weary years that lay
before him.

How beautiful she was! With what an exquisite tenderness her eyes had
dwelt upon the wounded man! He started, and almost groaned, as he
remembered that not so long ago those eyes had beamed love and
tenderness upon himself.

"Oh, Nell, Nell!" broke from him unconsciously. "Oh, my dear, lost love!
how shall I live without you, now that I have seen you, held you in my
arms again?"

The great house loomed before him; the hall door was open; figures were
standing and flitting in the light that streamed on the terrace; and
with a pang he awoke to the responsibilities of his position, to the
remembrance of his interview with Luce. There she stood on the top of
the steps, a shawl thrown round her head, her face eager and anxious.

"Drake! Is it you?" she exclaimed; and she came down the steps to meet
him, her hand outstretched.

The others crowded round, all talking at once. He shook her hand, held
it a moment, then let it drop.

"He is all right, I hope," he said.

"He!" she murmured. "It is you--you, Drake!"

He frowned slightly.

"Oh! I?" he said, with self-contempt. "I have got off scot-free. Where is
the countess?"

Lady Luce looked at him keenly, and with a half-reproachful air.

"I--I--have been very frightened, Drake," she said.

For the life of him he could not even affect a tenderness.

"On my account? There was not the least need."

Lady Angleford came forward hurriedly.

"Drake! You are not hurt! Thank God!" And her hands clasped his arm.

"You have got your jewels?" he said, in the curt tone with which a man
tries to fend off a fuss. "Are they all there?"

She made an impatient movement.

"Yes, yes--oh, yes! As if they mattered! Tell me how that poor man is.
How brave of him!"

He smiled grimly.

"Yes. He will pull round, I hope. We shall know more in the morning.
Hadn't you ladies better go to bed? Wolfer, I have wanted a drink once
or twice in my life, but never, I think, quite so keenly as now."

The men gathered round him as he stopped at the foot of the stairs to
wish the women good night. Luce came last, and as she held out her hand,
looked at him appealingly. Was he going to let her go without the word
she had been expecting--the word he had promised? He understood the
appeal in her eyes, but he could not respond. Not to-night, with Nell's
face and voice haunting him, could he ask Lady Luce to be his wife.
To-morrow--yes, to-morrow!

She smile