The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying like flies.

The Ayah had been taken ill in the night, and it was because she had just died that the servants had wailed in the huts.

Before the next day three other servants were dead and others had run away in terror.

There was panic on every side, and dying people in all the bungalows.
During the confusion and bewilderment of the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by every one.

Nobody thought of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things happened of which she knew nothing.