ght an illumination from it. It was the eve of the
Great Sacrifice. Already the shadow and the light of it lay over the
world. Nelly was thrilled and touched. That visit to the wayside chapel
had set chords vibrating in her heart. Sacrifice for love's sake
appealed to her as it does to all generous, impressionable young souls.
Though her own personal happiness had vanished, gone down under the
world with the _Sutlej_, there was yet the happiness possible of making
those she loved happy. She had understood her father's wistful looks and
tentative speeches. She knew that he desired her happiness to be in her
cousin's keeping. The old days were over, the sweet days before that
other had come, when she and her father had sufficed for each other.
They could never come again, and he wanted her to marry Robin. Robin's
mother, who was good to her, had suggested that she was trying Robin's
patience too far. Why, if she could make them all happy--she was not in
a state of mind to appreciate what marriage with one man while she loved
another was going to cost her--if she could make them all happy, ought
she not to do so?

"Father!" she whispered. "Father!"

"What is it, Nell?"

She rubbed her cheek slowly against his arm, not speaking for a second
or two.

"Father, I am ready to marry Robin whenever you will."

The General's heart bounded up with an immense relief.

"Whenever I will?" he said, with an air of rallying her. "Is it not
rather whenever you will? Poor Robin has been waiting long enough."

"You are quite sure he wants me: I mean soon?"

"He'd be a dull fellow if he didn't."

The General had suddenly a memory of the time when he had called Robin a
dull fellow in his secret heart because he had been content to wait,
endlessly to all appearances. He put the memory away hastily as an
uncomfortable one.

"To be sure, he wants you soon, Nelly, my dear," he said. "As soon as
your old father can give you up to him. You have always been Robin's
little sweetheart from the time you were a child. He has never thought
of any girl but you."

He made the speech with a gulp, as though it were distasteful to him.

"I never thought there was any girl," Nelly said simply. "Robin is not
at all a young man for girls. Only he cares so much for politics. He has
not seemed in any hurry."

"God bless my soul, to be sure, he is in a hurry. He must be in a hurry.
When you get back to your looking-glass, little Nell, ask yourself