“As Easter week drew to a close I began to think of returning to Myrtle Grove.
“But I did not leave the dairy until I received a letter from my father, informing me that the visitors had departed.
“Then I loaded my little son, his foster-brother and his attendants with presents suited to the conditions of each. I returned heartfelt thanks to Mary Chester for her excellent care of my ‘nephew,’ and paid her six months in advance.
“Finally, on the Thursday after Easter, I bade them all good-by and set out to return to Myrtle Grove.
“I found my father in excellent health, but impatient to start on our journey.
“I hurried my preparations, and two days after we left England for Germany, where it was my fate first to meet you, Abel Force, who made all the happiness of my life.”
CHAPTER XXXVIII
NEW LIFE
“We avoided the ‘highways’ and public resorts of travel—the grand railway lines, the great cities, the famous spas, the big hotels, and we sought out the by-ways—unfrequented hamlets and villages on mountain heights or in forest depths, as yet undiscovered by the eyes, unprofaned by the feet of speculators.
“We had seen enough of the splendor and magnificence of Europe; we wished to see some of its real, working life.
“Yes, we wished to lose ourselves and find repose in obscurity.