“Oh, my dear!” Mrs. Ralston’s exclamation held dismay.

Stella met it by holding out to her the message.  “Tommy down with malaria,” it said.  “Condition serious.  Come if you are able.  Monck.”

Mrs. Ralston rose.  She seemed to be more agitated than Stella.  “I shall go too,” she said.

“No, dear, no!” Stella stopped her.  “There is no need for that.  I shall be all right.  I am perfectly strong now, stronger than you are.  And they say malaria never attacks newcomers so badly.  No.  I will go alone.  I won’t be answerable to your husband for you.  Really, dear, really, I am in earnest.”

Her insistence prevailed, albeit Mrs. Ralston yielded very unwillingly.  She was not very strong, and she knew well that her husband would be greatly averse to her taking such a step.  But the thought of Stella going alone was even harder to face till her look suddenly fell upon Peter the Great standing motionless behind her chair.

“Ah well, you will have Peter,” she said with relief.

And Stella, who was bending already over her reply telegram, replied instantly with one of her rare smiles.  “Of course I shall have Peter!”

Peter’s responding smile was good to see.  “I will take care of my mem-sahib,” he said.

Stella’s reply was absolutely simple.  “Starting at once,” she wrote; and within half an hour her preparations were complete.

She knew Monck well enough to be certain that he would not have telegraphed that urgent message had not the need been great.  He had nursed Tommy once before, and she knew that in Tommy’s estimation at least he had been the means of saving his life.  He was a man of steady nerve and level judgment.  He would not have sent for her if his faith in his own powers had not begun to weaken.  It meant that Tommy was very ill, that he might be dying.  All that was great in Stella rose up impulsively at the call.  Tommy had never really wanted her before.

To Mrs. Ralston who at the last stood over her with a glass of wine she was as a different woman.  There was nothing headlong about her, but the quiet energy of her made her realize that she had been fashioned for better things than the social gaieties with which so many were content.  Stella would go to the deep heart of life.

She yearned to accompany her upon her journey to the plains, but Stella’s solemn promise to send for her if she were taken ill herself consoled her in a measure.  Very regretfully did she take leave of her, and when the rattle of the wheels that bore Stella and the faithful Peter away had died at last in the distance she turned back into her empty bungalow with tears in her eyes.  Stella had become dear to her as a sister.