Lucius smiled and blushed. Then he said:
"I never was much of a hand at expressing myself correctly; but you know what I mean. Don't take the wind out of my sails!"
And then Amroth turned to me, and said suddenly:
"And now I have something else to tell you, and not wholly good news; so I will just say it at once, without beating about the bush. You are to come with us too."
Cynthia looked up suddenly with a glance of pale inquiry. Amroth took her hand.
"No, dear child," he said, "you are not to accompany him. You must stay here awhile, until the child is grown. But don't look like that! There is no such thing as separation here, or anywhere. Don't make it harder for us all. It is unpleasant of course; but, good heavens, what would become of us all if it were not for that! How dull we should be without suffering!"
"Yes, yes," said Cynthia, "I know—and I will say nothing against it.
But—" and she burst into tears.
"Come, come," said Amroth cheerfully, "we must not go back to the old days, and behave as if there were partings and funerals. I will give you five minutes alone to say good-bye. Lucius, we must start," and, turning to me, he said, "Meet us in five minutes by the oak-tree in the road."
They went out, Lucius kissing Cynthia's hand in silence.
Cynthia came up to me and put her arms round my neck and her cheek to mine. We sobbed, I fear, like two children.