r the evening, for Mrs.
Sandwith saw that Jeanne required rest and quiet, and took the two
girls up at once to the bed-room prepared for them. From this
Jeanne did not descend for some days. As long as the strain was
upon her she had borne herself bravely, but now that it was over
she collapsed completely.

After the young ones had all gone off to bed, Harry said to his
father and mother:

"I have another piece of news to tell you now. I am afraid you will
think it rather absurd at my age, without a profession or anything
else, but I am engaged to Jeanne. You see," he went on, as his
parents both uttered an exclamation of surprise, "we have gone
through a tremendous lot together, and when people have to look
death in the face every day it makes them older than they are; and
when, as in this case, they have to depend entirely on themselves,
it brings them very closely together. I think it might have been
so had these troubles never come on, for somehow we had taken very
much to each other, though it might have been years before anything
came of it. Her poor father and mother saw it before I knew
it myself, and upon the night before they were separated told her
elder sister and brother that, should I ever ask for Jeanne's hand,
they approved of her marrying me. But although afterwards I came
to love her with all my heart, I should never have spoken had it
not been that I did so when it seemed that in five minutes we should
neither of us be alive. If it hadn't been for that I should have
brought her home and waited till I was making my own way in life."

"I do not blame you, Harry, my boy," his father said heartily. "Of
course you are very young, and under ordinary circumstances would
not have been thinking about a wife for years to come yet; but I
can see that your Jeanne is a girl of no ordinary character, and it
is certainly for her happiness that, being here with her sister alone
among strangers, she should feel that she is at home. Personally she
is charming, and even in point of fortune you would be considered
a lucky fellow. What do you say, mother?"

"I say God bless them both!" Mrs. Sandwith said earnestly. "After
the way in which Providence has brought them together, there can
be no doubt that they were meant for each other."

"Do you know I half guessed there was something more than mere
gratitude in Jeanne's heart when she flamed out just now; did not
you, mother?"

Mrs. Sandwith nodded and smiled.