to whom she had been lately bound in the mystery of
marriage--trusted her to the full. I loved her more than myself--more
than my own soul; and I was moved by pity so great that all possible
selfishness was merged in its depths. I bowed my head before her--my
Lady and my Wife--as I said:

"So be it, my beloved. I trust you to the full, even as you trust me.
And that has been proven this night, even to my own doubting heart. I
shall wait; and as I know you wish it, I shall wait as patiently as I
can. But till you come to me for good and all, let me see you or hear
from you when you can. The time, dear wife, must go heavily with me as I
think of you suffering and lonely. So be good to me, and let not too
long a time elapse between my glimpses of hope. And, sweetheart, when
you _do_ come to me, it shall be for ever!" There was something in the
intonation of the last sentence--I felt its sincerity myself--some
implied yearning for a promise, that made her beautiful eyes swim. The
glorious stars in them were blurred as she answered with a fervour which
seemed to me as more than earthly:

"For ever! I swear it!"

With one long kiss, and a straining in each others arms, which left me
tingling for long after we had lost sight of each other, we parted. I
stood and watched her as her white figure, gliding through the deepening
gloom, faded as the forest thickened. It surely was no optical delusion
or a phantom of the mind that her shrouded arm was raised as though in
blessing or farewell before the darkness swallowed her up.

BOOK VI: THE PURSUIT IN THE FOREST

RUPERT'S JOURNAL--_Continued_.

_July_ 3, 1907.

There is no anodyne but work to pain of the heart; and my pain is all of
the heart. I sometimes feel that it is rather hard that with so much to
make me happy I cannot know happiness. How can I be happy when my wife,
whom I fondly love, and who I know loves me, is suffering in horror and
loneliness of a kind which is almost beyond human belief? However, what
is my loss is my country's gain, for the Land of the Blue Mountains is my
country now, despite the fact that I am still a loyal subject of good
King Edward. Uncle Roger took care of that when he said I should have
the consent of the Privy Council before I might be naturalized anywhere
else.

When I got home yesterday morning I naturally could not sleep. The
events of the night