“that you can be of no further use. Our errand to the Sagamore has now ended, and most happily. You have served your country better than you can ever understand. I have come to say so, and to thank you with — with a heart — very full.”

“Have I then done well?” she asked slowly.

“Indeed you have!” I replied, with such a warmth of feeling that it surprised myself.

“Then why may I not understand this thing that I have done — for my country?”

“I wish I might tell you.”

“May you not?”

“No, I dare not.”

She bit her lip,