and never should he forget the anxieties of that journey. He had been
ready to register any vow under the sun that he might ensure her
recovery; and when he had crept with broken nerve and sobbing breath to
her bedside, she had clung to his neck with blessed demonstrativeness
kissing him of her own accord on the lips. Generally, he had kissed her.

"You love me still, my precious?" he had asked fearfully. Mark the
"still," for by her agony he was ready to believe he had forfeited the
right to her love.

"Aren't you my baby's Daddy?" she had replied happily with shining eyes
and quivering mouth. "Of course I shall love you better now than ever."

She loved him only through the child! However, Meredith did not quarrel
with the process, so long as the fact was full of promise. It had always
been a calm and unemotional affection, not in the least of the quality
he craved, but his love and patience were equal to the demand made upon
them, his mind having realised the unawakened condition of hers. "All
things come to those who know how to wait," and he was learning
patience, for his life was wrapped up in the person of his girl-wife.
She was so infinitely lovable even when least comprehending his man's
nature and holding herself aloof. Again, her charm was indescribable
when, with adorable grace, she offered compensation, sorry for her
uncomprehending selfishness; and he eternally rejoiced that, by the law
of marriage, she was irrevocably his till death should them part, a
bondage which he endeavoured to make her Eden, as it was his.

CHAPTER II

MAINLY RETROSPECTIVE

Dinner that evening was neglected as neither could eat.

Tired and hungry though Meredith had been, his appetite for food
vanished under the lash of his wife's resentment. She once said: "If my
baby is taken from me, I shall cut this country forever. I shall hate it
with an undying hatred. Nothing will induce me to live in it again and
risk a repetition of tonight. It is not fit for Europeans--and yet, the
tragedy of it is, we can only know it by experience!"

"That is to say, if you had foreseen this, you would never have married
me?" he put in sulkily.

Silence gave consent.

"Why shouldn't you give up, and find something to do at home?" she asked
unreasonably.

"You don't know what you are talking about," he returned shortly. Give
up the "Indian Civil" and his splendid prospects, liberal future
pension, and the life of sport men loved? F