and disillusion--faith, firm in its nearness to God and the wonder of
His works. I envied Olaf his hidden land as I envied Nancy her
opportunity. My blood is the same as Nancy's, and I love the sea. And as
we grow older our souls adventure!

When Nancy came in to me, she had put on her white _peignoir_, and she
had Olaf's letter in her hand.

"Ducky," she said, and her voice shook, "I have read it twice--and--I
shouldn't dare to think he was in earnest."

"Why not?"

"I should want to go, Elizabeth."

"And leave the world behind you?"

"Oh, I haven't any world. It might be different if mother were alive, or
daddy. There'd be only you, Ducky, my dear, dear Ducky." She caught my
hand and held it.

"And Anthony--"

"Anthony would get over it"--sharply. "Wouldn't he, Elizabeth? You know
he would."

"My dear, I don't know."

"But I know. If I hadn't been in his life, Mimi Sears would have been,
just as Bob Needham would have been in my life if it hadn't been for