ried! She can't be spared!"

The Captain laughed at that statement, and vowed that she would have to
be spared, and that at an early date; but a shadow fell across Bridgie's
face, and as they sat alone in the garden she said anxiously--

"I am afraid I have been selfish, Dick! I can think of nothing but you,
but, after all, Pixie was quite right--I can't possibly be spared for a
long time to come. She won't be old enough to take charge of a house
for three years at the soonest, and Jack has been so good and unselfish
that I couldn't possibly leave him in the lurch. You have waited so
long that you won't mind waiting a few years longer, will you?"

"It doesn't seem to me a particularly logical conclusion, sweetheart!"
the Captain said, smiling. "Personally I feel that I ought to be
rewarded at once, but I won't make any promises one way or another until
I have met your brother and heard his views. Don't worry yourself, you
shan't do anything that you feel to be wrong, but I don't despair of
finding a solution of the difficulty. When it is an alternative between
that and waiting for you for three years, Bridgie, I shall be very, very
resourceful!"

"I don't know what you can do. It's no use suggesting a housekeeper--
the boys would not hear of it, and she'd be destroyed in a week with the
life they would lead her!" So argued Bridgie, but she was willing to be
convinced, and too happy in the present to feel much concern for the
future.

The weight of depression which had lain on her heart despite her brave
cheeriness of manner was lifted once and for ever now that she was
convinced of Dick's faithful love, and it seemed impossible that she
could ever be more content than at this moment. Until now almost all
the joys of her life had come from an unselfish pleasure in the good
fortune of others, but this wonderful new happiness was her very own,
hers and Dick's, and she could hardly believe that it was true, and not
a wonderful dream.

Mrs Wallace's letter had conveyed an invitation to stay for the night,
so the lovers had two days to sit and talk together in the lovely summer
garden before returning to give an account of themselves in Rutland
Road.

Jack was not prepared to see a stranger accompanying his sister, but he
welcomed him with Irish heartiness, and guessed how the land lay at the
first glance at Bridgie's face. So did Pat; so did Miles; but they
concealed their suspicions with admirable tact, a