e out to India and become Stella Ballantyne? Had
they been in love? If not why had Thresk gone to Chitipur? Why had he
missed his boat and left all his clients over there in England in the
lurch? If so, why hadn't they married--the idiots? Oh, how she wanted to
know all the answers to all these questions! And what he proposed to do
now! And she would know nothing unless she was frank herself. She had
read his ultimatum in his face.

"We'll have coffee in my sitting-room. You can smoke there," she said and
led the way to it. "A cheroot?"

Thresk smiled with amusement. But the amusement annoyed her for she did
not understand it.

"I have got a Havana cigar here," he said. "May I?"

"Of course."

He lit it and listened. But it was not long before it went out and he did
not stir to light it again. The incident of which Mrs. Repton had been
the witness, and which she related now, invested Ballantyne with horror.
Thresk had left the camp at Chitipur with an angry contempt for him. The
contempt passed out of his feelings altogether as he sat in Mrs. Repton's
drawing-room.

"I am not telling you what Stella has confided to me," said Mrs. Repton.
"Stella's loyal even when there's no cause for loyalty; and if loyalty
didn't keep her mouth closed, self-respect would. I tell you what I saw.
We were at Agra at the time. My husband was Collector there. There was
a Durbar held there and the Rajah of Chitipur came to it with his
elephants and his soldiers, and naturally Captain Ballantyne and his wife
came too. They stayed with us. You are to understand that I knew
nothing--absolutely nothing--up to that time. I hadn't a suspicion--until
the afternoon of the finals in the Polo Tournament. Stella and I went
together alone and we came home about six. Stella went upstairs and I--I
walked into the library."

She had found Ballantyne sitting in a high arm-chair, his eyes glittering
under his black thick eyebrows and his face livid. He looked at her as
she entered, but he neither moved nor spoke, and she thought that he was
ill. But the decanter of whisky stood empty on a little table at his side
and she noticed it.

"We have some people coming to dinner to-night, Captain Ballantyne," she
said. "We shall dine at eight, so there's an hour and a half still."

She went over to a book-case and took out a book. When she turned back
into the room a change had taken place in her visitor. Life had flickered
into his face. His eyes were wa