r's eyes and smiled reassuringly; then turned without
any hesitation and did as Flower asked. The prescription had already
done her good.

At the last words of the song the doctor's wife bent over and laid a
tender little kiss just above his temple, where the thick dark hair was
streaked with silver. But the doctor's mind was intent on Jane, and
before the final chords were struck he knew he had diagnosed her case
correctly. "But she had better go abroad," he thought. "It will take
her mind off herself altogether, giving her a larger view of things in
general, and a better proportioned view of things in particular. And
the boy won't change; or, if he does, Jane will be proved right, to her
own satisfaction. But, if this is HER side, good heavens, what must HIS
be! I had wondered what was sapping all his buoyant youthfulness. To
care for Jane would be an education; but to have made Jane care! And
then to have lost her! He must have nerves of steel, to be facing life
at all. What is this cross they are both learning to kiss, and holding
up between them? Perhaps Niagara will sweep it away, and she will cable
him from there."

Then the doctor took the dear little hand resting on his shoulder and
kissed it softly, while Jane's back was still turned. For the doctor
had had past experience of the cross, and now the pearls were very
precious.

So Jane took the prescription, and two years went by in the taking; and
here she was, on the top of the Great Pyramid, and, moreover, she had
done it in record time, and laughed as she thought of how she should
report the fact to Deryck.

Her Arabs lay around, very hot and shiny, and content. Large backsheesh
was assured, and they looked up at her with pleased possessive eyes, as
an achievement of their own; hardly realising how large a part her
finely developed athletic powers and elastic limbs had played in the
speed of the ascent.

And Jane stood there, sound in wind and limb, and with the exhilarating
sense, always helpful to the mind, of a bodily feat accomplished.

She was looking her best in her Norfolk coat and skirt of brown tweed
with hints of green and orange in it, plenty of useful pockets piped
with leather, leather buttons, and a broad band of leather round the
bottom of the skirt. A connoisseur would have named at once the one and
only firm from which that costume could have come, and the hatter who
supplied the soft green Tyrolian hat--for Jane scorned pith
helmets