"We shall see who there is
that will be good and great enough for you, Deleah. He will have to be
both to deserve you."
"He will have to be both before I love him," Deleah said calmly, but with
the colour in her cheeks. She put her head on one side to contemplate the
lily growing so slowly under her fingers. "'I needs must love the highest
when I see it,'" she said, half to herself.
For while she had been talking and listening she had been thinking of that
sacrifice which she had but now thought was demanded of her; and she had
made up her mind not to make it.
When Sir Francis came in, that evening, he found lying on his
writing-table a little note with the signature "Deleah Day." "I hope you
will excuse me that I have altered my mind and decided to go home at
once," it ran. "I think I am wanted there. I hope you will not think I do
not feel all your kindness. I do feel it with all my heart."
Carrying this scanty missive open in his hand, Sir Francis sought his
sister.
"Yes, she has gone," that lady said. "She evidently wished it, and I drove
her back to-day."
"Then how about Reggie?"
"You were quite deceived about Reggie, Francis. You are, indeed. Deleah
will never marry Reggie.
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