ooth for once--that
Antony's letter reached Tika Singh on the eve of a great festival, and
of course he couldn't possibly open it. But he took a squint inside,
or the messenger told him the drift of it, or something, and by some
most regrettable leakage the contents got to Arbuthnot's ears. The
fellow is like you, Bob; he don't let the grass grow under his feet.
He married the lady that night by Mohammedan rites under the auspices
of her mother, who was highly in favour of the match, and they set off
post-haste for Gajnipur. Another remarkable coincidence--only the day
before Tika Singh had given Arbuthnot a duplicate of his own signet,
which would carry him anywhere in Bala. Antony's orders had been
confidential, so that they got to Gajnipur and were married by the
Padri there before the truth got out."

"I don't envy that Padri," said Charteris.

"Nor I. Antony would have declared himself Pope of Granthistan if that
would have enabled him to invalidate the marriage, but the younger
Begum is indubitably Mrs Arbuthnot, and means to remain so. So Antony
has packed them both back to the hill tracts, with the intimation that
Arbuthnot may consider himself permanently relegated to the society of
his new relations and his kind friend Tika Singh."

"Which means utter and absolute ruin, of course. Well, I call it
uncommon hard."

"I don't know. Suppose Antony had written, 'Return to your sorrowing
chief, and all shall be forgiven,' and done the heavy father business
when they turned up, and set both Mrs Antonys and Lady Cinnamond to
call on the Begum Arbuthnot, what would it have been but an
encouragement to other fellows to go and do likewise?"

"Will the fellow find it worth it, I wonder? Funny thing what a
difference a woman can make in a man's life."

Gerrard assented with almost a groan. "She plays the very mischief
sometimes. Bob, I can't help thinking that perhaps you were right when
you suggested we had better agree to give up all thoughts of her, both
of us."

The light-brown eyes, which gave a peculiar character to Charteris's
red-tanned face, flamed suddenly. "I suggest such a thing?" he cried.
"Hal, you are mad. What I said was that I would never, under any
circumstances, enter into such an agreement. Give up if you like. I
go on until I die or she marries me."

"Or me," said Gerrard, laughing mirthlessly.

Charteris struck his hand upon the table. "Are you trying to provoke
me, Hal? I