the time
you told me you thought you might be there. Perhaps it would be better
if we said good-bye to-night; but if after we get home you are to spend
your days in Homeville and I mine in New York, we shall not be likely to
meet, and, except on this side of the ocean, we may, as you say, never
see each other again. So, if you wish, you may come to see me in Naples
if you happen to be there when we are. I am sure after to-night that I
may trust you, may I not? But," she added, "perhaps you would not care.
I am treating you very frankly; but from your standpoint you would
expect or excuse more frankness than if I were a young girl."

"I care very much," he declared, "and it will be a happiness to me to
see you on any footing, and you may trust me never to break bounds
again." She made a motion as if to depart.

"Don't go just yet," he said pleadingly; "there is now no reason why you
should for a while, is there? Let us sit here in this gorgeous night a
little longer, and let me smoke a cigar."

At the moment he was undergoing a revulsion of feeling. His state of
mind was like that of an improvident debtor who, while knowing that the
note must be paid some time, does not quite realize it for a while after
an extension. At last the cigar was finished. There had been but little
said between them.

"I really must go," she said, and he walked with her across the hanging
bridge and down the deck to the gangway door.

"Where shall I address you to let you know when we shall be in Naples?"
she asked as they were about to separate.

"Care of Cook & Son," he said. "You will find the address in Baedeker."

He saw her the next morning long enough for a touch of the hand and a
good-bye before the bobbing, tubby little boat with its Arab crew took
the Ruggleses on board.

CHAPTER XLVII.

How John Lenox tried to kill time during the following two months, and
how time retaliated during the process, it is needless to set forth. It
may not, however, be wholly irrelevant to note that his cough had
gradually disappeared, and that his appetite had become good enough to
carry him through the average table d'hote dinner. On the morning after
his arrival at Naples he found a cable dispatch at the office of Cook &
Son, as follows: "Sixty cash, forty stock. Stock good. Harum."

"God bless the dear old boy!" said John fervently. The Pennsylvania
property was sold at last; and if "stock good" was true, the dispatch
informed him