he body; knowledge of what
his duty was--that alone could heal him!

The loud popping of a cork roused him. "What are you doing, Nollie?"

Noel rose with a flushed face, holding in one hand a glass of champagne,
in the other a biscuit.

"You're to take this; and I'm going to have some myself."

"My dear," said Pierson bewildered; "it's not yours."

"Drink it; Daddy! Don't you know that Leila would never forgive me if
I let you go home looking like that. Besides, she told me I was to eat.
Drink it. You can send her a nice present. Drink it!" And she stamped
her foot.

Pierson took the glass, and sat there nibbling and sipping. It was nice,
very! He had not quite realised how much he needed food and drink. Noel
returned from the cupboard a second time; she too had a glass and a
biscuit.

"There, you look better already. Now you're to go home at once, in a cab
if you can get one; and tell Gratian to make you feed up, or you won't
have a body at all; you can't do your duty if you haven't one, you
know."

Pierson smiled, and finished the champagne.

Noel took the glass from him. "You're my child to-night, and I'm going
to send you to bed. Don't worry, Daddy; it'll all come right." And,
taking his arm, she went downstairs with him, and blew him a kiss from
the doorway.

He walked away in a sort of dream. Daylight was not quite gone, but the
moon was up, just past its full, and the search-lights had begun their
nightly wanderings. It was a sky of ghosts and shadows, fitting to the
thought which came to him. The finger of Providence was in all this,
perhaps! Why should he not go out to France! At last; why not? Some
better man, who understood men's hearts, who knew the world, would take
his place; and he could go where death made all things simple, and he
could not fail. He walked faster and faster, full of an intoxicating
relief. Thirza and Gratian would take care of Nollie far better than
he. Yes, surely it was ordained! Moonlight had the town now; and all was
steel blue, the very air steel-blue; a dream-city of marvellous beauty,
through which he passed, exalted. Soon he would be where that poor boy,
and a million others, had given their lives; with the mud and the shells
and the scarred grey ground, and the jagged trees, where Christ was
daily crucified--there where he had so often longed to be these three
years past. It was ordained!

And two women whom he met looked at each other when he had gone by, and
th