When both he and Beaumont were away from Halifax, honors were easy, and each could strive alike. But actual presence gave him the advantage, and if he could not succeed in winning her love fairly, now that he had the field to himself, Morris felt that he deserved to be vanquished.
Men do not die of broken hearts, however. The wound may be deep, but in time it will heal; and he was willing to abide by the truth of his philosophy.
"What luxuriant tulips, Miss Maud!" said the Major. This time he found her alone, gathering them from a bed by the lilacs in her garden.
"Yes," she said, laughingly. "They stand shoulder to shoulder like soldiers on a battlefield. You see how ruthlessly I am slaying them."
"Scarcely that," was his comment; "you are simply carrying off the wounded."
"Ah!" she said, shaking her head; "but how many of the wounded will live?"
"All of them; judging by your habit, they will simply die a natural death."
"How do you make that out?" she asked, looking up quickly.
"Simply, that by putting them in water in the shade, as is your custom, the flowers will live as long as when left on their stems in the garden."
"Have you found the philosopher's stone yet?" she questioned with an arch look.
"No," he replied, "only the observer's; but have you heard the latest news? It only came an hour ago."
"Sir George Head, who has been stationed with the men in Montreal all winter, will be here in a week; and, with what remains of the --nth Royals, will sail at once for England."
The announcement dropped very quietly from the Captain's lips, pregnant though it was with so much to himself. Maud started and turned pale. The mention of Sir George and the Captain's company in the same breath, placed the Doctor and the Major in a relationship that she had heretofore declined to realize. Something seemed imminent, she hardly knew what.
"Which means that you will go with him," she said at last avoiding his eye.
"Yes, Miss Maud, that is what it means; and besides the gruesome and terrible things that have happened, the beautiful and happy days I have spent in Halifax will be at an end."
"If the gruesome things have surpassed the pleasant ones, you will rejoice when all is over," said Maud gently, regaining her self-control. "In such case I know I should."