believe; she
will carry away a larger one. The garrison here is to be reduced, you
know."

"Yes, it is a mistake I think. Will Drewson have to go? He has been on
this Station longer than any of the others."

"Yes, his company has marching orders for Malta. He told me last night
he was coming to take leave of you next week."

"Our nice Captain Drewson going away!" Evadne exclaimed, aghast. "Why,
dearest, he is one of our oldest friends!"

"The law of progression, Vad darling."

"How I hate it!" she cried, while her lips trembled. "Why can't we just
live on in the old happy way? You will be going next, Geoff, and the
Hamiltons and the Vandervoorts. Does nothing last?"

Her voice hushed itself into silence and again Lenox Hildreth heard the
soft waves singing,--

"Forever! Forever! Forever!"

"Oh yes, Evadne," Geoffrey said with a laugh: "we are very lasting. It
is only the unfortunate people under military rule who prove unreliable.
Let me sing you my latest song to cheer your spirits. I only learned it
last week."

He struck a few chords and was beginning his song when a low groan made
him spring to his feet. Evadne passed him like a flash of light and flew
to her father's side. He was leaning heavily against a pillar with his
handkerchief, already showing crimson stains, pressed tightly against his
lips.

They laid him gently down and summoned help. After that all was like a
horrible dream to Evadne. She was dimly conscious that friends came with
ready offers of assistance, and that Barbadoes' best physicians were
unremitting in their efforts to stop the hemorrhage; while she stood
like a statue beside her father's bed. She was absolutely still. When at
last the hemorrhage was checked the exhaustion was terrible. Evadne
longed to throw herself beside him and pillow the dear head upon her
bosom, but Dr. Danvers had whispered,--

"A sudden sound may start the hemorrhage again,--the slightest shock is
sure to." After that, not for worlds would she have moved a finger.

The day passed and another night drew on. One of the physicians was
constantly in attendance, for the hemorrhage returned at intervals. Just
as the rose-tinted dawn looked shyly through the windows, her father
spoke, and Evadne bent her head to catch the faint tone of the voice
which sounded so far away.

"Vad, darling, I have made an awful mistake! I thought everything a
sham. I know better now. Make it the business of your life, little Vad