'Perhaps not,' replied the man of headquarters, once more dubiously. It was impossible for him to avoid that attitude towards much that had to pass through his hands, so he set the doubtful point aside and listened to the President's certainties as he enlarged on the great need for closer ties of friendship and sympathy between the rulers and the ruled, and the excellent results to be expected from meetings of this kind. Then, of course, some one else spoke, and some one else. And outside the lawn, enclosed with grass hurdles, and set with those foundations of flowers, India was going on its way as it had gone, untouched by change, for thousands and thousands of years; and two women, furtively sweeping up a prize of horse-droppings on the outskirts of the assemblage in order to make them into fuel, talked, as they swept, of the amulet that had promised safety and brought death. 'Will you come, please, and form up in line,' said a steward, fussily collecting his candidates among the listening circle. 'It will look better, and save time.' 'Oh dear! I hope I shan't get put next a native,' murmured one little lady, quite plaintively, as she obeyed. The Secretary-to-Government, who overheard the remark, smiled; still dubiously. He smiled again, and so did some others, when Mrs. Chris Davenant came up to receive a diploma which--it had occurred to her astuteness--might be worked to her advantage in English society. Perhaps the reflection that she had already shown her willingness to enter into social relations with the other race was accountable for these smiles, but she herself, and Chris too, were quite grave over it. The latter, indeed, could not at the moment have been otherwise over anything in heaven or earth; for not five minutes past, as he stood dully indifferent on the edge of that circle of listeners, he had felt a touch on the sleeve of his frock-coat; heard a low voice. 'To-night, Krishn, at the "Circling of the Lights" in Kâli's shrine. We meet there, Her priests and His, to settle this matter. And thou must be there also.' He had not turned to see who the speaker was; he had known all too well. For the moment he could have laughed aloud at the hideous incongruity of it, with Viva standing there waiting for her diploma. It was growing late. The light atoms were trooping in streams across the western sky, crowding closer and closer into rays as they sought shelter from the coming darkness in the sinking sun. There was a great hush over all things, in which Grace Arbuthnot's voice, as she read out the names of the recipients, could be distinctly heard. A hush, not a silence: that cannot come within earshot of a great city. 'It has taken longer than I thought,' remarked one of the stewards, yawning, when--at long last--the list came to an end. 'Gracious!' exclaimed Mrs. Chris--horrified at the watch Mr. Lucanaster showed her sulkily--'we shall be late. Here, Chris! take this thing while I put on my jacket.'