handkerchiefs or a towel to keep it off," and he rolled the mass of
napery into a ball, and cramming it back into the crown, replaced the
hat on his head in such a fashion that about eight inches of white
napkin hung down behind. "You must have felt it in Egypt," he went on
--"the sun I mean. It's a bad climate, that Egypt, as I have good
reason to know," and he pointed again to his white hat, which Harold
Quaritch now observed for the first time was encircled by a broad
black band.

"Ah, I see," he said, "I suppose that you have had a loss."

"Yes, sir, a very heavy loss."

Now Colonel Quaritch had never heard that Mr. de la Molle had more
than one child, Ida de la Molle, the young lady whose face remained so
strongly fixed in his memory, although he had scarcely spoken to her
on that one occasion five long years ago. Could it be possible that
she had died in Egypt? The idea sent a tremor of fear through him,
though of course there was no real reason why it should. Deaths are so
common.

"Not--not Miss de la Molle?" he said nervously, adding, "I had the
pleasure of seeing her once, a good many years ago, when I was
stopping here for a few days with my aunt."

"Oh, no, not Ida, she is alive and well, thank God. Her brother James.
He went all through that wretched war which we owe to Mr. Gladstone,
as I say, though I don't know what your politics are, and then caught
a fever, or as I think got touched by the sun, and died on his way
home. Poor boy! He was a fine fellow, Colonel Quaritch, and my only