nies. Is it yet known when this poor Lieutenant Kane will
arrive in Paris?"

No, it was not yet known; I should be able to inform her, I hazarded,
before nightfall; and I thanked her for the pains she was taking, and
again assured her that the financial question was of no importance. As I
said this, the priest, a dry wisp of manhood, softly drew nearer and
slightly moistened his thin-set lips; but he did not speak. Possibly
Madame Guyot spoke for him.

"At such times, m'sieu," she replied, "one does what one can. But
naturally--that is understood. One is not an only relative for nothing,
m'sieu. The heart speaks. True, I have hitherto been put to certain
expenses for which the poor little one had promised to reimburse me----"

I hastened to assure her that she had only to present this account to
me in full, and we parted with mutual though secret contempt, and with
every sanctified expression of esteem. Then I returned to the cabinet of
my friend, Colonel ----.

By three o'clock in the afternoon a brief telegram from Jimmy's
commander was brought to us; it removed every possibility of doubt, even
from my obdurate mind. Jimmy had "gone West" once for all, and this time
"West" was not even a geographical expression.... I sat silent for
perhaps five slowly passing minutes in the presence of Colonel ----,
until I was aware of a somewhat amazed scrutiny from tired, heavily
pouched blue eyes.

"You feel this deeply," he observed, "and I--I feel nothing, except a
vague sympathy for you, _mon ami_. Accept, without phrases, I beg you,
all that a sad old man has left to give."

I rose, thanked him warmly for the trouble he had taken on my behalf,
and left him to his endless, disheartening labors. France was in danger;
he knew that France was in danger. What to him, in those days, was one
young life more or less? He himself had lost three sons in the war....

But how was I to let fall this one blow more, this heaviest blow of
all, upon Susan? It was that which had held me silent in my chair,
inhibiting all will to rise and begin the next needful step. Yes, it was
that; I was thinking of Susan, not of Jimmy. For me in those days, I
fear, the world consisted of Susan, and of certain negligible
phantoms--the remainder of the human race. It is not an _etat d'ame_
that Susan admires, or that I much admire; but in those days it was
certainly mine. And this is the worst of a lonely passion: the more one
loves in secret, without f