almost fell. Ellesborough threw out a quick
hand and caught her by the arm. She smiled into his face.

"Neatly done!" she said composedly, submitting to be led by him over a
very broken bit of pavement near the door. His hand held her firmly. Nor
did she make any effort to release herself till they were outside. Here
were the vicar and his sister waiting to say good-night--the vicar much
chagrined that he had seen so little of his chief hostess, and inclined
to feel that his self-sacrificing attention to Miss Leighton at supper
had been but poorly rewarded. Rachel, however, saw that he was out of
humour, and at once set herself to appease him. And in the few minutes
which elapsed before she parted with him at the gate she had quite
succeeded.

Then she turned to Ellesborough.

"Shall we go up the hill a little?"

They slipped through a side gate of the farmyard, crossed a field, and
found themselves on an old grass road leading gently upward along the
side of the down into the shadow of the woods. The still, warm night held
them enwrapped. Rachel had thrown a white scarf over her head and throat,
which gave a mysterious charm to the face within it. As she strolled
beside her hew friend she played him with all the arts of a woman
resolved to please. And he allowed himself to be handled at her will.
He told her about his people, and his friends, about the ideas and
ambitions, also, with which he had come to Europe, which were now in
abeyance, but were to spring to active life after the war. Forestry on a
great scale; a part to be played in the preservation and development of
the vast forest areas of America which had been so wilfully wasted;
business and patriotism combined; fortune possible; but in any case the
public interest served. He talked shrewdly, but also with ardour and
imagination; she was stirred, excited even; and all the time she liked
the foreignness of his voice, the outline of his profile against the sky,
and all the other elements of his physical presence.

But in the midst of his castle-building he broke off.

"However, I'm a silly fool to talk like this. I'm going out to the front
directly. Perhaps my bullet's waiting for me."

"Oh, no!" she said involuntarily--"no!"

"I hope not. I don't want to die just yet. I want to get married, for one
thing."

He spoke lightly, and she laughed.

"Well, that's easy enough."

He shook his head, but said nothing. They walked on till they reached the
e