the wharf; no one could see what happened.
This time it was not her hand he kissed. The day died away in
twilight, but for those two a new day began.

The army might starve and die, battles be lost or won, dynasties rise
and fall, kingdoms wax and wane, causes tremble in the balances,--what
of that? They looked at each other and forgot the world.

CHAPTER II

_The Country First of All_

"Oh, what is the hour, Mr.--John? Shall I call you Seymour? That is
your second name, is it not? But what would people say? I-- No, no,
not again; we really must go in. See! I am not dressed for the
evening yet. Supper will be ready. Now, Lieutenant Seymour, you must
let me go. What will my father think of us? Come, then. Your hand,
sir."

The hill from the boat-landing was steep, but Mistress Kate had often
run like a young deer to the top of it without appreciating its
difficulties as she did that evening. On every stepping-stone, each
steep ascent, she lingered, in spite of her expressed desire for haste,
and each time his strong and steady arm was at her service. She tasted
to the full and for the first time the sweets of loving dependence.

As for him, an admiral of the fleet after a victory could not have been
prouder and happier. As any other man would have done, he embraced or
improved the opportunity afforded him by their journey up the hill, to
urge the old commonplace that he would so assist her up the hill of
life! And so on. The iterations of love never grow stale to a lover,
and the saying was not so trite to her that it failed to give her the
little thrill of loving joy which seemed, for the moment at least, to
tame her restless spirit, that spirit of subtle yet merry mockery which
charmed yet drove him mad. She was so unwontedly quiet and subdued
that he stopped at the brow of the hill, and said, half in alarm,
"Katharine, why so silent?"

She looked at him gravely; a new light, not of laughter, in her brown
eyes, saying in answer to his unspoken thought: "I was thinking of what
you said about your orders. Oh, if they should come to-day, and you
should go away on your ship and be shot at again and perhaps wounded,
what should I do?"

"Nonsense, Katharine dear, I am not going to be wounded any more. I
've something to live for now, you see," he replied, smiling, taking
both of her hands in his own.

"You always had something to live for, even before--you had me."

"And what was tha