arce, and
this suggestion of yours can only make things worse. I never bargained
for being a sort of Siamese twin, but that's how it comes out. The
unfortunate girl will never be able to think of one of us without the
other. If she is dwelling affectionately on your modest merit, what
you call, I believe, my swaggering dare-devilry will force itself into
her mind, and if any of my encounters with tigers or dacoits should
reach her ears, they will only recall your powers of discussing
theology or reeling off poetry by the yard. Make no mistake. You
intrude, sir; and I resent it."

"And words can't express the depth of my resentment that you should
have poked your nose into my affairs," returned Gerrard heartily.

[1] Definite refusal.

[2] Not at home, lit. the door is shut.

CHAPTER II.

HER SIDE OF THE CASE.

"I feared so much that you might consider me intrusive," said Mrs
Jardine.

"On the contrary, I consider you most kind," replied Lady Cinnamond.
She sat very erect, a beautiful woman still, with her dark eyes and
white hair. Mrs Jardine was not an imaginative person, but the
outlines of the Cinnamonds' family history had reached her, and her
thoughts wandered involuntarily to the storming of Badajoz and the
beautiful Spanish girl who had sought refuge in the British camp, and
she found excuse for that infatuation on Sir Arthur Cinnamond's part
which she had denounced bitterly when she first heard that "the new
General's" wife was a foreigner. Not that she felt as yet quite at her
ease with Lady Cinnamond. There was something that seemed to baffle
her, a kind of regal willingness to hear all she had to say with
courtesy, but with no promise to follow her advice.

"You see, dear Lady Cinnamond," she went on, "how I am placed. As the
chaplain's wife one has a real duty--one can't doubt it, can one?--to
promote peace, and one is so sorry to see what dear Colonel Antony
calls his noble band of brothers disturbed by strife. And you
being--may I say it?--a stranger here, and your sweet girl so young----"

"I have other daughters, and they have not been entirely without
lovers." There was a slight quiver of amusement about the lips of the
General's wife.

"Oh, dear Lady Cinnamond, how could you imagine that I would suggest
such a thing? We all know how well you have married your girls, down
to dear Mrs Cowper herself. And of course, if you are satisfied, I
have _nothing_ more to say.