But he put the idea from him, though he smiled as he re-read his orders and thought of her surprise when she saw him in Darjeeling.  Would she really be pleased to meet her friend of the jungle in the gay atmosphere of a pleasure colony?  Like most men who are not woman-hunters he set a very modest value on himself and did not rate highly his power of attraction for the opposite sex.  Therefore, he thought it not unlikely that the girl might consider him as a desirable enough acquaintance for the forest but a bore in a ballroom.  In this he was unjust to her.

He was surprised to discover that he looked forward with pleasure to seeing her again, for women as a rule did not interest him.  Noreen was the first whom he had met that gave him the feeling of companionship, of comradeship, that he experienced with most men.  She was not more clever, more talented, or better educated than most English girls are, but she had the capacity of taking interest in many things outside the ordinary range of topics.  Above all, she inspired him with the pleasant sense of “chum-ship,” than which there is no happier, more durable bond of union between a man and a woman.

The Season brought the work in which Dermot was engaged to a standstill, and, keen lover of sport as he was, he was not tempted to risk the fevers of the jungle.  Life in the small station of Ranga Duar was dull indeed.  Day and night the rain rattled incessantly on the iron roofs of the bungalows—­six or eight inches in twenty-four hours being not unusual.  Thunderstorms roared and echoed among the hills for twenty or thirty hours at a stretch.  All outdoor work or exercise was impossible.  The outpost was nearly always shrouded in dense mist.  Insect pests abounded.  Scorpions and snakes invaded the buildings.  Outside, from every blade of grass, every leaf and twig, a thin and hungry leech waved its worm-like, yellow-striped body in the air, seeming to scent any approaching man or beast on which it could fasten and gorge itself fat with blood.  Certainly a small station on the face of the Himalayas is not a desirable place of residence during the rains, and to persons of melancholy temperament would be conducive to suicide or murder.  Fortunately for themselves the two white men in Ranga Duar took life cheerily and were excellent friends.

* * * * *

By this time Noreen considered herself quite an old resident of Darjeeling.  But she had felt the greatest reluctance to go when her brother had helped her into the dogcart for the long drive to the railway.  Fred was unable to take her even as far as the train, for his manager had one of his periodic attacks of what was euphemistically termed his “illness.”  But Chunerbutty volunteered to escort Noreen to the hills, as he had been summoned again to his sick father’s side, the said parent being supposed to be in attendance on his Rajah who had taken a house in Darjeeling for the season.  As a matter of fact his worthy progenitor had never left Lalpuri.  However, Daleham knew nothing of that, and, being empowered to do so when Parry was incapacitated, gladly gave him permission to go and gratefully accepted his offer to look after the girl on the journey.