that in the
event of his own sudden death a woman who loved him would find her
best comfort in the knowledge that her love had been returned!

But the days passed pleasantly. Mr and Mrs Gordon were the kindest
of hosts, Terence showed himself at his best, and Delia, in her light
dresses and flower-wreathed hats, was the most tantalisingly pretty
creature in the world. Lessing found it very difficult to keep his
resolve as he sat by her side in a summer-house situated at a discreet
distance from the house, and screened by the thick belt of trees which
formed the end of the shrubbery; and, if the truth is to be told,
Delia intended him to find it difficult, and made special play with
her eyelashes to that effect. Val was looking infinitely better, but
when he returned to town that tiresome "worry" would begin again, and
she wanted, as any nice, right-minded girl would have wanted, to have
the right to comfort and support.

"So sorry you can't stay over to-morrow! It's so stupid to rush back
to town just when you are beginning to get good. Why can't you make a
week of it while you are here? Only three more days."

"I'm afraid I can't. It's been awfully jolly. I've enjoyed every
minute of the time, but--er--I don't think I ought. Business, you
know!"

Delia was annoyed, and showed it.

"Awfully boring it must be, to be a City man," said she with her nose
in the air. "Always having to keep your nose to the grind. That's
why I like army men. You can depend upon them. I shall telegraph to
Captain Rawle, and ask him to take your place. He'll jump at it."

"Conceited ass!" muttered Lessing under his breath. He looked at
Delia and saw beneath her pretence of indifference a mistiness of eye,
a tremor at the corner of the lips, the meaning of which was plain
even to his obtuse masculine senses, and at the sight his prudence
fled to the winds.

"Delia!" he cried rapturously. "Delia! Oh, my darling, do you mean
to say that you _care_? Delia, does it matter to you whether I go or
stay? Do you really, really mean to say--"

"I--I didn't say anything--I--I--_of course_, I care! Oh, Val, you
_are_ stupid!" cried Delia, putting up two white hands to hide an
exceedingly red face. Val knew a rapturous moment as he bent to take
those hands in his, but, even as he moved, a warning rustle sounded
from the bushes ahead, and he straightened