He went off to wash, and when he entered the sitting-room a little later, she too was fresh and neat again, in a new frock of some soft bluish-green stuff, which pleased his eye amazingly. Outside, the sunset was dying rapidly, and at a sign from her, he drew down the blinds over the two windows, and pulled the curtains close. He stood at the window looking at the hill-side for a moment with the blind in his hand. He was recalling the face he had seen, of which neither he nor any one else had yet said a word to Rachel; recalling also his talk with one of the Millsborough police the day before. "Nothing more heard of him, Captain. Oh, we get queer people about these hills sometimes. It's a very lonely bit of country. Why, a year ago, we were hunting a couple of German prisoners about these commons for days!" "Any more ghosts?" he said lightly, glancing round at Rachel, as he drew the curtains across. "Not that I know of. Come and have your tea." He took a cup from her hand, and leaning against the chimney surveyed the room with a radiant face. Then he stooped over her and said:-- "I love this little room! Don't you?" She made a restless movement. "I don't know. Why do you love it?" "As if you didn't know!" Their eyes met, his intense and passionate,--hers, less easy to read. "Darling, I have some other news for you. I think you'll like it--though it'll separate us for a little." And drawing a letter from his pocket, he handed it to her. It was a letter from the American Headquarters, offering him immediate work in the American Intelligence Department at Coblentz. "Some friends of mine there, seem to have been getting busy about me. You see I know German pretty well." And he explained to her that as a boy he had spent a year in Germany before going to Yale. She scarcely listened, so absorbed was she in the official letter. "When must you go?" she said at last, looking up. "At the end of next week, I'm afraid." "And how long will it be?" "That I don't know. But three or four months certainly. It will put off our wedding, dearest, a bit. But you'd like me to go, wouldn't you? I should be at the hub of things." The colour rushed into her cheeks. "_Must you go_?" Her manner amazed him. He had expected that one so ambitious and energetic in her own way of life would have greeted his news with eagerness. The proposal was really a great compliment to him--and a great chance. "I don't see how I could refuse it," he said with an altered countenance. "Indeed--I don't think I could." She dropped her face into her hands, and stared into the fire. In some trouble of mind, he knelt down beside her, and put his arm round her. "I'll write every day. It won't be long, darling." She shook her head, and he felt a shudder run through her. "It's silly of me--I don't know why--but--I'm just afraid--" "Afraid of what?" She smiled at him tremulously--but he saw the tears in her eyes.