so long, that it
comes almost as a surprise at last."

Cuthbert got up, made himself a cup of coffee, drank it with a piece of
dry bread, and then sallied out. Mary would be on duty at ten o'clock.
He knew the road she took on her way to the hospital and should meet
her. In half an hour he saw the trim figure in the dark dress, and the
white band round the arm.

"I suppose you have heard that we are going to stir up the German nest
to-morrow," he said gayly.

"Yes, I have heard," she said, sadly, "it is very dreadful."

"It is what we have been waiting for and longing for for the last two
months. We are to be under arms at daybreak, and as you will be at the
ambulance for the next twenty-four hours I thought I would make an
effort to catch you on the way. I want you to come round to my
lodgings."

She looked surprised.

"Of course I will come," she said frankly, "but what do you want me to
do that for?"

"Well, there is no saying as to who will come back again tomorrow, Mary,
and I want you to see my two pictures. I have been working at them for
the last two months steadily. They are not quite finished yet, but
another week would have been enough for the finishing touches, but I
don't suppose you will miss them. Nobody has seen them yet, and nobody
would have seen them till they were quite ready, but as it is possible
they never may be finished I should like you to see them now. I am not
taking you up under any false pretences," he said, lightly, "nor to try
again to get you to change your mission. I only want you to see that I
have been working honestly. I could see when I have spoken of my
painting there was always a little incredulity in the way in which you
listened to me. You had so completely made up your mind that I should
never be earnest about anything that you could not bring yourself to
believe that I wasn't amusing myself with art here, just as I did in
London. I had intended to have brought them triumphantly in a fiacre to
your place, when they were finished, and I can't deny myself the
pleasure of disabusing your mind. It is not far out of your way, and if
we walk fast you can still arrive at your ambulance in time. If there
were any fiacres about I would call one, but they have quite
disappeared. In the first place, because no one is rich enough to be
able to pay for such luxuries, and in the second, because most of the
horses have been turned to other uses."

She did not seem to pay very much