THE VISITOR

It was on a Sunday evening of breathless heat that this conviction first
took firm hold of Hope. Her uncle was away upon one of his frequent
journeys of research. Her brother was up at the cantonments, and she was
quite alone save for her _ayah_, and the _punkah-coolie_ dozing on the
veranda.

She had not expected any visitors. Visitors seldom came to the bungalow,
for the simple reason that she was seldom at home to receive them, and
the Magician never considered himself at liberty for social obligations.
So it was with some surprise that she heard footsteps that were not her
brother's upon the baked earth of the compound; and when her _ayah_ came
to her with the news that Hyde _Sahib_ was without, she was even
conscious of a sensation of dismay.

For Hyde _Sahib_ was a man she detested, without knowing why. He was a
civil servant, an engineer, and he had been in Ghantala longer than any
one else of the European population. Very reluctantly she gave the order
to admit him, hoping that Ronnie would soon return and take him off her
hands. For Ronnie professed to like the man.

He greeted her with a cool self-assurance that admitted not the smallest
doubt of his welcome.

"I was passing, and thought I would drop in," he told her, retaining her
hand till she abruptly removed it. "I guessed you would be all forlorn.
The Magician is away, I hear?"