"How do you do, Colonel Graeme?"
"Quite well, thank you, Miss Selbourne; that's the right answer, isn't it? Damned fit I am, look at me and see."
Startled, Stara looked up, and fear vanished in amazement, for here was no triumphant conqueror, but a stricken, haggard-eyed man. "He has done it and regrets," she thought, and instantly was in revolt.
"It's so very good of you to come, Colonel Graeme, such a long journey in the heat. Did you have a good passage? My brother is so looking forward to seeing you, shall we get on? My pony's here, and——"
"Don't be a fool, I've not come eight thousand miles to see your brother, sit down."
"I think perhaps, as it's getting late——"
"Do you want to hear, or don't you? If not, I go back now."
"That—that depends. If ... you regret ... I don't."
"Bah!"
"Tell me."