not think of sending me
any."

"What do you mean? What is about to happen?"

"It is all a mystery and a secret as yet," she said, with a smile. She
seemed so much more light-hearted than she had been the day before.

Then, as they walked by those cases, and admired this or that, she would
recur to this forth-coming departure of his, despite of him. And she was
not at all sad about it. She was curious; that was all. Was there any
difficulty in getting a cabin at short notice? It was from Liverpool
the big steamers sailed, was it not? And it was a very different thing,
she understood, travelling in one of those huge vessels, and crossing
the Channel in a little cockle-shell. He would no doubt make many
friends on board. Did single ladies ever make the voyage? Could a single
lady and her maid get a cabin to themselves? It would not be so very
tedious, if one could get plenty of books. And so forth, and so forth.
She did not study the Chelsea shepherdesses very closely.

"I'll tell you what I wish you would do, Natalie," said he.

"I will do it," she answered.

"When Lord Evelyn comes back--some day I wish you would take Anneli with
you for a holiday--and Evelyn would take you down to have a look over
the Beeches. You could be back the same night. I should like you to see
my mother's portrait."

She did not answer.

"Will you do that?"

"You will know before long," she said, in a low voice, "why I need not
promise that to you. But that, or anything else I am willing to do, if
you wish it."

The precious moments sped quickly. And as they walked through the almost
empty rooms--how silent these were, with the occasional foot-falls on
the tiled floors, and once or twice the distant sounding of a bell
outside!--again and again he protested against her saying another word
about his going away. What did it matter? Once the pain of parting was
over, what then? He had a glad work before him. She must not for a
moment think she had anything to do with it. And he could not regret
that he had ever met her, when he would have these six mornings of happy
intercommunion to think over, when the wide seas separated them?

"Natalie," said he, reproachfully, "do you forget the night you and I
heard _Fidelio_ together? And you think I shall regret ever having seen
you."

She smiled to herself. Her hand clasped a certain envelope that he could
not see.

Then the time came for their seeking out Anneli. But as they were going
th