her soul in
patience and adhere to her original plan of returning to India in the
autumn,--the best time for arriving in the East. By then she would be
able to decide whether to take her baby out to India, or leave him
behind in the care of the grandparents and a capable nurse.

A slight indisposition to the infant owing to the disturbances of
teething, decided her to remain, and to pour out her heart to her
husband in a letter telling him of her longing to be with him during his
convalescence.

Somehow the written words did not adequately convey her depth of
feeling, and Joyce was dissatisfied, especially with the passage which
referred to the baby's indisposition:

"If Baby were not teething and in uncertain health, I would leave
immediately for India,--but I am advised to hold on till the autumn when
I can better decide whether I should leave him behind, or not. I am, of
course, comforted to know that you are getting better, and, perhaps, it
will be as well on account of the heat in the Red Sea and of the
unhealthiness of the rains if I do exercise a little patience and wait.
However, dearest, cable if you are not quite well by the time this
reaches you, and I shall take my passage at once."

"It sounds rather as if I am placing the baby before him," she said to
Kitty.

"And haven't you done so all along?"

Joyce looked perplexed. "If I have, it is only because it seemed to me
the wee darling needed me more than Ray did."

"I wonder!" said Kitty out of a new perception of life and the needs of
love. "After all, there are many to look after Baby if you must leave
him in England. If I were in your place, and if there was nobody to take
charge of him, I'd keep him out there, somehow. There must be good
places in the hills, you have such a choice of stations,--and even
babies have to take their chance, same as their daddies! It must be
terribly lonely for a man when his wife, whom he adores as Ray adores
you, leaves him and comes away home for the sake of the child!
Personally, I couldn't do it."

Kitty's candid views carried conviction and aroused reflection.
Gradually Joyce became aware of a great longing to be again with her
splendid husband and feel anew his love and devotion.

As no answering cable arrived from Darjeeling requesting her presence in
India, and as the weekly letters mentioned that he was convalescing
satisfactorily, Joyce was beginning to nurse a creeping fear that her
husband had, perhap