When she wakes in the morning
she will be wild with fever, and you need have no fear that the
Rajah will seek to make her the queen of his zenana."
CHAPTER XX.
Prepared as the mistress of the zenana was to find a great change
in the captive's appearance, she was startled when, soon after
daybreak, she went in to see her. The lower part of her face was
greatly swollen, her lips were covered with white blotches. There
were great red scars round the mouth and on her forehead, and the
skin seemed to have been completely eaten away. There were even
larger and deeper marks on her neck and shoulders, which were partly
uncovered, as if by her restless tossing. Her hands and arms were
similarly marked. She took no notice of her entrance, but talked
to herself as she tossed restlessly on the couch.
There was but little acting in this, for Isobel was suffering an
agony of pain. She had used the acid much more freely than she had
been instructed to do, determined that the disfigurement should
be complete. All night she had been in a state of high fever, and
had for a time been almost delirious. She was but slightly more
easy now, and had difficulty in preventing herself from crying out
from the torture she was suffering.
There was no tinge of pity in the face of the woman who looked at
her, but a smile of satisfaction at the manner in which the potion
had done its work.
"The Nana can see her now," she said to herself; "there will be no
change in the arrangements here.
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