* * * * *

For two days nothing happened.  Hamilton went as usual to his office for the day.  At four he left, and, mounting his camel, went into the desert to the oasis in the palms.

On the third day he received a summons from the Commissioner, and went up to his house in the afternoon.  His heart seethed with rage within him, but except for an unusual pallor in the clear warm skin, his face showed nothing as he entered the large, imposing drawing-room.

The Commissioner was a short, pompous little man, rather overshadowed by his grim raw-boned wife, and had under her strict guidance and training developed a stern admiration for conventional virtue, particularly in regard to conjugal relations.  He rose and bowed as Hamilton entered, but did not offer to shake hands.  Hamilton waited, erect, silent.

“Sit down, Mr. Hamilton.”  Hamilton sat down.  “Er—­I—­ah—­have received what I may term a painful—­yes, a very painful communication, and er—­I may say at once it refers to you and your concerns in a most distressing manner—­most distressing.”

The Commissioner coughed and waited.  Hamilton remained silent.  The Commissioner fidgeted, crossed his knees, uncrossed them again, then turned on him suddenly.  The Indian climate is trying to the temper; it means many pegs, and small control of the passions.

“Damn you, sir!” he broke out fiercely.  “What the devil do you mean by keeping a black woman in your house, and sending your wife to the hotel here?”

He was purple and furious; in his hand he crushed Mrs. Hamilton’s beautiful composition.

“She tells me you called in natives to throw her out of your office:  it’s disgraceful!  Upon my word it is; it’s scandalous!  And you sent her to the hotel!  I never heard of such a thing!”

“Mrs. Hamilton came out uninvited, in defiance of my express wishes, and on her arrival I told her she could not stay with me,” returned Hamilton quietly.  “Whether she went to the hotel or not, I don’t know.”

“But your wife, damn it all, your wife, has a right to stay with you if she chooses; naturally she would come to you, and you can’t turn her out in this way.”

“She has long ago forfeited all rights as my wife,” replied Hamilton calmly, in a low tone, with so much weight in it that the Commissioner looked at him keenly.

“Why don’t you get a divorce or a separation then?” he asked abruptly.  “Do the thing decently—­not have her out like this, and make a scandal all over the station.”

“I know of no grounds for a divorce,” returned Hamilton.  “There are many ways of breaking the marriage vows other than infidelity.  I married Mrs. Hamilton twenty years ago, and for those twenty years she has practically refused to live with me.  For twenty years I have remitted half my income to her every year.  During that time I have many times asked her to join me here, sought a reconciliation always to be refused.  Recently I found another interest; the moment my wife discovered this, she came out with the sole purpose of annoying me.  I have come to the conclusion that twenty years’ fidelity to a woman without reward is enough.  I shall not alter my life now to suit Mrs. Hamilton.”