whole world, all the time,
With his flowers and praise, and his weeds to blame;
And either, or both, to love."
--Browning.

The Father of the District never saw his unruly children again; nor did
Mrs Dudley Norton ever return to Dera Ishmael Khan. The telegram he
despatched to her on arrival, made light of his wound, and its possible
result; perhaps because pride urged him to take the initiative rather
than submit to the culminating proof of her total detachment from him;
perhaps because he shrewdly guessed that she could not reach him in
time.

It had needed all the reserves of strength that are the reward of clean
and temperate living, to keep him alive throughout the return marches.
Yet the feat was accomplished, and his official report--a lucid,
vigorous bit of work--drawn up in full; with the result that, in
leisurely course of time--a mere trifle of seven months or so after the
event--there appeared in the 'Army Gazette' the names of Major Desmond,
V.C., Captain Lenox, C.I.E., and Lieutenant Richardson, as officers on
whom her Majesty had been graciously pleased to bestow the
Distinguished Service Order. The principal Native officers, whose
gallantry had been so notable a feature of that grim day's work,
received the coveted Order of Merit; Hira Singh and his brother being
gazetted, though killed, that their widows might draw a larger pension.
For England is rarely unmindful of her heroes; notwithstanding her
superb dilatoriness in honouring the men who risk death and disablement
for the maintenance of her scattered Empire.

With the completion of the report, on which his heart was set, the will
to live deserted Dudley Norton. To drop in harness was, as he had said
to Quita, a kinder fate than the dismal disintegration of a loveless
old age; and the loosening of his grip on life brought reaction sharp
and sudden, from which he never rallied again.

His death, following close upon that of the two Sikh officers, cast a
temporary gloom over the station; and on the occasion of its
announcement, the two chief papers of Upper India broke out into
journalistic eulogies on the notable qualities of the man's work and
character; extolling his strength and breadth of purpose and of view;
his daring disregard for red-tape and all the paraphernalia of
mechanical officialdom; and above all, his remarkable hold upon the
Frontier tribes; administering, too late--with true human
perversity--the praise that