"I wonder if you have the smallest recollection of me?" she said. "My last glimpse of you was in a dak gharri at Pindi, when you were first starting for home nineteen years ago, and the sight of what you have grown into makes me feel a very old woman indeed! Do you remember those Pindi days at all?" "Bits, here and there, quite vividly. I had been wondering already why I seemed to know your face. It was you who had the two nice babies I loved so dearly. Haven't you any for me to play with now?" "Yes, my two youngest are still with me. But they are rather big babies by this time. You must come over and see them soon, and we will pick up the threads of our dropped friendship, Honor. Your father and mother were very good to me in the old days, but you were my chief friend from the start. You have grown into a very beautiful woman, dear," she added, in a lower tone; "and if you ever want help or advice while you are here alone, I hope you will turn to me for it as readily as you would to your own mother. I haven't seen Lady Meredith for years. Sit down under the cliff with me, and give me some news of them all." By the time dusk had set in the little party was back again in Desmond's compound, the escort deserting them at the gate; and as Honor Meredith prepared to dismount, Paul Wyndham came forward, a certain restrained eagerness in his eyes. "May I?" he asked, with the diffidence of a man unused to making such requests. "I generally manage all right, thanks." "You might make an exception, though--just this once." For an instant of time his hands supported her--an instant of such keen sensation that, when it was passed, he pulled himself up sharply--called himself a fool, and in the same breath wished that she had been a few degrees less skilful in springing lightly to the ground. Ready-made talk was, for the moment, beyond him; and he departed something hastily, leaving Honor and his friend alone together in the darkening verandah. Voices and laughter came out to them from the drawing-room, where Evelyn and Denvil were carrying on their young foolishness with undiminished zeal; and Desmond turned upon the girl the irresistible friendliness of his eyes. "You enjoyed yourself, I hope,--Miss Meredith?" "Immensely, thank you,--Captain Desmond." Her tone was a deliberate echo of his; and their eyes met in mutual laughter. "Aren't we good friends enough now to drop the formality?" he asked. And at the question a lightning vision came to her of the scene on the hillside, so vividly described by his friend. "Yes--I think--we are," she said slowly. "That's right. I think so too." "I seem to have made quite an advance in that direction this afternoon," she added, in no little surprise at her own boldness. "How's that? Paul?" "Yes." "Oh! so that was the engrossing subject. I might have known Paul wasn't likely to be expatiating on himself."