Quickly he bent and kissed her.
"I will come for you to-morrow evening," he said. "You will be ready then to go with me?"
"Ready then? Yes, yes, to go with you anywhere."
He stood still a moment, listening. Somewhere a door closed. He heard the hoofs upon the asphalt again.
"Good-by," he whispered. "God bless you! Good-by till to-morrow night." And with the words he was gone. The front door of the house closed quietly.
Had he come back again? Laura turned in her place on the long divan at the sound of a heavy tread by the door of the library.
Then an uncertain hand drew the heavy curtain aside. Jadwin, her husband, stood before her, his eyes sunken deep in his head, his face dead white, his hand shaking. He stood for a long instant in the middle of the room, looking at her. Then at last his lips moved:
"Old girl.... Honey."
Laura rose, and all but groped her way towards him, her heart beating, the tears streaming down her face.
"My husband, my husband!"