The evenings passed easily enough in this atmosphere of gossip and rumour, but the days dragged heavily. There was nothing to do except smoke and moon about the village and its surroundings. This latter occupation Neil dreaded, for he lived in the continual expectation of meeting Jean Rintoul, and he hated the thought that she might confirm her last words by cutting him dead. Yet he could not bury himself in the monotony of the Rintoul Arms all day long and retain his sanity.

It was in the little general shop and post office, where there was no room to dodge, that he met her at last. She turned to leave the counter as he was on the point of entering the tunnel of pots and pans, brushes and onions, that lined the doorway of the emporium. It was dark inside, and Jean had the advantage, in that she recognised him first, and that the dim light concealed the colour that rushed to her cheeks.

For a moment she hesitated, and then came boldly through the pergola of hardware. Neil had to step back into the open to let her pass, and as he did 80 he recognised her. He stood, his eyes fixed upon her

It was the cut direct. To Neil it was the loss of all he had or ever hoped to have. She had meant it, then! Then, at the moment when his misery was at its climax, he heard her voice. She had come back to him.

"I am sorry, Major McNeil," she was saying, but the blood sang in his ears so that at the moment he could hardly hear the words, "I was very rude. One can carry things too far, and I should not have forgotten that you were very kind to me. Good morning."

She turned to go, having made her apology and cleared her conscience, but something in her words, her tone, and her expression emboldened Neil to make the most of his opportunity.

"That's twice!" he declared to her back.

Jean hesitated in her step, made to go on again, and then her curiosity vanquished her dignity, and she stopped and turned back.

"What's twice ?" she asked frigidly.

But Neil would not be congealed. She had spoken to him again, and something of the real reason of her passionate outburst at their last meeting had dawned suddenly upon his mind. Her name had been

feelings openly canvassed and made the subject of mockery, and he had chosen such a moment to ingratiate himself further with her. No wonder she had turned upon him. That she should have so far forgiven him as to feel any compunction about cutting him, raised him from despair to a quite unjustified ecstasy of hope. Her frigidity could not chill his enthusiasm.

"Twice you have vowed never to speak to me again, and twice you have broken your vow," he answered with a most contagious smile. "Miss Rintoul, it won't do. You'll have to give it up. You dare not say it a third time, for if you went back on it again you would lose the last shred of your reputation as a determined character. Come, let me carry your parcels to the manse.'

was too cautious to attempt to storm the citadel a second time. He was more than content with the advantage that he had gained, and hugged exultantly to his bosom two pairs of Findon-haddocks that were fated to figure next morning upon the minister's breakfast-table.

"I hear from Rab Wilson that you really are out of my cousin's service," said Jean, breaking a long silence.

"Yes, I am a gentleman of leisure now," replied Neil, surprised that she should introduce the subject of Francesca.

IT was three years ago, on 1st April 1925, that Swaraj was established in India, and the British officials with the British Army finally left the country. Before that the whole of India had been divided up into a multitude of separate independent states. Great chunks of territory had been added to existing native states; elsewhere big landowners had been promoted to be Rajas or Nawabs; in some places sovereignty had been put in commission, and entrusted to small councils of ex-officials of the British Government; while in a few unfortunate tracts democratic Parliaments, elected on a manhood suffrage with elected Presidents, provided Oriental imitations of France and the United States. India was like an experimental farm for testing all varieties of fancy constitutions. The abortive reform scheme of 1920 had given prolific birth to numerous still-born Parliaments; but the travail of 1925 resulted in more new states than even

India than those queer Parliaments.

India as a political whole necessarily ceased to exist with the departure of the British Government, which had provided the sole bond of union. The pensions of the departed officials and the interest on British capital invested in India had been secured on the customs; and to ensure payment strong British forces had been left in Karachi, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. British commercial houses still maintained themselves in these port towns; but most Englishmen up-country sold their properties to Indians, and left with the Government. So bitter was the racial antagonism that few of the new states cared to employ Englishmen.

In our own Punjab three states were set up. A Sikh Khalsa democratic state, under an elected President, with its capital at Lahore, included about one-third of the old Punjab. The President was, of course, Sardar J of

the most violent of the Akalis, a sect which, under the cloak of zeal for purity of religious worship, used violence against their opponents, and displayed the most presumptuous arrogance towards the British. In Rawalpindi a Mahomedan Council ruled over the great Mahomedan tract on the west and north-west

of the old Punjab. Over some eight districts of east and southeast Punjab the Nawab of L― was made king, and from being one of the pettiest chiefs was exalted to an equality with Maharaja of Patiala. Imperial Delhi is his capital, but great Babylon is fallen. The half-reared walls of new Delhi are crumbling memorials of the ruin of one more Empire of India.

You are already acquainted with the chief events in the three years' lives of these states. We Sikhs of the central state have never been a single community, except for a brief period under the strong rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. We have always been bands of robbers, murderers, and highwaymen. Eighty years of English rule were not long enough to transform a race of marauders into a stable peasantry. Even those of us who had received the veneer of English education remained at heart stupid, violent, and overbearing. Heaven meant us to be soldiers and I think you will agree that the British Army contained few braver soldiers than the Sikhs,-not statesmen nor scholars. So when England left us to ourselves we simply stripped off the sheep's clothing we had been wearing so uncomfortably. Every big man surrounded himself with a band of young men, well armed, and partially trained and drilled by old officers of the British Army. These local leaders have ever since been

ruling, or rather spoiling, each their own tract of territory, and fighting with all their neighbours. The central government in Lahore cannot enforce its decrees, nor will it be able to do so until a new Lion of the Punjab is born. The Territorial Army, which you English tried to raise before you left the country, has, of course, never existed, for none but a few Hindu students joined it. A national militia demands more self-sacrifice and patriotism than we Indians have yet learned.

The Hindu traders and moneylenders are needed by the Sikhs, and in order to conciliate them the Land Alienation Act has been repealed. So the transfer of land from the small farmers, especially the Mahomedans, to the moneylenders, big and little, is proceeding rapidly. As you know, the Sikhs are themselves firstclass usurers, and never needed the protection of this Act to anything like the same extent as the Mahomedans. Co-operative credit societies have almost completely disappeared. In Sikh villages they were mostly one-man shows, even in British times. A big landowner deposited a large sum in his village society, secured good interest on his money without the loss of reputation entailed by individual moneylending, and was sure of a title and honorary magistracy as rewards for his public spirit. These men now need all their money for keeping up their