s run on; and he'd
been ill seven years, and one does like a little bit of fun, doesn't
one?"

"I shouldn't think about all that now," Winn replied. "It isn't
suitable."

Mrs. Bouncing shook her head and sobbed louder; sobbing seemed a refuge
from suitability.

"I wouldn't have minded," she said brokenly, "if I'd heated his milk. I
always thought he was so silly about having skin on it. I didn't believe
when he came up-stairs it was because he was really worse. I wanted the
sitting-room to myself. Oh dear! oh dear! I said it was all nonsense!
And he said, 'Never mind, Millie; it won't be for long,' and I thought
he meant he'd get down-stairs again. And he didn't; he meant this!"

Winn cleared his throat.

"I don't think he blamed you," he said, "as much as I did."

Mrs. Bouncing was roused by this into a sudden sense of her position.

"Oh," she said, "what are you going to do to me? You've always hated me.
I'm sure I don't know why; I took quite a fancy to you that first
evening. I always have liked military men, but you're so stand-offish;
and now, of course, goodness knows what you'll think! If poor old George
were alive he'd stand up for me!"

"I'm not going to do anything to hurt you, Mrs. Bouncing," said Winn,
after a short pause. "You'll stay on here, of course, till after the
funeral. We shall do all we can to help you, and then you'll go back to
England, won't you?"

"Yes," she said, shivering, "I suppose so. I shall go back to England. I
shall have to see George's people. They don't like me. Will--will that
be all?"

"As far as I am concerned," said Winn, more gently, "there is only one
thing further I have to suggest. I should like you to promise me, when
you leave here, to have nothing more to do with young Rivers. It's
better not; it puts him off his work."

Mrs. Bouncing reddened.

"Oh," she said, "I know; I didn't mean any harm by that. You can't help
young men taking a fancy to you, can you? At least I can't. It looked
better didn't it, in a way--you know what I mean. I didn't want people
to think anything. If only George hadn't been so good to me! I don't
suppose you can understand, but it makes it worse when they are."

It seemed to Winn as if he could understand, but he didn't say so.
Bouncing should have pulled her up. Winn always believed in people being
pulled up. The difficulty lay in knowing how to carry the process out.
It had seemed to Mr. Bouncing simpler to die.

"You'd bett