speaking about living for other people and your need of rest. Then, you
said you'd been thinking----"

"It was about how one could make a man's job out of living," he answered
quickly. "It's all wrong that one should feel decent only when he's
attempting to get slaughtered. It takes neither brains nor perseverance
to be dead. Any one can----"

"But it was about finding rest that you were speaking."

"Yes, but I've burdened you with too many of my troubles." He hesitated,
wondering whether he dare tell her what had happened to his heart. "I've
done nothing for you. I've only borrowed from your strength. You're the
most restful woman, the most calm----" Then he dodged. "But since you
ask me of what I was thinking, it was of how I might escape to the old
hardships. I thought I'd call at the Passport Office and get in touch
with the Royal Geographical Society, and commence arrangements to
explore----"

"Then I sha'n't be seeing you again?" She asked it in a tone of
dreariness, bordering on terror. Her hands trembled in her lap. She
stared straight before her.

"But you will." He forced a cheerfulness into his voice which he was far
from feeling. "These things take time. It may be weeks----"

"But you'll go away. I know it."

"I suppose I shall. Sooner or later I shall return. In the meanwhile we
can write."

She paid no attention to his consolation. Her face was gray as granite.
Her hands kept folding and unfolding. There was something symbolic in
their emptiness. "You won't come back. It's the end. You weren't sent,
after all."

How or why he said it, he never could tell. The words were utterly
unpremeditated. He spoke them, ordinarily and unemotionally, as though
throwing out a casual suggestion. "We could get married, if that would
make you happier."

"It's what I'd like."

His heart missed a beat. He dared not credit his senses. He glanced down
at her, prepared to find that she was mocking. The most beautiful woman
in England! There was no mistake; she had actually asked him.

"It's what I should like, too." He spoke conventionally. Nothing in his
tone betrayed his emotion. "It's what I've been dreaming from the moment
that we met---- When would be convenient?"

"As soon as possible."

"Would a week from to-day suit?"

She nodded, "Or sooner."

Beneath the robe his hand sought hers. He did not trust himself to look
at her. She was his, all of her and forever. It was marvelous. The
secret clasp of h