t, and she relented.
"Yes, I'll have a small portion, please, after all."

"When friends are together the world seems very small, and when they
are separated it becomes a space too vast for human comprehension--I
think I've heard that before, but it's true," said Appleton.

"Yes," Tommy answered, for lack of anything better to say.

"It seems as if we had known each other for years."

"And it is less than three weeks," was Tommy's contribution to the
lagging conversation.

"The bishop offered me a letter of introduction to you when he wrote
me at the Bexley Sands Inn, you remember, but he added in a postscript
that in case of accident he was not to be held responsible. Rather
cryptic, I thought--at the time."

"A little Commonburg, sir?" asked Walter. "It is a very fine ripe one,
and we have some fresh water-cress."

"'Commonburg,' Miss Tucker? No? Then bring the coffee, please."

A desperate silence fell between them, they who had talked unendingly
for days and evenings!

When Walter brought the tray with the coffee-pot and the two little
cups, Appleton suddenly pushed his chair back, saying: "Let us take
our coffee over by the window, shall we, and perhaps I may have a
cigarette later? Don't light the gas, waiter--we want to see the hills
and the afterglow."

There was no avoiding it; Appleton and the waiter conveyed Tommy
helplessly over to a table commanding the view and the sunset, and it
was the one on which the huge "Engaged" placard reared itself
persuasively and suggestively.

"We shall need nothing more, waiter; you may go; I think this will
cover the bill,"--and scorning the chair opposite Tommy, Appleton
seated himself beside her.

"You have turned your back to the afterglow," she said, as she reached
forward to move "Engaged" to a position a trifle less obvious.

"I don't care tuppence about the afterglow," and Appleton covered her
hand with his own. "Make it come true, dear, dear Tommy! Make it come
true!"

"What?" she asked, between a smile and a tear.

"The placard, dear, the placard! If you should travel the world over,
you couldn't find a man who loves you as I do."

"What would be the use in my traveling about to find another man when
I am so satisfied with this one?" whispered Tommy. "Oh, remember! they
may come back at any moment!"

"I will, I will, if only I may have the comfort of holding your hand
after all my miserable doubts! I never knew what companionship meant
before I