gh if I could have my own way, I'd like the whole thing over again,
to make it feel more real. All that seems to have happened to a not very
admirable girl I once knew, in another life."

"Does it indeed?" he asked, smiling upon her in great contentment. "I
rather admired that girl myself! But believe me, Quita, it's all real
enough to satisfy us both. 'There's no discharge in that war.' And you
don't get a human man to go through the ordeal of that service except
under severe stress of circumstance! If I couldn't recapture you any
other way, I'd do it . . with alacrity. Not unless."

"But who will do the explaining to the station at large?"

"Desmond and his wife will gladly do that much for us." He was about to
add that his chief friend knew already: but decided that it would be
hardly fair on Dick to 'give him away.'

"And where did it all happen?" she demanded, dimpling with enjoyment.
"In Dalhousie?"

"I imagine so."

"You mustn't imagine. We must have all the details clear, so as to lie
consistently!"

"Well then, to account for our abruptness, we'll decide that I lost my
heart to you at home, some time ago; and rediscovered you by chance in
Dalhousie."

She laughed again, from pure exuberance of happiness.

"That's capital! I'll explain it all to Mrs Desmond; and she shall do
the rest."

While they talked, she had succeeded in extricating her rings; and now
she dropped them into his open palm:--the gold band of Destiny, and the
hoop of sapphires and diamonds that he had chosen with such elaborate
care, and presented to her with such awkward, palpitating shyness nearly
six years ago.

"Put them on, please," she said softly, thrusting out her wedding finger.
"'For better for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health;
till death us do part.'"

On the last words she lifted her head. He caught the gleam of tears on
her lashes, and slipped the ring on to her finger; uttering the triple
asseveration with a suppressed fervour rarely to be heard at the altar
rails. Then the second hoop was added; and, still keeping possession of
the fettered hand, he sat silent a moment, looking down at his
achievement with an absurd sense of satisfaction. Quita was looking at
it also, wondering if he could hear the hammering of her heart.

"Now we are really married," she murmured as simply as a child.

"Weren't we before?" he asked, on a note of amusement.

"I suppose so. It didn't feel lik