t his mouth was dry and unknown pulses
were beating in the roof of it. The housekeeper, who would have it that
he must have fallen in and caught a chill, was waiting to catch him on
the stairs, and, since he neither saw nor answered her, carried a wild
tale abroad that brought his mother knocking at the door.

"Anything happened, dear? Harper said she thought you weren't--"

"No; it's nothing. I'm all right, mummy. Please don't bother."

He did not recognise his own voice, but that was a small matter
beside what he was considering. Obviously, most obviously, the whole
coincidence was crazy lunacy. He proved it to the satisfaction of Major
George Cottar, who was going up to town to-morrow to hear a lecture on
the supply of ammunition in the field; and having so proved it, the soul
and brain and heart and body of Georgie cried joyously: "That's the
Lily Lock girl--the Lost Continent girl--the Thirty-Mile Ride girl--the
Brushwood girl! I know her!"

He waked, stiff and cramped in his chair, to reconsider the situation by
sunlight, when it did not appear normal. But a man must eat, and he went
to breakfast, his heart between his teeth, holding himself severely in
hand.

"Late, as usual," said the mother. "'My boy, Miss Lacy."

A tall girl in black raised her eyes to his, and Georgie's life training
deserted him--just as soon as he realised that she did not know. He
stared coolly and critically. There was the abundant black hair, growing
in a widow's peak, turned back from the forehead, with that peculiar
ripple over the right ear; there were the grey eyes set a little close
together; the short upper lip, resolute chin, and the known poise of the
head. There was also the small well-cut mouth that had kissed him.

"Georgie--dear!" said the mother, amazedly, for Miriam was flushing
under the stare.

"I--I beg your pardon!" he gulped. "I don't know whether the mother has
told you, but I'm rather an idiot at times, specially before I've had my
breakfast. It's--it's a family failing." He turned to explore among the
hot-water dishes on the sideboard, rejoicing that she did not know--she
did not know.

His conversation for the rest of the meal was mildly insane, though the
mother thought she had never seen her boy look half so handsome. How
could any girl, least of all one of Miriam's discernment, forbear to
fall down and worship? But deeply Miriam was displeased. She had never
been stared at in that fashion before, and p