scent? What happened after--after--?"

Again he made a soothing movement.

"You must not think of it. They gathered round me. They were generous.
They heaped coals of fire."

Enid lay silent, conscious with a keen yet poignant pleasure of his hand
upon her face. Then suddenly a new thought obtruded itself, and drawing
away his fingers, she looked up into his face.

"And after to-night--?" she said, in a low, unsteady voice.

For a moment he did not answer, and in the soft light it seemed to her
that a shadow of pain passed over his face.

Again she put out her hand and touched his.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, below her breath.

At last he raised his head and looked fully at her.

"I am going back to the East. The hardest task of my life is awaiting me
there. It is a very bitter thing to disillusionize the person to whom
one is a hero."

She looked at him quickly.

"You are speaking of your mother? You are thinking of your mother?"

He bent his head.

For a space neither spoke. Vaguely, and in distant accompaniment to
their thoughts, each was conscious of the hum of traffic and of the
softly crackling fire; then at last Enid stirred, and with a gesture
full of comprehension, her fingers closed round Henderson's.

"Let me tell her the story!" she said, almost inaudibly. "Take me with
you--and let me tell her! We are both women, and--" Her head drooped
slightly; and her face flushed. "And we both love you."

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