --_Old Saw._ - - -It is not exactly good for any man to be a condensed force in his -own person. An administrator represents a governor, who in his turn -represents the Imperial Government and takes precedence of any -stray royalty who may drift into his kingdom--provided he is not -the figgerhead itself. A representative power is very demoralising, -because the reins of government are too concentrated--in spite of the -Legislative Council. Six or seven thousand miles away is Westminster, -and somebody who is called the Colonial Secretary, and who can write -letters with censure in them; but on the spot, in such rat-traps as Key -Island, for instance, is an administrator, and this unit is for the -nonce a king in his own country if he has the confidence of the men -over him. The effect of this is seen when such transitory monarchs go -home, and walk into the Colonial Office to demand an extra six months’ -leave. Then they learn their real importance, which is so great that -they cannot be spared, and are sent back to their tiny kingdoms not at -all appreciative of the compliment that has been paid them. A small -corner of the British Empire is the very worst school in which to learn -a sense of proportion; but Evelyn Gregory had been put in power in many -of such corners, and had learned to see things from a proper distance -even while he lived in the midst of them. It was the more surprising, -therefore, that he always impregnated himself with his kingdom of the -moment, and that particular spot (whether it were many thousand square -miles in the centre of Africa or Northern India, or only the limited -area of Key Island) was the problem which absorbed all his faculties -until he had made himself its master. The raging energies of the man -demanded an object on which to expend themselves in such a way, and had -been his quality of success throughout his turbulent career. It was a -little hard on Alaric Lewin, who was cast in another mould, that he -should have been appointed under a man who was a glutton for work, and -suffer as an ineffectual tool. But the Colonial Office is no respecter -of individualities. - -There was a meeting of the Executive Council on the morning of -the Arthur Whites’ dinner; it was a small body, consisting of the -Attorney-General himself, Bute Churton as officer in command of the -forces, and the Colonial Treasurer, besides the Administrator. Gregory -mounted his pony and rode down into town thinking of his plans and the -future of Key Island, rather than of any social function, though he was -to be one of the guests at the Harrac. He was not a dreamer, but his -restless brains built fortresses where other men’s built castles in -the air, and he projected schemes for the Empire in place of personal -ambitions. The little streets opened out before him and revealed the -ring of the bay and the two great rocks guarding the harbour entrance, -and the Administrator’s keen sleepless eyes stared out through them -as a lion’s through the bars of his cage. With the smell of the -sunshine and the tropic life in his nostrils he jogged easily along, -mechanically raising his hand to his helmet if any one saluted him, but -seeing more of the sandbox and eucalyptus trees in the little central -square where the band played, than of the people he passed. - -If France developed the resources of Madagascar now, as this new -interest in the Hovas seemed to indicate, that meant a spur in her -trade, and more traffic with Africa. Nothing would have pleased Evelyn -Gregory more than the least excuse for a quarrel if only he could -have laid greedy hands on a portion of his huge neighbour. He knew -Madagascar and her capabilities,--he held theories about the ore that -he chafed to see neglected,--and he coveted her for his Government, who -already found Key Island more trouble than she was worth. To turn his -guns on the French ships as they came up the Channel, and be the base -of British operations with the safe harbour and huge coaling stations, -would have fed his fighting instincts and ambitions alike. He glanced -at Tsofotra, the left gate and the more accessible of the two, where -the guns could be dragged up somehow in case of hard necessity; and he -felt a secret attraction towards those great sentinels, rising bare and -grim to over two thousand feet above his harbour. - -... A woman passed him, riding up towards Government House, the way -he had come. He forgot the Lewins’ bungalow for the minute, and -half-wondered where she was going. She bowed, and he saluted, before he -remembered that she was Mrs. Lewin, the pretty wife of his incapable -A.D.C., who had better have been the boy than the girl. But her face -only brought a memory of her husband to his mind, and made his harsh -features a trifle less ingratiating than usual. - -Why on earth had they sent him such a show article as Lewin for the -work he had before him! He wanted brains and energies, not muscles -and trained animal courage--a man, not only a soldier. Gregory knew -that as yet he had not his administration in the iron grip in which -he would hold it by-and-by, and before casting a loving eye round the -Channel,--Madagascar on one side, and Mozambique on the other,--he must -make Key Island his own. The natives were cowed with the presence of -the troops, but the root of the mischief was there still, and he had -not yet probed down to it. He wanted certain things done, too, by the -Home Government--the factories encouraged and enlarged, for he knew the -value of sweating the devil out of his people, and minor industries, -such as timber growing, given a helping hand; there were memoranda -to make, reports to send back to England, a mass of clerical work to -get through before Halton was recalled,--and Captain Lewin was the -best polo player that the club could get on to their faulty ground, -and in constant demand for tennis and gymkana. Truly the fates were -unpropitious for both men. - -Chum had ridden on in the sunshine, thinking as hard as Gregory. He -would be at the Arthur Whites’ to-night, and he would talk of tennis -and cricket matches to the best of his ability to the woman assigned -him for dinner party, probably playing the part of courteous listener, -if only she would do the talking--Mrs. Lewin was beginning to know his -methods; and then, once the ladies had gone, he would draw nearer to -the man who could really interest him, and talk of the island and the -life there that woke him to more than surface attention,--but that -man would not be Ally! No schooling would push Ally into the place -she wanted him to take after her back was turned, and she herself -was helpless. With feminine philosophy she dressed carefully that -night, not for the Administrator, but because Chum never despised the -advantage of facing the world fortified by being perfectly turned -out. She was more successful than usual over her unruly hair, and the -pretty ripples lay round her flat ears--not over them, for Ally’s -warning!--and were massed down into the nape of her neck as if they -loved her, and were glad to frame her beauty. She looked at the slope -of her neck and the warm, white round of her shoulder, and because she -was respectful of her Creator’s work, she fastened a big, black velvet -rose to the shoulder-strap, where its artificial duskiness kissed the -reality of her own seductive dimples. More than one man found himself -vaguely conscious of that false flower before the dinner was over, -and thought stealthily of Captain Lewin’s domestic bliss. Leoline was -not exactly a woman whose influence was towards goodness, whatever -she might be in herself. For though she had no vice of her own, she -suggested all of them in turn to coarser and more masculine minds. - -The Arthur Whites had placed their table well, and this is a great -gift in Key Island, where guests are easily bored through constantly -meeting each other. The host and hostess did not sit at either end -of their square table, but because one side would accommodate almost -as many as another they had a way of disposing themselves among -their guests, and placing two instead of one at either end. It broke -the usual solemn monotony of dinners, and accommodated a larger -number. Thus it happened that Mrs. Lewin, who had been taken in by -Captain Gilderoy, found that she was next the end of the table where -her host should ordinarily have sat, but round the corner were the -Administrator and Mrs. White. To sit next to Mr. Gregory was nothing, -for what attention he had to give was Mrs. White’s. Chum smiled upon -the garrison adjutant, and enjoyed herself with a continuation of the -philosophy that had dressed her for conquest. Across the table she -could see a woman, who was a stranger to her, neglecting her rightful -partner, Major Churton, and talking at the Administrator through -the medium of a projected water scheme in which she was not really -interested, and noted her failure with as much sympathy as amusement. -After all, they had all had their water-scheme trial, and failed also! - -“Who is Major Churton’s partner?” she said idly to Gilderoy, under the -buzz of the conversation round them. - -“That is Mrs. Clayton of Mitsinjovy fame!” he answered. “They have only -been out a month or so longer than you, and she was ill with fever at -first, so it took some time for her questionable attractions to dawn on -us.” - -(“Then she does not know Mr. Gregory, and that is why she is wasting -her energies on the water scheme!” thought Chum.) Aloud she said -cautiously, “Do you know her?” - -“Not personally, I am thankful to say, but I have a smiling -acquaintance with her. I have to pass their house on my way down to -town and to the garrison office every morning, and she is generally -showing her ankles for my benefit on the stoep. I always smile, because -as she has taken the trouble to get into her hammock, presumably on my -account, it would be unkind not to do so.” - -Mrs. Lewin looked at his rather rugged face, and found it curiously -deceptive. For his eyes were quite friendly, and when he spoke in that -pleasant tone it was difficult to realise his sneering insinuations -about the lady sitting opposite, who was even now casting glances in -his direction. - -“What sort of acquaintance did you say you had?” she asked, laughing. - -“Just a smiling one. Don’t you know that stage? I should say it was -very inadvisable to go further and fare worse with the O.C.T.’s dinner -partner!” - -“Now I come to think of it I have had that degree of intimacy with -people myself. It is rather fascinating, because though one can’t bow -it is not in human nature not to recognise a familiar face in some way -that evades the social law. But why should you judge Mrs. Clayton by -her ankles?” - -He shrugged his shoulders, and the dog-smile marred his face for a -moment. “If a woman gives me such a flagrant invitation, what am I to -think? They have not begun entertaining yet, but if you would rather -wait and judge them by their tennis-cake and Bridge-markers pray do so. -For me, I have my private opinion.” - -“Is that the usual test out here--how one entertains? I am still on my -probation then, because we have no courts, and have not started Bridge. -Ally and I only give whiskey-and-soda dinners at present.” - -“Well, that is excellent, or sounds so!” he retorted, turning to -look at her more closely. Captain Gilderoy always retained his air of -being a gentleman whatever he said or did, but he was also, at times, -a man--the black rose that Chum was wearing was on his side, not the -Administrator’s, and he was well content with his lot, so much so that -when Diana Churton loudly claimed his attention to pronounce judgment -on a short issue of Victorian stamps, he turned reluctantly to answer, -leaving Mrs. Lewin for the moment unmonopolised. - -The dinner was practically over, but there was just that pause of -desultory talk before Mrs. White rose that kept the men from their -cigarettes--in this house the women were, officially, not supposed to -smoke--and Chum knew that her hostess would look at her in a minute, -and altered her attitude to one of more alertness; but she had a -school-girl trick of slipping off her shoes under the dinner-table, and -for the minute the little right-hand slipper was missing. - -She was feeling about for it with a distressed silk foot, when an -inspiration flashed into her head, filling her eyes with brilliant -laughter. The Administrator was not at the moment occupied any more -than herself; he was leaning back in his chair, his eyes for once cast -down, his massive face inwardly absorbed, but one nervous hand playing -with the fruit knife betraying the active, working brain. Mrs. Lewin -looked at him ... were they all wrong? Had Mrs. Clayton and the water -scheme failed to arrest his attention for exactly the same reason that -her own tentative efforts had not succeeded--that they had all appealed -to the wrong side of the man? How would audacity do instead?... - -She leaned forward, her face flushed with her own uncertain daring, -her eyes still full of laughter, half excited, half amused at the -experiment, and spoke hurriedly under her breath. - -“Mr. Gregory, will you try and find my shoe for me?” - -The hand that played with the fruit knife stopped as if by clockwork, -and the Administrator raised his hard eyes and looked full into hers -in his amazement. A half-smile softened his own lips in answer to her -apologetic dimples. - -“I beg your pardon, Mrs. Lewin?” - -“My shoe!” said Chum with apparent impatience. “I have a foolish habit -of slipping them off at meals and I’ve lost one, and Mrs. White will -look at me and rise in a minute, and I can’t go. Do feel for it! It -must be somewhere near you.” - -His face flushed dark red with suppressed laughter, as, more awake -to the situation than she had ever known him, he sat back and felt -cautiously about in the unseen space of floor. A minute later he had -really found it, and caught it between his feet. The little soft satin -thing felt utterly alien and feminine, and yielded to the pressure of -his feet, yet just because it was so empty it suggested to his senses -the foot that would fill it. He pushed it carefully towards Mrs. Lewin, -his eyes still fixed upon her. - -“Have you found it?” she said eagerly, without a trace of consciousness -in her charming face. “Thank you so much!... Yes, I have it!... That’s -all right!” - -He had inevitably touched the little unslippered foot in its silk -stocking, but she did not seem to be aware of the fact as he was. Mrs. -White had risen, and Mrs. Lewin rose too, with one brilliant smile -of thanks at him--nothing more. The Administrator was nearest to the -door; he got out of his seat and held it for the ladies, looking down -on them from his unusual height as they passed,--Mrs. Arthur White in -dull white silk, a comfortable, portly presence--Mrs. Clayton, still -trying to attract attention with a jingle of bangles, but his eyes were -blank;--Diana Churton, hard and metallic and burnt to the collar-line, -beneath which her bare neck was startlingly fair;--then a tall woman -with a well-groomed head, and a black velvet rose nestling against the -rich whiteness of her skin. He scanned her as keenly as though he saw -her for the first time, and he felt sure she did not notice it as she -went calmly by, so softly unconscious of him that she was as easily -graceful as though no strong masculine eyes were searching her from the -crown of her head to the little foot that had a new meaning to him. - -Mr. Gregory held the door until the last silk skirts had swept into -the further room. Then he went back to his seat and sat down, and the -talk buzzed round him of sugar works and hemp-crops, and mixtures of -races in Key Island, while a few men talked promotion and the chances -of the army. Between his feet, as he sat there discussing his favourite -topics, he could still feel the strange yielding softness of a little -satin slipper.... - -As Mrs. Lewin entered the drawing-room the coffee came in from the -servants’ quarters. She sat down in the nearest chair, which happened -to be beside a little table where a fancy mirror lay with some other -trifles. The other women had crossed over to the coffee-tray; Chum took -up the glass deliberately, and looked at herself; first on this side -and then on that. The inspection was entirely satisfactory. - -She laid down the mirror, and smiled as if distinctly amused. For it -had occurred to her that they had all been fools and had wasted much -valuable time, and when women are fools the men will not help them out -of their folly. - -“He is only a man!” she said a little contemptuously, going back to her -first comment. - -By the time the men came into the drawing-room, most of the women had -drifted out on to the stoep, but the two Bridge tables were placed and -waiting, and the Bridge players sat down to the serious business of -their evening, while Hamilton Gurney of the Wessex wheeled the piano -out into the cool darkness and fortified by cého began to sing. He -had that gift of the gods a real tenor voice, and when he sang he was -suddenly transformed from an ordinary young man in a Line Regiment to -a satellite of the Angel Israfil, with power over his fellow-creatures -to wring their hearts and bring tears into their eyes. It is a little -pitiful of human nature that intense pleasure always shows itself most -simply in weeping; for when the senior sub. of the Wessex had dropped -his last soft note into a listening silence most of his hearers had -uncomfortable lumps in their throats, and believed that it was a -foretaste of Heaven. - -Mrs. Lewin had seated herself in a basket chair as far from other -listeners as she could, for she was selfish over music, and felt -inclined to turn and rend any one who interrupted her enjoyment of -it. It represented the only violent emotion that she had really -experienced, and she objected to facing the public with quivering -nerves. To-night she was to be more than usually harrowed because Mr. -Gurney, in a fit of sentimentalism engendered by her own black rose, -had chosen a song with her name interwoven--a song that Blumenthal -loved best of all he wrote, and which seems as if the accompaniment -were born of the air. It is called “Leoline,” but Chum missed -the reference to herself as completely as she lost sight of the -pink-and-white young man at the piano who was casting glances at her -shadowy corner. Hamilton Gurney did not realise that he was merely the -vehicle of his own gift, and therefore he made the mistake of accepting -the attention he knew he received not only as for his voice, but for -his very unimportant self. - - “One night we sat below the porch - And out in that warm air, - A firefly, like a dying star, - Fell tangled in her hair; - But I kissed him lightly off again - And he fluttered up the vine, - And died into the darkness - For the love of Leoline!” - -Mrs. Lewin had drifted away into a sea of pain, as the rich notes -played over her nerves. Had she thought about him she would have been -positive that the Administrator was playing Bridge at Major Churton’s -table, but she was not thinking of him, nor did she realise until long -after the song was over that he was standing near her, a tall dark -shadow behind her chair, looking with very far-seeing eyes from Mr. -Gurney’s obvious application of his song to Mrs. Lewin’s equal ignoring -of it. - - “We sang our songs together, - Till the stars shook in the skies; - We spoke--we spoke of common things-- - But the tears were in our eyes! - And my hand I know it trembled - To each light warm touch of thine ... - Yet we are friends, and only friends, - My lost love, Leoline!” - -“That’s her name, eh!” said Mr. Gregory, with some dry amusement. “And -that young fool is trying to catch her attention to the fact. It’s a -pity that he can’t realise his position of a Man behind a Voice.” - -Chum moved her head restlessly, conscious that her heart was beating -thickly as only the slow rich notes ever made it beat. It frightened -her to have even the suspicion of an emotion she could not control, and -this was certainly a thing that seemed apart from her. Life had been -most comfortably manageable so far. - -“I wonder what her husband calls her?” mused the Administrator, his -eyes absently fixed on the point of a little satin slipper, showing -beneath the frills of her skirt. “Leoline--Lena--Leo--she is not a -woman to lack a pet name, for all her inches!” - -“Chum!” said Captain Lewin, strolling across the stoep with his hands -in his pockets. “Come in and drink Mr. White’s health--there’s cého -going!” - -And a dozen voices seemed to echo his words from the lighted -windows--“Chum, are you out there?” “Chum--excuse me, Mrs. Lewin, it’s -so catching!--but do come in.” “Come along, Chum!” - -“At all events,” said the Administrator, with an ugly smile, “that -name is not sacred to one person!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - - “La femme qui n’a que son mari est une femme déserte.”--_French - Proverb._ - - -Behind the Lewins’ bungalow the rich hillside ran up yellow with cane, -for their garden joined the boundaries of Mr. Denver’s estate, and save -for a fringe of logwood and guava the sugar spread all about his many -acres. If Mrs. Lewin crossed the gravel paths among the rose trees, -and pushed her way through a tangle of debatable ground, she found -herself out among the waving blades that rose above her height and -almost kissed over her head. She had an insistent love of the early -morning, when the languid air was at least cooled with the dawn, and -full of faint scent; and when her husband was still sleeping off the -healthy effects of two hours’ hard tennis, she would get up and go out, -whereby she gained a very irradicable impression of the sugar industry -in all its phases, from the flat-footed natives strolling up to work, -to the grinding and heaving of the sugar factories, for she strayed -as far as the actual buildings where it was carried on, and came back -to breakfast with an English appetite, and a Key Island thirst. Ally -called it restlessness. - -On the morning after the Whites’ dinner, the spirit woke her early. -She rose and dressed, insisting on a bath at an hour which confirmed -the Arabs’ impression of British insanity, and went out into the blue -day. There were clouds over Maitso, but the gracious morning was very -hushed and calm. Chum threaded the garden, and invaded the brushwood -beyond, where the blue-gum and eucalyptus trees marked the boundary of -her own territory, and the dew lay heavy on her white skirts. A meerkat -jumped across her feet, as she pushed out into the fields of cane, and -then the slope of the mountain rose before her, pure green with sugar, -a delight to look upon. This land belonged to Mr. James Denver, the -father of the young lady whose name was connected in every Key Island -mouth with Hamilton Gurney’s, and the ugly chimneys of his factory rose -half-way up the hill, above the long, grey sugar works. The men had -gone to their labour half-an-hour since, and Mrs. Lewin pushed her way -boldly in between the ridges where the cane grew, and sauntered along, -feeling that life was very good, and that Earth smelt like Heaven, as -indeed it did if Heaven is a combination of hothouse and conservatory. -In a land where every other tree flowers, and where gardenias riot in -the hedges, it seems as if the essence of all the honey that was ever -gathered was resolved back into its original elements within one’s -immediate surroundings. - -Last night’s success was really the satin lining to Mrs. Lewin’s mood, -for there is no factor so conducive to physical pleasure as a gentle -mental stimulant. She had made the worn-out discovery that a man is -best reached through his emotions, and that his reason is a secondary -line of attack, and it amused her. But she was really not thinking of -the object of her success so much as generalising over the frailty of -his sex, when suddenly she saw him coming towards her. - -A swell of ground, and a cross track through the cane, had hidden -the Administrator until they were only a few yards distant from each -other. Without a suspicion of his nearness, any more than she had -been when Gurney sang, Chum came through the dancing morning, while -the great green cane bowed over her head and made a royal avenue for -her as she passed, as of sunshine dripping through clear emeralds--so -liquid yellow was the light through the blades. She had grown to love -the cane, from the light emphatic patches of it in distance, to the -near waving blades so suggestive of sweet taste in their very colour. -There was a little Nigger song that Hamilton Gurney sang in a voice as -luscious as the sugar; she hummed it as she passed-- - - “All the world am singing this refrain-- - Sweeter than the sugar from the cane!... - You are the sweetest girl around, - Just the sweetest girl I know----” - -She broke off to throw up her head and catch another footstep for the -first time, then sauntered on to meet it with the last line-- - - “And the sugar--sugar--sugar--from the cane!” - -“Good-morning, Mr. Gregory!” - -“Good-morning, Mrs. Lewin!” - -They were conscious eyes this time, that looked down in their -penetration at every feminine attraction presented to him. The -secretary’s wife stood the inspection with the unconscious serenity of -last night. - -“How very unofficial of you to be out like this! One dispenses with -outriders and a flourish of trumpets in Key Island, but one does expect -to think of the Administrator breakfasting in languid dignity while -other people are already abroad!” - -He made a wry face. “We are very unofficial here, thank Heaven! It is -one of the few advantages of our diminutiveness. Where are you going, -to Denver’s?” - -“No, I was trespassing on his ground, merely for a stroll.” - -“You have seen the factory?” - -“Not yet, though I have ventured as far as the door.” - -“Come along,” he said unceremoniously. “It is just up the hill--I’ll -take you round.” - -Mrs. Lewin smiled inwardly, and picking up her spotless skirts stepped -into the next furrow. Here the cane had been cut, but a little further -on the golden green blades drove them into the draining ditch until -they struck the road which cut the field in two. There were rough -tram-lines running along it, and a small engine was hauling the trucks -up and down the hillside to the factory. Gregory stopped the man who -was just starting the load, and there was a brief colloquy. Then he -turned to the last truck, which, unlike its fellows, was not open to -the sky and loaded with the cane, but resembled a waggon without ends, -and had rough seats running down each side of it. This was the riding -truck, and throwing a piece of matting over a seat he put his hand -under Mrs. Lewin’s arm and lifted rather than helped her in, for the -step was steep. In the midst of her amused excitement she was conscious -of his unceremonious strength, and with the instinctive feminine -compliment to it her own weakness and helplessness seemed suddenly to -have increased. - -“We shall have time to go round before that breakfast you insist on -my eating in my official capacity,” he said, and his lips smiled, -while his lidless eyes never narrowed from their intense stare at -her. It began to give her a sense of weariness, a feeling that he had -never ceased looking at her since the night before, when he was first -conscious of her presence. Perhaps he had been doing it in his own mind -all the night. - -The movement of the trucks was surprisingly smooth, but they were all -worked on springs. They swept up through the furrowed fields, and -came to a clinking standstill before the gaping mouth of the factory. -It seemed to Mrs. Lewin a zinc building with a whirr of machinery -inside too large for its frail shell, and the impression increased, -rather than otherwise, when she entered. All the world was suddenly -transformed to sugar--the rich smell of it was in the air, the dark -stream of it falling from the pipes to the big teaches and the cooler, -the very floor sticky with it, so that she stepped aside from the pools -of hot liquid. After the increasing glare outside the dark of the place -was grateful, and through the dark were visible bronzed forms, stripped -and dripping with sweat, guiding the machinery, shovelling down the -waste for fuel, and chopping at the congealed masses of the later -stages of the sugar with some pronged instrument. There was labour on -every hand, and the restless tide of human life seemed gathered into an -ordered groove of industry. - -Gregory led his companion up steep ladders and over wet stones without -consideration for her fresh skirts, explaining the process as they went -on. It was wonderful how his forceful whispers carried through the -whirr of the flying wheels, and he took it off-handedly for granted -that Mrs. Lewin would miss no detail on account of her clothes. He knew -the work as well as its owner, and dipped the testing-tube into the -refining sugar to show her how the lime had purified the dirty liqueur -to a pure gold like honey. Further on, at the end of the building, were -the great vats where rum was fermenting, and an odour like rich wine -rose in Chum’s nostrils as he lifted the lid and showed her the frothy, -muddy contents. - -“Dip in your finger--it’s warm,” he said, stirring it with his own. -Mrs. Lewin, balancing on a precarious plank, with her dainty skirts -held high, was conscious of an inward shudder as her long white hand -touched the strong-smelling stuff, and yet it never occurred to her to -disobey, or so much as enter a protest. - -“Is this what the natives _drink_?” she said, in mild surprise. - -“Yes--by-and-by, when it’s cleared. Filthy stuff!” he said shortly. -“It’s better than hemp, though. Can you get down? Better let me lift -you----” - -But she laid her cool hands in his and jumped, landing safely at his -side, and again conscious of his physical as well as mental power. -Then the sight-seeing was over, and he led the way out by another -door and round to the waiting trucks to ride back. Here Gregory -paused a minute, and looked over the waving crops and the flourishing -scene of labour with an expression that Mrs. Lewin did not at the -moment understand. When he had come to Key Island the sugar-planters -were sullen and depressed; they wanted encouragement from the Home -Government, and they regarded the change of administration in Key -Island as no benefit to themselves. The old _régime_ had been a bad -one, and had ended in disaster; but they knew at least what they had -to expect, and the first “spring cleaning” of the Imperial Government -had alarmed them with grave prognostications for the future of the -island. Gregory had already made them change their opinions during the -short time he had been in possession. He had thrown himself heart and -soul into the industries of the island, and so assured the planters -that Port Victoria would not be merely a coaling-station. Because he -was in earnest he gained their confidence, and worked with them to -make the land prosperous again. The humming factories were a proof of -his success; he saw his schemes fulfilling themselves actually before -him, and his hard eyes brightened with the strange look over which Mrs. -Lewin pondered all the way home. It was, in a degree, the same look -that makes a young mother most ineffably, justifiably proud--the look -that is but a reflex of God’s when, His work spread before Him, He saw -that it was very good. For there is no joy like the joy of creation. - -“What is he thinking about?” said Leoline Lewin to herself, with -awakened interest, her eyes on the Administrator’s reserved face. - -“Denver employs six hundred on his estate alone,” was all Gregory -remarked aloud. “I wish all the planters took as many.” - -“Why?” - -“If there were no idlers, there would be less likelihood of a rising. -When the Key’landers begin to sit in the gutter and jaw through the -Miroro (sleep hour) in a snarly sing-song, then look out. It began that -way last time.” - -“Ah!--Mr. Gregory, what would happen if you burnt the hemp-crops?” - -“I don’t know.” But he looked at her in some surprise for the audacity -of her question. It had been tacitly understood that such an extreme -measure might be attempted by this Administrator only; but no one -had even broached such a subject to himself. Gregory thought of the -unlikelihood of his secretary even speculating on such an idea, and -smiled even more broadly. Decidedly this girl ought to have been the -boy! - -“It might bring matters to a head, and I don’t know that I should -be sorry,” he admitted after a moment. “There is a lot of underhand -discontent, and the population is like a silly child who overestimates -its own importance and power to be naughty. A sharp lesson might clear -the air--see?” - -It is wonderful how indiscreet men will be to a pretty woman. Mrs. -Lewin knew how to listen; also as Evelyn Gregory talked he could -see himself reflected in the big pupils of her eyes, and his mental -attitude reflected in the equally receptive calibre of her mind. He was -not very used to sympathy in his schemes, because he rarely confided -them to any one, and he fancied Mrs. Lewin the more exceptional on this -account, whereas she was merely more adroit in drawing him on. She -was, besides, really interested, and he saw that, and saw also that -she was a woman, which touched his senses, and ended by driving the -more serious side of the conversation out of his head. For Chum, with a -flash of genius, dropped the political standpoint at her own gate, and -held out her hand with a merely social attractiveness. - -“My husband will be ravenous, and I shall get scolded,” she said, -with a smile in the changing colours of her eyes. “But I was very -interested--it was your fault!” - -The curve of her lips was not a pout, but Mr. Gregory suddenly -saw himself as a successful rival to Captain Lewin as regarded his -wife’s time--the masculine cause of a scolding too, for a more subtle -suggestion than a late breakfast lay in the words. He smiled a little -also, and the blood beat with a small pleased triumph in the hand that -held hers. - -“He must like me, if he is to like Ally!” said Chum to herself in vague -excuse, as she went into her room to change her soiled skirt and shoes. -“And that is the only way to attract him, as yet.... What a harsh, ugly -face he has!--Been waiting long, Ally?” - -Fresh from her encounter with the Administrator, her husband’s good -looks struck her with a sudden pride in possession. She paused behind -his chair, and laying her hands on his shoulders bent down to kiss him -and talk tender nonsense. - -“Dear thing! how nice it looks in its beautiful white clothes!” she -said softly, her arm round the broad shoulders under the cool linen -coat. - -“Where have you been, old girl?” Ally returned, pushing his chair -back from the table to return the caress heartily. “I’ve been dressed -half-an-hour.” - -“Up to Denver’s Works, and all round them with--who do you think? Three -guesses!” - -“Halton!” - -“Wrong!--Silly boy! as if I didn’t love my beautiful husband better -than hundreds of Mr. Haltons!” - -“I know you do!--I should think it very bad taste if you didn’t,” said -Ally, calmly. “Brissy, then?” - -“No,--why, he is orderly officer this week!” - -“Which is all that lies between me and the Divorce Court evidently! -Well, I don’t think you have another mash, Chum--unless it’s Churton?” - -“All wrong. I fly at higher game. Now then!” - -“Not----” - -“The Administrator!” - -Ally whistled. “You don’t say so!” he said. “How the deuce did it -happen?” - -“He met me trespassing on the estate and asked me to go. Now I think -of it, he never said why _he_ was there, but he seemed like a second -owner.” - -“Oh, he is well in with all the Planters. Well?” - -“He asked me to go, as I say, and I went. Listen, Ally”--and she -left him and walked round to her end of the table--“he became almost -confiding about the natives. I shall know his schemes yet, and then I -can tell you, and knowledge is power! He will think you have divined -his mind.” - -“Catch me divining his mind! It would be like groping in a fusty -roomful of blue-books! Oh, by the way, Chum, Gurney wants to sell that -grey pony of his--I think we might as well have another.” - -“No, but do listen, Ally! At present the native question is so hopeless -because of the mixed races and opposing interests, but if a good breed -predominated--the Hovas, for instance--and we could get them to come -over and leaven the lump----” - -A big hard-backed beetle had floundered on to the table right in front -of Alaric’s plate, and instinctively he had set his glass of iced water -on it. The glass being nearly empty the beetle was walking away with -it, and with Alaric’s attention at the same time. Chum stopped abruptly. - -“You don’t care!” she said, with a sudden blank feeling upon her. “You -are much more interested in playing school-boy tricks!” - -“I beg your pardon, really! But I’m so sick of Gregory’s importation -and emigration schemes.” Ally’s eyes were affectionate and apologetic -too. He looked like a big dog accustomed to petting, and very -unaccustomed to being chidden. “I say, Chum, do look at this fellow -though! The other night at mess we got a lot,--every one of us had a -beetle, and laid odds as to whose would fly off first. You know if you -turn them on their backs, ten to one they can’t get up, and if you even -touch them----” - -But now it was Chum’s attention which had wandered, nor was she very -concerned with the intellectual pursuits of the Wessex mess. She felt -that the racing of hard-backed beetles was the limit of their capacity: -and then reproached herself for self-conscious superiority. The -question of Key Island and its possible improvements dropped to pieces, -nor was it revived successfully on other occasions. But Captain Alaric -Lewin escaped from work early that day, and rode out to Maitso with -his wife, where from four o’clock to six they played at Go-one-better, -which is a very instructive game needing nothing but five handkerchiefs -and a Panama hat, and affords some amusement if you cannot play -tennis. The grass was wet, but they laughed themselves thirsty over -Go-one-better, and then sat on the stoep of the mess and drank cého, -and when the Administrator’s A.D.C. and Mrs. Lewin left, Ally was -conscious of no flaw in his domestic bliss. Key Island was a beastly -hole, and he must really look up all the influence he could to get a -decent Station--for Chum’s sake, of course--but in the meantime one -could have a very pleasant time if there were people like the Churtons -and old Bristles round. To-morrow they would play Polo of sorts--Gurney -must learn not to cross, though!--and Wednesday was gymkana. If only he -had been more of an A.D.C. and less of a secretary, even work would not -have been so irksome. But the Administrator chafed at entertainments, -and when he was forced into some formality at Government House he -usually managed to be summoned away, and left Halton to represent him -and Mrs. White to entertain. It was a saying in Key Island that he paid -the Town Wardens of Port Albert and China Town an extra stipend to -telephone for him on such occasions, and only when a Government House -dinner was unavoidable did Mr. Gregory appear as a host. Since Ally had -been out there had been no entertainment at Government House, and his -social gifts were wasted. It would have been dull enough, no doubt, but -still something to do, he thought, and better than all clerical work, -and he yawned over the morrow’s monotony as he laid his handsome, empty -head on the pillow that night. - -What Mrs. Lewin thought of the last twenty-four hours’ experiences she -no longer tried to make him understand. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - - “In vino veritas.”--_Latin Proverb._ - - -The way of the Army woman is hard. She starts as a nice girl, with -a weakness for red cloth and jingles; but then she marries, and -discovers, amongst other shocks, what lies beneath the red cloth. -Her husband may still be her ideal hero to her, or he may be merely -the figure-head of a position in which she gets plenty of attention -and some amusement; but his profession will inevitably take her into -desert places of the earth where she samples discomfort until the -iron enters into her domestic soul. If it be in India she will do -pretty well, until he gets a bad Station, though even the horrors of -loneliness and fever may be mitigated by obtainable service. But by -the time she is suddenly transferred with him to another Colony there -will be a nursery in progress, and then the tragedy--the ugly, sordid -tragedy of a married life stripped of its decencies and privacies--will -very possibly begin. She will leave her comfortable staff behind her, -because of the Emigration Act, and on the troop-ship she will begin to -taste the joys of being her own nurses and maid. Then her temper wears, -and she has not quite so much time to spend over her appearance, but -instinct holding good she adopts the harder and more masculine style -as being easier to compass under all trials of circumstance. Foreign -Stations batter the daintiness of life out of her, the narrow limits of -the Army world distort her mental vision, the drawbacks she struggles -to overcome leave their mark on her. Finally there comes the day when -even the hateful little compensations to which she has become used -have to be given up--the snobbish sense of position, and the dangling -after her of men other than her husband, who find in her a _passée_ -fashion,--for the soldier’s service is over, and then comes Ealing and -a dress allowance to be saved up for the sales. - -Diana Churton had reached the ominous point in her career when she saw -half-pay darkening the horizon. It was unlikely that Major Churton -would ever be given the regiment, and, as he said, twenty years of -foreign service had made the solid dullness of England a home to his -weary eyes. Diana had no children to plot and plan for, and marry into -the same life that she had found a dubious success; their one little -girl had died at Agra, and the dumb tragedy of their lives was in the -moment when they turned away from the little grave, in a city for ever -sacred to the dead by that grand white memory called the Taj, and went -their separate ways. The child as she grew older might have drawn them -closer together again; her grave somehow thrust them apart. - -“If he thinks I neglected her, or that it was my fault, I could kill -him!” thought the woman fiercely, jealous of her motherhood. - -“If she hints that I do care, I shall lose my control--better let the -very subject alone,” thought the man, for he was afraid of his own -temper. - -So Di Churton dropped the remnants of her girlhood into the void -of her husband’s silence, and life went on as before--always the -indefinite man who rode with her and danced with her, always the hard -tongues of the Station and the keeping just on the safe side, always -the restless, feverish desire to get something out of life and the -sense of disillusion. She never lost her husband’s confidence, for she -was a wise woman; but she learned a mutual accommodation when “Bute -was thick with Mrs. So-and-so.” Diana was attracted by men rather than -her own sex; she was in few senses a nice woman, and unless she had an -object in cultivating them, the other ladies in the garrison found her -frankly rude. - -At Port Victoria she was fairly intimate with Mrs. Gilderoy until the -arrival of the Lewins, whereupon she transferred her preference to -Leoline, not only on account of Alaric, but because Chum was obviously -successful socially, and Bute was conveniently attracted. It would -have suited Mrs. Churton very well to have the Lewins nearer, for the -distance up to Maitso from their bungalow was a frequent reason for -Mrs. Lewin to slip out of an invitation there. It happened one morning, -for instance, that on a day when Diana had planned to have her company -Chum rode into town late, and gave herself a headache with the heat and -the exhaustion of the air. The smell of Port Victoria is peculiarly its -own, and seems to be compounded of all the mixed races that inhabit -it, not excepting the white, for the hot khaki certainly lends its own -peculiar flavour. The humid streets do not smell of the packed stores, -or of the decaying vegetation, or even of the need for drainage, though -they might do so, and it is a surprise to those who know the place that -they do not; but the juices of warm Chinaman and Negro and Arab and -Malagasy, seem to merge and produce an effect that is numbing to the -uninitiated. After six months or so in the town people declare that -they hardly notice it, but Mrs. Lewin had not reached that stage. She -turned Liscarton’s head towards the hillside, and felt thankful that -if her homeward way was to be overscented it would be with too much -sweetness rather than otherwise. For it was a characteristic of Port -Victoria that its rank nastiness should be succeeded by enervating -odours of flowers the minute one gets out of the streets and into the -blossoming tangle of hills round about. - -The town seemed unusually glaring, and clattered with khaki. The -rattling by of an officer’s pony, and the salute flashed into her -dazzled eyes, made Chum’s head swim, until she was faintly conscious -of something else that distracted her attention from herself. It was -the hour of the Miroro--the noonday sleep--and the coloured people -had lounged out of store and wharf and were sitting in the gutters -and on the steps of the houses, eating fessikh and dozing and playing -native games. But above it and through it all rang a sing-song snarl of -patois, like the complaining note of a caged beast. Liscarton almost -stopped for the instinctive pressure on his rein, and Mrs. Lewin -turned in her saddle to look back at the streets she was leaving. She -remembered Gregory’s warning as to the signs of trouble; this sounded -like it, this strange note of dissatisfaction in the general hum. - -“I will speak to Ally, and ask him if there is anything fresh--any -measure of the Government that is unpopular,” she thought, beginning to -canter up-hill mechanically. A Key Island pony will always canter his -hills, unless really tired, upon the principle that it is better to get -over a difficulty quickly and breathe yourself afterwards. He is bound -to be hot with the climb, and the impetus of a quicker motion carries -him over the rough ground with greater ease. - -As Chum entered the delicious coolness of their own bungalow, the -telephone rang, and she went to answer it. Her husband’s voice spoke to -her, faintly muffled. - -“Who’s there?... Oh, is it you, Chum? I’m at the club, and it’s too -late to come out. Brissy’s lunching with me.” - -“Don’t drink too many céhos!” said Chum resignedly from her end of the -communication tube. “And tell Captain Nugent I expect him to dinner -to-morrow--he can bring the banjo.” - -“All right. Well, look here, Chum, I’m dining with the Churtons -unfortunately--they want to know if you can ride out too?” - -“My head is too bad. I’m only just out from town, and the heat made it -ache a good deal. I’m afraid I should be the skeleton at the feast if -I attempted to get up to Maitso. It’s nothing--don’t be a silly boy! I -shall have to make the effort and come to the Churtons if you bother.” - -“No don’t, if you feel seedy. I’ll ride out and see how you are after -lunch.” - -“You are not to do anything of the kind--it’s too hot for you. Stay at -the club. Oh, Ally----” - -“Well?” - -“Is there anything going on in the Legislature?” - -“Not that I know of more than the usual--ahem!--grind. What’s up?” - -“Nothing. I only thought--oh, nothing. Give my love to Di.” - -“All right. Take care of yourself, dear.” Ally rang off hastily, and -turned to drink cého with relief. He was not a hypocrite, and he had -reached a point when he did not want Chum to send her love to Mrs. -Churton. - -After all, he did not ride out to their bungalow, for he talked -horse with Captain Nugent to the accompaniment of many whiskies, and -then it seemed too late, remembering that he had to dress--he had had -his clothes sent down to the club--and get his pony and ride up to -Maitso. But Brissy was not pressed for time, and offered himself as a -substitute, whereby it came to pass that he turned up to have tea with -Chum, and impressed her anew in her secret heart with his absolute -inferiority to Ally, and the wearying vacuum of his brains. - -“He is like a bad copy of Ally, too,” she thought critically, looking -at the burnt face and the young eyes drawn round with spurious wrinkles -by foreign service. Under the black moustache Brissy’s teeth flashed as -he talked, for he had a trick of drawing back his upper lip, and above -his low forehead the dark hair thatched an unusually flat head. Owing -to vivid colouring, he was considered a handsome man among his fellows; -but Mrs. Lewin did not admire him. - -“His eyes have no soul in them--he is just a healthy animal!” she said -to herself disparagingly, as he stolidly drank his fourth cup of tea -and showed no signs of going. “Oh, thank Heaven, Ally is not like this! -What shall I talk about?” - -It seemed ridiculous to think of Brissy as a father, and Mrs. Lewin -never drew him on to domestic subjects as she might other married -men, partly because it struck her as inappropriate to him, and partly -because there was a general belief in Key Island that he would have -liked to bring his wife out with him, but that Mrs. Nugent had not -been attracted by a small and dull Station such as Port Victoria, and -had preferred to wait until he had something better. Brissy staunchly -asserted that her health would not stand the heat, but Captain Gilderoy -had shrugged his shoulders to a select audience, and given it as his -opinion that at the last moment Mrs. Nugent had jibbed! The theory met -with credence, and therefore Chum talked banjos and ponies rather than -married interests, and had no suspicion that Brissy’s unemotional eyes -strayed round the home, for which he envied “old Ally Sloper,” with a -secret wistfulness. He was adding her presence at her husband’s side -to the long list of advantages with which he had already endowed her, -while she privately decided that a lifelong _tête-à-tête_ with Bristow -Nugent would exhaust the vitality of any woman, and that Mrs. Nugent’s -absence needed no explanation to a sympathetic mind. - -Her thoughts touched Ally with fonder appreciation in contrast. He was -at the moment just riding leisurely up the winding road that led to -Maitso,--a handsome fellow, and well contented with himself, and his -wife with him. On his right rose the solid buildings of the Mess, and -as the path swung over the hill, corkscrew-wise, the dotted barracks -grouped themselves on either hand. It was like a town in itself, -intersected with the irrepressible vegetation which broke out into -guava and logwood brush even here. Maitso looked “greener” and more -deserving of its name than it really was from the town; but as Captain -Lewin rode up to the Churtons’ quarters, he passed through the slight -screen of logwood, and was shielded from the setting sun. - -“Come in, Ally. Bute’s somewhere at the Mess,” said Mrs. Churton, -appearing on the stoep. “Where’s Chum?” - -“She had a headache--said she was awfully sorry she didn’t feel up to -coming. I’m glad she didn’t try, it was so hot riding up.” - -“I’m sorry she couldn’t, though, as we shall be odd numbers. Poor -old fellow! you are hot! Will you have a cého or whiskey?” Diana was -hospitable. - -Ally chose cého, but the whiskey followed, and when the Major appeared -they had more, sitting out until dinner-time and talking in a desultory -fashion, while they watched the sky darken behind the solemn fans of -the ravenalas. How hot it was! Even up at Maitso the freshness seemed -to have been melted from the sea breeze before it reached them, and the -heavy air clung like a miasma. It was intoxicatingly sweet, but languid -and enervating until the beads of sweat stood on the men’s temples -without more exertion than their own vitality, and even Diana Churton -gasped. - -“By Jove! it’s been a swilling day!” Major Churton remarked, as -he stretched his hand for the whiskey. “My throat feels like -blotting-paper. Have some more, Lewin?” - -“Thanks!” - -There were no ladies present at dinner besides Di, but two men from -Mitsinjovy dropped in, and presently they played Poker. Ally was one of -the winners, but more by luck than judgment, for the heat--or something -else--seemed to be making his head heavy. Twice he thought he got up to -go, and then some one said the night was yet young, and his limbs felt -comfortably indisposed to bestir themselves. When midnight struck he -dragged himself to his feet with a feeling of bewilderment. - -“Great Scot! Chum will think I’m killed--had a headache, too, poor -little soul!” he said vaguely. His splendid, vacant face was turned to -the hot night beyond the open doors; he was wondering how he should -ever get down that winding hill in the dark with this stupid feeling in -his brain. He must trust to the pony, it was no good worrying. - -Diana beckoned him imperiously on to the stoep, and he obeyed, pulling -himself together and walking straight, without control of his own body, -it seemed, into the cooler night air. She was holding one of the big -Mess tumblers, with the Wessex crest on it, sparkling with whiskey and -soda, and deliciously cold with ice. - -“A stirrup cup!” she said hurriedly. “Come, you must drink it! You are -sleepy with the heat of the rooms. This will brace you up to get home.” - -“Upon my word, Di, I’ve had enough.” - -But she laughed and lifted it to his lips for him, and his hand closed -on hers and the glass together. Ally was smoking, but he took the -cigar from his lips as if he wondered what to do with it, and Mrs. -Churton held it for him while he drank, sniffing it appreciatively. -To some women the smell of smoke is a kind of lurid dissipation. The -taste of tobacco in their own mouths is not nearly so suggestive to -them. Ally finished the whiskey, and then something happened. He did -not seem able to hold the glass, and it fell and smashed at his feet. -He was troubled, because it belonged to the Mess, and those glasses -were expensive things, and had to be made in England; but Mrs. Churton -coolly kicked the fragments out of the way, and said it did not matter. -At least the whiskey had not been wasted! - -How dark it was on the stoep, and how hot and still! Up in the further -corner no one could see them from the lighted room. He remembered -nothing of getting there, only that her face looked softer than usual -in the little light there was; and when she put her cool hands behind -his head and kissed him, he felt a sly amusement that she should be so -much more keen than he; there was a passion in her kisses, while there -was none, he thought, in his. And her voice rang in his ears, “Ally! -Ally! come to me when other women fail you!” while he wondered that it -seemed to mean nothing. He was far more conscious of the outspread fans -of the ravenalas, as if they would fain screen him from the night. - -Some one brought his pony round then, and he mounted, surprised it -was so easy, and turned the brute’s head down the slope. Their voices -echoed after him and died away on the stillness of the air, bidding -him good-night, chaffing him noisily, confusing the way he was going. -It was impossible to judge one building from another now, and the -damned paths wound round and round like a maze. He should take a wrong -turning--no, this was safer! He drove his spurs into his pony’s flanks -and tore down the hill at a gallop, holding the animal mechanically -from stumbling, but trusting to his instinct to get down safely. Why -they did not pitch down the steep slopes he did not know, but he was -not in the least afraid; a mad exhilaration took hold of him through -the wild ride, and he urged the pony on still when he got to the foot -of the hill, and clattered through the sleeping town, but the pony knew -his way home. Stumbling and dripping with sweat, man and horse galloped -the last few yards, and swept up to the very stable door, where the -pony stopped with falling head and streaming flanks. - -Ally slipped out of the saddle, feeling his mount vaguely, and trying -to find the words to explain that he was to be rubbed down and handled -carefully, but they would not come, and he gave the rein in silence -to a sleepy sais, who seemed to have risen out of the shadows of the -stoep. A minute later his voice came back in a curse, for he tripped -over the bodies of his own servants crouched close to the cool stones. -There were more than the men of his household there, but he did not -know. He fumbled at the door, got it unlatched, and reeling over to his -dressing-room, dropped like a stone on to the floor in the middle of -the room. - -The heat of the night had prevented Chum from sleeping at first, and -though her headache had driven her to bed early, she had lain there -for an hour looking up at the white fall of the mosquito curtain, and -listening to the stupid bustle of a hard-back who had drifted in from -the outside world in company with a dozen moths, and was floundering to -find his way out again. She fell asleep at last listening for Ally’s -pony to come up the hill, and was in a deep slumber when the bang of -a door shook her awake as completely as if she had never closed her -eyes. She sat up in bed, wondering what had happened, and listening to -some one who seemed to be strange to the house, and was trying to find -his way about. A man must have got in, and she was all alone; yet the -boldness of the intruder’s movements as regarded noise, and his lack of -caution, were very unlike the stealthiness of the coloured thief. At -last the steps found Ally’s dressing-room, and passed in. There was an -instant’s pause, a heavy fall, and silence. - -Mrs. Lewin was standing at the closed door between the two rooms -almost before the sound had ceased; she had no knowledge of how she -came there, or of how her fingers let down the rattling shutter with -some vague idea of seeing through the opened slits. But there was -darkness in the dressing-room, and she opened the door with one hand -and switched on the electric light with the other, even as she passed -in. Nothing had been touched from the time when she last saw Ally’s -man putting it in order that morning. His master having dressed at -the club, the place had had an air of lonely neatness all day, for -Ally was regally careless how he flung his clothes about when present. -Mrs. Lewin took a step forward and almost trod upon his prostrate body -before she saw that the heavy dark something in the middle of the floor -was a man. - -He was lying nearly on his back, having turned in his fall with an -instinctive effort towards the air. She dropped on her knees beside -him, her heart beating heavily with the remembrance that the nearest -doctor was half-an-hour’s ride away, and trying to think what one did -for a fit. He was breathing heavily, and his face was flushed and -heated. She bent down to wrench open the soaked collar ... and drew -back with a choking breath. - -Leoline Lewin had seen drunken men before--labourers, lying on alehouse -benches, or in the sun; ragged wretches soaked in gin to drown their -misery, and slinking past the police. She had heard stories, too, of -her own male acquaintance being overcome upon occasion, and had found -them funny enough to laugh at as told by their friends. But the real -experience had never touched her before, nor had she seen the man who -had always stood upright, to her imagination at least, suddenly cast -from his dignity to grovel on the earth from which he came. - -In the revulsion of the shock she stood very upright herself, as if to -prove her own power--a grave, white figure overlooking the relaxed body -in its tumbled dress-clothes which lay at her bare feet. Through the -appalling silence sounded the man’s heavy snoring breath, and the thrum -of the hard-back which had followed her into the dressing-room, and was -hitting itself against the beams of the ceiling. - -Suddenly the woman remembered where and who she was, and what had -happened. The little harassing details of the tragedy came back to her -and woke her to shuddering action. She had been standing there for -some minutes, and half-a-dozen dangers might have occurred to clench -the position. The servants might hear and come to ask what was wrong, -or some one might have followed Ally to see him safely home, though -a quick glance at the probabilities reassured her that this--this -prostrate helpless body, was a last stage that had not betrayed itself -before. She sprang at the door and closed it swiftly, slipping the -bolt; then she dragged the mattress off the couch and pushed it as -near that helpless thing, that seemed no longer her husband, as was -possible; and then, with her strong, young arms, she took it under -the shoulders and dragged it on to the improvised bed, spreading a -covering sheet over the betraying clothes. The exertion brought beads -of moisture on to her fair soft body, and she stood up again panting a -little, and trying to realise it all. - -She must begin and love all over again, if she were to love so low -at all. This degraded Ally, helpless on her mercy, was no longer the -stalwart husband round whom she had built up her theoretical married -life. A dozen little things that had been but pinpricks of annoyance -started up in her mind suddenly, to intensify the final blow, and she -saw him as a weak man, without the strenuous love of fighting and -winning which she had tried to coax into him, self-contented, the mere -tool of her own ambition whenever he had been forced into action. -The bitterness of her thwarted instincts was uppermost as she turned -away. That was the mate of her own ripe womanhood, the force round -which her eager life was to centre--that poor weak nature which would -resist one temptation as little as another, for in the cruelty of this -revelation she acknowledged what she had been so pitifully denying to -herself,--that Alaric Lewin was no master of life, but the sport of his -own idle inclinations. - -She was moving back to her own room with dragging feet, when a new -terror seemed to spring up and startle her back into action again. -Some one was coming up the garden path with a heavy tramp that came -straight on towards the stoep and the house. It was no barefooted Arab, -but the impatient tread of a white man who was his own messenger, and -with a horrible premonition she knew it from any more probable one -that it might have been. It was the Administrator, and he had some -purpose in thus coming to his Secretary at one o’clock in the morning. -The sing-song snarl outside the stores and in the gutters, during the -Miroro, came back to her mind ominously. - -With some idea of stopping him before he could rouse the servants to -get into the house, she hastily left the dressing-room, and closing -the door behind her, as if it held an ugly secret, she sped across the -large bare dining-room and slipped back the bolt of the rough wooden -door. But she need not have troubled herself for the household. Evelyn -Gregory had almost brushed against the sleeping Arabs in his rapid -transit from the garden gate to the house, but as he passed along the -stoep he coolly stepped over the slumbering tangle at his feet with -the briefest passing scorn for men and women. It meant nothing to him -in his absorption, and indeed he hardly knew that the humanity he -spurned with his foot was there. He did not expect any of the servants -to answer his knock, but he meant to rouse Captain Lewin, and with -this grim intent he swung his heavy riding-whip round and brought -the weighted end rattling down on the slight panels of the door. The -whip was his constant companion, and served not for his ponies, but -as a weapon of defence or of punishment in an emergency. Its weight -was consequently no slight one, but before he could shake the door -again it was quietly opened, leaving him with the upraised whip in his -hand, the long lash coiled round his wrist, and his whole attitude -unintentionally threatening. - -In the doorway stood a marvellous fair woman in her nightdress, the -open neck showing her so warm and white, that with a little instant -thrill he guessed at the delicious shoulder under the lace. She had -come so swiftly that she had not even drawn the white silk wrapper -closely round her, and one little slipper had fallen from her; he saw -it lying in the waste of floor behind her, where it had slipped from -her running foot, and he thought of another white satin morsel that -he had held between his own. The coil of her hair was tossed sideways -over her shoulder, and brushed away from her forehead, leaving her -unusually girlish without its customary mature dressing, but in her -large eyes he saw that there was not the least thought of him. She was -as unconscious of her sweet bare foot as of his cognizance of it, nor -did she know that her careless whiteness was a seduction in itself. All -her conscious life centred round the terror of the last few minutes, so -that she saw only the situation she had to face. - -“Come in, Mr. Gregory,” she said under her breath, drawing aside for -him to pass in. “What is it? _What_ is it? Something is wrong!” - -She had turned on the light as she came, and it shone in their two -faces, the man still struggling with his personal thought, the woman -strained by her private dread of discovery. But the light mechanically -influenced her, so that she put up a slight hand and tugged at the silk -wrapper vaguely to veil her laces and frills. He watched her as if -fascinated, without will-power to turn away, and when he spoke it was -in short clipped phrases, as though it were an effort. - -“There is a threatening of a rising. The police are out. I want the -troops ready. Will you call your husband?” - -There was a blank of silence, while it beat into her brain that -somebody was required to ride to Maitso and take the alarm. She thought -of a dull figure lying heavily on the floor, breathing stentoriously.... - -“Captain Lewin was very late in coming home. He is sleeping heavily. I -am afraid it will take some time to rouse him,” she heard her own voice -saying, in sentences as concise as his. “Would it not be better to send -one of the men? I can call them in a moment.” - -She turned towards the door, but his outstretched hand guided her back -without his having moved a step. - -“I’ll rouse him!” he said grimly. “Which is his room?” - -There was a touch of resentment in him, which he himself did not -know was there, that this heavy sleeper owned the woman before him. -A man should sleep lightly with her near by, nor ever lose his happy -consciousness of her even in sleep. There was something gross in the -suggestion of her husband’s heavy slumber. - -“Where is Captain Lewin?” he said curtly. - -Again she saw in her brain the quiet, orderly room, the degraded -figure, the drunken lethargy that no imperious summons would break. -Here was Ally’s chance, and he had tossed it away for a momentary -self-indulgence. She felt in her bitter impotence that his whole life -might be squandered after such a fashion, for where was her confidence -now? - -And the Administrator was waiting. - -“He is very tired,” she repeated dully, looking up at Gregory’s -sinister height with eyes which had grown piteous. It seemed to her -as if the foundations of the man were made of granite, and she were -hurling herself against them vainly. - -Something in her face seemed to strike him, however, for he bent a -little nearer to her, and looked almost curiously in her face. - -“Is he ill?” he said; and the suppressed tones of his voice were a mere -vibration. - -She paused, with a lightning review of such a lie and its efficacy. - -“Yes,” she said in a low voice, her shamed eyes dropping from his. “I -think--it is--a touch of fever.” Then in a tone which did not realise -its own despair, “I _cannot_ rouse him!” - -He stepped back with a long breath, and turned his face from her for a -minute, as if listening to something afar off. She heard his chest rise -and fall with an extra sense that was not hearing, and realised that he -understood. All the sting and shame that had gone before seemed to be -nothing in comparison to that moment. He knew, and he was a hard man -who gave no second chances. Alaric Lewin was a failure to his judgment; -not because he had got drunk on a hot night, which was nothing, but -because he was useless in an emergency. The cause was little to a -mind like Gregory’s, but the weakness that might fail him again was -unforgivable. He had the reputation of sweeping such men from his path -as useless, without enmity, but without pity. The hopelessness of it -all! - -Suddenly she heard him speaking, and the whispering voice had a new -kindness; he spoke gently, as if to some small frail thing that must -not be hurt. - -“Never mind--don’t try and wake him. I’ll go myself. Don’t worry. Go to -bed and rest. It will be all right.” - -He laid a large hand on her shoulder, as if to impress the words; she -hardly noticed the action, but felt a dull surprise when he as quickly -drew it back. The man was nothing to her, but a sudden glow of comfort -sprang up in her heart at his last sentence. If he said it would be -all right, he meant his own coadjutancy to make it so. She felt the -power of his will, but not of his manhood, and her face was broken into -softness as she turned it to him in farewell, and opened the door for -his hasty departure. - -“Good-night,” he repeated. “Don’t worry; go to bed yourself, and be -quite easy. I am so sorry to have roused you.” There was a touch of -mastery in his voice, as if he had taken possession of the situation to -heal her physical and mental weariness. She rested on it unconsciously, -with the woman’s craving for the strong man who shall not fail her. And -Ally, alas, had failed! - -As Gregory swung back along the stoep he looked down, consciously -this time, at the sleeping Arabs, and there was interest and a secret -sympathy in his heart. For the touch of the Eternal Feminine was on -him, and he remembered that to love a woman was a goodly thing. His -footsteps died away into the darkness of the garden, to the gate -where he had tied his pony, and then after a pause came the sound of -galloping hoofs as he rode off on his own errand. Mrs. Lewin heard -it as she stood at the open shutters of her own window, for she had -mechanically gone back to her room, and leaned there conscious of -nothing but a horrible reaction from the tensity of the past few -minutes. With a primeval instinct she turned from the shelter which -civilisation has raised over men’s heads to the healing of the outside -world, for she had a restless craving to get away from the confinement -of the house and the ugly thing of which she knew in the next room. - -The night was quick with fireflies, and the air was soft and warm to -touch. Some winged thing sailed lazily by and made her start by the -whirr of its heavy body close to her hair--a giant moth it seemed, -with a barrel-like body and wings like a dragon-fly’s. Down below on -the stoep the Arabs lay asleep.... She pressed her hands over her -wakeful eyes and tried not to sob, schooling herself because she was -a woman--not a child who cries away the bitterness over a broken toy. -This was more serious than a toy, and yet it seemed just like an old -unreasonable nursery grief, that fretted for a thing it had endowed -with spurious life. - -She must begin and love all over again. There was no stronger nature -above her to look up to and lean on in fancy, even though she guided by -her brighter wits and keener vitality. She had cheated herself happily -in thinking that Ally was really the moving spirit in their married -life, and that he had a reserve of strength upon which she could lean -in an emergency. He was nothing but a weak man, who must be shielded -before the world, and watched and helped with tenderest care, but never -more looked up to at quite the same height. No one should know or guess -that he had so fallen; she would not even have to make excuses for him, -she would manage so cleverly, for that was her new phase of wifehood. -Even as the thought crossed her mind she turned her head nervously and -listened, fancying that the servants were awake and coming to ask who -her late visitor had been. If she could only keep it from them till -the morning, things would look more natural. Captain Lewin had slept -in the dressing-room not to awaken her--he had thrown the mattress on -the floor and lay there in hope of greater coolness. There was more -draught on the floor--at least she could make it appear so. She went -over the details in feverish haste, shielding and managing already with -a woman’s tragic skill. But that it should have to be so! - -Back on her mind flashed the damning certainty that the one man who -should have been ignorant had found out. She had felt his knowledge -through the horrible pause after her stammering excuse, through his -courteous sparing of her, and quick substitution of himself as a -messenger, through the kindly fall of his hand on her shoulder. - -“Don’t worry; go to bed yourself, and be quite easy. I will make it all -right. I am so sorry to have roused you.” - -She had his promise then to make it all right. Yes, he could gloss it -over too,--he would take the onus of the situation on himself, and -thrust his own known energy and personal supervision in the face of -comment. At least her success with him had brought her that--enough -interest in herself to make him spare her husband, for she acknowledged -boldly to herself that it was her own handling of this man during the -past few weeks which had saved the situation to-night. Yesterday she -might have daintily skirted the truth, but it seemed a small thing -beside the bitter failure of her most intimate life. Gregory would -spare Ally for his wife’s sake, but--the Administrator having to ride -to Maitso in place of his own A.D.C.! She almost laughed aloud with a -sudden hysterical sense of humour. - -“Oh, I shall go mad--mad!” she said desperately, as the keenness of -the humiliation stung her afresh. “It is all spoilt--all that I planned -and worked to do. There is nothing but the Man left to me.” - -But with the word the bitterness passed as swiftly as it had come. The -Man was left her, to guard and cherish if no longer to love, honour, -and obey, for the positions were reversed. Her eyes filled with lovely -tears, and all that was best and most maternal flooded the soreness -from her heart. She could begin and love all over again--love as one -loves a child, without looking for adequate return, less selfishly -than a wife her husband; she could be strong for him, and putting her -own craving for protection on one side, thrust her strength between -his weakness and what life had to offer. Her very first trial would -begin to-morrow, when she cringed to think of the shame awaiting his -returning consciousness. She must help him through that first, and then -arm him for the result of his folly with the world at large. - -Leoline Lewin turned from the window, and quietly throwing off her -wrapper, lay down on the bed and went as fast to sleep as if nothing -had disturbed her rest. Part of her theory of life had been torn from -her, and the sting of keen experience had wounded her into quicker -life. But she was turning her face bravely to meet it, and stood up -under the new stress of life to prove her womanhood. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - - “Le temps, l’innocence, la confiance, la foi, l’estime--perdez - les--vous ne les recouvrerez plus.”--_French Proverb._ - - -A cého head is the best incentive to temporary canonisation that can -well be experienced, and when, according to the old couplet, “The Devil -was sick,” and “A saint would be,” he had probably been indulging on -the preceding night in Key Island, whose temperature suggests that it -is nearer to his dominion than the rest of the globe. Captain Lewin -woke up on his improvised bed about half-past four next morning, and -wondered if the swelled weight on the pillow were really his head or a -leaden imitation fastened to his shoulders. To sleep in evening dress, -too, in Key Island is hardly a profitable experiment, and what with the -sheet spread over him and the liqueur he had swallowed, Ally’s state -was one of satisfactory discomfort. - -He kicked off the sheet, and arose cursing. Then events began to come -back to him, and as he staggered into an upright position--for he was -very shaky--he looked at the mattress on the floor, and wondered who -had mercifully arranged it for him last night. His memory declined to -serve him beyond an uneasy recollection of a dark corner of the stoep -at the Churtons’ quarters, and Diana’s stirrup cup. How he had got home -he could not tell, but the state of his mouth informed him ruefully -that he had been very drunk indeed. Cého has a singular effect upon the -glands of the throat, if taken in large quantities, so that a regular -drinker gets a strange and unclassified disease after many years’ -tippling, which the doctors call “Drawn threads” for lack of a better -name. - -Alaric Lewin shuddered a little as he stumbled over to the door with -some idea of closing it if it were open, and getting himself washed -and dressed into the morning guise of a gentleman. He had known men -with “Drawn threads,” and wondered how soon the symptoms really -showed themselves. But he need not have feared for his splendid young -constitution, as yet, and a minute later he forgot the creepy thought -in a new wonder. - -The door of his dressing-room was bolted. So was the door into his -wife’s room, the latter on the inner side, for he tried it gently. -Some one had seen him come in last night then, and had done their best -for him, but he had no idea as to whether it were Chum or one of the -servants. He hoped from the bottom of his soul that it was the latter, -for the reaction from last night’s excess was having a chastening -effect. He was bitterly ashamed, and as he caught sight of his own face -in the glass, a dark flush swept over his unwholesome pallor for an -instant. - -“Great Scot! I am a sickly beast,” said Ally fervently, and with a -rush of distaste for himself in his present condition he began to strip -hastily, throwing the clothes aside after his usual careless fashion. -His bath had been placed for him the night before, and he got into it -with a feverish desire for cleanliness and coolness, but it seemed to -him that the water hissed off his skin, and that even after a hard rub -down there was a burning heat upon him. He was sick and sorry too, and -he knew enough of the climate to recognise that this would not do. He -had no compunction in rousing his household, but he devoutly hoped that -Chum might not hear him when he opened his door and called, for it is a -peculiarity of Key Island, that though there is electric light there, -there are no bells; every one shouts, and for this reason the servants -get into a loafing habit of keeping round about the open doors, their -possible summons being an excellent excuse for doing no work meanwhile. - -By the time Mrs. Lewin came down to breakfast her husband was already -in the room, as smart as usual, save for the drawn face above the -spotless white linen. The heat seemed to get up as early as the -residents in Key Island, and by eight o’clock the sun is as strong as -at noon on an English June day. Leoline seemed to feel it oppressive, -for she gasped a little as she came over to the table, and Ally turned -sharply at the slur of her gown over the bare floor. The holland did -not rustle, but she had a way of moving which was as regal as the -action of a racehorse, and it created a certain stir of atmosphere -about her. It struck Alaric at that moment that his wife was chic even -in her nightdress, which is a costume resolving most women back into -the original elements of their natures. - -For a second they stood on either side the dainty table, and the -embarrassment of the unconfessed lay deep between them. Then Alaric -said “Good-morning, Chum,” and moved into his place without raising his -eyes. As a rule they kissed each other as heartily as when they were -school-children. - -Mrs. Lewin sat down opposite him and began to pour out the tea. The -breaking of the ice rested with her, but she took it quite naturally; -her new sense of responsibility seemed to make it an expected thing -that she must always from henceforth take the lead, not as she had -hitherto taken it, with the screen of Ally’s personality around her, -but without disguise. - -She looked at the honeycomb on the table, and observed that Abdallah -had not remembered the butter-knife, an omission to be corrected for -the seventeenth time. Then she pushed the dish of iced mangoes towards -Ally mechanically, and then she caught her breath again, and spoke-- - -“You were very late down from the Churtons’, Ally.” - -“Yes.” He had had a whiskey and soda before breakfast, a -“Hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-him” cure that enabled him to eat; but the -food tasted badly in his mouth at that moment. “Did you hear me come -in?” he said. - -“Yes.” - -“You bolted the door, and got the mattress on to the floor, I suppose?” - -“Yes.” - -There was a long pause, and it seemed as if the words would never come. - -“I am awfully sorry, Chum.” - -“How was it?” she said, half under her breath. The troubled eyes of -husband and wife met across the gay little table, glittering with their -wedding silver and glass, and rich with strange tropical fruit and -flowers. Ally and Chum had always revelled in the Key’land breakfast -and their foreign dishes and luxuries,--somehow the sight of it between -them now made what they had to say seem more tragic by contrast. - -“It was so awfully hot!” Ally said lamely. “On my honour, it’s a -solitary instance. I haven’t been squiffy like that except once or -twice before in my life.” - -An uncomfortable memory of the Churtons’ stoep was making him wretched, -and the flavour of that episode tasted worse in his mouth than stale -cého. He fidgeted with the fruit, while Chum on her side of the table -was absorbed by the worse revelation that she had to make. - -“Did you hear anything in town yesterday about the people being -discontented?” she said, feeling the difficulty like a stone wall -before her. “I asked you through the telephone, but you said no, -then,--perhaps you knew of it later.” - -“No, I heard nothing. Is there anything fresh?” Ally was relieved at -the change of subject. - -“There was the threatening of a rising----” - -“By Jove! was there? Come, that’s exciting. Anything is welcome to -break the monotony of this dead-alive hole! I shouldn’t have made an -ass of myself last night if it hadn’t been for that,” he said ruefully, -drifting back to his own uneasy sense of shortcoming. - -“I don’t know whether anything happened. The Administrator thought----” - -“Where did you see Gregory?” he asked, startled. “I got off early -because he was going round to Port Albert until Friday. His yacht was -waiting at the quay; I saw it as I rode through town.” - -“Then he must have heard something that made him change his mind, for -he did not go. He came here last night, or rather in the early morning -between one and two.” - -“Chum!” - -He laid down his knife and fork and looked at her across the table, his -face whitening. But it was the pity in her eyes, rather than a real -understanding of what had happened, that frightened him. - -“Did he want me?” - -“Yes.” - -“He asked for me? What did you say?” - -“I said you were ill--overtired--that I could not rouse you.” - -“And he took that, and went?” - -A sense of marvel possessed his wife at the easy relief of his tone. -He thought his difficulty so easily overcome that it seemed to her -childish. Could he really think that a nature like Evelyn Gregory’s -would be so set aside, brushed off by a light excuse. - -“Yes, he went--but----” She hesitated, and then it seemed that plain -speaking was best. “He guessed what was wrong, Ally. He kept urging me -to rouse you, and of course I could not. Then he said he would rouse -you himself, and I had to stop him. He was very good--he spoke quite -kindly, and told me not to worry--he would go to Maitso himself. But--I -do not think he will forget, though things may seem as usual between -you.” - -Down the length of the table, between the tall silver vases of -stephanotis and honeysuckle, she saw his handsome, despondent face, the -dark head leaning on his hand, the passing gravity which made him seem -noble clouding out his usual laughter. Gravity and a touch of pensive -regret suited Alaric as even his debonair self-assurance did not do. He -had never looked handsomer than just then. - -“I am very sorry. I have made a fool of myself.” He spoke humbly, and -yet somehow seemed more of a man than she had thought him since last -night. “You are disappointed, Chum!” - -“It’s not my loss, Ally, it’s yours. And it doesn’t matter being -disappointed if we can go on all right now. I think we can pull -straight again, old fellow.” She was pitifully anxious to help him, -and to get that look off his face that made her heart ache. He must -be encouraged like a child, as well as chidden. She hated to see him -carry his head without the usual insolence of his own good looks. As -she poured out a second cup of tea for him--the “drawn threads” of -his throat burnt like thirst--she rose and carried it round to him -herself, with a kind young hand laid on his shoulder. The little extra -attention, when he knew she might have reproached him, touched Alaric -the more, because he looked on his wife as an undemonstrative woman. -He turned swiftly from the table and laid his head against her breast -with a boyish gesture. In truth, he wanted comforting, for he was face -to face with his own responsible mistake, and fortune had petted and -spoiled him hitherto rather than met him with the grim face she wore -to-day. There was a little silence while Leoline stroked the dark hair, -and held him tenderly against her. But her eyes looked out over his -head with the expression of one who has gazed in the face of Medusa. -She had that new protective feeling for something weaker than herself, -but it was no longer the theoretical Ally she had married and set on a -hymeneal pedestal. - -“Don’t, dear!” she said at last, and her voice was a whisper. “It is -not a hanging matter--we won’t let it be. I will help you--may I?” - -“You’re the best of Chums!” he whispered back with a rather uncertain -smile. “But you shan’t have to pull me up for boozing. I don’t know how -it happened last night--we were all playing Poker, and their quarters -are so hot, and we kept on with whiskey after whiskey. I must have come -down that hill like a madman!” - -She gave a dismayed exclamation. “Did any one hear you?” - -“Half the town I should think, and all our servants. It’s no use not -facing it, you know, and fellows have got drunk before.” - -“We must live it down anyhow, Ally. If only it had not been last night! -And the Churtons know.” She spoke in short, pausing sentences, thinking -it out. “We don’t know the real extent of the mischief until we hear -whether the rising were anything serious.” - -A sudden passing gloom darkened his face again. “Gregory never forgives -that kind of thing. Dear, this means ruin to any career for me!” - -He rose impatiently, and began to stroll up and down the room, as -though he could not sit still. After a minute she followed him, and put -her arms round him, bringing him to a standstill. The warm, motherly -look of love that had been in her eyes last night was there again as -she lifted her head and looked at him. - -“I don’t care, darling, as long as we are side by side, and can help -each other!” she said. “Only let us stand or fall together!” - -The silent, golden day was unbroken by any whisper, but the two kissed -each other gently for promise, and looked into each other’s faces with -a gravity too gentle for passion. While the best side of our nature is -uppermost a vow seems almost superfluous. If reason will not bind us, a -futile fear of our own oath is a poor alternative. Unfortunately, the -best side of our nature so seldom remains in the ascendant, but has a -disheartening tendency to give way before the baser instincts of the -clay. - -Alaric set off for Government House in a state of mind more angelic -than comfortable. He felt as if the backbone had gone out of him with -the wickedness, and his good resolutions were less easy to carry -than his usual self-satisfaction. Nevertheless it was a beautiful -mood, and as genuine as any other while it lasted. He found that the -Administrator had slept out at China Town at the house of the Town -Warden. This was disturbing, and the impenetrable reserve of Mr. -Halton’s manner when they encountered each other for a few moments did -not tend to soothe matters. Ally felt that to await he knew not what, -and try to work, tended towards temporary insanity. At half-past eleven -he ordered his pony, and rode down into Port Victoria. - -There was no sign of disturbance there, but he felt that he could -better have faced the town in ruins, and the coloured population -howling and dancing the “Cannab Hari-kari,” which is a dance of -death, than the solitary figure of Evelyn Gregory which haunted his -imagination. Why had the Administrator slept out at China Town? What -was going on? - -He lounged into the club, the fret of his nerves making the click -of the billiard balls a torture. Two men were listlessly playing in -the ugly bare room, where the sun beat past the stoep and through -the glassless window slits. Ally watched the game for a few minutes, -and then his restlessness drove him across the landing into the -reading-room where no one ever read. Last month’s papers still lay on -the table, and a solitary member was writing at one of the neglected -tables. Ally almost beat a retreat at sight of the square shoulders and -dark head shot over with grey. No other man in Key Island wore and kept -his collars as high and clean as the officer in command of the troops. -With the temperature at 90° in the shade Major Churton was as coolly -immaculate in glossy linen as if he were in Bond Street, and where -lesser men succumbed to turned-down collars and porous shirts, his were -triumphantly starched. - -“Hulloa, Major!” Ally said, with an inward flinching from the encounter. - -“Hulloa, Lewin!” The O.C.T. turned his hard brown face, and there was a -twinkle in his bold eyes. “Got home all right last night, eh?” - -A reaction of relief met the twinkle, in Ally’s facile nature. “By -Jove! I was drunk!” he said, laughing, as he dropped into a chair by -the Major’s side. “My mouth feels like a sponge to-day. Did I gas much? -I owe Mrs. Churton an apology for such an exhibition in her house.” - -“You were a bit on. Nothing to hurt--unless your pony suffered! You -went down that hill like greased lightning. I had no idea the brute had -it in him--Polo knocks their feet about as a rule.” - -“Snapshot took me home--I certainly didn’t take him. By the way, have -you heard anything of any native trouble?” - -“Yes, there was a scare, I believe. Gregory sent up a message that we -must be ready to turn out, in the middle of the night, and rode to -China Town afterwards. Nothing came of it, I presume--at least we have -heard nothing more.” - -“My wife got wind of it. I haven’t seen the Administrator.” Ally’s eyes -were still troubled for all the easy assurance of the Major’s tone. - -“Of course there may be a row brewing at China Town,” he said. “Even -going on. We shan’t hear till it’s over, according to Mr. Gregory’s -usual methods. I think myself it was a false alarm.” - -“There’s a telephone from the barracks to Burton’s house, isn’t there?” -said Ally. “They may have heard something up at Maitso.” - -“All right, I’ll ask Di.” The Major rung up and curtly demanded to be -connected with his house. After the usual trying delay Ally heard him -say, “Oh, that you, Di?” and waited breathlessly. - -“No,” he remarked after a few brief questions and imaginable answers. -“No news,--Di,” his mouth was again at the tube--“Lewin is here. All -the better for last night’s temperance meeting! What?--Oh, Di wants you -to come and lunch.” - -Now was Ally’s good angel to fail him. He thought of the limp feeling -that self-abasement gave him, and of how it would certainly season his -luncheon with Chum’s uncomplaining face opposite. He thought also, with -a sense of injury, that she took his one excess very seriously, and -that Churton himself made light of it. If he went to Maitso Diana would -by no means have a chastening and depressing influence. Hang it! he had -eaten humble pie enough for one morning, and been wretched into the -bargain. No doubt he should have another bad quarter of an hour with -Gregory; he would not be miserable from choice. - -“All right--please say I shall be very pleased, if she is so charitable -as to forgive last night.” - -“Oh, she will look on that with indulgence I have no doubt!” said -Churton with some cynicism. “We are none of us total abstainers that -we can accuse each other. Have a whiskey on the strength of that -confession, Lewin!” - -When Alaric rode up through the logwood screen, and pulled rein before -the O.C.T.’s quarters, Mrs. Churton came forth to meet him with a -friendly handshake, and no reference to the advance of last night. She -was a skilful woman. The Major had come up before, so Diana had already -heard of the supposed alarm, and guessed a good deal of Ally’s part -in it. She drew the rest of the story from him, new-coloured with the -self-defence that had been growing on him all day, and was loud in her -scorn of Gregory’s eccentricities. - -“He would like to turn the troops out now and then on a false scent, -to prove their smartness,” she declared. “The men will mutiny next, -if he sends any more such orders to Maitso, and then he will revel in -a new row. He’s like that--Bute was stationed with him once before. -There’s literally nothing in it but his usual fuss, and love of -worrying a situation to rags. Gregory’s a Prairie dog, and Halton’s a -cat--you can’t trust what either of them says or does.” - -“It was unfortunate that he took a fit of it last night,” Ally -admitted, but he felt comforted, and Mrs. Churton’s mental touch upon -his nerves was more soothing, for the moment at any rate, than his -wife’s. He lingered on and on through the afternoon, and though he -shunned actual stimulant he took many mental whiskies and sodas to keep -himself up. By the time he rode home again to dinner his repentance of -the morning had changed into a state of injury that the Administrator -should raise false alarms, and upset a peaceful community. No more -was known of Mr. Gregory’s movements, save that he had returned to -Government House, and still Port Victoria was quiet. It was obviously -a false alarm and a fad of the man in power, and with a peculiar -transposition of mind Captain Lewin no longer felt that he was the -injurer in failing his chief at a crucial moment, but rather the -injured party in that Mr. Gregory had chosen the one evening when he -was--er--not up to the mark, to make demands upon him. The elasticity -of his conscience was only equal to his capacity for avoiding -unpleasant truth. - -Poor Chum! she was writing her new creed on sand, and when she saw her -teaching briefly reflected on the surface of his mind, she thought that -it was permanent, and did not realise her own disaster. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - “Il n’y a que le premier pas qui coute.”--_French Proverb._ - - -The Commissioner, in company with Mrs. Arthur White and the Colonial -Treasurer, was booked for England in the next steamer that called -at Key Island. The mail came in once a month, but occasionally -an alteration of route would bring lesser boats to the great -coaling-station as well as the cruisers, and Mr. Halton plainly said -that he would go in a tin kettle of a tramp rather than wait longer -than was necessary. His work being finished, the Commissioner found no -reason for lingering. There was indeed a sting in Mr. Halton’s secret -consciousness that made Key Island the more distasteful. His rides -and walks and dilettante attendances on Mrs. Lewin were no more, for -he was superseded by a stronger personality and writhed to face the -failure of his life in a new form. Something of the feline nature that -Diana Churton had bluffly discerned was uppermost in him also, and -he waited for a mental pounce since he was no longer purring under a -soft hand. A small man is infinitely more dangerous to irritate than -his brother of a larger nature, because he deals with details, and the -trivialities that go to make up tragedies are his province. Halton was -waiting, though not consciously, to avenge himself for the fact that he -had allowed the Administrator to displace him with Mrs. Lewin, and act -cavalier in an uncouth method of his own; and there was no weak spot -in their armour that could have escaped him. But Chum, having nothing -to conceal, was not a remunerative study, and the Commissioner fretted -in vain until the rains came down and blotted out Port Victoria for a -space during which he lost even the contemplation of his annoyance, for -when the Heavens open the social life is paralysed. - -September brought back the sunshine, and the Gilderoys gave a picnic. -Being the herald of renewed amusement, it had an air of festivity -that most like entertainments lacked in their deadly monotony. Every -one went, from Maitso out to Mitsinjovy, and Mrs. Lewin put on her -last new muslin gown and looked at herself in the glass with mingled -satisfaction and regret. She had ridden and danced and picnicked -through the remainder of her big trunks in the last six months, for -muslin is perishable and silk goes rotten in those latitudes; and Key -Island knew the very pattern of her laces save this last white wonder -with its unutterable frills and the grace of fancy sleeves. Leoline -was a woman whose figure gave one the idea of one lovely line swept -off harmoniously from throat to heel. She might wear muslins made -on anybody’s pattern, but they became her own muslins by immediate -association, and followed the fall of her lissome body as though they -loved her. - -“Just come and choose my hat, Ally,” she called through the -dressing-room door, and Alaric’s broad shoulders and smooth head -followed her summons dutifully. There was no outward difference -between husband and wife; the same easy relations existed between them -that made Mrs. Lewin’s nickname of “Chum” typical, the same surface -confidence that caused Ally to staunchly assert to Mrs. Churton that -his married life was entirely satisfactory, and he himself a beast. The -qualification marked the advance of their intimacy. But in her heart -Mrs. Lewin knew that she was altering; some new strong development was -taking place in the very fibres of her nature, and the transformation -was a painful process to herself at any rate. It was even a different -face that she saw in the glass as Ally looked over her shoulder and -condemned her choice. - -“Not that chiffon thing, Chum, surely. Aren’t you going to wear a -habit?” - -“It’s too hot. Besides, I wish to leave a good impression on Mr. -Halton’s mind, and this is his last festivity. He leaves next week, and -takes the memory of my muslin with him. Isn’t it pretty?” - -“Damfino! as the _Pink’un_ used to say--or was it the _Referee_? It’s -new too, isn’t it?” - -“My last. Why don’t you like that hat? Will my Panama do?” - -“That’s better. Who will ride with you, Chum? Halton?” - -“Major Churton, I think. With a possible reversion to Brissy.” - -“Why not Gregory’s Powder? Think of my interests!” - -“He is not coming with us, but will turn up at our destination. He -has business that will keep him down at the office until later,” said -Mrs. Lewin without hesitation over the Administrator’s plans, for she -knew them, and knew also deeper reasons for them, which she did not -tell Ally--reasons that fed the activity of her mind, and to which she -listened with the faithfulness of a tried friend. For when Gregory laid -the heavy weight of his confidence gradually upon her, he bound her -with a chain whose iron links she hardly felt more than silken as yet. - -Ally accepted her information as more infallible than an official -telegram. “The O.C.T. has his innings first then,” he added. “Hurry, -Chum! I told them to saddle up.” - -Mrs. Lewin thrust a last fierce hatpin into her Panama, and put up her -hand to settle the hairpins at her neck. It was four o’clock, and they -were due at the rendezvous at half-past, for this was a late picnic -which began in the afternoon and ran on into nightfall. Such excursions -can be planned for two periods of the day--early morning, or when the -sun is losing its power, but between those hours lies the Miroro, when -no white man may work or play. A morning picnic sets out before seven, -breakfasts up on the hills, and buries itself in the heart of the woods -during the day’s heat, emerging again at four for the return to dinner -and iced drinks; but it means a long strain on the endurance of the -guests’ attraction for each other, and the Gilderoys were wise in their -generation and chose the shorter method. - -At the foot of Maitso the Lewins fell in with Halton on his way from -Government House, and Brissy Nugent hot from a canter from Mitsinjovy, -where he had been lunching. The four ponies turned sturdily to the -ascent, and Mrs. Lewin looked at the streaked flanks of Ally’s mount, -and thanked Heaven for the blanket under her saddle, for Liscarton’s -wet sides did not agree with her frills. There had been, to her secret -amusement, a brief struggle between Halton and Nugent as to who should -ride beside her, and the soldier’s more brazen tactics had won the -coveted place. Brissy was not thin-skinned, and that Halton shrugged -his shoulders mentally, and classified him as still an unlicked cub, -did not trouble him so much as it would have done to be proved the -weaker man. - -Mrs. Lewin laughed silently, and as usual found reason for enjoyment in -her immediate present. Afterwards it seemed as if every detail of that -day were cruelly impressed on her memory, and she never could forget -one. Even the garrison jokes that Brissy told her in doubtful taste, -and at which she had learned the futility of frowning, remained in -her mind long after things she would fain have kept had drifted from -her. She could remember the very smell from the vegetation which had -overgrown the road during the recent rain, and turning in her saddle to -look down and see the satin blue bay and the roofs of the crazy little -town, whose zinc shone like a glare of silver in the sunshine. Beyond -Mitsinjovy the Left Gate stood out like a vast sentinel, shutting out -the sea and the horizon, but from Maitso Hill they could only see the -cone of the Right Gate rising over their own position. Below them in -the harbour the great walls of coal looked nothing but toy-mounds and -black lines, and the mass of shipping was but a detail in the picture. - -Often as she had seen that view Mrs. Lewin was vaguely conscious -of seeing it afresh that day, and the row of ravenalas outside the -Churtons’ quarters, too, struck her as they never had before, while -there seemed a new suggestion that she could not grasp in the two -mounted figures themselves, waiting motionless in the logwood shade. -Diana was at her best in the saddle, but the Major, who could have -ridden down any man present, looked too large for a Key Island pony. -Even at the moment Leoline Lewin wondered that she noticed these -things, and seemed possessed of a novel alertness, a keener sense of -observation than ever before, as though her mental life had quickened. -She always thought of the Gilderoys’ picnic as the last occasion on -which she wore muslin appropriately. She liked to be in sympathy with -her gowns, and she never again felt the adequate frivolity for the -dainty frills she laid aside that night. Life seemed to have gone too -deep for muslins from that time forth--a foolish fancy, but one that -made the successful little frock something of a relic. - -“How are you, Chum? The Gilderoys are waiting at the top of the hill,” -Diana called out strongly. “Half the Station is up there already. Wait -a minute--here comes the Denver girl and Gurney.” - -Mrs. Lewin looked at Major Churton, and sat still. - -“An invitation with R. S. V. P. in the corner,” said the Major -succinctly to himself, and went straight to his goal in characteristic -fashion. “Do I ride with you, Mrs. Lewin?” - -“I will trust you to go first!” said Chum gaily. “There will be no -riding with any one if I know the path we are taking. The ponies slide -down on their tails the other side of Maitso, for I am sure we are -going over the Pass and towards Rano.” - -“The Gilderoys are fools if they do,” he said, as they fell into the -procession side by side. “Do you know what Rano means, by the way?” - -“I am not quite ignorant, Major! It means water in Malagasy, and is -given to that range of hills because of the many springs there--have I -learned my geography lesson rightly? How lovely the Rano Falls are, by -the way! We rode out there just before the rains.” - -“Yes, and they will be rather more than lovely just now! Does the name -suggest nothing to your mind?” - -“You think the floods will be up?” Mrs. Lewin asked startled. - -“I think the Rano District will probably be impassable just now, but -we will see.” His keen eyes fell on the couple in front of them, who -were Mr. Gurney and Miss Denver, and he laughed. “That young lady is a -puzzle to the garrison,” he said. “The women cannot decide if she is a -bad lot or only a little fool.” - -“It is her people’s fault. They let her ride about with the boys -stationed here up to twelve at night, and she spends half her time at -Mitsinjovy with Mrs. Clayton. What can you expect? Of course people -talk. But I think she is quite capable of taking care of herself.” - -“I don’t know. This affair with Gurney outshines her former little -peccadilloes. She has the worried air of a girl who has been kissed!” - -“You ought to be ashamed of yourself for knowing such things!” retorted -Chum quickly. “Perhaps they are engaged. I know nothing of Mr. Gurney -beyond his voice. He may be all right.” - -“Or she may be all wrong! I would solve the mystery in three -minutes--if I were a bachelor. As things are I do not feel inclined to -help to satisfy public curiosity.” - -“I don’t like you nearly so well when you talk scandal,” said Mrs. -Lewin frankly. “And you so very seldom do it that it jars the more. -The girl is not able to defend herself either. Don’t let us attack her -without cause.” - -There had been ample cause, in so far as a foundation for gossip -went, and she knew it in her own mind, even while she defended a -fellow-woman. It flashed across her, with a sense of absolute wonder, -that she could not imagine such a position as Miss Denver’s--a girl -accepted in the social world of the place, asked to people’s houses, -and spoken of by men as Major Churton had spoken! Leoline Lewin could -not quite realise the tone of mind in Beatrix Denver, if she could -allow herself to be handled, not by one man only, but by many, if -report spoke truly. She herself had never been kissed by any man until -her engagement, and felt that she would have a certain shyness in the -admission after other women’s avowed experience. It seemed rather -immature, somehow. And yet the mere thought of familiarity, even in -her present assured position, appeared an impossibility to her sense -of self-valuation. Of course she could not soil her own self-respect -by such a thing, though she kept her charity for those who were less -particular. Last week, for instance, Di Churton had told her that the -very Mrs. Clayton, who was Miss Denver’s chief ally at the Mitsinjovy -Garrison, had got the new boy from Natal in tow. He was rather a nice -youth named Rennie, as Mrs. Lewin knew him, with little harm as yet in -his twenty-one years; but his education had begun in earnest. - -“He runs after Mrs. Clayton everywhere,” Diana declared. “She takes him -home after the dances, and he unlaces her gowns for her. Brissy Nugent -told me so.” - -“What a pity he didn’t stay with the first battalion in Natal,” -was all Mrs. Lewin had said. But in her own mind she drew a line -of demarcation between herself and Mrs. Clayton as unconsciously -pharisaical as though they were of different castes. She was thinking -of this now, as she rode over to Maitso, in the wake of Mr. Gurney -and Miss Denver, and her mood was tolerant because she was too -clear-brained to take a narrower position. These people did not really -matter in hers and Ally’s lives; their vulgarity need not affect her, -though she lived in touch with them for a period. By-and-by they would -drop out of her existence, and she would pass on to something cleaner, -unsmutched. - -On the crest of the hill they joined the rest of the party, which had -become gradually augmented, so that between twenty and thirty ponies -turned off to the right in single file, and followed a precipitous path -into the hills. A rough cart, borrowed from the garrison, and drawn by -six stamping, vicious mules, had gone on ahead with the provisions, by -a longer but less dangerous route. As Mrs. Lewin had predicted, the -ponies had to slide when they could not walk, and the descent into the -next valley was like a winding stair. To the right the steep precipice -fell sheer down to a flat green bottom overgrown with logwood and -guava--what the Planters called “dirty land,” because it had not been -“cleaned” for sugar-cane or banana. The path was so slight a track that -Major Churton, riding in front of Chum, had often to push a way for -her through the eager vegetation. Above the cleft hills and the valley -smiled the blue sky, washed clean by the rains, and from all sides rose -the breath of the still moist earth. - -“This is like riding in a vapour bath,” said Mrs. Lewin, gasping a -little, as the cavalcade emerged from the trees for a moment and met -the freer air of the hillside. “Major Churton, you were right--the -streams are in flood!” - -Her exclamation was echoed by a cry of dismay from the vanguard of the -party, for the curve of the hill had revealed the impassable volume -of water to them. A regular cascade, which in dry weather was nothing -but a shallow stream, was tearing down the hill at a lower level, and -cutting off the valley land from their advance. The string of ponies -stopped, and there ensued an argument which was, of course, shouted -up and down the hill as to a change of route. Here and there a pony -fretted on the bit, and brought his hind legs dangerously near the -edge of the track; once a woman shrieked--it was Miss Denver’s voice, -pitched to an hysterical tone that made Mrs. Lewin’s pulses leap with -sudden dread for her--and an occasional “Woa, boy!” “Steady, mare!” -showed that somebody’s mount resented the delay. It struck Mrs. Lewin -how strange the string of ponies must look from below, dotted along -the hillside, and she laughed--she remembered that, too, afterwards as -something uncanny. There are days on which we seem to have been too -prodigal of laughter, and to have squandered it for little reason. - -“Well, we must ride on and get somewhere,” said Mrs. Gilderoy’s -exasperated voice at last. “There’s a way round; we must take that, and -follow the cart.” - -“But I told Mr. Gregory the short cut!” protested her husband blankly. -“He will be sure to come this way. Will he think of the other road?” - -“He must, unless he is an arrant fool,” said Mrs. Gilderoy, with -refreshing candour, and no respect for the representative of the -British Government. “No one can cross that stream without getting wet -to the waist. We must ride on. You don’t want to wait until he turns -up, I suppose?” - -Some echo of the altercation passed down the line of riders and -troubled the air around Mrs. Lewin. She said nothing, but a new -silence seemed to have fallen upon her as Liscarton at last pricked -his ears and followed his leader with obvious satisfaction. There was -no fear that any one who knew the country as Gregory did would attempt -impossible feats; the probability was that he might grasp the situation -much sooner than they had done, and, not knowing what they had decided, -turn round and go home. Mrs. Lewin’s mind felt a sudden blank; she -was looking forward to meeting him to-day, after an absence of nearly -a week, to catch some hint of his plans that would not yet be public -property. It was still a matter of some scornful marvel to Leoline -Lewin that every one round her openly lamented their lot in being -bound to Key Island, for she did not realise that her own vitality was -being kept up by a vivid interest. She was living much more actively -in a mental fashion than she had ever done in her life before, and -the island itself, that she thought the object round which her forces -gathered, was in reality only a background. But as yet she felt no hint -of danger. - -The party camped out at last on the bank of the very stream which had -hindered their progress, and which had given them an extra half-hour’s -ride. The cart was awaiting them, and the men tethered the ponies and -helped outspan, while the women laid the cloth. There was no kettle to -boil, or tea to make, as in a cooler climate; but the ice had stood -the journey well, and the soda-water and mangoes came on as cold as if -served at Government House. Mrs. Lewin seated herself on a fallen tree -with Major Churton’s handkerchief spread over it as a safeguard for her -frills, and fell to swizzling tinned butter with milk in the interests -of the company. At her feet Brissy, in an attitude as condensed as a -monkey’s, was slicing salad with dangerous activity. The group was -gathered on open ground beyond the absolute tangle of wood which -clothed the hillside, and which was still reeking from the rains. - -“Pass the spiders, please!” said Chum absently, her eyes on the back -of Captain Nugent’s flat head, where the black hair curled crisply. He -looked up with a laugh in the young eyes that had seen too much of this -marvellous universe, and his white teeth flashed under his moustache. - -“You’re dreaming, Mrs. Lewin!” - -For once Chum’s control of her blood failed her, and she flushed a -little, conscious that he told the truth. Her thoughts were with -Gregory and his probable prudence in turning back. - -“It was appropriate, anyhow!” she retorted, shaking a huge specimen off -her skirts. “That’s not a tarantula, is it?” - -“No; common or garden bug, I think. Let’s put it on Miss Denver’s -shoulder and hear her scream!” - -“No, Captain Nugent! Stop!” A sharp memory of the hysterical quality of -Miss Denver’s cry on the hillside made Chum the more imperious. Even -in her own mind she did not form the fear that a very little would -upset the girl’s balance to make men suspicious of she knew not what; -all she felt was that Miss Denver was not in a state of nerves for the -endurance of spiders. There might be nothing in it, but she remembered -with faint disgust Major Churton’s broad comment, “She has the worried -look of a girl who has been kissed.” Mrs. Lewin dropped the subject, -and the spider together, with distaste. Her mental attitude grew a -little contemptuous. - -The next instant she had risen silently to her feet with a nearer and -more bitter interest. Some one had said, “Have a cého, Ally?”