l Mayhew, Resident of the native State in which
Dalhousie's hills are situated, and whose capital lies in a cup-shaped
valley eighteen miles below the English station.

Thereupon Lenox rose to take his leave; but on the threshold he paused,
as though an afterthought had occurred to him.

"Next time you happen to go out calling, Mrs Desmond," he said, with
studied carelessness, "you might like to look up a Miss Maurice and her
brother. They've been here all the winter; and are living on the top
of Bakrotas. I met them--some years ago, in Switzerland. Artists, out
here for painting purposes--and rather out of the common run. You
might find them interesting."

"They sound as if they would be! Thank you for letting me know of
their existence. I'll amuse myself by exploiting them while you two
are away."

But Lenox had no wish to expatiate upon the subject, and with a
muttered disclaimer he was gone.

CHAPTER VI.

"I will but say what mere friends say--
Or only a thought stronger.
I will hold your hand as long as all may--
Or--no very little longer."
--Browning.

"No, I don't like her, and I don't believe I ever shall. One cannot
deny that she is beautiful, charming, complete; too complete for my
taste. _Cela me gene_. I know no other way to express it."

Quita Maurice balanced herself on the railing of her matchbox verandah,
and gazed critically at the corner where the last of Honor Desmond's
_jhampannis_ had not long since disappeared from view. Garth, the
inevitable, stood close beside her, faultlessly equipped as always,
even to the gold-tipped cigarette, and the violets that blossomed
perennially in his coat. He grew them in pots expressly for the
purpose; and his bearer set them in a wine-glass on his breakfast-table
every morning.

Quita's verdict on her visitor moved him to a smile of half-cynical
amusement. He enjoyed her occasional unabashed lapses into the eternal
feminine.

"I'm with you there," he answered, heartily. "The worst fault a human
being can commit is to be faultless. Poor Mrs Desmond! She will have
to subsist without our admiration."

"No need to waste pity on her, _mon ami_. I am convinced that she gets
far more admiration than is good for her as it is. She has only been
married a little over two years, I believe, and it is safe to presume
that her husband idolises her shadow. She is the sort of woman men put
on a pedestal, and worship kn