friends had they been able to translate, and he understood a
good deal of the servants' talk. He felt no real affection for the big,
tiresome man, though he admired him, his size, his good looks, and a way
he had with grown-up people; but he decided quite dispassionately, on
evidence and without any rancour, that the big man was a "budmash," for
he, unlike Auntie Jan, never did anything he said he'd do. And when,
before they left Dariawarpur, the big man entirely disappeared, Tony
felt no sorrow, only some surprise that having said he was going he
actually had gone. Auntie Jan never mentioned him, Mummy had reminded
them both always to include him when they said their prayers, but
latterly Mummy had been too tired to come to hear prayers. Auntie Jan
came instead, and Tony, watching her face out of half-shut eyes, tried
leaving out "bless Daddie" to see if anything happened. Sure enough
something did; Auntie Jan looked startled. "Say 'Bless Daddie,' Tony,
'and please help him.'"

"To do what?" Tony asked. "Not to come back here?"

"I don't think he'll come back here just now," Auntie Jan said in a
frightened sort of whisper, "but he needs help badly."

Tony folded his hands devoutly and said, "Bless Daddie and please help
him--to stay away just now."

And low down under her breath Jan said, "Amen."

CHAPTER VI

THE SHADOW BEFORE

Jan had been a week in Bombay, and her grave anxiety about Fay was in no
way lessened. Rather did it increase and intensify, for not only did her
bodily strength seem to ebb from her almost visibly day by day, but her
mind seemed so detached and aloof from both present and future.

It was only when Jan talked about the past, about their happy girlhood
and their lovable comrade-father, that Fay seemed to take hold and
understand. All that had happened before his death seemed real and vital
to her. But when Jan tried to interest her in plans for the future, the
voyage home, the children, the baby that was due so soon, Fay looked at
her with tired, lack-lustre eyes and seemed at once to become
absent-minded and irrelevant.

She was ready enough to discuss the characters of the children, to
impress upon Jan the fact that Tony was not unloving, only cautious and
slow before he really gave his affection. That little Fay was exactly
what she appeared on the surface--affectionate, quick, wilful, and
already conscious of her own power through her charm.

"I defy anybody to quarrel wit