Her arms were round his neck.  She poured out her very soul to him in that close embrace.  But she said no word in answer, and her silence was the silence of despair.  It seemed to her that the flaming sword she dreaded had flashed again across her path, closing the way to happiness.

CHAPTER V

TESSA

The blue jay was still laughing on the pine-clad slopes of Bhulwana when Stella returned thither.  It was glorious summer weather.  There was life in the air—­such life as never reached the Plains.

The bungalow up the hill, called “The Nest,” which once Ralph Dacre had taken for his bride, was to be Stella’s home for the period of her sojourn at Bhulwana.  It was a pretty little place twined in roses, standing in a shady compound that Tessa called “the jungle.”  Tessa became at once her most constant visitor.  She and Scooter were running wild as usual, but Netta was living in strict retirement.  People said she looked very ill, but she seemed to resent all sympathy.  There was an air of defiance about her which kept most people at a distance.

Stories were rife concerning her continued intimacy with the Rajah who was now in residence at his summer palace on the hill.  They went for gallops together in the early morning, and in the evenings they sometimes flashed along the road in his car.  But he was seldom observed to enter the bungalow she occupied, and even Tessa had no private information to add to the general gossip.  Netta seldom went to race course or polo-ground, where the Rajah was most frequently to be found.

Stella, who had never liked Netta Ermsted, took but slight interest in her affairs.  She always welcomed Tessa, however, and presently, since her leisure was ample and her health considerably improved, she began to give the child a few lessons which soon became the joy of Tessa’s heart.  She found her quick and full of enthusiasm.  Her devotion to Stella made her tractable, and they became fast friends.

It was in June just before the rains, that Monck came up on a week’s leave.  He found Tessa practically established as Stella’s companion.  Her mother took no interest in her doings.  The ayah was responsible for her safety, and even if Tessa elected to spend the night with her friend, Netta raised no objection.  It had always been her way to leave the child to any who cared to look after her, since she frankly acknowledged that she was quite incapable of managing her herself.  If Mrs. Monck liked to be bothered with her, it was obviously her affair, not Netta’s.

And so Stella kept the little girl more and more in her own care, since Mrs. Ralston was still at Udalkhand, and no one else cared in the smallest degree for her welfare.  She would not keep her for good, though, so far as her mother was concerned, she might easily have done so.  But she did occasionally—­as a great treat—­have her to sleep with her, generally when Tessa’s looks proclaimed her to be in urgent need of a long night.  For she was almost always late to bed when at home, refusing to retire before her mother, though there was little of companionship between them at any time.