"Honestly, I can't answer for myself. I _do_ like you! There have been times--my loneliest times--when I have almost _loved_ Jim Blair,--the Jim Blair of my dreams, but how am I to know that he is anything like you? The face which looks at me from beneath the white topee in the various groups which Dorothea has sent is vague enough to lend itself to mental adaptation, the real one may be a very different thing! "If I could see you for even five minutes, face to face, I could tell if it were _possible_; but as things are, I can't, and I dare not cross the world on the chance. I must find a niche at home, and work hard, and try to be of some use in the world. Perhaps some day, say on your next furlough, we may meet, if you still wish it, but in the meantime it would be better not to write. After what you have said, I should feel it unfair. The best thing you can do is to forget. "Don't think me unkind. It seems brutal to write so coldly, especially to-day, when I have just received a letter from Captain Bedford in Egypt, and with it the most wonderful old brass tray--quite the finest specimen of its kind that I have seen. He explains that it is your commission, and sends me quite a genealogical tree of its history. From his letter he sounds a charming man. He says he returns in March. If I had been coming out, we might have travelled by the same boat... "Oh, Jim, I _wish_ I could come--I wish I could! It's hard work looking on, and feeling eternally number three. Do you think I don't want to love too, and to be loved? Do you think it is easy to say `no,' and throw away the chance? If only I could think it right! It is not pride which is hindering me, truly it isn't, it is more like cowardice. We have defied convention, and as a result have created an impossible situation, and I shrink from the probable pain and disillusion of a meeting in the flesh. Your letters have meant a great deal to me; I don't know how I should have come through the last few months without them. For my own sake I should not regret the episode, but it has been hard on you. At the bottom of my heart I guessed all along that it would lead to this. I _pretended_ that I did not, and deliberately shut my eyes, and now I must pay up. I care for you too much to run any more risks. I won't write again, and please don't answer this. You will hear of my doings through Dorothea, and I shall always care to hear about you; so it is not like saying good-bye. "Don't be angry with me, I'm very miserable! "Katrine." "Lebong, _December 10, 19--_. "Katrine,