Her hand sought and closed upon his. "Ah, why not?" she said. He did not answer her. Only, with his face bent down to hers, he said, "The past is past then?" "For ever," she made swift reply. "But I have always loved Bhulwana--even in my sad times. Ah, listen! That is a _koïl_!" They listened to the bird's flutelike piping, standing closely linked in the shadow of a little group of pines. In the bungalow behind them Peter the Great was decking the table for their wedding-feast. The scent of white roses was in the air, languorous, exquisite. The blue jay laughed again in the acacia by the gate, laughed and flew away. "Good riddance!" said Monck. "Don't you like him?" said Stella. "I'm not particularly keen on being jeered at," he answered. She laughed at him in her turn. "I never thought you cared a single _anna_ what any one thought of you." He smiled. "Perhaps I have got more sensitive since I knew you." She lifted her lips to his with a sudden movement. "I am like that too, Everard. I care--terribly now." He kissed her, and his kiss was passionate. "No one shall ever think anything but good of you, my Stella," he said. She clung to him. "Ah, but the outside world doesn't matter," she said. "It is only we ourselves, and our secret, innermost hearts that count. Everard, let us be more than true to each other! Let us be quite, quite open--always!" He held her fast, but he made no answer to her appeal. Her eyes sought his. "That is possible, isn't it?" she pleaded. "My heart is open to you. There is not a single corner of it that you may not enter." His arms clasped her closer. "I know," he said. "I know. But you mustn't be hurt or sorry if I cannot say the same. My life is a more complex affair than yours, remember." "Ah! That is India!" she said. "But let me share that part too! Let me be a partner in all! I can be as secret as the wiliest Oriental of them all. I would so love to be trusted. It would make me so proud!" He kissed her again. "You might be very much the reverse sometimes," he said, "if you knew some of the secrets I had to keep. India is India, and she can be very lurid upon occasion. There is only one way of treating her then; but I am not going to let you into any unpleasant secrets. That is Bluebeard's Chamber, and you have got to stay outside." She made a small but vehement gesture in his arms. "I hate India!" she said. "She dominates you like--like--" "Like what?" he said. She hid her face from him. "Like a horrible mistress," she whispered. "Stella!" he said. She throbbed in his hold. "I had to say it. Are you angry with me?" "No," he said. "But you don't like me for it all the same." Her voice came muffled from his shoulder. "You don't realize--very likely you never will--how near the truth it is." He was silent, but in the silence his hold tightened upon her till it was almost a grip.