carried off two rings and touched the third.  No others had been as fortunate, and cheers from the soldiers and plaudits from the enclosure greeted their success.  Noreen was encouraged, and a becoming colour flushed her face at the applause.  The last couple to ride tied with them, the lady taking all the rings, her partner getting the Turk’s head and one peg and touching the second.  The tie was run off at once.  Noreen, to her delight, found the three rings on her cue when she pulled up at the end of the course, although she hardly remembered taking them, while Charlesworth had made no mistake.  Daunted by this result, their rivals lost their heads and missed everything in their second run.

Noreen, on her return to the enclosure, was again loudly cheered by the men, the applause of the ladies being noticeably fainter, possibly because they resented a new arrival’s success.  But the girl was too pleasantly surprised at her good luck to observe this, and responded gratefully to the congratulations showered on her.  She was no longer too excited to notice her surroundings, and now was able to enjoy the scenery, the music, the gay crowds, the frocks, as well as her tea when Charlesworth escorted her to the Mess Tent.

In the Gretna Green Stakes she and her partner were not so fortunate.  Over the second hurdle in the run home Charlesworth’s pony blundered badly and he was forced to release his hold on the girl’s hand.  When the event came for which he had originally requested her to nominate him, she suggested that he should ask Mrs. Smith to do so instead.  He was skilled enough in the ways of women not to demur, and he did as he was wanted so tactfully that Ida believed it to be his own idea.  So, when the gymkhana ended and Noreen and her chaperone said good-bye, he felt that he had advanced a good deal in the girl’s favour.

During the afternoon Noreen caught sight of Chunerbutty talking to a fat and sensual-looking native in white linen garments with a string of roughly-cut but very large diamonds round his neck and several obsequious satellites standing behind him.  They were covertly watching her, but when, catching the engineer’s eye, she bowed to him, the fat man leant forward and stared boldly at her.  She guessed him to be the Rajah of Lalpuri, who had been pointed out to her once at the Lieutenant-Governor’s durbar at Jalpaiguri.

That evening a note from Chunerbutty, telling her that his father was better though still in a precarious state, was left at her hotel.  But the engineer did not call on her.

The ball on the Thursday night at Government House was all that Noreen anticipated it would be.  Among the hundreds of guests there were a few Indian men of rank and a number of Parsis of both sexes—­the women adding bright colours to the scene by the beautiful hues of their saris, as the silk shawls worn over their heads are called.  During the evening Noreen saw Chunerbutty standing at the door of the