"Tell your sister, Kitty, that I will come up to see her in a few moments," said Mrs. Keith.
The girl nodded, and ran out of the room. In the hall she stood still for a moment, wrestling with her emotion.
"I wonder if he really cares, or if I am only imagining it?" was her thought.
"That is a dear little girl, mother," said Gavon, turning to speak to his mother when Kitty had left the room.
"I am very fond of Kitty," she said then. "I am glad that I adopted her. She is a delightful companion and a dear little soul. But how nervous she is, Gavon! I have noticed it often of late in your presence. I cannot help wondering--"
"Wonder at nothing, mother," was his answer. "There is nothing between us--nothing at all. Kitty is a dear little sort of cousin--no more."
"You must remember that she is not really your cousin. Kitty is my adopted niece. Just as good as a real one, but in case by--"
"I know, mother; I know all you would say. I like her very much, but I have never yet met the girl I want to marry. I have never yet been in love, although I am twenty-eight years of age. You don't want to hand me over to the tender mercies of a wife too soon, do you, mater?"
"My dearest, as far as I am concerned, I like you best without a wife. But you must marry some day, Gavon; and if it should so happen that you really liked Kitty, why, why--"
"You would like it too? Well, I will think it all out, mother; but at present I fancy my attention will be turned to other matters. We are going to have fighting, and I am rejoiced to know it."
Mrs. Keith laid her hand on her son's arm. Just for a moment that hand trembled. Then she said in a brave voice,--
"Well, and I am the mother of a soldier. I must take the bitter with the sweet."
She turned away as she spoke. Gavon followed her, put his arm round her waist, bent down and kissed her on her forehead, and then left the house.
Meanwhile the girls upstairs talked as fast as a pair of eager tongues could manage. Each had a great deal to say to the other. Mollie and Kitty were orphans. Mollie was six years Kitty's senior. Their parents had died within one week of each other--when Mollie was seventeen years of age, and Kitty eleven. An aunt had left Kitty twenty thousand pounds, which was to accumulate for her until her majority. Mollie, on the contrary, had only fifty pounds a year of her own. Kitty was adopted by Mrs. Keith, who took a fancy to the pretty girl, and afterwards grew so much attached to her that she could scarcely bear her out of her sight. Mollie, at the age of twenty, took up nursing seriously as a profession. From her earliest years Mollie had shown a great aptitude for this noble work. She had that calmness of nature which denotes strength; she was not easily ruffled; and when she made up her mind she stuck to her resolves.