in which a young officer figures prominently; when Lady Anne first came
out she fell desperately in love with him, and he with her, they
plighted their troth at a London ball; but her parents said she was too
young to marry just then, and it was agreed to wait a year. But war
broke out and his regiment was 'ordered to the front.' Oh! the sorrow
conveyed in those words, how many, many went out like Lady Anne's lover
and never returned, how many lives like hers were blighted in
consequence. 'God bless you, Dick,' she had said the night before he
started, 'and I hope you will come back soon.'

'Soon,' he had repeated, 'dearest, I may never come back again.'

He was right, for he fell on the field of A----, found dead where the
fight had been fiercest; and Lady Anne's heart was broken. She did not
die of grief, nor did she appear to the world as hopelessly crushed, but
went on living just the same, with a feeling of aching emptiness, that
is, oh, so hard to bear, and she shut away from prying eyes the picture
of her young lover, and round her neck she hung the crystal heart he had
given her, whereon his name was inscribed.--Dick.




CHAPTER V

'Love me, for I love you,' and answer me
'Love me, for I love you.'--CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.


'Tis the night of the ball, dinner is over and the house party is