Audrey always declared, afterwards, that it had required the most blatant encouragement on her part to induce Miles to propose to her, and that, but for the war—­which convinced him that he was of no use to any one else—­he never would have done so.

Presumably she was able to supply the requisite stimulus, for when the Lavender Lady joined them later on in the afternoon, she found herself called upon to perform that function of sheer delight to every old maid of the right sort—­namely, to bestow her blessing on a pair of newly betrothed lovers.

Sara received the news the next morning, and though naturally, by contrast, it seemed to add a keener edge to her own grief, she was still able to rejoice whole-heartedly over this little harvesting of joy which her two friends had snatched from amid the world’s dreadful harvesting of pain and sorrow.

By the same post as the radiant letters from Miles and Audrey came one from Elisabeth Durward.  She wrote distractedly.

“Tim is determined to volunteer,” ran her letter.  “I can’t let him go, Sara.  He is my only son, and I don’t see why he should be claimed from me by this horrible war.  I have persuaded him to wait until he has seen you.  That is all he will consent to.  So will you come and do what you can to dissuade him?  There is a cord by which you could hold him if you would.”

A transient smile crossed Sara’s face as she pictured Tim gravely consenting to await her opinion on the matter.  He knew—­none better!—­what it would be, and, without doubt, he had merely agreed to the suggestion in the hope that her presence might ease the strain and serve to comfort his mother a little.

Sara telegraphed that she would come to Barrow Court the following day, and, on her arrival, found Tim waiting for her at the station in his two-seater.

“Well,” he said with a grin, as the little car slid away along the familiar road.  “Have you come to persuade me to be a good boy and stay at home, Sara?”

“You know I’ve not,” she replied, smiling.  “I’m gong to talk sense to Elisabeth.  Oh!  Tim boy, how I envy you!  It’s splendid to be a man these days.”

He nodded silently, but she could read in his expression the tranquil satisfaction that his decision had brought.  She had seen the same look on other men’s faces, when, after a long struggle with the woman-love that could not help but long to hold them back, the final decision had been taken.

Arrived at the lodge gates, Tim handed over the car to the chauffeur who met them there, evidently by arrangement.

“I thought we’d walk across the park,” he suggested.

Sara acquiesced delightedly.  There was a tender, reminiscent pleasure in strolling along the winding paths that had once been so happily familiar, and, hardly conscious of the sudden silence which had fallen upon her companion, her thoughts slipped back to the old days at Barrow when she had wandered, with Patrick beside her in his wheeled chair, along these selfsame paths.