ost husbands
become; but then I deemed him a tyrant and a brute. Well, I ran away
with her."

He paused and passed his hand wearily across his brow.

"There was the usual scandal, divorce, damages and costs that plunged me
into debt I'm not out of yet. We married. In a year we were heartily
sick of each other--hated, is nearer the truth. She consoled herself
with other men. I protested, we quarrelled again and again. At last we
agreed to separate; and I insisted on her going to England and staying
there. I couldn't trust her in India. Living in lodgings and Bayswater
boarding-houses wasn't amusing--she got bored, but I wouldn't have her
back. She took to drinking and ran up debts that I had to pay.
Then--and I selfishly felt glad, but it was a happy release for
both--she died. Drank herself to death. Now you know why I'd be sorry
that another man should follow the path I trod."

He was silent. Wargrave felt an intense sympathy for this quiet, kindly
man whose life had been a tragedy. He had guessed from the first that
his senior officer had some ever-present grief weighing on his soul. He
would have given much to be able to utter words of consolation, but he
did not know what to say.

Major Hunt spoke again.

"You must dree your own weird, Wargrave. If the lady wishes to come
here--well, I shall not prevent her; but the General, when he knows of
it, will not permit her to remain. But you have to deal with Colonel
Dermot. You had better tell him. You might go now."

Without a word the subaltern left the bungalow. He went straight to the
Political Officer and repeated his story. Colonel Dermot did not
interrupt him, but, when he had finished, said:

"I have no right and no wish to interfere with your private life,
Wargrave, nor to offer you advice as to how to lead it. Your work is all
that I can claim to criticise. Of course I see, with Major Hunt, the
difficulty that will arise over the lady's remaining in this small
station, where her presence must become known to the Staff. If you are
both resolved on taking the irretrievable step it would be wiser to
defer it until you were elsewhere. I don't offer to blame either of you;
for I don't know enough to judge."

"Well, sir, I--perhaps you won't want me under you--and Mrs. Dermot--you
mightn't wish me to----," stammered the subaltern, standing miserably
before him.

"Oh, yes; you'll make a good political officer none the less," said the
Colonel smiling. "And yo