l the futility of his task had threatened to wear his temper
threadbare, and to put a severe strain on a relationship more complex
than he had imagined possible.

Now, however, the tyranny of trifles was overpast. The man's elastic
nature righted itself, with the spring of a finely-tempered blade
released from pressure, and as the passing weeks revealed his wife's
progress under Honor's tuition, he readily attributed her earlier
failures to his own lack of skill.

As a matter of fact, her power to cope with Amar Singh--Desmond's
devoted Hindu bearer--and the eternal enigmas of charcoal,
_jharrons_,[13] and the _dhobie_,[14] had not increased one whit: and
she knew it. But the welcome sound of praise from her husband's lips
convinced her that she must have done something to deserve it. She
accepted it, therefore, in all complacency, without any acknowledgment
of the guiding hand upon the reins.

[13] Dusters.

[14] Washerman.

Great peace dwelt also in the compound, where a colony of servants and
their families lived their unknown lives apart; and great pride in the
heart of Parbutti, since Amar Singh had so far unbent as to prophesy
that the Miss Sahib would without doubt become a Burra Mem before the
end of her days.

While Desmond sat alone in this warm April evening, studying the
fantastic Persian characters with something less than his wonted
concentration, the sound of the piano came to him through the
half-open door.

For a few moments he listened, motionless, to the first weird
whispering bars of Grieg's Folkscene, "Auf den Bergen," then the book
was pushed hastily aside and the lamp blown out. Rob--rudely awakened
from a delectable dream of cats and the naked calves of unsuspecting
coolies--found himself plunged in darkness, and his master vanishing
through the curtains into the detested drawing-room.

Evelyn was installed on the fender-stool of dull red velvet, her hands
clasped about her knees, her head raised in expectation. A dress of
softly flowing white silk, and a single row of pearls at her throat,
intensified her fragile freshness, as of a lily of the field, a
creature out of touch with the sterner elements of life. It was at
such moments that her husband was apt to suffer a contraction of
heart, lest, in an impulse of infatuation, he had undertaken more than
he would be able to perform.

She patted his favourite chair; then, impulsively deserting her seat,
crouched on the hearth-rug beside