f a bell, and
ever and anon the pathetic supplication of a donkey. Absolute quiet
prevailed where they stood, save for these upcoming sounds. The April
sun, deliciously warm, drew a smoky odor from the hedge of box with
which the parapet walk was bordered, in and out of which darted small
green lizards with the quickness of little fishes.

John drew a long breath.

"I don't believe there is another such view in the world," he said. "I
do not wonder that this is your favorite spot."

"Yes," she said, "you should see the grounds--the whole place is
superb--but this is the glory of it all, and I have brought you
straight here because I wanted to see it with you, and this may be the
only opportunity."

"What do you mean?" he asked apprehensively.

"You heard Mr. Ruggles's question about the cable dispatch?" she said.

"Yes."

"Well," she said, "our plans have been very much upset by some things he
has heard from home. We came on from Algiers ten days earlier than we
had intended, and if the reply to Mr. Ruggles's cable is unfavorable, we
are likely to depart for Genoa to-morrow and take the steamer for home
on Monday. The reason why I did not send a note to your bankers," she
added, "was that we came on the same boat that I intended to write by;
and Mr. Hartleigh's man has inquired for you every day at Cook's so that
Mr. Hartleigh might know of your coming and call upon you."

John gave a little exclamation of dismay. Her face was very still as she
gazed out over the sea with half-closed eyes. He caught the scent of the
violets in the bosom of her white dress.

"Let us sit down," she said at last. "I have something I wish to say to
you."

He made no rejoinder as they seated themselves, and during the moment or
two of silence in which she seemed to be meditating how to begin, he sat
bending forward, holding his stick with both hands between his knees,
absently prodding holes in the gravel.

"I think," she began, "that if I did not believe the chances were for
our going to-morrow, I would not say it to-day." John bit his lip and
gave the gravel a more vigorous punch. "But I have felt that I must say
it to you some time before we saw the last of each other, whenever that
time should be."

"Is it anything about what happened on board ship?" he asked in a low
voice.

"Yes," she replied, "it concerns all that took place on board ship, or
nearly all, and I have had many misgivings about it. I am afraid that I
did