uarters for your
patients."

"Thanks to you for coming," replied the Doctor; and the parties
separated, Drummond leading his new friends off to introduce them to
some of the anxious, careworn ladies who had accompanied their husbands
in the regiment, and of the Civil Service, who had come up to Ghittah at
a time when a rising of the hill-tribes was not for a moment expected.
On his way he turned with a look of disgust to Bracy.

"I say," he said, "does your Doctor always talk shop like that?"

"Well, not quite, but pretty frequently--eh, Roberts?"

The latter smiled grimly.

"He's a bit of an enthusiast in his profession, Drummond," he said.
"Very clever man."

"Oh, is he? Well, I should like him better if he wasn't quite so much
so. Did you see how he looked at me?"

"No."

"I did. Just as if he was turning me inside out, and I felt as if he
were going all over me with one of those penny trumpet things doctors
use to listen to you with. I know he came to the conclusion that I was
too thin, and that he ought to put me through a course of medicine."

"Nonsense."

"Oh, but he did. Thank goodness, though, I don't belong to your
regiment."

The young men were very warmly welcomed in the officers' quarters; and
it seemed that morning as if their coming had brought sunshine into the
dreary place, every worn face beginning to take a more hopeful look.

Drummond took this view at once, as he led the way back into the great
court.

"Glad I took you in there," he said; "they don't look the same as they
did yesterday. Just fancy, you know, the poor things sitting in there
all day so as to be out of the reach of flying shots, and wondering
whether their husbands will escape unhurt for another day, and whether
that will be the last they'll ever see."

"Terrible!" said Bracy.

"Yes, isn't it? Don't think I shall ever get married, as I'm a soldier;
for it doesn't seem right to bring a poor, tender lady out to such
places as this. It gives me the shivers sometimes; but these poor
things, they don't know what it will all be when they marry and come
out."

"And if they did they would come all the same," said Roberts bluffly.

"Well, it's quite right," said Bracy thoughtfully. "It's splendidly
English and plucky for a girl to be willing to share all the troubles
her husband goes through."

"So it is," said Drummond. "I've always admired it when I've read of
such things; and it makes you feel that heroine