--and she -threaded her way through the chattering crowd round the table-cloth to -the three men standing apart by the tethered ponies, without haste, and -with a complete appearance of her errand being her own need. - -“Ally, do get me some soda-water!” said her voice behind her husband, -as he vacillated on the brink of consent. “I can’t wait for our meal to -be ready, I’m so thirsty. And don’t put anything but ice into it; it’s -too hot.” - -Her candid eyes met his without a shadow of reproach; yet he coloured -ever so slightly, and shook his head at the man who had suggested cého. -As he halved the soda-water between them, Chum felt the old humiliation -sweep back over her with fresh force. Who was she to think herself -and Ally above these neighbours of theirs? With this ugly possibility -always dodging her steps, she was a woman who dared not leave her -husband to judge for himself, but was forced to risk an interference -that might be rightly interpreted at any moment! She stood there in -dispirited silence, beautiful in her summer gown, but with earnest -eyes that seemed out of place above the dainty muslin; and for one mad -moment she could have cursed the weakness of the man beside her which -had spoiled her ideal. - -And it was just as she turned from him to save suspicion of her errand, -that a sound of welcome arose from the group round the table-cloth. - -“When did you turn up?”--“How wet you are? You must have swum the -stream!”--“There’s a compliment for you, Mrs. Gilderoy--nothing -would keep him away!”--“Well, you always were a man who surmounted -difficulties!” - -It was Gregory, and his high riding boots were dripping with water; but -he laughed at the idea of cold. The pony took the stream at a point he -knew of, he said; there was no danger--only a ducking, to which he was -used. He had been riding all through the rains, and forded worse floods. - -He was standing as Mrs. Lewin came back to the group, and remained -so until she had sat down; then he took a seat near her, but rather -behind her back, so that they could hardly be called companions. It -would have been difficult to talk to her indeed, and she directed her -conversation rather to Halton, who was facing her at a little distance. -His brown eyes were very constantly on her face, and she parried -their sentimentality with vague distrust. His departure was lending a -new meaning to their old intimacy, and she had no room for it in her -present life. Her fear for Ally, and her desire to hear if Gregory -had any news, kept her mind at sufficient stretch. She enjoyed the -mental activity in some strange fashion, in spite of the thread of pain -running through it; but her increasing appetite for power was not fed -by the sentimental half-tones of her relations with Halton. - -As the conversation grew more general she was conscious of listening -for a whisper behind her. Miss Denver’s laugh was loud above the rest. -Some one challenged Hamilton Gurney to sing, and he affectedly refused -for the sake of being pressed, but the voice he wanted did not join in -the appeal. Mrs. Lewin was not conscious that they were urging him to -anything in fact, for through the babel the Administrator had leaned -forward and asked her for more bread and butter. She passed it back to -him, and as he took it his voice breathed a whisper in her ear-- - -“I have heard from Capetown.” - -She dared not turn her head, but her nerves seemed strung as if by a -strong stimulant. He folded the bread and butter deliberately, while -she still held the plate, and his voice went on rapidly-- - -“They have given me _carte blanche_ to do as I please.” - -Mr. Gurney had given up the hope of any persuasion coming from Mrs. -Lewin, and as he really wanted to sing, he screwed up the melancholy -banjo which he had sent on in the cart, and twanged an accompaniment. -The first notes fell on deaf ears as far as Leoline was concerned, for -her mind buzzed with possibilities. She had never dreamed that the -Capetown Government would put such power into a man’s hands which the -Home Authorities had carefully tied. But she forgot how small a dot -Key Island appeared to the larger State, already worried with its own -affairs. _Carte blanche_ meant that Gregory might get to the root of -the hashish trouble by burning the crops, or any other drastic measure, -and this would be followed by probable consequences for which she knew -some of his plans. He was nearer to the grip of his tiny kingdom, at -which he aimed, than he had been two months ago. Mrs. Lewin drew her -breath as if something had almost taken it away. She was excited and -roused, and her blood was on fire.... - -Then Gurney’s voice stole in on her attention, loosening the restraint -of her will-power still more in its subtle sweetness. Between the rush -of two unusual emotions she felt bewildered, and clutched blindly after -her usual self-control. Her eyes threatened to fill with ridiculous -tears, and half-a-dozen men and women would see and misinterpret them. -She flung herself a little into the shadow of a tree, leaning back with -her hand on the ground behind her to support herself. It enabled her to -turn her face so that she hoped it was partly masked. - - “All ye who seek for pleasure, - Here find it without measure-- - No one to say - A body nay, - And naught but love and leisure!” - -Something hotter than tears seemed to flash across Leoline Lewin’s -eyeball; the universe stood still, soundless and sightless, then rushed -on with clangor, and drowned every sound save the little trivial song -which still tinkled so loudly in her stunned soul, ... for Evelyn -Gregory had leaned back also, and laid his hand heavily over hers as it -rested on the ground, out of sight of every one in the group. During -the shock of the first five seconds she thought that he had done so -unconsciously, and that the movement had been as natural as her own. -She dared not move for fear of making him conscious, and waited for -him to remove the heavy pressure that she might slide her own away, -and never refer to it.... The seconds went on and on, each that passed -accentuating a new beautiful terror and conviction in her mind. He -did not move. Human flesh cannot press human flesh and be unconscious -for so long. Her blood leapt to the revelation that they were man and -woman, and felt, too, the humiliation of knowing that they were not -sexless as friends. - - “All ye whose hearts are aching - For somebody forsaking, - We’ll hold you dear - And heal you here, - And send you home love-making!” - -Gregory removed his hand and sat up, as self-controlled as though he -had never moved. An echo down the valley faintly took up the last pure -notes and repeated them afar off-- - - “Love-making!” - -Chum drew her knees up and clasped her hands round them as though she -would gather her forces together; but as she did so her eyes fell on -the back of her hand, where a faint red flush marred the white skin. -It told tales of the rough pressure she had endured to her maddened -mind, and she dropped it again to the ground--but this time out of -reach--beside her. She glanced round the ring of faces and found no -answering consciousness there. They were all trying the echo--shouting -nonsense up the valley on the quiet evening air. She looked at Halton, -and saw that he was looking down, apparently the most abstracted person -present. But with a pang of fear she wondered if she would have read -knowledge in the eyes veiled by his drooped lids. She was frightened, -not only for herself, but for that other behind her, her woman’s -intuition recognising the danger that lay under Halton’s quiet, and -with characteristic courage she walked straight up to her danger to -look it in the face. - -“Are you going to ride home with me, Mr. Halton?” she contrived to say, -as the ponies were saddled up for the return. - -“If you have made no other arrangement?” he said tentatively. There was -nothing to take hold of in the words, because Major Churton had ridden -with her before, and might claim the privilege again. But she caught a -covert insinuation and scored up an unpaid grudge against him. - -“I am not using you to escape an unwelcome cavalier!” she said, as if -accepting his own idea. - -“What an unpleasant suggestion! I shall be wondering all the way which -man is thirsting for my blood.” - -“It would be a better compliment if you took it for granted that they -were all envious. You are out of practice, Mr. Halton.” - -“I have had none of late.” - -“Never mind; use the present opportunity on my gown!” - -“It is charming, of course!” he said, as he arranged the blanket over -Liscarton’s streaked shoulders, and pulled the girth tight. “And no -other lady would have dared to risk it on a hot pony, would they?” - -“I told my husband that I wished to leave a good impression on your -mind!” - -“Really? But why struggle for the inevitable? I am all the more -flattered though, of course. It is not every day that a lady makes -herself smart for my especial benefit.” - -“Oh, please don’t!” said Chum, as she lifted herself easily into the -saddle. “Smart is now a word sacred to the middle classes, to whom it -means inferior silks and strings of imitation beads!” - -“So bad as that?” - -“Yes, really. And the same degree of cheapness is expressed in the word -‘clever’--its mental equivalent. Perhaps on the whole it is best summed -up in the draper’s ideal of one and elevenpence halfpenny!” - -“I am so glad you did not say three farthings!” - -“We never have such things now,” sighed Mrs. Lewin. “There _is_ a -farthing, of course--but they are rapidly becoming relics. You get a -packet of very bad pins, or a pencil that you particularly don’t want, -for the odd number.” - -His laugh sounded like the earlier terms of their acquaintance, and -she congratulated herself on her stroke of policy in reannexing him -for this occasion. Never once had her eyes met Gregory’s since that -revelation during Gurney’s song, and she had not spoken to him. As -they rode back through the falling dusk she fenced with Halton as of -old, retreating and advancing like the figure of a mental quadrille, -and was surprised to find it tedious. Had the stronger personality -that was even now shadowing her made the other man seem slight, or was -Halton only attractive to a certain point, after which he could only -repeat himself? It seemed to her that realities had superseded the -dilettantism of their brain flirtations, and made them a tiresome waste -of time. - -As they rode through Port Victoria, and turned off on the Government -House road, she missed Ally and learned that he had ridden home with -his chief, and would come on to the bungalow afterwards, doubtless. - -“I saw them turn up the avenue; they were in front of us,” Halton said -quietly. “Did you not see them?” - -She thought he looked at her. - -“I don’t always see my husband!” said Mrs. Lewin adroitly. “Life would -be so fatiguing if one could not sometimes close one’s eyes, wouldn’t -it?” - -“Or substitute another object?” said Halton, as they drew rein. “The -mail comes in to-morrow, and I expect to leave in her the day after, -Mrs. Lewin. But I hope this is not good-bye?” - -“I am coming to see you off, of course! I will bring you one of Ally’s -pocket handkerchiefs.” - -“To wave, or to weep in?” - -“Whichever you prefer. Personally, I want to murder people who weep -over me; but if you like it, I will imitate the late rains.” - -“I would not cost you a tear!” he said, with a sudden note of feeling -in his voice that vaguely surprised her. “If your future were in _my_ -hands, there would be very little fear for it.” - -He rode away into the darkness without any further farewell, while -Mrs. Lewin pondered his words with a fresh misgiving. When Ally came in -half-an-hour later, he told her--as he usually did when it was so--that -Halton had been speaking of her. - -“I hope he was admiring me!” said Chum brightly. “But he could hardly -do less--to you.” - -“He said you were very clever!” said Ally doubtfully. Who likes his -wife to be called clever? - -“One and elevenpence halfpenny!” murmured Chum absently. “I did hope I -was worth two shillings, anyway.” - -“And sma----” - -“Ally, if you say smart _too_, I shall have Mr. Halton up for libel!” -said Mrs. Lewin indignantly. - -Ally laughed. “Gregory’s Powder didn’t say anything,” he remarked. “I -don’t think you’ve made much impression there, in spite of your earnest -efforts, you know, Chum.” - -Mrs. Lewin looked down absently at the back of her hand, almost as if -she expected to see something there; but her real answer came later, as -she kissed her husband and said good-night. - -“Ally,” she said slowly, turning back at the door, “do you mind? It’s -so hot to-night! And you are restless, and have kept me awake lately!” - -Alaric finished his whiskey and soda rather soberly. “Oh!” he said. -“All right. I’ll sleep in the dressing-room----” - -He heard Leoline enter her own room and turn the key in the lock, -and he wondered in his stupid handsome head that she should so insist -on privacy. Then he cheered up, had another whiskey, and supposed -she had a headache. A man may distrust his mistress if she locks him -out, and knows how to translate his own inclination to sleep in the -dressing-room. But the _tertium quid_ of his wife’s case is always a -headache. - - - - -CHAPTER X - - “Ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut.”--_French Proverb._ - - -The restless, tropical night seemed full of wings to Leoline’s ears as -she lay on her back with hands clasped under her fragrant hair, and her -wide eyes looking up into the bridal fall of the mosquito net. In spite -of being alone she had gained no hint of sleep, nor had she expected -it. The heat was intense, even though the bungalow was some way above -the town up on the hillside, and the heaviness of the rains still -seemed to hang in the air. The complaining, vicious note of a mosquito -haunted the safe curtains, through which he could not find an entrance; -and, as if in contempt of him, Leoline had flung off the covering -sheet, and where the soft frills fell back her white body tempted the -angry insect with sweets out of reach. It would have been a pity to -mark that perfect skin; but the mosquito thought of his own desire -above all artistic considerations--just as that much higher creation -called Man might do if, for instance, he wished to feel the pressure of -his own hand on hers. - -Mrs. Lewin was hardly thinking as the long hours wore to morning, -and the flutter of moths’ wings gave way to that of humming-birds, -who had built their nests below the stoep,--she was simply suffering. -It seemed to her that her mind was one blind pain and a bewildering -humiliation. For it was not the thing in itself that horrified her--a -man’s hand laid over hers for some sixty seconds seemed a trivial -thing enough--but what it meant. She who had unconsciously put herself -on a pedestal, found that she had fallen, not by the unimportant act -but by the revelation it had brought of her own emotions. She had not -been cool under Gregory’s touch; if she had she would have brushed -the incident aside as a thing of no consequence, tiresome but to be -disregarded; her blood had answered his, and beat in her veins, and -made her whole body thrill and sicken as no touch had ever done before. -A knowledge that she could no longer deny to herself dismayed her, -showing her this first touch as the prelude to more that she dared -not contemplate. It was the thin end of the wedge, the passing of a -boundary line to a path that might lead her--anywhere. She knew it, -and in the warm, soft darkness she did not lie to herself as she might -have done in the decent day. A married woman is somewhat defenceless -against herself, for she is forced to acknowledge her own emotions, and -has legitimised their classification. While she is unmarried--whether -by law or slighter bonds--she can theorise, but she can always excuse -herself by saying that she does not know the meaning of her sex. Nor -in a certain degree does she. It is, however, her husband’s useful -province to deprive her of such a defence, and to make her horribly -conscious of the meaning of starting pulses and too generous blood. - -Ally had once told Chum, with a chuckle, that she took to married -life as a duck takes to water. And, in truth, she did not quarrel -with nature any more than any other healthy, clear-minded wife whose -womanhood is ripe. But there was a nicety about her that was content to -look on passion as a thing incidental to married life, but not to be -dwelt upon, and her bodily relations with Alaric had never seemed to -her of so much importance as those of her mind. There was again a hint -of superiority in this, for she saw other women holding out grosser -inducements to charm than she professed, and made a somewhat fastidious -use of her physical advantages by contrast. - -For once, and quite suddenly, it seemed to her that this attitude -had after all been false. If she wore her frocks with a daintier -grace than other women, did it not suggest that what lay beneath was -daintier too? She thought with disgust of Mrs. Clayton’s bodices being -actually unlaced; but her own bodices had been quite as tempting to the -audacity of men’s thoughts, and she had meant them to be so. It was -only that she promised and did not perform, while other women enjoyed -the fulfilment of their own allurements. No man could say a word of -her as they might of Beatrix Denver; but how many had envied Ally to -the extent of fancying themselves in his place for one wicked blissful -moment? And she had regarded that as legitimate, and a rightful -compliment to them both. - -Oh, but what did it matter, compared to this new fire in her -veins--this mad possibility of painful happiness that was surely -not sane, for she could find no reason to excuse it. Every yearning -instinct of her, brain, body, and soul, seemed drawn out, beyond her -power to will to restrain it, to a man who was not her husband, and who -had not even such attractions as might excuse a physical passion. She -thought of Ally’s handsome face, and easy, comfortable personality, -contrasted with Evelyn Gregory’s harsh features and difficult nature. -There would be nothing comfortable in a life with Gregory, unless -indeed a woman were so at one with him as for their two personalities -to harmonise without a discordant note. He would be overbearing and -exacting, but strong both for himself and her; there came the renewed -leap of heart, as all the woman in her craved for a master. She was -tired of her disillusion, and of being the one to guide and act both at -once. Gregory had appealed to her through the feeling of reliance with -which he had filled her. There had been the snare and the excuse, if an -excuse were possible for a feeling which seemed to her outside the pale -of argument. - -“What does it matter,” she thought wearily, “since I am proved a fraud -on all accounts. I am not what I thought I was--all my theories with -regard to myself seem to have been mere vapours to vanish with the -first ray of sun. But I can fight still--I can--I can.” - -She set her little white teeth, and gripped the pain as though it were -a tangible thing. And then, because she was just a good girl and no -heroine, she threw aside the mosquito net and knelt down beside the bed -to pray to a God whom she believed had sent an ugly tragedy into her -life, not to take it away, but to help her to hide it after the fashion -of women. She was ready to trust Him where she no longer trusted -herself, and having certain sturdy principles born and bred in her, she -had not even the advantage of excusing self-indulgence upon the plea of -possessing the “artistic temperament,” which is a very convenient back -door for immorality to the modern woman. It generally means lack of -exercise and hysteria; but Leoline Lewin’s digestion being a good one, -she had no claim to such an immunity from inconvenient virtue. - -Towards morning she fell asleep, but not into the same sound oblivion -as on the night when Ally lay in a drunken slumber next door. She -could control her waking thoughts, but her dreams were cruel, and were -haunted by such forbidden joy as made her glad when the broad sun -struck through the venetian shutters and brought the sick, hot day. - -The mail came in that morning, and all Port Victoria went down to -the harbour to meet it. The town was cut off from all save chance -communication with the outer world for a whole month, and so the -arrival of news was a greater event than in a larger colony. The wharf -was a rendezvous, therefore, on mail days, and the U.C.L. officers of -the incoming boat could have laid themselves up with cého in the first -half-hour, if they had accepted all the hospitality offered them, and -drunk the liqueur fast enough. Leoline rode down to town early, and -sat patiently on Liscarton’s back among the coal-dust and the smell of -fessikh, or salted fish, which is as the smell of unutterable decay, -and believed by many to be nothing but dried nigger, and high game at -that. The little colony gathered gradually about her, and for the first -time the sameness of the faces struck her with a kind of horror. She -had met them over and over again, and they had not so oppressed her; -now she realised that there were only some forty white people in the -immediate neighbourhood to know, and that she must go on meeting them -for all the remainder of the time that Ally was stationed there, until -the social life seemed like a circle. There were one or two newer faces -out at China Town, or Port Albert, perhaps,--a Planter or so scattered -beyond the Pass or up on the Tableland; but even these belonged to the -same community. She looked at the blue bay, the forest of masts, the -one big ship at the quay, the line of ravenalas along the shore with -their lifted fans like spread fingers, the warm wooded hills that shut -it all in,--and Halton’s words returned to her with meaning for the -first time.-- - -“We are in a rat-trap!” - -A sort of terror seized her, a feeling that she must get away from -the dangerous monotony of it all. She could face and wrestle with the -situation threatening her at the moment, while her senses were still -alert with the shock of her awakening; but how would it be as the -months rolled on, and time inevitably lessened her sense of danger -and dulled her watchfulness! She began to realise that Ally had not -been all to blame for his weakness, and that Miss Denver had no other -distraction for her idle days; they might both be of feebler natures -than her own, but at least there were extenuating circumstances. She -could think that with broader possibilities they might have made a -better fight for it. - -“We are in a rat-trap!” - -She looked round her slowly, at the familiar figures in the flaccid -sunlight, and wished that she did not know every face turned to her. -The very smile that came inevitably as their eyes met seemed a weary -proof of having them before her yesterday, and to-day, and to-morrow. -There was Mrs. Gilderoy, in an old riding skirt that smacked forlornly -of Bond Street long ago, and a limp white shirt; there was her husband, -equally inevitable, in a grey flannel suit, with a Madras helmet hiding -his face down to the ragged tawny moustache. As if by common consent -they made straight for Leoline, who was seized with a wild impulse to -pull Liscarton round and ride out of the sameness of the scene. She -even thought she knew the very words they said before they uttered them. - -“How are you, my dear?” Mrs. Gilderoy spoke first. “Anything left of -you from yesterday? I shall take a month to recover. I always wonder, -after we have exerted ourselves like that to bore our friends, why we -did it. So does Wray; he thinks he lost several pounds from that ride -down to the valley.” - -“I felt it dripping away,” said Captain Gilderoy in his pleasant voice. -“I have lost something like three stone since I came to this abominable -hole.” - -“It was a terribly hot night,” said Chum, striving for her usual manner -by instinct. “I think the heat increases.” - -“It does not vary much in the tropics,” said Mrs. Gilderoy, shrugging -her shoulders. “I have not been dry for eighteen months, but I am -growing used to it. Oh, how I envy the Commissioner! Think of going -Home, and the East winds, and sitting on deck to wait for the first -shiver!” - -“A jacket would be quite an excitement, wouldn’t it? And I believe it -would be a new experience to catch cold. Do you notice that no one -catches cold here? We go down with influenza, and chills, and fever, -and horrid things like that, but sneezing is a lost art!” - -“You have been out nine months, haven’t you, Chum, and you are -beginning to feel it? You did not take that view on your arrival, did -you? At first sight the Station strikes you as a merry little place, -where we all wear white clothes and pretend that we like each other.” - -“And by-and-by we realise the coal-dust,” said Mrs. Lewin, with veiled -bitterness. “You are quite right--one easily gets to feel soiled in -Port Victoria!” - -“I think when the rains come the wet heat oozes into one’s bones -somehow. You will have to go up to Victoria if you feel limp.” - -“We ought to make up a party,” said Captain Gilderoy. “Mrs. Clayton -would join with pleasure, I am sure, and Miss Denver. They had great -games there last year--some of the men from ‘By-Jovey’ got leave and -went too. Have you had your mail yet? We can sit here in comfort while -Wray goes and gets them for us, if you like.” - -“Thanks. Don’t bring my husband’s, though, please, Captain Gilderoy. He -likes to fetch his mail himself.” - -The post-office was close to the wharf, behind a block of store-houses, -where the big firms received their imports and placed them for -unpacking. Captain Gilderoy disappeared behind a wall of coal, and Mrs. -Gilderoy and Mrs. Lewin sat still on their ponies in the shade, now -chatting to some acquaintance who had joined them, now watching the -cargo being dumped down into the grit and dirt of the quay. - -“We can go on board as soon as that mess is cleared off!” said Mrs. -Gilderoy, with a nod towards the bales that would feed her during the -next month. “But it is so uncomfortable while they are all running -about and falling over each other round the hatches. Mrs. Ritchie Stern -is on board. Her husband’s boat is coming in to-day to coal, she says, -and she followed him in the mail. They will be here for some days. -Captain Nugent is bursting with excitement, and planning a ball for -every night that they spend here!” - -“Heaven help them!” said Chum, laughing. “What is Captain Stern’s boat?” - -“The _Greville_, I think.” She dropped her voice a note lower, and -leaned over her saddle. “Have you heard that there is trouble on the -East Coast, up at Port Cecil?” - -“No!” Something in the tone startled Chum, though the words meant -nothing to her. “Port Cecil!” she repeated vaguely. “Is that----” - -“No, not in Key Island at all--on the African coast, in British East -Africa, and dangerously near the German frontier. I believe it never -has been rightly settled as to whether Port Cecil is British or German -territory. I wish they had handed it over with Mafia. It would be so -much more sensible! There is nothing officially stated, but a rumour of -trouble has leaked out. The Capetown authorities have cabled through to -our man to send some one up at once. You see, it is so much nearer than -it would be for them, and it’s a very delicate kind of mission. Wray -calls it handling a meerkat with boxing-gloves on! We can’t offend the -natives, and we won’t offend Germany for some reason just now. It’s to -be all tact and no soldiers this time.” - -“Then Mr. Halton is the right man to go.” - -“Undoubtedly; and as Gregory has his own little threatened rows to -amuse him, I suppose they think at Capetown that it’s safe to let him -use his own discretion as to who he sends. Otherwise I should be afraid -of his going himself and setting the country in a blaze, if I were the -man above him.” - -“I don’t think he would do that while the natives here seem still so -unsettled. But what a disappointment for Mr. Halton! He told me he was -longing to get home.” - -“Oh, my dear, it’s awful! The town is not only the Naboth’s vineyard -of our coast and Germany’s, but it is unhealthy. They say the white -soldiers can hardly live there. Do you know that Wray thinks they will -send up the 28th from Natal?” - -“Ally’s regiment! But I thought there was to be no fighting?” - -“No; but they must have soldiers in case of accidents, and they want to -treat Port Cecil as separate from the rest of the Protectorate. It was -not included in the treaty of 1895, or some such bungle, and so there -is always being a row about it. Wray tried to explain it to me, but I -never _can_ understand. Anyhow, it is a diplomatic mission, and enough -to turn Mr. Halton’s hair grey, unless he knows something about the -place. Has he ever been in that part?” - -“I don’t think so; but Mr. Gregory spoke one day of a friend of his--a -man he seems to think very able--who has been consul, or something of -that sort, there for years. I wonder that the Government did not leave -him to settle matters.” - -“My dear Chum, don’t you know that our Government never does use the -man on the spot who has gained experience and really could manage? The -instant there is trouble they send some one who has never heard of the -place, and is bound to blunder at first, and they ‘commission him to -inquire,’ etc. We are mad on commissions. It’s a national disease. I -think sometimes that it’s a farce we play to gain them.” - -“Here comes Captain Gilderoy,” said Mrs. Lewin absently. She was -wondering if this new billet would keep Halton longer in Key Island, -for she felt that the sooner he went the safer she should be. Yet he -was emphatically the only man at hand whom Gregory had to send to -Port Cecil, for Arthur White was no diplomatist, and Major Churton’s -position so strictly military as to make his presence a menace. Captain -Gilderoy handed her two letters--one from her home, far off in the -hunting county of Leicestershire, and one in the handwriting of an old -school friend, who had since married a man high in authority, and had -a dangerous desire to dabble in state-craft. She knew of appointments -and the pulling of strings before the _Gazette_ had ratified them, -and her wisdom was a thing that even her husband sometimes feared. It -chanced that Leoline Lewin opened this letter before her father’s, read -the first few sentences, which were merely a heading, and suddenly -became immersed, to the exclusion even of the smell of fessikh and the -ever-recurring faces around her. - -“But my real news,” wrote Chum’s school-mate, “refers to you, or, -I hope, will do so if you have only gained the good-will of your -Administrator. Cyril Ernest has come into the Rignold title, and that -means resigning his commission and going into Parliament--he was always -a politician rather than a soldier. He was A.D.C. to old Sir Geoffrey -Vaughan, who is a great crony of mine. I met the old fellow at Victoria -House the other night, and buttonholed him in a corner. Don’t tell me -I am not a good friend, Chum, for I thought of you at once, and tried -to impress Ally’s virtues on him. He hummed and hawed a little, but -he remembered Ally; he said there were two nice boys to whom he gave -the preference--your husband and Brissy Nugent, who, I think, was at -Sandhurst with him. I am afraid I belittled Brissy in your interest. -It is so unfortunate that they are stationed at the same place, for I -could gain no absolute promise from Sir Geoffrey. All he would say was -that he would leave it to Evelyn Gregory to give the casting vote, and -he has written to him unofficially. Weaker men are fond of leaving the -decision with Gregory. Now, my dear girl, it all depends on you. You -_must_ manage your man in office so that he shall recommend Ally, and -not Captain Nugent. It is a settled thing that Sir Geoffrey will go to -Malta, unless he has something even better--a home command, it might -be. Don’t believe any one who talks about the African generals; I know -better. Even my husband is not in my confidence about the appointment -yet, but you may take my word for it, and I am telling you because it -gives you a start over Mrs. Nugent--I never did like that woman--and -you are on the spot, too, and she is not. I have only just time to -catch the mail,” etc. - -Mrs. Lewin turned the pages breathlessly, and the lines danced before -her eyes. Here were two appointments confidentially placed in the -hands of the man Government hardly professed to trust; but she was -not thinking of the unofficial way in which the Empire was really -worked, or the incalculable value of the force which is politely -termed “Influence.” Her personal stake in the matter drove even the -question of the trouble in East Africa out of her head, though before -her friend’s letter she was keenly interested in it as in some sort -concerning Gregory. She saw only that here was the escape for which she -had prayed, and the old French saying, that “What a woman wishes, God -wishes,” recurred to her mind like a blessing. Malta or England--the -words spelt rescue, however one read them. Her eyes followed every line -of the great quiescent liner hungrily, while, in her fevered fancy, she -saw it carrying her out of danger--her and Ally together--beyond the -rat-trap where the rats were already beginning to menace each other -because they could not get out. - -Surely Ally’s appointment must be a foregone conclusion! She had -already done what her friend counselled, in her forethought for -the future, and had gained the ear of the Administrator. In their -increasing confidence she had spoken frankly though delicately of her -husband, and had acknowledged that she was ambitious for him, and -wished him to rise. And Gregory had sympathised, even though he might -not believe in Ally’s capabilities. Surely he would help her! - -She did not trouble over Brissy much as a rival, for Evelyn Gregory -thought no more of him than of his A.D.C. Brissy was not the -stumbling-block in the way of success--it was unfortunately Ally -himself who was his own enemy. But forewarned is forearmed, and she -must this time force him to a strategic management of his chief for -both their sakes. Her very muscles felt tense and braced for the -effort, as she sat in the shade of the coal walls, mechanically nodding -and smiling at the people round her. As soon as might be she would get -out of all this, and ride home and wait for Ally. They must talk it -over, and arrange the campaign the instant they could do so without -arousing suspicion. She wondered if her own precious news had “leaked -out” as well as the African appointment; but it was unlikely. The woman -who had told her prided herself on knowing such secrets long before -they were even private property. - -On the further side of the wharf Brissy Nugent himself was reading -stale news from an old paper with the avidity of a starved dog, while -he also waited to go on board the mail boat; but the Naval and Military -intelligence told him nothing of his own possible fortune, and in -fact he never dreamed of gaining any advantage from the paper beyond -a passing amusement. He was sitting on a pile of logwood waiting for -shipment in a sailing vessel, with a Madras helmet spread like an -umbrella over his head and shoulders, side by side with Clayton of the -A.S.C. - -“I see that Bobs was talking to the Sandhurst Cadets the other day,” -said Clayton, turning his own paper, posted from England a month -since, “and he said it was all nonsense to suppose that no man can get -on in the Army without influence. My firm conviction is that without -influence in the Army one might as well make up one’s mind to achieve -nothing but the ordinary promotion which comes with time.” - -“Oh, the system which should be adopted is to do away with rewards -altogether,” said Nugent simply. “Either a man does his duty, or he -does not. If he does, well and good. If he doesn’t, then he ought -to be kicked out.” His soulless eyes went out over the paper he was -holding in search of his acquaintance, and he saluted Miss Denver, who -was passing on her pony, with a flash of white teeth under his black -moustache. He was more interested in her at the moment than in what he -was saying, albeit it was his honest conviction. - -“That’s a beautifully simple creed, Brissy, and I have no doubt that -if it were adopted there would be fewer of the absolutely useless men -who encumber the Service. They do nothing either one way or the other; -they usually have money, are in no way dependent on their profession, -and care nothing for it, except in so far as it affords them amusement. -There’s a case not five miles from here!” he added significantly. - -“You mean old Ally Sloper. Yes, I don’t suppose he’ll ever do much. -But, then, he don’t need to.” - -“Exactly!” said Clayton with frank bitterness. “And because he hasn’t -got it in him to push himself, a beneficent Providence has given him -friends in office, and a wife with brains and ambition. That woman -means him to get on, Brissy, and she could make something even of you -or me.” - -“I saw her here a moment ago,” said Brissy, to whom abstract references -always suggested actual things. “She was on Liscarton, by the coal heap -over there. She seems to have gone now!” - -Mrs. Lewin’s place was indeed empty, but he did not know in what -relation that affected him. For Chum had gone home, and when Captain -Lewin appeared among the chattering crowd on the wharf, he learned from -the Gilderoys that she had left a message for him to the effect that -heat and coal-dust threatened to transform her to a nigger, but he -would find her cleaned and awaiting him at luncheon time. Ally, jocund -and social, moved among his friends, as pleased to be off work as a -school-boy out of school. - -“Chum’s off colour a bit, I think,” he said confidentially to Diana -Churton. “She couldn’t sleep last night for the heat.” - -“We’ll get out to Vohitra--it’s about time,” said Di good-naturedly. -“I’m thinking of making up a party. You can’t get back to lunch at the -bungalow, Ally; it’s too late. Come on board the mail, and see Mrs. -Ritchie Stern. The _Greville_ has just passed the Gates.” - -Ally vacillated, and looked at his watch. “Chum expected me to lunch at -home!” he said. - -“Send Brissy in your place!” said Di, with a short laugh. “No, tell -Bute; he’s got to ride up to Government House, and he’ll take a -message.” - -“I’ll tell you what,” said Ally, and his face cleared to its own gay -good-humour, “I’ll telephone; I can ring up from the post-office. Wait -for me, Di, and we’ll go on board together.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI - - “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope - of a fool than of him!”--_Jewish Proverb._ - - -I think it is the Chinese who have a proverb that says: “To expect one -who does not come, to eat and not to be satisfied, and to work for -years and get no promotion, are three things which are enough to kill -a man.” Mrs. Lewin had been proving the wearing process of the first -clause for a good half-hour, before the telephone bell rang, and her -husband’s voice informed her that he was detained, and--er--awfully -sorry, but would not be in to lunch. “I’ll come up later--have you got -a headache, Chum?” said the strong tones, muffled to half their weight -like a ventriloquist’s. - -The “er” was a fatal hesitation, and struck Mrs. Lewin’s keenness -of perception. Ally had not been detained by duty as he wished her -to imagine--he was lunching on board the mail boat, catching at the -nearest pleasure as usual, to his own detriment and hers. For a minute -a wave of very human irritation prompted her to let him go his own way. -Why should she for ever stand between him and retribution? She was -tired, and inclination prompted her to let the struggle go, and take -consequences as easily and without regret as he did. Then with another -change of mood she saw that Ally’s lack of purpose was no excuse for -her own. The very things she saw and condemned in him were a spur to -her to be on her own guard. The danger was hers as well as his--the -object to be gained her own safety too. She could let no chance go by, -and the feeblest of human excuses always is, “I am no worse than my -neighbours.” It all passed over her conscious mind while she stood with -the little apparatus still in her hands. - -“No, I’ve no headache--I’m all right,” she said quietly. “But come up -after lunch, Ally--I want to see you. It’s important--but don’t say -anything to any one. Tell them I am seedy if you like, and that you -must get back.” - -She wondered as she heard his half-uneasy “Yes, of course I’ll come the -minute I can,” if there were any one standing near him. One could hear -too much in a public place, if one were only near the instrument. Well, -it could not be helped, and after all they might think it was a private -matter--something contained in her own home mail. But in Key Island -every one’s business is of importance to discuss for lack of one’s own, -and even her own guarded sentences would have grown to a state secret -before nightfall, had they been overhead. - -Ally was so relieved to be easily excused that he really did as he -had promised, and rode up before three o’clock, feeling a virtuous -husband and deserving of much welcome and something to drink, for he -was really very hot. He brought many invitations to consider themselves -engaged for the next two days, beginning with a dance that night at the -Wessex Mess, and including a breakfast party and two luncheons, for the -mail boat and the _Greville_ were both busy in friendly rivalry. The -projected gaiety was driven out of his head, however, by his wife’s -private news, and he was so really engrossed with the possibility of -their removal, that Chum forgave him his defection from lunch, and came -over and sat on the arm of his chair, while he read her friend’s letter. - -“Great Scot, what luck!” he said with boyish excitement. “Chum, we must -manage it, if you have to go on your knees to Gregory’s Powder, and I -to lick old Sir Geoffrey’s boots! Malta or a home station--thank Heaven -the old boy always liked me!” - -“Did he like Brissy as well?” said Leoline anxiously, and without any -enmity towards Brissy, feeling glad of his shortcomings. “Ally, he -_can’t_ have thought Brissy as nice as you!” - -“Poor old Bristles! No, I do think I showed up rather well against -him, you know, Chum. Anyhow it seems to rest with Gregory. What a good -stroke that was of yours to play up to him, old girl! You always said -he was a good man to have behind you--I think you’re the smartest Chum -a fellow ever married! No, you don’t like that word, do you--I mean -you’re the quickest, and the most farseeing----” - -He broke off to laugh and put his arm round her as she leaned over his -shoulder, giving her a boyish hug that seemed to take her breath away, -for she freed herself of him with a protest like a cry. - -“Don’t, Ally!--let me get up--I can’t breathe!--No, it’s nothing. Yes, -of course we must have the appointment--it’s all in your hands now.” - -“Mine! It’s much better in yours----” - -“No!--no!--you must make a good impression, somehow. I am sure the -Administrator likes you for yourself--every one does. It’s only that -you will shirk, that annoys him. Don’t play tennis or polo quite so -much--try and seem to have grasped the situation here--I’ll coach you. -We must get away--oh, we must have that appointment!” - -She spoke breathlessly, but he was excited also, and seemed to catch -more fire from her. His face only fell once as he thought of the -_Greville_ and mail boat festivities. - -“By Jove! and this was to be a week, too! Never mind--I’ll give up most -of it and stick to business. You’re quite right, Chum--I’ll be seized -with a savage desire to get things properly settled up before Halton -goes. I would grub in correspondence and red tape if only it would -ensure my getting out of this beastly island!” - -“Don’t overdo it,” said Mrs. Lewin nervously. “He is so quick to see -through people. Ally, I wonder if he will send Mr. Halton to Port -Cecil? I suppose you’ve heard of that--isn’t it strange that Mr. -Gregory should have the nomination of both men to these appointments!” - -“Oh I don’t care if the whole of East Africa is put into Halton’s -hands, so long as I get the other show. Think of it, Chum--home leave, -food that isn’t tinned, lots going on, and some sport again! _Salama_ -for old Sir Geoffrey!” - -He caught her round the waist, to the amazement of Abdallah, who was -bringing in the tea, and waltzed her round the room, steering through -the scattered chairs and tables and even into the next room with a -dexterity that made her laugh until she could not keep pace with him, -and dropped on to the sofa leaving Ally to finish with a grand _pas -seul_ that landed him with a thud against the butler’s portly person. -Chum sat on the sofa, wiping her eyes rather hysterically, while Ally -and Abdallah sorted themselves; and then they drank their tea with a -special allowance of sugar in it for the honour of the occasion. - -“When we get to Malta,” said Chum seriously, “we will have cream -too, as well as milk--can you get cream in Malta, Ally?--and it shall -be real tea, up from India, not this nasty stuff from Natal.” In -the background of her mind she was always conscious of a sense of -reluctance, a desire that did not accord with her earnest assertions of -delight in leaving Key Island. Some deep root in her very nature seemed -dragging her back whenever she spoke of her departure, and the more she -felt it the more she repeated the idea as if to get used to it. It was -a thing she had to fight, and she faced it desperately in this its very -beginning. - -It haunted her through the dance that night, and the whirl of flying -feet round the long mess-room. It was too hot for dancing, but Mrs. -Lewin did not seem to feel the heat; she was indefatigable, and -waltzed through the programme, looking as cool and dry at the end of -the evening as at the beginning which is a great feat for a Maitso -dance. Leoline wondered if this were the last time she should sit out -on the steps of the Mess, or keep time to the Gunners’ band,--and -thrust the thought away. It was an ever-recurring ghost, that “last -time,” and stung most keenly, strange to say, through an introduction -to the guests of the evening, Captain and Mrs. Ritchie Stern. Blanche -Stern had very large and searching eyes of a blue that mocked the -sea--wholesome eyes, that seemed never to have reflected the image of -any man save her husband, and indeed the only thing that Mrs. Gilderoy -could find to say of her was that she posed as being in love with -Ritchie Stern to fatiguing extent. In an assembly of auctioned men and -assorted wives, she was perhaps rather unlikely; but as their eyes met, -Mrs. Lewin put her hand to the diamond pendant at her throat with a -little start, and a choking feeling that Mrs. Stern was divining her -secret mind. They had been introduced in a pause between the dances, -and were leaning over the wooden railing of the stoep side by side, -while their respective partners fought for ices on their behalf. No -African stoep should have a railing of course, but Key Island has -improved upon its model in its own opinion, and has gone further and -twined the woodwork with stephanotis and gardenia. The strong hothouse -scents were in Mrs. Ritchie’s nostrils as she leaned out into the -night, looking down on the lights of Port Victoria. - -“Captain Stern was here for a fortnight once,” she said idly; “I often -thought we should like it as a station--it is such an idyllic place. -How lovely these flowers are!” - -“It is horrible!” said Mrs. Lewin, with sudden energy. “It is like a -trap--you cannot get out, and there is nothing to do. You would hate -it!” She was unconscious that she repeated every one else’s _Miserere_ -for the first time. - -“I don’t think I should mind, if my husband were here too,” said -Blanche frankly. She turned her eyes on Mrs. Lewin as if she saw -something that interested her in the restless beautiful figure. “The -worst of marrying a Navy man is that one is not sufficiently considered -in his appointments! They _will_ send Ritchie to dubious corners of the -earth, just when the children have arranged to have the measles, and I -can’t be in two places at once.” - -Mrs. Lewin looked across the stoep to the open doorway where Captain -Stern presented a good flat back to her view as he talked to Major -Churton. She looked with unconscious wistfulness at his shaven fair -head and tanned neck, and wondered if under the circumstances she would -have felt her heart torn in two because the seas divided them? And then -she remembered her ghost of reluctance to leave this place that she -said she hated, and Mrs. Stern’s next words were full of horror to her. - -“It is so short-sighted of women to stake their little all on a man who -is not safe to be no farther off than the next room! I know I shall -loathe this harbour when I see the _Greville_ slipping out of it and -over the horizon with a peace-maker for East Africa--you know that that -is what she is here for, of course, or is it still an official and -consequently an open secret?” - -“We have heard something of it. Does Captain Stern expect to be here -long?” - -“He will leave the instant your Administrator produces the man he has -come to fetch. I don’t really know who I dislike the most just now--the -Capetown people, who hurried him away on this business, or the Port -Cecil people, who are making the trouble, or the man he is taking to -the scene of action.” - -“Will he stop there?” - -“I am afraid so, for goodness knows how long! Until the affair is -settled one way or another, I expect. Ritchie hopes he will get a -chance to shell the town, of course--you can imagine my feelings! I -do hope you are sending a nice, timid man from Key’land, who prefers -diplomacy to shells!” - -“I can’t say who it will be, but it is almost certain to be Mr. Halton, -and he is a thorough diplomatist. The whole thing is to be rather -hushed up, isn’t it?” - -“Yes, and as peacefully arranged as possible, I believe. That is my -great comfort!” Mrs. Stern laughed a little whimsically at herself. -“The two things the Government is aiming at are speed and secrecy--not -that there is much secrecy about it amongst us, of course. But they -seem bent on prompt action for once, and I believe they want to get it -all settled quietly before the public at home recognise that anything -_more_ is taking place in Africa! That is why they are forwarding a man -from Key’land instead of from home or direct from the Government out -here. It is like going up the back stairs to avoid comment! Well, it is -about time that Africa dropped into the background, isn’t it? We were -at Beira when Ritchie got his orders, and as the mail was there I came -on first. They seem to have cabled in all directions from Capetown--to -us, and to your Administrator, and to the regiment at Durban.” - -“That is my husband’s regiment,” remarked Chum, as she took the ice -from her triumphant partner at last. “I suppose it was quicker to -transport them by sea than across land.” - -Later on it chanced that she danced with Ritchie Stern, and caught -herself analysing him with feverish intensity as a man loved by, and -in love with, his own wife. Captain Stern was not a comforting study, -because there were no excuses in him for one’s own failings. He was so -simply a gentleman as to make more questionable characters seem shady -by contrast, when without it they had been merely complex. It was -like plunging one’s hand into cold, still water of an infinite depth, -to try and plumb his character, and his habit of speaking from the -bottom of his lungs rather than the top of his throat intensified the -impression. It was a matter of training, but it seemed an outcome of -his personality. He struck Leoline Lewin as very kind, which depressed -her still more--she did not know why--and he stood out in her mind as -the one man she had danced with who had not looked or spoken her a -compliment. - -“I like the Sterns very much, Ally,” she said as they rode home in the -faint coolness of the hour before dawn--a mere promise of coolness, -that was never fulfilled by the day. “But they give me the feeling of -having been to church--do Navy people ever strike you like that?” - -“No,” said Ally, who had other impressions of ward-rooms, “very much -the other way.” - -“Oh, I don’t mean that,” said Chum vaguely. “Only I feel that I have -been listening to a sermon in the open air--and I have grown so unused -to the open air that I am afraid of catching a moral cold. Ally, how -dreadfully confined we grow in garrisons! Mrs. Stern brings the sea -winds to you in her eyes.” - -“You are not growing poetical, are you, Chum?” said Ally suspiciously. -“I thought Stern a very decent chap--can’t imagine him preaching.” - -“He couldn’t!” said Chum, dropping to the old level of his thought, -and abandoning her own. “But I preached myself the sermon on him as -the text, and it was, ‘Woe unto them who can see their own wives, for -they shall not see any one else’s!’ What lovely emeralds Mrs. Stern was -wearing, by the way.” - -“Yes, I wish I could give you some more stones. I’ll try, if we get to -Malta.” - -“I would rather have nice clothes than jewels,” said Chum. “A dowdy -woman with diamonds is worse dressed than a _chic_ one with paste, all -the world over. And we can’t run to both--even at Malta.” - -“Did you like Mrs. Stern?” - -“Yes!” said Chum, her eyes darkening to the shadows on purple velvet. -“And I hope I shall not meet her again.” - -She said the last words savagely, under her breath. They were her echo -to Mrs. Stern’s, that still hurt her, and made her afraid of the eyes -that divined her secret mind. - -“It is so short-sighted of women to stake their little all on a man -who is not safe to be no farther off than the next room!” - -She began to feel that she could hardly wait for Ally’s appointment -to be a certainty; if the Administrator did not inform him of his -good fortune soon, the strain on their nerves would make them both -ill-tempered, and that was a vulgarity not to be contemplated. -Alaric and she had always been as courteous to each other as two -acquaintances; it was one of her theories of married life, and not -yet overthrown by experience. The indefiniteness of his own escape -affected Ally too, so that they were both unusually restless, and it -was a relief next morning when breakfast was over and he could go up to -Government House. - -“Don’t be late for luncheon, Ally!” Chum said, following him on to the -stoep, where he paused to light his cigarette, a white figure against -the green of the garden. “It will be so awful waiting!” - -“Perhaps I shan’t have any news,” said Alaric in gloomy anticipation. - -“He must speak of it to-day!” - -“It would be just like him not to. He will be so immersed in the East -African business, he will forget all about our little affairs.” - -A momentary doubt dawned in Mrs. Lewin’s eyes. She thought of the -Gilderoys’ picnic, and that large heavy hand on her own. Was she indeed -a slight incident in his mind, to be brushed aside by larger interests? -She had never set eyes on Gregory since that moment, and the new sweet -fear of him that had overwhelmed her was in abeyance for the present. -Perhaps Ally was right, and they were only details in this man’s -career, a mere speck on his ambition. She tried for nothing but honest -relief as she turned back to the house. - -“Well come and tell me anyway,” she said over her shoulder. “I _must_ -know!” - -“All right,” he replied, more soberly than usual. “I will come back the -second he will let me--I really will! It’s no joking matter to either -of us.” - -The morning was growing too hot to be out of doors as he walked off -through the rose-bushes, and out of the gate into the grounds of -Government House. Mrs. Lewin stood in the doorway until the white -helmet flitted out of sight among the thickening trees, and then -went in to write letters. The writing-table stood close to one of -the seven windows, and she slid up the shutter and fastened the pin -so that the draught should fan her comfortably, before she began her -correspondence. Outside a wild hot wind was rushing over the hillside, -and the smell of innumerable flowers dripped in on its breath. She -wrote slowly, and the sentences would not come. All her brain seemed to -have followed Ally, and to be waiting with him for the Administrator to -speak. - -At the hour of the Miroro she went into her room and lay down under the -mosquito curtains with a fan in her hand. Usually she fanned herself -to sleep, but to-day sleep would not come any more than the flow of -words. For half-an-hour she lay in the hot, still room, counting the -silver things on the dressing-table, and the photographs on the wall, -and noticing without her will that the black girl who attended to her -room, had not hung her gowns aright. Natives were so tiresome; it would -be almost better to experiment with an Arab. - -Would the time never go? Was Ally never coming? - -She rose before lunch could possibly be ready, and dressed herself. -Then she wandered into the central room that served for drawing-room -and lounge, and from which the others all opened out. She found Ally’s -cigarettes on a table and smoked one, turning over the pages of last -month’s magazines, which had just come in by the mail. The smudgy -illustrations annoyed her, and she flung them by and rose restlessly, -wandering about the hot, sweet rooms, and listening for his step -through the glare outside. - -Still he did not come. It was past the luncheon hour now, and Abdallah -had put the finishing touches to the table and stood by in grave -reproach, his snowy turban already on, and his hands folded over his -tunic. Abdallah was always severely white at luncheon, his costume -consisting merely of a tunic and turban; but by dinner-time he had -added a coloured bandana and an embroidered jacket. His motionless -presence added the last irritation to her overwrought mood, and she -sent him away until Captain Lewin should appear. - -The hours dragged away, until the morning had slipped into afternoon. -Still he did not come. With a feeling that she wanted to shriek -hysterically, Leoline paced steadily up and down the broad floors of -the bungalow, from one shaded room into another, and so back to the -corner where the table was still spread. She could not eat, and she -felt that Ally might come at any moment. Something was keeping him--not -his own pleasure this time; his being transferred from Key Island was -a weighty matter even to him, and she knew he would return to her for -advice and support as soon as he could. He could see his own interest -sufficiently in this to resist a passing temptation, but there was none -to keep him at Government House. The horrible part was that it might -be nothing but trivial duties that detained him after all, and they -might have to go through this suspense again. The heat seemed to get -no less as the day wore towards four o’clock, and her limbs began to -feel lifeless and heavy, as if paralysed. When at last the door opened -and he walked quietly in, she did not rise to meet him or spring up for -a minute. She sat there watching him come straight towards her with a -curious speculative feeling that there was a grave importance in his -manner that seemed a little ridiculous. She criticised him as if he -were somebody not belonging to her. - -“Well!” she said rising at last, in a slow mechanical fashion. She -looked at him all across the room. Yes, certainly he was so grave as to -be unlike himself--not depressed, but self-sufficient, almost pompous. -It was so foreign to any mood in which she had seen Alaric before that -she could only stare at him. - -He sat down heavily in a basket chair that creaked beneath his weight, -and so added to her absurd impression that he was assuming the air of -an elderly and important personage. He did not speak either at once, -and when he did he seemed to be weighing his words, as if he said a -solemn thing. - -“I have got it!” - -“The appointment?” she said with a long breath, trying to shake off -her own leadenness and the effect of his strange manner. “Oh, Ally, -what good news! I have been so frightened--when you did not come, you -know,--I thought we might still have to wait.” - -“He spoke of it almost at once. We have talked of little else. He was -giving me minute instructions.” - -A blank feeling of non-comprehension seemed to take possession of -her. He was still unlike himself, or else Gregory’s earnestness had -impressed him at last. Perhaps the force of the stronger man had been -let loose on the weaker for once, for the sake of urging him to a more -serious sense of his position. She knew that Gregory had been impatient -of his indifference in his present post; perhaps he had told him -plainly that he must be more conscientious with Sir Geoffrey Vaughan. - -“Instructions!” she repeated slowly. “For Malta?” - -“No--not that. I am going to East Africa.” - -She did not cry out, but she fell back a step as if some unknown hand -had struck her a heavy blow. Her eyes were absolutely frightened, and -she spoke in a low voice of intense terror. - -“But Ally--you can’t! You daren’t accept it--you can’t do it!” - -He fired at the last words as if he half expected them. “Why not?” he -said irritably. “Why can’t I do it? I must accept it--you must see -that! I have accepted it already. It is arranged.” - -“You can’t do it!” she repeated bluntly. “It is a heavy responsibility -to give to any man--any experienced man even. Why isn’t Mr. Halton -going?” - -“He can’t be spared; there is an awful row going on already over the -crops.” - -“The hemp!” she said breathlessly, her memory going back to those words -of Gregory’s--“They have given me _carte blanche_ to do as I think -best”--“They are not burning the crops?” - -“Yes they are. The order went out yesterday. There is a compensation of -course, but the Chinese are furious, and that gives them away, for they -must have been making their fortunes out of the hashish. Halton must -stay and see Gregory through it--he has no one to send but me.” - -In a streak of terror through her quickened brain it seemed as if she -saw all the disaster of the choice. She had never finally acknowledged -to herself that Ally depended on her for the least success in his life, -but in the stress of the moment she knew that with her to guide and -counsel and manage he might come through this ordeal--not creditably, -but without failure. Without her it was like sending a child to play -with a train of gunpowder. Some horrible intuition seemed to tell her -his incapacity, and excuse the belief in herself. Ally in a position -that needed absolute diplomacy! Ally managing a delicate enquiry that -might lead to a serious issue! She realised only in her dismay that she -could not go with him to East Africa to save him from failure--the loss -of her own escape from secret peril did not really trouble her mind at -the time. The fear for him drove her to repeating blankly, “You can’t -do it--you mustn’t!” - -“Good God, Chum!” he exclaimed in a sudden squall of irritation, -“you are ridiculous! What do you mean? You are always worrying me -over getting on, and having a career, and now that I have got an -opening, you seem to want me to back out! Don’t you see that I can’t? -Gregory isn’t the man to give me a second chance. He is offering me a -tremendous lift in putting me in such a position.” - -Only one sentence in his angry speech found room for itself in her -mind, for she saw that it was true. He could not back out. Evelyn -Gregory had him fast in his iron grip, and if he chose to send him to -his ruin he was helpless. She laid her hand on the back of a chair and -held it cruelly tight as if to help herself to think. Why had he done -this? Why? She kept asking herself the question again and again, and -found no answer. It was so plausible on the face of it, this threatened -rising over the hemp-crops, and Halton’s presence as an immediate -necessity, that she felt that it was not true. To the outside world the -appointment of an emissary sent to Port Cecil to “enquire” might come -within Alaric’s sphere, particularly under the stress of circumstances -in Key Island, but not to her. She had a giant fear of Gregory born of -her greater knowledge of him that no one in the Island could share. -As she stood there looking with unseeing eyes at Alaric’s handsome, -annoyed face, she saw only the shadowy strength of the man whom she -had learned to know--unscrupulous, tyrannical, successful because he -allowed nothing to stand in his way. Now that she and hers were to be -swept aside after his method, she began to realise for the first time -the atmosphere of terror that had seemed to hang round him in the minds -of those who first spoke of him to her. Hitherto she had been but a -spectator, and he had interested her as a danger of which one only -reads. To find oneself threatened by the same thing in reality makes -the difference. - -“Well!” said Alaric at last, with the half-offended air of a spoilt -child, “I’m sorry you are not better pleased, Chum! I thought you would -be as proud as I felt when he told me. Of course I’m sorry to leave you -behind, old girl, but perhaps we shall get something good out of this -later.” He spoke half apologetically, but the old easy optimism was -coming back to him. Fortune had always given Alaric what he wanted; he -took her gifts for granted. - -“Who will have Malta? Brissy?” said his wife quietly. - -“Yes, he’s off next mail--not by this. Of course he’ll have to be -officially appointed; but Gregory has answered Sir Geoffrey’s letter -privately, as he was asked. I shall have to go to-morrow, or next day -at latest, Chum. I’m sorry!” he added simply, as a tribute to parting -with her. - -But she felt suddenly that he was glad to go--glad even of this chance -of action. He did not mind leaving her behind if only he were free of -the monotony of Key Island, which also held more uncomfortable memories -for him than his wife guessed. Things were getting complicated round -Ally, and what had been a pleasant indulgence and flattering to his -vanity, was growing to be a tie exacted from him by a jealous woman. -He could not have told, if he had honestly tried to do so, how he had -drifted so far with Diana Churton; such men as Alaric Lewin are as -incapable of accounting for the crisis of their lives as they are of -managing them. He trusted to fortune again. Events had generally shaped -themselves comfortably for him; and, as in the present case, when there -was a tight corner the natural march of circumstances had forced him -out of it without any responsibility on his part. - -Circumstances were marching him out now, and he was really glad. -Captain Stern and the _Greville_ would carry him safely away from Key -Island to-morrow, and Diana’s last note which he had found at the club -would go unanswered through no fault of his. He couldn’t go to Maitso -to-night, it was out of the question. For the look of the thing he -must spend what might be his last evening with Chum--and of course he -wanted to, he added mentally to the back of her head, as she bent over -his portmanteau. His Malagasan man was busy over the shirt case, and -he himself ramming the surplus of his property into the kit-bag, but -Chum had become her old self again, and risen to the occasion of his -packing, once the stupefaction of his news had passed off. He was sure -it was only the surprise which had made her unlike herself; she was -getting on more with the portmanteau, in spite of the heat, than either -Longa or himself with their share. - -“Ally,” said Mrs. Lewin quietly, as she tucked a pair of socks into -an empty corner, “will you go over to the Churtons to-night to say -good-bye?” - -“N--no!” He stammered a little, in the discomfort of his own knowledge. -“It’s my last evening most likely, Chum!--at least we may go to-morrow.” - -“Yes, of course. (Mind the gun-case, Longa!) I didn’t mean you to -be out all the time. But I think you might ride over and just say -good-bye--you would be back in an hour. They will be so awfully hurt if -you don’t.” - -“Yes,” said Ally uneasily. A sensible and considerate wife is a very -useful article so long as her husband wishes to make use of these -two qualities; when he does not, he would prefer her to be more -unreasonable. - -Chum’s suggestion was awkward, because he was afraid to refuse to go to -Maitso lest she should be surprised.... Hang it! the whole thing had -become a nuisance. How glad he was he should be out of it to-morrow! -Then a brilliant idea struck him. He would go down to the club and be -detained. He could write Di a note, too, from there, and ask her to -come down and see him off if possible. He did not know when they would -leave, so it was most probable that she would miss him--he did not mind -that either. Anyhow, there would be plenty of fellows at the club to -make an excuse for getting no further. He might see Churton too. He -liked Churton--when he didn’t feel a grovelling cad. - -“All right, perhaps I’d better. I can go after dinner, but I shan’t be -long,” he said. Mrs. Lewin did not answer or look at him. She was very -busy over the portmanteau. - -It was rather a silent dinner, but he noticed with real pain and -affection how soft and fair Leoline looked in her long white -dinner-gown, and wondered when they would have one of their merry -_tête-à-tête_ meals again. He was devoted to his wife--in theory at -any rate. Perhaps Chum could not have pleaded much more, save that -she tried to practise what she preached. If men were not such complex -animals the Day of Judgment would be a simpler ceremony, but as things -are they will have many pleas to enter of former good conduct and -extenuating circumstances. Ally rode away with his heart full of his -wife, because she had entered there through his eyes, and with no -thought of infidelity to her. At the club he sat down and wrote a note, -which was the more emphatic because he did not mean it, and a little -more reckless in expression than usual because he was going away in -safety. - -He could not find his own sais, who should have followed him into town -to look after his pony, and risked sending a loafer whom he knew by -sight, to Maitso. The man grinned and put the letter in his breast -before he hitched up his trousers to show his zeal, the action meaning -that Captain Lewin was to understand he would run all the way. - -Ally laughed good-naturedly. “Mind it’s important. Give it to Mrs. -Churton herself,” he said. “I’ll pay you when you come back without it.” - -“Yes, Baas! I give it dere!” said the nigger, and he started off at a -jog-trot along the twinkling street towards the dusk of Maitso Hill. - -Ally turned back into the club, still laughing. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - - “‘Lachye noogh?’ as Botha said to his slave.”--_Boer Proverb._ - - -“It is a little unfortunate all round,” said the Commissioner. “Or -perhaps inconvenient is the better word.” - -“As far as it affects you, you are better off than if you were going to -Port Cecil. This may not be anything--we may cool down and tide over, -and you will catch this mail. She does not leave until Thursday.” - -The Administrator was sitting at his own writing-table, with his -back to Halton, who had also been at work, as the scattered papers -testified. The room was one of many in Government House that had no -especial use, and had been given up to the work of the enquiry. The -third chair and littered writing-table was at the moment unoccupied, -and belonged to Captain Lewin. Over Halton’s head ranged a portly array -of shelves on which the old papers and accounts of the British African -Island Co., Ltd., were dustily stored, and attracted the mosquitoes, as -well as a water-tank, for though he cannot breed in them the mosquito -loves a book-shelf that is not often disturbed, and creeps along the -volumes’ edges and hides behind their bulk. - -“Hardly!” said the Commissioner, with a slight shrug. “She has nearly -finished discharging her cargo already, and will not take two days to -coal.” He reached up over his head, and took down one of the dusty -volumes a little curiously, as if he had not observed it before. There -were some books of reference among the old ledgers, and this, to judge -from its appearance, was one, rather than an account book. - -“You will get the next boat, then,” said Gregory, off-handedly. His -back being towards his coadjutator as he thus dismissed the subject of -his convenience, he did not see Halton’s eyes as he slowly raised them -from the old book and looked at him. It seemed he had found the passage -he wanted, for he kept his finger on a yellowed leaf while he spoke. - -“I see of course the expediency of remaining here at the moment, as you -have decided on the necessity of such a stringent measure as burning -the hemp-crop.” His voice was formal, and so perfectly controlled -that it contained neither anger nor disapprobation nor argument. The -Administrator’s busy pen stopped. He lifted his head slightly as though -listening, and came within the radius of the shaded electric light. But -the shorn reddish hair betrayed nothing unless it were the fact that -he was growing very grey towards the temples. His overhanging brow and -secretive mouth were not visible to the Commissioner, whose level voice -ran on quietly. - -“Before closing this matter, however, I should like for principle’s -sake to enter a protest, though it is merely a matter of form. I do -not consider Captain Lewin a fit man to send to East Africa on this -business. I believe him to be absolutely incapable of the anxious work -before him, and if he does not make a hash of the whole business it -will be a miracle. The power of course lies in your hands; the decision -is with you. I am not here to advise you in this, but, unofficially, I -should be doing an unfriendly thing if I did not warn you of my opinion -as to his incompetence.” - -For a minute there was silence, while the last words hung in the air -like a menace. They meant more than the private counsel of one man -to another--they might also be translated as warning Gregory that -his ally’s opinion of Lewin’s incapacity would find voice in high -places. It was perhaps a gauge thrown down, and if so it was taken up -very quietly in the next few words, that the Administrator uttered as -naturally as if it were the inevitable reply to Halton’s argument. - -“I am writing to Melton Hanney to do his best to give Captain Lewin -every assistance in his power. He knows Port Cecil well. Had the -Government been advised by me they would have put the matter in his -hands, instead of which they have insisted on my sending some one from -here. There is only my A.D.C. to send.” - -“I see.” Halton’s hand was still on the noted passage. His eyes -followed the slight shrug of Gregory’s mighty shoulders, while he felt -with savage impotence that one might turn a tiger from its prey, sooner -than this man from his purpose. Halton would not have dared to do the -thing that he saw as plainly as its perpetrator; and because he knew -he dared not, he hated the man who could and would with a hate born of -self-knowledge. - -“Melton Hanney is an old friend of yours, is he? You know him as a good -man?” he said. - -“I have known him for about sixteen years,” said Gregory grimly. “And -watched successive Governments pass him over for good work done.” This -was the man of whom Leoline had spoken to Blanche Stern. - -“I have no doubt he is the right person to consult on such a -situation. Knowledge on the spot is beyond value,” said Halton, rising -from his chair, and laying the book still open on his table. “I am -going down to see White, Gregory. As yet I am not a marked man; but if -you take my advice you will not ride alone through Port Victoria at -present. The niggers are fit to dance the _Cannab Dance_ for you!” - -“The curs--I wish they had spirit enough! No, there might be the -makings of a fight at China Town, but our mixed breeds will hardly show -their teeth here. If you are going to see White, Halton, I wish you -would ask him to come up early to-morrow, unless he would prefer to -meet me at the office at eleven. I have business to discuss with him.” - -“I shall recommend his coming here,” said Halton, with a slightly -strained smile. “In spite of your contempt for them I should not be -surprised to find a deputation of these ‘mixed breeds’ waiting on -you--with razors. If I were in your position, I tell you frankly I -should ask the O.C.T. for a picket.” - -“There’s a shambok on the wall there,” said Gregory with quiet -significance. “It would answer the same purpose--and is quite handy.” - -He did not turn his head as Halton’s retreating steps died away -from the room, but he noticed with more interest the sound of a -little silver clock striking eight. He often worked up to ten o’clock -at night, and had come back to write his letters direct from the -dinner-table. The one to Melton Hanney was too long for an official -document, and more private than he had indicated to Halton. He intended -giving it to Alaric Lewin to deliver direct, and had cabled in cypher -to Hanney to inform him of his advent. As he directed and sealed the -envelope it struck him that the room was hot, and he rose and opened -the long window-doors on to the stoep, passing Halton’s table as he did -so. The book lay open where the Commissioner had left it, and with a -passing wonder as to what he had been reading, Gregory’s eyes fell upon -it and discovered that it was an old Bible, probably kept there for -purposes of oath-making. - -The Administrator took the book up deliberately in his strong hands, -and looked to see what had engrossed Alfred Halton so deeply. He -remembered how the flicker of the thin pages carefully turned, behind -him, had worried his ear while he tried to concentrate all his thought -and care upon the letter to Hanney, for it had been a dangerous letter -to write, and every word had been weighed. Even then he had found it -necessary to seal it, and would have to apologise to Lewin when asking -him to deliver it. Halton had been looking for something, or he would -not have turned those pages with such intent. Evelyn Gregory held up -the faded print to the light. - -It was the story of Uriah. - -“And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab, -and sent it by the hand of Uriah. - -“And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of -the battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. - -“And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned -Uriah unto a place whence he knew that valiant men were. - -“And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab; and there fell -some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died -also.” - -Certain passages in his own letter rose in Gregory’s mind as -distinctly and slowly as the note of the little silver clock when -it had chimed out the hour. “I am forced to send a fool, because -Government have cabled ... but I can only rely on you to do your best -to save his mistakes, and get us out of the mess if he hashes it.... -Do you remember Barotse, and the night you said you owed me more than -a life? Well, if you want to pay, back me up now.... Lewin is one of -those favoured animals with Friends. I am always being urged to make -a show for him. Don’t take his place, but follow him up and cover his -tracks. If the fool has anything in him it must show up now. Give him -a free hand--it is the consequences I want you to manage. I know I am -asking a hard thing of you, all the work and no pay; but then I could -trust no one else, if that’s _Salama_ to you.... _Above all, keep Lewin -in the front of things._” - -He put down the Bible with a steady hand, and his iron jaws closed -slowly, hardening his face into its ugliest lines. Yet for a moment he -stood by the table thinking, and facing his own letter unflinchingly, -as he saw it in his mind, side by side with one written dusty centuries -ago by another strong man to his captain. - -“Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the battle----” - -“Above all, keep Lewin in the front of things.” - -He was roused by the door being opened, because no attention had -rewarded the servant’s patient tapping, but he looked at his master -apologetically. - -“A lady wishes to see you, sir!” he breathed rather than spoke, as if -his own extraordinary message confused him. - -“A lady!” Gregory glanced involuntarily at the little silver clock; it -pointed to half-past eight. - -“It is Mrs. Lewin, sir, she said she must see you for a minute.” - -“Ask her to come in here,” said Gregory, turning his back suddenly -upon the man. He looked at the open window half as if he would -have closed it, and at the shaded light half as if he would have -extinguished it, for his face was out of control. Even when he turned -round to meet his visitor, he offered her his hand in silence, and she -was vaguely surprised that he seemed to have suddenly gone bloodless. -The big veins swelled on his temples though, and his eyes looked sunken -and cavernous. She heard the door shut slowly, and fancied that the -servant who had admitted her shared her curiosity and would fain have -lingered. All personal feeling and sense of embarrassment had been -swept from her mind by the events which had overwhelmed her in the last -few hours, and she did not remember that she had not really met the man -standing before her since his hand had rested on hers at the picnic. -She was not an impulsive woman, and yet it had been impulse that had -made her send Ally to Maitso, impulse that had made her wait feverishly -for the moment of his departure, that had hurried her feet along the -familiar garden and through the grounds of Government House the instant -his pony’s hoofs died away down the hill. She was devoured by a desire -to know why Gregory had done her this ill turn, and was sending her -husband to certain failure, for he knew Alaric’s incapacity as well as -she. It was impulse now that drove her forward a step towards him, and -made her voice low and hurried as she spoke straight to him without any -more formal greeting. - -“Why have you done this? Are you mad? What has made you send him to -Port Cecil instead of to Sir Geoffrey?” - -He was looking at her with his long, hard stare, taking in every line -of her white figure in its feminine softness and beauty. Her hair was -waved back from her forehead more than usual, as if she had pushed it -there in her impatient thought, and beneath her delicate drawn brows -her velvet eyes were alight as if with pain. He felt stupid with -passion, and remembered with a curious thrill the occasion on which he -had seen her in her nightdress, her hair thrown back from her forehead -with much the same effect, and the same strained look in her eyes--it -seemed that her husband was always the cause of her looking so. - -She had taken a step forward. He took one also, and they stood close -together, with nothing to hinder their direct gaze into each other’s -faces. His whispering voice was horribly audible, and yet suppressed as -he answered her. - -“Mrs. Lewin, you have asked me to do my best for your husband, and give -him a chance if Government referred to me to recommend him. I am giving -him a chance. What reason have you to complain?” - -She threw out her hands with a little movement of desperation, almost -as if she would have seized his arm and shaken him. “Oh, don’t lie, -now!” she exclaimed. “Tell me the truth--the truth! You know he may -ruin himself if he goes without me. Why did you not send us to this -other appointment that was put in your hands? If you had mentioned his -name, instead of Captain Nugent’s, to Sir Geoffrey Vaughan, we should -have been moved from here together. Why did you not do it?” - -He did not ask her how she had known of his private letter from the -old general. He stood and looked at her still, and moistened his lips -as if he could hardly speak. She saw his tongue touch them like a -wicked snake before the words would come. He bent a little more towards -her, and his lidless eyes probed hers mercilessly. - -“Because I could not part from you!” he said distinctly, and yet he -seemed to speak without a real note in his voice. - -She fell back in exactly the same mechanical way that she had gone -forward, and her eyes blinked before his as if before too strong a -light. Very slowly she lifted her pretty hands and laid them over her -breast as if with an unconscious effort to quiet the throbbing of the -pulses there. He had not moved; but her voice was almost as toneless as -his, when she spoke, from utter terror. - -“Do you realise what you are doing? That it is not only his own career -that Ally may risk, but--but the whole situation in East Africa. If he -bungles it you will be held responsible!” - -He bent his head so slightly that it seemed he hardly moved. - -“Yes, I know it.” - -“And you----?” - -Their eyes still met. She drew a sharp breath as if she stood suddenly -in too strong an air. It seemed to her as if the personality of the man -buffeted her, and she could not stand against it. She was afraid of -any one who could gamble with Government like this, and stake empires -for his own hazard. It was sweeping her off her feet, and leaving her -helpless in a vortex of feeling she was not able to control. Her own -nature she thought she could fight and conquer, but she saw with sudden -panic that the one before her was beyond her yes or no--she might -influence, but she could not dominate it as she had her husband’s. -If he had chosen to take her savagely in his arms, she could have -protested, but she could not have averted the embrace by the power -of her will. Hitherto Leoline Lewin had drawn an invisible line of -demarcation between herself and mankind, and had known that none would -dare to overstep it. But this man would not be conscious of the line. -Nothing but his own restraint could save her from the peril of touch at -least. - -The windows still stood wide open to the windless night. She was -waiting for she knew not what, when Gregory suddenly turned his -head, listened, and faced round from her towards the apertures. The -stars struggled against the electric light to make the stoep a grey -vagueness, and it stretched, empty and silent, beyond the house itself. -For a minute there was nothing but the whirring of the crickets, and -the shrill wearisome cry of a tree frog that pierced the hearing. Then -through all the natural clamour of tropical darkness came the rustle of -human presence, the tread of feet, and the sound of many voices rising -from the gardens. Something white rushed on to the stoep, and at the -same moment Gregory had made a stride for the light and turned it off. -His own figure and Mrs. Lewin’s must have been sharply visible a second -before from the garden outside, as they stood in the strong light of -the room, objects for missiles or bullets; but as he walked forward to -the intruder he alone was in view. - -“What is it, Ahmed?” he said. - -The man was one of his own servants, an Arab, and with more than an -Arab’s craven fear of danger in his quivering body at the present -moment. He stood shaking and sweating, his words broken with fright as -he tried to speak. - -“They have passed the gate! They are coming up here! Quick, -Effendi!--get to the stables and ride for the barracks! The soldiers -will fight for us!” - -Mrs. Lewin, standing in the dusk of the room behind him, saw Gregory -take the man by his linen tunic, swing him over like an inconsiderable -bundle, and roll him along the stoep out of his way. Then he stepped -quickly to the wall and took something in his hand. She caught the long -quiver of a shambok as he spoke to her briefly over his shoulder. - -“There is going to be a noise, I expect, but it won’t be much. It is -only a lot of niggers come up to call me out and protest about the -crops. Can you load a revolver?” - -“Yes!” - -“Well, do so, and shoot as many blacks as you like. The more the -better. There is a revolver in the second drawer of that table, and -cartridges.” - -“Won’t you have it?” - -“No; this will do for me. I should like to flay half-a-dozen, and -teach them how the Kaffirs die under this thing!” The shambok quivered -ominously, and the roused blood in his veins was evidently finding an -outlet in the hope of savage assault. She shuddered a little as his -large gaunt figure vanished through the window on to the stoep. - -The “deputation” that Halton had foretold was a motley crowd, and by -sheer force of numbers rather than belligerence, had pushed the sentry -aside and swarmed up to the house in an unorganised attack. Amongst -the half-drunken niggers who were dancing amicably amongst themselves -instead of forming up with the semblance of an opposing force, the -little blue figures of the Chinese were visible, and all the anger of -the assembly seemed to be concentrated in them. As Gregory stalked on -to the stoep the clamour rose, the half-hysterical ribaldry of the -blacks clearing to threats and words, and the Chinamen jabbering like -monkeys. Through it all the cry of the Malagasy “Ra!” (blood) cut the -tumult like a clear bass note. - -The Administrator leaned over the rail, gripping it with his lean -hands, and looking down at the upturned faces with his hard stare. The -insolence of his attitude seemed to half rouse, half tame the crowd. -They wavered, but the sing-song snarl which Mrs. Lewin had heard in -the hour of the Miroro, went on like an accompaniment to the crickets. -Words were indistinguishable, but some one on the outskirts of the -throng flung a cocoanut which hit the zinc roofing of the stoep, and, -as if it were a signal, half-a-dozen blue figures swarmed over the -railing and made a rush for Gregory. Leoline had moved by instinct -nearer the window, with the loaded revolver in her hand. She remembered -that Halton had said that Gregory loved a row, for she heard him laugh -shortly, as if in enjoyment of his own excitement, while he stepped -back and awaited them. No other missile was flung as she expected it -would be, but she wondered if the crowd were armed with razors as the -rioters had been before. Then she saw a curious sight, for the first -of the Chinamen to approach too near was caught by the swing of the -supple shambok and fell on his back with the breath knocked out of -him, and Gregory advanced on the others, literally sweeping the stoep -clear again by the force of his swinging blows. The hide whickered -viciously as it cut the still air, and once a shriek answered its awful -“Whir-r-r-r-r-h!” telling how the blow had caught its victim. The -absolute and savage contempt with which he whipped them off the stoep, -like curs, gave the woman watching him a revelation of the abhorrence -in which the Englishman really holds the alien, and especially after -many years spent amongst coloured races. She had met with something -of it in her husband, and learned more from Captain Gilderoy’s frank -brutality in speaking of them; but now she saw and realised. Gregory -kicked the last man into the garden and came back to her laughing -horribly. The curious part to her was that they did not resist, and he -did not even wait to see the humming crowd melt away into the darkness -as it was fast doing. - -“If there were any organisation among them they might be worth -killing,” he said, taking the revolver from her. “As it is I would -have made an example of one of those Chinamen--shamboked him so that -he would brew no hashish!--if you had not been there. But it’s not a -pretty sight.” - -“Are they gone?” she asked with stiff lips. The march of events seemed -to have stunned her. She had a sick feeling that she could bear no -more, and that she had lived through crisis after crisis in a few -hours, which would in an ordinary way be spread over as many years. - -“They will be in a few minutes, but if you will excuse me I will just -go and give orders to see that the grounds are quite clear before you -walk back.” - -She was thankful that the sudden incursion of natives seemed to have -deferred any further scene between them. He was alert and full of fire, -but it was not directly for her, though he took elaborate care for her -escort back to the bungalow, and accompanied her as far as the garden -gate himself. - -“Tell your own servants to keep a look out,” he said. “But I expect -Captain Lewin will hear that there was a threatened row and come -up in hot haste to look after you.” He dismissed the Arabs who -had accompanied them, with a nod, and held out his hand to her. -“Good-night!” he said in a gentler tone, that made her nerves shoot -with fearful anticipation. “You were very good and brave. I hope you -were not much frightened.” - -“I do not think I realised it all at the moment--you were so cool over -it.” - -“Because there really was no immediate danger. That was not an -organised attack--it was a foretaste of what might happen. That is why -I am obliged to detain the Commissioner--to confirm my action should -a real riot break out.” He looked at her straight, and she saw that -he feared no real danger, and that this was the assertion he meant -to fling in the face of the world as his excuse for keeping Halton -and sending her husband away--she saw it, but it fell on stunned -senses. No one who had seen him to-night would believe that he could -fear an attack, however organised, or see any necessity to detain the -Commissioner. But she had borne all she could bear at present. She -wished him good-night, and turned towards the lights of her own house, -like one walking in her sleep. - -“Good-night!” he said again, and looked round him, from the dusky -garden to the gate which her hand had closed between them, and along -the dark pathway to Government House. “When there was a threatened riot -before, and I roused you up, I came by the road, for I was riding. But -this is the best path on foot. I have never been this way--before.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - - “He that would have a good revenge, let him leave it to - God.”--_English Proverb._ - - -Captain Lewin’s bearer was what Mr. Halton would have described as an -“average idiot” among niggers, but he was anxious to earn his fee, -and his anxiety increased his intelligence to a disastrous extent. As -soon as he got out of his employer’s range of vision, of course his -shambling trot degenerated into a saunter, and he loafed up Maitso -Hill, calling out salutations to the natives whom he met coming down -from work, for they employed black labour at the garrison. Still he -did not absolutely stop, even to talk to the rickety trains of mule -carts, whose drivers began a high-pitched conversation with him as -soon as they came within sight. No Key Island nigger waits to begin -his gossip until he is close to his friend; most of his conversation -is screamed in patois from one end of a street to another, as his -acquaintance comes round a corner, and the mixture of bastard Arabic, -and African-Dutch, and what he thinks is English, bound together by -long, lovely Malagasy words, is, to say the least of it, peculiar. By -dint of keeping on, however, even at a saunter, the bearer reached the -Churtons’ bungalow in some half-hour’s time after he started from the -club, and came soundlessly through the screen of logwood, his bare feet -lost in the dust, and guided by the lights that twinkled from the stoep. - -Before he reached the house itself he saw one of its inmates -approaching leisurely, and paused himself, because it would have -been waste of energy to take the few extra steps and call up the -mistress, when here was the master of the house already at hand. -Major Churton was smoking, the red end of his cigar looking like a -strayed firefly among the light logwood leaves as he advanced, his -big person very big indeed in its white linen and looming through the -dusk like a substantial ghost. He had come out in the hope of getting -more air than was possible on the stoep, and being in canvas shoes -his advance was almost as soundless as the nigger’s. Both men stared -at each other through the darkness as if to make sure of the other’s -personality,--Major Churton because he did not expect to see a ragged -loafer from the town about his house after dusk, and Captain Lewin’s -bearer because he saw the end of his responsibility before him if this -were really the Bimbashi (Major). - -“Well, what do you want?” said Churton shortly. - -“A letter, Baas!” The man drew it out of the rags that covered his -breast, and shifted from one foot to the other in the dust, with an -apologetic smile on his vacant face. He held the letter to Churton and -nodded insistently. - -“For me?” said the Major as he took it. It was too dark to see the -inscription, but he held the cigar between his large white teeth and -broke the seal, moving into the faint light from the stoep to decipher -it. - -“Yaas, Baas. Captain Lewin sent it--I give it to you yourself!” - -The man had jumbled his orders, and in all good faith believed that -the letter was to go to the owners of the bungalow direct--whether the -Bimbashi or the Missus had it, did not enter his head as of importance, -for he thought the point was that it should not pass through the hands -of the servants. Having delivered his message he did not linger in the -hope of a reward at this end of his journey, for Major Churton’s crisp -manner was not encouraging; he hurried off to catch his employer still -at the club and claim his fee, and with a brief “Efenin’, Baas!” his -noiseless figure shambled into the darkness again, and departed down -the hill. - -But Major Churton did not answer the salutation. He was standing close -against the railing of the stoep, but necessarily below it, as the -bungalow was lifted a foot or so above the ground on account of snakes. -The man’s shoulder reached the top of the rail, and he held the letter -carefully so that the light beyond fell across it. It touched his own -face, too, and showed two deep furrows between his brows, and the grey -in his thick dark hair--such a slight sprinkling from the hand of time -that it hardly showed unless in such a full light. Somewhere in that -lighted house his wife was busy over feminine affairs of her own; she -was not in this front room, however, otherwise by lifting his eyes he -could have seen her. He was vaguely glad of that even in the first -shock of his surprise, for he was always afraid of his own temper. - -Ally had not begun that letter even in an informal manner, or the -“Dear Di” would have prevented Major Churton reading further. It was -unguarded in its phrasing, and incriminating to a degree in which -he had never written before, because he knew he was going away. To -a jealous nature there was no question as to the meaning of its -references; but just because Bute Churton knew his own power of anger -he was terribly just, and kept an iron control over his judgment. He -would not be sure--not quite yet. He would wait and see if the woman -made this ugly suspicion a certainty by any incautious speech on her -part. He thought for a moment of going down to the club now, whence -this had come, and dealing direct with Lewin; but he was not sure--the -letter he was mechanically twisting and crushing in his strong fingers -was no proof of anything but a dangerous intimacy--no literal proof at -least--and there was plenty of time to-morrow. - -He looked down at the letter again, and tried to piece the matter out. -For years Di and he had gone their own ways, and he had made no fuss -over the succession of men who had been her dubious “friends,” because -through some infatuated belief in a man’s own wife being different from -other women, he had fancied that she was always on the safe side--she -had certainly always kept herself beyond the range of scandal, if not -gossip. Had the theory of the thing even drifted through his mind, as -an indiscretion of the past, he might have shut his eyes to it. It -was as an actual experience of the present that made it a hideous and -impossible position. A general tenet with regard to loose morals is -a very different thing to the example which affects one personally. -The most broad-minded people in profession are generally the least -charitable in practice. - -He stood out there in the darkness until he had regained his grip on -himself, and thought that he was cool. He could not re-read Ally’s -letter, so he put it in his pocket for further consideration, before -deciding to give it to Diana. Perhaps also he hoped that Lewin’s -departure meant nothing to her such as the letter suggested; if she did -not read Ally’s urgent request to her to ride down and say good-bye to -him, it might not occur to her. He would give her that chance. - -They had already dined, and the table was cleared and reloaded with the -Tantalus and soda-water, when he entered the dining-room. Diana came in -as he was helping himself to whiskey,--sparingly, this time,--and flung -her writing-case on to a distant table with a movement suggestive of -weary impatience. - -“It _is_ hot!” she remarked. “I’ll have some claret and soda,--leave -me some ice, Bute.” She mixed it for herself, and spoke as she did so. -“Have you heard when the _Greville_ is going?” - -“No!” - -“Didn’t you see Captain Stern this morning at the club?” - -“Yes. He didn’t say.” - -“Bother!” said Diana frankly. “I must telephone through the first -thing.” - -“Where?” - -“To the Lewins, of course. They will know.” - -“Why?” - -The monosyllables did not warn her, for his voice was perfectly under -control. And his back was towards her as he helped himself to another -cigar from the box on the sideboard. - -“I’m going down to see old Ally Sloper off if he goes in the middle -of the night!” said Diana shortly. The openness of the speech sounded -brazen to him to-night, for he forgot that yesterday it would have -passed him by. In her certainty of being secure from his suspicion -she took no trouble to disguise her motives, and she was in some sort -desperate also. The feeling that had been half-hearted on Ally’s side -had grown to painful intensity on Diana’s until her fondness for him -made her as weak as he. - -“He will probably start early, and only his wife will be there. I -shouldn’t make myself an unwelcome third if I were you.” - -“Half the place will be there!” said Diana, with an unnatural laugh. -“You know we always turn up to see the last of any one, it’s one of the -few little distractions left us. Of course I shall go--Chum won’t mind.” - -“I never argue,” said Churton, the cigar between his teeth making the -words sound ominously as if he had set them. “All I have to say is that -if I were you--I shouldn’t go.” - -For a minute she looked up sharply, and her heart throbbed with fear of -him. He was standing at his full height, and though she was not a small -woman, he made her feel suddenly that his masculine strength might be -brutal--in any case that she was but a child to him, physically. Then -with the old sore sense of injustice that has rankled in woman from all -generations, she set his sins beside her own, and demanded dumbly if he -could throw the first stone, even though he knew! He did not guess, of -course--she would not harbour that idea; but even if he did he had no -right to accuse her. She shut her lips in a hard line, and said no more. - -Churton looked at her also for a moment. He saw the hard, sun-scorched -face and the embittered lips, and perhaps he thought of the red-haired -girl he married. Diana was never untidy--her head was as sleek and -well-groomed now as a racer’s coat, and below the collar-line her neck -was milk-white where her evening dress betrayed its original beauty. -She had the transparency peculiar to red-haired women, and there was -neither flaw nor fleck on her shoulders. - -They went up to bed in silence, and the peace between them remained -unbroken. She could hear him moving about in his dressing-room for a -while, but she was undressed and asleep before he lay down by her side, -and she was unaware that he lay hour after hour, awake and thinking, -piecing one thing in with another, proving his own dishonour, and -unconsciously - - “Nursing his wrath to keep it warm.” - -He thought himself cool and collected, while the smouldering fury in -him burned steadily to white heat. He had always been afraid of his own -temper--it was cheating him now. - -Diana woke early, for she had fallen asleep wishing to do so, and -thinking that her husband was still oblivious of her she slipped out -of bed and began to do her hair rapidly. She glanced at him once, and -saw that he was lying on his back as he often did, the covering sheet -thrown off him, and one perfectly-moulded knee drawn up, which was also -a habit of his. He would sleep so, and she thought his eyes were closed -now without more than a cursory glance. He was, in fact, not much in -her thoughts, though again it flitted across her mind that his large -supine limbs suggested terrible strength. He was a splendidly-built -man--as well built as Alaric Lewin, though his added years had -thickened him somewhat--and even the raised knee was rounded with a -massive beauty that would have pleased a sculptor. - -By and by she found that the linen gown she wanted hung in a closet -outside her room, on the other side of the passage. She slipped out -almost noiselessly to get it, and as she returned she heard a clock -somewhere in the house strike four. She was in plenty of time, but -the last report of the _Greville’s_ departure which had reached her -had been stated at five, and the grooms must saddle up for her at -once. She did not wait to telephone to the Lewins after all, for fear -of hindering herself rather than otherwise. The thought occupied her -mind, so that when she re-entered the room she did not notice that her -husband had gone. - -There was no time for a bath now, she could have that later when she -had ridden up the hill again, and was dusty and hot. Ally would be gone -then--gone at least for a month, for no one expected the trouble in -East Africa to last longer. A month was long enough--a month without -Ally! She did not realise that she had grown a foolish woman, whose -empty heart could not feed for ever on passing attractions, and so -craved greedily to really fill itself, though with an unsatisfying -love. Alaric Lewin had been like a renewal of youth and its -possibilities; he was young and vital, and his very lack of purpose -made him seem like a boy far into his manhood. She was clinging to -the thought of him, when she saw her husband enter quietly from the -dressing-room. - -He was in his shirt, but the sleeves were rolled up to the elbow over -his muscled arms. He seemed to have been washing, for he held a towel -loosely in one hand. She noticed vaguely that it was wet, or had been -dipped in water and wrung out. It looked almost like a rope-end, -twisted in that way. - -Conscious that her own shoulders were bare, she resented the unusual -intrusion of his entrance, and turned on him curtly. - -“I have not finished dressing,” she said. “You can’t have this room -yet. What do you want?” - -“Why are you up so early?” he returned, as curtly as she had spoken. - -“I am going down to see the _Greville_ off!” - -“You _will_ go?” - -Her eyes met his, the hard brown of them reddish with anger. “Yes, I -will!” she said boldly. - -He laid a tumbled letter before her, spreading it out that she might -see the familiar writing, and speaking carefully, as though he picked -his words. - -“Captain Lewin’s bearer gave me this in the dark last night, telling me -it was for me--I could not see the address, and he had evidently made a -mistake, for he insisted on my reading it. You can see for yourself----” - -He broke off, waiting with a terrible patience while she glanced over -the page. There was no need to tell her more openly what she was to -see, but her face hardly altered save that it was frankly insolent as -she looked at him. - -“I won’t say anything about your reading my letters,” she said, -“because you say it was by mistake. The only thing I will say is -that you have no right to question me. I have never read any of your -letters, by mistake or otherwise, but----” - -She flung the taunt at him, and saw his face darken. Well, if there was -to be a row she did not mind much. Her rage at being found out, and -the pain of losing Ally at the same time, made her like some fierce -animal that turns to bay and longs to fight. It would not be an open -scandal--she knew that instinctively. Let him do his worst! - -He interrupted before she could accuse him further. - -“That is beside the point. You will not go down to see the _Greville_ -off.” - -“I _will_!” - -He caught her by the arm, his fingers closing like iron on the white -flesh, and with his other hand he brought the wet towel down heavily -across her bare shoulders. She was right in saying that it was the -equivalent of a rope-end--it had been tightly wrung out, and it fell -heavier than a rope. The long red weals followed each cut, and she set -her teeth under the pain. - -He had not said a word more, and she did not cry out. It never occurred -to her to struggle, for she was like a child in his grip, and it would -but have completed her humiliation. The hot anger and grief in her -heart swelled up and choked her, and the temper he had justly feared -blinded him. The first he knew of the weight of his own blows was his -wife slipping quietly to his feet, her bruised shoulders a sickening -witness to his strength. - -He lifted her and laid her in bed again, drawing the sheet over her up -to her neck. Then he closed the shutters and barred out the dreadful -daylight, and before he left he mechanically sprinkled her face with -water and saw the colour coming back to her lips. Di was too strong -to swoon like other women--she had never gone off like this before, -except--except at Agra when the child died. He was not sorry as yet; -he did not feel anything except a grim satisfaction that she would not -attempt to see the _Greville_ off now. - -He finished dressing and ordered his own pony, riding off in the cool -of the morning to the town. He had not heard, as his wife had, of the -cruiser’s probable departure at daybreak, for her information had come -from Mrs. Ritchie Stern the day before, and in Lewin’s letter he had -not been sure when they would go--at least, he had said he was not -sure. When Major Churton rode on to the wharf the first reaction came -over him and took the momentary form of disappointment, for fading out -of the harbour, her smoke a trail on the horizon, was the cruiser, -and he saw that he was too late. Then the other view of what he had -done rose before him, and the blind passion that had driven him into -immediate revenge on the person nearest at hand seemed to die out with -the _Greville’s_ smoke trail. He should have dealt with the man first, -not with that poor woman, whose hinted accusations were true enough -when one was cool to listen to them. He had been too angry to heed, -and his conscience did not accuse him of vices more than other men’s, -while it had seemed to him that she was worse than many wives. He had -been unjust to begin with--brutal to end with. In his stupid rage he -had let Lewin go scot free, while the woman bore the brunt of it. His -eyes followed the _Greville_ over the edge of the horizon with the -keener humiliation because he was a strong man with the reserve which -many years had taught him, and it was bitter to realise himself in the -wrong. He had believed in his own manliness at least; now he felt that -he despised himself, and he was too honest to prevaricate. - -There were not many people on the wharf, for Captain Stern’s movements -had been left uncertain until the last moment. Mrs. Ritchie Stern and -Mrs. Lewin were standing together close to the water’s edge, as if -unanimously they had pressed after the ship as far as they dared. Their -ponies were held at a little distance, Liscarton’s vagaries making -it unsafe to take him very near the unguarded edge of the quay. The -Commissioner was there too, and Arthur White and Brissy Nugent, no one -else. It was White who saw the motionless figure of the O.C.T. first, -and rode up to him. - -“Ah, Churton! You were too late,” he said, shaking hands cordially. “I -was afraid you might be. It’s an awful pull to get down from Maitso so -early.” - -“Yes!” - -The grave face under the white helmet made the Attorney-General leap to -a wrong conclusion. - -“Were you ordered out last night? No? Heard nothing of the row?” - -“Where was it?” The steady, dark eyes came back from the last glimpse -of the _Greville_ and fixed themselves on White’s red pleasant face. - -“At Government House. Halton has just been telling me. He knew -nothing of it, any more than I, for he rode down to see me last -night, and didn’t get back until eleven or half-past. I’m to meet the -Administrator later, but I don’t suppose I shall hear much more. He -makes light of it--says it was a flash in the pan, and rather amusing, -but I know I shouldn’t have cared to face a couple of hundred niggers -after the ultimatum about the crops. I’m going to ask Mrs. Lewin what -really happened.” - -“Mrs. Lewin!” - -“Yes, she was in it all. Lewin had gone down to the club to say -good-bye to you all, I suppose--you missed him, by the way?” (“Yes!” -said Churton bitterly, “I am sorry I did!”)