e.

On the present occasion, however, young Turner did not display any
special alacrity to serve her.

"There's such a crowd round her it's difficult to squeeze in edgeways,"
he said. "I shouldn't trouble to go across yet if I were you."

Mrs. Raleigh laughed a little and laid her hand on his arm.

"So you don't like hovering on the outskirts, Phil," she said.

He frowned, and then as suddenly smiled.

"I'm not the sort that cares to fool with a married woman," he declared.
"There goes Devereux to swell the throng. I say, let's go and have a
drink."

She laughed again as she rose to accompany him. Phil Turner was severely
honest in all his ways, and, being a good woman, she liked him for it.

Nevertheless, though she yielded, her eyes still dwelt upon the girl in
bridal white who sat like a queen among her courtiers. The dark head
that was held so regally erect caught and chained the elder woman's
fancy. And the vivid, careless beauty of the face was a thing to bear
away in the heart and dream of in solitude. For the girl was lovely with
that loveliness which even the most grudging must acknowledge. She shone
in the crowd that surrounded her like a rare and brilliant flower in a
garden of herbs.

Phil Turner's arm stirred with slight impatience under Mrs. Raleigh's
hand, and she turned beside him.

"There is nothing like a really beautiful English girl in all the
world," she said, with a smile and another glance in the bride's
direction.

Young Turner grunted, and she gave his arm a slight shake.

"You don't deceive me," she said. "You admire her as much as I do. Now,
be honest."

He looked at her for a moment moodily. Then----

"Yes," he said abruptly, "I do admire her. But, as for the major, I
think he's the biggest fool on this side of the Indian Ocean, and that's
saying a good deal."

Mrs. Raleigh shook her head as if she desired to disagree.

"Time alone will prove," she said.

CHAPTER II

EARLY BREEZES

"It's been lovely," said the bride. She leant back in the open carriage,
gazing with wide, charmed eyes into the vivid Indian night. "And I'm not
a bit tired," she added. "Are you?"

The man beside her did not instantly reply. He was a man of medium
height, dark and lithe and amazingly strong. It was not his habit to
speak much, but what little he said was usually very much to the point.
It was his custom to mask his feelings so completely that very few had
the smallest inkling as