der tolerance--had 'chorussed' themselves hoarse
and thirsty; and were receiving the reward of the public-spirited out
of long misty tumblers, that fizzed and bubbled. Peters had forgotten
his shyness in a discussion with Norton on the vexed question of
cholera infection, and the probable futility of quarantine; while Mrs
Peters, listening anxiously, made inconsequent darts into the argument,
to her husband's obvious discomfiture, and Norton's equally obvious
amusement.

A group of men near Honor were talking of England, tormenting
themselves gratuitously by bare imagination of a feast. Captain Unwin
of the Sikhs was casually unfolding a plan to elude superfluous
creditors, and spend next summer 'at home.' His debts were phenomenal;
and it was six years since he had sighted the funnel of a steamer. He
expatiated yearningly on prospective delights. Cup Day at Ascot; a
July evening on the upper reaches of the Thames; a punt in a backwater;
a pipe and a cushion; just enough breeze to stir the willows; and, with
any luck, a pretty woman in the bows.

"Just a shade better than a sandbank on the Indus, eh?" he wound up
with a chuckle of enjoyment. "And I'll pull it through this time or
perish in the attempt! Lord . . . think of jingling down Piccadilly in
a hansom once again . . ."

"To dinner at the Savoy," suggested a thick-set Major on a note of
relish. "Devilish good one they gave me there three years ago. Night
before I sailed."

Sympathetic murmurs encouraged him to enlarge on the cherished memory!
but before he had reached the _entree_--an elaborate item--Honor was
out of hearing; having crossed the room to where Lenox sat balancing a
coffee-cup on one knee, watching the faces round him with keen, kindly
eyes, and taking little active part in the proceedings. He still wore
his arm in a sling; and his teeth held the inevitable pipe, filled from
a tin of tobacco that Desmond had induced him to accept on the night of
their talk. Only three times in the past week had he succumbed to the
forbidden mixture. But the glow of satisfaction, which those who have
never resisted unto blood, complacently couple with self-conquest, was
denied him. Restlessness, lack of sleep, constant recurrence of the
concussion headache,--these had been his reward; with the result that a
rising temperature had forced him to put his name on the 'sick-list'
and take a few days off duty. But at Honor's approach his whole face
lit up