htly or
wrongly, caused her to surrender her personal preferences and to regard
the matter entirely from the man's point of view. This self-abasement
was, largely, the result of the girl's natural instincts where her
affections were concerned; these had been reinforced by the sentimental
pabulum which enters so much into the fiction that is devoured by girls
of Mavis' age and habit of thought. She argued how it would be
criminally selfish of her to presume on his boyish attachment of the
old days, which might lead him to believe that it was a duty for him to
extend to his old-time playmate the lifelong protection of marriage.

Her lack of personal vanity was such that it never once occurred to her
that she was eminently desirable in his eyes; that he wished for
nothing better than for her to bestow herself, together with her
affections, upon him for lifelong appreciation. She resolved to stifle
her inclinations in order that the man's career should not suffer from
legal companionship with a portionless, friendless girl.

Her unselfish resolutions faltered somewhat when, in resuming the weary
search for chances of employment in the advertising columns of the
newspapers, she came across the following, which was every day repeated
for the remainder of the week:--

"To M...s, who foolishly lost herself in the fog on the night of last
Thursday. She is earnestly urged to write to me, care of Taylor &
Wintle, 43 Lincoln's Inn Fields. Do not let foolish scruples delay you
from letting me hear from you."

She had got as far as writing a reply, but could never quite bring
herself to post it.

A miserable Sunday had urged her to send it to its destination; the
chance purchase of a Sunday paper decided the letter's, and,
incidentally, her own fate. In it she read how, owing to threatened
disturbance on the Indian frontier, Sir Archibald Windebank, D.S.O.,
would shortly leave Aldershot by S.S. Arabia with a reinforcing draft
of the Rifle Brigade.

Mavis tore up her letter, to write another, which she addressed to the
steamer which was to carry him the greater part of his long journey.
She did not give her address; she told him how she believed it would be
for his advantage not to encumber his noble career with concern for
her. She had added that, if it were destined for them to meet, nothing
would give her greater pleasure than to see him again. She ended by
wishing him God-speed, a safe return, a successful and happy life. A