hour to do it in!--Dear me, how I have talked!"

"One minute--this happened only the other day, and yet you had
associated with the doctor for five months before you were properly on
speaking terms?" said Joyce, detaining her.

"We used to see each other in the distance occasionally. He never came
to the Club and showed no inclination for feminine society, so we never
spoke more than to say 'Good-evening' once in the way!"

"Yet he said quite a nice thing about you to me in camp."

"Did he?--What did he say?" Honor asked, flushing.

Joyce related the conversation faithfully, even to the doctor's
concluding remark--"I am not seeking a wife, and have no interest in
friendships."

Honor winced as under a lash, and straightened herself.

"You should not have pressed the point, Joyce. However, what does it
matter? I am glad he thinks well of me, and that's all there is to it.
He and I are of the same mind. I, too, am not seeking a husband, for I
am very happy as I am. Good-bye, dear, I was commissioned with a message
for you, but I have talked so much that it has been nearly forgotten.
Mother wants you to dine tomorrow; just a few friends and Captain
Dalton; and he has actually accepted the invitation."

"It is never safe to ask me to dinner," said Joyce doubtfully. "I hate
leaving Baby all alone at night."

"He has a good ayah."

"Oh, yes. She is absolutely trustworthy; but should he ail ever so
slightly I shall stay at home. I could not go out and leave him the
least bit out of sorts."

"We shouldn't wish it. However, he might be quite all right, and then
you'll come--bye-bye!" she waved her hand from the steps, mounted her
bicycle, and was gone.

So the dinner-party at the Brights' was a settled engagement and Joyce
prepared to keep it. She had never been anywhere without her husband,
and felt nervous and shy for the lack of his support. Moreover, her mind
was haunted by nameless fears for the child who was to be left behind to
the tender mercies of native servants. A thousand possibilities of evil
presented themselves to her mind and robbed the outing of prospective
enjoyment; consequently the next night when it came to the point of
starting, she was full of regrets for her weakness in having consented
to go. "Ayah," she said in a fit of childish confidence, "I care for
nothing on earth so much as my darling baby, how can I leave him for an
hour or two not knowing what is happening to him in the meantime?"