“Yes,” he answered in a business-like voice. “I must go.” He got up and looked out of the window for a moment, then walked back to the table.
“My friends are waiting for me at Tuli.”
“Yes,” she said.
“I cannot break faith with them.”
“No.” Her mouth was twisted like the mouth of a tortured child, but her eyes remained bright and dry.
Carden’s faithless heart smote him.
“For God’s sake, Frances—” he muttered, taking her hands. “I will stay if you wish it”—But his heart was already away with his friends and the waiting miles beyond. She read the truth in his eyes. No word now of her coming with him! Only of his staying—if she wished it!
She looked into his eyes a long aching moment, then turned away with one word:
“Good-bye.”
A few hours later all was as it had been at the Grey farm. Even the cart was gone, for Swartz had brought four sturdy mules and driven it away. Under the lone tree Xsosa, the baboon, sat silent, watching the kopjes with fierce wistful eyes. Silence everywhere, except in one room of the house whence came the sound as of a woman softly and brokenly weeping.