'A parting bitter as death, Eveline.'
'And as hopeless,' she said, now sobbing heavily.
'Yet, with all its bitterness, this has been a great, an unexpected joy to see you here, to embrace you once again.'
Of one grim fact they could not be oblivious. She was another man's wife, and he had to tear himself away; to lose for ever the sight of that sweet, afflicted face, the tones of that beloved voice, to long again for both, with eager eyes and ears, in the time that was to come.
'Though parted thus, Eveline, you will think of me sometimes—you will remember?'
'For ever and for ever, while my miserable life lasts, Evan.'
'My poor darling! To remember me, to be constant to me in memory, while another's wife.'
'I cannot realise that even now, still less what my life will be in the future, with you not in it.'
A long, clinging kiss and he was gone, while Eveline sank down on the stone seat within the belvidere in a state of semi-consciousness, in which she was discovered by Sir Paget.