before her, an awful and mysterious
look in his eyes.

"I am going to town tomorrow," he said.

"I'm almost afraid you won't be able to go," said Em, who was intent on
her needle; "I don't think it is going to leave off today."

"I am going," said Gregory.

Em looked up.

"But the sloots are as full as rivers; you cannot go. We can wait for
the post," she said.

"I am not going for the post," said Gregory, impressively.

Em looked for explanation; none came.

"When will you be back?"

"I am not coming back."

"Are you going to your friends?"

Gregory waited, then caught her by the wrist.

"Look here, Em," he said between his teeth, "I can't stand it any more.
I am going to her."

Since that day, when he had come home and found Lyndall gone, he had
never talked of her; but Em knew who it was who needed to be spoken of
by no name.

She said, when he had released her hand:

"But you do not know where she is?"

"Yes, I do. She was in Bloemfontein when I heard last. I will go there,
and I will find out where she went then, and then, and then! I will have
her."

Em turned the wheel quickly, and the ill-adjusted needle sprung into
twenty fragments.

"Gregory," she said, "she does not want us; she told us so clearly in
the letter she wrote." A flush rose on her face as she spoke. "It will
only be pain to you, Gregory: Will she like to have you near her?"

There was an answer he might have made, but it was his secret, and he
did not choose to share it. He said only:

"I am going."

"Will you be gone long, Gregory?"

"I do not know; perhaps I shall never come back. Do what you please with
my things. I cannot stay here!"

He rose from his seat.

"People say, forget, forget!" he cried, pacing the room. They are mad!
they are fools! Do they say so to men who are dying of thirst--forget,
forget? Why is it only to us they say so! It is a lie to say that time
makes it easy; it is afterward, afterward that it eats in at your heart!

"All these months," he cried bitterly, "I have lived here quietly, day
after day, as if I cared for what I ate, and what I drank, and what I
did! I care for nothing! I cannot bear it! I will not! Forget! forget!"
ejaculated Gregory. "You can forget all the world, but you cannot forget
yourself. When one thing is more to you than yourself, how are you to
forget it?

"I read," he said--"yes; and then I come to a word she used, and it
is all back with me again! I go to count