ssity of
dismounting. She had learned to know the value of minutes to a
hard-worked man.

"Geoff told me," she said, a rare seriousness veiling the laughter of
her eyes. "It's cruel bad news, but you mustn't dream of being anxious
yet awhile, Theo, man. I'll be round by half-past eleven sharp; stay
till you two are through with your work; rest this afternoon and come
on again at seven, till morning. You'll just take one clear night in
bed before I let you go shares in _that_ part o' the work. You can
trust him to me, can't you, though I _am_ a mad Irishwoman? I'll
promise not to be waking up the patient to take his sleeping draught,
or any such cleverness!"

Her nonsense dispelled Desmond's gravity. "I can trust you as far as
that, I think!" he answered with a laugh; "but I won't have you
knocking yourself up again over this. The lad's my subaltern, and it's
my business. You shall take to-night, though, if you've a mind to, and
my best thanks into the bargain. God alone knows where we should all
be without you."

"Just precisely where you are at present, no doubt!" But the softened
tone betrayed her appreciation of his honest praise. "It's just a bad
habit you've got into, that's the truth, and I've not the heart to
break you of it either. But 'tis no time now for playing ball with
compliments. I'm busy over a cake. My cook has a pain, an' swears 'tis
cholera. An' what with dosing him, an' trying to convince him he's a
fool, and seeing after Geoff's tiffin, I'll be melted to one tear-drop
presently; but the good man'll have to dine at Mess to-night."

Desmond gathered up his reins, and she waved to him as he rode away.

Punctually at the half-hour she entered the sick-room--cool,
practised, business-like, and took over her case as composedly as any
trained nurse. For in those early days nursing was as persistent a
feature of the hot weather as the punkah itself, and her skill had
been acquired in a hard school.

The Boy had been installed, for greater comfort, in Desmond's own bed;
and he greeted her with a faint smile of recognition.

"Poor, dear old fellow," she murmured tenderly, pushing the damp hair
from his brow; "wait only till the ice comes, an' we'll pull you round
finely, never fear."

His lids fell under her soothing touch, and sprinkling her fingers
with lavender water she passed them across and across his forehead; a
look in her eyes the while that none save her "brother officers" had
ever seen t