lt habitually in her eyes was temporarily
submerged by the shining happiness that welled up within them.

She urged that an early date should be fixed for the wedding, and Sara,
with a dreary feeling that nothing really mattered very much, listlessly
acquiesced. Driven by conflicting influences she had burned her boats,
and the sooner all signs of the conflagration were obliterated the
better.

But she opposed a quiet negative to the further suggestion that she
should accompany the Durwards to Barrow Court instead of returning to
Monkshaven.

"No, I can't do that," she said with decision. "I promised Doctor Dick I
would go back."

Elisabeth smiled airily. Apparently she had no scruples about the
keeping of promises.

"That's easily arranged," she affirmed. "I'll write to your precious
doctor man and tell him that we can't spare you."

As far as personal inclination was concerned, Sara would gladly have
adopted Elisabeth's suggestion. She shrank inexpressibly from returning
to Monkshaven, shrouded, as it was, in brief but poignant memories, but
she had given Selwyn her word that she would go back, and, even in
a comparatively unimportant matter such as this appeared, she had a
predilection in favour of abiding by a promise.

Elisabeth demurred.

"You're putting Dr. Selwyn before us," she declared, candidly amazed.

"I promised him first," replied Sara. "In my position, you'd do the
same."

Elisabeth shook her head.

"I shouldn't," she replied with energy. "The people I love come
first--all the rest nowhere."

"Then I'm glad I'm one of the people you love," retorted Sara, laughing.
"And, let me tell you, I think you're a most unmoral person."

Elisabeth looked at her reflectively.

"Perhaps I am," she acknowledged. "At least, from a conventional point
of view. Certainly I shouldn't let any so-called moral scruples spoil
the happiness of any one I cared about. However, I suppose you
would, and so we're all to be offered up on the altar of this
twopenny-halfpenny promise you've made to Dr. Selwyn?"

Sara laughed and kissed her.

"I'm afraid you are," she said.

If anything could have reconciled her to the sacrifice of inclination
she had made in returning to Monkshaven, it would have been the warmth
of the welcome extended to her on her arrival. Selwyn and Molly met her
at the station, and Jane Crab, resplendent in a new cap and apron donned
for the occasion, was at the gate when at last the pony brou