of the danger point, before the infection has
time to spread.

"Also,--as the aim and object of the correspondence is that I should
know your honourable self, let me in to some of the secrets which my
photograph understands so well, and most of all, tell me what makes my
eyes sorry? It seems a little hard to be shut out, when mere
photographs see so much!

"Miss Beverley presents her compliments to Captain Blair. She finds it
a very difficult thing to wind up a letter to a man whom she has never
seen. Miss Beverley will be obliged if Captain Blair will therefore
kindly consider this letter concluded in the manner which seems to him
the most graceful and appropriate."

Katrine carried the letter to the post in her own hands, the address
carefully turned inwards so as to be screened from the scrutiny of
peering eyes. Although the distance from the house to the post-office
was about an eighth of a mile, it was seldom that she could traverse it
without being accosted at least three or four times. This morning,
however, the ordinary gossip jarred upon every nerve; she realised with
a shiver of distaste that upon previous occasions she had enjoyed these
encounters, had looked forward to them as to one of the prized episodes
in the day; had been moved to excitement when she herself possessed a
tiny item of news to add to the general store. As she crossed the road
to the post-office, she debated with herself as to the cause of her
change of mind, and found it in the envelope clasped in her hand.

A real interest had come into her life, and in its presence she had no
room for trivial make-believes. Until now, for eight long years,
nothing had happened to reach the real heart of her, and make her feel.
Never, never once, a thrill, a surprise, a feeling that the great
procession of life had halted to give her place, until one short week
ago, when out of the void a voice had spoken, and across the world had
come a challenge, an appeal! She, who owned little, was asked for much;
at the moment when her own heart was starved, she was asked to fill
another. The voice had called; all that was vital within her sang a
reply.

The letter was held out in an extended hand, was pressed for one moment
between tightening fingers, then dropped deep into the box. She stood
motionless for a moment, overwhelmed by the irrevocability of the
action, then turned aside with the feeling of one facing a new life.

That evening Martin wa