He lifted her hand to his lips, kissed it, bowed over it and silently left the room.
Cora stepped after him and shut the door; then she hastened across the floor, threw herself down on the sofa, buried her face in the cushions and gave way to the flood of tears that flowed in sympathy with the pain she had given. Meantime the duke went up to his room and rang for his valet.
That grave and accomplished gentleman came at once.
"Dubois, go down and order the dogcart to be at the door in half an hour; then return here to assist me."
The Frenchman bowed profoundly and withdrew.
"I have come a long way for a disappointment," murmured the rejected lover, as he threw himself languidly upon the outside of the bed and clasped his hands above his head. "A fanatic she certainly is. A lunatic also most probably. Yet I cannot get her out of my head. I would go to Canada—to Quebec—if it was not so abominably cold. Vane is there with the 110th. But the climate is too severe. I must move southward, not northward—southward, through California, and thence to the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, and Australia. That will be a pleasant winter voyage. Talbot is at Sydney, and the climate, and the scenery, and the fruits and vegetables said to be the finest in the world. It will be a new experience, and if I can't forget her among soldiers and convicts, miners and bushmen—well, then, I will come back and make a third attempt. Well, Dubois, what is it?" This question to his valet, who just then re-entered the room.
"The carriage will be at the door on time, your grace."
"Right. Now attend to my directions. I am going immediately to North End, and shall leave thereby the six o'clock express, en route for San Francisco. After I shall have left Rockhold you are to pack up my effects. I shall send a hack from the hotel to fetch them. Be very sure to be ready."
The duke went out and entered the dog cart, received his valise from his valet, gave the order to the groom and was driven off, without having again seen Cora.
But from behind the screen of her lace-curtained window she watched his departure.