an astonishing state of mind. Then
remembrance came back, and she asked eagerly--

"Cynthia, do you think I shall ever hear anything more about him?
Mother says it will take years and years to save so much money. Do you
think I shall ever know?"

"Yes!" said Cynthia confidently. "Of course you will know. He will
find some way of telling you. You told him your address, so it was the
easiest thing in the world to find out your name. You will get
something from him every year--perhaps on Christmas Day, perhaps in
summer, perhaps on the anniversary of the night. It may be only a
newspaper, it may be a letter, it may be just a flower--like the man in
_The Prisoner of Zenda_ sent to the princess, but it will be
_something_! He mayn't sign his name or give his address, but he will
want you to know--he will feel you ought to know that he is alive and
remembering."

Oh, the beauty of a girl confidante! How truly she understands the art
of comfort!

"And shall I ever see him again?"

"Yes--if you both live. He will want to see you again more than
anything in the world, except paying off his debt. When that is done,
he will rush straight off to you and say, `Here I am. I have worked
hard and kept my promise. To-day I can look the whole world in the
face, for I owe not any man. I have regained my friend and my position,
and it is your doing. _You_ saved me! All these years the thought of
you has been my inspiration. I have lived in the thought of seeing your
face again--'"

"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Betty, gasping. "And I shall be hideous, Cynthia,
hideous! Fancy, I may be thirty! What will he think, when he sees me
so changed?"

"He won't mind a bit--they never do. He will say, `Though worn and
haggard, you are still in my eyes the most beautiful woman in the
world!'" cried Cynthia.

And then, being only eighteen--nearly eighteen--each girl suddenly
descended from her high horse, and went off into peal after peal of
laughter, merry, heart-whole laughter, which floated to Mrs Alliot's
ears as she lay on her couch in the drawing-room, and brought a smile to
her pale face. This new friendship was doing great things for her
lonely girl!

Towards the end of the Christmas holidays the great news circulated that
Mrs Vanburgh was coming home, and bringing her two younger sisters for
a few weeks' shopping in town. Agatha and Christabel had just returned
from two years' sojourn abroad, and were presumably "fini