melting into wells of
tenderness.

"My darling--what's come to you?" was all he said.

"A spirit of understanding, I hope," she answered sweetly. "But you'll
find plenty of the old unreasonable Quita effervescing underneath!
_Par exemple_--on the heels of my great renunciation, the first thing I
want to do is a portrait of Major Desmond for my dear Honor,--if I may?"

"If you may! What next?" But being a man and human, he was obviously
gratified. "You could suggest nothing that would please me better.
You'll make a fine thing of it; and as for your methods, 'get inside'
Desmond for all you're worth. You'll do no harm in _that_ quarter!"

"Harm?" she flashed out, half indignant. "Has it ever, in all of your
knowledge of me, gone as far as that?"

He could not lie to her; neither would he betray Dick.

"Did such a possibility never occur to you?" he suggested, evading
direct reply.

But she was not to be thwarted.

"I asked you a question, _mon cher_."

"And that is my answer."

"A question is not an answer." Then intuition, and his evident
discomfiture, enlightened her. "_Mon Dieu_, Eldred! Yon are never
thinking--of Dick?"

He frowned. "What put that into your head?"

"Your manner; and something he wrote to me while he was away. You
heard, of course? He said he had told you the good news."

"What good news? When?"

"Weeks ago. Before he came back off leave."

"I had no letter. Must have been mislaid while I was ill. What's up?
Has he got a command?"

"Yes. And better than that. He is going to be married."

"By Jove! That's first-rate. Good old Dick! But what was it he said
to you?"

"I'll show you the letter. Such a charming one. He began, 'Dear
Friend,' which wasn't like him. It puzzled me. And he ended by saying
he felt sure I should be glad to know how much of his present happiness
he owed to his intimacy with me. So you see, dearest, I did no
irretrievable harm."

"No, mercifully not, thanks to Dick's uprightness, and his happy
temperament. But he might have been quite another sort; like myself,
for instance. By the time I had known you two weeks, Quita, the damage
was permanent. Even if there had been no word of love between us, I
should never have given a thought to another woman--after that."

The quietness of his tone carried conviction, and her arms went out to
him.

"Bless you, bless you, my own man," she murmured into the lapel of his
coat. "I can nev