osite to her
he thought that he had never seen a sweeter vision, nor one that
appealed more directly to his imagination and his heart.

Janet Hope at nineteen was very pleasant to look upon. Her face was not
one of mere commonplace prettiness, but had an individuality of its own
that caused it to linger in the memory like some sweet picture that once
seen cannot be readily forgotten. Her eyes were of a tender, luminous
grey, full of candour and goodness. Her hair was a deep, glossy brown;
her face was oval, and her nose a delicate aquiline. On ordinary
occasions she had little or no colour, yet no one could have taken the
clear pallor of her cheek as a token of ill-health; it seemed rather a
result of the depth and earnestness of the life within her.

In her wardrobe there was a lack of things fashionable, and as she sat
at dinner this evening she had on a dress of black alpaca, made after a
very quiet and nun-like style; with a thin streak of snow-white collar
and cuff round throat and wrist; but without any ornament save a
necklace of bog-oak, cut after an antique pattern, and a tiny gold
locket in which was a photographic likeness of Sister Agnes.

That was a very pleasant little dinner-party. In the course of
conversation it came out that, a few days previously, Captain George had
been decorated with the Victoria Cross. Janet's heart thrilled within
her as the Major told in simple, unexaggerated terms of the special deed
of heroism by which the great distinction had been won. The Major told
also how George was now invalided on half-pay; and her heart thrilled
with a still sweeter emotion when he went on to say that the young
soldier would henceforth reside with him at Eastbury--at Eastbury, which
was only two short miles from Deepley Walls! The feeling with which she
heard this simple piece of news was one to which she had hitherto been
an utter stranger. She asked herself, and blushed as she asked, whence
this new sweet feeling emanated? But she was satisfied with asking the
question, and seemed to think that no answer was required.

When dinner was over, they set out for the play. Janet had never been
inside a theatre before, and for her the experience was an utterly novel
and delightful one.

On the third day after Janet's arrival in London they all went down to
Eastbury together--the Major, and she and George. But in the course of
those three days the Major took Janet about a good deal, and introduced
her t