ened,
and on each occasion he had been in trouble--once when the woman he
loved had sent back his engagement ring through her, and once again
nearly two years later when that same woman--Muriel, his wife--had lain
at death's door all through one dreadful night while they two, close
pals, had waited huddled together in the passage outside her room. Those
two occasions were sacred to Olga, never spoken of to any, shrined deep
in the most inner, most secret recesses of her heart. Nick's confidence
had ever been her most cherished possession. It thrilled her now with
something more than pride; and through her silence her sympathy came out
to him in a flood of understanding which needed no verbal expression.

She spoke at last very softly, almost in a whisper. "Nick, you know,
don't you, that you are dearer to me than anyone else in the world?"

He put up his hand and patted her cheek. "What! Still?" he said.

"Still, Nick? What do you mean?"

"Nothing at all," said Nick promptly. "Go on!"

She took his hand and held it. "Nick darling, do you remember how I came
and kept house for you--years ago, at Redlands, when I was a child?"

"Rather!" said Nick. "Bully, wasn't it?"

She hesitated a little. "Nick, I'm going to make a perfectly awful
suggestion."

"Don't mind me!" said Nick.

She laughed faintly. "I don't, dear,--formidable as you can be. It only
flashed into my mind that if Muriel feels she really can't leave Reggie,
and if she can possibly bear to part with you and you with her, could
you possibly put up with me as a substitute for those few months and
take me instead, if Dad could spare me?"

"By Jove!" said Nick, sitting up.

"I know it's great cheek of me to suggest it," Olga hastened to say.
"For of course I know I'd be a very poor substitute; but at least I
could keep a motherly eye on you, and see that you were properly clothed
and fed. And Muriel herself couldn't possibly love you more."

"By Jove!" Nick said again. Olga's face flushed and eager was close to
his. He bent suddenly forward and kissed it. "And what about you, my
chicken?" he said.

"I, Nick? I should love it!" she said, with candid eyes raised to his.
"You can't imagine how much I should love it."

"You'd be homesick," said Nick.

"Nick! With you!"

He was looking at her with shrewd, flickering eyes. "Do you mean to
say," he said, "that there is no one here that you would mind leaving
for so long?"

"There's Dad of course," sh