"Yes, it is." There was a touch of indignation in Peggy's rejoinder.

"It's what the heathen do," she said.

Noel ventured to open his eyes, and found hers fixed severely upon him.

"Well, I'm awfully sorry," he said. "What had we better do?"

"You're not sorry," said Peggy accusingly. "Your eyes are all laughy."

"I'll swear they're not," declared Noel. "But I say, hadn't you better finish? Then we can have a cuddle."

"But I can't finish," said Peggy.

"Why not?"

"'Cos you interrupted, and I can't begin again." There was more than the sound of tears this time; the blue eyes were suddenly swimming in them.

"And I haven't said my hymn, and you don't care a bit," she said in a voice that quivered ominously. Matters were evidently getting desperate.

"Yes, but you can say the rest," argued Noel, with the feeling that he was losing ground every instant. "What do you generally say next?"

"No, I can't. It wouldn't be sayin' them properly, and G.o.d doesn't listen if you don't say them properly."

Here was a formidable difficulty; but Noel's brain was fertile. He had a sudden inspiration. "Look here!" he said. "I'll say the first part again for you, and you can say Amen. I haven't said mine yet, you know, so it doesn't matter for me. Then you can go on and finish. Will that do?"

Peggy gave the matter her grave consideration, and decided that it would. "But you must kneel down," she said.

There was no sound in the pa.s.sage now. Noel peered in that direction, but detected nothing. Patiently he slipped on to his knees, and began to recite the Lord's Prayer.

Considering the difficulties under which he laboured, he acquitted himself with considerable credit. Peggy at least was fully satisfied, a fact to which her fervent "Amen"! abundantly testified. She took up her own pet.i.tions at once quite impressively, albeit with slightly accelerated speed to make up for lost time. At the end of her hymn she paused.

"Would you like me to ask G.o.d to make me grow up quick so that we can be married soon, Noel?" she asked.

"I shouldn't." said Noel.

"Not?" The wedgewood-blue eyes opened wide.

"No. Very likely you won't want to marry me when you're grown up," Noel explained.

Peggy was amazed at the bare suggestion of such a possibility. "Why, of course I'll want to marry you," she declared, hugging him. "You're the wery nicest man that ever was."

"No, I'm not. I'm a rotter," Noel made brief and unvarnished reply. "No one knows what I am--except myself. And no one ever will," he added almost fiercely. And then, with lightning change of front, he laughed.

"Never mind! We'll go on being sweethearts. That's better than nothing, isn't it?"

Peggy was looking at him very seriously. "I'd go on lovin' you even if--if--you was to kill someone," she said.

"Thanks, Peg-top! Well, I've never done that yet, though there's no knowing how soon I may begin," said Noel carelessly.

"Oh, but it's very wicked to kill people." There was shocked reproof in Peggy's tone.

"Depends," said Noel judicially. "Sometimes it's the only thing to do."

"Oh, Noel!" Peggy's disapproval was evidently struggling with her loyalty.

Something white gleamed in the doorway, and Noel's eyes suddenly sparkled. He abandoned the argument without a second thought.

"Pray come in!" he said. "Peggy is holding a reception. She always receives at this hour. Now, Peggy, stand up and tell this lady my name!"

"May I really come in for a moment?" said Olga. She stood hesitating on the threshold, a slim, girlish figure. "Don't let me disturb you! Mrs.

Musgrave thinks she must have left her rings here. How do you do?"

She gave her hand to Noel who had moved to meet her He laughed audaciously into her face.

"Awfully pleased to meet you, Miss--er--Ratcliffe! Why didn't you come in before? I was in a beastly tight fix, and should have been glad of your a.s.sistance. I knew you were there."

"Did you?" she said. The smile that had grown so rare flashed over her face in response to his. "I wasn't eavesdropping really," she a.s.sured him. "I was only waiting for a suitable moment to present myself."

"Could any moment be anything else?" he asked her, bowing deeply.

She laughed at that without the faintest coquetry. "Very easily, I should say. Isn't little Peggy going to bed?"

"Of course she is," said Noel. "Hop in, infant! We've been officiating at a wedding to-day, she and I, and the excitement has turned our heads a little. That's the way, mavourneen!" as Peggy, a little shy in the presence of the newcomer, slipped into her bed. "You didn't introduce me though, did you?"

Peggy held his hand in embarra.s.sed silence.

"Peggy scarcely knows me herself yet," said Olga. "Don't you think we might manage without?"

"I dared not have suggested it myself," said Noel, with an ease that belied him. "If we do that, we may as well pretend we're old acquaintances at once."

"Perhaps," said Olga. She was searching for her hostess's rings and spoke with a somewhat absent air.

"Especially as my name is Wyndham," he said.

She stopped short in her search and seemed to stiffen. Then slowly she turned towards him. "You are Max's--Dr. Wyndham's--brother!"

"I have that honour," said Noel drily.

She stood quite still for a moment; then: "I knew he had a brother in India," she said. "But I didn't know we were likely to meet."

"That," said Noel, "was partly his doing and partly mine. He wrote and told me that Captain Ratcliffe was coming to Sharapura, and I at once took steps to get myself transferred to the battalion here."

"Oh! Then you know Nick?"

"By repute," smiled Noel. "A good many people in India can say the same, though he may be without honour in his own country."

"Indeed he isn't!" said Olga proudly. "He is a hero wherever he goes."

"And you have come to take care of him?" asked Noel.

She faced him. "Did you know I was coming?"