t away and make yourself respectable."

And as the boy vanished in the darkness Desmond turned to find his
wife's figure in the open doorway, its purity of outline thrown into
strong relief by the light within.

She stood on the threshold balancing herself on the tips of her toes
in a light-hearted ecstasy of unrest, and flung out both hands towards
her husband.

"Oh, Theo, it was delicious! I had lovely fun!"

She came and nestled close to him with the confiding simplicity of a
child; and Honor, under cover of the dusk, slipped round by the back
of the house to her own room.

CHAPTER VII.

BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER.

"My mistress still, the open road;
And the bright eyes of danger."
--R. L. S.

By mid-April, life in the blue bungalow had undergone an unmistakable
change for the better; and Theo Desmond, sitting alone in the
congenial quietness of his study, an after-dinner pipe between his
teeth, a volume of Persian open before him, and Rob's slumbering body
pressed close against his ankles, told himself that he and his wife,
in befriending Honor Meredith at a moment of difficulty, had without
question entertained an angel unawares. Evelyn had blossomed visibly
in the pleasure of her companionship; while he himself found her good
to talk with, and undeniably good to look at.

There was also a third point in her favour, and that by no means the
least. Her sympathetic rendering of the great masters of music had
renewed a pleasure linked with memories sacred beyond all others.
Althea Desmond bid fair to retain undivided supremacy over the strong
son, who had been the crown and glory of her life. Death itself seemed
powerless to affect their essential unity. Her spirit--vivid and
vigorous as his own--still shared and dominated his every thought; and
her photograph, set in a silver frame of massive simplicity, stood
close at his elbow, while he reviewed the changes wrought in the past
few weeks by the unobtrusive influence of John Meredith's sister.

The mere lessening of strain and friction in regard to the countless
details of an Indian household was, in itself, an unspeakable relief.
During the first few months of his marriage he had persevered steadily
in the thankless task of instructing his cheerfully incompetent bride
in the language and household mysteries of her adopted country. But
the more patiently he helped her the more she leaned upon his help;
til