urn to Little Market Street was assumed;
nevertheless he was certain that his mother, his sister-in-law, and
Guy were secretly wondering how Rosamund would be able to endure the
departure from Welsley. Beatrice had welcomed him back very quietly, but
he had felt more definitely than ever before the strong sympathy which
existed between them.

"I quite love Beatrice," he said to his mother in the jobbed brougham
with the high stepping, but slow moving, horse which conveyed them to
Queen Anne's Mansions after the dinner.

"She is worth it," said Mrs. Leith. "Beatrice says very little, but she
means very much."

"Yes. I wonder--I wonder how much of her meaning I thoroughly
understand, mater."

"Perhaps about five per cent of it, dee-ar," observed Mrs. Leith in her
sweetest voice.

And then she began to talk about Esme Darlington.

That night Dion stayed at Queen Anne's Mansions, and slept in his old
room.

In her room his mother lay awake because she wished to lie awake. In
sleep she would have lost the precious sense of her boy's nearness to
her. So she counted the hours and she thanked God; and twice in the
night she slipped out into the hall, with her ample dressing-gown folded
about her, and she looked at her boy's coat hanging on its hook, and
she listened just outside his door. Once she felt certain she heard his
quiet breathing, and then, shutting her eyes, for a moment she was again
the girl mother with little Dion.

Little, little Dion! The soldier, burnt and hardened and made wholly a
man by South Africa, was still that to his mother, more than ever that
since he had been to the war.

That question of Welsley!

Going down in the train next day Dion thought about it a great deal.
With his return the old longing, almost an old need it was, to give
Rosamund whatever she wanted, or cared at all for, had come to him
again. But something fought it, the new longing to dominate and the wish
to give Rosamund chances. Besides, how could they possibly live on in
Welsley? He could not spend from three to four hours every day in the
train. He might get away from London on Fridays and stay at Welsley
every week till Monday morning, but that would mean living alone in
Little Market Street for four days in the week. If he seemed willing to
do that, would Rosamund consent to it?

Another test! He remembered his test before the war.

Mrs. Clarke's allusion to Welsley had left a rather strong impression
upon him. H