er as long as they both should live. How fellows
could--damn!

Jack was shaving at the time and had gashed his chin in his agitation.

He was confident, while he soothed the spot with an antiseptic, that
such a darling little girl as she, would never hold up against him
anything he had done in pre-Kitty days. It would be unjust and
unreasonable. Why, hang it all! who was there that was human who hadn't
some little--or big--scrape to his discredit in his bachelor days?
Unfortunately, fellows were not gifted with second sight to know how
they would feel when they came to be properly in love with the only girl
in the world for them! The sickening sense of self-disgust----

Another accident with the razor, and Jack paid more attention for a time
to the matter in hand.

When he was putting the finishing touches to his tie, his fingers
betrayed by their unsteadiness, his agitated frame of mind.

The worst of it was the blessed uncertainty of the whole affair. A
fellow could never be sure of a girl like Kitty, or at any time take her
feelings for granted. The least little bit of a liberty, and--hands off!
Yet she was adorable and, often, sweetly encouraging. Certain little
concessions had been treasured in mind and dreamed of at night, such as
a dainty wrist held out to him for glove-buttons to be fastened; his
blundering fingers allowed to assist her with her theatre wrap; their
shoulders touching at a picture palace--a fact of which she had been
unconscious, but which had thrilled him to the foundations of his being.
They were hopeful signs; but the indifference with which she could drop
him for a whole day, so as to keep some idiotic engagement with giggling
flappers, was enough to send any lover crazy!

Jack hurried downstairs in time to hang about the hotel passage, waiting
for Kitty to arrive by the lift with her sister so that he could
accompany them to the dining-hall.

On this occasion Kitty was alone, Joyce having confessed to a headache,
and they dined at their little table _tete-a-tete_.

"I can't think what is troubling her," the little sister remarked, "for
she is fearfully worried, I know."

"Something, perhaps, in that letter you took to her a little while ago?"
suggested Jack.

"It was from a friend of hers at Muktiarbad."

"Honor Bright?"

"Yes--a strange idea to name a girl 'Honor'!"

"Her surname must have suggested it."

"Perhaps I should call it a happy idea. But supposing her character d