"One last word ... Is it to come to this? We stand ... at the final parting of the ways. Think ... This is what you wish?"
If he still hoped for impossible reconciliation, or if merely some instinct moved him to put the burden for the breaking upon her, Carlisle did not know. She was past arguing now.
"This is yours."
On the pink palm he had kissed such a little while ago she held out the glorious diamond he had given her in the first radiance of the engagement. Canning saw no way of escaping the offering; he accepted it with a stiff bow, dropped it in the pocket of his coat. But it was a business to which even he quite failed to impart any dignity.
He looked blindly about for his hat and stick, remembered that he had left them outside, turned and faced his love again. Between them passed a long look.
"Then ... this is good-bye."
"Good-bye," said Cally again.
And then Hugo opened the door of papa's study and went away. And in a moment there was the sound of the front door shutting.
Was it over, then? Was the parting of lovers so brief, so final?...
Cally started, as from a trance. She ran out of the study and through the dark library to the drawing-room and the front windows. Just in time, she stood behind the curtains, and caught a last glimpse of Canning's receding back. Brave and dear it looked, departing.