gown this
large-featured, large-hearted woman stood a martyr confessed. For ten
years she had been the only woman in a regiment of sworn bachelors;
had nursed her "brother officers" whenever need arose; had shared
their interests, their hardships, their amusements; till,--in the
symbolism of the India she loved,--they and the regiment had become
"her father and her mother, her people and her God."

At sight of Honor she hurried her grey country-bred across the road,
and held out a square, loosely-gloved hand.

"It's bound to be Miss Meredith!" she exclaimed, in a pronounced
brogue, with a flash of white even teeth--her sole claim to beauty.
"It's very welcome you are to Kohat and to the regiment. I'm Frank
Olliver, ... Captain Olliver's wife. I'll turn now and ride back a bit
of the way with you. Then we can talk as we go. 'Tis the worst of bad
luck about your brother. When'll he be leaving?"

"In four or five days. He moves across into our bungalow this morning.
It was splendid of Captain Desmond to think of it."

"Ah, Theo's just made that way!" Then, noting a glimmer of surprise in
Honor's face, her wide smile shone out once more. "Is it shocked you
are because I speak of him so? Well, ... truth is, I'm a privileged
person since I pulled him through typhoid seven years ago, when by
rights he should have died. I'm a rare hand, anyway, at dropping the
formalities with them that suit me taste. Though, by the same token,
I've taken no liberties with little Mrs Desmond yet. It's queer. We
don't seem to get much further with her; though we'd be glad enough to
do it for Theo's sake. You mustn't mind straight speech from me, Miss
Meredith. Sure I must have been born with the whole truth in me mouth,
for as fast as I open me lips a bit of it slips out. I'll be finding
she's your half-sister, or first cousin, or some such thing!"

Honor laughed outright. It would clearly be impossible to take amiss
anything that this woman might choose to say. The kindliness of her
soul shone through her plain face, like sunlight through a
window-pane.

"Her mother is a distant connection of ours," the girl admitted
frankly. "And we were brought up for a time like sisters. It must have
been rather a startling change for her from a country town at home to
a Border station; and she is very young still, and very devoted to her
husband."

"She is that, ... after a queer fashion of her own. But Theo's bound
to make his mark on the Frontier