Rayner glanced round furtively for his wife, and presently descried Mark Cheveril in earnest conversation with another civilian.

"So far good," he muttered, "he at least is not taking advantage of my absence to enjoy himself with this wife of mine whom Mr. Worsley places on such a pedestal!"

But after he had gazed out from his corner a little longer, he perceived a combination which aroused his anger.

On one of the sofas placed about for tired guests not far from where Mark stood, sat Hester, and by her side, his own now declared enemy, the Collector of Puranapore. Mr. Worsley was smiling as he talked, and his conversation was evidently pleasing, judging from Hester's look of interest and animation. The topic was, in fact, reminiscences of her uncle, who had been Felix Worsley's particular friend at Oxford.

Striding rapidly across the room, Rayner laid his hand on his wife's arm, saying sharply:

"Come along, Mrs. Rayner, our carriage stops the way."

Hardly allowing her time even to bow a good-night to her companion, and himself ignoring his presence, he hurried her away, keeping his hold on her arm till she reached the door of the cloak-room.

"Alfred, why were you so rude?" asked Hester in dismay. "Do you know it was Mr. Worsley, whom you wanted so much to meet, that I was talking to?"

"I knew it only too well, madam! Therefore it was I chivied you off as I did. Sorry I interrupted what seemed, judging from your appearance, a fascinating _tete-a-tete_, but a man must use his discretion where his own wife is concerned! Don't be in any hurry, I've got to summon the carriage yet," he called, as Hester, dumb with shame and vexation, was disappearing into the cloak-room. "I'll send and let you know when Mrs.

Rayner's carriage stops the way!" Then he added to himself: "Meanwhile I want a little more champagne to steady my nerves after all this worry."

CHAPTER XXIV.

A few weeks had elapsed since Alfred Rayner had spurned the searchlight which might have shown him some of the plague spots of his own heart.

They had proved very trying weeks in the house in Clive's Road. Hester was striving to be tactful and tender, but her husband's wayward outbursts of temper made things very hard for her, and even outsiders began to mark the change in her looks.

"The Madras climate is already beginning to tell on Mrs. Rayner! Her bloom has been short-lived, but I expect she will soon be carried off to the hills and get her good looks restored at Ooty," were the remarks pa.s.sed from lip to lip, but none divined the true cause of the young wife's weary mien.

In official circles the yearly migration to the hills had already begun.

The Governor and his suite had departed, and the constant succession of gaieties were over for the season. This indeed proved a relief to Hester, but it threw her husband more on his own resources, which was threatening to prove disastrous. He now habitually lounged at the Club and frequented card-playing resorts, returning late, often morose and self-accusing. His moods, whatever they were, always reacted on his wife, who was indeed learning patience through suffering.

One evening, however, he came home with an air of buoyancy which was now very unusual to him. He had hardly alighted from his mail-phaeton when he hurried to Hester, saying eagerly:

"I've got a project to unfold, my dear! What do you say to a jaunt to Calcutta? You're looking pale. It is warming up here in this southern hole. Three days at sea will do you a world of good, not to speak of a jolly holiday in Calcutta!"

"But, Alfred, this is surely all very sudden! Are you really thinking of a voyage all the way to Calcutta?" faltered Hester, whose breath was almost taken away by her husband's eagerness.

"Of course I am, and do you suppose I'd leave you all alone here? The trip will do you ever so much good--break the monotony that creeps over one like a fungus in this humdrum place. I've just written to accept Melford's invitation, so there's no drawing back now. You remember he brought out his bride the steamer after ours? It's some weeks since he wrote asking us to pay them a visit. It didn't seem to me possible then, but I've made up my mind to take the step now. The truth is, I have a desire to interview the reigning partner of my father's old firm, Truelove Brothers. My allowance comes to me with exemplary regularity, it is true, but it may be they owe me a much larger sum than I get. At all events, being a minor no longer, it's high time I should be investigating these matters for myself. So pack up, my darling, and let's have a second honeymoon on the ocean's breast!"

