t a gulf.... Those voices of young men passing suddenly
over in crowds, I thought, I believed, and still believe I heard. I can
almost hear them now, because one does not forget such things _if one
comes back_. I trust this answer may be of some comfort to you; and if
you can feel, as you say you will feel, that my book has a message
especially for you, I shall be very glad and proud.

"Yours sincerely, John Sanbourne."

When he re-read the typed letter, one point struck him which had not so
sharply pierced his intelligence before. The effect of the appeal from
Barbara, the miracle of its coming, and the poignant obligation it
thrust upon him had been too overpowering at first. He had not stopped,
after breaking short his wild hope of her freedom, to dwell on the
strangeness of one part of her letter above another. But now, in
judging his own phrases, he came to a stop at a sentence towards the
end of the page: "I trust this may be of some comfort to you."

"Won't that way of putting it sound conceited?" he asked himself. But
no; she had used that very word "comfort" in her letter. As he
remembered this, the thought suddenly woke in him that she had written
as a woman might write who was in deep sorrow. Yet she could not be in
deep sorrow. She had her heart's desire, and at worst, her feeling for
the man who was gone--John Denin--could only be a mild, impersonal
grief that his life had to be the price of her happy love.

He had longed, in writing the story of "The War Wedding," to show
Barbara why even that mild grief was not needed, because in giving
great joy to another soul a woman earned the right to her own
happiness. Denin could not bear to think that pity for him might shadow
Barbara's sunshine, but he had not dreamed until to-day that the shadow
could be dark. Now, the more intently he studied her appeal to the
author of the book, the more difficult he found it to understand her
state of mind.

Barbara spoke of herself as one of the many women whose "sore hearts"
ached for healing because they were losing their "dearest" in battle.
And she said that, if he could give her the assurance she asked for,
the story of "The War Wedding" would seem to hold a personal message,
making her "future life bearable."

What a generous and sensitive nature she had, and what beautiful
loyalty, to mourn sincerely for a man she had never loved, but to whom
she owed a few material advantages! It was wonderful of the girl, and