Irma smiled, and said artlessly, ‘Ah, I am glad! After some days the doctor said you would live; but you had to be kept very quiet, and now here you are. The fever has left you, and all you have to do is to get strong again.’ Jack thought for some time, then he said, ‘How did I get here?’ ‘You fainted right away in the hospital in Sebastopol, and then grew delirious. The doctors there said you must die; but Alexis had you wrapped in blankets, and, borrowing a carriage, drove you here, and--we have nursed you.’ ‘How can I ever repay you?’ ‘Hush, do we not owe to you the life of Alexis?’ The nurse then came forward and spoke gently to Irma, who smilingly said to Jack, ‘Sister Katrin says I must not talk to you any more now; but I shall come back presently. I sit some hours by your bedside every day.’ And later on she came back with her mother, the countess, a tall, stately, white-haired lady. In the evening came the young Count Alexis, who was overjoyed that Jack was at last on the highroad to recovery. ‘Where are we now?’ asked Jack presently. ‘In my house,’ smiled the count. ‘But where is that?’ ‘Near Teberti, on the Katcha, fifteen miles from Sebastopol.’ Having once turned the corner, Jack began rapidly to improve, and in a week was able to sit up for an hour or two, wrapped in a costly dressing-gown and wearing slippers of the count’s. What on earth he was going to do for clothes puzzled him, for it would be impossible for him to wear the mud-and-blood-stained rags he had been captured in. ‘Perhaps they will send me off to Sebastopol,’ he thought; ‘then it will not matter.’ But Count Pauloff had no idea of sending Jack to Sebastopol; and a day or two later he settled the clothes question in a very simple manner. ‘I’ve got my uniform as a cadet at the Military College,’ he said; ‘it will just about fit you.’ And he went away, presently returning with a handsome dark-green uniform trimmed with silver lace, with cap, boots, belts, all complete; and when Jack was dressed he looked a handsome figure in the Russian uniform. ‘If I only had my hair cut!’ he said with a laugh. ‘That we will soon settle;’ and, touching the bell, the count bade the servant request his valet to attend. That obsequious gentleman was a Frenchman, and on his appearance the count bade him cut Jack’s hair. He insisted then on taking Jack to the drawing-room, where he was received by the countess and Irma with the utmost cordiality and quite on terms of equality. That evening was the beginning of several happy weeks for Jack, who felt himself growing daily stronger. Waited on hand, foot, and finger, treated as a dear friend or relative by the count’s family, and living on the choicest fare, who could fail to be happy, especially after the experiences Jack had passed through during the last twelve months?