The gay season in Madras was now at its height. Mr. Alfred Rayner hailed the opportunity of taking his charming bride everywhere, and occasions were numerous. The weather, though never deserving to be registered "cold," was pleasantly cool. Fashionable calls could be made with comfort in the middle of the day, and in the discharge of this social duty, Hester's husband kept her emphatically up to the mark. The afternoon and evening were divided into quite a distracting whirl of entertainments. Every day of the week had gymkanas, amateur concerts, dances, and dinner-parties.

Mr. and Mrs. Rayner were early guests at Government House, Mrs. Glanton's "neutral garden-party" had been followed by a speedy invitation to dinner, and there and everywhere the young barrister greeted with satisfaction, proofs that, as he expressed it, "Hester was a stunning success," and had lent that element of social prestige to his position which hitherto it had lacked, and which now he hungrily welcomed.

He had been eager to make an early return for the varied hospitalities which as a young married couple they had received. These dinner-parties at Clive's Road were a source of no little anxiety to the young hostess, chiefly because she realised Alfred's eagerness that they should attain perfection. It is true her husband kept the direction of everything in his own hands, insisting that no obtainable luxury should be absent from his board; though before long, Hester's feminine sense had perceived that much less might have been expended, and all gracious hospitality enhanced by less ostentatious methods, recalling delightful dinner-parties at home in which neither pÂtÉ de foie gras nor dry champagne were component parts. But seeing Mr. Rayner's ambition was to impress the little society with his affluence, he certainly, by means of his elegant festivities, succeeded in doing so; the result being that the young couple became popular as charming entertainers, and by many were valued accordingly.

On the surface all seemed to be going well with Hester. Nevertheless, the painful incident which marked the visit of her old friend seemed to have struck the hour for the vanishing of the unreal glamour under whose pervading influence she had been conscious of being since she set foot on Indian soil. Her individuality began to assert itself, she reverted more to her home standards, and began to try to bring her days into line with them. The social amenities which belong to refined circles had always made a part of Hester's home life, though she was only beginning, when she left, to have any active share in them. But she knew enough to be aware that with her parents they had never been regarded as the be-all and end-all of existence as they seemed to be to her husband. She instinctively felt the preoccupation vulgar and selfish, though she shrank from putting that feeling into words, and felt almost guilty in thus judging. Since the morning on which Alfred had allowed himself to speak such cruel words about Mr. Morpeth, he had seemed eager to atone, had acquiesced in occasional morning visits to her friend Mrs. Fellowes, and had even accepted good-naturedly a proposal that Hester should help her with her Eurasian Girls' Club.

Though Hester had many acquaintances, Mrs. Fellowes was the only person to whom she turned as a real friend. It was indeed the pleasantest afternoon of the week for her when she drove towards the white-washed room in the crowded quarter of Vepery, where she could always reckon on a little talk with her friend before the arrival of the girls. These interests were becoming every day keener to her, and formed an antidote to the social environment of perpetual gaiety and flattery which otherwise might have proved too engrossing.

Mrs. Fellowes, having had a slight breakdown, was ordered a month's rest. During her absence Hester had undertaken to superintend the Girls' Club, though she felt herself a poor substitute for the versatile organiser. Having the need to consult her on some details, she responded all the more gladly to Mrs. Fellowes' invitation to spend a day with her in her retreat, which was within driving distance of Madras. Her husband expressed himself delighted that she should have the opportunity of making the acquaintance of a pretty bit of the Coromandel coast.

When she returned in the evening Hester was glowing in her praise of Ennore, and full of a project which she and Mrs. Fellowes had planned together.

"Won't it be delightful, Alfred, for those poor girls to have a whole day in that lovely spot?" she said joyfully, as she unfolded the plan to her husband while they sat in the verandah after dinner. "And we've decided not to drive them out in those horrid native boxes on wheels they call jatkas," continued Hester. "We mean to engage carriages from Waller's, and with Mrs. Fellowes to welcome them at the other end, it will all seem like fairy-land to them. Mrs. Fellowes says seventy-five rupees will quite cover the hire, so I thought I might undertake that part of it."

"Seventy-five rupees! To be good for that? Surely that was a rash promise, Hester?" exclaimed her husband with an annoyed air. "My word, I don't intend to have myself bled to that extent for those half-caste creatures."

But remembering his resolve not to criticise her efforts for them, he decided to put his objection on another footing. "The fact is, I'm none too flush of rupees at this moment. This has been a triumphant season for us, and no mistake, Hester, but one must pay for such triumphs!"

"But, Alfred, I promised," faltered Hester.

"Then you must just wriggle out if it, my dear. Write to Mrs. Fellowes and say we've too many engagements here—can't find any spare day. She's a sensible woman, she'll read between the lines. Rupees ain't so plentiful with her."

