Her Majesty's consuls will,
in each place, aid you in every way. Should I decide to drop or
quash the whole affair, my young kinsman, Anstruther, represents
me, personally as well as officially."
And so the gay young bridegroom-to-be sailed from Calcutta
light-hearted, while Harry Hardwicke counted each day's reckoning
as bringing him, by leaps and bounds, nearer to the dark-eyed girl
now left alone in the world. "There shall nothing come between us
now, my darling one!" was the young Major's fond vow confided to
the evening star, glowing in its trembling silver radiance over
the spicy Indian Ocean.
Alixe Delavigne was still "Madame Berthe Louison" to the
glittering circle of passengers who envied her the state in which
she traveled, the slavish obeisance of the ship's officers, and
the deft ministrations of those admirable servants, Jules Victor
and Marie. "A great personage incognito," was the general verdict,
and so the luckless swains hovering around fell off one by one,
as the beautiful woman seemed to be always wrapped in an unbroken
reverie. There was an anxious gleam in the lady's eyes, for she
felt that she was going home to the sternest battle of her life,
and she brooded now only upon the trials of the future. She never
knew how near the dark angel's wing had swooped over her own
defenseless head.
For the gray head now lying low had been secretly busied with
plans for a huge bribe to Ram Lal which should buy him to the doing
of a dark deed without a name.
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