The query so sudden, so abrupt, and so uncalled for must, she ought to have foreseen, look extremely suspicious.

And yet Okoya was on the point of answering, "She was at our home a few days ago." In time, however, he bethought himself of the warnings she had received, and replied in an unsteady tone,-- "I don't know." Hannay noticed his embarrassed manner, and saw at a glance that he was forewarned.

The "no" of the boy told her "yes." The discovery, however, that Okoya was on his guard was rather disagreeable; it angered her so much that her first impulse was to send him away.

But she soon changed her mind.

The youth was obedient; and if now he obeyed the counsels of his people, why might he not later on become accustomed to submission to his wife's people also?
At all events he was good-natured, and according to Hannay's conceptions, good-natured folk were always silly.