gether had snapped!

Upon this, came a letter one day, from Honor Bright.

Honor had been spending the hot months at Mussoorie in the Himalayas,
which the Brights had always preferred to Darjeeling; and, after the
monsoons had broken, her mother had joined her there till the middle of
July, when they had returned together to Muktiarbad. For months Joyce
and Honor had corresponded, fitfully, so that it was no surprise to the
former when the Indian mail brought her a letter in her friend's
hand-writing, the contents of which were acutely disturbing. Joyce read
and re-read the letter, filled with alarm and foreboding.

What was Honor hinting at? and had she any grounds for hinting at all?

Honor was evidently perturbed about something in connection with Ray, or
why this strange appeal to his wife to let nothing come in the way of
her returning to her place beside her husband, no matter what the
difficulties? "'It is not good,' we are told, 'for a man to live alone,'
and please remember that there is no such thing as infallibility in
human nature. Sometimes temptations are so strong that one needs to be
superhuman to withstand them. Why expect too much of Life?" stared up at
Joyce from the page.

"I would not write as I am doing, believe me, dear Joyce," the letter
concluded, "if I were not so fond of you both that I feel your married
happiness a personal concern. It is the biggest thing in the world;
don't therefore, I implore you, gamble with it. If you will only look
ahead and think a bit of the future without the love of your
husband,--the grey years deprived of his tender devotion,--you will
realise how lonely will be your life! Dearest, hold on to the blessed
gift while it is yours and do not let it pass out of your possession. I
have watched it happen before! 'That what we have we prize not to the
worth whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, why, then we rack
the value, then we find the virtue that possession did not show us
whiles it was ours.' This is so true also of love which, so often, is
not appreciated while it is ours! And love can starve and die for want
of sustenance, which is propinquity and a proper response. You see, I
have kept my eyes open and am a silent student of human nature! I have
come across a few devils in society; but in my experience, 'The female
of the species is more deadly than the male,' and I believe the Lord's
prayer is directed chiefly against her. She goes out of her way t