There was ecstasy in their nearness to each other--in the silver beauty of the lake--in the soft coming of the June evening; and in that stern fact itself that in one short week, he would have left her, would be facing death or mutilation, day after day, in the trenches on the Ypres salient.

While he held her, all sorts of images flitted through his mind--of which he would not have told her for the world--horrible facts of bloody war.

In eight months he had seen plenty of them.

The signs of them were graven on his young face, on his eyes, round which a slight permanent frown, as of perplexity, seemed to have settled, and on his mouth which was no longer naif and boyish, but would always drop with repose into a hard compressed line.
Nelly looked up.
'Everything's far away'-- she whispered--'but this--and you!' He kissed her upturned lips--and there was silence.
Then a robin singing outside in the evening hush, sent a message to them.

Nelly with an effort drew herself away.
'Shan't we go out?
We'll tell Mrs.Weston to put supper on the table, and we can come in when we like.