happy days,
especially as in the end they spread themselves out to the original
limit of his leave.

"At least we have not been cheated," said Isobel when at last they
stood together on the deck of the ship, waiting for the second bell to
ring, "and others are worse off. I believe those two poor people," and
she pointed to a young officer and his child-like bride, "were only
married yesterday."

The scene on the ship was dreary, for many were going in her to the
various theatres of war, Egypt, Africa, and other places, and sad, oh!
sad were the good-byes upon that bitter winter afternoon. Some of the
women cried, especially those of the humbler class. But Isobel would
not cry. She remained quite calm to the last, arranging a few flowers
and unpacking a travelling bag in Godfrey's cabin, for as a colonel he
had one to himself.

Then the second bell rang, and to the ears upon which its strident
clamour fell the trump of doom could not have been more awful.

"Good-bye, my darling," she said, "good-bye, and remember what I have
told you, that near or far, living or dead, we can never really be
apart again, for ours is the Love Eternal given to us in the Beginning."

"Yes," he answered briefly, "I know that it is so and--enduring for
ever! God bless us both as He sees best."

The ship cast off, and Isobel stood in the evening light watching from
the quay till Godfrey vanished and the vessel which bore him was
swallowed up in the shadows. Then she went back to the hotel and,
throwing herself upon that widowed bed, kissed the place where his head
had lain, and wept, ah! how she wept, for her joy-days were done and
her heart was breaking in her.

After this Isobel took a night train back to town and, returning to
Hawk's Hall, threw herself with the energy that was remarkable in her,
into the management of her hospital and many another work and charity
connected with the war. For it was only in work that she could forget
herself and her aching loneliness.

Godfrey had a comfortable and a prosperous voyage, since it was almost
before the days of submarines, at any rate so far as passenger steamers
were concerned, and they saw no enemy ships. Therefore, within little
more than a month he landed on the hot shores of Mombasa, and could
cable to Isobel that he was safe and well and receive her loving answer.

His next business was to report himself in the proper quarter, which he
did. Those over him seemed quite bewil