BY
FRANCIS PREVOST
AUTHOR OF "FALSE DAWN" "BUST OF GOLD" "ON THE VERGE"
"ENTANGLEMENTS" ETC ETC
LONDON
WARD, LOCK & CO LIMITED
NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE
1902
TO APRIL
Contents
THE SIEGE OF SAR
HER REPUTATION
THE MEASURE OF A MAN
"Have you heard, Captain Terrington?"cried the girl gaily. "There's to be a Durbarafter all! So you were wrong. It's to bein the Palace too, that you were so set against,and Lewis and Mr. Langford are going withSir Colvin, and just the littlest guard of honourfor the look of the thing. Sir Colvin saysthe great thing with these sort of people isto show you're not afraid, and I'm perfectlycertain he's right."
She sat upon the table, all in white; herhat slung upon her arm, her feet swinging toand fro amid the muslin fulness of her skirt,pointing her remarks with the tips of theirgilded slippers.
The man who had just entered the bungalowin khaki riding kit stood a straight sixfeet. His face, strong and silent, was asbrown as his jacket, and his spare figure hadan air of tempered energy. The only break inits entire brownness was the faded strip ofribands on his left breast. At the sight ofMrs. Chantry he had checked the stride withwhich he entered, lifted his helmet, andpushed back from his forehead its dampbrown lock of hair.
As he stood staring at her with a frown,she set her wrists on the edge of the table,and rocked her body gently in time with herfeet.
"Well!" she exclaimed with a laugh ashe stopped before her; "what did I tell you?I said if you'd only leave Sar for a week I'dget the Durbar, and I've got it in threedays!"
She ceased her swinging, and looked upat him with an excited triumph in her eyes."Well?" she repeated provocatively, leaningback and putting the tip of a tiny tonguebetween her lips.
He drew a wicker chair from the wall andthrew himself into it with a sigh.
"I only hope it isn't true," he said.
She leaned forward over the table, grippingits edge, her face thrust out, like a figureon a ship's prow.
"Honest Injun!" she cried, sparkling."Every word. Durbar to-morrow. Khan'sguard and tom-toms round at eleven, andoff we march at noon. Oh! don't you wishyou were going?"
"Not at all," he said drily. "I've neverwished to die like a trapped mouse."
She drew herself up resentfully.
"How dare you say that," she cried;"when you know Lewis will be there!"
"All right," he said, too tired to argue;"I'll try to see its good points. How didthis happen?"
She was a flouting pouting bird again atonce.
"I did it," she declared.
"Oh, did you," he replied withoutconviction. "When?"
"The moment you started foraging. You'rethe only man in Sar who doesn't care ada—— a fig for what I think, so I had to waittill you were gone. The others!"
She gave a shrug to her pretty shoulders.
"Well?" enquired Terrington.
"Well, a woman's only got to let a mansee she thinks he's afraid of anything to puthim at it. I let 'em all see," she said, smiling.
He looked at her hard.