w. 'When I have
considered, I will tell you.'

He did not tell her that evening, though she lingered long at her routine
work of making his bedroom comfortable, putting the light so that it
would not shine into his eyes, seeing him fall asleep, and then retiring
noiselessly to her own chamber. When they met in the morning at
breakfast, and she had asked him as usual how he had passed the night,
she added timidly, in the silence which followed his reply, 'Have you
considered?'

'No, I have not considered sufficiently to give you an answer.'

Laura sighed, but to no purpose; and the day wore on with intense
heaviness to her, and the customary modicum of strength gained to him.

The next morning she put the same question, and looked up despairingly in
his face, as though her whole life hung upon his reply.

'Yes, I have considered,' he said.

'Ah!'

'We must part.'

'O James!'

'I cannot forgive you; no man would. Enough is settled upon you to keep
you in comfort, whatever your father may do. I shall sell out, and
disappear from this hemisphere.'

'You have absolutely decided?' she asked miserably. 'I have nobody now
to c-c-care for--'

'I have absolutely decided,' he shortly returned. 'We had better part
here. You will go back to your father. There is no reason why I should
accompany you, since my presence would only stand in the way of the
forgiveness he will probably grant you if you appear before him alone. We
will say farewell to each other in three days from this time. I have
calculated on being ready to go on that day.'

Bowed down with trouble, she withdrew to her room, and the three days
were passed by her husband in writing letters and attending to other
business-matters, saying hardly a word to her the while. The morning of
departure came; but before the horses had been put in to take the severed
twain in different directions, out of sight of each other, possibly for
ever, the postman arrived with the morning letters.

There was one for the captain; none for her--there were never any for
her. However, on this occasion something was enclosed for her in his,
which he handed her. She read it and looked up helpless.

'My dear father--is dead!' she said. In a few moments she added, in a
whisper, 'I must go to the Manor to bury him . . . Will you go with me,
James?'

He musingly looked out of the window. 'I suppose it is an awkward and
melancholy undertaking for a woman alone,' he sa