Ida and Arthur had walked in silence by the brook, and they stood beside it for some moments without speaking; then suddenly Arthur Hollis turned toward her.
"Say that you will miss me when I am gone," he murmured, with emotion.
"You know that I will," she answered. "But for you, my life here would have been very lonely."
"Do you really mean that?" he asked, quickly.
"Yes," she returned, with something very like a sob on her lips.
Impetuously he caught the little white hand that hung by her side.
"Those words will linger in my memory until the day I die!" he cried, huskily. "Ida, I am going away. You will never see me in this world again. I shall never come back."
She looked at him with her great dark eyes.
"It breaks my heart to say farewell," he continued, huskily, "for when I leave you, Ida, I go out into the darkness of death."
"Oh, do not say that!" she cried.