rest; not to mention the
more subtle torment of jibes and threats and vile insinuations that
suffused her with shame and rage. A word to the menfolk, threatened
Mataji, and worse would befall. If _men_ cared nothing for family
honour, the women must vindicate it in their own fashion. For the two
were doing their duty, up to their lights. Only the knowledge that Dyan
was fighting her battle, as well as his own, had kept the girl unbroken
in spirit, even when her body cried out for respite at any price....

All this she had confided to him when, at last, they were safe on the
great ship, with miles of turbulent water between them and the ruthless
dominion of _dastur_. That confession--with its unconscious revealing of
the Rajput spirit hidden in her laughter-loving heart--had drawn them
into closest union and filled Dyan with self-reproach. Small wonder if
Oxford seemed to both a paradise of knowledge and of friendly freedom.
Small wonder if they believed that, in one bold leap, they had bridged
the gulf between East and West.

At Bramleigh Beeches, Lilamani--who knew all without telling--had
welcomed them with open arms: and Lady Despard no less. It was here that
Dyan met Tara, who had 'no use' for colleges--and, in the course of a
few vacation visits, the damage had been done.

At first he had felt startled, even a little dismayed. English education
and delayed marriage had involved no dream of a possible English wife.
With the Indian Civil in view, he had hoped to meet some girl student of
his own race, sufficiently advanced to remain outside purdah and to
realise that a modern Indian husband might crave companionship from his
wife no less than motherhood, worship, and service.

And now ... _this_----!

Striding across the field, in the glimmer of a moon just beginning to
take colour, he alternately raged at her light rebuff, and applauded her
maidenly hesitation. As a Hindu and a man of breeding, his natural
instinct had been to approach her parents; but he knew enough of modern
youth, by now, to realise that English parents were a side issue in
these little affairs. For himself, the primitive lover flamed in him. He
wanted to kneel and worship her. In the same breath, he wanted simply to
possess her, would she or no....

And in saner moods, uncertainty racked him. What did they amount to, her
smiles and flashes of sympathy, her kind, cousinly ways? What did Roy's
cousinly kindness amount to, with Aruna? If in I