The lad looked up grinning.

"She got divorced, didn't she?"

"I dare say. I knew very little about her. But, as I said, I don't want
to be mistaken for her."

Then, tying the reins to the cart, she jumped down and stood beside him.

His hand went instinctively to the horse's mouth, holding the restive
animal still.

"And I should be very much obliged to you if you would keep what you
thought about me to yourself. I don't want you to talk about it in the
village or anywhere. Come up and see me--at the farm--and I'll tell you
why I dislike being mixed up with that woman--why, in fact, I should mind
it dreadfully. I can't explain now, but--"

The young man was fairly dazzled by the beauty of the sudden flush on her
pale cheeks, of her large pleading eyes, her soft voice. And this--as old
Betts had only that afternoon told him--was the lady engaged to his own
superior officer, Captain Ellesborough, the Commandant of Ralstone Camp,
whom he heartily admired, and stood in considerable awe of! His vanity,
of which he possessed so large a share, was much tickled; but, also, his
feelings were touched.

"Why, of course, ma'am, won't say anything. I didn't mean any harm."

"All right," said Rachel, scrambling back to her seat. "If you like to
come up to-morrow morning, I shall be pleased to see you. It's a bargain,
mind!"

He saluted, smiling. She nodded to him, and drove off.

"Well, that's the rummiest go!" said the bewildered Dempsey to himself,
as he walked towards his bicycle. "Mistake be damned! She _was_ Mrs.
Delane, and what's she up to now with my captain? And what the deuce was
she doing at Tanner's?"

Never did a person feel himself more vastly important than Dempsey as he
bicycled back to the Ralstone camp, whence he had started in the morning,
after the peace news, to go and see a cousin living some distance beyond
Great End Farm. To be his grandfather's grandson was much--but _this_!

Rachel drove, with hands unconscious of the reins, along the road and up
the farm lane leading through her own fields. The world swam around her
in the mist, but there, still in front of her, lay the illuminated farm,
a house of light standing in air. As she neared it, the front door opened
and sounds of singing and laughter came out.

The "Marseillaise"! _Allons, enfants de la patrie!_--Janet was playing
it, singing vigorously herself, and trying to teach the two girls the
French words, a performance which broke down