Had his luck already begun to turn, he thought? As he mounted the _stoep_ Lilith herself came forth to meet him. It struck him that the omen was a good one. "Why, you are becoming quite a stranger," she said. But the note of gladness underlying the reproach did not escape him, nor a certain lighting up of her face as they clasped hands, with the subtile lingering pressure now never absent from that outwardly formal method of greeting. "Am I?" he answered, thinking how soon, how very soon, he would become one in reality. "But you were going out?" For she had on her hat and gloves, and carried a sunshade. "I was. You are only just in time--only just. But I won't now that you have come." "On the contrary, I want you to. I want you to come out with me, and at once, before an irruption of bores renders that manoeuvre impracticable. Will you?" "Of course I will. Which way shall we go? Up to the town?" "Not much. Right in the opposite direction, and as far away from it as possible. Are you alone?" "Not quite alone. Aunt is having her afternoon sleep; but May and George went to the town this morning. They intended to have lunch at the Stevensons', and then go on to the cricket ground. There's a match or something on to-day. George was cross because I wouldn't go too; but I had a touch of headache, and went to sleep instead. And oh, Laurence, I had such a horrible dream. It was about you." "Oh, was it?" The words rapped themselves out quickly, nervously, more so than she had ever heard him talk before. But the awful and ghastly crisis of the morning was recalled by her words. "About me? Tell it to me." "I can't. It was all rather vague, and yet so real. I dreamed that you were in the face of some strange, some horrible danger, against which I was powerless to warn you. I struggled to, even prayed. Then I was able. I warned you, and the danger seemed to pass. And oh, Laurence, I woke up crying!" "Your dream was a true one, my Lilith. No, I will not tell you how or in what way. And will you always be empowered to warn me--to save me, my sweet guardian angel? I shall need it often enough during the next--er--in the time that is coming." His face had taken on an unwonted expression, and his tones were suspiciously husky. Lilith looked wonderingly at him, and her own expression was grave and earnest. The sweet eyes became dewy with unshed tears. "You know I will, if I may," she answered, stealing a hand into his for a sympathetic pressure, as they walked side by side. They had been walking at a good pace over the open, treeless veldt, and the roofs of Booyseus were now quite dwarfed behind them. "But, tell me," she continued, "are things any better? Oh, it is dreadful that you should have come all this way only to be more completely ruined than before--dreadful! I am always thinking about it. Yet I am of a hopeful disposition, as I told you. I never despair. Things will take a turn. They must."