“Tell me, Edward; I can see you’re in trouble.  What is it?”

“Noel.  The boy she was fond of has been killed.”

She dropped his hand.

“Oh, no!  Poor child!  It’s too cruel!” Tears started up in her grey eyes, and she touched them with a tiny handkerchief.  “Poor, poor little Noel!  Was she very fond of him?”

“A very sudden, short engagement; but I’m afraid she takes it desperately to heart.  I don’t know how to comfort her; only a woman could.  I came to ask you:  Do you think she ought to go on with her work?  What do you think, Leila?  I feel lost!”

Leila, gazing at him, thought:  ’Lost?  Yes, you look lost, my poor Edward!’

“I should let her go on,” she said:  “it helps; it’s the only thing that does help.  I’ll see if I can get them to let her come into the wards.  She ought to be in touch with suffering and the men; that kitchen work will try her awfully just now:  Was he very young?”

“Yes.  They wanted to get married.  I was opposed to it.”

Leila’s lip curled ever so little.  ‘You would be!’ she thought.

“I couldn’t bear to think of Nollie giving herself hastily, like that; they had only known each other three weeks.  It was very hard for me, Leila.  And then suddenly he was sent to the front.”

Resentment welled up in Leila.  The kill-Joys!  As if life didn’t kill joy fast enough!  Her cousin’s face at that moment was almost abhorrent to her, its gentle perplexed goodness darkened and warped by that monkish look.  She turned away, glanced at the clock over the hearth, and thought:  ’Yes, and he would stop Jimmy and me!  He would say:  “Oh, no! dear Leila—­you mustn’t love—­it’s sin!” How I hate that word!’

“I think the most dreadful thing in life,” she said abruptly, “is the way people suppress their natural instincts; what they suppress in themselves they make other people suppress too, if they can; and that’s the cause of half the misery in this world.”

Then at the surprise on his face at this little outburst, whose cause he could not know, she added hastily:  “I hope Noel will get over it quickly, and find someone else.”

“Yes.  If they had been married—­how much worse it would have been.  Thank God, they weren’t!”

“I don’t know.  They would have had an hour of bliss.  Even an hour of bliss is worth something in these days.”

“To those who only believe in this ’life—­perhaps.”

‘Ten minutes more!’ she thought:  ‘Oh, why doesn’t he go?’ But at that very moment he got up, and instantly her heart went out to him again.

“I’m so sorry, Edward.  If I can help in any way—­I’ll try my best with Noel to-morrow; and do come to me whenever you feel inclined.”

She took his hand in hers; afraid that he would sit down again, she yet could not help a soft glance into his eyes, and a little rush of pitying warmth in the pressure of her hand.