Before his recent wound he had been doing some special artillery work on the Staff of an Army Corps, and was a very rising soldier.

He was now chafing hotly against the ruling of his Medical Board, who were insisting that he was not yet fit to go back to France.
Pamela meanwhile was going through moments of disillusion.

After these two years she had looked forward to the meeting with such eagerness, such hidden emotion! And now--what was there to have been eager about?
They seemed to be talking almost as strangers.

The soreness of it bewildered her.
Presently, as they were walking back to the house, leaving Sir Henry in anxious consultation over the mushroom-house with the grey-haired head gardener, her companion turned to her abruptly.
'I suppose _that's_ all right!' He pointed to some distant figures on the fringe of a wood.
'Beryl and Aubrey?
Yes--if Aubrey can make her see that she isn't doing him any harm by letting him go on.' 'Good heavens! how could she do him any harm ?' 'Well, there's Mannering.

As if that mattered!' said the girl scornfully.