“For anything that I have done, it is hers still,” said Mabel desperately. “Ask my sister, the doctor lady, if it is not so. You know her, all of you.” “Ah, woe is me!” cried Zeynab. “Why did not the doctor lady leave me to die as a little child, rather than save me by her art that misery might come upon me through one of her own house?” “Peace, girl!” said the Moti-ul-Nissa. “The doctor lady knows not yet that thou art my son’s wife. It is not through her that this trouble has come. I will send a message to her, that she may tell us what to do. If the words of her sister here are true words--” she broke off and looked keenly at Mabel--“it may be that she is one of those that ensnare men even without their own will; but such women ought not to place themselves where men are forced to behold them.” Mabel digested the rebuke, translated with startling plainness by Jehanara, as well as she might. “I am very sorry,” she said in a low voice. “My brother said just the same to me, but I have only been here a short time, and I didn’t understand things. Please forgive me,” she added, looking first at Zeynab and then at her mother-in-law. “I never dreamed that such a thing could happen, and I will take care that it never does again.” “Never again is too late for me,” said Zeynab bitterly. “Peace!” said the old lady again. “Is it nothing to thee that the doctor lady’s sister has humbled herself before thee? Now it is for thee to win back thy lord as best thou mayest. And as for thee, Miss Sahib,” added the Moti-ul-Nissa severely, “choose thee a husband quickly, since that is the custom of thy people, and see that he is such a man as will slay any other that casts his eyes upon thee.” “The Sahib desires the Miss Sahib to be told that the horses have been found, and all is ready,” said the little slave-boy, pushing himself unbidden into the group, and Mabel wasted no time over her farewells. “I really think I have never been so uncomfortable before!” she said to herself, as she got out of the room. “Now you see, Miss North, what a trial it is to me to live among such coarse, ungenteel creatures as these,” said Jehanara. CHAPTER VI. LA BELLE ALLIANCE. “Poor dear Laili!” sighed Mabel, patting the dust-begrimed neck of the little mare. There was no fear of Laili’s running away now, although she had spirit enough left to struggle gamely through the sand, miles of which still stretched between her and home. “I don’t think she’ll be any the worse when she’s had a good rest and feed,” said Fitz consolingly. “Oh no, I hope not! But I know Dick will never let me ride her again.” “Of course; it really wouldn’t be safe. The regiment are so often at carbine practice, you know, and the tribesmen can’t come near the town without letting off their jezails to show their friends they have arrived. It’s quite an exception when a day passes without our hearing shots of some kind.” “I know. But she is such a beauty, I can’t bear to give her up.”