ld like to see you, sir," said Prior, entering.
"Will you see her?"

"Why of course. And--er--Prior. I don't want to be disturbed, no
matter who by. See?"

Prior did see, and if the Governor himself had appeared on the scene
until that door should open again, decidedly His Excellency would have
had to wait.

"And now, to what is this unwonted honour due?" he began, closing the
door behind his visitor. "First of all, sit. Why, _Diane chasseresse_,
you have not been obeying orders I'm afraid. You are looking a little
bit--well, overdone."

"That's better than feeling a good bit underdone," she rejoined with
something of her old, bright laugh.

"How's the patient? Any further improvement?"

"Rather. Old Vine says we needn't be anxious any more."

"That's right royal news. We ought to give three cheers. But it was
sweet of you to come and tell me this, Edala."

The name came out half-unconsciously. He had taken to using it of late:
their new _rapprochement_ in the circumstances of a mutual care and
anxiety had seemed to render it natural. And she had never resented it
or shown any sign of astonishment.

"I didn't come to tell it you," answered the girl, in her direct
straightforward way. She had risen from her chair, and the clear blue
eyes met his full, yet he thought to detect in them a shade of
embarrassment. "What I came to tell you was--is--what an ungrateful,
unappreciative little beast I must have seemed all this time never to
have said a word about your bravery--your heroism. You saved father's
life. You stood over him and kept off those brutes when--when--"

She broke off, with a little stamp of the foot. Her eyes were beginning
to fill. Elvesdon's face flushed uneasily.

"No--no--no. `Bravery! Heroism!' Bah!" he answered. "You don't
suppose I was going to run away and leave him, do you? Why even Ramasam
would hardly have done that. Besides--if I had wanted to ever so much I
couldn't have got far. We were unmounted remember. And, if you only
knew it, I've been cursing myself and my own idiocy right roundly in
having been such a blithering idiot as to get us into that hobble at
all. I daresay I shall get a kick down in the Service on the strength
of it when my full report goes in, and I haven't spared myself in it I
can tell you."

"Have you sent it in yet?" asked the girl, speaking quickly.

"No--but I shall to-morrow."

"Then promise me you won't--until you've rewritten