ldren are
cheery----"

Meg shook her head. "No; if I was your wife, it wouldn't do. As it is
... the nursemaid has got her soldier, and that's as it should be."

"Will you marry me the first leave I get, if I live to get any?"

"I'll think about that."

He gave her the ring she had refused before. Such an absurd little ring,
with its one big sapphire set with diamonds, and "no backing to it,"
Miles said.

And he gave her a very heavy brass-studded collar for William, and on
the plate was engraved her name and address.

"You see," he explained, "Miss Ross would never really have him, and I'd
like to think he was your dog. And here's his licence."

Then Miles took her right up in his arms and hugged her close, and set
her gently down and left her.

That night he asked his uncle and a brother-officer to witness his will.
He had left most of his money among his relations, but twenty thousand
pounds he had left to Meg absolutely, in the event of his being killed
before they were married.

His uncle pointed out that there was nothing said about her possible
marriage. "She'll be all the better for a little money of her own if she
does marry," Miles said simply. "I don't want her to go mourning all her
days, but I do want the capital tied up on her so that he couldn't
waste it ... if he was an unfortunate sort of chap over money."

The Squire blew his nose.

"You see," Miles went on, "she's a queer little thing. If I left her too
much, she'd refuse it altogether. Now I trust to you, Uncle Edward, to
see that she takes this."

"I'll do my best, my boy, I'll do my best," said the Squire; "but I hope
with all my soul you'll make settlements on her yourself before long."

"So do I, but you never can tell in war, you know. And we must always
remember," Miles added with his broad, cheerful smile, "there's a good
deal of target about me."

Miles wrote to the little Major, a very manly, straightforward letter,
telling him what he had done, but swearing him to secrecy as regarded
Meg.

He also wrote to Jan, and at the end, he said, "I am glad she is to be
with you, because you really apreciate her."

The one "p" in "appreciate" fairly broke Jan down. It was so like Miles.

Meg, white-faced and taciturn, went back to Wren's End on Tuesday night.
The Squire and Lady Mary remained in town.

In answer to Jan's affectionate inquiries, Meg was brief and
business-like. Yes; she had seen Miles several times. He was very b