this understanding, I am ready to be your wife."

Needless to say I was willing to accept these terms, and three months
afterwards we were man and wife.

It was in the month of July that we were married, and we went to
Aix-les-Bains for the honeymoon. A few days previously Mr. Dalmayne
asked me to lend him a thousand pounds, which I did cheerfully, for
after what my friend Ross had told me I was fully prepared for such a
request.

My wife had never been to Aix before, and seemed to amuse herself very
much. She played a little at the tables, and with a considerable amount
of success. I must admit that she was very kind to me, and though of
course I easily saw that I did not at present possess her real
affection, I was not discontented, and hoped for the time to come when
we should be all in all to each other. We had met very few
acquaintances at Aix, for it was not a good season as far as English
visitors were concerned, owing to attacks on our country and Government
by the French papers. But when we had been there about three weeks a
Captain Morland came upon the scene. Captain Morland, who was an
officer in the Grenadier Guards, had known my wife since she was a
child. They seemed very pleased to see each other again, but there was
a certain sadness that I noticed in the young officer's manner. He had
just been invalided home from South Africa, where he had been on active
service during the time with which my narrative deals. He was a
handsome young man, tall and well built, and with kind and expressive
blue eyes. He was singularly reticent as to his exploits during the
war, though I heard from a friend of his who was with him at Aix that
he had been mentioned in despatches and had been recommended for the