sing, he was not sure. If it had been done it had been done with
extraordinary delicacy, with the marvelous cunning of clever love which
knows how to avoid all the pitfalls. And it had been done, too, with
the marvelous unselfishness of which, perhaps, only the highest type of
mother-love is capable.

After he had left his mother, and was just going out of the flat, Dion
had heard through the half-open door a sound, a ridiculous sound, which
had made him love her terribly, and with the sudden yearning which
is the keenest pain of the heart because it defines all the human
limitations: she was sneezing again violently. As he shut the front
door, "If she were to die while I'm away, and I were to come back!" had
stabbed his mind. Outside in the court he had gazed up at the towering
rows of lighted windows and had said another good-by out there.

Shutting his eyes for a moment as the "Ariosto" plowed her way onwards
through a rather malignant sea, Dion saw again those rows of lighted
windows, and he wondered, almost as earnestly as a child wonders,
whether his mother's cold was better. What he had done, volunteering
for active service and joining the C.I.V. battalion, had made him feel
simpler than usual; but he did not know it, did not look on at his own
simplicity.

And then, last of all, had come the parting from Robin and Rosamund.

Rosamund and Dion had agreed not to make very much of his departure
to Robin. Father was going way for a time, going over the sea
picturesquely, with a lot of friends, all men, all happy to be together
and to see wonderful things in a country quite different from England.
Some day, when Robin was a big as his father, perhaps he, too, would
make such a voyage with his friends. Robin had been deeply interested,
and had shown his usual ardor in comment and--this was more
embarrassing--in research. He had wanted to know a great deal about
his father's intentions and the intentions of father's numerous male
friends. What were they going to do when they arrived in the extremely
odd country which had taken it into its head to be different from
England? How many male friends was father taking with him? Why hadn't
they all been to "see us?" Was Uncle Guy one of them? Was Mr. Thrush
going too? Why wasn't Mr. Thrush going? If he was too old to go was
Uncle Guy too old? Did Mr. Thrush want to go? Was he disappointed at
father's not being able to take him? Was it all a holiday for father?
Would mummy