she meant to refuse what he so generously and delicately
offered her, he went on:

"I feel now that I ought to tell you something
which I had meant to keep to myself." He cleared
his throat -- and hum'd and hum'd a little. "I'm sure
you'll understand that every sensible man, when going
on active service, makes a fresh will. I've already
written out my instructions to my solicitor, and he
will prepare a will for me to sign tomorrow." He
waited a moment, and then added, as lightly as he
could: "I've left you a thousand pounds, which I've
arranged you should receive immediately on my death.
You see, I'm a lonely man, and all my relations are
well off. I think you know, without my telling out,
that I've become very much attached to you -- to you
and to Miss Rose."

And still Mrs. Otway was too much surprised, and
yes, too much moved, to speak. Major Guthrie was
indeed proving himself a true friend.

"Under ordinary circumstances," he went on slowly,
"this clause in my will would be of very little practical
interest to you, for I am a healthy man. But we're
up against a very big thing, Mrs. Otway----" He
did not like to add that it was quite possible she would
receive his legacy before she had had time to dip very
far into the money he was leaving with her.

She looked at him with a troubled look. And yet?
And yet, though it was not perhaps very reasonable
that it should be so, somehow she did feel that the
fact that Major Guthrie was leaving her -- and Rose --
the legacy of which he spoke, made a difference. It
would make it easier, that is, to accept the money that
lay there on her table. Though Major Guthrie was

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p101 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p102w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p103

v?