er dream of allowing it."

But Stella heard the protest with a smile. "Believe me, I am only too
glad to be able to do something useful for a change," she assured him.
"As to being ill myself, I will promise not to behave so badly as that."

"You're a brick, my dear," said Colonel Mansfield. "I wish there were
more like you. Mind you take plenty of quinine!" With which piece of
fatherly advice he left her with the determination to keep an eye on her
and see that Ralston did not work her too hard.

Stella, however, had no fears on her own account. She went to her task
resolute and undismayed, feeling herself actually indispensable for
almost the first time in her life. Her influence upon Monck was beyond
dispute. She alone possessed the power to calm him in his wildest
moments, and he never failed to recognize her or to control himself to a
certain extent in her presence.

The attack was a sharp one, and for a while Ralston was more uneasy than
he cared to admit. But Monck's constitution was a good one, and after
three days of acute illness the fever began to subside. Tommy was by
that time making good progress, and Stella, who till then had snatched
her rest when and how she could, gave her charge into Peter's keeping
and went to bed for the first time since her arrival at Kurrumpore.

Till she actually lay down she did not realize how utterly worn out she
was, or how little the odd hours of sleep that she had been able to
secure had sufficed her. But as she laid her head upon the pillow,
slumber swept upon her on soundless wings. She slept almost before she
had time to appreciate the exquisite comfort of complete repose.

That slumber of hers lasted for many hours. She had given Peter express
injunctions to awake her in good time in the morning, and she rested
secure in the confidence that he would obey her orders. But it was the
light of advancing evening that filled the room when at last she opened
her eyes.

There had come a break in the rain, and a bar of misty sunshine had
penetrated a chink in the green blinds and lay golden across the Indian
matting on the floor. She lay and gazed at it with a bewildered sense of
uncertainty as to her whereabouts. She felt as if she had returned from
a long journey, and for a time her mind dwelt hazily upon the Himalayan
paradise from which she had been so summarily cast forth. Vague figures
flitted to and fro through her brain till finally one in particular
occupied the