a period of numbness that
made him seriously uneasy.

Mrs. Ralston had gone out before the tragedy had occurred, but Major
Ralston presently came to his relief. He stooped over Tessa with a few
kindly words, but when he saw the child's face his own changed somewhat.

"This won't do," he said to Bernard, holding the slender wrist. "We must
get her to bed. Where's her _ayah_?"

Tessa's little hand hung limply in his hold. She seemed to be
half-asleep. Yet when Bernard moved to lift her, she roused herself to
cling around his neck.

"Please keep me with you, dear Uncle St. Bernard! Oh, please don't go
away!"

"I won't, sweetheart," he promised her.

The _ayah_ was nowhere to be found, but it was doubtful if her presence
would have made much difference, since Tessa would not stir from her
friend's sheltering arms, and wept again weakly even at the doctor's
touch.

So it was Bernard who carried her to her room, and eventually put her to
bed under Major Ralston's directions. The latter's face was very grave
over the whole proceeding and he presently fetched something in a
medicine-glass and gave it to Bernard to administer.

Tessa tried to refuse it, but her opposition broke down before Bernard's
very gentle insistence. She would do anything, she told him piteously,
if only--if only--he would stay with her.

So Bernard stayed, sending a message to The Green Bungalow to explain
his absence, which found Mrs. Ralston as well as Stella and brought the
former back in haste.

Tessa was in a deep sleep by the time she arrived, but, hearing that
Stella did not need him, Bernard still maintained his watch, only
permitting Mrs. Ralston to relieve him while he partook of luncheon with
her husband.

Netta did not appear for the meal to the unspoken satisfaction of them
both. They ate almost in silence, Major Ralston being sunk in a species
of moody abstraction which Bernard did not disturb until the meal was
over.

Then at length, ere he rose to go, he deliberately broke into his host's
gloomy reflections. "Will you tell me," he said courteously, "exactly
what it is that you fear with regard to the child?"

Major Ralston continued to be abstracted for fully thirty seconds after
the quiet question; then, as Bernard did not repeat it but merely
waited, he replied to it.

"There are plenty of things to be feared for a child like that. It's a
criminal shame to have kept her out here so long. What I actually
believe to be