nk God--and a few courageous
men. Martial Law arrangements are being carried through to
admiration. The Lahore C.O. seems to get the right side of every
one. He has a gift for the personal touch that is everything out
here; and in no time the poor deluded beggars in the City were
shouting 'Martial Law _ki jai_' as fervently as ever they shouted
for Ghandi and Co.

"One of my fellows said to me: 'Our people don't understand this
new talk of "Committee Ki Raj" and "Dyarchy Raj." Too many orders
make confusion. But they understand "_Hukm Ki raj_."'[36] In fact,
it's the general opinion that prompt action in the Punjab has
fairly well steadied India--for the present at least.

"Well, I won't write more. We'll meet soon; and I don't doubt
you'll explain a good deal that still puzzles and hurts me. If I
seem changed, you must make allowances. I can't yet see my way in
a world empty of Lance. But we must help each other, Rose--not pull
two ways. Don't bother to write long explanations. Things will be
easier face to face.

"Yours ever,
ROY."

"Yours ever," ... Did he mean that? He certainly meant the rest. Her
hands dropped in her lap; and she sat there, staring before
her--startled, angry, more profoundly disturbed and unsure of herself
than she had felt in all her days. Though Roy had tried to write with
moderation, there were sentences that struck at her vanity, her
conscience, her heart. Her first overwhelming impulse was to write back
at once telling him he need not trouble to come up, as the engagement
was off. Accustomed to unquestioning homage, she took criticism badly;
also--undeniably--she was jealous of his absorption in Lance. The
impulse to dismiss him was mere hurt vanity.

And the queer thing was, that deep down under the vanity and the
jealousy, her old feeling for Lance seemed again to be stirring in its
sleep.

The love of such a man leaves no light impress on any woman; and Lance
had unwittingly achieved two master-strokes calculated to deepen that
impress on one of her nature. In the first place, he had fronted
squarely the shock of her defection--patently on account of Roy. She
could see him now--standing near her mantelpiece, his eyes sombre with
passion and pain; no word of reproach or pleading, though there
smouldered bene