for them both.

Joyce was prepared for her coming, and they talked to a late hour, she,
betraying her trouble by her anxious questioning, which Honor skilfully
parried.

"You must not put too much faith in gossip," said Honor after learning
of the conversation which had been overheard on the ship. "Have you
wired?"

Joyce confessed her intention to take her husband by surprise. "Only,
now that it has come to the point, I am as nervous as I can be."

"You had better wire. It will bring your husband down half-way to meet
you and give him some happy hours of anticipation."

"You are not sincere when you say that," said Joyce unexpectedly, "or
why did you tell me to stop at nothing to come out?"

Joyce was no longer the same, ingenuous little girl Honor had parted
from at Muktiarbad eight months ago. Her manner had acquired assurance,
her carriage a becoming dignity, and there was about her an air of
thoughtfulness and reserve, new to her.

"I said it was not good for man to live alone, nor is it."

"And you knew there was someone trying to supplant me in his
affections?"

"I knew he was exposed to the influence of a woman without a
conscience." Honor then told her precisely who Nurse Dalton was, and how
her flagrant pursuit of Ray Meredith had aroused the anxious concern of
his friends. Not another word would she add as fuel to the fire of
Joyce's jealous imagination.

"Well, I shall be able to find out all about this for myself when I am
there!" sighed Joyce when she had heard the woman's history.

Honor prayed inwardly that Mrs. Dalton would have received Captain
Dalton's offer before then, and have lost no time in arranging to come
away. She could not prevail on Joyce to telegraph to her husband of her
arrival in India, or that he was to expect her in Darjeeling as soon as
the railway service could take her there. As it was no part of a
friend's duty to interfere in the affairs of husband and wife, she
desisted from further persuasion, content to leave the issue to a Higher
Power.

They passed on to other topics, and Honor was intensely pleased to learn
from Joyce of Jack's happy fate as Kitty's accepted lover; and, further,
that the two were married by special licence soon after landing at
Bombay.

"They are so happy! Last night they left for the new station to which he
is appointed, as mentioned in the _Gazette_ yesterday. During the few
hours they were in town they tried to keep out of the way of Mrs