"Nothing to bother about. Mackay will be here soon."
"Won't you tell us how it happened?"
"There's not much to tell, Ladybird. Rajinder Singh's charger kicked me while I was cutting his head-rope—that's all. The good old chap was quite upset because I wouldn't let him do it himself."
"Well, I think you ought to have let him. It wouldn't have mattered half so much if he——"
"That's enough, Evelyn!" the man broke out in a flash of genuine anger. "If you're only going to say things of that sort, you may as well hold your tongue."
And once again he closed his eyes, as if in self-defence against further argument or upbraiding.
His wife stood watching him with a puzzled frown, while Honor, a keenly interested observer, wondered what would happen next.
Her sympathy, as always, inclined to the man's point of view. But a passionate justness, very rare in women, forced her to acknowledge that Evelyn's remonstrance, if injudicious, was not unjustifiable. The girl saw clearly that the sheer love of danger for its own sake, which Frontier life breeds in men of daring spirit, had impelled Desmond to needless and inconsiderate risk; saw also that his own perception of the fact added fire to his sharp retort.
He stirred at length, with an uneasy shifting of the damaged shoulder.