“Of course!” she said instantly.  “Of course!” She blushed again afterwards, when she recalled her prompt, and even rapturous, answer to his question.  But, at the time, it was the most natural and spontaneous thing in the world.  It was not in her at that moment to have answered him otherwise.  And Baring knew it, understanding so perfectly that no other word was necessary on either side.  He only bent his head, and held her two hands very closely to his lips before he gently let them go.  It was his sole reply to her glad response.  Yet she felt as if there was something solemn in his action; almost as if thereby he registered a vow.

VI

HER ENEMY

Notwithstanding her determination to return to Ghantala after the breaking of the monsoon.  Hope stayed on at the Hill Station with Mrs. Latimer till the rains were nearly over.  She had wished to return, but her hostess, her fiance, and her brother were all united in the resolve to keep her where she was.  So insistent were they that they prevailed at length.  It had been a particularly bad season at Ghantala, and sickness was rife there.

Baring even went so far as positively to forbid her to return till this should have abated.

“You will have to obey me when we are married, you know,” he grimly told her.  “So you may as well begin at once.”

And Hope obeyed him.  There was something about this man that compelled her obedience.  Her secret fear of him had not wholly disappeared.  There were times when the thought that she might one day incur his displeasure made her uneasy.  His strength awed even while it thrilled her.  Behind his utmost tenderness she felt his mastery.

And so she yielded, and remained at the Hill Station till Mrs. Latimer herself returned to Ghantala in October.  She and Ronnie had not been together for nearly six weeks, and the separation seemed to her like as many months.  He was at the station to meet them, and the moment she saw him she was conscious of a shock.  She had never before seen him look so hollow-eyed and thin.

He greeted her, however, with a gaiety that, in some degree, reassured her.  He seemed delighted to have her with him again, was full of the news and gossip of the station, and chattered like a schoolboy throughout the drive to their bungalow.

Her uncle came out of his room to welcome her, and then burrowed back again, and remained invisible for the rest of the evening.  But Hope did not want him.  She wanted no one but Ronnie just then.

The night was chilly, and they had a fire.  Hope lay on a sofa before it, and Ronnie sat and smoked.  Both were luxuriously comfortable till a hand rapped smartly upon the window and made them jump.

Ronnie exclaimed with a violence that astonished Hope, and started to his feet.  She also sprang up eagerly, almost expecting to see her fiance.  But her expectations were quickly dashed.