Her mother, meantime, had tacked sail and was probing him, indirectly, about his reasons for remaining in India.  Was he going in for politics, or the life of a country gentleman in his beautiful home?  Her remarks implied that she took him for the eldest son.  And Roy, who had not been attending, realised with a jar that, in vulgar parlance, he was being discreetly pumped.  Whereat, politely but decisively, he sheered off and stuck to his partner till the meal was over.

The men seemed to linger interminably over their wine and cigars.  But he managed to engage the D.C. on the one subject that put shyness to flight—­the problems of changing India.  With more than twenty years of work and observation behind him, he saw the widening gulf between rulers and ruled as an almost equal disaster for both.  He knew, none better, all that had been achieved, in his own Province alone, for the peasant and the loyal landowner.  He had made many friends among the Indians of his district; and from these he had received repeated warnings of widespread, organised rebellion.  Yet he was helpless; tied hand and foot in yards of red tape....

It was not the first time that Roy had enjoyed a talk with him; a sense of doors opening on to larger spaces.  But this evening restlessness nagged at him; and at the first hint of a move he was on his feet, determined to forestall Hayes.

He succeeded; and Miss Arden welcomed him with the lift of her brows that he was growing to watch for when they met.  It seemed to imply a certain intimacy.

“Very brown and vigorous, you’re looking.  Was it—­great fun?”

“It was topping,” he answered with simple fervour.  “Rare sport.  Everything in style.”

“And no leisure to miss partners left lamenting?  I hope our stars shone the brighter, glorified by distance?”

Her eyes challenged him with smiling deliberation.  His own met them full; and a little tingling shock ran through him, as at the touch of an electric needle.

“Some stars are dazzling enough at close quarters,” he said boldly.

“But surely—­’distance lends enchantment’——?”

“It depends a good deal on the view!”

At that moment, up came Hayes, with his ineffable air of giving a cachet to any one he honoured with his favour.  And Miss Arden hailed him, as if they had not met for a week.

Thus encouraged, of course he clung like a limpet; and reverted to some subject they had been discussing, tacitly isolating Roy.

For a few exasperating moments, he stood his ground, counting on bridge to remove the limpet.  But when Hayes refused a pressing invitation to join Mrs Ranyard’s table, Roy gave it up, and deliberately walked away.

Only Mr Elton remained sitting near the fireplace.  His look of undisguised pleasure, at Roy’s approach, atoned for a good deal; and they renewed their talk where it had broken off.  Roy almost forgot he was speaking to a senior official; freely expressed his own thoughts; and even ventured to comment on the strange detachment of Anglo-Indians, in general, from a land full of such vast and varied interests, lying at their very doors.