erfect! I have
created for myself no plaster saint. You have plenty of faults, my
dear, but there is this big difference between them, and those of any
woman in existence--they are _Katrine's_ faults!

"I have given my word to speak no word beyond those of friendship for
three months after your arrival. If you then decide that I am
impossible as a husband, you need fear no unpleasantness. I'll clear
out, exchange into another regiment, apply for leave. You shan't be
troubled. After that three months' trial, I'll take your answer as
final, and leave you in peace. I've no desire to badger a woman into
being my wife. But I demand my chance!

"I think you will come, Katrine. Putting myself out of the question, I
think you will come, and I'll tell you why. It would be rank
selfishness on your part to stay in England for the present! Martin has
had a rough time of it, but life is opening out for him afresh, and if
you love him you won't stand in his way. How do you suppose he will
feel if you are wandering about from boarding-house to boarding-house,
or working among strangers? The thought of you will be a continuous
shadow over his sun, and that's what you have no right to be, if there
is any legitimate way of avoiding it. Real happiness is a rare thing,
it is holy ground, which ought to be sacred from our touch. I'd as soon
cut off my right hand as cloud a man's joy in his new-made wife.

"And after Martin there's Dorothea.

"It's not a lively life for a woman in a small hill station. It grows
monotonous, meeting year after year the same people. Dorothea's a brave
woman, but the life tells. The boy is delicate also. There's a talk of
sending him home to his grandmother. Dorothea won't leave Middleton;
she considers that he needs her more than the child, and I think she is
right, but it will be a pill. There's nothing on earth which could
cheer and help her more than a visit from you. She has written to you
again I know. This time you must not refuse. The climate up here is
quite reasonable. You will have no great heat to face.

"And so, dear, I think you will come! I _know_ you will come, and, God
willing, you shall not regret it.

"That's a good idea about Bedford! He's a capital chap, and would look
after you well. We must see that that comes off. He will stay in Egypt
till the last moment, I fancy, and join the ship at Port Said, but,
you'd still have ten days together, and he would be