n and
a smart soldier added to his popularity among men; while all women were
partial to the pleasant, courteous subaltern whom they felt to have a
chivalrous regard and respect for them and who was as polite and
attentive to an old lady as he was to the prettiest girl.

While admiring and liking the other sex Wargrave had hitherto been too
absorbed in sport and his profession to have ever found time to lose his
heart to any particular member of it, while his innate respect for, and
high ideal of, womankind had preserved him from unworthy intrigues with
those ready to meet him more than half-way. Even in the idleness of the
year's furlough in England from which he had returned the previous day
he had remained heart-whole; although several charming girls had been
ready to share his lot and more than one pretty pirate had sought to
make him her prize. But he had been blind to them all; for he was too
free from conceit to believe that any woman would concern herself with
him unasked. He had dined and danced with maid and young matron in
London, ridden with them in the Row and Richmond Park, punted them down
backwaters by Goring, Pangbourne and the Cleveden Woods, and flirted
harmlessly with them in country houses after days with the Quorn and the
Pytchley, and yet come back to India true to his one love, his regiment.

As Raymond watched him the fear of the feminine dangers in England for
his friend suddenly pricked; and he blurted out anxiously:

"I say, old chap, you haven't got tangled up with any woman at home,
have you? Not got engaged or any silly thing like that, I hope?"

Wargrave laughed.

"No fear, old boy," he replied, pouring out another cup of tea. "Far too
hard up to think of such an expensive luxury as a wife. Been too busy,
too, to see much of any particular girl."

"You had some decent sport, hadn't you?" asked his friend, with a
feeling of relief in his heart.

"Rather. I told you I'd learnt to fly and got my pilot's certificate,
for one thing. Good fun, flying. I wish I could afford a 'bus of my own.
Then I had some yachting on the Solent and a lot of boating on the
Thames. I put in a month in Switzerland, skiing and skating."

"Did you get any hunting?"

"Yes, at my uncle's place near Desford in Leicestershire. He gave me
some shooting, too. It was all very well; but I was very envious when
the regiment came here and you wrote and told me of the pigsticking you
were getting. I've always longed