es was up betimes, however, and sent off the letter. It went duly,
by Surnoo, to Mrs. Innes at 'Two Gables'. Madeline woke at seven with a
start, and asked if it had gone, then slept again contentedly. So far
as she was concerned the thing was finished. The breakfast gong had
sounded, and the English mail had arrived before she opened her
eyes again upon the day's issues; she gave it her somewhat desultory
attention while Brookes did her hair. There was only one scrap of news.
Adele mentioned in a postscript that poor Mr. Prendergast's money was
likely to go to a distant relative, it having transpired that he died
without leaving a will.

'She is sure, absolutely sure,' Madeline mused, 'to answer my letter in
person. She will be here within an hour. I shall have this to tell her,
too. How pleased she will be! She will come into it all, I suppose--if
she is allowed. Though she won't be allowed, that is if--' But there
speculation began, and Madeline had forbidden herself speculation, if
not once and for all, at least many times and for fifteen minutes.

No reasonable purpose would be served by Mrs. Innes's visit, Madeline
reflected, as she sat waiting in the little room opening on the veranda;
but she would come, of course she would come. She would require the
satisfaction of the verbal assurance; she would hope to extract more
details; she would want the objectionable gratification of talking if
over.

In spite of any assurance, she would believe that Madeline had not told
her before in order to make her miserable a little longer than she
need be; but, after all, her impression about that did not particularly
matter. It couldn't possibly be a pleasant interview, yet Madeline found
herself impatient for it.

'Surnoo,' she said of her messenger, 'must be idling on his way back
in the bazaar. I must try to remember to fine him two pice. Surnoo is
incorrigible.'

She forgot, however, to fine Surnoo. The pad of his bare feet sounded
along the veranda almost immediately, and the look in his Pahari eyes
was that of expected reproach, and ability to defend himself against it.

He held out two letters at arm's-length, for as he was expected to bring
only one there was a fault in this; and all his domestic traditions told
him that he might be chastened. One was addressed to Madeline in Mrs.
Innes's handwriting; the other, she saw with astonishment, was her own
communication to that lady, her own letter returned. Surnoo expl