'I will.'

'Your life in this new land will be active and adventurous, I'm sure, but
some day, in one month, or two, or perhaps a year, you will find time to
send me a letter to say how you are, and how the strange country pleases
you?'

'You are the only human creature I have met in friendship,' he said,
betrayed into warmth by her unaffected concern. 'I can never forget you,
Lucy.' He used her Christian name for the first time.

'Thank you, James,' she answered simply.

'No, no--Jim! Jim!' He had been called James only by the parson and the
magistrates of Chisley, and he despised the unctuousness that seemed to
cling to the name.

'Thank you, Jim,' she said, smiling. 'You see,' she continued gravely,
'what you have done for me makes it impossible that I can ever be
careless about your welfare. I shall always want to know where you are,
and if you are well and happy.'

'I'm not used to this sort of thing,' he stammered.

I bear it badly.' And, indeed, he had a most amazing disposition to lapse
into tears The disposition was never near to mastering him, but there it
was.

She saw his agitation, and it warmed the mothering feeling which, though