"Yes," he said then."Don't think me foolishly superstitious, Miss Dent, or too egotistic.I try not to pay much attention to it.Once in a while, though, not too often, it all comes back over me, and Ifeel then as if my life might have been kept for something that is still ahead of me.""And doesn't it leave you feeling anxious about ****** all your decisions?" she asked slowly, as she leaned back again in her chair.
"At first.Then I remember how that, and some other things have been settled for me.""What then?"
"Then I shut my teeth and face forward.All one can do, is to forget the future and take the present as it comes, ****** the best of each minute and leaving the hour to look out for itself," he answered simply."Sometimes one makes better progress by drifting than he does by punting against the current."She bit her lip.
"Sometimes I think, though--" Suddenly she roused herself and gave a nervous little laugh."Captain Frazer is coming up the steps," she added.
"You think?" Weldon reminded her, as she rose.
But she shook her head and laughed again, this time more in her natural manner.
"I think that I wish you would bring Mr.Carew to call on me, next time you come," she said evasively.
"Thank you.He will be glad to come.The only question is when the next time will arrive.""You said Captain Frazer was a prophet," she said, as she moved towards the door."Ask him."Tall, alert, eager, the Captain entered the room in time to catch her words.
"A prophet of what and to whom, Miss Dent?" he asked, as he bowed over her outstretched hand.
"To Mr.Weldon, in regard to the future fighting," she answered gayly.
"You here, Weldon?"
"Yes, to say good by."
Captain Frazer nodded.
"I saw Mitchell, this morning.He spoke well of you; of Carew, too, for the matter of that.He told me your troop would be off in the morning, and asked me to diagnose ,your best points.""Could you find any?" Weldon asked imperturbably."A few.I told him you could sit tight and shoot straight," the Captain answered, laughing.Then he added gravely, "And I also told him you could ride the fiend incarnate, and that, as far as I knew, you didn't lose your head when you were under fire."For the instant, Weldon forgot his hostess, as he looked up to meet the Captain's blue eyes squarely.
"Thank you.But it is more than I deserve.""Then you must try to live up to it," Ethel advised him languidly.
"It merely increases your responsibilities, for now you have two reputations to support, your own for pluck and the Captain's for being a judge of his fellowmen.It is an awful weight that you are carrying on your shoulders, Mr.Weldon.""If it grows too heavy, I will slide some of it off on your own," he returned, as he picked up his hat and rose to his feet."Your responsibility is back of mine, Miss Dent.It was you who advised me to stay in South Africa.""Not at all.I presented the case and kept my advice to myself," she rebelled promptly.
"Certain presentments are stronger than much advising.""Perhaps.But in the end, you remember, I commended your soul to Captain Frazer's keeping."He bowed with the odd, old-fashioned deference which it pleased him to assume at times."Captain Frazer may have saved it; but it may have been you who made it worth his efforts at salvation."She laughed again.Nevertheless, her eyes showed her pleasure.
"Then we, Captain Frazer and I, must divide the responsibility for your future," she replied."In any case, may it be all good!"The drapery fell backward over his departing figure, and, for an instant, Ethel stood staring at the swaying folds.Then, turning, she walked back to the fire.
"All good," she repeated."I know you echo the wish, Captain Frazer.
But--isn't it hard to say good by?"
"In these days most of all," he assented slowly."And one never can tell when his own turn may come.""Nor what its end may be," she added.Then impetuously she rose again and moved up and down the room."Look at that sunshine outside, Captain Frazer," she said restlessly."It ought to forbid any such gloomy moods.I believe all this war and so many partings are spoiling my nerve.I really feel quite blue, to-day; and Mr.
Weldon made it worse."
"By saying good by?"
Glancing up, she was astonished at the wishful, hungry look in the blue eyes before her."Yes, a little," she said lightly; "for I hate the very word.But, if it must be spoken, it should always be short and staccato.Instead, he sat here, and we talked about Fate and wounds and all sorts of direful things." She shook herself and shivered slightly.Then she sat down in the chair which Weldon had just left vacant."It is bad manners to have nerves, Captain Frazer.
Forgive me first, and then tell me something altogether flippant, to make me forget things."But her mood had caught the Captain in its grasp.
