re it.

Distracted and little in the mood for gaiety as she felt that night, yet
when she entered the large ballroom of the Amusement Club she could not
help laughing at the quaint and original decorations for the occasion. For
the entertainment was one of the great features of the Season, the
Bachelors' Ball, and the walls were blazoned with the insignia of the Tribe
of the Wild Ass. Everywhere was painted its coat-of-arms--a bottle,
slippers, and a pipe crossed with a latch-key, all in proper heraldic
guise. Captain Melville, who was a leading member of the ball committee and
who was her particular host that night, spirited her away from the crowd of
partner-seeking men at the doorway and took her on a tour of the room to
see and admire the scheme of decoration. She was laughing at one original
ornamentation when a well-known voice behind her said:

"May I hope for a dance tonight, Miss Daleham?"

The girl started and turned round incredulously, feeling that her ears had
deceived her. To her astonishment Dermot stood before her. For a few
seconds she could not trust herself to reply. She felt that she had grown
pale. At last she said, and her voice sounded strange in her own ears:

"Major Dermot! Is it possible? I--I thought you--"

She could not finish the sentence. But neither man observed her emotion,
for Melville had suddenly seized Dermot's hand and was shaking it warmly.
They had been on service together once and had not met since. The next
moment, a committee man being urgently wanted, Melville was called away and
left Dermot and the girl together.

"I suppose you thought me shut up in my mountain home," the man said, "and
probably wondered why I had not answered your very interesting letter. It
was so kind of you in all your gaiety here to think of me in my
loneliness."

Noreen had quite recovered from her surprise and smiled brightly at him.

"Yes, I believed you to be in Ranga Duar," she said. "How is it you are
here?"

"An unexpected summons reached me at the same time as your letter. Four
days ago I had no idea that I should be coming here."

"How could you bear to leave your beloved jungle and that dear Badshah? I
know you dislike hill-stations," said the girl, laughing and tremulously
happy. The world seemed a much brighter place than it did five minutes
before.

"My beloved jungle has no charm for me at this season," he said. "But
Badshah--ah, that was another matter. I have seldom felt part