dressed in the latest whim of fashion; but it was her
that he saw rather than her appointments. Her gold bobbed hair was like
a Botticelli angel's. Her eyes were clear and deep as violets. She was
exquisitely vibrant and alive--scarcely beautiful; her nose turned up
and was too short for that. One sought for the right words to express
her attraction. Perhaps it was due to her light-hearted health and
girlish freshness.

As he came up eagerly, limping with the effort, she reached out her
hand. "Tabs, fancy you not knowing me! I don't need to call you Lord
Taborley, do I? Between us it's still Tabs."

"Terry dear! My dear Terry, at last!" He spoke queerly as though he had
been running. Then, seeing how his intensity startled her, he let go her
hand and laughed. "You can't blame me for not having spotted you.
Where's all your beautiful hair that was so blowy?"

She glanced up through her lashes at the tall man. "'I'm growing such a
big girl now'--you remember the refrain from the song at the Gaiety?
That's why. When you were a young man, girls put their hair up to show
they were of age; nowadays they bob it."

"So that's the explanation!" He climbed in and took his seat beside her.
"That's another thing that disguised you. How was I to guess that you'd
wangle a Staff car to meet an ex-lieutenant?"

"It belongs to a friend at the War Office." She nodded her permission to
the trim girl-soldier at the wheel to start. "He lent it to me when he
heard that I was to meet you this morning. Taxis are so scarce, and I
didn't know how well you could walk, so----" She turned from the subject
abruptly. "You're so changed. I scarcely recognized you at first. I was
expecting that you'd still be in uniform."

"I was demobbed yesterday. So you find me changed! For better or for
worse? Confess, Terry."

She was aware that beneath his assumption of gayety he was hiding
something--something that pained. He had been hurt too much already.
With impulsive sympathy she laid her hand on his arm. "It isn't a case
of better or worse. Between people like ourselves appearances don't
matter. I think to me you were handsomest of all as a Tommy. How proud I
was of you, Tabs, when you first joined up! Do you remember how I used
to strut along beside you---- And that last night, when you went for the
first time to the Front?"

He remembered, and waited with boyish expectancy. She had stopped
suddenly and glanced away from him. For the second time