t you'd better say good night now. There, that will do,
sir!"

She drew away and smoothed her ruffled hair back from her forehead,
looking ruefully in the glass at her tear-stained cheeks, and down at
the crushed violets in her corsage.

"May I have them?" he asked.

She drew them out and placed them in his hand.

"To-morrow----" she said.

"To-morrow I must go into the land of violets," he interrupted.

She turned round quickly.

"What do you mean? You are not going away without my permission, sir?"

"Then I must seek it," he answered, smiling. "You have given life such
an exquisite sweetness for me, that I am making plans already to
preserve it. My one hope lies in Italy."

"How long should you be away?" she asked anxiously.

"Not a week," he answered. "If I am permitted to leave England, which I
fear is doubtful, to-morrow, I can be back perhaps in five days."

"Then you may go, Bernard," she whispered. "Take this with you, and
think of me sometimes."

She had drawn out a photograph of herself from a folding case on the
mantelpiece, and he took it from her eagerly.

"Nothing in the world could be so precious to me," he said.

"For a novice you say some very nice things," she answered, laughing
softly. "And now you must go, sir. No, you needn't come into the
drawing-room; I really couldn't show myself with you. I'll make your
excuses to my aunt. Farewell--love!"

"Farewell--sweetheart!" he answered, hesitating for a moment over the
words which seemed so strange to him. Then, as though loth to leave him,
she walked down the hall by his side, and they looked out for a moment
into the square. A footman was standing prepared to open the door, but
Helen sent him away with a message to her maid.

"Do you know why I did that?" she asked, her clasp tightening upon his
arm.

He shook his head, and looked down at her fondly.

"I can't imagine, unless----"

She glanced half fearfully behind and then up into his face again, with
a faint blush stealing into her cheeks.

"I want one more kiss, please."

He looked into her soft trustful face, and he felt, with a sense almost
of awe, the preciousness of such a love as this, a love which,
comprehending the terrible period of anxiety through which he had to
pass, was not ashamed to seek to sweeten it for him by the simple charm
of such an offering. Then, at the sound of returning footsteps in the
hall, he let go her hands, and with her fond farewell still lin