Vexed! The bloodless word was insult piled on injury. All the pride and
passion of his race flamed in him. Without answering her smile or her
plea, he drew abruptly away from her; stepped out of the punt and went
for his stroll alone.




CHAPTER II.

"Who knows what days I answer for to-day...?
Thoughts yet unripe in me, I bend one way...."
--ALICE MEYNELL.


While Broome and Lady Despard were concerned over indications of a
critical corner for Roy, there was none--save perhaps Arúna--to be
concerned for the dilemma of Dyán Singh, Rajput--half savage, half
chivalrous gentleman; idealist in the grain; lover of England and India;
and now--fiercely, consumedly--lover of Tara Despard, with her Indian
name and her pearl-white English skin and the benign sunshine of England
in her hair.

It is the danger-point for the young Indian overseas, unused to free
intercourse with women other than his own; saddled, very often, with a
girl-wife in the background--the last by no means a matter of course in
these enlightened days. In Dyán Singh's case the safeguard was lacking.
His mother being dead, he had held his own against a rigidly
conventional grandmother, and insisted on delaying the inevitable till