the house
and compound. It was as if they had all been holding their breath till
the worst was over. It became possible at last to achieve smiles that
were not mere dutiful distortions of the lips. James Mackay grew one
degree less irritable; Wyndham one degree less monosyllabic; Amar
Singh condescended to arise and resume his neglected duties; while
Rob--becoming aware, in his own fashion, of a stir in the air--emerged
from his basket, and shook himself with such energy and thoroughness
that Mackay whisked him unceremoniously into the hall, where he sat
nursing his injured dignity, quietly determined to slip back, on the
first chance, into the room that was his by right, though temporarily
in the hands of the enemy.

It was some five days later that Desmond, waking towards morning,
found his wife standing beside him in expectant watchfulness.

The low camp-bed lent her a fictitious air of height, as did also the
unbroken line of her blue dressing-gown, with its cloud of misty
whiteness at the throat. A shaded lamp in a far corner clashed with
the first glimmer of dawn; and in the dimness Evelyn's face showed
pale and indistinct, save for two dusky semicircles where her lashes
rested on her cheek. Desmond saw all this, because at night the shade
was discarded, though the rakish bandage still eclipsed his right eye.
He lay lapped in a pleasant sense of the unreality of outward things,
and his wife--dimly seen and motionless--had the air of a dream-figure
in a dream.

Suddenly she leaned down, and caressed his damp hair with a familiar
lightness of touch.

"I heard you move, darling," she whispered. "I've been sitting such a
long, long while alone; and I badly wanted you to wake up."

"Such a brave Ladybird!" he said, imprisoning her fingers. "You seem
to be on duty all the time. They haven't been letting you do too much,
have they?"

"Oh no; I'm not clever enough to do much," she answered, a little
wistfully. "It is Honor who really does everything."

Desmond frowned. Mention of Honor effectually dispelled the dream. "I
choose to believe that everything _isn't_ her doing," he said with
unnecessary emphasis.

But for once Evelyn was disposed to extol Honor at her own expense.
She had been lifted, for the time being, higher than she knew.

"It _is_, Theo--truly," she persisted, perching lightly on the edge of
the bed, though she had been reminded half a dozen times that the
"patient's" bed must not be treated