Together they left the shelter of the trainmaster’s room, and passed down the dark stair and out upon the platform, where the cavalrymen were mounting guard.  There was no word spoken by either until they reached the Nadia’s forward vestibule, and then it was Lidgerwood who broke the silence to say:  “I have discovered something to-night, Eleanor:  I’m not quite all the different kinds of a coward I thought I was.”

“Don’t tell me!” she said, in keen self-reproach, and her voice thrilled him like the subtle melody of a passion song.  “Howard, dear, I—­I’m sitting in sackcloth and ashes.  I saw it all—­with my own eyes, and I could neither run nor scream.  Oh, it was splendid!  I never dreamed that any man could rise by the sheer power of his will to such a pinnacle of courage.  Does that make amends—­just a little?  And won’t you come to breakfast with us in the morning, and let me tell you afterward how miserable I’ve been—­how I fairly nagged father into bringing this party out here so that I might have an excuse to—­to——­”

He forgot the fierce strife so lately ended; forgot the double victory he had won.

“But—­but Van Lew,” he stammered—­“he told me that you—­that he—­” and then he took her in his arms and kissed her, while a young man with a bandaged head—­a man who answered to the name of Jack Benson, and who was hastening up to get permission to go home to Faith Dawson—­turned his back considerately and walked away.

“What were you going to say about Herbert?” she murmured, when he let her have breath enough to speak with.

“I was merely going to remark that he can’t have you now, not if he were ten thousand times your accepted lover.”

She escaped from his arms and ran lightly up the steps of the private car.  And from the safe vantage-ground of the half-opened door she turned and mocked him.

“Silly boy,” she said softly.  “Can’t you read print when it’s large enough to shout at all the world?  Herbert and Carolyn have been ‘announced’ for more than three months, and they are to be married when we get back to New York.  That’s all; good-night, and don’t you dare to forget your breakfast engagement!”