e time. I know! Stop! I'll
get it," She ran out and returned with a little leather-covered book.
"Read it right through, Peter," she said. "I've read it heaps of times,
but I want to hear it again to-day. Do you mind?"

"Omar Khayyam!" exclaimed Peter. "Good idea! He's a blasphemous old
pagan, but the verse is glorious and it fits in at times. Do you want me
to start at once?"

"Give me a cigarette! no, put the box there. Stir up the fire. Come and
sit on the floor with your back to me. That's right. Now fire away."

She leaned back and he began. He read for the rhythm; she listened for
the meaning. He read to the end; she hardly heard more than a stanza:

"Oh, threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain--_this_ Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the rest is lies--
The flower that once has blown for ever dies."

They lunched in the hotel, and at the table Peter put the first necessary
questions that they both dreaded. "I'm going to tell them to make out my
bill, Julie," he said. "I've to be at Victoria at seven-thirty a.m.
to-morrow, you know. You've still got some leave, haven't you, dear; what
are you going to do? How long will you stay on here?"

"Not after you've gone, Peter," she said. "Let them make it out for me
till after breakfast to-morrow."

"But what are we going to do?" he demanded.

"Oh, don't ask. It spoils to-day to think of to-morrow. Go to my friends,
perhaps--yes, I think that. It's only for a few days now."

"Oh, Julie, I wish I could stay."

"So do I, but you can't, so don't worry. What about this afternoon?"

"If it's stopped raining, let's go for a walk, shall we?"

They settled on that, and it was Julie who took him again to St. James's
Park. As they walked: "Where did you go to church this morning, Peter?"
she asked.

He pointed to the campanile. "Over there," he said.

"Then let's go together to-night," she said.

"Do you mean it, Julie?"

"Of course I do. I'm curious. Besides, it's Sunday, and I want to go to
church."

"But you'll miss dinner," objected Peter. "It begins at six-thirty."

"Well, let's get some food out--Victoria Station, for instance. Won't
that do? We can have some supper sent up afterwards in the hotel."

Peter agreed, but they did not go to the station. In a little cafe
outside Julie saw a South African private eating eggs and bacon, and
nothing would do but that they must do the same. So they went in. They
ate off thick pl