ad asked some
of her neighbours to join them in an informal dance. Coloured lamps
hung among the plants, throwing a soft light upon clustering blossoms
and forcing up delicate foliage in black silhouette. Here and there
lay belts of shadow, out of which came voices and a smell of cigar
smoke; but near where Mrs. Chudleigh sat screened by a palm a French
window opened into the hall. The half-light that fell sideways upon
her face suited her, for it failed to reveal the hardness of her lips
and eyes, and made her look gentler. Walters, who was charmed with
her, had no suspicion that she had cultivated his society merely
because she thought he might prove useful. On hearing what regiment he
belonged to, she had marked him down for study.

"I'm afraid I'm selfish in keeping you here, though I know how
good-natured you are," he said by and by. "You might have been
enjoying yourself instead of letting me bore you."

Mrs. Chudleigh gave him a gracious smile. "I've lost my enthusiasm for
dancing and need a rest now and then. Besides, I like a talk with
interesting people."

"That's a thing I'm seldom credited with being. You're making fun of
me."

"Far from it," she assured him. "If you are very modest, I'll confess
that your knowing places and people I've seen in past days enhances the
interest. Were you long in India?"

"Three years. In some respects, I was sorry to leave, but the doctors
decided it would be twelve months before I was fit for work again, and
I felt very much at a loose end when I got home. I can't dance, I
can't ride, and I mustn't walk far; in fact, there seems to be nothing
that I am allowed to do. I'd have found my helplessness harder only
that you have taken pity on me."

"But you are getting stronger; I've noticed a marked improvement, since
I came. But we were speaking of India. You were on the North-West
frontier, were you not?"

"Yes," he said and looked round as a man passed the window. "Who's
that? I've seen most of Lucy's neighbours, but I don't know him."

The man moved into the light and stood gazing towards them
absent-mindedly, as if thinking of something. Walters noticed his
white hair and thin face, the keenness of his blue eyes, the firmness
of his mouth, and the erectness of his figure.

"That is Colonel Challoner," Mrs. Chudleigh replied.

"Ah!" said Walters; "I thought I recognized the stamp. Foster told me
he lived a few miles off, but I'll have to move o