The spectator., 1919-01-31
CHAPTER XVIII.

l
 Perhaps it was because they had seen so many horrors during the past four-andtwenty hours that these seemed all to have fallen away that night at staff headquarters. There was a brief hour of rest after inter- minable labors the lines had been held and the great assault repelled in con l fusion for that hour every man seemed bent upon forgetting the incidents of war, and something like gaiety ruled in the meSsroom.
 All the past seemed very far away to Captain Mark Wallace as he stood l den.
 "When the auto comes to take you back to the hospital I shall feel that my new life has lost the best part of its promise" said Mark.
 It was long and extraordinarily imaginative speech for him. and he stood shamefaced after he had said it, l like q boy who has delivered q grown mans aphoriSm.
 Captain Mark" said Eleanor, you knew who I was, and you could not you could not have believed my father innocent, and yet you had faith in me. You must have suffered when used to talk about my dreams of him, and you hid your suffering and your knowledge because of me"
 That was nothing, Eleanor" Captain Mark" she whispered, bend ing toward him. Fl kissed you to- day"
 That was nothing, Eleanor"
 Captain Mark What do you mean? How dare you!'
 Mark looked utterly disconcerted. 'I mean-I mean, Eleanor, I'm just your old guardian-a sort of old friend, you know, and you were glad had come back safe"
 % Captain Mark l' said Eleanor shaking with helpless laughter which disconccrted him still more; and yet he thought her lashes were wet with tears. Captain Mark, are you really going to make me say it?"
 Say what. my dear?'
 That it ought to have been you"
 But you mustn't let that worry you, Eleanor It's often done in such cases -l just thought you were too old to kiss. You know, I wanted to-"
 70 thank you, thank you." said Flea nor wearily. Captain Mark, you dear, absurd guardian of mine, I see you aren't going to spare me. So listen. | love you, and have loved you only, and nobody but you, all through my life. from the time l got your first letters to the time you came to see me at the Misses Harpers' school, and from then to now"
 Mark looked at her In incredulous joy; he was no longer capable of feel | ing astonishment, but it all seemed like n happy dream. unreliable but, while it lasted. dear beyond all imagining.
 "The Colonel knew it. And-others Everybody did but you. And do you know why 1 have told you what I've often pinched myself to keep from tell ing you? Because you loved me with out exactly knowing it." But I did know 1t, my dear" without exactly knowing 1t, and when you admitted little bit of 1t to yourself you were prompted to commit those foolish acts, to be so rude to me and hurt me so much. But q woman Is never deceived. She always knows. knew"
 My dear," said Mark soiemnly, you have been everything in the world to me since that very first day outside Santiago"
 "Of course have. As you have been to me. And that Is why I told you, so that we two should not be unhappy all | our lives. You see, dear Captain Mark, 1t isn't as if you didn't care for me. If I had cared and you hadn't, I should have hidden my feelings and never let | you dream of them, and you never would have. So it's really you who have told me all this. and I've just | cause all I did just now was to tell you what you wanted to tell me with out knowing that you wanted to tell me what you did want all the time Isn't that so, Captain Mark7" "Yes," answered Mark. feeling com pletely at sea, but incapable of contra dieting anything that Eleanor chose to say.
 Isn't that so, Mark, dearY "Of course 1t is," said Mark.
 "So you have actually told me that you care for me, and you want me to give you my answer. Is that what you want me to understand, Captain Markw