om the sea and dashed the
salt foam in his face as the waves swept stormily in. But the dull sky
and the stormy sea suited his mood, and seemed to string up the relaxed
tension of his nerves.

"Nature is man's best physician after all," he said to himself, reining
in his beautiful Arab at last, and baring his brow to the fresh breeze.
"Even as she is his best friend. Only we don't believe it. We live in
the world and follow the ways of the world, until our faculties are
blunted, our natures demoralised, our tastes vitiated, our energies
enfeebled. How many lands I have travelled over, how many cities I have
seen, and yet I verily believe that the wild Sioux in his prairies, and
the wandering Bedouin of the desert, have more of real manhood than we.
Yes; and get more real enjoyment out of life."

It was quite dusk before he reached the hotel. The country was all new
and strange to him, and he had missed his way more than once. But
though he was tired, and stiff, and hungry, he felt that his mental
energies were braced, his mind at ease, and the disturbing and torturing
memories of the previous night no longer tormented him.

At dinner he sat next to Mrs Ray Jefferson, who was radiant and voluble
as ever.

She had a great deal to say about the Princess, who, it appeared, had
again spent the morning in the Baths.

"She looked ill," said the little American. "Awfully white and languid.
I asked her if she had seen a ghost. There was something scared and
strange about her. I surmise it's nerves. It was odd, too," and she
lowered her voice as if taking the Colonel into a special confidence.
"But she went off to sleep in the hot room. Nothing could waken her. I
got rather frightened."

His face looked disturbed. "To sleep?" he said. "That is rather
unusual, is it not?"

"Oh, plenty of us go to sleep in the cooling-room," said Mrs Jefferson,
"but I never saw anyone do it in any of the others. She was talking to
me, and then quite suddenly she said `I feel sleepy. Please do not
speak. I shall wake in a quarter of an hour.' And so she did."

"You did not try to waken her, I suppose?" asked Colonel Estcourt
anxiously.

"Well, I did, but it was no use, so I let her be. I saw she was all
right, because she breathed naturally, and her heart beat quite
regularly. Still, it seemed odd. I asked her maid afterwards about it.
She's a pretty little Frenchwoman, and always waits in the cooling-room
for her mi