I know that I shall be happier than you ever knew me and better. I am not one to hedge, but I have always felt that when everything else had failed me (as it has not) I should come to this peace, this blind reliance on an invisible friend who will never leave me. . . . 'And we are one day nearer Thee' sometimes if only it be so.

may

I

haunts me have always found something wanting-does not this longing point to another and fuller existence, of which we all dream, yet no human eye hath seen?

"I have been happy, Ben, and I have loved, but I have not known that supreme joy when body, heart, and soul leap all together to the one man in the fulfilment of perfect love. Sometimes the body is drawn through the senses; sometimes the heart, through pity; often the mind, through keen intellectual sympathy; but seldom indeed do they fuse in one supreme consummation, yet so I dare to think it may be with you and Honey. You loved her all the time, and did not know it, and she loved you most of the time, and did know it—that was the only difference. And don't forget to tell her every day that you love

her; you men never realise that it is a miracle recreated to the happy woman each time you tell it. And fight selfishness-less in you than most men, but what you have, you must unlearn, lest you teach it to Honey, who never knew it. You have been a happiness and a comfort to me for many years-I have leaned on, and trusted, and loved you, and so good night, dear Ben, and may God keep you and our Honey safe till we meet again.

"MARY."

CHAPTER XXIII

"And then ·

A man becomes aware of his life's flow,
And hears its winding murmur; and he sees
The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze.
And there arrives a lull in the hot race

Wherein he doth for ever chase

That flying and elusive shadow, rest.

An air of coolness plays upon his face,

And an unwonted calm pervades his breast.
And then he thinks he knows

The hills where his life rose,

And the sea where it goes."

ONG before Honey saw me I saw her,

LONG

vivid spot of scarlet in the dazzle of the whiteness of the woods, and I smiled at the vanity that had made her, when no hunting was possible, decide to look her most audacious and fetching in my eyes, in the garb that she knew became her best.

It was three o'clock, hour of brightest sunshine in the short winter's day, as it was the happiest I had ever known in my life, and

light as my heart fell my footfall on the crystal carpet of the woods. The long vistas of trees were of fretted white lace, diamond spangled; the thin pure air acted on my blood like wine, strengthening each fibre of my body, making the keener my joy, and though her back was turned towards me, I saw her tremble, knew that she knew I was nigh.

She stood by the tree where as boy she had averted her face, but drunk in each word of my discourse, and I passed round it, then put my hands on her shoulders, and looked in her eyes.

and

"Ben," she stammered, "Ben then I took her close in my arms, and there, where we had come to a true understanding of each other's hearts, we entered into our kingdom of love.

"And Time was not,

And all the world stood still."

Did I say I had forgotten women and their ways? I had never known them, till Honey's arms clasped my neck, till her soft cheek pressed my bearded one, flower-soft lips and cheeks striking the vivid note of her scarlet

coat, while the love in her dark eyes was too lovely, too deep for any words.

"It is a fine hunting morning," I said presently, and we laughed, and came out of heaven, and hand in hand paced the woods that had put on gala robes solely for this wondrous occasion.

We fell at once into Love's usual crossexamination-of how Love first came to us, of where; of all the torments and joys the tricky little rascal had cost us, while at the same moment Father Time, waggling his head, calculated how long our happiness might last.

"I leaned on you; I admired you all the way along," said Honey slowly. "Insensibly you taught me what a true gentleman should be-what a man who is not a gentleman never can be; but I did not love you till I heard you were dead. And you?'

"I believe I never forgot you," I said, "from the moment you expressed an ardent desire to smash crockery, to the one when I knew Mary had left me her fortune. Anyway, out leaped the imprisoned giant, and I don't think he has done growing yet."

She put up her hand to smooth my cheek.