u may, I think, count on my return."

"Have you told Mrs. Swanwick, sir?"

"Yes, and the Pearl. Ah, my son, the one thing in life I have craved is
affection; and now--"

"No one will miss you as I shall--no one--" He could say no more.

"You will of course have charge of my affairs, and Mr. Wilson has my
power of attorney, and there is Hamilton at need. Ah, but I have had a
scene with these most dear people!"

The time passed quickly for De Courval. He himself was to be gone at
least two months. There was a week to go, as he must, on horseback, and
as much to return. There were wide spaces of country to cover and much
business to settle for Schmidt. His stay was uncertain and not without
risks.

Over three weeks went by before he could be spared from the thinly
officered department. Schmidt had long since gone, and Rene sat alone in
the library at night and missed the large mind and a temperament gayer
than his own. His mother had asked no questions concerning Carteaux, and
as long as there was doubt in regard to his course, he had been
unwilling to mention him; but now he felt that he should speak freely
and set his mother's mind at rest before he went away.

Neither, despite what he was sure would be the stern opposition he would
have to encounter from his mother, could he go without a word to
Margaret--a word that would settle his fate and hers. The Carteaux
business was at an end. He felt free to act. Fortune for once favored
him. Since he had spoken to his mother of his journey and the lessened
household knew of it, Pearl had even more sedulously avoided the
pleasant talks in the garden and the rides, now rare, with Aunt Gainor
and himself. The mother, more and more uneasy, had spoken to her
daughter very decidedly, and Madame grew less familiarly kind to the
girl; while she herself, with a mind as yet in doubt, had also her share
of pride and believed that the young vicomte had ceased to care for her,
else would he not have created an opportunity to say what long ago that
night on the ice seemed to make a matter of honor? She was puzzled by
his silence, a little vexed and not quite sure of herself.

He put off to the last moment his talk with his mother and watched in
vain for a chance to speak to Margaret. His instructions were ready, his
last visits made. He had had an unforgettable half-hour with the
President and a talk with Hamilton, now on a visit from New York. The
ex-secretary asked him why he did