"You certainly don't know me very well yet," he
said.

They went back to the bungalow in the late afternoon, walking hand in
hand as children, supremely content.

The blue jay laughed at the gate as they entered, and Monck looked up,
"Jeer away, you son of a satyr!" he said. "I was going to shoot you, but
I've changed my mind. We're all friends in this compartment."

Stella squeezed his hand hard. "Everard, I love you for that!" she said
simply. "Do you think we could make friends with the monkeys too?"

"And the jackals and the scorpions and the dear little _karaits_," said
Monck. "No doubt we could if we lived long enough."

"Don't laugh at me!" she protested. "I am quite in earnest. There are
plenty of things to love in India."

"There's India herself," said Monck.

She looked at him with resolution shining in her eyes. "You must teach
me," she said.

He shook his head. "No, my dear. If you don't feel the lure of her, then
you are not one of her chosen and I can never make you so. She is either
a goddess in her own right or the most treacherous old she-devil who
ever sat in a heathen temple. She can be both. To love her, you must be
prepared to take her either way."

They went up into the bungalow. Peter the Great glided forward like a
magnificent genie and presented a scrap of paper on a salver to Monck.

He took it, opened it, frowned over it.

"The messenger arrived three hours ago, _sahib_. He could not wait,"
murmured Peter.

Monck's frown deepened. He turned to Stella. "Go and have tea, dear, and
then rest! Don't wait for me! I must go round to the Club and get on the
telephone at once."

The grimness of his face startled her. "To Kurrumpore?" she asked
quickly. "Is there something wrong?"

"Not yet," he said curtly. "Don't you worry! I shall be back as soon as
possible."

"Let me come too!" she said.

He shook his head. "No. Go and rest!"

He was gone with the words, striding swiftly down the path. As he passed
out on to the road, he broke into a run. She stood and listened to his
receding footsteps with foreboding in her heart.

"Tea is ready, my _mem-sahib_" said Peter softly behind her.

She thanked him with a smile and went in.

He followed her and waited upon her with all a woman's solicitude.

For a while she suffered him in silence, then suddenly, "Peter," she
said, "what was the messenger like?"

Peter hesitated momentarily. Then, "He was old, _mem-sahib_," he said,
"old an