es Antony sturdily. "If Miss Cinnamond is going to marry Gerrard,
they had better come to an understanding and get it over, and if
not--why, they will have to meet in the future, and they may as well
begin now. If the girl chooses to be silly about it, she had better go
back to her mother."

"But, James, love, you don't consider. How could I let her go back,
knowing that poor dear Mrs Cowper has taken such a dislike to her sister?
Now that she has lost her babe, it would be terrible if they met before
time had softened her grief a little. And it is not as if dear Honour
were in the least to blame. I am sure she was keeping house for her
father most beautifully when he was compelled to take the field. We are
indebted to the Cinnamonds for so many civilities that it would be hard
indeed if we could not help them out of a difficulty by entertaining the
poor girl for a while."

"Quite so, my dear, but it would also be hard if the poor girl could not
help us by assisting to entertain a fellow-guest for a while. In fact, I
consider that by bringing them to a mutual understanding we should be
doing a kindness not only to the young people themselves but to the
General and Lady Cinnamond."

"Certainly they have no objection to Lieutenant Gerrard," said Mrs Antony
meditatively.

"None whatever, my dear, so that we shall positively be furthering their
wishes. Come, Jane; ain't I only wise in bringing my indiscretions to
you to set right, since you are such a dab at getting me out of a mess?"

"Fie, James, what slang! Indeed I don't wonder you affect to consult me,
since it seems to me you will get your own way undisturbed."

James Antony might go on his way with his great laugh, and his wife shake
her head at him in purely simulated reproof, but the results of their
involuntary diplomacy were hardly as satisfactory to the objects thereof
as to themselves. Gerrard's heart gave an ecstatic bound when his host
mentioned casually on meeting him that Miss Cinnamond was staying at the
Residency during the absence of her father at the front and her mother in
the hills. All the way from the camp within sight of Agpur, during the
hot voyage diversified with interludes of sniping from the river-banks,
he had assured himself persistently that nothing should induce him to
take advantage of Bob's generosity. But these good resolutions were
forgotten as he lay in the palanquin which conveyed him from the
landing-place to the R