Then, suddenly, he seemed to recall himself, and rose with an effort from his recumbent position.
"I do not know," he said, with a return of his old half-humorous manner, "whether to thank you first for your hospitality or to beg your pardon for making such unscrupulous use of it." She was looking at him closely as he stood before her, and all her knowledge of human ills as explored on the West Coast of Africa, all her experience, all her powers of observation, were on the alert.

He did not look very ill.

The brown of a year's sunburn such as he had gone through on the summit of an equatorial mountain where there was but little atmosphere between earth and sun, does not bleach off in a couple of months.

Physically regarded, he was stronger, broader, heavier-limbed, more robust, than when she had last seen him--but her knowledge went deeper than complexion, or the passing effort of a strong will.
"Sit down," she said quietly.

"You are not strong enough to stand about." He obeyed her with a little laugh.
"You do not know," he said, "how pleasant it is to see you--fresh and English-looking.