notwithstanding all our troubles, that either of us have regretted our
decision."

Then they both rose and solemnly kissed each other over Barbara's head.



CHAPTER V

WEDDED

Next day, oh! joy of joys, Barbara and Anthony met once more after some
fifteen months of separation. Anthony was now in his twenty-fourth
year, a fine young man with well-cut features, brown eyes and a pleasant
smile. Muscularly, too, he was very strong, as was shown by his athletic
record at Cambridge. Whether his strength extended to his constitution
was another matter. Mrs. Walrond, noticing his unvarying colour, which
she thought unduly high, and the transparent character of his skin,
spoke to her husband upon the matter.

In his turn Septimus spoke to the old local doctor, who shrugged
his shoulders and remarked that the Arnotts had been delicate for
generations, "lungy," he called it. Noticing that Mr. Walrond looked
serious, and knowing something of how matters stood between Anthony and
Barbara, he hastened to add that so far as he knew there was no cause
for alarm, and that if he were moderately careful he thought that
Anthony would live to eighty.

"But it is otherwise with his brother," he added significantly, "and for
the matter of that with the old man also."