very stiffly for as i looked at her pretty face i seemed to see behind it that other face which had looked up to the morning sky on the battle field fancy that she cried what are you then a general a captain no i am a private what not one of the common people who carry guns yes i carry a gun oh that is not nearly so interesting said she and she went back to the sofa from which she had risen it was a wonderful room all silk and velvet and shiny things and i felt inclined to go back to give my boots another rub as sat down again i saw that the end of it i i she was all in black and so i knew that she had heard of de s death i am glad to see that you know all said i for i am a clumsy hand at breaking things he said that you were to keep whatever was in the boxes and that had the keys thank you thank you said she it was like your kindness to bring the message i heard of it nearly a week ago i was mad for the time � quite mad i shall wear mourning all my days although you can see what a fright it makes me look ah i shall never get over it i shall take the veil and die in a if you please madame said a maid looking in the count de wishes to see you my dear said jumping up this is very important i am so sorry to cut our chat short but i am sure that you will come to see me again will you not when i am less desolate and would you mind going out by the side door instead of the main one thank you you dear old you were always such a good boy and did exactly what you were told and that was the last that i was ever to see of cousin she stood in the sunlight with the old challenge in her eyes and flash of her teeth and so i shall always remember her shining and hke a drop of as i joined my comrade in the street below i saw a grand carriage and pair at the door and i knew that she had asked me to slip out so that her grand new friends might never know what common people she had been associated with in her the great childhood she had never asked for jim nor for my father and mother who had been so kind to her well it was just her way and she could no more help it than a rabbit can help its and yet it made me heavy hearted to think of it two months later i heard that she had married this same count de and she died in child bed a year or two later and as for us our work was done for the great shadow had been cleared away from europe and should no longer be thrown across the breadth of the lands over peaceful farms and little villages darkening the lives which should have been so happy i came back to after i had bought my discharge and there when my father died i took over the sheep farm and married dean of and have brought up seven children who are all taller than their father and take mighty good care that he shall not forget it but in the quiet peaceful days that pass now each as like the other as so many scotch i can hardly get the young folks to believe that even here we have had our romance when jim and i went a and the man with the cat s whiskers came up from the sea the end beyond the city chapter i the new comers if you please said the voice of a domestic from somewhere round the angle of the door number three is moving in two little old ladies who were sitting at either side of a table sprang to their feet with of interest and rushed to the window of the sitting room take care dear said one herself in the lace curtain don t let them see us no no we must not give them reason to say that their neighbours are inquisitive but i think that we are safe if we stand like this the open window looked out upon a sloping lawn well trimmed and pleasant with rose bushes and a star shaped bed of sweet william it was bounded by a low wooden fence which it off from a broad modem new road at the other side of this road were three large detached deep with and small wooden each standing beyond the city in its own little square of grass and of flowers all three were equally new but numbers one and two were and with a human look to them while number three with yawning door and garden had apparently only just received its furniture and made itself ready for its occupants a four had driven up to the gate and it was at this that the old ladies peeping out bird like from behind their curtains directed an eager and questioning gaze the had descended and the passengers within were handing out the articles which they desired him to carry up to the house he stood red faced and with his crooked arms outstretched while a male hand from the window kept up upon him a series of articles the sight of which filled the curious old ladies with bewilderment my goodness me cried the smaller the and the more of the pair what do you call that it looks to me like four those are what young men box each other vith said with a conscious air of superior worldly knowledge and those two great bottle shaped 