--“and Mrs. Lewin heard -something of the disturbance and got in a funk and rushed up to -Government House. Very sensible thing to do, only unfortunately she got -into the middle of it.” - -This was Gregory’s very natural explanation of her presence there, as -Mrs. Lewin had already found. She accepted it dully, with an added -feeling of fear at his facility. Churton’s eyes wandered to her for a -minute across the quay, and he thought she looked as if last night’s -strain and this morning’s parting had tried her, and was gentler than -usual in his manner when she greeted him. - -“I am sorry you arrived too late to see Ally,” she said, “he hoped to -catch you at the club last night. I was to say good-bye for him.” - -He thought of that helpless figure with scarred shoulders that he had -laid on the bed, but he did not wince. His voice, as he asked her about -the trouble at Government House, was so kind and sympathetic, that it -came to nearer making her break down than all that had gone before. - -“I was very much frightened,” she said. “Though Mr. Gregory says that -there was no danger. He cleared the stoep with a shambok--that was -all!” She tried to smile, and her eyes were rather misty. - -“You look as if you had had about enough of it!” he said, unconscious -of the effect of the morning sunlight on his own face. He wished too -that she had not, with her few words, drawn him a picture of Gregory -and the shambok--it reminded him of his own action this morning. Men -like himself and Gregory--men proud of their masculine quality of -strength--seemed of a brutal type to him just now. - -“I feel rather as if I had been to three balls all at once, and danced -into daylight--that is all. Dissipation always gives me the same cheap -feeling as a great strain. Mrs. Stern is coming home to breakfast -with me to cheer me up, she is leaving in the mail this afternoon, -unfortunately, or I should try and persuade her to stay for a few days.” - -“I hear there is another cruiser signalled at Port Albert,” said Mrs. -Ritchie, as she turned from Arthur White, to whom she had been talking. -“The _Skate_ I think it must be--I suppose you all know Captain -Tullock? The bay will be quite lively this afternoon with our departure -and his arrival. I shall see your wife then, of course, Major Churton?” - -“She is seedy this morning, but she may feel well enough to come down,” -he said composedly. “Good-bye, Mrs. Lewin, take care of yourself.” - -She wondered why he was so particularly kind to her, and if he would -have been could he only have known all the inward workings of her -heart! Life would be a little humiliating were it not for its power -of secrecy. As Bute Churton’s big figure disappeared along the narrow -street to the town, Leoline looked after him and guessed nothing of -the irony of their relations with each other, for he was thinking that -worthless fellows like Lewin were blessed with wives like this, while -she shrank from a consciousness of thoughts disloyal to her husband. - -“Major Churton looks very ill!” she said. “I never noticed it before; -but I am sure he ought to get away. I have grown selfish with my own -concerns.” - -“He looks as if he had had some kind of shock,” said Mrs. Ritchie, -with her fatal intuition. “I wonder what made him late!” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - - “When two have set their minds on each other, a hundred cannot - keep them apart.”--_English Proverb._ - - -The confidence of two young married women is amongst the most -interesting experiences to be obtained; but it is about as easy to get -at by an outsider as a Masonic ceremony of initiation. For a time they -are bound to skirmish over the surface of facts, and compare notes on -their households. From this they may advance to their husbands, but it -is not till they reach Themselves and their own point of view that they -are really instructive. Had Mrs. Ritchie Stern been remaining in Key -Island, it is possible that she and Mrs. Lewin might have reached that -stage when a broken sentence conveys more to the sympathetic hearer -than a whole explanatory treatise would do to one who had not the key -to such mysteries. But the hours she spent at the bungalow were too -contracted for this; only the stress of their mutual circumstances -could have made them get as far as stage number two, for they did talk -of their husbands. - -“I am glad Alaric has gone with Captain Stern,” Leoline said frankly, -because she had something to conceal in her piteous knowledge of Ally. -“It makes the journey at least so much less tedious. And I hope they -will be pals--that is my husband’s inevitable word, so you must excuse -it.” - -“It is so much more expressive than friends, or even chums,” said Mrs. -Ritchie pensively. “To ‘pal’ always suggests a comfortable arm-in-arm -state of intimacy, eh?” - -“Exactly! Ally makes friends rather easily.” The last words were almost -abrupt. - -“I don’t think Ritchie is so good at that as at listening. If you know -what I mean, other men make friends with him, and he listens. I should -think Captain Lewin was always very popular.” - -“Invariably. I cannot remember, on looking back through my life, any -single person who knew Ally and disliked him.” - -“It is rather a fatal gift at times,--if you do not mind my saying so.” - -Chum did not answer directly. She spoke with a touch of unintentional -wistfulness. “Captain Stern gave me a sense of such innate control. -He is like one of those Biblical examples that are greater by reason -of ruling themselves than the noisier men who take cities. It always -struck me as such a very sane ideal.... I hope he will be a friend of -Ally’s!” - -Mrs. Ritchie looked at her with the full bounty of her nature, and her -words were not so irrelevant as they seemed. - -“My eldest boy is like me rather than his father, and I am quite sorry! -It is dreadful to have to look out for your own little failings, and -recognise them. They seem such much more nasty little things in some -one else; and yet I always know that they are just mine.” - -“You must hate leaving the children!” said Mrs. Lewin slowly--just as -Blanche had meant her to do. - -“Yes!” she responded. “But I would rather have them, though on the -other side of the world. Just as I would rather have my sailor, even -though I cannot always follow his ship.” - -“Captain Lewin has a great objection to having children while he is on -foreign service--particularly in a hot climate,” said Leoline quietly. -She was looking down, her long lashes a brown shadow on her unflushed -cheeks, and her manner was too composed for resignation. Suddenly she -raised her eyes with a flash that seemed to come all across the room to -Mrs. Ritchie. - -“I was so awfully disappointed!” she said, almost in a whisper. “At -first I longed for one----” - -Her voice trailed into silence. Mrs. Ritchie held her breath. The hint -of being contented with things as they were now frightened her. - -“You will not always be abroad--at least in such places as this,” she -said hurriedly. - -“No. One begins to see though, that there are more selfish advantages -to be gained from married life without a nursery. It isn’t that Ally -doesn’t want children--he will some day. But then--I mightn’t, you see.” - -“You will,” said Mrs. Ritchie consolingly. “Let alone the feeling you -will have that you ought to (I wish we didn’t have these feelings, but -women keep the conscience of the household, always!), you will want to -because it is natural. You needn’t be afraid.” She waited a minute, -meeting those shining eyes steadily, and reiterated, “You needn’t be -afraid.” - -Leoline turned her face to the window, and looked across the garden, -with its hot, dusty roses, to the latched gate through which Ally had -gone to, and come from, Government House. At the gate a shadow stood, -and a voice said, under breath, “I never came this way--before!” She -thought of the child denied her because of Ally’s selfish fear of -discomfort, and the safeguard of its presence in her arms now; for she -might be called in this a good woman, that had she been a mother, she -would not have been afraid, not even of that dangerous proximity. As -it was, in spite of Blanche Stern’s presence throughout the day, there -was a horribly lonely feeling about the bungalow, and after the rush of -her departure had died away, the empty rooms seemed as if they listened -for a step. The fear of being alone and of listening also made Leoline -Lewin insist on riding down to the harbour again to see her off, and -for the second time in twenty-four hours she found herself loitering -about on the wharf among the walls of coal, waiting with that horrible -sense of departure for the boat to start. There is nothing more trying -to those left behind than one of these lingering “send-offs”--the going -on board and forced little conversations with one ear always attentive -for the bell and “Any more for the shore?”--the interminable time of -standing about on the quay while the mails are got in, and the boat -turns so very slowly from the shore--the waving of handkerchiefs, and -hollow cheering, and then the going home with a blank feeling that life -is just the same in its dull grooves, and all the chance of movement -and adventure has gone out with the ship beyond the horizon line. It -is a particularly depressing ceremony in Key Island, whose inhabitants -feel it a prison at the best of times, but it seems to possess a kind -of hideous fascination to the residents, who never let a boat depart -without thronging on the quay and wishing vainly that they were going -with her. - -There was a much larger gathering to see Mrs. Ritchie off than there -had been for the _Greville_. The Gilderoys, Captain Nugent, the Arthur -Whites, Miss Denver, Mrs. Clayton with the gunner’s boy in tow,--Mrs. -Lewin counted them over with wearied eyes and found none missing -save the Churtons. They were not there and Captain Gilderoy amicably -suggested that Diana had got a headache from too many céhos, and the -Major was forced to stay away to cover her indisposition. - -“But does she drink, Captain Gilderoy?” Mrs. Clayton asked eagerly, her -pretty vulgar face thrust up to his. She had experienced the roughness -of Diana’s manner when there was no need to be ingratiating, and sought -for the joints in her armour. - -“I didn’t say that, Mrs. Clayton!” Captain Gilderoy raised his cynical -eyebrows, and smiled as a dog snarled, on one side of his mouth. His -“smiling acquaintance” with Mrs. Clayton had developed, with no desire -on his part, to a more conventional one, and a further knowledge of -her had intensified his sentiments with regard to her rather than -otherwise. He disliked Mrs. Clayton every bit as much as he did Mrs. -Churton, and his comments on her freedom from social restrictions -were at least as withering as on Diana, but that Eva Clayton had not -the capacity to guess. “I did not say she drank,” he said in his most -pleasant manner, “but she has the advantage of a strong head! She can -take two drinks to my one; I have seen her get through two tumblers of -whiskey and soda when I stopped prudently at the second.” - -“You don’t say so!” Mrs. Clayton’s loud, vacant laugh jarred after -Gilderoy’s polished words--he spoke charmingly, and his voice was deep -and rather sweet,--and she caught her gunner by the arm. - -“Mr. Rennie, listen! Captain Gilderoy says that Mrs. Churton -drinks--that’s why she isn’t here to-day. She can toss off five -whiskeys faster than the men. Disgusting, isn’t it!” - -Young Rennie was a fresh-faced boy, with eyes which still danced -carelessly with youth. All Mrs. Clayton’s tuition had not yet left its -impress on his smooth, flushed face, but it was tainting his tongue. - -“By Jove!” he said. “What fun! I’ll have a drinking match with her one -night--get her well on and stake glass for glass.” - -“Yes, do,” Mrs. Clayton said eagerly. “It would be so amusing!” and -Miss Denver turned round and laughed too, but without spite. She was -a very tall girl, whose clothes were always a bad copy of the last -garrison lady’s who had come to the Station, and there was a certain -exuberance about her that made women--nice women--say that she had -something maternal even in her generous girlhood. Men, being coarser -or more practical, called her a finely-built girl, and thought of the -children she might bear them. - -Leoline Lewin heard the comments on Di and the laughter, and moved -by instinct a little nearer Mrs. Stern. Perhaps she was out of tune -with her world to-day, but it seemed to her as if the whole of her -surroundings were shoddy,--the very tone of the people was like -the little native huts with their lack of stability and general -uncleanness. When Brissy Nugent appeared at her side, as if her -husband’s absence constituted him her cavalier, she turned away almost -like a pettish child with a feeling of aversion to his familiar burnt -face and immaculate riding dress. She felt as if she knew exactly -what he was going to say, too, before he said it; but all Brissy’s -conversation appeared the inevitable. - -“Old Ally Sloper must be somewhere about lat. 20 by now, I suppose,” -he said, as they stood at the liner’s stern, waiting with melancholy -patience to say good-bye to Mrs. Ritchie. - -“Yes, I suppose so.” - -“Hope you won’t be very lonely.” - -“Do you?” For the life of her she could not avoid the little ironical -question. - -“Pity I’m not a woman, and then I could come up and stay with you and -keep you company--eh? Wouldn’t there be a lot of talk?” - -“If you were a woman?” - -“No, as we are. You knew what I meant, Mrs. Lewin.” - -Oh, this wearisome talk that led nowhere, and always had a vacant laugh -in it. And the sameness of the fringe of ravenalas lifting solemn hands -along the shore--and the blue bay--and the zinc-roofed, gim-crack town. -She looked at the glare of sunlight on Maitso and Mitsinjovy, and her -eyes ached, and then at the black walls of coal to cool them, as she -had done hundreds of times before. They were all in the rat-trap, and -her fellow rats were no better off than she--save that perhaps the -others had not the soul-haunting sweet dread that she had put behind -her all day. For when she was free of these people and went back alone -to the bungalow, there was nothing to prevent her thinking of the -nearness of Government House, and the short cut through the grounds, -while all the rooms listened for a step. - -She heard Hamilton Gurney urging some one to come and drink a final -cého with the U.C.L. men, and her heart sank, for this was always a -last ceremony. Then Mrs. Stern came up and said good-bye, her blue -eyes very large and gentle, with their strange gift of divination, and -by a mutual impulse the two tall women kissed each other. Even after -the boat had swung out into the harbour and passed between the gates, -Leoline stood watching it as she had the _Greville_ that morning, as if -it carried away yet another barrier of her safety, and lingered to chat -with one and another of her acquaintance. Captain Gilderoy came up to -ask her if she were selling any of the ponies--she could not ride three -during Captain Lewin’s absence, and he rather fancied Snapshot. She -caught at the discussion, and suggested his coming over one day to look -at Nanton, Ally’s last purchase. - -“Will you come back with me now, you and Mrs. Gilderoy?” she said, with -a strange eagerness. “And dine? I am very much alone.” - -“Thanks, I wish we could, but we are bound to the Jacksons’.” - -“Are they at By-Jovey? Another night then.” - -“Thanks.” - -No hope of rescue there! They all seemed to be engaged, those who -had useful wives, and the unattached men she would not ask, with the -pattern of Mrs. Clayton and Miss Denver before her eyes; for, as Mrs. -Clayton passed her with Mr. Rennie, Leoline heard the latter say, -“I’ve got the hump with that boat going--haven’t you? Let’s go up to -the Denvers’ and make a noise!” Mrs. Lewin’s lips curled a little. She -would not make her house into a recreation ground for the idle men of -the Station, even though of better manners and more intellectual tastes -than this fresh-faced boy, who after all, was harmless enough in his -ill-breeding. “Let’s go up to the Denvers’ and make a noise” was no -worse than “Let us drop in on Mrs. Lewin because her husband is away.” -No, such help as that would not do. She must face it alone. - -The shadow of Tsofotra, the Sunset Gate, stretched far across the -sea as she gathered up her reins and rode home by herself, with so -little attention to the way she went that Liscarton took advantage to -snatch a hasty supper from the low bushes and tall grass, munching as -he went, and expectant of a call to order that did not come. Mrs. Lewin -had other thoughts to fill her mind, and as she sat at her solitary -dinner, she faced the new problems of her existence with saddened -eyes. It seemed to her as if her life “were all read backward,” and -her intentions twisted by providence to a horrible issue. She had -been honest in her desire to spur her husband on to success, and her -first efforts to attract Gregory had been actually on his behalf; but -where had she gone astray? For the original strategy of arousing his -interest for Ally’s sake, coupled with a little innocent enjoyment -of her own power no doubt, had gradually altered its quality to a -personal pleasure in the companionship of a stronger nature, and so -she had drifted to this dangerous brink of a new relation between -them. Looking back, it seemed to her as if all the mischief had sprung -from that night when she left her husband in a drunken sleep to cover -his incapacity as best she might with the Administrator. And yet that -night at least she had hardly realised that Gregory existed as a man: -he was nothing but a power to be feared. She could not see the natural -development of the situation from the affinity of such natures as -Gregory’s with her own, which was its feminine complement. All that her -mind could grasp was the plain fact that bound in duty and honour to a -man to whom she had submitted the most sacred rights of her womanhood, -her very nature yearned treacherously away from him to another who -stood for ever beyond the pale. Alaric had shown himself a weak man, -and represented the failure of her life; but it was her instinct to -hide her failures, and to make the best of her own action in marrying -him, rather than to ask the world’s sympathy and justify herself in -infidelity. Where neither teaching nor principles would triumph over -Nature, her dear self-respect stands like a guardian angel to such a -woman as Leoline Lewin, and becomes a giant virtue. - -She took some work and moved into the further room when her dinner -was over, a very gracious feminine figure with the atmosphere of -civilisation about her dainty gown and _chic_ head, contrasting -strangely with the lawless tropical world outside the open windows. -All the danger of the sensuous Earth seemed to be threatening her out -of the night and its insinuating scents,--all the safety of convention -to be inside the pretty room with its electric light where she sat. -As the monotonous needle passed through and through the silk, she was -schooling herself to fearlessness, and soothing her own nerves by the -occupation, until she ceased to start at a rustle on the garden paths, -and was no longer haunted by that mad fear of one man’s approach. So -composed had she grown at last, that she missed the very step that -she had expected along the stoep, and the opening of the door by the -butler. The first intimation she had that her fate was hard upon her -was Abdallah’s voice announcing the Administrator almost as he withdrew -to his own quarters again. - -She put aside the work on her lap carefully, running the needle in and -out the silk that she might not lose it, and rose without hurry, every -precious second gained helping her to recover her breath, which seemed -to have been swept away by the sound of his name. As she came forward -to meet her guest there was not a tremor about her, nothing but the -composed grace of a well-bred woman in her own house. - -Gregory had stood still under the electric lamps; the light was strong -in spite of the soft red shades, and it seemed to show them to each -other in merciless revelation. He held out his hand to take hers in -conventional greeting, and let it go again after the legitimate few -seconds during which palm rests in palm. They had not really spoken to -each other, save in broken disturbed sentences, since the Deputation -interrupted his avowal of his reason for sending Lewin away alone. It -seemed to her that they must take it up just there, as if nothing had -intervened, and she sought desperately for something to avert it. The -hours that lay between his whispering voice, saying that he could not -part from her, and the present moment rolled back into nothingness. -They were not, and this sentence to be answered still seemed to hang in -the air. - -“I saw Captain Lewin off this morning,” she said baldly, as if proving -that what he had said was true. He could not part from her--well, he -had not. In another sense, the sentence was a warning that questioned -his right to be there. “I saw Captain Lewin off this morning--I am -alone!” added the significant pause. - -“I know.” He did not deny the accusation of his having paid her a visit -at this late hour, if she intended to insinuate it. He accepted it -rather, and a clock struck nine in the further room as if to punctuate -and affirm his acceptance. - -Then there was one of those strange pauses which seem like the visible -boundary between one phase of existence and another--the possible -crossing the rubicon, the possible drawing back and remaining in -safety. It comes before many a declaration, while Mr. Brown and Miss -Smith are still conscious of their former titles, though the next -instant may convert them into John and Jane to each other. - - “Oh, the little more, and how much it is! - And the little less, and what worlds away! - _How a sound shall quicken content to bliss, - Or a breath suspend the heart’s best play, - And life be a proof of this!_” - -For just that brief pause Gregory and Leoline stood facing each other -in the strong artificial light. Then, as though drawn by something much -stronger than the restraint of convention, they moved nearer never -breaking that long painful gaze until something that seemed like a -sigh passed through the room, as though for relief that the tension -was relaxed, and their lips met. Neither could tell exactly how that -kiss came about. It was so inevitable, once it was done, that there -seemed no cause for it. The embrace was a thing that belonged to their -lives as much as their vitality. To the woman, however, it was a mental -thing, and seemed a decision of her brain as to what shall become of -all her further life; but the man was conscious of the warmth of her -mouth, the very breath of her life mingling with his. - -The modes of artificial society would demand a word of explanation -before such a stride in intimacy between the sexes as is meant by a -kiss. There should be a request for permission to go further--anything -to soften the extreme suddenness of the change of attitude. But Nature -is too ready for us in a crisis; she does not use the acquired power -of speech, but the instinctive one of action. Gregory had said no word -at all of explanation or apology--two ornaments of plain speaking -which belong emphatically to civilisation! He was a savage for the -time being, and used the methods of the primeval man with the single -improvement of gentleness. There was no roughness of passion in that -instinctive embrace; nothing but the irresistible attraction of the two -pairs of lips to each other, until, satisfied, they parted as simply as -they had met. - -Almost before she was conscious that he had loosened her Leoline found -that he was leading her across the room to a low-cushioned lounge, his -arm still guiding her, and as she seated herself he sat down beside her -side. His breath came a little thickly, but his iron self-control was -instanced in his quiet voice when he spoke. - -“Now we will talk this out!” - -“Is there anything to say?” she asked almost in a whisper. Now that the -natural moment was over she shrank before the acknowledgment of her own -action. All her habit of convention came back to her and shamed her -horribly, though she would not deny, even to herself, the new position -she felt she had taken, and still meant to take. - -“There is a great deal to say,” he said in that decisive suppressed -voice that had never been more characteristic. “We have neither of us -come to this without thinking what it means.” - -“I know. And yet there seem so many other things to hold by--honour, -decency, self-respect, justice (for what has my husband done that he -should be my sacrifice?), perhaps even the fear of God.” - -“You will find all these included in what I feel for you. Do you think -I am offering you a little trivial passion--a thing of the senses, that -will only last a day?” - -“Does it make any difference when the effect on others is the -same? Some one must suffer through my disloyalty--that is the real -stumbling-block. Will any feeling of yours, however sacred to us both, -alter the fact that I am another man’s wife?” - -“Even that is not an impassable barrier. Such ties have been broken -before.” - -“You are asking me----” - -“I am not asking you for anything you might not give if you were an -unmarried woman--as yet. How am I to make you understand? If I had -wanted you for my mistress I should have told you so long ago. At least -you could only have given me my _congé_. I don’t understand beating -about the bush, if that is all that one wants of a woman, because it -can’t be much loss if she says no--there are a great many more who will -say yes!” - -She thought of her husband’s often assertion that “every woman in the -island had had a try for Gregory’s Powder,” and winced to see that he -had appreciated his own power of choice--if he had chosen. She almost -hated her own sex for giving him some ground at least for the brutality -of his speech, and herself for listening to him. - -“With you,” he went on, with that same terrible finality of a -statement that could not be questioned, “it is different. I should be -depreciating my own property. Some day I mean to make you my wife”--he -drew a breath, and added her name, as if to say it were a natural -joy--“Leo!” he whispered, the familiar contraction of Leoline giving -her a little thrill of pleasure, even while it seemed dreadful to her -that she felt she had no right to flinch from his bold statement. She -had not thought over the situation without facing such an issue, as he -had seen was inevitable, and she was too honest and too strong herself -to weakly cry out that she had not considered this, or made up her -mind. She had counted the cost to Alaric Lewin and to herself; perhaps -passion weighed down the scale in which she placed her own risk, but -she knew that her decision had been tacitly in favour of such a step -as Gregory prognosticated to her mind by speaking of her as his wife. -There was just one terrible difference in their point of view that she -could not realise; his words simply meant to her the horrible publicity -and degradation of the Divorce Court--but in his mind was that olden -letter of which his own seemed a reflex-- - -“Set Uriah in the forefront of the battle ... that he may die....” - -All the wrong against her husband that was credible to her was done to -his name. That Alaric must suffer from the blow she saw, and knowing no -injury that he had done her, it seemed an intolerable thing that she -meditated in cutting the tie between them. She knew him for a weak man -too; what would be the result, to a nature like his, of her desertion? -If every fibre in her heart had not seemed to her to be rooted in the -man beside her, she would never have permitted herself the choice; but -for the time being her whole soul was in revolt, demanding its desire, -crying out that its very life depended on the chance of happiness. -She could not argue or reason just now; she felt the necessity of her -own being a greater thing than the slighter nature’s pain. Was she -always to be sacrificed to Alaric’s weakness? her heart cried out -impatiently--Ally, who was as easily comforted as a child by a new -toy for the one that had been broken! Within a week of her flight he -would be playing tennis, and petted and consoled by other women for his -unmerited misfortune. She saw him more harshly than ever before, and -her velvet eyes grew sombre as she raised them to Gregory’s watchful -face. There was no remorse or vacillation in him--there would be no -repining word hereafter. What he did he had stood by all his life, and -he neither excused nor forswore himself. He was a hard man at worst--a -strong man at best. Some day she would know him for unscrupulous, but -always and for ever she would love him, because his qualities were the -essential for her, and also because love goes deeper than reason and -outruns rule. - -“I am not asking you to take such a step to-morrow or next day,” he -urged in that under-breathed voice, “only it would be unfair not to -set my ultimate goal before you.” Then his manner grew warmer, he half -leaned against her lace-clad shoulder, and his arm stole around her -waist. “Is it so hard to think of me as a husband, darling? I believe -you are half afraid of me as a lover!” - -She felt the masculine eyes above her dominating her, and her head -drawn back against his shoulder. As he kissed her again and again, -closing the velvet eyes and holding her lips with his own until she was -breathless, his constraining clasp gradually bound her close to him. -Through the thin linen suit she could feel every tightened muscle of -his body, and for a moment was blinded by his caresses. She had not -realised until then the feebleness of her own passions compared with -his. It seemed as if he were built upon such a gigantic scale that -lesser mortals dwindled beside him as beside one such as the old Greeks -used to believe was endowed by a deity in parentage. - -But when she slipped out of her gown that night she was conscious of -a painful soreness, as though her soft elastic flesh had been badly -bruised. There was no mark on the white skin, but she could not pass -her hand down her side without feeling the hurt. It could not have -been a blow, for a blow would have left a visible bruise. Yet her very -muscles ached. - -For a moment, as she rubbed her hand softly to and fro over the warm -satin surface of her body, she could not understand the cause. Then her -face flamed. She was half ashamed and half exultant. For she realised -the strength of Gregory’s clasp, and felt as Danaë may have felt in the -grip of her god. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - - “La paix n’est que le sommeil de la guerre.”--_French Proverb._ - - -“There must be something wrong between the Churtons,” said Mrs. -Gilderoy, taking off her hat and sitting down beside Mrs. Lewin to chat. - -“What is the matter?” asked Leoline, in some surprise. “I haven’t seen -Di for ever so long, though all the rest of you have been most good in -cheering my solitude. Major Churton is away, isn’t he?” - -“He has gone for a ride round the island. That is how I know something -is wrong. It is our one resource for mental disturbance--if a man has -been refused, or a woman found out, they arrange to ride round the -island until things calm down again. You see, we can’t get out of it, -so we begin to run round and round to ease our distress.” - -“Like rats in a trap!” said Mrs. Lewin absently, her mind with Halton’s -simile. - -“Exactly. Churton said he was going to shoot on the Tableland, but -young Rennie, who went out there some days later, found him starting -for Africa Point and Sand Bay. He will come home by Hashish Valley, and -I hope he won’t come in for the trouble there!” - -“There is no further disturbance, is there? Mr. Halton told me -positively that he would leave in the next mail. But that may be -desperation!” - -“Poor man! I don’t wonder. He has been kept hanging about on the -chance of a rising, when he might just as well have gone by the same -boat as Mrs. Ritchie Stern. Look how tamely the snuff-coloured people -took the crop-burning, after all!” - -“Rather ominously so, I thought. I feel somehow as if we were not -through yet.” - -“Well, what there was to see, you saw! I can’t think how you lived -through that night at Government House, Chum. I expected to see your -hair grey next morning.” - -“It was really not so terrifying as it sounded afterwards. Mr. Gregory -was so cool too--he was almost insolent to the natives.” - -“I suppose you expected to find Captain Lewin there. You have not heard -anything of him, by the way--I mean cabled through from Capetown, for -instance--have you?” - -“Not a word. All I know is that the boat reached Port Cecil, and it was -also confirmed that his regiment was up there.” - -“So he will have his friends about him, anyway. It is a month since he -left, isn’t it? Aren’t you very anxious?” - -“No, I don’t think so. It would be so unreasonable, because I know that -I could not hear. If he wrote at once _viâ_ Capetown the mail will -bring it. But Ally is a bad correspondent, and if he were very much -taken up with the business in hand he might forget and miss the mail. -And I might never hear at all until he came back!” - -“You take it very philosophically. I know if I didn’t hear from my good -man under the circumstances, I should begin writing abusive letters to -the Government at Capetown.” - -“I think they find Key Island quite enough of a worry, without -having to calm disaffected wives there, as it is,” said Mrs. Lewin, -with a pang of conscience. How often had she thought of Ally through -these halcyon summer days that had drifted past her so softly and -easily--they seemed, on looking back, merely a golden haze? She had -thought of him, indeed, as the fly in her amber, and had thrust the -thought away when conscience pressed too hard. “I can’t think why -they brigaded us with South Africa,” she added, more to dodge her own -thought than with any real interest in the Home Government’s disposal -of the Empire. “Mauritius has its own governor; why shouldn’t we?” - -“We are too small. And besides, they never give Gregory’s Powder an -absolute monarchy--perhaps when he goes Key’land will be made a Crown -colony. I am sorry for Capetown having such a firebrand tacked on to -them, myself. He was under Milner once, and they nearly quarrelled; but -the man of men he hates is Kitchener. Gregory always wants the troops -at his instant disposal when he sets out to soothe the wily native, and -Kitchener won’t have it. Can’t you imagine Gregory trying to snatch a -few soldiers when the General is not looking, and the poor wretched -officer in command being dragged in two, like a Christmas cracker, -between them?” - -“And going off with a bang,” said Mrs. Lewin, laughing. “I am sure I -should, in his place. Mr. Gregory started in the Army himself--you know -that, of course.” - -“Yes; I believe he served with Roberts for a short time--a _very_ short -time! He never could obey his senior officers. So he was taken out of -the Army and put into the Colonial service. Apropos of nothing, Chum, -you are not looking well. When are you going to Vohitra?” - -“I am too much afraid of your thinking it a proof of mental -disturbance,” said Mrs. Lewin, with a languid smile. “When people ride -round the island it always begins at Port Albert, doesn’t it?” - -“Generally; though in very bad cases I have known them ride right -through the Rano Valley, and up to Vohitra that way--on some one else’s -pony, of course. Do you notice that the pony is the pledge of affection -here? We don’t give engagement-rings--we give ponies. ‘He has given -her a pony’ is tantamount to saying, ‘they are engaged,’ and if you -ride any man’s cattle save your husband’s you are accepting serious -attentions.” - -“What a dreadful thought! For we have never really bought Liscarton, -Captain Nugent _would_ lend him to me, and I am so dishonest that I -have not returned him yet.” - -“Well, my dear, it is such a known thing that Bristles worships your -untied shoestrings, and hangs upon the tilt of your Panama, that no one -would be surprised if you took his entire stud!” - -“I suppose I have no character!” said Mrs. Lewin resignedly. - -“Not a shred! You are much too good-looking, and your clothes suggest -Bond Street and general wickedness.” - -Again Leoline laughed, for she was content that Key Island should -bracket her with Brissy Nugent. Her conscience was nearly dormant -during those days, and only roused occasionally when a gust of remorse -or realisation swept over her reasonlessly and made her shudder. Then -it would pass, and she would face the situation steadily again. Had -she been in England, among influences which had moulded her life, and -with the chance of a larger outlook, she would not have deemed such a -state of mind as her present one to be possible to her. That her whole -self could be absorbed in a man whom to love was frankly dishonourable, -would have seemed to her impossible while she had the intelligence to -foresee and fight it down. But it is impossible in a land policed by -the conventions of countless generations, where at least one lives in -wholesome fear of one’s next door neighbour, to realise or understand -the influence of the waste places of this earth under the sway of the -Imperial Government. Men lose their boundaries there, and be a woman -what she will she is bound to feel the influence in her thoughts if not -her actions. The laxity of the manners and morals in such rat-traps as -Key Island is due to the opinion of the majority, for sin is after all -a matter of the law of nations, and there is no universal standard of -right and wrong. When the thermometer stands at 90° in the shade, and -Society consists of forty persons who must go on meeting each other -indefinitely, it is probable that the forty will tacitly agree to -overlook each other’s peccadilloes for the sake of comfort. And it is -hard to be less charitable to one’s own failings than one’s neighbour -will be. - -The stronger nature with which she was in close intercourse, too, -was influencing if it could not entirely dominate Leoline. Gregory -had absolutely kept his word with regard to their relations with each -other; he did not ask her for a material proof of her affection, but -it was not in human nature that they should not be often together and -alone without some such hint of passion as had overtaken them on the -evening of Alaric’s departure. His visits were spasmodic, and dependent -to a certain extent on caution while Halton was still at Government -House, but she never knew when he might not appear, and had given -herself up to receiving him with a submission that yet kept her nerves -on edge. Sometimes they merely talked--intimately, it is true, for he -unfolded his plans to her as to no one else--but with hardly a kiss to -disturb her pulses. It was a relief to Gregory to confide in a mind -which he found both receptive and capable of following him, even of -counselling him at times. He made her the partner of plans he would not -have trusted to a fellow-man, and would have missed her from his life -as a confidante, apart from her attraction as a woman; for the craving -for sympathy is as great as the craving for alcohol--once aroused, it -becomes a habit, and is hard to satisfy. During the greater part of his -life Gregory had taught himself to live alone, and regard men and women -alike as likely to be a hindrance to him unless he could make a passing -use of them. Now he had found a helpmate he meant to bind her to him by -the strongest tie he could fashion. - -Leoline gave regally in the expansion of all her forces, and made him -the master of her brain and spirit as well as heart. Every vital power -she had was at his disposal, and while she gloried in the bestowal she -was troubled that her sensations were not all clear gain in perfect -joy. The temperate, uncomplicated affection she had felt for Alaric -had in a way made her less unhappy, if also less happy, which was -disturbing. Take it how one will, being in love is not a comfortable -process, provided it is a real case of unreasoning attachment between -two human beings--unreasoning in that the advantages of such an -attachment do not influence the feeling at all. No one really enjoys -violent emotion, and of all experiences a sexual love is most likely -to be violent, however it may differ in degree, through a warmer or -colder nature. “All pleasure is negative,” says Schopenhauer, for the -fulfilment of a desire only concludes the pangs of it. Love as purely, -as mentally as one may, it is a torturing joy--a bewildering experience -that upsets and revolutionises the ordinary routine of life, and which -one naturally resents. Who cares for the unused depths of his being -brought up to the surface, and forcing him to live in extremes? It is -the memory of love which is divine; the present experience is by no -means so pleasant, and sooner or later brings the pain that is only -tolerable when it has passed. - -On the day when Mrs. Gilderoy came to see her, Leoline was looking -forward to the arrival of the mail with mixed feelings. It was due the -next day, and Alfred Halton was going to leave Key Island by it, for -there was peace in Hashish Valley and China Town, and the natives of -Port Victoria were dully quiet, almost as if the burning of the crops -had been a salutary lesson and had cowed them. There had been very -little drunkenness in the streets of late--always the prevailing sin -of Key Island--and thefts of cattle had been rare. So far things were -well, and the removal of Halton would be an unfeigned relief, for Mrs. -Lewin had an intuitive dread of him that all the rest of the population -could not inspire. She had warned Gregory, who would hardly be warned -because of an instinctive contempt at the roots of his nature for the -man who had always been afraid to act; but the boat that took Alfred -Halton out of her immediate life was as welcome as a human rescuer, -if it had not also brought the mail. Mrs. Lewin dreaded the mail, and -the sight of her husband’s familiar handwriting. It would force her -to face her own intention again, to consider their relations, and how -she should deliberately sever herself from him. While he was absent -there had been a certain pause in action that had left her finally -uncommitted. She did not mean to flinch from the actual step, and yet -she wished that his return might be delayed. - -She had not expected the Administrator that night, for he had been -to Port Albert, and she had not heard of his return. His visits were -almost always made in the evening after dinner, when he could snatch a -half-hour unobserved and likely to be undisturbed, and his appearance -on this occasion was later than his usual hour. There was something -hurried and almost abrupt about his entrance too, partly from the fact -that he was in riding dress, and it seemed as if he must have come -straight from his return journey. - -She had risen rather hastily as Abdallah announced him, and -instinctively looked past his broad shoulders to see the white turban -vanish out of sight before she greeted him. But he hardly waited for -safety, and drew her into his arms with an unusual demonstration of -passion. They stood silent for a moment, and she was suddenly a little -faint. Either some desperate feeling in him communicated itself to -her, or the violent demand of his nature sapped her strength. She had -not the resistance to draw her lips away, but it was a relief when the -interminable kiss was over. She gave an odd little laugh to recover -herself, and laid her hand against his face with tender familiarity. - -“You haven’t shaved to-day! How dare you kiss me?” - -“I know--I’m only just back. I came straight in.” - -“Haven’t you been home?” she asked, startled. “Haven’t you dined?” - -“Yes!”--something seemed to strangle him in the one word. “Yes--I--went -home. No, don’t call any one. I’m going back to Government House to -feed--later.” - -“But, Evelyn”--her arms suddenly tightened about his large loose -figure; she looked up with a beautiful white face--“have you bad news?” - -“No!”--he spoke the one word with no uncertainty, but then he framed -her face in his two hands and looked hard into her eyes. “Do you know,” -he said fiercely, “I am tempted to break my word to you!” - -“How?”--but she knew in all her leaping blood. - -“To make you rather more mine than I have a right to yet, to-night.” -For a minute it seemed that his decision hung in the balance, while she -wondered blankly why her will seemed frozen, and she could not say at -once, as she must do, “I will not!” - -“If I let you off, promise me afresh to come to me some day--when we -are free,” he said urgently, the assurance of his first words startling -her. “You will not throw me over for some woman’s scruple--will you?” - -Such uncertainty was even more unusual than his taking her consent -for granted, for he was anxious now, pleading for what he had already -gained, as if there were some real fear of losing it. - -“Evelyn, there is something troubling you!” she exclaimed. “There _is_ -something wrong!” - -“No, nothing--but say what I want. Promise me----” - -“What?” - -“That you are mine whatever happens. That nothing shall stand between -us.” - -She hesitated, panic-stricken. All the responsibility of such -selfishness as he asked for weighed upon her with a sudden burden. - -“We have decided----” she began. - -“No, but swear it----” - -Then his mood changed as strangely as it appeared to have come upon -him. He clasped her waist with his arm again, and dropped his head -heavily against her breast. She almost staggered under his massive -weight, even though he held her. - -“No, I will ask nothing of you,” he said thickly. “I will trust you -to give me more than I deserve, Leo--but you are free to choose. I am -too hardened a sinner for you to be bound to, or smirch yourself with, -perhaps. And yet--I love you--love you!” - -The cry was so genuine that it frightened her for their safety, -and she said “Hush” instinctively. His face when he raised it was -lined and scarred as if with his own storm of feeling, and he looked -harsher-featured and more rugged than ever. Even after he had regained -his usual control and left her, she kept going over the incident with -a feeling of bewilderment. It was the only occasion on which she had -seen him so upset, and he appeared to her almost wild--almost as if -possessed by some unlooked-for remorse. She could but suppose that -their mutual relations stung his sense of honour, too, at times, though -it was a venial sin, but such a revelation was almost pitiful to her, -and, strange to say, strengthened her own resolution to sacrifice the -rest of the world to him, as no appeal of his could have done. Even -the momentary danger she had been in of a sexual advance in their -relations with each other did not alarm her as it had at the time. She -realised that the danger had been there, for Gregory’s force of will -had at times almost a hypnotic influence upon her, and where she would -once have been confident in her own power of denial, she had learned -to doubt herself; but she realised also that it was no mere access of -passion and self-indulgence that had made him desire a more complete -possession of her. For some reason he was afraid of a possible break in -the tie that bound them, and wished to strengthen it by every means in -his power. He judged that, once master of her body, her morality would -be uneasy until he had an established right to such privilege, and by -foregoing that claim he had weakened his own position with her. But why -should he doubt her resolution now, and why be so suddenly anxious to -secure her even to the extent of compromising her honour? - -The question troubled her waking thoughts, and followed her even into -her dreams. But she found no answer to her own vague disquietude, and -the darker knowledge in Gregory’s mind was hidden from her. - -“Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle ... that he may be -smitten, and die. - -“And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned -Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. - -“And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab; and there fell -some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died -also.” - -For, as Gregory had said, he had been home before he came on to the -bungalow, and there he found that during his absence in Port Albert -news had arrived, and awaited him. - -There had been a cable from Capetown. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - - “Quos Deus vult perdere, dementat prius!”--_Latin Proverb._ - - -The Post Office at Port Victoria is in the same block of buildings as -the Government Office, though on a lower floor, and the busy staircase -is thronged by officials as well as people coming for their mail -or posting letters. There is no delivery in Port Victoria, for two -excellent reasons--local communication is carried on solely through -the telephone, or notes by bearer, and on mail days the recipients of -letters besiege the office for their mail, long before the sorting is -over. Most of the residents have a box, and prefer to call for their -letters to having them delivered, so the postman’s duties are a farce, -and by the time he goes his rounds he has no letters to carry. - -Bristow Nugent rode into town early that mail day, but he had business -at the A.S.C. yard, and at the garrison office, and by the time he -reached the Post Office it was one o’clock, and his letters had been -waiting for him in the box for two hours. At the foot of the rough -staircase were a group of men he knew--Arthur White, Archie Lysle the -regimental chaplain, the harbour master, Hamilton Gurney, and young -Rennie--and before he had spoken a word to them their concerned faces -had told him that something was wrong. Although knowing that his -private affairs could not have reached them before himself, his heart -contracted with the sick throb of fear peculiar to men stationed in -distant corners of the earth, and feeling themselves helplessly out of -reach of their nearest and dearest, and the good-looking animal face -under the white helmet suddenly blanched. - -“What’s up?” he said characteristically. - -“It’s Lewin----” the Attorney-General answered as briefly and to the -point as he was asked. “They cabled from Capetown last night, and the -details are in to-day.” - -“Lewin!--Ally!--what about him?” - -“He’s dead!” - -Nugent caught at the wooden banister as if White had struck him, and -turned sharply from one to the other with the words he could not utter -on his lips. They answered his questions amongst themselves without his -asking them. - -“He made a mess of things over the East African business, and--and -cleared out of it.” Young Rennie spoke first, but shied off the -explanation like a frightened horse. There was some darker meaning -here than the natural fate which overtakes any man. Nugent’s face grew -sharper with anxiety. - -“Poor young fool!” said White. “He was the wrong man in the wrong -place. Fell in with his own regiment too, and made a night of it--got -drunk most likely, and talked.” - -“Talked Government secrets too--_Gregory’s_ secrets! There will be a -devil of a row to hush up now. Gregory may have to go himself.” - -“Serve him right!” put in the little Chaplain with unexpected savagery. -“What did he want sending a harmless fool like Ally into such a tight -place? It was Halton’s job.” - -“Lewin went away like a sick beast, poor devil, somewhere into the -interior.” It was Arthur White who seemed to know by instinct the -raging questions Nugent could not frame, and answered them with more -coherence than the rest. “That was how it was they never found him for -so long, and the news was delayed. It only came down to Capetown a few -days since, and the mail picked up Hanney’s letter at Beira.” - -“How did he die?” Brissy had found his voice at last. The curt words -surprised himself that they should be in his ordinary tone. He had -fancied, with his throat dry and burning like that, that he must be -hoarse. “Was it fever or a scrimmage?” - -There was a brief pause, and the men looked at each other. - -“Neither,” said White, without glancing at the questioner. “He shot -himself.” - -“Funked it, by Jove!” The words came under Brissy’s breath. He did not -know what it was that shocked him--the suggestion of cowardice to his -mind, or the staggering realisation of the extent of Alaric Lewin’s -indiscretion to have driven him to such a course. It must indeed have -been a disaster that had made Ally see no way out of it, but to take -his own life. What, in God’s name, had he been doing? - -“Does his wife know?” he said roughly, in his fear. - -“Poor girl!--no, how should she?” - -“Some one must tell her. It will leak out, and she’ll hear it straight, -if they don’t.” - -“I pity the man who breaks it to her, that’s all!” It was Rennie who -spoke, and his tones were heartfelt. “I wouldn’t for anything the world -contains!” - -“Some one must.” Brissy set his white teeth and looked from one to the -other. There was no response in their faces, and their eyes avoided -his rather than otherwise. In the pause a heavy step sounded on the -landing above, and the Administrator himself appeared, leaning over the -rail of the stair. His gaunt form and harsh face showed not one sign of -weakness--hardly even of pity or concern--but he signed imperiously to -Arthur White. - -“Can you come up and speak with me?” he said. “I want you.” - -As if by a common impulse all the men turned and followed the -Attorney-General up the stair, and crowded into the narrow passage, -looking with stern earnestness into Gregory’s face. He held some -letters in his hand, and beyond him, through the open door of the -office he had just left, Alfred Halton’s figure was just visible, -seated by the open window. It was so hot at this hour of the day--being -barely past the Miroro--and in the narrow passage between the offices, -that the sweat hung in beads round the lips and on the temples of every -man present, without any movement or exertion on their part, while -the smell of the air seemed the essence of heat--a baked atmosphere, -without actual matter to flavour it. - -“We were speaking of Mrs. Lewin, sir,” said the Attorney-General -firmly. “Does she know of Captain Lewin’s death?” - -“Not unless some one has already ridden out and told her, or she is in -town.” - -“She isn’t in town, I think, because her groom came down at eleven and -took out her mail.” - -“She could not have heard through the mail, I suppose?” said the -Administrator quickly. “No, of course not--there was nothing but the -cable from Capetown. My information came from Beira, and Mrs. Lewin -would not hear from there.” - -“They do not know any details at Capetown then?” - -“No. Some one will have to break it to Mrs. Lewin.” - -Again that reluctant pause, while each man in his own mind saw Chum -as she had appeared to him at some moment when she made the most -vivid picture of herself to him individually. So, Rennie saw her on -horseback, managing a fractious pony--Arthur White recalled one evening -when he had seen her with his wife in the nursery, bending over a -child’s cot. Hamilton Gurney fancied her in her own pretty shaded room, -lying back against some coloured cushions, while he sang to her,--but -no man offered to face her with such news as that the Administrator -held in the loose letters in his hand. - -It was Bristow Nugent who spoke at last,--the least expected of the -group. - -“All right--I’m going.” - -He turned on his heel, as if he could not wait to think, and ran down -the uncarpeted stairs, his spurs clicking and jingling, and some metal -trapping or other adding to the audible hurry. Outside he caught his -pony by the mane, swung into the saddle far quicker than he had ever -done at a fourth chucker on the Polo ground, and was tearing past the -stores and out towards Maitso Hill before any one on the landing had -quite realised that it was Captain Nugent who had risen to the occasion. - -“Bristles has no nerves,” said Rennie in selfish excuse. “He was about -the best man to go--he won’t really care much. He’s stolid.” - -“Pity you’re so sensitive,” retorted the Chaplain cuttingly. “A little -of Nugent’s stolidity might do you good.... Lewin was his friend, too!” - -Such a thought was in Bristow Nugent’s mind all through that dusty -gallop up the tangled green road, while the sweat poured down his brown -face, and his heart beat thickly with his errand. Memories of Ally--old -Ally Sloper!--at Sandhurst with him, when they both came perilously -near being “chucked” because of a certain escapade connected with -a frying-pan and the senior captain’s banjo;--that night too, when -Forrester of the Duke’s (Forrester always did lay it on so thick!) -borrowed his man’s uniform and went out with Ally as his “girl,” Ally -in a hat and feathers after the style of a London flower-seller! Lucky -thing they were not spotted that time. And his own special breed of -fox-terriers from which Ally had that bitch he was so fond of--what was -her name? Kiddy--yes, of course, after some girl on whom he was awfully -gone. Kiddy went to India with Ally, and he confessed that he cried -like a fool when she died from a karait’s bite. He could understand -that too--a fellow got as fond of a dog as of a child. He thought -inconsistently of his own boy in England, and wondered how he should -feel if his unopened letters contained bad news. Then his thoughts -harked back to Sandhurst--poor old Ally!... Such stupid, lovable -times!... Men make tenderer friendships in their young manhood than -they care to express. - -He was covered with dust--caked with it--and streaked with the heat -as he dismounted in the stable yard of the bungalow. Not the state in -which to go into a lady’s drawing-room, he thought ruefully, pulling -the handkerchief out of his sleeve to wipe his shining face! The hair -clung to his damp forehead as he slipped off his helmet and dropped it -with a little clang of the chain, on to the table in the hall. Mrs. -Lewin was in the further room, Abdallah said--oh, yes, she was at home -to visitors. Brissy tried instinctively to muffle his spurs as he -walked across the bare boards, through the hanging curtains, and into -her white presence. - -She was sitting by the window, looking out through an open door to the -hot riot of the hillside, where the wind sang in the grasses and came -back laden with sweetness from the flowering trees, but she turned her -head sharply at the sound of his ringing step (why did those spurs jar -so?) and rose and met him. The instant he got close to her he saw that -she knew, though how he did not stop to puzzle out, and with the tears -running down his scorched face he took her hands in his and tried to -speak. - -“This is kind of you, Brissy,” she said in a quick, low voice, looking -up into the eyes she had called soulless. The first thing she had -realised was that he had made the simple self-sacrifice from which -other men had flinched, and come to tell her as he best could, with -less self-consciousness than they, but suffering far more from a -personal feeling. Another of her theories fell from her while he stood -there holding her hands, and with a bewildered humiliation she felt -that she would never judge any one again. For this man of all the -Station she had always held a little in contempt. - -“I had a letter by the mail,” she said, quite quietly and collectedly, -but as if a little weary. “He sent it by a runner, just before--he.... -And the man got through in time to deliver it and catch the -mail--almost before any one knew. Mustn’t it have been a wonderful -journey? All down through the German territory, and by Lake Nyassa -into Rhodesia, I suppose. But he was a Malagasy--Ally’s own servant, -Longa--and they are marvellous runners. You know Longa means _friend_ -in the vernacular--strange, isn’t it?” - -She paused, as if she were thinking, and put her hand up to her hair -as if a little uncertain that it lay in its usual correct masses. He -only said brokenly, “Poor old Ally!--he backed out,”--that seemed to -trouble Brissy!--“I wish I had been there.” - -“You would never have done it,”--she shook her head with a flash of -intuition. “You were stronger than he.” She thought a moment, and then -went on in the same curious fashion. “Yes, Longa (and that means a -friend!) brought the letter to Capetown, and sent it on to me by the -mail. Here it is--oh yes! do look at it!” - -She nearly thrust it into his hands, which trembled as they held it. He -almost felt that he ought not to look, as his blurred eyes travelled -over the blotted sheets. - -Poor Ally! Poor, handsome, unreliable Ally--proved incompetent, and -such a failure! - -It was a disconnected letter at best, and nothing really but a -confession of the man’s shame, which had to be pieced together from a -knowledge of him, for he had made no coherent statement. He had fallen -in with his own regiment, who were camped just outside Port Cecil, and -what with the reaction in getting out of Key Island, and “the fellows” -being glad to welcome him--well, the result was the same as it had -been when he failed before, and the Administrator wanted him on the -night of the threatened rising. He did not remember very much. He was -not dead drunk this time--if he had been it might have saved him--but -after dining with the regiment (and God knows what he had said to them, -only they were decent fellows and would shield him), he had had an -important interview with the men most involved in the insurrection. -It was a private interview, and a diplomatic affair that was to be -kept very dark. Melton Hanney arranged it, he had been most decent all -through--there was no blame attached to him. He had settled with Ally -as to when the meeting should take place, but had not been present at -the interview. There was an argument--Ally did not remember the details -very well--only his head was heated, and he got impatient, and lost his -temper and threatened. The men saw his condition and drew him on--then -he bragged of his Government, and their powers; and then--then--all -that Gregory had explained to him so carefully lest he should make -mistakes, was blurted out, and the very nation perhaps involved by -his folly. He knew what he had done almost before they left him with -smooth, guarded speeches, though no hint of animosity, and a kind of -sullen despair settled down on him. That was three days ago, before his -letter was written--three days of agonising suspense, and time to think -over what he had done. Nothing was known as yet; he was supposed to be -communicating with his chiefs, or forming an ultimatum. In the meantime -he had arranged for a shooting excursion inland--and there was more -truth in it than would appear! It seemed the only thing to do--but he -must write the truth to Hanney. It was not Hanney’s fault, and it might -leave him a chance to do something, and avert disaster. - -“He is a thoroughly capable man, and knows the whole situation--in -my opinion, if that goes for anything now, he ought to have managed -it from the first,” wrote Alaric Lewin a few hours before death. “Why -did they send me? You said I could not do it--you were right as usual. -I’m no good, Chum--you always wanted me to do something, but you would -never have made me. I’m better out of it--it’s the least I can do, for -I should only disgrace you if I lived. You don’t know what I’ve done -this time--it was a big thing, bigger than you all imagine, and I’ve -hashed it. I only trust I shan’t get Gregory into the mess with me. It -is not his fault any more than Hanney’s. The Home Government ought to -leave it to the man on the spot, or be sure who they send. And there -have been worse things in my life that concern you, that I can’t tell -you either. They involve others. Only forgive us, and believe that I’m -doing the best thing possible for you now. Good-bye, Chum--and God -bless you!” - -It was signed with his full name, but the letters were more scrawled -than usual, and the whole letter was blotted and uncertain. The -suspicion that hurt Brissy more than all was what the trembling -handwriting betrayed--the man had been so afraid of the thing he was -going to do! He had not wanted to die. Only his desperation and the -stress of circumstances in which he found himself had driven him to a -last bold action--forced him, morally at least, to go down with his -back against the wall. - -For the idea of cowardice had faded out of Captain Nugent’s mind. -He saw from that piteous, confused letter of the man who had hardly -understood his own disaster, that what might have been weakness in -himself was a kind of furious bravery in Ally. With an unusual stretch -of imagination, he fancied the beautiful set face, the splendidly-built -figure in the lonely place in which his friend had chosen to die, -and heard the crash of the revolver. Curiously enough he knew Ally’s -revolvers; they were a pair he had given him himself. That they should -come to such a use as this! - -Mrs. Lewin had been standing beside him patiently while he read the -letter. She made no comment, and asked no question as he handed back -the sheets, but with a curious new speculation in her face she turned -upon him suddenly. - -“They know--at Government House?” - -“Yes, there was a cable, and a letter followed by the mail from Beira.” - -“When did the cable come?” - -Brissy hesitated. “This morning, I suppose. I did not hear.” - -“You are wrong,” she said quietly. “It came last night.” - -The conviction was so strong in her mind that it seemed to -revolutionise her thoughts. Gregory had certainly known last night, -it accounted for his disturbed manner and his sudden appearance. But -why had he not prepared her at least? Why had he thought that when she -knew it would prove a barrier between them--unless he had expected -this beforehand, calculated upon it, plotted some such solution of the -problem that had threatened to keep them apart! The dreadful suspicion -was so intolerable that she began to fancy she was going mad. She could -not think consecutively--she could not reason, or judge with mercy. She -seemed to have lost her power to be charitable, and almost to think of -him as a deliberate murderer. For the time all other feeling was dead -in her, stunned with the shock, and her one dread was that she might -have to see him or speak to him. Her last night’s self seemed as far -removed from herself of to-day as though they were two separate beings. -She could not remember even her love for him; there seemed only the -dull pain of it left. - -When Mrs. Gilderoy came in later to see her, she found her lying on -her own bed in a kind of stupour; yet the instant she spoke to her -Leoline’s brain responded, and she answered with perfect coherence--it -was only her feeling that was numb. She had even settled her plans too, -and knew what she meant to do. - -“I cannot leave in this mail boat. I must wait to see if there are -more details to be got, and to arrange things also. There is business -to settle here that could not be done by to-morrow, and much to go -into.” - -“What will you do then? You will not remain here?” - -“I shall go to Vohitra as soon as I have packed up our things and left -this house ready for--for the next people. I want you to stay here with -me for the few days if you will.” - -“I’ll go with you to Vohitra too, if my good man can spare me. Or if -I can’t actually start with you (of course you’ll want to get away as -soon as ever you can) I’ll follow you.” - -“I shall stay here until the next mail,” said Leoline levelly. “I have -no black clothes of course--is there a sewing woman in the town who -could make me something?” - -“Yes, a very decent little woman too for such a place. I will see about -that for you. You won’t go out, I suppose?” - -“No.” - -“She can come up to you. Oh, I am the bearer of a message from Mr. -Gregory himself. His sincere----” - -“Don’t!” said Leoline sharply. For a moment her calm seemed broken -through. She put her hands over her horror-stricken eyes as if she saw -something that Mrs. Gilderoy could not see. “The Administrator was the -man who appointed Captain Lewin to East Africa,” she continued in a low -voice. “You can understand how I feel. Of course it is unreasonable.” - -“But natural at the moment. I quite understand. Under the circumstances -you would rather not see him?” - -“He has not asked to see me, surely!” - -“No, but a visit of condolence is almost inevitable. I will see that -he does not come. If he wants to express his sympathy he can lend -you his yacht to take you round to Port Albert. That is a much more -practical and sensible thing to do.” - -But Mrs. Lewin did not answer. She lay with closed eyes, not bearing, -but enduring, until thought was kind to her, and instead of the -nightmare of her new suspicions, or the recollection of that blotted -letter, she remembered the revelation of Bristow Nugent--poor Brissy, -who had come to her with the tears running down his face, and whom she -had always good-humouredly despised as too coarsely moulded for fine -feeling. Truly, our God creates strange and hidden beauties in the -vessels which He makes of clay. And who shall know His mind as to which -were fashioned to honour and which to dishonour? - - * * * * * - -Two days later the mail went out, and carried Alfred Halton through -the Gates, out of prison back to England. Half Port Victoria, still -talking of “poor Lewin’s death,” came down to the wharf to see him off, -and the Administrator came also. Hardly a word had passed between the -two men on the subject in everybody’s mouth beyond what was necessary, -but before they said good-bye Halton expressed an official regret over -the gravity of the situation in Port Cecil, and his eyes, meeting -Gregory’s, declared war. - -“I have already stated my opinion that Lewin was the wrong man -to send,” he said quietly, “I can only wish you well out of the -unfortunate complication!” The small man was turning to bay at last. - -“The Colonial Office will not hold you responsible, at any rate,” -said Gregory with his insolent lidless stare. “My course of action was -entirely my own.” - -“And any disaster that followed.” - -“Melton Hanney is at Port Cecil,” said Gregory with a shrug of his -shoulders. “If one cannot trust the man in place one may as well throw -up the sponge. I do not suppose that Lewin’s indiscretions will lead to -international trouble, but if they did--it means a certain expenditure -of men and money,” he ended composedly. - -Halton turned his face slowly to the man who was his better by just the -larger qualities that made him without fear, and it was ugly to see. As -the Administrator put his foot on the gang-plank to leave the ship, his -fellow in office spoke softly, barbed words that were intended for, and -reached no other ears. - -“‘Some of the King’s servants be dead,’” he quoted slowly, “‘and thy -servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also!’” It was the last that passed -between them. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - - “He needs a clever counsel who stands at the world’s - tribunal.”--_English Proverb._ - - -Mrs. Lewin had not seen Diana Churton, save at passing moments, for a -period of some weeks, but she encountered her on the day she started -for Vohitra. Diana had called in company with other women in the -Station, during the time following Ally’s departure; but Leoline had -always looked upon her as her husband’s friend, and did not expect, or -desire, an equal attention to herself. Diana’s scanty visits had not -impressed her in any way, and her own absorption during those drifting, -golden weeks blinded her usual observation. It struck her with a -positive shock that Mrs. Churton had aged when she came face to face -with her in the morning sunlight on the quay; but the knowledge even -then lay dormant in her mind, not to be considered upon until some day -she might have need of it. - -The Administrator had placed his yacht at her disposal, and she made -use of it in preference to the coasting steamer, which otherwise was -the only means of transport to Port Albert. The yacht was a fussy, -old-fashioned little steamboat in itself, prone to kick in the deep -current that washed the east coast of the island; but at least she -did not smell of oil, and she had passenger accommodation, while the -coasting steamers had none save the dirty deck, which was crowded -with fruit and coloured people in about equal proportions. Mrs. Lewin -accepted the hospitality of the _Hova_, and found herself the only -passenger. - -Liscarton came also, to his deep disgust and the degradation of his -dignity. He had been Captain Nugent’s last gift to Leoline, who -accepted him with a faint smile at the remembrance of Mrs. Gilderoy’s -comments on the significance of a pony in Key’land. Brissy left by -the mail that also took Halton out of the Rat-trap. He came up to the -bungalow to say good-bye, and sat looking desperate for twenty minutes, -while Mrs. Lewin unconsciously made him more unhappy by loving him -across the room with her speaking eyes. He had so often bored her by -lingering at her tea-table that she felt her reluctance to let him go -on this occasion a judgment upon her, and was always a little ashamed -in her after life to remember that she had very nearly kissed him. -Fortunately for his peace of mind, Captain Bristow Nugent thought his -chance of heaven no more remote than such a privilege. - -It was in turning round to watch Liscarton’s vagaries in embarking -that Leoline Lewin saw another pony being led off by a groom, and a -dust-coloured habit that she knew advancing on her. Beneath the white -helmet Diana’s face seemed to have fallen in and grown pinched; her -hard-burnt colour had faded somewhat, and her eyes were the eyes of an -uncertain beast--some wild thing in captivity that awaits a chance to -bite its keeper through all its habit of obedience. Her loud voice was -alone unchanged. It greeted Mrs. Lewin with the same bluff comradeship -she adopted in her feminine friendships. - -“So you’re off to Vohitra! Best thing you could do. I wish I could get -up there too.” - -“I hoped you might come up later, perhaps,” said Mrs. Lewin as they -shook hands. It struck her as hopelessly indecent that she should -stand here on the quay chatting after Key’land fashion, when she had -only had news of her husband’s death about a week since. But the -conventionalities of tradition seemed squeezed out by the narrow limits -of life in the tiny Station. For a day or so she might shut herself out -from public view behind drawn shutters, but the instant she appeared in -the open air an encounter was unavoidable; and why should she turn her -back upon friends because her husband was dead? she thought blankly. -After all, life had to go on. She was dully surprised to find herself -talking much the same as usual, of the narrow round of intimacy, of the -people she knew, of monotonous, local interests. “Mrs. Gilderoy joins -me on Thursday,” she found herself saying, as if it were an ordinary -summer outing. “Won’t you come too?” - -“Can’t, unfortunately. Bute came back this week.” - -“He has been for quite a long shoot, hasn’t he? Ah, he rode round the -island--I forgot.” Again Mrs. Gilderoy occurred to her mind, and a dull -speculation crossed it as to whether she were right, and Diana’s face -bore testimony to a domestic tragedy. - -“Yes, he wanted a change,” Mrs. Churton said naturally, and in so -composed a manner it dispelled the idea of anything being wrong. “He -was awfully seedy before he went. This place doesn’t suit him. But it -doesn’t suit any one long. How are you?” - -“I don’t know,” said Leoline simply. “What does it matter? One just -goes on living. Tell me the news of the place.” - -“There is none. The Clayton woman has taken a religious craze, Rennie -tells me. He can’t stand her any longer, so he’ll probably revert -to Trixie Denver. There’s nothing else to amuse him until he gets -transferred. You go home next mail, I suppose? How I envy you!” She -drew a long rasping breath that seemed to hurt her. - -“I would have been contented to stop here if I could have kept as -I was,” said Mrs. Lewin bitterly, for the shock that her life had -sustained had driven her back on a former mental attitude. She felt at -the moment that if she could wipe out the horror of her suspicion about -Gregory, she would be content to live out her life with Alaric Lewin -and all his weakness and failure. She glanced down at her long slim -figure in its new black, and Mrs. Churton’s eyes followed her own. - -“Mourning is awfully hot,” she said simply. “You can wear white if -you like at Vohitra--there will be no one to see. I don’t see that it -matters--when one feels much, clothes seem so insignificant a proof, -don’t they?” Her sharpened face took a strained hurt look that made it -pathetic. - -“Oh, what do I care!” said Chum, impatient of her own pain and remorse, -missing all hint of the other’s. “One cannot lose one’s instincts of -course, but I would wear sackcloth--with a cut,” she added honestly. - -They parted there on the quay, unconscious of the bitterness in -each other’s hearts, Diana to go back to the house that held a grim -tragedy for her in her husband’s face--Leoline to take ship and flee -from herself, if such a miracle had been permitted. She could not get -away, any more than Bute Churton and his wife could get away from the -degradation of that every-day life in which he had always a memory to -shame him, she one that had driven the iron into her soul. She had -never given him a chance to ask her pardon. It was the one revenge left -her, for she knew that he could not rest in the sense of his own lost -self-esteem. He was trying to speak of it, and she would not let him. -Sometimes she watched the big man moving about uneasily, with hard -brown eyes that hated him, and knew that his mind was troubled, until -she would have liked to have mocked him. She grew cruel in those days, -for the grinding intimacy of their narrow life prevented either of them -gaining a long enough respite to think, and learn patience apart. Truly -Key Island was a trap! - -It looked so in reality to Mrs. Lewin from the deck of the yacht, as -she was carried out of harbour. Once more her eyes rested on the green -circle of Maitso and Mitsinjovy cuddling the bay. She looked back at -the little palm-ridden place, and the ravenalas lifted solemn hands in -blessing on the shore even as she passed through the gates and out to -the open channel. For a minute Leoline breathed more freely as the heat -of the harbour was replaced by a warm sea wind, but she had not got -rid of Key Island even yet. The yacht hugged the coast, and the lovely -shore was flashed on her line of vision as she lay in her deck-chair -and looked idly at her surroundings. Maitso Hill faded round a point, -and the deep water enabled them to pass closely to the warm green -slopes that seemed to hang right down over the water. Some way inland, -among the desolate native villages of the Company’s day, a brotherhood -of priests had settled themselves, with the fervour of their Order for -conversion of the hopelessly intermingled black races. The Domicile was -not visible from the coast, but with a very lovely expression of their -religion they had set up here and there a white cross in the dense -green vegetation. They did not mark either grave or shrine--they were -simply placed there for the love of the symbol, and the sudden pure -white thing uplifting its pathetic memory against the riotous growth of -the cliff, brought the relief of unhoped-for tears to Leoline’s eyes. -There seemed something infinitely gracious in this memory of God set up -for chance passers-by--a gleaming, plain white cross, standing out in -strong relief against the wild green, clinging as it were to the very -edge of the land, above the sea. For so the priests of Notre Seigneur -have set them up on the East coast of Key Island, like a beacon. - -By and by the yacht passed a point of land where the Captain pointed -out an old battered gun, still thrusting up a helpless muzzle through -the guava and logwood which had triumphantly woven it a grave. He -gave Mrs. Lewin a telescope to make it out, and she wished she had -not looked--its futile mouth, agape through the green, seemed like a -discarded servant whom man had ungratefully forgotten and left to rot -among the forces of Nature. - -“In the time of the Company they fortified all this coast, because of -the French cruisers,” said the Captain, in explanation. “You will find -all the Madagascan side of the island ready to fight--but we expect -peace from our African neighbours.” - -“Besides, the sand-banks are a safeguard against any enemy,” said Mrs. -Lewin dryly. “And Africa Point is hardly the kind of coast on which to -effect a landing! What is the name of this Point where the poor old gun -stands?” - -“Tifiro--it means, briefly, shoot! Not that they could have done much -execution with that old thing. It’s about as much use as the guns that -the Government give to our Volunteers at home! The Company themselves -removed their fortifications to Port Albert during the last few years -of their reign in Key Island, and since it became a Government affair -they have been added to and improved.” - -Another long luxuriance of coast brought them into harbour again; -but the little town of Port Albert looked a mere village after -the important coaling-station of Port Victoria, and the vaunted -fortifications seemed in a very unfinished condition. There was a -landing-jetty, but more for the convenience of shipping the sugar -than for the accommodation of passengers or general cargo. It looked -like a native settlement at first sight, all the huts raised on their -four little feet above the ground, and the cluster of thatched roofs -suggesting China Town over again. As it happened, Leoline had never -been to Port Albert before, and had imagined it a much larger place. -She stood forlornly among her baggage as it was placed on the jetty, -the servants who had accompanied her huddling round with the thrust-out -lower lip of native disapproval. - -The Administrator’s yacht had attracted some attention, and a staring -group of coloured people were pushed aside by a tall burnt man in the -universal riding-breeches and linen coat, who came forward and lifted a -broad hat to Mrs. Lewin. - -“I am Mr. Ambroise, the Town Warden,” he explained in the pleasant free -manner that men gain in such small corners of the Empire, where they -feel their nation all one big family. “Mr. Gregory sent me word that a -lady would put up at my house for a night on the way up to Vohitra. Are -you Mrs. Lewin?” - -“Yes. But I don’t like to trouble you to turn out!” - -“Oh, it’s all right. I always go to the hotel when any one comes up, -and leave them my place. Mosquitoes don’t hurt me for the night, you -see, and the hotel is--well, rather impossible for ladies!” - -“I know, I’ve tried the Natale!” - -“At Port Victoria? It’s a palace compared to this, I assure you!” -He laughed his pleasant, unrestrained laugh, as if his lungs had -never been cramped. Then, glancing at her black gown, the eyes under -the broad hat grew graver and a little pitiful. Mrs. Lewin looked -unintentionally girlish and appealing in the simplicity of the clothes -which were all that the native dressmaker could accomplish. But because -she was herself it seemed bound to fit her, and the beauty of her -figure was quite as obvious under their plain folds as in her more -elaborate gowns. Mr. Ambroise thought with honest sympathy of the poor -fellow who had made such a hash of things in East Africa, and looked -into Mrs. Lewin’s eyes with a little sense of awe. Like every one else, -he could never tell their exact colour; he only knew that they were -most wonderful, and held a tragedy. - -“Is this all your baggage--and your servants?” he said, looking round -him at her property, which seemed to her rather overwhelming on the -elementary jetty. “Everything you have?” - -“Except my pony. They are disembarking him now--with some difficulty,” -said Leoline drily. - -Liscarton had a character of his own, and was showing it. He might have -been a member of Parliament in some former state of existence from his -tendency to argue. When he had done his best to demolish the jetty with -his hoofs, and had scattered the crowd to the safety of the beach, he -consented to walk quietly into the little town, his ears laid back -among his ragged mane, and the whites of his eyes showing wickedly. - -“I have no cart, and it is only half-a-mile--will you walk?” said -Ambroise simply. “You won’t get on that brute, will you?” - -“I think he would behave better if I rode him,” said Mrs. Lewin. “It -does not matter about a habit--I can ride in this skirt.” - -It seemed to her a strange procession through the dirty little -streets--herself mounted, by gracious permission of Liscarton, Ambroise -walking at the pony’s shoulder, the servants behind, and half-a-dozen -natives following with the boxes. The men here she noticed, with the -knowledge gained in six months, were more Malagasy than Negro--a much -finer race, brown-skinned and blue-eyed, with flattened slender limbs, -and features which had the pensive dignity of the Hindoo. Ambroise’s -servants were of the same tribe, from Anossi, and waited on her that -night with strange words that she did not recognise, even from the -Patois--_Inona izao?_ for What do you wish? and _Salama_ for greeting. -The night was intensely hot--far hotter than any she had spent in the -bungalow--and she was not sorry to rise at four next morning to ride -out to Vohitra. At all events it was in the hills, and would be cooler -than this low-lying, crowded little town. - -“I sent up some supplies,” Ambroise said, as he marshalled the little -procession, and mounted his own pony--he was going to ride out with -them some way, and show them the road--“and my butler is up there -waiting for you. I hope you’ll find everything in order. I have sent -plenty of tinned things, as it’s difficult to get them out sometimes, -and you might run short.” - -“It is most kind of you to take all this trouble. Mrs. Gilderoy did not -warn me that I should be so helpless on other people’s bounty.” - -“She took it all for granted, most likely. They always stay with me -when they go out to Vohitra, and I send up and open the place for them -beforehand.” - -“You know the Gilderoys?” - -“Oh yes. She’s a clever woman. He’s rather too caustic for my taste. -It’s like an overdose of quinine to talk to him for long!” - -“Do you often have visitors?” - -“Only during the summer as a rule. But it’s always summer, more or -less, isn’t it? The temperature does not alter much. My most frequent -guest is Mr. Gregory. He is round about once a fortnight, and since -he has been Administrator the accommodation has had to be looked to, -owing to his fashion of visiting every part of his little domain at a -minute’s notice. Not that he would mind if one gave him a Karross and -the bare ground; but his unexpected appearances have had a salutary -effect on the police stations, at which one generally has to stay in a -native village.” - -Leoline was silent, while a sudden fear gripped her heart. Even here -she was not safe from him, it seemed. She had come away from Port -Victoria with some idea of leaving it all behind her--the horror and -the pain; she had forgotten his constant visits to Port Albert as well -as China Town, and the native settlements on the Tableland. She felt -the confinement of the island again, which, for a time, she had lost -in the distraction of seeing its further extent. It was no less a trap -because the rats ran round it in their desire to escape. - -After a time they left Port Albert behind them, and were out in the -Tsara Valley--the great centre of the sugar-growing industry in Key -Island. They were leaving the river, and crossing the wide fields -to their right, the ponies going single file to keep the narrow -paths which were all the greedy Planters allowed through their rich -plantations, save the lines of rail for the trucks. As the valley -opened before them, Leoline felt blinded by the cane. It spread on all -sides, a sheet of liquid sunshine, from the bed of the Volofatsy River, -which cut it in two, up even to the hillsides, clear gold-green, waving -with every breath of wind that crossed it, a sight to see once and -remember always. The valley was clothed with it, and the dark sides of -the mountains, that shot up out of its reach, seemed only to throw it -into greater prominence. - -“It’s a fine crop,” Ambroise said, drawing rein and looking round him. -“And nearly ripe. You’ll see the sugar industry in its glory, Mrs. -Lewin. They will begin cutting next week.” - -“Where is the factory?” - -“Behind us, but the other side of the river. I must say good-bye to you -here. There’s your road, that track up the mountain side. Good-bye! -Please send out to me if you want anything.” - -He rode off in the increasing day, and Leoline went on her lonely way, -the coloured people closing in behind her. She could not miss her road -for there was but one, though it wound in and out what looked like -unbroken forest from the valley. High up on the hillside hung Vohitra, -a long building with the inevitable stoep and an old tiled roof. It -looked nothing but a toy thing, like a Swiss châlet, against the massed -woods of the mountain crest, but below it in the hollow the vegetation -was less severe. There was a grove of bananas tossed down the very -slope where the house rested, and below this again the plaintive tone -of bamboo--not the insistent liquid sunshine of the cane that filled -the valley, but the hesitating green that is pale and golden and -infinitely soft by reason of the feathery mass of its foliage. Down the -heart of the valley came the river, a shallow stream that sang loudly -to the silent listening heavens and the kites, for there seemed no one -else to hear. Even Vohitra, with its hint of humanity, was infinitely -lonely. - -Breakfast was laid for her on the stoep, and Ambroise’s butler, a tall -comely Malagasy, bowed low before her with the murmured “Salama!” -and asked her pleasure before he left the hill and returned to Port -Albert. She looked at his picturesque figure in its deeply fringed -_lamba_--the Malagasy at Port Victoria had in general discarded the -native dress--and wished that she might have kept him in preference to -Hafez, already grumbling among the calabashes. But she had no orders -to give, save a pathetic request for a bath, and that, she learned, -already awaited her. - -She ate her breakfast in sight of the cane, which was beginning to -assert its old influence upon her. There are two crops in Key Island; -the one she had seen cut and crushed in Mr. Denver’s factory was the -lesser yield, but the Tsara Valley was now in its full glory. Her eyes -strayed down the hillside to the rich harvest in the valley again and -again, with a kind of fascination. It soothed her in some strange -fashion to see the clear colour that always suggested spring and new -life, and hope, even though the season was really autumn. Tsara--spring -o’ the year! The very name seemed to breathe the pure green of ripened -sap, the rejuvenescence of Nature. The shock and jar of sudden death -had come so near her of late, that she felt as if it had dinned -her senses; now it hummed off into distance again, and life closed -peacefully round her, leaving her time to think.... - -She sauntered through the house after a while, and looked at the long -rows of closed doors, for the bungalow was a large one and built to -accommodate many visitors, being in a sense a government hotel for the -use of sorely-tried officials. The rooms were like loose boxes, and not -much larger, but the heat was far less oppressive than in the lower -portions of the island, and when the doors were fastened back the cool -breeze that blew straight through the house, down the long corridor, -made them bearable even at night. Mrs. Lewin’s room was exactly like -all the others, save that it possessed a key, which she had sternly -demanded of Ambroise’s butler. None of the other doors appeared to have -any fastening beyond a rickety handle. - -From the house itself she found the stable, and Liscarton, who received -her with distrust as one who had lured him into the wilderness. Nor -would he accept the sugar she offered, which for a pony who was always -hungry was a proof of great offence. But sometimes he would sulk for -days if his temper were upset. She pulled his head down in spite of -his resentful manner, and kissed the white blaze between his wild eyes -and the rough fringe on his forehead. Neither his mane nor tail had -been cut, for he had never played polo, and it gave him an untamed -appearance in contrast to other ponies. Mrs. Lewin hid the sugar in his -manger in case he should change his mind, and went in search of the -bath-room. - -She discovered it at the end of a steep path which took her a hundred -yards down the hillside. It was nothing but a rough wooden shed, with -a zinc roof that did not touch the further wall by some inches. As -Mrs. Lewin undressed she looked up and saw a slit of azure sky and the -crowned head of a cocoanut palm that kept watch above her, but the -palm had no appreciative eyes for a new version of Eve. The floor was -just warm mother earth, for it had neither been flagged nor matted, -and the bath itself was a deep zinc tub with a foot of dubious water -in it. Leoline balanced daintily on the piece of board which was all -the carpeting allowed to save her from the gritty ground, and observed -that the other furniture of the place consisted of an old cigarette-tin -nailed to the wall for a soap dish, and a wooden peg on which the -towels hung. It was not luxurious, but any means of washing is -respected in Key Island, and she had learned humility in this respect. -By the time she sauntered back to the bungalow it was nine o’clock, and -the broad heat had begun. - -One day was very like another at Vohitra; it seemed as if the hours -had melted into each other, and the solitude and rest were healing -her nature from the wrench it had sustained. She could think now, and -face her own evolution. She did not read much, though she had brought -a box of books with her. Curiously enough, it was none of these, but -a little broken-backed _Rubaiyat_ that she found on a dusty shelf at -Vohitra that was her closest companion when she desired a book at all. -It had probably been left behind by a former visitor, and it opened so -invariably at one stanza that she never seemed to get any further-- - - “Some for the riches of the world, and some - Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come; - Ah, take the cash, and let the credit go! - Nor heed the rolling of a distant drum.” - -The volume used to lie open in her lap at this verse, while she looked -so long at the cane, and thought of Gregory. - -She could bear to think of him now, even though with a consciousness -of her own responsibility she recognised that her intuitive fear had -not been one to argue away--he had foreseen and looked for some such -removing of the barrier between them, as had actually occurred. If she -could, she would have screened him with the impression she had first -had of his motive in appointing Alaric to the difficulty and danger -of East Africa; she had thought that his words had a literal meaning -when he said that he could not part from her, and that he had sent her -husband away to indulge the momentary impulse, perhaps even to come to -an understanding between them, and woo and win her. Anyhow, she had -looked at it as an indefinite move, a respite from Ally’s presence--no -more. That would have been a woman’s way--her own way, perhaps, but not -Gregory’s. The strong man looked further ahead, he had no motiveless -actions. There was a darker object in Captain Lewin’s appointment than -a mere desire to be rid of him at the moment. - -She seemed to have discovered this without effort on her part, as -soon as she realised that he had known of Alaric’s death the night -before it was made public. He had been afraid of losing her--his own -consciousness told him that he might, if she knew. Had he been innocent -of this blood, the fear would not have struck him at all. She never -masked the situation to herself any more, once she had faced it; this -man that she loved had no scruples, he struck at what stood in his -path, though it might be human life, and his career was a proof of such -fearless murder. Well, the kings of the earth have succeeded so. But -the marvel to her was that this knowledge of him had not killed her -love. It had been numbed with the blow of her discovery of his pitfall -for the man who stood in his way; but as the first horror passed off, -as the mental life flowed back to her in the solitude of Vohitra, she -realised that her heart had only been paralysed--the pain of returning -feeling proved it alive through its very wounds. The last of her -theories fell before the very anguish that cried out for him, the -yearning of all her womanhood to his master touch. She had thought that -she could not love save at a certain standard; Evelyn Gregory could -only reach that standard in one particular, that of ruthless strength, -but the knowledge of his shortcomings, though it might appal her, did -not make him one whit less dear to her. - -The very pain of it seemed to have developed her into something alien, -a character not her own. She had been so sure she knew herself, that -the revelation of that in her which could overthrow her theories made -her more patient and anxious to learn of her own fundamental nature. -It was a new education, for she proved what is true of women in all -ages--that love teaches them a sorrow so deep that they hide it in -their secret consciousness, and swear they are happy. They never are -happy, from the days of Eve and Adam until now; yet the woman does not -exist, and never did exist, who, having been in love, would part with -the experience. She would often willingly part with her after-memory of -the man, and her disillusion; but with her own private emotions, and -the glow and glory of which he was only the trivial cause, she would -not part if God tried the experiment of offering her a miracle and -showed her her past undone. - -The few days of solitude before Mrs. Gilderoy joined her were -invaluable to Leoline Lewin, for they gave her some sort of a real -insight into herself. By the time Mrs. Gilderoy climbed the hill on her -pony, bringing a breath of the stale life of Port Victoria with her, -Mrs. Lewin could listen and pay a courteous attention without moral -dislocation. Mrs. Gilderoy was both kind and shrewd; but the habit of -many years will not be held in check by dormant good qualities, and she -had used her quick wits on the social world around her until a smart -saying became her second nature. It was irresistible to her to score -off people, however much she might like them, and sometimes the talent -even surprised her into a lie. - -“Is Major Churton back yet?” Leoline asked, as they sat at their first -dinner together. “I saw Diana the day I left. She told me he was -coming.” - -“He looks a good deal browner and older. I encountered him at the -Denvers’, lifting Trixie in and out of the hammock which she hangs up -with that end in view. Some man has always got her in his arms. She -likes them to paw her! Bute Churton goes there far too much.” - -“Di told me that Mrs. Clayton had taken to religion--has Miss Denver -tasted conversion also?” - -“No, but it’s true about Eva Clayton. She talks about God as if He were -an intimate acquaintance whose views she could always command on the -telephone. And of course they always coincide with her own conduct! -Wray wants to ask her if the Deity approves of ladies smoking! He hates -her cigarettes, does my good man.” - -“God has come into fashion,” said Mrs. Lewin rather bitterly. “At one -time we kept our knowledge of Him to ourselves, as if ashamed of it, -except in church, but now it is quite _chic_ to drag Him into daily -life. One almost gives His name as a reference--with one’s banker’s!” - -“Yes, and so even the name has become cheapened.” - -“It is inconsistent of me perhaps,” Mrs. Lewin confessed, “but I would -rather hear a man use it as an oath and blaspheme that Name, than -a woman turn it to account and use it for effect, even though half -unconsciously.” - -“It is after all the worse blasphemy--and so common now-a-days. -Sentimental people always fall back upon God as an excuse for their own -self-indulgence.” - -Mrs. Lewin thought of the one sin that shall not be forgiven--the sin -against the Holy Ghost, which is the sin of the spirit and worse than -the sin of the letter. But she did not say so, being possessed of the -grace of silence. - -“The result of Eva’s hypocrisy, however, has not been exactly -satisfactory, from her point of view,” laughed Mrs. Gilderoy. “The -Rennie boy has defected, and now wanders about looking for a new -pitfall. He wants to come out and see us, by the way. Is it too soon? -Would you mind?” - -“I do not mind,” said Mrs. Lewin slowly, “in the sense of its being -too soon after my husband’s death. There is no real sooner or later in -these things--it is merely a decent custom of civilisation which makes -us pull down the blinds, and pretend to the world that we are weeping. -Every one knows in their own minds that one cannot weep for more than a -few hours at most. Why should I mind seeing visitors? Particularly in -such a community as this! But I wish, if any one must come out, that it -had been Mr. Gurney. Simply because I should like to hear him sing.” - -“Yes, he is always a voice with a man tacked on. Unfortunately he can’t -realise it though,” said Mrs. Gilderoy drily. “If you asked him to -come he would tell the whole Station. I think the Rennie boy is really -safer, Chum.” - -Mrs. Lewin assented absently, and Mr. Rennie arrived in due course, -and became an unconscious factor in spinning the web of her fate. She -had made an effort in raising no objection to his presence, partly on -Mrs. Gilderoy’s account, for though that lady was good-natured enough -to come out to Vohitra without the stimulant of a larger party, it -must, as Leoline knew, be both dull and monotonous to her. The reward -of her virtue was a new revelation in the diagnosis she was making of -her own self, and the touchstone nothing but the light words of a boy. - -Mr. Rennie stayed some days at Vohitra, sitting figuratively and -sometimes literally at the feet of both ladies. He was shy of grief, -and at first looked with distrust at Leoline’s black-gowned figure. But -her composed manner reassured while it puzzled him. The women with whom -he had been best acquainted had been of a type that hysterically wails -its sorrows in the market-place, and is consolable the week after. -But Mrs. Lewin was even capable of smiling at a small joke, though -the flowerful softness of her face had a new gravity that seemed to -have touched it with a shadow. Chum’s eyebrows were always a little -suggestive of tragedy, from a curve belied by her smiling eyes; but -Rennie saw, vaguely, that the face he admired had gained something--a -greater womanhood perhaps, almost the strength of maternity. Not having -the key he put it down to Alaric Lewin’s sudden death, but he did not -think that she would be easily consoled. Lewin, poor fellow, had been -of a type which Rennie could conscientiously admire. His good looks, -coupled with a certain air of breeding about him, made him a model for -younger men; and to play polo and tennis as Ally did by nature was -attainment enough for military ambition. Ally, as a married man, almost -made bachelorhood look puny, for the tie had never interfered with his -attractiveness to the opposite sex. Rennie would have been a married -man on such terms. No wonder that Mrs. Lewin’s grief for this hero went -deeper than a pocket-handkerchief. - -He was sitting on a stool--but not of repentance--at her feet, on the -evening before his departure. The stoep was their usual sitting-room, -and they had gathered there after dinner for desultory chat, Mrs. -Gilderoy swinging her small compact body in the paintless remains of -a rocking-chair, Mrs. Lewin leaning back against as many cushions as -Rennie could find for her basket-work lounge, Rennie himself with -his back to one of the pillars of the stoep, and his hands clasped -round his knees. He had ridden down into the valley that afternoon -with Mrs. Lewin to see the sugar factory, and while becoming a little -heady with the changing colours of her eyes, he did not know that the -smell of the rich sugar brought back the day she went over Denver’s, -and that a ghost walked by her in his place and pointed out all the -transformations of the cane to her, from the crushing and ejection of -the waste for fuel, to the last refinement and glittering heaps waiting -to be bagged. The dark, luscious-smelling place was a dream of sugar, -but the two who wandered about among its thunderous machinery were -thinking of an alien sweetness. - -“I must write a note to my good man for you to take back with you,” -Mrs. Gilderoy remarked after a time, and she went into the bungalow -to do it. Mrs. Lewin and Rennie sat silent. She did not notice that -he was plaiting a frill of her gown between his confident fingers; -his presence was as little to her as the fireflies and lamp-beetles -starring the grass, for she was thinking of Ally. It was one of her -hours of remorse when an intolerable sense of responsibility for the -ceasing of his strong young vitality bowed her with irresistible -force. At such moments she would have sacrificed all her after life -to his memory, and done penance because she felt herself the indirect -cause of a fate she could not foresee. When she was less morbid she -saw that even a strong woman cannot stand between a weak man and the -consequence of his own actions, but her torturing conscience accused -her of complicity with Gregory because for the space of some weeks she -had allowed herself to be happy. At such moments she did not plead -innocence of any participation in his darker plans; she felt that to -expiate her own sin she must sacrifice both herself and him for all the -years of strong life that lay before them. - -“I wish I knew you better, Mrs. Lewin,” Rennie said suddenly. - -“Why?” she asked, coming back to the present with a start. She looked -down at his young good looks and audacious eyes, and realised that he -had been playing with her gown, which she quietly drew away. - -“I should so like to call you by your Christian name,” said Rennie, -with the happy safety of his youth. Women never snubbed him very -severely, because the flushed colour of his face suggested the -school-boy still. - -Leoline smiled a little whimsically. “That is the disadvantage of going -by a general nickname,” she said good-naturedly, supposing that the -compromising “Chum” on so many lips had tempted him. - -“Oh, I don’t mean your nickname,” he said somewhat loftily. “Every -one uses that--all the women, at least. They have made it common. But -I envy Gurney when he sings that song about you.” He began to hum -“Leoline.” - - “We sang our songs together till the stars shook in the skies-- - We spoke--we spoke of common things, but the tears were in our eyes. - And my hand I know it trembled to each light, warm touch of thine-- - Yet we are friends, and only friends, my lost love Leoline.” - -“I always think it is a little high-flown for every day,” said Mrs. -Lewin, with a view to the salutary effect of being matter-of-fact. A -big, white moon was shining down the valley and silvering the sweep of -cane, and the fireflies and intoxicating scents made sentiment a little -excusable. - -“I shouldn’t call you Leoline,” said Rennie, with a conscious sense of -his own cleverness in distinction. “I should shorten it for every day, -as you say. I like Leo better. No one calls you Leo.” - -She rose abruptly, with a movement of protest beyond the power of -control, and walked to the further end of the stoep, remarking, “I am -sorry that I do not feel inclined to accord the privilege.” - -Just a boy’s light words! Yet she remembered with a rush of pain how, -long since, Mrs. Churton had asked leave to call her Chum, and she had -said yes, and Mrs. Gilderoy had apologised for using her husband’s name -for her. She had not cared--“Every one calls me Chum!” she had said -lightly, and the name had grown, as Rennie said, common. Yet the sound -of that natural contraction of Leoline on other lips than Gregory’s -had aroused all the tigress in her to defend a sacred right. It was -Gregory’s name for her--one, curiously enough, that no one else had -ever used, even in her home-life before her marriage. As Rennie said, -“No one calls you Leo”--no one, that is, before a prying public. In -the sanctity of their closer love it had been the dearest of sounds to -her, the little tender name that his suppressed voice had made a mere -whisper for her ears alone. - -She leaned there, at the end of the stoep, looking out into the blaze -of the moonlight which greyed the wooded mountains, and made the cane a -magic harvest for fairies to reap. She longed at this moment for some -one to confide her doubts to, and the tumult in her mind, and curiously -enough her thoughts turned to Mrs. Ritchie Stern, the comparative -stranger with the sea winds haunting her blue eyes--the wife who loved -her husband, and had spoken of children to a childless woman.... Some -pulse seemed to beat and burn in Leoline’s bosom. Her heart turned to -water in her, and all her life demanded the man she had been schooling -herself to renounce--demanded not only him, but to be completed in him, -bound by the strong tie of the flesh that earth at least can give, be -the communion of saints what it may in Heaven. - -The most pitiful and natural outcry ever put into a woman’s mouth, was -that despairing “I loved him--and I did not bear his child!” It is very -indecent, because no woman who is not indemnified by law and the Church -has any right to feel the life quicken in her veins for any man, no -matter how much her mate by instinct and suitability. She may, however, -ask God’s blessing on a loveless union, and know that she lies through -every vow she makes, and then--the joys of the flesh are no more lust! -Without a legal right love itself is a sin, but the woman who is so -forgetful of convention that she can yearn for the natural outcome of -childbirth is pilloried in every moral market-place of the world. It -seems a pity that, since we have accepted the decalogue, nature must -always be immoral; but looked at in one sense even the marriage service -is only sanctifying a breach of divine commandment. Leoline Lewin -was traditional enough to feel her modesty damaged by her own unruly -pulses. There was an accusation in every memory of Gregory’s clasp, and -yet she could not conscientiously confess herself repentant, or say in -truth that she would undo one moment of that too-keen pleasure. She -looked up blankly at the inscrutable heavens, serenely blue and out of -reach of question. - -“How can one repent for being perfectly happy?” she said. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - - “He who will not have peace, God sends him war.”--_English - Proverb._ - - -The Administrator stepped out of the writing-room quickly, through the -ever-open window, tripped, and nearly fell headlong on the stoep. He -looked down, as he caught the vine-clad pillar, to see what had nearly -wrought his destruction. A man, a half-caste, lay huddled at his feet, -in an attitude so like death that a stranger would have been deceived. -Evelyn Gregory had seen that death-sleep before; he bent down closely, -pushed the man over with his foot, and sniffed the heavy breath that -came every thirty seconds or so through the open mouth. Then he stood -up again, erect, at his full six feet three inches, and looked across -the gardens of Government House, that seemed to drift away into glades -of fainter and fainter colour, until it was only a green glow. His -active eyes may have seen the vegetation, but they certainly saw -something else--a picture inside his head rather than outside. After a -second he raised his voice and called. - -Two Arabs answered the Administrator’s summons, on the principle that -Saadat el basha (his Excellency) usually demanded strenuous tasks too -heavy for one man. Gregory looked with steady, lidless eyes from them -to the apparently lifeless body, and pointed to it with a curt gesture. - -“Take that away,” he said in his horribly under-breathed voice, “and -lay him somewhere to recover. He is not dead--he has been smoking -ganja.” He paused, looked down at the helpless body, and added three -words whose bestial insult they could understand--“_Ya ibn kelb!