"It made her little face look like a wild rose coming out of a coal-bucket, but what could I say to her? I tell you I was so flummoxed I stood there like a stuck pig--I don't know what I said next; honest, I don't. "So then she offered me cigarettes, and I took one in a sort of dream, and felt all over myself for matches. Couldn't find any. "Only, then---- "D'you know what I found, Miss Olwen? Blessed if I didn't stick my fingers into my belt pocket here, and feel something soft. I brought it out. It was that little mascot of yours. She asked me quickly what it was. "'Oh,' I said, 'something a girl put there once, to bring me luck,' and I stuck it back again. "'Oh,' she said. I saw her looking at that pocket. "Then she said, 'What about going for that walk we've heard so much about?' "'Right you are,' I says, pulling myself together. 'I'm ready if you are, Mrs. Robinson.' "Then she said, 'No; I'm not quite. I shall have to keep you five minutes, not longer.' "She popped through a door at the other end of the room and left me gazing at a big photograph in a silver frame on her table with violets in front of it. 'Yours, JIM,' on it. Him, of course. Fine-looking chap in R. F. C. uniform. I didn't wonder she'd taken him. Anyhow, he'd had a short life and a merry; a topping time! Marrying _her_, and then getting shot down in action before he knew he was for it. I was envying him when the door opened and in she came again---- "By Jove, she had done a quick change in five minutes and no mistake! "She'd got out of the widow's weeds again and into khaki the same as yesterday, except that there was nothing on her curls, and she'd put on a short skirt and little brown brogues and a pair of those silk stockings she bought yesterday; and she came straight up to me and said quietly, 'Now, look here----why were you all upset when you came in? What's put you out? My being a widow?' "'No,' I said, straight. 'It wasn't just that, but never mind.' "'Yes, let's have it out,' she said, and I looked at her standing there in her khaki, but somehow I only saw her in a frock again, and I thought to myself all in a rush, 'All right, you asked to have it out, and you shall,' and so I just blurted out, 'It was seeing you, and knowing all in a minute how much I wanted you myself--and remembering.' "'Remembering what?' she says as sharp as a needle. "And I said, 'My dear, I haven't a _bean_.' "And I grabbed up my hat and gloves and I think I would have said 'Good-bye' and bolted. "But she just looked at me so that I couldn't. "Then she looked away and said, 'If beans are all that matter----!' and then she picked a couple of violets out of the vase by that photograph, and tucked them into her jacket, and, just like a kid, said, 'Jim always loved me to have a good time. Jim would like me to have everything I liked, I _know_ he would----' "And here's where the room seemed to go round and round until it steadied down with me holding her tight....