at Wynthrop Manor with the humble determination of laying himself
at Kitty's feet that she might walk over him as she willed. Big,
ingenuous men, like Jack Darling, are happiest when doormats to the
women they love.

Joyce Meredith was delighted to see him. His presence in England argued
that he had shaken himself free of the toils of that scheming flirt,
Mrs. Fox, and she was ready to help him to recover his forgotten ideals.
She had never really believed Jack as guilty as he was reputed to be,
and, like nine out of ten women, put all the blame on the woman. Anyhow,
she was sure that gossip and scandal had exaggerated everything, which
was the most charitable way to look at the affair. As a Christian woman,
it was her duty to think kindly of the erring, and sit in judgment on no
one. She, therefore, welcomed Jack with great amiability and earned his
everlasting gratitude by putting no obstacles in the way of his
courtship of Kitty.

About this time, she received a letter from Honor telling her of
Meredith being down with sunstroke, and was rudely awakened to the fact
that she had been taking too much for granted where India and her
husband's health were concerned.

Though Honor wrote that he was out of danger and slowly
recovering,--that a nurse was expected that very day,--the little wife
was beside herself with anxiety and alarm, and wanted to take the first
steamer sailing for Bombay that she might be with him, to leave him no
more.

"I should never have come away!" she cried inconsolably.

"I could never understand how you brought yourself to do so," said Kitty
ruthlessly.

"I have been a selfish wretch, thinking only of myself, and of my
anxieties for Baby!"

"Well, you've got Baby, any way."

"But if I should lose Ray, what is Baby to me!"

Kitty, who had not the heart to add to her beloved sister's agony, did
her best to comfort her. "He was out of danger when Miss Bright
wrote--let me see--that was about three weeks ago, or nearly, and, as
you have had no cable since, it follows that he is all right by now."

"But I ought to go straight to him!"

"And they might be sending him straight home to you!"

It was not at all an unlikely possibility, so Joyce cabled to her
husband to inquire his plans.

The answer came from Darjeeling that, in view of the great heat in the
Red Sea at that season of the year, he was recuperating in the hills.

She was then persuaded by relatives and friends to possess