'I cannot think how you can have been so hard-hearted, Dolly,' said her mother. 'I could not have let him go alone. How long the time will seem, poor fellow! Yes, you have been very tyrannical, Dolly.'
Was this all the comfort Mrs. Palmer had to give?
Something seemed choking in Dolly's throat; was it her hard heart that was weighing so heavily?
'Oh! mamma, what could I do?' she said. 'I told him he was free: he knows that I love him, but indeed he is free.'
Mrs. Palmer uttered an impatient exclamation. She had been wandering up and down the room. She stopped short.
'Free! what do you mean. You have never said one word to me. What have you been about? Do you mean that he may never come back to you?'
But Dolly scarcely heard her mother's words. The door had opened and some one came in. Never come back? This was Robert himself who was standing there. He had come to say one more farewell. He went straight up to her and he caught her in his arms. 'There was just time,' he said. 'Good-by once more, dearest Dora!' It was but a moment; it was one of those moments that last for a lifetime. Dolly lived upon it for many a day to come. He loved her, she thought to herself, or he would never have come back to her, and if he loved her the parting had lost its sting.