He was gone from them for ever; they would look on his face and hear his voice no more; they realised that this was their last farewell.

Oh, there is a world of love and sorrow in those two simple words!" For some time neither of us spoke.

The glamour of this touching memorial of a long-buried grief had stolen over me, and I was content to stand silent by my beloved companion and revive, with a certain pensive pleasure, the ghosts of human emotions over which so many centuries had rolled.

Presently she turned to me with a frank smile.

"You have been weighed in the balance of friendship," she said, "and not found wanting.
You have the gift of sympathy, even with a woman's sentimental fancies." I suspected that a good many men would have developed this precious quality under the circumstances, but I refrained from saying so.