ther is concerned, she's very devoted to him, and would
never do anything to annoy him if she could possibly help it, as I
easily spotted the night we dined with them at the Carlton. But she's
made up her mind to be Mrs. Ronald Ewart sooner or later; that I
_will_ swear!"

"I'm very glad to hear you say so," I answered, "but the thing that
worries me, of course, is the question as to whether I have any right
to let this go on. If war is declared----"

"Which it will be," said Dennis.

"Well, then, my practice goes to the devil, as you say. How long after
the war is it going to be before I could marry one of Myra's maids,
let alone Myra? And, supposing, of course, that I use the return half
of my ticket, so to speak, and come back safe and sound, my own
prospects will be infinitely worse than they were before the war. The
law, after all, is a luxury, and no one will have a great deal of
money for luxuries by the time we have finished with it and wiped
Germany off the map. Besides, if there's no money about, there's
nothing to go to law over. So there you are, or, rather, there I am."

"What do you intend to do, then?" my friend asked.

"I shall go up to Scotland to-morrow night--well, of course, it's
to-night, I should say--and see her--and--and----"

"Yes--well, and----"

"Oh, and tell her that it must be all--all over. I shall say that the
war will make all the difference, that I must join the army, and that
she must consider herself free to marry someone else, and that, as in
any case I might never come back, I think it's the best thing for us
both that she should consider herself free, and--er--and--and consider
herself free," I ended weakly.

"Just like that?" asked Dennis, with a twinkle in his eye.

"I shall try and put it fairly formally to her," I said, "because, of
course, I must appear to be sincere about it. I must try and think out
some way of making her imagine I want it broken off for reasons of my
own."

Dennis laughed softly.

"You delicious, egotistical idiot," he said. "You don't really imagine
that you could persuade anyone you met for the first time even that
you're not in love. By all means do what you think is right, Ron. I
wouldn't dissuade you for the world. Tell her that she is free. Tell
her why you are setting her free, and I'll be willing to wager my
little all that you two ridiculous young people will find yourselves
tied tighter together than ever. By all means do your best to