Dividing Waters. I. A. R. Wylie

shook her head.

      "I cannot criticise," she said. "You played so well together, much better than when I was able to take my part." She hesitated. "One could hardly believe that you had never practised together before," she added slowly.

      Nora rose and closed the piano. Without knowing why, the words pained her and the brief silence that followed seemed oppressive.

      Arnim followed her example.

      "I have been here a disgraceful time!" he exclaimed, looking at his watch. "And there! I have never even told you what I really came about. I have been passed into the General Staff. What do you think of that? Are you not proud to have such a cousin?"

      His tone was gay, half teasing, but there was no response from the quiet figure on the sofa. Nora's eyes, rendered suddenly sharp, saw that the pale lips were compressed as though in pain.

      "Of course, Wolff, I am so glad. It is splendid for you. How long will you be there—in Berlin, I mean?"

      "A long time, I expect, unless there is a war."

      Then, as though by some intuition he knew what was passing in her mind, he came to her side and took her hand affectionately between his own.

      "You and the mother will have to come too," he said. "I have just been telling her that I cannot get on without you. Imagine my lonely state! It's bad enough here, now that I have no one to ride out with me. Old Bruno is eating off his head in anticipation of the day when you will gallop him through the woods again."

      Hildegarde shook her head, but his words, spoken hastily and almost at random, had brought the soft colour to her cheeks.

      "I shall never ride again," she said.

      She looked at her cousin and then to Nora, and her own wistful face became suddenly overshadowed.

      "But then," she went on with a quick, almost inaudible sigh, "that is no reason why Bruno should eat his head off, as you say. It is true I cannot ride him any more, but Miss Ingestre can, and it would do her good. Wouldn't it, Nora?"

      Was there an appeal in her voice which both heard and understood? Arnim said nothing. He did not take his eyes from his cousin's face.

      "It is really very good of you," Nora said quickly, "but I think I had better not. You see, I love it so, and it is best not to encourage impossible tastes. Besides, I have no habit."

      Warned, perhaps, by her own involuntary start of pleasure, by Arnim's silence and Hildegarde's voice, she had sought wildly for any reasonable excuse, and unwittingly chosen the one most likely to arouse the generous impulses in both her companions.

      "Whilst you are here you must enjoy everything you can get," Arnim said, smiling at her. "And who knows what Fate has in store for you?"

      "And the habit is no difficulty," Hildegarde chimed in. "You can have mine. We are about the same size, and it could easily be made to fit you. Do, dear!"

      She was now all enthusiasm for her own plan, and Nora, glancing at Arnim's face, saw that it had become eager with pleasure.

      "Do!" he begged. "I should so like to show you all the woods about here. Or—can you not trust yourself to me?"

      A second time their eyes met.

      "Of course I should trust you," Nora said quickly, "and there is nothing I should love more."

      "Then that is settled. You must let me know the first day which suits you. Good-bye, gnädiges Fräulein. Good-bye, Hildegarde. I am sending my orderly round with some books I have found. I think you will like them."

      "Thank you, Wolff."

      Then he was gone. They heard the door bang downstairs, and the cheery clatter of his sword upon the stone steps.

      Nora came to the sofa and knelt down.

      "How good you are to me!" she said. "You are always thinking of my pleasure, of things which you know I like, and, after all, it ought to be just the other way round."