It was the beginning of a new era, the entrance of a new element into their lives.  Perhaps till that night he had never looked upon her wholly in the light of wife.  His blind passion for her had intoxicated him.  She had been to him an elf from fairyland, a being elusive who offered him all the magic of her love, but upon whom he had no claims.  But from that night his attitude towards her underwent a change.  Very tenderly he took her into his own close keeping.  She had become human in his eyes, no longer a wayward sprite, but a woman, eager-hearted, and his own.  He gave her reverence because of that womanhood which he had only just begun to visualize in her.  Out of his passion there had kindled a greater fire.  All that she had in life she gave him, glorying in the gift, and in return he gave her love.

All through the days that followed he watched over her with unfailing devotion—­a devotion that drew her nearer to him than she had ever been before.  She was ever responsive to his mood, keenly susceptible to his every phase of feeling.  But, curiously, she took no open notice of the change in him.  She was sublimely happy, and like a child she lived upon happiness, asking no questions.  He never saw her other than content.

Slowly that month of deadly rain wore on.  The Plains had become a vast and fetid swamp, the atmosphere a weltering, steamy heat, charged with fever, leaden with despair.

But Puck was like a singing bird in the heart of the wilderness.  She lived apart in a paradise of her own, and even the colonel had to relent again and bestow his grim smile upon her.

“Merryon’s a lucky devil,” he said, and everyone in the mess agreed with him.

But, “You wait!” said Macfarlane, the doctor, with gloomy emphasis.  “There’s more to come.”

It was on a night of awful darkness that he uttered this prophecy, and his hearers were in too overwhelming a state of depression to debate the matter.

Merryon’s bungalow was actually the only one in the station in which happiness reigned.  They were sitting together in his den smoking a great many cigarettes, listening to the perpetual patter of the rain on the roof and the drip, drip, drip of it from gutter to veranda, superbly content and “completely weather-proof,” as Puck expressed it.

“I hope none of the boys will turn up to-night,” she said.  “We haven’t room for more than two, have we?”

“Oh, someone is sure to come,” responded Merryon.  “They’ll be getting bored directly, and come along here for coffee.”

“There’s someone there now,” said Puck, cocking her head.  “I think I shall run along to bed and leave you to do the entertaining.  Shall I?”

She looked at him with a mischievous smile, very bright-eyed and alert.

“It would be a quick method of getting rid of them,” remarked Merryon.

She jumped up.  “Very well, then.  I’ll go, shall I?  Shall I, darling?”