ears."

"A dozen years! I should be thirty! I shall be hideous at thirty,"
thought Betty ruefully, recalling the vision of the sweet, flushed face
which had looked at her from the mirror the day before. Could it be
possible that a dozen years--twelve whole years--could pass by without
bringing her any tidings of "Ralph"? In the state of exaltation which
had possessed her last night she had felt raised above the need of
words, but already reaction had set in, and with it a strange sense of
depression at the thought of the future.

It was good to know that there was Cynthia to talk to--Cynthia, who
might not be able to advise and strengthen as wisely as mother did, but
who was a girl, and knew how girls felt--"up and down, and in and out,
and--oh, and so topsy-turvy upside down!" thought poor Betty to herself.

A breathless, "I want to speak to you; I have something dreadfully
interesting to tell!" whispered in a chance encounter in the street,
brought an immediate invitation to tea `in my own room, where we shan't
be bothered'; and under these happy auspices the adventure was once more
related, while Cynthia's grey eyes grew wide with excitement.

"Dear Betty, how glorious for you!" she cried ecstatically. "What a
wonderful thing to remember! You can never be blue again, and say that
you are no use in the world. To have saved a man's life, and started
him on the right road--at eighteen--not eighteen! You are the most
fortunate girl in the whole world! It's so strange that this chance
should have come to you on that particular day, because your brother and
I had been talking about the different work of men and women as we
walked over the Park to the Albert Hall, and he said that if it was
men's province to make the greatest things in the world, it was women's
work to make the men; and that was what you did, Betty dear. You helped
God to make a man!"

Betty raised her brows in a surprise which was not altogether agreeable.

"Miles--_Miles_ said so! How extraordinary! He never talks like that
to me, and he hardly knew you at all. However did you come to discuss
such a subject?"

"I asked him about his work, and envied him for being able to do
something real. He is a nice boy. I like him very much," said Cynthia
placidly.

Imagine being favoured with confidences from Miles, and remaining quite
cool and unconcerned! For a good two moments Betty forgot all about her
own affairs in sheer wonder at such