The Sabre's Edge

was played so frequently that it began to pall. Hervey, as Joynson's second in command once again, confined himself to the regimental lines and the voluminous administrative detail that accompanied the end of a protracted period in the field. In addition, there was the matter of the church parade for Sir Ivo Lankester. His remains lay with the others who had died in the assault - interred close where they had fallen, with the simplest of ceremonies and yet to be memorialized in marble - but his memory had still to be hallowed in the regimental fashion. To Hervey fell the duty of making the arrangements, and not least in accordance with the sensibilities of Lankester^’s widow.

On the third evening he dined with the Somerviles. Eyre Somervile had told his wife everything of Bhurtpore when he had returned a week earlier, and she had read, too, Lord Combermere^’s despatch to the Governor-General. Emma was as much apprised of events as any woman in Calcutta; there were but a few details awaiting Hervey's personal explanation. And she had, with great delicacy, attended on Lady Lankester several times in order to supply answers to such questions as the widow could conceive, she knowing so little of affairs in India. Besides the obvious pleasure in their reunion, therefore, both Emma and Hervey expected the evening to be of material advantage in the question of regimental mourning.

'I am to call on her tomorrow,' said Hervey, nodding his thanks to the khitmagar who held his chair for him as they sat down to dinner. 'With Joynson and the troop-captains. I hope then to gain her general approval for the form of service. It's a pity the bishop is off on one of his peregrinations. Our chaplain shall just have to rise to the occasion.'

'You will find her very composed, Matthew. That, I think, I can assure you. She was very grateful for your and Colonel Joynson's letters especially.'

'Joynson is trying to discover what her intentions are with regards to a passage home. Has she said anything?'

'Only that she did not intend travelling at once.' 'I am surprised.'

'She will have her reasons, I'm sure, which doubtless will become apparent with time.'

'Indeed, my dear,' said Somervile, anxious to begin their dinner.

Emma nodded to the khansamah for the soup to be brought.

'Now,' continued Somervile, draining his first glass of hock faster than Emma's glance suggested approval of. 'Laying this matter to one side for the moment, what have you decided about the appointment to Combermere's staff?'

Hervey raised his eyebrows. 'I am offered a brevet - a lieutenant-colonel's brevet, I mean. I can hardly decline the promotion.'

'Excellent!'

Emma smiled too. 'And my congratulations, Matthew! Lieutenant-colonel - it sounds exactly comme il faut, and very deserving, I'm sure.'

'Thank you. Thank you both,' said Hervey smiling, but not as fully.

'You have some reservations?' asked Emma.

He did not answer. Indeed he did have reservations, though they were not easily put. He was thirty-five years old (his birthday had been but a few days ago, unobserved except in the bibi khana, to where he had escaped for a few hours of forgetfulness) and the proprietor of a troop. Who would salute his prospects if he did not take the brevet? And yet . . .

'Matthew?'

'Oh, I . . . the regiment is recalled to England, don't you know. We learned it only today.'

'Ah, I see.' Emma glanced at her husband. The news seemed not to disappoint them both as much as it might.

'I, too,' replied Somervile, half-emptying his refilled glass. 'Not recalled as such . . .'

'Eyre has been invited to join the Court of Directors,' Emma explained.

Hervey did now smile without reserve. 'That is capital news, is it not? My congratulations to you too!'

Somervile nodded. 'Capital indeed. And yet I am in two minds. I have spent so long in the Indies.'

'I think, Matthew,' said Emma, glancing at her husband again, 'that Eyre believes that if you take the position here with Lord Combermere, his own choice will be the easier.'

Somervile said nothing.

'A really very agreeable thought,' replied Hervey, much heartened. 'Though I fail to see how my being Lord Combermere's military secretary should facilitate your business with the Governor-General and the council.'

Hervey's reply presumed which decision it would be, but Somervile was not minded to observe on it. 'Just wait until you have seen the workings of Fort William, my good friend. Then you will understand.'

The prospect sounded not altogether inviting.

'So you see, Matthew,' said Emma, laying a hand on his. 'You shall make the choice between you.'

Next day at ten o'clock, Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel Joynson, Brevet-Major Hervey and Captains Strickland and Rose stepped down from the regimental caleche at the residence of the Governor-General. They wore levee dress and together presented a picture of the utmost smartness, as was their intention in order to display their greatest respects.

Lord Amherst's major-domo showed them into a sitting room hung with bright Indian silks, and Sir Ivo's widow entered soon afterwards with a female companion some years her senior. The officers bowed, as one, and Lady Lankester curtsied.

'Permit me to introduce myself, Lady Lankester,' said Joynson stepping forward. 'I am Eustace Joynson, your late husband's major. May I present, also, Major Hervey, Captains Strickland and Rose.'

Each nodded in turn.

'Gentlemen,' she said by reply, softly.

Hervey observed a beautiful woman, for all her mourning weeds. Neither did the pain of her loss line her face excessively, so that she appeared no older than the twenty-five years which Emma Somervile had asserted. But the reason for her delaying passage home was easily apparent. To a skilled observer her complexion told, and to one less so the swelling at her skirts. Hervey had known of it, through Emma, and had told the others. Nevertheless, the appearance of widow with child was more a trial than any of them had expected. Lady Lankester was now, if not before, 'on the strength'.

Three weeks later, on a bright, hopeful spring morning, Emma Somervile walked the Sixth's lines with Hervey, probing him for some intimation of his decision on the appointment to Combermere's staff.

'I think Joynson is of a mind to quit India sooner than I thought’ he said at length, as if it had some special bearing.

'I believe I may know why.'

^‘Oh?'

Trances. I spoke with Eyre about her only a little time before you all returned. I do believe she will very soon make a spectacle of herself. More, for she has in truth made herself so on several occasions. It was a blessing when the army left for Bhurtpore.'

'I feel very sorry for him. There's no word yet from the Horse Guards about whether the regiment can be his.'

'And your own decision will be consequent on learning it?'

'I'm bound to say that it could. I'm being pressed almost daily by Lord Combermere's military secretary for an answer.'

'You surely cannot turn down promotion, Matthew?'

He smiled. 'Do you want me to say 'yes' so that Eyre might take his post in London with ease?'

Emma squeezed his arm. 'I confess I do not know what would be the right course for Eyre. I myself have no very great inclination to return to England, and Eyre is so very suffused by all that there is in this land that I fear he might decline in spirits. You know, Matthew, he prizes your society greatly. I do believe that whatever your decision now, his would be to do likewise.' She laid a hand to his arm. 'And I should be very happy too if that were so.'

Hervey was greatly touched by the continuing evidence of his friends' affection. But he was as yet unable to give any undertaking. 'Well, I may tell you that I must give an answer to the military secretary within the week. But I tell you, Emma, I have scarcely ever found a decision so troublesome.'

Emma simply raised an eyebrow and inclined her head, a gesture to say she understood perfectly but could