Neither of us asked him what he meant, for we knew. It grieved us that we should have to leave my old home, but it had to be, and yet were our hearts filled with a joy that passeth understanding.
The next night, as we sailed down the river past the Kentish coast, we stood side by side and hand in hand. We were man and wife.
"Are you sad, Constance?"
"Nay, Roland. The morning will come. Nay, morning is in my heart now, but morning will also come for our country. For myself I desire nought—nought, I have everything."
In truth so had I, and yet I longed to bring my wife back to the home of my boyhood.
Of how we fared in the new land I will say nothing here. Neither will I tell by what means we at length returned to England again, or describe the joy of our children as they played amongst the gardens of my old home, while my father, a white-haired man, watched them tenderly. That is a part of another story which, please God, I may tell some day.
THE END
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.