kindness and consideration. And Audrey
had been content.

But, arrived in that Indian Frontier station where all the world was
gay, she had become at once the centre of attraction, of admiration;
and, responding to this with girlish zest, she had begun to find
something lacking in her husband's treatment.

It dawned upon her that, where others worshipped with open devotion, he
did not so much as bend the knee. And, over and above this serious
defect, he was critical of her actions and inclined to keep her in
order.

This made her reckless at first, even defiant; but she found he could
master her defiance, and that frightened her. It made her uncertain as
to how far it was safe to resist him. And, being afraid of him, she
shrank a little from too close or intimate a companionship with him.

She told herself that she valued her liberty too highly to part lightly
with it; but the reason in her heart was not this, and with all her
wilfulness, her childish self-sufficiency, she knew that it was not.

On the morning that followed the moonlight picnic she deliberately
feigned sleep when he rose, lest he should think fit to prohibit her
early ride. She had not slept well after her fright; but she had a
project in her mind, and she fully meant to carry it out.

She lay chafing till his horse's hoof-beats told her that he was
leaving the house behind him; then she, too, rose and ordered her own
horse.

Phil Turner, haggard and depressed after a night of considerable pain,
was sitting up in bed with his arm in a sling, drinking tea, when a
fellow-subaltern, who with two others shared the bungalow with him,
entered, half-dressed and dishevelled, with the astounding news that
Mrs. Tudor was waiting in the compound to know how he was.

Phil shot upright in amazement.

"Good Heavens, man! She herself?" he ejaculated.

His brother officer nodded, grinning.

"What's to be done? Send out word that you're still alive though not too
chirpy, and would she like anything to drink on the veranda? I can't go,
you know; I'm not dressed."

"Don't be an ass! Clear out and send me my bearer."

Phil spoke with decision. Since Mrs. Tudor had elected to do this
extraordinary thing, it was not for him to refuse to follow her lead. He
was too far in her debt, even had he desired to do so.

His bearer, therefore, was dispatched with a courteous message, and when
Phil entered the veranda a quarter of an hour later he found her
awaiting h