When he could gain command of his feelings, he turned back and faced Gentian, who was regarding him with wistful, puzzled eyes. "I do feel for you very much," he said, but his words fell coldly on the ears of the warmhearted girl. "I hurried off to you as soon as I could leave my young brother. I am only so sorry that I could not have been with you sooner." "Are you going back to him?" "No; he is coming down to me, as soon as he leaves hospital." "To the Rectory?" "No, I have taken rooms near. He asked to be remembered to you." "Thank you." "I was to tell you how he sympathizes with you, and that his mind and heart is as it was. He has not changed." Gentian smiled, then impulsively she laid her hand on Thorold's coat sleeve. "Do be nice and ask me down to Cornwall before he comes. I want to see your mine, and the Rectory, and—and Miss Frances Muir, your goddaughter, and the house you think of living in." "I should like you to see it all," said Thorold heartily; "and as Mrs. Wharnecliffe wants to do so too, I'll ask her to bring you with her. If I take the house, I want her advice about the interior decorations. It has been owned by an old man who let it go to pieces, and it needs a lot of repairs." Kate, the little maid, here interrupted them by saying that lunch was ready, and Gentian was soon presiding over some mutton chops and apple tart. She could eat little herself, but she seemed brighter and more like her old self, and Thorold tried to interest her in Gibraltar, and told her about the friends Godwin had there. He did not stay long. When the meal was over, he got up to go and asked her as he was leaving if she would not go to the Miss Buchans for a time. "It is not only for your benefit, but for theirs; you could make Miss Anne's life much happier and brighter by being with her. There is nothing like interest in others for easing heart-ache." "Oh, I'll go. I suppose I must. And is this dear little house to be empty again?" "Shut it up! Consider it still yours, and leave all your belongings in it. Come to it when you want to rummage about." "Thank you for that small mercy. And the quarterly cheque to the bank must stop. I only go to Miss Anne on that condition." "Very well." Then, as he held out his hand to her in farewell greeting, he said: "Do you remember saying to me in a letter that you wanted to do something that would call out all the powers of your soul as well as of your body? Don't you think the illness and loss of your friend has done this?" "Ah no, indeed! It hasn't. I have failed, entirely failed." Tears came to her eyes with a rush. She let them brim over.