and then I have my
work."

"And that, sir?"

"I'm writing a History of Fortification."

"It sounds plaguy dull!"

"So it does!" he agreed. In time they came to the library and study
but on the threshold of that small, bare chamber, my lady paused.

"You poor soul!" she exclaimed. The Major looked startled. "'Tis here
you sit and write?" she demanded. He admitted it. "And not so much as
a rug on the floor!"

"Rugs are apt to--er--encumber one's feet!" he suggested.

"Nor a picture to light this dull panelling! Not a cushion, not a
footstool! O 'tis a dungeon, 'tis deadly drear and smells horribly of
tobacco--faugh!"

"Shall we rejoin the company?" he ventured.

"So bare, so barren!" she sighed, "so lorn and loveless!" Here she
sank down at the desk in the Major's great armchair and shook
disparaging head at him: "Why not work in comfort?"

"Is it so lacking?" he questioned, "I was content----"

"With very little, sir!"

"Surely to be content is to be happy?"

"And are you so--very happy, Major d'Arcy?"

"I--think so! At the least, I'm content----"

"Is a man ever content?" she enquired, taking up one of his pens in
idle fingers.

The Major fell to pondering this, watching her the while as, with the
feather of the pen she began to touch and stroke her vivid lips and he
noticed how full and gentle were their curves.

"He is a fool who strives for the impossible!" said he at last.

"Nay, he is a very man!" she retorted. "Are there many things
impossible after all, to a man of sufficient determination, I
wonder--or a woman?"

The Major, seating himself on a corner of the desk, pondered this also;
and now the feather of the pen was caressing the dimple in her chin,
and he noticed how firm this chin was for all its round softness.

"'Deed, sir," she went on again, "I feel as we had known each other all
our days, I wonder why?"

The Major took up his tobacco-box that lay near by and turned it over
and over before he answered and without looking at her:

"I'm happy to know it, madam, very!"

"And my name is Betty and yours is John and we are neighbours. So I
shall call you Major John and sometimes Major Jack--when you please me."

"How did you learn my name?" he asked gently; but now he did look at
her.

"Major John," she answered lightly, "you possess a nephew."

"Aye, to be sure!" said he and looked at the tobacco-box again, then
put it by, rather suddenly, and rose, "which remind