nable to leave the other, and the
pressure of interlocked fingers tightened. This would be their first
parting since they had first met, and it was difficult to determine upon
which of the two it fell the hardest Wyvern was a man of deep and strong
feeling, in no wise dulled by the fact that he could no longer exactly
be called young, and the impending parting had been with him as an
all-pervading heart pain to an extent which well-nigh astonished
himself--while as for the girl, her passionate adoration of him was as
her whole being. It is safe to say that he could have done with her
what he chose; and realising this, and how he stood as a tower of
strength to her, not as a source of weakness, in his firm unbending
principle, the very fact fed and fostered that adoration.

It was here that their real farewell was made, here alone, unseen save
by the bright birds that flitted joyously and piped melodiously in the
shaded solitude.

"Oh, my own, my own," whispered Lalante, her beautiful form shaken by
sobs she was powerless to repress. "My adored love, you will come back
to me, even if you meet with nothing but ill-fortune--worse even than
you have met with up till now. You will come back to me. Promise."

He could only bend his head in reply. He dared not trust himself to
speak.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Haven't those two come in yet?" said Le Sage shortly, sitting up in his
chair. "_Magtig_! Warren, I must have been asleep."

"Well, you were, but why not?" answered Warren easily. "Oh, never mind
about them: you were young once yourself, Le Sage."

The latter looked grim.

"Wyvern's not so damned young," he said. "That makes it all the worse,
because it shows he'll never do any good."

"He may where he's going."

Le Sage snorted.

"Where he's going. Going!--Yes, that's the only good thing about him--
he's _going_."

If only the speaker knew how intensely his listener was agreeing with
him. It might be that Le Sage's hostility was not the most formidable
obstacle these two had to reckon with. A sufficiently lurid picture was
at that moment passing before the mental gaze of the easy-mannered,
elf-possessed lawyer. People who were "going" did not always return.

"Why, here they are," he said, "and the kiddies with them."

The two youngsters, whom they had chanced to pick up on the way, were a
factor in easing down the situation, which was as wel