_” -(This is not even Malagasy--it is Arabic, and it conveys that your -parentage was not all it might be with advantage to yourself.) - -The Arabs lifted the half-caste native, and carried him away out of -range of Gregory’s savage eyes. He was a sais in their phrase--a -Zanzalaky or pony-boy in Key Island, and attached to the Government -House stables. Why he had crawled on to the stoep in the state he was -when he had fallen asleep they did not ask. It was a disaster sent -by Allah, and would bring him the kourbash, which was their name for -Gregory’s shambok. - -The Administrator continued his interrupted way, walked off the stoep, -and was half across the grass when he spied a pony trotting up the -drive, and turned aside to speak to the rider. No man trotted in such -heat save one in Key Island, and that was the O.C.T. Gregory turned -back with him to the house. - -“Just the man I wanted!” he said. “I was coming down to the club to -look for you. Come in here.” - -Churton threw his leg over his pony’s neck, polo fashion, and dropped -off, a groom appearing as if by magic to take the animal. There were so -many servants always waiting on noiseless bare feet at Government House -that it was rarely necessary to shout as Gregory had done. - -“I’ve just had a warning,” said the Administrator, leading the way back -into the room he had left. “Sit down--whiskey or cého?” - -“Whiskey, thanks.” - -“A man was lying in a drunken sleep just outside that window,” said -the Administrator, with a backward nod, as he opened the soda-water for -his guest himself, and poured in the spirit. “He must have been there a -very short time--he will lie like that for three days now.” - -Churton raised the glass. - -“Here’s to you!” he said significantly. “What was it? Hemp?” - -“Yes--ganja. They have given up brewing it because we were watching for -the still, but they’ve got some of the crop, and they are teaching the -natives to smoke it like opium. It means a fresh raid.” - -“And more slaughter! Well, I shall be glad of a little diversion.” An -ugly, dark look flitted over the soldier’s face, and wrinkled his broad -forehead. There seemed more grey in his thick dark hair of late, and a -line of pain round the firm lips. “Any notion where the trouble rises?” -he said. - -“I have an idea that it’s beyond China Town, in that valley between the -Tableland and Hashish.” - -“But, my dear fellow, there’s no way through--it’s all ‘dirty,’ and as -full of scrub as it can be. I came down that way from shooting on the -Tableland and found it nearly impassable. No room for crops.” - -“There’s room for storage. I don’t mean in the valley itself, but -nearer the Little Zambesi. Anyhow I shall raid Sand Bay. There are -caves there.” - -Churton sat thoughtfully for a minute, the tumbler in his strong brown -hand. He felt desperately that he would be glad of a scrimmage, if only -the beggars would show fight. But when was a coloured man game enough? - -“They’ve been quiet for this last month or so,” he said regretfully. -“Ever since that little demonstration in your garden here.” - -“That was a flash in the pan--it meant nothing.” - -“It only frightened Mrs. Lewin. Have you heard anything of her, by the -way?” - -“She is still at Vohitra.” - -“I know. My wife talks of going out there when Mrs. Gilderoy returns. -She can’t stand her in the same house.” - -“I have not seen Mrs. Lewin for some weeks--not since she went out, in -fact,” said Gregory deliberately. He looked at the man before him as if -measuring him, almost stealthily, and licked his lips to moisten them -in the tigerish fashion peculiar to him before some inhuman effort. -Churton was not looking at him; he leaned forward, his elbows on his -knees, one hand still holding the half-empty tumbler, the other hanging -loosely against his puttee. The massive lines of his head and neck were -thrown into prominence by the forward thrust of his shoulders. - -“Strong man to strong man!” said Gregory rapidly to his own heart. “And -I like him ... but some one must go under. He has to be the sacrifice.” - -“Mrs. Lewin declines to see me,” he said slowly, choosing his words -with care. “She not unnaturally connects me with her husband’s death, -as I was the unfortunate cause of his going to East Africa. Not being -very logical she forgets her own anxiety that Captain Lewin should have -a chance to show what stuff he was made of. Well, he showed it--but as -I gave him the chance, his wife gives me the blame!” - -Churton nodded without speaking. His attitude was sympathetic so far. -Then Gregory did one of those things that had made men follow his order -into death itself, and die silent, having bought him life, and--what he -valued more--success. A touch of human weakness in his almost inhuman -strength had been his great coup on occasions which had never been -recorded, for something in his personality attracted men and women -alike of an infinitely higher type than himself, and when he used that -magnetism it had never failed him. - -He laid his hand on Churton’s shoulder, and his quick panting voice was -a broken whisper. - -“Churton, I’m desperate! She is everything to me--but her husband, -dead, is a stronger barrier even than living. She is making a shrine of -his memory, and thinks she must be faithful to it.” - -The real secret of Gregory’s influence was that his appeal was genuine, -though made with a further end in view. He did not lay bare his secrets -for a light reason. He could feel his own earnestness touching Bute -Churton in spite of self-interest and the reserve of training and -tradition. He looked up with a haggard face that would have shaken any -resolution less ruthless than Gregory’s. - -“Is that how it is?” he said quietly. “Well, you have my best wishes. -And you can tell her that she owes no allegiance to her husband’s -memory, I--knew him more intimately than she. Men do know each other -so--see? He was not faithful to her, even after six months.” He paused, -set the empty tumbler on the table as if in complete control of his -nerves, and added in the same level tone: “You had better make her -understand that Lewin was no ideal for her to cherish. Otherwise--she -is a good woman--she might not listen to you.” - -Gregory drew a breath of relief that caught itself in his throat. The -thing he had suspected was confirmed--at least he had tacit consent -from Churton to use his suspicion. The sacrifice of the man before -him in extracting such a bitter confession was, as always, a second -consideration to his own gain. He held an advantage now to use in his -own behalf with Leoline Lewin, and if it had been necessary to drag -Churton through the mire of mentioning his wife’s very name he would -not have stopped at doing so, nor did he doubt his own success. He was -quick to reckon chances, and the vulnerable points of those with whom -he had to deal--such insight had been a necessity to him. He knew that -the more generous nature had been touched by the unlocking of his own -secret; nothing less would have worked on him to admit as much as he -had. He took his hand off Churton’s shoulder, and said, “Thank you, -old fellow!” as simply as a school-boy, and Churton thought himself -rewarded. - -There was truth, too, in his saying that he was desperate. A kind of -hunger for the woman he loved possessed him, and he had not seen her -to speak to since the night when he betrayed himself by a too-great -anxiety to bind her to him. She had withdrawn herself beyond reach of -his immediate influence, and he dared not force her to an encounter. -Twice he had been at Port Albert, and had found Vohitra closed to -him--by Mrs. Lewin’s own request he paid her no visit of condolence. -He could not realise that the tie between them was not endangered -by absence, or that material things had no influence upon Leoline’s -feelings for him. A man loves with his five senses; but a woman with -all her instincts and a few over. It does not really matter to her -if he is ill-favoured, or has given her a badly-cooked dinner, or a -world divides them, or he talks about himself, or some one has burnt -the fat and the smell is pervading the house--so long as he is her -chosen to her she can go on love-making, in fancy if need be, without -distraction. But you must satisfy the eyes, and the palate, and the -longing touch, and the egotistical ear, and the sensitive nose, -before a man is well pleased and thinks tenderly of the opposite sex. -Long before Leoline Lewin was ripe for seeing him again, Gregory was -fretting because he thought his influence slackened by distance. He -wanted to bring the power of his personality to bear again before he -could feel sure of his ultimate success. - -At first, as the days lengthened into weeks, he had been patient to -let her recover from the shock of her husband’s death, to go away -and mourn for him if need be, for decency’s sake. But he had meant -to see her under the cloak of a conventional sympathy, and when he -found himself denied her presence he chafed, and then, risking Mrs. -Gilderoy’s eyes, he wrote to her. It had been difficult to answer, -in the face of her own renewed desire, but she had quietly demanded -time. She was going home next mail; she would see him to say good-bye, -and they might meet again in England. Her date of meeting had a -far-off sound, and he realised that conventional widowhood meant at -least a year’s probation. To the man of immediate action, a man like -Gregory, such flimsy delays were irritating; and yet he recognised the -importance of social standing, and the slur of a hurried marriage. At -least he must force a definite promise before the mail arrived and she -slipped beyond his grasp, and even to do this meant a violation of her -husband’s memory. It was then that Gregory thought of certain hints he -had heard of his A.D.C. and the women of the station, for Halton had -carried adder’s poison under his tongue to justify his own devotion in -the earlier days of his intimacy with Mrs. Lewin. Absorbed in weightier -matters, and contemptuous of gossip, Gregory had not interested himself -in such slight things as Alaric Lewin’s infidelities, and when his -need came, he could remember nothing but an outline. He did not know, -however, whither his incompetent _aide_ had always been lured away -from duty, and his own savage strictures on tennis and Maitso recurred -to him. The inference was natural, and with a broad master-stroke -of policy, he drained Diana’s husband for information--the man most -unlikely to know on the surface of things, the man most likely to know -in Gregory’s sardonic experience of such situations. These things -always leaked out, and worked to silent tragedies between husband and -wife. Churton would know--and for his own ends Evelyn Gregory could -make use even of a dead man’s gallantries. - -Up in the silence of Vohitra a runner brought a letter to Leoline -Lewin a day or so after Churton had spoken with the Administrator. At -the sight of the handwriting her heart stood still again, and she did -not think to look at the messenger, who, according to the date of the -missive, should have been there before. There was a restless excitement -about the man, half fear, half exultation, for he brought other news -than that in the letter--but Mrs. Lewin found her own sufficient for -the moment, and read and re-read the small characteristic writing as if -fascinated. - -Gregory was never merciful. He tore the last of her illusions from -her, and laid bare a grisly truth--though he did it in decent -words--without compunction. Certain sentences in that letter seemed to -buzz in her ears without keeping the connection. They meant nothing, -and yet they meant so much. - -“If you are refusing to see me from a feeling of loyalty to Captain -Lewin your sacrifice is thrown away, for he was not loyal to you....” - -No? Not even the faith in her married life left to her? Married one -short year, and she could not keep her husband’s fidelity--she felt -the humiliation of the bald statement in Gregory’s words. It had been -another of her theories that a woman like herself could keep any man. -It seemed that all her virtues and attractions had not prevented Alaric -from straying. And where had he strayed? With innocent conceit she had -seen herself the fairest, best-gowned, quickest-witted woman, at all -events in the little shoddy Station. But it appeared that she was less -invincible than she thought. Other sentences in that letter followed to -enlighten her. - -“I am not speaking on my own authority. Other men--Major Churton -principally--confirm my assertion that your husband was no pattern of -fidelity. You can guess for whom he left you--we need not attack his -memory for a thing that is over and done with. But to vow to be true -to one who could hardly demand it as due to him is making the position -ridiculous.... - -“I am only supposing that this is what has closed your heart to me. But -am I not at least as worthy of allegiance as Lewin? Understand that it -was not merely a venial sin, such as you may call your own during his -absence--I have Churton’s testimony, poor fellow....” - -Then it was as if a blaze of pain blotted out the words of the letter -for a moment. She saw and recognised many things in that sacrifice of -Bute Churton’s name. Di ... and Ally! The horrible vulgarity of it, -the degradation of even her slight friendship with the woman, made her -revolt. She could have forgiven it better had he done such a thing -with half a world between them, even though his partner in guilt had -professed to like her; but in the narrow confines of Port Victoria it -seemed abominable. Her last ideal was torn from her, and the worst of -it was that in the light of Ally’s backsliding she saw what her own had -nearly been. In her thoughts, her desires, perhaps, she had been worse, -since his passions, like his whole nature, were slighter than her own. -She rose to her feet in that intolerable revelation, the letter crushed -in her hand ... and for the first time she saw, consciously, the native -runner who had brought it. - -He had been waiting with hideous eagerness to catch her attention. The -minute he saw that she was looking at him with expectation he babbled -with speech, his head nodding vaguely towards the way he had come, -childish eagerness and horrid enjoyment in his face. - -“I heap big trouble to come through, Missus. The land is up--they dance -the Cannab dance in Po’ Victoria.” - -She caught her breath, and her wide blazing eyes held his like a -snake’s. - -“What is that you say? Tell me more. What has happened?” - -“You hear nothing hyar? No--the ra not reach you. The Panjaka-Baas----” - -“Mr. Gregory--the Administrator--yes?” She knew that queer native -jumble of a title for him, for panjaka means king or head lord, and the -South African baas or master had drifted into Key Island with the white -man’s authority. - -“First he burn the Cannab--but the Chiney man he keep back some. -Then the Panjaka-Baas he guess there is some still, for the nigger -still get drunk.” He rubbed his hands and grinned as if in delighted -reminiscence. “They make a raid at Sand Bay and find the Cannab -cane--lots an’ lots hidden there! And _then_ the land is up and they -dance!” - -Leoline, without turning her eyes away, as though afraid he might -escape if she did, called, “Mrs. Gilderoy!” Her friend answered her -from the house, and a minute later came out on to the stoep, with a -sharp glance of surprise at the runner. - -“He brought me a letter,” Mrs. Lewin explained briefly. “He comes from -Port Victoria. Tell this lady what you have told me!” she commanded. - -The native did so, laughing inanely through the narrative, and helped -on by Leoline’s prompting. “Ra!” (blood) said the native. “Heaps ra!” -The two women looked at each other with ashen faces. - -“Is it true, do you think?” Mrs. Lewin said. - -“I don’t know--but I must go to my husband,” said Mrs. Gilderoy -decidedly. - -“I thought you might wish.” - -“I shall get down to Port Albert to-night, and take to-morrow’s boat. I -can telephone through from there too. If only we had one here!” - -“No telephone. Wires cut!” jabbered the runner. - -“Oh, good heavens!... Will you come too, or remain here?” said Mrs. -Gilderoy, controlling herself and turning to Mrs. Lewin. - -“I shall stay here--at present. There is nothing I could do there, and -I should only be in the way with no man to look after me. In a few days -I may come round, the mail is nearly due.” - -“But, my dear, the land is up--that means that the natives have risen -all over the island, I expect.” - -“I am not afraid.” - -“Well, I am!” said Mrs. Gilderoy honestly. “Afraid for my husband, if -not for myself. Can’t we get more news out of this creature? Make him -speak, Chum, for goodness sake, or I shall kill him with kourbash! My -riding-crop is heavy!” - -“Tell us more,” said Mrs. Lewin briefly to the native. “Are any matz -(dead) of this ra?” (blood). She mixed up Malagasy and English in her -desperation. - -“Many, Missus, the soldiers charge, and the people fall. But they kill -one baas--yes, an officer!” - -“Who? Who was it? What was his name?” Mrs. Gilderoy, like a leaping -fury, had seized him by the shoulder and shook him in a frenzy of fear, -so that he could only chatter and jabber at her incoherently. She was -suddenly transformed to a mad woman in her anxiety. Beneath all her -worldly wisdom and ironical remarks on the married state, she loved one -man, and that was Wray Gilderoy. It was strange how this bitter-tongued -couple had kept the sweetness of their union beneath all their jeering -at other people’s matrimony. Leoline felt it a real and consequently -a precious thing, while she gently disengaged the native from Mrs. -Gilderoy’s clutch. - -“You are only frightening him--he cannot speak to tell you,” she said. -“Now think, Zanzalaky--what is the name of the officer who is--who -is--killed?” - -“’Milton Gourney, Missus!” - -“Gourney--Gurney! Hamilton Gurney! Oh, poor young fellow!” - -She remembered the one thing that people always did distinguish in -Gurney’s vapid individuality--his voice. All the soul of the man seemed -to lie in that good gift, and a lump rose in her throat at the memory -of the songs that were hushed for ever. It seemed as wicked to have -shot him as to shoot a nightingale. - -But Mrs. Gilderoy had dropped into the nearest chair, and was -moaning hysterically in her relief. The women she had laughed at for -a too-demonstrative attachment to their husbands could have taken an -ample revenge could they have seen her then. But Mrs. Lewin felt only -the deeper side of it, and saw no bathos in the rocking, undignified -figure, tortured with being a woman and impotent while the man she -cared for was exposed to danger in the proper course of things. They -seemed to her to have left self-consciousness behind them and the -shame that dogs an exhibition of real feeling, so that Vohitra always -appeared in Leoline’s memory as a little stage and scenic effects to -the intensity of two or three figures--her own and Mrs. Gilderoy’s at -the present moment. - -She had no time to think of herself and her private anxiety during the -next few hours, through which it seemed to her she felt neither heat -nor tire, but pushed the frightened useless black servants aside and -packed her friend’s belongings for her with capable hands. It was only -when Mrs. Gilderoy had stumbled away down the hillside, hardly guiding -her pony for the first time on record, that she had the leisure to -face her own intolerable dread. Her cheek was wet where Mrs. Gilderoy -had kissed her, but not with her own tears. She had no open right to -cry, but she looked at the letter which had seemed only a new dismay a -few hours ago, and thought that it might be the last she should ever -receive in that handwriting.... - -For if there were any concerted attack, and organised hate in the -brain maddened by hashish and ganja, it would all be directed against -the Administrator. Gregory was the man to fall, by treachery or open -warfare, and she recognised the maddening position she was in by being -cut off from news. Even if she went down to Port Albert the telephone -wires were cut, and they were dependent for information on the little -coasting steamers which at best were irregular. When Mrs. Gilderoy had -asked if she would stay at Vohitra or come back with her, Leoline had -answered with the unselfish impulse of her love, seeing in a flash of -comprehension that her presence would only hamper Gregory, and paralyse -his action with a private anxiety. She had not thought of herself at -all in that moment, nor did she regret her decision now by the light -of reason; but her heart cried out in its distress that her place was -with him, and that not to know of his safety was unbearable, with a -desire as great as Mrs. Gilderoy’s. She had no right to act the weak -woman, and please herself at the expense of the man she loved--no -right justified, like Mrs. Gilderoy’s, by years of open marriage. -Gregory would believe her safe at Vohitra, and be freer to use the -brain and nerve, in which she took some comfort, remembering the night -when he had cleared the stoep, alone, with no weapon but a shambok. -But she realised, during the next few days, that she had set herself -the hardest task that a woman can--to wait and endure the anxiety in -silence, that a man may feel her a helpmate, and not a burden. - -Life went on the same in the Tsara Valley in spite of the panic that -threatened the whole island. The coloured people were cutting the -cane, driven by the dogged wills of a few strong white men, whose grim -determination triumphantly proved them once more the dominant race. -The planters saved their crops as if nothing had happened to upset the -usual routine of harvest, and though labour was scarce, they quietly -forced the natives who had not been drawn to the centre of trouble to -work as usual. There had been a meeting at Port Albert, and a concerted -plan of action agreed upon amongst those men most experienced in the -island, the result being that the rioting in the other districts hardly -affected the little seaport, and the sugar harvest was not ruined. -Gradually the influence of these few men made itself felt amongst -the dangerous numbers of mixed races; and Mrs. Lewin, from the stoep -at Vohitra, saw the dark forms bending in the furrows, the mellowing -blades falling, and, leaving the ground shorn of its gold-green glory, -the trucks pass up and down the whole sweep of the valley, while the -factory smoked through the long, hot days. Once the town warden rode -out to pay her a hurried visit, and give her what news he could; but -he was a busy man--Gregory’s representative, and the despot of the -town--and could spare but little time. He left some of his own servants -at Vohitra whom he could trust, and asked Mrs. Lewin quietly if she -could charge and fire a revolver. - -“Yes,” she said briefly, remembering that Gregory had asked her the -same question once before, at the last threatened rising. - -“I have brought you one of mine--you had better keep it by you,” -Ambroise said cheerfully. “I don’t think there will be the least -necessity for it, but it is as well that the people about you should -know you are armed.” - -“Have you any news?” - -“The island is quieting down, and I do not think anyhow it would spread -out this way. But there has been real fighting at Port Victoria, and -the troops were called out. One poor fellow was killed in the first -skirmish--Hamilton Gurney. Did you know him?” - -“Yes. I used to admire his voice so much. Poor fellow! How was it?” - -“There was a rush in the Square, and they got him up against the -Market buildings. You know those steps? He was trying to get through -the mob with some girl, and they stabbed him with a razor they had -looted from a private house. No one knows who did it, of course.” - -“Where were the troops?” - -“They arrived on the scene three minutes later. It was very -sudden--those risings always are--and Gurney had no warning. He was not -in uniform at all, or with his men--he had been in town, and was going -to ride out to Maitso, but he had not had any orders even.” - -“And the girl?” - -“Oh, the girl is all right, except that she had hysterics. Two or -three white people were wounded, and about a hundred niggers have been -killed--I wish it had been a thousand!” said Ambroise savagely. “But I -think they have had a lesson.” - -“Port Victoria is quiet, then? I wonder if I might go round? The mail -is almost due,” she added with an instinct of caution to veil her real -reason. - -“Well, it is getting that way, but I think you are better off here at -present. It was the most sensible thing you could do to stop here. The -place will be lamb-like when you do see it again. As far as Key’land -goes such a rising was just what was wanted.” - -“But the loss of life!” she exclaimed with a shudder. - -“You can’t help that, and you can only teach the natives respect for -the British Empire by a military lesson delivered some time or other. -Last time, you see, they got off with a warning, and we all felt that -once the troops were here they ought to be punished. Most places catch -it that have Gregory as Administrator, and are chastened afterwards. He -is the right man in the right place--I’d rather work under him than any -man who comes out with a theory of ‘It’s all done by kindness.’” - -She tried to keep her face from tingling, and smiled faintly. “You are -almost as drastic in your views as the Administrator. Has he--has he -come out of the fray unscathed?” - -“Oh, he’s all right--so far.” Ambroise laughed, unknowing that his -words frightened her. “He has given them a dose of Gregory’s Powder, -and they are making wry faces over it. But he is a man who always -carries his life in his hand, Mrs. Lewin--he always will, wherever he -is.” - -She turned away, sick at heart. In her ignorance of the fate that -pressed her rapidly, she pictured herself far off from Gregory, in -England, thinking of those words that his admiring lieutenant had -said. Wherever he might go he would carry his life in his hand, from -his savage unofficialism that never got into the papers, and she for -a year at least would be as helpless and uncognisant of his movements -and fate as she was now. She had no premonition that those whose lives -were interwoven with Gregory’s were whirled into quick action with his -overmastering vitality, and hurried out of the usual course of events. -Life always went quickly with him. He did not lose time through being -handicapped by red tape of any description, as his Service was grimly -aware. But these things were hid in secret drawers at the Colonial -Office, and filed for censure about once in every appointment that -Evelyn Gregory had ever had. - -Mrs. Gilderoy had been gone but three or four days when in the evening -of that following Ambroise’s visit one of the servants brought Leoline -a note from her, saying that it had come by a messenger who was -waiting. Mrs. Lewin had been sitting at the improvised writing-table -in her own bedroom--one of those passion-haunted rooms from whose -suggested associations she could never get away after Mrs. Gilderoy -had put the fancy into her head. With the note in her hand she rose at -once and went across the passage and out on to the stoep, because the -natives usually waited there. Her long black gown swished across the -bare boards as she went, where other women’s had whispered in the same -feminine tongue during long-dead summers. - -“--except poor Gurney, who paid the forfeit of his life for running -after Trixie Denver anyhow. How matters stood between them one doesn’t -know, but the girl is behaving as if she were his _fiancée_ at -least--if not his widow! She goes about in deep mourning----” - -Leoline put the letter on one side to read presently, raised her eyes -as she came out on to the stoep, and saw Evelyn Gregory. - -The sun was setting behind Vohitra, but the house faced north-east, -and the late long beams still struck that side of the stoep where they -met. Their faces were in the shadow, the dusty light only bathing them -warmly to the waist, and she saw that there was some strong purpose -in his seeking her here even as she met his eyes. For a minute she -seemed to wait between one life and another before he spoke--the old -theoretical life of her untried girlhood, dear with the bright things -of the world, that even her wifehood had left unaltered; and the deeper -painful realities of existence that he had called into being for her. -She knew, before he spoke, that a decision awaited her now, as to -whether she should pass definitely from one to the other, and it seemed -to her that she hardly faltered. - -“I have come to you to put a choice before you,” he said, even as -he took her hand and held it in his strong grip. He gave her no -conventional greeting, though so much had happened since they had said -good-bye in the bungalow ... the night before she got Ally’s letter. “I -have very little time to spare--I must go back in an hour at most. The -town is under my authority at present, and I am responsible.” - -His word told her enough. “You have been recalled!” she said quietly. - -“Yes; Halton has reached England,” he said significantly. “But apart -from any private pulling of the strings, I expected this--perhaps. -There was just a chance I might wire through, but it was unlikely. They -are sending out another man.” - -“From England?” - -“Ultimately. From Capetown at present.” - -“And you go home?” - -“As things now stand--officially. But I have private information that I -am to go to Central Africa again.” - -“Is this”--she moistened her dry lips--“because of Port Cecil?” - -“Partly, I suppose. It was touch-and-go there after Lewin’s death.” -(Did he ever shrink before a name? She could not have spoken so.) “But -Melton Hanney pulled the Empire out of a war. He should get something -for that!” He smiled grimly. - -“You have heard from Capetown?” - -“I have.” He spoke more grimly still. Into his hard eyes flashed the -passing soreness of a spoiled ambition. And he had meant to do so much -with that insignificant tool, Key Island!--to make it so much the very -centre of warring destinies that no one in after years could speak of -it without an historical significance. He knew, as even she could not -understand, the result of the thing he had dared to do, and he saw -his future, perhaps, as another man did, “behind him!” For one cannot -stake Empires and not lose something, even though one win a private -and personal gain. Something was left him out of the wreck on which to -begin to build anew--a fresh incentive to rise in the fair woman before -him, whom he had coveted to the height of tossing lives aside for her, -and committing tacit murder. He stretched out his hands and took hers -gently. - -“Will you come into the wilderness with me?” he said, with a curious -little smile. “Dare you be my wife and share my fortunes--now?” - -For a second she half drew back, not at the thing he suggested, but the -hurry it implied. “At once--so soon?” breathed her training. - -“At once--so soon!” he echoed, not one line of concession in his face -or voice. “That wherever I go I may take you with me. I am not offering -you an easy position, or an establishment in life, I assure you! I am -a man who wants his wife beside him, wherever it is possible. I shall -very likely want you where most men would say it was not possible. If -you are afraid for your children, it may mean parting from them, or if -we can make a home where other men give up all hope of family ties, I -shall ask you to risk it.” - -“I am not _afraid_!” she said proudly, but rather breathlessly. - -“Except for the weight of public opinion against a hurried marriage? -I meant to spare you that. But things are worse with me than I hoped -they might be, and the stroke fell more swiftly.” He set his teeth -and thought of Halton. “I have not much to offer you!” he said, and -his voice had suddenly hoarsened. “But I think you love me--I know -I love you. There is trouble for us in the future, but I have still -the fighting powers that have made me what I am. I can give you love, -and strength to win you back the position that I have imperilled for -you.” His voice sharpened still more with sudden fear, and his hands -tightened on hers. Even she did not realise how great the dread of -losing her had been, but it drove him almost to an appeal. “Leo, in -common humanity you will not turn from me now?” - -How much we mean by that word humanity! It contains all the virtues -with which we do not credit God. Perhaps Leoline felt that a little -more was being asked of her than the simply human side would have -acceded, but the diviner spark burned up to meet the demand upon it. -She looked into his compelling eyes, and in that moment of her love, -perfected, she cast out fear for ever. - -“I will come with you!” was all she said; and it was her arms as well -as his that drew them together. - -“God bless you!” she heard him say with the old under-breathed voice -she knew, and that had thrilled her out of all theories into the -pain and glory of womanhood. “God keep you safely, and bless you, my -darling!” It is when a strong man loves something better than himself -that he feels his impotence, and hastens to charge it on the Deity -he affects to do well without, himself. The most irreligious men are -always ready to pray above the heads nearest and dearest to them. -Gregory, who would have snapped any commandment left undefended by law, -called on the Unknown God to do the one thing of which he felt himself -incapable. With the woman he had loved in his arms he fell back on an -instinct which is greater even than habit-- - -“God bless you, because you are my darling!” - -The sun had reached the hill crest, and his last level glow touched -their faces at last with unnatural fire. For a minute Leoline was -dazzled, but through the haze she looked out over the half-reaped -valley, and it was as if she saw Key Island in symbol, the strange -little place to which she had come so light-heartedly to find fate and -tragedy there. His glance followed hers, but he saw nothing of the -peaceful harvest or rest at evening time. To his steady gaze the red -light was War and his future wrapped in smoke. He did not fear, and -he did not repent, because he had long since counted the cost, and -reckoned it as gain; but he knew, as that old-time counterpart of his -sin had known, that there was no peace for him or his--and that because -he had despised the unwritten law, War should be his portion for ever, -as clearly as if the prophet had said to him also, “Now therefore the -sword shall never depart from thine house!” - -And the woman for whom he had sinned knew also that there was a shadow -on their lives for ever, cast by the man they had sacrificed, and that -she could never dare to look her love bravely in the face without that -dark reservation that she thrust out of sight. She did not repent -either--with her hand in that of the man she loved she was ready to go -with him into the wilderness as he had said, and let him lead her where -he would, the stony places were gentle so long as it was his path also. -But her eyes, as they looked over the golden transfigured valley, held -all the pain of the love that is earth-marred, and she knew that the -tragedy of her life lay in that sealing of their destinies. - - -THE END - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Cého means simply “call”--the sarcastic inference in the native -mind being that an Englishman’s most universal call is for strong -drink. There being no bells in Key Island a shout brings the -servant--usually with the ingredients for a Cého, which order he takes -for granted. - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - -Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other -spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. - -The word “figger-itself” on page 74 of the original has been corrected -to “figgerhead itself”. - -Italics are represented thus, _italic_. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAT-TRAP *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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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="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The rat-trap</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Dolf Wyllarde</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 13, 2023 [eBook #69777]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: MFR, Krista Zaleski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAT-TRAP ***</div> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h1>THE -RAT-TRAP</h1> -</div> - -<p class="center p2"><i>By</i><br> -DOLF WYLLARDE</p> - -<p class="center p6">New York:<br> -JOHN LANE COMPANY<br> -1914</p> - -<p class="center p6"><i>Copyright 1904</i><br> -<span class="smcap">By John Lane</span></p> - -<p class="center p6"><i>TO<br> -THE GENERAL PUBLIC</i></p> - - -<p class="center"><i>The only critic -whose opinion is finally -worth having</i> -</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TOC">TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class="autotable"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHARACTERS">CHARACTERS</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><a href="#FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHARACTERS">CHARACTERS</h2> -</div> - - - -<ul class="index"><li><span class="smcap">Evelyn Gregory</span>, Administrator and -Colonial Secretary of Key Island</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Alfred Halton</span>, commissioned to enquire into the causes of -recent riots when the island was under the administration -of the British African Island Company</li> - -<li>The Hon. <span class="smcap">Arthur White</span>, Attorney-General of Key -Island</li> - -<li>Major <span class="smcap">Bute Churton</span> (the Wessex Regiment), Officer -commanding H. M. Troops in Key Island</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Gifford Ambroise</span>, Town Warden of Port Albert</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">John Burton</span>, Town Warden of China Town</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Melton Hanney</span>, British Consul at Port Cecil, East Africa</li> - -<li>Captain <span class="smcap">Alaric Lewin</span> (28th Lancers), Private Secretary -and A. D. C. to the Administrator of Key Island</li> - -<li>Captain <span class="smcap">Bristow Nugent</span> (Wessex Regiment)</li> - -<li>Lieutenant <span class="smcap">Hamilton Gurney</span> (Wessex Regiment)</li> - -<li>Captain <span class="smcap">Wray Gilderoy</span> (Royal Garrison Artillery at Key -Island)</li> - -<li>Second Lieutenant <span class="smcap">Edward Rennie</span> (Royal Garrison Artillery -at Key Island)</li> - -<li>Lieutenant <span class="smcap">George Clayton</span> (Army Service Corps)</li> - -<li>The Rev. <span class="smcap">Archie Lysle</span> (Chaplain to the Forces)</li> - -<li>Captain <span class="smcap">Ritchie Stern</span>, R.N., commanding H.M.S. <i>Greville</i></li> - -<li>The Hon. <span class="smcap">James Denver</span>, Sugar Planter, Member of the -Legislative Council</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Abdallah</span>, Captain Lewin’s Arab butler</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Leoline Lewin</span>, Captain Lewin’s wife</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Diana Churton</span>, Major Churton’s wife</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Alice Gilderoy</span>, Captain Gilderoy’s wife</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Eva Clayton</span>, Lieutenant Clayton’s wife</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Blanche Stern</span>, Captain Ritchie Stern’s wife</li> - -<li>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Arthur White</span> (wife of the Attorney-General)</li> - -<li><span class="smcap">Beatrix Denver</span> (James Denver’s daughter)</li> -</ul> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“Beware of fire, of water, of savage dogs, and of the man who -talks under his breath.”—<i>English Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>The troop-ship was twenty-four hours before her -time in arriving, which put the authorities out, for -they like to take their leisure in Key Island and -as the thermometer rarely stands below 88° in the -shade they have some reason for their objection -to hurry. The bungalow which Government had -thoughtfully apportioned to the private secretary -and A.D.C. to the Administrator was not ready, and -word came down to the ship that he must please to -spend the night at the hotel, whereat Captain Alaric -Lewin swore in fluent English (he could have done -the same in five different languages) and wanted to -know why the several dashes Government had -parted him from his regiment and sent him to an -asterisk hole like Key Island, if they did not mean -to provide him with a blank shelter when he got -there. It was all very well for his predecessor, who -had been a bachelor; but Captain Lewin was a -married man, and a six-months-old husband to -boot. He objected to taking his wife to dubious -Colonial “hotels”—so-called.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> - -<p>Out in the sunshine of the deck Mrs. Lewin was -sitting among her baggage (while she waited for her -lord and master to have arranged matters before -taking her ashore), because she knew no better, the -atmospheric conditions and effects of Key Island -being as yet a sealed book to her. She was watching -the men formed up and marched off the gangway, -and formed up again on the wharf, and finally -departing in a cloud of dust and sunshine to the -barracks on the Maitso Hill. Now and then an -officer saluted her in passing, and she nodded back -and smiled, for the five days out from Cape Town -had been worth an intimacy of three weeks on -shore. There was idle speculation in her gaze as it -rested on this small corner of the British Empire, -in which her present lot was cast; but in this present -moment of coming close to it Key Island was no -more than a flat picture on her mind of an absurd -little white town tufted with palms, and completely -overweighted by that harbour and the wharves -which the Government were converting into a great -coaling-station, the whole shut in by the exquisite -hills, loaded with timber and softly drawn against a -sky of pure deep blue. There is no bluer sky than -that which hangs above Key Island, and reflects -itself in the Mozambique Channel all round it on a -clear day, but Mrs. Lewin saw no more than the -outward semblance of the place. It takes characters -in a landscape to endue it with vitality either to -present sense or bitter memory. All she saw on -this occasion was the green slopes of Maitso and -Mitsinjovy, forming each side of the bay, and -beyond them the principal feature of the harbour,—two -great conical rocks, rising sheer from the sea -to the height of two thousand feet, which the English -call the Gates, but the native population, who -have caught strange words from Madagascar, name -Teraka and Tsofotra, Sunrise and Sunset. There -is a half-mile of blue water between the base of the -right and left Gate, and between them the troop-ship -had but lately passed, giving Mrs. Lewin a -profile view of their frowning sides. It was practically -impossible not to see the Gates, because they -were as giants in the landscape; but the significance -of their name and position, shutting in the little -tropical island at which she had but just arrived, -was as yet an unknown tongue to her. She had -not heard them close softly behind her, and bar the -way to the outer world, as residents grow to fancy -that they have after a while.</p> - -<p>“Port Victoria!” said Mrs. Lewin musingly, her -thoughts reverting to the tumbled houses and the -windy palms. “I wonder if it will ever grow up -to its name? At present it might be called Little -Vic.”</p> - -<p>Her thoughts were distracted by the white figure -of her husband coming along the deck, and distinct -against the other units in khaki as a white sheep -amongst a flock of brown. He was immaculate, -but cross, and one end of his moustache was caught -between his teeth, and his handsome face looked -darker than usual because he did not appear upon -the edge of a smile, which was his normal expression.</p> - -<p>“We must go to the hotel, Chum,” he said. -“No help for it. Come out of the sun. What -made you sit there?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t feel it very hot. Don’t bother about -me, Ally, I expect the hotel will be bearable—you -wouldn’t mind it for yourself.” The habit of a lifetime, -rather than the relationship of six months, had -taught Leoline Lewin to classify every shade on her -husband’s face with sub-conscious accuracy. She -had no least intention of knowing Ally’s mind for -him, but she did it all the same.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p> - -<p>“There is no help for it, anyway,” Captain Lewin -said. “I’ve got a buggy—our luggage will come -up behind us.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin followed him off the boat and across -the dusty road to the Customs House, and so -through the farce of having their luggage examined, -to the ramshackle conveyance drawn by a -broken-kneed pony, which was bunched up forlornly -in the shade of the Customs House.</p> - -<p>“Couldn’t we go up by tram, Ally?” she said, a -little comically. “This is so musty—and the trams -look quite clean and airy!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, they are only intended for the niggers, -going up and down from the coaling, or for people -connected with the wharves!” remarked Captain -Lewin with unusual irony. “Everything exists -here simply to be a convenience to the wharves and -the coaling, you will find. Mere human beings -don’t count in the new Government scheme!” He -helped her into the buggy, and flung his own big -dissatisfied self into the seat beside her, which -creaked beneath his weight, for Captain Lewin rode -twelve stone for his five feet eleven inches. The -buggy rumbled along, pitching like a ship, and gave -Mrs. Lewin a glimpse of open stores and motley -groups of coloured people, an undrained street, and -now and then a large, hard building, obviously new -and solid, and as out of keeping with the older -houses as the town with the harbour. The whole -place had an unfinished appearance, as of a production -begun by one workman and put down as -hopeless, and then taken up by another who had -not yet matured his plan for improvement.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> - -<p>The buggy came to a stop before one of the -older houses, a long rough bungalow with a wide -stoep, and empty doorways like open mouths, in -and out of which a small white Chinaman passed -now and then, monotonously bent on business. -These were the waiters and servants of the Hotel -Natale, who bore the badge of the place on their -grass-cloth liveries, and the caps on their heads, -which, by the way, they only wore until it should -be time to shave themselves, according to the laws -of Confucius. They swarmed out of the place like -the white ants on the wooden railing to the stoep, -spread themselves on the luggage in the hinder -cart, and carried Captain and Mrs. Lewin into the -hotel in a whirlwind of their own property.</p> - -<p>“Get us two rooms—and be quick about it!” -Alaric said shortly. “I’m very sorry, Chum—but -at all events it’s a place to rest and clean up in.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span></p> - -<p>His wife had passed him and walked into the cool -shadows beyond the stoep with some interest and -curiosity in her face. She was a tall girl, and had -an enquiring way of carrying her chin, but her interest -was really unfeigned, for beyond England her -experiences had been limited to the Continent, and -there was nothing Continental in the Hotel Natale. -Before Mrs. Lewin stretched a long carpetless passage, -some seventeen feet high, and lighted by one -large whitewashed window at the further end. It -was the only real window, with glass panes, in Port -Victoria, as she afterwards found, and its proprietor -was proud of it. All the rest consisted of frames -filled with wooden blinds, or shutters that would -shift up and down, to let in the air or shut out the -light. The windows in Mrs. Lewin’s bedroom were -on this plan, as she found when the Chinese scurried -before her and piled her boxes in the middle of the -huge bare room. There was neither light nor bell -in the hotel, but they brought her one candle, and -Ally’s dressing-room was next door, so she managed -as best she might. By-and-by she wandered -in to him to see how he fared, and found his apartment -the counterpart of her own, as to furnishing—a -narrow bed, with a dirty mosquito curtain over it, -a chest of drawers, without paint or key, a basket-work -chair, a washstand, and a looking-glass. -Captain Lewin in his shirt-sleeves appeared the -most valuable thing in the room. A good-looking -man is never more good-looking than in that -severely simple costume, and despite the fact that he -was red from wrestling with his shirt case, and -swearing at the hotel and all its resources all over -again, he seemed to his wife a goodly possession.</p> - -<p>“What <i>are</i> you doing, Ally?” Mrs. Lewin said, -coming to the rescue, and taking the keys out of -his hand with cool, soft fingers. “Here, you helpless -boy, I’ll valet you to-night. I suppose the -Chinese are not reliable?”</p> - -<p>“Don’t suppose they know the use of a stud, -except to loot it. It’s awfully good of you, Chum. -Got it open, already? I’ll engage a man before -I’m many hours older. But look here, if you’ll unpack -the things I shall want, I’ll go and get you -some tea!”</p> - -<p>She laughed at the wheedling tone, and accepted -the bribe. Even at five o’clock in the day it was -hot, with the clinging, muscle-sapping heat of the -tropics, but Chum had the vitality and sting of an -English winter still in her veins, and did not suffer -as yet. She did some unpacking—her own as well -as Ally’s—and drank the tea he ordered in lieu of -his own whiskey and soda; and then she dressed -for dinner, coming into his room again to have her -blouse fastened, for it hooked at the back. Ally -was in a better temper; he manipulated the complicated -fastening wonderfully with his large hands, -and stooped to kiss his wife’s pretty neck.</p> - -<p>“You’re too good to be wasted on this damned -hole—beg pardon, Chum!” he said, “I wish I’d -got you out to Malta, or some other decent -station.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> - -<p>“What does it matter, old boy? The blouse is -just as pretty for you to look at on Key Island, and -you can’t hope for Malta at your age without unprecedented -luck. Let’s make the best of our step -up—private secretary and A.D.C. is something, -anyway.”</p> - -<p>“I expect it will be too, with this man. I was -told at Cape Town he was a Tartar.”</p> - -<p>“Know anything of him?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing. He’s been somewhere on the Indian -frontier, quelling rebellions without much ceremony, -and a good deal of unofficial slaughter. The -Government always sends him out when there’s -trouble to squash, and then censures him when he’s -done it. He’s here now to expiate his sins, his -measures having been a little too drastic to be -winked at any longer.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Chum thoughtfully, “he must be -one of our few strong men. And they are worth -having behind you, Ally. Let us annex the Administrator, -you and I, and make him the good -geni of our fortunes!”</p> - -<p>“It would be the first time that Gregory was -any one’s good geni!” said Ally dryly. “They -say he works his men to death, and when he can -get no more out of ’em, he throws ’em aside like -a spent cartridge-case. Come on, Chum—that -fiendish row on a gong means some sort of a meal, -I suppose.”</p> - -<p>“Is my hair all right?” said Mrs. Lewin carelessly, -as she tucked her hand into his arm.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p> - -<p>He looked down at her somewhat critically, for -he set much store by appearance, and nodded. -From his point of view it was unfortunate that -Leoline was cast in too individual a mould to be -turned out quite like the well-groomed, clean young -Englishwoman whom the Mother Country breeds -in serviceable batches as wives for sensible men. -But common-sense had done much for Mrs. Alaric -Lewin, and had made her as near her husband’s -ideal as Nature would go. It was really only her -hair which gave Chum much anxiety now, for its -splendid weight and ripples did not lend themselves -very well to the mode of the moment, but she -laboured with it earnestly, and by the aid of a hair-net -gave it something the sameness of other -women’s. She had no desire to be conspicuous.</p> - -<p>“It’s all right—but don’t wear it over your ears, -whatever you do!” Ally advised, as they went -down the empty, echoing passage arm in arm. -“We can stand anything but that.”</p> - -<p>“But, Ally, it’s the fashion—which doesn’t -matter; and a pretty one—which does!”</p> - -<p>“Can’t help it. Men always hate it. When we -see a woman with her hair dressed so, we always say -she hasn’t washed her ears this morning!”</p> - -<p>“Pigs!” said Chum, laughing. “It’s your own -unclean minds. Ally, isn’t the waiter the image of -Ah Sin!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, says his name’s Chun Low, or some such -variation—but it doesn’t matter. Have some -chicken, Chum—I’m afraid it’s not up to much.”</p> - -<p>“I never quarrel with my food,” said Chum contentedly, -attacking the tough fowl.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> - -<p>The coffee-room at the Natale was like a parochial -hall, or an arcade at some exhibition, both on -account of its size and its bareness. It was an immense -place, built out from the rest of the bungalow -as if to allow of more room, though evidently in no -hope of custom, for there were but five small tables -in all its desert space. These were spread with -coarse cloths and such table cutlery as should suffice -to take away a diner’s appetite. Mrs. Lewin -made a face at her dingy pewter, and amused herself -with looking round the walls for distraction. -There was nothing to be seen but some dilapidated -fans and a square of coloured muslin on a stick -which bore some far-off resemblance to a flag. -Outside the three or four long doors the day was -still lingering among the creepers and shrubs on the -stoep, for green things seemed to flourish there in -tubs, and three dirty basket-chairs converted the -place into a popular lounge. It was infinitely forlorn. -Chum looked away again, towards the waiter -this time, and observed that he was trying to attract -Ally’s attention, which was just then riveted upon -the fowl’s iron joints.</p> - -<p>“Ally,” she said, “I think Ah Sin wants to tell -you something—he’s either going to have a fit, or -it’s Anglo-Saxon attitudes!”</p> - -<p>Lewin turned round quickly, to find that the -Chinese waiter had come to his elbow, evidently -with some more important news than the next -course of a bad dinner. The guests at his table -were lunatics to the mind of the Chinaman, who -could not use his name of Chung Low, but must -needs call him by some one else’s. Furthermore -they joked and laughed like children, and made -comments on their surroundings and on himself -which were nonsense, and which should not alter a -line of his outward imperturbability.</p> - -<p>“What is it?” said Lewin impatiently.</p> - -<p>“One piecey man he come see you!” said Chung -Low without a crease of expression in his yellow -face.</p> - -<p>The corners of Chum’s mouth lifted deliciously. -Ally dared not meet her eyes across the table.</p> - -<p>“Which piece of him, Ah Sin?” she said, leaning -her chin in her hands and looking gravely at the -Chinaman.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p> - -<p>“Chum!” said Ally warningly, under his breath. -Indeed he was choked with laughter. “Er—you -can show him in, boy!” he added, with a rather -larger manner than usual to impress the Celestial, -and Ally was never very condensed. “I expect it’s -one of the fellows from barracks come down to see -if he can do anything,” he added vaguely to his -wife. “People are generally so deuced friendly in -a station like this that it becomes a bore. Might -have left us to our dinner, anyhow, such as it is. -Still we can’t say no—can we?”</p> - -<p>“Of course not. Besides, I want to see if he is -whole!” said the irrepressible Chum. “Here -comes Ah Sin—bowing before a young man who -looks all teeth!” (Chum could see the advance -along the stoep of the hotel, to which Ally had his -back.) “Now he is making Anglo-Saxon attitudes -before him. Oh, Ally, do get up and meet him -first—I know I’m going to laugh!... <i>Well!</i>”</p> - -<p>The last exclamation was due to the fact that -Ally had risen at her desire, but no sooner did he -see his visitor than he made a stride forward to -meet him, and the visitor being equally impetuous -the next few seconds presented a confused babel of -greeting to Mrs. Lewin’s amazed eyes and ears.</p> - -<p>“Hulloa, <i>Bristles</i>!”</p> - -<p>“Why, it’s old Ally Sloper!”</p> - -<p>“What luck blew you here? You’re not with -the regiment—the Wessex?”</p> - -<p>“Yes I am. Changed from the Rutlandshire -after the African show. Not seen you but once -since Sandhurst, Ally—are you our new A. D. C. to -Gregory’s Powder?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, worse luck! This is a nice beginning—no -quarters, and obliged to bring my wife to this sort -of shanty! Oh, Chum—this is an old pal who -was at Sandhurst with me. Captain Nugent—Mrs. -Lewin.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> - -<p>One of Ally’s most salient characteristics was -that he could use slang and remain a gentleman. -As she shook hands with his friend Mrs. Lewin inwardly -commented upon the fact that the same indulgence -would convert Captain Nugent into a -coster. He stared at her with eyes which were -burnt by much foreign service, and seemed to approve -of the survey.</p> - -<p>“I heard that a Captain Lewin was coming, but -never thought it was you,” he explained. “Fact -is, I came down to see if you were too tired to -come to the Gunnery, to-night—there’s a scratch -dance on, and, of course, as we didn’t expect -you till to-morrow, we couldn’t send you an invitation.”</p> - -<p>“What’s the show?” said Ally lazily, as he lit a -cigarette. “You fellows?”</p> - -<p>“No, the town cricket team. We had a match -this week, and they got up this hop as a finish. -It’s only a small thing, so you might waive ceremony -and come!” He looked at Mrs. Lewin’s -promising young figure as a man might a horse he -means to back.</p> - -<p>“Are you too tired, Chum?” Ally said doubtfully.</p> - -<p>“I am never too tired to dance,” said Mrs. Lewin -with refreshing cordiality. “Wait till I get into -something less dinnery. I was afraid to before, -because it wouldn’t get dark and let us have -candles. There is nothing so disreputable as dining -by daylight—it makes one feel <i>décolletée</i> in the -highest gown.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p> - -<p>Both men laughed as she vanished through one -of the endless doorways. Then there was a silence -of some seconds while the cigarette smoke rose in -meditative threads. The man who thinks while he -smokes draws slowly, but if he is actively employed -he produces little woolly clouds.</p> - -<p>“You’re married too, aren’t you?” said Ally, -looking across the table.</p> - -<p>“Yes; left the missus at home. She isn’t strong -enough for this place.” Captain Nugent’s burnt -young eyes looked away from his friend as he -spoke.</p> - -<p>“Any family?”</p> - -<p>“One,” said Nugent, knocking the ash on to the -bare boards of the floor to the inconvenience of the -ants who lived there. “It’s a tom!” he added -thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>Another pause.</p> - -<p>“D’you remember, we both vowed we’d marry -widows rather than a raw girl?” said Ally in -reminiscence. “By Jove! How I wished I -had.”</p> - -<p>“It’s cornery at first. My wife told me what -struck her most was that I came in to speak to her -in my shirt-sleeves, and without thinking took up -one of her brushes and brushed my hair. She -thought, ‘What cheek!’”</p> - -<p>“Well, there’s one thing that stumps me now,” -said Ally.</p> - -<p>“I know what you’re going to say—she buttons -her gowns from right to left.”</p> - -<p>“You’ve seen it too? Why the devil do they? -All our clothes go from left to right. I believe it’s -that that makes women always look at a thing hind-side -before—their very point of view grows topsy-turvy.”</p> - -<p>“Ally!” came Mrs. Lewin’s voice from the doorway. -“Come and change your coat—you can’t -dance in a jacket. Captain Nugent, how are we to -get there?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> - -<p>Both men rose rather guiltily. “I am afraid -you’ll have to ride, Mrs. Lewin,” Nugent said. -“Ponies, y’know. Every one does here. Can you -turn up your skirt? I’d get you a buggy, but there -are only three in Port Victoria, and they are all -hired for to-night.”</p> - -<p>“Elementary, but exciting,” said Chum calmly. -“Go and get me a pony, that’s all, and I’ll show -you.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span></p> - -<p>She was as good as her word when the ponies -came round; they were rats of things, and the new -lady’s saddle which Mrs. Lewin had brought out -looked astonishingly big on the animal assigned -her. But she tucked up her silk skirts as if to the -manner born, and the procession clattered off from -the front of the hotel, audienced by half-a-dozen -Chinese, loafers of three dusky races—for Key -Island has a mixed population—and some lean -hens. The darkness had come at last, but out of -the irregular wooden houses shone the electric light -with the bizarre effect it always produces in such -elementary places. The ponies shambled along -at a miniature canter, and Leoline gripped the -pommel by habit with a dreamy remembrance that -some time since she had set a thoroughbred across -the finest hunting country in England. Such -things seemed to belong to another life, with the -smell of eucalyptus and moonflowers coming into -her nostrils on a warm, wet breeze, and the glimpses -of Port Victoria by electric flashes. They rocked -down the main street, and for an instant the quay -was on their left before they turned up-hill to their -destination; again she saw the grouped ravenala -palms, the huge wharves, the bay, and the grim -Gates at the harbour mouth, black sentinels against -the darkening sky. Then Captain Nugent steered -to the left, along a bad road where anything but a -Key’land pony would have stumbled, and suddenly -they emerged into the most wonderful avenue of -cocoanut palms, with soft sand underfoot, and as if -by common consent the up-hill canter changed to -a hard gallop.</p> - -<p>“Look out!” Nugent called, pulling in beside -Mrs. Lewin. “This is Mitsinjovy Straight, the -only bit of flat land round about. They always -gallop here; mind!”</p> - -<p>It was difficult to talk going at that pace, the -wind buffeting them with such violence. Mrs. -Lewin looked along the aisle of straight stems, -each with its crown-tuft far overhead, and said, “I -like it!” It seemed to her the most characteristic -spot in all the island, from first to last—that -wonderful avenue of cocoanuts where the ponies -were so glad to gallop!—and she was half regretful -when they pulled up before an old sugar factory -beyond the palms, a white, hoary-looking building, -evidently converted from the sugar industry to -other uses now-a-days.</p> - -<p>“This is the Gunnery,” Captain Nugent explained. -“It’s the Gunners’ mess until their -quarters are finished. The men will take your -pony, Mrs. Lewin.”</p> - -<p>Chum found the dressing-room full of women, -lingering to gossip with the assurance of already -filled programmes. Powder-puffs were going vigorously, -and the place was stuffy with wraps. She -tossed her cloak to an attendant, and rejoined her -escort, who awaited her at the ballroom door. -Nothing of the old sugar works remained, only the -shell of the barn-like building served now as a -shelter in which the gentlemen of the Royal -Artillery could dine.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span></p> - -<p>It was as Nugent had said, a scratch dance, and -the Gunnery had not even been decorated, but -the floor was unexpectedly good, and the Wessex -had arranged a band of a sort on a rough staging. -Below this impromptu daïs stood several people at -whom Mrs. Lewin looked at once, with an instinct -for those of mark. There was a tall man with -thick silver hair, and a stout woman in black, a -jovial-looking parson, and another man with his -back to her, of whom she could not judge. -Nugent’s eyes followed hers.</p> - -<p>“Those are the Seats of the Mighty there,” he -said. “The parson is Archie Lysle, our chaplain -(best fellow goin’!); the lady’s Mrs. White, and -the grey-haired Johnnie is her husband—he’s -Attorney-General.”</p> - -<p>“Who’s the other man?” Ally asked.</p> - -<p>“Halton, the Commissioner. Gregory’s Powder -half promised to turn up, but he went off to the -Tsara Valley yesterday morning, and I don’t expect -he is back. Halton is probably representing Government -House.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t understand this place,” said Chum, -knitting her brows. “When the Government took -over Key Island from the British African Island -Company——”</p> - -<p>“Limited!” Ally put in significantly.</p> - -<p>“Limited,—why did they send out an Administrator -<i>and</i> a Commissioner to enquire into the -riots? Surely the man who takes the responsibility -should be the one to find out what is wrong?”</p> - -<p>“Well, you see, Halton’s the drag on the wheel, -and Gregory’s the wheel itself. Gregory’s a man -who is always sent into a tight place, but unless -they brigade him with a drag, he’d make it an -absolute monarchy—he’s a born slave ruler. So -they put Halton in to enquire, and Gregory to act -on the enquiry. See?”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” Chum’s whole thought was concentrated -into the word. “And does that succeed?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> - -<p>“Don’t much know—and it don’t matter either -in such a beastly little corner as this. Can’t think -why we bother about the place at all. Let France -have it.”</p> - -<p>“But we want it for a coaling-station, don’t we; -and it’s the key of the Mozambique Channel!”</p> - -<p>“You’re thinking of the name—but Key’land -takes its name as much from its shape as anything, -or so they say. Besides, who cares about the -Mozambique Channel? I don’t know what Government -is up to, of course—don’t mind either, so -long as I get out of this pretty quick. We’ve been -here six months, and we’re all dead nuts on getting -away. May I have some dances, Mrs. Lewin?” -His tone had brightened.</p> - -<p>Chum looked at him curiously as he wrote his -name on her programme, and in her own mind -contrasted him with Ally, and found him vastly -inferior. He could not even take an intelligent -interest in his surroundings, and she attributed it -to a certain curious formation in the back of his -head. It was flattened on the top, but curved out -from the neck too much to Mrs. Lewin’s critical -inspection. Ally, with a superior skull, would of -course be more intelligent; but she did not realise -that she intended him to be so by her own motive -power.</p> - -<p>“Would you like to know Halton? He’s a very -decent chap,” Bristow Nugent said simply. “This -is quite an unofficial affair, y’know. No need for -ceremony. I’ll bring him over.”</p> - -<p>He swung in and out of the thickening crowd -towards the band, but the dancing had begun, and -Mrs. Lewin’s programme had filled with the -men she had known on the troop-ship, and others -who followed in their wake. The evening was -half over before Captain Nugent fulfilled his -promise and brought the Commissioner up to her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p> - -<p>He was a very quiet man in appearance, with -that instinctive colouring which in an Englishman -is always called fair, but his eyes were a dark-brown, -rather opaque, and had a trick of half closing while -he talked. He looked about forty, and the lines of -his clean-shaven face appealed to Chum as suggesting -humour.</p> - -<p>“I suppose you have not had time to report -yourselves yet,” he said quizzically; “and as a fact -you are not due until to-morrow, so to-night’s appearance -must be regarded as a kind of provision -of good things.”</p> - -<p>“There is no one to report oneself to, is there? -I hear that the Administrator is not in Port -Victoria.”</p> - -<p>“He is standing behind you—not a dozen yards -away,” said Halton quietly. “If you turn round -as though suddenly struck by the attractiveness of -the band, you will be able to look at him at your -leisure.”</p> - -<p>Their eyes met, and they both laughed, while -Mrs. Lewin did as suggested. There was no mistaking -the Administrator, because he happened to -be the only man near, and was walking towards -them with Mrs. White, the Attorney-General’s wife. -Evelyn Gregory was peculiar rather than attractive, -but more emphatic than either. He was considerably -taller than most men present, and was of that -spare build which made his dress suit look as if it -hung over a clothes-horse.</p> - -<p>“He seems as if he were only on a bowing acquaintance -with his clothes, and was afraid of taking -liberties with them!” was Mrs. Lewin’s comment -to herself. “Evening dress appears more inappropriate -to him than to any man I ever saw. -Not that he is awkward either—but he looks too -tremendous for it!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p> - -<p>The Administrator was still advancing, and revealed -a long hatchet-shaped face, with an unusual -overhanging width at the temples. His hair was -reddish and cropped closely, and his features were -cast in a rather savage mould, the mouth hidden -by a huge moustache. His eyes were his most -distinguishing feature, being nearly lidless and -seeming to fill the whole socket, the effect being -that of extreme far sight and almost cruel keenness. -Mrs. Lewin was the more struck by their expression -in contrast to the Commissioner’s, but she could not -see their colour, for he was looking straight before -him, and speaking in what she at first thought was -an intentional undertone to Mrs. White.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think you know Mrs. Lewin?” said -that lady, who had been talking to Chum earlier -in the evening, and now paused near her. “Mr. -Gregory!”</p> - -<p>As Chum bowed she was conscious that the Administrator -looked at her, classified her in his own -mind, and dropped the very thought of her. He -lingered for a minute, expressing his regret that they -should have been forced to go to the hotel, but he -hoped their bungalow would be at their disposal to-morrow, -and Mrs. Lewin discovered that it was his -custom to speak in a rapid undertone like a forceful -whisper. The curiously concentrated effect of this -was uncanny. His words came below his breath, -but not one of them was lost. When he had -passed on, she turned to Mr. Halton with relief, to -find him regarding her in his turn.</p> - -<p>“I cannot think how you do it!” he said -promptly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p> - -<p>“Do what?” said Chum, as they ensconced -themselves on two chairs in a corner, as if by tacit -consent. She made a furtive snatch at her mental -attitude as she spoke, for, to tell the truth, she had -been making use of that good gift of nature, her -eyes. Even in this brief few minutes she had found -Mr. Halton responsive.</p> - -<p>“You come here,” said the Commissioner -thoughtfully, “in a perfectly fresh and smiling -gown. Yet you arrived this afternoon, and must -have untrunked it, as you could not have worn it -for landing.” He glanced at her so daintily as to be -free of offence; the pretty white shoulders were innocent -of sleeve, and the shoulder-strap was generous, -and hardly marred them. “I usually know the -packed look of a new arrival, but you have upset -my calculations.”</p> - -<p>“I am sitting on the creases,” said Mrs. Lewin -amicably. “They are all in my tail! By the way, -Mr. Halton, are all the servants here Chinamen?”</p> - -<p>“No; only at the hotel, and one or two houses -which believe in them. They are not very good -servants, though they compare favourably with -most of the ruffians who inhabit Key Island. The -fact is that no good Chinaman leaves China—the -best will hardly go out of their own districts.”</p> - -<p>“What am I to do for servants, then?”</p> - -<p>“I should advise your having Arabs. You begin -to think that this is a tower of Babel, I see; but -the fact is, we get Arabs from the Comoros, as well -as Chinese labour, like the Mauritius, and unless -you can pick and choose, they are easier to manage. -You can have a choice of evils, of course. There is -the African negro, who is deceitful and desperately -wicked, Creole and half-caste (but they won’t -work), and even some Malagasy. Would you like -a brace of Arabs to begin with?”</p> - -<p>“Thank you,” laughed Chum. “I suppose we -shall begin housekeeping to-morrow, and I tremble -when I think of my husband’s sufferings during my -novitiate.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p> - -<p>“Turn him over to the club if he dares to grumble; -that will sober him. I will send you Abdallah -and Hafez, if I may. You will find them two very -average idiots. Make Hafez your cook and Abdallah -your butler, and they will find you the rest -of your household.”</p> - -<p>“You are much better than a registry office! -But I feel I’m taking liberties with the Government.”</p> - -<p>“We are terribly unofficial in Key’land!” said -the Commissioner, with a little grimace. “But a -week here will tell you more of the place than any -secrets I could give away. The fact is that the -Home Authorities are spring cleaning, and we are -living on the stairs and in the passages meanwhile, -after the manner of householders in such -circumstances.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin had absorbed a fair amount of information -even when she returned to the hotel that -night with her husband. It was their custom to -become confidential after a tour among strangers, -and to exchange experiences; but they took different -standpoints.</p> - -<p>“I saw you talking to a red-haired woman,” said -Chum. “What was she like?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, rather nice. She knows the Tavistocks—Indian -people, you know. I was at the Pindi with -them.” Ally’s interest in people was usually -founded on mutual acquaintances.</p> - -<p>“I thought she looked Army, herself. Who is -she?”</p> - -<p>“A Mrs. Churton. Her husband is senior Major -of the Wessex and O.C.T. here. She is rather a -smart woman, I thought.” This was Ally’s -praise.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span></p> - -<p>“But does she put all her goods in the shop -windows, so to speak? There are people like -that.”</p> - -<p>“Well, her hair was all right, wasn’t it? And -she knows every one here.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!” said Chum thoughtfully, letting down the -masses of her own irreclaimable hair, which objected -to being smart either in colour or fashion. “Then -I hope she will come to call soon.”</p> - -<p>“How did you get on? And what did you think -of Bristles?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think of Bristles. But on the whole I -didn’t do badly. I was offered ten ponies to ride, -three men are coming to call on me with their wives -(not only sending their wives to call—it’s a broader -compliment), and the Commissioner is selecting all -the rogues and vagabonds in the island for my -servants!”</p> - -<p>“The Commissioner! I thought it was the Administrator -you were going to annex.”</p> - -<p>“I am feeling round at present. If I see that he -is the right man to advance our fortunes, Ally, -nothing can save him!”</p> - -<p>“I am afraid you had better keep to Halton. I -heard all round that Gregory’s Powder is a stiff dose. -Lysle—that chaplain fellow—tells me that every -woman out here has had a shot at him, and never -made more than a fleeting impression.”</p> - -<p>“If he sets up as a woman-hater, he is a foregone -conclusion,” said Chum scornfully. “He seemed -on excellent terms with that stout woman, Mrs. -White, though.”</p> - -<p>“He is on excellent terms with them all, and -with no one in particular. He is absorbed in his -work wherever it is, they say, and the worst of it is -he’s a slave driver. I’m going to have a lovely -time of it!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> - -<p>He looked so really rueful and impressed that -Chum opened her charming eyes with a little -laugh.</p> - -<p>“Why, Ally,” she said, “you are all making a little -tin god of him,—and I can’t think why!”</p> - -<p>“He is the Administrator of Key Island, and a -hard nut to crack. Perhaps that is why.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p> - -<p>“My dear fellow, he is—only a man!”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“A woman and a cherry are painted to their own harm.”—<i>English -Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> - -<p>To understand the overwhelming military flavour -in the society of Key Island, it must be remembered -that Port Victoria is girdled with the garrison, -and that the garrison is stationary, whereas the -cruisers only put in to coal, and at the best stay -three weeks on one excuse or another. The naval -flavour, therefore, is general, but indistinct; whereas -one cannot get away from the smell of khaki, go -where one will. On the right, as one enters the -harbour, is Teraka, the Gate of Sunrise, and behind -this, though unconnected with it, rises Maitso Hill -with its solid quarters for troops; on the left Tsofotra, -or the Sunset Gate, is flanked in the same way by -the lower slopes of Mitsinjovy. When the Lewins -arrived in Key Island Maitso was occupied by the -Wessex, and the Gunners were in hurricane huts at -Mitsinjovy, pending the completion of their barracks, -which were to accommodate yet more batteries as -soon as finished; add to this the usual percentage -of A.S.C., R.A.M.C., and A.P.D., and the result is -that from nine to twelve, when the men go out of -uniform, Port Victoria is nothing but a parade -ground, and every man at afternoon tennis looks as -if he missed a stripe down his trousers. There are -civilians, of course (Leoline Lewin counted three -that she knew after a residence of as many weeks), -but they are not enough to leaven the lump, and so -the social world remains Official and Military, and -the aristocracy of the place are always those who -are most ferociously Army. Mrs. Lewin had two -great advantages, when she was introduced to the -station, over most of the young married women -who fought a mental battle for their rights before -they established themselves in the uppermost seats -of the synagogue—Captain Lewin belonged to a -very much smarter regiment than either the Wessex -or the Artillery then at Port Victoria; and also, he -was not attached to the garrison. Therefore Chum -started with an insured position that could not be -torn from her, and yet rivalled no other lady’s. Incidentally, -she was also much better looking than -any other woman in the island, and she knew how -to put on her clothes, which is a gift quite apart -from possessing the garments themselves, or even -the taste to choose them. When they had talked -her over at the club, from the ripples of her pretty -hair to her openwork stockings and American -shoes, the married men did a shrewd thing, and -waited for their wives to mention her first, while the -unmarried went to call without waiting for Sunday—which -is a great compliment, because by the law -of Port Victoria Sunday is the day set aside for visiting, -it not being etiquette to play polo or dance.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> - -<p>The Alaric Lewins took their married life as a -huge joke, a point of view which speedily communicated -itself to Key Island, who proceeded to laugh -with them over the situation. They had been -brought up together, Mrs. Lewin’s father having -been Alaric’s guardian, and an admiration of Ally -had been amongst the rudiments of Chum’s education. -At intervals Alaric had disappeared out of -her life to Harrow, and Sandhurst, and India, always -to reappear a good deal handsomer and better mannered -and more travelled. His view of life was -necessarily larger than her own by forced experience; -but the girl, left at home, knew more deeply -by theory than the man by practice. At twenty-six -a woman who thinks is in a very dangerous position -if she has had no actual experience to reduce -her ideas of life to the level of reality. But -Leoline looked innocent enough of anything out -of the common, when seen against the background -of her home. Captain Lewin was much influenced -by surroundings; he saw a solid position in the -county, irreproachable frocks, popularity with men -and women alike, and a coveted possession by others -of his kind, while the unimportant item of a -girl’s individuality, which was the centrepiece of all -this, he took for granted. Leoline, the victim of -her own theories, found the relations between them -hardly altered after the clergyman of the parish, -who had hitherto behaved like a gentleman, said -very rude things to her from the altar rails, for which -he had scriptural authority. She congratulated herself -that she was still Ally’s “Chum,” and made -their interests one with a touch of comradeship in -the wifehood. Her knowledge of the man she had -married consisted in the fact that he was nearly six -feet in height and well built, that he had a well-shaped -dark head, and a handsome face, that he had -always had good manners and appearance, and that -they were excellent companions. Marriage, to Chum, -meant a certain amount of mutual toleration and -avoidance of friction, whereby she called it a success. -It seemed to her that she and Ally had done -the same thing from their nursery days; they must -certainly have learned all of each other that there -was to learn by now. But in an indefinite future -she believed that he was to do great things, because -she could not imagine herself the wife of a man who -was a failure.</p> - -<p>A week in Key Island revealed the inner workings -of its life, as Halton had said it would, but the -Lewins still knew different sides of it. Alaric’s -duties tied him to Government House as he had -predicted, but he escaped to play tennis and to ride -and bathe after the manner of his kind. There was -an heroic effort at a polo ground too, but things -being on an eternal slant in the island, the game -had to be played on a gentle slope. Gentlemen of -the home clubs, who swear at a daisy tuft, think of -the pathos of this, and see how exiled brothers can -follow the sport abroad! Leoline, by the grace of -Hafez and Abdallah, was free early in the day, but -squandered her liberty in reducing her house to -order. She did not care to ride out to tennis much -before the hour when her husband could arrive there -also, and it even sometimes happened that she would -for preference go for a gallop through the cocoanuts -up and down Mitsinjovy Straight, so that he had -got home and changed, and was at their mutual -destination before her. This happened one day -about a week after their arrival; Mrs. Lewin had -ordered her pony for four o’clock, but the day -clouded over, and the sky over Maitso was so -threatening that she gave up her gallop and half -hesitated about going to the further garrison. As, -however, tennis was on at Mrs. Churton’s this afternoon, -and as Ally liked Mrs. Churton, she decided -to ride up to Maitso, anyhow, and cantered soberly -away, past the gates of Government House, and, -leaving Port Victoria to the right, began to climb -the hill.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p> - -<p>It was a steep climb, and the pony sobered at -once to a walk. No Key’land pony can trot—either -he walks or he canters, and even that he does -in a manner peculiarly his own, using three of his -legs to the distinct saving of the fourth. As Liscarton -dug his toes into the dust and hitched his -lean quarters upwards, Mrs. Lewin turned in the -saddle and looked down at the view, which was -gaining an indefinite fascination for her—the town, -the harbour, and the gates. The two cone-shaped -rocks had a threatening appearance to-day, with the -low loose clouds nearly touching their crests, and -there was a sullen light upon everything. Even -the sun-soaked green of the hills cuddled round -Port Victoria were draped with passing veils of rain -that were being blown over them and down towards -the town. It was not as yet wet at Maitso, though -it had been threatening all day, and the Lewins’ -bungalow, being on a level with Government House, -had also escaped with an angry shower.</p> - -<p>“Shall we have a storm, boy?” said Chum, as -she rode into the Churtons’ yard and delivered her -pony to a loafing servant. The groom nodded, and -murmured an assent in Arabic or Malagasy—she -had not yet learned to know which—but with so -obvious a disbelief in the weather that she hastened -her steps into the house in consequence. He was -right, for the first large drops splashed on to the -roof of the stoep, even as the butler bowed her into -the drawing-room through one of its many doors; -and the clouds darkened the day so that the carefully -shaded room was really dusky after the outside -world.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Churton happened to be crossing the room, -and greeted Mrs. Lewin on the way. She was of -a type that wears the regimental badge as a waist-buckle, -and seems proud of a weather-beaten skin -as proof that she has followed the drum through -many climates. Chum glanced at the hair that -Ally had said was “All right,” and saw that Diana -Churton had tightened a coiffeur in the <i>Queen</i> into -a form entirely unbecoming to her face. Her -instinct could not approve, but her judgment -meekly followed Ally’s.</p> - -<p>There were many people crowded into the little -room who would have spread themselves out comfortably -upon the tennis courts, but thus condensed -seemed to Chum too complicated to be greeted in -detail. So she remained where she had drifted, near -an open window, and watched the storm. It had -begun to rain, as it always does there, with half-a-dozen -great drops, like the first tears of a breaking -grief, and then as if a window opened in heaven -and an angry God threatened to drown the earth a -second time. For some minutes it was impossible -to hear anything but the shouting of the rain as it -drove past; but after a few minutes it softened to a -steady hissing whisper, and the conversation in the -room behind her caught Mrs. Lewin’s idle attention. -She wondered what was absorbing the party, and -turned to hear. Mrs. Churton had had a large -volume in her hands when she spoke to her latest -guest, which she promptly deposited upon Ally’s -knee—Chum had recognised his flat shoulders and -oval dark head, though his back was towards her—and -a minute later she gained the key to the -mystery.</p> - -<p>“My husband always takes about two hundred -pounds worth with him for exchange,” Mrs. Churton -was saying. “There’s the variation, Captain -Lewin—see the difference between DIE I and II?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’ve got this,” Ally’s voice chimed in. -“DIE II has a clean engraved cut under the eye, -hasn’t it? But you’ve beaten me in shades.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p> - -<p>“I can get ten pounds for that one penny on five -shilling dull rose Barbadoes of mine!” broke in another -voice.</p> - -<p>“You’re a specialist, aren’t you, Mr. Lysle?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I only take the Portuguese colonies. A -collector really has no time for more than one corner -of the world, if he does it seriously.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Churton laughed rather loudly. “I’m not -serious enough to confine myself to one country. -I take anything that comes in my way—the more -valuable the better. Bute says he wouldn’t trust -me with his own common duplicates.”</p> - -<p>“Stamps!” said Chum blankly, under her breath. -It was so long since she had helped to arrange -those little coloured squares of paper in a fancy -album with Ally, that she had not realised that the -usual boy’s hobby had grown up into Philately—a -fearsome disease that ravages both Services all the -world over. Not being a “collector” herself, she -stood by in amazed amusement while the jargon of -the cult rang across the room, until she became -aware that Mr. Halton had appeared at her side, -without her having known him to be in the room.</p> - -<p>“Disgusting weather, isn’t it?” he said, as they -shook hands. “For those who want to play tennis. -I am afraid the crops want water so badly that, as a -government official, I must rejoice, however.”</p> - -<p>“Is rain wanted?” said Mrs. Lewin, with interest. -“What for? The cane? I wish you would -talk about Key Island a little, Mr. Halton!”</p> - -<p>“Why?”</p> - -<p>“Because it interests me. I have been trying to -pump my husband for information all the week, but -he is an unsatisfactory person, and won’t explain -things to me. When one understands a thing oneself, -it is difficult to realise the ignorance of other -people.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> - -<p>The Commissioner looked at her beneath his -drooping eyelids, and there was some speculation in -his glance.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps he is like most Key’landers, and feels -no interest in the island himself?” he remarked -drily. “Most of the victims whom Government -has chained here for three years think of nothing -those three years but getting away!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I know they do; but it seems rather silly, -don’t you think? Why should people always live -in the future, or the past, when it is really the -present that matters? As I am in Key Island, I -have a deep interest in Key Island—I belong to -her, and every move of the Government makes me -long to know their plans still more!”</p> - -<p>“You should talk to the Administrator,” said -Halton, laughing. “He is the only man likely to -encourage you. I must confess I have some -sympathy with the people who hate this place, -though I can’t share Gregory’s enthusiasms.”</p> - -<p>“Ah, but you are only a passing compliment -from the Colonial Office, are you not? and we cannot -expect to keep you! Major Churton told me -yesterday that they would hardly spare you from -more important places much longer. But why do -you hate Key’land?”</p> - -<p>Halton looked out of the window at the clearing -sky. The rain had ceased as suddenly as it had -begun, and overhead was the pure deep blue that -Mrs. Lewin was beginning to associate with the place.</p> - -<p>“It’s a rat-trap!” said the Commissioner, glancing -up into the hollow heavens. “One of the rat-traps -that connect all the British Empire. And -already the rats are beginning to run round and -round and find no way of escape.”</p> - -<p>But the words held no present meaning for -Chum’s ears. She was listening half-idly to the -scraps of conversation in the room behind her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span></p> - -<p>“I have got the Provincial issue for St. Thomas -when they surcharged the two cents on three cent -stamps until the mail could get in with more of the -current issue!”</p> - -<p>“By Jove! that’s ten shillings in the catalogue at -least.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, old man, but it isn’t in the market, as -there’s no price quoted for it!”</p> - -<p>Then Ally laughed, and Chum smiled in sympathy. -Ally’s sense of humour was easily tickled, -and his laugh was infectious. Mrs. Churton’s metallic -voice rang above the babel.</p> - -<p>“Well, anyhow he had Zanzibar complete, and -they say it’s worth a thousand!”</p> - -<p>“No, he hadn’t—he couldn’t get the one rupee -unused slate, small second, after all.”</p> - -<p>“The only things to go for now-a-days are new -issues—all the old ones are too rare.”</p> - -<p>“What’s that Turk’s Island twopence halfpenny -on penny dull red, that Mrs. Ritchie Stern had from -Captain Tullock?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, a beauty! I offered her an old Pacific -Steam Navigation stamp for it, but she wouldn’t -exchange.”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense! It’ll be as common as Black English -in a little while.”</p> - -<p>“Isn’t that a lovely set—those Venezuelans! -And do you notice that the over-print is different -in just one out of the whole sheet? I wrote to the -paper about it, and they took no notice. I’m positive -there’s a variation.”</p> - -<p>Five heads were eagerly bent over a square half -inch of printed paper, while a chorus of indistinguishable -argument arose that made Mrs. Lewin -laugh out loud.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span></p> - -<p>“I never yet met any one closely connected with -the Navy or Army who did not possess a collection -of stamps worth at least a thousand pounds!” remarked -Halton drily, following her glance.</p> - -<p>“And did they ever realise the thousand -pounds?”</p> - -<p>“Oh no, not personally. You heard their ingenuous -remarks about catalogues and market -prices! But then they never want to sell—personally. -They know some one, however, who did so. -It is generally Browne who had the <i>Taradiddle</i> on -the El Dorado Station, unless it is Smyth of the -1,000!”</p> - -<p>“I know so many men in that regiment!” said -Chum sweetly, “and they are all such nice fellows, -too! The Duke of Humbug’s Own, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Yes; and the regimental motto is, ‘When you -tell a lie, tell a good one!’—the badge, a chimera -seen in a mirage!”</p> - -<p>They had no time to laugh, because Mrs. -Churton’s voice was heard across the room, earnestly -expostulating with Ally.</p> - -<p>“The colours on the red Brazilian unpaid letter-stamp -won’t stand steaming. You had better try -wet blotting-paper.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, come outside!” said Halton impatiently, -pushing open the shuttered window-frame, and -holding out his hand to help his companion over -the step. Mrs. Lewin followed him down the stoep -and into a narrow path lightly flanked by logwood. -Three ravenala palms stood sentinel outside the -quarters of the O.C.T., their split fans looking like -raised hands to her imagination. The ravenala is -the “Traveller’s Tree,” and is tapped for water by -enterprising tourists; but it is too common in -Key’land to excite the inhabitants, who look upon -it as any other palm. To Mrs. Lewin it had become -somehow symbolic of the place, and she -liked its solemn hands outspread above her head, -and regretted that there did not happen to be a -single specimen at the bungalow. Besides the -ravenalas and the logwood, the Churtons’ quarters -were singularly treeless, but they owned one of the -three tennis courts in Port Victoria. Maitso and -Mitsinjovy are not remarkable for flat spaces of -ground, and the Churtons were esteemed fortunate. -All the houses on Maitso Hill had been apportioned -to married officers when the troops were first quartered -there, and as the paths zigzagged up and -down the steep incline, each sharp curve would -reveal a small bungalow, until the long line of -actual barracks crowned the crest. From a distance -it looked as if one house were hung above -another, tier on tier in the green, but a nearer acquaintance -proved the garrison more rugged than -picturesque. At Mitsinjovy the officers’ quarters, -being new and specially built for them, were of a -more regular type, and proportionately hideous; -but Maitso had been a favourite residence to the old -planters, and when given over to the Wessex, they -counted themselves luckier than the Gunners. -Halton and Mrs. Lewin sauntered as far as the tennis -courts, and there paused, looking down on the -best view of Port Victoria and the bay that Key -Island affords, while they talked in desultory fashion.</p> - -<p>“So you are interested in Key’land!” said the -Commissioner meditatively. “Have you seen anything -of the island yet?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing but Port Victoria—and the docks!” -said Mrs. Lewin, with a laughing glance at the -forests of masts far off in the bay.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> - -<p>“I am glad you give the Government hobby its -chance—but you should have said the Docks, the -Harbour, the Coaling Wharves, and—Port Victoria! -That is the correct order. We are merely here on -sufferance, as Government House bears witness! -Would you like me to take you out to China Town, -I wonder?”</p> - -<p>“I am sure I should—if I knew anything about -it. Where is China Town?”</p> - -<p>“It is on the other side of that hill,”—he pointed -up the valley to an undiscovered inland. “It is the -headquarters of the Chinese here, and we suspect -at the root of the mischief. They have got some -place where they brew this abominable form of -hashish which sends the ordinary native mad, and -makes him get up riots and kill white people—you -see? But as yet we have not absolutely spotted -John Chinaman brewing in any large quantities, and -we cannot condemn on isolated instances. You are -really interested, Mrs. Lewin!”</p> - -<p>Chum laughed a little, conscious that her wide -eyes were alight with the absorption of the moment, -and Mr. Halton laughed too. It was one of his -chief attractions to her that he never paid her a -compliment, or made a personal remark; and yet -his quiet admiration was as patent to her as the -noisy homage of duller men.</p> - -<p>“I am extremely interested! Is that your theory -as to the cause of the rioting?”</p> - -<p>“The real cause, certainly. The oppression and -low wage that was offered as an excuse is nothing -to a logical mind dealing with these people. There -are the innocent hemp-crops, and there are the -wily yellow man and the fools of blacks. But as -yet we have not the connecting link. They complained -of <i>corvée</i> (forced labour), it is always the -plea—but we complain of ganja with much more -reason!”</p> - -<p>“And do these people profess to cultivate hemp -for export?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> - -<p>“A Chinaman, dear lady, will profess anything—save -the truth. It is all <i>pidgeon</i> to use his own -universal expression. But if you will get up very -early to-morrow—say be in the saddle by seven—I -will take a day off and expound the ethics of China -Town to you, with spectacular views as illustrations. -Will you come?”</p> - -<p>“With pleasure. But can’t you tell me—Ah! -what a pity!”</p> - -<p>The compliment contained in the genuine exclamation -was perfect because impromptu. It was -caused by the arrival on the scene of Captain -Nugent, Mrs. Churton, and Ally, no longer talking -of stamps but of tennis.</p> - -<p>“Is it too wet to play, d’you think?” Diana -Churton said to the Commissioner and Mrs. Lewin -long before she reached them. “That’s the worst -of grass—I wish we had gravel courts like that -stuck-up Mrs. Bertie used to tell us they had in the -Cape. D’you remember her, Brissy? My husband -used to call her pea-hen!”</p> - -<p>“Was she stuck-up? I thought she made herself -rather friendly,”—Captain Nugent’s voice was -equally strident to Mrs. Lewin’s ears. “She was -telling some story about the <i>State</i> theatricals very -first time I met her, and Jordan coming on the -stage dead drunk! Rather good tale she made of -it too.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span></p> - -<p>Chum began to see that she would have to like -Brissy in spite of herself, if it were to be done at all. -A sudden impatience of the chatter round her seized -her with the tantalising glimpse of more exciting -things to hear of from Halton. Five seconds later -she changed her mental attitude, and condemned -herself for her own lack of adaptability. It was one -of her theories that the immediate thing was the one -to grasp and develop as best might be, which mental -schooling resulted in her becoming involved in a -game of cat’s-cradle with Captain Nugent, who was -playing with a piece of string which had been tied -round the stamps album. Brissy had no conception -of mental flirtations undermining even a discussion -on hemp-growing round China Town; but he knew -that if he got “fish-in-the-pond” his large hands -would very likely touch Mrs. Lewin’s in the manipulation -of the string. Ally had gone to find -their ponies for the return home, and by the time -he reappeared the Commissioner had also extricated -himself after his quiet fashion and started with -them.</p> - -<p>“Then you will come for a ride to-morrow?” he -said to Chum carelessly. “I am going to show -your wife China Town, Lewin—she displays such a -flattering interest, that Government cannot afford to -allow it to die for lack of cultivation. You were -there yesterday, eh?”</p> - -<p>“I was!” said Ally significantly. “The most -beastly hot ride I ever had. You had better be -careful what time of day you go, Chum.”</p> - -<p>“Mr. Halton says seven <span class="allsmcap">A. M.</span>”</p> - -<p>“I wish the Administrator had said seven <span class="allsmcap">A. M.</span>!” -said Ally, laughing good-humouredly. “Instead of -that he said twelve—at a minute’s notice.”</p> - -<p>“He does not spare himself!” said Halton, with -a shrug of his shoulders. “And he sees no reason -to spare other people. Our paths divide here, I -am sorry to say. Yours is the shorter cut, Mrs. -Lewin.”</p> - -<p>“Good-bye till to-morrow, then.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> - -<p>She turned in her saddle, her face framed in by -the Panama hat she wore for riding, her eyes in the -shadow, a new shade in which the Commissioner -had not yet surprised them. He reined his own -pony’s head round into the winding path that made -a carriage-drive to Government House, while the -Lewins rode straight on. Their bungalow lay only -a few hundred yards further down the direct road, -with a short cut through their own plantation to -Government House. It was by this private path -that Ally went to his work every morning and -returned—the click of the rough gate dividing the -grounds being Chum’s signal for the first luncheon -bell; but visitors, or the residents of Government -House themselves, had a half-mile of winding path -and tangled green before they emerged opposite the -long straight building where the Union Jack flew -above lines of blank window-frames and the straight -pillars of the stoep. There were two stories to -Government House; it could accommodate some -thirty people independently of servants, and the -Administrator and Commissioner, alone in their -glory, called it a useful barn.</p> - -<p>As Halton rode slowly along under the palms he -was hardly thinking of the ethics of China Town, -being too busy in breaking the tenth commandment. -He was a man who had always hankered -after the unattainable, and been afraid to risk what -he had for what he desired. He had seen many -pretty women, whom he thought of regretfully as -possible wives—after they had been married by other -men. The old process was beginning again in his -mind, but the outcome of it was merely a half-irritated -remark to the Administrator across the -<i>tête-à-tête</i> dinner-table.</p> - -<p>“What on earth made you send Lewin out to -China Town in the heat of the day? It’s enough -to kill a man!”</p> - -<p>“There was no one else to send,” said Gregory -simply, looking up in momentary surprise from -helping himself to fried banana. “I had a -message for Burton. <i>He’s</i> a good man if you -like.”</p> - -<p>“And not to be wasted. It wouldn’t matter if -Lewin were used up, eh?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> - -<p>Gregory shrugged his shoulders. “What on -earth did Government mean by sending me a -Mediterranean Station man?” he said in his repressed -tones. “Who am I to depend on when -you go?”</p> - -<p>“He may wake up.”</p> - -<p>“He’ll play tennis.”</p> - -<p>“I have an idea his wife may push him through,” -said the Commissioner slowly, poking a hard-back -beetle with his forefinger as he spoke. He was -looking at the insect as he spoke, and not at his -<i>vis-à-vis</i>. Gregory’s lidless eyes were fixed on -him, however, in their usual direct fashion. “She -is by way of being an ambitious woman.”</p> - -<p>“Is she? I have no impression of her beyond -the fact that she was talking rather intelligently to -Churton, on one occasion.”</p> - -<p>“When was that?” Halton raised his eyes and -spoke more quickly, still mechanically keeping the -beetle struggling on his back.</p> - -<p>“Two days ago, at Mrs. White’s. I didn’t speak -to Mrs. Lewin, but I heard her talk.” He was -unaware of the fact that Mrs. Lewin had been -conscious of him as an audience what time she -quietly drained the O.C.T. for information.</p> - -<p>“I think she has brains. She is more attracted -by Key Island than its meagre diversions.”</p> - -<p>“Pity the girl isn’t the boy, then!” said the -Administrator cynically. “This thing that sweats -through a morning as my private secretary, and -then with a sigh of relief scrambles into his flannels, -is cursed with the curse of Reuben.”</p> - -<p>“Your pet aversion. I think you might be -worse off, myself. Lewin is at least a gentleman—and -his duties include an A.D.C.’s, as well as a -secretary’s.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span></p> - -<p>“Lewin has a pretty wife!” said Gregory bluntly. -“That’s all about it, Halton. I hope the lady will -be so shrewd as to see which side her husband’s -bread is buttered, that’s all. I may get the report -into some form if she makes him work.” He rose -in his usual irrelevant fashion, pushing aside the -last course offered him by the butler, and tossed -over some papers on a side table. “Ambroise had -no news,” he remarked.</p> - -<p>“So you need hardly have slipped off to Port -Albert!” retorted Halton. “I’ve an engagement -to-morrow morning, by the way—I shan’t be on -hand to save friction between you and Lewin.”</p> - -<p>The Administrator opened his lips as if to say -something; but the under-breathed words did not -come. His hard eyes searched Halton’s reticent -face for a moment with intent, and in his mind -he bore another grudge against his Secretary for -having a wife who could make a fool of a Commissioner. -Taff Halton was a clever man, too. -They had worked together in Central Africa. The -devil take all women!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span></p> - -<p>“Mrs. Lewin,” drawled Halton, “was wearing a -blouse, this afternoon, of a peculiar shade of grey-lavender, -which seemed like a reflection of her -eyes. It’s a pity you don’t study colour effects, -Gregory. You lose so much pleasure.” He knew -just where to plant his sting, for if there was one -thing that Evelyn Gregory loathed it was dilettantism. -Halton’s sleepy eyes saw the curbed -impatience in Gregory’s face, and he dropped back -in his chair so happy that other relaxation was -forgotten; and the hard-back beetle, no longer kept -helplessly clawing the air, crawled away, and -immediately married a lady he discovered in the -shade of a dessert dish. All grades of life are -elementary in Key Island.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“No maker of images worships the gods; he knows what they -are made of!”—<i>Chinese Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>“I am not sure that I am not making a mistake!” -said Chum to her reflection, as she tied her tie in -severe perfection, and pinned on the Panama hat. -“If I could only get hold of the real man himself, -I am sure I could do something. After all, Mr. -Halton is only the shadow—he will pass as shadows -do, and his influence cannot really push Ally.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p> - -<p>She took up her riding-whip slowly, and stood a -minute in thought. It was ten minutes to seven, -and she could afford to arrange her ideas. On the -dressing-table stood the tray with her early coffee, -but Ally must breakfast alone this morning; she -did not expect to get back from China Town till -then. The room was very large and very airy, for -furniture is superfluous in Key Island, and the lack -of it increased the sense of size. The bare boards -were not even polished or stained, and only two -African goat-skins were thrown down as rugs to -break its monotony; there were basket-work chairs -and a lounge from Madeira, and a bed draped with -a mosquito curtain with the usual bridal effect. -The window-frames were many, and were filled -with shutters turned to let in the air, but not the -sun, and there was a door with the same contrivance -in its upper panels. Outside the windows -ran the wide bare stoep carefully clear of creepers, -because vegetation means mosquitoes, which need -no encouragement. Chum fretted over the bareness, -for her hammock was slung there, and she -would have liked to swing in a bower of flame-colour -and rose and greenery, which is to be had -for the asking in the island. But common-sense -was triumphant over sentiment, and the stoep was -comparatively flyless.</p> - -<p>Common-sense was just then fighting for the -upper hand in Mrs. Lewin’s mental attitude, and -her pause with the riding-whip idly tapping her -skirt was the result. It was easy, to say nothing -of being pleasant, to go on as she had begun, with -the garrison quite ready to follow in her train, and -the Commissioner to lend it a certain distinction. -But it meant no future good for Ally, and Leoline -Lewin had, without admitting it, begun to see that -if Ally went up the ladder somebody would have -to push him rung by rung.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Halton is so much more interesting!” said -inclination.</p> - -<p>“The Administrator has the real power!” said -reason.</p> - -<p>It was all the harder because in the one case she -knew herself sure of success, and in the other she -saw probable failure—and Mrs. Lewin disliked -failure. Every woman in Key Island had made -tentative efforts to bind Mr. Gregory to her chariot -wheels, and had quietly drawn back without a hint -of her defeat, after the manner of her sex. The -only difference to Mrs. Lewin’s case was that she -really wished to interest Mr. Gregory in her -husband and not in herself; but she could not hope -that this would make her any more successful.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p> - -<p>“Besides, he must begin by liking me, and being -interested in me, though he doesn’t know it,” she -said to herself candidly. “And at present he -simply does not know that I exist. Well, perhaps -China Town may prove useful—some day.”</p> - -<p>She went across the house to her husband’s dressing-room, -where he had slept in order that her -early rising might not disturb him, and looked in -before starting. Alaric was lying with his arm -thrown up above his head, in a boyish fashion that -made him seem very young in spite of the manliness -of the bronzed dark face, and the thick moustache -on his upper lip. Chum bent down and -ruffled his hair rather fondly, and he sighed in his -sleep and turned over, but did not wake. There -was a shadow of vague yearning in her eyes as she -turned away and went out on to the stoep. Marriage -had touched her lightly, but this was one of -the rare moments when she felt a craving after -something more satisfying—something that might -even be welcome pain if it were only less ephemeral.</p> - -<p>The morning air was brisk compared to the general -laxity of Key Island. Mrs. Lewin mounted -the pony which the sais held for her, and rode away -through the listening day, with her senses equally -alert. For it seemed at this hour as if everything -had ears, or a keener vitality that looked for new -experiences. Even Liscarton trod daintily, and -sidled through the gate into the highway, pretending -that he saw bogies among the ragged fans of -the bananas. Where the path dipped down into -Port Victoria the hoofs of a second pony became -audible, and a minute later the Commissioner overtook -her and drew up alongside.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span></p> - -<p>“You are before your time, Mrs. Lewin; I meant -to pick you up at your own gate,” he said gaily. -He also seemed in unusual harmony with Nature. -“Isn’t it worth while to rise early and get the spring -of the morning into one’s system? I feel like that -charming person in Scripture who ‘walked delicately,’ -though I am afraid he was hardly a model -to copy in his after-history.”</p> - -<p>“Agag, wasn’t it?” said Chum. “I always felt -I should have liked to follow his career a little further, -but one never gets a chance. Do you notice -how very badly they tell a story in the Bible? -They have no idea of keeping back the end of the -plot. ‘Now Ahab was fallen sick of the sickness -whereof he died,’ they say, and, of course, as you -know what is coming, it seems superfluous to read -any further.”</p> - -<p>“In fact, you don’t care about Ahab unless he is -going to live.”</p> - -<p>“I never did care for the pawns in the game who -are sacrificed. It is the big pieces who accomplish -the struggle, whether they do ill or well, who interest -me. I feel that they have made something out -of life, instead of life making something out of -them.”