ink you are likely to lose it, for I--I am as
much interested as you can be in preserving it. I want you to write to
me. Will you? And I will write to you when you have found your
hermitage and can give me an address. I will give you my agent's
address in Adelaide, and my own address in London, where I shall
expect a call from you within two years. No, you wall not find it so
easy to lose touch with me, my friend; nor would you if--if you had
not had your headache yesterday.'

Upon that she left me to prepare for going ashore. I think we
understood each other very well then. After that we had no more than a
minute together for private talk. During that minute I do not think I
said anything except 'Good-bye!' But I very well remember some words
Mrs. Oldcastle said.

'You are not to forget me, if you please. Remember, I am not so dull
but what I can understand--some headaches. But they must not be
accompanied by "moody middle-age." Do please remember when the
hermitage palls that it may be left just as easily as it was found.
And then, apart from Mr. Heron and others, there will be a friend
waiting to see you in London, and--and wanting to see you.... That's
my agent, the man with the green-lined umbrella. Good-bye--friend!'

V

The _Oronta_ was a dull ship for me once she had passed Adelaide;
duller even than in the grey days between Tilbury and Naples. Adelaide
passed, an Australian-bound liner seems to have reached the end of her
outward passage, and yet it is not over. The remainder, for Melbourne,
Sydney, and Brisbane-bound folk, is apt to be a weariness, even as a
train journey is, with passengers coming and going and trunks and
boxes much in evidence.

I had lost my friend, though I had called this my method of retaining
her friendship; and rightly, I dare say. To be worthy of her a man
should have left in him ten times my vitality, I thought; he should be
one who looked forward rather than back; he should bring to their
joint wayfaring a far keener zest for life than my years in our modern
Grub Street had left me. How vapid was the talk of my remaining
fellow-passengers; how slow of understanding, and how preoccupied with
petty things they seemed! They discussed their luggage, and questions
regarding the proper amounts for stewards' tips. Had not some
traveller called Adelaide Australia's city of culture? It seemed a
pleasant town. The Mount Lofty country near by was beautiful, I
gathered. It might well