She leaned her head against him. "My darling, forgive me! It is just my horrid, suspicious nature."
He pressed her to him. "You certainly don't know me very well yet," he said.
They went back to the bungalow in the late afternoon, walking hand in hand as children, supremely content.
The blue jay laughed at the gate as they entered, and Monck looked up, "Jeer away, you son of a satyr!" he said. "I was going to shoot you, but I've changed my mind. We're all friends in this compartment."
Stella squeezed his hand hard. "Everard, I love you for that!" she said simply. "Do you think we could make friends with the monkeys too?"
"And the jackals and the scorpions and the dear little karaits," said Monck. "No doubt we could if we lived long enough."
"Don't laugh at me!" she protested. "I am quite in earnest. There are plenty of things to love in India."
"There's India herself," said Monck.
She looked at him with resolution shining in her eyes. "You must teach me," she said.
He shook his head. "No, my dear. If you don't feel the lure of her, then you are not one of her chosen and I can never make you so. She is either a goddess in her own right or the most treacherous old she-devil who ever sat in a heathen temple. She can be both. To love her, you must be prepared to take her either way."