None was needed. As she came out of her room again after an incredibly short space of time, and ran down-stairs, she overtook Grace coming from hers. 'Oh! Lesley,' she said, turning as she fastened her bracelet, 'I wanted to see you, and I haven't had a moment since I came in. Sir George is called out--the Commissioner met us on our way back. It is trouble in the city--but George has sent for troops, and they say it will pass over, as it was _taken in time_. But, of course, no one is to know--so George, remember, has a touch of fever, and everything is to go on as usual.' 'I 'm--I'm very sorry,' said the girl lamely. 'Sorry!' echoed Grace, 'I'm not sure if I am. I felt it would come, and I'm glad, oh! so glad, that George was so prompt! It will be well over, and it _must_ be so, for it was taken _in time_, you see. By the bye! how was Jerry this afternoon? I only had time to glance in at the door as I ran up to dress, but he didn't stir, so he must have gone to sleep all right--Needham said he hadn't been talking. Lesley, who had not had time even for that glance, felt relieved. 'Oh! he was very happy. I put him to bed, and gave him what you left before I went out on my cycle.' The next moment she had passed into the circle of expectant guests in the drawing-room, and was adding her apologies for being late to Lady Arbuthnot's. 'Bicycling is a very wholesome exercise,' gravely remarked the young assistant--in for a Saturday to Monday from an out-station--who took her in to dinner. 'Very,' she replied as gravely, telling herself that a vertebrate creature had some excuse for not being able to control its backbone, when it was uncertain if it had to stand on its head or its heels. CHAPTER XXIV THE SOVEREIGNTY OF AIR After Lesley had gone home to dinner, and Jack Raymond--in quaint contrast--was off to make certain that a rising in the city was expected before long, the station settled down once more into the silence and slackness of between-train time on a Sunday evening. The listless passengers to be, it is true, still sat in groups on the steps outside, and every now and again some one--who ought to have been on duty and was not--gave a look in, and went off again. Once, indeed, an assistant station-master called at the telegraph-office perfunctorily; but the _baboo_ had by that time recovered from his paralysis of terror, and begun to see his own advantage clearly. True, he had so far been in with the conspirators, as to have promised his collaboration, should the authorities be enough on the alert to use the telegraph to Fareedabad; but in doing so he had thought himself safe from detection. He had not been so; but now he had once more a hope of safety that wild horses would not have dragged him to lessen. Therefore the assistant station-master went, as he had come, in ignorance of anything unusual.