but who am I that I should speak thus? Hath not the
Miss Sahib herself rendered a like service? May your honour live long,
and be the mother of heroes!"

[29] Commander-in-Chief.

Rajinder Singh bowed low on the words, which brought the girl to her
feet and crimsoned her clear skin from chin to brow. By a deft
question she turned the tide of talk into a less embarrassing channel;
and Paul Wyndham, pulling himself together with an effort, went
noiselessly out of the room.

Passing through the hall, he sought the comparative privacy of the
back verandah, which was apt to be deserted at this time of day. Here
he confronted the discovery that tortured him--denied it; wrestled
with it; and finally owned himself beaten by it. There was no evading
the witness of his own eyes; and in that moment it seemed to him that
he had reached the limit of endurance. Then a sudden question stabbed
him. How far was Theo responsible for that which had come about? Was
he, even remotely, to blame?

Had any living soul dared to breathe such questions in his hearing
Wyndham would have knocked the words down his throat, and several
teeth along with them, man of peace though he was. But the very depth
of his feeling for Desmond made him the more clear-eyed and stern in
judgment; and the intolerable doubt, uprising like a mist before his
inner vision, held him motionless, forgetful of place and time; till
footsteps roused him, and he turned to find Honor coming towards him.

"Why, Paul," she said, "what brings you here? I have been looking for
you everywhere. I thought you had gone to him. Evelyn says he is
alone, and he wants you."

The unconscious use of the pronoun did not escape Paul's notice, and
he winced at it, as also at the undernote of reproof in her tone.

"Sorry to have kept him waiting," he said quietly, and for the first
time his eyes avoided her face. "I will go to him at once."

But on opening the study door he hesitated, dreading the necessity for
speech; glad--actually glad--that his face was hidden from his friend.
For all the depth of their reserve, the shadow of restraint was a
thing unknown between them. But the world had been turned upside down
for Wyndham since he left the familiar room half an hour ago. A spark
that came very near to anger burned in his heart.

Desmond turned in his chair. Two hours of undiluted Evelyn had left
him craving for mental companionship.

"Paul, old man," he said on a questioning note