that Jack had only to
stoop to press her lips fiercely with his.

"Oh, Jack!--" she cried emotionally. "You mustn't make me love you--you
darling!" yet she returned his kiss with equal fervour. "Oh, go--go
quickly," she breathed. "You must not stay----"

Dazed and bewildered, Jack took her at her word and went swiftly down
the steps, nor did he halt when her voice called after him to stop and
return. "Oh, Jack!--come back--come back, I cannot let you go!"

Nevertheless, he went without a backward look, wondering within himself
if all men found it so easy to tread the path of dishonour. Where it
might lead him if he allowed his baser instincts headway, he could
guess, and with a mighty effort he made up his mind to apply the brake
there and then. Poor woman!--he could not blame her--it was he alone who
had had no excuse--not a shadow of an excuse for the outrage. She, a
disappointed wife was like a being temporising with suicide. Small blame
to her if she took the plunge. It was for men of sound brain and clear
judgment to save her--not supply the means of self-destruction.

Did she wish him to believe that she already loved him?

Then he must assist her quickly to recover from the delusion, for Jack
well knew that there is a difference between love and the feeling that
could simulate it to the destruction of honour and self-respect. Passion
had swept him off his feet with sudden violence and he was shaken to the
depths with fear of himself, for he had let himself go unpardonably and
was ashamed.

All the way to his bungalow he walked with bowed head, alternately
thrilled with temptation, and abased at his moral collapse; the latter,
because he cherished an ideal and was now convicted in his own
estimation as unworthy.

The ideal had been established in the _Puja_[13] holidays he had spent
in Darjeeling playing with the "Squawk" and listening to its mother's
innocent reminiscences of her home and her people in England. He had
found a wonderful thing: a beautiful woman without vanity--a
child-nature in a woman; an ideal wife; one who respected her husband
and obeyed him while idolising their child. Wedded to such purity a
husband's life was paradise, and Jack accounted him a lucky man. It was
refreshing to bask in her presence and hear her describe her simple
past, so transparently virtuous and inexperienced, into which a certain
name was always intruding. "Kitty" the little sister was mentioned
constantly. Always