and one
small hand rested for a moment on his. It was immediately captured and
held close.

"Why should you care?" he asked, his expression curiously hardening.

"Because I like you so much."

"Only _like_?" he asked with a short, unpleasant laugh.

The necessity to avoid a goat tethered by the roadside prevented her
from replying; Joyce recovered her hand for the steering-wheel and they
discussed the narrow escape of the goat. To Joyce it was very
flattering, this unbending to her alone of all in the Station, and the
growth and development of their friendship. Some day she would learn
what had "played the devil" with him for good and all. On the whole he
was really quite a dear.

Meredith chafed during his week-ends at the Bara Koti when it became
apparent how much his wife depended on the doctor for companionship; and
now that Honor was supposed to have taken a dislike to the latter and to
avoid encounters with him on their doorstep, there was little help for
it. The only advantage to himself to be derived from the entertainment
Joyce found in the doctor's society, was her healthier condition of mind
and no further insistence on a passage home for herself and the child in
the spring. He had a firm faith in her virtue and goodness, and applied
himself to his winter programme with feverish haste that he might be at
liberty to return to her the sooner and personally take over the care of
her before her innocent partiality for the Civil Surgeon became common
talk. That it was innocent he would have staked his life.

Honor Bright was less sanguine, though intensely loyal. The increasing
intimacy between Joyce and the doctor weighed heavily on her; and it
made her rage inwardly to hear her friend discussed openly at the Club
by a clique that usually looked on at the tennis. While serving her
smart over-hand strokes, scraps of conversation would float to her,
demoralising her play and rousing in her a fierce inclination to speak
her mind.

"Where is Mrs. Meredith this evening?" a voice was heard to ask on one
occasion.

"Joy-riding as usual with Captain Dalton," from Mrs. Fox venomously. "It
will be interesting to watch the result when Mr. Meredith awakes to
what's going on."

"What's going on?"

"The doctor is a 'dark horse.' You don't suppose he would waste so much
of his valuable time if he did not hope to get some entertainment out of
Mrs. Meredith? She is such a coquette." This from Mrs. Fox, maliciously.