uld have seen that this nightmare of yours was
nothing but a nightmare. You would have seen that I was alone here,
quietly arranging my papers before going to bed. You gave me a fright
coming down as you did, for there was a tremendous thunderstorm going
on, and I am ashamed to say how queer my own nerves were. The electrical
state of the atmosphere and a very loud clap of thunder just overhead,
account for the whole business, which probably lasted only a few seconds
from beginning to end. Be reasonable, little woman, you are generally
the most reasonable person I know--except when you talk about going to
Dieppe."

Milly gave him a strange look.

"Why am I not reasonable when I talk about going to Dieppe?"

He drew her to him and kissed her hair.

"Never mind why. We aren't going to excite ourselves to-day or do
anything but make love and forget nightmares and everything
disagreeable."

She drew herself away a little and looked with frightened eyes in his.

"But I can't forget, Ian, that I don't remember anything that has
happened since we were on our honeymoon in Switzerland. And now we are
in Oxford, and I can see it's quite late in the summer. How can I forget
that somehow I am being robbed of myself--robbed of my life with you?"

"Wait till to-morrow and you'll remember everything right enough."

But Milly was not to be convinced. She was willing to submit on the
question of last night's experiences, but she assured him that Tims
would bear her out in the assertion that she had never recovered her
recollection of the months preceding her engagement. Ian ceased trying
to convince her that she was mistaken on this point; but he argued that
the memory was of all functions of the brain the most uncertain, that
there was no limit to its vagaries, which were mere matters of nerves
and circulation, and that Dr. Norton-Smith, the nerve and brain
specialist to whom he would take her, would probably turn out to have a
dozen patients subject to the same affliction as herself. One never
hears of half the ills that flesh is heir to until the inheritance falls
to one's own lot.

Milly was a common-sense young woman, and his explanation, especially as
it was his, pacified her for the time. The clouds had been rolling away
while they talked, the space of deep blue sky overhead growing larger,
the sunshine fuller. There was a busy twittering and shaking of little
wings in the tall pear-tree near the house, where the tomtit