"Well, I am at liberty to do so if I please," laughed Leo.
"I don't envy you that liberty, my boy," Ulrich replied. "Yet I cannot help thinking that even if I have lost your confidence and you treat me as an intruder, things would not have come to such a pass with you if I had been at home."
"What fault have you to find with me? Am I not to be trusted out of your sight?"
"Soon after the new year I am going away again. Goodness knows how I shall find you when I come back."
"Stony broke," laughed Leo, feeling his irritation grow.
Ulrich closed his eyes, moved to emotion by this insane burst of self-annihilation on Leo's part. Then after a moment he asked--
"Would you like to travel again?"
"No," was the short rejoinder.
"Very good. Shall I not go away, then? Would it be any help to you to feel that I was near at hand?"
Leo gave him a quick look in which eager hope and anguish were mingled; but then he answered, turning his head aside impatiently--