The Kingdom Round the Corner

ess and his strained intensity. She couldn't bring herself to believe that this grave, spent, unlaughing person at her side was Tabs, the gallant, care-free comrade sh

er

of his old-time power stirred her; it traveled up to her eye

entimental black

I don't u

hold good. It was sporting of you to keep the promise by meeting me this morning, but-- W

trouble was only half dispelled. "It sounds horrid and unfriendly, this talk of forgetting, as though-

. May I be terrifically

evident that she was still tim

of some one girl. It didn't matter whether he had the right to think of her; he just thought of her, and wrote to her, and carried her photo with him up to an attack, as if he had the right. He wasn't even much disturbed as to whether, in allowing him to love her, she loved him in return or was merely being patriotic; he didn't expect to live to put things to a test. All he wanted was the belief that one woman loved him. You understand, she was very often only a makeshift-a symbol for the woman he would have married if death hadn't been in such a hurry. Well, for some of us Death has had time to spare

sn't a child. And I wanted

down lightly

honest

ity, she edged herself closer and bent fo

you've said of yourself

r of myself," he parried; "I w

and, oh, so proud of him. We didn't stop to ask whether he was the man with whom we could live for always. There wasn't any always. It didn't look as though there was ever again going to be any always. And then the horror stopped and we found ourselves with a man on our hands-a man who, though we had known him so well, would come back to us different. We hadn't meant to cheat him when we made all those promises; but now that he

ut which is the right direction? When people who were risking so much for us begged for a little of our affection, we never thought of that. We simply gave recklessly-little bits of ourselves. Now that we've regained a future, with room for remorse and things

ecstatic. It's a long r

es

he flickering gold of her hair as the wind tossed it against the rounded whiteness of

e pavement. As they flashed down the street the music followed them. She twis

t say

pecially for this moment." She listened till the air reached the refrain an

. "Will there, Terry? I hope so. Musical c

fingers into the palm of his big brown hand. "You must. Even though I disappoint you ever so badly, you