The proposal had many attractions for Hester. Not that she resented the alleged monotony of life on the plains of India as some around her were continually complaining they did, but truly there had been a monotony of jars and frets in her intercourse with her husband of late, and she longed to break the cruel spell. He was looking ill and haggard, perhaps the change of scene and the contact with old acquaintances might help him; and she also looked forward to seeing the great city with its historical a.s.sociations.

With renewed hope she set about preparations for the journey. Soon all the household at Clive's Road were sharing the exciting news that Dorai and Dosani were going on a holiday, and the ayah and the dressing boy were to accompany their master and mistress. Hester had written to Mrs.

Fellowes to tell her of the pending departure, and all preparations were well advanced when her husband, returning on the following evening at a late hour, announced with hesitating mien that he feared the sea journey must be given up, that he was obliged for business reasons to include Bombay in his trip, and five days in the train, which was then the length of the journey, was unthinkable for such a frail creature as she was. Moreover, he had that day met a friend whom he desired, also for business reasons, to have as his companion, and he being a bachelor preferred to travel _en garcon_. This they could do much more cheaply than if they "were hum-bugged by wives," as his friend elegantly expressed it.

So it came about that Hester's quick hope came to a sudden end. For a little she felt keen disappointment, enhanced by the knowledge that in her husband's change of plans there was a large element of wilful selfishness. She accepted the decision without a murmuring word, and felt almost surprised to perceive the strain of penitence which marked his manner as she cheerfully busied herself in making all preparations for his journey.

"I don't half like leaving you alone like this," he remarked on the morning of his departure. "I've been thinking of a nice plan for you.

Suppose you write to Mrs. Fellowes and suggest a visit to her!"

Hester, however, declined to fall in with the proposal, a.s.suring her husband that she would find plenty to occupy her during her solitary weeks. But on the same afternoon when Mrs. Fellowes called to say farewell to her friend, and found to her astonishment that the hoped-for holiday was abandoned as far as Hester was concerned, she at once insisted that she should take up her abode at Royapooram during her husband's absence. Thither Hester went on the day after Mr. Rayner's departure to find rest and solace in the companionship of these good friends.

Alfred Rayner's purpose in going to Calcutta was not very definite in his own mind. He looked on it in the light of an experiment--a gamble.

It was, in fact, the need of money which urged him to try to gauge the capacities of Truelove Brothers, and to make the attempt to bleed them more heavily. Zynool's loan had tided him over a period, but financial embarra.s.sments were becoming pressing, and he decided to exhaust the possibilities of help from the quarter from whence help had come with such unfailing regularity longer than he could remember. It is true his aunt had always volubly a.s.sured him that his allowance was all the firm of Truelove Brothers had in store for him. But what were the a.s.sertions of a woman like Aunt Flo, he thought with scorn, so ignorant, so prevaricating, as he knew her to be. More than likely he had been up to this date the victim of a cruel conspiracy to defraud him of his legal rights as the son of one of the late partners of the firm. He had, however, to remind himself that his recent endeavours to probe the matter by a sharp query in a letter had elicited a firm though courteous reply that the allowance which he received was the limit of his claim.

But now, since his financial condition was becoming desperate, unless indeed he changed his whole scale of living, he had resolved to make the attempt to sift the matter in person. The _detour_ to Bombay might indeed have been well dispensed with, and had only been yielded to at the solicitation of one of the most worthless of his recent acquaintances.

So it happened that when Alfred Rayner took his seat in the crowded train _en route_ for Calcutta his purse was more empty than he liked to contemplate. Prudence had even dictated that he should stoop to a seat in a third-cla.s.s carriage. He sat in a corner wedged in between closely packed natives, his sun topee drawn over his eyes, the lower part of his face covered by his pocket-handkerchief. But he could not shut his ears to the discordant babel of voices round him, for every third-cla.s.s pa.s.senger in the East is nothing if not vociferous. His elegant person was continually prodded by angular packages, his delicate nostrils, in spite of all precautions, a.s.sailed by the most forbidding odours.

The journey seemed interminable. The slight refreshment he had been able to secure as the train was in motion he could hardly eat in such repulsive surroundings. At last the express swung into Howrah station, but even then Rayner's gnawing discomfort was not at an end.

