sed to
exist for them. Neither seemed to mind the fact of her presence; it was
sympathetic and that was quite enough, so they felt at liberty to
continue to enjoy their mutual delight in the knowledge that they had
become engaged.

Joyce suffered a pang of jealous longing for her own dear lover-husband,
when she saw the look on Jack's face while he held Kitty to his breast
and kissed her yielding lips. And Kitty, with her arms wound about her
boy's neck and her face uplifted to his!--It was her hour, and Joyce
knew that her own was yet to come. She had indeed been the Sleeping
Beauty who had slept too long under the kisses of her Prince. She had
never really understood her own heart, or realised love till now. Could
there ever be a moment more wonderful on this old earth, than that in
which two lips met in mutual passion?--two souls fused in divine
ecstasy?

"Blessed darlings!" she murmured to herself, turning aside not to
intrude on their sacred joy yet conscious of the fervour of the clinging
kisses, the incoherent whispers, the bounding hearts! It was all as God
had meant it to be when he created Man and gave him Woman for his mate.

"My place is indeed with my husband," she muttered to herself.

CHAPTER XXII

A DESPERATE RESORT

In the early days of the Great War, a voyage to India had no terrors for
the travelled. Before the Hun had proved himself a savage in warfare,
indifferent to all international laws and the dictates of humanity, the
only anxieties and drawbacks suffered on the way, were those in relation
to the risk of encountering mines, or the delays caused by the changing
of routes. The nerves of the public had not been harrowed by tales of
atrocities on the high seas, and the nation confidingly believed that
the glorious traditions of naval warfare were respected even by Germany.
It had yet to learn what manner of people the Allies were fighting. The
difficulties and dangers of a sea voyage only added to the thrill of
expectancy, and the contingency of meeting with German raiders on the
way, was like having a bit of Marryat's novels in real life; fear was an
unknown quantity.

As Kitty anticipated, she met with little opposition from her parents in
the matter of her engagement, or of her voyage to India under her
sister's chaperonage, with the prospect of a wedding at the end of it.
Since she had always managed things her own way, there was little use
wasting time in argument. Jack was a