</p> - -<p>“And yet there can be no attainment without -self-sacrifice,” said Halton quietly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span></p> - -<p>They were riding through the little town, sometimes -in the shadow of the unruly palms, which -waved like banners over the low wooden houses, -sometimes in the new-born sunshine. There were -a few natives about, but no white people. At the -hotel a single disconsolate Chinaman was flapping -a cloth on the stoep, and Mrs. Lewin looked up, -remembering her first night there, and laughed. -Discomforts passed by her easily at present. By-and-by -the ponies began to ascend the further hill -which circles the back of the town by a zigzag -path, and it seemed that the little white houses and -the blue bay fell gradually below them, until they -topped the ridge and drew rein a moment to breathe -their mounts before they began to descend on the -other side of the hill called the Pass. In Africa it -would have been a “Nek,” for it really connected -Maitso and the lower heights of Mitsinjovy, but -Key Island has not caught so much of the Dutch -influence.</p> - -<p>“Are you afraid to canter?” Halton said. “Your -pony does not seem blown.”</p> - -<p>“He is Captain Nugent’s pony, and you probably -know his capacities better than I. He danced when -I set off, but the hill has sobered him—however, -we can soon see. Come up, Liscarton!”</p> - -<p>The game little chestnut stretched his neck to -the loosened rein, and broke into the rocking Key’land -canter. There was a rough, tangled path before -them, and a gradual descent, but the ponies -were used to it and took it with a sober joy. As -the second valley opened before them Mrs. Lewin -saw the draped hills and the patches of liquid yellow-green -that meant cane intermixed with the -darker hemp, and as they rounded a curve of the -track they came suddenly in view of a tiny native -settlement.</p> - -<p>The Commissioner drew rein. “I’m not going -to take you absolutely into it,” he said, “but that -is China Town. It is suspected of yellow fever -just now, and a man has died—it is probably only -biliousness though. The doctors are always quarrelling -about the two.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p> - -<p>It looked the happiest and most innocent little -spot on earth—far more innocent than Port Victoria, -with its ominous wharves and coaling jetties -for the sea traffic. There was even a little pagoda -to one building, and tiny blue-coated figures were -moving about busily, looking like a new kind of -ant from the distance of the hillside. Most of the -huts were thatched with reed, and the whole village -was little more than a scattered group.</p> - -<p>“Do you see that larger house apart from the -others?” said Halton, pointing across the valley. -“That is where Burton, the Town Warden, lives. -He is Gregory’s right-hand man out here, and -watches the place like a sleuth-hound.”</p> - -<p>“It seems impossible that anything could be -hidden there!” Mrs. Lewin exclaimed involuntarily. -“Why, there is nowhere to hide it!”</p> - -<p>“Nevertheless they very successfully have hidden -their source of murder,” said Halton dryly. “That -large barn-like arrangement is the sugar factory, -but you cannot very well distinguish it from here. -Unless they manage to conceal their evil brew there -it must be done in their own houses.”</p> - -<p>“And is it really so serious an evil?”</p> - -<p>“It caused the death of some eighty white people, -indirectly. The rioters were mad with drink—with -this hashish—and they rose with a suddenness -no one could foresee, because it was unpremeditated -on their own part. Let a native get drunk on -hashish and he goes out to kill. There were no -regular troops here in the time of the Company, -only a police force officered by men lent by the -War Office, and these gentlemen appear to have -been mostly on leave, shooting in Madagascar.”</p> - -<p>“But how were the rioters armed?”</p> - -<p>“They broke into the houses and armed themselves. -The favourite weapon was a razor bound -on to a stick, with which they jabbed upwards, but -no kind of knife was despised. The most appalling -thing was when they made a kind of torch out -of the half-worked hemp soaked in oil and set -their victims alight—am I frightening you, Mrs. -Lewin?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p> - -<p>“No—but I have a very vivid imagination. I -can see it all, and it turns me rather sick. Did the -Chinamen fight too?”</p> - -<p>“A few, though the worst offenders were the -half-castes and the Malagasy. The Arab is as -great a coward as the pure native, so that part -of the population were comparatively harmless. -There was a good deal of carnage among the -planters and residents before the police got the -upper hand, and the consequence was that Government -had to step in and take over the island to reduce -it to order.”</p> - -<p>“Whence followed a Commissioner to make enquiries, -and Mr. Gregory to teach them a lesson. -Did he teach them, by the way?”</p> - -<p>“I believe he did—a slight one,” said Halton -briefly. “I arrived on the scene a week or so -later.”</p> - -<p>“I wonder the Government puts power into his -hands, considering that they always seem to have -to censure him afterwards,” said Mrs. Lewin musingly.</p> - -<p>“It is rather difficult to ignore a successful man,” -said Halton, “even the British Government find -that. And he has been most uncomfortably successful -on several occasions, though his measures -may have been drastic.”</p> - -<p>“I see. You generally come out a week or so -later, I suppose?”</p> - -<p>“It is the one boon I wring out of the Colonial -Office; but I am speaking confidentially, Mrs. -Lewin. You happen to know these things because -you are here and in touch with them. At -home they know little, because Mr. Gregory has -quite a prejudice against the Press.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p> - -<p>“They might hinder him, but I doubt anything -really stopping his drastic measures, as you call -them.” A memory of the Administrator’s face rose -before her like a revelation—the overhanging brows -and forehead, the savage, lidless eyes, the secretive -mouth, that lurked under the ragged moustache. -Above all, the voice that spoke under his breath -seemed to her ominous. Here was a strong man, -not afraid to do lawless things and call them law by -his own authority. Her blood tingled a little with -the thought. “How they must hate him!” she -said. “How weaker men must long to tie his -hands and make him pay for proving them his inferiors, -in action at least!”</p> - -<p>“If we could tax success it would no doubt be a -popular measure with the majority—who have not -succeeded.”</p> - -<p>There was a flash of appreciation in Mrs. -Lewin’s eyes, but all she said was, “The lighter -green is the cane, I suppose?” in an irrelevant -tone.</p> - -<p>“Yes, but this is a small crop compared to a big -sugar estate—Denver’s, or the Tsara Valley crops, -for instance. There is no considerable hemp-growing -in Key’land, and we wish there was none at all. -There it is at present, however.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p> - -<p>He pointed with his whip, and her eyes followed -and distinguished the two plantations. The hemp -was thinly sown, as it always is for intoxicating purposes, -whereas when honestly cultivated for fibre the -plants are crowded together. It was not yet in -flower, for the sowing was in October or November—the -spring of the Key’land year, the Tsara of -Madagascar. The young plants stood stiffly, and -were branched even to the roots; from the distance -where Mrs. Lewin and Halton had paused it was -just possible to distinguish how far apart the plants -grew, unlike the unbroken sweep of the sugar-cane. -The crop was always sown on higher ground too, -generally on the gentle slope of the further hills, -for hemp does not love a low level. The dark -green of its wide leaves contrasted boldly with the -lighter cane, and made a pleasant patchwork of the -valley.</p> - -<p>“They don’t pull the male flowers until January, -and the female a month later,” remarked Halton, -looking across the wicked sexual hemp that flowered -twelve feet high in Hashish Valley, for it liked -the rich soil. “You know, of course, that it has -two genders.”</p> - -<p>“And then?”</p> - -<p>“Then it is converted, ostensibly, into ropes, and -food for small birds, and other innocent and useful -things, in that hemp mill down there. Now, Mrs. -Lewin, you are looking at the sugar factory.”</p> - -<p>“I am not, indeed; I can see the mill quite -plainly. And I suppose the Chinese really turn it -into hashish?”</p> - -<p>“Well, I suppose it is stolen and secretly converted -into bhang or ganja first. I don’t exactly -know what form it takes here, but I’ve seen bhang, -and its results, in India. So has Gregory!” he -added significantly.</p> - -<p>“I wonder they are not found out.”</p> - -<p>“It is so simple, you see. Bhang is only the -dried leaves and stalks of the hemp, and if you heat -it with water and butter I assure you that you get -quite a surprising result! My own opinion is, -though, that they are yet more diabolical down -there in China Town, and dissolve the resin in -rum; you can use any alcohol for the purpose, but -the rum being at hand they would naturally take -it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> - -<p>“And then they dance the <i>carrab</i> dance. I remember -the pictures in the illustrated papers at the -time of the rioting. Ally—I mean Captain Lewin—says -they were quite wrong, but I found them -sufficiently impressive. I should like to be that -man down there, nevertheless—Burton, did you say -his name was?—who is working with Mr. Gregory. -I feel I want to have a hand in it too—to meddle, in -fact. It has its advantages, being a man, though I -seldom see them.”</p> - -<p>“I thought that to be a pretty girl was the -height of bliss,” said Halton, with his gentlest insinuation.</p> - -<p>“So it is, until you meet with a prettier, perhaps,” -said Chum. There was a flash of mirth in -her eyes, and the deeper drift of the conversation -passed away like the shadow of the clouds over the -sugar-cane.</p> - -<p>“I suppose we ought to turn back,” said Halton -regretfully, as the sun’s warmth began to increase to -undoubted heat and glare. “If I bring you home -in the trying part of the day I shall expect to hear -of it from Captain Lewin.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> - -<p>Chum had loosened her rein, and Liscarton, with -his lean head stretched out, was cropping an early -breakfast on the hillside. Liscarton was always -hungry—his sais calls it greedy—and the instant his -rein was relaxed, he would wrench it through his -rider’s hands and nose the ground for something to -eat. Mrs. Lewin had already learned that he had a -will of his own that threatened to take the skin off -her fingers did she keep his head up when standing; -and she loved him none the less. She could forgive -wrong-headedness, but she found it very difficult to -forgive docility when it meant laziness. She sat -easily in her saddle, her right hand resting on the -pony’s flank, her body turned that she might look -down on China Town with those musing eyes that -were green and dusk and lavender-grey by turns. -And Alfred Halton watched her with fastidious appreciation, -while by an irony of fate she thought -definitely of the Administrator and his plans, and -the ominous strength that was his attribute. A -man to have as a friend—a power to reach to high -places—yes, decidedly an influence to have for you -rather than against you!</p> - -<p>“Have you noticed the names in Key Island?” -said Halton, as they gathered up the reins and rode -their ponies slowly homeward over the Pass.</p> - -<p>“No, not particularly, except that I heard Mrs. -Churton say she should go out to Vohitra if it grew -much hotter. Where is Vohitra?”</p> - -<p>“Vohitra is our health-resort—it is a big bungalow -up in the hills at the northern part of the -island, some two miles or so from Port Albert. -Vohitra is a badly-chosen name, for it simply means -hill. The place is shut up unless any one wants to -go out there, but sometimes the garrison ladies -make up a house-party, and then I believe it is -pleasant, though there is nothing to do except shoot -fish.”</p> - -<p>“How very unsportsmanlike!”</p> - -<p>“Well, you can’t catch them otherwise. No fly -has ever been found that they will take. Can you -shoot?”</p> - -<p>“Yes—though I prefer a revolver to a gun. I -object to a bruised shoulder! What language is -Vohitra?”</p> - -<p>“Malagasy. All the names on this side the -island—the Madagascan side—have a flavour of -their giant neighbour, though she is some two hundred -and fifty miles off, except Port Victoria and -Port Albert, which are strictly loyal, you will note. -Maitso means ‘green,’ and Mitsinjovy ‘look out’ or -‘see’; but,” he added, laughing, “the Gunners’ -quarters have almost been renamed by White’s little -boy, who calls Mitsinjovy the ‘By-Jovey-Hill!’ -and the name has stuck.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> - -<p>“How lovely! I do like the way children wrestle -with names they don’t understand, and turn -them into the sense that lies nearest. You said -Vohitra was at Port Albert—I have not been there -yet.”</p> - -<p>“Well, it is rather in the Tsara Valley. There -is another lovely name for you—Tsara, spring o’ -the year! And the Volofatsy River that cuts the -valley in two, means the silver river. I wish, for -the sake of euphony, that Key Island had all Malagasy -names; but on the west coast you feel the -influence of Africa, and get Sand Bay, and Africa -Point, and even the Little Zambesi.”</p> - -<p>“I like that—there seems some suggestion in it. -But then I am rather inclined to like Key Island.”</p> - -<p>“So I am amazed to observe. You will forgive -my wondering if it will last, or if you too will grow -to look on it as a three years’ probation to better -things.”</p> - -<p>“And call it a rat-trap, as you did! I dare say -I shall—and yet I cannot imagine it. The place -seems to me too recently dangerous to be dull, and -too possibly important in the near future to be ignored. -And then one can always hope for one of -Mr. Gregory’s drastic measures, and a little excitement!”</p> - -<p>“Do let me get home first!” said Halton plaintively. -“You have never seen him through one of -his shindies, and you don’t know how fatiguing it -is. I hope the Government will recall me while I -can plead peace with honour, and give me an armchair -in a quiet corner, from which to contemplate -Gregory burning the hemp-crops seven thousand -comfortable miles away.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p> - -<p>For a minute Mrs. Lewin looked a little startled, -but she did not comment on the suggestion, which -was lightly made. Even her ignorance of the popular -feeling and prejudices could not blind her to -the seriousness of such a step as the burning of the -hemp-crops would be, and she wondered if the man -who gave orders under his breath would have the -nerve for such an incredible stroke. She also wondered -why Halton had put such an idea into her -head under the guise of absurd exaggeration, for -she did not believe in his lack of motive.</p> - -<p>“I am really very much obliged to you!” she -said frankly, as they shook hands at her own gate. -“You have appeased some of my curiosity, and -given me a delightful ride before the heat.” Her -eyes met the sleepy brown ones that watched her -so covertly. “I can’t, of course, repay you——”</p> - -<p>“Unless you will let me plan another like excursion?”</p> - -<p>“Will I not?” said Chum gaily. “Only try me! -Good-bye, Mr. Halton—if you see my husband -you might tell him not to be late for luncheon. -There are granadillas and flying-fish, and he loves -both!”</p> - -<p>As he rode away Halton thought of the shady -dining-room in the bungalow, the fruit-laden table, -and the wife who thought of her husband’s tastes -and sat opposite to him in the cool sweetness of her -white gowns. No one thought of his tastes, without -irritated supervision, and he found Evelyn Gregory -a poor alternative to the tall girl whose effect -haunted his mind. He did not see her exactly in -detail, as a woman whose inches looked more from -her slight build, and whose hair was a warm brown, -and her eyes as changing as</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“The rare glooms on the far blue hills,”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">but he said inclusively that she was charming, and -her atmosphere left a blank in his consciousness -when it was removed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p> - -<p>“Note from garrison,” the Administrator said -briefly, tossing it across the luncheon-table as he -sat down. “Mrs. Churton has a function of sorts -next week. Gymkana, or some such foolery, at the -polo-ground—she hopes we will refresh at her -house.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t stand that woman!” said Halton, fretted -by a comparison. “She leaves a taste in my mouth -like a cigarette that has gone out.”</p> - -<p>“It’s your liver. Who hasn’t a liver in this heat? -My ideal, these days, is a clean tongue and a desire -for breakfast.”</p> - -<p>“Mrs. Churton is forty,” pursued Halton spitefully. -“And she aims at three-and-thirty. A -woman of forty is only tolerable as a background -for her daughters!”</p> - -<p>The Administrator looked across the space of -white cloth and guavas—there were no granadillas!—with -a grim line about the corners of his hidden -lips.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p> - -<p>“I hope you enjoyed your ride!” he said politely, -with a suggestion of unappreciated humour.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“A man’s best fortune, or his worst, is a wife.”—<i>English -Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>The telephone bell rang at eight in the morning, -and if Ally were so disagreeable as to grunt and -turn over on the other side, Chum used to get up -and go to it herself. She was usually aggravated -by the man at Maitso Exchange demanding of her -if she were there, and then no further communication. -He was the Hub of the Port Victorian Universe, -and had become autocratic through bitterness -of spirit; therefore he thought it just retribution to -make sure beforehand that all the usual communication -points were in working order before he -actually had to connect them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span></p> - -<p>All the gossip of Key Island goes through the -telephone, which is as inappropriate to Port Victoria -as her electric light. It is the alternative for -a post too, for the Planters, living some three miles -out, have no other means of communication, and it -is very much safer to make your own business arrangements -with a fellow at Maitso or Mitsinjovy, -or to order more soda-water from Van Buren’s -Stores, than trust to a letter, even if you are only a -mile from the post-office. When the Lewin Bungalow -was connected, Chum usually found herself -besieged with friendly enquiries as to how she was, -and how Ally Sloper was, and a little conversation -ensued that was as strictly unofficial as all Key’land -characteristics. She only resented it on Sunday, -when English habit still clung to her and made her -feel injured for lack of an extra half-hour in bed, -but as Ally took more rousing than the time spent -at the telephone, it generally ended in Mrs. Lewin -walking into the dining-room bare-foot, yawning -delightfully, and a wasted vision of beauty in <i>déshabille</i>, -since the personality at the other end of the -communication tube was only a voice.</p> - -<p>“Well, who are you?” she said sleepily.</p> - -<p>“...!”</p> - -<p>“Oh! well, Ally’s asleep still—I should say he -was in rude health, unless that suggests a liver!”</p> - -<p>“...?”</p> - -<p>“Am I ever anything else! And you saw me -yesterday.”</p> - -<p>“...!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the day before, was it? I’m sorry I forgot!”</p> - -<p>“...”</p> - -<p>“If you are sentimental through the telephone, I -shall ring off!”</p> - -<p>“...”</p> - -<p>“No; really? We hadn’t heard because we -couldn’t go to the Gilderoys.”</p> - -<p>“...”</p> - -<p>“Oh, they did, did they! People in glass houses -shouldn’t throw stones. Who lost their way back -from the Rano Valley the other night, eh, Captain -Nugent?”</p> - -<p>“...?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, some one told me—I forget who.”</p> - -<p>“...!”</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it true? Well, you needn’t be so tragic -over it!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span></p> - -<p>“...?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, we shall come to church like good Christians. -I’m going to ride Liscarton. By the way, -when do you want him back?”</p> - -<p>“...”</p> - -<p>“Don’t you think pretty speeches are rather -wasted on a married woman?”</p> - -<p>“...”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps you are keeping your hand in!”</p> - -<p>“...”</p> - -<p>“I can’t listen to any more—I’m too sleepy. -Good-bye!—Ring off, please!”</p> - -<p>At breakfast she said, “Ally, we lost a joke by -not going to the Gilderoys. The Denver girl and -Mr. Gurney went into the garden to find a ping-pong -ball, and wandered on to the next door stoep -by mistake (?), and didn’t turn up till midnight. -Can’t you fancy Captain Gilderoy’s state of mind -when he had to go out and look for them with a -lantern?”</p> - -<p>“With Mrs. Gilderoy making her brisk little -comments in the background! She has a dangerous -tongue, that woman. Won’t she give a fine -version of the tale all round Maitso! Who told -you, Chum?”</p> - -<p>“Brissy—on the ’phone. He said a lot of pretty -things to me too. That’s what you get by leaving -your wife to attend to the thing! I couldn’t really -hear,” she added candidly, “but I could gather that -he simpered, so I laughed too. It’s generally safe -to laugh!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span></p> - -<p>“I shall have to cane Brissy one of these days!” -said Alaric, stretching out a shapely hand for the -guava jelly. He had beautiful hands, and Chum -noted them for the hundredth time as he did it. -She always thought that they would have better -suited a doctor than a soldier. “Are we going to -church, Chum?” he said.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I promised the Churtons yesterday. They -want us to lunch there. We can ride up after -service, can’t we?”</p> - -<p>“If you like. I suppose as it is Sunday there -will be no Bridge—awful bore, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“If you think Sunday will warn Major Churton -off his Bridge, you don’t realise the man. I like the -Major, Ally.”</p> - -<p>“He’s a decent chap. His wife’s the better -horse, I expect.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think so. He looks like a man who -would be any woman’s master. If you notice, -when he says No! even Di Churton can’t say -Yes!”</p> - -<p>Ally laughed a little shortly, as if at some checked -reminiscence. He changed the subject too, rather -briefly.</p> - -<p>“Doesn’t Brissy want his pony back?”</p> - -<p>“He said not. I wish you would buy Liscarton, -Ally; I have grown to like him.”</p> - -<p>It was part of her adaptability that she could -really earnestly desire the little Key’land pony, and -enjoy his paces, after riding thoroughbred hunters -and hacks that made other riders in the county -envious. Leoline Lewin lived in her present, as -she had said to Halton, and the chestnut pony had -become the simple object of her equestrian ambition -out in Key Island.</p> - -<p>“There are lots better ponies,” said Ally.</p> - -<p>“Never mind! I like Liscarton.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think Brissy would sell.”</p> - -<p>“He’s very good-natured,” said Chum adroitly. -She made no reference to the probable influence of -her own wishes upon Captain Nugent.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p> - -<p>“Well—I’ll see.” Ally rose and stretched himself, -walking off to his dressing-room with shoulders -square, while Chum admired him as usual. He -came out later immaculate in white breeches and -linen coat, and seriously considered the problem -as to whether he should wear a Panama hat or a -white helmet, until his wife decided in favour of the -Panama.</p> - -<p>“I don’t like helmets out of uniform,” she said, -looking over his shoulder at his good looks reflected -in a hanging glass, with kindly pride. “And you -are just as smart in the straw. Don’t titivate any -more, old fellow, or I shall think it is for Di Churton, -and have to make a dead set for the Major to -balance things.”</p> - -<p>Ally laughed a little self-consciously. There was -more in Chum’s speech than she knew—more than -had been said at present. When the male animal -is being flattered with attentions from the female, he -may not glance at her with half an eye; but he begins -to plume himself. Alaric glanced appreciatively -at his wife’s figure as Liscarton carried her to -church by his side, and thought vaguely that she -was a heap better looking than any other woman -out there, and that they made rather a handsome -couple. Then he thought that Chum reflected -credit on his own taste, and then he remembered -with some very private satisfaction that Di Churton -had made a determined show of preference for him -from the first. He did not really admire Mrs. Churton, -save that he could recognize the swing of her -own self-assertion in her position; he never thought -of comparing her with Leoline in a single detail. -But Alaric Lewin was as easily flattered as a child, -and singularly manageable for a really handsome -man.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p> - -<p>The English church at Port Victoria stands a -little above the town, towards Maitso. It is singularly -like an enormous caravan, with six stumpy -legs in place of wheels, and worshippers go up a -flight of wooden steps to reach its barn-like interior. -Most buildings in Key Island are raised above the -ground for fear of snakes, but the church and the -native huts have wooden props rather than a solid -foundation. There being no church at Maitso, or -as yet at Mitsinjovy, the men were marched down -to service by aggrieved and sweating subalterns, -or a senior officer, and given as much room as could -be spared from the civilians. Truth to tell, the -military force had to take it in turns to be religious, -service being held in barracks, by the chaplain, for -the Wessex, when the Gunners came down to Port -Victoria, and <i>vice versâ</i>. On this particular Sunday -Captain Nugent and Mr. Gurney were bucketing -their men into the pews when the Lewins rode up -to the churchyard. Their sais had preceded them -and took the ponies, hitching them up to the railings -in the shade with native indifference, and dropping -lazily on the grass to slumber away service -time. Chum walked up the steps and into church -in the wake of the soldiers, and sat down in her -seat, drawing her habit round her and feeling the -whole thing horribly unreal. Through the wide -flung shutters she could see palm-trees waving -tuftily in a splash of blue sky, and a gorgeous hibiscus -had thrust a flame of blossom in at one aperture -which was seldom closed. There was nothing -to prevent the flowers coming to church, or the wild -green things outside either, for the only glass in the -place was the East window—a horrid picture of the -Ascension, so quaintly designed that the figure of -the Christ was cut off at the waist, the feet in red -slippers hanging down into the picture, the rest of -the body out of sight. Chum was always fascinated -by that window, for she hated it, and the astonished -faces of the kneeling apostles made her want to -laugh. No wonder they looked as if they wondered -where the rest of the centre figure was gone to—and -yet she had an educated horror of irreverence. -Service, with the thermometer at 90° in the shade, -however, was not at best a success. The soldiers -fidgeted, and stared out of window at the palms, -and Brissy Nugent pulled fretfully at his black -moustache to keep himself awake. When the -mumbling old rector concluded his sermon and the -final hymn was given out, every one rose with relief, -and high above the defective choir rose the -voice of Hamilton Gurney, who was senior sub. of -the Wessex, but was more remarkable for a tenor -voice of unusual compass and power.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Praise Him, all creatures here below,”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">droned the organ; but Gurney’s voice, rising into -the hot rafters of the church, seemed the only real -religion of the whole ceremony.</p> - -<p>“I wish I could have gone to sleep, as you did, -Ally,” said Mrs. Lewin, with frank regret, as they -came out into the sunshine again. “I should have -felt that it had done me so much more good if -I had.”</p> - -<p>“Great Scot! the difficulty is <i>not</i> to go to sleep, -when that old boy is meandering round about the -Chronicles! It would be as much as Lysle’s head -was worth if he preached more than ten minutes. -But he’s a jolly good sort.”</p> - -<p>“That’s that round-faced man who is regimental -chaplain,” mused Chum. “He always puts me in -mind of a cherub out for a holiday.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> - -<p>The Churtons joined them in the church porch, -Diana in a holland habit and white helmet, as near -to khaki as might be. She annexed Ally with the -boldness of a woman accustomed to stalk her game -in the open, and Mrs. Lewin turned to the Major to -mount her, in no wise disturbed. They sat on their -ponies for a minute to allow the men to pass, before -turning to the bridle path that made a short cut to -Maitso, and as the Wessex swung past her, Chum -looked along the road taken by the moving helmets, -and saw a solitary horseman stopped in like -manner to themselves.</p> - -<p>“Gregory’s Powder!” said Diana over her shoulder -to those behind her.</p> - -<p>Besides the Churtons’ and the Lewins’ ponies, -the road was blocked by Captain and Mrs. Gilderoy, -an open cart belonging to the Denver girl, and -several other people and their modes of conveyance. -As he came full into a group that he knew, -the Administrator per force stopped and touched -his helmet to the party. He looked more at his -ease in the saddle than in correct cloth at some -Key’land function, as Mrs. Lewin had hitherto met -him, though he rode with a loose-limbed carelessness -that contrasted with the firm seats and carriage -of the army men.</p> - -<p>“How do you do, Mr. Gregory? Have you been -to church in the open air?” Di Churton called -across the last of the retreating khaki figures.</p> - -<p>“I do not go to church, except officially,” said -the Administrator, without any softening of the -assertion. “It is getting hot for ladies to be in the -saddle, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Well, you should order the services earlier,” -retorted Mrs. Churton. “I suppose your authority -might do something even in that particular—officially! -We are taking possession of your -Secretary and Mrs. Lewin, who are coming up to -lunch with us.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span></p> - -<p>Something crossed the Administrator’s face—a -gleam of satiric memory to which Chum had not -the key. But as his eyes met hers, and he saluted -again, she tried to hold them with an impersonal -effort that had become habit to her.</p> - -<p>“Where is Mr. Halton this morning?” was what -she happened to say with a little smile, and she left -her face, and her figure which was so at ease with -her pony, to do the rest.</p> - -<p>The gleam in Gregory’s eyes became a silent -laugh. “I don’t know—I thought he was going to -church,” he said drily; and then he made a passing -remark to Miss Denver and Mrs. Gilderoy, and rode -away as if he had done his duty.</p> - -<p>“Tarred us all with the same brush—a sentence -a-piece,” said Mrs. Churton, with a loud laugh. -“Come along, all of you; the sun is going to be -piping up the hill.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p> - -<p>She reined in her pony for an instant to allow -Captain Lewin to come abreast with her, and they -began to climb up through the hill plantations of -guava and palm and mango, the flickering of the -light and shade touching the white riders and the -dark ponies as they passed. Ally looked young -this morning in his cool linen, and Diana Churton -approved of youth. She was more than usually -appropriative in her manner, having reached that -stage when, like a good cricketer, she had got -“set,” and could trust to her attack. Behind them -rode Captain and Mrs. Gilderoy, who were also -lunching at the quarters of the O.C.T., and who had -a devoted fashion of always riding with each other -in public. Captain Gilderoy was Garrison Adjutant, -and Mrs. Lewin had never met him at any social -function, for he made his work an excuse to evade -the monotonous round he hated. His wife used to -say that she had worn out all excuses for his non-presence, -and now told the truth—he simply would -not accompany her. Nevertheless, he knew the -life of the whole station, and commented upon it -with a freedom and bitterness which his hearers -hardly realised on account of a very charming manner. -He could say ill-natured things in a deep -sweet voice, that slipped such poison into a hearer’s -mind without any disagreeable taste at the moment; -but his rasping criticisms had made him the best-feared -man in the garrison. His wife added the -grace of wit to her own backbiting, and had a way -of wrinkling up her face until her eyes were two -dancing slits, while she turned a harmless incident -into a dangerously good story. Together they had -laughed away the reputations of half their acquaintance, -yet it was difficult to locate their mischief -through the light chatter that carried it.</p> - -<p>Captain Gilderoy had struck Mrs. Lewin at first -sight as an ugly man, but his voice was so free from -malice, that when she heard him speak she thought -she liked him. It was an impression she never -wholly lost, only when he smiled he reminded her -of a snarling dog, and it put her as instinctively on -her guard as the actual animal would have done. -His wife was one of the few garrison ladies who -were on friendly terms with Diana Churton, partly -because they clashed in no particular, and partly -because it was Mrs. Gilderoy’s policy not to quarrel. -She was an unobtrusive little person to look at, -with a quick manner, and a trick of saying apt -things that Diana vaguely realised was attractive to -men, and valued accordingly. She only priced -women’s gifts by their effect on the opposite sex, -and though Mrs. Gilderoy had no flesh and blood -pretensions, she had an odd attractiveness that increased -with her acquaintance. Mrs. Lewin had -felt this already, in the few times they had met, and -was honestly glad that she was also lunching at the -Churtons’.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p> - -<p>The rear of the party was the Officer in Command -of the Troops and Chum herself; but she -rode with the bitterness of defeat upon her, so that -she was less conscious than usual of her companion. -Major Churton, for his part, was honestly admiring -the beautiful curve of her figure from shoulder to -waist, and the lift at the corners of her lips. He -had found out already that Mrs. Lewin was easy to -laugh with, and she answered the rein of his fancy -as perfectly as a horse with a good mouth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span></p> - -<p>The air grew perceptibly fresher as they rose, but -the climb was steep, and both horses and riders bore -signs of the heat when they pulled up before the -Churtons’ quarters. Two or three servants appeared -with noiseless swiftness to take the ponies, but -Major Churton himself lifted Chum out of her saddle -as easily as if she were a child. He was a man -who loved his own strength. The party went on to -the stoep, and the men promptly augmented their -racing blood with stimulant, after the fashion of -Englishmen. There is a particular drink in Key -Island which is called Cého,<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> and which is taken -before or after meals, as the fancy prescribes. It is -not therefore the cocktail of the West Indies, nor is -it the “Whiskey-up” of Africa, or the highball of -America, or the universally styled “Drink” of -England, which ranges from simple beer to the last -frenzy of liqueur. Cého is compounded of many ingredients, -but the old seasoned rum of the island is -its foundation, and strange juices from tropic plants -go to make it an evil thing. It is always iced, and -generally precedes a whiskey and soda, which it -demands by reason of a tickled throat; but some -men, and these are hardened Planters, can take three -or four céhos running in preference to longer liqueur, -and do not die—at once.</p> - -<p>Ally and Captain Gilderoy took céhos, and -Major Churton a whiskey and soda, in which his -wife followed suit. Mrs. Gilderoy declined and -was overruled, and Mrs. Lewin rose and poured -out the last of the soda-water for herself without -adulteration.</p> - -<p>“Do you really like it alone?” said Mrs. Gilderoy, -looking up at the tall figure. “Take care, -Chum! my husband will jog your elbow.—Oh, I -am so sorry!” she broke off lightly. “But it comes -so naturally to call you that. It somehow suits you.”</p> - -<p>“Do, if you like,” said Mrs. Lewin good-humouredly. -“I expect we shall all fall into the Christian-name -stage eventually, so why not at once? I am -sure you all call my husband Ally Sloper—it is so -appropriate!”</p> - -<p>Every one glanced at Ally, tall and strong and -triumphantly good to look upon, and there was a -general laugh.</p> - -<p>“Ah, but Chum isn’t your name, and I know -Captain Lewin calls you so!” said Mrs. Gilderoy, -with faint suggestion in her tone.</p> - -<p>“Yes, from nursery days. Ally never has called -me anything else but Chum, because it amply defined -the position. I don’t mind other people using -it a bit.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Gilderoy half closed her eyes, and looked -up with a glitter of laughter in them. “When you -talk like that it sounds as if you had married your -brother!” she said.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p> - -<p>But Mrs. Lewin’s smooth fair cheeks did not even -flush. She was chattering with Major Churton over -a gymkana next week, and a pony which she was to -name.</p> - -<p>“I think I shall call it ‘Key’land Gloom’!” she -said. “It expresses the mind of all the officials -here so well. I have hardly heard any one speak -well of the place since I arrived.”</p> - -<p>“Beastly hole!” said Di Churton loudly. “I -wish they had sent Bute to the West Coast, -rather.”</p> - -<p>“But that is a fever station!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and it’s better pay and better leave. I -shouldn’t mind Sierra Leone for a bit—a good -many women have gone out.”</p> - -<p>“I expect that will be my next job!” said -Churton carelessly, as he set down his empty glass. -“It’s Paradise to this, anyway!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, don’t talk of this! I hate Key Island, and -everything in it. Have a whiskey, Ally Sloper?” -Di smiled at Mrs. Lewin to introduce the nickname -in public. Next time she would not take the -trouble, while further off still she would say Ally -without reserve.</p> - -<p>“Better not, Ally!” said Chum, laughing. “I -shall have to carry you home if you begin so -early.”</p> - -<p>“That’s the worst of cého!” said Captain Lewin -apologetically, as he filled another tumbler. “I -say, Chum, what a sweet sight for the Administrator -if he met us tottering home arm in arm!”</p> - -<p>“Speak for yourself! I’ve had soda.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the day is yet young!” said Major Churton. -“You may yet catch him up before tea, Mrs. -Lewin!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> - -<p>The whiskey and soda was finished, and Ally’s -throat asked for another by the time that luncheon -was on the table. It was a light meal, lightly -relished, in a room that had more doors and windows -than walls, and of which the heavy scented -flowers and the strange fruits seemed as inevitably -a part as the iced drinks. Chum had put Mr. -Gregory on one side, and was talking to Major -Churton consciously. He was a man who had -been far and done hard things in strange lands, -and she read the lines of it in his face, from the -great square forehead to the self-reliant chin. It -was not by any means a Sir Galahad type of face—Tristram -or Lancelot’s failings were more likely -branded there; but it was a soldier’s face for all -that, and, despite the grey on his thick, clipped -head, he looked what she had called him—a man -who would be any woman’s master. Strength -attracted Mrs. Lewin in whatever form she met -with it; she ignored the talk at the other end of -the table, which had drifted inevitably to stamps, -and gave her attention to her host.</p> - -<p>“I am bent on mastering the intricacies of the -sugar industry,” she confided to him, while behind -her shoulder she could hear Ally comparing the -many different shades of the Grenada and Barbadoes -star watermarked issues with Captain Gilderoy. -“Is there a factory within my reach?”</p> - -<p>“Denver’s is the best. You know Denver, don’t -you? He was a great man in the old Company’s -day, and is still on the Legislator. He has the -largest plantation this side the Pass, and it joins -your ground on one side. You ought to go over -his factory, if you are really interested in native -industries.”</p> - -<p>“I wonder why you all find that so hard to -understand? Ever since I arrived I have been -met on all sides with weeping and lamentation, and -because I do not join in it I am counted a fraud. -Key Island seems a very possible centre of interest -to me for the three years that one is stationed -here.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p> - -<p>“Wait till you have done your three years!” -said Bute Churton, as he handed her a cigarette. -“I have had twenty years’ foreign service, Mrs. -Lewin, and I never wish to see a palm-tree again -once I get quit of this. Give me solid English -comfort!”</p> - -<p>“Most people’s idea of solid English comfort, -and ‘Home, sweet home,’ consists in early Victorian -furniture and all the meals an hour later on -Sunday!” said Chum. “It gives me indigestion.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, but that is the ‘Home, sweet home’ of one’s -relations and old family friends—the sort of people -that one only thinks about at Christmas and on -their birthdays, in fact.”</p> - -<p>“No!” said Chum, firmly; “I never remember -people’s birthdays on principle. Sooner or later it -is bound to degenerate into rudeness.”</p> - -<p>“That reminds me that there is a birthday -dinner party threatening us next week, anyhow. -Old Arthur White met me in the club and told me -he was sixty next Thursday. They have a feed on -at the Harrac. Are you going?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I believe so. Mr. Halton tells me that -Harrac is one of the few houses where they know -how to cook flying-fish, and you can trust to the -Bridge being sound.”</p> - -<p>“‘Bridge’ is not my game, though I play it,” -said the Major, with unconscious self-revelation. -“I like ‘Poker’—one is on one’s own there. I -prefer to trust to myself.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span></p> - -<p>Chum looked at his line of chin and forehead, -and smiled. For a minute she wondered what it -would be like to have a husband who preferred to -trust to himself. Ally so infinitely preferred to -leave the final decision to her! It sounded rather -restful, and she glanced round half curiously at the -man with whom she had linked her own fate—and -power of making up her mind—to find him seriously -arguing with Captain Gilderoy that the Saint Lucia -twopence halfpenny crown C. C. would rise in the -market now that Queen’s heads were becoming -scarce. It seemed he could really concentrate his -thoughts and energies on a hobby, anyway. She -caught the beautiful curve of his earnest face with -simple artistic pleasure, and then found Mrs. -Churton waiting to make a move from the table.</p> - -<p>“Have you finished your smoke, Chum?” she -said carelessly as she rose. “Come into my room -and freshen up. The men are good for more -whiskey yet.”</p> - -<p>“I hope not!” said Chum, with a half-resigned, -half-protesting glance at Ally, which slid harmlessly -over his bent head and was lost among the -shades of the Canadian two-cent map stamp.</p> - -<p>“Didn’t I hear you talking about Denvers?” -said Mrs. Gilderoy, as the three women entered -Mrs. Churton’s room and drifted by mutual attraction -towards the looking-glass. “You heard how -Trixie Denver behaved at our house the other -night?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. Brissy—Captain Nugent—told me this -morning through the telephone.” She thought of -Ally’s prophecy, that Mrs. Gilderoy would make a -story out of the incident, and waited with a smile -somewhere hidden in her eyes.</p> - -<p>“Oh, my dear, we had an awful time! My good -man took a lantern and went to find them at last, -for they had been out there simply hours! I told -him he had better be careful how he turned it on—it -was one of those electric things, you know. -But he flashed it straight into the dark corners, and -discovered them, to the mutual embarrassment of -all three!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p> - -<p>“If some one doesn’t look after that girl she’ll -come to grief!” said Mrs. Churton scornfully. -“Since she has taken up with the Clayton woman -she has been nothing but a camp follower.”</p> - -<p>“Who is Mrs. Clayton?” said Chum, with some -curiosity, but more of a desire to shift the talk from -a girl’s name. She did not care for Miss Denver, -who offended her taste and vision alike; but Diana’s -comments were nearly as jarring.</p> - -<p>“They are A.S.C. people—they have quarters -at Mitsinjovy. She’s the woman who was at Mrs. -White’s the other night in green. You could not -have missed seeing her!”</p> - -<p>“But I was not there. Does she dress so -oddly?”</p> - -<p>“She has one garment that every one speculates -over. I fancy it began life as a nightgown, but she -always wears it on unofficial evenings!”</p> - -<p>“Be charitable, and put it down to the heat! -Ally would live in pyjamas, if I would let him. -What is Mrs. Clayton’s garment like? Perhaps -I might adapt my own nightdresses—with a -sash!”</p> - -<p>“Well,” said Mrs. Gilderoy thoughtfully, “I don’t -quite know how to describe it—do you, Di? But -if a bathing dress had a—a flirtation with a kimono, -Eva Clayton’s garment might be the result! I can’t -see how it would be obtained otherwise. It is certainly -a hybrid!”</p> - -<p>Her eyes became mere slits of laughter, and Mrs. -Lewin laughed too, with soft, full enjoyment.</p> - -<p>“I shall look out for Mrs. Clayton,” said she. -“She is out at By-Jovey, is she? I love that name -for the Gunners’ Hill!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and Trixie Denver goes over there half her -time, and she and Mrs. Clayton sit on the steps of -the Gunnery,—on the men’s knees, I believe, as -soon as it gets dark.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span></p> - -<p>“I wonder they wait for that!” said Diana -scornfully. “What did Captain Gilderoy find -Gurney doing with Trixie?”</p> - -<p>“They were on the Jacksons’ stoep—their quarters -join ours, you know. Wray says that Trixie -was draped round Gurney’s neck, and he looked a -perfect fool. We were furious, of course, as the girl -was dining at our house, and in our care for the -time, at least. Wray spoke to Gurney pretty -plainly, and told him that unless he meant to marry -her, he had better behave decently when she was -with us.”</p> - -<p>“It is her fault, not Gurney’s,” asserted Diana, -sacrificing the woman to the man with the instinct -of her class. For she was a “man’s woman,” and -would see no wrong in the sex. “What did he -say?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he wriggled out of it—said he couldn’t -afford to marry. It is rather a pity for the girl, -don’t you think?” Her eyes glanced at Chum in -the looking-glass, where she was powdering her face. -Mrs. Lewin stood behind her, her taller stature enabling -her to see over the little woman’s head, while -she watched a trifle satirically to see Mrs. Gilderoy -wet her finger with her lips and draw it across her -lashes.</p> - -<p>“Wretchedly large puffs you have, Di!” she said -calmly. “One’s eyes always catch the powder and -give it away.”</p> - -<p>“It’s not a thing I use at all,” Di Churton -boasted, passing her handkerchief over her burnt -and oozing skin. “How are you getting on with -your housekeeping, Chum? I forgot to ask you.”</p> - -<p>“Very well, thanks to Abdallah. I must confess -he does more towards it than I.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, you’ve got Abdallah? I hate Arabs myself. -We’ve Malagasy and natives. Your servants -sleep on the stoep, of course?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know,” said Chum, laughing. “It’s -their own fault if they do. There are servants’ -quarters.”</p> - -<p>“I bet you five to one they sleep on the stoep, -and bring their women there too!”</p> - -<p>“That goes without saying,” said Mrs. Gilderoy, -relinquishing the powder puff for a manicure case. -Whatever were Diana Churton’s other drawbacks -her hands were always immaculate. “When we -had Arabs I never could go out after the house was -shut up, or I fell over them on the doorstep, and—and -it embarrassed me!”</p> - -<p>“Brutes!” said Chum disgustedly. Her eyes -grew stormy, and a beautiful red colour came into -her cheeks, that were usually rather pale. “I will -turn them out one and all, if that is the case.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t be such a fool!” said Mrs. Churton scornfully. -“If they are good servants, keep them. -What on earth does it matter what they do? All -the coloured people are alike—only animals.”</p> - -<p>She did not see that her broad judgment might -apply to white races also, though later she went -back to the stoep and her contemplation of Alaric -Lewin. There was a certain grave dark beauty in -Ally’s face which was deceptive, because at the -moment he was merely rather sleepy; but when the -Lewins mounted their ponies again for the ride -home in the short twilight, Mrs. Churton strolled -over to Ally and laid her hand on the neck of his -mount.</p> - -<p>“If you can come up some time with your duplicates -I’ll make a fair exchange with you, for some -of those Sydney Views you have,” she said. Stamps -are an innocent and mutual hobby. Mrs. Lewin did -not collect.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p> - -<p>“Thanks, awfully!” said Ally. The last whiskey -that had been pressed on him at parting made him -feel that Di Churton was really a good sort of pal to -have, and he moved the reins.... Di’s hands -were cool and soft to touch.</p> - -<p>“Ally, I’m half-way home!” called Chum, -laughing, as she steered Liscarton down the steep -road.</p> - -<p>The man gathered up his reins and rode after his -wife, his hand delicately conscious of a soft touch -still.</p> - -<p>The woman turned back to the house, wondering -if any one had seen.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p> - -<p>Nobody thought of the Arabs on the stoep—but -even such courtship as theirs must have a beginning.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Man is fire, and Woman is tow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the Devil comes and begins to blow!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="right"> -—<i>Old Saw.</i><br> -</p> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p> - -<p>It is not exactly good for any man to be a condensed -force in his own person. An administrator -represents a governor, who in his turn represents -the Imperial Government and takes precedence of -any stray royalty who may drift into his kingdom—provided -he is not the <a id="figgerhead">figgerhead</a> itself. A representative -power is very demoralising, because the reins of -government are too concentrated—in spite of the -Legislative Council. Six or seven thousand miles -away is Westminster, and somebody who is called -the Colonial Secretary, and who can write letters -with censure in them; but on the spot, in such rat-traps -as Key Island, for instance, is an administrator, -and this unit is for the nonce a king in his own -country if he has the confidence of the men over -him. The effect of this is seen when such transitory -monarchs go home, and walk into the Colonial -Office to demand an extra six months’ leave. Then -they learn their real importance, which is so great -that they cannot be spared, and are sent back to -their tiny kingdoms not at all appreciative of the -compliment that has been paid them. A small corner -of the British Empire is the very worst school -in which to learn a sense of proportion; but Evelyn -Gregory had been put in power in many of such -corners, and had learned to see things from a proper -distance even while he lived in the midst of them. -It was the more surprising, therefore, that he always -impregnated himself with his kingdom of the -moment, and that particular spot (whether it were -many thousand square miles in the centre of Africa -or Northern India, or only the limited area of Key -Island) was the problem which absorbed all his -faculties until he had made himself its master. The -raging energies of the man demanded an object on -which to expend themselves in such a way, and had -been his quality of success throughout his turbulent -career. It was a little hard on Alaric Lewin, who -was cast in another mould, that he should have been -appointed under a man who was a glutton for work, -and suffer as an ineffectual tool. But the Colonial -Office is no respecter of individualities.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> - -<p>There was a meeting of the Executive Council on -the morning of the Arthur Whites’ dinner; it was a -small body, consisting of the Attorney-General himself, -Bute Churton as officer in command of the -forces, and the Colonial Treasurer, besides the -Administrator. Gregory mounted his pony and -rode down into town thinking of his plans and the -future of Key Island, rather than of any social -function, though he was to be one of the guests at -the Harrac. He was not a dreamer, but his restless -brains built fortresses where other men’s built castles -in the air, and he projected schemes for the Empire -in place of personal ambitions. The little streets -opened out before him and revealed the ring of the -bay and the two great rocks guarding the harbour -entrance, and the Administrator’s keen sleepless -eyes stared out through them as a lion’s through the -bars of his cage. With the smell of the sunshine -and the tropic life in his nostrils he jogged easily -along, mechanically raising his hand to his helmet -if any one saluted him, but seeing more of the sandbox -and eucalyptus trees in the little central square -where the band played, than of the people he -passed.</p> - -<p>If France developed the resources of Madagascar -now, as this new interest in the Hovas seemed to -indicate, that meant a spur in her trade, and more -traffic with Africa. Nothing would have pleased -Evelyn Gregory more than the least excuse for a -quarrel if only he could have laid greedy hands -on a portion of his huge neighbour. He knew -Madagascar and her capabilities,—he held theories -about the ore that he chafed to see neglected,—and -he coveted her for his Government, who -already found Key Island more trouble than she -was worth. To turn his guns on the French ships -as they came up the Channel, and be the base of -British operations with the safe harbour and huge -coaling stations, would have fed his fighting instincts -and ambitions alike. He glanced at Tsofotra, -the left gate and the more accessible of the -two, where the guns could be dragged up somehow -in case of hard necessity; and he felt a secret -attraction towards those great sentinels, rising bare -and grim to over two thousand feet above his -harbour.</p> - -<p>... A woman passed him, riding up towards -Government House, the way he had come. He -forgot the Lewins’ bungalow for the minute, and -half-wondered where she was going. She bowed, -and he saluted, before he remembered that she was -Mrs. Lewin, the pretty wife of his incapable A.D.C., -who had better have been the boy than the girl. -But her face only brought a memory of her husband -to his mind, and made his harsh features a trifle less -ingratiating than usual.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span></p> - -<p>Why on earth had they sent him such a show -article as Lewin for the work he had before him! -He wanted brains and energies, not muscles and -trained animal courage—a man, not only a soldier. -Gregory knew that as yet he had not his administration -in the iron grip in which he would hold it -by-and-by, and before casting a loving eye round -the Channel,—Madagascar on one side, and Mozambique -on the other,—he must make Key Island his -own. The natives were cowed with the presence -of the troops, but the root of the mischief was there -still, and he had not yet probed down to it. He -wanted certain things done, too, by the Home -Government—the factories encouraged and enlarged, -for he knew the value of sweating the devil -out of his people, and minor industries, such as -timber growing, given a helping hand; there were -memoranda to make, reports to send back to England, -a mass of clerical work to get through before -Halton was recalled,—and Captain Lewin was the -best polo player that the club could get on to their -faulty ground, and in constant demand for tennis -and gymkana. Truly the fates were unpropitious -for both men.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p> - -<p>Chum had ridden on in the sunshine, thinking as -hard as Gregory. He would be at the Arthur -Whites’ to-night, and he would talk of tennis and -cricket matches to the best of his ability to the -woman assigned him for dinner party, probably -playing the part of courteous listener, if only she -would do the talking—Mrs. Lewin was beginning -to know his methods; and then, once the ladies had -gone, he would draw nearer to the man who could -really interest him, and talk of the island and the -life there that woke him to more than surface -attention,—but that man would not be Ally! No -schooling would push Ally into the place she -wanted him to take after her back was turned, and -she herself was helpless. With feminine philosophy -she dressed carefully that night, not for the Administrator, -but because Chum never despised the -advantage of facing the world fortified by being -perfectly turned out. She was more successful than -usual over her unruly hair, and the pretty ripples lay -round her flat ears—not over them, for Ally’s warning!—and -were massed down into the nape of her -neck as if they loved her, and were glad to frame -her beauty. She looked at the slope of her neck -and the warm, white round of her shoulder, and -because she was respectful of her Creator’s work, -she fastened a big, black velvet rose to the shoulder-strap, -where its artificial duskiness kissed the reality -of her own seductive dimples. More than one man -found himself vaguely conscious of that false flower -before the dinner was over, and thought stealthily -of Captain Lewin’s domestic bliss. Leoline was -not exactly a woman whose influence was towards -goodness, whatever she might be in herself. For -though she had no vice of her own, she suggested -all of them in turn to coarser and more masculine -minds.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p> - -<p>The Arthur Whites had placed their table well, -and this is a great gift in Key Island, where guests -are easily bored through constantly meeting each -other. The host and hostess did not sit at either -end of their square table, but because one side -would accommodate almost as many as another they -had a way of disposing themselves among their -guests, and placing two instead of one at either end. -It broke the usual solemn monotony of dinners, -and accommodated a larger number. Thus it happened -that Mrs. Lewin, who had been taken in by -Captain Gilderoy, found that she was next the end -of the table where her host should ordinarily have -sat, but round the corner were the Administrator -and Mrs. White. To sit next to Mr. Gregory was -nothing, for what attention he had to give was Mrs. -White’s. Chum smiled upon the garrison adjutant, -and enjoyed herself with a continuation of the -philosophy that had dressed her for conquest. -Across the table she could see a woman, who was a -stranger to her, neglecting her rightful partner, -Major Churton, and talking at the Administrator -through the medium of a projected water scheme -in which she was not really interested, and noted her -failure with as much sympathy as amusement. -After all, they had all had their water-scheme trial, -and failed also!</p> - -<p>“Who is Major Churton’s partner?” she said -idly to Gilderoy, under the buzz of the conversation -round them.</p> - -<p>“That is Mrs. Clayton of Mitsinjovy fame!” he -answered. “They have only been out a month or -so longer than you, and she was ill with fever at -first, so it took some time for her questionable attractions -to dawn on us.”</p> - -<p>(“Then she does not know Mr. Gregory, and -that is why she is wasting her energies on the water -scheme!” thought Chum.) Aloud she said cautiously, -“Do you know her?”</p> - -<p>“Not personally, I am thankful to say, but I have -a smiling acquaintance with her. I have to pass -their house on my way down to town and to the -garrison office every morning, and she is generally -showing her ankles for my benefit on the stoep. I -always smile, because as she has taken the trouble -to get into her hammock, presumably on my account, -it would be unkind not to do so.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin looked at his rather rugged face, and -found it curiously deceptive. For his eyes were -quite friendly, and when he spoke in that pleasant -tone it was difficult to realise his sneering insinuations -about the lady sitting opposite, who was even -now casting glances in his direction.</p> - -<p>“What sort of acquaintance did you say you -had?” she asked, laughing.</p> - -<p>“Just a smiling one. Don’t you know that -stage? I should say it was very inadvisable to go -further and fare worse with the O.C.T.’s dinner -partner!”</p> - -<p>“Now I come to think of it I have had that degree -of intimacy with people myself. It is rather -fascinating, because though one can’t bow it is not -in human nature not to recognise a familiar face in -some way that evades the social law. But why -should you judge Mrs. Clayton by her ankles?”</p> - -<p>He shrugged his shoulders, and the dog-smile -marred his face for a moment. “If a woman gives -me such a flagrant invitation, what am I to think? -They have not begun entertaining yet, but if you -would rather wait and judge them by their tennis-cake -and Bridge-markers pray do so. For me, I -have my private opinion.”</p> - -<p>“Is that the usual test out here—how one entertains? -I am still on my probation then, because -we have no courts, and have not started Bridge. -Ally and I only give whiskey-and-soda dinners at -present.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p> - -<p>“Well, that is excellent, or sounds so!” he retorted, -turning to look at her more closely. Captain -Gilderoy always retained his air of being a -gentleman whatever he said or did, but he was also, -at times, a man—the black rose that Chum was -wearing was on his side, not the Administrator’s, -and he was well content with his lot, so much so -that when Diana Churton loudly claimed his attention -to pronounce judgment on a short issue of -Victorian stamps, he turned reluctantly to answer, -leaving Mrs. Lewin for the moment unmonopolised.</p> - -<p>The dinner was practically over, but there was -just that pause of desultory talk before Mrs. White -rose that kept the men from their cigarettes—in -this house the women were, officially, not supposed -to smoke—and Chum knew that her hostess would -look at her in a minute, and altered her attitude to -one of more alertness; but she had a school-girl -trick of slipping off her shoes under the dinner-table, -and for the minute the little right-hand slipper -was missing.</p> - -<p>She was feeling about for it with a distressed silk -foot, when an inspiration flashed into her head, filling -her eyes with brilliant laughter. The Administrator -was not at the moment occupied any more -than herself; he was leaning back in his chair, his -eyes for once cast down, his massive face inwardly -absorbed, but one nervous hand playing with the -fruit knife betraying the active, working brain. -Mrs. Lewin looked at him ... were they all -wrong? Had Mrs. Clayton and the water scheme -failed to arrest his attention for exactly the same -reason that her own tentative efforts had not succeeded—that -they had all appealed to the wrong -side of the man? How would audacity do instead?...</p> - -<p>She leaned forward, her face flushed with her own -uncertain daring, her eyes still full of laughter, half -excited, half amused at the experiment, and spoke -hurriedly under her breath.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Gregory, will you try and find my shoe for -me?”</p> - -<p>The hand that played with the fruit knife stopped -as if by clockwork, and the Administrator raised -his hard eyes and looked full into hers in his amazement. -A half-smile softened his own lips in answer -to her apologetic dimples.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span></p> - -<p>“I beg your pardon, Mrs. Lewin?”</p> - -<p>“My shoe!” said Chum with apparent impatience. -“I have a foolish habit of slipping them -off at meals and I’ve lost one, and Mrs. White -will look at me and rise in a minute, and I can’t -go. Do feel for it! It must be somewhere near -you.”</p> - -<p>His face flushed dark red with suppressed laughter, -as, more awake to the situation than she had -ever known him, he sat back and felt cautiously -about in the unseen space of floor. A minute later -he had really found it, and caught it between his -feet. The little soft satin thing felt utterly alien and -feminine, and yielded to the pressure of his feet, -yet just because it was so empty it suggested to his -senses the foot that would fill it. He pushed it -carefully towards Mrs. Lewin, his eyes still fixed -upon her.</p> - -<p>“Have you found it?” she said eagerly, without -a trace of consciousness in her charming face. -“Thank you so much!... Yes, I have -it!... That’s all right!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span></p> - -<p>He had inevitably touched the little unslippered -foot in its silk stocking, but she did not seem to be -aware of the fact as he was. Mrs. White had risen, -and Mrs. Lewin rose too, with one brilliant smile -of thanks at him—nothing more. The Administrator -was nearest to the door; he got out of his -seat and held it for the ladies, looking down on -them from his unusual height as they passed,—Mrs. -Arthur White in dull white silk, a comfortable, -portly presence—Mrs. Clayton, still trying to attract -attention with a jingle of bangles, but his eyes were -blank;—Diana Churton, hard and metallic and -burnt to the collar-line, beneath which her bare -neck was startlingly fair;—then a tall woman with -a well-groomed head, and a black velvet rose nestling -against the rich whiteness of her skin. He -scanned her as keenly as though he saw her for the -first time, and he felt sure she did not notice it as -she went calmly by, so softly unconscious of him -that she was as easily graceful as though no strong -masculine eyes were searching her from the crown -of her head to the little foot that had a new meaning -to him.</p> - -<p>Mr. Gregory held the door until the last silk -skirts had swept into the further room. Then he -went back to his seat and sat down, and the talk -buzzed round him of sugar works and hemp-crops, -and mixtures of races in Key Island, while a few -men talked promotion and the chances of the -army. Between his feet, as he sat there discussing -his favourite topics, he could still feel -the strange yielding softness of a little satin -slipper....</p> - -<p>As Mrs. Lewin entered the drawing-room the -coffee came in from the servants’ quarters. She sat -down in the nearest chair, which happened to be -beside a little table where a fancy mirror lay with -some other trifles. The other women had crossed -over to the coffee-tray; Chum took up the glass -deliberately, and looked at herself; first on this side -and then on that. The inspection was entirely -satisfactory.</p> - -<p>She laid down the mirror, and smiled as if distinctly -amused. For it had occurred to her that -they had all been fools and had wasted much valuable -time, and when women are fools the men will -not help them out of their folly.</p> - -<p>“He is only a man!” she said a little contemptuously, -going back to her first comment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p> - -<p>By the time the men came into the drawing-room, -most of the women had drifted out on to the -stoep, but the two Bridge tables were placed and -waiting, and the Bridge players sat down to the -serious business of their evening, while Hamilton -Gurney of the Wessex wheeled the piano out into -the cool darkness and fortified by cého began to -sing. He had that gift of the gods a real tenor -voice, and when he sang he was suddenly transformed -from an ordinary young man in a Line -Regiment to a satellite of the Angel Israfil, with -power over his fellow-creatures to wring their -hearts and bring tears into their eyes. It is a -little pitiful of human nature that intense pleasure -always shows itself most simply in weeping; for -when the senior sub. of the Wessex had dropped -his last soft note into a listening silence most -of his hearers had uncomfortable lumps in their -throats, and believed that it was a foretaste of -Heaven.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin had seated herself in a basket chair -as far from other listeners as she could, for she was -selfish over music, and felt inclined to turn and -rend any one who interrupted her enjoyment of it. -It represented the only violent emotion that she had -really experienced, and she objected to facing the -public with quivering nerves. To-night she was to -be more than usually harrowed because Mr. Gurney, -in a fit of sentimentalism engendered by her own -black rose, had chosen a song with her name interwoven—a -song that Blumenthal loved best of all he -wrote, and which seems as if the accompaniment -were born of the air. It is called “Leoline,” but -Chum missed the reference to herself as completely -as she lost sight of the pink-and-white young man -at the piano who was casting glances at her shadowy -corner. Hamilton Gurney did not realise that he -was merely the vehicle of his own gift, and therefore -he made the mistake of accepting the attention -he knew he received not only as for his voice, but -for his very unimportant self.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“One night we sat below the porch</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And out in that warm air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A firefly, like a dying star,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fell tangled in her hair;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But I kissed him lightly off again</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And he fluttered up the vine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And died into the darkness</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For the love of Leoline!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin had drifted away into a sea of pain, -as the rich notes played over her nerves. Had she -thought about him she would have been positive -that the Administrator was playing Bridge at Major -Churton’s table, but she was not thinking of him, nor -did she realise until long after the song was over -that he was standing near her, a tall dark shadow -behind her chair, looking with very far-seeing eyes -from Mr. Gurney’s obvious application of his song -to Mrs. Lewin’s equal ignoring of it.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“We sang our songs together,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Till the stars shook in the skies;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We spoke—we spoke of common things—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But the tears were in our eyes!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And my hand I know it trembled</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To each light warm touch of thine ...</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet we are friends, and only friends,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My lost love, Leoline!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“That’s her name, eh!” said Mr. Gregory, with -some dry amusement. “And that young fool is -trying to catch her attention to the fact. It’s a pity -that he can’t realise his position of a Man behind a -Voice.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span></p> - -<p>Chum moved her head restlessly, conscious that -her heart was beating thickly as only the slow rich -notes ever made it beat. It frightened her to have -even the suspicion of an emotion she could not control, -and this was certainly a thing that seemed -apart from her. Life had been most comfortably -manageable so far.</p> - -<p>“I wonder what her husband calls her?” mused -the Administrator, his eyes absently fixed on the -point of a little satin slipper, showing beneath the -frills of her skirt. “Leoline—Lena—Leo—she is -not a woman to lack a pet name, for all her -inches!”</p> - -<p>“Chum!” said Captain Lewin, strolling across -the stoep with his hands in his pockets. “Come -in and drink Mr. White’s health—there’s cého -going!”</p> - -<p>And a dozen voices seemed to echo his words -from the lighted windows—“Chum, are you out -there?” “Chum—excuse me, Mrs. Lewin, it’s -so catching!—but do come in.” “Come along, -Chum!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p> - -<p>“At all events,” said the Administrator, with -an ugly smile, “that name is not sacred to one -person!”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“La femme qui n’a que son mari est une femme déserte.”—<i>French -Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>Behind the Lewins’ bungalow the rich hillside -ran up yellow with cane, for their garden joined the -boundaries of Mr. Denver’s estate, and save for a -fringe of logwood and guava the sugar spread all -about his many acres. If Mrs. Lewin crossed the -gravel paths among the rose trees, and pushed her -way through a tangle of debatable ground, she -found herself out among the waving blades that rose -above her height and almost kissed over her head. -She had an insistent love of the early morning, -when the languid air was at least cooled with the -dawn, and full of faint scent; and when her husband -was still sleeping off the healthy effects of two hours’ -hard tennis, she would get up and go out, whereby -she gained a very irradicable impression of the -sugar industry in all its phases, from the flat-footed -natives strolling up to work, to the grinding and -heaving of the sugar factories, for she strayed as far -as the actual buildings where it was carried on, and -came back to breakfast with an English appetite, -and a Key Island thirst. Ally called it restlessness.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> - -<p>On the morning after the Whites’ dinner, the -spirit woke her early. She rose and dressed, insisting -on a bath at an hour which confirmed the -Arabs’ impression of British insanity, and went out -into the blue day. There were clouds over Maitso, -but the gracious morning was very hushed and -calm. Chum threaded the garden, and invaded the -brushwood beyond, where the blue-gum and -eucalyptus trees marked the boundary of her own -territory, and the dew lay heavy on her white -skirts. A meerkat jumped across her feet, as she -pushed out into the fields of cane, and then the -slope of the mountain rose before her, pure green -with sugar, a delight to look upon. This land belonged -to Mr. James Denver, the father of the -young lady whose name was connected in every -Key Island mouth with Hamilton Gurney’s, and the -ugly chimneys of his factory rose half-way up the -hill, above the long, grey sugar works. The men -had gone to their labour half-an-hour since, and -Mrs. Lewin pushed her way boldly in between the -ridges where the cane grew, and sauntered along, -feeling that life was very good, and that Earth smelt -like Heaven, as indeed it did if Heaven is a combination -of hothouse and conservatory. In a land -where every other tree flowers, and where gardenias -riot in the hedges, it seems as if the essence of all -the honey that was ever gathered was resolved back -into its original elements within one’s immediate -surroundings.</p> - -<p>Last night’s success was really the satin lining to -Mrs. Lewin’s mood, for there is no factor so conducive -to physical pleasure as a gentle mental stimulant. -She had made the worn-out discovery that -a man is best reached through his emotions, and -that his reason is a secondary line of attack, and it -amused her. But she was really not thinking of the -object of her success so much as generalising over -the frailty of his sex, when suddenly she saw him -coming towards her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p> - -<p>A swell of ground, and a cross track through the -cane, had hidden the Administrator until they were -only a few yards distant from each other. Without -a suspicion of his nearness, any more than she had -been when Gurney sang, Chum came through the -dancing morning, while the great green cane bowed -over her head and made a royal avenue for her as -she passed, as of sunshine dripping through clear -emeralds—so liquid yellow was the light through -the blades. She had grown to love the cane, from -the light emphatic patches of it in distance, to the -near waving blades so suggestive of sweet taste in -their very colour. There was a little Nigger song -that Hamilton Gurney sang in a voice as luscious as -the sugar; she hummed it as she passed—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“All the world am singing this refrain—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sweeter than the sugar from the cane!...</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You are the sweetest girl around,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Just the sweetest girl I know——”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">She broke off to throw up her head and catch another -footstep for the first time, then sauntered on -to meet it with the last line—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“And the sugar—sugar—sugar—from the cane!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“Good-morning, Mr. Gregory!”</p> - -<p>“Good-morning, Mrs. Lewin!”</p> - -<p>They were conscious eyes this time, that looked -down in their penetration at every feminine attraction -presented to him. The secretary’s wife stood -the inspection with the unconscious serenity of last -night.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span></p> - -<p>“How very unofficial of you to be out like this! -One dispenses with outriders and a flourish of -trumpets in Key Island, but one does expect to -think of the Administrator breakfasting in languid -dignity while other people are already abroad!”</p> - -<p>He made a wry face. “We are very unofficial -here, thank Heaven! It is one of the few advantages -of our diminutiveness. Where are you going, -to Denver’s?”</p> - -<p>“No, I was trespassing on his ground, merely for -a stroll.”</p> - -<p>“You have seen the factory?”</p> - -<p>“Not yet, though I have ventured as far as the -door.”</p> - -<p>“Come along,” he said unceremoniously. “It is -just up the hill—I’ll take you round.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin smiled inwardly, and picking up her -spotless skirts stepped into the next furrow. Here -the cane had been cut, but a little further on the -golden green blades drove them into the draining -ditch until they struck the road which cut the field -in two. There were rough tram-lines running -along it, and a small engine was hauling the trucks -up and down the hillside to the factory. Gregory -stopped the man who was just starting the load, and -there was a brief colloquy. Then he turned to the -last truck, which, unlike its fellows, was not open to -the sky and loaded with the cane, but resembled a -waggon without ends, and had rough seats running -down each side of it. This was the riding truck, -and throwing a piece of matting over a seat he put -his hand under Mrs. Lewin’s arm and lifted rather -than helped her in, for the step was steep. In the -midst of her amused excitement she was conscious -of his unceremonious strength, and with the instinctive -feminine compliment to it her own weakness -and helplessness seemed suddenly to have -increased.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span></p> - -<p>“We shall have time to go round before that -breakfast you insist on my eating in my official -capacity,” he said, and his lips smiled, while his lidless -eyes never narrowed from their intense stare at -her. It began to give her a sense of weariness, a -feeling that he had never ceased looking at her -since the night before, when he was first conscious -of her presence. Perhaps he had been doing it in -his own mind all the night.</p> - -<p>The movement of the trucks was surprisingly -smooth, but they were all worked on springs. -They swept up through the furrowed fields, and -came to a clinking standstill before the gaping -mouth of the factory. It seemed to Mrs. Lewin a -zinc building with a whirr of machinery inside too -large for its frail shell, and the impression increased, -rather than otherwise, when she entered. All the -world was suddenly transformed to sugar—the rich -smell of it was in the air, the dark stream of it falling -from the pipes to the big teaches and the -cooler, the very floor sticky with it, so that she -stepped aside from the pools of hot liquid. After -the increasing glare outside the dark of the place -was grateful, and through the dark were visible -bronzed forms, stripped and dripping with sweat, -guiding the machinery, shovelling down the waste -for fuel, and chopping at the congealed masses of -the later stages of the sugar with some pronged -instrument. There was labour on every hand, and -the restless tide of human life seemed gathered into -an ordered groove of industry.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span></p> - -<p>Gregory led his companion up steep ladders and -over wet stones without consideration for her fresh -skirts, explaining the process as they went on. It -was wonderful how his forceful whispers carried -through the whirr of the flying wheels, and he took -it off-handedly for granted that Mrs. Lewin would -miss no detail on account of her clothes. He knew -the work as well as its owner, and dipped the testing-tube -into the refining sugar to show her how -the lime had purified the dirty liqueur to a pure gold -like honey. Further on, at the end of the building, -were the great vats where rum was fermenting, -and an odour like rich wine rose in Chum’s nostrils -as he lifted the lid and showed her the frothy, -muddy contents.</p> - -<p>“Dip in your finger—it’s warm,” he said, stirring -it with his own. Mrs. Lewin, balancing on a -precarious plank, with her dainty skirts held high, -was conscious of an inward shudder as her long -white hand touched the strong-smelling stuff, and -yet it never occurred to her to disobey, or so -much as enter a protest.</p> - -<p>“Is this what the natives <i>drink</i>?” she said, in -mild surprise.</p> - -<p>“Yes—by-and-by, when it’s cleared. Filthy -stuff!” he said shortly. “It’s better than hemp, -though. Can you get down? Better let me lift -you——”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p> - -<p>But she laid her cool hands in his and jumped, -landing safely at his side, and again conscious of -his physical as well as mental power. Then the -sight-seeing was over, and he led the way out by -another door and round to the waiting trucks to -ride back. Here Gregory paused a minute, and -looked over the waving crops and the flourishing -scene of labour with an expression that Mrs. Lewin -did not at the moment understand. When he had -come to Key Island the sugar-planters were sullen -and depressed; they wanted encouragement from -the Home Government, and they regarded the -change of administration in Key Island as no benefit -to themselves. The old <i>régime</i> had been a bad -one, and had ended in disaster; but they knew at -least what they had to expect, and the first “spring -cleaning” of the Imperial Government had alarmed -them with grave prognostications for the future of -the island. Gregory had already made them change -their opinions during the short time he had been in -possession. He had thrown himself heart and soul -into the industries of the island, and so assured the -planters that Port Victoria would not be merely a -coaling-station. Because he was in earnest he -gained their confidence, and worked with them to -make the land prosperous again. The humming -factories were a proof of his success; he saw his -schemes fulfilling themselves actually before him, -and his hard eyes brightened with the strange look -over which Mrs. Lewin pondered all the way home. -It was, in a degree, the same look that makes a -young mother most ineffably, justifiably proud—the -look that is but a reflex of God’s when, His work -spread before Him, He saw that it was very good. -For there is no joy like the joy of creation.</p> - -<p>“What is he thinking about?” said Leoline -Lewin to herself, with awakened interest, her eyes -on the Administrator’s reserved face.</p> - -<p>“Denver employs six hundred on his estate -alone,” was all Gregory remarked aloud. “I wish -all the planters took as many.”</p> - -<p>“Why?”</p> - -<p>“If there were no idlers, there would be less likelihood -of a rising. When the Key’landers begin to -sit in the gutter and jaw through the Miroro (sleep -hour) in a snarly sing-song, then look out. It began -that way last time.”</p> - -<p>“Ah!—Mr. Gregory, what would happen if you -burnt the hemp-crops?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> - -<p>“I don’t know.” But he looked at her in some -surprise for the audacity of her question. It had -been tacitly understood that such an extreme -measure might be attempted by this Administrator -only; but no one had even broached such a subject -to himself. Gregory thought of the unlikelihood of -his secretary even speculating on such an idea, and -smiled even more broadly. Decidedly this girl -ought to have been the boy!</p> - -<p>“It might bring matters to a head, and I don’t -know that I should be sorry,” he admitted after a -moment. “There is a lot of underhand discontent, -and the population is like a silly child who overestimates -its own importance and power to be -naughty. A sharp lesson might clear the air—see?”</p> - -<p>It is wonderful how indiscreet men will be to a -pretty woman. Mrs. Lewin knew how to listen; -also as Evelyn Gregory talked he could see himself -reflected in the big pupils of her eyes, and his -mental attitude reflected in the equally receptive -calibre of her mind. He was not very used to -sympathy in his schemes, because he rarely confided -them to any one, and he fancied Mrs. Lewin -the more exceptional on this account, whereas she -was merely more adroit in drawing him on. She -was, besides, really interested, and he saw that, and -saw also that she was a woman, which touched his -senses, and ended by driving the more serious side -of the conversation out of his head. For Chum, -with a flash of genius, dropped the political standpoint -at her own gate, and held out her hand with -a merely social attractiveness.</p> - -<p>“My husband will be ravenous, and I shall get -scolded,” she said, with a smile in the changing -colours of her eyes. “But I was very interested—it -was your fault!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span></p> - -<p>The curve of her lips was not a pout, but Mr. -Gregory suddenly saw himself as a successful rival -to Captain Lewin as regarded his wife’s time—the -masculine cause of a scolding too, for a more subtle -suggestion than a late breakfast lay in the words. -He smiled a little also, and the blood beat with a -small pleased triumph in the hand that held hers.</p> - -<p>“He must like me, if he is to like Ally!” said -Chum to herself in vague excuse, as she went into -her room to change her soiled skirt and shoes. -“And that is the only way to attract him, as yet.... -What a harsh, ugly face he has!—Been -waiting long, Ally?”</p> - -<p>Fresh from her encounter with the Administrator, -her husband’s good looks struck her with a sudden -pride in possession. She paused behind his chair, -and laying her hands on his shoulders bent down to -kiss him and talk tender nonsense.</p> - -<p>“Dear thing! how nice it looks in its beautiful -white clothes!” she said softly, her arm round the -broad shoulders under the cool linen coat.</p> - -<p>“Where have you been, old girl?” Ally returned, -pushing his chair back from the table to -return the caress heartily. “I’ve been dressed half-an-hour.”</p> - -<p>“Up to Denver’s Works, and all round them with—who -do you think? Three guesses!”</p> - -<p>“Halton!”</p> - -<p>“Wrong!—Silly boy! as if I didn’t love my -beautiful husband better than hundreds of Mr. -Haltons!”</p> - -<p>“I know you do!—I should think it very bad -taste if you didn’t,” said Ally, calmly. “Brissy, -then?”</p> - -<p>“No,—why, he is orderly officer this week!”</p> - -<p>“Which is all that lies between me and the -Divorce Court evidently! Well, I don’t think you -have another mash, Chum—unless it’s Churton?”</p> - -<p>“All wrong. I fly at higher game. Now -then!”</p> - -<p>“Not——”</p> - -<p>“The Administrator!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span></p> - -<p>Ally whistled. “You don’t say so!” he said. -“How the deuce did it happen?”</p> - -<p>“He met me trespassing on the estate and -asked me to go. Now I think of it, he never said -why <i>he</i> was there, but he seemed like a second -owner.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he is well in with all the Planters. -Well?”</p> - -<p>“He asked me to go, as I say, and I went. -Listen, Ally”—and she left him and walked round -to her end of the table—“he became almost confiding -about the natives. I shall know his schemes -yet, and then I can tell you, and knowledge is -power! He will think you have divined his mind.”</p> - -<p>“Catch me divining his mind! It would be like -groping in a fusty roomful of blue-books! Oh, by -the way, Chum, Gurney wants to sell that grey -pony of his—I think we might as well have another.”</p> - -<p>“No, but do listen, Ally! At present the native -question is so hopeless because of the mixed races -and opposing interests, but if a good breed predominated—the -Hovas, for instance—and we could -get them to come over and leaven the lump——”</p> - -<p>A big hard-backed beetle had floundered on to -the table right in front of Alaric’s plate, and instinctively -he had set his glass of iced water on it. -The glass being nearly empty the beetle was walking -away with it, and with Alaric’s attention at the -same time. Chum stopped abruptly.</p> - -<p>“You don’t care!” she said, with a sudden blank -feeling upon her. “You are much more interested -in playing school-boy tricks!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p> - -<p>“I beg your pardon, really! But I’m so sick of -Gregory’s importation and emigration schemes.” -Ally’s eyes were affectionate and apologetic too. -He looked like a big dog accustomed to petting, -and very unaccustomed to being chidden. “I say, -Chum, do look at this fellow though! The other -night at mess we got a lot,—every one of us had -a beetle, and laid odds as to whose would fly off -first. You know if you turn them on their backs, -ten to one they can’t get up, and if you even -touch them——”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span></p> - -<p>But now it was Chum’s attention which had -wandered, nor was she very concerned with the -intellectual pursuits of the Wessex mess. She felt -that the racing of hard-backed beetles was the limit -of their capacity: and then reproached herself for -self-conscious superiority. The question of Key -Island and its possible improvements dropped to -pieces, nor was it revived successfully on other -occasions. But Captain Alaric Lewin escaped -from work early that day, and rode out to Maitso -with his wife, where from four o’clock to six they -played at Go-one-better, which is a very instructive -game needing nothing but five handkerchiefs and -a Panama hat, and affords some amusement if you -cannot play tennis. The grass was wet, but they -laughed themselves thirsty over Go-one-better, and -then sat on the stoep of the mess and drank cého, -and when the Administrator’s A.D.C. and Mrs. -Lewin left, Ally was conscious of no flaw in his -domestic bliss. Key Island was a beastly hole, and -he must really look up all the influence he could to -get a decent Station—for Chum’s sake, of course—but -in the meantime one could have a very pleasant -time if there were people like the Churtons and old -Bristles round. To-morrow they would play Polo -of sorts—Gurney must learn not to cross, though!—and -Wednesday was gymkana. If only he had been -more of an A.D.C. and less of a secretary, even work -would not have been so irksome. But the Administrator -chafed at entertainments, and when he was -forced into some formality at Government House -he usually managed to be summoned away, and left -Halton to represent him and Mrs. White to entertain. -It was a saying in Key Island that he paid -the Town Wardens of Port Albert and China Town -an extra stipend to telephone for him on such -occasions, and only when a Government House -dinner was unavoidable did Mr. Gregory appear as -a host. Since Ally had been out there had been -no entertainment at Government House, and his -social gifts were wasted. It would have been dull -enough, no doubt, but still something to do, he -thought, and better than all clerical work, and he -yawned over the morrow’s monotony as he laid his -handsome, empty head on the pillow that night.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p> - -<p>What Mrs. Lewin thought of the last twenty-four -hours’ experiences she no longer tried to make him -understand.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“In vino veritas.”—<i>Latin Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span></p> - -<p>The way of the Army woman is hard. She -starts as a nice girl, with a weakness for red cloth -and jingles; but then she marries, and discovers, -amongst other shocks, what lies beneath the red -cloth. Her husband may still be her ideal hero to -her, or he may be merely the figure-head of a -position in which she gets plenty of attention and -some amusement; but his profession will inevitably -take her into desert places of the earth where she -samples discomfort until the iron enters into her -domestic soul. If it be in India she will do pretty -well, until he gets a bad Station, though even the -horrors of loneliness and fever may be mitigated by -obtainable service. But by the time she is suddenly -transferred with him to another Colony there will be -a nursery in progress, and then the tragedy—the -ugly, sordid tragedy of a married life stripped of its -decencies and privacies—will very possibly begin. -She will leave her comfortable staff behind her, -because of the Emigration Act, and on the troop-ship -she will begin to taste the joys of being her own -nurses and maid. Then her temper wears, and she -has not quite so much time to spend over her -appearance, but instinct holding good she adopts -the harder and more masculine style as being easier -to compass under all trials of circumstance. Foreign -Stations batter the daintiness of life out of her, the -narrow limits of the Army world distort her mental -vision, the drawbacks she struggles to overcome -leave their mark on her. Finally there comes the -day when even the hateful little compensations to -which she has become used have to be given up—the -snobbish sense of position, and the dangling -after her of men other than her husband, who find -in her a <i>passée</i> fashion,—for the soldier’s service is -over, and then comes Ealing and a dress allowance -to be saved up for the sales.</p> - -<p>Diana Churton had reached the ominous point in -her career when she saw half-pay darkening the -horizon. It was unlikely that Major Churton would -ever be given the regiment, and, as he said, twenty -years of foreign service had made the solid dullness -of England a home to his weary eyes. Diana had -no children to plot and plan for, and marry into the -same life that she had found a dubious success; -their one little girl had died at Agra, and the dumb -tragedy of their lives was in the moment when they -turned away from the little grave, in a city for ever -sacred to the dead by that grand white memory -called the Taj, and went their separate ways. The -child as she grew older might have drawn them -closer together again; her grave somehow thrust -them apart.</p> - -<p>“If he thinks I neglected her, or that it was my -fault, I could kill him!” thought the woman fiercely, -jealous of her motherhood.</p> - -<p>“If she hints that I do care, I shall lose my control—better -let the very subject alone,” thought the -man, for he was afraid of his own temper.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p> - -<p>So Di Churton dropped the remnants of her girlhood -into the void of her husband’s silence, and life -went on as before—always the indefinite man who -rode with her and danced with her, always the hard -tongues of the Station and the keeping just on the -safe side, always the restless, feverish desire to get -something out of life and the sense of disillusion. -She never lost her husband’s confidence, for she was -a wise woman; but she learned a mutual accommodation -when “Bute was thick with Mrs. So-and-so.” -Diana was attracted by men rather than her -own sex; she was in few senses a nice woman, and -unless she had an object in cultivating them, the -other ladies in the garrison found her frankly rude.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span></p> - -<p>At Port Victoria she was fairly intimate with -Mrs. Gilderoy until the arrival of the Lewins, -whereupon she transferred her preference to Leoline, -not only on account of Alaric, but because -Chum was obviously successful socially, and Bute -was conveniently attracted. It would have suited -Mrs. Churton very well to have the Lewins nearer, -for the distance up to Maitso from their bungalow -was a frequent reason for Mrs. Lewin to slip out of -an invitation there. It happened one morning, for -instance, that on a day when Diana had planned to -have her company Chum rode into town late, and -gave herself a headache with the heat and the -exhaustion of the air. The smell of Port Victoria -is peculiarly its own, and seems to be compounded -of all the mixed races that inhabit it, not excepting -the white, for the hot khaki certainly lends its own -peculiar flavour. The humid streets do not smell of -the packed stores, or of the decaying vegetation, or -even of the need for drainage, though they might -do so, and it is a surprise to those who know the -place that they do not; but the juices of warm -Chinaman and Negro and Arab and Malagasy, -seem to merge and produce an effect that is numbing -to the uninitiated. After six months or so in -the town people declare that they hardly notice it, -but Mrs. Lewin had not reached that stage. She -turned Liscarton’s head towards the hillside, and -felt thankful that if her homeward way was to be -overscented it would be with too much sweetness -rather than otherwise. For it was a characteristic -of Port Victoria that its rank nastiness should be succeeded -by enervating odours of flowers the minute -one gets out of the streets and into the blossoming -tangle of hills round about.</p> - -<p>The town seemed unusually glaring, and clattered -with khaki. The rattling by of an officer’s pony, -and the salute flashed into her dazzled eyes, made -Chum’s head swim, until she was faintly conscious -of something else that distracted her attention from -herself. It was the hour of the Miroro—the noonday -sleep—and the coloured people had lounged -out of store and wharf and were sitting in the -gutters and on the steps of the houses, eating -fessikh and dozing and playing native games. But -above it and through it all rang a sing-song snarl of -patois, like the complaining note of a caged beast. -Liscarton almost stopped for the instinctive pressure -on his rein, and Mrs. Lewin turned in her saddle to -look back at the streets she was leaving. She -remembered Gregory’s warning as to the signs of -trouble; this sounded like it, this strange note of -dissatisfaction in the general hum.</p> - -<p>“I will speak to Ally, and ask him if there is -anything fresh—any measure of the Government -that is unpopular,” she thought, beginning to canter -up-hill mechanically. A Key Island pony will -always canter his hills, unless really tired, upon the -principle that it is better to get over a difficulty -quickly and breathe yourself afterwards. He is -bound to be hot with the climb, and the impetus of -a quicker motion carries him over the rough ground -with greater ease.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span></p> - -<p>As Chum entered the delicious coolness of their -own bungalow, the telephone rang, and she went to -answer it. Her husband’s voice spoke to her, -faintly muffled.</p> - -<p>“Who’s there?... Oh, is it you, Chum? -I’m at the club, and it’s too late to come out. -Brissy’s lunching with me.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t drink too many céhos!” said Chum -resignedly from her end of the communication tube. -“And tell Captain Nugent I expect him to dinner -to-morrow—he can bring the banjo.”</p> - -<p>“All right. Well, look here, Chum, I’m dining -with the Churtons unfortunately—they want to -know if you can ride out too?”</p> - -<p>“My head is too bad. I’m only just out from -town, and the heat made it ache a good deal. I’m -afraid I should be the skeleton at the feast if I -attempted to get up to Maitso. It’s nothing—don’t -be a silly boy! I shall have to make the -effort and come to the Churtons if you bother.”</p> - -<p>“No don’t, if you feel seedy. I’ll ride out and -see how you are after lunch.”</p> - -<p>“You are not to do anything of the kind—it’s -too hot for you. Stay at the club. Oh, Ally——”</p> - -<p>“Well?”</p> - -<p>“Is there anything going on in the Legislature?”</p> - -<p>“Not that I know of more than the usual—ahem!—grind. -What’s up?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing. I only thought—oh, nothing. Give -my love to Di.”</p> - -<p>“All right. Take care of yourself, dear.” Ally -rang off hastily, and turned to drink cého with -relief. He was not a hypocrite, and he had reached -a point when he did not want Chum to send her -love to Mrs. Churton.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span></p> - -<p>After all, he did not ride out to their bungalow, -for he talked horse with Captain Nugent to the -accompaniment of many whiskies, and then it -seemed too late, remembering that he had to dress—he -had had his clothes sent down to the club—and -get his pony and ride up to Maitso. But -Brissy was not pressed for time, and offered himself -as a substitute, whereby it came to pass that he -turned up to have tea with Chum, and impressed -her anew in her secret heart with his absolute -inferiority to Ally, and the wearying vacuum of his -brains.</p> - -<p>“He is like a bad copy of Ally, too,” she thought -critically, looking at the burnt face and the young -eyes drawn round with spurious wrinkles by foreign -service. Under the black moustache Brissy’s teeth -flashed as he talked, for he had a trick of drawing -back his upper lip, and above his low forehead the -dark hair thatched an unusually flat head. Owing -to vivid colouring, he was considered a handsome -man among his fellows; but Mrs. Lewin did not -admire him.</p> - -<p>“His eyes have no soul in them—he is just a -healthy animal!” she said to herself disparagingly, -as he stolidly drank his fourth cup of tea and -showed no signs of going. “Oh, thank Heaven, -Ally is not like this! What shall I talk about?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p> - -<p>It seemed ridiculous to think of Brissy as a -father, and Mrs. Lewin never drew him on to domestic -subjects as she might other married men, -partly because it struck her as inappropriate to him, -and partly because there was a general belief in -Key Island that he would have liked to bring his -wife out with him, but that Mrs. Nugent had not -been attracted by a small and dull Station such as -Port Victoria, and had preferred to wait until he -had something better. Brissy staunchly asserted -that her health would not stand the heat, but Captain -Gilderoy had shrugged his shoulders to a select -audience, and given it as his opinion that at the last -moment Mrs. Nugent had jibbed! The theory met -with credence, and therefore Chum talked banjos -and ponies rather than married interests, and had -no suspicion that Brissy’s unemotional eyes strayed -round the home, for which he envied “old Ally -Sloper,” with a secret wistfulness. He was adding -her presence at her husband’s side to the long list -of advantages with which he had already endowed -her, while she privately decided that a lifelong -<i>tête-à-tête</i> with Bristow Nugent would exhaust the -vitality of any woman, and that Mrs. Nugent’s -absence needed no explanation to a sympathetic -mind.</p> - -<p>Her thoughts touched Ally with fonder appreciation -in contrast. He was at the moment just riding -leisurely up the winding road that led to Maitso,—a -handsome fellow, and well contented with himself, -and his wife with him. On his right rose the -solid buildings of the Mess, and as the path swung -over the hill, corkscrew-wise, the dotted barracks -grouped themselves on either hand. It was like a -town in itself, intersected with the irrepressible -vegetation which broke out into guava and logwood -brush even here. Maitso looked “greener” and -more deserving of its name than it really was from -the town; but as Captain Lewin rode up to the -Churtons’ quarters, he passed through the slight -screen of logwood, and was shielded from the setting -sun.</p> - -<p>“Come in, Ally. Bute’s somewhere at the -Mess,” said Mrs. Churton, appearing on the stoep. -“Where’s Chum?”</p> - -<p>“She had a headache—said she was awfully sorry -she didn’t feel up to coming. I’m glad she didn’t -try, it was so hot riding up.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span></p> - -<p>“I’m sorry she couldn’t, though, as we shall be -odd numbers. Poor old fellow! you are hot! -Will you have a cého or whiskey?” Diana was -hospitable.</p> - -<p>Ally chose cého, but the whiskey followed, and -when the Major appeared they had more, sitting out -until dinner-time and talking in a desultory fashion, -while they watched the sky darken behind the -solemn fans of the ravenalas. How hot it was! -Even up at Maitso the freshness seemed to have -been melted from the sea breeze before it reached -them, and the heavy air clung like a miasma. It -was intoxicatingly sweet, but languid and enervating -until the beads of sweat stood on the men’s -temples without more exertion than their own -vitality, and even Diana Churton gasped.</p> - -<p>“By Jove! it’s been a swilling day!” Major -Churton remarked, as he stretched his hand for -the whiskey. “My throat feels like blotting-paper. -Have some more, Lewin?”</p> - -<p>“Thanks!”</p> - -<p>There were no ladies present at dinner besides -Di, but two men from Mitsinjovy dropped in, and -presently they played Poker. Ally was one of the -winners, but more by luck than judgment, for the -heat—or something else—seemed to be making his -head heavy. Twice he thought he got up to go, -and then some one said the night was yet young, -and his limbs felt comfortably indisposed to bestir -themselves. When midnight struck he dragged -himself to his feet with a feeling of bewilderment.</p> - -<p>“Great Scot! Chum will think I’m killed—had -a headache, too, poor little soul!” he said vaguely. -His splendid, vacant face was turned to the hot night -beyond the open doors; he was wondering how he -should ever get down that winding hill in the dark -with this stupid feeling in his brain. He must trust -to the pony, it was no good worrying.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p> - -<p>Diana beckoned him imperiously on to the stoep, -and he obeyed, pulling himself together and walking -straight, without control of his own body, it -seemed, into the cooler night air. She was holding -one of the big Mess tumblers, with the Wessex -crest on it, sparkling with whiskey and soda, and -deliciously cold with ice.</p> - -<p>“A stirrup cup!” she said hurriedly. “Come, -you must drink it! You are sleepy with the heat -of the rooms. This will brace you up to get -home.”</p> - -<p>“Upon my word, Di, I’ve had enough.”</p> - -<p>But she laughed and lifted it to his lips for him, -and his hand closed on hers and the glass together. -Ally was smoking, but he took the cigar from his -lips as if he wondered what to do with it, and Mrs. -Churton held it for him while he drank, sniffing it -appreciatively. To some women the smell of smoke -is a kind of lurid dissipation. The taste of tobacco -in their own mouths is not nearly so suggestive to -them. Ally finished the whiskey, and then something -happened. He did not seem able to hold the -glass, and it fell and smashed at his feet. He was -troubled, because it belonged to the Mess, and those -glasses were expensive things, and had to be made -in England; but Mrs. Churton coolly kicked the -fragments out of the way, and said it did not matter. -At least the whiskey had not been wasted!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span></p> - -<p>How dark it was on the stoep, and how hot and -still! Up in the further corner no one could see -them from the lighted room. He remembered -nothing of getting there, only that her face looked -softer than usual in the little light there was; and -when she put her cool hands behind his head and -kissed him, he felt a sly amusement that she should -be so much more keen than he; there was a passion -in her kisses, while there was none, he thought, in -his. And her voice rang in his ears, “Ally! Ally! -come to me when other women fail you!” while he -wondered that it seemed to mean nothing. He was -far more conscious of the outspread fans of the -ravenalas, as if they would fain screen him from the -night.</p> - -<p>Some one brought his pony round then, and he -mounted, surprised it was so easy, and turned the -brute’s head down the slope. Their voices echoed -after him and died away on the stillness of the air, -bidding him good-night, chaffing him noisily, confusing -the way he was going. It was impossible -to judge one building from another now, and the -damned paths wound round and round like a maze. -He should take a wrong turning—no, this was -safer! He drove his spurs into his pony’s flanks -and tore down the hill at a gallop, holding the animal -mechanically from stumbling, but trusting to -his instinct to get down safely. Why they did not -pitch down the steep slopes he did not know, but -he was not in the least afraid; a mad exhilaration -took hold of him through the wild ride, and he -urged the pony on still when he got to the foot of -the hill, and clattered through the sleeping town, -but the pony knew his way home. Stumbling -and dripping with sweat, man and horse galloped -the last few yards, and swept up to the very stable -door, where the pony stopped with falling head and -streaming flanks.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> - -<p>Ally slipped out of the saddle, feeling his mount -vaguely, and trying to find the words to explain -that he was to be rubbed down and handled carefully, -but they would not come, and he gave the -rein in silence to a sleepy sais, who seemed to have -risen out of the shadows of the stoep. A minute -later his voice came back in a curse, for he tripped -over the bodies of his own servants crouched close -to the cool stones. There were more than the men -of his household there, but he did not know. He -fumbled at the door, got it unlatched, and reeling -over to his dressing-room, dropped like a stone on -to the floor in the middle of the room.</p> - -<p>The heat of the night had prevented Chum from -sleeping at first, and though her headache had -driven her to bed early, she had lain there for an -hour looking up at the white fall of the mosquito -curtain, and listening to the stupid bustle of a hard-back -who had drifted in from the outside world in -company with a dozen moths, and was floundering -to find his way out again. She fell asleep at last -listening for Ally’s pony to come up the hill, and -was in a deep slumber when the bang of a door -shook her awake as completely as if she had never -closed her eyes. She sat up in bed, wondering -what had happened, and listening to some one who -seemed to be strange to the house, and was trying -to find his way about. A man must have got in, -and she was all alone; yet the boldness of the -intruder’s movements as regarded noise, and his -lack of caution, were very unlike the stealthiness of -the coloured thief. At last the steps found Ally’s -dressing-room, and passed in. There was an instant’s -pause, a heavy fall, and silence.