voice.

"I--do not know."

He rose and came and leaned on the piano, I felt--oh! I had never been
so agitated in my life. At all costs he must not say anything to me,
nothing that I should have to stop, nothing to break this beautiful
dream--

"Oh! do you not hear the sound of carriage-wheels?" I exclaimed, in a
half voice.

It broke the spell.

Antony walked to the window. He pulled the curtains aside and opened
a shutter to look upon the night.

"It is the thickest fog I ever remember," he said. "I doubt if the
brougham, which put up at the station, could get back here, even if
they have come by the last train."

"Oh! of course they have come!" I said, unsteadily.

He did not answer, but carefully closed the shutter again and drew the
curtains. I went to the fireplace and began caressing one of the dogs.
My hands were cold as ice. Antony lost a little of his _sang-froid_.
He picked up a paper-knife and put it down again.

It seemed to me my heart was thumping so loudly that he must hear it
where he stood.

We both listened intently. Neither of us spoke. Eleven o'clock struck.
The butler entered the room.

"Bilsworth has managed to get here on one of the horses, Sir Antony,
and he says the last train is in, and no one arrived by it."

"Very well," said Antony, calmly. "You can shut up for the night."

And the butler went out, softly closing the door behind him.

XV

Before I opened my eyes next morning in my beautiful room a telegram
came from Augustus--a long telegram written the night before, telling
me that it was impossible to penetrate the fog that night, and I was
to come up and join him at once in London, as he had just decided to
go to the war with his Yeomanry. He could not keep out of it longer,
as all his brother officers had volunteered, so he had felt obliged
to do so, too. They were to start in less than three weeks.

"I shall go by the ten-o'clock train," I told McGreggor, as I
scribbled my reply. "I must get up at once. Ask for my breakfast to
be brought up here."

I was dressed by nine o'clock and sipping my chocolate.

The daintiness of the old Dresden china equipage pleased me, forced
itself upon my notice in spite of the deep preoccupation of my mind.

An exquisite bunch of fresh roses lay on the tray, and a note from
Antony--only a few words--hoping I had slept well and saying the
brougham would be ready for me at half-past nine, and that he also
was going to Londo