r case
full of bank-notes. He drew out a handful of them and held them to her.
She snatched them as a hungry hawk snatches meat, with a fierce and
curious swiftness.

Then at last he escaped, and in another minute, amidst the cheers of
the crowd, was driving away at the side of the stately Isobel.

At the Hall, where one of the wards had been cleared for the purpose,
there was a little informal reception, at which for a while Godfrey
found himself officiating alone, since Isobel had disappeared with
General Cubitte and the brother officer who had acted as his best man.
When at length they returned he asked her where she had been, rather
sharply perhaps, for his nerves were on edge.

"To see to some business with the lawyer," she answered.

"What business, dear?" he inquired. "I thought you settled all that
this morning?"

"It could not be settled this morning, Godfrey, because a will can only
be signed after marriage."

"Good gracious!" he exclaimed. "Give me a glass of champagne."

An hour later they were motoring to London alone, at last alone, and to
this pair Heaven opened its seventh door.

They dined in the private sitting-room of the suit which under the
inspiration of Isobel he had taken at a London hotel, and then after
the curious-eyed waiters had cleared the table, sat together in front
of the fire, hand in hand, but not talking very much. At length Isobel
rose and they embraced each other.

"I am going to bed now," she said; "but before you come, and perhaps we
forget about such matters, I want you to kneel down with me and say a
prayer."

He obeyed as a child might, though wondering, for somehow he had never
connected Isobel and Prayer in his mind. There they knelt in front of
the fire, as reverently as though it burned upon an altar, and Isobel
said her prayer aloud. It ran thus:

"O Unknown God Whom always I have sought and Whom now I think that I
have found, or am near to finding; O Power that sent me forth to taste
of Life and gather Knowledge, and Who at Thine own hour wilt call me
back again, hear the prayer of Isobel and of Godfrey her lover. This is
what they ask of Thee: that be their time together on the earth long or
short, it may endure for ever in the lives and lands beyond the earth.
They ask also that all their sins, known and unknown, great or small,
may be forgiven them, and that with Thy gifts they may do good, and
that if children come to them, they may be blessed in such fa