"Marie said that
your brother's leave was not up until the week after next."
Jocelyn turned away, apparently to close the window. She hesitated.
She could not tell him what had brought them back sooner--what had
demanded of Maurice Gordon the sacrifice of ten days of his holiday.
"We do not always take our full term," she said vaguely.
And he never saw it. The vanity of man is a strange thing. It
makes him see intentions that were never conceived; and without
vanity to guide his perception man is as blind a creature as walks
upon this earth.
"However," he said, as if to prove his own density, "I am selfishly
very glad that you had to come back sooner. Not only on account of
the delicacies--I must ask you to believe that. Did my eye brighten
at the mention of Fortnum and Mason? I am afraid it did."
She laughed softly. She did not pause to think that it was to be
her daily task to tend him and help to make him stronger in order
that he might go away without delay. She only knew that every
moment of the next few weeks was going to be full of a greater
happiness than she had ever tasted. As we get deeper into the
slough of life most of us learn to be thankful that the future is
hidden--some of us recognise the wisdom and the mercy which decree
that even the present be only partly revealed.
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