“I, too, wish that you did not—the time will seem long until you return,” Editha returned, regretfully; then she added, suddenly: “Is it absolutely necessary that you should go?”
“Yes; it cannot be avoided. If I were sure of success I would tell you the nature of the business which calls me abroad; but you can trust me a little longer?”
“Always.”
“And would you, some time in the future, be willing to go abroad to live if it was necessary?” Earle asked, with a peculiar expression on his face.
“Anywhere in the world with you, Earle, if need be;” and, with a tender smile, Editha laid both her hands on his.
It was as if she was willing to renounce everything in the world for him and his precious love, and the act touched him as nothing ever had done before.
He bowed his manly head until his lips rested upon them in a fervent, reverent caress.
At that instant the door near which they were sitting swung softly open, and before they were aware of his presence, Mr. Dalton had entered, and was standing before them.
He had come in a few minutes previous, and the waiter had told him that Earle Wayne was there, which intelligence so enraged him that he determined at once to put a stop to all further visits from him.
Whether he had been guilty of listening before entering the room they could not tell, but certain it is that he presented himself before them with a most disagreeable smile upon his face and a glitter in his steel-gray eyes that boded them no good.