Another pause.
‘I am afraid my going will vex you; upset you. Would you like me to give it up?’ he asked slowly.
‘Oh no! no!’ she answered hastily. ‘Not for worlds! It was but a momentary folly. Let it pass! I hope you will have every kind of enjoyment on your journey.’
‘Ah, Sara, I wish that momentary folly would recur oftener! But there! don’t distress yourself. Remember this’–he clasped both her hands, and looked with an earnestness that was almost solemnity into her eyes–‘wherever I may be, however I may be, so that I am able to move at all, one word from you will summon me back. Here, in this house, or wheresoever you are, is mein Genügen–my joy and my pleasure and contentment.’
Sara could not speak. As their eyes met, she could not tell whether it was a great joy or a great sorrow which that long, earnest look foreboded. Falkenberg stooped and kissed her forehead, said to her, ‘ Lebewohl!’ and was gone.
CHAPTER VII.
WELLFIELD.
The feelings were varied, the emotions complicated which, that spring and summer, held sway in the hearts of the household at Wellfield Abbey.