sometimes," he said to himself. "She
is surely _very_ cold. And yet I know she has real affection for
me--_sisterly_ affection, I suppose. Ah, well! so much the better.
But still, just when a fellow's off for heaven knows how long,
and--and--altogether it does seem a little overstrained. She can't but
know what might have come to pass had we not been separated for so
long--or had I been richer; and I don't think she could have been
exactly in love with Medway, though by all accounts he was a very decent
fellow. She is so inconsistent too--she seemed really disappointed when
I said I couldn't stay to-day. But I'm a fool to think so much about
her. I am as poor as ever and she is rich. A fatal barrier! It's a good
thing that she _is_ cold, and that I have plenty of other matters to
think about."

And thus congratulating himself he dismissed, or believed that he
dismissed for the time being, all thought of Anne Medway from his mind.
It was true that he had plenty of other things to occupy it with, for
the day after to-morrow was to see his departure from England for an
indefinite period.

Mrs. Medway meantime sat sadly and silently in the library where Major
Graham had left her. Her sweet gray eyes were fixed on the fire burning
brightly and cheerfully in the waning afternoon light, but she saw
nothing about her. Her thoughts were busily travelling along a road
which had grown very familiar to them of late: she was recalling all
her past intercourse with Kenneth Graham since the time when, as boy
and girl, they had scarcely remembered that they were not "real" brother
and sister--all through the pleasant years of frequent meeting and
unconstrained companionship to the melancholy day when Kenneth was
ordered to India, and they bade each other a long farewell! That was ten
years ago now, and they had not met again till last spring, when Major
Graham returned to find his old playfellow a widow, young, rich, and
lovely, but lonely in a sense--save that she had two children--for she
was without near relations, and was not the type of woman to make quick
or numerous friendships.

The renewal of the old relations had been very pleasant--only too
pleasant, Anne had of late begun to think. For the news of Kenneth's
having decided to go abroad again had made her realise all he had become
to her, and the discovery brought with it sharp misgiving, and even
humiliation.

"He does not care for me--not as I do for him," she was sayi