of the matter. But it was evident that he could not shake off the
effect of the occurrence, the game came to an end, and shortly
afterwards he left the room. At the time Philippa had wondered why the
simple abbreviation of her name should have caused him so much
distress, but the reason was very clear to her now. What painful
memories it must have conjured up in a moment!

Also, she remembered a young secretary in Berlin whom they had known
very intimately, Phil L'Estrange. Every one had called him Phil with
the exception of her father, who had invariably addressed him as
Philip, in spite of the young man's laughing assurance that he did not
answer to the name.

"How could she have done it?" she murmured half aloud. "How could she
have done it?" Twenty-two years of waiting! What a love this man must
have given to the other Philippa--a love so strong that it dominated
weakness of the body, and even of mind, and through all the long years
burnt on with the same clear flame of youth.

Would he die now, this man who had waited so long?--would he die happy,
satisfied that his love had come to him again? It was an absorbing
thought. Why did these coincidences happen? Were they coincidences?
Here was she, a stranger, with, it would seem, a human life hanging on
her coming--at least it had appeared so this morning, when her voice
had roused him from the lethargy of weakness which was drifting him out
of life. And if he died, what would his meeting be with that Philippa
who had passed before him into the Unknown, the land where there was no
marriage or giving in marriage?

Yet, in that land of which we speak so glibly and picture each of us
according to our personal fancy, and of which we are so absolutely
ignorant--in that future state there surely must be love. Was a
wonderful human love like this to come to an abrupt end--to be left
behind with the body's frail shell? Surely not. Surely, although
human, it held too much of the divine to perish with the earthly clay;
and yet, if the love of Francis Heathcote passed with his spirit, how
would he meet Phil? or, rather, how would she meet him? Would she be
changed while he remained unaltered? Would heaven itself be heaven for
him without her love? Oh, the awful mystery of the future life!

And--if he did not die? She stopped abruptly, and stood quite still as
the recollection of the words which the old woman had spoken returned
to her mind. "Now you have c