rks which meant so much to Honour, but he
would probably have defended himself with the not uncommon maxim of his
day that looking after a husband was sufficient good works for any
woman. But Bob Charteris--who was utterly incapable of appreciating
the real Honour, who had no idea of her absolute uniqueness, and might
have fallen in love with any other woman with equal satisfaction to
himself! Bob--who could make a joke of his love and even laugh at his
lady, who would probably not mind smoking while he thought about her!
(In those days the smoker was largely considered as a pariah, if not an
enemy of the human race. Gerrard himself smoked, but he was properly
conscious that it was a weakness, and not an amiable one, and nothing
would have induced him to set himself to think of Honour with a cheroot
in his mouth.) It was Bob's rivalry that had driven him to put his
fortune to the touch by proposing to Honour when patience would better
have served his turn, and it was Bob to whose pleasure, by his own
suggestion, he must defer before speaking to her again, were he ten
times Resident at Agpur. Worst of all, it was Bob who was only too
likely to win her in the end, and not undeservedly, Gerrard knew his
friend's good points as few others did, and he did not deceive himself
as to his chances of success. At this point he broke off his musings
abruptly, and went to bed. Bob was not only superfluous, but a
positive nuisance.

CHAPTER VII.

ON GUARD.

A haunting, half-superstitious dread beset Gerrard as he dressed the
next morning, the presentiment that he would hear that Partab Singh had
died in the night. After the determination the old man had shown in
laying his plans, and the earnestness with which he had impressed them
upon the Englishman, it would be eminently suitable dramatically, if
absolutely fatal practically, that he should die before the steps could
be taken to carry them out. But the foreboding proved to be baseless,
and during the next few days Gerrard spent a good deal of time in close
converse with the Rajah. The first step to be taken was undoubtedly to
secure the approval of Colonel Antony, without whose active sympathy
the great scheme would not have a chance of success. In his anxiety to
assure the succession to his favourite child, Partab Singh had
seriously compromised the jealously guarded independence of his state
by his advances to the English as represented by Gerrard, and there