ealize the change that had occurred
in so brief a time--trying to understand the abrupt severing of ties
and conditions to which, already, I had become accustomed--perhaps
attached.

"They all sent their love to you," he said. "They knew you were out
of danger--I told them there was no fracture, only a slight
concussion. Byram came to look at you; he brought your back
salary--all of it. I've got it."

"Byram came here?"

"Yes. He stood over there beside you, snivelling into his red
bandanna. And Miss Crystal and Jacqueline stood here.... Jacqueline
kissed you."

After a moment I said: "Has Jacqueline gone with them?"

"Yes."

There was another pause, longer this time.

"Of course," I said, "Byram knows that my usefulness as a lion-tamer
is at an end."

"Of course," said Speed, simply.

I sighed.

"He wants you for the horses," added Speed. "But you can do better
than that."

"I don't know,... perhaps."

"Besides, they sail to-day from Lorient. The governor made money
yesterday--enough to start again. Poor Byram! He's frantic to get back
to America; and, oh, Scarlett, how that good old man can swear!"

"Help me to sit up in bed," I said; "there--that's it! Just wedge
those pillows behind my shoulders."

"All right?"

"Of course. I'm going to dress. Speed, did you say that little
Jacqueline went with Byram?"

He looked at me miserably.

"Yes," he said.

I was silent.

"Yes," he repeated, "she went, lugging her pet cat in her arms. She
would go; the life has fascinated her. I begged her not to--I felt I
was disloyal to Byram, too, but what could I do? I tell you, Scarlett,
I wish I had never seen her, never persuaded her to try that foolish
dive. She'll miss some day--like the other one."

"It's my fault more than yours," I said. "Couldn't you persuade her
to give it up?"

"I offered to educate her, to send her to school, to work for her,"
he said. "She only looked at me out of those sea-blue eyes--you know
how the little witch can look you through and through--and then--and
then she walked away into the torch-glare, clasping her cat to her
breast, and I saw her strike a fool of a soldier who pretended to stop
her! Scarlett, she was a strange child--proud and dainty, too, with
all her rags--you remember--a strange, sweet child--almost a woman, at
times, and--I thought her loyal--"

He walked to the window and stared moodily at the sea.

"Meanwhile," I said, quietly, "I am going to get up.