He coaxed his forlorn guest down upon the pillows again and drew the
bedclothes over him. Then for a space he sat beside him, divining that he
would recover his self-command more quickly with him there than left to
his own devices.

A nervous hand, bony as a skeleton's, came hesitatingly forth to him at
length, and he gripped and held it for several quiet seconds more.

Finally he rose. "I'll leave you now. If you are wanting anything, you
have only to ask for it. I shall be in the next room. Quite comfortable?"

Yes, he was quite comfortable. He assured him of this in unsteady tones,
and begged that Mr. Mordaunt would give himself no further trouble on his
account. He would sleep--he would sleep.

As the assurance was uttered somewhat incoherently, through lips half
closed, Mordaunt judged that he could be trusted to carry out this
intention, and so left him, to return to his writing-table in the
adjoining room.

Ten minutes later he crept back noiselessly and found him in a deep
sleep. He stood a moment to watch him, and noted with compassion a faint,
pathetic smile that rested on the worn features.

But he did not guess that Bertrand de Montville had returned in his
dreams to a land of enchantment, where the sun was always shining, and
the sea was at peace, even that land where first he had forgotten the
great goal of his ambition and had halted by the way to listen to a
girl's light laughter while he drew for her his pictures in the sand.

CHAPTER VI

ENGAGED

"My dear Trevor, do let me warn you against making yourself in any way
responsible for Chris's brothers."

Mrs. Forest spoke impressively. She was rather fond of warning people. It
was in a fashion her attitude towards life.

"You will find," she continued, "that Chris herself will need a firm
hand--a very firm hand. Though so young, she is not, I fear, very
pliable. I have known her do the most unheard-of things, chiefly, I must
admit, from excess of spirits. They all suffer from that upon occasion.
It is a most difficult thing to cope with."

"But not a very serious failing," said Mordaunt, with his tolerant smile.

"It leads to very serious complications sometimes," said Mrs. Forest, in
the tone of one who could reveal much were she so minded.

But Mordaunt did not seem to hear. His eyes had wandered to a light
figure in the doorway--a girl with wonderful hair that shimmered like
burnished copper, and eyes that were blue as a summe