hat going to help?" demanded Tommy bluntly.

Monck looked sardonic. "We mustn't offend the angels, you know, Tommy,"
he said.

Tommy made a sound expressive of gross irreverence. "Oh, that's it, is
it? Now we know where we are. I've been feeling pretty rotten about it,
I can tell you."

"You always were an ass, weren't you?" said Monck, getting up.

Tommy got up too, giving himself an impatient shake. He pushed an
apologetic hand through Monck's arm. "I can't expect ever to get even
with a swell like you," he said humbly,

Monck looked at him. Something in the boy's devotion seemed to move him,
for his eyes were very kindly though his laugh was ironic. "You'll have
an almighty awakening one of these days, my son," he said. "By the way,
if we are going to be brothers, you had better call me by my Christian
name."

"By Jove, I will," said Tommy eagerly. "And if there is anything I can
do, old chap--anything under the sun--"

"I'll let you know," said Monck.

So, like the lifting of a thunder cloud, Tommy's very unwonted fit of
temper merged into a mood of great benignity and Ralston complained no
more.

Monck took up his abode at the Club before the brief winter season
brought the angels flitting back from Bhulwana to combine pleasure with
duty at Kurrumpore.

Stella accepted his departure without comment, missing him when gone
after a fashion which she would have admitted to none. She did not
wholly understand his attitude, but Tommy's serenity of demeanour made
her somewhat suspicious; for Tommy was transparent as the day.

Mrs. Ralston's return made her life considerably easier. They took up
their friendship exactly where they had left it and found it wholly
satisfactory. When Lady Harriet Mansfield made her stately appearance,
Stella's position was assured. No one looked askance at her any longer.
Even Mrs. Burton's criticism was limited to a strictly secret smile.

Netta Ermsted was the last to leave Bhulwana. She returned nervous and
fretful, accompanied by Tessa whose joy over rejoining her friends was
as patent as her mother's discontent. Tessa had a great deal to say in
disparagement of the Rajah of Markestan, and said it so often and with
such emphasis that at last Captain Ermsted's patience gave way and he
forbade all mention of the man under penalty of a severe slapping. When
Tessa had ignored the threat for the third time he carried it out with
such thoroughness that even Netta was startled int