d be
within call all night. She had a hungry longing to stay and watch the
little unconscious face which would soon be gone from her sight. She
wanted to hold each minute of the few hours left.

Very softly Peter came to her side. "My _mem-sahib_ will rest?" he said
wistfully.

She looked at him. His faithful eyes besought her like the eyes of a
dog. Their dumb adoration somehow made her want to cry.

"If I could only stay to-night, Peter!" she said.

"_Mem-sahib_," he urged very pleadingly, "the _baba_ sleeps now. It may
be he will want you to-morrow. And if my _mem-sahib_ has not slept she
will be too weary then."

Again she knew that he spoke the truth. There had been times of late
when she had been made aware of the fact that her strength was nearing
its limit. She knew it would be sheer madness to neglect the warning
lest, as Peter suggested, her baby's need of her outlasted her
endurance. She must husband all the strength she had.

With a sigh she bent and touched the tiny forehead with her lips.
Hanani's hand, long and bony, gently stroked her arm as she did so.

"Old Hanani knows, _mem-sahib_," she whispered under her breath.

The tears she had barely checked a moment before sprang to Stella's
eyes. She held the dark hand in silence and was subtly comforted
thereby.

Passing through the door that Peter held open for her, she gave him her
hand also. He bent very low over it, just as he had bent on that first
wedding-day of hers so long--so long--ago, and touched it with his
forehead. The memory flashed back upon her oddly. She heard again Ralph
Dacre's voice speaking in her ear. "You, Stella,--you are as ageless as
the stars!" The pride and the passion of his tones stabbed through her
with a curious poignancy. Strange that the thought of him should come to
her with such vividness to-night! She passed on to her room, as one
moving in a painful trance.

For a space she lingered there, hardly knowing what she did; then she
remembered that she had not bidden Bernard good-night, and mechanically
her steps turned in his direction.

He was generally smoking and working on the verandah at that hour. She
made her way to the dining-room as being the nearest approach.

But half-way across the room the sound of Tommy's voice, sharp and
agitated, came to her: Involuntarily she paused. He was with Bernard on
the verandah.

"The devils shot him in the jungle, but he came on, got as far as
Ralston's bungalow, an