in mourning while it was still far
off.

The creature was devastatingly pretty, too pretty for any one's peace of
mind, including her own: the kind of girl you wouldn't ask to be your
bridesmaid for fear the bridegroom should change his mind at the altar!

"Jim," I exclaimed, "the prettiest girl in the world is now coming
toward you."

"Really?" said he. "I was under the impression that she sat beside me."

I suppose I must have spoken rather more loudly than I meant, for my
excited warning to Jim caught the ear of Major Murray. My deep interest
in the invalid had woven an invisible link between him and me, though we
had never spoken, nor even smiled at each other: for sympathy inevitably
has this effect. Therefore his hearing was attuned to my voice more
readily than to others in his neighbourhood. He had apparently been half
asleep; but he opened his eyes wide just in time to see the girl as she
approached his chair. Never had I beheld such a sudden change on a human
face. It was a transfiguration.

The man was very weak, but he sat straight up, and for a moment all look
of illness was swept away. "Rosemary!" he cried out, sharply.

The girl stopped. She had been pale, but at sight of him and the sound
of his voice she flushed to her forehead. I thought that her first
impulse was to escape, but she controlled it.

"Major Murray!" she faltered. "I--I didn't dream of--seeing you here."

"I have dreamed many times of seeing you," he answered. "And I wished
for it--very much."

"Ah," thought I, "_that_ is the real wish! _That's_ what the look in his
eyes means, not just getting back to England and dying in a certain
house. Now I _know_."

Everyone near his chair had become more or less interested in Murray,
romantic and pathetic figure that he was. Now, a middle-aged man whose
chair was near to Murray's on the right, scrambled out of a fur rug. "I
am off to the smoking room," he said. "Won't you" (to the girl) "take my
chair and talk to your friend? I shall be away till after lunch, maybe
till tea-time."

I fancied that the girl was divided in her mind between a longing to
stay and a longing to flee. But of course she couldn't refuse the offer,
and presently she was seated beside Major Murray, their arms touching. I
could hear almost all they said. This was not eavesdropping, because if
they'd cared to be secretive they could have lowered their voices.

Soon, to my surprise, I learned that the girl was marr