your daughter to go with him? She is too young to be
exposed to the dangers of Indian life."

This idea seemed to strike the General very forcibly. For some
minutes he did not answer, and it was with difficulty that he could
collect his thoughts. At last he answered, slowly:

"That is true--but she need not accompany him. Let her stay with
me--till all is over--then she can go--to Chetwynde. It will be her
natural home. She will find in my old friend a second father. She can
remain with him--till her husband returns."

A long pause followed. "Besides," he resumed, in a fainter voice,
"there are other things. I can not explain--they are private--they
concern the affairs of others. But if Zillah were to refuse to marry
him--she would lose one-half of her fortune. So you can understand my
anxiety. She has not a relative in the world--to whom I could leave
her."

Here the General stopped, utterly exhausted by the fatigue of
speaking so much. As for the doctor, he sat for a time involved in
deep thought. Zillah stood there pale and agitated, looking now
at her father and now at the doctor, while a new and deeper anguish
came over her heart. After a while he rose and quietly motioned to
Zillah to follow him to the adjoining room.

"My dear child," said he, kindly, when they had arrived there, "your
father is excited, but yet is quite sane. His plan seems to be one
which he has been cherishing for years; and he has so thoroughly set
his heart upon it that it now is evidently his sole idea. I do not
see what else can be done than to comply with his wishes."

"What!" cried Zillah, aghast.

"To refuse," said the doctor, "might be fatal. It would throw him
into a paroxysm."

"Oh, doctor!" moaned Zillah. "What do you mean? You can not be in
earnest. What--to do such a thing when darling papa is--is dying!"

Sobs choked her utterance. She buried her face in her hands and sank
into a chair.

"He is not yet so bad," said the doctor, earnestly, "but he is
certainly in a critical state; and unless it is absolutely
impossible--unless it is too abhorrent to think of--unless any
calamity is better than this--I would advise you to try and think if
you can not bring yourself to--to indulge his wish, wild as it may
seem to you. There, my dear, I am deeply sorry for you; but I am
honest, and say what I think."

For a long time Zillah sat in silence, struggling with her emotions.
The doctor's words impressed her deeply; but the t