k, he had
cleared and passed the ring of customs officers before the most
expeditious of the other passengers had collected their baggage. He had
said good-bye to the Stonehouses in their own cabin. Pearl had been so
much affected at saying good-bye, and his heart had so warmed to her,
that at last he had said impulsively:

'Don't cry, darling. If I am spared I shall come back to you within
three years. Perhaps I will write before then; but there are not many
post-offices where I am going to!'

Children are easily satisfied. Their trust makes a promise a real thing;
and its acceptance is the beginning of satisfaction. But for weeks after
the parting she had often fits of deep depression, and at such times her
tears always flowed. She took note of the date, and there was never a
day that she did not think of and sigh for The Man.

And The Man, away in the wilds of Alaska, was feeling, day by day and
hour by hour, the chastening and purifying influences of the wilderness.
Hot passions cooled before the breath of the snowfield and the glacier.
The moaning of a tortured spirit was lost in the roar of the avalanche
and the scream of the cyclone. Pale sorrow and cold despair were warmed
and quickened by the fierce sunlight which came suddenly and stayed only
long enough to vitalise all nature.

And as the first step to understanding, The Man forgot himself.

CHAPTER XXVIII--DE LANNOY

Two years!

Not much to look back upon, but a world to look forward to. To Stephen,
dowered though she was with rare personal gifts and with wealth and
position accorded to but few, the hours of waiting were longer than the
years that were past. Yet the time had new and startling incidents for
her. Towards Christmas in the second year the Boer war had reached its
climax of evil. As the news of disaster after disaster was flashed
through the cable she like others felt appalled at the sacrifices that
were being exacted by the God of War.

One day she casually read in The Times that the Earl de Lannoy had died
in his London mansion, and further learned that he had never recovered
from the shock of hearing that his two sons and his nephew had been
killed. The paragraph concluded: "By his death the title passes to a
distant relative. The new Lord de Lannoy is at present in India with his
regiment, the 35th or 'Grey' Hussars, of which he is Colonel." She gave
the matter a more than passing thought, for it was sad to fin