e throb of racing hoofs, the
challenging gaiety of the band, and the heart-stirring wail of the Royal
Chumba Pipers; wiry hill-men, in kilts and tartans;--the pride of the
young Rajah's heart.

The 'Kajiar week' is the central event of Dalhousie's season:--an
Arcadian revel of perfumed shadow, and sun-warmed earth; a carnival of
camp-life; ushering in the gloom of the Great Rains;--the triple tyranny
of mist, mildew, and mackintoshes. And early on the morning after the
_Mela_,--while the breath of night still lingered in gorges and ravines,
and in shadowed patches of the ascending path, a mixed procession of men
and horses, shuffling mules, and trotting coolies wound, snake-like, out
of the Chumba valley towards Kalatope Forest and the emerald glade.

All the Rajah's party was mounted, save Mrs Mayhew and the medical
missionary's wife, who preferred the leisurely ease of their dandies: and
in the van of the procession, a hundred yards and more in advance of it,
Quita rode with James Garth.

Her husband's bearing throughout the previous evening had convinced her
that their passage of arms in the _shamianah_ had killed the budding
possibility of a better understanding between them: and the fact that she
was to blame, did not make the knowledge easier to bear. For she knew
now--knew consciously--that she craved the love and admiration of this
big silent husband of hers, as she had never yet craved anything in earth
or heaven: that his mere presence disturbed every fibre of her in a
fashion she had hitherto believed impossible; that his aloofness drew and
held her, as no other man's ardour had ever done. These two days of
closer contact, of hearing his voice, of watching, without seeming to
watch, the familiar movements of his face and figure, had waked to
conscious life germs that had long lain at her heart, quickening in
darkness.

But pride was a stubborn element in her. Where she gave greatly, she
demanded greatly. The fact that he had taken her to task bred a
suspicion that she had been sought out for that purpose, not because he
could no longer keep away: and his evident determination to give her no
chance of retrieving the damage done in a moment of irritation, brought
her near to defiance,--the danger-point of her nature. Hence renewed
encouragement of Garth, with intent to italicise her Declaration of
Independence; and with a half-acknowledged hope that Lenox might be
goaded by jealousy to renewed remonst