after a gap of several years, he meets Nell Vereker again at Cambridge. She has grown into a beautiful young woman and Vernon falls in love with her. He is opposed by Nell's mother, who has brought her up to be a lady – despite being desperately short of money herself – and is determined that Nell will marry riches. Her preferred candidate for her daughter's hand is an American called George Chetwynd. Uncle Sydney is also opposed to Vernon marrying Nell and persuades him to wait until he is more established. One night, while Nell and her mother are abroad, Vernon is introduced to a professional singer called Jane Harding at a party hosted by Sebastian. He is attracted to Jane, despite a ten-year age difference, and starts to see her, to Joe's approval but Myra Deyre's consternation. Jane's effect on Vernon is to apply himself more to composing music and, to do so, he leaves his uncle's firm. Nell is frightened of Jane and confronts her, but the older, more experienced girl is more than a match for Nell. Vernon finishes his composition and, suddenly scared of rumours that Nell is going to marry George Chetwynd, proposes to her, but she asks him to wait. Events reach a crisis point when Joe absconds with a married man, and this prompts Vernon to accuse Nell of not having that sort of courage. This outburst merely prompts her into getting engaged to Chetwynd with whom, as she tells Vernon, she "feels safe". On the rebound, Vernon starts a relationship with Jane. He also finishes his composition which Sebastian produces and in which Jane sings. The piece receives warm reviews. The First World War is declared on 4 August 1914 and four days later Nell sees Vernon again and confesses that she still loves him. Hearing that he has enlisted, she agrees to be his wife and they are married later that afternoon. Six months later, Vernon is sent to France and Nell becomes a VAD nurse, finding the work and the treatment meted out to volunteers like her hard to take. After some time she receives a telegram to say that Vernon has been killed in action. Several months pass and George Chetwynd meets Nell briefly, before he goes off to Serbia to carry out relief work, and promises to keep in touch with her. Nell has, through her widowhood,