air of
possession and chatted volubly while he watched his servant help hers to
collect her luggage. When she took her seat in the _dandy_, or chair
carried on the shoulders of coolies, and was being conveyed towards her
hotel she behaved as though they had not been parted a week, rattled on
gaily about her doings in Poona and Mahableshwar and, with all the
glories of the Himalayas about her, declared that the Bombay
hill-station was far lovelier than Darjeeling. Wargrave was relieved
that she showed no desire to be sentimental and gladly responded to her
mood, detailing the forthcoming gaieties and promising to take her to
them all.

When they reached the Eastern Palace Hotel and were shown up into her
private sitting-room she put her hands on his shoulders as soon as they
were alone and said:

"Let me look at you, Frank. You have improved. You've grown handsomer, I
think. Aren't you going to kiss me?"

He did it with so little fervour that she made a grimace and thought
"It's quite time that I came to bring him to heel. Not much loving
ardour about that. I wonder if he kisses the jungle girl as coldly."
Aloud she said:

"Now let's go down to _tiffin_. I'm starving. Will you please secure a
table and I'll follow you in a few minutes?"

During the meal she chattered gaily, criticised the dresses and
appearance of the other women in the dining-room and, chaffing him
merrily on his want of appetite, ate a substantial meal herself. Mrs.
Dermot, anxious to befriend him, had thought that she could help him by
inviting him to bring Mrs. Norton to tea with her that afternoon. When
during _tiffin_ he hesitatingly conveyed the invitation Violet said:

"Oh, I don't want to be bothered with women, my dear boy. Take me out
and show me the place and the shops and the _Gymkhana_--what do you call
it here? Oh, the Amusement Club. No, stop a minute. Mrs. Dermot is your
dear friend from Ranga Duar, isn't she? So she's here. And the other,
the jungle girl, where is she?"

Frank flushed as he replied:

"I suppose you mean Miss Benson? She's with Mrs. Dermot."

"So you're all staying at the same hotel. How very nice for you! But, my
dear Frank, doesn't it strike you that it'll be rather dull for me
staying by myself here? You'll have to change to this hotel."

"I asked about rooms here; but they told me they're full up now."

"I'll see if I can't get round the manager and make him find a corner
for you. Well, now for this te