“Forsyth said you’d be in bed at least a fortnight, so I told Paulos that Ziné and I would come and stop with him, for a womanless house is no place for a wounded man. And the doctor fetched us to-day.” “And never told me why he was going to Miletis!” “You didn’t tell me--us--when you were coming here,” retorted my lady, loosing her hands to take off her big coat. “Besides, surprises are always the nicest things, aren’t they? Much better than the things you’ve been looking forward to, which sometimes don’t turn out as nice as you’ve imagined them.” She pulled up a chair and sat down, only to get up again to rearrange the flowers on my little table. “What helpless creatures men are! You’ve got the best violets out of my pet bed, and the poor little things are all squashed up anyhow.” Then she turned on me. “You’re very tongue-tied, Harilek. You haven’t even said you’re pleased to see me, and you’ve not had a glimpse of me for over a fortnight.” “What’s the good of saying things, Aryenis? You know--or you ought to--how more than glad I am to see you. Why, every day--” I broke off, remembering Andros. “Yes? Every day? Go on,” prompted my lady, arranging the neglected violets, her face turned half away. “Well, every day, and every night, and all the time, I want to see you, Shahzadi, even if I don’t say so.” “Women like being told the things they know,” remarked Aryenis. “Even ones with good memories?” “The better their memories, the more they like it. So now you know.” Then she sat down in the chair, propping her rounded chin on one hand, as she does when she is thinking, looking at me silently. I turned over and pulled myself up on my pillows to see her better, and my ribs where the spear hit me hurt badly as I turned. I suppose Aryenis saw the grimace, for she was out of her chair in a flash to help me and to pack up the pillows. “Does your leg hurt much, Harilek?” she asked, suddenly anxious. “Nothing much. My side’s all stiff, though; that’s what caught me then.” “Your side?” “Yes. I bumped a spear in the mix-up. Thanks to Paulos’s mail, it didn’t go in, but it’s a bit sore. You see, your gift repaid your debt for you, all right, as you hoped it might.” “I didn’t know. Tell me.” She was smoothing out my blankets as she spoke, and I lay silent, watching the movements of her slender, capable hands. Just then I felt more than I’d ever felt before that I would give my whole soul to have her slim arms about me and her lips on mine. However, I choked that down, and told her something about our last battle on the hill, she listening steady-eyed. “So you think that the debt is repaid now, do you?” she said when I had finished. “That because Paulos’s mail saved you from a chance blow in a fight fought for us that we are quits? You’re wrong, Harilek.” She bent over me. “For what you did for me in the gate--man with the wiggly marks--a whole lifetime’s service would be all too short repayment.”