led her a woman, for although she was
still young, her appearance could not be called strictly girlish. She
might be about twenty-five years of age, and her face, though free from
lines, suggested a history. I thought, too, that there was a lack of
frankness in her face, and that she had a furtive look in her eyes.
There was nothing else in her appearance, however, which suggested
this. She gave me a pleasant greeting, and expressed the hope that we
should have a good meeting in the little town near Granitelands, which
was the name of Lord Granville's house.

'I have heard such tremendous things about you, Captain Luscombe,' she
said, 'that I am quite excited. Report has it that you are quite an
orator.'

'Report is a lying jade,' I replied; 'still, I suppose since the people
at the War Office think I am no use as a fighter, they must use me to
persuade others to do their bit.'

'Of course I am going,' she laughed, 'although, personally, I don't
like the Army.'

'Not like the Army, Norah!' It was the other girl who spoke, and who
thus drew my attention to her.

I was not much impressed by Lorna Bolivick when I had been first
introduced to her, but a second glance showed me that she was by far
the more interesting of the two. In one sense, she looked only a
child, and I judged her to be about nineteen or twenty years of age.
She had all a child's innocence, and _naivete_, too; I thought she
seemed as free from care as the lambs I had seen sporting in the
meadows, or the birds singing among the trees. I judged her to be just
a happy-go-lucky child of nature, who had lived among the shoals of
life, and had never realized its depths. Her brown eyes were full of
laughter and fun. Her frank, untrammelled ways suggested a creature of
impulse.

'That girl never had a care in her life,' I reflected; 'she's just a
happy kid who, although nearly a woman in years, is not grown up.'

I soon found myself mistaken, however. Something was said, I have
forgotten what, which evidently moved her, and her face changed as if
by magic. The look of carelessness left her in a moment, her great
brown eyes burned with a new light, her face revealed possibilities
which I had not dreamt of. I knew then that Lorna Bolivick could feel
deeply, that she was one who heard voices, and had plumbed the depths
of life which were unknown to the other.

She was not handsome, a passing observer would not even call her
pretty, but she ha