"Why, certainly. It will be rather a lark." "Well, then, I'll play too, if they'll have me. Will you ask them, please?" He regarded her in frank astonishment. "Jove! I never thought of that. Are you in earnest?" "But yes. In cut-throat earnest!" she answered, laughing. "Ever tried your hand at it?" "Never, in all my days. I will this afternoon though, if you'll take me in hand for an hour or so." "With all the pleasure in life. You can ride Diamond, if you like. He knows almost as much about the game as I do." Her eyes sparkled. "That gem of an Arab? May I, really? I always thought you were a man in a hundred; and now I know it! That's a bargain, then. Things have been deadly insipid the last two days. But I have something to live for now!" Garth received her announcement with open dismay. He suspected Desmond's influence: and, in his zeal to dissuade her, ventured on a mild tone of authority, with disastrous results. "Well, I shan't have a comfortable moment till the thing is safely over," he concluded unwisely: and she tossed an indignant head. "Am I such a despicable horseman?" she demanded haughtily. "Captain Desmond doesn't find me so, I assure you." And indeed, after an hour of assiduous instruction, Desmond had frankly expressed his approval both of her aptness and daring. When Lenox heard the news on Friday morning, he heartily wished he had decided on a second day's shooting. Anxiety apart, the knowledge that the woman he loved could thus make a public exhibition of herself for the amusement of a very mixed crowd, set the fastidious, old-world temper of the man on edge. For all that he was in his place, well before the appointed time: and from the first crack of polo-stick on ball his eyes never left his wife's flushed face and lightly swaying figure. The polo ground, occupying the centre of the glade, was ringed about by a crowd as varied and gay in colouring as a bed of mixed tulips in spring. Even the open tent, where the English spectators were gathered, showed a prevailing lightness and brightness of tint. On the farther side of the tent, the Depot band gave out a cheerful blare of sound; and a June sun beamed complacently over all. For the first twenty minutes the serio-comic game went forward merrily: the women playing in desperate earnest; the men making broad farce out of their ludicrous handicap. Quita, who had elected to play Diamond first and fourth, was restrained at the outset by the fact that she was handling a priceless pony. But, with the opening of the third _chukkur_, increasing self-confidence, coupled with the pace and keenness of Bathurst's 'Unlimited Loo,' fired her venturesome spirit: and she flung herself heart and soul into the intoxication of the game; half hoping that some sudden crash and fall might solve the problem of her life by the simple expedient of putting out the light.