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin was standing at the closed door between -the two rooms almost before the sound had -ceased; she had no knowledge of how she came -there, or of how her fingers let down the rattling -shutter with some vague idea of seeing through the -opened slits. But there was darkness in the dressing-room, -and she opened the door with one hand -and switched on the electric light with the other, -even as she passed in. Nothing had been touched -from the time when she last saw Ally’s man putting -it in order that morning. His master having -dressed at the club, the place had had an air of -lonely neatness all day, for Ally was regally careless -how he flung his clothes about when present. -Mrs. Lewin took a step forward and almost trod -upon his prostrate body before she saw that the -heavy dark something in the middle of the floor -was a man.</p> - -<p>He was lying nearly on his back, having turned -in his fall with an instinctive effort towards the air. -She dropped on her knees beside him, her heart -beating heavily with the remembrance that the -nearest doctor was half-an-hour’s ride away, and -trying to think what one did for a fit. He was -breathing heavily, and his face was flushed and -heated. She bent down to wrench open the -soaked collar ... and drew back with a -choking breath.</p> - -<p>Leoline Lewin had seen drunken men before—labourers, -lying on alehouse benches, or in the sun; -ragged wretches soaked in gin to drown their -misery, and slinking past the police. She had -heard stories, too, of her own male acquaintance -being overcome upon occasion, and had found -them funny enough to laugh at as told by their -friends. But the real experience had never touched -her before, nor had she seen the man who had always -stood upright, to her imagination at least, -suddenly cast from his dignity to grovel on the -earth from which he came.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p> - -<p>In the revulsion of the shock she stood very upright -herself, as if to prove her own power—a -grave, white figure overlooking the relaxed body in -its tumbled dress-clothes which lay at her bare feet. -Through the appalling silence sounded the man’s -heavy snoring breath, and the thrum of the hard-back -which had followed her into the dressing-room, -and was hitting itself against the beams of -the ceiling.</p> - -<p>Suddenly the woman remembered where and -who she was, and what had happened. The little -harassing details of the tragedy came back to her -and woke her to shuddering action. She had been -standing there for some minutes, and half-a-dozen -dangers might have occurred to clench the position. -The servants might hear and come to ask what was -wrong, or some one might have followed Ally to -see him safely home, though a quick glance at the -probabilities reassured her that this—this prostrate -helpless body, was a last stage that had not betrayed -itself before. She sprang at the door and -closed it swiftly, slipping the bolt; then she dragged -the mattress off the couch and pushed it as near -that helpless thing, that seemed no longer her -husband, as was possible; and then, with her strong, -young arms, she took it under the shoulders and -dragged it on to the improvised bed, spreading a -covering sheet over the betraying clothes. The -exertion brought beads of moisture on to her fair -soft body, and she stood up again panting a little, -and trying to realise it all.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p> - -<p>She must begin and love all over again, if she -were to love so low at all. This degraded Ally, -helpless on her mercy, was no longer the stalwart -husband round whom she had built up her theoretical -married life. A dozen little things that had -been but pinpricks of annoyance started up in her -mind suddenly, to intensify the final blow, and she -saw him as a weak man, without the strenuous love -of fighting and winning which she had tried to -coax into him, self-contented, the mere tool of her -own ambition whenever he had been forced into -action. The bitterness of her thwarted instincts -was uppermost as she turned away. That was the -mate of her own ripe womanhood, the force round -which her eager life was to centre—that poor weak -nature which would resist one temptation as little as -another, for in the cruelty of this revelation she -acknowledged what she had been so pitifully denying -to herself,—that Alaric Lewin was no master -of life, but the sport of his own idle inclinations.</p> - -<p>She was moving back to her own room with -dragging feet, when a new terror seemed to spring -up and startle her back into action again. Some -one was coming up the garden path with a heavy -tramp that came straight on towards the stoep and -the house. It was no barefooted Arab, but the -impatient tread of a white man who was his own -messenger, and with a horrible premonition she -knew it from any more probable one that it might -have been. It was the Administrator, and he had -some purpose in thus coming to his Secretary at -one o’clock in the morning. The sing-song snarl -outside the stores and in the gutters, during the -Miroro, came back to her mind ominously.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span></p> - -<p>With some idea of stopping him before he could -rouse the servants to get into the house, she hastily -left the dressing-room, and closing the door behind -her, as if it held an ugly secret, she sped across the -large bare dining-room and slipped back the bolt -of the rough wooden door. But she need not have -troubled herself for the household. Evelyn Gregory -had almost brushed against the sleeping Arabs in -his rapid transit from the garden gate to the house, -but as he passed along the stoep he coolly stepped -over the slumbering tangle at his feet with the -briefest passing scorn for men and women. It -meant nothing to him in his absorption, and indeed -he hardly knew that the humanity he spurned with -his foot was there. He did not expect any of the -servants to answer his knock, but he meant to rouse -Captain Lewin, and with this grim intent he swung -his heavy riding-whip round and brought the -weighted end rattling down on the slight panels of -the door. The whip was his constant companion, -and served not for his ponies, but as a weapon of -defence or of punishment in an emergency. Its -weight was consequently no slight one, but before -he could shake the door again it was quietly opened, -leaving him with the upraised whip in his hand, the -long lash coiled round his wrist, and his whole attitude -unintentionally threatening.</p> - -<p>In the doorway stood a marvellous fair woman in -her nightdress, the open neck showing her so warm -and white, that with a little instant thrill he guessed -at the delicious shoulder under the lace. She had -come so swiftly that she had not even drawn the -white silk wrapper closely round her, and one little -slipper had fallen from her; he saw it lying in the -waste of floor behind her, where it had slipped from -her running foot, and he thought of another white -satin morsel that he had held between his own. -The coil of her hair was tossed sideways over her -shoulder, and brushed away from her forehead, -leaving her unusually girlish without its customary -mature dressing, but in her large eyes he saw that -there was not the least thought of him. She was as -unconscious of her sweet bare foot as of his cognizance -of it, nor did she know that her careless whiteness -was a seduction in itself. All her conscious -life centred round the terror of the last few minutes, -so that she saw only the situation she had to face.</p> - -<p>“Come in, Mr. Gregory,” she said under her -breath, drawing aside for him to pass in. “What is -it? <i>What</i> is it? Something is wrong!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span></p> - -<p>She had turned on the light as she came, and it -shone in their two faces, the man still struggling -with his personal thought, the woman strained by -her private dread of discovery. But the light mechanically -influenced her, so that she put up a slight -hand and tugged at the silk wrapper vaguely to -veil her laces and frills. He watched her as if fascinated, -without will-power to turn away, and when -he spoke it was in short clipped phrases, as though -it were an effort.</p> - -<p>“There is a threatening of a rising. The police -are out. I want the troops ready. Will you call -your husband?”</p> - -<p>There was a blank of silence, while it beat into -her brain that somebody was required to ride to -Maitso and take the alarm. She thought of a dull -figure lying heavily on the floor, breathing stentoriously....</p> - -<p>“Captain Lewin was very late in coming home. -He is sleeping heavily. I am afraid it will take -some time to rouse him,” she heard her own voice -saying, in sentences as concise as his. “Would it -not be better to send one of the men? I can call -them in a moment.”</p> - -<p>She turned towards the door, but his outstretched -hand guided her back without his having moved a -step.</p> - -<p>“I’ll rouse him!” he said grimly. “Which is -his room?”</p> - -<p>There was a touch of resentment in him, which -he himself did not know was there, that this heavy -sleeper owned the woman before him. A man -should sleep lightly with her near by, nor ever -lose his happy consciousness of her even in sleep. -There was something gross in the suggestion of her -husband’s heavy slumber.</p> - -<p>“Where is Captain Lewin?” he said curtly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span></p> - -<p>Again she saw in her brain the quiet, orderly -room, the degraded figure, the drunken lethargy -that no imperious summons would break. Here -was Ally’s chance, and he had tossed it away for a -momentary self-indulgence. She felt in her bitter -impotence that his whole life might be squandered -after such a fashion, for where was her confidence -now?</p> - -<p>And the Administrator was waiting.</p> - -<p>“He is very tired,” she repeated dully, looking up -at Gregory’s sinister height with eyes which had -grown piteous. It seemed to her as if the foundations -of the man were made of granite, and she -were hurling herself against them vainly.</p> - -<p>Something in her face seemed to strike him, however, -for he bent a little nearer to her, and looked -almost curiously in her face.</p> - -<p>“Is he ill?” he said; and the suppressed tones -of his voice were a mere vibration.</p> - -<p>She paused, with a lightning review of such a lie -and its efficacy.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” she said in a low voice, her shamed eyes -dropping from his. “I think—it is—a touch of -fever.” Then in a tone which did not realise its -own despair, “I <i>cannot</i> rouse him!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span></p> - -<p>He stepped back with a long breath, and turned -his face from her for a minute, as if listening to -something afar off. She heard his chest rise and -fall with an extra sense that was not hearing, and -realised that he understood. All the sting and -shame that had gone before seemed to be nothing -in comparison to that moment. He knew, and -he was a hard man who gave no second chances. -Alaric Lewin was a failure to his judgment; not -because he had got drunk on a hot night, which -was nothing, but because he was useless in an -emergency. The cause was little to a mind like -Gregory’s, but the weakness that might fail him -again was unforgivable. He had the reputation of -sweeping such men from his path as useless, without -enmity, but without pity. The hopelessness of -it all!</p> - -<p>Suddenly she heard him speaking, and the whispering -voice had a new kindness; he spoke gently, -as if to some small frail thing that must not be -hurt.</p> - -<p>“Never mind—don’t try and wake him. I’ll go -myself. Don’t worry. Go to bed and rest. It will -be all right.”</p> - -<p>He laid a large hand on her shoulder, as if to impress -the words; she hardly noticed the action, but -felt a dull surprise when he as quickly drew it back. -The man was nothing to her, but a sudden glow of -comfort sprang up in her heart at his last sentence. -If he said it would be all right, he meant his own -coadjutancy to make it so. She felt the power of -his will, but not of his manhood, and her face was -broken into softness as she turned it to him in farewell, -and opened the door for his hasty departure.</p> - -<p>“Good-night,” he repeated. “Don’t worry; go -to bed yourself, and be quite easy. I am so sorry -to have roused you.” There was a touch of mastery -in his voice, as if he had taken possession of -the situation to heal her physical and mental weariness. -She rested on it unconsciously, with the -woman’s craving for the strong man who shall not -fail her. And Ally, alas, had failed!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span></p> - -<p>As Gregory swung back along the stoep he looked -down, consciously this time, at the sleeping Arabs, -and there was interest and a secret sympathy in his -heart. For the touch of the Eternal Feminine was -on him, and he remembered that to love a woman -was a goodly thing. His footsteps died away into -the darkness of the garden, to the gate where he had -tied his pony, and then after a pause came the sound -of galloping hoofs as he rode off on his own errand. -Mrs. Lewin heard it as she stood at the open shutters -of her own window, for she had mechanically -gone back to her room, and leaned there conscious -of nothing but a horrible reaction from the tensity -of the past few minutes. With a primeval instinct -she turned from the shelter which civilisation has -raised over men’s heads to the healing of the outside -world, for she had a restless craving to get away -from the confinement of the house and the ugly -thing of which she knew in the next room.</p> - -<p>The night was quick with fireflies, and the air -was soft and warm to touch. Some winged thing -sailed lazily by and made her start by the whirr of -its heavy body close to her hair—a giant moth it -seemed, with a barrel-like body and wings like a -dragon-fly’s. Down below on the stoep the Arabs -lay asleep.... She pressed her hands over -her wakeful eyes and tried not to sob, schooling -herself because she was a woman—not a child who -cries away the bitterness over a broken toy. This -was more serious than a toy, and yet it seemed just -like an old unreasonable nursery grief, that fretted -for a thing it had endowed with spurious life.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> - -<p>She must begin and love all over again. There -was no stronger nature above her to look up to and -lean on in fancy, even though she guided by her -brighter wits and keener vitality. She had cheated -herself happily in thinking that Ally was really the -moving spirit in their married life, and that he had -a reserve of strength upon which she could lean in -an emergency. He was nothing but a weak man, -who must be shielded before the world, and watched -and helped with tenderest care, but never more -looked up to at quite the same height. No one -should know or guess that he had so fallen; she -would not even have to make excuses for him, she -would manage so cleverly, for that was her new -phase of wifehood. Even as the thought crossed -her mind she turned her head nervously and listened, -fancying that the servants were awake and coming -to ask who her late visitor had been. If she could -only keep it from them till the morning, things -would look more natural. Captain Lewin had slept -in the dressing-room not to awaken her—he had -thrown the mattress on the floor and lay there in -hope of greater coolness. There was more draught -on the floor—at least she could make it appear so. -She went over the details in feverish haste, shielding -and managing already with a woman’s tragic skill. -But that it should have to be so!</p> - -<p>Back on her mind flashed the damning certainty -that the one man who should have been ignorant -had found out. She had felt his knowledge through -the horrible pause after her stammering excuse, -through his courteous sparing of her, and quick -substitution of himself as a messenger, through the -kindly fall of his hand on her shoulder.</p> - -<p>“Don’t worry; go to bed yourself, and be quite -easy. I will make it all right. I am so sorry to -have roused you.”</p> - -<p>She had his promise then to make it all right. -Yes, he could gloss it over too,—he would take the -onus of the situation on himself, and thrust his own -known energy and personal supervision in the face -of comment. At least her success with him had -brought her that—enough interest in herself to make -him spare her husband, for she acknowledged boldly -to herself that it was her own handling of this man -during the past few weeks which had saved the situation -to-night. Yesterday she might have daintily -skirted the truth, but it seemed a small thing beside -the bitter failure of her most intimate life. Gregory -would spare Ally for his wife’s sake, but—the Administrator -having to ride to Maitso in place of his -own A.D.C.! She almost laughed aloud with a -sudden hysterical sense of humour.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, I shall go mad—mad!” she said desperately, -as the keenness of the humiliation stung her afresh. -“It is all spoilt—all that I planned and worked to -do. There is nothing but the Man left to me.”</p> - -<p>But with the word the bitterness passed as swiftly -as it had come. The Man was left her, to guard -and cherish if no longer to love, honour, and obey, -for the positions were reversed. Her eyes filled -with lovely tears, and all that was best and most -maternal flooded the soreness from her heart. She -could begin and love all over again—love as one -loves a child, without looking for adequate return, -less selfishly than a wife her husband; she could be -strong for him, and putting her own craving for -protection on one side, thrust her strength between -his weakness and what life had to offer. Her very -first trial would begin to-morrow, when she cringed -to think of the shame awaiting his returning consciousness. -She must help him through that first, -and then arm him for the result of his folly with the -world at large.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span></p> - -<p>Leoline Lewin turned from the window, and -quietly throwing off her wrapper, lay down on the -bed and went as fast to sleep as if nothing had disturbed -her rest. Part of her theory of life had -been torn from her, and the sting of keen experience -had wounded her into quicker life. But she -was turning her face bravely to meet it, and stood -up under the new stress of life to prove her womanhood.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“Le temps, l’innocence, la confiance, la foi, l’estime—perdez les—vous -ne les recouvrerez plus.”—<i>French Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>A cého head is the best incentive to temporary -canonisation that can well be experienced, and -when, according to the old couplet, “The Devil was -sick,” and “A saint would be,” he had probably -been indulging on the preceding night in Key -Island, whose temperature suggests that it is nearer -to his dominion than the rest of the globe. Captain -Lewin woke up on his improvised bed about -half-past four next morning, and wondered if the -swelled weight on the pillow were really his head -or a leaden imitation fastened to his shoulders. -To sleep in evening dress, too, in Key Island is -hardly a profitable experiment, and what with the -sheet spread over him and the liqueur he had -swallowed, Ally’s state was one of satisfactory -discomfort.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span></p> - -<p>He kicked off the sheet, and arose cursing. -Then events began to come back to him, and as -he staggered into an upright position—for he was -very shaky—he looked at the mattress on the floor, -and wondered who had mercifully arranged it for -him last night. His memory declined to serve him -beyond an uneasy recollection of a dark corner of -the stoep at the Churtons’ quarters, and Diana’s -stirrup cup. How he had got home he could not -tell, but the state of his mouth informed him -ruefully that he had been very drunk indeed. -Cého has a singular effect upon the glands of the -throat, if taken in large quantities, so that a regular -drinker gets a strange and unclassified disease after -many years’ tippling, which the doctors call -“Drawn threads” for lack of a better name.</p> - -<p>Alaric Lewin shuddered a little as he stumbled -over to the door with some idea of closing it if it -were open, and getting himself washed and dressed -into the morning guise of a gentleman. He had -known men with “Drawn threads,” and wondered -how soon the symptoms really showed themselves. -But he need not have feared for his splendid young -constitution, as yet, and a minute later he forgot -the creepy thought in a new wonder.</p> - -<p>The door of his dressing-room was bolted. So -was the door into his wife’s room, the latter on the -inner side, for he tried it gently. Some one had -seen him come in last night then, and had done -their best for him, but he had no idea as to -whether it were Chum or one of the servants. He -hoped from the bottom of his soul that it was the -latter, for the reaction from last night’s excess was -having a chastening effect. He was bitterly -ashamed, and as he caught sight of his own face -in the glass, a dark flush swept over his unwholesome -pallor for an instant.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span></p> - -<p>“Great Scot! I am a sickly beast,” said Ally -fervently, and with a rush of distaste for himself in -his present condition he began to strip hastily, -throwing the clothes aside after his usual careless -fashion. His bath had been placed for him the -night before, and he got into it with a feverish -desire for cleanliness and coolness, but it seemed to -him that the water hissed off his skin, and that -even after a hard rub down there was a burning -heat upon him. He was sick and sorry too, and he -knew enough of the climate to recognise that this -would not do. He had no compunction in rousing -his household, but he devoutly hoped that Chum -might not hear him when he opened his door and -called, for it is a peculiarity of Key Island, that -though there is electric light there, there are no -bells; every one shouts, and for this reason the -servants get into a loafing habit of keeping round -about the open doors, their possible summons being -an excellent excuse for doing no work meanwhile.</p> - -<p>By the time Mrs. Lewin came down to breakfast -her husband was already in the room, as smart as -usual, save for the drawn face above the spotless -white linen. The heat seemed to get up as early -as the residents in Key Island, and by eight o’clock -the sun is as strong as at noon on an English June -day. Leoline seemed to feel it oppressive, for she -gasped a little as she came over to the table, and -Ally turned sharply at the slur of her gown over -the bare floor. The holland did not rustle, but she -had a way of moving which was as regal as the -action of a racehorse, and it created a certain stir -of atmosphere about her. It struck Alaric at that -moment that his wife was chic even in her nightdress, -which is a costume resolving most women -back into the original elements of their natures.</p> - -<p>For a second they stood on either side the dainty -table, and the embarrassment of the unconfessed -lay deep between them. Then Alaric said “Good-morning, -Chum,” and moved into his place without -raising his eyes. As a rule they kissed each other -as heartily as when they were school-children.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin sat down opposite him and began to -pour out the tea. The breaking of the ice rested -with her, but she took it quite naturally; her new -sense of responsibility seemed to make it an -expected thing that she must always from henceforth -take the lead, not as she had hitherto taken -it, with the screen of Ally’s personality around her, -but without disguise.</p> - -<p>She looked at the honeycomb on the table, and -observed that Abdallah had not remembered the -butter-knife, an omission to be corrected for the -seventeenth time. Then she pushed the dish of -iced mangoes towards Ally mechanically, and then -she caught her breath again, and spoke—</p> - -<p>“You were very late down from the Churtons’, -Ally.”</p> - -<p>“Yes.” He had had a whiskey and soda before -breakfast, a “Hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-him” cure -that enabled him to eat; but the food tasted badly -in his mouth at that moment. “Did you hear me -come in?” he said.</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“You bolted the door, and got the mattress on -to the floor, I suppose?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>There was a long pause, and it seemed as if the -words would never come.</p> - -<p>“I am awfully sorry, Chum.”</p> - -<p>“How was it?” she said, half under her breath. -The troubled eyes of husband and wife met across -the gay little table, glittering with their wedding -silver and glass, and rich with strange tropical -fruit and flowers. Ally and Chum had always -revelled in the Key’land breakfast and their foreign -dishes and luxuries,—somehow the sight of it between -them now made what they had to say seem -more tragic by contrast.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span></p> - -<p>“It was so awfully hot!” Ally said lamely. -“On my honour, it’s a solitary instance. I haven’t -been squiffy like that except once or twice before -in my life.”</p> - -<p>An uncomfortable memory of the Churtons’ stoep -was making him wretched, and the flavour of that -episode tasted worse in his mouth than stale cého. -He fidgeted with the fruit, while Chum on her side -of the table was absorbed by the worse revelation -that she had to make.</p> - -<p>“Did you hear anything in town yesterday about -the people being discontented?” she said, feeling -the difficulty like a stone wall before her. “I asked -you through the telephone, but you said no, then,—perhaps -you knew of it later.”</p> - -<p>“No, I heard nothing. Is there anything fresh?” -Ally was relieved at the change of subject.</p> - -<p>“There was the threatening of a rising——”</p> - -<p>“By Jove! was there? Come, that’s exciting. -Anything is welcome to break the monotony of -this dead-alive hole! I shouldn’t have made an ass -of myself last night if it hadn’t been for that,” he -said ruefully, drifting back to his own uneasy sense -of shortcoming.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know whether anything happened. The -Administrator thought——”</p> - -<p>“Where did you see Gregory?” he asked, startled. -“I got off early because he was going round -to Port Albert until Friday. His yacht was waiting -at the quay; I saw it as I rode through town.”</p> - -<p>“Then he must have heard something that made -him change his mind, for he did not go. He came -here last night, or rather in the early morning between -one and two.”</p> - -<p>“Chum!”</p> - -<p>He laid down his knife and fork and looked -at her across the table, his face whitening. But -it was the pity in her eyes, rather than a real understanding -of what had happened, that frightened -him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span></p> - -<p>“Did he want me?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“He asked for me? What did you say?”</p> - -<p>“I said you were ill—overtired—that I could not -rouse you.”</p> - -<p>“And he took that, and went?”</p> - -<p>A sense of marvel possessed his wife at the easy -relief of his tone. He thought his difficulty so -easily overcome that it seemed to her childish. -Could he really think that a nature like Evelyn -Gregory’s would be so set aside, brushed off by a -light excuse.</p> - -<p>“Yes, he went—but——” She hesitated, and -then it seemed that plain speaking was best. “He -guessed what was wrong, Ally. He kept urging -me to rouse you, and of course I could not. Then -he said he would rouse you himself, and I had to -stop him. He was very good—he spoke quite -kindly, and told me not to worry—he would go to -Maitso himself. But—I do not think he will forget, -though things may seem as usual between you.”</p> - -<p>Down the length of the table, between the tall -silver vases of stephanotis and honeysuckle, she -saw his handsome, despondent face, the dark head -leaning on his hand, the passing gravity which -made him seem noble clouding out his usual -laughter. Gravity and a touch of pensive regret -suited Alaric as even his debonair self-assurance -did not do. He had never looked handsomer than -just then.</p> - -<p>“I am very sorry. I have made a fool of myself.” -He spoke humbly, and yet somehow seemed -more of a man than she had thought him since last -night. “You are disappointed, Chum!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> - -<p>“It’s not my loss, Ally, it’s yours. And it -doesn’t matter being disappointed if we can go on -all right now. I think we can pull straight again, -old fellow.” She was pitifully anxious to help him, -and to get that look off his face that made her -heart ache. He must be encouraged like a child, -as well as chidden. She hated to see him carry his -head without the usual insolence of his own good -looks. As she poured out a second cup of tea for -him—the “drawn threads” of his throat burnt like -thirst—she rose and carried it round to him herself, -with a kind young hand laid on his shoulder. The -little extra attention, when he knew she might have -reproached him, touched Alaric the more, because -he looked on his wife as an undemonstrative woman. -He turned swiftly from the table and laid his head -against her breast with a boyish gesture. In truth, -he wanted comforting, for he was face to face with -his own responsible mistake, and fortune had petted -and spoiled him hitherto rather than met him with -the grim face she wore to-day. There was a little -silence while Leoline stroked the dark hair, and held -him tenderly against her. But her eyes looked out -over his head with the expression of one who has -gazed in the face of Medusa. She had that new -protective feeling for something weaker than herself, -but it was no longer the theoretical Ally she -had married and set on a hymeneal pedestal.</p> - -<p>“Don’t, dear!” she said at last, and her voice was -a whisper. “It is not a hanging matter—we won’t -let it be. I will help you—may I?”</p> - -<p>“You’re the best of Chums!” he whispered back -with a rather uncertain smile. “But you shan’t -have to pull me up for boozing. I don’t know how -it happened last night—we were all playing Poker, -and their quarters are so hot, and we kept on with -whiskey after whiskey. I must have come down -that hill like a madman!”</p> - -<p>She gave a dismayed exclamation. “Did any -one hear you?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span></p> - -<p>“Half the town I should think, and all our servants. -It’s no use not facing it, you know, and -fellows have got drunk before.”</p> - -<p>“We must live it down anyhow, Ally. If only -it had not been last night! And the Churtons -know.” She spoke in short, pausing sentences, -thinking it out. “We don’t know the real extent -of the mischief until we hear whether the rising -were anything serious.”</p> - -<p>A sudden passing gloom darkened his face again. -“Gregory never forgives that kind of thing. Dear, -this means ruin to any career for me!”</p> - -<p>He rose impatiently, and began to stroll up and -down the room, as though he could not sit still. -After a minute she followed him, and put her arms -round him, bringing him to a standstill. The warm, -motherly look of love that had been in her eyes -last night was there again as she lifted her head and -looked at him.</p> - -<p>“I don’t care, darling, as long as we are side by -side, and can help each other!” she said. “Only -let us stand or fall together!”</p> - -<p>The silent, golden day was unbroken by any -whisper, but the two kissed each other gently for -promise, and looked into each other’s faces with -a gravity too gentle for passion. While the best -side of our nature is uppermost a vow seems almost -superfluous. If reason will not bind us, a futile -fear of our own oath is a poor alternative. Unfortunately, -the best side of our nature so seldom -remains in the ascendant, but has a disheartening -tendency to give way before the baser instincts of -the clay.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span></p> - -<p>Alaric set off for Government House in a state of -mind more angelic than comfortable. He felt as if -the backbone had gone out of him with the wickedness, -and his good resolutions were less easy to -carry than his usual self-satisfaction. Nevertheless -it was a beautiful mood, and as genuine as any other -while it lasted. He found that the Administrator -had slept out at China Town at the house of the -Town Warden. This was disturbing, and the impenetrable -reserve of Mr. Halton’s manner when -they encountered each other for a few moments did -not tend to soothe matters. Ally felt that to await -he knew not what, and try to work, tended towards -temporary insanity. At half-past eleven he ordered -his pony, and rode down into Port Victoria.</p> - -<p>There was no sign of disturbance there, but he -felt that he could better have faced the town in -ruins, and the coloured population howling and -dancing the “Cannab Hari-kari,” which is a dance -of death, than the solitary figure of Evelyn Gregory -which haunted his imagination. Why had the Administrator -slept out at China Town? What was -going on?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p> - -<p>He lounged into the club, the fret of his nerves -making the click of the billiard balls a torture. -Two men were listlessly playing in the ugly bare -room, where the sun beat past the stoep and -through the glassless window slits. Ally watched -the game for a few minutes, and then his restlessness -drove him across the landing into the reading-room -where no one ever read. Last month’s papers -still lay on the table, and a solitary member was -writing at one of the neglected tables. Ally almost -beat a retreat at sight of the square shoulders and -dark head shot over with grey. No other man in -Key Island wore and kept his collars as high and -clean as the officer in command of the troops. -With the temperature at 90° in the shade Major -Churton was as coolly immaculate in glossy linen -as if he were in Bond Street, and where lesser men -succumbed to turned-down collars and porous shirts, -his were triumphantly starched.</p> - -<p>“Hulloa, Major!” Ally said, with an inward -flinching from the encounter.</p> - -<p>“Hulloa, Lewin!” The O.C.T. turned his hard -brown face, and there was a twinkle in his bold -eyes. “Got home all right last night, eh?”</p> - -<p>A reaction of relief met the twinkle, in Ally’s -facile nature. “By Jove! I was drunk!” he said, -laughing, as he dropped into a chair by the Major’s -side. “My mouth feels like a sponge to-day. Did -I gas much? I owe Mrs. Churton an apology for -such an exhibition in her house.”</p> - -<p>“You were a bit on. Nothing to hurt—unless -your pony suffered! You went down that hill like -greased lightning. I had no idea the brute had it -in him—Polo knocks their feet about as a rule.”</p> - -<p>“Snapshot took me home—I certainly didn’t -take him. By the way, have you heard anything -of any native trouble?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, there was a scare, I believe. Gregory sent -up a message that we must be ready to turn out, in -the middle of the night, and rode to China Town -afterwards. Nothing came of it, I presume—at -least we have heard nothing more.”</p> - -<p>“My wife got wind of it. I haven’t seen the -Administrator.” Ally’s eyes were still troubled for -all the easy assurance of the Major’s tone.</p> - -<p>“Of course there may be a row brewing at China -Town,” he said. “Even going on. We shan’t -hear till it’s over, according to Mr. Gregory’s usual -methods. I think myself it was a false alarm.”</p> - -<p>“There’s a telephone from the barracks to Burton’s -house, isn’t there?” said Ally. “They may -have heard something up at Maitso.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span></p> - -<p>“All right, I’ll ask Di.” The Major rung up and -curtly demanded to be connected with his house. -After the usual trying delay Ally heard him say, -“Oh, that you, Di?” and waited breathlessly.</p> - -<p>“No,” he remarked after a few brief questions -and imaginable answers. “No news,—Di,” his -mouth was again at the tube—“Lewin is here. All -the better for last night’s temperance meeting! -What?—Oh, Di wants you to come and lunch.”</p> - -<p>Now was Ally’s good angel to fail him. He -thought of the limp feeling that self-abasement gave -him, and of how it would certainly season his luncheon -with Chum’s uncomplaining face opposite. He -thought also, with a sense of injury, that she took -his one excess very seriously, and that Churton -himself made light of it. If he went to Maitso -Diana would by no means have a chastening and -depressing influence. Hang it! he had eaten humble -pie enough for one morning, and been wretched -into the bargain. No doubt he should have another -bad quarter of an hour with Gregory; he -would not be miserable from choice.</p> - -<p>“All right—please say I shall be very pleased, if -she is so charitable as to forgive last night.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, she will look on that with indulgence I -have no doubt!” said Churton with some cynicism. -“We are none of us total abstainers that we can -accuse each other. Have a whiskey on the strength -of that confession, Lewin!”</p> - -<p>When Alaric rode up through the logwood -screen, and pulled rein before the O.C.T.’s quarters, -Mrs. Churton came forth to meet him with a -friendly handshake, and no reference to the advance -of last night. She was a skilful woman. The -Major had come up before, so Diana had already -heard of the supposed alarm, and guessed a good -deal of Ally’s part in it. She drew the rest of the -story from him, new-coloured with the self-defence -that had been growing on him all day, and was -loud in her scorn of Gregory’s eccentricities.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span></p> - -<p>“He would like to turn the troops out now and -then on a false scent, to prove their smartness,” she -declared. “The men will mutiny next, if he sends -any more such orders to Maitso, and then he will -revel in a new row. He’s like that—Bute was stationed -with him once before. There’s literally -nothing in it but his usual fuss, and love of worrying -a situation to rags. Gregory’s a Prairie dog, -and Halton’s a cat—you can’t trust what either of -them says or does.”</p> - -<p>“It was unfortunate that he took a fit of it last -night,” Ally admitted, but he felt comforted, and -Mrs. Churton’s mental touch upon his nerves was -more soothing, for the moment at any rate, than -his wife’s. He lingered on and on through the -afternoon, and though he shunned actual stimulant -he took many mental whiskies and sodas to keep -himself up. By the time he rode home again to -dinner his repentance of the morning had changed -into a state of injury that the Administrator should -raise false alarms, and upset a peaceful community. -No more was known of Mr. Gregory’s movements, -save that he had returned to Government House, -and still Port Victoria was quiet. It was obviously -a false alarm and a fad of the man in power, and -with a peculiar transposition of mind Captain Lewin -no longer felt that he was the injurer in failing his -chief at a crucial moment, but rather the injured -party in that Mr. Gregory had chosen the one evening -when he was—er—not up to the mark, to make -demands upon him. The elasticity of his conscience -was only equal to his capacity for avoiding unpleasant -truth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span></p> - -<p>Poor Chum! she was writing her new creed on -sand, and when she saw her teaching briefly reflected -on the surface of his mind, she thought that -it was permanent, and did not realise her own -disaster.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“Il n’y a que le premier pas qui coute.”—<i>French Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span></p> - -<p>The Commissioner, in company with Mrs. Arthur -White and the Colonial Treasurer, was booked for -England in the next steamer that called at Key -Island. The mail came in once a month, but -occasionally an alteration of route would bring lesser -boats to the great coaling-station as well as the -cruisers, and Mr. Halton plainly said that he would -go in a tin kettle of a tramp rather than wait longer -than was necessary. His work being finished, the -Commissioner found no reason for lingering. There -was indeed a sting in Mr. Halton’s secret consciousness -that made Key Island the more distasteful. -His rides and walks and dilettante attendances on -Mrs. Lewin were no more, for he was superseded -by a stronger personality and writhed to face the -failure of his life in a new form. Something of the -feline nature that Diana Churton had bluffly discerned -was uppermost in him also, and he waited -for a mental pounce since he was no longer purring -under a soft hand. A small man is infinitely more -dangerous to irritate than his brother of a larger -nature, because he deals with details, and the trivialities -that go to make up tragedies are his province. -Halton was waiting, though not consciously, to -avenge himself for the fact that he had allowed the -Administrator to displace him with Mrs. Lewin, and -act cavalier in an uncouth method of his own; and -there was no weak spot in their armour that could -have escaped him. But Chum, having nothing to -conceal, was not a remunerative study, and the -Commissioner fretted in vain until the rains came -down and blotted out Port Victoria for a space during -which he lost even the contemplation of his annoyance, -for when the Heavens open the social life -is paralysed.</p> - -<p>September brought back the sunshine, and the -Gilderoys gave a picnic. Being the herald of renewed -amusement, it had an air of festivity that -most like entertainments lacked in their deadly -monotony. Every one went, from Maitso out to -Mitsinjovy, and Mrs. Lewin put on her last new -muslin gown and looked at herself in the glass with -mingled satisfaction and regret. She had ridden -and danced and picnicked through the remainder of -her big trunks in the last six months, for muslin is -perishable and silk goes rotten in those latitudes; -and Key Island knew the very pattern of her laces -save this last white wonder with its unutterable -frills and the grace of fancy sleeves. Leoline was -a woman whose figure gave one the idea of one -lovely line swept off harmoniously from throat to -heel. She might wear muslins made on anybody’s -pattern, but they became her own muslins by immediate -association, and followed the fall of her -lissome body as though they loved her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span></p> - -<p>“Just come and choose my hat, Ally,” she called -through the dressing-room door, and Alaric’s broad -shoulders and smooth head followed her summons -dutifully. There was no outward difference between -husband and wife; the same easy relations -existed between them that made Mrs. Lewin’s nickname -of “Chum” typical, the same surface confidence -that caused Ally to staunchly assert to Mrs. -Churton that his married life was entirely satisfactory, -and he himself a beast. The qualification -marked the advance of their intimacy. But in her -heart Mrs. Lewin knew that she was altering; some -new strong development was taking place in the -very fibres of her nature, and the transformation -was a painful process to herself at any rate. It was -even a different face that she saw in the glass as Ally -looked over her shoulder and condemned her choice.</p> - -<p>“Not that chiffon thing, Chum, surely. Aren’t -you going to wear a habit?”</p> - -<p>“It’s too hot. Besides, I wish to leave a good -impression on Mr. Halton’s mind, and this is his -last festivity. He leaves next week, and takes the -memory of my muslin with him. Isn’t it pretty?”</p> - -<p>“Damfino! as the <i>Pink’un</i> used to say—or was it -the <i>Referee</i>? It’s new too, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“My last. Why don’t you like that hat? Will -my Panama do?”</p> - -<p>“That’s better. Who will ride with you, Chum? -Halton?”</p> - -<p>“Major Churton, I think. With a possible reversion -to Brissy.”</p> - -<p>“Why not Gregory’s Powder? Think of my -interests!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span></p> - -<p>“He is not coming with us, but will turn up at -our destination. He has business that will keep -him down at the office until later,” said Mrs. Lewin -without hesitation over the Administrator’s plans, -for she knew them, and knew also deeper reasons -for them, which she did not tell Ally—reasons that -fed the activity of her mind, and to which she -listened with the faithfulness of a tried friend. For -when Gregory laid the heavy weight of his confidence -gradually upon her, he bound her with a chain -whose iron links she hardly felt more than silken as -yet.</p> - -<p>Ally accepted her information as more infallible -than an official telegram. “The O.C.T. has his -innings first then,” he added. “Hurry, Chum! I -told them to saddle up.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin thrust a last fierce hatpin into her -Panama, and put up her hand to settle the hairpins -at her neck. It was four o’clock, and they were -due at the rendezvous at half-past, for this was a late -picnic which began in the afternoon and ran on into -nightfall. Such excursions can be planned for two -periods of the day—early morning, or when the sun -is losing its power, but between those hours lies the -Miroro, when no white man may work or play. A -morning picnic sets out before seven, breakfasts up -on the hills, and buries itself in the heart of the -woods during the day’s heat, emerging again at four -for the return to dinner and iced drinks; but it -means a long strain on the endurance of the guests’ -attraction for each other, and the Gilderoys were -wise in their generation and chose the shorter -method.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span></p> - -<p>At the foot of Maitso the Lewins fell in with -Halton on his way from Government House, and -Brissy Nugent hot from a canter from Mitsinjovy, -where he had been lunching. The four ponies -turned sturdily to the ascent, and Mrs. Lewin -looked at the streaked flanks of Ally’s mount, and -thanked Heaven for the blanket under her saddle, -for Liscarton’s wet sides did not agree with her -frills. There had been, to her secret amusement, a -brief struggle between Halton and Nugent as to -who should ride beside her, and the soldier’s more -brazen tactics had won the coveted place. Brissy -was not thin-skinned, and that Halton shrugged -his shoulders mentally, and classified him as still -an unlicked cub, did not trouble him so much as it -would have done to be proved the weaker man.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin laughed silently, and as usual found -reason for enjoyment in her immediate present. -Afterwards it seemed as if every detail of that day -were cruelly impressed on her memory, and she -never could forget one. Even the garrison jokes -that Brissy told her in doubtful taste, and at which -she had learned the futility of frowning, remained -in her mind long after things she would fain have -kept had drifted from her. She could remember -the very smell from the vegetation which had overgrown -the road during the recent rain, and turning -in her saddle to look down and see the satin blue -bay and the roofs of the crazy little town, whose -zinc shone like a glare of silver in the sunshine. -Beyond Mitsinjovy the Left Gate stood out like a -vast sentinel, shutting out the sea and the horizon, -but from Maitso Hill they could only see the cone -of the Right Gate rising over their own position. -Below them in the harbour the great walls of coal -looked nothing but toy-mounds and black lines, -and the mass of shipping was but a detail in the -picture.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span></p> - -<p>Often as she had seen that view Mrs. Lewin was -vaguely conscious of seeing it afresh that day, and -the row of ravenalas outside the Churtons’ quarters, -too, struck her as they never had before, while -there seemed a new suggestion that she could not -grasp in the two mounted figures themselves, waiting -motionless in the logwood shade. Diana was -at her best in the saddle, but the Major, who could -have ridden down any man present, looked too -large for a Key Island pony. Even at the moment -Leoline Lewin wondered that she noticed these -things, and seemed possessed of a novel alertness, -a keener sense of observation than ever before, as -though her mental life had quickened. She always -thought of the Gilderoys’ picnic as the last occasion -on which she wore muslin appropriately. She liked -to be in sympathy with her gowns, and she never -again felt the adequate frivolity for the dainty frills -she laid aside that night. Life seemed to have gone -too deep for muslins from that time forth—a foolish -fancy, but one that made the successful little frock -something of a relic.</p> - -<p>“How are you, Chum? The Gilderoys are -waiting at the top of the hill,” Diana called out -strongly. “Half the Station is up there already. -Wait a minute—here comes the Denver girl and -Gurney.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin looked at Major Churton, and sat -still.</p> - -<p>“An invitation with R. S. V. P. in the corner,” -said the Major succinctly to himself, and went -straight to his goal in characteristic fashion. “Do -I ride with you, Mrs. Lewin?”</p> - -<p>“I will trust you to go first!” said Chum gaily. -“There will be no riding with any one if I know -the path we are taking. The ponies slide down on -their tails the other side of Maitso, for I am sure we -are going over the Pass and towards Rano.”</p> - -<p>“The Gilderoys are fools if they do,” he said, as -they fell into the procession side by side. “Do you -know what Rano means, by the way?”</p> - -<p>“I am not quite ignorant, Major! It means -water in Malagasy, and is given to that range of -hills because of the many springs there—have I -learned my geography lesson rightly? How lovely -the Rano Falls are, by the way! We rode out -there just before the rains.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and they will be rather more than lovely -just now! Does the name suggest nothing to your -mind?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span></p> - -<p>“You think the floods will be up?” Mrs. Lewin -asked startled.</p> - -<p>“I think the Rano District will probably be impassable -just now, but we will see.” His keen eyes -fell on the couple in front of them, who were Mr. -Gurney and Miss Denver, and he laughed. “That -young lady is a puzzle to the garrison,” he said. -“The women cannot decide if she is a bad lot or -only a little fool.”</p> - -<p>“It is her people’s fault. They let her ride about -with the boys stationed here up to twelve at night, -and she spends half her time at Mitsinjovy with -Mrs. Clayton. What can you expect? Of course -people talk. But I think she is quite capable of -taking care of herself.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know. This affair with Gurney outshines -her former little peccadilloes. She has the -worried air of a girl who has been kissed!”</p> - -<p>“You ought to be ashamed of yourself for knowing -such things!” retorted Chum quickly. “Perhaps -they are engaged. I know nothing of Mr. -Gurney beyond his voice. He may be all right.”</p> - -<p>“Or she may be all wrong! I would solve the -mystery in three minutes—if I were a bachelor. -As things are I do not feel inclined to help to -satisfy public curiosity.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t like you nearly so well when you talk -scandal,” said Mrs. Lewin frankly. “And you so -very seldom do it that it jars the more. The girl is -not able to defend herself either. Don’t let us attack -her without cause.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span></p> - -<p>There had been ample cause, in so far as a -foundation for gossip went, and she knew it in her -own mind, even while she defended a fellow-woman. -It flashed across her, with a sense of absolute -wonder, that she could not imagine such a position -as Miss Denver’s—a girl accepted in the social -world of the place, asked to people’s houses, and -spoken of by men as Major Churton had spoken! -Leoline Lewin could not quite realise the tone of -mind in Beatrix Denver, if she could allow herself -to be handled, not by one man only, but by many, -if report spoke truly. She herself had never been -kissed by any man until her engagement, and felt -that she would have a certain shyness in the admission -after other women’s avowed experience. It -seemed rather immature, somehow. And yet the -mere thought of familiarity, even in her present -assured position, appeared an impossibility to her -sense of self-valuation. Of course she could not -soil her own self-respect by such a thing, though she -kept her charity for those who were less particular. -Last week, for instance, Di Churton had told her -that the very Mrs. Clayton, who was Miss Denver’s -chief ally at the Mitsinjovy Garrison, had got the -new boy from Natal in tow. He was rather a nice -youth named Rennie, as Mrs. Lewin knew him, -with little harm as yet in his twenty-one years; but -his education had begun in earnest.</p> - -<p>“He runs after Mrs. Clayton everywhere,” Diana -declared. “She takes him home after the dances, -and he unlaces her gowns for her. Brissy Nugent -told me so.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span></p> - -<p>“What a pity he didn’t stay with the first battalion -in Natal,” was all Mrs. Lewin had said. But in -her own mind she drew a line of demarcation between -herself and Mrs. Clayton as unconsciously -pharisaical as though they were of different castes. -She was thinking of this now, as she rode over to -Maitso, in the wake of Mr. Gurney and Miss -Denver, and her mood was tolerant because she -was too clear-brained to take a narrower position. -These people did not really matter in hers and -Ally’s lives; their vulgarity need not affect her, -though she lived in touch with them for a period. -By-and-by they would drop out of her existence, -and she would pass on to something cleaner, -unsmutched.</p> - -<p>On the crest of the hill they joined the rest of -the party, which had become gradually augmented, -so that between twenty and thirty ponies turned off -to the right in single file, and followed a precipitous -path into the hills. A rough cart, borrowed from -the garrison, and drawn by six stamping, vicious -mules, had gone on ahead with the provisions, by a -longer but less dangerous route. As Mrs. Lewin -had predicted, the ponies had to slide when they -could not walk, and the descent into the next valley -was like a winding stair. To the right the steep -precipice fell sheer down to a flat green bottom -overgrown with logwood and guava—what the -Planters called “dirty land,” because it had not -been “cleaned” for sugar-cane or banana. The -path was so slight a track that Major Churton, riding -in front of Chum, had often to push a way for -her through the eager vegetation. Above the cleft -hills and the valley smiled the blue sky, washed -clean by the rains, and from all sides rose the breath -of the still moist earth.</p> - -<p>“This is like riding in a vapour bath,” said Mrs. -Lewin, gasping a little, as the cavalcade emerged -from the trees for a moment and met the freer air -of the hillside. “Major Churton, you were right—the -streams are in flood!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span></p> - -<p>Her exclamation was echoed by a cry of dismay -from the vanguard of the party, for the curve of the -hill had revealed the impassable volume of water to -them. A regular cascade, which in dry weather -was nothing but a shallow stream, was tearing down -the hill at a lower level, and cutting off the valley -land from their advance. The string of ponies -stopped, and there ensued an argument which was, -of course, shouted up and down the hill as to a -change of route. Here and there a pony fretted on -the bit, and brought his hind legs dangerously near -the edge of the track; once a woman shrieked—it -was Miss Denver’s voice, pitched to an hysterical -tone that made Mrs. Lewin’s pulses leap with sudden -dread for her—and an occasional “Woa, boy!” -“Steady, mare!” showed that somebody’s mount -resented the delay. It struck Mrs. Lewin how -strange the string of ponies must look from below, -dotted along the hillside, and she laughed—she remembered -that, too, afterwards as something uncanny. -There are days on which we seem to have -been too prodigal of laughter, and to have squandered -it for little reason.</p> - -<p>“Well, we must ride on and get somewhere,” -said Mrs. Gilderoy’s exasperated voice at last. -“There’s a way round; we must take that, and -follow the cart.”</p> - -<p>“But I told Mr. Gregory the short cut!” protested -her husband blankly. “He will be sure to -come this way. Will he think of the other road?”</p> - -<p>“He must, unless he is an arrant fool,” said Mrs. -Gilderoy, with refreshing candour, and no respect -for the representative of the British Government. -“No one can cross that stream without getting wet -to the waist. We must ride on. You don’t want -to wait until he turns up, I suppose?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p> - -<p>Some echo of the altercation passed down the -line of riders and troubled the air around Mrs. -Lewin. She said nothing, but a new silence seemed -to have fallen upon her as Liscarton at last pricked -his ears and followed his leader with obvious satisfaction. -There was no fear that any one who knew -the country as Gregory did would attempt impossible -feats; the probability was that he might grasp the -situation much sooner than they had done, and, not -knowing what they had decided, turn round and go -home. Mrs. Lewin’s mind felt a sudden blank; she -was looking forward to meeting him to-day, after -an absence of nearly a week, to catch some hint of -his plans that would not yet be public property. It -was still a matter of some scornful marvel to Leoline -Lewin that every one round her openly lamented -their lot in being bound to Key Island, for she did -not realise that her own vitality was being kept up -by a vivid interest. She was living much more -actively in a mental fashion than she had ever done -in her life before, and the island itself, that she -thought the object round which her forces gathered, -was in reality only a background. But as yet she -felt no hint of danger.</p> - -<p>The party camped out at last on the bank of the -very stream which had hindered their progress, and -which had given them an extra half-hour’s ride. -The cart was awaiting them, and the men tethered -the ponies and helped outspan, while the women -laid the cloth. There was no kettle to boil, or tea -to make, as in a cooler climate; but the ice had -stood the journey well, and the soda-water and -mangoes came on as cold as if served at Government -House. Mrs. Lewin seated herself on a fallen -tree with Major Churton’s handkerchief spread over -it as a safeguard for her frills, and fell to swizzling -tinned butter with milk in the interests of the company. -At her feet Brissy, in an attitude as condensed -as a monkey’s, was slicing salad with dangerous -activity. The group was gathered on open -ground beyond the absolute tangle of wood which -clothed the hillside, and which was still reeking from -the rains.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span></p> - -<p>“Pass the spiders, please!” said Chum absently, -her eyes on the back of Captain Nugent’s flat head, -where the black hair curled crisply. He looked up -with a laugh in the young eyes that had seen too -much of this marvellous universe, and his white -teeth flashed under his moustache.</p> - -<p>“You’re dreaming, Mrs. Lewin!”</p> - -<p>For once Chum’s control of her blood failed her, -and she flushed a little, conscious that he told the -truth. Her thoughts were with Gregory and his -probable prudence in turning back.</p> - -<p>“It was appropriate, anyhow!” she retorted, -shaking a huge specimen off her skirts. “That’s -not a tarantula, is it?”</p> - -<p>“No; common or garden bug, I think. Let’s -put it on Miss Denver’s shoulder and hear her -scream!”</p> - -<p>“No, Captain Nugent! Stop!” A sharp memory -of the hysterical quality of Miss Denver’s cry -on the hillside made Chum the more imperious. -Even in her own mind she did not form the fear -that a very little would upset the girl’s balance to -make men suspicious of she knew not what; all -she felt was that Miss Denver was not in a state of -nerves for the endurance of spiders. There might -be nothing in it, but she remembered with faint -disgust Major Churton’s broad comment, “She has -the worried look of a girl who has been kissed.” -Mrs. Lewin dropped the subject, and the spider together, -with distaste. Her mental attitude grew a -little contemptuous.</p> - -<p>The next instant she had risen silently to her feet -with a nearer and more bitter interest. Some one -had said, “Have a cého, Ally?”—and she threaded -her way through the chattering crowd round the -table-cloth to the three men standing apart by the -tethered ponies, without haste, and with a complete -appearance of her errand being her own need.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span></p> - -<p>“Ally, do get me some soda-water!” said her -voice behind her husband, as he vacillated on the -brink of consent. “I can’t wait for our meal to be -ready, I’m so thirsty. And don’t put anything -but ice into it; it’s too hot.”</p> - -<p>Her candid eyes met his without a shadow of -reproach; yet he coloured ever so slightly, and -shook his head at the man who had suggested -cého. As he halved the soda-water between them, -Chum felt the old humiliation sweep back over her -with fresh force. Who was she to think herself -and Ally above these neighbours of theirs? With -this ugly possibility always dodging her steps, she -was a woman who dared not leave her husband to -judge for himself, but was forced to risk an interference -that might be rightly interpreted at any -moment! She stood there in dispirited silence, -beautiful in her summer gown, but with earnest -eyes that seemed out of place above the dainty -muslin; and for one mad moment she could have -cursed the weakness of the man beside her which -had spoiled her ideal.</p> - -<p>And it was just as she turned from him to save -suspicion of her errand, that a sound of welcome -arose from the group round the table-cloth.</p> - -<p>“When did you turn up?”—“How wet you are? -You must have swum the stream!”—“There’s a -compliment for you, Mrs. Gilderoy—nothing would -keep him away!”—“Well, you always were a man -who surmounted difficulties!”</p> - -<p>It was Gregory, and his high riding boots were -dripping with water; but he laughed at the idea -of cold. The pony took the stream at a point he -knew of, he said; there was no danger—only a -ducking, to which he was used. He had been -riding all through the rains, and forded worse -floods.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span></p> - -<p>He was standing as Mrs. Lewin came back to -the group, and remained so until she had sat down; -then he took a seat near her, but rather behind her -back, so that they could hardly be called companions. -It would have been difficult to talk to her -indeed, and she directed her conversation rather to -Halton, who was facing her at a little distance. -His brown eyes were very constantly on her face, -and she parried their sentimentality with vague -distrust. His departure was lending a new meaning -to their old intimacy, and she had no room for it in -her present life. Her fear for Ally, and her desire -to hear if Gregory had any news, kept her mind at -sufficient stretch. She enjoyed the mental activity -in some strange fashion, in spite of the thread of -pain running through it; but her increasing appetite -for power was not fed by the sentimental half-tones -of her relations with Halton.</p> - -<p>As the conversation grew more general she was -conscious of listening for a whisper behind her. -Miss Denver’s laugh was loud above the rest. -Some one challenged Hamilton Gurney to sing, -and he affectedly refused for the sake of being -pressed, but the voice he wanted did not join in the -appeal. Mrs. Lewin was not conscious that they -were urging him to anything in fact, for through -the babel the Administrator had leaned forward and -asked her for more bread and butter. She passed it -back to him, and as he took it his voice breathed a -whisper in her ear—</p> - -<p>“I have heard from Capetown.”</p> - -<p>She dared not turn her head, but her nerves -seemed strung as if by a strong stimulant. He -folded the bread and butter deliberately, while she -still held the plate, and his voice went on rapidly—</p> - -<p>“They have given me <i>carte blanche</i> to do as I -please.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span></p> - -<p>Mr. Gurney had given up the hope of any persuasion -coming from Mrs. Lewin, and as he really -wanted to sing, he screwed up the melancholy -banjo which he had sent on in the cart, and twanged -an accompaniment. The first notes fell on deaf -ears as far as Leoline was concerned, for her mind -buzzed with possibilities. She had never dreamed -that the Capetown Government would put such -power into a man’s hands which the Home Authorities -had carefully tied. But she forgot how small a -dot Key Island appeared to the larger State, already -worried with its own affairs. <i>Carte blanche</i> meant -that Gregory might get to the root of the hashish -trouble by burning the crops, or any other drastic -measure, and this would be followed by probable -consequences for which she knew some of his plans. -He was nearer to the grip of his tiny kingdom, at -which he aimed, than he had been two months ago. -Mrs. Lewin drew her breath as if something had -almost taken it away. She was excited and roused, -and her blood was on fire....</p> - -<p>Then Gurney’s voice stole in on her attention, -loosening the restraint of her will-power still more -in its subtle sweetness. Between the rush of two -unusual emotions she felt bewildered, and clutched -blindly after her usual self-control. Her eyes -threatened to fill with ridiculous tears, and half-a-dozen -men and women would see and misinterpret -them. She flung herself a little into the shadow of -a tree, leaning back with her hand on the ground -behind her to support herself. It enabled her -to turn her face so that she hoped it was partly -masked.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“All ye who seek for pleasure,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here find it without measure—</div> - <div class="verse indent4">No one to say</div> - <div class="verse indent4">A body nay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And naught but love and leisure!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span></p> - -<p class="noindent">Something hotter than tears seemed to flash across -Leoline Lewin’s eyeball; the universe stood still, -soundless and sightless, then rushed on with -clangor, and drowned every sound save the little -trivial song which still tinkled so loudly in her -stunned soul, ... for Evelyn Gregory had -leaned back also, and laid his hand heavily over -hers as it rested on the ground, out of sight of every -one in the group. During the shock of the first -five seconds she thought that he had done so unconsciously, -and that the movement had been as -natural as her own. She dared not move for fear -of making him conscious, and waited for him to -remove the heavy pressure that she might slide her -own away, and never refer to it.... The -seconds went on and on, each that passed accentuating -a new beautiful terror and conviction in her -mind. He did not move. Human flesh cannot -press human flesh and be unconscious for so long. -Her blood leapt to the revelation that they were -man and woman, and felt, too, the humiliation of -knowing that they were not sexless as friends.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“All ye whose hearts are aching</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For somebody forsaking,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">We’ll hold you dear</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And heal you here,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And send you home love-making!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Gregory removed his hand and sat up, as self-controlled -as though he had never moved. An -echo down the valley faintly took up the last pure -notes and repeated them afar off—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Love-making!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span></p> - -<p>Chum drew her knees up and clasped her hands -round them as though she would gather her forces -together; but as she did so her eyes fell on the back -of her hand, where a faint red flush marred the white -skin. It told tales of the rough pressure she had -endured to her maddened mind, and she dropped it -again to the ground—but this time out of reach—beside -her. She glanced round the ring of faces -and found no answering consciousness there. They -were all trying the echo—shouting nonsense up the -valley on the quiet evening air. She looked at -Halton, and saw that he was looking down, apparently -the most abstracted person present. But -with a pang of fear she wondered if she would have -read knowledge in the eyes veiled by his drooped -lids. She was frightened, not only for herself, but -for that other behind her, her woman’s intuition -recognising the danger that lay under Halton’s -quiet, and with characteristic courage she walked -straight up to her danger to look it in the face.</p> - -<p>“Are you going to ride home with me, Mr. Halton?” -she contrived to say, as the ponies were saddled -up for the return.</p> - -<p>“If you have made no other arrangement?” he -said tentatively. There was nothing to take hold -of in the words, because Major Churton had ridden -with her before, and might claim the privilege again. -But she caught a covert insinuation and scored up -an unpaid grudge against him.</p> - -<p>“I am not using you to escape an unwelcome -cavalier!” she said, as if accepting his own -idea.</p> - -<p>“What an unpleasant suggestion! I shall be -wondering all the way which man is thirsting for -my blood.”</p> - -<p>“It would be a better compliment if you took it -for granted that they were all envious. You are -out of practice, Mr. Halton.”</p> - -<p>“I have had none of late.”</p> - -<p>“Never mind; use the present opportunity on -my gown!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span></p> - -<p>“It is charming, of course!” he said, as he arranged -the blanket over Liscarton’s streaked shoulders, -and pulled the girth tight. “And no other -lady would have dared to risk it on a hot pony, -would they?”</p> - -<p>“I told my husband that I wished to leave a good -impression on your mind!”</p> - -<p>“Really? But why struggle for the inevitable? -I am all the more flattered though, of course. It is -not every day that a lady makes herself smart for -my especial benefit.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, please don’t!” said Chum, as she lifted herself -easily into the saddle. “Smart is now a word -sacred to the middle classes, to whom it means inferior -silks and strings of imitation beads!”</p> - -<p>“So bad as that?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, really. And the same degree of cheapness -is expressed in the word ‘clever’—its mental -equivalent. Perhaps on the whole it is best summed -up in the draper’s ideal of one and elevenpence -halfpenny!”</p> - -<p>“I am so glad you did not say three farthings!”</p> - -<p>“We never have such things now,” sighed Mrs. -Lewin. “There <i>is</i> a farthing, of course—but they -are rapidly becoming relics. You get a packet of -very bad pins, or a pencil that you particularly don’t -want, for the odd number.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p> - -<p>His laugh sounded like the earlier terms of their -acquaintance, and she congratulated herself on her -stroke of policy in reannexing him for this occasion. -Never once had her eyes met Gregory’s since that -revelation during Gurney’s song, and she had not -spoken to him. As they rode back through the -falling dusk she fenced with Halton as of old, retreating -and advancing like the figure of a mental -quadrille, and was surprised to find it tedious. Had -the stronger personality that was even now shadowing -her made the other man seem slight, or was -Halton only attractive to a certain point, after -which he could only repeat himself? It seemed to -her that realities had superseded the dilettantism -of their brain flirtations, and made them a tiresome -waste of time.</p> - -<p>As they rode through Port Victoria, and turned -off on the Government House road, she missed Ally -and learned that he had ridden home with his chief, -and would come on to the bungalow afterwards, -doubtless.</p> - -<p>“I saw them turn up the avenue; they were in -front of us,” Halton said quietly. “Did you not -see them?”</p> - -<p>She thought he looked at her.</p> - -<p>“I don’t always see my husband!” said Mrs. -Lewin adroitly. “Life would be so fatiguing if one -could not sometimes close one’s eyes, wouldn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Or substitute another object?” said Halton, as -they drew rein. “The mail comes in to-morrow, -and I expect to leave in her the day after, Mrs. -Lewin. But I hope this is not good-bye?”</p> - -<p>“I am coming to see you off, of course! I will -bring you one of Ally’s pocket handkerchiefs.”</p> - -<p>“To wave, or to weep in?”</p> - -<p>“Whichever you prefer. Personally, I want to -murder people who weep over me; but if you like -it, I will imitate the late rains.”</p> - -<p>“I would not cost you a tear!” he said, with a -sudden note of feeling in his voice that vaguely -surprised her. “If your future were in <i>my</i> hands, -there would be very little fear for it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span></p> - -<p>He rode away into the darkness without any -further farewell, while Mrs. Lewin pondered his -words with a fresh misgiving. When Ally came in -half-an-hour later, he told her—as he usually did -when it was so—that Halton had been speaking of -her.</p> - -<p>“I hope he was admiring me!” said Chum -brightly. “But he could hardly do less—to you.”</p> - -<p>“He said you were very clever!” said Ally -doubtfully. Who likes his wife to be called clever?</p> - -<p>“One and elevenpence halfpenny!” murmured -Chum absently. “I did hope I was worth two -shillings, anyway.”</p> - -<p>“And sma——”</p> - -<p>“Ally, if you say smart <i>too</i>, I shall have Mr. -Halton up for libel!” said Mrs. Lewin indignantly.</p> - -<p>Ally laughed. “Gregory’s Powder didn’t say -anything,” he remarked. “I don’t think you’ve -made much impression there, in spite of your -earnest efforts, you know, Chum.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin looked down absently at the back of -her hand, almost as if she expected to see something -there; but her real answer came later, as she -kissed her husband and said good-night.</p> - -<p>“Ally,” she said slowly, turning back at the -door, “do you mind? It’s so hot to-night! And -you are restless, and have kept me awake lately!”</p> - -<p>Alaric finished his whiskey and soda rather -soberly. “Oh!” he said. “All right. I’ll sleep -in the dressing-room——”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span></p> - -<p>He heard Leoline enter her own room and turn -the key in the lock, and he wondered in his stupid -handsome head that she should so insist on privacy. -Then he cheered up, had another whiskey, and supposed -she had a headache. A man may distrust -his mistress if she locks him out, and knows how to -translate his own inclination to sleep in the dressing-room. -But the <i>tertium quid</i> of his wife’s case -is always a headache.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“Ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut.”—<i>French Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>The restless, tropical night seemed full of wings -to Leoline’s ears as she lay on her back with hands -clasped under her fragrant hair, and her wide eyes -looking up into the bridal fall of the mosquito net. -In spite of being alone she had gained no hint of -sleep, nor had she expected it. The heat was -intense, even though the bungalow was some way -above the town up on the hillside, and the heaviness -of the rains still seemed to hang in the air. -The complaining, vicious note of a mosquito -haunted the safe curtains, through which he could -not find an entrance; and, as if in contempt of him, -Leoline had flung off the covering sheet, and where -the soft frills fell back her white body tempted the -angry insect with sweets out of reach. It would -have been a pity to mark that perfect skin; but -the mosquito thought of his own desire above all -artistic considerations—just as that much higher -creation called Man might do if, for instance, he -wished to feel the pressure of his own hand on -hers.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin was hardly thinking as the long -hours wore to morning, and the flutter of moths’ -wings gave way to that of humming-birds, who -had built their nests below the stoep,—she was -simply suffering. It seemed to her that her mind -was one blind pain and a bewildering humiliation. -For it was not the thing in itself that horrified her—a -man’s hand laid over hers for some sixty -seconds seemed a trivial thing enough—but what -it meant. She who had unconsciously put herself -on a pedestal, found that she had fallen, not by -the unimportant act but by the revelation it had -brought of her own emotions. She had not been -cool under Gregory’s touch; if she had she would -have brushed the incident aside as a thing of no -consequence, tiresome but to be disregarded; her -blood had answered his, and beat in her veins, and -made her whole body thrill and sicken as no touch -had ever done before. A knowledge that she -could no longer deny to herself dismayed her, -showing her this first touch as the prelude to more -that she dared not contemplate. It was the thin -end of the wedge, the passing of a boundary line to -a path that might lead her—anywhere. She knew -it, and in the warm, soft darkness she did not lie to -herself as she might have done in the decent day. -A married woman is somewhat defenceless against -herself, for she is forced to acknowledge her own -emotions, and has legitimised their classification. -While she is unmarried—whether by law or slighter -bonds—she can theorise, but she can always excuse -herself by saying that she does not know the -meaning of her sex. Nor in a certain degree does -she. It is, however, her husband’s useful province -to deprive her of such a defence, and to make her -horribly conscious of the meaning of starting pulses -and too generous blood.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span></p> - -<p>Ally had once told Chum, with a chuckle, that -she took to married life as a duck takes to water. -And, in truth, she did not quarrel with nature any -more than any other healthy, clear-minded wife -whose womanhood is ripe. But there was a nicety -about her that was content to look on passion as -a thing incidental to married life, but not to be -dwelt upon, and her bodily relations with Alaric -had never seemed to her of so much importance as -those of her mind. There was again a hint of -superiority in this, for she saw other women holding -out grosser inducements to charm than she -professed, and made a somewhat fastidious use of -her physical advantages by contrast.</p> - -<p>For once, and quite suddenly, it seemed to her -that this attitude had after all been false. If she -wore her frocks with a daintier grace than other -women, did it not suggest that what lay beneath -was daintier too? She thought with disgust of -Mrs. Clayton’s bodices being actually unlaced; -but her own bodices had been quite as tempting -to the audacity of men’s thoughts, and she had -meant them to be so. It was only that she -promised and did not perform, while other women -enjoyed the fulfilment of their own allurements. -No man could say a word of her as they might of -Beatrix Denver; but how many had envied Ally -to the extent of fancying themselves in his place -for one wicked blissful moment? And she had -regarded that as legitimate, and a rightful compliment -to them both.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span></p> - -<p>Oh, but what did it matter, compared to this new -fire in her veins—this mad possibility of painful -happiness that was surely not sane, for she could -find no reason to excuse it. Every yearning -instinct of her, brain, body, and soul, seemed -drawn out, beyond her power to will to restrain -it, to a man who was not her husband, and who -had not even such attractions as might excuse a -physical passion. She thought of Ally’s handsome -face, and easy, comfortable personality, contrasted -with Evelyn Gregory’s harsh features and difficult -nature. There would be nothing comfortable in a -life with Gregory, unless indeed a woman were so -at one with him as for their two personalities to -harmonise without a discordant note. He would -be overbearing and exacting, but strong both for -himself and her; there came the renewed leap of -heart, as all the woman in her craved for a master. -She was tired of her disillusion, and of being the -one to guide and act both at once. Gregory had -appealed to her through the feeling of reliance -with which he had filled her. There had been the -snare and the excuse, if an excuse were possible -for a feeling which seemed to her outside the pale -of argument.</p> - -<p>“What does it matter,” she thought wearily, -“since I am proved a fraud on all accounts. I am -not what I thought I was—all my theories with regard -to myself seem to have been mere vapours to -vanish with the first ray of sun. But I can fight -still—I can—I can.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span></p> - -<p>She set her little white teeth, and gripped the pain -as though it were a tangible thing. And then, because -she was just a good girl and no heroine, she -threw aside the mosquito net and knelt down beside -the bed to pray to a God whom she believed had -sent an ugly tragedy into her life, not to take it -away, but to help her to hide it after the fashion of -women. She was ready to trust Him where she no -longer trusted herself, and having certain sturdy -principles born and bred in her, she had not even -the advantage of excusing self-indulgence upon the -plea of possessing the “artistic temperament,” which -is a very convenient back door for immorality to -the modern woman. It generally means lack of -exercise and hysteria; but Leoline Lewin’s digestion -being a good one, she had no claim to such an -immunity from inconvenient virtue.</p> - -<p>Towards morning she fell asleep, but not into the -same sound oblivion as on the night when Ally lay -in a drunken slumber next door. She could control -her waking thoughts, but her dreams were cruel, -and were haunted by such forbidden joy as made -her glad when the broad sun struck through the venetian -shutters and brought the sick, hot day.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span></p> - -<p>The mail came in that morning, and all Port Victoria -went down to the harbour to meet it. The -town was cut off from all save chance communication -with the outer world for a whole month, and -so the arrival of news was a greater event than in a -larger colony. The wharf was a rendezvous, therefore, -on mail days, and the U.C.L. officers of the incoming -boat could have laid themselves up with cého -in the first half-hour, if they had accepted all the -hospitality offered them, and drunk the liqueur fast -enough. Leoline rode down to town early, and sat -patiently on Liscarton’s back among the coal-dust -and the smell of fessikh, or salted fish, which is as -the smell of unutterable decay, and believed by -many to be nothing but dried nigger, and high -game at that. The little colony gathered gradually -about her, and for the first time the sameness of the -faces struck her with a kind of horror. She had -met them over and over again, and they had not so -oppressed her; now she realised that there were -only some forty white people in the immediate -neighbourhood to know, and that she must go on -meeting them for all the remainder of the time that -Ally was stationed there, until the social life seemed -like a circle. There were one or two newer faces -out at China Town, or Port Albert, perhaps,—a -Planter or so scattered beyond the Pass or up on -the Tableland; but even these belonged to the same -community. She looked at the blue bay, the forest -of masts, the one big ship at the quay, the line of -ravenalas along the shore with their lifted fans like -spread fingers, the warm wooded hills that shut it -all in,—and Halton’s words returned to her with -meaning for the first time.—</p> - -<p>“We are in a rat-trap!”</p> - -<p>A sort of terror seized her, a feeling that she -must get away from the dangerous monotony of it -all. She could face and wrestle with the situation -threatening her at the moment, while her senses -were still alert with the shock of her awakening; -but how would it be as the months rolled on, and -time inevitably lessened her sense of danger and -dulled her watchfulness! She began to realise that -Ally had not been all to blame for his weakness, -and that Miss Denver had no other distraction for -her idle days; they might both be of feebler natures -than her own, but at least there were extenuating -circumstances. She could think that with -broader possibilities they might have made a better -fight for it.</p> - -<p>“We are in a rat-trap!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span></p> - -<p>She looked round her slowly, at the familiar figures -in the flaccid sunlight, and wished that she did -not know every face turned to her. The very smile -that came inevitably as their eyes met seemed a -weary proof of having them before her yesterday, -and to-day, and to-morrow. There was Mrs. Gilderoy, -in an old riding skirt that smacked forlornly -of Bond Street long ago, and a limp white shirt; -there was her husband, equally inevitable, in a grey -flannel suit, with a Madras helmet hiding his face -down to the ragged tawny moustache. As if by -common consent they made straight for Leoline, -who was seized with a wild impulse to pull Liscarton -round and ride out of the sameness of the scene. -She even thought she knew the very words they -said before they uttered them.</p> - -<p>“How are you, my dear?” Mrs. Gilderoy spoke -first. “Anything left of you from yesterday? I -shall take a month to recover. I always wonder, -after we have exerted ourselves like that to bore -our friends, why we did it. So does Wray; he -thinks he lost several pounds from that ride down -to the valley.”</p> - -<p>“I felt it dripping away,” said Captain Gilderoy -in his pleasant voice. “I have lost something -like three stone since I came to this abominable -hole.”</p> - -<p>“It was a terribly hot night,” said Chum, striving -for her usual manner by instinct. “I think the heat -increases.”</p> - -<p>“It does not vary much in the tropics,” said Mrs. -Gilderoy, shrugging her shoulders. “I have not -been dry for eighteen months, but I am growing -used to it. Oh, how I envy the Commissioner! -Think of going Home, and the East winds, and sitting -on deck to wait for the first shiver!”</p> - -<p>“A jacket would be quite an excitement, wouldn’t -it? And I believe it would be a new experience to -catch cold. Do you notice that no one catches -cold here? We go down with influenza, and chills, -and fever, and horrid things like that, but sneezing -is a lost art!”</p> - -<p>“You have been out nine months, haven’t you, -Chum, and you are beginning to feel it? You did -not take that view on your arrival, did you? At -first sight the Station strikes you as a merry little -place, where we all wear white clothes and pretend -that we like each other.”</p> - -<p>“And by-and-by we realise the coal-dust,” said -Mrs. Lewin, with veiled bitterness. “You are quite -right—one easily gets to feel soiled in Port Victoria!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span></p> - -<p>“I think when the rains come the wet heat oozes -into one’s bones somehow. You will have to go -up to Victoria if you feel limp.”</p> - -<p>“We ought to make up a party,” said Captain -Gilderoy. “Mrs. Clayton would join with pleasure, -I am sure, and Miss Denver. They had great -games there last year—some of the men from ‘By-Jovey’ -got leave and went too. Have you had -your mail yet? We can sit here in comfort -while Wray goes and gets them for us, if you -like.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks. Don’t bring my husband’s, though, -please, Captain Gilderoy. He likes to fetch his -mail himself.”</p> - -<p>The post-office was close to the wharf, behind a -block of store-houses, where the big firms received -their imports and placed them for unpacking. -Captain Gilderoy disappeared behind a wall of -coal, and Mrs. Gilderoy and Mrs. Lewin sat still on -their ponies in the shade, now chatting to some acquaintance -who had joined them, now watching the -cargo being dumped down into the grit and dirt of -the quay.</p> - -<p>“We can go on board as soon as that mess is -cleared off!” said Mrs. Gilderoy, with a nod towards -the bales that would feed her during the next -month. “But it is so uncomfortable while they are -all running about and falling over each other round -the hatches. Mrs. Ritchie Stern is on board. Her -husband’s boat is coming in to-day to coal, she -says, and she followed him in the mail. They will -be here for some days. Captain Nugent is bursting -with excitement, and planning a ball for every night -that they spend here!”</p> - -<p>“Heaven help them!” said Chum, laughing. -“What is Captain Stern’s boat?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span></p> - -<p>“The <i>Greville</i>, I think.” She dropped her voice -a note lower, and leaned over her saddle. “Have -you heard that there is trouble on the East Coast, -up at Port Cecil?”</p> - -<p>“No!” Something in the tone startled Chum, -though the words meant nothing to her. “Port -Cecil!” she repeated vaguely. “Is that——”</p> - -<p>“No, not in Key Island at all—on the African -coast, in British East Africa, and dangerously near -the German frontier. I believe it never has been -rightly settled as to whether Port Cecil is British or -German territory. I wish they had handed it over -with Mafia. It would be so much more sensible! -There is nothing officially stated, but a rumour of -trouble has leaked out. The Capetown authorities -have cabled through to our man to send some one -up at once. You see, it is so much nearer than it -would be for them, and it’s a very delicate kind of -mission. Wray calls it handling a meerkat with -boxing-gloves on! We can’t offend the natives, -and we won’t offend Germany for some reason just -now. It’s to be all tact and no soldiers this time.”</p> - -<p>“Then Mr. Halton is the right man to go.”</p> - -<p>“Undoubtedly; and as Gregory has his own -little threatened rows to amuse him, I suppose they -think at Capetown that it’s safe to let him use his -own discretion as to who he sends. Otherwise I -should be afraid of his going himself and setting -the country in a blaze, if I were the man above -him.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think he would do that while the natives -here seem still so unsettled. But what a disappointment -for Mr. Halton! He told me he was longing -to get home.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, my dear, it’s awful! The town is not only -the Naboth’s vineyard of our coast and Germany’s, -but it is unhealthy. They say the white soldiers -can hardly live there. Do you know that Wray -thinks they will send up the 28th from Natal?”</p> - -<p>“Ally’s regiment! But I thought there was to -be no fighting?”</p> - -<p>“No; but they must have soldiers in case of accidents, -and they want to treat Port Cecil as separate -from the rest of the Protectorate. It was not -included in the treaty of 1895, or some such bungle, -and so there is always being a row about it. Wray -tried to explain it to me, but I never <i>can</i> understand. -Anyhow, it is a diplomatic mission, and -enough to turn Mr. Halton’s hair grey, unless he -knows something about the place. Has he ever -been in that part?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think so; but Mr. Gregory spoke one -day of a friend of his—a man he seems to think -very able—who has been consul, or something of -that sort, there for years. I wonder that the Government -did not leave him to settle matters.”</p> - -<p>“My dear Chum, don’t you know that our Government -never does use the man on the spot who -has gained experience and really could manage? -The instant there is trouble they send some one -who has never heard of the place, and is bound to -blunder at first, and they ‘commission him to inquire,’ -etc. We are mad on commissions. It’s a -national disease. I think sometimes that it’s a farce -we play to gain them.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p> - -<p>“Here comes Captain Gilderoy,” said Mrs. Lewin -absently. She was wondering if this new billet -would keep Halton longer in Key Island, for she -felt that the sooner he went the safer she should be. -Yet he was emphatically the only man at hand -whom Gregory had to send to Port Cecil, for Arthur -White was no diplomatist, and Major Churton’s -position so strictly military as to make his presence -a menace. Captain Gilderoy handed her two -letters—one from her home, far off in the hunting -county of Leicestershire, and one in the handwriting -of an old school friend, who had since married -a man high in authority, and had a dangerous desire -to dabble in state-craft. She knew of appointments -and the pulling of strings before the <i>Gazette</i> had -ratified them, and her wisdom was a thing that even -her husband sometimes feared. It chanced that -Leoline Lewin opened this letter before her father’s, -read the first few sentences, which were merely a -heading, and suddenly became immersed, to the exclusion -even of the smell of fessikh and the ever-recurring -faces around her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p> - -<p>“But my real news,” wrote Chum’s school-mate, -“refers to you, or, I hope, will do so if you have -only gained the good-will of your Administrator. -Cyril Ernest has come into the Rignold title, and -that means resigning his commission and going into -Parliament—he was always a politician rather than -a soldier. He was A.D.C. to old Sir Geoffrey -Vaughan, who is a great crony of mine. I met the -old fellow at Victoria House the other night, and -buttonholed him in a corner. Don’t tell me I am -not a good friend, Chum, for I thought of you at -once, and tried to impress Ally’s virtues on him. -He hummed and hawed a little, but he remembered -Ally; he said there were two nice boys to whom -he gave the preference—your husband and Brissy -Nugent, who, I think, was at Sandhurst with him. -I am afraid I belittled Brissy in your interest. It is -so unfortunate that they are stationed at the same -place, for I could gain no absolute promise from Sir -Geoffrey. All he would say was that he would -leave it to Evelyn Gregory to give the casting vote, -and he has written to him unofficially. Weaker -men are fond of leaving the decision with Gregory. -Now, my dear girl, it all depends on you. You -<i>must</i> manage your man in office so that he shall -recommend Ally, and not Captain Nugent. It is a -settled thing that Sir Geoffrey will go to Malta, unless -he has something even better—a home command, -it might be. Don’t believe any one who -talks about the African generals; I know better. -Even my husband is not in my confidence about -the appointment yet, but you may take my word -for it, and I am telling you because it gives you a -start over Mrs. Nugent—I never did like that -woman—and you are on the spot, too, and she is -not. I have only just time to catch the mail,” etc.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin turned the pages breathlessly, and -the lines danced before her eyes. Here were two -appointments confidentially placed in the hands of -the man Government hardly professed to trust; but -she was not thinking of the unofficial way in which -the Empire was really worked, or the incalculable -value of the force which is politely termed “Influence.” -Her personal stake in the matter drove even -the question of the trouble in East Africa out of her -head, though before her friend’s letter she was -keenly interested in it as in some sort concerning -Gregory. She saw only that here was the escape -for which she had prayed, and the old French saying, -that “What a woman wishes, God wishes,” recurred -to her mind like a blessing. Malta or England—the -words spelt rescue, however one read -them. Her eyes followed every line of the great -quiescent liner hungrily, while, in her fevered -fancy, she saw it carrying her out of danger—her -and Ally together—beyond the rat-trap where the -rats were already beginning to menace each other -because they could not get out.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span></p> - -<p>Surely Ally’s appointment must be a foregone -conclusion! She had already done what her friend -counselled, in her forethought for the future, and -had gained the ear of the Administrator. In their -increasing confidence she had spoken frankly though -delicately of her husband, and had acknowledged -that she was ambitious for him, and wished him to -rise. And Gregory had sympathised, even though -he might not believe in Ally’s capabilities. Surely -he would help her!</p> - -<p>She did not trouble over Brissy much as a rival, -for Evelyn Gregory thought no more of him than -of his A.D.C. Brissy was not the stumbling-block -in the way of success—it was unfortunately Ally -himself who was his own enemy. But forewarned -is forearmed, and she must this time force him to a -strategic management of his chief for both their -sakes. Her very muscles felt tense and braced for -the effort, as she sat in the shade of the coal walls, -mechanically nodding and smiling at the people -round her. As soon as might be she would get out -of all this, and ride home and wait for Ally. They -must talk it over, and arrange the campaign the -instant they could do so without arousing suspicion. -She wondered if her own precious news had “leaked -out” as well as the African appointment; but it -was unlikely. The woman who had told her prided -herself on knowing such secrets long before they -were even private property.</p> - -<p>On the further side of the wharf Brissy Nugent -himself was reading stale news from an old paper -with the avidity of a starved dog, while he also -waited to go on board the mail boat; but the -Naval and Military intelligence told him nothing -of his own possible fortune, and in fact he never -dreamed of gaining any advantage from the paper -beyond a passing amusement. He was sitting on -a pile of logwood waiting for shipment in a sailing -vessel, with a Madras helmet spread like an umbrella -over his head and shoulders, side by side with -Clayton of the A.S.C.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span></p> - -<p>“I see that Bobs was talking to the Sandhurst -Cadets the other day,” said Clayton, turning his -own paper, posted from England a month since, -“and he said it was all nonsense to suppose that no -man can get on in the Army without influence. -My firm conviction is that without influence in the -Army one might as well make up one’s mind to -achieve nothing but the ordinary promotion which -comes with time.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the system which should be adopted is to -do away with rewards altogether,” said Nugent -simply. “Either a man does his duty, or he does -not. If he does, well and good. If he doesn’t, then -he ought to be kicked out.” His soulless eyes went -out over the paper he was holding in search of his -acquaintance, and he saluted Miss Denver, who -was passing on her pony, with a flash of white -teeth under his black moustache. He was more -interested in her at the moment than in what he -was saying, albeit it was his honest conviction.</p> - -<p>“That’s a beautifully simple creed, Brissy, and I -have no doubt that if it were adopted there would -be fewer of the absolutely useless men who encumber -the Service. They do nothing either one way -or the other; they usually have money, are in no -way dependent on their profession, and care nothing -for it, except in so far as it affords them amusement. -There’s a case not five miles from here!” -he added significantly.</p> - -<p>“You mean old Ally Sloper. Yes, I don’t suppose -he’ll ever do much. But, then, he don’t need -to.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span></p> - -<p>“Exactly!” said Clayton with frank bitterness. -“And because he hasn’t got it in him to push himself, -a beneficent Providence has given him friends -in office, and a wife with brains and ambition. -That woman means him to get on, Brissy, and she -could make something even of you or me.”</p> - -<p>“I saw her here a moment ago,” said Brissy, to -whom abstract references always suggested actual -things. “She was on Liscarton, by the coal heap -over there. She seems to have gone now!”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin’s place was indeed empty, but he did -not know in what relation that affected him. For -Chum had gone home, and when Captain Lewin -appeared among the chattering crowd on the wharf, -he learned from the Gilderoys that she had left a -message for him to the effect that heat and coal-dust -threatened to transform her to a nigger, but -he would find her cleaned and awaiting him at -luncheon time. Ally, jocund and social, moved -among his friends, as pleased to be off work as a -school-boy out of school.</p> - -<p>“Chum’s off colour a bit, I think,” he said confidentially -to Diana Churton. “She couldn’t sleep -last night for the heat.”</p> - -<p>“We’ll get out to Vohitra—it’s about time,” said -Di good-naturedly. “I’m thinking of making up -a party. You can’t get back to lunch at the -bungalow, Ally; it’s too late. Come on board the -mail, and see Mrs. Ritchie Stern. The <i>Greville</i> has -just passed the Gates.”</p> - -<p>Ally vacillated, and looked at his watch. “Chum -expected me to lunch at home!” he said.</p> - -<p>“Send Brissy in your place!” said Di, with a -short laugh. “No, tell Bute; he’s got to ride up to -Government House, and he’ll take a message.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span></p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you what,” said Ally, and his face -cleared to its own gay good-humour, “I’ll telephone; -I can ring up from the post-office. Wait -for me, Di, and we’ll go on board together.”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more -hope of a fool than of him!”—<i>Jewish Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>I think it is the Chinese who have a proverb that -says: “To expect one who does not come, to eat -and not to be satisfied, and to work for years and -get no promotion, are three things which are enough -to kill a man.” Mrs. Lewin had been proving the -wearing process of the first clause for a good half-hour, -before the telephone bell rang, and her husband’s -voice informed her that he was detained, and—er—awfully -sorry, but would not be in to lunch. -“I’ll come up later—have you got a headache, -Chum?” said the strong tones, muffled to half their -weight like a ventriloquist’s.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span></p> - -<p>The “er” was a fatal hesitation, and struck Mrs. -Lewin’s keenness of perception. Ally had not been -detained by duty as he wished her to imagine—he -was lunching on board the mail boat, catching at -the nearest pleasure as usual, to his own detriment -and hers. For a minute a wave of very human -irritation prompted her to let him go his own way. -Why should she for ever stand between him and -retribution? She was tired, and inclination -prompted her to let the struggle go, and take consequences -as easily and without regret as he did. -Then with another change of mood she saw that -Ally’s lack of purpose was no excuse for her own. -The very things she saw and condemned in him -were a spur to her to be on her own guard. The -danger was hers as well as his—the object to be -gained her own safety too. She could let no chance -go by, and the feeblest of human excuses always is, -“I am no worse than my neighbours.” It all passed -over her conscious mind while she stood with the -little apparatus still in her hands.</p> - -<p>“No, I’ve no headache—I’m all right,” she said -quietly. “But come up after lunch, Ally—I want -to see you. It’s important—but don’t say anything -to any one. Tell them I am seedy if you like, and -that you must get back.”</p> - -<p>She wondered as she heard his half-uneasy “Yes, -of course I’ll come the minute I can,” if there were -any one standing near him. One could hear too -much in a public place, if one were only near the -instrument. Well, it could not be helped, and after -all they might think it was a private matter—something -contained in her own home mail. But in Key -Island every one’s business is of importance to discuss -for lack of one’s own, and even her own -guarded sentences would have grown to a state -secret before nightfall, had they been overhead.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p> - -<p>Ally was so relieved to be easily excused that he -really did as he had promised, and rode up before -three o’clock, feeling a virtuous husband and deserving -of much welcome and something to drink, for -he was really very hot. He brought many invitations -to consider themselves engaged for the next -two days, beginning with a dance that night at the -Wessex Mess, and including a breakfast party and -two luncheons, for the mail boat and the <i>Greville</i> -were both busy in friendly rivalry. The projected -gaiety was driven out of his head, however, by his -wife’s private news, and he was so really engrossed -with the possibility of their removal, that Chum -forgave him his defection from lunch, and came -over and sat on the arm of his chair, while he read -her friend’s letter.</p> - -<p>“Great Scot, what luck!” he said with boyish -excitement. “Chum, we must manage it, if you -have to go on your knees to Gregory’s Powder, and -I to lick old Sir Geoffrey’s boots! Malta or a -home station—thank Heaven the old boy always -liked me!”</p> - -<p>“Did he like Brissy as well?” said Leoline anxiously, -and without any enmity towards Brissy, -feeling glad of his shortcomings. “Ally, he <i>can’t</i> -have thought Brissy as nice as you!”</p> - -<p>“Poor old Bristles! No, I do think I showed up -rather well against him, you know, Chum. Anyhow -it seems to rest with Gregory. What a good -stroke that was of yours to play up to him, old girl! -You always said he was a good man to have behind -you—I think you’re the smartest Chum a fellow -ever married! No, you don’t like that word, -do you—I mean you’re the quickest, and the most -farseeing——”</p> - -<p>He broke off to laugh and put his arm round her -as she leaned over his shoulder, giving her a boyish -hug that seemed to take her breath away, for she -freed herself of him with a protest like a cry.</p> - -<p>“Don’t, Ally!—let me get up—I can’t breathe!—No, -it’s nothing. Yes, of course we must have the -appointment—it’s all in your hands now.”</p> - -<p>“Mine! It’s much better in yours——”</p> - -<p>“No!—no!—you must make a good impression, -somehow. I am sure the Administrator likes you -for yourself—every one does. It’s only that you -will shirk, that annoys him. Don’t play tennis -or polo quite so much—try and seem to have -grasped the situation here—I’ll coach you. We -must get away—oh, we must have that appointment!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span></p> - -<p>She spoke breathlessly, but he was excited also, -and seemed to catch more fire from her. His face -only fell once as he thought of the <i>Greville</i> and -mail boat festivities.</p> - -<p>“By Jove! and this was to be a week, too! -Never mind—I’ll give up most of it and stick to -business. You’re quite right, Chum—I’ll be seized -with a savage desire to get things properly settled -up before Halton goes. I would grub in correspondence -and red tape if only it would ensure my -getting out of this beastly island!”</p> - -<p>“Don’t overdo it,” said Mrs. Lewin nervously. -“He is so quick to see through people. Ally, I -wonder if he will send Mr. Halton to Port Cecil? -I suppose you’ve heard of that—isn’t it strange that -Mr. Gregory should have the nomination of both -men to these appointments!”</p> - -<p>“Oh I don’t care if the whole of East Africa is -put into Halton’s hands, so long as I get the other -show. Think of it, Chum—home leave, food that -isn’t tinned, lots going on, and some sport again! -<i>Salama</i> for old Sir Geoffrey!”</p> - -<p>He caught her round the waist, to the amazement -of Abdallah, who was bringing in the tea, and -waltzed her round the room, steering through the -scattered chairs and tables and even into the next -room with a dexterity that made her laugh until -she could not keep pace with him, and dropped on -to the sofa leaving Ally to finish with a grand <i>pas -seul</i> that landed him with a thud against the butler’s -portly person. Chum sat on the sofa, wiping her -eyes rather hysterically, while Ally and Abdallah -sorted themselves; and then they drank their tea -with a special allowance of sugar in it for the honour -of the occasion.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p> - -<p>“When we get to Malta,” said Chum seriously, -“we will have cream too, as well as milk—can you -get cream in Malta, Ally?—and it shall be real tea, -up from India, not this nasty stuff from Natal.” -In the background of her mind she was always conscious -of a sense of reluctance, a desire that did -not accord with her earnest assertions of delight in -leaving Key Island. Some deep root in her very -nature seemed dragging her back whenever she -spoke of her departure, and the more she felt it the -more she repeated the idea as if to get used to it. -It was a thing she had to fight, and she faced it -desperately in this its very beginning.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span></p> - -<p>It haunted her through the dance that night, and -the whirl of flying feet round the long mess-room. -It was too hot for dancing, but Mrs. Lewin did not -seem to feel the heat; she was indefatigable, and -waltzed through the programme, looking as cool and -dry at the end of the evening as at the beginning -which is a great feat for a Maitso dance. Leoline -wondered if this were the last time she should sit -out on the steps of the Mess, or keep time to the -Gunners’ band,—and thrust the thought away. It -was an ever-recurring ghost, that “last time,” and -stung most keenly, strange to say, through an introduction -to the guests of the evening, Captain and -Mrs. Ritchie Stern. Blanche Stern had very large -and searching eyes of a blue that mocked the sea—wholesome -eyes, that seemed never to have reflected -the image of any man save her husband, and indeed -the only thing that Mrs. Gilderoy could find to say -of her was that she posed as being in love with -Ritchie Stern to fatiguing extent. In an assembly -of auctioned men and assorted wives, she was -perhaps rather unlikely; but as their eyes met, Mrs. -Lewin put her hand to the diamond pendant at her -throat with a little start, and a choking feeling that -Mrs. Stern was divining her secret mind. They had -been introduced in a pause between the dances, and -were leaning over the wooden railing of the stoep -side by side, while their respective partners fought -for ices on their behalf. No African stoep should -have a railing of course, but Key Island has improved -upon its model in its own opinion, and has -gone further and twined the woodwork with stephanotis -and gardenia. The strong hothouse scents -were in Mrs. Ritchie’s nostrils as she leaned out -into the night, looking down on the lights of Port -Victoria.</p> - -<p>“Captain Stern was here for a fortnight once,” -she said idly; “I often thought we should like it as -a station—it is such an idyllic place. How lovely -these flowers are!”</p> - -<p>“It is horrible!” said Mrs. Lewin, with sudden -energy. “It is like a trap—you cannot get out, -and there is nothing to do. You would hate it!” -She was unconscious that she repeated every one -else’s <i>Miserere</i> for the first time.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think I should mind, if my husband -were here too,” said Blanche frankly. She turned -her eyes on Mrs. Lewin as if she saw something -that interested her in the restless beautiful figure. -“The worst of marrying a Navy man is that one -is not sufficiently considered in his appointments! -They <i>will</i> send Ritchie to dubious corners of the -earth, just when the children have arranged to -have the measles, and I can’t be in two places at -once.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin looked across the stoep to the open -doorway where Captain Stern presented a good flat -back to her view as he talked to Major Churton. -She looked with unconscious wistfulness at his -shaven fair head and tanned neck, and wondered if -under the circumstances she would have felt her -heart torn in two because the seas divided them? -And then she remembered her ghost of reluctance -to leave this place that she said she hated, and Mrs. -Stern’s next words were full of horror to her.