very gay and bright that night once or twice her cousin looked at her with amazement she laughed more often and more merrily than usual she the whole of her which was usually carefully wrapped up in paper to show the two gentleman how her work was and what are you going to do with it the eligible young lawyer asked to do with it oh i am going to finish it yes but when you have finished it what are you going to do with it then oh i don t know � nothing i shall put it in a drawer you will wear it won t you oh no an unmarried woman could not wear lace like that perhaps you are going to save it for your wedding dress he suggested thinking if the truth be told how utterly charming miss north would look in the bride s attire the smile died from the girl s face more likely for my she said shortly her brief spell of gaiety seemed to be utterly she rolled her work up carefully the paper over it once more and although she was as kind and sweet in manner as ever there were no more gay bursts of laughter no radiant smiles only a sad gravity the needle no longer flew in and out of the dainty like work but she sat back in a corner of a big listening to the music which she had ed her cousin to give them her right hand clasping her left arm so absent so unconscious of their presence was she as long as the music lasted that when at length she found herself in her room she saw that the which had brought such joy to her soul had made a deep in her white arm a woman my wedding dress my wedding dress her thoughts ran how blind they all are they are all blind except him before she slept that night she opened her desk and drawing a sheet of paper towards her she wrote on it with firm fingers � margaret thanks you not a word more or less then having folded the sheet of paper and put it in an envelope she addressed it as usual and locked her desk again well she had cast the die had gently and with hesitating fingers raised the curtain from his side on her s she had not expressed any displeasure at his action in her strained and unhappy state of mind those three brief words written on a sheet of note paper conveyed a distinct invitation to him who stood on the other side to with her again but when they reached they conveyed so little � nothing of what to margaret s mind they had seemed to convey so much well she had received his message to her and she had not rejected it so she sent her brief word of acceptance in reply and then sat down to wait with what patience she might for what should happen next chapter xx with her own hand the mind has a thousand eyes and the heart but one yet the light of the whole life dies when love is done i may as well say at once that when received margaret s note he was living by himself in the pretty flat which had been their paradise the place was perfectly unchanged still acted as major still did the work the only was that margaret was not there and that no longer kept up the of calling himself with her own hand margaret s letter was brought to him by one evening immediately after dinner brought in fact with the coffee he took it carelessly enough but when the had left the room he tore it open with eager trembling fingers margaret thanks oh the of feeling that into that man s heart margaret thanks not a word more she had not cared to wound him by returning his gift it was true but on the other hand she did not care to please him by a more gracious acceptance of it he had never known margaret he told himself this margaret was f ome strange new being that he had never really known he had only fancied during those two happy years that she was all his as he was all hers he had waited until her birthday � that purely personal which they had previously ke t with such joy and love together � he had waited till then and he had his brains to think of some offering not too costly not so costly as to excite suspicion among her people something which would link the and empty present with the full and lovely past something which would touch her something which would appeal to her something which would give her a chance of lifting the curtain were it ever so little and perhaps of coming back again if she had found her life in england more than she could bear and the only response that came was � margaret tha you nothing personal not a question not a sign of no desire to know how life had gone with him bitter hour oh blind eyes oh mistaken aching heart what possessed you all that dark night that you saw nothing beyond the three simple words of margaret s reply but it was natural that prince did not write again to margaret he accepted those three words as being even more final than her letters upon silence between them which had reached him so she watched and waited for the answer which never came for the further lifting of that wall of fate which she herself had let down with such a firm and resolute hand between them the days wore into weeks and the weeks into months until two years had gone by since that fatal day when desolation had come into her life if prince had read 