w what he meant, and I
used to skim over the pages until I came to those few words, and they
were the whole letter to me.

"Looking back now I can see how I lived in expectation of mail day, but
suddenly his letters stopped. When father was pronounced hopelessly
ill, I sent him a hurried note, saying that we should have to leave the
Castle, for all the money was gone, and from that day to this I have
heard no more. It was very hard coming just then, Sylvia!

"For the first few months I was not really uneasy, though very
disappointed. I knew that a soldier's life is not always his own, and
that he might have been ordered to a part of the country where it was
impossible to send off letters, but then I read his name as taking part
in some function in Bombay, and I knew that could be the case no longer.
I would not tell Esmeralda to depress her in the midst of her
happiness, so I just sat tight and waited, and the time was very long.

"When it came near mail day my hopes would go up, for it's my nature to
be cheerful. The postman would knock at the door, and my heart would go
head over heels with excitement, and it would be a circular, or a bill
wanting payment. Another time he would not come at all, and that was
worse, for one went on drearily hoping and hoping, and pretending that
the clock was fast. Now I forget mail days on purpose, for it is nearly
eighteen months since he wrote last, and I have given up all hope of
hearing."

Sylvia drew a deep sigh, and knitted her forehead.

"I can't believe that anyone could forget you when he had once cared.
You are so different from other girls. It is most strange and
mysterious. Do you think that perhaps--you won't mind my suggesting
it--the money had some influence with him? Perhaps he thought you were
an heiress--at any rate, that your people were rich and influential, and
when he heard that you were poor he may have changed."

"No!" said Bridgie decisively. "No, I won't think it! I won't let
myself think so badly of anyone for whom I have cared so much. I don't
know what his reasons were, and perhaps I never shall, but I would
rather believe the best. Some people don't find it easy to remember
when they are far-away, and he might have a delicacy in writing to say
that he had forgotten!

"If I had still been Miss O'Shaughnessy of Knock, I should have sent
just one more letter to ask if anything was wrong, but I had too much
pride to obtrude myself as Bridg