with her own
heart. How bitter they are, these moments of self-revelation! How
mysterious is the way in which the veil seems suddenly to lift and show
us the true figure, instead of the mythical vision which we have
cherished in our thoughts! They come suddenly at the most unexpected
moments, roused by apparently the most trivial of causes, so that the
friend by our side has no idea of the crisis through which we are
passing.

Rhoda Chester never forgot that last morning at school; she could never
hear that hymn sung without a thrill of painful remembrance. When the
years had passed and she had daughters of her own, the sound of the
familiar words would still bring a flush to her cheeks, but no human
friend ever knew all that it meant to her. Rhoda learnt her lesson none
the less surely for keeping silence concerning it.

A few hours later the travellers were ready to depart, and Evie was
carried down the staircase into the hall.

Mrs Chester had promised that everything that wealth could secure
should be done for the comfort of her guest, and royally did she keep
her promise. If she had been a Princess of the Blood, Evie declared she
could not have had a more luxuriously comfortable journey. An ambulance
drove up to the door to convey the little party to the station, and
inside sat a surgical nurse, ready to give her skilled attention to any
need that might arise. The girls flocked in hall and doorway to wave
farewells, edging to the front to cry "Come back soon!" in confident
treble, and then retiring to the background to gulp back the tears which
rose at the sight of the thin little face, which told such a pathetic
story of suffering. Not a single tear did Evie see, however, nor any
face that was not wreathed in smiles, and when the strains of "For she's
a jolly good fellow" followed the ambulance down the drive, she laughed
merrily, and waved her handkerchief out of the window, never suspecting
with what swelling throats many of the singers joined in the strain.

Rhoda laughed too, but she did not wave her handkerchief. Curiously
enough, it never occurred to her to think that she herself was included
in that farewell demonstration, or to resent the apparent indifference
with which she had been allowed to depart. Her own special friends had
embraced her warmly enough, but even they had given the lion's share of
attention to Evie, while the majority of the girls had no eyes nor
attention for anyone els