presently. You tell her, old chap, and--I say--look after her, won't
you?"

"All right, you cuckoo," said Monck.




CHAPTER V

THE MORNING


Day broke upon a world of streaming rain. Stella sat before a meal
spread in the dining-room and wanly watched it. Peter hovered near her;
she had a suspicion that the meal was somehow of his contriving. But how
he had arrived she had not the least idea and was too weary to ask.

Tommy had fallen into natural sleep, and Ralston had persuaded her to
leave him in his care for a while, promising to send for her at once if
occasion arose. She had left Monck there also, but she fancied Ralston
did not mean to let him stay. Her thoughts dwelt oddly upon Monck. He
had surprised her; more, in some fashion he had pierced straight through
her armour of indifference. Wholly without intention he had imposed his
personality upon her. He had made her recognize him as a force that
counted. Though Major Ralston had been engaged upon the same task, she
realized that it was his effort alone that had brought Tommy back.
And--she saw it clearly--it was sheer love and nought else that had
obtained the mastery. This man whom she had always regarded as a being
apart, grimly self-contained, too ambitious to be capable of more than a