"Yet just think what she does," said Hester with dilating eyes. "Her purse is always open! But, Alfred, I'm really in honour bound to carry through this treat. It's too late to draw back now, you would never ask me do such a thing."

"To draw back? Of course, that's precisely what you must do! It's an absurd project! I'll be bound, it wasn't for that sort of thing Binny's Bungalow was lent to Mrs. Fellowes!" said Mr. Rayner, rising as if to end the discussion.

"It's too late to draw back now," returned Hester decisively. "I happened to meet two of the Vepery girls as I was driving home. I stopped the carriage to tell them of the happy day Mrs. Fellowes was planning for them——"

"Vepery, did you say?" asked Alfred, turning with a start. "I understood your class was at Royapooram."

Though he had tacitly acquiesced in his wife's helping her friend in what he called her "quixotic projects," he had taken no further interest. It disturbed him not a little now to know that the meeting might contain, his objectionable acquaintance, Leila Baltus, and sheer alarm drove him to more indignant remonstrances than before. At length he summoned his office-bandy, and at that unwonted hour ordered the sleepy syce to light the lamps, and drove off to town, leaving his wife in tears.

Hester, sorely vexed as she was, never for a moment contemplated abandoning the project which she decided she was in duty bound to Mrs. Fellowes, as well as to the Club girls, to carry out. Hurrying up-stairs she counted her own little store which she had laid aside for Christmas presents for those at home. It proved more than the required sum.

When her landau appeared next forenoon to take her for a round of visits, she told the syce to drive her instead to Waller's Stables, where the hire of the required carriages was speedily arranged. She resolved to tell her husband on the first opportunity that the carriage difficulty was now solved, and to try, when she did so, to hide the soreness which still rankled in her heart concerning it.

There was an air of apology in Mr. Rayner's manner when he returned from the High Court that afternoon. He evidently did not forget that he had lost his temper on the previous evening, and his wife hoped this state of mind might make it easier for her to broach the vexed question.

This she was about to do as they sat in the verandah after dinner, when her husband turned to her with a gracious smile.

"You're looking lovely to-night, Hester! Your day at Ennore yesterday has brought back the English roses to your cheeks. Fine birds deserve fine feathers, shall we say? See what I've brought to adorn your lovely white neck!"

He opened an elegant leather case and held up triumphantly a beautiful diamond pendant.

"Oh, Alfred," gasped Hester, after a moment's silence. "Have you actually got that for me? Oh, I can't—I won't have it! You must give it back! You will return it?"

"Return it, forsooth! A nice suggestion when an affectionate husband presents his wife with a gift! Besides, Hester, you really haven't the correct toilette without jewels. That trumpery gold cross is the only thing you have to wear. It's been my despair at all our parties to see you without diamonds when the frowsy dowagers are resplendent with them—and the young brides into the bargain. This pendant is a simple necessity. I'll add a tiara when I can."

"Never! I wouldn't wear one for the world! And if you want to make me happy you'll return this. Oh, how could you waste money on it, especially"—she paused with a little catch in her voice—"especially since you said you couldn't afford to give me the rupees to pay for those carriages though I told you I had promised them."

"Well, don't you see I had it in my mind to give you this surprise—and a nice reception you've given it!"

Mr. Rayner snapped the lid of the elegant case with an angry air. "Anyhow the diamonds are yours and you must wear them," he added, throwing the case into her lap. "I'm not going to be made a fool of, taking them back with my tail between my legs like a whipped puppy. Why, it would soon get out that I am a hen-pecked husband, and so I am, between one thing or another," he ended sulkily, and betook himself to the perusal of the Madras Mail.

Hester, though she hated concealment, felt that this was not the moment to announce that the carriages for Ennore had been duly arranged for, and that she would have to go next day to help Mrs. Fellowes to entertain the Eurasian girls. Neither could she, at this moment, make any further remonstrance concerning the foolish gift. She would watch for an early opportunity when her husband was in a better mood, and try to persuade him to return it to the jewellers. The pendant was, in itself, vulgar and ostentatious. She felt she could never wear it. She smiled when she pictured her mother's face if she saw the flaring jewel upon her young daughter's neck. Mrs. Bellairs disapproved of jewellery for girls, even for young matrons, and her prejudice was so well known in her circle that among Hester's numerous wedding gifts there had been a marked absence of trinkets of any kind, and her husband had more than once expressed his regret that his wife should be unadorned save by the little antique gold cross.

Perhaps she had been unkind in making such a determined stand, Hester thought now. But when she recalled her husband's assurance that they were spending so largely that even seventy-five rupees would prove a strain on their month's finances, she felt reassured that she would only be acting as a true wife should in urging that the gaudy gift should again take its place among the jeweller's wares; and, if she remained firm, surely Alfred would not force it upon her.