wn a
message to beg him to excuse her. She had a headache, and was lying
down, so he had been obliged to go away unsolaced, and longing for the
evening.

Now that she had given him her promise to go with him to Austria, there
was only to arrange the day and the hour of their departure. For once
he was alive to the necessity for prompt action. There was her safety
to be considered now. When he had been alone it had not mattered how
anything was done or not done, but now everything was different. The
world itself was another place. He had already actually written and
posted a tentative letter to his father, such a letter as he could
never have written if only his interests had been concerned, but he
found any sacrifice an easy one now, even the sacrifice of pride.

There was no reason why they should not start to-morrow. It would be
safer to get out of the place by going round by the Mediterranean and
thence across by way of Italy.

Water-travelling was cheaper, too. He laughed to himself to think how
practical he was becoming. How strange it would seem to live in a
civilised fashion again, to not be obliged to look at every sou before
it was spent, to have servants to wait upon one; enough to eat and
drink, and the luxury of cleanliness.

Yet the vagabond life had had its charm, too. He had encountered
kindness often, generally from those in more evil plight than his own,
and there had been flowers and music and sunshine. True, he had felt
horribly ill and dejected on some days, and his wretched cough was an
annoyance to himself and to other people, but at times he felt ready
for anything, and more energetic than any three of those lazy Spaniards.

Love and Arithelli would be a sure antidote for any misery or disease.
For her he had created a House of Dreams, and now the dreams were on
the verge of becoming realities. Instead of the sand and stones of
that desert that men call Life, a rainbow-coloured future lay stretched
out before him. Sunshine and the summertime of love, all that he had
ever hoped for, were coming nearer. And joy was hovering near at hand,
till he could almost touch her flying robe. Soon he would hold her in
his arms, would possess her entirely.

How different Arithelli was from all other women! With her there was
never caprice or fickleness. Whatever she said was his law, whatever
she wished to do was the right thing.

Now he had abjured the Revolution, his father would be on