The red saree was soon deftly arranged by the ayah, but when she drew back to regard her work, she shook her head.
"Ai, ai, thatt feringhi white face will spoil all!"
"She's right, Hester," said Rayner, fixing hopeless eyes on his wife.
Hester silently went to her almirah, remembering a little box of colouring powders which had been given her by a visitor to the Rectory when some charades were on foot, and her brothers had to be hastily transformed into Red Indians. She had returned the box next morning, but her friend had said, "Keep it, my dear, you may find it useful yet!" She recalled the words with a sad smile. Yes, she thought, she would find it useful now to help the flight of her husband, to whom she had not been a year married, and to save him, if possible, from being convicted as a forger!
She set about her work, executing it as skilfully as on that happy evening when she had won golden opinions for her clever imitation of the colouring of Red Indians. The old ayah forgot her misery, and fairly clapped her hands when she saw the result. Even Mr. Rayner, when he surveyed himself in the mirror after having the saree draped round his head, said with a relieved air:
"Hester, you're an angel! I declare I'll pass for an old ayah going to visit my granddaughter. Of course my lovely nut brown hue will soon wear off but it may last till I reach—ah, I mustn't mention the place, though! But I'm afraid those bare feet, though brown enough, will take badly to the road, and yet my shoes would give me away."
"But master must have ring on his toe," cried the ayah, and the kindly old woman transferred her own ring from her toe to his.
"You'll need to hurry, Alfred," said Hester. "The dawn is beginning to steal in."
When her husband caught sight of her grief-stricken face, the brief courage which his successful disguise had imparted began to give way.
"Oh, I can't do it, Hester," he moaned. "I'm not fit to go through with it. I'll rather stay and be caught, like a rat in a trap," and he threw himself down on a sofa.