"Without my sister, Christmas would not be at all the same happy time," she said. "Was I not right when I said that Clare is lovely?"
"She is quite the most beautiful girl I ever saw," he replied enthusiastically. "Yet beautiful is not the word. Miss Clare is that and more. I never saw any one at all like her." Then he added, "In the face, I mean, of course. As yet all else is strange to me, except as revealed by the charming picture I witnessed a short time ago."
Margery could hardly tell in what it consisted, but there was a difference between the happy, frank intercourse of a few hours before and that of this evening. It seemed as though an invisible barrier had come between Captain Anstruther and herself. He was more silent than usual, and Margery went to her room with a sense of weight and pain that she vainly strove to ignore.
"What will Christmas bring?" she asked herself. "It is a fateful season to me. Eleven years ago it brought Clare and the beginning of a new life. Will this Christmas see a repetition of what has happened before? Will Frank Anstruther leave my side for Clare's? I have never envied her those who have gone before, and never cared except when they suffered. But if he too should learn to love her, and be treated as others have been—how shall I bear to see it?"
On her knees the girl pleaded—
"God give me grace to do right, patience to endure willingly, and to submit unselfishly and silently, if need be!"
At first Captain Anstruther struggled against Clare's fascinations, and remained by Margery's side, helping her with Christmas decorations, and apparently devoting himself to her service. But before night came he was one of a little group round Clare, laughing at her lively sallies and her almost childlike daring, and wondering at her marvellous beauty.
He took himself to task when he noticed Margery looking pale and distrait, though trying hard to appear as if she were listening to an uninteresting story, which was being poured into her ear by the one bore of the party. He resumed his attentions, remained by her side after having succeeded in ridding her of her companion, and, but that Margery noticed his eyes wandering towards the group he had left, the girl might have thought that no change had taken place, and that she still held the foremost rank in his regard.
Clare rallied Margery about her captain.
"I see how it is," she said, "you have conquered the gallant soldier whilst I have been away. I can understand his laying down his arms; but he is not half good enough for you, Margery, darling."