“MY DEAR BEATTIE,—­You were right.  I have volunteered for active service and shall soon be off to South Africa.  I don’t know yet exactly when we shall start, but I expect they’ll hurry us off as quickly as they can.  Men are wanted out there badly.  Lots of fellows are coming forward.  I’ll tell you more when I see you again.  Messages to Guy.—­Yours affectionately,

“DION”

It was not an eloquent letter, but Beattie would understand.  Beattie was not a great talker but she was a great understander.  He went out to put the three letters into the pillar-box.  Then he hurried upstairs to his dressing-room.  For the first time in his life he almost dreaded spending an evening alone with Rosamund.

He did not see her till he came into the drawing-room.  As he opened the door he saw her sitting by the fire reading, in a dark blue dress.

“I’m afraid I’m late,” he said, as he walked to the hearth.  “I wrote to mother, Beattie and godfather to tell them what I was going to do.”

“What you had done,” she said quietly, putting down the book.

“I haven’t actually been sworn in yet, but of course it is practically the same thing.”

He looked at her almost surreptitiously.  She was very grave, but there was absolutely nothing hostile or angry in her expression or manner.  They went into the dining-room, and talked together much as usual during dinner.  As soon as dinner was over, and the parlor-maid had gone out, having finished her ministrations, which to Dion that night had seemed innumerable and well-nigh unbearable, he said: 

“I’m dreadfully sorry about to-day.  I did the wrong thing in volunteering without saying anything to you.  Of course you were hurt and startled——­”

He looked at her and paused.

“Yes, I was.  I couldn’t help it, and I don’t think you ought to have done what you did.  But you have made a great sacrifice—­very great.  I only want to think of that, Dion, of how much you are giving up, and of the cause—­our cause.”

She spoke very earnestly and sincerely, and her eyes looked serious and very kind.

“Don’t let us go back to anything sad, or to any misunderstanding now,” she continued.  “You are doing an admirable thing, and I shall always be glad you had the will to do it, were able to do it.  Tell me everything.  I want to live in your new life as much as I can.  I want you to feel me in it as much as you can.”

“She has prayed over it.  While I was writing my letters she was praying over it.”

Suddenly Dion knew this as if Rosamund had opened her heart to him and had told it.  And immediately something which was like a great light seemed not only to illumine the present moment but also to throw a piercing ray backwards upon all his past life with Rosamund.  In the light of this ray he discerned a shadowy something, which stood between Rosamund and him, keeping them always apart.  It was a tremendous