He plunged forward. “Oh, Randal, why have you come here? You should have gone to-day....” “I went, and I have returned, Nan,” he told her, standing there beside her now. “You have returned!” She looked him over more attentively now, and observed the brave suit of dark blue camlet that so well became his tall, spare frame, and the fine Spanish boots that were now overlaid with dust. “You have returned!” she said again. “Nan,” he said, “a miracle has happened.” And from his breast he pulled that parchment with its great seal. “A month ago I was a beggar. To-day I am Colonel Holles in something more than name, commanding something more than a mere regiment. I have come back, Nan, because at last I can offer you something in exchange for all that you will sacrifice in taking me.” She sank down slowly, weakly, to the seat, he standing over her, until they were in the same attitude of a month ago. But how different now was all else! She leaned her elbows on her knees a moment, pressing her hands to her throbbing temples. “It is real, this? It ... it is true? True?” she asked aloud, though clearly not of him. And then she sat back again, and looked up into his face. “It is not very much, perhaps, when all is said, though it seems much to me to-day, and with you beside me I shall know how to make it more. Still, such as it is, I offer it.” And he tossed the parchment down into her lap. She looked at the white cylinder without touching it, and then at him again, and a little smile crept about the corners of her sweet mouth, and trembled there. Into her mind there leapt the memory of the big boast of conquest for her sake with which he had set out in the long ago. “Is this the world you promised me, Randal?” she asked him. And his heart bounded at the old rallying note, which laid his last doubt to rest. “As much of it as I can contrive to get,” said he. “Then it will be enough for me,” she answered. And there was no raillery in her voice now, only an infinite tenderness. She rose, and, standing there close before him, held out the parchment still unfolded. “But you haven’t looked,” he protested. “What need to look? It is your kingdom, you have told me. And I’ll share your kingdom whatever it may be.” “It is situate in the Indies ... in Bombay,” said he, with a certain diffidence. She considered. “I always had a thirst for travel,” she said deliberately. He felt that it was due to her that he should explain the nature of this appointment and how he came by it. To that explanation he proceeded. Before he had reached the end she was in tears. “Why? Why? What now?” he cried in dismay. “Does your heart misgive you?” “Misgive me? Oh, Randal! How can you think that? I weep for thankfulness. I have spent a month of such hopeless anguish, and now....”