me! I wouldn't leave you
behind for the world! Get everything ready--" and in a fever of heat and
impatience he began rummaging among some books on a side-shelf, till he
found the time-tables he sought. "Yes,--here we are,--there's a train
leaving for Hull at five--we'll take that. Tell Morris to pack my
portmanteau, and you bring it along with you to the Midland
railway-station this afternoon. Do you understand?"

Britta nodded emphatically, and hurried off at once to busy herself with
these preparations, while Philip, all excitement, dashed off to give a
few parting injunctions to Neville, and to get his horsewhip.

Lorimer, left alone for a few minutes, seated himself in an easy chair
and began absently turning over the newspapers on the table. But his
thoughts were far away, and presently he covered his eyes with one hand
as though the light hurt them. When he removed it, his lashes were wet.

"What a fool I am!" he muttered impatiently. "Oh Thelma, Thelma! my
darling!--how I wish I could follow and find you and console you!--you
poor, tender, resigned soul, going away like this because you thought
you were not wanted--not wanted!--my God!--if you only knew how one man
at least has wanted and yearned for you ever since he saw your sweet
face!--Why can't I tear you out of my heart--why can't I love some one
else? Ah Phil!--good, generous, kind old Phil!--he little guesses," he
rose and paced the room up and down restlessly. "The fact is I oughtn't
to be here at all--I ought to leave England altogether for a long
time--till--till I get over it. The question is, _shall_ I ever get over
it? Sigurd was a wise boy--he found a short way out of all his
troubles,--suppose I imitate his example? No,--for a man in his senses
that would be rather cowardly--though it might be pleasant!" He stopped
in his walk with a pondering expression on his face. "At any rate, I
won't stop here to see her come back--I couldn't trust myself,--I should
say something foolish--I know I should! I'll take my mother to
Italy--she wants to go; and we'll stay with Lovelace. It'll be a
change--and I'll have a good stand-up fight with myself, and see if I
can't come off the conqueror somehow! It's all very well to kill an
opponent in battle but the question is, can a man kill his inner,
grumbling, discontented, selfish Self? If he can't, what's the good of
him?"

As he was about to consider this point reflectively, Errington entered,
equipped for tr