CONTENTS
[CHAPTER I.—The Lonely Encampment]
[CHAPTER II.—Mainly Retrospective]
[CHAPTER III.—The Civil Surgeon]
[CHAPTER IV.—A Point of View]
[CHAPTER V.—What Can't be Cured]
[CHAPTER VI.—The Leading Lady]
[CHAPTER VII.—An Anxious Experience]
[CHAPTER VIII.—The Dinner-Party]
[CHAPTER IX.—A Moment of Relaxation]
[CHAPTER X.—The Mission]
[CHAPTER XI.—A Sunday Observance]
[CHAPTER XII.—Infatuation]
[CHAPTER XIII.—Vanished]
[CHAPTER XIV.—The Indiscretion]
[CHAPTER XV.—The Aftermath]
[CHAPTER XVI.—Cornered]
[CHAPTER XVII.—Breaking Bounds]
[CHAPTER XVIII.—Secret Joys]
[CHAPTER XIX.—The Deluge]
[CHAPTER XX.—The "Ideal"]
[CHAPTER XXI.—The Real Thing]
[CHAPTER XXII.—A Desperate Resort]
[CHAPTER XXIII.—Temporisings]
[CHAPTER XXIV.—Suspense]
[CHAPTER XXV.—The Meeting]
[CHAPTER XXVI.—The Fair]
[CHAPTER XXVII.—A Difficult Task]
[CHAPTER XXVIII.—The Atonement]
[Epilogue: All's Well]
[OTHER BOOKS TO READ]
BANKED FIRES
CHAPTER I
THE LONELY ENCAMPMENT
An autumn evening in Bengal was rapidly drawing to a close, with a brief afterglow from a vanished sun to soften the rich hues of the tropical foliage, and garb it fittingly for approaching night. The grass beside the Government tents showed grey in the gathering dusk, while a blue haze of smoke, creeping upward, gently veiled the sheltering trees. But for the modulated chatter of servants, the stillness was eerie. The flat, low-lying fields, having yielded their corn to the harvester, were barren and without sign of life, for the cultivators had departed to their homesteads, and the roving cattle were housed.
Far in the misty distance were the huts of the peasantry grouped together, with their granaries, haystacks, and pens; their date-palms, and the inevitable tank illustrating the typical Bengal village—picturesque and insanitary; too far for noxious smells to annoy the senses, or the intermittent beating of the nocturnal "tom-tom" to affect the nerves of the Magistrate and Collector during the writing of his judgments and reports.