ou. But I--have travelled the
desert too long to mind an extra stone or two by the way. First, with
regard to the suspicion which drove him out of the Army. You
thought--everyone thought--that he had killed Ralph Dacre up in the
mountains. Even I thought so." Her voice trembled a little. "And I had
less excuse than any one else, for he swore to me that he was
innocent--though he would not--could not--tell me the truth of the
matter. The truth was simply this. Ralph Dacre was not dead."

"Ah!" Sir Reginald said softly.

Bernard reached up and strongly grasped the hand that rested upon him.
But he spoke no word.

Stella went on with greater steadiness, her eyes resolutely meeting the
shrewd old eyes that watched her. "He--Everard--came between us because
only a fortnight after our marriage he received the news that Ralph had
a wife living in England. Perhaps I ought to tell you--though this in no
way influenced him--that my marriage to Ralph was a mistake. I married
him because I was unhappy, not because I loved him. I sinned, and I have
been punished."

"Poor girl!" said Sir Reginald very gently.

Her eyelids quivered, but she would not suffer them to fall. "Everard
sent him away from me, made him vanish completely, and then came himself
to me--he was in native disguise--and told me he was dead. I suppose it
was wrong of him. If so, he too has been punished. But he wanted to save
my pride. I had plenty of pride in those days. It is all gone now. At
least, all I have left is for him--that his honour may be vindicated. I
am afraid I am telling the story very badly. Forgive me for taking so
long!"

"There is no hurry," Sir Reginald answered in the same gentle voice.
"And you are telling it very well."

She smiled again--her faint, sad smile. "You are very kind. It makes it
much easier. You know how clever he is in native disguise. I never
recognized him. I came back, as I thought, a widow. And then--it was
nearly a year after--I married Everard, because I loved him. It was just
before Captain Ermsted's murder. We had to come back here in a hurry
because of it. Then when the summer came we had to separate. I went to
Bhulwana for the birth of my baby. And while I was there, he heard that
Ralph Dacre's wife had died in England only a few days before his
marriage to me. That meant of course that I was not Everard's legal
wife, that the baby was illegitimate. But--I was very ill at the
time--he kept it from me."

"Of