I turned to him and said:
"Why be ironical and bitter? You have spoken truly. You have to do what is right."
He seized both my hands. To him it was the end.
"Gertrude," he said, "for the first and last time, my own Gertrude ... so this is Good-bye! Our first meeting is our last. To-morrow ... after it is over ... I shall go straight away. To-morrow is hers. But to-night is ours. Beloved, this is not the end. There are more worlds than this one--this world which some one has cursed for us. For ever, I am all thine. But the waiting will be so long. Beloved, do not say that I may not bid thee Good-bye!"
I restrained him gently, for my mind had clouded again with thronging fears.
"No," I said; "let us not make the future harder by any weakness in the present."
He bowed his head and obeyed. When he looked up, he said quietly:
"One practical point before I go. She will not ... I will not, ever be at Ruddington Towers. Traxelby is your old home. The Towers shall be shut up."
My eyes filled with tears.
"Beloved," I said softly, "good-bye."