sion. When the
crowd grew pressing, Honor left with her party, hearing for some
distance the man's monotonous sing-song voice urging Johorun to dance
for her reward, failing which there would be a certainty of
chastisement.

_"Natcho-jee, Johorun, natcho-jee!
Paisa mile ga.
Paisa, na courie, thuphur mile, ga!"_

That evening, at the Club, Mrs. Dalton drew Honor apart from the rest of
the company and they paced the grass together while it grew dusk. She
was evidently much agitated, and after making some clumsy attempts to
lead up to the subject, she suddenly broke out with the question.

"Tell me why you told my husband to take me back?"

As Honor was not ready with her reply, she continued,

"He told me in his specially cruel fashion, that I owed the concession
to you, for I had charged him with being in love with you."

Honor drew back shocked at her bad taste. "That is hardly the thing for
you, his wife, to tell me!"

"I don't say it from any evil motive!--oh, I wish you to believe that I
am past all that--I have no longer any use for malice, and hatred--even
jealousy! I only want to understand you. I am a woman, too; if I cared
about a man who loved me as he loves you, I should want to kill the
woman who stood in my way! There is something eternally primitive about
love in its relation to the sexes!"

"There is love--and _love_. Perhaps you don't know--apart from
everything--that Joyce Meredith is my dear friend? She has a right to be
happy in her married life."

"I see. So you sacrificed yourself and ordered him to come to the
rescue! He would do anything in the world for you."

"He and I can never be anything to each other," said Honor firmly.

"I am beginning to feel truly sorry for my husband. Perhaps you don't
believe it? But, since he despises me so absolutely, it seems a shame
that he should be tied to me for life! He should have given me my
liberty long ago. You know why we parted?"

"Yes, I know."

"He might then have married you----"

"Please do not speak to me in this way or I must refuse to walk with
you," said Honor indignantly.

"Oh, no, don't!--please don't go before you hear what I have to say!"
Mrs. Dalton cried earnestly. "I have no tact, and always say the wrong
thing. The fact is, I am a most miserable woman, feeling every day the
consequences of my first mistake. If you knew what a bankrupt I am in
love and all that goes towards making life worth living, you would