arian, but nothing would induce me to consent to your
going to Agpur. The place is clearly in a most disturbed state, and
the good faith of the new Rajah extremely doubtful."

"Then don't let Charley go," was the prompt rejoinder.

Sir Arthur raised his eyebrows. "You must settle that with your
husband yourself, my dear. I have promised to allow him leave for the
purpose if he wishes it."

"And he will say that you are depending on him to command the escort,
and I must settle it with you!" complained Marian. "And nobody really
thinks about me at all."

"My dear, it will be an excellent opportunity for Charles to bring
himself into notice, whether the progress of the mission is peaceable
or not. And if he goes, you and Honour shall have a run up to the
hills, if Lady Antony will be so good as to look after you. But at
present it is quite uncertain whether a mission will be despatched at
all. We may have war instead."

"Well, I think you might send one of Honour's young men, papa," said
Marian, half crying. "She doesn't care about either of them, and if
anything happened to Charley I should die."

"Oh, my dear, we will hope she cares for Mr Gerrard," interposed Lady
Cinnamond hastily, seeing her husband's brow grow thunderous. Marian
had transgressed the unwritten law which forbade the General's
womankind to meddle in the slightest degree with his professional
appointments, and had added to her misdeeds by weeping.

"She doesn't. I don't believe she has it in her. You'll see,
to-morrow," and with this Parthian shot Mrs Cowper quitted the room in
tears, meanly leaving her mother to allay the tempest she had raised.
On the morrow poor Lady Cinnamond was almost tempted to think as she
did with regard to Honour, for Gerrard, putting his fortune to the
touch without, as he assured himself, the slightest hope of success,
met the same fate as his friend. Perhaps his way of broaching the
subject was unfortunate.

"Our lamentations over Charteris were rather premature, weren't they?"
he asked her, with an assumption of lightness which suited her mood as
little as his.

"How could you mislead me so dreadfully about him?" demanded Honour,
moved to indignation by her wrongs.

"Mislead you? Why, I never said a word that wasn't true!" Gerrard was
unfeignedly surprised.

"I suppose not," she admitted unwillingly. "But you dwelt only on his
good points, and I--I almost thought I had misjudged him. But when I