"What luck to find you like this!"

He threw her one look--Julie knew it to be a look of scrutiny--and then,
as she held out her hand, he stooped and kissed it.

"He wants to know that my suspicions are gone," she thought. "At any
rate, he should believe it."

"The great thing," she said, with her finger to her lip, "is that Lady
Henry should hear nothing."

She motioned her somewhat puzzled guest to a seat on one side of the
fire, and, herself, fell into another opposite. A wild vivacity was in
her face and manner.

"Isn't this amusing? Isn't the room charming? I think I should receive
very well"--she looked round her--"in my own house."

"You would receive well in a garret--a stable," he said. "But what is
the meaning of this? Explain."

"Lady Henry is ill and is gone to bed. That made her very cross--poor
Lady Henry! She thinks I, too, am in bed. But you see--you forced your
way in--didn't you?--to inquire with greater minuteness after Lady
Henry's health."

She bent towards him, her eyes dancing.

"Of course I did. Will there presently be a swarm on my heels, all
possessed with a similar eagerness, or--?"

He drew his chair, smiling, a little closer to her. She, on the
contrary, withdrew hers.

"There will, no doubt, be six or seven," she said, demurely, "who will
want personal news. But now, before they come"--her tone changed--"is
there anything to tell me?"

"Plenty," he said, drawing a letter out of his pocket. "Your writ, my
dear lady, runs as easily in the City as elsewhere." And he held up
an envelope.

She flushed.

"You have got your allotment? But I knew you would. Lady Froswick
promised."

"And a large allotment, too," he said, joyously. "I am the envy of all
my friends. Some of them have got a few shares, and have already sold
them--grumbling. I keep mine three days more on the best advice--the
price may go higher yet. But, anyway, there"--he shook the
envelope--"there it is--deliverance from debt--peace of mind for the
first time since I was a lad at school--the power of going, properly
fitted out and equipped, to Africa--_if_ I go--and not like a
beggar--all in that bit of paper, and all the work of--some one you and
I know. Fairy godmother! tell me, please, how to say a proper
thank you."

The young soldier dropped his voice. Those blue eyes which had done him
excellent service in many different parts of the globe were fixed with
brilliance on his companion; the lines of a full