"I am sorry. I was hopin' you'd stay a long time, I was, for sure. The house won't seem like the same without 'ee. You do git more English too, sur, makin' so bold."
"Thank you, Mrs. Briggs; you've been very good to me."
"You won't be laivin' before the end of the summer, will 'ee, sur?"
"Very likely I shall leave to-morrow."
"Nothin' wrong happened, I 'ope, sur?"
"A great deal has happened, but nothing wrong. Mrs. Briggs, do you believe a man can rise from the dead?"
"Not in these days, sur. Of course they did in the time of our Lord. There was Lazarus, and the young man in the village of Nain. Of course the Lord can do whatever He will."
"Yes," said Leicester quietly, "I believe He can."
He went out into the night. The storm had gone now, and the sky was cloudless. After the wild tempest, a peace had come. The air was fresh, and pure, and sweet. Nature was a parable of his own life. After the black death of winter came the resurrection of spring, after the wild storm had come a peace. Life was new to him. He felt it in every fibre of his being; old things had passed away, but he felt a great sorrow in his heart. For he knew what lay before him. From that night Signor Ricordo would be no more, and he, Radford Leicester, must go out into the wilderness again.
He hesitated for a moment, and then went indoors again to his own room. In a few minutes he came out again, and started for Vale Linden Hall.