or
no. In her pain and anger she more than ever drew him. In his utter
heart-loneliness, he more than ever needed her. And the reminder of
Lance crowned all.

"My darling--don't go off at a tangent, that way," he implored her, his
lips against her hair. "For me--it's a sacred bond. It can't be snapped
in a fit of temper--like a bit of knotted thread. I'll accept ... what I
can't see clear. We'll stand by each other, as you said. Learn one
another--Rose...! My dearest girl--_don't_----!"

He strained her closer, in mingled bewilderment and distress. For
Rose--who trod lightly on the hearts of men, Rose--the serene and
self-assured--was sobbing brokenly in his arms....

Before the end of the evening, they were more or less themselves again;
the threatened storm averted; the trouble patched up and summarily
dismissed, as only lovers can dismiss a cloud that intrudes upon their
heaven of blue.

CHAPTER XIII.

"Le pire douleur est de ne pas, pleurer ce qu'on a perdu."
--DE COULEVAIN.

But as days passed, both grew increasingly aware of the patch; and both
very carefully concealed the fact. They spent a week of peaceful
seclusion from Simla and her restless activities. Roy scarcely set eyes
on Mrs Elton; but--Rose having skilfully prepared the ground--he merely
gave her credit for her mother's unusual display of tact.

Neither was in the vein for dances or tennis parties. They rode out to
Mashobra and Fagu. They spent long days, picnicking in the Glen. Roy
discovered, with satisfaction, that Rose had a weakness for being read
to and a fair taste in literature, so long as it was not poetry. He also
discovered--with a twinge of dismay--that if they were many hours
together, he found reading easier than talking.

On the whole, they spent a week that should, by rights, have been ideal
for new-made lovers; yet, at heart, both felt vaguely troubled and
disillusioned.

Pain and parting and harsh realities seemed to have rubbed the bloom off
their exotic romance. And for Rose the trouble struck deep. She had
deliberately willed to put aside her own innate shrinking from the
Indian strain in Roy. But she reckoned without the haunting effect of
her mother's plain speaking. At first she had flatly ignored it; then
she fortified her secret qualms by devising a practical plan for getting
away to a friend in Kashmir. There was a sister in Simla going to join
her. They cou