ck never told me that!"

"I don't suppose Dr. Jim would let him. But I told him I should."
Muriel's hand, cool and reassuring, held hers. "There is no object in
keeping it from you," she said. "You are getting well again, and you
always had plenty of sense, dear. I know you will be sensible now."

"I'll certainly try," said Olga.

She lay quiet then for some time, apparently engrossed in thought though
not distressed thereby. She turned her head at last and asked a sudden
question.

"Will Nick go to India without me, Muriel?"

"No, dear. He is going to wait till you can go too," Muriel answered.

"Oh, Muriel!" She carried the quiet hand impulsively to her lips.

Muriel smiled. "Are you so anxious to go?"

"I should just think I am! But I know I'm horridly selfish. How can you
bear to let him go?"

"My dear," Muriel said, "I don't think I could bear to keep him when I
know he wants to go. You will have to take care of him for me."

"Oh, I will!" said Olga earnestly.

Very little more passed between them on the subject then, but it filled
Olga's mind throughout the day, even to the exclusion of that sinister
shadow that still lurked at the back of her consciousness.

Nick did not visit her until the evening, and then she at once began to
talk of the topic that so occupied her thoughts.

"Do you know, I had actually forgotten about going to Sharapura, Nick?"
she said. "I'm so glad I've remembered. It's something to be quick and
get well for."

"Hear, hear!" said Nick, with a whoop of delight.

She laughed at his enthusiasm, and he suddenly recollected himself and
entreated her to keep calm.

"If Jim knew I had made you laugh, he'd kick me to a jelly, and give you
a blue pill."

Whereat she laughed a little more. "That would be more like Max than
Daddy Jim." And there suddenly she stopped short, the colour flooding
her pale face. "Why," she said, frowning confusedly, "I had forgotten
Max too. How is Max?"

"He's all right," said Nick lightly. "Shall I give him your love?"

"Oh, no!" she said quickly. "Don't give him anything of mine!
He--wouldn't understand."

"All right, my chicken," said Nick, with cheery unconcern. "He's got a
little brother in the East by the way. I wonder if we shall run across
him."

She did not echo the wonder. Her forehead was drawn in the old, painful
lines, and she scarcely responded to the rest of his airy conversation.

When Dr. Jim visited her later in the evening he