“Oh, yes, very angry.  So was Mother.  She told him he might whip me if he liked.  Fancy being whipped by a native!” High scorn thrilled in the words.  “But he didn’t.  He laughed in his slithery way and showed his teeth like a jackal and said—­and said—­I was too pretty to be whipped.”  Tessa ground her teeth upon the memory.  It was evidently even-more humiliating than the suggested punishment.  “And then he kissed me—­he kissed me—­” she shuddered at the nauseating recollection—­“and let me go.”

Bernard was listening attentively.  His eyes were less kindly than usual.  They had a steely look.  “I should keep out of his way, if I were you,” he said.

“I will—­I do!” declared Tessa.  “But I do hate the way he goes on with Mother.  He’d never have dared if Daddy had been here.”

“He is evidently a bounder,” said Bernard.

They sat for some time on the verandah, growing pleasantly intimate, till presently Peter came out with an early breakfast for Bernard.  He invited Tessa to join him, which she consented to do with alacrity.

“We must find Scooter afterwards,” she said, as she proudly poured out his coffee.  “And then perhaps, if I keep good, Aunt Mary will let me see the baby.”

“Wonder if you will manage to keep good till then,” observed a voice behind them.

She turned with a squeak of delight and sprang to meet Everard.

He was looking haggard in the morning light, but he smiled upon her in a way she had never seen before, and he stooped and kissed her with a tenderness that amazed her.

“Stella tells me you were very brave yesterday,” he said.

“Was I?  When?” Tessa opened her blue eyes to their widest extent.  “Oh, I was only—­angry,” she said then.  “Darling Aunt Stella was frightened.”

He patted her shoulder.  “You meant to take care of her, so I’m grateful all the same,” he said.

Tessa clung to his arm.  “I’d like to come and take care of her always,” she said, rather wistfully.  “I can easily be spared, Uncle Everard.  And I’m really not nearly so naughty as I used to be.”

He smiled at the words, but did not respond.  “Where’s Scooter?” he said.

They spent some time hunting for him, but it was left to Peter finally to unearth him, for in the middle of the search Mrs. Ralston came softly out upon the verandah with the baby in her arms, and at once all Tessa’s thoughts were centred upon the new arrival.  She had never before seen anything so tiny, so red, or so utterly beautiful!

Bernard left his breakfast to join the circle of admirers, and when the doctor arrived a few minutes later he was in triumphant possession of the small bundle that held them all spellbound.  He knew how to handle a baby, and was extremely proud of the accomplishment.

It was not till two days later, however, that he was admitted to see the mother.  She had turned the corner, they said, but she was terribly weak.  Yet, as soon as she heard of the presence of her brother-in-law, she insisted upon seeing him.