ge of men and of the human heart may find us a way
out, for indeed we are shut in between Migdol and the sea."

As Jane crossed the hall and was about to mount the stairs, she looked
towards the closed library door. A sudden fear seized her, lest the
strain of listening to that tale of Dr. Rob's had been too much for
Garth. None but she could know all it must have awakened of memory to
be told so vividly of the dying soldiers whose heads were pillowed on
her breast, and the strange coincidence of those words, "A mere
boy--and to suffer so!" She could not leave the house without being
sure he was safe and well. And yet she instinctively feared to intrude
when he imagined himself alone for an hour.

Then Jane, in her anxiety, did a thing she had never done before. She
opened the front door noiselessly, passed round the house to the
terrace, and when approaching the open window of the library, trod on
the grass border, and reached it without making the faintest sound.

Never before had she come upon him unawares, knowing he hated and
dreaded the thought of an unseen intrusion on his privacy.

But now--just this once--

Jane looked in at the window.

Garth sat sideways in the chair, his arms folded on the table beside
him, his face buried in them. He was sobbing as she had sometimes heard
men sob after agonising operations, borne without a sound until the
worst was over. And Garth's sob of agony was this: "OH, MY WIFE--MY
WIFE--MY WIFE!"

Jane crept away. How she did it she never knew. But some instinct told
her that to reveal herself then, taking him at a disadvantage, when Dr.
Rob's story had unnerved and unmanned him, would be to ruin all. "IF
YOU VALUE YOUR ULTIMATE HAPPINESS AND HIS," Deryck's voice always
sounded in warning. Besides, it was such a short postponement. In the
calm earnest thought which would succeed this storm, his need of her,
would win the day. The letter, not yet posted, would be rewritten. He
would say "COME"--and the next minute he would be in her arms.

So Jane turned noiselessly away.

Coming in, an hour later, from her walk with Dr. Rob, her heart filled
with glad anticipation, she found him standing in the window, listening
to the countless sounds he was learning to distinguish. He looked so
slim and tall and straight in his white flannels, both hands thrust
deep into the pockets of his coat, that when he turned at her approach
it seemed to her as if the shining eyes MUST be there.