Colonel Antony frowned at the slang. "Is it possible that you perceive any good in him?" he asked coldly. "Why, sir,"--Gerrard was too much perturbed in mind to attempt to answer the question,--"he could never go back contentedly to ordinary subaltern's work after this. He will do something desperate--perhaps even get transferred to the Bombay side, and volunteer for Khemistan." He spoke with bated breath, for to the Antony brothers and all their circle the neighbouring province of Khemistan was a region of outer darkness, ruled by two fallen angels bearing the names of General Sir Henry Lennox and Major St George Keeling. It was a point of honour to assist their labours by harrying them with a constant dropping fire of minutes and remonstrances, with an occasional round-shot in the shape of interference on the part of the Supreme Government, deftly engineered from Ranjitgarh. And the pity of it was that the men thus thwarted with the purest possible motives were carrying on a similar work, and in the same spirit, as their opponents, but--and here came the line of cleavage--on different methods. Colonel Antony's grave dark face was immovable. "It is for you to save him if you choose, Gerrard. What! do you think that I will allow the work here--the regeneration of the Granthi state--to be endangered by petty, miserable squabbles between my assistants? I have seen too much of support withheld at critical moments because one man had a grudge against another. Here we are all brothers. If Charteris intends to keep up this enmity, he must go." "But if he is to blame, sir, so am I," confessed Gerrard reluctantly. "I am glad to hear you say so. There can be no difficulty, then, in your admitting as much to him. I own I had thought that since you were more likely to be soon in a position to marry, he was probably the trespasser on your ground. The young lady favours him, then?" "No, sir, neither of us." Gerrard spoke bitterly, but Colonel Antony brought his fist down upon the table with a resounding thud. "What! you stand on the same footing, neither has cause for jealousy of the other, and yet this miserable alienation continues? You are indeed to blame, Gerrard. Go and ask your comrade's pardon, appeal to the memories of your youth and his, engage with him to bear this common disappointment as gentlemen, as Christians! No man living has more cause to be grateful for the blessing of a good wife than I, but I trust I should have been granted sufficient resolution to live solitary for ever had I perceived that my happiness was likely to mean a brother's misery, and imperil the hopes of a nation. You are not called even to make such a renunciation, since the matter is taken out of your hands--merely to acquiesce in a decision not your own."