self; and we'll make it our business to keep you
there--Honor and I."

At that Lenox turned huskily away; and his broken attempt at a laugh
was not good to hear.

"Damn it all, man, why don't you leave me alone, to go to the devil in
my own way? What can it matter to you, or to any one, whether I break
myself in pieces, or am merely broken on the wheel?"

Desmond's quick ear detected emotion beneath the ungraciousness of
speech and tone; and following him, he laid a hand on his shoulder, a
friendly liberty to which Lenox was little accustomed.

"Come along home with me," he said quietly. "Stay for tiffin, and talk
it all out with my wife. She'll be able to answer you far better than
I can. Nothing like a woman's sympathy to put a dash of conceit back
into a man. Will you follow on? Or shall I wait while you change?"

For an instant Lenox stood silent; then, greatly to his own surprise,
he held out his hand.

"I'll be ready in ten minutes," was all he said.

An hour later, Desmond rode away from Terah Cottage, leaving Lenox and
his wife alone together. He had promised to give her what help he
could in the delicate task she had set her heart upon: and he belonged
to the satisfactory type of man who may be counted upon for good
measure, pressed down, and running over.

[1] Has come.

BOOK II.-JUST IMPEDIMENT.

CHAPTER IX.

"So many men; so many loves."
--M. O. Willcocks.

A dinner of native dishes served on leaves--to each guest his own
portion on his own leaf--eaten picnic-fashion on a Kashmir carpet in
the presence of twelve regally reproachful chairs, is a form of
entertainment only to be met with in India; and when, to these
incongruities, is added the crowning one that the host may not defile
himself by sharing the meal with his guests, you have a situation
typical of the land where all things are possible.

Prompted by Colonel Mayhew, the Chumba Rajah, a shy taciturn boy of
sixteen, had despatched a formal invitation, hoping that the Residency
party would honour him with their company at the Palace on the evening
of their arrival from Dalhousie; though in truth he wished them
anywhere else in the world; and Colonel Mayhew, who was by no means too
old to enjoy a spasmodic daylight flirtation with a woman of Quita's
intelligence, had devised the native menu mainly for her delectation.

A large sheet, promoted to the rank of tablecloth, covered the carpet,
while ten cu