lf into an arm-chair and heaved a deep sigh; it was
like saying good-bye to his own son.

As Bob walked down the hall he felt as if an end had come to all his
dreams, and that he was being turned out of the house which he had
always looked upon as a kind of second home. Of course Nancy would be
aware of the interview, and would learn the result. In bidding
good-bye to the house, he was also bidding good-bye to her. The
servant had his hand upon the door-knob when he heard the rustle of a
woman's dress, and Nancy, pale and eager-eyed, came from an adjoining
room.

"Jenkins," she said, "Mr. Nancarrow will not go yet; you need not
wait." The man left without a word, and Nancy led the way into the
room where she had been sitting.

"I felt, perhaps, that I was not fair to you yesterday, and I thought I
would give you another chance of--explaining yourself." Her voice was
hoarse and trembling--indeed it did not sound like Nancy's voice at all.

"Oh, Nancy," he said, "I was afraid I should not see you! Thank you
for speaking."

"Father told me he had written you," she went on. "I--I hope
everything is arranged all right. Bob, do you mean what you said? Do
you mean that you are going to play the coward?"

"I am doing the hardest thing I ever did in my life," he blurted out.

"In taking a coward's part?"

"Call it that if you like," was his reply.

They were alone by this time, and the door closed behind them.

"I am trying to be calm," said Nancy. "You know all we had hoped and
planned, but--but I don't want to be foolish; there must be deeper
reasons than those you mentioned the other day. I do not think you can
have realised the circumstances. Since you left, I have done nothing
but read--and try to understand. I have been very ignorant about such
matters, and I thought, perhaps, my ignorance kept me from
understanding you. I have read all the papers which father has been
able to obtain, all the miserable story which led up to this war. Have
you?"

"Yes," said Bob; "all!"

"Then surely you do not hold to what you said?"

"I am afraid I do."

"Then perhaps you will explain."

"That is what I want to do," cried Bob. "Oh, Nancy, you don't know
what I have been through since I left you!--you don't know how I have
longed to enlist, longed to take part in the fray--but--there it is.
Look here, Nancy, I was never one to talk much about these things, but
you knew my father, knew that he was a Quake