* * * * *
"Good-bye—Good-bye! Good-bye, Daddie.... Yes, yes.... I will.... Good-bye, Betty darling.... Good-bye——"
* * * * *
"Good-bye, Mother mine.... Torps, you've been a brick..... So-long! Good-bye! ... Not down my neck, Betty! ... Yes, I've got the tickets—— Good-bye, Good-bye!——"
* * * * *
The lights of Dover were twinkling far astern. Two people, a man and a woman, walked to the stern of the steamer and stood close together, leaning over the rail.
"What a lot of Good-byes we've said to-day," murmured the woman, watching the pin-points of light that vanished and reappeared. She fell silent, as if following a train of thought, "And after all, we're only going to Paris!"
"We're going further than that——" The man took possession of her slim, ungloved hands, and the star-powdered heavens alone were witness to the act. "All the way to El Dorado, darling!"
She gave him back the pressure of his fingers, and presently sighed a little, happily, as a child sighs in its sleep. "And we haven't any return tickets...."
V.