wall, often gave him glimpses
of the two women in their morning rambles and, with a softened feeling,
born of her own secret passion for Hawke, Justine Delande watched a
fluttering handkerchief often answer Captain Hardwicke's morning salute.

"Tell me, Justine," said Nadine, the morning after Hugh Johnstone had
stolen away, "Why does my father not ask Major Hardwicke to visit us? He
is to be promoted for his superb gallantry, he is so brave--so noble! He
certainly has as many claims to honor as this--this Major Hawke--whom my
father has made his confidant. I don't know why, but I don't like that
man!"

"What do you know of Major Hardwicke, as you call him?" cried Justine in
wonder at Miss Nadine's growing interest.

"Ah!" the agitated girl cried with blushing cheeks, "Mrs. Willoughby
told me how he dragged his wounded friend out of a storm of Afghan
balls, and gave her back the child of her heart. It was General
Willoughby who got him his Victoria Cross. And, she says that he is
a hero, he is so gentle and manly--so gifted--a man destined to be a
commanding general yet." The guilty Swiss woman dared not raise her eyes
to watch the fleeting blushes on Nadine's cheeks.

"It is time, high time we leave India," she mused, and then, the thought
of separation from Alan Hawke chilled her blood. "Let us go in," she
said. "The grass is damp yet." Captain Hardwicke's argus eyes, love
inspired, were now daily fixed on the marble house. He scoured Delhi and
amassed a pyramid of detached fragmentary gossip in all his alarm, but
one star of hope cheered him. Though Major Hawke was known as the only
cavalier of Madame Louison, save the old nabob, now supposed to be ill
at home; though Hawke drove out for a week with the lovely countess--to
the great surprise of the local society, the handsome renegade had never
once been seen in public with Miss Nadine Johnstone. Stranger still, the
star-eyed Madame Berthe Louison had never accompanied the young heiress
in the regular afternoon parade en voiture. "There's a mystery
here," mused the lover. "Old Hugh and the Major appear daily with the
Frenchwoman, but Nadine Johnstone has never been seen alone with anyone
save her father, or this Swiss duenna. Hawke is making slow progress
there, if any." Meeting old Simpson, the nabob's butler, Captain
Hardwicke tipped him with a five-pound note. The old retired soldier
grinned and opened his confidence.

"The Major! Bless your stars!" gabbled S