s boots, as he sat awaiting her, with a coolness which at
once amused her and piqued her interest. A slim square chin,
indeterminate colouring, and eyes of a remarkable thoughtfulness under
very level brows, went to make up a satisfying, if not very striking
whole.

"A modest, understanding sort of man," was Honor's mental verdict. "A
student every inch of him. I wonder how in the world he comes to be a
soldier."

By this time Dilkusha had been drawn up, and the man who ought not to
have been a soldier was saluting her with a singularly charming smile,
that began in the eyes, and broke up the gravity of the face as
sunshine breaks up a cloud.

"You must be Miss Meredith," he said. "One doesn't meet a new face
haphazard in Kohat, and ... you are wonderfully like your brother. I
am Major Wyndham. You may have heard the name?"

"Why, ... yes. You are Captain Desmond's friend."

"You couldn't give a completer description of me! I hear you are to
put up with them till Meredith comes back."

"Yes. They have been quite charming about it, and I am so glad not to
be driven away from the Frontier at once. I have been longing to get
to it for years."

He watched her while she spoke, his quietly observant eyes missing no
detail of her face.

"And now you have got here, I wonder how it will strike you after the
imposing official circles of Simla and Lahore. You'll find none of the
'beer and skittles' of the country up here. But the Frontier has its
own fascination all the same; especially when a man has the spirit of
it in his blood. Desmond, for instance, wouldn't give a brass farthing
for life out of sight of those hard-featured hills. Do you know him
and his wife at all?"

"I never saw him till yesterday, except in the distance at polo
matches. But I have known her since she was quite a child."

"And I have known Desmond since he was thirteen. Rather odd! You can't
fail to be good friends with _him_ Miss Meredith."

"Are you as rabid as my brother and the Colonel because the poor man
has dared to marry?" she asked, with an incurable directness which to
some natures was a stumbling-block, and to others her chiefest charm.
"It seems to be a part of the regimental creed."

"It is. And I subscribe to it ... _as_ a creed. But my belief has not
yet been tried in the fire. Desmond is the keenest soldier I know; yet
he has seen fit to marry. I have an immense faith in him, and,
whatever others may think, I prefer to reser