“You’ve won your spurs quickly out here,” said Hawke. “You have not been long enough in India to case-harden into the cursed egotism of this hard-hearted land, and remember, age, crawling on, has indurated old ‘Fraser-Johnstone.’ He was never an amiable character. What do the ladies of the city say of this strange social situation? I never knew that the old beast had a daughter till to-day.” Captain Hardwicke wearily replied: “They all hold aloof, of course, after some very rough rebuffs, as I believe the old boy will clear out for good when he gets his baronetcy. It’s possible that the girl is half a foreigner after all,” mused Hardwicke. “The duenna is surely a continental.” “Yes; but she seems to be a very nice person. I was there to-day at tiffin,” finally said Major Hawke, “She had very little to say, and cleared out at once. I did not see Miss Johnstone.” They fell into an easy, rattling chronicle of things past and present, and before the two hours’ ride was over, the astute Major felt that he had divined General Willoughby’s object in sending his pet aid-de-camp to reconnoitre Hawke’s lines and pierce the mystery of his rumored employment. “I suppose that you will come up and duly report to the Chief,” rather uneasily said Captain Hardwicke, as they neared the Club on their return. Hawke cast a glance at the superb domes of the Jumma Musjid towering in the thin air above them, as he slowly answered: “I am only here on a roving secret commission. I shall call, of course, and pay my personal respects to His Excellency, the General Commanding. I am an official will-o’-the-wisp, just now, but my blushing honors are strictly civil, and, by the way, in expectancy. Where does your promotion carry you?” “Oh, anywhere--everywhere,” laughed Hardwicke. “I may be sent home. I’m entitled to a long leave--there’s my wound, you know. I’ve only stayed on here to oblige Willoughby.” It was easy to see that the frank, splendid young fellow was but awkwardly filling his role of polite inquisitor, for they talked shop a couple of hours over a bottle at the Club, and Hardwicke at last took his leave, no whit the wiser. “If he did not post me as to the heiress, at least, old Willoughby gets no valuable information,” laughed the Major, that night. “The boy seems to be ambitious and heart-whole. Old Johnstone will soon clear out to the Highlands, I suppose, with this hidden pearl.” But Major Hawke laughed softly when the morning brought to him a personal invitation to dine “informally” with General Willoughby. “Wants to know, you know,” laughed the Major. “All I have to do is to keep cool and let him drink himself jolly, and so, answer his own questions.”