He had been congratulating himself that as he had not mentioned the hour of his arrival, he would not be met at the station. But he reckoned too much on Mr. Melford's ignorance of the time-table. On peering out of his box-like carriage window, he caught sight of his friend in eager search after his smart acquaintance of Piccadilly days, while that gentleman lurked in a third-cla.s.s carriage, choke full of natives.

Rayner decided that the only thing left for him to do was to secrete himself in the grimy comer which he had longed to leave, till he could guarantee that his friend's back was turned. When that moment arrived he jumped with alacrity to the platform and hurried to report himself.

"Ah, here you are, Rayner--thought you were going to cheat us too! My wife and I are awfully sorry Mrs. Rayner's heart failed her at the last moment. Carrie has been making great moan about her disappointment since your letter came. Stupid of me not to have caught sight of you before! I thought I searched every carriage!"

"Oh, I think I was at the far end. But here I am, precious glad to be out of that beastly train."

"Sorry you haven't been comfortable. Carrie and I thought we were in the lap of luxury on our trip to Bombay. We thought the carriages most grand and comfortable, but you always were a fastidious chap, Rayner! I only hope you'll deign to be satisfied with our humble abode. I warn you it's up two pairs of stairs, good enough rooms when one reaches them, that of course is a necessity out here. But I hope before long we may be able to transfer ourselves to a house with a compound," said the young husband, with a cheerful smile.

"Doing a roaring trade, no doubt, Melford? Wish I'd gone in for being a merchant. Law is poor pay and no pudding!"

"Not in your case evidently, Rayner. Tresham was telling me what a palatial residence you have in Madras, and what fine entertainments you give--and of your equipages galore. Our one buggy is all we've been able to muster as yet. But I'm saving up for an evening carriage for Carrie.

I think I may see my way to that before the hot weather fairly sets in.

But you and Mrs. Rayner will be taking flight to the Neilgherries soon, I suppose?"

"Yes, Ooty will see us before long no doubt. My wife is feeling the heat badly already. Her English roses that Madras has raved about all the season are vanishing."

"Oh, yes, I heard about those said roses from Tresham. He reported that Mrs. Rayner is quite the prettiest woman in Madras, and charming besides. You can imagine how eager Carrie and I were to see her, and what a disappointment your wire and then your letter was!"

"Yes, I couldn't give details in my wire, but the fact is my wife is devoted to a certain Mrs. Fellowes, the wife of Colonel Fellowes who commands the Native Infantry Battalion in Madras just now. There's nothing she loves so much as a visit to those people. She helps Mrs.

Fellowes with girls' meetings and things of that sort."

"Oh, does she! That would have been another bond with my wife. She has got involved in good works, visits the Zenanas, and does what she can----"

"Thankless business, I say, but it serves to keep our ladies out of mischief, perhaps," said Rayner, with a shrug of his shoulders.

The gharry had now reached Ballygunge Road and drew up before the wide entrance door of the Melford's flat.

"Think of being condemned to climb those horrid stairs when one comes home dead beat!" muttered Mr. Rayner to himself, as he followed his host up the long flight of steps.

The home of the Melfords, when reached, however, appeared, even to his fastidious eyes, ample and even elegant. Its young mistress, though without Hester's grace and beauty, was a sweet comely young matron with the glow of health and happiness in her eyes. Her guest could discern that her expression of regret over his wife's absence was genuine. A twinge of remorse visited him when he recalled his action in the matter, and it was quickened by the recollection of the discreditable record of his days in Bombay. He winced to think of the follies for which he had bartered his wife's chance of a pleasant holiday with this kind host and hostess, and resolved that he would proceed with all haste to make the most of his opportunities with Truelove Brothers, and try to secure a larger share of their profits so that he might have more luxury to shower upon her.

On confiding his hopes and plans to his host over a cheroot after dinner, he was a.s.sured by him that the firm in question was an excellent one.

"As sound as the Bank, by Jove! I think I'll leave the Madras High Court and become a merchant!" exclaimed Mr. Rayner, his eyes dancing with pleasure as he listened to the praise of Messrs. Truelove.

"I wonder you never thought of that open door before, Rayner," said Mr.

Melford between the puffs of his pipe.