om behind, took her lightly by the arm.

"Well, old lady," he asked. "Are you satisfied yet?"

"Abundantly."

"And am I to get my wife back again as a reward for distinguished
services rendered?"

"I imagine so!" she answered, laughing happily. "Unless you would
rather keep your grievance!--Now go on to breakfast, darling; and I'll
follow when I have packed this priceless person into his dandy.
Whatever happens, he and Parbutti must run no risk of getting drenched."

Breakfast was half through before Garth sauntered into the mess-tent:
and Honor, who had watched for his coming, felt an unbidden pang of
pity at sight of his blank face, when he beheld Quita sitting beside
her husband, a bright spot of colour in either cheek, her eyes
radiating a light that refused to be hidden under a bushel.

The unexpected blow roused all the devil in him. Man of prudence
though he was, he could have murdered Lenox at that moment. But life
rarely lends itself to melodrama: and instead he sat down at the far
end of the table; and, for once in his life, ate a meal without being
aware of its quality. His brain was busy reviewing the events of the
previous day; putting two and two together, and trying not to see that
they made four. A physical chill took him as he realised how narrowly
he had escaped the ignominy of betraying the fact that he had counted
on the consent of this proudest among women to the only proposals
possible in the circumstances.

It was an awkward corner for James Garth; and in his chequered
experience of awkward corners the _role_ of victim had rarely been his.
Even the witness of his eyes did not carry conviction. By some means
he must contrive to ride home with her, and learn from her lips the
'wherefore' of this astonishing change of front. He reflected that
Lenox had little _finesse_, and anticipated small trouble in
circumventing him.

But he reckoned without Honor Desmond, whose strategical skill came to
her from a long line of distinguished soldiers, and whose sympathies
had been touched to the quick by the grave contentment in Eldred
Lenox's eyes when they lingered on his wife's face and figure.

Breakfast over, she accosted Garth straightway with a cheerful morning
greeting: and from that moment, to the time of their departure, she
took charge of him, gently yet irresistibly; keeping him well away from
Quita's neighbourhood; and so isolating him that he could not desert
her without open rude