“How do you know?” he asked, quietly.
She regarded him dubiously.
“When I get those presents from you,” she said, “then I will return these. That right?”
He pulled the box over to the centre of the floor, and thrust the gifts into it, snapping the lid down tightly. Then, going to the door, he called for Mumè to take the box at once to the Yamashiros.
Having disposed of this question, he turned his attention again to Hyacinth. She was sitting in the centre of the room, her chin on her hand, pensively regarding him.
“How,” she said, “are you going to make me those gifts if I am to go away to that West country, and you will not go with me?”
“You are going to stay here,” he said; and she knew from the expression in his eyes and the tone of his voice that he meant what he said.
“But what of my august parent?”
“Will you follow my advice exactly?”
She nodded in assent.