Drake at this moment carried in the lights; and Roy, entering too, cried out in astonishment—
"Den! Why, 'tis Den himself! Den, dear fellow!—" nearly wringing Ivor's hands off with the energy of his welcome.
Preoccupied though Ivor could not help being with Polly, his gaze rested with satisfaction upon "his friend Roy." The boy who had left Verdun for the dungeons of Bitche was a man now: broad-shouldered, well-built, soldier-like, frank as ever in manner, yet with something in the young face which told not only of endurance past, but of the sharp touch of sorrow.
"I am glad—more glad than words can say! Little I dreamt who I should find here. And you are free! But how is it? You don't say old Boney has let you off? Of his own free will? How did it happen? Lucille! No! Bravo, Lucille!"
Nobody else had a chance of being heard. Mrs. Bryce exclaimed and talked in vain. Polly and Molly waited, not sorry to see Roy like himself again, which he had scarcely been hitherto since his return. Roy's eager questions had to be answered first.
Then came a change of manner, and a lowered voice. "I shall have no end of things to tell you, Den—yes, I know—" at a slight gesture—"another time." Roy did his best to resume a bright manner. "You've seen accounts, of course. That charge of the Reserve through the valley wasn't bad—yes, when I got my wound. It's pretty nearly right now. The column tried to turn our flank, you know, and we did just knock 'em into a cocked hat, and no mistake. The column simply ceased to exist."
So much Roy poured out impulsively. Then he stopped. A consciousness had broken upon him of something unsatisfactory. Denham's face was to him as an open book, and he saw written there several things. One thing that he saw made him turn sharply to Polly, as she stood a little way off, prettily composed. Was this the meeting of the two, after six years of enforced separation?
Roy recalled his talk with Polly on his return from Bitche, and in a flash he read the true state of affairs. He looked hard at each in turn.
"Polly, didn't I tell you? He has come back!"
It was necessary for Polly to answer. "Captain Ivor is indeed most fortunate to have obtained his release," she said, adjusting her scarf.