d then--you came in.'

'And I am very glad you did, papa!' Helena exclaimed enthusiastically;
'it saved such a lot of explanation.'

Helena was quite happy. It had not entered into her thoughts to suppose
that her father would seriously put himself against any course of action
concerning herself which she had set her heart upon. The pain of parting
with her father--of knowing that she was leaving him to a lonely life
without her--had not yet come up and made itself real in her mind. She
could only think that her hero loved her, and that he knew she loved
him. It was the sacred, sanctified selfishness of love.

Helena's raptures fell coldly on her father's ears. Sir Rupert saw life
looking somewhat blankly before him.

'Ericson,' he said, 'I am sorry if I have said anything to hurt you. Of
course, I might have known that you would act in everything like a man
of honour--and a gentleman; but the question now is, What do you propose
to do?'

'Oh, papa, what nonsense!' Helena said.

'What do I propose to do, Sir Rupert?' the Dictator asked, quite
composedly now. 'I propose to accept the sacrifice that Helena is
willing to make. I have never importuned her to make it, I never asked
her or even wished her to make it. She does it of her own accord, and I
take her love and herself as a gift from Heaven. I do not stop any
longer to think of my own unworthiness; I do not stop any longer even to
think of the life of danger into which I may be bringing her; she
desires to cast in her lot with mine, and may God do as much and more to
me if I refuse to accept the life that is given to me!'

'Well, well, well!' Sir Rupert said, perplexed by these exalted people
and sentiments, and at the same time a good deal in sympathy with the
people and the sentiments. 'But in the meantime what do you propose to
do? I presume that you, Ericson, will go out to Gloria at once?'

'At once,' Ericson assented.

'And then, if you can establish yourself there--I mean when you have
established yourself there, and are quite secure and all that--you will
come back here and marry Helena?'

'Oh, no, papa dear,' Helena said, 'that is not the programme at all.'

'Why not? What _is_ the programme?'

'Well, if my intended husband waited for all that before coming to marry
me, he might wait for ever, so far as I am concerned.'

'I don't understand you,' Sir Rupert said almost angrily. His patience
was beginning to be worn out.

'Dear, I shall make