iefly
reviewed that acquaintance, short though it was, which had changed the
whole course of her life. She saw him again, as he struck prompt to
defend her honor in the hall, resenting a ruffian's soiling hand
stretched out to her; she saw him lying wounded and senseless there at
her feet. She saw him stretched prone on that shattered deck, on that
ruined ship, pale, blood-stained, senseless again, again unheeding her
bitter cry. She would have called once more upon him, save that she
knew humanity has no voice which reaches out into the darkness by which
it may call back those who are once gone to live beyond. She did not
weep,--that were a small thing, a trifle; she sat and brooded. What
had she lost in the service of her country? What sacrifices had been
exacted from her by that insatiable country! Alas, alas, she thought,
men may have a country, a woman has only a heart.

Four short months had changed it all. How young she had been! Would
she ever be young again? How full of the joy of life! Its currents
swept by her unheeded now. Why had not God been merciful to her, that
she could have died there upon the sea, she thought. Ah, poor humanity
never learns His mercy; perhaps it is because we have no measure by
which to fathom its mighty depths. She saw herself old and lonely,
forgotten but not forgetting. But even then lacked she not
opportunity; woman-like, in spite of her constancy, she took a
melancholy pleasure in the thought that there was one still who
hungered for the shattered remnants of her broken heart, who lived for
the sound of her voice and the glance other eyes and the light of her
face. One there was, handsome, brave, distinguished, gentle, of
ancient name, assured station, ample fortune, who longed to lay all he
was or had at her feet.

But what were these things? Nothing to her, nothing. There was but
one, as she had said on the ship to Desborough: "I love a sailor; you
are not he." And yet her soul was filled with pity for the gallant
gentleman, and she thought of him tenderly with deep affection.

Presently she heard quick footsteps on the floor of the boat-house, and
turning her head she saw him. He held a letter, an official packet,
with the seal broken, open in his hand.

"Oh, Miss Wilton, you here?" he said. "I have looked everywhere for
you. Do you not think the evening air grows chill? Is it not too cold
for you out here in the boat-house? Allow me;" and then, wit