seen! You have still to be tested in the furnace,
and no imaginary furnace either. Man or woman, staying power's the
great requisite for India, Mrs Lenox. To pull through for half a dozen
hot weathers is all very well,--mere getting one's hand in. But by the
time a man has completed his twentieth he begins to know something
about the weakness of the flesh. I seem to you, with your youth and
high courage, a cynical, disagreeable fellow enough. But perhaps when
you are middle-aged and disillusioned, and all the good blood in your
veins has been dried up by fever, you'll forgive my straight speaking
to-night; though by then I shall be a forgotten old fogey, eating my
heart out in England, or I shall have dropped in harness, which would
be the kinder fate of the two."

"Indeed I have forgiven you already," she answered in a softened tone;
and involuntarily her eyes sought the handsome heavy-featured woman
beside her husband, whose Paris dinner-dress was cut lower than need
be, and whose elaborate 'fringe' rather too obviously grew off her head.

"Thank you. It's more than I deserve; and I'm sorry I must repay you
by giving you your first taste of the pleasant little surprises that
are a main feature of Frontier life. I have to go off across the
Border early next week, to fix the position of a post we are going to
build for our Mahsud levies, and to collect a fine from some rascals
who have been raiding Tank."

"Where's that?"

"An unlucky village near the Gomal Pass,--the great trade route into
the hills. It gets burnt to the ground periodically by the Waziris,
probably much to its advantage; but one can't overlook the insult to
British authority. So I'm obliged to visit them in state and talk to
them like a father, after collecting their fine; and I'm afraid I must
take your husband and Richardson along with me, besides a handful of
cavalry and infantry by way of protection and prestige."

Quita's face fell. "For how long?" she asked, collecting her last
crumbs of pastry with a peculiar deliberation.

"We might be ten days coming and going. Not more."

"And--would there be fighting?"

"Probably not. It's a peaceful deputation. But peace armed to the
teeth is the only kind the Waziri understands; and he can't always
control his rifle when he finds the eternally aggressive white man
taking liberties with his sacred hills! We shan't be sorry for a whiff
of cool air any of us; and you won't be the only