her up the staircase. Then, returning to the
drawing-room, he had joined Ethel beside the deserted tea-table.

"After six months of the billy and the fryingpan, it is wonderfully
good to handle china again," he said, as he halted on the hearth rug
and stood smiling down at her.

She smiled back at him in full approval. Weldon looked very much the
lord of creation, as he stood there with his back to the fire and
one elbow resting on the mantel beside him. The position suited him,
and, speaking in quite another sense, it suited her also.

"Then a taste of civilization is pleasant now and then, even to a
grizzled warrior like yourself?" she questioned lightly.

"Yes, for the time being. One never knows, though, how long that
time being will last."

"What shall you do, when the war ends?"

"Go home, take up a share in the pater's business, and grow stout
and lazy," he answered her unsmilingly.

"An alluring prospect."

"Yes; but there will be other things: an occasional dinner, and even
a tea now and then."

Leaning back in her chair, she looked up at him through her long
yellow lashes.

"And shall you never remember to miss Africa?" she asked indolently.

His eyes rested upon her gravely.

"Yes, often. Moreover forgive my bluntness, but it is one of the
privileges of a soldier--moreover, Miss Dent, I shall miss you."

Her color came; but she made no effort to ignore his words.

"Thank you," she said, with equal gravity. "I am glad to have you
say so. But I hope it may be long before that day comes." "I can't
tell. I had expected to sail for home, in a week or two. Now I am
not so sure."

"Whether you wish to?"

"Whether I ought. When I left the Transvaal, the work seemed nearly
done. Down here, the stories are less promising." He paused; then he
added thoughtfully, "But it leaves me a good deal puzzled in my
mind."

Coffee was served in the drawing-room, that night. Ethel roused
herself from a reverie as Weldon and Captain Frazer joined her. To
their half-mocking questions, she admitted the fact of her
thoughtfulness. To neither one did she see fit to acknowledge its
cause. The mood passed swiftly, however, and it left her more
brilliantly gay than either man had ever seen her until then. Each
frankly confessed himself dazzled; each one of them, more grave by
nature than she often showed herself, was secretly uneasy lest her
sudden overflow of spirits was in some fashion directed towards his
compan