"But I repeat that this place is tiresome," she resumed, as a pause had ensued, and pauses are always awkward; "think of the Residency parties, with their young ladies' quadrilles and married ladies' ditto! A man may dance in both sets, and yet have only one hand to dispose of. There is an absurdity, too, in having present those native chiefs like Taj Mohammed and Timour the Shahzadeh, who think the whole affair—the round dancing especially—a naughty and improper Nautch; so they curl their enormous mustaches, and turn up their cruel glittering eyes, and wonder that we laboriously do that which they pay others to do for their amusement. Sunday comes, and then we have to endure what Mab calls 'a regimental sermon,' wherein the chaplain sets forth little more than the heinousness of the slightest neglect of the Queen's regulations! Heavens! I would rather endure a trot on a newly-caught elephant, or a picnic in a wet jungle! Oh, may I trouble you, dear Mr. Devereaux?" she whispered suddenly, and so close that her auburn hair brushed his cheek; "my bracelet has fallen."
The ornament, an elaborate Delhi bangle—a golden miracle of carving—was, not very speedily, clasped by Denzil on the white, veined wrist; and while doing so she permitted her hand for an instant to touch, to linger in his. Was he awkward? was the clasp stiff, that a thrill went to his heart? But her eyes were sparkling with coquetry, as she expressed her thanks for the little service she had ensured by specially and purposely letting her bracelet fall.
"How that young fellow is 'going the pace,'" whispered Polwhele to Burgoyne, with a covert laugh.
"Of course you can never feel dull when in your quarters, Mr. Devereaux?" said Rose; "young officers are said to have so many resources."
"Far from it; and, to tell the truth, I am always dull, weary and even sad, when not—here. You can never know," he added, colouring at the pointedness of his own remark, "how stupidly we fellows pass the time in cantonments; it is getting through the day anyhow—sipping everything, from iced champagne to cold tea and pale ale; smoking everything, from Latakia to Chinsurrah cheroots, and making bets on everything, from drawing the longest straw out of the bungalow roof to naming the winner of the Derby or St. Leger, the bet to be determined six months after, perhaps, when the mail reaches us."
"A profitable way of spending one's day. Do none of you, as a pastime, ever attempt to fall in love?"
The question was one of positive cruelty; but the beautiful eyes only beamed brighter with fun as she put this perilous query, which she would never have uttered to men like Waller or Polwhele.
She fanned herself, and waited for a reply.
"For others I cannot say," said Denzil, in low voice; "for myself, never till I came to Cabul—never till I met, I dare not here say who."
"For a griff, Devereaux, you give a capital answer," said Burgoyne, who had been gradually drawing near them; "we both fall in love and out of it too," he added, with a laugh that was almost saucy, for he had already suffered something at Rose's hands. "Love, like a month's pay, does not last for ever."