Presently she reached her cousin's side, and then, as she stopped to free her skirt from an entangling branch, she began in careless, cheerful tone:
"Oh, Barbara! Captain Protheroe prayed me to bid you adieu; he has gone."
"Gone!"
The sun had vanished from her sky; the glory of the world had faded.
"Gone!" she cried again. "Left us? Whither should he go?"
"To Watchet, to take ship to Holland, so he said; there to seek service with the Prince of Orange," answered Cicely casually, still gathering her flowers, still smiling to herself.
"But, wherefore?" cried Barbara, in desperation. "Wherefore should he leave me thus, leave me without a word?"
"Nay, the riddle is more than I can read. Yet from what he said, methought you yourself had bid him go."
"I! Cis, what madness! What were his words?"
"Why, marry, that Sir Ralph had told him his presence wearies you, and that you have declared that you are of one mind with Ralph in the matter."