ing. "I can't--really. I
think--I think perhaps you are right. I had better go to bed, and
you will tell me everything in the morning."

"Finish the drink anyhow!" he said.

She hesitated momentarily, but he pushed the glass firmly towards
her and she obeyed.

She stood up then and faced him. "Will you please tell me one
thing--to--to set my mind at rest? Guy--Guy isn't ill?"

He looked her straight in the face. "No."

"You are sure?" she said.

"Yes." He spoke with curt decision, yet oddly she wondered for a
fleeting second if he had told her the truth.

His look seemed to challenge the doubt, to beat it down. Half
shyly, she held out her hand.

"Good night," she said.

His fingers grasped and released it. He turned with her to the
door. "I will show you your room" he said.

CHAPTER VII

THE WRONG TURNING

Sylvia slept that night the heavy, unstirring sleep of utter
weariness though when she lay down she scarcely expected to sleep
at all. The shock, the bewilderment, the crushing dread, that had
attended her arrival after the long, long journey had completely
exhausted her mentally, and physically. She slept as a child
sleeps at the end of a strenuous day.

When she awoke, the night was gone and all the world was awake and
moving. The clouds had all passed, and a brilliant morning sun
shone down upon the wide street below her window. She felt
refreshed though the heat was still great. The burden that had
overwhelmed her the night before did not seem so intolerable by
morning light. Her courage had come back to her.

She dressed with a firm determination to carry a brave face
whatever lay before her. Things could not be quite so bad as they
had seemed the previous night. Guy could not really have changed
so fundamentally. Perhaps he only feared that she could not endure
poverty with him. If that were all, she would soon teach him
otherwise. All she wanted in life now was his love.

She had almost convinced herself that this was practically all she
had to contend with, and the ogre of her fears was well in the
background, when she finally left her room and went with some
uncertainty through the unfamiliar passages.

She found the entrance, but a crowd of curious Boers collected
about the door daunted her somewhat, and she was turning back from
their staring eyes when Burke Ranger suddenly strode through the
group and joined her.

She gave him a quick, half-startled glanc