[20] Beloved of kings.
[21] Native money-lender.
[22] Many, many thanks.
[23] Salaam, my Captain Sahib.
CHAPTER XI.
YOU DON'T KNOW DESMOND.
"Suffer with men, and like a man be strong." —Myers.
Frank Olliver, looking remarkably fresh and cool in a holland gown of severe simplicity, greeted him from the verandah with a flour-covered hand. At the sound of hoofs, her ready brain had sprung to the right conclusion, and she hurried out to save him the necessity of dismounting. She had learned to know the value of minutes to a hard-worked man.
"Geoff told me," she said, a rare seriousness veiling the laughter of her eyes. "It's cruel bad news, but you mustn't dream of being anxious yet awhile, Theo, man. I'll be round by half-past eleven sharp; stay till you two are through with your work; rest this afternoon and come on again at seven, till morning. You'll just take one clear night in bed before I let you go shares in that part o' the work. You can trust him to me, can't you, though I am a mad Irishwoman? I'll promise not to be waking up the patient to take his sleeping draught, or any such cleverness!"