amusement in a lively hill-station, was not the
woman who passed weary days of _ennui_ in the company of a dull and
unattractive husband in a small, dead-and-alive station. Nor was the
dejected man who so plainly showed that he was pining for someone else
the good-looking, heart-whole subaltern who had fascinated her in the
boredom of existence in Rohar. Was he worth incurring social damnation
for? Would his companionship--for she knew that she had not his
love--make up for a life of loneliness, debt and poverty in a frontier
outpost? If she were resolved on giving up her present assured
position--and Violet felt that existence with Norton would be more than
ever unendurable after the exciting pleasures of Poona and
Darjeeling--would it not be wiser to do so for someone who could amply
compensate her for the sacrifice? Love in a cottage--or its Indian
equivalent, a subaltern's comfortless bungalow--did not appeal to her.
Her statement that she had written to tell her husband that she was
leaving for Wargrave was false. It had served the purpose for which it
was made, and that was the defeat of her rival. So now, content with her
victory, she put all burdensome thought from her and dined, danced and
flirted to her heart's content in the gaieties of the Darjeeling Season.

When Wargrave reached Ranga Duar the little outpost seemed strangely
forlorn without the Dermots and their children. Major Hunt and Macdonald
welcomed him warmly. The latter informed him that he had insisted on the
Colonel going to England for his operation because the Political Officer
had not been out of India for seven years and needed the change, and
besides he would receive more care and attention in a London
nursing-home than in an Indian hospital. The trouble was intestinal but
there was no immediate danger to his life.

Another familiar figure was missing. Before departing Dermot had
released Badshah and left him to wander in freedom in the jungle,
unwilling that his faithful companion of years should be servant to
anyone else and confident that the elephant would come back to him when
he returned to the Terai. Major Hunt placed one of the detachment
elephants at Wargrave's disposal whenever he required it to take him on
his tours along the frontier. And Frank needed it constantly. For, as
soon as the news of Colonel Dermot's departure spread, the lawless
spirits that for fear of him had not ventured for five years to disturb
the peace of the