Two years! Not much to look back upon, but a world to look forward to.

To Stephen, dowered though she was with rare personal gifts and with wealth and position accorded to but few, the hours of waiting were longer than the years that were past.

Yet the time had new and startling incidents for her.

Towards Christmas in the second year the Boer war had reached its climax of evil.

As the news of disaster after disaster was flashed through the cable she like others felt appalled at the sacrifices that were being exacted by the God of War.
One day she casually read in The Times that the Earl de Lannoy had died in his London mansion, and further learned that he had never recovered from the shock of hearing that his two sons and his nephew had been killed.