ce with admiration and
impatience, and she could not resist putting her feelings into words.
"Does it never give you any fear in case one should fall in love with
you instead?"

"No, never; how could they when she was near?" cried Bridgie fervently,
and then suddenly flushed all over her delicate face and began a
stammering explanation. "At least, that's not quite true. There was
one man--I never told anyone about it before, and indeed there's not
much to tell. Joan and I went to stay ten days with some friends at the
other side of the county, nearly a year ago last autumn, and he was
staying there too. He was not like other men I had met, or I thought he
was different. He was graver than most young men, though he liked fun
all the same, and when we talked it seemed as if we shared the same
thoughts. It was not long after mother's death, and I was feeling very
lonely, but I didn't feel lonely when I was with him. On the third day
we went a picnic, and I drove in a wagonette with the ladies, and he
walked with the men. Just as we overtook them the horses took fright,
and began to gallop down a hill. We thought for a few minutes that we
should certainly be thrown out at the bottom, but the driver managed to
pull up in time, and we were none the worse except for the fright. The
men came racing along to see what had happened, and his face was as
white as death. When he came up he looked straight at me, and at no one
else, though his sister was there and several old friends, and he said,
`_Thank God_!' Only that, but his voice shook as he said it, and he
turned away, as if he could not bear any more. And I felt so strange
and glad, so happy and proud; all that day I felt as if I were walking
on air, but when I went to bed at night I could not sleep, for I
realised suddenly what it meant. He was growing fond of me, and I of
him; if we were together another week, perhaps he would ask me to marry
him and go away to the other end of the world, for he was a soldier--did
I tell you that? And I had promised mother to look after the children
until they were old enough to manage for themselves. I couldn't break
my word, and yet if I stayed on and was nice to him, he might think it
was wrong of me to say No. And I was afraid I couldn't help being
nice."

The sweet voice broke off suddenly, and Mademoiselle looked into the
grey eyes, and thought that the young soldier was to be congratulated
both on his own good tast