We have enough to do without trying to act
Providence in the case of fools."

"We are not trying to act Providence, but Providence needs to use us. It
seems we are just so many pawns in the great Game."

"It has often puzzled me what Captain Dalton has been after," said Mrs.
Bright, eyeing her daughter rather narrowly. Fear had preyed
considerably on her mind, that the doctor had been playing fast and
loose with her child, to her sorrow. "You and he have been fast friends.
Once you told me there was an 'understanding'; but nothing seems to have
come of it, though you have corresponded very regularly."

"I showed you some of his letters, darling," Honor temporised, faithful
to her intention of bearing her own burdens alone, if possible.

"Nice, manly letters they were, and most interesting of his work and
things in general. But I am none the wiser."

"What did you understand of our friendship?"

"That there was an 'understanding,'" her mother repeated.

"I do dislike that word in the sense you are applying it!" said Honor
with a forced laugh. "We are not going to get married, anyway, for
Captain Dalton is a married man."

"Honey!" Mrs. Bright was dumbfounded. "Since when have you known this?"

"For quite a long time; since early summer, in fact. You have met his
wife--Mrs. Dalton, the nurse. Everyone here fancied her name was a
coincidence. She worked to come here that she might see her husband and
get him to take her back." Having said so much, Honor went on to explain
further the cause of the breach between husband and wife and the
irrevocable nature of it. "I am telling you this, dear, as you have a
right to know the truth, being my mother. It is, however, a personal
confidence, which no one else need share," Honor concluded.

"Why did you not mention it to me before?" Mrs. Bright asked while a
light dawned on her mind.

"Because I have been very sorry for him, and, somehow, I felt I ought to
respect his confidence. But it will, inevitably, be known in time, and
then you will be able to say you were not uninformed."

"Honor, are you in love with Captain Dalton?" Mrs. Bright asked
pointedly.

Honor winced. "Yes, Mother. And he loves me."

Mrs. Bright looked faint. "_You_, my child, in love with a married man!"
This was, indeed, a blow! It accounted, fully, for Honor's
discouragement of eligible suitors in Mussoorie, which had greatly vexed
her mother at the time. "This is dreadful!"

"Not at all, exc