They turned and walked homeward. "Tell me about Washington," she said. "Everybody is depressed. It's worse than we thought. It is said by those who ought to know that the Allies sent a cipher to our Government before we joined them, saying, 'Feed us or we are beaten.' I guess they were beaten all right, and we must shoulder the burden. This is the mess your President has got us into. Do you know what war means when you feel big about making 'the world safe for democracy?"

He asked the question in the crude voice that Norah did not like.

She touched his arm. "Henry," she said softly, "there is something I feel sure we agree about. We- we could not be happy together, could we?"

He paused awhile before answering, and finally murmured:

"I was very fond of you. I suppose I might be still if "

"I am fond of you still," Norah broke in eagerly. "I always shall be; but it is

not the way it used to be, is it? It is n't the way it ought to be if we were to be together always."

"No," muttered Henry, "I suppose it is n't."

And their separation was no more difficult than that.

Norah told her aunt and saw herself diminished at once under Mrs. Kingsley's gaze.

Henry's world knew it before another day was over, and Norah saw her importance fall away there also. This was evident in the way charming, successfullooking persons bowed to her as she walked alone for the first time on the Esplanade at sunset. There were one or two who stopped and spoke. In these she seemed to feel something which might have expressed itself in such words as, "I believe that you found him a little dull."

Leaning over the rail at twilight and looking into the water, Norah saw herself outwardly diminished, despoiled of

the crown and scepter which had come to her with Henry's love, dropped back into the insignificance that had been the atmosphere of her girlhood.

She was sad because she must go on and leave dear and precious dreams by the roadside as if they counted for nothing, and she was more sad because those qualities in Henry, which had been dear and precious also, had somehow turned out to be insufficient.

Yet she was not utterly unhappy. Lifting her face to the west, where a shy young moon lay sharp and faint against the sinking light, Norah knew that she now breathed a clearer air. Her mind could move unshackled in a world that she wanted to know as she wanted breath or water.

It was just then that Mr. Marks joined her.

"I have just heard," he said, "that Mr. Hewitt is to join the coast defenses." "Yes," answered Norah, "he will do it well."

"I feel sure of that. Will it keep him away during the summer?"

Norah said "Yes," again, and Mr. Marks asked an outrageous question. "It's so outrageous that there is no use of even apologizing," he declared. "Do you expect to be married before he goes?"

"We are not to be married at all." Norah was glad of a chance to tell him this, and having an instinct that the effect of the announcement would be considerable, she did not lift her eyes from the water. She knew that he was looking at her, and when at last she lifted her head to meet the look she was startled by its intensity, which was immediately veiled.

"May I say how sorry I am for such distress as this must cause you?" Norah thought it could not have been done with better grace.

There was another silence before he said:

"I must leave Boston at once, for the

work I told you of. I may not see you for a while again." At this an unchecked emotion came to his face, and she saw what he had kept leashed and guarded during the winter months. "I shall find you again when I have won some right to do so, and in the meantime you will remain to me the loveliest, the wisest, the most charming

ever met."

person

I have

His voice shook. He bent his head, and she thought that he kissed the railing where her hand had been.

THE END