t in their own
house--this was unheard of. Honour ran to the top of the steps to meet
them.

"Oh, what is it?" she cried, lowering her voice so that it should not
reach Marian. "Is it papa?"

"Sir Arthur is well. I have a letter from him," said Sir Edmund.
"Your mother is also in good health."

"Then who is it?" demanded Honour fearfully. "Is it either of my
brothers? Oh, not--not Charles?"

"Hush! let me break it to her," said Lady Antony, as Marian's pretty
sparkling face, the eyes wide with astonishment, appeared at the
window. "Dear Marian," she took the girl's arm and led her back into
the room, "I have something to say to you."

"What was it--cholera?" Honour was asking with dry lips of Sir Edmund
as they stood on the verandah.

"No, unfortunately." Honour's eyes met his in perplexity. "It was
murder. This morning I received news that Captain Cowper and Mr Nisbet
had been wounded in a street-tumult at Agpur, but that Cowper's
injuries were so slight he did not wish his wife alarmed about them.
To-night your father sends a runner to say that the poor fellows were
pursued and murdered outside the city."

"How dreadful!" was all Honour could say.

"Dreadful indeed," said Sir Edmund gloomily. "I have no doubt that
Sher Singh will be able to clear himself of any complicity in the
crime, but I fear he must have shown culpable weakness. And weakness
is difficult to distinguish from wickedness at a time when men's
passions are excited, as they are bound to be by this news."

"But what does it signify about Sher Singh? It is poor Charles we have
to think of, and poor, poor Marian!" cried Honour indignantly. Sir
Edmund's eyes looked beyond her.

"Pardon me; we have the whole question of the treatment of native
states, the whole principle of justice to the native, to think of.
Eyes blinded by the natural, though unholy, desire for revenge are
little fitted to see clearly. There is grave reason to fear that even
now hasty steps have been taken, which may compromise our future
action. I understand that young Charteris crossed the frontier, or was
about to cross it, on the news of the outbreak. My brother reports
that he has ordered him to return immediately, but it is almost
impossible that the harm has not been done."

"What harm?" demanded Honour. "Mr Charteris hoped to save poor
Charles, of course. Then, when he knew he was too late for that, he
would try to rescue his body."

Sir Edmund