astly. How old are you?"

"Seven--er--nearly."

"So'm I--nearly. I've got to be six first though. I shall have a
birthday next week. A big one. Have you brought any ellyfunts from
India?"

"I've never seen a nellyfunt--only in pictures."

A shudder shook the boy's sturdy frame.

"Why do you go like that? Feel sick?"

"No. I don't know. I seemed to remember something--in a book. I dream
about it. There's a nasty blue room with a mud floor. And _Something_.
Beastly. Makes you yell out and you can't. You can't run away either.
But the Sword dream is lovely."

Lucille appeared puzzled and put this incoherence aside.

"What a baby never to see ellyfunts! I've seen lots. Hundreds. Zoo.
Circuses. Persessions. Camels, too."

"Oh, I used to ride a camel every day. There was one in the compound
with his _oont-wallah_,[14] Abdul Ghaffr; and Khodadad Khan used to
beat the _oont-wallah_ on cold mornings to warm himself."

"What's an _oont-wallah_?"

"Don't you _know_? Why, he's just the _oont-wallah_, of course. Who'd
graze the camel or load it up if there wasn't one?"

At tea in the nursery the young lady suddenly remarked:--

"I like you, Boy. You're worth nine Haddocks."

This cryptic valuation puzzled Damocles the more in that he had never
seen or heard of a haddock. Had he been acquainted with the fowl he
might have been yet more astonished.

Later he discovered that the comparison involved the fat boy who sat
solemnly stuffing on the other side of the table, his true baptismal
name being Haddon.

Yes, Lucille was a revelation, a marvel.

Far quicker of mind than he, cleverer at games and inventing "make
believe," very strong, active, and sporting, she was the most
charming, interesting, and attractive experience in his short but
eventful life.

How he loved to make her laugh and clap her hands! How he enjoyed her
quaint remarks, speculations, fairy-tales and jokes. How he yearned to
win her approval and admiration. How he strove to please her!

In Lucille and his wonderful new surroundings he soon forgot Major
Decies, who returned to live (and, at a ripe old age, to die) at
Bimariabad, where had lived and died the woman whom he had so truly
and purely loved. The place where he had known her was the only place
for him.

On each of his birthdays Damocles received a long fatherly letter and
a handsome present from the Major, and by the time he went away to
school at Wellingborough, he wondered who on ea