saucers, with a few spoonfuls of oil in them and a loose wick of twisted cotton. The light they give, when in large numbers, is peculiarly warm and rich; and the very simplicity of the instrument used makes it the more flexible and effective. Instead of being confined to artificial patterns, expressed in gas-pipes, the Indian puts rows of lamps along the edge of his flat roof, along the sills and arches of his doors and windows, at every point where the little saucers will easily stand or hang. An Indian street is full of picturesque variations of architecture, and these are picked out in lines of yellow light which adapt themselves to the graceful forms of the buildings. Sometimes the Indian spoils the whole thing by erecting stiff horizontal lines of bamboos along his roads, and stringing lamps on them, which shows that the beauty of the usual illuminations is not wholly due to artistic taste; but this is rare. The rolling ground upon which Syntia was built, and the masses of dark trees which broke the lines of street and wall, and the smooth surface of the river beyond reflecting innumerable lights, all added to the beauty of the scene. Away to the right Guy could make out the durbar house, which stood alone and high at some distance from the town. The drive was picked out by a line of lights, and he could see the carriages going slowly up through the glare. There and in the town was much noise and confusion. An Indian, like an Italian, can do nothing without shouting.

As the party from the cantonment walked up the broad stone steps, they saw at the top, waiting to receive them, the giver of the entertainment. The Raja Sahib was resplendent with silk and jewels, and looked a striking figure. Fully six feet in height, with a handsome face and courteous dignified manner, he was an admirable specimen of his class, the Rajput aristocracy, who are ready to be our firm friends if we will have them so, and who can bring their country with them.

Shaking hands with the Raja Sahib and the two fat sons, whọ were magnificent but very inferior to their father in appearance, Guy made his way into the ballroom, which was already pretty full. His first look was for Helen Treveryan, whom he saw a little higher up the room, standing by her father and surrounded by applicants. He was welcomed with a bright look of pleasure, and secured a waltz, No. 4.

'Only one, Miss Treveryan,' he said in a tone of disappointment; 'can't you give me another?'

'I think you are very ungrateful, Mr. Langley. I kept that

one for you, although you were so late, and I have made an enemy of Mr. Anderson for life.'

Colonel Treveryan was listening with a smile on his face. He had seen with pleasure the admiration which Helen had aroused among the men about him, and he felt generously inclined. 'Give him one of mine, Nellie,' he said. 'It is selfish of me to

keep two for myself.' Guy looked as if he quite agreed, but Helen refused at once. 'No; I won't do anything of the kind,' she answered. 'I am not going to lose my best waltzes. No one dances as well as you do.' The difficulty was compromised at last. Guy was to have an extra, if there were any extras, and a

square.

It was a delightful dance. The floor was perfect, and the band was good, and there were many pretty dresses. Guy's first waltz was real bliss. He and Helen both had a good ear, and they had thoroughly caught each other's step. As they went smoothly round, steering through the crowd about them with an ease born of perfect sympathy and confidence, they were the handsomest and best matched pair in the room. Colonel Treveryan, a good dancer himself, watched them with pleasure; and the little Pink 'un gazed at them with envy.

Between that waltz and supper they sat out their square on the terrace. Helen had been dancing steadily and was glad of the rest. She was looking perfectly beautiful, Guy thought, as he led her out of the room; her eyes bright and her face a little flushed with the exercise. They found a seat overlooking the river, and sat down. 'Are you sure it is not too cold for you?' Guy said, as she took her hand from his arm, and his voice had a tender solicitude about it which might have betrayed him. But Helen was young and untrained, and she did not notice. 'Oh no,' she said. 'It is delightful to be out of the heat.'

It was very pleasant. Behind them, in the house, they could hear the quick music of the Lancers; but the terrace was broad and the sound was muffled. Twenty feet below them lay the river. The house stood at the end of a curve; and looking to their left they could follow the line of the southern bank as far as the buildings of the town a mile away. The light from the illuminations was reflected in the water; and boats bearing torches were moving upon its surface. From these boats men were launching little lamps of various colours, which floated slowly down the stream into the darkness below the town. Many of these frail vessels disappeared before they had gone far, but

many survived. Guy and Helen Treveryan watched them as they came on—a fairy fleet, forming and scattering and reforming in countless combinations upon the dimly seen surface of the river, as the air or the eddies drifted them. They floated slowly by and disappeared under the palms and bamboos which fringed the bank to the right. Across the river, to the north, was the blackness of the earth, and above it the northern stars.

