ife for the
life you had saved."

"Had you spoken so bravely but two days since," Bathurst said, taking
her hand, "I would have said. 'I love you too well, Isobel, to link
your fate to that of a disgraced man.' but now I have it in my power to
retrieve myself, to wipe out the unhappy memory of my first failure,
and still more, to restore the self respect which I have lost during
the last month. But to do so I must stay here: I must bear part in the
terrible struggle there will be before this mutiny is put down, India
conquered, and Cawnpore revenged."

"I will not try to prevent you," Isobel said. "I feel it would be wrong
to do so. I could not honor you as I do, if for my sake you turned away
now. Even though I knew I should never see you again, I would that you
had died so, than lived with even the shadow of dishonor on your name.
I shall suffer, but there are hundreds of other women whose husbands,
lovers, or sons are in the fray, and I shall not flinch more than they
do from giving my dearest to the work of avenging our murdered friends
and winning back India."

So quietly had they been talking that no thought of how momentous
their conversation had been had entered the minds of the ladies sitting
working but a few paces away. One, indeed, had remarked to another, "I
thought when Dr. Wade was telling us how Mr. Bathurst had rescued that
unfortunate girl with the disfigured face at Cawnpore, that there was
a romance in the case, but I don't see any signs of it. They are goods
friends, of course, but there is nothing lover-like in their way of
talking."

So thought Dr. Wade when he came in and saw them sitting there, and gave
vent to his feeling in a grunt of dissatisfaction.

"It is like driving two pigs to market," he muttered; "they won't go the
way I want them to, out of pure contrariness."

"It is all settled, Doctor," Bathurst said, rising. "Come, shake hands;
it is to you I owe my happiness chiefly."

"Isobel, my dear, give me a kiss," the Doctor exclaimed. "I am glad,
my dear, I am glad with all my heart. And what have you settled besides
that?"

"We have settled that I am to go home as soon as I can go down country,
and he is going up with you and the others to Cawnpore."

"That is right," the Doctor said heartily. "I told you that was what
he would decide upon; it is right that he should do so. No man ought
to turn his face to the coast till Lucknow is relieved and Delhi is
captured. I thank God