ving about me. It was a man, for I could smell the
sweet peaty odour of his Harris tweeds.

At length with that thrill which only the human voice can bring to us
when it is the voice of one from whom we have been long parted, I heard
somebody say, from the other side of the desk:

"Mary, is it you?"

I looked up, the blood rushed to my face and a dazzling mist floated
before my eyes, so that for a moment I could hardly see who was there.
But I _knew_ who it was--it was Martin himself.

He came down on me like a breeze from the mountain, took me by both
hands, telegram and all, and said:

"My goodness, this is stunning!"

I answered, as well as I could for the confusion that overwhelmed me.

"I'm so glad, so glad!"

"How well you are looking! A little thin, perhaps, but such a colour!"

"I'm so glad, so glad!" I repeated, though I knew I was only blushing.

"When did you arrive?"

I told him, and he said:

"_We_ came into port only yesterday. And to think that you and I should
come to the same hotel and meet on the very first morning! It's like a
fate, as our people in the island say. But it's stunning, perfectly
stunning!"

A warm tide of joy was coursing through me and taking away my breath,
but I managed to say:

"I've heard about your expedition. You had great hardships."

"That was nothing! Just a little pleasure-trip down to the eighty-sixth
latitude."

"And great successes?"

"That was nothing either. The chief was jolly good, and the boys were
bricks."

"I'm so glad, so glad!" I said again, for a kind of dumb joy had taken
possession of me, and I went on saying the same thing over and over
again, as people do when they are very happy.

For two full minutes I felt happier than I had ever been in my life
before; and then an icy chill came over me, for I remembered that I had
been married since I saw Martin Conrad last and I did not know how I was
to break the news to him.

Just then my husband and Alma came down the lift, and seeing me with a
stranger, as they crossed the hall to go into the breakfast-room, they
came up and spoke.

I had to introduce them and it was hard to do, for it was necessary to
reveal everything in a word. I looked at Martin Conrad when I presented
him to my husband and he did not move a muscle. Then I looked at my
husband and under a very small bow his face grew dark.

I could not help seeing the difference between the two men as they stood
together--Martin wit