And now that I am free"-- she clasped her hands and her face grew radiant--"oh, I don't want to see people." She reached out a hand to each of her friends.

"I don't call you people, you know.

But even you--you'll understand and forgive and not be hurt--I don't want to see for a little while." The beaten look of her took the sting of ingratitude out of her words.
She stood between them, her delicate face worn thin, her eyes unnaturally big; she had the strange transparent beauty of people who have been lying for months in a mortal sickness.

Jane Repton's eyes filled with tears and her hand sought for her handkerchief.
"Let's see what can be done," said Repton.

"There's a mail-steamer of course, but you won't want to travel by that." "No." Repton worked out the sailings from Bombay and the other ports on the western coast of India while Stella leaned over his shoulder.
"Look!" he said.