"Hate you, love! No, never! I shall love you as long as we both live. But I must say good-by. I am summoned away on important business, and shall have hardly time to catch the next train."
"You might have told me last night," she pouted, as with another kiss he took his arm from her waist and turned to leave her.
"I did not receive the summons till half an hour ago," he answered, hastily mounting his steed.
"When will you come back?" she asked.
"I hope to be with you by tea-time, this evening. Au revoir, darling."
He threw her a kiss and was gone, galloping so rapidly away that in a minute or two he was out of sight; all the more speedily to her because her eyes were blinded with tears as she stood motionless, gazing after him.
It was their first parting, and there came over her a feeling that, should he never come back, the world would be a desert, nothing left worth living for.
"Never mind, dear child, it is for only a few hours, if all goes well," said a kind sweet voice at her side.
"Yes, mamma, but—oh, I wish he never had to go away without me! And why couldn't I have gone with him this time?" she sobbed, beginning to feel herself quite aggrieved, though the idea of going with Edward had but just occurred to her.
"Well, dear, there really was not time to arrange that," Elsie said, embracing her with motherly affection. "But come now and get some breakfast. You must be hungry after your ride."