"My Lort! what-for be frightened? Baba plenty well, sleeping sound. What
can be?" the woman cried irritably. Could she not be trusted?

Nothing could possibly happen in so short a time. How did other mothers
fulfil their social engagements? Surely they did not all worry
themselves and others to death over nothing? Joyce therefore resolved to
become more normal in her habits, and proceeded to dress.

Hardly, however, had she put foot in the hired victoria, when the ayah
appeared, suggesting another look at the child. He had been coughing in
his sleep, and considering the mother's anxieties she feared the
responsibility of keeping the fact to herself.

Joyce immediately sprang from the carriage and hurried to the bedroom
where the child lay sleeping in its cot. "You are sure he coughed?" she
asked listening in vain for a repetition of the sound.

"Would I say it for nothing?" the Madrasi asked testily.

"What would it mean?"

"A little cold he has caught, or indigestion."

"Then I cannot go out with any peace of mind," Joyce cried definitely.
"What if he should have croup?"

"Why say such words? Give little honey, and cough go."

But Joyce was not satisfied. What was a dinner-party to her if her
precious one was sickening for croup or any other fatal malady? Most
infant maladies were fatal unless taken in time, and if she were away
and he be taken ill, how would he fare? She decided that the Brights
would have to do without her, and forgive the disappointment.

Forthwith she unwrapped, and settled down to spend a quiet evening
alone, with an ear strained to hear any return of the cough, and quite
determined to send for the doctor should it recur.

However, having upset his mother's nerves and thrown a dinner-party out
of order, the infant slept soundly till morning.

CHAPTER VIII

THE DINNER-PARTY

At Muktiarbad, the usual form of evening entertainment was a
dinner-party with music and bridge to follow; and Mrs. Bright, wife of
the Superintendent of Police, was specially noted for her hospitality in
this respect. The brief intervals spent at home by her husband between
his rounds of inspection or inquiry in his District were always
celebrated by herself and her daughter as festal occasions; and their
friends were gathered together at short notice to eat, not the "fatted
calf," as that would have offended the religious susceptibilities of the
Hindus who held the animal sacred, but one of the fatt