d bliss, suppose fondly
that one has only to prepare a time and place for it again and it can
be repeated. But he must be a queer child who starts with expecting
any less. Certainly no doubts assailed me when the anniversary came
round and I made my way to Mr. Tucker's Bun Shop; nor did Miss
Plinlimmon's greeting lack anything of tenderness. She began at once
to talk away merrily: but children are demons to detect something
amiss, and there was a note in her gaiety which somehow did not sound
in key. After a while she broke off in the middle of a sentence and
sat stirring her tea, as with a mind withdrawn; recovered herself,
and catching at her last words, continued--but on a different
subject; then, reading some puzzlement in my eyes, exclaimed
abruptly, "My dear Harry, you have grown beyond knowledge!"

"Were you thinking of that?" I asked, for I had heard it twice
already.

She answered one question with another. "Of what were _you_
thinking?"

I hesitated, for in truth I had been thinking how much older she had
grown. A year is a long time to a child, but it did not account to
me for a curious wanness in her colour. Her hair was greyer, too,
and there were dark rings under her eyes. "You seem different
somehow, Miss Plinlimmon."

"Do I? The Hospital has been wearing me out, of late. I have
thought sometimes of resigning and trying my fortune elsewhere: but
the thought of the children restrains me. I make many mistakes with
them--perhaps more as the years go on: they love me, however, for
they know that I mean well, and it would haunt me if they fell into
bad hands. Now I am not sure that Mr. Scougall would choose the best
successor. Before he married I could have trusted his judgment."
She fell a-musing again. "Archibald is here in Plymouth," she added
inconsequently. "My nephew, you know."

I nodded, and asked, "Is he quartered here?"

"Why, how did you know he was in the Army?"

"You told me Major Arthur was saving up to buy him a commission."

"How well you remember!" she sighed. "Alas! no: the debts were too
heavy. Archibald is in the Army, but he has enlisted as a private,
in the 105th, the North Wilts Regiment. His father advised it: he
says that, in these days, commissions are to be won by young men
content to begin in the ranks; and the lad has (I believe) a good
friend in Colonel Festonhaugh, who commands the North Wilts. He and
Arthur are old comrades in arms. But garrison li