"And what brought you back?" he asked shyly.
"You!" she answered mischievously, and leaned close with her breath against his cheek. "You and the gradual dawn of good sense. I saw all kinds of men over there—men with titles and men without, men with great rank and men with decorations for valor upon their breasts. They seemed to vie for the privilege of paying me attention. But they were not all nice men. I met nobles who were not noble.
"I was always comparing you with them, and George—now don't get vain—generally to your advantage. You had your faults but they were superficial faults—theirs went deep—to their very hearts. Blue blood, I found, is sometimes mostly black."
George nodded, deeply satisfied of course; but there was another ghost that required to be laid before his mind could be entirely at rest.
"By the way, Fay?" he asked, as casually as possible, "did you ever see or hear anything of Sir Brian over there? He completely fell out of things round here after the beginning of the war.
"Why,—why didn't you know?" his wife inquired, with shocked eyes and a quick little gasp of pain. "He was here for years on a secret mission for his government. When hostilities broke out he insisted on active duty in the air
