thought of herself in Thresk's presence.

"Meanwhile I'll give you one reason why I wanted you to go. My husband's
time in India is up. We are leaving for England altogether in a month's
time. We shall not come back at all. And when we have gone Stella will be
left without one intimate friend in the whole country."

"Yes," said Thresk. "That wouldn't do, would it?" and they went in to
their luncheon.

All through that meal, before the servants, they talked what is written
in the newspapers. And of the two she who had fears and hesitations was
still the most impatient to get it done. She had her curiosity and it
was beginning to consume her. What had Thresk known of Stella and she of
him before she had come out to India and become Stella Ballantyne? Had
they been in love? If not why had Thresk gone to Chitipur? Why had he
missed his boat and left all his clients over there in England in the
lurch? If so, why hadn't they married--the idiots? Oh, how she wanted to
know all the answers to all these questions! And what he proposed to do
now! And she would know nothing unless she was frank herself. She had
read his ultimatum in his face.

"We'll have coffee in my sitting-room. You can smoke there," she said and
led the way to it. "A cheroot?"

Thresk smiled with amusement. But the amusement annoyed her for she did
not understand it.

"I have got a Havana cigar here," he said. "May I?"