of pain. She had used the acid much more freely than she had been
instructed to do, determined that the disfigurement should be complete.
All night she had been in a state of high fever, and had for a time been
almost delirious. She was but slightly more easy now, and had difficulty
in preventing herself from crying out from the torture she was
suffering.

There was no tinge of pity in the face of the woman who looked at her,
but a smile of satisfaction at the manner in which the potion had done
its work.

"The Nana can see her now," she said to herself; "there will be no
change in the arrangements here."

She at once sent out word that as soon as the Rajah was up he was to be
told that she begged him to come at once.

An hour later he came to the door of the zenana.

"What is it, Poomba?" he asked; "nothing the matter with Miss Hannay, I
hope?"

"I grieve to say, your highness, that she has been seized with some
terrible disease. I know not what it is, for never did I see a woman so
smitten. It must be an illness contracted from confinement and bad air
during the siege, some illness that the Europeans have, for never did I
see aught like it. She is in a high state of fever, and her face is in a
terrible state. It must be a sort of plague."

"You have been poisoning her," the Nana said roughly; "if so, beware,
for your life shall be the forfeit. I will see her for myself."

"She has had no poison since she came here, though I know not but what
she may have had poison about her, and may have taken it after she was
captured."

"Take me to her," the Rajah said. "I will see for myself."

"It may be a contagious disease, your highness. It were best that you
should not go near her."

The Rajah made an impatient gesture, and the woman, without another
word, led him into the room where Isobel was lying. The Nana was
prepared for some disfigurement of the face he had so admired, but he
shrank back from the reality.

"It is horrible," he said, in a low voice. "What have you been doing to
her?" he asked, turning furiously to the woman.

"I have done nothing, your highness. All day yesterday she lay in a
torpor, as I told you in the evening when you inquired about her, and I
thought then she was going to be ill. I have watched her all night.
She has been restless and disturbed, but I thought it better not to go
nearer lest I should wake her, and it was not until this morning, when
the day broke, that I perceived th