"You will come back to dinner with us?"
"I 'm afraid I shall be unable. I start on a long journey. I must say good bye."
She fixed her eyes upon him in a new alarm, waiting for what he should say next. But that was all. That was all he had to say. In those two words, "Good bye," he bounded all that was in the past, all that was in the future.
"You have had some sudden call?"
"Yes."
"But you will come back again. Don't—don't make it sound so final."
"I have no hope of coming back."
"Oh," she cried, "I thought that now you might find a little rest."
"Perhaps I shall. I do not know. But before I go I wish to insist again that you and Ben leave this house and get back into the country somewhere. Don't think I am presuming, but I should feel better if I knew you had this in mind. I see so clearly that it is the thing for you to do."
"Don't speak as though you were going so far," she shuddered. "What will Ben do without you?"