Elgar has left us, no doubt Mr. Mallard will come over, and we shall
have quiet talk, What an odd man he is! How distinctly I could have
foreseen his action in these circumstances! And I know just how it will
be, as soon as things have got into a regular course again. Mr. Mallard
hates disturbance and agitation. Of course he has avoided seeing Cecily
as yet; imagine his exasperated face if he became involved in a
'scene'!"

And Mrs. Lessingham laughed urbanely.

A short and troubled sleep at night's heaviest; then long waiting for
the first glimmer of dawn. Row unreal the world seemed to her! She
tried to link this present morning with the former days, but her life
had lost its continuity; the past was past in a sense she had never
known; and as for the future, it was like gazing into darkness that
throbbed and flashed. It meant nothing to her to say that this was
Capri--that the blue waves and the wind of morning would presently bear
her to Sorrento; the familiar had no longer a significance; her
consciousness was but a point in space and eternity. She had no regret
of her undertaking, no fear of what lay before her, but a profound
sadness, as though the burden of all mortal sorrows were laid upon her
soul.

At seven o'clock she was ready. A very few things that could be easily
carried she would take with her; her cloak would hide them. Now she
must wait for the appointed moment. It seemed to be very cold; she
shivered.

A minute or two before the half-hour, she left her room silently. On
the stairs a servant passed her, and looked surprised in giving the
"Buon giorno." She walked quickly through the garden, and was on the
firm road. At the place indicated stood Elgar beside the carriage, and
without exchanging a word they took their seats.

At the Marina, they had but to step from the carriage to the boat.
Elgar's luggage was thrown on board, and the men pushed off from the
quay.

Bitterly cold, but what a glorious sunrise! Against the flushed sky,
those limestone heights of Capri caught the golden radiance and shone
wondrously. The green water, gently swelling but unbroken, was like
some rarer element, too limpid for this world's shores. With laughter
and merry talk between themselves, the boatmen hoisted their sail.

And the gods sent a fair breeze from the west, and it smote upon the
sail, and the prow cleft its track of foam, and on they sped over the
back of the barren sea.

CHAPTER XV

"WOLF