wo or
three days..."

"One can suffer a good deal in two or three days! How do you suppose I
felt in that train, looking forward to meeting you--_both_!"

His eyes twinkled; the grave face broke into a smile.

"Exactly as you would have done, for months instead of days, if we had
kept to the original agreement! No! beloved, I apologise, but don't
expect me to be abject. I've thought it out, not once, but a dozen
times, and I can't see that on the whole you've suffered more than you
were bound to do in any case. And what have you been saved? Three
months of uncertainty and waiting. And what have you gained? Three
months of happiness to add to the score of life. It's a big haul, my
Katrine! It is worth a few pangs?"

"You twist things about; your arguments are specious; they are arguments
without premises. Who said I was going to waive three months? I'm not
at all sure that I shall. What would they say at home? They know I'm
not the sort of girl to fall in love on a few days' acquaintance."

"Why bring Cranford into the question? Does it matter one button what
they think? Besides, I don't wish to be boastful, but as a matter of
fact, you _did_!"

"I didn't!" Katrine contradicted. "No! thank goodness, I am restored
to my own confidence. I understand now that it was only because you
_were_ Jim, because I recognised _yourself_ in spite of disguises that I
did--fall! I was really absolutely loyal throughout, but other people
won't understand--Mrs Mannering, for instance! I told her there was
`some one else.'"

"And I went one better, and told her who I was! We had a heart-to-heart
talk that morning in Bombay before I left, and cleared up all
misunderstandings. She's a good sort. We owe her a lot. Perhaps some
day we may be able to pay some of it back, to her boy."

Katrine nodded dumbly. She was occupied in reviewing her journey up
country in the light of the revelation, and seeing in it an explanation
of her companion's idiosyncrasies, her mysterious chuckles of laughter,
her tenderness, alternated with raillery, her suppressed excitement at
the moment of arrival. She had known all the time, even in Bombay, when
the letter arrived! Katrine started, confronted by another mystery.

"The letter! The one at Bombay--"

"What about it?"

"You wrote it, of course, but how, when? Not before our voyage. You
_knew_ when you wrote--"

"Yes; I knew," he said softly. "It was written on the ni