none better,
all that had been achieved, in his own Province alone, for the peasant
and the loyal landowner. He had made many friends among the Indians of
his district; and from these he had received repeated warnings of
widespread, organised rebellion. Yet he was helpless; tied hand and foot
in yards of red tape....

It was not the first time that Roy had enjoyed a talk with him; a sense
of doors opening on to larger spaces. But this evening restlessness
nagged at him; and at the first hint of a move he was on his feet,
determined to forestall Hayes.

He succeeded; and Miss Arden welcomed him with the lift of her brows
that he was growing to watch for when they met. It seemed to imply a
certain intimacy.

"Very brown and vigorous, you're looking. Was it--great fun?"

"It was topping," he answered with simple fervour. "Rare sport.
Everything in style."

"And no leisure to miss partners left lamenting? I hope our stars shone
the brighter, glorified by distance?"

Her eyes challenged him with smiling deliberation. His own met them
full; and a little tingling shock ran through him, as at the touch of an
electric needle.

"_Some_ stars are dazzling enough at close quarters," he said boldly.

"But surely--'distance lends enchantment'----?"

"It depends a good deal on the view!"

At that moment, up came Hayes, with his ineffable air of giving a cachet
to any one he honoured with his favour. And Miss Arden hailed him, as if
they had not met for a week.

Thus encouraged, of course he clung like a limpet; and reverted to some
subject they had been discussing, tacitly isolating Roy.

For a few exasperating moments, he stood his ground, counting on bridge
to remove the limpet. But when Hayes refused a pressing invitation to
join Mrs Ranyard's table, Roy gave it up, and deliberately walked away.

Only Mr Elton remained sitting near the fireplace. His look of
undisguised pleasure, at Roy's approach, atoned for a good deal; and
they renewed their talk where it had broken off. Roy almost forgot he
was speaking to a senior official; freely expressed his own thoughts;
and even ventured to comment on the strange detachment of Anglo-Indians,
in general, from a land full of such vast and varied interests, lying at
their very doors.

"Perhaps--I misjudge them," he added with the unfailing touch of modesty
that was not least among his charms. "But to me it sometimes seems as if
a curtain hung between their eyes and India.