energy. Ships of all kinds were hastening into the harbour and the
mail boat, broad-bottomed and strongly built, was in sight. Then there
was a little real anxiety. There was sure to be letters, what news
would they bring? Some people say there is no romance in these days.
Very far wrong are they. These sealed bits of white paper hold very
often more wonderful romances than any in the Thousand Nights of story
telling.

Rahal's and Thora's anxiety was soon relieved. A messenger from the
warehouse came quickly to the house, with a letter from Ragnor to
Rahal and a letter from Ian to Thora. Ragnor's letter said they had
had a rough voyage southward, the storm being in their faces all the
way to Leith. There they left the boat and took a train for London,
from which place they went as quickly as possible to Spithead, fearing
to miss the ship sailing for the Crimea on the eleventh. Ragnor said
he had seen Ian safely away to Sebastopol and observed that he was
remarkably cheerful and satisfied. He spoke then of his own delight
with London and regretted that he had not made arrangements which
would permit him to stay a week or two longer there.

Thora's letter was a genuine love letter, for Ian was deeply in love
and everything he said was in the superlative mood. Lovers like such
letters. They are to them the sacred writings. It did not seem
ridiculous to Thora to be called "an angel of beauty and goodness, the
rose of womanhood, the lily on his heart, his star of hope, the
sunshine of his life," and many other extravagant impossibilities. She
would have been disappointed if Ian had been more matter-of-fact and
reasonable.

So there was now comparative happiness in the house of Ragnor, for
though the master's letters were never much more than plain statements
of doings or circumstances, they satisfied Rahal. It is not every man
that knows how to write to a woman, even if he loves her; but women
have a special divinity in reading love letters, and they know beyond
all doubting the worth of words as affected by those who use them.

Ragnor gave himself a whole week in London and before leaving that
city for Edinburgh he wrote a few lines home, saying he intended to
stay in London over the following Sabbath and hear Canon Liddon
preach. On Monday he would reach Edinburgh and on Tuesday have an
interview with Dr. Macrae and then take the first boat for home. They
could now wait easily, the silence had been broken, the weather