ouse.

Honor met him on the threshold, and her eyes were quick to catch the
lurking shadow in his. But she merely said what she had come to say.

"Mr Denvil is longing for you. I have done my small best to amuse him;
only there comes a stage when nothing will satisfy him but you.
Where's Evelyn?"

"Outside there. It's time she came in."

Honor found her by the verandah rails, standing like a pensive ghost
in the dying light.

"Studying the sunset, Evelyn?" she remarked cheerfully. "That's a new
departure for you!"

Whereat Evelyn flung out both hands--a pretty appealing gesture all
her own.

"Oh, Honor, Theo's been _so_ troublesome! And he wants to take us down
on the third of next month. He will explain to you the why of it all;
perhaps you'll understand better than I could. Such high-flown notions
don't appeal to me a bit. _I_ think Theo is rather like that silly man
in the Middle Ages who was always trying to fight windmills, or sheep,
or something; and there really ought to be a law to prevent people who
want to go about being unselfish to everybody from ever having wives
at all!"

CHAPTER XIII.

IT ISN'T FAIR.

"Though thou repent, yet have I still the loss;
The offender's sorrow yields but weak relief
To him who bears the strong offence's cross."
--SHAKESPEARE.

The measure of a man's worth is not to be found in a heroic impulse or
a fine idea, but in the steadfast working out of either through weeks
and months--when the glow has faded from the heights, when the
inspiration of an illumined moment has passed into the unrecognised
chivalry of daily life; and the three months following upon that
crucial August evening put no light tax upon Desmond's staying
power,--the power that is the corner-stone of all achievement.

Border life is, in every respect, more costly than life in "down
country" cantonments. To keep within the narrow bounds of his pay was
already a difficult matter; and such minor retrenchments as could be
achieved were inadequate to meet his present need. He saw that he
would be called upon to part with one or two cherished possessions,
acquired in days of young extravagance; and possibly to break into the
few hundred rupees laid aside for emergencies shortly after his
marriage.

Wine, cigars, and cigarettes must be banished outright; and he limited
himself to one pipe and one "peg" a-day. Stores of all kinds were
ruthless