“By that time you and I will be underground, Fitz,” he said half-lightly, half-sadly. “And thank God for it!—for if any harm comes to England, I don’t want to be alive to see it. I wonder if I shall be sitting on a gold throne in Heaven, next to Harry Raikes? If so, angel Letty will have to choose between us!”
He laughed,—and the two old friends presently left the club together and went for an afternoon stroll through Piccadilly and the Park, where they saw Miss Letty driving in her victoria with pretty Violet Morrison by her side. They raised their hats to both ladies, and Fitz commented on their looks.
“Nothing will ever make Miss Letty old,” he said. “She always has the eyes of a child who trusts both God and man.”
The Major nodded approvingly.
“That’s very well said, Fitz,—and it’s true,—but she’s had a blow to-day. I’m sure she has. She doesn’t say much—she’s not one to say much,—she may say nothing, even to me,—but she’s had a blow. Boy’s not what she thought he would be. I’ve got a bit of a heartache over it. I’m sorry we came back to England!”
Fitz was silent. He fully understood and participated in his old friend’s feelings, but he felt that the subject was too sore a one to be discussed, and when he spoke again it was on a different theme.
That evening Major Desmond escorted his niece and Miss Letty to the theatre, and just before starting, while Violet was still engaged in putting the finishing touches to her pretty evening toilette, Miss Letty came in alone to the Major, where he pensively waited in the sitting-room, and said softly,—
“Dick!”
He started, and turned round, and was fairly taken aback for the moment by the spiritual beauty of her gentle face framed in its snow-white hair. She was fully attired for the theatre, and wore an opera-mantle of some silvery neutral tint, showered with lace;—and a pretty flush came on her cheeks as she met the faithful tender gaze of the man who had loved her so loyally and so long. Having expressed his admiration of her charm by a look, he responded,—
“Well, Letty?”