“Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.”

CHAPTER XLV.
“HOPE DEFERRED MAKETH THE HEART SICK.”

Ah, how slowly pass the days and weeks when parted from one we love!

“Oh, absence is the night of love,

Lovers are very children then,

Fancy ten thousand feverish ills

Till their loved one returns again!”

Beresford knew all the meaning of the poet’s plaint as the slow days and nights dragged their weary lengths along without tidings of Floy.

For, though a week had passed away, Landon had no encouraging news to give.