r of
these she reigned. He found himself able to conjecture almost anything.

When he had quickened his horse and come beside her for the purpose of
relating his adventure, she began to speak to him at once. She told him
what number of cases of illness were then on her list--six in all. She
told him the number who had already died; and then they came past the
cemetery upon the hillside, and she pointed out the new-made graves. It
appeared that, although at that time there was an abatement in the
number of cases, diphtheria had already made sad ravages among the
little population; and as the winter would cause the people to shut up
their houses more and more closely, it was certain to increase rather
than to diminish. Then Madame Le Maitre told him of one case, and of
another, in which the family bereavement seemed particularly sad. The
stories she told had great detail, but they were not tedious. Caius
listened, and forgot that her voice was musical or that her hood and
cloak were ugly; he only thought of the actors in the short sad idylls
of the island that she put before him.

When they entered the first house, he discovered that she herself had
been in the habit of visiting each of the sick every day as nurse, and,
as far as her simple skill could go, as doctor too. In this house it was
a little child that lay ill, and as soon as Caius saw it he ceased to
hope for its recovery. They used the new remedies that he had brought
with him, and when he looked round for someone who could continue to
apply them, he found that the mother was already dead, and the father
took no charge of the child--he was not there. A half-grown boy of about
fifteen was its only nurse, and he was not deft or wise, although love,
or a rude sense of conscience, had kept him from deserting his post.

"When we have visited the others, I will come back and remain," said
Madame Le Maitre.

So they rode on down the hill and along the shingled beach that edged a
lagoon. Here the sea lapped softly and they were sheltered from the
wind. Here, too, they saw the other islands lying in the crescent they
composed, and they saw the waves of the bay break on the sand-bank that
was the other arm of the lagoon. Still Caius did not tell about his
adventure of the night before. The lady looked preoccupied, as if she
was thinking about the Angel of Death that was hovering over the cottage
they had left.

The next house was a large one, and here two children w