The wand of the enchanter, in the shape of the piping bul-bul, had changed the scene. From the fierce glare and the strife-torn land of India, he was suddenly transported to his native shores. He saw the peaceful valleys of smiling England--he heard the clanking of the wheels of industry as they brought bread to toiling millions, and sent forth their produce to all the corners of the earth. He saw the happy homes where the laughter of merry children made light the hearts of their parents. He saw that land with all its beauty--a land free from the deadly strife of contending armies; and, as the vision passed before him, hope sprang up again strong and bright with the dawning day. The little bul-bul’s notes had been to him like a draught of an elixir that can banish the sickness of the heart, and lift up the human soul from darkness into light. The bird’s notes ceased, but another sound fell upon his ear. It was a long-drawn sigh of a woman. It was Haidee. She had been sleeping on a sheepskin some few yards away from where Gordon was sitting. As he turned his eyes to where her form reposed, he remembered the promise he had made to Harper with reference to this woman. During the few days that had elapsed since his friend’s departure, he had tended to Haidee with the loving solicitude of a brother. He had told her of all his troubles, and how by a most singular chance Flora had been separated from him again, and conveyed back to Delhi. And he felt now, as he turned to Haidee, that for his friend’s sake--a friend he looked upon as dead--it was his sacred duty to protect her until he could place her out of the reach of danger. He knew but little about her, for Harper had volunteered no information beyond the fact that she was from the King’s Palace, and to her he owed his life. It was sufficient for him to know that this was the case--to feel for her in Harper’s behalf all the anxiety and tenderness which was due to her sex. He had speedily discovered that she was possessed of a true woman’s nature, and that she entertained a strong love for his friend. But he looked upon it purely as a Platonic feeling, for he had too much faith in Harper’s integrity to think that he would have encouraged any other. “You have slept soundly, Haidee,” he remarked, as he observed that she opened her eyes. “I have had a dreamful sleep,” she made answer, as she sat up, and pushed back her beautiful hair, tarnished somewhat, and tangled with smoke and dust, but beautiful still. Her face, too, was a little worn, and a look of anxious care sat upon it; but the shocks and jars of the last few weeks had affected her much less than it had her companions in sorrow. “I trust that at least they have been pleasant dreams,” Gordon answered, as he shook Haidee’s hand; for she had risen and moved to where he was sitting.