because of him, he ought to
belong more to you than to his sacred Frontier Force! But Theo seems
to be the private property of half the regiment! There's his chief
friend Major Wyndham, and the Boy, his subaltern, he thinks the world
of them; and they seem to live in the house. Then there's a tiresome
old Ressaldar always coming over to do Persian with him for his Higher
Proficiency exam; and I don't find it half amusing to be one of a
mixed crowd like that!"

Her whimsical air of woe disarmed all save the mildest disapproval. It
was one of Evelyn Desmond's unfair advantages that she always did
manage to disarm disapproval, even in her least admirable moments; and
the smile deepened in Honor's eyes.

"It seems to me, Evelyn," she said quietly, "that your husband must be
a very large-hearted man."

"Why, of course! That's just the trouble, ... don't you see?"

"Yes, I do see; and I am woman enough to sympathise. But it will do
you no harm, dear, to be one of a crowd, and to get out of the glass
case you have been kept under ever since you were born. Show me this
wonderful Theo now. People's faces tell me a great deal, you know; and
you have roused my curiosity."

"Look round and see if you can recognise him," was the laughing
answer.

There were some half-dozen photographs of men, in uniform and out of
it, set about the incongruous room; but the girl's eyes were speedily
caught and riveted by a full-length presentment of a Punjab
cavalryman, which stood, solitary and conspicuous, on the upright
piano. She rose and went quickly towards it.

"I choose here," she said decisively. "Am I right?" And seeing that
Evelyn nodded, she went on: "What a very remarkable picture. So
extraordinarily alive! One can see how he hates standing still inside
that frame!"

Then she fell into a long silence: for she was a practised observer of
men and things, and the face before her compelled attention. The
keynote of the whole was vigour: not mere impetuosity, though that was
present also, but a sustained, indwelling vigour, that keeps endeavour
bright.

Evelyn stood watching her in no little wonderment, awaiting further
comment.

"Don't you like him?" she asked at length.

"Decidedly; if that picture does him justice."

"Well, come on down to the tent-pegging, and find out for yourself."

* * * * *

From the bungalows crowning the mound a bare road sloped northward to
the cavalry lines. Alon