it has all come right at last. I began to be
afraid that Bathurst's wrong headedness was going to mar both your
lives."

The news had already come down that Havelock had found that it would be
absolutely impossible with the small force at his command to fight his
way into Lucknow through the multitude of foes that surrounded it, and
that he must wait until reinforcements arrived. There was, therefore, no
urgent hurry, and it was not until ten days later that a second troop
of volunteer horse, composed of civilians unable to resume their duties,
and officers whose regiments had mutinied, started for Cawnpore.

Half an hour before they mounted, Isobel Hannay and Ralph Bathurst were
married by the chaplain in the fort. This was at Bathurst's earnest
wish.

"I may not return, Isobel," he had urged: "it is of no use to blink the
fact that we have desperate fighting before us, and I should go into
battle with my mind much more easy in the knowledge that, come what
might, you were provided for. The Doctor tells me that he considers you
his adopted daughter, and that he has already drawn up a will leaving
his savings to you; but I should like your future to come from me, dear,
even if I am not to share it with you. As you know, I have a fine estate
at home, and I should like to think of you as its mistress."

And Isobel of course had given way, though not without protest.

"You don't know what I may be like yet," she said, half laughing, half
in earnest. "I may carry these red blotches to my grave."

"They are honorable scars, dear, as honorable as any gained in battle. I
hope, for your sake, that they will get better in time, but it makes
no difference to me. I know what you were, and how you sacrificed your
beauty. I suppose if I came back short of an arm or leg you would not
make that an excuse for throwing me over?"

"You ought to be ashamed of even thinking of such a thing, Ralph."

"Well, dear, I don't know that I did think it, but I am only putting a
parallel case to your own. No, you must consent: it is in all ways best.
We will be married on the morning I start, so as just to give time for
our wedding breakfast before I mount."

"It shall be as you wish," she said softly. "You know the estate without
you would be nothing to me, but I should like to bear your name, and
should you never come back to me, Ralph, to mourn for you all my life
as my husband. But I believe you will return to me. I think I am getting