Mrs. Drayton rose, and began to pace softly the narrow passage between the table and the tent-wall, her hands clasped loosely behind her. "How long have you known this?" she said, stopping abruptly. "Oh, John, you _needn't_ consider; it's quite a simple question. To-day? Yesterday?" Her foot moved restlessly on the ground as she waited. "I think it was the day before yesterday," he replied. "Then why in Heaven's name didn't you tell me before?" she broke out fiercely. "My dear, it slipped my memory. If I'd thought you would be interested----" "Interested?" She laughed shortly. "It _is_ rather interesting to hear that after six months of this"--she made a quick comprehensive gesture with her hand--"one will have some one to speak to--some one. It is the hand of Providence; it comes just in time to save me from----" She checked herself abruptly. He sat staring up at her stupidly, without a word. "It's all right, John," she said, with a quick change of tone, gathering up her work quietly as she spoke. "I'm not mad--yet. You--you must get used to these little outbreaks," she added after a moment, smiling faintly, "and to do me justice, I don't _often_ trouble you with them, do I? I'm just a little tired, or it's the heat or--something. No--don't touch me," she cried, shrinking back, for he had risen slowly and was coming towards her. She had lost command over her voice, and the shrill note of horror in it was unmistakable. The man heard it, and shrank in his turn. "I'm so sorry, John," she murmured, raising her great bright eyes to his face. They had not lost their goaded expression, though they were full of tears. "I'm awfully sorry, but I'm just nervous and stupid, and I can't bear _any one_ to touch me when I'm nervous." II "Here's Broomhurst, my dear! I made a mistake in his name after all, I find. I told you _Brookfield_, I believe, didn't I? Well, it isn't Brookfield, he says; it's Broomhurst." Mrs. Drayton had walked some little distance across the plain to meet and welcome the expected guest. She stood quietly waiting while her husband stammered over his incoherent sentences, and then put out her hand. "We are very glad to see you," she said with a quick glance at the newcomer's face as she spoke. As they walked together towards the tent, after the first greetings, she felt his keen eyes upon her before he turned to her husband. "I'm afraid Mrs. Drayton finds the climate trying?" he asked. "Perhaps she ought not to have come so far in this heat?" "Kathie is often pale. You _do_ look white to-day, my dear," he observed, turning anxiously towards his wife. "Do I?" she replied. The unsteadiness of her tone was hardly appreciable, but it was not lost on Broomhurst's quick ears. "Oh, I don't think so. I _feel_ very well."