Neither Guy nor Helen spoke much. She was conscious of nothing but a sense of exquisite happiness. To him, as he sat by her side, with her dress touching his hand, and her beautiful face and throat dimly seen in the starlight, there suddenly came an almost overpowering longing-the fiery reckless passion of a young man's love. His heart began to beat hard, and in another moment he would have been carried away, when she broke the spell. The Lancers were over, and there now came through the open doors the first notes of a waltz. Helen heard and got up at once. 'You must take me in now, please. The next is my father's dance. I must not be late for that.' As they passed across the terrace she stopped again for an instant, and looked back towards the river. 'How beautiful it is,' she said with a slight tremor in her voice. And Guy answered fervently, 'It is like heaven to me.' Like heaven! A pretty girl, a starry sky over a silent Indian river, and a little dance music to set one's heart going. Well, we have all had our moments of heaven on earth, and were they more poetically constituted? Later in the evening Guy tried to revive the dream, but when do such dreams revive? He got his extra waltz during supper, and after it he took Helen out to the terrace again; but her mood had apparently changed. She was talking about something that had amused her, and seemed in no humour to sit down again. Moreover, a surprise had been prepared for the guests, which soon brought the whole of them out to the back of the house.

If there is one thing which natives of India, high or low, love with all their souls, it is àtish bázi-fireworks, or fire-play as they more accurately call it. They will spend any amount of money in this way, and seem never to have enough. Much against his judgment Hunter had agreed, in deference to the earnest desire of a great native landholder, who was heavily in debt, but very jealous of the Raja Sahib's ball and very anxious to show his loyalty, that at twelve o'clock there should be a dis. play of fireworks upon a little sandy island which lay on the opposite side of the river, midway between the town and the

durbar house, so that Europeans and natives alike might profit by the sight.

The display was announced by some explosions like fog. signals, and then began the usual thing. Rockets whizzed into the sky, singly or in bouquets, and broke in showers of gold and green and red; Catherine wheels whirled and hissed; squibs spouted; half-lit crosses and stars gleamed through the smoke, and half-extinguished blackening circles swung slowly round, and came to an inglorious end; two floating forts as big as hay waggons blazed into one another for some minutes with a tremendous noise of cannon and musketry at a distance of ten yards; an elephant and a horse of strange proportions arose outlined in fire; and finally there was a splendid trophy, consisting of an Imperial crown over the motto 'God bless the Queen-Empress of India.' The effect of this work of art was somewhat marred by the resolute refusal of the two n's to do their duty, which made ribald subalterns jeer, and by the powder smoke, which had drifted across the river and made the ladies cough; but it was very fine.

The giver of the entertainment had come to the durbar house, and it was necessary in common civility to put seats on the terrace and enjoy the show; but after a time it became a bore. The young men and maidens murmured, and every one was tired of it. However, it was over at last, and the calm stars shone out again, looking rather contemptuous; and the Civil officers were very complimentary to the Thakur Sahib, who seemed pleased and went away smiling. The crowd said there had been a great tamasha, and that it had cost a lakh of rupees; and the dancing began again more vigorously than ever. It was nearly four o'clock before the ladies had all gone, and the young men sat down to the substantial second supper which some of them rued so bitterly later in the day.

CHAPTER XII

MR. PITT WRIGHT

AFTER the ball Syntia soon settled down into its wonted quiet. Most of the guests dispersed next day. They enjoyed a ‘Europe morning,' and rose to a very late breakfast; and in the course of the afternoon they scattered in all directions, as they had come, by road and rail and river. Then the white tents, which had become yellow with ten days' dust, disappeared from among the mango trees; and the Civil officers went back to their regular grind again, and the soldiers to their parades and musketry; and there was peace in the land.

There was a sense of dreariness too at first, after all the racket of the past week, and the ladies looked rather fagged; but this passed off in a few days.

To Guy all seemed a delicious dream. There was no doubt about it now. Since the evening of the dance he had been hopelessly fascinated. Others had noticed his manner to Helen that night, if she had not; and he made little attempt to deny to his own heart that he had fallen at her feet. Yet, with characteristic indolence and enjoyment of the present, Guy Langley did not even now seriously put before himself the idea of marriage. He was in love with Helen Treveryan, and he let his love have full course; he did his utmost to be with her, and to make himself pleasant to her. But he said nothing to her that need change for good or evil the easy familiar footing upon which they stood to one another. Helen was still unconscious of his feelings. She had plenty of happiness in her life, and none of that vulgarity of mind which keeps so many young women always on the look-out for a 'follower.' So the matter stood, and so it might perhaps have remained for a considerable time longer if something had not come to disturb the even tenor of their lives.