WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR
greasy notes. Its fellow patted him awkwardly but very tenderly on the head.
"And you knew, too, did n't you? " said William, in a new voice.
"No, on my honour, I did n't. I had n't the—the cheek to expect anything of the kind, except ... I say, were you out riding anywhere the day I passed by to Khanda?"
William nodded, and smiled after the manner of an angel surprised in a good deed.
"Then it was just a speck I saw of your habit in the-"
"Palm-grove on the Southern cart-road. I saw your helmet when you came up from the nullah by the temple—just enough to be sure that you were all right. D' you care? "
This time Scott did not kiss her hand, for they were in the dusk of the dining-tent, and, because William's knees were trembling under her, she had to sit down in the nearest chair, where she wept long and happily, her head on her arms; and when Scott imagined that it would be well to comfort her, she needing nothing of the kind, she ran to her own tent; and Scott went out into the world, and smiled upon it largely and idiotically. But when Faiz Ullah brought him a drink, he found it necessary to support one hand with the other, or the good whisky and soda would have been spilled abroad. There are fevers and fevers.
But it was worse—much worse—the strained, eye-shirking talk at dinner till the servants had withdrawn, and worst of all when Mrs. Jim, who had been on the
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