rne her. The
dull realities of her life in London had vanished as if they had never
been. The black figure, which had stepped into a cab and followed
them, was forgotten.

* * * * * *

For something like half an hour Michael sat talking with Hadassah and
Margaret. He had so much to tell them that he succeeded in telling
them nothing connectedly or completely. He began a hundred different
things and left most of them halfway through, to plunge headlong into
another and entirely different subject. The things he wanted to say
were tumbling over each other in his mind. The bewildering idea that
he was going to be married the next day sent all his thoughts reeling.

Margaret was not the sort of girl to worry over a lot of superficial
clothes for a ten days' honeymoon. What she needed she had got
together in a couple of hours at Harrod's and one or two good shops in
the West End.

They had made up their minds to spend their brief period of married
life together at Glastonbury. It was not too far from London and
Michael had once stayed in the historical old inn in that quiet city of
Arthurian romance. In Egypt he had inspired Margaret with a desire to
see Glastonbury in the spring time, when the maythorns were in bloom
and the luscious meadows gay with flowers.

Like all soldiers, Michael was very silent upon the subject of his own
personal experiences at the Front, although at intervals he would
suddenly burst out with some dramatic incident in which he had taken
part.

When Hadassah congratulated him on being offered a commission, he
laughingly said, "Oh, I must accept it. It isn't fair to shirk it,
though I'd rather remain as I am."

Margaret's heart stood still. She knew what he meant; she was not
ignorant of the appalling death-rate of officers.

"You mean," Hadassah said, "that----"

She got no further, for Michael interrupted her. "I mean that if I'm
capable of leading the men I ought to do it, but I dread the
responsibility. That's why I never tried for a commission--I. didn't
feel confident. But as the deaths amongst the officers are much
greater than among the men, I can't remain a Tommy, can I?" He pulled
his notebook out of his pocket. "Read that," he said. "That's the
sort of thing that proves whether a man can lead or not."

Margaret and Hadassah read the newspaper cutting. It had been quoted
from the _Petit Journal_.

"The British High Command reli