"If it growls any more, I'll feel tempted to turn yonder hose upon it,
or try some other drastic remedy."

"Please don't!" cried Millicent in alarm. "But you mustn't think Mrs.
Keith is inconsiderate. I have much to thank her for; but she gets
very enthusiastic over her hobbies."

"Do you know whether she ever goes down to a little place in
Shropshire?"

"Yes; I have been with her. Once she took me to your old home." The
color crept into Millicent's face. "You don't seem to remember me,
Lieutenant Blake."

Blake had learned self-control and he did not start, though he came
near doing so as he recalled a scene in which he had taken part some
years earlier.

"It would have been inexcusable if I had forgotten you," he responded
with a smile. "Still, I couldn't quite place you until a few moments
ago, when you faced the light. But you were wrong in one thing: I'm no
longer Lieutenant Blake."

She appreciated the frankness which had prompted this warning, and she
saw that she had made a tactless blunder, but she looked at him
steadily.

"I forgot," she said; "forgive me. I heard of--what happened in
India--but I knew that there must have been some mistake." She
hesitated for a moment. "I think so now."