She caught his hand and wrung it, reading in his action an apology for his hasty speech of the night before, and he smiled at her cheerily as she disappeared behind the screen. Fitz was still lying in the state of stupor in which she had left him, and she sat down beside the bed, and tried to lay her plans for the future. As she recalled what Colonel Slaney had said, it was natural that the man himself should recur to her mind.
“Why, we must be relieved!” she said to herself. “How stupid of me never to have thought of it. Colonel Slaney belongs to the column, of course. And Dick has come back safe, too. And I took it all for granted, and nobody said anything. Where can Georgie be—and Flora?”
Wondering again at the calm way in which the three men had ignored the almost incredible fact of the ending of the siege, she tried to recall her conversation with them, in order to see whether any allusion had been made to it, and suddenly remembered what had struck her vaguely at the time, the stranger’s manner. He had not addressed her in the way in which long experience had prepared her to be addressed; in fact, she missed the peculiar deference to which she was accustomed from the other sex.
“He spoke to me just as if I was any other woman!” she said to herself, with a naïveté which would have struck her as laughable in any one else. “He was kind and encouraging—patronising, almost. Do I look very dreadful, I wonder?” She cast a puzzled glance at her limp cotton gown. “Still, even then, it’s not usually my clothes that people think about. How Dick would laugh! He’ll say that the celebrated smile failed of its effect for once.”
Presently an unexpected solution of the mystery occurred to her.
“Perhaps I’m getting old and ugly, and people won’t care to talk to me any more. How dreadful to have to ask men to do things, instead of their rushing to do them of their own accord! It will take a long time to get accustomed to it. Oh, and perhaps Fitz won’t care for me now! If he leaves off loving me just as I have found out that I love him, what shall I do? I told Georgie once that I would give anything to care for any one as she cared for Dick, but I never thought of not being loved in return. There was some fairy tale about a princess who had no heart, and could not get one without giving everything she had in exchange for it, and that’s how I feel. But how dreadful to get the heart, and then find that it’s not wanted! If he cares for me still, I don’t mind if I never speak to another man again, but if he doesn’t——!”
There was a step outside, and Flora looked cautiously round the corner of the screen, then advanced, bearing a tray.
“Oh, Mab, you must have thought we had forgotten you, you poor thing!” she murmured, in subdued tones. “But you were fast asleep when I looked into your room, and we thought it would be kinder not to wake you. We were all in the mess-room verandah to welcome General Cranstoun and the officers of the column. It was lovely to see them come in; I did wish you were there. And they are all so kind, you can’t think! As soon as ever they heard what we were reduced to, they sent their servants for all sorts of private stores, and gave us everything they could think of that we should like. Look! here’s a cup of tea—strong tea—for you, with milk in it, and I have made you some sandwiches of potted meat. Isn’t it good of them? And they say such nice things about the way we have stood the siege, and they are so interested in the boy, and they admire your brother and Mrs North so much. It’s delightful to hear them.”
“But what has happened to the enemy?” asked Mabel.
“Oh, most of them have surrendered, but Bahram Khan and a body of horse escaped, and got safely to Dera Gul. Major North just succeeded in saving the Amir, and he’s in the fort now. Part of the column has gone on to keep an eye on Dera Gul, but the rest will camp here for to-night. Some of the officers are coming in after dinner—doesn’t it sound funny to say that again? You will come and talk to them, won’t you?”