nd
her.

"All right, dear old girl, I trust you," he said. "I'll tell you all
about it. As I see you have guessed, there is a bit of a scrape; but it
will be all right in two or three weeks. I've been a fool, and got into
debt again. Baring helped me out once. That's partly why I'm so
particularly anxious that he shouldn't get wind of it this time. Fact
is, I'm very much in Hyde's power for the time being. But, as I say, it
will be all right before long. I've promised to ride his Waler for the
Ghantala Valley Cup next month. It's a pretty safe thing, and if I pull
it off, as I intend to do, everything will be cleared, and I shall be
out of his hands. It's a sort of debt of honour, you see. I can't get
out of it, but I shall be jolly glad when it's over. We'll chuck him
then, if he isn't civil. But till then I'm more or less helpless. So
you'll do your best to tolerate him for my sake, won't you?"

A great sigh rose from Hope's heart, but she stifled it. Hyde's attitude
of insolent power was explained to her, and she would have given all she
had at that moment to have been free to seek Baring's advice.

"I'll try, dear," she said. "But I think the less I see of him the
better it will be. Are you quite sure of winning the Cup?"

"Oh, quite," said Ronnie, with confidence. "Quite. Do you remember the
races we used to have when we were kids? We rode barebacked in those
days. You could stick on anything. Remember?"

Yes, Hope remembered; and a sudden, almost fierce regret surged up
within her.

"Oh, Ronnie," she said, "I wish we were kids still!"

He laughed at her softly, and rose.

"I know better," he said; "and so does Baring. Good-night, old girl!
Sleep well!"

And with that he left her. But Hope scarcely slept till break of day.

VIII

BEFORE THE RACE

Hope had arranged to go to the races with Mrs. Latimer after previously
lunching with her.

When the day arrived she spent the morning working on the veranda in the
sunshine. It was a perfect day of Indian winter, and under its influence
she gradually forgot her anxieties, and fell to dreaming while she
worked.

Down below the compound she heard the stream running swiftly between its
banks, with a bubbling murmur like half-suppressed laughter. It was
fuller than she had ever known it. The rains had swelled the river
higher up the valley, and they had opened the sluice-gates to relieve
the pressure upon the dam that had been built there after the