"You mustn't flatter an old woman, Mr. Freeman--well--Edgar, if you wish
it. I don't think perhaps there is anything unmaidenly in my using your
Christian name. We've known each other a great many years now, as you
say."

"We have indeed, my dear lady. And we might have known each other a
great deal better if--if--well, if you had only seen your way to it. But
there--that's all passed now. And yet----"

"Yes, that's all passed now." And Selina gave a little sigh, yet loud
enough for her visitor to hear it, and he moved his chair from the side
to the front of the fire as she continued, "Do you know--Edgar--just
before you came in I made a discovery--I found something that reached me
a day or two before you sailed, and that I had never seen till half an
hour ago," and she looked down at her fingers that were playing with the
end of the delicate lace fichu she was wearing.

A smile came over her visitor's face, but he only said:

"'Pon my word, Selina, you're a very beautiful woman! I've carried your
face in my memory all these years, but I see now how half-blind I must
have been."

"You mustn't talk nonsense to an old woman like me. I want to tell you
something, and I don't know how to do it."

"Don't try. Let me guess, and you tell me if I'm right."

Miss Martyn did not answer in words, only bowed her head, and he
continued, with a glance at the paper lying on the table:

"You once received what you considered a very impertinent letter from
me?"

"I don't think impertinent is the right term," replied Selina, not
raising her eyes.

"Then, my dear lady, why did you not let me have an answer?"

"Oh, Edgar, I only discovered it a few minutes before you came," and
casting aside all reserve, she told him of the unfortunate combination
of the damp Christmas morning and the drop of gum that had so
disastrously separated them.

Long before the recital was complete her visitor had shifted his
chair again and again until it was close beside her own.

"You poor, dear woman!" he exclaimed, as his arm stole quietly round her
waist, and Miss Martyn suffered it to remain there.

"Why did you hide your letter inside, Edgar?" she asked quietly.

"I suppose because I didn't want to startle you, and thought you should
see the verses first. May I see it now?" he continued. "It's so long
since I wrote it, you see."

"Yes, you may see it," replied Selina, without raising her eyes; "but
it's all passed now," with another