lowly and reluctantly from his chair.

"I must be going, I fear," he said.

Anne too had risen. They stood together on the hearthrug. A slight,
very slight shiver passed through her. Kenneth perceived it.

"You have caught cold, I fear," he said kindly; for the room was warm
and the fire was burning brightly.

"No, I don't think so," she said indifferently.

"You will write to me now and then?" he said next.

"Oh, certainly--not very often perhaps," she replied lightly, "but now
and then. Stay," and she turned away towards her writing-table, "tell me
exactly how to address you. Your name--is your surname enough?--there is
no other Graham in your regiment?"

"No," he said absently, "I suppose not. Yes, just my name and the
regiment and Allagherry, which will be our headquarters. You might, if
you were _very_ amiable--you might write to Galles--a letter overland
would wait for me there," for it was the days of "long sea" for all
troops to India.

Anne returned to her former position on the hearthrug--the moment at the
table had restored her courage. "We shall see," she said, smiling again.

Then Kenneth said once more, "I _must_ go;" but he lingered still a
moment.

"You must have caught cold, Anne, or else you are very tired. You are so
white," and from his height above her, though Anne herself was tall, he
laid his hand on her shoulder gently and as a brother might have done,
and looked down at her pale face half inquiringly. A flush of colour
rose for an instant to her cheeks. The temptation was strong upon her to
throw off that calmly caressing hand, but she resisted it, and looked
up bravely with a light almost of defiance in her eyes.

"I am perfectly well, I assure you. But perhaps I am a little tired. I
suppose it is getting late."

And Kenneth stifled a sigh of scarcely realised disappointment, and
quickly drew back his hand.

"Yes, it is late. I am very thoughtless. Good-bye then, Anne. God bless
you."

And before she had time to answer he was gone.

Ambrose met him in the hall, with well-meaning officiousness bringing
forward his coat and hat. His presence helped to dissipate an impulse
which seized Major Graham to rush upstairs again for one other word of
farewell. Had he done so what would he have found? Anne sobbing--sobbing
with the terrible intensity of a self-contained nature once the strain
is withdrawn--sobbing in the bitterness of her grief and the cruelty of
her mortification, with