be a pity to disturb her.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, the fact is, I heard in town to-day rumours about Hugh turning
up at some mission station in Africa. People say he was never killed
after all. I went to the Foreign Office about it. They know for
certain it is some English officer, but cannot be sure it is Hugh.'

'Oh, Gwen!'

Agatha seemed too dazed by the news to say more at first.

'We must keep it to ourselves for the present. It would be dreadful
for her if it proved a false report,' continued Gwen; 'and really, she
seems so resigned now, that one dreads the effect of such news upon
her. Do you think she ever really cared for him? I have my doubts. I
remember how restless, and discontented she used to be when he was
alive; and look at the change in her now!'

'Yes,' said Agatha quietly; 'but the change is not due to his death,
Gwen. Clare has found out for herself the truth of Nannie's verse for
her. She was always restless until she came to the Rest-giver, and now
she is at peace. Circumstances do not sway her as they used to do.'

'Well,' said Gwen, after a slight pause, 'I hope it may be true, if she
really loves him. It is like a story-book, the long-lost lover come to
life again! Don't say a word to any one. They have promised to send
us the first information they receive.'

For the next few days both Agatha and Gwen appeared to the others very
restless and pre-occupied; but as a week or two passed away without
further tidings, they tried to banish it from their thoughts, and in a
measure succeeded.

Gwen was delighted at the prospects of her book coming out, and hoped
to realize a good sum from it, more than she at one time could have
thought possible to be earned by her pen. And when, a little later,
she received the first instalment of it, she sent a cheque straight out
to Meta Seton.

'I feel convinced,' she confided to Agatha, 'that she still cares for
Walter; and it is only her father that has insisted upon her breaking
it off. I should be so thankful if they came together again. In
Walter's last letter he mentions having met her, and I think that they
may have arrived at a secret understanding with one another; he writes
in much better spirits.'

'If she is a wife worth having, she would never desert him for his
poverty,' said Agatha.

Gwen shook her head and sighed, for she knew the world better than
simple-minded Agatha did. But her writing took her mind off the