Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/30

 as if half-afraid of what they might see there. Yet there was nothing that either need have feared. No colour showed through the ineradicable South African tan which had permanently bronzed the soldier's face; and the bright rose which stained the cheeks of the young woman made her look far prettier and more youthful than she had done five minutes before. She now appeared to be no more than twenty-five.

For an instant she forgot to draw her hand from Sir Ian's and naturally he could not let it drop, so he held it firmly in his, till it occurred to her that it would be well for her to take it away. She blushed deeply as she did so, though not in offence; otherwise her gray eyes would not have been so kind, so gentle, as they rested on the man s brown face, and seemed to count the silver threads on his temples.

"You have changed," she said, "but only as I have liked to think you would change, with the years. The South African War

"Yes, that changed all of us," he caught her up.

"It gave you glory."

"Nonsense!" he exclaimed, then reddened a little. "I beg your pardon," he went on, "but glory is a very big word, and I did no more than almost any other man did. I had some luck, that's all."

"I'm very, very glad that you had luck, and that you were spared to enjoy it," said Miss Ricardo. "It is—pleasant to see you again."