beauty was herself. That gone, she had nothing but a worthless soul to
offer, and what woman would dream of offering a man her soul if she had
no casket in which to enshrine it? If I had presented this other aspect
of the case to Lola, she would have cried out, with perfect sincerity:

"My soul! You get things like mine anywhere for twopence a dozen."

It was the blasting of her beauty that was the infinite matter. All
that I loved would be gone. She would have nothing left to give. The
splendour of the day had ceased, and now was coming the long, long,
dreary night, to meet which with dignity she was nerving her brave
heart.

The tears were not far from my eyes when I said again softly:

"Your lover always, dear."

"Make no promises," she said, "except one."

"And that is?"

"That you will write me often until I come home."

"Every day."

So we parted, and I returned to London and to my duties at Barbara's
Building. I wrote daily, and her dictated answers gave me knowledge of
her progress. To my immense relief, I heard that the oculist's skill had
saved her eyesight; but it could not obliterate the traces of the cruel
claws.

The days, although fuller with work and interests, appeared long until
she came. I saw but little of the outside world. Dale, my sister Agatha,
Sir Joshua Oldfield, and Campion were the only friends I met. Dale was
ingenuously sympathetic when he head of the calamity.

"What's going to happen?" he asked, after he had exhausted his
vocabulary of abuse on cats, Providence and Anastasius Papadopoulos.
"What's the poor dear going to do?"

"If I am going to have any voice in the matter," said I, "she is going
to marry me."

He wrung me by the hand enthusiastically and declared that I was the
splendidest fellow that ever lived. Then he sighed.

"I am going about like a sheep without a leader. For Heaven's sake,
come back into politics. Form a hilarious little party of your
own--anything--so long as you're back and take me with you."

"Come to Barbara's Building," said I.

But he made a wry face, and said that he did not think Maisie would like
it. I laughed and put my hand on his shoulder.

"My son, you have a leader already, and she has already tied a blue
riband round your woolly neck, and she is pulling you wherever she wants
to go. And it's all to the infinite advantage of your eternal soul."

Whereupon he grinned and departed to the sheepfold.

At last Lola came. She begged