</p> - -<p>“It is so short-sighted of women to stake their -little all on a man who is not safe to be no farther -off than the next room! I know I shall loathe this -harbour when I see the <i>Greville</i> slipping out of it -and over the horizon with a peace-maker for East -Africa—you know that that is what she is here for, -of course, or is it still an official and consequently -an open secret?”</p> - -<p>“We have heard something of it. Does Captain -Stern expect to be here long?”</p> - -<p>“He will leave the instant your Administrator -produces the man he has come to fetch. I don’t -really know who I dislike the most just now—the -Capetown people, who hurried him away on this -business, or the Port Cecil people, who are making -the trouble, or the man he is taking to the scene of -action.”</p> - -<p>“Will he stop there?”</p> - -<p>“I am afraid so, for goodness knows how long! -Until the affair is settled one way or another, I -expect. Ritchie hopes he will get a chance to shell -the town, of course—you can imagine my feelings! -I do hope you are sending a nice, timid man from -Key’land, who prefers diplomacy to shells!”</p> - -<p>“I can’t say who it will be, but it is almost -certain to be Mr. Halton, and he is a thorough -diplomatist. The whole thing is to be rather -hushed up, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, and as peacefully arranged as possible, I -believe. That is my great comfort!” Mrs. Stern -laughed a little whimsically at herself. “The two -things the Government is aiming at are speed and -secrecy—not that there is much secrecy about it -amongst us, of course. But they seem bent on -prompt action for once, and I believe they want to -get it all settled quietly before the public at home -recognise that anything <i>more</i> is taking place in -Africa! That is why they are forwarding a man -from Key’land instead of from home or direct from -the Government out here. It is like going up the -back stairs to avoid comment! Well, it is about -time that Africa dropped into the background, isn’t -it? We were at Beira when Ritchie got his orders, -and as the mail was there I came on first. They -seem to have cabled in all directions from Capetown—to -us, and to your Administrator, and to the regiment -at Durban.”</p> - -<p>“That is my husband’s regiment,” remarked -Chum, as she took the ice from her triumphant -partner at last. “I suppose it was quicker to transport -them by sea than across land.”</p> - -<p>Later on it chanced that she danced with Ritchie -Stern, and caught herself analysing him with feverish -intensity as a man loved by, and in love with, -his own wife. Captain Stern was not a comforting -study, because there were no excuses in him for -one’s own failings. He was so simply a gentleman -as to make more questionable characters seem shady -by contrast, when without it they had been merely -complex. It was like plunging one’s hand into cold, -still water of an infinite depth, to try and plumb his -character, and his habit of speaking from the bottom -of his lungs rather than the top of his throat intensified -the impression. It was a matter of training, -but it seemed an outcome of his personality. He -struck Leoline Lewin as very kind, which depressed -her still more—she did not know why—and he -stood out in her mind as the one man she had -danced with who had not looked or spoken her a -compliment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span></p> - -<p>“I like the Sterns very much, Ally,” she said as -they rode home in the faint coolness of the hour -before dawn—a mere promise of coolness, that was -never fulfilled by the day. “But they give me the -feeling of having been to church—do Navy people -ever strike you like that?”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Ally, who had other impressions of -ward-rooms, “very much the other way.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t mean that,” said Chum vaguely. -“Only I feel that I have been listening to a sermon -in the open air—and I have grown so unused to the -open air that I am afraid of catching a moral cold. -Ally, how dreadfully confined we grow in garrisons! -Mrs. Stern brings the sea winds to you in -her eyes.”</p> - -<p>“You are not growing poetical, are you, Chum?” -said Ally suspiciously. “I thought Stern a very -decent chap—can’t imagine him preaching.”</p> - -<p>“He couldn’t!” said Chum, dropping to the old -level of his thought, and abandoning her own. -“But I preached myself the sermon on him as the -text, and it was, ‘Woe unto them who can see their -own wives, for they shall not see any one else’s!’ -What lovely emeralds Mrs. Stern was wearing, by -the way.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I wish I could give you some more stones. -I’ll try, if we get to Malta.”</p> - -<p>“I would rather have nice clothes than jewels,” -said Chum. “A dowdy woman with diamonds is -worse dressed than a <i>chic</i> one with paste, all the -world over. And we can’t run to both—even at -Malta.”</p> - -<p>“Did you like Mrs. Stern?”</p> - -<p>“Yes!” said Chum, her eyes darkening to the -shadows on purple velvet. “And I hope I shall -not meet her again.”</p> - -<p>She said the last words savagely, under her breath. -They were her echo to Mrs. Stern’s, that still hurt -her, and made her afraid of the eyes that divined -her secret mind.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p> - -<p>“It is so short-sighted of women to stake their -little all on a man who is not safe to be no farther -off than the next room!”</p> - -<p>She began to feel that she could hardly wait for -Ally’s appointment to be a certainty; if the Administrator -did not inform him of his good fortune -soon, the strain on their nerves would make them -both ill-tempered, and that was a vulgarity not to -be contemplated. Alaric and she had always been -as courteous to each other as two acquaintances; it -was one of her theories of married life, and not yet -overthrown by experience. The indefiniteness of -his own escape affected Ally too, so that they were -both unusually restless, and it was a relief next -morning when breakfast was over and he could go -up to Government House.</p> - -<p>“Don’t be late for luncheon, Ally!” Chum said, -following him on to the stoep, where he paused to -light his cigarette, a white figure against the green -of the garden. “It will be so awful waiting!”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps I shan’t have any news,” said Alaric in -gloomy anticipation.</p> - -<p>“He must speak of it to-day!”</p> - -<p>“It would be just like him not to. He will be so -immersed in the East African business, he will forget -all about our little affairs.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span></p> - -<p>A momentary doubt dawned in Mrs. Lewin’s -eyes. She thought of the Gilderoys’ picnic, and -that large heavy hand on her own. Was she -indeed a slight incident in his mind, to be brushed -aside by larger interests? She had never set eyes -on Gregory since that moment, and the new sweet -fear of him that had overwhelmed her was in -abeyance for the present. Perhaps Ally was right, -and they were only details in this man’s career, -a mere speck on his ambition. She tried for -nothing but honest relief as she turned back to the -house.</p> - -<p>“Well come and tell me anyway,” she said over -her shoulder. “I <i>must</i> know!”</p> - -<p>“All right,” he replied, more soberly than usual. -“I will come back the second he will let me—I -really will! It’s no joking matter to either of us.”</p> - -<p>The morning was growing too hot to be out of -doors as he walked off through the rose-bushes, and -out of the gate into the grounds of Government -House. Mrs. Lewin stood in the doorway until the -white helmet flitted out of sight among the thickening -trees, and then went in to write letters. The -writing-table stood close to one of the seven windows, -and she slid up the shutter and fastened the -pin so that the draught should fan her comfortably, -before she began her correspondence. Outside a -wild hot wind was rushing over the hillside, and the -smell of innumerable flowers dripped in on its -breath. She wrote slowly, and the sentences would -not come. All her brain seemed to have followed -Ally, and to be waiting with him for the Administrator -to speak.</p> - -<p>At the hour of the Miroro she went into her -room and lay down under the mosquito curtains -with a fan in her hand. Usually she fanned herself -to sleep, but to-day sleep would not come any -more than the flow of words. For half-an-hour -she lay in the hot, still room, counting the silver -things on the dressing-table, and the photographs -on the wall, and noticing without her will that the -black girl who attended to her room, had not hung -her gowns aright. Natives were so tiresome; it -would be almost better to experiment with an -Arab.</p> - -<p>Would the time never go? Was Ally never -coming?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p> - -<p>She rose before lunch could possibly be ready, -and dressed herself. Then she wandered into the -central room that served for drawing-room and -lounge, and from which the others all opened out. -She found Ally’s cigarettes on a table and smoked -one, turning over the pages of last month’s magazines, -which had just come in by the mail. The -smudgy illustrations annoyed her, and she flung -them by and rose restlessly, wandering about the -hot, sweet rooms, and listening for his step through -the glare outside.</p> - -<p>Still he did not come. It was past the luncheon -hour now, and Abdallah had put the finishing -touches to the table and stood by in grave reproach, -his snowy turban already on, and his hands -folded over his tunic. Abdallah was always severely -white at luncheon, his costume consisting merely of -a tunic and turban; but by dinner-time he had added -a coloured bandana and an embroidered jacket. -His motionless presence added the last irritation to -her overwrought mood, and she sent him away until -Captain Lewin should appear.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span></p> - -<p>The hours dragged away, until the morning had -slipped into afternoon. Still he did not come. -With a feeling that she wanted to shriek hysterically, -Leoline paced steadily up and down the broad -floors of the bungalow, from one shaded room into -another, and so back to the corner where the table -was still spread. She could not eat, and she felt -that Ally might come at any moment. Something -was keeping him—not his own pleasure this time; -his being transferred from Key Island was a weighty -matter even to him, and she knew he would return -to her for advice and support as soon as he could. -He could see his own interest sufficiently in this to -resist a passing temptation, but there was none to -keep him at Government House. The horrible part -was that it might be nothing but trivial duties that -detained him after all, and they might have to go -through this suspense again. The heat seemed to -get no less as the day wore towards four o’clock, -and her limbs began to feel lifeless and heavy, as if -paralysed. When at last the door opened and he -walked quietly in, she did not rise to meet him or -spring up for a minute. She sat there watching him -come straight towards her with a curious speculative -feeling that there was a grave importance in his -manner that seemed a little ridiculous. She criticised -him as if he were somebody not belonging to -her.</p> - -<p>“Well!” she said rising at last, in a slow mechanical -fashion. She looked at him all across the room. -Yes, certainly he was so grave as to be unlike himself—not -depressed, but self-sufficient, almost pompous. -It was so foreign to any mood in which she -had seen Alaric before that she could only stare at -him.</p> - -<p>He sat down heavily in a basket chair that -creaked beneath his weight, and so added to her absurd -impression that he was assuming the air of an -elderly and important personage. He did not speak -either at once, and when he did he seemed to be -weighing his words, as if he said a solemn thing.</p> - -<p>“I have got it!”</p> - -<p>“The appointment?” she said with a long breath, -trying to shake off her own leadenness and the -effect of his strange manner. “Oh, Ally, what -good news! I have been so frightened—when you -did not come, you know,—I thought we might still -have to wait.”</p> - -<p>“He spoke of it almost at once. We have talked -of little else. He was giving me minute instructions.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p> - -<p>A blank feeling of non-comprehension seemed to -take possession of her. He was still unlike himself, -or else Gregory’s earnestness had impressed him at -last. Perhaps the force of the stronger man had -been let loose on the weaker for once, for the sake -of urging him to a more serious sense of his position. -She knew that Gregory had been impatient -of his indifference in his present post; perhaps he -had told him plainly that he must be more conscientious -with Sir Geoffrey Vaughan.</p> - -<p>“Instructions!” she repeated slowly. “For -Malta?”</p> - -<p>“No—not that. I am going to East Africa.”</p> - -<p>She did not cry out, but she fell back a step as if -some unknown hand had struck her a heavy blow. -Her eyes were absolutely frightened, and she spoke -in a low voice of intense terror.</p> - -<p>“But Ally—you can’t! You daren’t accept it—you -can’t do it!”</p> - -<p>He fired at the last words as if he half expected -them. “Why not?” he said irritably. “Why can’t -I do it? I must accept it—you must see that! I -have accepted it already. It is arranged.”</p> - -<p>“You can’t do it!” she repeated bluntly. “It is -a heavy responsibility to give to any man—any -experienced man even. Why isn’t Mr. Halton -going?”</p> - -<p>“He can’t be spared; there is an awful row going -on already over the crops.”</p> - -<p>“The hemp!” she said breathlessly, her memory -going back to those words of Gregory’s—“They -have given me <i>carte blanche</i> to do as I think best”—“They -are not burning the crops?”</p> - -<p>“Yes they are. The order went out yesterday. -There is a compensation of course, but the Chinese -are furious, and that gives them away, for they must -have been making their fortunes out of the hashish. -Halton must stay and see Gregory through it—he -has no one to send but me.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p> - -<p>In a streak of terror through her quickened brain -it seemed as if she saw all the disaster of the choice. -She had never finally acknowledged to herself that -Ally depended on her for the least success in his -life, but in the stress of the moment she knew that -with her to guide and counsel and manage he might -come through this ordeal—not creditably, but without -failure. Without her it was like sending a child -to play with a train of gunpowder. Some horrible -intuition seemed to tell her his incapacity, and excuse -the belief in herself. Ally in a position that -needed absolute diplomacy! Ally managing a delicate -enquiry that might lead to a serious issue! -She realised only in her dismay that she could not -go with him to East Africa to save him from failure—the -loss of her own escape from secret peril did -not really trouble her mind at the time. The fear -for him drove her to repeating blankly, “You can’t -do it—you mustn’t!”</p> - -<p>“Good God, Chum!” he exclaimed in a sudden -squall of irritation, “you are ridiculous! What do -you mean? You are always worrying me over -getting on, and having a career, and now that I -have got an opening, you seem to want me to back -out! Don’t you see that I can’t? Gregory isn’t -the man to give me a second chance. He is offering -me a tremendous lift in putting me in such a -position.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p> - -<p>Only one sentence in his angry speech found -room for itself in her mind, for she saw that it was -true. He could not back out. Evelyn Gregory -had him fast in his iron grip, and if he chose to send -him to his ruin he was helpless. She laid her hand -on the back of a chair and held it cruelly tight as -if to help herself to think. Why had he done this? -Why? She kept asking herself the question again -and again, and found no answer. It was so plausible -on the face of it, this threatened rising over the -hemp-crops, and Halton’s presence as an immediate -necessity, that she felt that it was not true. To the -outside world the appointment of an emissary sent -to Port Cecil to “enquire” might come within -Alaric’s sphere, particularly under the stress of circumstances -in Key Island, but not to her. She had -a giant fear of Gregory born of her greater knowledge -of him that no one in the Island could share. -As she stood there looking with unseeing eyes at -Alaric’s handsome, annoyed face, she saw only the -shadowy strength of the man whom she had learned -to know—unscrupulous, tyrannical, successful because -he allowed nothing to stand in his way. Now -that she and hers were to be swept aside after his -method, she began to realise for the first time the -atmosphere of terror that had seemed to hang round -him in the minds of those who first spoke of him to -her. Hitherto she had been but a spectator, and -he had interested her as a danger of which one only -reads. To find oneself threatened by the same -thing in reality makes the difference.</p> - -<p>“Well!” said Alaric at last, with the half-offended -air of a spoilt child, “I’m sorry you are not -better pleased, Chum! I thought you would be as -proud as I felt when he told me. Of course I’m -sorry to leave you behind, old girl, but perhaps we -shall get something good out of this later.” He -spoke half apologetically, but the old easy optimism -was coming back to him. Fortune had always given -Alaric what he wanted; he took her gifts for -granted.</p> - -<p>“Who will have Malta? Brissy?” said his wife -quietly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, he’s off next mail—not by this. Of course -he’ll have to be officially appointed; but Gregory -has answered Sir Geoffrey’s letter privately, as he -was asked. I shall have to go to-morrow, or next -day at latest, Chum. I’m sorry!” he added simply, -as a tribute to parting with her.</p> - -<p>But she felt suddenly that he was glad to go—glad -even of this chance of action. He did not -mind leaving her behind if only he were free of the -monotony of Key Island, which also held more uncomfortable -memories for him than his wife guessed. -Things were getting complicated round Ally, and -what had been a pleasant indulgence and flattering -to his vanity, was growing to be a tie exacted from -him by a jealous woman. He could not have told, -if he had honestly tried to do so, how he had drifted -so far with Diana Churton; such men as Alaric -Lewin are as incapable of accounting for the crisis -of their lives as they are of managing them. He -trusted to fortune again. Events had generally -shaped themselves comfortably for him; and, as in -the present case, when there was a tight corner the -natural march of circumstances had forced him out -of it without any responsibility on his part.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span></p> - -<p>Circumstances were marching him out now, and -he was really glad. Captain Stern and the <i>Greville</i> -would carry him safely away from Key Island to-morrow, -and Diana’s last note which he had found -at the club would go unanswered through no fault -of his. He couldn’t go to Maitso to-night, it was -out of the question. For the look of the thing he -must spend what might be his last evening with -Chum—and of course he wanted to, he added mentally -to the back of her head, as she bent over his -portmanteau. His Malagasan man was busy over -the shirt case, and he himself ramming the surplus -of his property into the kit-bag, but Chum had become -her old self again, and risen to the occasion of -his packing, once the stupefaction of his news had -passed off. He was sure it was only the surprise -which had made her unlike herself; she was -getting on more with the portmanteau, in spite of -the heat, than either Longa or himself with their -share.</p> - -<p>“Ally,” said Mrs. Lewin quietly, as she tucked a -pair of socks into an empty corner, “will you go -over to the Churtons to-night to say good-bye?”</p> - -<p>“N—no!” He stammered a little, in the discomfort -of his own knowledge. “It’s my last evening -most likely, Chum!—at least we may go to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, of course. (Mind the gun-case, Longa!) -I didn’t mean you to be out all the time. But I -think you might ride over and just say good-bye—you -would be back in an hour. They will be so -awfully hurt if you don’t.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Ally uneasily. A sensible and considerate -wife is a very useful article so long as her -husband wishes to make use of these two qualities; -when he does not, he would prefer her to be more -unreasonable.</p> - -<p>Chum’s suggestion was awkward, because he was -afraid to refuse to go to Maitso lest she should be -surprised.... Hang it! the whole thing had -become a nuisance. How glad he was he should -be out of it to-morrow! Then a brilliant idea -struck him. He would go down to the club and be -detained. He could write Di a note, too, from -there, and ask her to come down and see him off if -possible. He did not know when they would leave, -so it was most probable that she would miss him—he -did not mind that either. Anyhow, there would -be plenty of fellows at the club to make an excuse -for getting no further. He might see Churton too. -He liked Churton—when he didn’t feel a grovelling -cad.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span></p> - -<p>“All right, perhaps I’d better. I can go after -dinner, but I shan’t be long,” he said. Mrs. Lewin -did not answer or look at him. She was very busy -over the portmanteau.</p> - -<p>It was rather a silent dinner, but he noticed with -real pain and affection how soft and fair Leoline -looked in her long white dinner-gown, and wondered -when they would have one of their merry <i>tête-à-tête</i> -meals again. He was devoted to his wife—in -theory at any rate. Perhaps Chum could not have -pleaded much more, save that she tried to practise -what she preached. If men were not such complex -animals the Day of Judgment would be a simpler -ceremony, but as things are they will have many -pleas to enter of former good conduct and extenuating -circumstances. Ally rode away with his heart -full of his wife, because she had entered there -through his eyes, and with no thought of infidelity -to her. At the club he sat down and wrote a note, -which was the more emphatic because he did not -mean it, and a little more reckless in expression -than usual because he was going away in safety.</p> - -<p>He could not find his own sais, who should have -followed him into town to look after his pony, and -risked sending a loafer whom he knew by sight, to -Maitso. The man grinned and put the letter in his -breast before he hitched up his trousers to show his -zeal, the action meaning that Captain Lewin was to -understand he would run all the way.</p> - -<p>Ally laughed good-naturedly. “Mind it’s important. -Give it to Mrs. Churton herself,” he said. -“I’ll pay you when you come back without it.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Baas! I give it dere!” said the nigger, -and he started off at a jog-trot along the twinkling -street towards the dusk of Maitso Hill.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span></p> - -<p>Ally turned back into the club, still laughing.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“‘Lachye noogh?’ as Botha said to his slave.”—<i>Boer Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>“It is a little unfortunate all round,” said the -Commissioner. “Or perhaps inconvenient is the -better word.”</p> - -<p>“As far as it affects you, you are better off than if -you were going to Port Cecil. This may not be -anything—we may cool down and tide over, and -you will catch this mail. She does not leave until -Thursday.”</p> - -<p>The Administrator was sitting at his own writing-table, -with his back to Halton, who had also been -at work, as the scattered papers testified. The -room was one of many in Government House that -had no especial use, and had been given up to the -work of the enquiry. The third chair and littered -writing-table was at the moment unoccupied, and -belonged to Captain Lewin. Over Halton’s head -ranged a portly array of shelves on which the old -papers and accounts of the British African Island -Co., Ltd., were dustily stored, and attracted the -mosquitoes, as well as a water-tank, for though he -cannot breed in them the mosquito loves a book-shelf -that is not often disturbed, and creeps along -the volumes’ edges and hides behind their bulk.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p> - -<p>“Hardly!” said the Commissioner, with a slight -shrug. “She has nearly finished discharging her -cargo already, and will not take two days to coal.” -He reached up over his head, and took down one -of the dusty volumes a little curiously, as if he had -not observed it before. There were some books of -reference among the old ledgers, and this, to judge -from its appearance, was one, rather than an account -book.</p> - -<p>“You will get the next boat, then,” said Gregory, -off-handedly. His back being towards his coadjutator -as he thus dismissed the subject of his convenience, -he did not see Halton’s eyes as he slowly -raised them from the old book and looked at him. -It seemed he had found the passage he wanted, for -he kept his finger on a yellowed leaf while he -spoke.</p> - -<p>“I see of course the expediency of remaining -here at the moment, as you have decided on the -necessity of such a stringent measure as burning -the hemp-crop.” His voice was formal, and so -perfectly controlled that it contained neither anger -nor disapprobation nor argument. The Administrator’s -busy pen stopped. He lifted his head -slightly as though listening, and came within the -radius of the shaded electric light. But the shorn -reddish hair betrayed nothing unless it were the fact -that he was growing very grey towards the temples. -His overhanging brow and secretive mouth were -not visible to the Commissioner, whose level voice -ran on quietly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span></p> - -<p>“Before closing this matter, however, I should -like for principle’s sake to enter a protest, though it -is merely a matter of form. I do not consider -Captain Lewin a fit man to send to East Africa on -this business. I believe him to be absolutely incapable -of the anxious work before him, and if he -does not make a hash of the whole business it will -be a miracle. The power of course lies in your -hands; the decision is with you. I am not here to -advise you in this, but, unofficially, I should be doing -an unfriendly thing if I did not warn you of -my opinion as to his incompetence.”</p> - -<p>For a minute there was silence, while the last -words hung in the air like a menace. They meant -more than the private counsel of one man to another—they -might also be translated as warning -Gregory that his ally’s opinion of Lewin’s incapacity -would find voice in high places. It was perhaps a -gauge thrown down, and if so it was taken up very -quietly in the next few words, that the Administrator -uttered as naturally as if it were the inevitable reply -to Halton’s argument.</p> - -<p>“I am writing to Melton Hanney to do his best -to give Captain Lewin every assistance in his power. -He knows Port Cecil well. Had the Government -been advised by me they would have put the matter -in his hands, instead of which they have insisted on -my sending some one from here. There is only -my A.D.C. to send.”</p> - -<p>“I see.” Halton’s hand was still on the noted -passage. His eyes followed the slight shrug of -Gregory’s mighty shoulders, while he felt with savage -impotence that one might turn a tiger from its -prey, sooner than this man from his purpose. -Halton would not have dared to do the thing that -he saw as plainly as its perpetrator; and because he -knew he dared not, he hated the man who could -and would with a hate born of self-knowledge.</p> - -<p>“Melton Hanney is an old friend of yours, is he? -You know him as a good man?” he said.</p> - -<p>“I have known him for about sixteen years,” said -Gregory grimly. “And watched successive Governments -pass him over for good work done.” -This was the man of whom Leoline had spoken to -Blanche Stern.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span></p> - -<p>“I have no doubt he is the right person to consult -on such a situation. Knowledge on the spot is -beyond value,” said Halton, rising from his chair, -and laying the book still open on his table. “I am -going down to see White, Gregory. As yet I am -not a marked man; but if you take my advice you -will not ride alone through Port Victoria at present. -The niggers are fit to dance the <i>Cannab Dance</i> for -you!”</p> - -<p>“The curs—I wish they had spirit enough! No, -there might be the makings of a fight at China -Town, but our mixed breeds will hardly show their -teeth here. If you are going to see White, Halton, -I wish you would ask him to come up early to-morrow, -unless he would prefer to meet me at the -office at eleven. I have business to discuss with -him.”</p> - -<p>“I shall recommend his coming here,” said -Halton, with a slightly strained smile. “In spite -of your contempt for them I should not be surprised -to find a deputation of these ‘mixed breeds’ -waiting on you—with razors. If I were in your -position, I tell you frankly I should ask the O.C.T. -for a picket.”</p> - -<p>“There’s a shambok on the wall there,” said -Gregory with quiet significance. “It would answer -the same purpose—and is quite handy.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span></p> - -<p>He did not turn his head as Halton’s retreating -steps died away from the room, but he noticed with -more interest the sound of a little silver clock striking -eight. He often worked up to ten o’clock at -night, and had come back to write his letters direct -from the dinner-table. The one to Melton Hanney -was too long for an official document, and more -private than he had indicated to Halton. He intended -giving it to Alaric Lewin to deliver direct, -and had cabled in cypher to Hanney to inform him -of his advent. As he directed and sealed the -envelope it struck him that the room was hot, and -he rose and opened the long window-doors on to -the stoep, passing Halton’s table as he did so. The -book lay open where the Commissioner had left it, -and with a passing wonder as to what he had been -reading, Gregory’s eyes fell upon it and discovered -that it was an old Bible, probably kept there for -purposes of oath-making.</p> - -<p>The Administrator took the book up deliberately -in his strong hands, and looked to see what had -engrossed Alfred Halton so deeply. He remembered -how the flicker of the thin pages carefully -turned, behind him, had worried his ear while he -tried to concentrate all his thought and care upon -the letter to Hanney, for it had been a dangerous -letter to write, and every word had been weighed. -Even then he had found it necessary to seal it, and -would have to apologise to Lewin when asking him -to deliver it. Halton had been looking for something, -or he would not have turned those pages with -such intent. Evelyn Gregory held up the faded -print to the light.</p> - -<p>It was the story of Uriah.</p> - -<p>“And it came to pass in the morning that David -wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of -Uriah.</p> - -<p>“And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah -in the forefront of the battle, and retire ye from him, -that he may be smitten, and die.</p> - -<p>“And it came to pass, when Joab observed the -city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place whence he -knew that valiant men were.</p> - -<p>“And the men of the city went out, and fought -with Joab; and there fell some of the people of -the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died -also.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p> - -<p>Certain passages in his own letter rose in -Gregory’s mind as distinctly and slowly as the note -of the little silver clock when it had chimed out the -hour. “I am forced to send a fool, because Government -have cabled ... but I can only rely -on you to do your best to save his mistakes, and -get us out of the mess if he hashes it.... Do -you remember Barotse, and the night you said you -owed me more than a life? Well, if you want to -pay, back me up now.... Lewin is one of -those favoured animals with Friends. I am always -being urged to make a show for him. Don’t take -his place, but follow him up and cover his tracks. -If the fool has anything in him it must show up -now. Give him a free hand—it is the consequences -I want you to manage. I know I am asking a hard -thing of you, all the work and no pay; but then -I could trust no one else, if that’s <i>Salama</i> to -you.... <i>Above all, keep Lewin in the front of -things.</i>”</p> - -<p>He put down the Bible with a steady hand, and -his iron jaws closed slowly, hardening his face into -its ugliest lines. Yet for a moment he stood by -the table thinking, and facing his own letter unflinchingly, -as he saw it in his mind, side by side -with one written dusty centuries ago by another -strong man to his captain.</p> - -<p>“Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the battle——”</p> - -<p>“Above all, keep Lewin in the front of things.”</p> - -<p>He was roused by the door being opened, because -no attention had rewarded the servant’s -patient tapping, but he looked at his master -apologetically.</p> - -<p>“A lady wishes to see you, sir!” he breathed -rather than spoke, as if his own extraordinary -message confused him.</p> - -<p>“A lady!” Gregory glanced involuntarily at the -little silver clock; it pointed to half-past eight.</p> - -<p>“It is Mrs. Lewin, sir, she said she must see you -for a minute.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p> - -<p>“Ask her to come in here,” said Gregory, turning -his back suddenly upon the man. He looked -at the open window half as if he would have closed -it, and at the shaded light half as if he would have -extinguished it, for his face was out of control. -Even when he turned round to meet his visitor, he -offered her his hand in silence, and she was vaguely -surprised that he seemed to have suddenly gone -bloodless. The big veins swelled on his temples -though, and his eyes looked sunken and cavernous. -She heard the door shut slowly, and fancied that -the servant who had admitted her shared her -curiosity and would fain have lingered. All personal -feeling and sense of embarrassment had been -swept from her mind by the events which had overwhelmed -her in the last few hours, and she did not -remember that she had not really met the man -standing before her since his hand had rested on -hers at the picnic. She was not an impulsive -woman, and yet it had been impulse that had made -her send Ally to Maitso, impulse that had made her -wait feverishly for the moment of his departure, -that had hurried her feet along the familiar garden -and through the grounds of Government House the -instant his pony’s hoofs died away down the hill. -She was devoured by a desire to know why Gregory -had done her this ill turn, and was sending her husband -to certain failure, for he knew Alaric’s incapacity -as well as she. It was impulse now that -drove her forward a step towards him, and made her -voice low and hurried as she spoke straight to him -without any more formal greeting.</p> - -<p>“Why have you done this? Are you mad? -What has made you send him to Port Cecil instead -of to Sir Geoffrey?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p> - -<p>He was looking at her with his long, hard stare, -taking in every line of her white figure in its -feminine softness and beauty. Her hair was waved -back from her forehead more than usual, as if she -had pushed it there in her impatient thought, and -beneath her delicate drawn brows her velvet eyes -were alight as if with pain. He felt stupid with -passion, and remembered with a curious thrill the -occasion on which he had seen her in her nightdress, -her hair thrown back from her forehead with -much the same effect, and the same strained look -in her eyes—it seemed that her husband was always -the cause of her looking so.</p> - -<p>She had taken a step forward. He took one -also, and they stood close together, with nothing -to hinder their direct gaze into each other’s faces. -His whispering voice was horribly audible, and yet -suppressed as he answered her.</p> - -<p>“Mrs. Lewin, you have asked me to do my best -for your husband, and give him a chance if Government -referred to me to recommend him. I am -giving him a chance. What reason have you to -complain?”</p> - -<p>She threw out her hands with a little movement -of desperation, almost as if she would have seized -his arm and shaken him. “Oh, don’t lie, now!” -she exclaimed. “Tell me the truth—the truth! -You know he may ruin himself if he goes without -me. Why did you not send us to this other appointment -that was put in your hands? If you had -mentioned his name, instead of Captain Nugent’s, to -Sir Geoffrey Vaughan, we should have been moved -from here together. Why did you not do it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span></p> - -<p>He did not ask her how she had known of his -private letter from the old general. He stood and -looked at her still, and moistened his lips as if he -could hardly speak. She saw his tongue touch -them like a wicked snake before the words would -come. He bent a little more towards her, and his -lidless eyes probed hers mercilessly.</p> - -<p>“Because I could not part from you!” he said -distinctly, and yet he seemed to speak without a -real note in his voice.</p> - -<p>She fell back in exactly the same mechanical -way that she had gone forward, and her eyes -blinked before his as if before too strong a light. -Very slowly she lifted her pretty hands and laid -them over her breast as if with an unconscious -effort to quiet the throbbing of the pulses there. -He had not moved; but her voice was almost -as toneless as his, when she spoke, from utter -terror.</p> - -<p>“Do you realise what you are doing? That it is -not only his own career that Ally may risk, but—but -the whole situation in East Africa. If he -bungles it you will be held responsible!”</p> - -<p>He bent his head so slightly that it seemed he -hardly moved.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I know it.”</p> - -<p>“And you——?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span></p> - -<p>Their eyes still met. She drew a sharp breath as -if she stood suddenly in too strong an air. It -seemed to her as if the personality of the man -buffeted her, and she could not stand against it. -She was afraid of any one who could gamble with -Government like this, and stake empires for his -own hazard. It was sweeping her off her feet, and -leaving her helpless in a vortex of feeling she was -not able to control. Her own nature she thought -she could fight and conquer, but she saw with sudden -panic that the one before her was beyond her -yes or no—she might influence, but she could not -dominate it as she had her husband’s. If he had -chosen to take her savagely in his arms, she could -have protested, but she could not have averted the -embrace by the power of her will. Hitherto Leoline -Lewin had drawn an invisible line of demarcation -between herself and mankind, and had known -that none would dare to overstep it. But this man -would not be conscious of the line. Nothing but -his own restraint could save her from the peril of -touch at least.</p> - -<p>The windows still stood wide open to the windless -night. She was waiting for she knew not what, -when Gregory suddenly turned his head, listened, -and faced round from her towards the apertures. -The stars struggled against the electric light to -make the stoep a grey vagueness, and it stretched, -empty and silent, beyond the house itself. For a -minute there was nothing but the whirring of the -crickets, and the shrill wearisome cry of a tree frog -that pierced the hearing. Then through all the -natural clamour of tropical darkness came the rustle -of human presence, the tread of feet, and the sound -of many voices rising from the gardens. Something -white rushed on to the stoep, and at the same moment -Gregory had made a stride for the light and -turned it off. His own figure and Mrs. Lewin’s -must have been sharply visible a second before from -the garden outside, as they stood in the strong light -of the room, objects for missiles or bullets; but as -he walked forward to the intruder he alone was in -view.</p> - -<p>“What is it, Ahmed?” he said.</p> - -<p>The man was one of his own servants, an Arab, -and with more than an Arab’s craven fear of danger -in his quivering body at the present moment. He -stood shaking and sweating, his words broken with -fright as he tried to speak.</p> - -<p>“They have passed the gate! They are coming -up here! Quick, Effendi!—get to the stables and -ride for the barracks! The soldiers will fight -for us!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin, standing in the dusk of the room -behind him, saw Gregory take the man by his linen -tunic, swing him over like an inconsiderable bundle, -and roll him along the stoep out of his way. Then -he stepped quickly to the wall and took something -in his hand. She caught the long quiver of a -shambok as he spoke to her briefly over his -shoulder.</p> - -<p>“There is going to be a noise, I expect, but it -won’t be much. It is only a lot of niggers come -up to call me out and protest about the crops. Can -you load a revolver?”</p> - -<p>“Yes!”</p> - -<p>“Well, do so, and shoot as many blacks as you -like. The more the better. There is a revolver in -the second drawer of that table, and cartridges.”</p> - -<p>“Won’t you have it?”</p> - -<p>“No; this will do for me. I should like to flay -half-a-dozen, and teach them how the Kaffirs die -under this thing!” The shambok quivered ominously, -and the roused blood in his veins was evidently -finding an outlet in the hope of savage -assault. She shuddered a little as his large gaunt -figure vanished through the window on to the -stoep.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span></p> - -<p>The “deputation” that Halton had foretold was a -motley crowd, and by sheer force of numbers rather -than belligerence, had pushed the sentry aside and -swarmed up to the house in an unorganised attack. -Amongst the half-drunken niggers who were dancing -amicably amongst themselves instead of forming -up with the semblance of an opposing force, the -little blue figures of the Chinese were visible, and -all the anger of the assembly seemed to be concentrated -in them. As Gregory stalked on to the stoep -the clamour rose, the half-hysterical ribaldry of the -blacks clearing to threats and words, and the Chinamen -jabbering like monkeys. Through it all the -cry of the Malagasy “Ra!” (blood) cut the tumult -like a clear bass note.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span></p> - -<p>The Administrator leaned over the rail, gripping -it with his lean hands, and looking down at the -upturned faces with his hard stare. The insolence -of his attitude seemed to half rouse, half tame the -crowd. They wavered, but the sing-song snarl -which Mrs. Lewin had heard in the hour of the -Miroro, went on like an accompaniment to the -crickets. Words were indistinguishable, but some -one on the outskirts of the throng flung a cocoanut -which hit the zinc roofing of the stoep, and, as if it -were a signal, half-a-dozen blue figures swarmed -over the railing and made a rush for Gregory. -Leoline had moved by instinct nearer the window, -with the loaded revolver in her hand. She remembered -that Halton had said that Gregory loved a -row, for she heard him laugh shortly, as if in enjoyment -of his own excitement, while he stepped back -and awaited them. No other missile was flung as -she expected it would be, but she wondered if the -crowd were armed with razors as the rioters had -been before. Then she saw a curious sight, for the -first of the Chinamen to approach too near was -caught by the swing of the supple shambok and -fell on his back with the breath knocked out of -him, and Gregory advanced on the others, literally -sweeping the stoep clear again by the force of his -swinging blows. The hide whickered viciously as -it cut the still air, and once a shriek answered its -awful “Whir-r-r-r-r-h!” telling how the blow had -caught its victim. The absolute and savage contempt -with which he whipped them off the stoep, -like curs, gave the woman watching him a revelation -of the abhorrence in which the Englishman -really holds the alien, and especially after many -years spent amongst coloured races. She had met -with something of it in her husband, and learned -more from Captain Gilderoy’s frank brutality in -speaking of them; but now she saw and realised. -Gregory kicked the last man into the garden and -came back to her laughing horribly. The curious -part to her was that they did not resist, and he did -not even wait to see the humming crowd melt -away into the darkness as it was fast doing.</p> - -<p>“If there were any organisation among them -they might be worth killing,” he said, taking the -revolver from her. “As it is I would have made -an example of one of those Chinamen—shamboked -him so that he would brew no hashish!—if you had -not been there. But it’s not a pretty sight.”</p> - -<p>“Are they gone?” she asked with stiff lips. -The march of events seemed to have stunned her. -She had a sick feeling that she could bear no more, -and that she had lived through crisis after crisis in -a few hours, which would in an ordinary way be -spread over as many years.</p> - -<p>“They will be in a few minutes, but if you will -excuse me I will just go and give orders to see -that the grounds are quite clear before you walk -back.”</p> - -<p>She was thankful that the sudden incursion of -natives seemed to have deferred any further scene -between them. He was alert and full of fire, but it -was not directly for her, though he took elaborate -care for her escort back to the bungalow, and -accompanied her as far as the garden gate himself.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span></p> - -<p>“Tell your own servants to keep a look out,” he -said. “But I expect Captain Lewin will hear that -there was a threatened row and come up in hot -haste to look after you.” He dismissed the Arabs -who had accompanied them, with a nod, and held -out his hand to her. “Good-night!” he said in a -gentler tone, that made her nerves shoot with fearful -anticipation. “You were very good and brave. -I hope you were not much frightened.”</p> - -<p>“I do not think I realised it all at the moment—you -were so cool over it.”</p> - -<p>“Because there really was no immediate danger. -That was not an organised attack—it was a foretaste -of what might happen. That is why I am -obliged to detain the Commissioner—to confirm -my action should a real riot break out.” He -looked at her straight, and she saw that he feared -no real danger, and that this was the assertion he -meant to fling in the face of the world as his excuse -for keeping Halton and sending her husband -away—she saw it, but it fell on stunned senses. No -one who had seen him to-night would believe that -he could fear an attack, however organised, or see -any necessity to detain the Commissioner. But -she had borne all she could bear at present. She -wished him good-night, and turned towards the -lights of her own house, like one walking in her -sleep.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span></p> - -<p>“Good-night!” he said again, and looked round -him, from the dusky garden to the gate which her -hand had closed between them, and along the dark -pathway to Government House. “When there -was a threatened riot before, and I roused you up, -I came by the road, for I was riding. But this is -the best path on foot. I have never been this way—before.”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“He that would have a good revenge, let him leave it to God.”—<i>English -Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>Captain Lewin’s bearer was what Mr. Halton -would have described as an “average idiot” among -niggers, but he was anxious to earn his fee, and his -anxiety increased his intelligence to a disastrous -extent. As soon as he got out of his employer’s -range of vision, of course his shambling trot degenerated -into a saunter, and he loafed up Maitso -Hill, calling out salutations to the natives whom he -met coming down from work, for they employed -black labour at the garrison. Still he did not absolutely -stop, even to talk to the rickety trains of mule -carts, whose drivers began a high-pitched conversation -with him as soon as they came within sight. -No Key Island nigger waits to begin his gossip until -he is close to his friend; most of his conversation -is screamed in patois from one end of a street to another, -as his acquaintance comes round a corner, -and the mixture of bastard Arabic, and African-Dutch, -and what he thinks is English, bound together -by long, lovely Malagasy words, is, to say -the least of it, peculiar. By dint of keeping on, -however, even at a saunter, the bearer reached the -Churtons’ bungalow in some half-hour’s time after he -started from the club, and came soundlessly through -the screen of logwood, his bare feet lost in the dust, -and guided by the lights that twinkled from the -stoep.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span></p> - -<p>Before he reached the house itself he saw one of -its inmates approaching leisurely, and paused himself, -because it would have been waste of energy to -take the few extra steps and call up the mistress, -when here was the master of the house already at -hand. Major Churton was smoking, the red end of -his cigar looking like a strayed firefly among the -light logwood leaves as he advanced, his big person -very big indeed in its white linen and looming -through the dusk like a substantial ghost. He had -come out in the hope of getting more air than was -possible on the stoep, and being in canvas shoes his -advance was almost as soundless as the nigger’s. -Both men stared at each other through the darkness -as if to make sure of the other’s personality,—Major -Churton because he did not expect to see a ragged -loafer from the town about his house after dusk, and -Captain Lewin’s bearer because he saw the end of -his responsibility before him if this were really the -Bimbashi (Major).</p> - -<p>“Well, what do you want?” said Churton -shortly.</p> - -<p>“A letter, Baas!” The man drew it out of the -rags that covered his breast, and shifted from one -foot to the other in the dust, with an apologetic -smile on his vacant face. He held the letter to -Churton and nodded insistently.</p> - -<p>“For me?” said the Major as he took it. It was -too dark to see the inscription, but he held the -cigar between his large white teeth and broke the -seal, moving into the faint light from the stoep to -decipher it.</p> - -<p>“Yaas, Baas. Captain Lewin sent it—I give it -to you yourself!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span></p> - -<p>The man had jumbled his orders, and in all good -faith believed that the letter was to go to the owners -of the bungalow direct—whether the Bimbashi -or the Missus had it, did not enter his head as of -importance, for he thought the point was that it -should not pass through the hands of the servants. -Having delivered his message he did not linger in -the hope of a reward at this end of his journey, for -Major Churton’s crisp manner was not encouraging; -he hurried off to catch his employer still at -the club and claim his fee, and with a brief -“Efenin’, Baas!” his noiseless figure shambled into -the darkness again, and departed down the hill.</p> - -<p>But Major Churton did not answer the salutation. -He was standing close against the railing of the -stoep, but necessarily below it, as the bungalow -was lifted a foot or so above the ground on account -of snakes. The man’s shoulder reached the top of -the rail, and he held the letter carefully so that the -light beyond fell across it. It touched his own face, -too, and showed two deep furrows between his -brows, and the grey in his thick dark hair—such a -slight sprinkling from the hand of time that it -hardly showed unless in such a full light. Somewhere -in that lighted house his wife was busy over -feminine affairs of her own; she was not in this -front room, however, otherwise by lifting his eyes -he could have seen her. He was vaguely glad of -that even in the first shock of his surprise, for he -was always afraid of his own temper.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span></p> - -<p>Ally had not begun that letter even in an informal -manner, or the “Dear Di” would have prevented -Major Churton reading further. It was unguarded -in its phrasing, and incriminating to a degree -in which he had never written before, because -he knew he was going away. To a jealous nature -there was no question as to the meaning of its -references; but just because Bute Churton knew his -own power of anger he was terribly just, and kept -an iron control over his judgment. He would not -be sure—not quite yet. He would wait and see if -the woman made this ugly suspicion a certainty by -any incautious speech on her part. He thought -for a moment of going down to the club now, -whence this had come, and dealing direct with -Lewin; but he was not sure—the letter he was -mechanically twisting and crushing in his strong -fingers was no proof of anything but a dangerous -intimacy—no literal proof at least—and there was -plenty of time to-morrow.</p> - -<p>He looked down at the letter again, and tried to -piece the matter out. For years Di and he had -gone their own ways, and he had made no fuss over -the succession of men who had been her dubious -“friends,” because through some infatuated belief -in a man’s own wife being different from other -women, he had fancied that she was always on the -safe side—she had certainly always kept herself beyond -the range of scandal, if not gossip. Had the -theory of the thing even drifted through his mind, -as an indiscretion of the past, he might have shut -his eyes to it. It was as an actual experience of -the present that made it a hideous and impossible -position. A general tenet with regard to loose -morals is a very different thing to the example which -affects one personally. The most broad-minded -people in profession are generally the least charitable -in practice.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span></p> - -<p>He stood out there in the darkness until he had -regained his grip on himself, and thought that he -was cool. He could not re-read Ally’s letter, so he -put it in his pocket for further consideration, before -deciding to give it to Diana. Perhaps also he hoped -that Lewin’s departure meant nothing to her such -as the letter suggested; if she did not read Ally’s -urgent request to her to ride down and say good-bye -to him, it might not occur to her. He would -give her that chance.</p> - -<p>They had already dined, and the table was cleared -and reloaded with the Tantalus and soda-water, -when he entered the dining-room. Diana came in -as he was helping himself to whiskey,—sparingly, -this time,—and flung her writing-case on to a distant -table with a movement suggestive of weary impatience.</p> - -<p>“It <i>is</i> hot!” she remarked. “I’ll have some -claret and soda,—leave me some ice, Bute.” She -mixed it for herself, and spoke as she did so. -“Have you heard when the <i>Greville</i> is going?”</p> - -<p>“No!”</p> - -<p>“Didn’t you see Captain Stern this morning at -the club?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. He didn’t say.”</p> - -<p>“Bother!” said Diana frankly. “I must telephone -through the first thing.”</p> - -<p>“Where?”</p> - -<p>“To the Lewins, of course. They will know.”</p> - -<p>“Why?”</p> - -<p>The monosyllables did not warn her, for his voice -was perfectly under control. And his back was -towards her as he helped himself to another cigar -from the box on the sideboard.</p> - -<p>“I’m going down to see old Ally Sloper off if he -goes in the middle of the night!” said Diana shortly. -The openness of the speech sounded brazen to him -to-night, for he forgot that yesterday it would have -passed him by. In her certainty of being secure -from his suspicion she took no trouble to disguise -her motives, and she was in some sort desperate also. -The feeling that had been half-hearted on Ally’s -side had grown to painful intensity on Diana’s until -her fondness for him made her as weak as he.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span></p> - -<p>“He will probably start early, and only his wife -will be there. I shouldn’t make myself an unwelcome -third if I were you.”</p> - -<p>“Half the place will be there!” said Diana, with -an unnatural laugh. “You know we always turn -up to see the last of any one, it’s one of the few little -distractions left us. Of course I shall go—Chum -won’t mind.”</p> - -<p>“I never argue,” said Churton, the cigar between -his teeth making the words sound ominously as if -he had set them. “All I have to say is that if I -were you—I shouldn’t go.”</p> - -<p>For a minute she looked up sharply, and her -heart throbbed with fear of him. He was standing -at his full height, and though she was not a small -woman, he made her feel suddenly that his masculine -strength might be brutal—in any case that she -was but a child to him, physically. Then with the -old sore sense of injustice that has rankled in -woman from all generations, she set his sins beside -her own, and demanded dumbly if he could throw -the first stone, even though he knew! He did not -guess, of course—she would not harbour that idea; -but even if he did he had no right to accuse her. -She shut her lips in a hard line, and said no more.</p> - -<p>Churton looked at her also for a moment. He -saw the hard, sun-scorched face and the embittered -lips, and perhaps he thought of the red-haired girl -he married. Diana was never untidy—her head was -as sleek and well-groomed now as a racer’s coat, and -below the collar-line her neck was milk-white where -her evening dress betrayed its original beauty. She -had the transparency peculiar to red-haired women, -and there was neither flaw nor fleck on her -shoulders.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span></p> - -<p>They went up to bed in silence, and the peace -between them remained unbroken. She could hear -him moving about in his dressing-room for a while, -but she was undressed and asleep before he lay down -by her side, and she was unaware that he lay hour -after hour, awake and thinking, piecing one thing -in with another, proving his own dishonour, and unconsciously</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Nursing his wrath to keep it warm.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He thought himself cool and collected, while the -smouldering fury in him burned steadily to white -heat. He had always been afraid of his own temper—it -was cheating him now.</p> - -<p>Diana woke early, for she had fallen asleep wishing -to do so, and thinking that her husband was -still oblivious of her she slipped out of bed and began -to do her hair rapidly. She glanced at him -once, and saw that he was lying on his back as he -often did, the covering sheet thrown off him, and one -perfectly-moulded knee drawn up, which was also a -habit of his. He would sleep so, and she thought -his eyes were closed now without more than a cursory -glance. He was, in fact, not much in her -thoughts, though again it flitted across her mind -that his large supine limbs suggested terrible strength. -He was a splendidly-built man—as well built as -Alaric Lewin, though his added years had thickened -him somewhat—and even the raised knee was -rounded with a massive beauty that would have -pleased a sculptor.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span></p> - -<p>By and by she found that the linen gown she -wanted hung in a closet outside her room, on the -other side of the passage. She slipped out almost -noiselessly to get it, and as she returned she heard -a clock somewhere in the house strike four. She -was in plenty of time, but the last report of the -<i>Greville’s</i> departure which had reached her had been -stated at five, and the grooms must saddle up for -her at once. She did not wait to telephone to the -Lewins after all, for fear of hindering herself rather -than otherwise. The thought occupied her mind, -so that when she re-entered the room she did not -notice that her husband had gone.</p> - -<p>There was no time for a bath now, she could have -that later when she had ridden up the hill again, -and was dusty and hot. Ally would be gone then—gone -at least for a month, for no one expected -the trouble in East Africa to last longer. A month -was long enough—a month without Ally! She did -not realise that she had grown a foolish woman, -whose empty heart could not feed for ever on passing -attractions, and so craved greedily to really fill -itself, though with an unsatisfying love. Alaric -Lewin had been like a renewal of youth and its possibilities; -he was young and vital, and his very lack -of purpose made him seem like a boy far into his -manhood. She was clinging to the thought of him, -when she saw her husband enter quietly from the -dressing-room.</p> - -<p>He was in his shirt, but the sleeves were rolled up -to the elbow over his muscled arms. He seemed to -have been washing, for he held a towel loosely in -one hand. She noticed vaguely that it was wet, or -had been dipped in water and wrung out. It -looked almost like a rope-end, twisted in that -way.</p> - -<p>Conscious that her own shoulders were bare, she -resented the unusual intrusion of his entrance, and -turned on him curtly.</p> - -<p>“I have not finished dressing,” she said. “You -can’t have this room yet. What do you want?”</p> - -<p>“Why are you up so early?” he returned, as -curtly as she had spoken.</p> - -<p>“I am going down to see the <i>Greville</i> off!”</p> - -<p>“You <i>will</i> go?”</p> - -<p>Her eyes met his, the hard brown of them reddish -with anger. “Yes, I will!” she said boldly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span></p> - -<p>He laid a tumbled letter before her, spreading it -out that she might see the familiar writing, and -speaking carefully, as though he picked his words.</p> - -<p>“Captain Lewin’s bearer gave me this in the dark -last night, telling me it was for me—I could not see -the address, and he had evidently made a mistake, -for he insisted on my reading it. You can see for -yourself——”</p> - -<p>He broke off, waiting with a terrible patience -while she glanced over the page. There was no -need to tell her more openly what she was to see, -but her face hardly altered save that it was frankly -insolent as she looked at him.</p> - -<p>“I won’t say anything about your reading my -letters,” she said, “because you say it was by mistake. -The only thing I will say is that you have -no right to question me. I have never read any of -your letters, by mistake or otherwise, but——”</p> - -<p>She flung the taunt at him, and saw his face -darken. Well, if there was to be a row she did not -mind much. Her rage at being found out, and the -pain of losing Ally at the same time, made her like -some fierce animal that turns to bay and longs to -fight. It would not be an open scandal—she knew -that instinctively. Let him do his worst!</p> - -<p>He interrupted before she could accuse him further.</p> - -<p>“That is beside the point. You will not go down -to see the <i>Greville</i> off.”</p> - -<p>“I <i>will</i>!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span></p> - -<p>He caught her by the arm, his fingers closing like -iron on the white flesh, and with his other hand he -brought the wet towel down heavily across her bare -shoulders. She was right in saying that it was the -equivalent of a rope-end—it had been tightly wrung -out, and it fell heavier than a rope. The long red -weals followed each cut, and she set her teeth under -the pain.</p> - -<p>He had not said a word more, and she did not -cry out. It never occurred to her to struggle, for -she was like a child in his grip, and it would but -have completed her humiliation. The hot anger -and grief in her heart swelled up and choked her, -and the temper he had justly feared blinded him. -The first he knew of the weight of his own blows -was his wife slipping quietly to his feet, her bruised -shoulders a sickening witness to his strength.</p> - -<p>He lifted her and laid her in bed again, drawing -the sheet over her up to her neck. Then he closed -the shutters and barred out the dreadful daylight, -and before he left he mechanically sprinkled her -face with water and saw the colour coming back to -her lips. Di was too strong to swoon like other -women—she had never gone off like this before, except—except -at Agra when the child died. He -was not sorry as yet; he did not feel anything except -a grim satisfaction that she would not attempt -to see the <i>Greville</i> off now.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span></p> - -<p>He finished dressing and ordered his own pony, -riding off in the cool of the morning to the town. -He had not heard, as his wife had, of the cruiser’s -probable departure at daybreak, for her information -had come from Mrs. Ritchie Stern the day before, -and in Lewin’s letter he had not been sure when -they would go—at least, he had said he was not -sure. When Major Churton rode on to the wharf -the first reaction came over him and took the momentary -form of disappointment, for fading out of -the harbour, her smoke a trail on the horizon, was -the cruiser, and he saw that he was too late. Then -the other view of what he had done rose before him, -and the blind passion that had driven him into immediate -revenge on the person nearest at hand -seemed to die out with the <i>Greville’s</i> smoke trail. -He should have dealt with the man first, not with -that poor woman, whose hinted accusations were -true enough when one was cool to listen to them. -He had been too angry to heed, and his conscience -did not accuse him of vices more than other men’s, -while it had seemed to him that she was worse than -many wives. He had been unjust to begin with—brutal -to end with. In his stupid rage he had let -Lewin go scot free, while the woman bore the brunt -of it. His eyes followed the <i>Greville</i> over the edge -of the horizon with the keener humiliation because -he was a strong man with the reserve which many -years had taught him, and it was bitter to realise -himself in the wrong. He had believed in his own -manliness at least; now he felt that he despised himself, -and he was too honest to prevaricate.</p> - -<p>There were not many people on the wharf, for -Captain Stern’s movements had been left uncertain -until the last moment. Mrs. Ritchie Stern and Mrs. -Lewin were standing together close to the water’s -edge, as if unanimously they had pressed after the -ship as far as they dared. Their ponies were held -at a little distance, Liscarton’s vagaries making it -unsafe to take him very near the unguarded edge of -the quay. The Commissioner was there too, and -Arthur White and Brissy Nugent, no one else. It -was White who saw the motionless figure of the O.C.T. -first, and rode up to him.</p> - -<p>“Ah, Churton! You were too late,” he said, -shaking hands cordially. “I was afraid you might -be. It’s an awful pull to get down from Maitso so -early.”</p> - -<p>“Yes!”</p> - -<p>The grave face under the white helmet made the -Attorney-General leap to a wrong conclusion.</p> - -<p>“Were you ordered out last night? No? Heard -nothing of the row?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span></p> - -<p>“Where was it?” The steady, dark eyes came -back from the last glimpse of the <i>Greville</i> and fixed -themselves on White’s red pleasant face.</p> - -<p>“At Government House. Halton has just been -telling me. He knew nothing of it, any more than -I, for he rode down to see me last night, and didn’t -get back until eleven or half-past. I’m to meet the -Administrator later, but I don’t suppose I shall -hear much more. He makes light of it—says it -was a flash in the pan, and rather amusing, but I -know I shouldn’t have cared to face a couple of -hundred niggers after the ultimatum about the -crops. I’m going to ask Mrs. Lewin what really -happened.”</p> - -<p>“Mrs. Lewin!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, she was in it all. Lewin had gone down -to the club to say good-bye to you all, I suppose—you -missed him, by the way?” (“Yes!” said -Churton bitterly, “I am sorry I did!”)—“and Mrs. -Lewin heard something of the disturbance and got -in a funk and rushed up to Government House. -Very sensible thing to do, only unfortunately she -got into the middle of it.”</p> - -<p>This was Gregory’s very natural explanation of -her presence there, as Mrs. Lewin had already -found. She accepted it dully, with an added feeling -of fear at his facility. Churton’s eyes wandered to -her for a minute across the quay, and he thought -she looked as if last night’s strain and this morning’s -parting had tried her, and was gentler than -usual in his manner when she greeted him.</p> - -<p>“I am sorry you arrived too late to see Ally,” -she said, “he hoped to catch you at the club last -night. I was to say good-bye for him.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span></p> - -<p>He thought of that helpless figure with scarred -shoulders that he had laid on the bed, but he did -not wince. His voice, as he asked her about the -trouble at Government House, was so kind and -sympathetic, that it came to nearer making her -break down than all that had gone before.</p> - -<p>“I was very much frightened,” she said. -“Though Mr. Gregory says that there was no -danger. He cleared the stoep with a shambok—that -was all!” She tried to smile, and her eyes -were rather misty.</p> - -<p>“You look as if you had had about enough of -it!” he said, unconscious of the effect of the morning -sunlight on his own face. He wished too that -she had not, with her few words, drawn him a picture -of Gregory and the shambok—it reminded him -of his own action this morning. Men like himself -and Gregory—men proud of their masculine quality -of strength—seemed of a brutal type to him just -now.</p> - -<p>“I feel rather as if I had been to three balls all at -once, and danced into daylight—that is all. Dissipation -always gives me the same cheap feeling as a -great strain. Mrs. Stern is coming home to breakfast -with me to cheer me up, she is leaving in the -mail this afternoon, unfortunately, or I should try -and persuade her to stay for a few days.”</p> - -<p>“I hear there is another cruiser signalled at Port -Albert,” said Mrs. Ritchie, as she turned from -Arthur White, to whom she had been talking. -“The <i>Skate</i> I think it must be—I suppose you all -know Captain Tullock? The bay will be quite -lively this afternoon with our departure and his -arrival. I shall see your wife then, of course, Major -Churton?”</p> - -<p>“She is seedy this morning, but she may feel well -enough to come down,” he said composedly. -“Good-bye, Mrs. Lewin, take care of yourself.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span></p> - -<p>She wondered why he was so particularly kind -to her, and if he would have been could he only -have known all the inward workings of her heart! -Life would be a little humiliating were it not for its -power of secrecy. As Bute Churton’s big figure -disappeared along the narrow street to the town, -Leoline looked after him and guessed nothing of -the irony of their relations with each other, for he -was thinking that worthless fellows like Lewin were -blessed with wives like this, while she shrank from -a consciousness of thoughts disloyal to her husband.</p> - -<p>“Major Churton looks very ill!” she said. “I -never noticed it before; but I am sure he ought -to get away. I have grown selfish with my own -concerns.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span></p> - -<p>“He looks as if he had had some kind of shock,” -said Mrs. Ritchie, with her fatal intuition. “I -wonder what made him late!”</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“When two have set their minds on each other, a hundred cannot -keep them apart.”—<i>English Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>The confidence of two young married women is -amongst the most interesting experiences to be -obtained; but it is about as easy to get at by an -outsider as a Masonic ceremony of initiation. For -a time they are bound to skirmish over the surface -of facts, and compare notes on their households. -From this they may advance to their husbands, but -it is not till they reach Themselves and their own -point of view that they are really instructive. Had -Mrs. Ritchie Stern been remaining in Key Island, it -is possible that she and Mrs. Lewin might have -reached that stage when a broken sentence conveys -more to the sympathetic hearer than a whole explanatory -treatise would do to one who had not the -key to such mysteries. But the hours she spent at -the bungalow were too contracted for this; only the -stress of their mutual circumstances could have -made them get as far as stage number two, for they -did talk of their husbands.</p> - -<p>“I am glad Alaric has gone with Captain Stern,” -Leoline said frankly, because she had something to -conceal in her piteous knowledge of Ally. “It -makes the journey at least so much less tedious. -And I hope they will be pals—that is my husband’s -inevitable word, so you must excuse it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span></p> - -<p>“It is so much more expressive than friends, or -even chums,” said Mrs. Ritchie pensively. “To -‘pal’ always suggests a comfortable arm-in-arm -state of intimacy, eh?”</p> - -<p>“Exactly! Ally makes friends rather easily.” -The last words were almost abrupt.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think Ritchie is so good at that as at -listening. If you know what I mean, other men -make friends with him, and he listens. I should -think Captain Lewin was always very popular.”</p> - -<p>“Invariably. I cannot remember, on looking -back through my life, any single person who knew -Ally and disliked him.”</p> - -<p>“It is rather a fatal gift at times,—if you do not -mind my saying so.”</p> - -<p>Chum did not answer directly. She spoke with -a touch of unintentional wistfulness. “Captain -Stern gave me a sense of such innate control. He -is like one of those Biblical examples that are -greater by reason of ruling themselves than the -noisier men who take cities. It always struck me -as such a very sane ideal.... I hope he will -be a friend of Ally’s!”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Ritchie looked at her with the full bounty -of her nature, and her words were not so irrelevant -as they seemed.</p> - -<p>“My eldest boy is like me rather than his father, -and I am quite sorry! It is dreadful to have to -look out for your own little failings, and recognise -them. They seem such much more nasty little -things in some one else; and yet I always know -that they are just mine.”</p> - -<p>“You must hate leaving the children!” said -Mrs. Lewin slowly—just as Blanche had meant her -to do.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes!” she responded. “But I would rather -have them, though on the other side of the world. -Just as I would rather have my sailor, even though -I cannot always follow his ship.”</p> - -<p>“Captain Lewin has a great objection to having -children while he is on foreign service—particularly -in a hot climate,” said Leoline quietly. She was -looking down, her long lashes a brown shadow on -her unflushed cheeks, and her manner was too composed -for resignation. Suddenly she raised her eyes -with a flash that seemed to come all across the -room to Mrs. Ritchie.</p> - -<p>“I was so awfully disappointed!” she said, -almost in a whisper. “At first I longed for -one——”</p> - -<p>Her voice trailed into silence. Mrs. Ritchie held -her breath. The hint of being contented with -things as they were now frightened her.</p> - -<p>“You will not always be abroad—at least in such -places as this,” she said hurriedly.</p> - -<p>“No. One begins to see though, that there are -more selfish advantages to be gained from married -life without a nursery. It isn’t that Ally doesn’t -want children—he will some day. But then—I -mightn’t, you see.”</p> - -<p>“You will,” said Mrs. Ritchie consolingly. “Let -alone the feeling you will have that you ought to -(I wish we didn’t have these feelings, but women -keep the conscience of the household, always!), -you will want to because it is natural. You needn’t -be afraid.” She waited a minute, meeting those -shining eyes steadily, and reiterated, “You needn’t -be afraid.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span></p> - -<p>Leoline turned her face to the window, and looked -across the garden, with its hot, dusty roses, to the -latched gate through which Ally had gone to, and -come from, Government House. At the gate a -shadow stood, and a voice said, under breath, “I -never came this way—before!” She thought of -the child denied her because of Ally’s selfish fear of -discomfort, and the safeguard of its presence in her -arms now; for she might be called in this a good -woman, that had she been a mother, she would not -have been afraid, not even of that dangerous proximity. -As it was, in spite of Blanche Stern’s presence -throughout the day, there was a horribly lonely -feeling about the bungalow, and after the rush of her -departure had died away, the empty rooms seemed -as if they listened for a step. The fear of being -alone and of listening also made Leoline Lewin insist -on riding down to the harbour again to see her -off, and for the second time in twenty-four hours -she found herself loitering about on the wharf -among the walls of coal, waiting with that horrible -sense of departure for the boat to start. There is -nothing more trying to those left behind than one -of these lingering “send-offs”—the going on board -and forced little conversations with one ear always -attentive for the bell and “Any more for the shore?”—the -interminable time of standing about on the -quay while the mails are got in, and the boat turns -so very slowly from the shore—the waving of handkerchiefs, -and hollow cheering, and then the going -home with a blank feeling that life is just the same -in its dull grooves, and all the chance of movement -and adventure has gone out with the ship beyond -the horizon line. It is a particularly depressing -ceremony in Key Island, whose inhabitants feel it a -prison at the best of times, but it seems to possess -a kind of hideous fascination to the residents, who -never let a boat depart without thronging on the -quay and wishing vainly that they were going with -her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span></p> - -<p>There was a much larger gathering to see Mrs. -Ritchie off than there had been for the <i>Greville</i>. -The Gilderoys, Captain Nugent, the Arthur Whites, -Miss Denver, Mrs. Clayton with the gunner’s boy -in tow,—Mrs. Lewin counted them over with -wearied eyes and found none missing save the -Churtons. They were not there and Captain Gilderoy -amicably suggested that Diana had got a headache -from too many céhos, and the Major was -forced to stay away to cover her indisposition.</p> - -<p>“But does she drink, Captain Gilderoy?” Mrs. -Clayton asked eagerly, her pretty vulgar face thrust -up to his. She had experienced the roughness -of Diana’s manner when there was no need to be -ingratiating, and sought for the joints in her -armour.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t say that, Mrs. Clayton!” Captain Gilderoy -raised his cynical eyebrows, and smiled as a -dog snarled, on one side of his mouth. His “smiling -acquaintance” with Mrs. Clayton had developed, -with no desire on his part, to a more conventional -one, and a further knowledge of her had intensified -his sentiments with regard to her rather than otherwise. -He disliked Mrs. Clayton every bit as much -as he did Mrs. Churton, and his comments on her -freedom from social restrictions were at least as -withering as on Diana, but that Eva Clayton had -not the capacity to guess. “I did not say she -drank,” he said in his most pleasant manner, “but -she has the advantage of a strong head! She can -take two drinks to my one; I have seen her get -through two tumblers of whiskey and soda when I -stopped prudently at the second.”</p> - -<p>“You don’t say so!” Mrs. Clayton’s loud, vacant -laugh jarred after Gilderoy’s polished words—he -spoke charmingly, and his voice was deep and -rather sweet,—and she caught her gunner by the -arm.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span></p> - -<p>“Mr. Rennie, listen! Captain Gilderoy says that -Mrs. Churton drinks—that’s why she isn’t here to-day. -She can toss off five whiskeys faster than the -men. Disgusting, isn’t it!”</p> - -<p>Young Rennie was a fresh-faced boy, with eyes -which still danced carelessly with youth. All Mrs. -Clayton’s tuition had not yet left its impress on -his smooth, flushed face, but it was tainting his -tongue.</p> - -<p>“By Jove!” he said. “What fun! I’ll have a -drinking match with her one night—get her well -on and stake glass for glass.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, do,” Mrs. Clayton said eagerly. “It would -be so amusing!” and Miss Denver turned round -and laughed too, but without spite. She was a -very tall girl, whose clothes were always a bad -copy of the last garrison lady’s who had come to -the Station, and there was a certain exuberance -about her that made women—nice women—say -that she had something maternal even in her generous -girlhood. Men, being coarser or more practical, -called her a finely-built girl, and thought of the -children she might bear them.</p> - -<p>Leoline Lewin heard the comments on Di and the -laughter, and moved by instinct a little nearer Mrs. -Stern. Perhaps she was out of tune with her world -to-day, but it seemed to her as if the whole of her -surroundings were shoddy,—the very tone of the -people was like the little native huts with their lack -of stability and general uncleanness. When Brissy -Nugent appeared at her side, as if her husband’s -absence constituted him her cavalier, she turned -away almost like a pettish child with a feeling of -aversion to his familiar burnt face and immaculate -riding dress. She felt as if she knew exactly what -he was going to say, too, before he said it; but -all Brissy’s conversation appeared the inevitable.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span></p> - -<p>“Old Ally Sloper must be somewhere about lat. -20 by now, I suppose,” he said, as they stood at the -liner’s stern, waiting with melancholy patience to -say good-bye to Mrs. Ritchie.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I suppose so.”</p> - -<p>“Hope you won’t be very lonely.”</p> - -<p>“Do you?” For the life of her she could not -avoid the little ironical question.</p> - -<p>“Pity I’m not a woman, and then I could come -up and stay with you and keep you company—eh? -Wouldn’t there be a lot of talk?”</p> - -<p>“If you were a woman?”</p> - -<p>“No, as we are. You knew what I meant, Mrs. -Lewin.”</p> - -<p>Oh, this wearisome talk that led nowhere, and -always had a vacant laugh in it. And the sameness -of the fringe of ravenalas lifting solemn hands -along the shore—and the blue bay—and the zinc-roofed, -gim-crack town. She looked at the glare of -sunlight on Maitso and Mitsinjovy, and her eyes -ached, and then at the black walls of coal to cool -them, as she had done hundreds of times before. -They were all in the rat-trap, and her fellow rats -were no better off than she—save that perhaps the -others had not the soul-haunting sweet dread that -she had put behind her all day. For when she was -free of these people and went back alone to the -bungalow, there was nothing to prevent her thinking -of the nearness of Government House, and the -short cut through the grounds, while all the rooms -listened for a step.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span></p> - -<p>She heard Hamilton Gurney urging some one to -come and drink a final cého with the U.C.L. men, -and her heart sank, for this was always a last ceremony. -Then Mrs. Stern came up and said good-bye, -her blue eyes very large and gentle, with their -strange gift of divination, and by a mutual impulse -the two tall women kissed each other. Even after -the boat had swung out into the harbour and passed -between the gates, Leoline stood watching it as she -had the <i>Greville</i> that morning, as if it carried away -yet another barrier of her safety, and lingered to -chat with one and another of her acquaintance. -Captain Gilderoy came up to ask her if she were -selling any of the ponies—she could not ride three -during Captain Lewin’s absence, and he rather fancied -Snapshot. She caught at the discussion, and -suggested his coming over one day to look at Nanton, -Ally’s last purchase.</p> - -<p>“Will you come back with me now, you and Mrs. -Gilderoy?” she said, with a strange eagerness. -“And dine? I am very much alone.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks, I wish we could, but we are bound to -the Jacksons’.”</p> - -<p>“Are they at By-Jovey? Another night then.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks.”</p> - -<p>No hope of rescue there! They all seemed to be -engaged, those who had useful wives, and the unattached -men she would not ask, with the pattern -of Mrs. Clayton and Miss Denver before her eyes; -for, as Mrs. Clayton passed her with Mr. Rennie, -Leoline heard the latter say, “I’ve got the hump -with that boat going—haven’t you? Let’s go up -to the Denvers’ and make a noise!” Mrs. Lewin’s -lips curled a little. She would not make her house -into a recreation ground for the idle men of the -Station, even though of better manners and more -intellectual tastes than this fresh-faced boy, who -after all, was harmless enough in his ill-breeding. -“Let’s go up to the Denvers’ and make a noise” -was no worse than “Let us drop in on Mrs. Lewin -because her husband is away.” No, such help as -that would not do. She must face it alone.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span></p> - -<p>The shadow of Tsofotra, the Sunset Gate, stretched -far across the sea as she gathered up her reins and -rode home by herself, with so little attention to the -way she went that Liscarton took advantage to -snatch a hasty supper from the low bushes and tall -grass, munching as he went, and expectant of a call -to order that did not come. Mrs. Lewin had other -thoughts to fill her mind, and as she sat at her -solitary dinner, she faced the new problems of her -existence with saddened eyes. It seemed to her -as if her life “were all read backward,” and her intentions -twisted by providence to a horrible issue. -She had been honest in her desire to spur her -husband on to success, and her first efforts to attract -Gregory had been actually on his behalf; but where -had she gone astray? For the original strategy of -arousing his interest for Ally’s sake, coupled with a -little innocent enjoyment of her own power no -doubt, had gradually altered its quality to a personal -pleasure in the companionship of a stronger nature, -and so she had drifted to this dangerous brink of a -new relation between them. Looking back, it -seemed to her as if all the mischief had sprung from -that night when she left her husband in a drunken -sleep to cover his incapacity as best she might with -the Administrator. And yet that night at least she -had hardly realised that Gregory existed as a man: -he was nothing but a power to be feared. She -could not see the natural development of the situation -from the affinity of such natures as Gregory’s -with her own, which was its feminine complement. -All that her mind could grasp was the plain fact -that bound in duty and honour to a man to whom -she had submitted the most sacred rights of her -womanhood, her very nature yearned treacherously -away from him to another who stood for ever beyond -the pale. Alaric had shown himself a weak -man, and represented the failure of her life; but it -was her instinct to hide her failures, and to make -the best of her own action in marrying him, rather -than to ask the world’s sympathy and justify herself -in infidelity. Where neither teaching nor principles -would triumph over Nature, her dear self-respect -stands like a guardian angel to such a woman as -Leoline Lewin, and becomes a giant virtue.</p> - -<p>She took some work and moved into the further -room when her dinner was over, a very gracious -feminine figure with the atmosphere of civilisation -about her dainty gown and <i>chic</i> head, contrasting -strangely with the lawless tropical world outside the -open windows. All the danger of the sensuous -Earth seemed to be threatening her out of the night -and its insinuating scents,—all the safety of convention -to be inside the pretty room with its electric -light where she sat. As the monotonous needle -passed through and through the silk, she was schooling -herself to fearlessness, and soothing her own -nerves by the occupation, until she ceased to start -at a rustle on the garden paths, and was no longer -haunted by that mad fear of one man’s approach. -So composed had she grown at last, that she missed -the very step that she had expected along the stoep, -and the opening of the door by the butler. The -first intimation she had that her fate was hard upon -her was Abdallah’s voice announcing the Administrator -almost as he withdrew to his own quarters again.</p> - -<p>She put aside the work on her lap carefully, running -the needle in and out the silk that she might -not lose it, and rose without hurry, every precious -second gained helping her to recover her breath, -which seemed to have been swept away by the -sound of his name. As she came forward to meet -her guest there was not a tremor about her, nothing -but the composed grace of a well-bred woman in -her own house.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span></p> - -<p>Gregory had stood still under the electric lamps; -the light was strong in spite of the soft red shades, -and it seemed to show them to each other in merciless -revelation. He held out his hand to take hers -in conventional greeting, and let it go again after -the legitimate few seconds during which palm rests -in palm. They had not really spoken to each other, -save in broken disturbed sentences, since the Deputation -interrupted his avowal of his reason for sending -Lewin away alone. It seemed to her that they -must take it up just there, as if nothing had intervened, -and she sought desperately for something to -avert it. The hours that lay between his whispering -voice, saying that he could not part from her, -and the present moment rolled back into nothingness. -They were not, and this sentence to be answered -still seemed to hang in the air.</p> - -<p>“I saw Captain Lewin off this morning,” she said -baldly, as if proving that what he had said was true. -He could not part from her—well, he had not. In -another sense, the sentence was a warning that questioned -his right to be there. “I saw Captain Lewin -off this morning—I am alone!” added the significant -pause.</p> - -<p>“I know.” He did not deny the accusation of -his having paid her a visit at this late hour, if she -intended to insinuate it. He accepted it rather, and -a clock struck nine in the further room as if to punctuate -and affirm his acceptance.</p> - -<p>Then there was one of those strange pauses which -seem like the visible boundary between one phase -of existence and another—the possible crossing the -rubicon, the possible drawing back and remaining -in safety. It comes before many a declaration, -while Mr. Brown and Miss Smith are still conscious -of their former titles, though the next instant may -convert them into John and Jane to each other.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Oh, the little more, and how much it is!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And the little less, and what worlds away!</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>How a sound shall quicken content to bliss,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>Or a breath suspend the heart’s best play,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent4"><i>And life be a proof of this!</i>”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span></p> -<p>For just that brief pause Gregory and Leoline -stood facing each other in the strong artificial light. -Then, as though drawn by something much stronger -than the restraint of convention, they moved nearer -never breaking that long painful gaze until something -that seemed like a sigh passed through the -room, as though for relief that the tension was relaxed, -and their lips met. Neither could tell exactly -how that kiss came about. It was so inevitable, -once it was done, that there seemed no cause -for it. The embrace was a thing that belonged to -their lives as much as their vitality. To the woman, -however, it was a mental thing, and seemed a decision -of her brain as to what shall become of all -her further life; but the man was conscious of the -warmth of her mouth, the very breath of her life -mingling with his.</p> - -<p>The modes of artificial society would demand a -word of explanation before such a stride in intimacy -between the sexes as is meant by a kiss. There -should be a request for permission to go further—anything -to soften the extreme suddenness of the -change of attitude. But Nature is too ready for us -in a crisis; she does not use the acquired power of -speech, but the instinctive one of action. Gregory -had said no word at all of explanation or apology—two -ornaments of plain speaking which belong emphatically -to civilisation! He was a savage for the -time being, and used the methods of the primeval -man with the single improvement of gentleness. -There was no roughness of passion in that instinctive -embrace; nothing but the irresistible attraction -of the two pairs of lips to each other, until, satisfied, -they parted as simply as they had met.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span></p> - -<p>Almost before she was conscious that he had -loosened her Leoline found that he was leading her -across the room to a low-cushioned lounge, his arm -still guiding her, and as she seated herself he sat -down beside her side. His breath came a little -thickly, but his iron self-control was instanced in his -quiet voice when he spoke.</p> - -<p>“Now we will talk this out!”</p> - -<p>“Is there anything to say?” she asked almost in -a whisper. Now that the natural moment was over -she shrank before the acknowledgment of her own -action. All her habit of convention came back to -her and shamed her horribly, though she would not -deny, even to herself, the new position she felt she -had taken, and still meant to take.</p> - -<p>“There is a great deal to say,” he said in that decisive -suppressed voice that had never been more -characteristic. “We have neither of us come to -this without thinking what it means.”</p> - -<p>“I know. And yet there seem so many other -things to hold by—honour, decency, self-respect, -justice (for what has my husband done that he -should be my sacrifice?), perhaps even the fear of -God.”</p> - -<p>“You will find all these included in what I feel -for you. Do you think I am offering you a little -trivial passion—a thing of the senses, that will only -last a day?”</p> - -<p>“Does it make any difference when the effect on -others is the same? Some one must suffer through -my disloyalty—that is the real stumbling-block. -Will any feeling of yours, however sacred to us -both, alter the fact that I am another man’s wife?”</p> - -<p>“Even that is not an impassable barrier. Such -ties have been broken before.”</p> - -<p>“You are asking me——”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span></p> - -<p>“I am not asking you for anything you might -not give if you were an unmarried woman—as yet. -How am I to make you understand? If I had -wanted you for my mistress I should have told you -so long ago. At least you could only have given -me my <i>congé</i>. I don’t understand beating about -the bush, if that is all that one wants of a woman, -because it can’t be much loss if she says no—there -are a great many more who will say yes!”</p> - -<p>She thought of her husband’s often assertion that -“every woman in the island had had a try for -Gregory’s Powder,” and winced to see that he had -appreciated his own power of choice—if he had -chosen. She almost hated her own sex for giving -him some ground at least for the brutality of his -speech, and herself for listening to him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span></p> - -<p>“With you,” he went on, with that same terrible -finality of a statement that could not be questioned, -“it is different. I should be depreciating my own -property. Some day I mean to make you my -wife”—he drew a breath, and added her name, as -if to say it were a natural joy—“Leo!” he whispered, -the familiar contraction of Leoline giving her -a little thrill of pleasure, even while it seemed dreadful -to her that she felt she had no right to flinch -from his bold statement. She had not thought over -the situation without facing such an issue, as he had -seen was inevitable, and she was too honest and too -strong herself to weakly cry out that she had not -considered this, or made up her mind. She had -counted the cost to Alaric Lewin and to herself; -perhaps passion weighed down the scale in which -she placed her own risk, but she knew that her decision -had been tacitly in favour of such a step as -Gregory prognosticated to her mind by speaking of -her as his wife. There was just one terrible difference -in their point of view that she could not realise; -his words simply meant to her the horrible publicity -and degradation of the Divorce Court—but in -his mind was that olden letter of which his own -seemed a reflex—</p> - -<p>“Set Uriah in the forefront of the battle ... -that he may die....”</p> - -<p>All the wrong against her husband that was credible -to her was done to his name. That Alaric -must suffer from the blow she saw, and knowing no -injury that he had done her, it seemed an intolerable -thing that she meditated in cutting the tie between -them. She knew him for a weak man too; what -would be the result, to a nature like his, of her desertion? -If every fibre in her heart had not seemed -to her to be rooted in the man beside her, she would -never have permitted herself the choice; but for the -time being her whole soul was in revolt, demanding -its desire, crying out that its very life depended on -the chance of happiness. She could not argue or -reason just now; she felt the necessity of her own -being a greater thing than the slighter nature’s pain. -Was she always to be sacrificed to Alaric’s weakness? -her heart cried out impatiently—Ally, who -was as easily comforted as a child by a new toy for -the one that had been broken! Within a week of -her flight he would be playing tennis, and petted -and consoled by other women for his unmerited -misfortune. She saw him more harshly than ever -before, and her velvet eyes grew sombre as she -raised them to Gregory’s watchful face. There was -no remorse or vacillation in him—there would be -no repining word hereafter. What he did he had -stood by all his life, and he neither excused nor forswore -himself. He was a hard man at worst—a -strong man at best. Some day she would know -him for unscrupulous, but always and for ever she -would love him, because his qualities were the essential -for her, and also because love goes deeper -than reason and outruns rule.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span></p> - -<p>“I am not asking you to take such a step to-morrow -or next day,” he urged in that under-breathed -voice, “only it would be unfair not to set -my ultimate goal before you.” Then his manner -grew warmer, he half leaned against her lace-clad -shoulder, and his arm stole around her waist. “Is -it so hard to think of me as a husband, darling? I -believe you are half afraid of me as a lover!”</p> - -<p>She felt the masculine eyes above her dominating -her, and her head drawn back against his shoulder. -As he kissed her again and again, closing the velvet -eyes and holding her lips with his own until she was -breathless, his constraining clasp gradually bound -her close to him. Through the thin linen suit she -could feel every tightened muscle of his body, and for -a moment was blinded by his caresses. She had not -realised until then the feebleness of her own passions -compared with his. It seemed as if he were built -upon such a gigantic scale that lesser mortals dwindled -beside him as beside one such as the old Greeks -used to believe was endowed by a deity in parentage.</p> - -<p>But when she slipped out of her gown that night -she was conscious of a painful soreness, as though -her soft elastic flesh had been badly bruised. There -was no mark on the white skin, but she could not -pass her hand down her side without feeling the -hurt. It could not have been a blow, for a blow -would have left a visible bruise. Yet her very muscles -ached.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span></p> - -<p>For a moment, as she rubbed her hand softly to -and fro over the warm satin surface of her body, she -could not understand the cause. Then her face -flamed. She was half ashamed and half exultant. -For she realised the strength of Gregory’s clasp, and -felt as Danaë may have felt in the grip of her god.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“La paix n’est que le sommeil de la guerre.”—<i>French Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>“There must be something wrong between the -Churtons,” said Mrs. Gilderoy, taking off her hat -and sitting down beside Mrs. Lewin to chat.</p> - -<p>“What is the matter?” asked Leoline, in some -surprise. “I haven’t seen Di for ever so long, -though all the rest of you have been most good in -cheering my solitude. Major Churton is away, -isn’t he?”</p> - -<p>“He has gone for a ride round the island. That -is how I know something is wrong. It is our one -resource for mental disturbance—if a man has been -refused, or a woman found out, they arrange to ride -round the island until things calm down again. -You see, we can’t get out of it, so we begin to run -round and round to ease our distress.”</p> - -<p>“Like rats in a trap!” said Mrs. Lewin absently, -her mind with Halton’s simile.</p> - -<p>“Exactly. Churton said he was going to shoot -on the Tableland, but young Rennie, who went out -there some days later, found him starting for Africa -Point and Sand Bay. He will come home by -Hashish Valley, and I hope he won’t come in for -the trouble there!”</p> - -<p>“There is no further disturbance, is there? Mr. -Halton told me positively that he would leave in -the next mail. But that may be desperation!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span></p> - -<p>“Poor man! I don’t wonder. He has been kept -hanging about on the chance of a rising, when he -might just as well have gone by the same boat as -Mrs. Ritchie Stern. Look how tamely the snuff-coloured -people took the crop-burning, after all!”</p> - -<p>“Rather ominously so, I thought. I feel somehow -as if we were not through yet.”</p> - -<p>“Well, what there was to see, you saw! I can’t -think how you lived through that night at Government -House, Chum. I expected to see your hair -grey next morning.”</p> - -<p>“It was really not so terrifying as it sounded -afterwards. Mr. Gregory was so cool too—he was -almost insolent to the natives.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose you expected to find Captain Lewin -there. You have not heard anything of him, by -the way—I mean cabled through from Capetown, -for instance—have you?”</p> - -<p>“Not a word. All I know is that the boat -reached Port Cecil, and it was also confirmed that -his regiment was up there.”</p> - -<p>“So he will have his friends about him, anyway. -It is a month since he left, isn’t it? Aren’t you -very anxious?”</p> - -<p>“No, I don’t think so. It would be so unreasonable, -because I know that I could not hear. If he -wrote at once <i>viâ</i> Capetown the mail will bring it. -But Ally is a bad correspondent, and if he were -very much taken up with the business in hand he -might forget and miss the mail. And I might -never hear at all until he came back!”</p> - -<p>“You take it very philosophically. I know if I -didn’t hear from my good man under the circumstances, -I should begin writing abusive letters to the -Government at Capetown.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p> - -<p>“I think they find Key Island quite enough of a -worry, without having to calm disaffected wives -there, as it is,” said Mrs. Lewin, with a pang of -conscience. How often had she thought of Ally -through these halcyon summer days that had drifted -past her so softly and easily—they seemed, on looking -back, merely a golden haze? She had thought -of him, indeed, as the fly in her amber, and had -thrust the thought away when conscience pressed -too hard. “I can’t think why they brigaded us -with South Africa,” she added, more to dodge her -own thought than with any real interest in the Home -Government’s disposal of the Empire. “Mauritius -has its own governor; why shouldn’t we?”</p> - -<p>“We are too small. And besides, they never -give Gregory’s Powder an absolute monarchy—perhaps -when he goes Key’land will be made a -Crown colony. I am sorry for Capetown having -such a firebrand tacked on to them, myself. He -was under Milner once, and they nearly quarrelled; -but the man of men he hates is Kitchener. Gregory -always wants the troops at his instant disposal -when he sets out to soothe the wily native, and -Kitchener won’t have it. Can’t you imagine Gregory -trying to snatch a few soldiers when the General -is not looking, and the poor wretched officer in -command being dragged in two, like a Christmas -cracker, between them?”</p> - -<p>“And going off with a bang,” said Mrs. Lewin, -laughing. “I am sure I should, in his place. Mr. -Gregory started in the Army himself—you know -that, of course.”</p> - -<p>“Yes; I believe he served with Roberts for a -short time—a <i>very</i> short time! He never could -obey his senior officers. So he was taken out of -the Army and put into the Colonial service. -Apropos of nothing, Chum, you are not looking -well. When are you going to Vohitra?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span></p> - -<p>“I am too much afraid of your thinking it a -proof of mental disturbance,” said Mrs. Lewin, with -a languid smile. “When people ride round the -island it always begins at Port Albert, doesn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Generally; though in very bad cases I have -known them ride right through the Rano Valley, -and up to Vohitra that way—on some one else’s -pony, of course. Do you notice that the pony is -the pledge of affection here? We don’t give engagement-rings—we -give ponies. ‘He has given -her a pony’ is tantamount to saying, ‘they are engaged,’ -and if you ride any man’s cattle save your -husband’s you are accepting serious attentions.”</p> - -<p>“What a dreadful thought! For we have never -really bought Liscarton, Captain Nugent <i>would</i> -lend him to me, and I am so dishonest that I have -not returned him yet.”</p> - -<p>“Well, my dear, it is such a known thing that -Bristles worships your untied shoestrings, and hangs -upon the tilt of your Panama, that no one would -be surprised if you took his entire stud!”</p> - -<p>“I suppose I have no character!” said Mrs. -Lewin resignedly.</p> - -<p>“Not a shred! You are much too good-looking, -and your clothes suggest Bond Street and general -wickedness.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span></p> - -<p>Again Leoline laughed, for she was content that -Key Island should bracket her with Brissy Nugent. -Her conscience was nearly dormant during those -days, and only roused occasionally when a gust of -remorse or realisation swept over her reasonlessly -and made her shudder. Then it would pass, and -she would face the situation steadily again. Had -she been in England, among influences which had -moulded her life, and with the chance of a larger -outlook, she would not have deemed such a state -of mind as her present one to be possible to her. -That her whole self could be absorbed in a man -whom to love was frankly dishonourable, would -have seemed to her impossible while she had the -intelligence to foresee and fight it down. But it is -impossible in a land policed by the conventions of -countless generations, where at least one lives in -wholesome fear of one’s next door neighbour, to -realise or understand the influence of the waste -places of this earth under the sway of the Imperial -Government. Men lose their boundaries there, and -be a woman what she will she is bound to feel the -influence in her thoughts if not her actions. The -laxity of the manners and morals in such rat-traps -as Key Island is due to the opinion of the majority, -for sin is after all a matter of the law of nations, -and there is no universal standard of right and -wrong. When the thermometer stands at 90° in -the shade, and Society consists of forty persons -who must go on meeting each other indefinitely, it -is probable that the forty will tacitly agree to overlook -each other’s peccadilloes for the sake of comfort. -And it is hard to be less charitable to one’s -own failings than one’s neighbour will be.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span></p> - -<p>The stronger nature with which she was in close -intercourse, too, was influencing if it could not entirely -dominate Leoline. Gregory had absolutely -kept his word with regard to their relations with -each other; he did not ask her for a material proof -of her affection, but it was not in human nature -that they should not be often together and alone -without some such hint of passion as had overtaken -them on the evening of Alaric’s departure. His -visits were spasmodic, and dependent to a certain -extent on caution while Halton was still at Government -House, but she never knew when he might -not appear, and had given herself up to receiving -him with a submission that yet kept her nerves on -edge. Sometimes they merely talked—intimately, -it is true, for he unfolded his plans to her as to no -one else—but with hardly a kiss to disturb her -pulses. It was a relief to Gregory to confide in a -mind which he found both receptive and capable of -following him, even of counselling him at times. -He made her the partner of plans he would not -have trusted to a fellow-man, and would have -missed her from his life as a confidante, apart from -her attraction as a woman; for the craving for sympathy -is as great as the craving for alcohol—once -aroused, it becomes a habit, and is hard to satisfy. -During the greater part of his life Gregory had -taught himself to live alone, and regard men and -women alike as likely to be a hindrance to him unless -he could make a passing use of them. Now he -had found a helpmate he meant to bind her to him -by the strongest tie he could fashion.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span></p> - -<p>Leoline gave regally in the expansion of all her -forces, and made him the master of her brain and -spirit as well as heart. Every vital power she had -was at his disposal, and while she gloried in the bestowal -she was troubled that her sensations were -not all clear gain in perfect joy. The temperate, -uncomplicated affection she had felt for Alaric had -in a way made her less unhappy, if also less happy, -which was disturbing. Take it how one will, being -in love is not a comfortable process, provided it is a -real case of unreasoning attachment between two -human beings—unreasoning in that the advantages -of such an attachment do not influence the feeling -at all. No one really enjoys violent emotion, and -of all experiences a sexual love is most likely to be -violent, however it may differ in degree, through a -warmer or colder nature. “All pleasure is negative,” -says Schopenhauer, for the fulfilment of a -desire only concludes the pangs of it. Love as -purely, as mentally as one may, it is a torturing joy—a -bewildering experience that upsets and revolutionises -the ordinary routine of life, and which one -naturally resents. Who cares for the unused depths -of his being brought up to the surface, and forcing -him to live in extremes? It is the memory of love -which is divine; the present experience is by no -means so pleasant, and sooner or later brings the -pain that is only tolerable when it has passed.</p> - -<p>On the day when Mrs. Gilderoy came to see her, -Leoline was looking forward to the arrival of the -mail with mixed feelings. It was due the next day, -and Alfred Halton was going to leave Key Island -by it, for there was peace in Hashish Valley and -China Town, and the natives of Port Victoria were -dully quiet, almost as if the burning of the crops had -been a salutary lesson and had cowed them. There -had been very little drunkenness in the streets of -late—always the prevailing sin of Key Island—and -thefts of cattle had been rare. So far things were -well, and the removal of Halton would be an unfeigned -relief, for Mrs. Lewin had an intuitive dread -of him that all the rest of the population could not -inspire. She had warned Gregory, who would -hardly be warned because of an instinctive contempt -at the roots of his nature for the man who had -always been afraid to act; but the boat that took -Alfred Halton out of her immediate life was as welcome -as a human rescuer, if it had not also brought -the mail. Mrs. Lewin dreaded the mail, and the -sight of her husband’s familiar handwriting. It -would force her to face her own intention again, to -consider their relations, and how she should deliberately -sever herself from him. While he was absent -there had been a certain pause in action that had -left her finally uncommitted. She did not mean to -flinch from the actual step, and yet she wished that -his return might be delayed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span></p> - -<p>She had not expected the Administrator that -night, for he had been to Port Albert, and she had -not heard of his return. His visits were almost -always made in the evening after dinner, when he -could snatch a half-hour unobserved and likely to -be undisturbed, and his appearance on this occasion -was later than his usual hour. There was something -hurried and almost abrupt about his entrance -too, partly from the fact that he was in riding dress, -and it seemed as if he must have come straight from -his return journey.