t was yours.

"I hope life will be kind to you, my dear--kinder than you hope or
expect."

There were many who would find the world the poorer for lack of the
kindly, gallant spirit which had passed into "God's next room," but to
Nan the old man's death meant not only the loss of a beloved friend,
but the withdrawal from her life of a strong, restraining influence
which, unconsciously to herself, had withheld her from many a rash
action into which her temperament would otherwise have hurried her.

It seemed a very climax of the perversity of fate that now, at the very
moment when the pain and bitterness of things were threatening to
submerge her, Death's relentless fingers should snatch away the one man
on earth who, with his wise insight and hoarded experience of life,
might have found a way to bring peace and healing to her troubled soul.

She spent the rest of the day quietly in her room, and when she
reappeared at dinner she was perfectly composed, although her eyes
still bore traces of recent tears. Against the black of the simple
frock she wore, her face and throat showed pale and clear like some
delicate piece of sculpture.

Penelope greeted her with kindly reproach.

"You hardly touched the lunch I sent up for you," she said.

Nan, shook her head, smiling faintly.

"I've been saying good-bye to Uncle David," she answered quietly. "I
didn't want anything to eat."

Kitty, who had remained at the flat, regarded her with some concern.
The girl had altered immensely since she had last seen her before going
abroad. Her face had worn rather fine and bore an indefinable look of
strain. Kitty sighed, then spoke briefly.

"Well, you'll certainly eat some dinner," she announced with firmness.
"And, Ralph, you'd better unearth a bottle of champagne from somewhere.
She wants something to pick her up a bit."

Under Kitty's kindly, lynx-eyed gaze Nan dared not refuse to eat and
drink what was put before her, and she was surprised, when dinner was
over, to find how much better she felt in consequence. Prosaic though
it may appear, the fact remains that the strain and anguish of parting,
even from those we love best on earth, can be mitigated by such
material things as food and drink. Or is it that these only strengthen
the body to sustain the tortured soul within it?

After dinner Ralph deserted to his club, and the three women drew round
the fire, talking desultorily, as women will, and avoiding as though