"Don't be absurd!" she said. "You know perfectly well that, as I said before, you won't be away a second."
"It won't be a second for you," he said, "but it will be several hours for me; and goodness only knows what I may have to go through in the time! However," he added, with an attempt to be cheerful, "it may all pass off quite pleasantly—don't you think it may, Sophia?"
"How can I tell? You will only find out by going."
"I'm going, my dear—I'm going at once!... You'll give me just one kiss before I start, won't you?"
"I will give you no kiss till you come back and I hear what you have done," said Sophia.
"Very well," he retorted; "you may be sorry you refused, when it's too late! I may never come back at all, for anything I can tell!"
And, little as he knew it, he spoke with an almost prophetic anticipation of what was to come. Never again was he destined to stand on that heart-hrug!
But he dared not linger longer, as he could see from her expression that she would suffer no further trifling; and he slipped his last cheque under the clock,—with consequences that must be reserved for the next chapter.