</p> - -<p>She had risen rather hastily as Abdallah announced -him, and instinctively looked past his -broad shoulders to see the white turban vanish out -of sight before she greeted him. But he hardly -waited for safety, and drew her into his arms with -an unusual demonstration of passion. They stood -silent for a moment, and she was suddenly a little -faint. Either some desperate feeling in him communicated -itself to her, or the violent demand of -his nature sapped her strength. She had not the -resistance to draw her lips away, but it was a relief -when the interminable kiss was over. She gave an -odd little laugh to recover herself, and laid her hand -against his face with tender familiarity.</p> - -<p>“You haven’t shaved to-day! How dare you -kiss me?”</p> - -<p>“I know—I’m only just back. I came straight -in.”</p> - -<p>“Haven’t you been home?” she asked, startled. -“Haven’t you dined?”</p> - -<p>“Yes!”—something seemed to strangle him in -the one word. “Yes—I—went home. No, don’t -call any one. I’m going back to Government House -to feed—later.”</p> - -<p>“But, Evelyn”—her arms suddenly tightened -about his large loose figure; she looked up with a -beautiful white face—“have you bad news?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span></p> - -<p>“No!”—he spoke the one word with no uncertainty, -but then he framed her face in his two hands -and looked hard into her eyes. “Do you know,” -he said fiercely, “I am tempted to break my word -to you!”</p> - -<p>“How?”—but she knew in all her leaping blood.</p> - -<p>“To make you rather more mine than I have a -right to yet, to-night.” For a minute it seemed -that his decision hung in the balance, while she -wondered blankly why her will seemed frozen, and -she could not say at once, as she must do, “I will -not!”</p> - -<p>“If I let you off, promise me afresh to come -to me some day—when we are free,” he said -urgently, the assurance of his first words startling -her. “You will not throw me over for some -woman’s scruple—will you?”</p> - -<p>Such uncertainty was even more unusual than his -taking her consent for granted, for he was anxious -now, pleading for what he had already gained, as if -there were some real fear of losing it.</p> - -<p>“Evelyn, there is something troubling you!” she -exclaimed. “There <i>is</i> something wrong!”</p> - -<p>“No, nothing—but say what I want. Promise -me——”</p> - -<p>“What?”</p> - -<p>“That you are mine whatever happens. That -nothing shall stand between us.”</p> - -<p>She hesitated, panic-stricken. All the responsibility -of such selfishness as he asked for weighed -upon her with a sudden burden.</p> - -<p>“We have decided——” she began.</p> - -<p>“No, but swear it——”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span></p> - -<p>Then his mood changed as strangely as it appeared -to have come upon him. He clasped her -waist with his arm again, and dropped his head -heavily against her breast. She almost staggered -under his massive weight, even though he held -her.</p> - -<p>“No, I will ask nothing of you,” he said thickly. -“I will trust you to give me more than I deserve, -Leo—but you are free to choose. I am too hardened -a sinner for you to be bound to, or smirch -yourself with, perhaps. And yet—I love you—love -you!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span></p> - -<p>The cry was so genuine that it frightened her for -their safety, and she said “Hush” instinctively. His -face when he raised it was lined and scarred as if -with his own storm of feeling, and he looked harsher-featured -and more rugged than ever. Even after -he had regained his usual control and left her, she -kept going over the incident with a feeling of bewilderment. -It was the only occasion on which -she had seen him so upset, and he appeared to her -almost wild—almost as if possessed by some unlooked-for -remorse. She could but suppose that -their mutual relations stung his sense of honour, too, -at times, though it was a venial sin, but such a revelation -was almost pitiful to her, and, strange to say, -strengthened her own resolution to sacrifice the rest -of the world to him, as no appeal of his could have -done. Even the momentary danger she had been -in of a sexual advance in their relations with each -other did not alarm her as it had at the time. She -realised that the danger had been there, for Gregory’s -force of will had at times almost a hypnotic -influence upon her, and where she would once have -been confident in her own power of denial, she had -learned to doubt herself; but she realised also that -it was no mere access of passion and self-indulgence -that had made him desire a more complete possession -of her. For some reason he was afraid of a -possible break in the tie that bound them, and -wished to strengthen it by every means in his power. -He judged that, once master of her body, her morality -would be uneasy until he had an established -right to such privilege, and by foregoing that claim -he had weakened his own position with her. But -why should he doubt her resolution now, and why -be so suddenly anxious to secure her even to the -extent of compromising her honour?</p> - -<p>The question troubled her waking thoughts, and -followed her even into her dreams. But she found -no answer to her own vague disquietude, and the -darker knowledge in Gregory’s mind was hidden -from her.</p> - -<p>“Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle -... that he may be smitten, and die.</p> - -<p>“And it came to pass, when Joab observed the -city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he -knew that valiant men were.</p> - -<p>“And the men of the city went out and fought -with Joab; and there fell some of the people of -the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died -also.”</p> - -<p>For, as Gregory had said, he had been home before -he came on to the bungalow, and there he -found that during his absence in Port Albert news -had arrived, and awaited him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span></p> - -<p>There had been a cable from Capetown.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“Quos Deus vult perdere, dementat prius!”—<i>Latin Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>The Post Office at Port Victoria is in the same -block of buildings as the Government Office, though -on a lower floor, and the busy staircase is thronged -by officials as well as people coming for their mail -or posting letters. There is no delivery in Port -Victoria, for two excellent reasons—local communication -is carried on solely through the telephone, -or notes by bearer, and on mail days the recipients -of letters besiege the office for their mail, long before -the sorting is over. Most of the residents have -a box, and prefer to call for their letters to having -them delivered, so the postman’s duties are a farce, -and by the time he goes his rounds he has no letters -to carry.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span></p> - -<p>Bristow Nugent rode into town early that mail -day, but he had business at the A.S.C. yard, and at -the garrison office, and by the time he reached the -Post Office it was one o’clock, and his letters had -been waiting for him in the box for two hours. At -the foot of the rough staircase were a group of men -he knew—Arthur White, Archie Lysle the regimental -chaplain, the harbour master, Hamilton -Gurney, and young Rennie—and before he had -spoken a word to them their concerned faces had -told him that something was wrong. Although -knowing that his private affairs could not have -reached them before himself, his heart contracted -with the sick throb of fear peculiar to men stationed -in distant corners of the earth, and feeling themselves -helplessly out of reach of their nearest and -dearest, and the good-looking animal face under the -white helmet suddenly blanched.</p> - -<p>“What’s up?” he said characteristically.</p> - -<p>“It’s Lewin——” the Attorney-General answered -as briefly and to the point as he was asked. “They -cabled from Capetown last night, and the details -are in to-day.”</p> - -<p>“Lewin!—Ally!—what about him?”</p> - -<p>“He’s dead!”</p> - -<p>Nugent caught at the wooden banister as if -White had struck him, and turned sharply from -one to the other with the words he could not utter -on his lips. They answered his questions amongst -themselves without his asking them.</p> - -<p>“He made a mess of things over the East African -business, and—and cleared out of it.” Young -Rennie spoke first, but shied off the explanation -like a frightened horse. There was some darker -meaning here than the natural fate which overtakes -any man. Nugent’s face grew sharper with -anxiety.</p> - -<p>“Poor young fool!” said White. “He was the -wrong man in the wrong place. Fell in with his -own regiment too, and made a night of it—got -drunk most likely, and talked.”</p> - -<p>“Talked Government secrets too—<i>Gregory’s</i> secrets! -There will be a devil of a row to hush up -now. Gregory may have to go himself.”</p> - -<p>“Serve him right!” put in the little Chaplain -with unexpected savagery. “What did he want -sending a harmless fool like Ally into such a tight -place? It was Halton’s job.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p> - -<p>“Lewin went away like a sick beast, poor devil, -somewhere into the interior.” It was Arthur White -who seemed to know by instinct the raging questions -Nugent could not frame, and answered them with -more coherence than the rest. “That was how it -was they never found him for so long, and the news -was delayed. It only came down to Capetown a -few days since, and the mail picked up Hanney’s -letter at Beira.”</p> - -<p>“How did he die?” Brissy had found his voice -at last. The curt words surprised himself that they -should be in his ordinary tone. He had fancied, -with his throat dry and burning like that, that he -must be hoarse. “Was it fever or a scrimmage?”</p> - -<p>There was a brief pause, and the men looked at -each other.</p> - -<p>“Neither,” said White, without glancing at the -questioner. “He shot himself.”</p> - -<p>“Funked it, by Jove!” The words came under -Brissy’s breath. He did not know what it was that -shocked him—the suggestion of cowardice to his -mind, or the staggering realisation of the extent of -Alaric Lewin’s indiscretion to have driven him to -such a course. It must indeed have been a disaster -that had made Ally see no way out of it, but to -take his own life. What, in God’s name, had he -been doing?</p> - -<p>“Does his wife know?” he said roughly, in his -fear.</p> - -<p>“Poor girl!—no, how should she?”</p> - -<p>“Some one must tell her. It will leak out, and -she’ll hear it straight, if they don’t.”</p> - -<p>“I pity the man who breaks it to her, that’s all!” -It was Rennie who spoke, and his tones were -heartfelt. “I wouldn’t for anything the world contains!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span></p> - -<p>“Some one must.” Brissy set his white teeth and -looked from one to the other. There was no response -in their faces, and their eyes avoided his -rather than otherwise. In the pause a heavy step -sounded on the landing above, and the Administrator -himself appeared, leaning over the rail of the -stair. His gaunt form and harsh face showed not -one sign of weakness—hardly even of pity or concern—but -he signed imperiously to Arthur White.</p> - -<p>“Can you come up and speak with me?” he -said. “I want you.”</p> - -<p>As if by a common impulse all the men turned -and followed the Attorney-General up the stair, and -crowded into the narrow passage, looking with stern -earnestness into Gregory’s face. He held some letters -in his hand, and beyond him, through the open -door of the office he had just left, Alfred Halton’s -figure was just visible, seated by the open window. -It was so hot at this hour of the day—being barely -past the Miroro—and in the narrow passage between -the offices, that the sweat hung in beads round the -lips and on the temples of every man present, without -any movement or exertion on their part, while -the smell of the air seemed the essence of heat—a -baked atmosphere, without actual matter to flavour -it.</p> - -<p>“We were speaking of Mrs. Lewin, sir,” said the -Attorney-General firmly. “Does she know of Captain -Lewin’s death?”</p> - -<p>“Not unless some one has already ridden out and -told her, or she is in town.”</p> - -<p>“She isn’t in town, I think, because her groom -came down at eleven and took out her mail.”</p> - -<p>“She could not have heard through the mail, I -suppose?” said the Administrator quickly. “No, -of course not—there was nothing but the cable -from Capetown. My information came from Beira, -and Mrs. Lewin would not hear from there.”</p> - -<p>“They do not know any details at Capetown -then?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span></p> - -<p>“No. Some one will have to break it to Mrs. -Lewin.”</p> - -<p>Again that reluctant pause, while each man in -his own mind saw Chum as she had appeared to -him at some moment when she made the most -vivid picture of herself to him individually. So, -Rennie saw her on horseback, managing a fractious -pony—Arthur White recalled one evening when he -had seen her with his wife in the nursery, bending -over a child’s cot. Hamilton Gurney fancied her -in her own pretty shaded room, lying back against -some coloured cushions, while he sang to her,—but -no man offered to face her with such news as that -the Administrator held in the loose letters in his -hand.</p> - -<p>It was Bristow Nugent who spoke at last,—the -least expected of the group.</p> - -<p>“All right—I’m going.”</p> - -<p>He turned on his heel, as if he could not wait to -think, and ran down the uncarpeted stairs, his spurs -clicking and jingling, and some metal trapping or -other adding to the audible hurry. Outside he -caught his pony by the mane, swung into the saddle -far quicker than he had ever done at a fourth -chucker on the Polo ground, and was tearing past -the stores and out towards Maitso Hill before any -one on the landing had quite realised that it was -Captain Nugent who had risen to the occasion.</p> - -<p>“Bristles has no nerves,” said Rennie in selfish -excuse. “He was about the best man to go—he -won’t really care much. He’s stolid.”</p> - -<p>“Pity you’re so sensitive,” retorted the Chaplain -cuttingly. “A little of Nugent’s stolidity might -do you good.... Lewin was his friend, -too!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span></p> - -<p>Such a thought was in Bristow Nugent’s mind all -through that dusty gallop up the tangled green road, -while the sweat poured down his brown face, and -his heart beat thickly with his errand. Memories -of Ally—old Ally Sloper!—at Sandhurst with him, -when they both came perilously near being -“chucked” because of a certain escapade connected -with a frying-pan and the senior captain’s banjo;—that -night too, when Forrester of the Duke’s -(Forrester always did lay it on so thick!) borrowed -his man’s uniform and went out with Ally as his -“girl,” Ally in a hat and feathers after the style of -a London flower-seller! Lucky thing they were -not spotted that time. And his own special breed -of fox-terriers from which Ally had that bitch he -was so fond of—what was her name? Kiddy—yes, -of course, after some girl on whom he was awfully -gone. Kiddy went to India with Ally, and he confessed -that he cried like a fool when she died from -a karait’s bite. He could understand that too—a -fellow got as fond of a dog as of a child. He -thought inconsistently of his own boy in England, -and wondered how he should feel if his unopened -letters contained bad news. Then his thoughts -harked back to Sandhurst—poor old Ally!... -Such stupid, lovable times!... Men make -tenderer friendships in their young manhood than -they care to express.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span></p> - -<p>He was covered with dust—caked with it—and -streaked with the heat as he dismounted in the stable -yard of the bungalow. Not the state in which -to go into a lady’s drawing-room, he thought ruefully, -pulling the handkerchief out of his sleeve to -wipe his shining face! The hair clung to his damp -forehead as he slipped off his helmet and dropped -it with a little clang of the chain, on to the table in -the hall. Mrs. Lewin was in the further room, Abdallah -said—oh, yes, she was at home to visitors. -Brissy tried instinctively to muffle his spurs as he -walked across the bare boards, through the hanging -curtains, and into her white presence.</p> - -<p>She was sitting by the window, looking out -through an open door to the hot riot of the hillside, -where the wind sang in the grasses and came back -laden with sweetness from the flowering trees, but -she turned her head sharply at the sound of his -ringing step (why did those spurs jar so?) and rose -and met him. The instant he got close to her he -saw that she knew, though how he did not stop to -puzzle out, and with the tears running down his -scorched face he took her hands in his and tried to -speak.</p> - -<p>“This is kind of you, Brissy,” she said in a quick, -low voice, looking up into the eyes she had called -soulless. The first thing she had realised was that -he had made the simple self-sacrifice from which -other men had flinched, and come to tell her as he -best could, with less self-consciousness than they, -but suffering far more from a personal feeling. Another -of her theories fell from her while he stood -there holding her hands, and with a bewildered humiliation -she felt that she would never judge any -one again. For this man of all the Station she had -always held a little in contempt.</p> - -<p>“I had a letter by the mail,” she said, quite quietly -and collectedly, but as if a little weary. “He -sent it by a runner, just before—he.... And -the man got through in time to deliver it and catch -the mail—almost before any one knew. Mustn’t it -have been a wonderful journey? All down through -the German territory, and by Lake Nyassa into -Rhodesia, I suppose. But he was a Malagasy—Ally’s -own servant, Longa—and they are marvellous -runners. You know Longa means <i>friend</i> in the -vernacular—strange, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span></p> - -<p>She paused, as if she were thinking, and put her -hand up to her hair as if a little uncertain that it lay -in its usual correct masses. He only said brokenly, -“Poor old Ally!—he backed out,”—that seemed to -trouble Brissy!—“I wish I had been there.”</p> - -<p>“You would never have done it,”—she shook her -head with a flash of intuition. “You were stronger -than he.” She thought a moment, and then went -on in the same curious fashion. “Yes, Longa (and -that means a friend!) brought the letter to Capetown, -and sent it on to me by the mail. Here it is—oh -yes! do look at it!”</p> - -<p>She nearly thrust it into his hands, which trembled -as they held it. He almost felt that he ought -not to look, as his blurred eyes travelled over the -blotted sheets.</p> - -<p>Poor Ally! Poor, handsome, unreliable Ally—proved -incompetent, and such a failure!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span></p> - -<p>It was a disconnected letter at best, and nothing -really but a confession of the man’s shame, which -had to be pieced together from a knowledge of -him, for he had made no coherent statement. He -had fallen in with his own regiment, who were -camped just outside Port Cecil, and what with the -reaction in getting out of Key Island, and “the fellows” -being glad to welcome him—well, the result -was the same as it had been when he failed before, and -the Administrator wanted him on the night of the -threatened rising. He did not remember very much. -He was not dead drunk this time—if he had been it -might have saved him—but after dining with the -regiment (and God knows what he had said to them, -only they were decent fellows and would shield him), -he had had an important interview with the -men most involved in the insurrection. It was a -private interview, and a diplomatic affair that was to -be kept very dark. Melton Hanney arranged it, he -had been most decent all through—there was no -blame attached to him. He had settled with Ally -as to when the meeting should take place, but had -not been present at the interview. There was an -argument—Ally did not remember the details very -well—only his head was heated, and he got impatient, -and lost his temper and threatened. The men -saw his condition and drew him on—then he -bragged of his Government, and their powers; and -then—then—all that Gregory had explained to him -so carefully lest he should make mistakes, was -blurted out, and the very nation perhaps involved -by his folly. He knew what he had done almost -before they left him with smooth, guarded speeches, -though no hint of animosity, and a kind of sullen -despair settled down on him. That was three days -ago, before his letter was written—three days of -agonising suspense, and time to think over what he -had done. Nothing was known as yet; he was -supposed to be communicating with his chiefs, or -forming an ultimatum. In the meantime he had -arranged for a shooting excursion inland—and there -was more truth in it than would appear! It seemed -the only thing to do—but he must write the truth -to Hanney. It was not Hanney’s fault, and it -might leave him a chance to do something, and -avert disaster.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span></p> - -<p>“He is a thoroughly capable man, and knows the -whole situation—in my opinion, if that goes for anything -now, he ought to have managed it from the -first,” wrote Alaric Lewin a few hours before death. -“Why did they send me? You said I could not do -it—you were right as usual. I’m no good, Chum—you -always wanted me to do something, but you -would never have made me. I’m better out of it—it’s -the least I can do, for I should only disgrace -you if I lived. You don’t know what I’ve done this -time—it was a big thing, bigger than you all imagine, -and I’ve hashed it. I only trust I shan’t get -Gregory into the mess with me. It is not his fault -any more than Hanney’s. The Home Government -ought to leave it to the man on the spot, or be sure -who they send. And there have been worse things -in my life that concern you, that I can’t tell you -either. They involve others. Only forgive us, and -believe that I’m doing the best thing possible for -you now. Good-bye, Chum—and God bless you!”</p> - -<p>It was signed with his full name, but the letters -were more scrawled than usual, and the whole letter -was blotted and uncertain. The suspicion that hurt -Brissy more than all was what the trembling handwriting -betrayed—the man had been so afraid of -the thing he was going to do! He had not wanted -to die. Only his desperation and the stress of circumstances -in which he found himself had driven -him to a last bold action—forced him, morally at -least, to go down with his back against the wall.</p> - -<p>For the idea of cowardice had faded out of Captain -Nugent’s mind. He saw from that piteous, -confused letter of the man who had hardly understood -his own disaster, that what might have been -weakness in himself was a kind of furious bravery in -Ally. With an unusual stretch of imagination, he -fancied the beautiful set face, the splendidly-built -figure in the lonely place in which his friend had -chosen to die, and heard the crash of the revolver. -Curiously enough he knew Ally’s revolvers; they -were a pair he had given him himself. That they -should come to such a use as this!</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin had been standing beside him patiently -while he read the letter. She made no comment, -and asked no question as he handed back -the sheets, but with a curious new speculation in -her face she turned upon him suddenly.</p> - -<p>“They know—at Government House?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, there was a cable, and a letter followed by -the mail from Beira.”</p> - -<p>“When did the cable come?”</p> - -<p>Brissy hesitated. “This morning, I suppose. I -did not hear.”</p> - -<p>“You are wrong,” she said quietly. “It came -last night.”</p> - -<p>The conviction was so strong in her mind that it -seemed to revolutionise her thoughts. Gregory had -certainly known last night, it accounted for his disturbed -manner and his sudden appearance. But -why had he not prepared her at least? Why had -he thought that when she knew it would prove a -barrier between them—unless he had expected this -beforehand, calculated upon it, plotted some such -solution of the problem that had threatened to keep -them apart! The dreadful suspicion was so intolerable -that she began to fancy she was going mad. -She could not think consecutively—she could not -reason, or judge with mercy. She seemed to have -lost her power to be charitable, and almost to think -of him as a deliberate murderer. For the time all -other feeling was dead in her, stunned with the -shock, and her one dread was that she might have -to see him or speak to him. Her last night’s self -seemed as far removed from herself of to-day as -though they were two separate beings. She could -not remember even her love for him; there seemed -only the dull pain of it left.</p> - -<p>When Mrs. Gilderoy came in later to see her, she -found her lying on her own bed in a kind of stupour; -yet the instant she spoke to her Leoline’s -brain responded, and she answered with perfect -coherence—it was only her feeling that was numb. -She had even settled her plans too, and knew what -she meant to do.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span></p> - -<p>“I cannot leave in this mail boat. I must wait -to see if there are more details to be got, and to arrange -things also. There is business to settle here -that could not be done by to-morrow, and much to -go into.”</p> - -<p>“What will you do then? You will not remain -here?”</p> - -<p>“I shall go to Vohitra as soon as I have packed -up our things and left this house ready for—for the -next people. I want you to stay here with me for -the few days if you will.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll go with you to Vohitra too, if my good man -can spare me. Or if I can’t actually start with you -(of course you’ll want to get away as soon as ever -you can) I’ll follow you.”</p> - -<p>“I shall stay here until the next mail,” said Leoline -levelly. “I have no black clothes of course—is -there a sewing woman in the town who could -make me something?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, a very decent little woman too for such a -place. I will see about that for you. You won’t -go out, I suppose?”</p> - -<p>“No.”</p> - -<p>“She can come up to you. Oh, I am the bearer -of a message from Mr. Gregory himself. His sincere——”</p> - -<p>“Don’t!” said Leoline sharply. For a moment -her calm seemed broken through. She put her -hands over her horror-stricken eyes as if she saw -something that Mrs. Gilderoy could not see. “The -Administrator was the man who appointed Captain -Lewin to East Africa,” she continued in a low voice. -“You can understand how I feel. Of course it is -unreasonable.”</p> - -<p>“But natural at the moment. I quite understand. -Under the circumstances you would rather -not see him?”</p> - -<p>“He has not asked to see me, surely!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span></p> - -<p>“No, but a visit of condolence is almost inevitable. -I will see that he does not come. If he -wants to express his sympathy he can lend you his -yacht to take you round to Port Albert. That is a -much more practical and sensible thing to do.”</p> - -<p>But Mrs. Lewin did not answer. She lay with -closed eyes, not bearing, but enduring, until thought -was kind to her, and instead of the nightmare of -her new suspicions, or the recollection of that -blotted letter, she remembered the revelation of -Bristow Nugent—poor Brissy, who had come to her -with the tears running down his face, and whom she -had always good-humouredly despised as too -coarsely moulded for fine feeling. Truly, our God -creates strange and hidden beauties in the vessels -which He makes of clay. And who shall know His -mind as to which were fashioned to honour and -which to dishonour?</p> - -<hr class="tb"> - -<p>Two days later the mail went out, and carried -Alfred Halton through the Gates, out of prison back -to England. Half Port Victoria, still talking of -“poor Lewin’s death,” came down to the wharf to -see him off, and the Administrator came also. -Hardly a word had passed between the two men on -the subject in everybody’s mouth beyond what was -necessary, but before they said good-bye Halton -expressed an official regret over the gravity of the -situation in Port Cecil, and his eyes, meeting Gregory’s, -declared war.</p> - -<p>“I have already stated my opinion that Lewin -was the wrong man to send,” he said quietly, “I -can only wish you well out of the unfortunate complication!” -The small man was turning to bay at -last.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span></p> - -<p>“The Colonial Office will not hold you responsible, -at any rate,” said Gregory with his insolent -lidless stare. “My course of action was entirely -my own.”</p> - -<p>“And any disaster that followed.”</p> - -<p>“Melton Hanney is at Port Cecil,” said Gregory -with a shrug of his shoulders. “If one cannot -trust the man in place one may as well throw up the -sponge. I do not suppose that Lewin’s indiscretions -will lead to international trouble, but if they did—it -means a certain expenditure of men and money,” -he ended composedly.</p> - -<p>Halton turned his face slowly to the man who -was his better by just the larger qualities that made -him without fear, and it was ugly to see. As the -Administrator put his foot on the gang-plank to -leave the ship, his fellow in office spoke softly, -barbed words that were intended for, and reached -no other ears.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span></p> - -<p>“‘Some of the King’s servants be dead,’” he -quoted slowly, “‘and thy servant Uriah the Hittite -is dead also!’” It was the last that passed between -them.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“He needs a clever counsel who stands at the world’s tribunal.”—<i>English -Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>Mrs. Lewin had not seen Diana Churton, save at -passing moments, for a period of some weeks, but -she encountered her on the day she started for -Vohitra. Diana had called in company with other -women in the Station, during the time following -Ally’s departure; but Leoline had always looked -upon her as her husband’s friend, and did not expect, -or desire, an equal attention to herself. -Diana’s scanty visits had not impressed her in any -way, and her own absorption during those drifting, -golden weeks blinded her usual observation. It -struck her with a positive shock that Mrs. Churton -had aged when she came face to face with her in -the morning sunlight on the quay; but the knowledge -even then lay dormant in her mind, not to be -considered upon until some day she might have -need of it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span></p> - -<p>The Administrator had placed his yacht at her -disposal, and she made use of it in preference to -the coasting steamer, which otherwise was the only -means of transport to Port Albert. The yacht was -a fussy, old-fashioned little steamboat in itself, prone -to kick in the deep current that washed the east -coast of the island; but at least she did not smell -of oil, and she had passenger accommodation, while -the coasting steamers had none save the dirty deck, -which was crowded with fruit and coloured people -in about equal proportions. Mrs. Lewin accepted -the hospitality of the <i>Hova</i>, and found herself the -only passenger.</p> - -<p>Liscarton came also, to his deep disgust and the -degradation of his dignity. He had been Captain -Nugent’s last gift to Leoline, who accepted him -with a faint smile at the remembrance of Mrs. -Gilderoy’s comments on the significance of a pony -in Key’land. Brissy left by the mail that also took -Halton out of the Rat-trap. He came up to the -bungalow to say good-bye, and sat looking desperate -for twenty minutes, while Mrs. Lewin unconsciously -made him more unhappy by loving him -across the room with her speaking eyes. He had -so often bored her by lingering at her tea-table that -she felt her reluctance to let him go on this occasion -a judgment upon her, and was always a little -ashamed in her after life to remember that she had -very nearly kissed him. Fortunately for his peace -of mind, Captain Bristow Nugent thought his -chance of heaven no more remote than such a -privilege.</p> - -<p>It was in turning round to watch Liscarton’s -vagaries in embarking that Leoline Lewin saw another -pony being led off by a groom, and a dust-coloured -habit that she knew advancing on her. -Beneath the white helmet Diana’s face seemed to -have fallen in and grown pinched; her hard-burnt -colour had faded somewhat, and her eyes were the -eyes of an uncertain beast—some wild thing in -captivity that awaits a chance to bite its keeper -through all its habit of obedience. Her loud voice -was alone unchanged. It greeted Mrs. Lewin with -the same bluff comradeship she adopted in her -feminine friendships.</p> - -<p>“So you’re off to Vohitra! Best thing you could -do. I wish I could get up there too.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span></p> - -<p>“I hoped you might come up later, perhaps,” -said Mrs. Lewin as they shook hands. It struck -her as hopelessly indecent that she should stand -here on the quay chatting after Key’land fashion, -when she had only had news of her husband’s death -about a week since. But the conventionalities of -tradition seemed squeezed out by the narrow limits -of life in the tiny Station. For a day or so she -might shut herself out from public view behind -drawn shutters, but the instant she appeared in the -open air an encounter was unavoidable; and why -should she turn her back upon friends because her -husband was dead? she thought blankly. After -all, life had to go on. She was dully surprised to -find herself talking much the same as usual, of the -narrow round of intimacy, of the people she knew, -of monotonous, local interests. “Mrs. Gilderoy -joins me on Thursday,” she found herself saying, -as if it were an ordinary summer outing. “Won’t -you come too?”</p> - -<p>“Can’t, unfortunately. Bute came back this -week.”</p> - -<p>“He has been for quite a long shoot, hasn’t he? -Ah, he rode round the island—I forgot.” Again -Mrs. Gilderoy occurred to her mind, and a dull -speculation crossed it as to whether she were right, -and Diana’s face bore testimony to a domestic -tragedy.</p> - -<p>“Yes, he wanted a change,” Mrs. Churton said -naturally, and in so composed a manner it dispelled -the idea of anything being wrong. “He was -awfully seedy before he went. This place doesn’t -suit him. But it doesn’t suit any one long. How -are you?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know,” said Leoline simply. “What -does it matter? One just goes on living. Tell me -the news of the place.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span></p> - -<p>“There is none. The Clayton woman has taken -a religious craze, Rennie tells me. He can’t stand -her any longer, so he’ll probably revert to Trixie -Denver. There’s nothing else to amuse him until -he gets transferred. You go home next mail, I -suppose? How I envy you!” She drew a long -rasping breath that seemed to hurt her.</p> - -<p>“I would have been contented to stop here if I -could have kept as I was,” said Mrs. Lewin bitterly, -for the shock that her life had sustained had driven -her back on a former mental attitude. She felt at -the moment that if she could wipe out the horror -of her suspicion about Gregory, she would be content -to live out her life with Alaric Lewin and all -his weakness and failure. She glanced down at her -long slim figure in its new black, and Mrs. Churton’s -eyes followed her own.</p> - -<p>“Mourning is awfully hot,” she said simply. -“You can wear white if you like at Vohitra—there -will be no one to see. I don’t see that it matters—when -one feels much, clothes seem so insignificant -a proof, don’t they?” Her sharpened face took a -strained hurt look that made it pathetic.</p> - -<p>“Oh, what do I care!” said Chum, impatient of -her own pain and remorse, missing all hint of the -other’s. “One cannot lose one’s instincts of course, -but I would wear sackcloth—with a cut,” she added -honestly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span></p> - -<p>They parted there on the quay, unconscious of -the bitterness in each other’s hearts, Diana to go -back to the house that held a grim tragedy for her -in her husband’s face—Leoline to take ship and flee -from herself, if such a miracle had been permitted. -She could not get away, any more than Bute -Churton and his wife could get away from the -degradation of that every-day life in which he had -always a memory to shame him, she one that had -driven the iron into her soul. She had never given -him a chance to ask her pardon. It was the one -revenge left her, for she knew that he could not rest -in the sense of his own lost self-esteem. He was -trying to speak of it, and she would not let him. -Sometimes she watched the big man moving about -uneasily, with hard brown eyes that hated him, and -knew that his mind was troubled, until she would -have liked to have mocked him. She grew cruel in -those days, for the grinding intimacy of their narrow -life prevented either of them gaining a long -enough respite to think, and learn patience apart. -Truly Key Island was a trap!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span></p> - -<p>It looked so in reality to Mrs. Lewin from the -deck of the yacht, as she was carried out of harbour. -Once more her eyes rested on the green -circle of Maitso and Mitsinjovy cuddling the bay. -She looked back at the little palm-ridden place, -and the ravenalas lifted solemn hands in blessing -on the shore even as she passed through the gates -and out to the open channel. For a minute Leoline -breathed more freely as the heat of the harbour -was replaced by a warm sea wind, but she had not -got rid of Key Island even yet. The yacht hugged -the coast, and the lovely shore was flashed on her -line of vision as she lay in her deck-chair and looked -idly at her surroundings. Maitso Hill faded round a -point, and the deep water enabled them to pass -closely to the warm green slopes that seemed to -hang right down over the water. Some way inland, -among the desolate native villages of the Company’s -day, a brotherhood of priests had settled themselves, -with the fervour of their Order for conversion of -the hopelessly intermingled black races. The Domicile -was not visible from the coast, but with a very -lovely expression of their religion they had set up -here and there a white cross in the dense green -vegetation. They did not mark either grave or -shrine—they were simply placed there for the love -of the symbol, and the sudden pure white thing uplifting -its pathetic memory against the riotous growth -of the cliff, brought the relief of unhoped-for tears -to Leoline’s eyes. There seemed something infinitely -gracious in this memory of God set up for -chance passers-by—a gleaming, plain white cross, -standing out in strong relief against the wild green, -clinging as it were to the very edge of the land, -above the sea. For so the priests of Notre Seigneur -have set them up on the East coast of Key Island, -like a beacon.</p> - -<p>By and by the yacht passed a point of land where -the Captain pointed out an old battered gun, still -thrusting up a helpless muzzle through the guava -and logwood which had triumphantly woven it a -grave. He gave Mrs. Lewin a telescope to make it -out, and she wished she had not looked—its futile -mouth, agape through the green, seemed like a discarded -servant whom man had ungratefully forgotten -and left to rot among the forces of Nature.</p> - -<p>“In the time of the Company they fortified all -this coast, because of the French cruisers,” said the -Captain, in explanation. “You will find all the -Madagascan side of the island ready to fight—but -we expect peace from our African neighbours.”</p> - -<p>“Besides, the sand-banks are a safeguard against -any enemy,” said Mrs. Lewin dryly. “And Africa -Point is hardly the kind of coast on which to effect -a landing! What is the name of this Point where -the poor old gun stands?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span></p> - -<p>“Tifiro—it means, briefly, shoot! Not that they -could have done much execution with that old -thing. It’s about as much use as the guns that the -Government give to our Volunteers at home! The -Company themselves removed their fortifications to -Port Albert during the last few years of their reign -in Key Island, and since it became a Government -affair they have been added to and improved.”</p> - -<p>Another long luxuriance of coast brought them -into harbour again; but the little town of Port Albert -looked a mere village after the important coaling-station -of Port Victoria, and the vaunted fortifications -seemed in a very unfinished condition. There -was a landing-jetty, but more for the convenience of -shipping the sugar than for the accommodation of -passengers or general cargo. It looked like a native -settlement at first sight, all the huts raised on their -four little feet above the ground, and the cluster of -thatched roofs suggesting China Town over again. -As it happened, Leoline had never been to Port -Albert before, and had imagined it a much larger -place. She stood forlornly among her baggage as -it was placed on the jetty, the servants who had accompanied -her huddling round with the thrust-out -lower lip of native disapproval.</p> - -<p>The Administrator’s yacht had attracted some -attention, and a staring group of coloured people -were pushed aside by a tall burnt man in the universal -riding-breeches and linen coat, who came -forward and lifted a broad hat to Mrs. Lewin.</p> - -<p>“I am Mr. Ambroise, the Town Warden,” he explained -in the pleasant free manner that men gain -in such small corners of the Empire, where they feel -their nation all one big family. “Mr. Gregory sent -me word that a lady would put up at my house for -a night on the way up to Vohitra. Are you Mrs. -Lewin?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. But I don’t like to trouble you to turn out!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s all right. I always go to the hotel -when any one comes up, and leave them my place. -Mosquitoes don’t hurt me for the night, you see, -and the hotel is—well, rather impossible for ladies!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span></p> - -<p>“I know, I’ve tried the Natale!”</p> - -<p>“At Port Victoria? It’s a palace compared to -this, I assure you!” He laughed his pleasant, unrestrained -laugh, as if his lungs had never been -cramped. Then, glancing at her black gown, the -eyes under the broad hat grew graver and a little -pitiful. Mrs. Lewin looked unintentionally girlish -and appealing in the simplicity of the clothes which -were all that the native dressmaker could accomplish. -But because she was herself it seemed bound -to fit her, and the beauty of her figure was quite as -obvious under their plain folds as in her more elaborate -gowns. Mr. Ambroise thought with honest -sympathy of the poor fellow who had made such a -hash of things in East Africa, and looked into Mrs. -Lewin’s eyes with a little sense of awe. Like every -one else, he could never tell their exact colour; he -only knew that they were most wonderful, and held -a tragedy.</p> - -<p>“Is this all your baggage—and your servants?” -he said, looking round him at her property, which -seemed to her rather overwhelming on the elementary -jetty. “Everything you have?”</p> - -<p>“Except my pony. They are disembarking him -now—with some difficulty,” said Leoline drily.</p> - -<p>Liscarton had a character of his own, and was -showing it. He might have been a member of -Parliament in some former state of existence from -his tendency to argue. When he had done his best -to demolish the jetty with his hoofs, and had scattered -the crowd to the safety of the beach, he consented -to walk quietly into the little town, his ears -laid back among his ragged mane, and the whites of -his eyes showing wickedly.</p> - -<p>“I have no cart, and it is only half-a-mile—will -you walk?” said Ambroise simply. “You won’t -get on that brute, will you?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span></p> - -<p>“I think he would behave better if I rode him,” -said Mrs. Lewin. “It does not matter about a -habit—I can ride in this skirt.”</p> - -<p>It seemed to her a strange procession through -the dirty little streets—herself mounted, by gracious -permission of Liscarton, Ambroise walking at the -pony’s shoulder, the servants behind, and half-a-dozen -natives following with the boxes. The men -here she noticed, with the knowledge gained in six -months, were more Malagasy than Negro—a much -finer race, brown-skinned and blue-eyed, with flattened -slender limbs, and features which had the -pensive dignity of the Hindoo. Ambroise’s servants -were of the same tribe, from Anossi, and -waited on her that night with strange words that -she did not recognise, even from the Patois—<i>Inona -izao?</i> for What do you wish? and <i>Salama</i> for -greeting. The night was intensely hot—far hotter -than any she had spent in the bungalow—and she -was not sorry to rise at four next morning to ride -out to Vohitra. At all events it was in the hills, -and would be cooler than this low-lying, crowded -little town.</p> - -<p>“I sent up some supplies,” Ambroise said, as he -marshalled the little procession, and mounted his -own pony—he was going to ride out with them -some way, and show them the road—“and my butler -is up there waiting for you. I hope you’ll find -everything in order. I have sent plenty of tinned -things, as it’s difficult to get them out sometimes, -and you might run short.”</p> - -<p>“It is most kind of you to take all this trouble. -Mrs. Gilderoy did not warn me that I should be so -helpless on other people’s bounty.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span></p> - -<p>“She took it all for granted, most likely. They -always stay with me when they go out to Vohitra, -and I send up and open the place for them beforehand.”</p> - -<p>“You know the Gilderoys?”</p> - -<p>“Oh yes. She’s a clever woman. He’s rather -too caustic for my taste. It’s like an overdose of -quinine to talk to him for long!”</p> - -<p>“Do you often have visitors?”</p> - -<p>“Only during the summer as a rule. But it’s -always summer, more or less, isn’t it? The temperature -does not alter much. My most frequent -guest is Mr. Gregory. He is round about once a -fortnight, and since he has been Administrator the -accommodation has had to be looked to, owing to -his fashion of visiting every part of his little domain -at a minute’s notice. Not that he would mind if -one gave him a Karross and the bare ground; but -his unexpected appearances have had a salutary -effect on the police stations, at which one generally -has to stay in a native village.”</p> - -<p>Leoline was silent, while a sudden fear gripped -her heart. Even here she was not safe from him, it -seemed. She had come away from Port Victoria -with some idea of leaving it all behind her—the -horror and the pain; she had forgotten his constant -visits to Port Albert as well as China Town, -and the native settlements on the Tableland. -She felt the confinement of the island again, -which, for a time, she had lost in the distraction -of seeing its further extent. It was no less a trap -because the rats ran round it in their desire to -escape.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span></p> - -<p>After a time they left Port Albert behind them, -and were out in the Tsara Valley—the great centre -of the sugar-growing industry in Key Island. They -were leaving the river, and crossing the wide fields -to their right, the ponies going single file to keep -the narrow paths which were all the greedy Planters -allowed through their rich plantations, save the lines -of rail for the trucks. As the valley opened before -them, Leoline felt blinded by the cane. It spread -on all sides, a sheet of liquid sunshine, from the bed -of the Volofatsy River, which cut it in two, up even -to the hillsides, clear gold-green, waving with every -breath of wind that crossed it, a sight to see once -and remember always. The valley was clothed -with it, and the dark sides of the mountains, that -shot up out of its reach, seemed only to throw it -into greater prominence.</p> - -<p>“It’s a fine crop,” Ambroise said, drawing rein -and looking round him. “And nearly ripe. You’ll -see the sugar industry in its glory, Mrs. Lewin. -They will begin cutting next week.”</p> - -<p>“Where is the factory?”</p> - -<p>“Behind us, but the other side of the river. I -must say good-bye to you here. There’s your road, -that track up the mountain side. Good-bye! -Please send out to me if you want anything.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span></p> - -<p>He rode off in the increasing day, and Leoline -went on her lonely way, the coloured people closing -in behind her. She could not miss her road for -there was but one, though it wound in and out what -looked like unbroken forest from the valley. High -up on the hillside hung Vohitra, a long building -with the inevitable stoep and an old tiled roof. It -looked nothing but a toy thing, like a Swiss châlet, -against the massed woods of the mountain crest, but -below it in the hollow the vegetation was less -severe. There was a grove of bananas tossed down -the very slope where the house rested, and below -this again the plaintive tone of bamboo—not the -insistent liquid sunshine of the cane that filled the -valley, but the hesitating green that is pale and -golden and infinitely soft by reason of the feathery -mass of its foliage. Down the heart of the valley -came the river, a shallow stream that sang loudly to -the silent listening heavens and the kites, for there -seemed no one else to hear. Even Vohitra, with its -hint of humanity, was infinitely lonely.</p> - -<p>Breakfast was laid for her on the stoep, and Ambroise’s -butler, a tall comely Malagasy, bowed low -before her with the murmured “Salama!” and asked -her pleasure before he left the hill and returned to -Port Albert. She looked at his picturesque figure -in its deeply fringed <i>lamba</i>—the Malagasy at Port -Victoria had in general discarded the native dress—and -wished that she might have kept him in preference -to Hafez, already grumbling among the calabashes. -But she had no orders to give, save a pathetic -request for a bath, and that, she learned, -already awaited her.</p> - -<p>She ate her breakfast in sight of the cane, which -was beginning to assert its old influence upon her. -There are two crops in Key Island; the one she had -seen cut and crushed in Mr. Denver’s factory was -the lesser yield, but the Tsara Valley was now in its -full glory. Her eyes strayed down the hillside to -the rich harvest in the valley again and again, with -a kind of fascination. It soothed her in some -strange fashion to see the clear colour that always -suggested spring and new life, and hope, even -though the season was really autumn. Tsara—spring -o’ the year! The very name seemed to -breathe the pure green of ripened sap, the rejuvenescence -of Nature. The shock and jar of sudden -death had come so near her of late, that she felt as -if it had dinned her senses; now it hummed off into -distance again, and life closed peacefully round her, -leaving her time to think....</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span></p> - -<p>She sauntered through the house after a while, -and looked at the long rows of closed doors, for the -bungalow was a large one and built to accommodate -many visitors, being in a sense a government hotel -for the use of sorely-tried officials. The rooms -were like loose boxes, and not much larger, but the -heat was far less oppressive than in the lower portions -of the island, and when the doors were fastened -back the cool breeze that blew straight through -the house, down the long corridor, made them bearable -even at night. Mrs. Lewin’s room was exactly -like all the others, save that it possessed a key, which -she had sternly demanded of Ambroise’s butler. -None of the other doors appeared to have any fastening -beyond a rickety handle.</p> - -<p>From the house itself she found the stable, and -Liscarton, who received her with distrust as one -who had lured him into the wilderness. Nor would -he accept the sugar she offered, which for a pony -who was always hungry was a proof of great offence. -But sometimes he would sulk for days if his -temper were upset. She pulled his head down in -spite of his resentful manner, and kissed the white -blaze between his wild eyes and the rough fringe on -his forehead. Neither his mane nor tail had been -cut, for he had never played polo, and it gave him -an untamed appearance in contrast to other ponies. -Mrs. Lewin hid the sugar in his manger in case he -should change his mind, and went in search of the -bath-room.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span></p> - -<p>She discovered it at the end of a steep path which -took her a hundred yards down the hillside. It was -nothing but a rough wooden shed, with a zinc roof -that did not touch the further wall by some inches. -As Mrs. Lewin undressed she looked up and saw a -slit of azure sky and the crowned head of a cocoanut -palm that kept watch above her, but the palm -had no appreciative eyes for a new version of Eve. -The floor was just warm mother earth, for it had -neither been flagged nor matted, and the bath itself -was a deep zinc tub with a foot of dubious water in -it. Leoline balanced daintily on the piece of board -which was all the carpeting allowed to save her from -the gritty ground, and observed that the other furniture -of the place consisted of an old cigarette-tin -nailed to the wall for a soap dish, and a wooden peg -on which the towels hung. It was not luxurious, -but any means of washing is respected in Key Island, -and she had learned humility in this respect. -By the time she sauntered back to the bungalow it -was nine o’clock, and the broad heat had begun.</p> - -<p>One day was very like another at Vohitra; it -seemed as if the hours had melted into each other, -and the solitude and rest were healing her nature -from the wrench it had sustained. She could think -now, and face her own evolution. She did not read -much, though she had brought a box of books with -her. Curiously enough, it was none of these, but a -little broken-backed <i>Rubaiyat</i> that she found on a -dusty shelf at Vohitra that was her closest companion -when she desired a book at all. It had probably -been left behind by a former visitor, and it opened -so invariably at one stanza that she never seemed to -get any further—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“Some for the riches of the world, and some</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ah, take the cash, and let the credit go!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor heed the rolling of a distant drum.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The volume used to lie open in her lap at this -verse, while she looked so long at the cane, and -thought of Gregory.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span></p> - -<p>She could bear to think of him now, even though -with a consciousness of her own responsibility she -recognised that her intuitive fear had not been one -to argue away—he had foreseen and looked for -some such removing of the barrier between them, -as had actually occurred. If she could, she would -have screened him with the impression she had first -had of his motive in appointing Alaric to the difficulty -and danger of East Africa; she had thought -that his words had a literal meaning when he said -that he could not part from her, and that he had -sent her husband away to indulge the momentary -impulse, perhaps even to come to an understanding -between them, and woo and win her. Anyhow, she -had looked at it as an indefinite move, a respite from -Ally’s presence—no more. That would have been -a woman’s way—her own way, perhaps, but not Gregory’s. -The strong man looked further ahead, he -had no motiveless actions. There was a darker object -in Captain Lewin’s appointment than a mere -desire to be rid of him at the moment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span></p> - -<p>She seemed to have discovered this without effort -on her part, as soon as she realised that he had -known of Alaric’s death the night before it was -made public. He had been afraid of losing her—his -own consciousness told him that he might, if she -knew. Had he been innocent of this blood, the -fear would not have struck him at all. She never -masked the situation to herself any more, once she -had faced it; this man that she loved had no scruples, -he struck at what stood in his path, though it -might be human life, and his career was a proof of -such fearless murder. Well, the kings of the earth -have succeeded so. But the marvel to her was that -this knowledge of him had not killed her love. It -had been numbed with the blow of her discovery -of his pitfall for the man who stood in his way; -but as the first horror passed off, as the mental life -flowed back to her in the solitude of Vohitra, she -realised that her heart had only been paralysed—the -pain of returning feeling proved it alive through its -very wounds. The last of her theories fell before -the very anguish that cried out for him, the yearning -of all her womanhood to his master touch. She -had thought that she could not love save at a certain -standard; Evelyn Gregory could only reach that -standard in one particular, that of ruthless strength, -but the knowledge of his shortcomings, though it -might appal her, did not make him one whit less -dear to her.</p> - -<p>The very pain of it seemed to have developed her -into something alien, a character not her own. She -had been so sure she knew herself, that the revelation -of that in her which could overthrow her theories -made her more patient and anxious to learn -of her own fundamental nature. It was a new education, -for she proved what is true of women in all -ages—that love teaches them a sorrow so deep that -they hide it in their secret consciousness, and swear -they are happy. They never are happy, from the -days of Eve and Adam until now; yet the woman -does not exist, and never did exist, who, having been -in love, would part with the experience. She would -often willingly part with her after-memory of the -man, and her disillusion; but with her own private -emotions, and the glow and glory of which he was -only the trivial cause, she would not part if God -tried the experiment of offering her a miracle and -showed her her past undone.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span></p> - -<p>The few days of solitude before Mrs. Gilderoy -joined her were invaluable to Leoline Lewin, for -they gave her some sort of a real insight into herself. -By the time Mrs. Gilderoy climbed the hill on -her pony, bringing a breath of the stale life of Port -Victoria with her, Mrs. Lewin could listen and pay -a courteous attention without moral dislocation. -Mrs. Gilderoy was both kind and shrewd; but the -habit of many years will not be held in check by -dormant good qualities, and she had used her quick -wits on the social world around her until a smart -saying became her second nature. It was irresistible -to her to score off people, however much she -might like them, and sometimes the talent even surprised -her into a lie.</p> - -<p>“Is Major Churton back yet?” Leoline asked, as -they sat at their first dinner together. “I saw Diana -the day I left. She told me he was coming.”</p> - -<p>“He looks a good deal browner and older. I -encountered him at the Denvers’, lifting Trixie in and -out of the hammock which she hangs up with that -end in view. Some man has always got her in his -arms. She likes them to paw her! Bute Churton -goes there far too much.”</p> - -<p>“Di told me that Mrs. Clayton had taken to religion—has -Miss Denver tasted conversion also?”</p> - -<p>“No, but it’s true about Eva Clayton. She talks -about God as if He were an intimate acquaintance -whose views she could always command on the telephone. -And of course they always coincide with -her own conduct! Wray wants to ask her if the -Deity approves of ladies smoking! He hates her -cigarettes, does my good man.”</p> - -<p>“God has come into fashion,” said Mrs. Lewin -rather bitterly. “At one time we kept our knowledge -of Him to ourselves, as if ashamed of it, except -in church, but now it is quite <i>chic</i> to drag Him -into daily life. One almost gives His name as a reference—with -one’s banker’s!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, and so even the name has become cheapened.”</p> - -<p>“It is inconsistent of me perhaps,” Mrs. Lewin -confessed, “but I would rather hear a man use it as -an oath and blaspheme that Name, than a woman -turn it to account and use it for effect, even though -half unconsciously.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</span></p> - -<p>“It is after all the worse blasphemy—and so -common now-a-days. Sentimental people always -fall back upon God as an excuse for their own self-indulgence.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin thought of the one sin that shall not -be forgiven—the sin against the Holy Ghost, which -is the sin of the spirit and worse than the sin of the -letter. But she did not say so, being possessed of -the grace of silence.</p> - -<p>“The result of Eva’s hypocrisy, however, has not -been exactly satisfactory, from her point of view,” -laughed Mrs. Gilderoy. “The Rennie boy has defected, -and now wanders about looking for a new -pitfall. He wants to come out and see us, by the -way. Is it too soon? Would you mind?”</p> - -<p>“I do not mind,” said Mrs. Lewin slowly, “in the -sense of its being too soon after my husband’s death. -There is no real sooner or later in these things—it -is merely a decent custom of civilisation which -makes us pull down the blinds, and pretend to the -world that we are weeping. Every one knows in -their own minds that one cannot weep for more than -a few hours at most. Why should I mind seeing visitors? -Particularly in such a community as this! -But I wish, if any one must come out, that it had -been Mr. Gurney. Simply because I should like to -hear him sing.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, he is always a voice with a man tacked on. -Unfortunately he can’t realise it though,” said Mrs. -Gilderoy drily. “If you asked him to come he -would tell the whole Station. I think the Rennie -boy is really safer, Chum.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Lewin assented absently, and Mr. Rennie -arrived in due course, and became an unconscious -factor in spinning the web of her fate. She had -made an effort in raising no objection to his presence, -partly on Mrs. Gilderoy’s account, for though -that lady was good-natured enough to come out to -Vohitra without the stimulant of a larger party, it -must, as Leoline knew, be both dull and monotonous -to her. The reward of her virtue was a new -revelation in the diagnosis she was making of her -own self, and the touchstone nothing but the light -words of a boy.</p> - -<p>Mr. Rennie stayed some days at Vohitra, sitting -figuratively and sometimes literally at the feet of -both ladies. He was shy of grief, and at first looked -with distrust at Leoline’s black-gowned figure. -But her composed manner reassured while it puzzled -him. The women with whom he had been -best acquainted had been of a type that hysterically -wails its sorrows in the market-place, and is consolable -the week after. But Mrs. Lewin was even -capable of smiling at a small joke, though the -flowerful softness of her face had a new gravity that -seemed to have touched it with a shadow. Chum’s -eyebrows were always a little suggestive of tragedy, -from a curve belied by her smiling eyes; but Rennie -saw, vaguely, that the face he admired had -gained something—a greater womanhood perhaps, -almost the strength of maternity. Not having the -key he put it down to Alaric Lewin’s sudden death, -but he did not think that she would be easily consoled. -Lewin, poor fellow, had been of a type which -Rennie could conscientiously admire. His good -looks, coupled with a certain air of breeding about -him, made him a model for younger men; and to -play polo and tennis as Ally did by nature was attainment -enough for military ambition. Ally, as a -married man, almost made bachelorhood look puny, -for the tie had never interfered with his attractiveness -to the opposite sex. Rennie would have been -a married man on such terms. No wonder that -Mrs. Lewin’s grief for this hero went deeper than a -pocket-handkerchief.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span></p> - -<p>He was sitting on a stool—but not of repentance—at -her feet, on the evening before his departure. -The stoep was their usual sitting-room, and they -had gathered there after dinner for desultory chat, -Mrs. Gilderoy swinging her small compact body in -the paintless remains of a rocking-chair, Mrs. Lewin -leaning back against as many cushions as Rennie -could find for her basket-work lounge, Rennie himself -with his back to one of the pillars of the stoep, -and his hands clasped round his knees. He had ridden -down into the valley that afternoon with Mrs. -Lewin to see the sugar factory, and while becoming a -little heady with the changing colours of her eyes, he -did not know that the smell of the rich sugar brought -back the day she went over Denver’s, and that a -ghost walked by her in his place and pointed out all -the transformations of the cane to her, from the -crushing and ejection of the waste for fuel, to the -last refinement and glittering heaps waiting to be -bagged. The dark, luscious-smelling place was a -dream of sugar, but the two who wandered about -among its thunderous machinery were thinking of -an alien sweetness.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span></p> - -<p>“I must write a note to my good man for you to -take back with you,” Mrs. Gilderoy remarked after -a time, and she went into the bungalow to do it. -Mrs. Lewin and Rennie sat silent. She did not notice -that he was plaiting a frill of her gown between -his confident fingers; his presence was as little to -her as the fireflies and lamp-beetles starring the -grass, for she was thinking of Ally. It was one of -her hours of remorse when an intolerable sense of -responsibility for the ceasing of his strong young -vitality bowed her with irresistible force. At such -moments she would have sacrificed all her after life -to his memory, and done penance because she felt -herself the indirect cause of a fate she could not -foresee. When she was less morbid she saw that -even a strong woman cannot stand between a weak -man and the consequence of his own actions, but -her torturing conscience accused her of complicity -with Gregory because for the space of some weeks -she had allowed herself to be happy. At such moments -she did not plead innocence of any participation -in his darker plans; she felt that to expiate -her own sin she must sacrifice both herself and him -for all the years of strong life that lay before them.</p> - -<p>“I wish I knew you better, Mrs. Lewin,” Rennie -said suddenly.</p> - -<p>“Why?” she asked, coming back to the present -with a start. She looked down at his young good -looks and audacious eyes, and realised that he had -been playing with her gown, which she quietly -drew away.</p> - -<p>“I should so like to call you by your Christian -name,” said Rennie, with the happy safety of his -youth. Women never snubbed him very severely, -because the flushed colour of his face suggested the -school-boy still.</p> - -<p>Leoline smiled a little whimsically. “That is the -disadvantage of going by a general nickname,” she -said good-naturedly, supposing that the compromising -“Chum” on so many lips had tempted him.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t mean your nickname,” he said -somewhat loftily. “Every one uses that—all the -women, at least. They have made it common. -But I envy Gurney when he sings that song about -you.” He began to hum “Leoline.”</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">“We sang our songs together till the stars shook in the skies—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We spoke—we spoke of common things, but the tears were in our eyes.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And my hand I know it trembled to each light, warm touch of thine—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet we are friends, and only friends, my lost love Leoline.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span></p> - -<p>“I always think it is a little high-flown for every -day,” said Mrs. Lewin, with a view to the salutary -effect of being matter-of-fact. A big, white moon -was shining down the valley and silvering the sweep -of cane, and the fireflies and intoxicating scents -made sentiment a little excusable.</p> - -<p>“I shouldn’t call you Leoline,” said Rennie, with -a conscious sense of his own cleverness in distinction. -“I should shorten it for every day, as you -say. I like Leo better. No one calls you Leo.”</p> - -<p>She rose abruptly, with a movement of protest -beyond the power of control, and walked to the -further end of the stoep, remarking, “I am sorry -that I do not feel inclined to accord the privilege.”</p> - -<p>Just a boy’s light words! Yet she remembered -with a rush of pain how, long since, Mrs. Churton -had asked leave to call her Chum, and she had said -yes, and Mrs. Gilderoy had apologised for using her -husband’s name for her. She had not cared—“Every -one calls me Chum!” she had said lightly, -and the name had grown, as Rennie said, common. -Yet the sound of that natural contraction of Leoline -on other lips than Gregory’s had aroused all the -tigress in her to defend a sacred right. It was -Gregory’s name for her—one, curiously enough, -that no one else had ever used, even in her home-life -before her marriage. As Rennie said, “No one -calls you Leo”—no one, that is, before a prying -public. In the sanctity of their closer love it had -been the dearest of sounds to her, the little tender -name that his suppressed voice had made a mere -whisper for her ears alone.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span></p> - -<p>She leaned there, at the end of the stoep, looking -out into the blaze of the moonlight which greyed -the wooded mountains, and made the cane a magic -harvest for fairies to reap. She longed at this moment -for some one to confide her doubts to, and the -tumult in her mind, and curiously enough her -thoughts turned to Mrs. Ritchie Stern, the comparative -stranger with the sea winds haunting her blue -eyes—the wife who loved her husband, and had -spoken of children to a childless woman.... -Some pulse seemed to beat and burn in Leoline’s -bosom. Her heart turned to water in her, and all -her life demanded the man she had been schooling -herself to renounce—demanded not only him, but -to be completed in him, bound by the strong tie of -the flesh that earth at least can give, be the communion -of saints what it may in Heaven.</p> - -<p>The most pitiful and natural outcry ever put into -a woman’s mouth, was that despairing “I loved him—and -I did not bear his child!” It is very indecent, -because no woman who is not indemnified by -law and the Church has any right to feel the life -quicken in her veins for any man, no matter how -much her mate by instinct and suitability. She -may, however, ask God’s blessing on a loveless -union, and know that she lies through every vow -she makes, and then—the joys of the flesh are no -more lust! Without a legal right love itself is a -sin, but the woman who is so forgetful of convention -that she can yearn for the natural outcome of -childbirth is pilloried in every moral market-place -of the world. It seems a pity that, since we have -accepted the decalogue, nature must always be immoral; -but looked at in one sense even the marriage -service is only sanctifying a breach of divine -commandment. Leoline Lewin was traditional -enough to feel her modesty damaged by her own -unruly pulses. There was an accusation in every -memory of Gregory’s clasp, and yet she could not conscientiously -confess herself repentant, or say in truth -that she would undo one moment of that too-keen -pleasure. She looked up blankly at the inscrutable -heavens, serenely blue and out of reach of question.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span></p> - -<p>“How can one repent for being perfectly happy?” -she said.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</h2> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="noindent">“He who will not have peace, God sends him war.”—<i>English -Proverb.</i></p> -</div> - - -<p>The Administrator stepped out of the writing-room -quickly, through the ever-open window, -tripped, and nearly fell headlong on the stoep. He -looked down, as he caught the vine-clad pillar, to -see what had nearly wrought his destruction. A -man, a half-caste, lay huddled at his feet, in an -attitude so like death that a stranger would have -been deceived. Evelyn Gregory had seen that -death-sleep before; he bent down closely, pushed -the man over with his foot, and sniffed the heavy -breath that came every thirty seconds or so through -the open mouth. Then he stood up again, erect, at -his full six feet three inches, and looked across the -gardens of Government House, that seemed to drift -away into glades of fainter and fainter colour, until -it was only a green glow. His active eyes may -have seen the vegetation, but they certainly saw -something else—a picture inside his head rather -than outside. After a second he raised his voice -and called.</p> - -<p>Two Arabs answered the Administrator’s summons, -on the principle that Saadat el basha (his Excellency) -usually demanded strenuous tasks too heavy -for one man. Gregory looked with steady, lidless -eyes from them to the apparently lifeless body, and -pointed to it with a curt gesture.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span></p> - -<p>“Take that away,” he said in his horribly under-breathed -voice, “and lay him somewhere to recover. -He is not dead—he has been smoking ganja.” He -paused, looked down at the helpless body, and -added three words whose bestial insult they could -understand—“<i>Ya ibn kelb!</i>” (This is not even -Malagasy—it is Arabic, and it conveys that your -parentage was not all it might be with advantage -to yourself.)</p> - -<p>The Arabs lifted the half-caste native, and carried -him away out of range of Gregory’s savage eyes. -He was a sais in their phrase—a Zanzalaky or -pony-boy in Key Island, and attached to the Government -House stables. Why he had crawled on -to the stoep in the state he was when he had fallen -asleep they did not ask. It was a disaster sent by -Allah, and would bring him the kourbash, which -was their name for Gregory’s shambok.</p> - -<p>The Administrator continued his interrupted way, -walked off the stoep, and was half across the grass -when he spied a pony trotting up the drive, and -turned aside to speak to the rider. No man trotted -in such heat save one in Key Island, and that was -the O.C.T. Gregory turned back with him to the -house.</p> - -<p>“Just the man I wanted!” he said. “I was -coming down to the club to look for you. Come -in here.”</p> - -<p>Churton threw his leg over his pony’s neck, polo -fashion, and dropped off, a groom appearing as if by -magic to take the animal. There were so many servants -always waiting on noiseless bare feet at Government -House that it was rarely necessary to shout -as Gregory had done.</p> - -<p>“I’ve just had a warning,” said the Administrator, -leading the way back into the room he had left. -“Sit down—whiskey or cého?”</p> - -<p>“Whiskey, thanks.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span></p> - -<p>“A man was lying in a drunken sleep just outside -that window,” said the Administrator, with a backward -nod, as he opened the soda-water for his guest -himself, and poured in the spirit. “He must have -been there a very short time—he will lie like that -for three days now.”</p> - -<p>Churton raised the glass.</p> - -<p>“Here’s to you!” he said significantly. “What -was it? Hemp?”</p> - -<p>“Yes—ganja. They have given up brewing it -because we were watching for the still, but they’ve -got some of the crop, and they are teaching the -natives to smoke it like opium. It means a fresh -raid.”</p> - -<p>“And more slaughter! Well, I shall be glad of -a little diversion.” An ugly, dark look flitted over -the soldier’s face, and wrinkled his broad forehead. -There seemed more grey in his thick dark hair of -late, and a line of pain round the firm lips. “Any -notion where the trouble rises?” he said.</p> - -<p>“I have an idea that it’s beyond China Town, in -that valley between the Tableland and Hashish.”</p> - -<p>“But, my dear fellow, there’s no way through—it’s -all ‘dirty,’ and as full of scrub as it can be. I -came down that way from shooting on the Tableland -and found it nearly impassable. No room for -crops.”</p> - -<p>“There’s room for storage. I don’t mean in the -valley itself, but nearer the Little Zambesi. Anyhow -I shall raid Sand Bay. There are caves there.”</p> - -<p>Churton sat thoughtfully for a minute, the tumbler -in his strong brown hand. He felt desperately -that he would be glad of a scrimmage, if only the -beggars would show fight. But when was a coloured -man game enough?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span></p> - -<p>“They’ve been quiet for this last month or so,” -he said regretfully. “Ever since that little demonstration -in your garden here.”</p> - -<p>“That was a flash in the pan—it meant nothing.”</p> - -<p>“It only frightened Mrs. Lewin. Have you heard -anything of her, by the way?”</p> - -<p>“She is still at Vohitra.”</p> - -<p>“I know. My wife talks of going out there when -Mrs. Gilderoy returns. She can’t stand her in the -same house.”</p> - -<p>“I have not seen Mrs. Lewin for some weeks—not -since she went out, in fact,” said Gregory deliberately. -He looked at the man before him as if -measuring him, almost stealthily, and licked his lips -to moisten them in the tigerish fashion peculiar to -him before some inhuman effort. Churton was not -looking at him; he leaned forward, his elbows on -his knees, one hand still holding the half-empty -tumbler, the other hanging loosely against his puttee. -The massive lines of his head and neck were thrown -into prominence by the forward thrust of his -shoulders.</p> - -<p>“Strong man to strong man!” said Gregory -rapidly to his own heart. “And I like him ... -but some one must go under. He has to be the -sacrifice.”</p> - -<p>“Mrs. Lewin declines to see me,” he said slowly, -choosing his words with care. “She not unnaturally -connects me with her husband’s death, as I was the -unfortunate cause of his going to East Africa. Not -being very logical she forgets her own anxiety that -Captain Lewin should have a chance to show what -stuff he was made of. Well, he showed it—but as -I gave him the chance, his wife gives me the -blame!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span></p> - -<p>Churton nodded without speaking. His attitude -was sympathetic so far. Then Gregory did one of -those things that had made men follow his order -into death itself, and die silent, having bought him -life, and—what he valued more—success. A touch -of human weakness in his almost inhuman strength -had been his great coup on occasions which had -never been recorded, for something in his personality -attracted men and women alike of an infinitely -higher type than himself, and when he used that -magnetism it had never failed him.</p> - -<p>He laid his hand on Churton’s shoulder, and his -quick panting voice was a broken whisper.</p> - -<p>“Churton, I’m desperate! She is everything to -me—but her husband, dead, is a stronger barrier -even than living. She is making a shrine of his -memory, and thinks she must be faithful to it.”</p> - -<p>The real secret of Gregory’s influence was that -his appeal was genuine, though made with a further -end in view. He did not lay bare his secrets for a -light reason. He could feel his own earnestness -touching Bute Churton in spite of self-interest and -the reserve of training and tradition. He looked -up with a haggard face that would have shaken any -resolution less ruthless than Gregory’s.</p> - -<p>“Is that how it is?” he said quietly. “Well, you -have my best wishes. And you can tell her that -she owes no allegiance to her husband’s memory, I—knew -him more intimately than she. Men do -know each other so—see? He was not faithful -to her, even after six months.” He paused, set the -empty tumbler on the table as if in complete control -of his nerves, and added in the same level tone: -“You had better make her understand that Lewin -was no ideal for her to cherish. Otherwise—she is -a good woman—she might not listen to you.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span></p> - -<p>Gregory drew a breath of relief that caught itself -in his throat. The thing he had suspected was confirmed—at -least he had tacit consent from Churton -to use his suspicion. The sacrifice of the man before -him in extracting such a bitter confession was, -as always, a second consideration to his own gain. -He held an advantage now to use in his own behalf -with Leoline Lewin, and if it had been necessary to -drag Churton through the mire of mentioning his -wife’s very name he would not have stopped at doing -so, nor did he doubt his own success. He was -quick to reckon chances, and the vulnerable points -of those with whom he had to deal—such insight -had been a necessity to him. He knew that the -more generous nature had been touched by the unlocking -of his own secret; nothing less would have -worked on him to admit as much as he had. He -took his hand off Churton’s shoulder, and said, -“Thank you, old fellow!” as simply as a school-boy, -and Churton thought himself rewarded.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span></p> - -<p>There was truth, too, in his saying that he was -desperate. A kind of hunger for the woman he -loved possessed him, and he had not seen her to -speak to since the night when he betrayed himself -by a too-great anxiety to bind her to him. She -had withdrawn herself beyond reach of his immediate -influence, and he dared not force her to an encounter. -Twice he had been at Port Albert, and -had found Vohitra closed to him—by Mrs. Lewin’s -own request he paid her no visit of condolence. -He could not realise that the tie between them was -not endangered by absence, or that material things -had no influence upon Leoline’s feelings for him. -A man loves with his five senses; but a woman -with all her instincts and a few over. It does not -really matter to her if he is ill-favoured, or has given -her a badly-cooked dinner, or a world divides them, -or he talks about himself, or some one has burnt the -fat and the smell is pervading the house—so long as -he is her chosen to her she can go on love-making, -in fancy if need be, without distraction. But you -must satisfy the eyes, and the palate, and the longing -touch, and the egotistical ear, and the sensitive -nose, before a man is well pleased and thinks tenderly -of the opposite sex. Long before Leoline -Lewin was ripe for seeing him again, Gregory was -fretting because he thought his influence slackened -by distance. He wanted to bring the power of his -personality to bear again before he could feel sure -of his ultimate success.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span></p> - -<p>At first, as the days lengthened into weeks, he -had been patient to let her recover from the shock -of her husband’s death, to go away and mourn for -him if need be, for decency’s sake. But he had -meant to see her under the cloak of a conventional -sympathy, and when he found himself denied her -presence he chafed, and then, risking Mrs. Gilderoy’s -eyes, he wrote to her. It had been difficult to -answer, in the face of her own renewed desire, but -she had quietly demanded time. She was going -home next mail; she would see him to say good-bye, -and they might meet again in England. Her -date of meeting had a far-off sound, and he realised -that conventional widowhood meant at least a year’s -probation. To the man of immediate action, a man -like Gregory, such flimsy delays were irritating; -and yet he recognised the importance of social -standing, and the slur of a hurried marriage. At -least he must force a definite promise before the -mail arrived and she slipped beyond his grasp, and -even to do this meant a violation of her husband’s -memory. It was then that Gregory thought of certain -hints he had heard of his A.D.C. and the -women of the station, for Halton had carried adder’s -poison under his tongue to justify his own devotion -in the earlier days of his intimacy with Mrs. Lewin. -Absorbed in weightier matters, and contemptuous -of gossip, Gregory had not interested himself in -such slight things as Alaric Lewin’s infidelities, and -when his need came, he could remember nothing -but an outline. He did not know, however, whither -his incompetent <i>aide</i> had always been lured away -from duty, and his own savage strictures on tennis -and Maitso recurred to him. The inference was -natural, and with a broad master-stroke of policy, -he drained Diana’s husband for information—the -man most unlikely to know on the surface of things, -the man most likely to know in Gregory’s sardonic -experience of such situations. These things always -leaked out, and worked to silent tragedies between -husband and wife. Churton would know—and for -his own ends Evelyn Gregory could make use even -of a dead man’s gallantries.</p> - -<p>Up in the silence of Vohitra a runner brought a -letter to Leoline Lewin a day or so after Churton -had spoken with the Administrator. At the sight -of the handwriting her heart stood still again, and -she did not think to look at the messenger, who, -according to the date of the missive, should have -been there before. There was a restless excitement -about the man, half fear, half exultation, for he -brought other news than that in the letter—but -Mrs. Lewin found her own sufficient for the moment, -and read and re-read the small characteristic writing -as if fascinated.</p> - -<p>Gregory was never merciful. He tore the last of -her illusions from her, and laid bare a grisly truth—though -he did it in decent words—without compunction. -Certain sentences in that letter seemed -to buzz in her ears without keeping the connection. -They meant nothing, and yet they meant so -much.</p> - -<p>“If you are refusing to see me from a feeling of -loyalty to Captain Lewin your sacrifice is thrown -away, for he was not loyal to you....”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span></p> - -<p>No? Not even the faith in her married life left -to her? Married one short year, and she could not -keep her husband’s fidelity—she felt the humiliation -of the bald statement in Gregory’s words. It had -been another of her theories that a woman like herself -could keep any man. It seemed that all her -virtues and attractions had not prevented Alaric -from straying. And where had he strayed? With -innocent conceit she had seen herself the fairest, -best-gowned, quickest-witted woman, at all events -in the little shoddy Station. But it appeared that -she was less invincible than she thought. Other -sentences in that letter followed to enlighten her.</p> - -<p>“I am not speaking on my own authority. -Other men—Major Churton principally—confirm -my assertion that your husband was no pattern of -fidelity. You can guess for whom he left you—we -need not attack his memory for a thing that is over -and done with. But to vow to be true to one who -could hardly demand it as due to him is making the -position ridiculous....</p> - -<p>“I am only supposing that this is what has -closed your heart to me. But am I not at least as -worthy of allegiance as Lewin? Understand that -it was not merely a venial sin, such as you may call -your own during his absence—I have Churton’s -testimony, poor fellow....”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span></p> - -<p>Then it was as if a blaze of pain blotted out the -words of the letter for a moment. She saw and -recognised many things in that sacrifice of Bute -Churton’s name. Di ... and Ally! The horrible -vulgarity of it, the degradation of even her -slight friendship with the woman, made her revolt. -She could have forgiven it better had he done such -a thing with half a world between them, even though -his partner in guilt had professed to like her; but in -the narrow confines of Port Victoria it seemed -abominable. Her last ideal was torn from her, and -the worst of it was that in the light of Ally’s backsliding -she saw what her own had nearly been. In -her thoughts, her desires, perhaps, she had been -worse, since his passions, like his whole nature, were -slighter than her own. She rose to her feet in that -intolerable revelation, the letter crushed in her hand -... and for the first time she saw, consciously, -the native runner who had brought it.</p> - -<p>He had been waiting with hideous eagerness to -catch her attention. The minute he saw that she -was looking at him with expectation he babbled -with speech, his head nodding vaguely towards the -way he had come, childish eagerness and horrid enjoyment -in his face.</p> - -<p>“I heap big trouble to come through, Missus. -The land is up—they dance the Cannab dance in -Po’ Victoria.”</p> - -<p>She caught her breath, and her wide blazing eyes -held his like a snake’s.</p> - -<p>“What is that you say? Tell me more. What -has happened?”</p> - -<p>“You hear nothing hyar? No—the ra not reach -you. The Panjaka-Baas——”</p> - -<p>“Mr. Gregory—the Administrator—yes?” She -knew that queer native jumble of a title for him, for -panjaka means king or head lord, and the South -African baas or master had drifted into Key Island -with the white man’s authority.</p> - -<p>“First he burn the Cannab—but the Chiney man -he keep back some. Then the Panjaka-Baas he -guess there is some still, for the nigger still get -drunk.” He rubbed his hands and grinned as if in -delighted reminiscence. “They make a raid at -Sand Bay and find the Cannab cane—lots an’ lots -hidden there! And <i>then</i> the land is up and they -dance!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span></p> - -<p>Leoline, without turning her eyes away, as though -afraid he might escape if she did, called, “Mrs. Gilderoy!” -Her friend answered her from the house, -and a minute later came out on to the stoep, with a -sharp glance of surprise at the runner.</p> - -<p>“He brought me a letter,” Mrs. Lewin explained -briefly. “He comes from Port Victoria. Tell this -lady what you have told me!” she commanded.</p> - -<p>The native did so, laughing inanely through the -narrative, and helped on by Leoline’s prompting. -“Ra!” (blood) said the native. “Heaps ra!” The -two women looked at each other with ashen faces.</p> - -<p>“Is it true, do you think?” Mrs. Lewin said.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know—but I must go to my husband,” -said Mrs. Gilderoy decidedly.</p> - -<p>“I thought you might wish.”</p> - -<p>“I shall get down to Port Albert to-night, and -take to-morrow’s boat. I can telephone through -from there too. If only we had one here!”</p> - -<p>“No telephone. Wires cut!” jabbered the -runner.</p> - -<p>“Oh, good heavens!... Will you come -too, or remain here?” said Mrs. Gilderoy, controlling -herself and turning to Mrs. Lewin.</p> - -<p>“I shall stay here—at present. There is nothing -I could do there, and I should only be in the way -with no man to look after me. In a few days I may -come round, the mail is nearly due.”</p> - -<p>“But, my dear, the land is up—that means that -the natives have risen all over the island, I expect.”</p> - -<p>“I am not afraid.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I am!” said Mrs. Gilderoy honestly. -“Afraid for my husband, if not for myself. Can’t -we get more news out of this creature? Make him -speak, Chum, for goodness sake, or I shall kill him -with kourbash! My riding-crop is heavy!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span></p> - -<p>“Tell us more,” said Mrs. Lewin briefly to the -native. “Are any matz (dead) of this ra?” (blood). -She mixed up Malagasy and English in her desperation.</p> - -<p>“Many, Missus, the soldiers charge, and the -people fall. But they kill one baas—yes, an -officer!”</p> - -<p>“Who? Who was it? What was his name?” -Mrs. Gilderoy, like a leaping fury, had seized him -by the shoulder and shook him in a frenzy of fear, -so that he could only chatter and jabber at her incoherently. -She was suddenly transformed to a -mad woman in her anxiety. Beneath all her worldly -wisdom and ironical remarks on the married state, -she loved one man, and that was Wray Gilderoy. -It was strange how this bitter-tongued couple had -kept the sweetness of their union beneath all their -jeering at other people’s matrimony. Leoline felt -it a real and consequently a precious thing, while -she gently disengaged the native from Mrs. Gilderoy’s -clutch.</p> - -<p>“You are only frightening him—he cannot speak -to tell you,” she said. “Now think, Zanzalaky—what -is the name of the officer who is—who is—killed?”</p> - -<p>“’Milton Gourney, Missus!”</p> - -<p>“Gourney—Gurney! Hamilton Gurney! Oh, -poor young fellow!”</p> - -<p>She remembered the one thing that people always -did distinguish in Gurney’s vapid individuality—his -voice. All the soul of the man seemed to lie in -that good gift, and a lump rose in her throat at the -memory of the songs that were hushed for ever. -It seemed as wicked to have shot him as to shoot a -nightingale.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span></p> - -<p>But Mrs. Gilderoy had dropped into the nearest -chair, and was moaning hysterically in her relief. -The women she had laughed at for a too-demonstrative -attachment to their husbands could have taken -an ample revenge could they have seen her then. -But Mrs. Lewin felt only the deeper side of it, and -saw no bathos in the rocking, undignified figure, -tortured with being a woman and impotent while -the man she cared for was exposed to danger in the -proper course of things. They seemed to her to -have left self-consciousness behind them and the -shame that dogs an exhibition of real feeling, so -that Vohitra always appeared in Leoline’s memory -as a little stage and scenic effects to the intensity of -two or three figures—her own and Mrs. Gilderoy’s -at the present moment.</p> - -<p>She had no time to think of herself and her private -anxiety during the next few hours, through -which it seemed to her she felt neither heat nor tire, -but pushed the frightened useless black servants -aside and packed her friend’s belongings for her -with capable hands. It was only when Mrs. Gilderoy -had stumbled away down the hillside, hardly -guiding her pony for the first time on record, that -she had the leisure to face her own intolerable dread. -Her cheek was wet where Mrs. Gilderoy had kissed -her, but not with her own tears. She had no open -right to cry, but she looked at the letter which had -seemed only a new dismay a few hours ago, and -thought that it might be the last she should ever -receive in that handwriting....</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span></p> - -<p>For if there were any concerted attack, and organised -hate in the brain maddened by hashish and -ganja, it would all be directed against the Administrator. -Gregory was the man to fall, by treachery -or open warfare, and she recognised the maddening -position she was in by being cut off from news. -Even if she went down to Port Albert the telephone -wires were cut, and they were dependent for information -on the little coasting steamers which at best -were irregular. When Mrs. Gilderoy had asked if -she would stay at Vohitra or come back with her, -Leoline had answered with the unselfish impulse of -her love, seeing in a flash of comprehension that -her presence would only hamper Gregory, and paralyse -his action with a private anxiety. She had -not thought of herself at all in that moment, nor -did she regret her decision now by the light of reason; -but her heart cried out in its distress that her -place was with him, and that not to know of his -safety was unbearable, with a desire as great as Mrs. -Gilderoy’s. She had no right to act the weak -woman, and please herself at the expense of the -man she loved—no right justified, like Mrs. Gilderoy’s, -by years of open marriage. Gregory would -believe her safe at Vohitra, and be freer to use the -brain and nerve, in which she took some comfort, -remembering the night when he had cleared the -stoep, alone, with no weapon but a shambok. But -she realised, during the next few days, that she -had set herself the hardest task that a woman -can—to wait and endure the anxiety in silence, -that a man may feel her a helpmate, and not a -burden.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span></p> - -<p>Life went on the same in the Tsara Valley in -spite of the panic that threatened the whole island. -The coloured people were cutting the cane, driven -by the dogged wills of a few strong white men, -whose grim determination triumphantly proved -them once more the dominant race. The planters -saved their crops as if nothing had happened to -upset the usual routine of harvest, and though -labour was scarce, they quietly forced the natives -who had not been drawn to the centre of trouble to -work as usual. There had been a meeting at Port -Albert, and a concerted plan of action agreed upon -amongst those men most experienced in the island, -the result being that the rioting in the other districts -hardly affected the little seaport, and the sugar harvest -was not ruined. Gradually the influence of -these few men made itself felt amongst the dangerous -numbers of mixed races; and Mrs. Lewin, from -the stoep at Vohitra, saw the dark forms bending in -the furrows, the mellowing blades falling, and, leaving -the ground shorn of its gold-green glory, the -trucks pass up and down the whole sweep of the -valley, while the factory smoked through the long, -hot days. Once the town warden rode out to pay -her a hurried visit, and give her what news he could; -but he was a busy man—Gregory’s representative, -and the despot of the town—and could spare but -little time. He left some of his own servants at -Vohitra whom he could trust, and asked Mrs. -Lewin quietly if she could charge and fire a revolver.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” she said briefly, remembering that Gregory -had asked her the same question once before, at -the last threatened rising.</p> - -<p>“I have brought you one of mine—you had -better keep it by you,” Ambroise said cheerfully. -“I don’t think there will be the least necessity for -it, but it is as well that the people about you should -know you are armed.”</p> - -<p>“Have you any news?”</p> - -<p>“The island is quieting down, and I do not think -anyhow it would spread out this way. But there -has been real fighting at Port Victoria, and the -troops were called out. One poor fellow was killed -in the first skirmish—Hamilton Gurney. Did you -know him?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. I used to admire his voice so much. -Poor fellow! How was it?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span></p> - -<p>“There was a rush in the Square, and they got -him up against the Market buildings. You know -those steps? He was trying to get through the -mob with some girl, and they stabbed him with a -razor they had looted from a private house. No -one knows who did it, of course.”</p> - -<p>“Where were the troops?”</p> - -<p>“They arrived on the scene three minutes later. -It was very sudden—those risings always are—and -Gurney had no warning. He was not in uniform -at all, or with his men—he had been in town, and -was going to ride out to Maitso, but he had not had -any orders even.”</p> - -<p>“And the girl?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, the girl is all right, except that she had -hysterics. Two or three white people were -wounded, and about a hundred niggers have been -killed—I wish it had been a thousand!” said Ambroise -savagely. “But I think they have had a -lesson.”</p> - -<p>“Port Victoria is quiet, then? I wonder if I -might go round? The mail is almost due,” she -added with an instinct of caution to veil her real -reason.</p> - -<p>“Well, it is getting that way, but I think you are -better off here at present. It was the most sensible -thing you could do to stop here. The place will be -lamb-like when you do see it again. As far as -Key’land goes such a rising was just what was -wanted.”</p> - -<p>“But the loss of life!” she exclaimed with a -shudder.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</span></p> - -<p>“You can’t help that, and you can only teach the -natives respect for the British Empire by a military -lesson delivered some time or other. Last time, -you see, they got off with a warning, and we all felt -that once the troops were here they ought to be -punished. Most places catch it that have Gregory -as Administrator, and are chastened afterwards. -He is the right man in the right place—I’d rather -work under him than any man who comes out with -a theory of ‘It’s all done by kindness.’”</p> - -<p>She tried to keep her face from tingling, and -smiled faintly. “You are almost as drastic in your -views as the Administrator. Has he—has he come -out of the fray unscathed?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he’s all right—so far.” Ambroise laughed, -unknowing that his words frightened her. “He has -given them a dose of Gregory’s Powder, and they -are making wry faces over it. But he is a man who -always carries his life in his hand, Mrs. Lewin—he -always will, wherever he is.”</p> - -<p>She turned away, sick at heart. In her ignorance -of the fate that pressed her rapidly, she pictured -herself far off from Gregory, in England, thinking of -those words that his admiring lieutenant had said. -Wherever he might go he would carry his life in -his hand, from his savage unofficialism that never -got into the papers, and she for a year at least would -be as helpless and uncognisant of his movements -and fate as she was now. She had no premonition -that those whose lives were interwoven with Gregory’s -were whirled into quick action with his overmastering -vitality, and hurried out of the usual -course of events. Life always went quickly with -him. He did not lose time through being handicapped -by red tape of any description, as his Service -was grimly aware. But these things were hid -in secret drawers at the Colonial Office, and filed for -censure about once in every appointment that -Evelyn Gregory had ever had.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span></p> - -<p>Mrs. Gilderoy had been gone but three or four -days when in the evening of that following Ambroise’s -visit one of the servants brought Leoline a -note from her, saying that it had come by a messenger -who was waiting. Mrs. Lewin had been sitting -at the improvised writing-table in her own bedroom—one -of those passion-haunted rooms from -whose suggested associations she could never get -away after Mrs. Gilderoy had put the fancy into her -head. With the note in her hand she rose at once -and went across the passage and out on to the -stoep, because the natives usually waited there. -Her long black gown swished across the bare boards -as she went, where other women’s had whispered in -the same feminine tongue during long-dead summers.</p> - -<p>“—except poor Gurney, who paid the forfeit of -his life for running after Trixie Denver anyhow. -How matters stood between them one doesn’t know, -but the girl is behaving as if she were his <i>fiancée</i> at -least—if not his widow! She goes about in deep -mourning——”</p> - -<p>Leoline put the letter on one side to read presently, -raised her eyes as she came out on to the -stoep, and saw Evelyn Gregory.</p> - -<p>The sun was setting behind Vohitra, but the -house faced north-east, and the late long beams still -struck that side of the stoep where they met. Their -faces were in the shadow, the dusty light only bathing -them warmly to the waist, and she saw that -there was some strong purpose in his seeking her -here even as she met his eyes. For a minute she -seemed to wait between one life and another before -he spoke—the old theoretical life of her untried -girlhood, dear with the bright things of the world, -that even her wifehood had left unaltered; and the -deeper painful realities of existence that he had -called into being for her. She knew, before he -spoke, that a decision awaited her now, as to -whether she should pass definitely from one to the -other, and it seemed to her that she hardly faltered.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span></p> - -<p>“I have come to you to put a choice before you,” -he said, even as he took her hand and held it in his -strong grip. He gave her no conventional greeting, -though so much had happened since they had said -good-bye in the bungalow ... the night -before she got Ally’s letter. “I have very little time -to spare—I must go back in an hour at most. The -town is under my authority at present, and I am -responsible.”</p> - -<p>His word told her enough. “You have been recalled!” -she said quietly.</p> - -<p>“Yes; Halton has reached England,” he said -significantly. “But apart from any private pulling -of the strings, I expected this—perhaps. There -was just a chance I might wire through, but it was -unlikely. They are sending out another man.”</p> - -<p>“From England?”</p> - -<p>“Ultimately. From Capetown at present.”</p> - -<p>“And you go home?”</p> - -<p>“As things now stand—officially. But I have -private information that I am to go to Central -Africa again.”</p> - -<p>“Is this”—she moistened her dry lips—“because -of Port Cecil?”</p> - -<p>“Partly, I suppose. It was touch-and-go there -after Lewin’s death.” (Did he ever shrink before -a name? She could not have spoken so.) “But -Melton Hanney pulled the Empire out of a war. -He should get something for that!” He smiled -grimly.</p> - -<p>“You have heard from Capetown?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</span></p> - -<p>“I have.” He spoke more grimly still. Into -his hard eyes flashed the passing soreness of a -spoiled ambition. And he had meant to do so -much with that insignificant tool, Key Island!—to -make it so much the very centre of warring -destinies that no one in after years could speak of -it without an historical significance. He knew, as -even she could not understand, the result of the -thing he had dared to do, and he saw his future, -perhaps, as another man did, “behind him!” For -one cannot stake Empires and not lose something, -even though one win a private and personal gain. -Something was left him out of the wreck on which -to begin to build anew—a fresh incentive to rise in -the fair woman before him, whom he had coveted -to the height of tossing lives aside for her, and committing -tacit murder. He stretched out his hands -and took hers gently.</p> - -<p>“Will you come into the wilderness with me?” -he said, with a curious little smile. “Dare you be -my wife and share my fortunes—now?”</p> - -<p>For a second she half drew back, not at the thing -he suggested, but the hurry it implied. “At once—so -soon?” breathed her training.</p> - -<p>“At once—so soon!” he echoed, not one line of -concession in his face or voice. “That wherever I -go I may take you with me. I am not offering you -an easy position, or an establishment in life, I assure -you! I am a man who wants his wife beside him, -wherever it is possible. I shall very likely want you -where most men would say it was not possible. If -you are afraid for your children, it may mean parting -from them, or if we can make a home where -other men give up all hope of family ties, I shall -ask you to risk it.”</p> - -<p>“I am not <i>afraid</i>!” she said proudly, but rather -breathlessly.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</span></p> - -<p>“Except for the weight of public opinion against -a hurried marriage? I meant to spare you that. -But things are worse with me than I hoped they -might be, and the stroke fell more swiftly.” He set -his teeth and thought of Halton. “I have not much -to offer you!” he said, and his voice had suddenly -hoarsened. “But I think you love me—I know I -love you. There is trouble for us in the future, but -I have still the fighting powers that have made me -what I am. I can give you love, and strength to -win you back the position that I have imperilled for -you.” His voice sharpened still more with sudden -fear, and his hands tightened on hers. Even she -did not realise how great the dread of losing her had -been, but it drove him almost to an appeal. “Leo, -in common humanity you will not turn from me -now?”</p> - -<p>How much we mean by that word humanity! -It contains all the virtues with which we do not -credit God. Perhaps Leoline felt that a little more -was being asked of her than the simply human -side would have acceded, but the diviner spark -burned up to meet the demand upon it. She looked -into his compelling eyes, and in that moment of her -love, perfected, she cast out fear for ever.</p> - -<p>“I will come with you!” was all she said; and -it was her arms as well as his that drew them -together.</p> - -<p>“God bless you!” she heard him say with the -old under-breathed voice she knew, and that had -thrilled her out of all theories into the pain and -glory of womanhood. “God keep you safely, and -bless you, my darling!” It is when a strong man -loves something better than himself that he feels his -impotence, and hastens to charge it on the Deity he -affects to do well without, himself. The most irreligious -men are always ready to pray above the -heads nearest and dearest to them. Gregory, who -would have snapped any commandment left undefended -by law, called on the Unknown God to do -the one thing of which he felt himself incapable. -With the woman he had loved in his arms he fell -back on an instinct which is greater even than -habit—</p> - -<p>“God bless you, because you are my darling!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</span></p> - -<p>The sun had reached the hill crest, and his last -level glow touched their faces at last with unnatural -fire. For a minute Leoline was dazzled, but through -the haze she looked out over the half-reaped valley, -and it was as if she saw Key Island in symbol, the -strange little place to which she had come so light-heartedly -to find fate and tragedy there. His glance -followed hers, but he saw nothing of the peaceful -harvest or rest at evening time. To his steady gaze -the red light was War and his future wrapped in -smoke. He did not fear, and he did not repent, because -he had long since counted the cost, and reckoned -it as gain; but he knew, as that old-time counterpart -of his sin had known, that there was no -peace for him or his—and that because he had despised -the unwritten law, War should be his portion -for ever, as clearly as if the prophet had said to him -also, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart -from thine house!”</p> - -<p>And the woman for whom he had sinned knew -also that there was a shadow on their lives for ever, -cast by the man they had sacrificed, and that she -could never dare to look her love bravely in the -face without that dark reservation that she thrust -out of sight. She did not repent either—with her -hand in that of the man she loved she was ready to -go with him into the wilderness as he had said, and -let him lead her where he would, the stony places -were gentle so long as it was his path also. But -her eyes, as they looked over the golden transfigured -valley, held all the pain of the love that is -earth-marred, and she knew that the tragedy of her -life lay in that sealing of their destinies.</p> - - -<p class="center">THE END</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES:</h2> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">1</a> Cého means simply “call”—the sarcastic inference in the native -mind being that an Englishman’s most universal call is for -strong drink. There being no bells in Key Island a shout brings -the servant—usually with the ingredients for a Cého, which order -he takes for granted. - -</div> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other -spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.</p> - -The word “<a href="#figgerhead">figger-itself</a>” on page 74 of the original -has been corrected to “figgerhead itself”. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAT-TRAP ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. 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