ch; "come, you
troublesome little devil, and show me my man Lancey. I can see better
than usual; present him!"

Immediately Lancey stood by my side. He looked wonderfully real, and I
noticed that the fiery frame was not round him as it used to be. A
moment later, the pretty face of Ivanka also glided into the picture.

"Hallo!" I exclaimed, "I didn't ask you to send _her_ here. Why don't
you wait for orders--eh?"

At this Lancey gently pushed Ivanka away.

"No, don't do that," I cried hastily; "I didn't mean that; order her
back again--do you hear?"

Lancey appeared to beckon, and she returned. She was weeping quietly.

"Why do you weep, dear?" I asked in Russian.

"Oh! you have been _so_ ill," she replied, with an anxious look and a
sob.

"So, then," I said, looking at Lancey in surprise, "you are not
delusions!"

"No, sir, we ain't; but I sometimes fancy that everythink in life is
delusions since we comed to this 'orrible land."

I looked hard at Ivanka and Lancey again for some moments, then at the
bed on which I lay. Then a listless feeling came over me, and my eyes
wandered lazily round the chamber, which was decidedly Eastern in its
appearance. Through a window at the farther end I could see a garden.
The sun was shining brightly on autumnal foliage, amidst which a tall
and singular-looking man walked slowly to and fro. He was clad in
flowing robes, with a red fez on his head which was counterbalanced by a
huge red beard.

"At all events _he_ must be a delusion," said I, pointing with a hitch
of my nose to the man in question.

"No, sir, 'e ain't; wery much the rewerse.--But you mustn't speak, sir;
the doctor said we was on no account to talk to you."

"But just tell me who he is," I pleaded earnestly; "I can't rest unless
I know."

"Well, sir, I s'pose it won't do no 'arm to tell you that 'e's a Pasha--
Sanda Pasha by name--a hold and hintimate friend of mine,--the Scotch
boy, you know, that I used to tell you about. We are livin' in one of
'is willas. 'E's in disgrace, is Sanda Pasha, just now, an' superseded.
The day you was took bad, sir, Russians came into the willage, an' w'en
I come back I found 'em swarmin' in the 'ouses an' loop-'oling the walls
for defence, but Sanda Pasha came down on 'em with a harmy of Turks an'
drove 'em out. 'E's bin a-lickin' of 'em all up an' down the country
ever since, but the other Pashas they got jealous of 'im, specially
since 'e's not a real T